FP+/MB/BOG FP way better than I expected!

[JoePa4Ever]

Disney Mom - it was from a link I found here on the DIS. Not linked at all to your 3 FPs+. I guess at some point they were sending invitations to people. Here is the link I used. There is no confirmation number and it does not show up in our plans like your other ADRs. I printed the confirmation just in case but never needed it.
https://beourguestlunch.disney.go.com/

Thanks so much for this! Do you know how far in advance you can book it? Would it be 180 days like ADRS or 60 days like fastpasses? I'm thinking probably the 60...TIA for any help!

 

[johnnyf0614]

Thanks so much for this! Do you know how far in advance you can book it? Would it be 180 days like ADRS or 60 days like fastpasses? I'm thinking probably the 60...TIA for any help!

I believe it's actually around 30 days for this

 

[JoePa4Ever]

I believe it's actually around 30 days for this

you're right - just found this out in another thread - thanks for the quick reply

 

[gometros]

I have to agree with the OP on all points. We're here now and I just adjusted or times for today, because we decided we wanted to leave MK earlier than we planned to go over to EPCOT. I have FP for ETWB, Winnie the Pooh and Jungle Cruise and was able to move Winnie earlier and move JC into the door vacated by it. ETWB was the only attraction that didn't have availability until the evening.

My only complaint is the bands themselves. You have to be a contortionist to get it to read. I've tried the Mickey head on top of my wrist and the other way, but either way, depending on where the receptacle is you have to bend your wrist in a way only Gumby can handle comfortably ;-)

And I do hope they drop the tier system. I want happy making a choice between TSM and RnR or Soarin' and TT. Sure you can do single rider, but I like to ride with my family, especially for the pictures.

Speaking of which, loving Memory Maker. We're already up to 154 pictures with three more days to go

Sent from my Nexus 7 using DISBoards

 

[stephv3]

My family is the same, we use (used) about 6-7 a day across acouple parks a day. So was you able to do as many rides this time, with the same amount of time

I felt like I was. We rode all of the headliners except TSM more than once. Again, I think 3 will create some challenges during busier times. In one sense I rode less because I did not hop parks which I normally may have but I think this may actually be better for my family even though I never would have admitted it. We left HS last night and bc we had a car went to Orlando Ale House for dinner and back to the resort. Everyone in bed at a reasonable time and fell right asleep. Woke up happy and ready to go again. Can I stress no overtired cranky family. I know many will disagree with this but it actually feels like more vacation and less work. It's fun!

By the way......if you have a car the Ale house is great. Yummy food and way cheaper than Disney! Yes, I took my money off property.

Good luck. When are you heading here?

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

Ok - Never started a thread before but I am here now and feel that I have to share!! I know the system is far from perfect but maybe it will help put some at ease.

I have been to WDW almost every year for the last several years. Each time I research like crazy especially on the DIS to learn as much as I can before my trip. Thanks to my sister who I think is an expert and this site I always feel super prepared for my trip. For this trip however, reading all of the FP/MB negativity really took away the excitement and anticipation for my trip. I came to Disney sort of negative and definitely thinking it would be our last trip for a long time. I wasn't even excited.

Well, to my surprise - it has been a great experience! Our magic bands have worked perfectly (knock on wood) without a glitch for our rooms, FP+, park entrance, and to pay in stores, snack kiosks, and restaurants. I have to say it is nice not to have to get out my debit card every time and to not have to keep track of everyone's tickets and FPs. The only thing I wish was that there was a way to tell how much I have spent on my MB. I am sure there is if I call the front desk which I haven't yet.

As far as FP+ it has worked well for us too. I scheduled my choices a few weeks ago but have been changing them along the way. For example we were at MK on Wed and were over by Buzz and had a FP for BTMR. Instead of rushing over to the other side of the park, I moved the time to later and we finished that side of the park and worked our way over. I am sure this will be more challenging or not possible at busier times of year but for my trip it has been great. This worked the same for me at AK with the safari and for TOT at HS. (For those of you that asked in a different post) per a CM today TOT has had once side down for more than a few days which explains the longer wait times.

The other thing I liked about FP+ was knowing I have FPs for the must do attractions for my family. I could allow my daughter to sleep in after a late night knowing I still at least had FP for TSM and TOT and single rider for RNR. Although I would prefer to be there at Rope Drop, at least having something took the pressure off of me.

