Hey Folks, so we have been here for 2 days, and I am going to report my initial findings, an will update more as we go through the trip, but I think I have some interesting things to point out.
Friday Night, May 2nd
We Arrived at the resort in the early afternoon, explored, AKL is awesome.
Epcot - This was supposed to be the biggest benefit day for FP+, arrival day. We even booked while there was a glitch in the system so we got Test Track and Soarin booked for the evening before illuminations.
FPs, Mission 12-1 (burned), TT 7-8, Soarin 8-9.
Test Track was closed, I explained I had an FP, CMs told us that our CM return time would be automatically extended and the ride would be up before 9 so we could come back and ride it.
Went and hit Soarin for 8, TT did not come back up. We asked for a paper FP to redeem another day, and after being given a run around (the CM initially denied they ever gave replacement FPs when the ride went down while people had FPs or were in line) we were tolf, if we wanted, to go speak to guest relations.
Hit up Guest relations AFTER illuminations, and explained what happened. The CM added a "Choice of FP" for our Monday scheduled day at Epcot, from open til close. Basically, we can ride anything that day as a FP on top of our three selected FPs, which include TT and Soarin already. SO that will be fun.
Its also important to note the FP+ Kiosks are VERY limited in Epcot. 2 of which are in east and west innoventions ... this closed EARLY. Like, before 8pm they were not letting people into those locations, so after we burned our 3rd FP, we would have had a really hard time trying to see if illuminations were available.
Take Away - They are no longer offering replacement FPs if the ride is down, they just extend the redemption period of your existing FPs ... if you want more, go to guest relations.
They close at least 2 of the FP+ Kiosks early at Epcot.
Saturday
While I will report on this day, and there are some things to take away from it, it's important to note it was POURING rain. But there are some great revelations.
This day showed how GOOD and how BAD FP+ can be.
I will start with the Bad, The weather Saturday was changing for a few days leading up til the weekend, but it became apparent the night before, it was going to be rained out. As a result, I found myself, Friday night, going over our entire trip and what I would need to change in order to shift our MK day. To be honest, this is where it stopped. I would have had to change every single day from then on in ... lets face it, we plan days so that parks are spread out, but if we had pushed MK, it would have messed up everything else. We are here for over 2 weeks, so we decided not to move things around and just try to make the most of the day, rain or shine and if it didn't turn out well, we have another 2 MK Days planned this trip anyway. Other people don't have this luxury, this has always been one of my main complaints about FP+ ... you can not know 60 days out a multitude of variables (including weather) that will dramatically impact your use and schedule of FPs. And the effort to try and rework all this, last minute, from your resort with the often crappy website and the often crappy wifi ... not good.
The Good -
We ended up going for just about RD (I think we were a few minutes late), and quickly changed our 9-10am FP for space via the app to a later Pirates, because the park was just dead but was worried pirates would back up. Keep in mind this report doesn't include most non-FP rides, food, picture time, etc, of which there was a good deal.
FPs - Thunder 10-11, Splash 11-12, Pirates 12:20-1:20
Headed to space and rode it SB twice, then headed to Buzz and did the same. They were total walk-ons, when we exited Buzz, there were more people arriving and waits were increasing visibly. Headed toward Thunder ...
Hit up Thunder at 10:55, Posted wait was 20 Mins, actually looked a little shorter, BUT, there was a steady stream of FP returns, so even though the line was short, it could have been 20 mins. used our FP+.
After thunder headed right to Splash, used FP+, Posted wait was 15, looked longer, probably 20+.
We returned our Pirates FP+ at 12:25, Posted wait was 20, and that seemed about right (though again, hard to tell with FP returners)
STACKING
At 12:43 we booked Little Mermaid for 12:50 as our 4th FP (Wife's favourite), posted wait was 30. Headed right there, and used it, took a bunch of pictures on the wait, incl mine train.
Immediately headed to the FP kiosk at Philharmagic ... at 1:10, we were able to book another Big Thunder for 1:50. Two important notes.
1) Originally it was giving me times in the evening. All I had to do was click Back, then next again a couple times, and voila ... it gave me 1:50. This is a function I confirmed on Day 3 at the kiosks, by simply clicking back, then next again when selecting the time for your next FPs, it can dramatically affect the times offered.
2) It appears this is where stacking ended. It would not allow me to book an FP BEFORE 1:50, the time that my 4th FP period ended. This is either coincidence, OR, you can stack your 4th FP (book it within the time frame of your 3rd FP usage) but no others from there. I intend to test this vigorously the next few days.
We used our Big Thunder at exactly 1:45, 5 mins early, and then headed right back to the Kiosk, there were still quite a few FPs available, (remember the rain though) ... none before 2:50, we ended up booking our SIXTH FP as Space Mountain for that night, after dinner and before Wishes.
