FP+ selections for large parties

[5inNHlovethemouse]

I realize I am cutting this close, as I get to make my FP selections in 30 minutes. But wondering if anyone has tips on large groups (14 people). For example, some of us want to go on EE but others in the group are either too little or not interested. Is it easier to make FP+ selections for the whole group and then just cancel some, or make individual selections for each ride. Thanks for any tips!

 

[Shaden]

I realize I am cutting this close, as I get to make my FP selections in 30 minutes. But wondering if anyone has tips on large groups (14 people). For example, some of us want to go on EE but others in the group are either too little or not interested. Is it easier to make FP+ selections for the whole group and then just cancel some, or make individual selections for each ride. Thanks for any tips!

Ummmm .... honestly its a nightmare ... you need a spreadsheet to plan who wants to do what when.

You don't want to have huge chunks of time where your party is essentially following other members so they can FP stuff, while they have to wait.

If you can split the group into people like minded or ability to ride rides and do that, awesome.

Alternatively book FP for the most demanded attractions everyone will do, and SB everything else.

Hope all your tickets and MBs are linked.

Good luck.

I did this with 13 last year ... it wasn't fun.

 

[andeesings]

I did this over the summer for my very large party. It's not so bad. I selected the most in demand things FIRST, then switched the people who WOULDNT ride those things to new rides by selecting "change this experience" and selecting the party members that were relevant. It brought up attractions that were open for the same time.

It isn't so bad if you do it that way-- but make sure you go for the hardest "gets" first!!

 

[Shaden]

I did this over the summer for my very large party. It's not so bad. I selected the most in demand things FIRST, then switched the people who WOULDNT ride those things to new rides by selecting "change this experience" and selecting the party members that were relevant. It brought up attractions that were open for the same time.

It isn't so bad if you do it that way-- but make sure you go for the hardest "gets" first!!

See I think I had about 3 tiers of people ... it was rough

 

[Mikie]

I did this over the summer for my very large party. It's not so bad. I selected the most in demand things FIRST, then switched the people who WOULDNT ride those things to new rides by selecting "change this experience" and selecting the party members that were relevant. It brought up attractions that were open for the same time.

It isn't so bad if you do it that way-- but make sure you go for the hardest "gets" first!!

Exactly what I did for 12. Tech support suggests to do it this way - schedule everyone as a group (if you can) and then "change experience" for that sub-group who doesn't want he main thing. I personally didn't have to break down my group into smaller chunks just to find availability, as many people do for A&E. I didn't need that meet and got all other headliners at decent times for all 12 at once, including 7 dwarfs. I realize we're now past your booking window - hope you figured out something that worked for you!

 

[FlipHipster]

Ummmm .... honestly its a nightmare ... you need a spreadsheet to plan who wants to do what when.

You don't want to have huge chunks of time where your party is essentially following other members so they can FP stuff, while they have to wait.

If you can split the group into people like minded or ability to ride rides and do that, awesome.

Alternatively book FP for the most demanded attractions everyone will do, and SB everything else.

Hope all your tickets and MBs are linked.

Good luck.

I did this with 13 last year ... it wasn't fun.

I agree. Well maybe not a total nightmare but definitely a really bad dream. I am only booking for 7. As long as everyone wants to do the same thing and you can get the same time slots for the whole group it's no problem. The other 99% of the time it's a PITB.

Early on I was trying to score FP for A&E and 7DMT by splitting our group up, we had a ton of FP's on our itinerary and that became a real pain to keep up with especially if you are searching for FP. In addition, not everyone wants to see A&E, not everyone wants to ride 7DMT so I was trying to book alternate rides for them. IMO, it gets harder and harder to keep up with them in MDE the more you split your group. I finally just quit messing with it and waited for Disney to release more A&E/7DMT. I was only focused on booking the Fab 4 though and didn't really stress over the others. For HS and Epcot it almost seems like a waste of 2 FP's anyway. At 30 days I could only find 2 slots for our whole party to ride TSMM together, after 6:30PM. I could have split our party up and booked overlapping slots and probably made it work but I didn't feel like it was worth the hassle.

I am planning to split our group into 4 and 3 when we are there and tell each group to manage their own FP''s. I don't plan to spend all day playing with my phone or a kiosk. I also don't plan on stressing over FP and trying to make it perfect. As much as we try to plan, it will all change once we get there anyway. We arrive Sat, and we still can't decide if we are going to MVMCP or not, do we want to get hoppers instead of adding days on and spend another day at US? And to top it off, after all that waiting and watching for A&E FP's, kids now only care about meeting Baymax.

 

[5inNHlovethemouse]

Thanks for the advice/sympathy. For the 14 of us, I just made them all the same and told everyone they can go in and modify them as they wish.

Was only able to score 2 A/E FP's. I am hoping they will open up more. How will I know if this happens? Do I just keep trying all the time, or will there be some sort of announcement on here?