FP+ , am I doing it wrong, or is my size family taking 2 separate vacations?

[barbarabini]

Noone would accuse me of being a great planner as evidenced by I have 4 kids that span from 11 to 1. I just made the FP+ ressies. In order to take advantage of the attractions for the right kids, my husband and I basically have to split up each day. I have to take the younger kids to the character meets while the bigger ones want to do the roller coasters. I cant get a FP to do splash mountain with the big ones and my husband has to trade off seeing the littles meet mickey if he wants (needs) to accompany the older ones on the coasters. My 7 yea not be old doesn't want to waste his FP on the princesses...but will he be able to accompany us in the FP line? Can my husband go to the FP line for the mickey meet and greet with us ? Previously, we got FP as we went and stood on lines for other attractions. Here I basically have two separate rider groups, with all kinds of times.

It seems we are going to have to go our separate ways in order to be disadvantaged with the rides.

Seems like the antithesis of a family vacation.

 

[1 DISNEY FAN]

Anyone wanting to go through the fp line needs a fp for that attraction( even if you don't want to actually see the princesses. How ever there is child swap for attractions that have height restrictions which you need to ask a cm for at each attraction you wish to swap.

 

[dimndgal1]

Noone would accuse me of being a great planner as evidenced by I have 4 kids that span from 11 to 1. I just made the FP+ ressies. In order to take advantage of the attractions for the right kids, my husband and I basically have to split up each day. I have to take the younger kids to the character meets while the bigger ones want to do the roller coasters. I cant get a FP to do splash mountain with the big ones and my husband has to trade off seeing the littles meet mickey if he wants (needs) to accompany the older ones on the coasters. My 7 yea not be old doesn't want to waste his FP on the princesses...but will he be able to accompany us in the FP line? Can my husband go to the FP line for the mickey meet and greet with us ? Previously, we got FP as we went and stood on lines for other attractions. Here I basically have two separate rider groups, with all kinds of times.

It seems we are going to have to go our separate ways in order to be disadvantaged with the rides.

Seems like the antithesis of a family vacation.

I am sorry that it appears you will be on 'two separate' vacations but I'm not sure how FP+ is making much difference in having to take X kids to coasters and Y kids to princesses. Is the 3 FP+ a day more limiting than the 'grab and go FP' of old, yes... however, depending on the crowd size of the days you would have gone with the normal FP system, you could only hold one active FP at a time... meaning if some of your group wanted to meet princesses, it would still be more practical for those to FP princesses and the rest to FP another attraction. Also, with the potential addition of additional FP+ choices rolling out, it would open opportunities for your group during the day.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), with kids of varying ages and varying desires, parents sometimes have to split up to appease the crowd or tour slower to ensure things are done 'together'. I am not a fan of FP+ but I like the idea that DH can take DD6 on a coaster while I take our LO on something a little slower, so we can meet back up after and do something together v. being at the mercy of whatever FP window is open for the attraction DD6 wants and hoping to find something for LO to do while she and DH ride.

In your situation, I would pick FP+ for the coasters and try to hit the character M&G as a family early in the day when lines are short. Then, you can stay together as a family and find something for your younger ones to do while the older ones ride coasters as the youngest wouldn't be allowed in line anyway due to height restrictions. Then, you still get the fun as a family and the coaster enthusiasts still get their rides and your line time is still minimal.

 

[staceyeileen]

I don't really think that FP+ is to blame for your issue. In the old days, you wouldn't have even had the option to get an FP for the meet and greets, so you'd still be taking your girls to see princesses while your husband does coasters... or worse, wait in a line to collect FP-. You really don't have to have an FP+ for every attraction.

 

[slickpoetry]

I agree with the other posters. It's not FP+ that is forcing your family into "two separate vacations," it is the fact that your family has two groups with two different interests.

That said, I am sure there will be plenty of opportunities for the two groups to meet together for shared experiences. Jungle Cruise, or Peter Pan, or Dumbo are just three things that come to mind.

I hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[Itinkso]

Be sure to use Rider Swap for the coasters so you will get to ride and your older ones will get additional opportunities to ride.

 

[Shaden]

Noone would accuse me of being a great planner as evidenced by I have 4 kids that span from 11 to 1.

.

THIS is one of the FUNNIEST things I have ever read on this board !!!!

Holy crap !


ugh .... anyway to your point, there is a bit of that going on in my upcoming trip. We have a large group, 12, ranging from 11 to almost 70. Lots of different preferences for rides etc.

The problem with FP+ is we can either ALL FP together the rides we will all do, but this would mean wasting (essentially) most of our FPs, because the rides/attractions everyone will do are the ones with the shortest waits. And then we will have to all wait while people ride the rides with the longest waits, but that people don't all want to do ...

But then, we used to FP anything that had a wait of over 20mins. And if we pulled FPs for an attraction and someone didn't want it, the person who loved it the most could ride it twice, and we wouldn't have to wait long, because they were FPing it ! Then we would go pull FPs for something else and then together head over for a walk on or short wait or something ...

Not as possible with FP+ ...

Also, some of the riders are temperamental .... can't wait to see what happens when we have FPs booked, and then one of them decides to bail ...

 

[Autumnslight]

I totally understand what the OP is saying. For example, say my husband and I both want to go with our daughter when she meets Anna & Elsa, to see her reaction and share in her joy. Our seven year old son doesn't care, but has to come along, since we can't very well leave him alone outside.

So, we have a few choices:

1. Use four FP+s, leaving each of us with only two more for the day, and effectively forcing our son to sacrifice one of his FP+ for his sister's sake. Meanwhile, she can't ride the stuff he wants to use his FP+ for, so she's not sacrificing anything for his sake, thus making it unfair.

2. Not use FP+ for the meet & greet and wait in line for hours, but preserve our three FP+, and allow both my husband and I to share the experience with our daughter.

3. Only use FP+ for our daughter and one parent, thus allowing our son to not sacrifice one of his FP+ for his sister's sake, but depriving one parent of being able to share our daughter's experience.

This is an issue that's especially bad with respect to character meets, and it really stinks. It's different than for rides, because for rides, you're either going to ride it and use a FP+, or you're not riding it, and not using a FP+. Plus, you can get rider switches.

This is also different from how it used to be with legacy FP, because there wasn't a limit on the number of FPs you could get in a day. Sure, our son might not care about the princesses, but him joining the rest of the family and using a FP for that didn't mean sacrificing the ability to get additional FPs later on, for stuff he actually wanted to do.

This situation is why I suggested to Disney in survey feedback that they split the FP+ experiences into categories for "Rides" and "Character Interactions", and allow a set number of FP+ per day for each category. Kind of like tiering, except based on the type of FP+ experience.

 

[dimndgal1]

I totally understand what the OP is saying. For example, say my husband and I both want to go with our daughter when she meets Anna & Elsa, to see her reaction and share in her joy. Our seven year old son doesn't care, but has to come along, since we can't very well leave him alone outside.

So, we have a few choices:

1. Use four FP+s, leaving each of us with only two more for the day, and effectively forcing our son to sacrifice one of his FP+ for his sister's sake. Meanwhile, she can't ride the stuff he wants to use his FP+ for, so she's not sacrificing anything for his sake, thus making it unfair.

2. Not use FP+ for the meet & greet and wait in line for hours, but preserve our three FP+, and allow both my husband and I to share the experience with our daughter.

3. Only use FP+ for our daughter and one parent, thus allowing our son to not sacrifice one of his FP+ for his sister's sake, but depriving one parent of being able to share our daughter's experience.

This is an issue that's especially bad with respect to character meets, and it really stinks. It's different than for rides, because for rides, you're either going to ride it and use a FP+, or you're not riding it, and not using a FP+. Plus, you can get rider switches.

