FP+ and ADRs

[Roxy13]

We are older and enjoy all the dining at WDW. I am concerned about missing an ADR because lines for FP+ are longer than expected. We will be charged 10.00 per person penalty if we miss our dining time. I guess if we get to our FP+ line and it is too long we will have to leave in order not to incur a penalty at restaurant. Counter service is not our idea of a vacation, so I see this FP+ system , to be a real negative if we plan on ever booking Disney in the future.

 

[uccats97]

We are older and enjoy all the dining at WDW. I am concerned about missing an ADR because lines for FP+ are longer than expected. We will be charged 10.00 per person penalty if we miss our dining time. I guess if we get to our FP+ line and it is too long we will have to leave in order not to incur a penalty at restaurant. Counter service is not our idea of a vacation, so I see this FP+ system , to be a real negative if we plan on ever booking Disney in the future.

FP+ lines shouldn't take any longer than legacy FASTPASS lines did. If you're worried about time, book your FP+ times so that you have an extra hour between your ride window and your dining reservation. Then arrive at your FP+ attraction 5 minutes before the window begins. This will give you about 1.5 hours of cushion before your ADR. Don't be discouraged! Everything will be fine!

 

[k1koala]

Yikes i had not thought of that!!! Grrr need to figure that out.
Thanks for the eye opened

 

[jrtoastyman]

We are older and enjoy all the dining at WDW. I am concerned about missing an ADR because lines for FP+ are longer than expected. We will be charged 10.00 per person penalty if we miss our dining time. I guess if we get to our FP+ line and it is too long we will have to leave in order not to incur a penalty at restaurant. Counter service is not our idea of a vacation, so I see this FP+ system , to be a real negative if we plan on ever booking Disney in the future.

Don't be concerned. They don't assess that penalty unless you completely fail to show up. We totally underestimated the amount of time it would take to get from where we were to Soarin', do it, and then get to dinner and missed a Teppan Edo ADR by probably 45 minutes and it was absolutely no problem.

We can all hypothesize worst case scenarios that sound awful as we're thinking about them now, but when you're on the ground at WDW, I think you'll find these concerns to be largely unfounded.

 

[TLSnell1981]

FP+ lines shouldn't take any longer than legacy FASTPASS lines did. If you're worried about time, book your FP+ times so that you have an extra hour between your ride window and your dining reservation. Then arrive at your FP+ attraction 5 minutes before the window begins. This will give you about 1.5 hours of cushion before your ADR. Don't be discouraged! Everything will be fine!

Hmmmm...shouldn't, but they are. Wait times for FP+ AND ADRs have become longer and unreliable. I'm sorry, this is unacceptable for some of us. These changes are NOT enchancing my vacation.

 

[Roxy13]

this is just crazy, we do ADR's 180 days ahead and FP+ 60 days ahead. You worry about missing rides and worry about missing dining, I think our only answer is to book all FP+ in the afternoon as we have the longest break between Lunches at 1:30 and dinners at 7:30. Never had to schedule fun so far in advance, then worry about which one we might miss. Hubby is also disabled and he uses a scooter, so missed transportation is another worry. I'm beginning to accept that Disney, although we love it and go yearly might not be in our future. We will have to see how this trip goes this May. Thanks for your input.

 

[JanaDee]

FP+ lines shouldn't take any longer than legacy FASTPASS lines did. \

You're right, they shouldn't be. But they are.

 

[jrtoastyman]

this is just crazy, we do ADR's 180 days ahead and FP+ 60 days ahead. You worry about missing rides and worry about missing dining, I think our only answer is to book all FP+ in the afternoon as we have the longest break between Lunches at 1:30 and dinners at 7:30. Never had to schedule fun so far in advance, then worry about which one we might miss. Hubby is also disabled and he uses a scooter, so missed transportation is another worry. I'm beginning to accept that Disney, although we love it and go yearly might not be in our future. We will have to see how this trip goes this May. Thanks for your input.

Actually, you CAN worry about all of this stuff, if you want to. Here are some other things you could worry about if given the opportunity:

• Ride breaks down while you're on it
• Ride breaks down while you're in line, prompting you to wonder whether to wait it out or leave and get on something else
• Getting food poisoning at restaurant
• Dole whip machine breaks just as you get up to order
• Rain
• Goofy trips during character meeting, accidentally depantses (sp?) you
• Hurricane
• Workers form union and go on strike day before you arrive
• unexpected snow in July
• etc.

In the alternative, you can accept that there are some things that are out of your control and pledge to roll with it all and make the best of it regardless of how it plays out. We're all ultimately responsible for our own good time, and the perspective we bring into every situation can help shape the outcome.

 

[over50visits]

We are older and enjoy all the dining at WDW. I am concerned about missing an ADR because lines for FP+ are longer than expected. We will be charged 10.00 per person penalty if we miss our dining time. I guess if we get to our FP+ line and it is too long we will have to leave in order not to incur a penalty at restaurant. Counter service is not our idea of a vacation, so I see this FP+ system , to be a real negative if we plan on ever booking Disney in the future.

If we make a dinner reservation for, say, 5pm, we show up at 5pm. I expect Disney to seat me on time, and they should have the same courtesy from me (show up on time).

I think if your FP+ is too close, that might be a problem. There are two good solutions that seem fairly straightforward: book a different FP+ time, or leave the line if you need to in order to meet your obligation for arriving at the restaurant.

