FP+ is AWESOME! (...if you have little kids)

[DVCcurious]

Just got back from a trip. Me, my wife, my mom, my DD 4 and DS 2.

FP+ worked awesome. Why? Because my DD wanted to meet Belle, Cinderella, and Rapunzel and my DS wanted to ride Pooh and Peter Pan. Other than that they were as happy as can be doing whatever had short lines. So I scheduled the three princess meet and greets using my DD's FP+s and one of each of the adults. This allowed each adult to have 2 FP+ remaining. We used two of these for Pooh and Peter Pan for my son and that left 4 FP+s which we used for 2 trips on Space Mountain and 2 trips on Thunder Mountain.

Monday was our first day and the crowd level was med-high (MLK day). We had an ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table for 5:45. We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom and rode the safari and my wife and I did Everest. Then we did the petting zoo and boneyard. We left AK about 1:00.

At MK we had FP+s for Cinderella, Rapunzel, Belle at 2, 3, and 4 and we had FP+s for Pooh and Peter Pan as well as Space and Thunder.

We were able to do all of these rides between 2pm and 5pm. Now, can you explain to me how we would've been able to do all three princess meet and greets, ride Thunder and Space, Pooh and Peter Pan, all in a three hour span without FP+? If it was regular FP the return times would've been way out by 2pm when we arrived at MK.

On Thursday we had ADR at Garden Grill (EPCOT Land Pavillion). We went to AK in the morning and did the Safari, Boneyard, and Petting Zoo again. Then we went to HS and met Buzz and Woody and also Jake and Sofia. Then we went to Epcot. We got to Epcot at 4:00 and my mom and I rode Test Track then my wife and I rode Soarin. Then we had our dinner at 5:30. Again, can you imagine arriving at Epcot at 4PM and then trying to do both TT and Soarin between 4 and 5:30PM? It would never have happened without FP+

FP+ works great if you have little kids who only want to do a few main things and you plan on park hopping in the afternoon. Simply FP+ the must-dos at the afternoon park and then you are in much better position than you were with only FP-.

 

[mesaboy2]

So none of them came off a great FP ride and said "again"?

 

[sonofanarchy]

So none of them came off a great FP ride and said "again"?

Exactly.

I read the title and though to myself, "You definitely weren't with my kids."

 

[prudence64]

It's ok to tell kids no if something doesn't work. My daughter never asked to do anything again at disney because we didn't give her expectation that it was very feasible to do. We were there 3 years ago and we never loaded up on fp, because we didn't know it was possible. We used 2-3 fops per day and had a great trip. We aren't frequent guests obviously so didn't knowiit was even possible to ride something with long lines more than once.

 

[jon18uk]

So none of them came off a great FP ride and said "again"?

Would of been in the same situation with old FastPass, if you rode at 4pm the return time may be very late (eg 8pm) or distribution may have run out so would need to use standby.

 

[mom2rtk]

Would of been in the same situation with old FastPass, if you rode at 4pm the return time may be very late (eg 8pm) or distribution may have run out so would need to use standby.

But the rest of the day you would have been good. And unless you are there at peak times, return times were never that bad at the MK (because of the wide variety of rides).

 

[smellyia]

We don't do repeats in a day either. Way too much to see! After we get our must-dos done and we have additional time at the parks we do repeats then. If DD asks then we tell her we're moving on and will come back next day at that park if time allows. If she doesn't like it tough tooties- I'm the parent and it's as much our vacation as theirs. Granted we do long enough trips where we are in each park at least twice. If we did shorter trips then would have to minimize repeat rides obviously. I can see how the repeat is issue with frequent visitors or older kids who have a set of rides and that's what they do but the majority I feel are not like that. We want to do everything possible! That doesn't include 4 runs on space a day. For us, especially with kids, FP+ has the possibility to enhance our touring and are trying it out soon - can't wait!

 

[morethananyonex]

Having to split up to accomplish what you did does not scream success to me. IMO it really sucks that you have to split your family at MK if one child wants meet & greet and one wants rides and you want to FP them all.

If it worked for you that's great, but one of the things that gets to me about FP+ is how it forces you to choose to either split up or someone can't FP a favourite.

 

[JimmyV]

Again, I think this is the intended effect of FP+. With fast passes being allocated and more, for lack of a better word, "precious", people are going to use theirs on the big "E" Ticket rides. So secondary rides, or attractions geared more toward the younger set, are going to be SB only. Without FP people cutting off the SB line at these attractions, we should see the lines move faster. Take Maelstrom in Epcot as an example. It is "tiered" with Soarin' and Test Track in the tier that allows only one FP for those attractions. What percentage of people are going to use their one allocated FP+ for Maelstrom? Less than 10%? 2%? So effectively, that becomes a SB only line. When an attraction has no FP people cutting off the the SB line, the SB line zips along. For years people have been suggesting that the entire FP system be abolished and go back to SB only. Well, for non-headliners, FP+ essentially does that. And I think this is what the OP was experiencing. Attractions geared toward the younger set are not (yet) high priorities for FP+. But as strategies develop by early adopters, this may change. Once 7DMT opens, you can bet that many people are going to use their 3 allocated FP+s for that, Space Mountain and either Splash or BTMRR. That makes every other attraction in the park practically a SB only, subject, of course, to folks with little ones who won't be doing the thrill rides.

