Finally figured out my disappointment with FP+

[Junebugwv]

On a weekday the last week of Feb (def a low crowd time) we were at MK and trying to use the few ideas we gleaned from here, I found out that my previously simple touring plan was no longer working. We've been about 30 times and are touring with grandkids now. I found that using an afternoon FP for my personal favorite (Buzz) with 2 younger grandchildren worked out for that one ride, but the SB line was too long to ride again anytime that low crowd day. So, the sweet little grandkids got to shoot at Zurg and granny had to smile and not get a turn. Oh, the pain and sacrifice.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Are the days of riding our favorite rides multiple times gone????

Depends on when you go. If you go on a busy day, you likely won't be able to do the same attraction more than once or twice. If you do, you will probably have a long wait.

Problem is that there are people who can't go to Disney other than at the busy times. Therefore, they are at a huge disadvantage.

Once they make the changes, I don't think that you will find this to be an issue. Ok, so your first three FPs can't be for the same ride, but after using the initial 3, I would imagine that you will be able to use the rest for the same ride, if you so choose.

We can't say for sure if we will be allowed to use an "extra" fp to repeat an attraction you already did earlier with one of your reserved fastpasses. We won't know until they make the changes. I still don't see how this saves any time though because you still have to stand in a kiosk line to get those extra fastpasses plus then the fastpass return line.

I think the new system is set up so everyone will get a chance to ride a ride at least once and not stand in line forever.

Every time I go to disney, I've never had any issues with not getting a chance to do what i want. I've been able to do the same attraction multiple times with time left over to do everything else. So its my opinion that they did not change the system so that everyone could get a chance to ride everything at least once. This might be helpful in the very busiest of times, but on any other regular day, its not necessary. As far as standing in line, its worse than ever because standby's are longer, fp return lines are longer and now you have to stand in kiosks to get your extra fastpasses which means more time in lines and less time to actually do things. Its very disappointing that we are paying more and more for Disney tickets and vacations and getting less per day.

 

[dancermommy1]

The new system makes me nervous for this year, as my son would be happy riding buzz all day and nothing else. Last year we found that if we stuck it out until emh park closing (even with a 3 year old!) we could walk on rides as much as we wanted. That's my strategy for this year, and hopping.

 

[disnut1149]

I can't understand how FP+ enhances anyone's park experience. Seems like we're getting a lot less but paying more.

 

[DebbieB]

I can't understand how FP+ enhances anyone's park experience. Seems like we're getting a lot less but paying more.

I love being able to pick any time of the day. Not being restricted to the time being distributed when you get to a ride.

 

[ChloeH]

I hate fp+. I really do. I also think that it is really stupid to spend so much on a vacation and not do any research about it. Yet, that's what probably the majority of people who visit WDW each day do.

I've known plenty of people who have gone to Disney and come home thinking the lines were so long and it was so crowded etc. They were glad they took the kids but they weren't going back. They didn't know about FP and they didn't understand it, so they didn't use it....leaving the rest of us with the ability to get multiple FP for each ride.

I was glad though that some people didn't research - because if everyone knew about FP (and that they were free) and knew about rope drop, well it wouldn't work so well for us.

To me it seems like FP+ is simply everyone knowing about FP and using it. It's a bummer for us, the people who took the time to understand how the parks work and did our homework. Now, Disney just went and did everyone's homework for them - sending the e-mails and having them use FP+.

Better for the majority of people who don't care if they are limited to 3 FP+ a day because they never used FP before - they just stood in the stand by line. Worse for us.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I can't understand how FP+ enhances anyone's park experience. Seems like we're getting a lot less but paying more.

There are countless posts in this forum in which guests have explained how FP+ enhanced their park experiences. You have been around for a long time and have many posts. Have you not read any of them?

 

[tchrrx]

I haven't been reading about FP+ because we don't have another trip planned yet, so I'm only going off of what's on this thread.

I notice you all mentioning HM and Pirates here. You mean that FP+ is messing things up even for attractions that used to not have FP at all?!?

I really want to head back to WDW, but I'm an ultra planner who always collected and used multiple FPs each day. This new system has me stressed.

 

[mom2rtk]

I notice you all mentioning HM and Pirates here. You mean that FP+ is messing things up even for attractions that used to not have FP at all?!?

Think about it. Take a line that used to free of FP. 100% of that ride's capacity came from the FP line. Then add FP which prioritizes FP over that standby line. Reports are that FP accounts for 70-90% of a ride's capacity. Even if you conservatively say it's 50%, how fast do you think that standby line goes now? And you only get 3, so do you want to be spending your spot on a secondary attraction?

 

[Mousemommy1]

All I can offer is that maybe we are just the luckiest people in the world, but we were not big FP users and we often rode our favorite rides multiple times in one day without issue. It can certainly be done and be very enjoyable.

Now, with FP+, we are going to snag our FP's and get maybe an EXTRA ride...because we'll still do our standby "strategy".

 

[reneeryan99]

We would normally get ~5 rides on Space Mountain - only got 2 this time. One by running at rope drop and the other with the FP+. Outside of that, the line-up was 90+minutes all day long - Anything beyond 45 is unbearable for me. It was a very disappointing day.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

All I can offer is that maybe we are just the luckiest people in the world, but we were not big FP users and we often rode our favorite rides multiple times in one day without issue. It can certainly be done and be very enjoyable.