That's the end of FPs that day, we were tired had done a bunch, and our BIG MK day will be tomorrow when there are evening EMHs until 2am !!!
Sunday May 4th
Hollywood Studios
Headed in a good deal after RD, wifie just was not feeling an early morning.
It was pretty dang busy, probably due to rain the day before, and because this is May the Fourth.
We FP+'d ToT, ST, and then Toy Story (12-1) Finished Toy Story and headed right to the kiosk just beside Toy Story.
AVAILABILTIY of Additional FPs
Very similar results from Saturday. In this case we selected Star Tours, it said "no availability" ... tried ToT said "no availability" tried ToT again, this time it only offered 5:10 - 6:10, clicked back, next, offered 5:10-6:10, 6:15-7:15, 6:40-7:40 , 7:20-8:20, Clicked back, next, offered me 1:50-2:50 (along with several others).
So once again, you can stack your 4th FP, and the system is CLEARLY playing with what times it offers you. The CM at the kiosk (there are CMs at all of them) tried to tell me it was because people are constantly cancelling and changing etc and that's why there are different offerings .... I am sure this is true, but I have a hard time believing that this is the case in totality.
In the space of ... 30 seconds ... it went from, no availability, to 1 available (much later), to a bunch available (much later), to availability immediately and lots later as well. Again, something I intend to test thoroughly in the coming days.
Final Takeaways.
1) 4th FP can be stacked, this means you can potentially (as I did) use your 4th FP immediately at the beginning of its opening and then book another for immediate use. Then go book another at the end of your 4th's window. I think this is a great strategy around your lunch. Ride FP @ 12 or 1PM, Book 4th @ 1:10, Ride at 1:15, Book 5th @ 2:10-3:10 ... go eat lunch and then pop on your 5th FP and book another either for 3:10 or for later in the evening etc, whatever you feel like.
Still testing stacking, maybe that was really the only times available and you can continue to stack the 5th, 6th, etc. The weekdays will be better for testing this.
2) Never accept the times the Kiosks give you, hit back, next, back, next a few times, it never narrowed my options, but did expand them. More testing to come.
3) They aren't offering paper FPs anymore, they are extending the redemption period for FPs when rides go down. Guest services are still an option.
4) FP still leaves some serious concerns surround weather, sickness, other issues which throw off your schedule.
5) the Ability to push around FPs on the go is great, though, to be fair to switch around Fps for tomorrow it took about an hour sitting by the pool today due to slow internet, crappy system, etc.
More to come.
Friday Night, May 2nd
We Arrived at the resort in the early afternoon, explored, AKL is awesome.
Epcot - This was supposed to be the biggest benefit day for FP+, arrival day. We even booked while there was a glitch in the system so we got Test Track and Soarin booked for the evening before illuminations.
FPs, Mission 12-1 (burned), TT 7-8, Soarin 8-9.
Test Track was closed, I explained I had an FP, CMs told us that our CM return time would be automatically extended and the ride would be up before 9 so we could come back and ride it.
Went and hit Soarin for 8, TT did not come back up. We asked for a paper FP to redeem another day, and after being given a run around (the CM initially denied they ever gave replacement FPs when the ride went down while people had FPs or were in line) we were tolf, if we wanted, to go speak to guest relations.
Hit up Guest relations AFTER illuminations, and explained what happened. The CM added a "Choice of FP" for our Monday scheduled day at Epcot, from open til close. Basically, we can ride anything that day as a FP on top of our three selected FPs, which include TT and Soarin already. SO that will be fun.
Its also important to note the FP+ Kiosks are VERY limited in Epcot. 2 of which are in east and west innoventions ... this closed EARLY. Like, before 8pm they were not letting people into those locations, so after we burned our 3rd FP, we would have had a really hard time trying to see if illuminations were available.
Take Away - They are no longer offering replacement FPs if the ride is down, they just extend the redemption period of your existing FPs ... if you want more, go to guest relations.
They close at least 2 of the FP+ Kiosks early at Epcot.
Saturday
While I will report on this day, and there are some things to take away from it, it's important to note it was POURING rain. But there are some great revelations.
This day showed how GOOD and how BAD FP+ can be.
I will start with the Bad, The weather Saturday was changing for a few days leading up til the weekend, but it became apparent the night before, it was going to be rained out. As a result, I found myself, Friday night, going over our entire trip and what I would need to change in order to shift our MK day. To be honest, this is where it stopped. I would have had to change every single day from then on in ... lets face it, we plan days so that parks are spread out, but if we had pushed MK, it would have messed up everything else. We are here for over 2 weeks, so we decided not to move things around and just try to make the most of the day, rain or shine and if it didn't turn out well, we have another 2 MK Days planned this trip anyway. Other people don't have this luxury, this has always been one of my main complaints about FP+ ... you can not know 60 days out a multitude of variables (including weather) that will dramatically impact your use and schedule of FPs. And the effort to try and rework all this, last minute, from your resort with the often crappy website and the often crappy wifi ... not good.
