FastPass+ Basic Info, Attraction List, and Suggested Priorities--Part I

[WickedNicole]

I'm having trouble linking my military tickets. I'm on the phone with customer service but they don't seem to know how to do it either. Anyone able to walk me through it? The number under the barcode comes up invalid.

 

[DeeCeeSW]

I'm having trouble linking my military tickets. I'm on the phone with customer service but they don't seem to know how to do it either. Anyone able to walk me through it? The number under the barcode comes up invalid.

You need to scan the bar codes using the My Disney Experience app on your smartphone or iPad, tablet, etc. I was having the same issue with my codes coming up as invalid.

 

[brettb]

Hi, I am just now reluctantly starting to learn about Fast Pass Plus....I don't like change

Please forgive if the answer to this is spelled out somewhere. If I purchase a one night on-site stay with, say 5 day park tickets (staying offsite after the first night), would I be able to reserve FP+ for all five days at 60 days out?

Thanks for your patience!

Yes, but you will need to make each day at 60 days out I.e. Only the day of check in and check out will open up 60 days prior to check in. You'll have to wait a few days to book the rest.

Am I the only one that is incredibly frustrated by this?

I'll have an AP for our upcoming trip. DW and DD will be upgrading 1-day tickets once we arrive.

I do not appreciate the 2nd class status of resort guests who do not purchase admission in advance.

 

[mesaboy2]

Am I the only one that is incredibly frustrated by this?

I'll have an AP for our upcoming trip. DW and DD will be upgrading 1-day tickets once we arrive.

I do not appreciate the 2nd class status of resort guests who do not purchase admission in advance.

No. I'm right there with ya.

 

[Disbug]

Am I the only one that is incredibly frustrated by this?

I'll have an AP for our upcoming trip. DW and DD will be upgrading 1-day tickets once we arrive.

I do not appreciate the 2nd class status of resort guests who do not purchase admission in advance.

No. I'm right there with ya.

I, too thought that until I had a conversation with a CM who was helping me over the phone. The reason FP+ were associated with the ticket and not the resort reservation, is because even with a Legacy FP the guest had to be INSIDE the park in order to obtain one.

There are so many people who make and cancel resort reservations (without penalty) that it made no sense to allow people to book advance FP+ without the surety of a ticket. There is also a potential that people could book onsite for advance FP+ and then later switch to an offsite resort. Also, if the FP+ are linked to the resort reservation number, what if you switched between Disney resorts and received a new reservation number? Could you possibly lose all of your advanced FP+?

I think this was done for two reasons:

1) to incentivize guests to buy tickets early (revenue generator)
2) to protect people who have tickets from not being able to book early because of FP+ speculators (similar to the ADR speculators) because it is much harder (if not impossible) to get a refund for ticket media than a resort reservation.

Anyone else think this has merit?

 

[mesaboy2]

I appreciate the explanation and it makes sense, but it does penalize those who are honestly making last minute ticket purchases or upgrades.

 

[Disbug]

I appreciate the explanation and it makes sense, but it does penalize those who are honestly making last minute ticket purchases or upgrades.

I agree mesaboy... But until they figure out alternatives, I think it comes down to the smallest number of people who will be impacted. (The lesser of two evils and all that jazz!)

 

[brettb]

I, too thought that until I had a conversation with a CM who was helping me over the phone. The reason FP+ were associated with the ticket and not the resort reservation, is because even with a Legacy FP the guest had to be INSIDE the park in order to obtain one.

But this isn't legacy FP. A resort guest, a resort guest who purchased tickets in advance, and day guests were all on equal footing.

There are so many people who make and cancel resort reservations (without penalty) that it made no sense to allow people to book advance FP+ without the surety of a ticket.

Although there's no penalty for making and cancelling a reservation, there IS a deposit equal to one night's stay.

There is also a potential that people could book onsite for advance FP+ and then later switch to an offsite resort.

So what happens if someone buys and links their Under Cover Tourist tickets, makes an on-site reservation, makes their FP+ reservations 60 days in advance, and then cancels their Disney resort reservation 5 days before they arrive, and stays at the Waldorf? Is this to be prevented? This rule set seems to do the opposite.

Also, if the FP+ are linked to the resort reservation number, what if you switched between Disney resorts and received a new reservation number? Could you possibly lose all of your advanced FP+?

That's an implementation issue. A resort guest should not lose their FP+ reservations due to any sort of change. (I'm not saying they won't, I'm saying they shouldn't.)

I think this was done for two reasons:

1) to incentivize guests to buy tickets early (revenue generator)

From https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/my-disney-experience/fastpass-plus/:
"Buy your tickets before you arrive and you can choose your FastPass+ experiences up to 30 days in advance of each day of your theme park visit. When you book a stay at a Disney Resort hotel, you can make your FastPass+ selections up to 60 days prior to check-in for the entire length of your stay. Disney Resort hotel Guests also receive a MagicBand included with their stay to make their vacation more fun and convenient than ever before."

