Feeling stressed because I feel like we will be on a strict schedule !

[maryj11]

I had planned on us not rushing here and there and just enjoy things this time. We usually go at a slower or less crowded time of year usually in September or October. This year it is Memorial day week because my DGD does not want to miss school. We only stay 5 days , I know it would be easier to relax on more days but that is all we can do each visit. I feel like we will need to hurry here and hurry there to keep our fastpass times and dining reservations I love to eat at the restaurants and it is one of my favorite things at Disney but we have never had to have fastpasses when we went before. Well usually we got maybe 2 or 3 our whole trip. I just dont want to be checking to see what time it is all the time to make sure we will get where we are suppose to be for fastpasses and dining.

 

[dsneprincess]

This was my biggest complaint with FP+. It felt like we spent the whole time looking at our phone for the time or trying to access the app at night to change a FP. Not to mention figure out a way to keep our phones with battery all day. Towards the end, we just started going as we wanted, if we made our FP great, if not that was ok, too.

I don't want to be Deb Downer, but normally we'd be planning summer return trip & the desire to return is just not there this time. I hope it works better for you than it did for us. FWIW, we had 1 planned dinner at a certain time/date/place for a friends birthday. I don't like to be tied to dining reservations, either.

 

[arielmomma]

Relax! You'll have a great vacation whether you rush around like a chicken with your head cut off or not

If eating is a vital part of a vacation to you, make the adrs a priority. Unless any particular ride is an absolute must-do, I wouldn't stress too much about it. Missing a few FP+s will not ruin your vacation.

We are leaving in 4 days and this is the attitude I am adopting. My family tried out FP+ last November. Like you, we felt stressed trying to stick with the times. I hated it!

After the first couple days, we just started letting some of them go. We would sometimes reschedule a couple later in the day if there was availability, but I refused to let a rigid schedule hamper our vacation. While I love to plan, on vacation, we like to go with the flow. Despite all of the hype you sometime hear on these boards, we kept with our normal way of vacationing. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time!

Let's face it, even when it is crowded (we did Memorial wknd a couple years ago) there are always fun things to do. It's one of the things I love best about wdw!

Have a great vacation!

 

[MichaelaF]

I'll echo the last poster for sure. I love planning for Disney, but I am NOT a hyper-scheduler commando-style vacationer. I also don't like feeling rushed and feeling like I have to stick to the clock every minute for my vacation. That said, I didn't feel like we really had to do that when we were there last (and used FP+). We went in Oct, right after they rolled out the extended test to all the resorts, and so a lot of things were still in beta. We didn't do ADRs every meal (we did maybe 3 or 4?), but we did use all our FPs. A couple times we missed them, and several times we just changed the times on the app if we knew we were going to miss them. (That said, now that FP+ is rolled out wider, it may be harder to get other times, and I know the app still isn't working great.) It's all about the attitude you take there, I guess. If you'd rather not rush, don't! We made sure to make FP times for the REALLY important ones, but I'm okay if I miss Test Track because we are eating something yummy at Food and Wine and it's too far to make it back.

So don't stress....you'll love it!

(Oh, and it's been said elsewhere, but if you feel like you may have the phone charging issue like another poster mentioned, I'd recommend getting an external battery charger. We got the medium sized Limefuel battery from Amazon and LOVE it. I still use it a lot when I need to charge on the go, and it's been WONDERFUL for our Disney trips: http://www.amazon.com/External-Battery-Pack-Limefuel-Thunderbolt/dp/B00DV81YIA )

 

[sethschroeder]

I never get these complaints, so you used 2-3 YOUR WHOLE TRIP? and now you are scheduling FP+ for every single day?

Just throw down times where you think you will be in the morning (EDIT: I mean the park not specific part of a park) and not worry about it? Once you potentially use your 3 FP+ to start the day out when you go to park hop or go into the afternoon you can choose to use them or not.

No one forces you to use FP+ and your not charged if you don't show up or you don't schedule any at all. Just make it for the rides you feel like you will do anyways in the morning in the order you want, if you miss a FP+ time don't worry you never used any FP- anyways.

Am I missing something here? I know there have been complaints of long standby lines but there has also been reports of lines being like normal from year to year.

 

[mom2rtk]

Am I missing something here? I know there have been complaints of long standby lines but there has also been reports of lines being like normal from year to year.

Yes. The lines with similar wait times year to year are the ones that previously had FP. But lines for rides that previously did not have FP are now longer, leaving very few no or very low wait opportunities like in prior years.

 

[jrmgreer]

We ran around like mad on our first trip. It made for arguments and stress... We actually were happy to go home.

The next year, we picked our favorite rides and only focused on those. We rode other things too - but we didn't rush or hurry. We made a few dinner reservations, but not so many that we had to panic to make them. We spent time at the pool at the resort and visited other resorts that we had never seen... it was much more enjoyable.

