Epcot

[ArwenMarie]

You are on vacation. You are not allowed to complain. Walt doesn't owe you any rides. You can have some free Beverly. (Wait till they FP+ that!)

Seriously, I'm sorry. This stinks.

I heard this is a good way to learn about disappointment Because we don't learn about that enough in real life. Kidding, kidding.

Yeah, sorry to everyone there. Looks like this isn't a Columbus Day glitch anymore...

 

[Michelina]

Mmm... Beverly!
Now we're waiting for The Seas, the standby line is out past the monorail track.

 

[luvsJack]

Just trying to understand here--

So, people having advanced fast passes is making the return times later, is that right? Wouldn't all those people that have fp+ still have gotten to Epcot this morning to get a regular fast pass?

I am not sure I am understanding how fp+ is affecting the stand by line.

Are the crowds larger right now? Wouldn't that be the fault of the deals such as free dining?

Those sound like some of the return times during Thanksgiving week (which is why we don't use it that much) and 20 minutes isn't that long so I am just curious if it is the number of people in the park.

You have ever right to complain or be disappointed if its not what you thought but I just wonder what exactly is causing the issues.

 

[Michelina]

I think it's really crowded! Or everyone is using Touring Plans now? Idk...

 

[BeerMe]

I think it's really crowded! Or everyone is using Touring Plans now? Idk...

TP has changed their crowd predictions significantly for this week.

 

[Orsino]

Mmm... Beverly!
Now we're waiting for The Seas, the standby line is out past the monorail track.

We are waiting an unusually long time for Tuttle talk.

Overall we are doing okay. We were able to walk onto test track. We have soarin FP for 4:20. And we're able to do sum of all thrills before the line got crazy. At least we don't have to worry about FP plus messing with food and wine.

 

[KatieCharlotte]

Just trying to understand here--

So, people having advanced fast passes is making the return times later, is that right? Wouldn't all those people that have fp+ still have gotten to Epcot this morning to get a regular fast pass?

I am not sure I am understanding how fp+ is affecting the stand by line.

Are the crowds larger right now? Wouldn't that be the fault of the deals such as free dining?

Those sound like some of the return times during Thanksgiving week (which is why we don't use it that much) and 20 minutes isn't that long so I am just curious if it is the number of people in the park.

You have ever right to complain or be disappointed if its not what you thought but I just wonder what exactly is causing the issues.

My guess is that it's a combination of crowds (Disney's efforts to get people into the parks in "slow" times + more people researching online about the "best" times to go and "best" parks for the day) and FP+ being available to so many.

Most people who booked FP+ would NOT have been in the park at rope drop because the vast majority of people can't get their whole group there in time or don't want to. So, FP+ is a benefit for them. Meanwhile, it hurts those who didn't have access to FP+ and manage to arrive at or near rope drop. Even if they are fast enough to get a FP- for Soarin or Test Track, FP- will be gone for the other when they're eligible for second FP-. And everyone who arrived early and realized they were out of luck with FP- get in the standby line asap before it gets worse.

I would guess that the best strategy for those w/o FP+ is what we usually did anyway -- send one quick person to Soarin for fastpasses and have that person meet the rest of the party at Test Track standby (getting rider swap passes if you have a too short child). And expect your Soarin fastpasses to be for very late in the day now. We used to use this strategy to fastpass Soarin twice in a day, but oh well...I guess that was selfish.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Today's a 5 according to easywdw and touringplans, and both sites have EP as a best park. It's possible that both sites got it galactically wrong, but unlikely.

IMHO it's much more likely that this is the "new normal" as FP+ takes a larger % of the FPs, leaving fewer legacy FPs available for the great unwashed.

And if this is the way it is for a "5" day, imagine Christmas Week. Yikes.

 

[Bama_C]

I heard this is a good way to learn about disappointment Because we don't learn about that enough in real life. Kidding, kidding.

Yeah, sorry to everyone there. Looks like this isn't a Columbus Day glitch anymore...

Arrgh... will be there one week from today. Not too excited about my family finding out about the "glitch" .... not gonna be happy.

I have FP+ for evenings because we park hop. Maybe I should change them to mornings since those are the ones hardest to get and then just take whatever is available to ride in the pm. This is crazy.

Thanks for the report, though. As Michelina said, it is what it is ...and thankfully we have been enough that we don't feel like we have to get every single ride done multiple times to have gotten our $$ worth.

 

[JanaDee]

Welcome to the wonderful world if FP+.

Yup.

