FP+ is now completely worthless if you are staying offsite.

[Ametista]

Big surprise. Really. OMG I didn't see this coming at all!!!!! Its my 30 day window, I sign in for my fast pass selections at midnight eastern time, but lo and behold everything good has "ended for the day".
This includes:
1. 7DMT
2. Meet and Greet with Anna and Elsa
3. Enchanted Tales with Belle
4. Main Street Electrical Parade
5. Festival of Fantasy Parade

So basically, unless you stay onsite, you will not get fast passes to anything really good, because the onsite peeps with their 60 day window get to pick and choose first. So now, after 9 years of multiple Disney trips a year, I am left with the left overs.

Later baby. This is our last Disney trip. It was fun. Now it just sucks, and its a waste of money. Maybe we will manage to receive some leftover scraps and my daughter will be able to meet Anna and Elsa at the Christmas party or something.

 

[danjoan14]

GRRRRRR, going to be in the same situation next week. Not looking forward to telling DS that we can't get on the rides that he wants to go on unless we wait in long lines. I've been reading some good and bad posts about the FP+. I'm thinking the old system was a better choice.

 

[BigMommaMouse]

Big surprise. Really. OMG I didn't see this coming at all!!!!! Its my 30 day window, I sign in for my fast pass selections at midnight eastern time, but lo and behold everything good has "ended for the day".
This includes:
1. 7DMT
2. Meet and Greet with Anna and Elsa
3. Enchanted Tales with Belle
4. Main Street Electrical Parade
5. Festival of Fantasy Parade

So basically, unless you stay onsite, you will not get fast passes to anything really good, because the onsite peeps with their 60 day window get to pick and choose first. So now, after 9 years of multiple Disney trips a year, I am left with the left overs.

Later baby. This is our last Disney trip. It was fun. Now it just sucks, and its a waste of money. Maybe we will manage to receive some leftover scraps and my daughter will be able to meet Anna and Elsa at the Christmas party or something.

If you want to keep checking multi times a day. (lot of investment time) There has been loads of post of success with this method.

 

[Ametista]

If you want to keep checking multi times a day. (lot of investment time) There has been loads of post of success with this method.

Yeah. Have spent much of my life that way trying to get character meal ressies. Am just kind of over it. Maybe I will, just for the last trip. But you know all of us off-siters worried about this and here it is.

 

[BigMommaMouse]

Yeah. Have spent much of my life that way trying to get character meal ressies. Am just kind of over it. Maybe I will, just for the last trip. But you know all of us off-siters worried about this and here it is.

I wish I could help.

 

[Silock]

If you want to keep checking multi times a day. (lot of investment time) There has been loads of post of success with this method.

That's a terrible, terrible thing to have to do just to be able to ride something in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[BigMommaMouse]

That's a terrible, terrible thing to have to do just to be able to ride something in a reasonable amount of time.

I agree.

 

[disney world dreamer]

1. not worth a FP+ or a SB wait.
2. as long as its not FP+ only you can head there first thing and you won't have to wait too long
3. the wait really is not that long
4-5 who wants a FP+ for a parade? the section they squeeze you into is small and i've seen where if the section is full its full and CM's just tell people "sorry".

i'm not saying that it doesn't suck cuz it does but you make it seem like the end of the world.
my suggestion is to check several times a day.
it only takes a few minutes so you're not going to "waste your life away".
and if you are that upset then i would contact disney via phone and let them know that you are staying offsite and tried getting the FP+ selections that you wanted right at your 30 day mark and none of them were available.
they may not be able to make it right for you but if you don't tell them what your experience has been they don't know that there is a major issue that needs to be fixed.

 

[txsoccermom]

We are staying on site and our 60 day window also opened at 11pct/12a et. I couldn't get 7DMT or some other big names. Hoping for pixie dust that time opens up for us before we go.....

Right with you though on waste of $ for the trip. We are mainly going for Christmas decorations /MVMCP and this was an added bonus. So much for it being a crowd level "4" day!

Grumpy is going to bed ...zzzz

 

[meg39]

It's all honestly perspective. Someday, Anna and Elsa won't be as popular, and if it means that much to you and your kid, then you will still want to meet them when that time comes. Be proactive for parades and shows - sometimes, it's nice at the end of the night to sit down for a half an hour to reflect on your day and chill. As for the mine train, I'm not too worried because my family either doesn't care, gets severe motion sickness, or is just excited to be there at all. I'm not going back until June, but I'm sure I'll be facing the same dilemma, just like everyone else. Don't stress so much about it. It sucks the fun out of everything like a dang shop vac.