They'd better make darn sure that they're clear and up-front about what they advertise: That 60-day advance FP+ reservations are a privilege for Resort guests who have purchased admission more than 60 days in advance. Something like "Resort guests who purchase tickets in advance receive the additional benefit of 60-day advance FP+ reservations."

Current wisdom says the 2nd sentence is only true if one purchases one's ticket in advance (some may argue that this follows because of the preceding sentence - I disagree) AND those tickets cover one's entire length of stay.

2) to protect people who have tickets from not being able to book early because of FP+ speculators (similar to the ADR speculators) because it is much harder (if not impossible) to get a refund for ticket media than a resort reservation.

Anyone else think this has merit?

Is the problem of FP+ speculators so significant that 1) it needs to be addressed at all and 2) can only be addressed by diminishing my experience as a resort guest?

The FP+ redemption rate is probably much, much higher than the legacy FP redemption rate but even so, "speculative FP+ reservations" are only speculative if they don't get redeemed. Can't this be accommodated with overbooking? Hotels and airlines do it and for them the consequences to customers are far more serious if they get it wrong.

You want to stop the abuse of using temporary, refundable resort reservations being used to game the advanced FP+ system?

Make the refund of my 1-night deposit contingent on me actively cancelling all my FP+ reservations (or the agent offering to wipe them all out with a two clicks). Done.

 

[Disbug]

Many good points brettb! I was relaying a conversation with a CM on the phone who was attempting to help me with my FP+ problems. Appreciate the input on what others think is going on with this situation that many of us are having to endure.

This is what I am going through:

I have two back-to back stays booked at VGF. One is a one bedroom; then switching over to a 2-bedroom. I had my older DD's and myself listed as being in both villas and my DH and younger DD coming at the end of the week to join us when we transfer to the 2 Bedroom villa. I was not allowed to make FP+ reservations for any day the first week for my older DD's because they only had 3 day Florida resident passes. There was no option for us to use one day in the one bedroom, and two days in the 2 bedroom. The CM tried but could not make it work! I had to take my DD's off the reservation for the 1 bedroom villa or I would not be able to make any FP+ reservations for the 2 bdrm villa! They told me to work it out with the Front Desk when I arrive.

Talk about screwed up! I will try again today to see if it can be straightened out... but I think most of the problems we are experiencing have to do with the lack of capability in the Disney IT department. Many of these problems were not even thought of beforehand.

 

[puppytrainer]

The mailer I got from Disney says I can start booking my FP+ tomorrow, but when I log into MDE it says today is 62 days. I would think it would say 61? So is tomorrow really my day to book or do you think the countdown on MDE is off?

 

[siouxi31]

:
I have two back-to back stays booked at VGF. One is a one bedroom; then switching over to a 2-bedroom. I had my older DD's and myself listed as being in both villas and my DH and younger DD coming at the end of the week to join us when we transfer to the 2 Bedroom villa. I was not allowed to make FP+ reservations for any day the first week for my older DD's because they only had 3 day Florida resident passes. There was no option for us to use one day in the one bedroom, and two days in the 2 bedroom. The CM tried but could not make it work! I had to take my DD's off the reservation for the 1 bedroom villa or I would not be able to make any FP+ reservations for the 2 bdrm villa! They told me to work it out with the Front Desk when I arrive.

Talk about screwed up! I will try again today to see if it can be straightened out... but I think most of the problems we are experiencing have to do with the lack of capability in the Disney IT department. Many of these problems were not even thought of beforehand.

I'm experiencing similar frustration.
I have an AP and made a reservation for my daughter and I at Coronado Springs from Thursday through Sunday. My daughter's ticket is currently on order through Chase (employee discount). On Sunday, her father arrives and we're then going to stay at Marriott Grande Vista. He has a ticket on order from Chase as well. Needless to say, I can pre-set my FP for Fri-Wed (according to MDE site), but I can't do it for my daughter since we don't have her ticket yet. I guess there is just no point to me having a FP reservation if I can't get hers until her ticket arrives and I tie it to the reservation. As for the Marriott stay, we haven't reached the 30 day mark yet so I'm not sure what will be involved with that.

My biggest frustrations are:
1) The added stress the uncertainty of what will happen when we arrive. I feel like there will be at least 1 hour on each of the first few days to fix issues. A bit glass half empty but I can't shake this sense.
2) I don't like the amount of time that needs to be invested pre-visit on figuring this out.
3) Assumption that the time invested in pre-planning is OK with people.

 

[db57me]

We received a brochure from Disney telling (reminding) us that we can begin using the FP+ system on MDE on April 22. This is 60 days out from our first day of park tickets, not our arrival date. We fly in to Orlando the evening on June 21 and are booked into our Disney resort for that night. We did not purchase tickets for that day. So, although our 60 days from arrival is April 21, the 22nd is true 60-day mark for FP+. I had this figured out before receiving the brochure, but I wonder if others are making that mistake.