Now, with FP+, we are going to snag our FP's and get maybe an EXTRA ride...because we'll still do our standby "strategy".

But now I keep hearing that standby lines are much longer than then used to be. And there are rides like HM that didn't even have FP lines previously that now do. So I don't know if your old standby strategy will still work. It's a whole different world out there now!

Yes, we used to use a lot of FPS, but we also did a lot of repeat standbys. Don't know if that will still be an option.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

Now, with FP+, we are going to snag our FP's and get maybe an EXTRA ride...because we'll still do our standby "strategy".

I can see that this strategy is going to be less effective especially during 8 to 10 crowd days because Disney is loading the FP line beginning right at park opening. Before FP+, the earliest FP return time you could get would be 9:40. Even if you are first in line at RD, you already have a line in front of you at the first ride you head to no matter how much effort you put into getting to park early. It will take longer to get on the first ride. Add that extra time with all those FP+ people in front of your at your second ride of the day and it doesn't take long at all for that add up and make you able to get less done in the same amount of time as the past.

The reports of the heavily favored FP+ line to SB line is a big concern for our family. I don't look forward to being in those SB lines with other hot and angry guest. Another thing I'm hearing that I have concerned about is all the FP+ lines spilling out into the walkways and making things feel even more crowded. We are travelling with some extended family that will have 2 scooters and a stroller. Doesn't sound like fun times trying to move around MK.

 

[Seeker615]

We went on our last trip before they started rolling out this new system. It was a moderate crowd and by using rope drop and heading to the bigger rides first we had no problems at all. We pulled a few fast passes for a couple of the popular attractions and were able to utilize them easily.

Now we love HM and pirates and we rode them both several times with very little wait. Jungle Cruise was a walk on.

Now I am seeing that the lines for those rides are huge and there is a fast pass for them. I don't see how that makes sense when there was never an issue before.

Why didn't they just do fastpass plus for headliners that do get congested? Why create more lines when there was never any before?

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

There are countless posts in this forum in which guests have explained how FP+ enhanced their park experiences. You have been around for a long time and have many posts. Have you not read any of them?

Maybe it is a bit like those with negative experiences being told that it was only negative because of their attitude.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

Why didn't they just do fastpass plus for headliners that do get congested? Why create more lines when there was never any before?

There aren't enough of those headliners spots to offer every guest 3 per day. That is why there are tiers in Epcot & HS.

 

[Meggysmum]

We were also multiple riders on our favourites and could manage doing the headliners several times a day. Except on the vusiest days we were still collecting FPs until mid afternoon at least so I don't think there were really major problems with people who arrived late in the parks. (Exceptions being Soarin which I don't much like and TSM which did need a morning FP collection).

We used FP+ on our last trip and, besides booking TSM for a time we liked we really didn't find it advantagous to our trip.

We still arrived at Ropedrop, managed our best rides a couple of times before it got busy. By Late morning we found lines for all our favourites just too long to bother with so we left the park and came back in the evening to use our FP+. We have always been an open until close family and spent lots of money in the parks which we didn't on this trip.

Our next trip is mid-July. We have never travelled in high season before (well we did do New Years once but that was to see the decorations and parades and we didn't do much riding) and I am worried that we may find the situation makes for a boring trip but we will wait and see.

As has been said, write to Disney and put your thoughts and ideas to them. I sent an e-mail saying what I thought was good and bad on my last trip and had a very personal e-mail back responding to each point and telling me about the upcoming changes. FP+ is very new and evolving and if people don't say how they are finding it how are Disney supposed to work out if it is a hit or a a miss.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

We still arrived at Ropedrop, managed our best rides a couple of times before it got busy. By Late morning we found lines for all our favourites just too long to bother with so we left the park and came back in the evening to use our FP+. We have always been an open until close family and spent lots of money in the parks which we didn't on this trip.

In the past, our family has been RD to closing too. We always had a early dinner ADR to have a nice rest about the time we would run out of steam. I've worried about what you are saying your family experienced. With the ADR we will be stuck unless we want to pay the $10 per person fee to cancel the day of. If the SB lines are huge in the afternoon on our first park day, I'm pretty sure we will cancel all our other dinner ADR's for the rest the week, eat off-site or in our room and then just come back for evening FP+s.

Being able to continue to pull FPs all day is what has kept this off-site family in the parks all day, eating dinners with ADRs, buying snacks and more bottle of waters than I want to think about. If the SB wait times are like what I am hearing from reports, our family will be spending less time in the parks. And since we don't stay on-site, once we leave the parks, so does our money.

 

[Tondee]

Not being able to pull multiple fast passes worries me...
I am afraid that when it goes to the new use 3 and pull more system there won't be anything left. Can't wait to see how that works out.

 

[Kate and Family]

I have not yet been to WDW since FP+ has been implemented,so I really won't know until them how I will like it.

But... so far I think there are things that I will like (reserving ride for specific times) and things I will not like. Not being able to do multiples is in the NOT like category.

Hoping that will be one of the changes.

Folks, it helps me evaluate FP+ if, when you post you say whether you have been to WDW since FP+, are planning a trip, or commenting because of your prior experiences.