DVC and FP +

[Dano1182]

First what exactly is FP +?

How does it work for DVC mebers?

 

[erionm]

First what exactly is FP +?

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/my-disney-experience/fastpass-plus/

How does it work for DVC mebers?

No differently than it does for any other Disney Resort guest.

 

[Coach81]

Yeah.. its the same for us...


I'm not a big fan.. but we'll adapt to it..

 

[cybertea201]

Wouldn't it be great if one of the perks of being a DVC member would be to book with your fastpass+ more than three rides a day?

 

[twinsouvenirs]

agreed Hoping after the full rollout we get bonuses

 

[Sheepdog23]

Am I the only one who does not like the idea of FP+? I am really getting tired of Disney. I loved when I could change my plans and not have to ruin my whole vacation because dining reservations or pre-booked fastpasses are absolutely necessary (even for be our guest counter service), I have to pre-book my fastpasses, and everything else. When we go on vacation, we love being able to decide things when they work best for us as the vacation progresses and not have to plan 100% when we leave. We have a daughter with aspergers and this flexibility is necessary to enjoy our vacation. We love being able to change park days so we can just lounge by the pool when she has had sensory overload, but now we will have the problem with FP which we are already noticing for our upcoming trip because everything is already booked two months out! I am seriously looking elsewhere now for vacations because I am not going to stress myself out on my vacation. We chose DVC for the flexibility and more relaxing feel, but this is enough. Planning to the smallest detail and appointments are for daily life, not vacation. We even turn off our smartphones for the time and use small, cheap prepaids while we are there so we are not tempted to use the net or call people etc. Now I have to carry everything around. Hate it Disney!

 

[Disney On The Bayou]

SheepDog23...

Don't be too worried about it. I too was getting super frustrated with all the necessary planning and loosing the spontaneity of things, however, I feel FP+ Is actually allowing for that better then any other time I can ever remember. I just returned from 9 nights beginning immediately after Christmas, the absolute busiest of times and FP+ made this trip one of the most leisurely and LOW STRESS. Can you imagine having plans on one of your first days and heavy rains are forecast, really hate to get caught at the parks with 3 little ones. I noticed early on the weather was going to be coming in later in the afternoon, just out the blue we decided instead of going to DTD we would just go to Typhoon Lagoon instead. Changed our FP+ from 1100am to have then begin at 7pm. We were still able to do TSM, ToT and LiL Mermaid. With the old system, unless I decided to wait 3 hours to ride TSM or arrive an hour before park opening and be prepared for a stampede I could have never accomplished that. That was one of our best days ever, we caught Typhoon Lagoon completely empty and rode all the slides till we were too tired to ride anymore. Went back to VGF, relaxed, had a short nap and went to HS for our FP+ ressies. The entire trip we changed plans almost daily, don't get me wrong, some days we couldn't get exactly what we wanted, we weren't able to get Soarin on a day we made last minute changes, but when you change plans at 3pm under the old system you weren't going to get a FP either. All in all, FP+ has actually restored my faith in Disney getting it right, especially for DVC members who go often.

Hope you enjoy your trip, and feel the same as I when you return.

 

[granmanh603]

Am I the only one who does not like the idea of FP+? I am really getting tired of Disney. I loved when I could change my plans and not have to ruin my whole vacation because dining reservations or pre-booked fastpasses are absolutely necessary (even for be our guest counter service), I have to pre-book my fastpasses, and everything else. When we go on vacation, we love being able to decide things when they work best for us as the vacation progresses and not have to plan 100% when we leave. We have a daughter with aspergers and this flexibility is necessary to enjoy our vacation. We love being able to change park days so we can just lounge by the pool when she has had sensory overload, but now we will have the problem with FP which we are already noticing for our upcoming trip because everything is already booked two months out! I am seriously looking elsewhere now for vacations because I am not going to stress myself out on my vacation. We chose DVC for the flexibility and more relaxing feel, but this is enough. Planning to the smallest detail and appointments are for daily life, not vacation. We even turn off our smartphones for the time and use small, cheap prepaids while we are there so we are not tempted to use the net or call people etc. Now I have to carry everything around. Hate it Disney!

I am with you. We had MB in Oct/nov and hated it. We are not planners and do not have smart phones. We were stress the whole trip 3 weeks and spent more time in our room 3 FP for us a joke and we will not wait on a line. Forget going back at night. To complicate the trip rides were broken down where we had FP and they one day lost the FP on the band. Take MK we ride Sm and TM multiple times and fill in maybe with some of the other rides when waiting for fast passes. I see us going less and not for 3 weeks at a time anymore. Just too much of a hassle for multiple trip a year people.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Another one who's right there with you. This is one reason why I see more trips to HHI in our future, and fewer trips to WDW. I don't like all the planning involved. At DHHI, all we plan is DH makes his tee time reservations.

