FastPass+ worked well for us

[Zdog]

Just got back from a quick 4 day trip to WDW. Overall, FastPass+, magic bands, and My Disney Experience app worked well. We booked our rides well in advance, but made some last minute changes through the app, and it was accomplished with ease. As others have stated, we loved being able able to sleep-in, knowing what rides we had booked for later in the day. In past visits, if we didn't get to the park early, we would often find FP's gone.

Park crowds were manageable, and that made things much easier. I can see how once crowds begin to build, there will be more delays as first-timers (like us) get used to the new system. Seemed like the biggest delay for FP lines were folks who were still getting the hang of getting the magic band to hit the mouse reader just right.

As for the mouse reader itself, my wife overheard a cast member say they were having trouble with them in direct sunlight, which might be a problem come summer.

Regardless, this new system was good by us. Having the band sure beat the heck out of our old system of using a lanyard. Having our rides figured out for the day was great, and still allowed for flexibility within the park. When we saw a short stand-by time, we would go. Otherwise, we plotted our days based on our FP+ reservations.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I'm glad to hear that it worked out for your family. Our upcoming trip will be the first time we will be using FP+/MB/MDE and I plan to tour the parks exactly like you did .

 

[minmate]

Just got back from a quick 4 day trip to WDW. Overall, FastPass+, magic bands, and My Disney Experience app worked well. We booked our rides well in advance, but made some last minute changes through the app, and it was accomplished with ease. As others have stated, we loved being able able to sleep-in, knowing what rides we had booked for later in the day. In past visits, if we didn't get to the park early, we would often find FP's gone.

Park crowds were manageable, and that made things much easier. I can see how once crowds begin to build, there will be more delays as first-timers (like us) get used to the new system. Seemed like the biggest delay for FP lines were folks who were still getting the hang of getting the magic band to hit the mouse reader just right.

As for the mouse reader itself, my wife overheard a cast member say they were having trouble with them in direct sunlight, which might be a problem come summer.

Regardless, this new system was good by us. Having the band sure beat the heck out of our old system of using a lanyard. Having our rides figured out for the day was great, and still allowed for flexibility within the park. When we saw a short stand-by time, we would go. Otherwise, we plotted our days based on our FP+ reservations.

We had a decent experience this week also (Wed/Friday 4.2/4.4). On Wednesday, the app gave us a "technical difficulties" screen midday and we couldn't change FP's on the fly when we encountered short lines for our current FPs. That was a bit frustrating, but really, there was nothing to change them to that we hadn't already done (and most had short lines if we had wanted to go back minus Soarin' of course).

On Friday, the app worked great. We went back to our room from 4-7:30 ish. We found we had to conserve battery energy/recharge our phones midday.

The most noticeable difference for us was the comfort of knowing we would be getting on those three rides if we wanted to use the FPs as scheduled. There was no stressing over trying to go get paper FPs and wondering if they'd be available and when the return time would be. It was easier for us to leave the parks when we were ready because we knew we had some plans in place for later in the day regardless of how lines may turn out to be at that time.

On our DHS/Epcot day, it would have been nice to use one FP for TSM and one for Soarin' on the same day.

 

[WendyLou]

So glad it worked well for you! We will be testing it out in a few weeks! Fingers crossed!

 

[minmate]

So glad it worked well for you! We will be testing it out in a few weeks! Fingers crossed!

Hope you have a magical time Wendy Lou!