A final option is to just be late for the meal and expect Disney to handle it (lots of good rationalizations here...everyone does it...they expect it.....it isn't your fault the line was too long....yadda yadda yadda), and I suspect many guests will choose that route, and expect Disney to not penalize them. And I bet Disney will handle it nicely, since probably many guests arrive late.

Its up to you, and I suspect whichever way you go all will be fine in the world. Shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

[hydrotony]

Actually, you CAN worry about all of this stuff, if you want to. Here are some other things you could worry about if given the opportunity:

• Ride breaks down while you're on it
• Ride breaks down while you're in line, prompting you to wonder whether to wait it out or leave and get on something else
• Getting food poisoning at restaurant
• Dole whip machine breaks just as you get up to order
• Rain
• Goofy trips during character meeting, accidentally depantses (sp?) you
• Hurricane
• Workers form union and go on strike day before you arrive
• unexpected snow in July
• etc.

In the alternative, you can accept that there are some things that are out of your control and pledge to roll with it all and make the best of it regardless of how it plays out. We're all ultimately responsible for our own good time, and the perspective we bring into every situation can help shape the outcome.

I'm always afraid that when I'm walking up stairs, that an earthquake happens that destroys the stairs and makes me fall to a certain demise. Terrified.

 

[Roxy13]

gosh, No need to be sarcastic about this, I voiced my concern and some folks were quite kind in their posts. Have a nice day.

 

[CassieF]

It's a n honest fear, given all the changes in both FP and ADR penalties. If you schedule your FP start time at least an hour and a half before and you are in the same park as your ADR, you should be fine. I'd be more concerned about leaving enough time after your ADR, for when they don't seat you for 20 minutes then talk an hour and a half to serve you lunch. I missed my FP+ return time but at least was still in the grace window, although the restaurant said if you showed them the receipt they'd let you in. I didn't have to try that, thankfully, as I had my doubts it would actually work...

 

[disney1990]

Actually, you CAN worry about all of this stuff, if you want to. Here are some other things you could worry about if given the opportunity:

• Ride breaks down while you're on it
• Ride breaks down while you're in line, prompting you to wonder whether to wait it out or leave and get on something else
• Getting food poisoning at restaurant
• Dole whip machine breaks just as you get up to order
• Rain
• Goofy trips during character meeting, accidentally depantses (sp?) you
• Hurricane
• Workers form union and go on strike day before you arrive
• unexpected snow in July
• etc.

In the alternative, you can accept that there are some things that are out of your control and pledge to roll with it all and make the best of it regardless of how it plays out. We're all ultimately responsible for our own good time, and the perspective we bring into every situation can help shape the outcome.

You forgot the rule - no sarcasm allowed on the DIS Boards.

 

[jrtoastyman]

gosh, No need to be sarcastic about this, I voiced my concern and some folks were quite kind in their posts. Have a nice day.

Look, I do apologize for the snark. I was kind in my initial response, too, in which I advised you that I've had this exact circumstance unfold and it did not, in fact, play out in the way that you're afraid of.

You're probably catching some of my general discontent for the constant complaining on this board lately. People complaining about things they haven't experienced yet, people complaining about things they think will happen, and in this instance, people complaining about hypothetical pretend problems that don't actually exist in the real world. This almost felt like someone trying to come up with a new way to complain about the same thing everyone has been complaining about for months. It makes it hard to visit this forum, which bums me out.

The latter part of my second post, though, was not intended to be sarcastic at all. There are inevitably things that are out of our control, and things WILL happen that are unplanned. We can all choose how we let that affect us. I choose to roll with it and focus upon the things I can control, and it's worked well for me. The alternative is allowing yourself to be consumed with what-ifs so much that you miss all of the good stuff coming your way.

 

[Roxy13]

Apology accepted. When we were much younger it was easier to roll with the flow, but now it really does seem to be too much work to have fun. I just wish Disney wouldn't have made the ADR rules so strict, then roll out FP+ right after. We will enjoy our trip and post back our experience and hopefully you will do the same. I know it will be helpful to others, be it good or bad.

 

[jrtoastyman]

The good news is that in practice, the ADR rules are not as strict as they sound. The purpose behind the new policy is to make sure that people don't make a bunch of reservations at different restaurants to hedge their bets -- knowing that they only intend to use one of them -- and then not bothering to cancel the ones they end up not using. As long as you show up at some point in the vicinity of the ADR and express a desire to be seated, they aren't going to penalize you. They didn't for me, and were completely unfazed by the fact that we got hung up and were late.

I'm not suggesting that you can or should completely ignore the time of your ADR, but if you demonstrate to them by showing up a little late that you aren't "gaming the system" in the way that prompted the policy change in the first place, they aren't going to hit you with that no-show fee.

 

[serene56]

probably the reason you cant book a FP an hour before your ADR time and 2 hours after

 

[wallskm]

Haven't been there with FP+ yet but I will say that we had several ADRs that we were late to last April and it was always fine. We weren't crazy late, just 15-20 minutes or so, but they still seated us and all was well.

 

[TLSnell1981]

So, FP is strictly enforced, but not ADRs?

 

[SuperRob]

Fact is, the FastPass lines are not longer. They LOOK longer because you're seeing people lined up outside the queue waiting to scan, rather than inside. It's an overblown concern. You should have plenty of time to make an ADR, and the restaurants should give you enough of a grace period that it shouldn't be a problem. Worst case, don't book a FastPass quite as close to an ADR. There's a hidden benefit of the new system for you ... you get to choose your FastPass times, which you didn't get to do before.