This is also different from how it used to be with legacy FP, because there wasn't a limit on the number of FPs you could get in a day. Sure, our son might not care about the princesses, but him joining the rest of the family and using a FP for that didn't mean sacrificing the ability to get additional FPs later on, for stuff he actually wanted to do.

This situation is why I suggested to Disney in survey feedback that they split the FP+ experiences into categories for "Rides" and "Character Interactions", and allow a set number of FP+ per day for each category. Kind of like tiering, except based on the type of FP+ experience.

The problem with your example is up until recently, E/A wasn't a FP+ option so, if anything, you could still do it the way it was before - use FP+ for a ride and wait for E/A. Same situation as having a FP- for the princesses and having to either wait for the window for another FP or wait standby for a ride. If E/A was available during FP-, the wait would be similar to TSM and your FP window would be blocked for an extended period so I am failing to see the correlation. The only difference in the situations is the NUMBER of FP+ and it seems that Disney is in the process of addressing that particular situation.

Also, it's about priorities - if seeing DD's face when she meets the princesses is important to you then your non-princess kids have to buck up and handle it. If you time it right, you're not losing much of your time and, as PP have said, you can use Rider Swap and FP+ to ensure that time is more than made up for later.

Also, I would be insistent to push a character/ride separation for fear they will just take all the character FP's away. We've done the M&G with no FP so I'm just stoked to have that option to begin with.

 

[Zeebs]

I totally understand what the OP is saying. For example, say my husband and I both want to go with our daughter when she meets Anna & Elsa, to see her reaction and share in her joy. Our seven year old son doesn't care, but has to come along, since we can't very well leave him alone outside.

So, we have a few choices:

1. Use four FP+s, leaving each of us with only two more for the day, and effectively forcing our son to sacrifice one of his FP+ for his sister's sake. Meanwhile, she can't ride the stuff he wants to use his FP+ for, so she's not sacrificing anything for his sake, thus making it unfair.

2. Not use FP+ for the meet & greet and wait in line for hours, but preserve our three FP+, and allow both my husband and I to share the experience with our daughter.

3. Only use FP+ for our daughter and one parent, thus allowing our son to not sacrifice one of his FP+ for his sister's sake, but depriving one parent of being able to share our daughter's experience.

This is an issue that's especially bad with respect to character meets, and it really stinks. It's different than for rides, because for rides, you're either going to ride it and use a FP+, or you're not riding it, and not using a FP+. Plus, you can get rider switches.

This is also different from how it used to be with legacy FP, because there wasn't a limit on the number of FPs you could get in a day. Sure, our son might not care about the princesses, but him joining the rest of the family and using a FP for that didn't mean sacrificing the ability to get additional FPs later on, for stuff he actually wanted to do.

This situation is why I suggested to Disney in survey feedback that they split the FP+ experiences into categories for "Rides" and "Character Interactions", and allow a set number of FP+ per day for each category. Kind of like tiering, except based on the type of FP+ experience.

Could you tell him that yes he is using one of his FP+'s to see Anna and Elsa, but he will get 4 rides using rider swap on his two favourite things?

We have the same problem with 1 too small girl and 2 older boys. But they have also been told it is her trip as well and she shouldn't have to wait around while they do everything they want, we are there as a family and while we will do the roller coasters, sometimes we will also be doing Its a small world and they are expected to get on it and enjoy themselves (or at least fake it)

Kirsten

 

[Hannathy]

Send the two oldest over to do the coasters with their fast passes while you and DH and younger kids use your FP for the princesses, then meet up after.

Seems pretty easy , they do what they want and you and DH see the princesses.

 

[Autumnslight]

The only difference in the situations is the NUMBER of FP+ and it seems that Disney is in the process of addressing that particular situation.

Right, the difference is that in the past, you weren't restricted to the number of FPs you could pull. Yes, there were delays related to the FP return time and such, but not a simple finite number of FPs. Being able to get additional FP+ should hopefully help to rectify this situation, but we don't know when that may take effect.