The Good -
We ended up going for just about RD (I think we were a few minutes late), and quickly changed our 9-10am FP for space via the app to a later Pirates, because the park was just dead but was worried pirates would back up. Keep in mind this report doesn't include most non-FP rides, food, picture time, etc, of which there was a good deal.
FPs - Thunder 10-11, Splash 11-12, Pirates 12:20-1:20
Headed to space and rode it SB twice, then headed to Buzz and did the same. They were total walk-ons, when we exited Buzz, there were more people arriving and waits were increasing visibly. Headed toward Thunder ...
Hit up Thunder at 10:55, Posted wait was 20 Mins, actually looked a little shorter, BUT, there was a steady stream of FP returns, so even though the line was short, it could have been 20 mins. used our FP+.
After thunder headed right to Splash, used FP+, Posted wait was 15, looked longer, probably 20+.
We returned our Pirates FP+ at 12:25, Posted wait was 20, and that seemed about right (though again, hard to tell with FP returners)
STACKING
At 12:43 we booked Little Mermaid for 12:50 as our 4th FP (Wife's favourite), posted wait was 30. Headed right there, and used it, took a bunch of pictures on the wait, incl mine train.
Immediately headed to the FP kiosk at Philharmagic ... at 1:10, we were able to book another Big Thunder for 1:50. Two important notes.
1) Originally it was giving me times in the evening. All I had to do was click Back, then next again a couple times, and voila ... it gave me 1:50. This is a function I confirmed on Day 3 at the kiosks, by simply clicking back, then next again when selecting the time for your next FPs, it can dramatically affect the times offered.
2) It appears this is where stacking ended. It would not allow me to book an FP BEFORE 1:50, the time that my 4th FP period ended. This is either coincidence, OR, you can stack your 4th FP (book it within the time frame of your 3rd FP usage) but no others from there. I intend to test this vigorously the next few days.
We used our Big Thunder at exactly 1:45, 5 mins early, and then headed right back to the Kiosk, there were still quite a few FPs available, (remember the rain though) ... none before 2:50, we ended up booking our SIXTH FP as Space Mountain for that night, after dinner and before Wishes.
That's the end of FPs that day, we were tired had done a bunch, and our BIG MK day will be tomorrow when there are evening EMHs until 2am !!!
Sunday May 4th
Hollywood Studios
Headed in a good deal after RD, wifie just was not feeling an early morning.
It was pretty dang busy, probably due to rain the day before, and because this is May the Fourth.
We FP+'d ToT, ST, and then Toy Story (12-1) Finished Toy Story and headed right to the kiosk just beside Toy Story.
AVAILABILTIY of Additional FPs
Very similar results from Saturday. In this case we selected Star Tours, it said "no availability" ... tried ToT said "no availability" tried ToT again, this time it only offered 5:10 - 6:10, clicked back, next, offered 5:10-6:10, 6:15-7:15, 6:40-7:40 , 7:20-8:20, Clicked back, next, offered me 1:50-2:50 (along with several others).
So once again, you can stack your 4th FP, and the system is CLEARLY playing with what times it offers you. The CM at the kiosk (there are CMs at all of them) tried to tell me it was because people are constantly cancelling and changing etc and that's why there are different offerings .... I am sure this is true, but I have a hard time believing that this is the case in totality.
In the space of ... 30 seconds ... it went from, no availability, to 1 available (much later), to a bunch available (much later), to availability immediately and lots later as well. Again, something I intend to test thoroughly in the coming days.
Final Takeaways.
1) 4th FP can be stacked, this means you can potentially (as I did) use your 4th FP immediately at the beginning of its opening and then book another for immediate use. Then go book another at the end of your 4th's window. I think this is a great strategy around your lunch. Ride FP @ 12 or 1PM, Book 4th @ 1:10, Ride at 1:15, Book 5th @ 2:10-3:10 ... go eat lunch and then pop on your 5th FP and book another either for 3:10 or for later in the evening etc, whatever you feel like.
Still testing stacking, maybe that was really the only times available and you can continue to stack the 5th, 6th, etc. The weekdays will be better for testing this.
2) Never accept the times the Kiosks give you, hit back, next, back, next a few times, it never narrowed my options, but did expand them. More testing to come.
3) They aren't offering paper FPs anymore, they are extending the redemption period for FPs when rides go down. Guest services are still an option.
4) FP still leaves some serious concerns surround weather, sickness, other issues which throw off your schedule.
5) the Ability to push around FPs on the go is great, though, to be fair to switch around Fps for tomorrow it took about an hour sitting by the pool today due to slow internet, crappy system, etc.
More to come.