My husband is here for a convention so for today I had originally scheduled FPs for the PM when he would be off to ride with us. He ended up not needing to work today so when I found out last night I immediately went on MDE and changed them all back to late AM. The only one I could not change was TSM because there were no early times which was what I wanted. When I went on about 8 this am I was able to get a time at noon. YAY!

The other thing that that worked well was being able to switch to a different attraction when I arrived at something with a reasonable wait. Again, there will be less options at busier times but it was kind of nice.

My complaints would be the same as many other posters which are the tiers at HS and Epcot. It forces you to either wait in line for a headliner or get there at rope drop for it. I also don't agree with being limited with my choices to one park. Because I knew I was limited to one park, I did not get hoppers which has actually forced me to enjoy some probably much needed down time at the resort. It had made it more of vacation and less commando which is VERY different for me but in some ways nice. It was nice on the days we went into the parks late to know we at least had some rides without waits. It is definitely a HUGE advantage to stay onsite and not deal with the Kiosks and to be able to change on the fly.

Overall, it has been a WAY BETTER experience than I anticipated and nice to not have to run around and get FPs which I have always done in the past. It seemed like I wasted less time then I used to going back and forth across the parks because when I booked them I did it with a sequence in mind.

It also seems the consistency of the MB working has much improved in the past few weeks. Unlike what I had been reading, I never (again, knock on wood) saw anyone with issues at the FP entrances and always saw green. Since I had always used way more than 3 FP in the past, I would love to be able to get more than 3 and eliminate tiers but it is definitely not as terrible as I thought it would be and in some instances put me at ease knowing I already had my FPs when I was sitting in the AM itching for sleeping children to wake up. In the past I would have thrown clothes on them while they were sleeping and dragged them to the bus!

One tip I would definitely recommend is to take a picture of your actual 3 FP times. It is way easier to go back to that picture than to go back to the page on MDE. Also, once you choose one of the sets of times Disney has given you, you can then go in and change each time individually. For those of you planning ahead of time, if you want AM times it seemed to work better to pick the suggested PM times and then immediately go back and change them one at a time to the AM times you want. Otherwise if you choose FPs for 9, 10, and 11 when you go to change the 11 ride to an earlier time it will not give you that as an option because you already have something during that time. It also didn't give me FP options during my ADRs.

In terms of MDE, it has worked well on my Iphone all week. I have changed FPs, and made and cancelled ADRs. It does kill your battery especially because I was also using my phone for pictures. I have a portable charger called RAV Power (cheap on amazon) that I kept in my bag and plugged my phone in periodically. If you plan to use your phone to manage your times it is worth it.

I also wanted to share that the BOG lunch FP link from the DIS worked perfectly. I actually had it booked for Sunday 1/26. On Wed we were in the MK and wanted to have lunch. I logged in from my phone at noon and changed my FP to Wed at 1. I figured it would never work since I had no confirmation number and had just made a same day ressie on my phone. I walked up to the booth and they had my name and walked me right in past the huge line of waiting guests. It was great!!

Since it is here to stay, I hope Disney keeps taking all of the feedback and improving on the system to make it better for all of us in the future. I hope this helps put someone at ease to enjoy planning their trip!

~Wow! Thanks so much for your review! We love Magic Bands and FP+, too!

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Thanks for this review

.

 

[mdsouth]

In one sense I rode less because I did not hop parks which I normally may have but I think this may actually be better for my family even though I never would have admitted it. We left HS last night and bc we had a car went to Orlando Ale House for dinner and back to the resort. Everyone in bed at a reasonable time and fell right asleep. Woke up happy and ready to go again. Can I stress no overtired cranky family. I know many will disagree with this but it actually feels like more vacation and less work. It's fun!

Thank you for your great review! I think this trip might work out better than I expected. I am an early riser and the rest of my family are not! So, I it is nice knowing I have Fast passes for later in the day. I think my DH is going to flip when I tell him he can sleep in if he wants!

I will be down there in two weeks!

 

[kmc]

Great review! I am excited to try fast+, it actually seems like it will be super covienient for us. The thought of having 3 fast passes before we even step foot in the park and not having to do rope drop or run from one side of the park to the other sounds like heaven and takes the pressure off of not knowing what our return times will be. I hated getting to a park early, grabbing a fast pass and seeing the return time was after 6pm. I definitely think it could use some tweaking to allow for park hopping but I'm optimistic that the new system will work just fine for us

 

[larryz]

Glad the system is working for you. Please keep us posted on your continued success!