Thanks for your report and glad it worked out for you!

 

[mesaboy2]

Would of been in the same situation with old FastPass, if you rode at 4pm the return time may be very late (eg 8pm) or distribution may have run out so would need to use standby.

Nope. Yes, in your hand-picked case of late afternoon (and I'll throw in a low-capacity attraction such as Pan for good measure) it would be impossible for legacy FP.

But there are plenty of combinations of time-of-day and attraction where legacy FP (ANY attraction early in the day, or many attractions midway or even later in the day) where you could get a repeat FP ride on your child's favorite 'o the day.

With FP+, you simply cannot. End of story, come back tomorrow. Plenty of families, including mine, miss that kind of flexibility. If yours didn't do repeats, great. But mine did.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Sounds great, Curious. Thanks for sharing your findings.

 

[mejo]

Wooohooo, glad you had a great time. FP+ is great for my family too and I don't have kids.

 

[jon18uk]

Nope. Yes, in your hand-picked case of late afternoon (and I'll throw in a low-capacity attraction such as Pan for good measure) it would be impossible for legacy FP.

It was the OP who started the discussion on FP+ being better for him when visiting in the afternoon (2pm to 5pm).

I agree that in The MK legacy fastpass would probably of been better for getting extra rides in if you have already ridden earlier in the day. But if you aren't planning on arriving until the afternoon FP+ does mean you are guaranteed short waits on three attractions, that would of been a lot more of a gamble on legacy FP.

 

[morethananyonex]

FP+ really shines when you want to pop in for a few hours during peak times of the day and only ride what you hold FP for. However, I think the situation in the OP is not a great representation of that as they had to split up to accomplish all they're talking about doing, and it seems that they also didn't have their whole party riding the rides they're talking about fitting in, leaving extra FP to use.

It's deceiving to say look at all we accomplished in MK in 3 hours when you had to split up and have people sit out to do it. Same deal in Epcot when you can use extra FP to get around the tiers provided everyone doesn't ride. While it works for certain groups, it certainly cannot be applied to many families.

 

[wiigirl]

Exactly.

I read the title and though to myself, "You definitely weren't with my kids."

 

[mom2rtk]

Having to split up to accomplish what you did does not scream success to me. IMO it really sucks that you have to split your family at MK if one child wants meet & greet and one wants rides and you want to FP them all.

If it worked for you that's great, but one of the things that gets to me about FP+ is how it forces you to choose to either split up or someone can't FP a favourite.

It really is a huge drawback with this system.

 

[JimmyV]

FP+ really shines when you want to pop in for a few hours during peak times of the day and only ride what you hold FP for.

But 50% of the guests come in from off-site. I wouldn't want to risk coming in later in the day to feed off of the scraps of FP+ left at that time. So in this respect, FP+ is a non-starter for off-site guests who pop in to a park in the afternoon.

 

[morethananyonex]

But 50% of the guests come in from off-site. I wouldn't want to risk coming in later in the day to feed off of the scraps of FP+ left at that time. So in this respect, FP+ is a non-starter for off-site guests who pop in to a park in the afternoon.

Yes very true, my bad. Hopefully it's not too long before they have prebooking abilities, I do believe it's coming.

 

[morethananyonex]

It really is a huge drawback with this system.

Yes it is, and it really shows in MK where there are so many attractions that a FP+ is helpful for that appeal to different age groups and preferences.

 

[JimmyV]

Hopefully it's not too long before they have prebooking abilities, I do believe it's coming.

You know, the more I think about the way the system is designed, I am not so sure that it is. I think that it will for Swan/Dolphin. And maybe Hotel Plaza Blvd. Maybe even Bonnet Creek and Four Seasons. But I am not sure that we will see it for condos, time shares, Marriott World, etc. First, there is no way that they would give off-site people a jump over AP holders, so at best you will be looking at a 7 day window. But second, if 50% of guests come from off-site, (and I do not know where Swan/Dolphin and Hotel Plaza Blvd fit into that math), and FP+ times are already scarce, then once it is opened up to off-site guests, I would imagine that the headliners will "sell out" in advance of the park opening, and this will make it impossible for people to change their FP+ times once in the park, which is a huge feature that they are pushing. In other words, once FP+ becomes pre-bookable to everyone, TSM, Space Mountain, Seven Dwarves, Test Track, Soarin', etc. will sell out 7 days in advance of each coming day, and it will be as hard to get FP+ for those rides as it is to get a BoG ADR. People with the 60 day window will know that the hoards will be descending on the 7th day out, and will diligently mark their calendars to make their FP+ reservations before that time. And people with a 7 day window will set their alarm clocks the way they do for ADRs now. I am not sure that Disney wants that. It will just be one more thing for people to fight over and complain about. FP+ is supposed to encourage flexibility and sponteneity. (Insert your own sarcastic comment here.). But once the pre-booking option is open to 100% of the guests, flexibility and sponteneity go out the window. As a satisfied Swan/Dolphin customer, I hope I am wrong.