 

[bangzoom6877]

I was figuring out our plans for MK on the same day we are going to the nighttime parade and fireworks, and it looks like I will only need a FP+ for Space Mountain that day (BTMRR and Splash are on a different day). I could only book a FP+ for either the parade OR the fireworks, not both correct? Which one is it better to book a FP+ for?

 

[mesaboy2]

I was figuring out our plans for MK on the same day we are going to the nighttime parade and fireworks, and it looks like I will only need a FP+ for Space Mountain that day (BTMRR and Splash are on a different day). I could only book a FP+ for either the parade OR the fireworks, not both correct? Which one is it better to book a FP+ for?

MK allows you to pick any three FP, without the tiering restrictions in place at Epcot and Hollywood Studios. As for relative worth, that's all covered in Post #1.

 

[bangzoom6877]

MK allows you to pick any three FP, without the tiering restrictions in place at Epcot and Hollywood Studios. As for relative worth, that's all covered in Post #1.

But don't I have to choose only one or the other, since they're not an hour apart? I thought FP+ selections had to be at least an hour apart from each other because you can't have two within the same window of return time. Or does it work differently for the parade and fireworks since they have a definite start time so no window?

 

[Disbug]

I'm experiencing similar frustration.
I have an AP and made a reservation for my daughter and I at Coronado Springs from Thursday through Sunday. My daughter's ticket is currently on order through Chase (employee discount). On Sunday, her father arrives and we're then going to stay at Marriott Grande Vista. He has a ticket on order from Chase as well. Needless to say, I can pre-set my FP for Fri-Wed (according to MDE site), but I can't do it for my daughter since we don't have her ticket yet. I guess there is just no point to me having a FP reservation if I can't get hers until her ticket arrives and I tie it to the reservation. As for the Marriott stay, we haven't reached the 30 day mark yet so I'm not sure what will be involved with that.

My biggest frustrations are:
1) The added stress the uncertainty of what will happen when we arrive. I feel like there will be at least 1 hour on each of the first few days to fix issues. A bit glass half empty but I can't shake this sense.
2) I don't like the amount of time that needs to be invested pre-visit on figuring this out.
3) Assumption that the time invested in pre-planning is OK with people.

You are right, siouxi31 about the amount of time it is taking. Both before your vacation and when you are there. I had to get in one of the FP+ lines to change my times. Unfortunately I got in the wrong line! (I saw a sign that said FP+ kiosts but it was the exit.) CM's were all over the place and they did not say a word to me until I thought I was the next guest and moved up. Then they told me that I was in the wrong place and directed me to the entrance line which was crazy long! It took me 30 to 40 minutes to go through that. So needless to say I am all about getting these FP+ done before we go and making sure we avoid the need for any changes (if possible). Good luck with your planning and hope you are able to make it work! Remember! We are the pioneers! When they figure this out this will all be just a bad memory!

 

[mesaboy2]

But don't I have to choose only one or the other, since they're not an hour apart? I thought FP+ selections had to be at least an hour apart from each other because you can't have two within the same window of return time. Or does it work differently for the parade and fireworks since they have a definite start time so no window?

Different for scheduled events such as these. Many have scheduled both.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Different for scheduled events such as these. Many have scheduled both.

Oh thanks, good to know! Perhaps we will actually book both. I'll have to look more into the viewing area. Does it really save that much time?

 

[Disbug]

This is what I am going through:

I have two back-to back stays booked at VGF. One is a one bedroom; then switching over to a 2-bedroom. I had my older DD's and myself listed as being in both villas and my DH and younger DD coming at the end of the week to join us when we transfer to the 2 Bedroom villa. I was not allowed to make FP+ reservations for any day the first week for my older DD's because they only had 3 day Florida resident passes. There was no option for us to use one day in the one bedroom, and two days in the 2 bedroom. The CM tried but could not make it work! I had to take my DD's off the reservation for the 1 bedroom villa or I would not be able to make any FP+ reservations for the 2 bdrm villa! They told me to work it out with the Front Desk when I arrive.

Talk about screwed up! I will try again today to see if it can be straightened out... but I think most of the problems we are experiencing have to do with the lack of capability in the Disney IT department. Many of these problems were not even thought of beforehand.

UPDATE! It is FIXED! I found a CM in the IT department who used a "back door approach" and it worked! So don't let them tell you it can't be done. Call back and find someone who knows HOW it can be done.

 

[mesaboy2]

Oh thanks, good to know! Perhaps we will actually book both. I'll have to look more into the viewing area. Does it really save that much time?

I think the MSEP FP is an okay choice, more because of the location than anything else. I think Wishes is a poor choice, because the location isn't that great and it doesn't save time. These are my opinions only, reasonable people can disagree.