 

[Redcon1]

Maybe Disney should drop Donald from the FP- promotions and design a new character to promote FP+. They could call him "Glitch".

 

[JanaDee]

Maybe Disney should drop Donald from the FP- promotions and design a new character to promote FP+. They could call him "Glitch".

Ha! Like I said last week when this happened, this isn't a glitch. This is how FP will be thanks to FP+.

I feel terrible for people that are there now, stuck in those terrible lines. What a letdown for them, especially if this is their first trip. :-(

 

[dansamy]

Ha! Like I said last week when this happened, this isn't a glitch. This is how FP will be thanks to FP+.

I feel terrible for people that are there now, stuck in those terrible lines. What a letdown for them, especially if this is their first trip. :-(

I didn't think it was a glitch last week either, but I got promptly told that I was wrong. It had nothing to do with FP+. Period.

I keep trying to tell my coworker, who's going Thanksgiving week, staying at POR and has done NOTHING regarding FP+, that she needs to plan her FP+. Lead a horse to water...

 

[kayemgi]

Mmm... Beverly!
Now we're waiting for The Seas, the standby line is out past the monorail track.

Given that this appears to be "the new normal" I'm wondering if we should change our FP+ selections...

I had originally booked Soarin' because it's so popular and we don't love it enough to wait in a long line for it. But if we miss out on Soarin', we wouldn't be all that upset. We didn't book The Seas because it's usually such a short wait. We'd be very upset if we missed this ride due to a crazy long line. If it's got such a long wait now, I'm wondering if we should switch our FP+ to be for Nemo instead of Soarin'... this is crazy!

 

[wookiebeck]

Welcome to the wonderful world if FP+.

While I agree with you about the paradigm shift about to happen, that can't be the only reason here. FP+ is only being used by hundreds of people. What happens when 40K try to get their Sorain' and TT passes?

 

[metzgardesign]

Maybe Disney should drop Donald from the FP- promotions and design a new character to promote FP+. They could call him "Glitch".

Ayep.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3187150


This seriously a mess. I am actually happy we are not taking our annual fall WDW trip this year.

I will be interested in seeing how Disney addresses this train wreck. Or if they will just ride it into normalcy. I think (know) it will eventually end up costing them visitors.

 

[dansamy]

We're going this December. Although we're DVC members, we're unlikely to return until next December. That should give this system time to mature a little. I'll reserve judgement until next December's trip.

I *do* see great potential for this system. I only hope that some of Disney's billion+ investment will go to overhauling some of the poorer, clunkier parts of this. It needs to run seamlessly. To do that, both the hardware and the software need to be up to snuff. For gosh sakes, my PHONE has a quad core processor and 1gb RAM. We used less computing power to land on the moon. It's time to at least come into the 2000s Disney!

 

[2Tiggies]

Ha! Like I said last week when this happened, this isn't a glitch. This is how FP will be thanks to FP+.

I feel terrible for people that are there now, stuck in those terrible lines. What a letdown for them, especially if this is their first trip. :-(

I agree with you. I wish I didn't and was able to base it on something, but I really do think that this is the new FP system as we are going to have to get to know it

What other rides that previously didnt have FP have been added to the FP+ system at Epcot? Anything? I hope none of them are live yet ... because supposedly adding other attractions (the ones that typically don't need FP, if you know anything about the Disney parks) were going to draw some of the crowds out and disperse them in other parts of the parks, even if it was based on ignorance, or sheer desperation to ride something .... anything!

I can't see Disney being able to keep this system as it is without doing something about it. It's not like WDW has just appeared on the scene and there are no past experiences to refer to; they have thousands upon thousands of guests who have formed a clear understanding of the old system and who based expectations on what could be accomplished in a trip on this basis. We're not going to go down quietly

Just hope that the budget includes covering extensive additional staffing for Guest Services for a while!

 

[ghtx]

Ha! Like I said last week when this happened, this isn't a glitch. This is how FP will be thanks to FP+.

Not quite. Once FP+ is rolled out, there won't be any more FP-, so you won't have to worry about FP- running out early in the day.

But I agree with you that this isn't a "glitch." FP- slots are being replaced with FP+ slots, so there are fewer FP- slots available, but everyone is still able to use FP- so they are running out earlier.

I am not sure why this is making everyone so upset.

 

[surferdave]

Maybe Disney should drop Donald from the FP- promotions and design a new character to promote FP+. They could call him "Glitch".

Meet Disney's new MDE spokesperson.