 

[btk2333]

happy your trip was magical! we too have had good experiences!

 

[karenklo]

WE loved them too and we were there for NYE week! It was so nice to go to AK for NYE during the day, then hop over to EP in the afternoon knowing that my FP+ were already in place (pre-tier). Walked on to TT and Soarin in the evening of NYE! Also made sleeping in nice if felt the need.

 

[stephv3]

Thank you for your great review! I think this trip might work out better than I expected. I am an early riser and the rest of my family are not! So, I it is nice knowing I have Fast passes for later in the day. I think my DH is going to flip when I tell him he can sleep in if he wants!

I will be down there in two weeks!

Ha funny! He will be happy. Mine was!!! It would be so great with no tiers. We did have to choose between TT and Soarin this afternoon. If I had both it would have been a perfect day but it was still nice knowing I had TT which was most important for my daughter.

Enjoy your trip!!!

 

[stephv3]

Great review! I am excited to try fast+, it actually seems like it will be super covienient for us. The thought of having 3 fast passes before we even step foot in the park and not having to do rope drop or run from one side of the park to the other sounds like heaven and takes the pressure off of not knowing what our return times will be. I hated getting to a park early, grabbing a fast pass and seeing the return time was after 6pm. I definitely think it could use some tweaking to allow for park hopping but I'm optimistic that the new system will work just fine for us

It is so nice to know your return times! And you can schedule them all in a row or around ADRs etc.

 

[Sacha_L]

I just wanted to add my thanks for this review, we just booked an unexpected Disney trip thanks to BWV popping up on RCI. Since we live on the west coast and normally visit DL I have not been keeping up with all the changes at DW. I started reading the boards with dismay as we love the FP- system. However after this post I realize that we will be able to tour in a much more relaxed manner which means a much happier DH and kiddos since I won't be dragging them to rope drop!

 

[mickeygirl14]

Question and I know this has probably been answered somewhere, but I just can't find it. For the BOG FP+ thru the link, from what I understand, this only becomes an option 30 days out. My question is that it asks for a "Reservation ID" and it requires an all-numeric ID. I kept trying to use my Resort Confirmation and that obviously doesn't work. Is this reservation ID something they send? Or is this only open for guests that are specifically invited to use it?

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Question and I know this has probably been answered somewhere, but I just can't find it. For the BOG FP+ thru the link, from what I understand, this only becomes an option 30 days out. My question is that it asks for a "Reservation ID" and it requires an all-numeric ID. I kept trying to use my Resort Confirmation and that obviously doesn't work. Is this reservation ID something they send? Or is this only open for guests that are specifically invited to use it?

You can find the 12 digit number on your MDE account under customized your magic band. It will be your Magic Band confirmation number or if you have yellow luggage tags from DME. It is on there also.

The BOG lunch FP has been opening on the 12-19th of the month before you need it. So for example, for the Month of March, it will approximately open on Feb 12-19th.

Good Luck!

.

If you have further questions about BOG FP lunch I encourage you to check out this thread.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3159118

There are also a few other that are long with a lot of helpful information.

Edit: found the other one: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3149450

.

 

[connors95]

Great report. I just got back and I would have to agree with everything the OP said. And BOG lunch fast pass was great.

 

[Tamiami]

Thank you for this, and I agree with everything so much, I could have written it, lol! We were there for the week of Christmas, and had the same experiences, and LOVED magic bands and fp+. I'm happy to see a thread like this, so that people that haven't been there yet see something other than fp+ doom and gloom.

 

[ucfknight]

One interesting thing aboutthe BOG lunch reservation process which may be relevant in the near future for all fellow Annual Passholders:

Before my resort stay, I could book BOG lunch only for the days of my confirmed resort stay and it opened up for booking about 25 days before my check-in date.

Now that my onsite stay is over, I can book BOG lunch any time still available in the next rolling 7 day period. So if I go on today (Monday, January 27), I can book a FP+ reservation at any available time between today and Sunday, February 2.

Given that the post-stay FP+ selections for attractions for AP seems to be the way Disney will implement it for all AP (i.e. you can have 7 days of FP+ booked in the next rolling 60 day period), I'm thinking this 7 day BOG Lunch reservation window for post-stay AP may be available to all AP once they all get MagicBands.