FP+Different This Year vs. Last (for President's Week)

[davkata]

Last year prior to our trip during February President's week, I read, re-read and planned our trip based on all the great info on these boards. We utilized rope drop EMH every morning and then used our FP+ selections for later in the day at a different park using our hopper tickets. We also utilized evening EMH. This plan allowed us a mid-day pool/lunch break which we enjoyed. It worked great for us and we felt we rode and re-rode our favorites without much issue. We rode all the headliners, saw the shows, etc. It seems people are now saying this plan isn't working as well anymore with the allowance of gaining additional FP+ once you have used your 3 initial ones or for whatever other reasons. I am also seeing unless you grab those FP+ selections right at the 60 day mark you can't get them or at least not the popular ones. We booked at about 30 days out last year and I had no problems at all getting our selections. Do I need a different plan for this year or does this still seem to work during peak visit times? Maybe our trip last year was the "exception" to what the majority is experiencing?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You can't get your additional FPs at another park until after you have used up your 3 or they have expired, so booking the 3 later in the day may backfire on that. However there have been some issues getting headliners for the 4th FP and beyond, especially at parks like Epcot which have very few headliner attractions.

At 30 days out you may have difficulty getting Anna & Elsa (who weren't on FP on your last trip), 7DMT (which wasn't open on your last trip) or the MK parades (Festival of Fantasy wasn't around on your last trip). Anything else should be available but the most popular ones (like TSMM) may have more limited times.

 

[davkata]

Is getting the additional FP after the original 3 are used up a bonus if we are doing late afternoon FP anyway? Last year we did fine with only the 3, using them later in the day after doing RD/EMH in the morning. With the exception of our last day when the entire FP system went down and we were in line at TSMM with a FP for over an hour and a half! But, with that happening we also ended up getting to use both our original FP to Rock n Roller Coaster and our newly booked time that we changed while in the TSMM line. (Because of the system being down they honored both). Nice way to end our trip practically walking on to one of our favorite rides twice!

I guess my question is, will last year's strategy work again this year if we are not terribly hung up on getting those additional FP's anyway and are content with the original 3? (Although if we can get more that we actually want, of course we would utilize them!)

 

[MakiraMarlena]

if you're good with your original 3 then it is likely not an issue, and if the park is open late (a real possibility with MK at that time) you can probably knock out lots more attractions in the extra time (don't count on 7DMT as an extra though).

 

[davkata]

Thanks! Exactly what I was hoping to hear. Yes, we open one park and close another. Get our rest/sleep mid-day so that is why we were able to ride our favorites so much. Well, that plus single-rider lines and hitting the biggies during parades or fireworks, etc. We will plan to get 7DMT as one of our original FP. Just me and DD 16 on this trip so we are more about the coasters and other "thrill" rides, not so much the princesses and such.