FP+ and Hopping (need guinea pigs!)

[PlayaMan]

I answered in my post. It's not that FP- was not complicated at all, it's that FP+ is more complicated. In the MK, FP- is less complicated than FP+ for a multi age family. Under the current rules, a family cannot FP+ more than 3 different attractions unless they want to split up. The difficulties are obvious in MK when you have so many options to use FP on that do truly need it. In the past, you could pull more than 3.

yes, it could be more complicated for certain families with certain touring styles. I fully agree. But for others, it will make things less complicated for them. It goes back to the fact that everyone does not tour the parks the same.

For those guests who never used FP at all, why are they part of the discussion when comparing FP- to FP+? That's not what is being discussed. It's very uncomplicated to get in stand by line after stand by line, you just spend most of your day waiting, but that's neither here nor there.

again, people have different thresholds for how long they are willing to wait in line. And there were people in the past that pulled FP- AND waited in longer FP lines especially if FP times were pushed very late in the day. These families would rather wait in an hour long SB lines then have to come back some time in the evening. Again, touring styles vary SO much. FP+ detractors do not like it when everyone is lumped together with their touring styles but then often lump everyone together when making blanket assertions about FP+. I think we can agree that FP+ will affect people in a variety of ways. From a minor change in plans to people cancelling their vacations because they no longer see the value in their trip to Disney

You were making the comparison I was responding to. Your response to mom2rtk's post suggested that touring with a multi age family is always complicated, and people still did it in the days before FP- too. Both true points, however you cannot compare FP+ to days with no FP at all IMO, the comparison should be to the most recent system, FP-, which has been around for almost 15 years if I'm not mistaken. I wasn't directing my comment completely at you, just that I've seen many people respond to FP+ criticisms with "well, think how bad it was when you had to wait for EVERYTHING", but that's just not a relevant comparison anymore.

again, Mom2rtk started with the comparison. I only compared back to the FP- days NOT pre-FP times. As I agree with that it is not a valid comparison.

 

[Huff]

Yes, but what is the purpose in changing parks? Why waste the time traveling?

Some like to stay at one park, others like myself hop almost daily. We like to start at one park for most of the day and then hop to another for dinner and shows. I don't always want to stay the entire day at a park I want to see Fantasmic, Illuminations, Light Parade, Wishes etc. I also hop to take advantage of later hours especially at MK or EP after a day at a shorter hour park. We may spend the day at AK, then head to dinner at Ohana's and finish the night at MK. Its not for everyone but for us we get more enjoyment out of our day. FP+ makes this somewhat more difficult as we have to schedule our day a bit more but not impossible.

 

[pilferk]

On a separate note, 3 cms, in 2 different parks, told us that Epcot and dhs shutter their legacy fastpass systems on jan 22nd. No idea if true or not, but it's what they said.

 

[mom2rtk]

On a separate note, 3 cms, in 2 different parks, told us that Epcot and dhs shutter their legacy fastpass systems on jan 22nd. No idea if true or not, but it's what they said.

That wouldn't surprise me one bit. Thanks for the report!

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

On a separate note, 3 cms, in 2 different parks, told us that Epcot and dhs shutter their legacy fastpass systems on jan 22nd. No idea if true or not, but it's what they said.

ROFL - wouldn't surprise me at all if that was true - Jan 22nd is our arrival day

 

[Angel Ariel]

Yep. And there's the problem. With FP- you could make everyone happy. We'll ALL go on Peter Pan but then we'll all go do BTMRR. When FPs are limited to 3 it's more complicated than whether some in your group will suffer through a ride they aren't that excited about. But will they give up a FP for something they really want to ride for something they aren't that excited about.

It makes that balance of traveling with a multi-age family that much more complicated. And people don't want complicated vacations.

Exactly!

Sure, since we can use rider swap, we can use one adult's FP+ for mountains, and the other's for child-centric stuff....but then we're not experiencing the child-centric attractions together as a family, which kind of defeats the purpose of a family vacation.