 

[starwood]

If you don't have a smart phone you can always stop at one of the FP+ kiosks and they will change your FP+ for you. It is very flexible. It used to be if you had a paper FP that was it - you were stuck with that time. With FP+ if you need to change the time you just go online or stop by a kiosk and change it to a more convenient time.

 

[granmanh603]

If you don't have a smart phone you can always stop at one of the FP+ kiosks and they will change your FP+ for you. It is very flexible. It used to be if you had a paper FP that was it - you were stuck with that time. With FP+ if you need to change the time you just go online or stop by a kiosk and change it to a more convenient time.

I know you can change at kiosk but you have to go there and do it . The only reason I needed to use the kiosk was because the ride was shut Dow and I had too and in oct they were not marked at all and hard to find and not very many and then you were stuck with what was left. When all the FP+ diapeared from MB it a was a pain and wasted much time and eventually had to go to GS in the front and it was AK that was a nice walk. Really fun day. Left the park at 1 that day too. If I had a paper FP I was in park looked at return time and decided if I wanted to get one or go somewhere else. I never wanted to change a paper FP.
Also we ride the few rides we want to ride multiple times. Like say , SM 5+ times in a day and the same with TM . Now I am limited to one ride on each a day. What fun is that going to be. Just really disgusted. At least in Oct at MK we could get paper fast passes to fit in. And as for EPCOT when we finally left in NOV they would only let you really pick 1main ride for FP+ so Soarin or TT.and then they assigned you rides you did not want. So basically 1ride a day.

 

[DVCPAT]

SheepDog23...

Don't be too worried about it. I too was getting super frustrated with all the necessary planning and loosing the spontaneity of things, however, I feel FP+ Is actually allowing for that better then any other time I can ever remember. I just returned from 9 nights beginning immediately after Christmas, the absolute busiest of times and FP+ made this trip one of the most leisurely and LOW STRESS. Can you imagine having plans on one of your first days and heavy rains are forecast, really hate to get caught at the parks with 3 little ones. I noticed early on the weather was going to be coming in later in the afternoon, just out the blue we decided instead of going to DTD we would just go to Typhoon Lagoon instead. Changed our FP+ from 1100am to have then begin at 7pm. We were still able to do TSM, ToT and LiL Mermaid. With the old system, unless I decided to wait 3 hours to ride TSM or arrive an hour before park opening and be prepared for a stampede I could have never accomplished that. That was one of our best days ever, we caught Typhoon Lagoon completely empty and rode all the slides till we were too tired to ride anymore. Went back to VGF, relaxed, had a short nap and went to HS for our FP+ ressies. The entire trip we changed plans almost daily, don't get me wrong, some days we couldn't get exactly what we wanted, we weren't able to get Soarin on a day we made last minute changes, but when you change plans at 3pm under the old system you weren't going to get a FP either. All in all, FP+ has actually restored my faith in Disney getting it right, especially for DVC members who go often.

Hope you enjoy your trip, and feel the same as I when you return.

I agree. We used FP+ over Christmas and it worked great. We changed plans on the fly and adjusted fastpasses around dinner reservations. I hope it works as well when everyone is online….I’m afraid it will lose its flexibility.

 

[ScottishMickeyFan]

I am going back to WDW after a 4 year break this october as a new DVC Member,

Last year i visited DLRP & DL in aneheim & in each occasion we ride the same rides a few times each day using the paper FP's which work well for us with no children. I don't like to que if i don't have to,

This new FP+ system from what i can tell only gives you 3 FP's & even those are graded? i.e. 1 thrill ride & 2 not so thrilling?

Not looking forward to this 1st trip home,, booked 10 nights in a 1 bedroom club at AKL Jambo,,

The MRS hates that i need to book our meals 6 months out as she may decide to stay longer in a park or in a place & i am looking at my watch telling her we need to move on,, not great

 

[Idreamodisney247]

I am going back to WDW after a 4 year break this october as a new DVC Member
Congratulations!!!

 

[ScottishMickeyFan]

I am going back to WDW after a 4 year break this october as a new DVC Member
Congratulations!!!

Thanks, we bought whilst at Aulani on Honeymoon, if a wedding was not enough to pay for & a trip half way around the world did not break the bank, this certainly topped off an expensive year, lol

 

[DisneyDiana]

I didn't like FP+ either until we woke up on a cold, drizzly morning last month and were able to move our morning FP's to late afternoon right from the villa (using my iPad all while wearing my pjs). That was really nice.