My advice would be to relax and pick the things you really want to do. In my opinion, it's best to leave wanting more rather than tired and sick of running. Now we leave and start planning our next trip almost immediately because we are excited to go back and do the things we missed.

 

[maryj11]

Yeah good advice everyone We will just worry about our favorite rides and our dinner reservations. If we dont make the less important rides then it's ok. Especially in HS with the tier fastpasses, we are not worried about the 2nd tier rides because they usually have short waits anyway. I refuse to rush rush If the less important rides have long waits like mom2trk said we will just skip them. We don't have to ride every ride at each park.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I just got back from a trip with crowds. We still managed to do quite a lot. I have a 30 minute limit for standby lines and we had the experience several times of the posted waits being 20+ minutes, and the actual wait being shorter.

I changed FPs several times over the course of the trip as well as times and was able to do so successfully. I have an iPhone though- I find the whole process easier with a smartphone. I did notice lines for the kiosks, so I'm glad I didn't have to use them.

I'm not an uber planner. The only times I've ever done a rope drop, we've had an early morning ADR. But, I have no issues with the new system. Just the fact that I don't have to join the cattle stampede to TSM and Soarin' is enough for me,lol.

 

[cleophus12]

I concur with jrmgreer. We used our FP+s, and during our in between times we walked on/did stand by for some rides we haven't ridden in years just because we had time to kill. It was very relaxing actually. And for me, the former FP runner all over the parks, it was much less stressful. Don't let it be stressful. It doesn't have to be.

 

[Oswin]

Relax. My family hardly ever uses fast passes, I think we've used them 5 times in the 10+ years we've been going. We went on a trip in March and didn't schedule FP+ and still managed to ride everything we love, plus we experienced a lot of new things too. You don't HAVE to schedule FP+ in order to enjoy Disney. Other people make it seem like it's a must do or else your entire trip will be chaotic and end up in shambles, but we didn't find that to be the case!

You're going to wait in lines, yeah, but we never waited in a line that was that much worse than any of our other trips. We did find rides that now have a FP+ that didn't before like POTC and HM to have increased wait times with 30-40 minute waits, but did it kill us to wait in the lines?. No. I don't get the idea that waiting in long lines ruins vacations, but then again I'm used to waiting 2+ hour waits at our local Six Flags in the summer.

Anyway, we went at our own pace on our first trip with MDE and FP+ and enjoyed ourselves. We had dining reservations every night of our 7 night trip, but that was the only thing each day we knew for sure we were going to do. We know we won't see every little thing in all the parks, but now we just make sure to include our favorites and take things at a pace that allows us to find and enjoy magic moments on our trip instead of rushing and passing them by.

We're going next month for my graduation and I'm really excited to use the same strategy we always have to have a memorable and stress free family vacation!

 

[maryj11]

Yes I think I'm stressing out for no reason
There is one question I have though has anyone used all 3 fastpasses and tried to get another one for a popular ride ? If so was it available ? We would like to ride Soarin and Toy Story but dont know if that is going to be possible with the tier. We will be going to breakfast at Cape May that morning so we wont be there at rope drop to ride one or the other early.

 

[redsbe]

Yes. The lines with similar wait times year to year are the ones that previously had FP. But lines for rides that previously did not have FP are now longer, leaving very few no or very low wait opportunities like in prior years.

May be true for most popular rides mid day into afternoon when crowds are above average or higher, but still plenty of walk-on rides at RD, evening or on days especially on park days when crowds are lower. The few issues with longer SB are with TT, Soarin, TSM and at times the MK mountains.

 

[fla4fun]

One good thing about FP+ in this situation is that you have your ADR times right in front of you - so you can look at the times offered for the FP+ and allow as much (or as little) time as you want between them.

For example, on my next trip I have a lunch ADR at the Plaza in MK at 11:00am. That is the time I plan on arriving in the park. I didn't make my first FP+ until an hour and a half later. Since the window is an hour long, I have 2 1/2 hours between when I arrive at the restaurant and when I need to be at the ride if I choose to use my FP+.

Also, consider where you are dining and work your FP+ accordingly, so you aren't criss crossing the park. For example, if you are having lunch at LTT, don't put a FP at Space Mountain before and one for Buzz after, then dinner at BOG and your third FP+ at BTMRR. Try BTMRR first, then LTT, then Buzz, Space, and BOG. Think about the flow of moving from one part of the park to another.

I think when trying to coordinate dining and FP, the new system is much easier. I hated going all the way across the park only to find that the window was at a time when I couldn't ride anyway. It wasted a lot more time and I seldom pulled FP because of it.

You definitely don't have to use FP+ at all, or use all of them you book.