Conversely, we could FP+ the child-friendly attractions and then do SB/RS for the adult rides...but in busy seasons (like the March trip we took last year) then we're still looking at the family being apart for an hour (SB wait) just to ride one adult ride...still defeating the purpose of a family vacation.

I haven't quite figured out how we can make the FP+ system work for us so that DH and I can experience what we want, while also having short lines that DD needs to wait in. (We only have 4 days with AFS tickets, so spending 2 days in a park doesn't work as well).

 

[Angel Ariel]

And yet you admit that traveling with a multi-age family is complicated in and of itself. Even with the utopia that was FP-,it was still complicated for a multi-age family to visit Disney.

It wasn't complicated for us We only have one child at the moment, but DH and I go to WDW for ourselves as well..so there is still the need to experience multi-age things. I don't know why it's surprising or unbelievable that this was incredibly easy for us to do in March and October of 2013.

 

[MOM POPPINS]

We have gone to Disney over 25 times and we have 5 kiddos no problem here with kiddos of different ages??

 

[rrali33tt]

Did not work for us, today, with our bands Had fps at ak this am. Just left mk.

Now...if I'd taken my band off, posed as an off site guest, and given an alternate email addy...we could have done it. (Edit:maybe).

But not via our mbs.

We are not ap holders. Resort guests with 6 day hoppers.

I posted the same question yesterday. I think we need someone to take their magic band off and aproach a kiosk and ask for FP+ ressies and pretend to be an offsite guest.

If an offsite guest park hopped would they be denied FP+ in the second park? That is the key I think.

Phantom email addresses will become the new "ghost" reservations LOL At least until they change the FP+ system which will probably happen anyway.

 

[Laketravis]

And yet you admit that traveling with a multi-age family is complicated in and of itself. Even with the utopia that was FP-,it was still complicated for a multi-age family to visit Disney.

Yet through all the complications of traveling with a multi-age family, millions of families have done so for years upon years because in no small part they value the complications of ANY vacation worth in in return for the experiences shared by families on their vacations.

And while your mind was occupied trying to determine your next move in your one-man game of mental chess, there were these comments:

This is exactly what's making the 3 FP+ limit at MK so hard for me, personally. I'm going to give up my favorite rides -- BTMRR and Splash -- because I'm going to use our three FP+ and the lower crowd early morning hours on all the rides that my kids like, and I'm not going to abandon my family to wait in a 60-90 minute standby line. Eventually, at least one of my kids will want to ride the mountains too, but probably one never will and it's important to give him a good day too.

Some like to stay at one park, others like myself hop almost daily. We like to start at one park for most of the day and then hop to another for dinner and shows. I don't always want to stay the entire day at a park I want to see Fantasmic, Illuminations, Light Parade, Wishes etc. I also hop to take advantage of later hours especially at MK or EP after a day at a shorter hour park. We may spend the day at AK, then head to dinner at Ohana's and finish the night at MK. Its not for everyone but for us we get more enjoyment out of our day. FP+ makes this somewhat more difficult as we have to schedule our day a bit more but not impossible.

Not uncomplicated, but more flexible, less limited, easier to make everyone happy.

I don't even want to think about the tiers at DHS. If they stay, I will probably never convince DD to ride RnRC with me.

 

[HockeyMomNH]

Maybe extra FP+ will eventually be added to the park hopper option. If you pay the extra money for the ph, you will also get an extra FP+ or two that can be used in a different park, with the limit being 3 in one park.

It would certainly add to the value of the hopper option.

 

[ampc3]

This is exactly what's making the 3 FP+ limit at MK so hard for me, personally. I'm going to give up my favorite rides -- BTMRR and Splash -- because I'm going to use our three FP+ and the lower crowd early morning hours on all the rides that my kids like, and I'm not going to abandon my family to wait in a 60-90 minute standby line. Eventually, at least one of my kids will want to ride the mountains too, but probably one never will and it's important to give him a good day too.