 

[kerplop]

This makes me incredibly nervous for our trip coming up. Our FP+ date opens up in about a week and a half and this is our first trip staying off-site. Thankfully we don't have any interest in A&E and 7DMT, but there are a bunch of rides that we have on our must-do list.

 

[SeilerBird]

Wow I feel sorry for you people. I am an AP holder and I obviously live off site. I go to WDW four times a week, once in each park. I get my FPs a week in advance and never have any problem getting the rides I want. I could not be happier with the new system.

 

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

If you want to keep checking multi times a day. (lot of investment time) There has been loads of post of success with this method.

Leaving today. Have been checking almost daily since my window opened and no enchanted tales, a&e or 7dmt ever opened up. We're just going to try to ride these at RD and Halloween party.

 

[Toffeewoffy]

The bit that pigs me off is that even if you DO get the FP+s you want, if the time you want to go (or the only time you can go) turns out to be busy for one reason or another, they're basicallly saying to you, "Yeah, you have your 3 FPs, suck it up. You'll only get to go on those 3 rides and do nothing else unless you fancy a 2-hour+ queue for a 2-minute ride, but that's not our problem."

Do they really think people will continue to spend £4,000 on an on-site holiday and fly all that way only to be allowed to do 3 rides a day?! I'm having to pay nearly £300 EACH for our tickets. Who is going to want to do that just to go on 3 rides on 3 or 4 visits to the parks? And paying extra for park hopping isn't going to work either, unless you can get FPs for multiple parks in any one day.

 

[Disneylover99]

1. 7DMT
2. Meet and Greet with Anna and Elsa
3. Enchanted Tales with Belle
4. Main Street Electrical Parade
5. Festival of Fantasy Parade

1. Rope drop one day
2. Rope drop another day
3. Standby was a 10-15 minute wait most days in August
4. We used a FP for this, arrived early and there were still people standing in front of us. We won't do that again.
5. Go to Frontierland.

OP, I don't recommend stalking the boards daily. Chances are you might get some or all of these fp's eventually, but they may be at really obscure times. This can really play havoc with your ADR's or other plans that you have made.

 

[Bellanota]

I agree this sucks for everyone staying off site BUT.....

Look at it from Disney's view... there is no way everyone can have a fast pass. There is just not enough fast passes for everyone to have one at whatever time they want.


so Disney had to come up with a way to let people pick ahead of time while limiting the number of passes available. Its a business choice and not a bad one to let someone staying on site pick before someone staying off site. That perk right there might make someone drop a bit of extra to stay at a value resort vs staying off site. And while you may take your money and go else where do you know of another park that does the fast pass program for free like Disney? I know Busch Gradens / Sea world and Six Flags all charge for their simular program. I dont about universal so maybe its your new choice. Still there is nothing wrong with just waiting in line the good ole fashion way the way we all did before fast pass and fast pass plus came along. Because at the end of the day someone is going to have to wait in line or they end up with a system like they keep testing that everyone hates (think TSMM test at the start of the month)

dont be to hard on me it just my view. but like said at the top i do think it sucks for everyone staying off site

 

[mzadell]

... I know Busch Gradens / Sea world and Six Flags all charge for their simular program. I dont about universal so maybe its your new choice. ...

Universal charges for their Express Pass system and Cedar Fair charges for their Fast Lane system. As far as I'm aware, Disney remains the only one that offers this service at no extra charge.

 

[Mhahnster]

Now that's kind of a bummer. If it's any consolation we stayed on property and at 59 days (I missed jumping on the first day) I found that Anna and Elsa as well as 7DMT were totally gone for the days we were coming. Probably due to the newness of the experiences.

We waited standby for both and it wasn't horrible.

A lot of people say keep checking to see if slots open up. we did a lot more standby due to the fast pass+ limits.

 

[kmb584]

I'm in the same boat. We're staying offsite next month and when I did our FP+ last week even TSMM was gone (for perspective, when we were offsite in May and I did FP+ in April I had my pick of times for the attraction).

 

[tony67]

Universal charges for their Express Pass system and Cedar Fair charges for their Fast Lane system. As far as I'm aware, Disney remains the only one that offers this service at no extra charge.

Universal Express Pass is free if you stay on-site at their three higher end hotels.

It also doesn't require you to get up at midnight 30/60 days in advance.

The old FP system was not perfect - but I prefer it to this craziness of planning where you will be and what ride you want to do 60 days from now