 

[CoffeeCup]

I'm another DVC person who is frustrated with Fast Pass+. I'm the planner in the family, and I'm okay with making reservations for our villa and ADR. It takes time for planning and time to make the reservations, but I feel a sense of accomplishment and enjoy knowing all of the arrangements are finished. We used FP+ for the first time last month! and setting up the MDE account and linking everything was frustrating. I kept reading that some people were offered FP+ for parades, BOG lunch, extra passes, etc., and I didn't get any special offers. I kept wanting something to compensate for the frustration I felt trying to schedule my day so carefully. We ended up not using most of the FP+s I had scheduled, and I changed several I had made at home. I had a problem once when a time change I'd made didn't end up on the CM's printed list, and we stood in the standby line for Haunted Mansion for probably 45 minutes while almost no one went through the FP line. I think there must have been a technology glitch since the printed list the CM had listed only about 12-15 names.
It was not a relaxing vacation for us. Our Magic Bands worked well most of the time, but they didn't work for park entry two days and had to be reconfigured or something. DH wasn't able to charge on his MB one time, but mine worked. I know everything still is in testing stage since CMs told me that every time we had problems. They were polite and apologetic, but several times they seemed very frustrated by so many problems. We're taking friends in early Dec who haven't been to WDW in 20-25 years. They think I'm crazy when I tell them they already need to be thinking about which restaurants they want, which rides and shows are "must do", etc.

 

[granmanh603]

I'm another DVC person who is frustrated with Fast Pass+. I'm the planner in the family, and I'm okay with making reservations for our villa and ADR. It takes time for planning and time to make the reservations, but I feel a sense of accomplishment and enjoy knowing all of the arrangements are finished. We used FP+ for the first time last month! and setting up the MDE account and linking everything was frustrating. I kept reading that some people were offered FP+ for parades, BOG lunch, extra passes, etc., and I didn't get any special offers. I kept wanting something to compensate for the frustration I felt trying to schedule my day so carefully. We ended up not using most of the FP+s I had scheduled, and I changed several I had made at home. I had a problem once when a time change I'd made didn't end up on the CM's printed list, and we stood in the standby line for Haunted Mansion for probably 45 minutes while almost no one went through the FP line. I think there must have been a technology glitch since the printed list the CM had listed only about 12-15 names.
It was not a relaxing vacation for us. Our Magic Bands worked well most of the time, but they didn't work for park entry two days and had to be reconfigured or something. DH wasn't able to charge on his MB one time, but mine worked. I know everything still is in testing stage since CMs told me that every time we had problems. They were polite and apologetic, but several times they seemed very frustrated by so many problems. We're taking friends in early Dec who haven't been to WDW in 20-25 years. They think I'm crazy when I tell them they already need to be thinking about which restaurants they want, which rides and shows are "must do", etc.

Oh I didn't even go there about park entry....they had to be check at entry for me in beginning every time, then someone finally totally reset but husband almost every entry we had to see a CM finally someone totally reset his last week of trip OR when we were there you had a room key and MB so we went off property to eat and didn't bring our MB just room key that did not work when we got back to room, off to check in and had to bring 2 people back to room to reset keys and MB. Time wasted on that trip alot time spend aggravated alot, time having fun? not sure...so much so we have yet to book any days for a March usually 3 week trip. Thinking it is only going to be a week to 10days if we can get it and if not I really will not be disappointed but will miss the Flower show and no using AP.
We do not plan what park we are going to any day in advance, we look at weather and how we feel and sometime get whatever bus comes first. We are early morning people so are there at rope drop or shortly after. As for sitting in room and trying to decide where I want to be at 10:30 or the assigned time they chose for you , not fun. We never stay at park all day or even in the afternoons but had to this trip because of the times that were available for say Toy Story or Soarin. I can see how it might fit some people but is sure does not fit us. We will sometimes wait on a SB line if we can judge it will be no more than 20 min but I do not trust their time outside we go in and check the line, and can tell what the wait will be. I also thought that it was funny because the FP lines were longer that time too because of all the confusion at the entry with the MB and all. I had never seen them so long and then inside it was better but still waited longer than usual on them too but hopefully that will get better.. I just seemed like a big mess if you are someone that goes very often. It probably works for the infrequent traveler who needs to do every ride once and likes to plan alot.

 

[Dano1182]

What do you need to make FP + reservations? Is it room reservation or tickets?

 

[DebbieB]

What do you need to make FP + reservations? Is it room reservation or tickets?

Both for advance FP+

If staying offsite, you can only book the same day.