Totally agree! as someone mentioned before this whole new process ( I believe) is less flexible all around, especially traveling with different ages. For me, it is just making the entire touring planning that much more difficult when I have to figure out what 3 rides to pick for all of us. I speak only for ME and it is challenging and complicated to say the least!

 

[mummabear]

There are also a lot of guests, I'd imagine, who like both the FL rides/child-centric attractions AND the mountains.

Yes, that would be us but we are more likely to use FP+ on options where the kids would be waiting in line with us. For the mountains we would have one parent wait standby while another watched the parade with the kids.
In fact if parent swap could be used with FP+ as it could with FP we may book one parents FP+ as a mountain then get rider swap for the other and use the other parents FP+ (along with the kids ones) for a M&G or fantasyland ride

 

[mummabear]

OK, you go with that.

As for park planning with FP-?

Choose a park. Show up at said park. Choose a ride. Decide on the spot if you want to pull a fastpass or wait through standby.

Repeat as many times as desired.

 

[pilferk]

I posted the same question yesterday. I think we need someone to take their magic band off and aproach a kiosk and ask for FP+ ressies and pretend to be an offsite guest.

If an offsite guest park hopped would they be denied FP+ in the second park? That is the key I think.

Phantom email addresses will become the new "ghost" reservations LOL At least until they change the FP+ system which will probably happen anyway.

It MIGHT work RIGHT NOW, because of the way the system is working, and because of some of the system issues they're having right now with the roll out. The CM's I talked to today said they've had major back of the house issues (speed and reliability) since MK went up yesterday. AK CM's I talked to, this morning, said they had to do ride by ride overrides this morning to open stuff for EMH. Dinosaur, at least at opening, was completely DOA because of them.

But I suspect that, eventually, the links will be back to your tickets and not JUST your email address/profile, and they will follow you from park to park.

I'm just not sure it's working that way right now. It might be set up that way...and just system issues are preventing it from FUNCTIONING that way.

We'lll see...

 

[PlayaMan]

And while your mind was occupied trying to determine your next move in your one-man game of mental chess, there were these comments:

And your point is? Oh, man of no position in all of this.

I have said previously that for some FP+ complicates their vacation more based on their vacation style.

 

[Coach81]

Cigar?????

 

[Angel Ariel]

Yes, that would be us but we are more likely to use FP+ on options where the kids would be waiting in line with us. For the mountains we would have one parent wait standby while another watched the parade with the kids.
In fact if parent swap could be used with FP+ as it could with FP we may book one parents FP+ as a mountain then get rider swap for the other and use the other parents FP+ (along with the kids ones) for a M&G or fantasyland ride

That is the only plan I can come up with as well. I dislike that it means spending the amt of SB time apart as a family, though...on our trip last March that would have meant that the family would have spent appx 2 hrs apart just to ride two mountains (1 hr SB line for each mtn, then the 5-10 mins to use RS). That seems counterproductive for a family vacation.

 

[Alice Royal]

I'm wondering if this 'glitch' is made possible because all AP holders who have MagicBands ALSO have RFID plastic tickets which could be used in FP- machines without linking to an MDX account.

It seems like having the pre-booked FP+ on the band could open up a loophole to get more FP+ on the day of using the card at one of the new kiosks. I don't know if this would work, since my AP card is also linked to my MDX and my MB.

Will have to try if I get back to the parks soon.

 

[mom2rtk]

That is the only plan I can come up with as well. I dislike that it means spending the amt of SB time apart as a family, though...on our trip last March that would have meant that the family would have spent appx 2 hrs apart just to ride two mountains (1 hr SB line for each mtn, then the 5-10 mins to use RS). That seems counterproductive for a family vacation.

I really do see that as an unfortunate side-effect of FP+. Very much contrary to what most families go to Disney for.