FP+ Thanksgiving Week....ugh!!!

[mikamomof3]

It will be interesting to see how FP+ reviews are after it's first big holiday week. Personally, not happy so far. Got on MDE at 11pm cst, 60 days from hotel check in. Checking in Saturday Nov. 22 so planned on MK for Sunday 11/23....how at 2 minutes after booking opens are parades, fireworks and 4 rides completely booked up? Are that many people checking in 1 - 9 days before Thanksgiving week??? The poor people staying off site that can only book 30 days in advance will have absolutely nothing if this is the anticipated crowd! I can also figure that the possibility of getting more fast passes after the original 3 are used will not be an option. We go to Disney every 2-3 years and this is the first year I had an extremely tough time with dining reservation and now this....and I am a planner!!!! Anyone else going that week and have any tips? Or anyone go over a crowded summer week and have any tips?

 

[magicaldisney]

We are checking in on November 20th, so I was 2 days ahead of you. Unfortunately, people checking in before us beat us to some fastpasses. I also signed in at 11:00 my time and the first couple of days there were no 7DMT and some parades were already gone. I had to go later in the week to get 7DMT. All I can say is, thank goodness I didn't need to get Anna and Elsa. As for the rest of the rides I didn't have any trouble, but I agree that getting a 4th FP and beyond is probably not going to happen.

 

[kittylady1972]

Yep this is what I figured. We don't checkin until November 23rd so we can't look into FP+ until tomorrow morning. There are 9 of us in our travel party. I know there is no chance of 7DMT.
My SIL and nephew are 2 of those with us. I told her that if she WANTS to get up early tomorrow morning and try to book some FP+ reservations, she is welcome to do so. We would try later to book ours with similar times.

The thing is, we are going on a trip leaving tomorrow, so I already know our main plan is riding 7DMT and anything else is a bonus. We go to the parks enough that we don't have to do everything. We can wing it as much as possible at Thanksgiving week. However she and her son haven't been as much as we have, so I think she should just try to plan to do some things without us.
I'm not sure how that will work out. I may have to login tomorrow morning myself just to see what I can get for us.

 

[J. Galt]

Don't give up hope yet! I made my fp + yesterday... well, it was 11pm Sunday night, for Thanksgiving week. 11 people total. I managed to get 7DMT three times during our trip for all 11 of us. I was messing around with times all day yesterday and was able to get things basically where I wanted them, again for all 11 of us. I did drop down to two 7DMT.

 

[momto3pirates]

This is our first trip with FP+. We check in the Friday before thanksgiving. We got what we wanted but I'm not holding my breath for any others available after we use the first three. I was not going for anything frozen though. We have a big group going and trying to coordinate everyone has been a pain.

 

[nikkij]

Got up and made our selections without a problem last night...

We did not want A&E or to use them on parades, fireworks, shows, etc. All those were booked across the board by a little after midnight.

I am tweaking some times today with little problems.

I did only get 1 7DMT but that is better than none.

Pixie dust for your planning.

 

[Mickeygolf]

Checking in on November 21st and we got most of what we wanted. We are lucky going with a family who has never been and they have no idea what to expect. So anything will seem good to them Our best plan of attack is rope drop. Just hope it's productive. We did get 7DMT twice later in our vacation.

 

[saraheli]

My 60 day window opened up Monday at midnight, and I was able to get 7DMT for day 4 of our trip with lots of choices on time. Nothing for A&E though the entire trip.

 

[Octoberbaby]

I am checking in Nov 20 and for our 1st MK day I couldn't get 7DMT or parade. I was able to FP those on the 29th. I got everything else I wanted though without any problems.

 

[lilbuddy88]

We check in on Nov 21st and was able to get everything we wanted at the times we wanted.

I thought I read somewhere that the parades don't always open 60 days out and sometimes open closer to the actual date. Especially with the possibility of them extending hours and parade times changing. I read on easyWDW that MK stayed open until 1 AM last year the week of Thanksgiving. Right now it shows it's closing at 10 PM. So I would keep looking for parades especially if they announce changes in hours.

 

[Figment_Fan]

We did ours yesterday. Not too many problems. Some of the selection was not to my liking, but I'll live with some of them. (Primevil Whirl, fast pass?? Really????) Oh well, I'll be at my happy place. It will all be good.

I changed a jungle cruise to Peter Pan today with no problem.

So far, we have used the system X2 and it has worked both times. The first time, they were still testing and we could get paper fast passes as well. The second time, three was it. This time, I hope to have some more options after the third FP+ is used. But, if not, I don't need a fast pass for food or people watching, or hidden Mickey hunting, or trying to find something I haven't noticed before, or . . . yeah, I'm sure I'll be fine.

Good luck to you. I hope you find the FP+'s you want. Have a great trip.

 

[kittylady1972]

Don't give up hope yet! I made my fp + yesterday... well, it was 11pm Sunday night, for Thanksgiving week. 11 people total. I managed to get 7DMT three times during our trip for all 11 of us. I was messing around with times all day yesterday and was able to get things basically where I wanted them, again for all 11 of us. I did drop down to two 7DMT.

That is very encouraging...thanks! It would be nice if all nine of us could ride 7DMT at least ONE time together during our trip. Anything beyond that is a bonus. My nephew doesn't ride everything, and my kids will ride EVERYTHING so I still think she's better off booking some of the rides he will want to do without us. We will be on our own booking TOT, RnRC, and EE for the trip for sure, and I'm tempted to just leave both of them out, even though my SIL may want to ride them. We could all do without the drama that will happen when we all walk up to ride something that he does NOT want to ride. He's 9.5 now so we can only hope there will be a lot less crying and vomiting this trip when that does happen.

 

[squirrel4569]

FP+ has been in use for quite a bit of time including the busy summer season so Thanksgiving is hardly the first holiday that it will have been used on. I do feel for those staying off-site though unless Disney is holding back some FP for them. With the 60+10 and our arrival date of 11/20 I couldn't get 7DMT or A&E for my first two days which were planned at MK. Thankfully I had another day planned for later in the week where we were able to get both of them. We didn't get the best time for A&E but it's better than not getting it at all. The rest of the parks were no problem though for any days. Tiering sucks but I understand why they are doing it.

 

[mikamomof3]

So, after going I actually like this new FP system. I didn't feel as rushed as I have in the past. Due to rides being shut down throughout the day for technical difficulties most of our times were all messed up and the attendants just let us on when we got there.....for the big headliners anyway. Also, we had 20 people fast passed into several groups based on ages and heights. We had to do a little arm band swapping throughout the week but it was no big deal.

One day my sisters group was not feeling well and sleeping in at the hotel so she came with us. I was a group of 6: hubby, self and 4 kids. My sister, in her 20's, had maybe one of the rides the same as ours, but not the same time. It was a rainy day at DHS so park attendance was not extreme. We also had been given three "anytime" fast passes for that day for each person in my group of 6 by one of the hotel managers due to a problem earlier in the week. At each ride we went to use the FP at we explained the situation of our new group of 7 and they were very nice each time to let her go with us. That was extremely nice as throughout the week we had a few passes that got wasted because we had a change in plans and didn't make a ride. Also, because it was Thanksgiving week, nothing was available for us to switch to for the missed passes. So, I didn't feel that bad talking her onto a few rides.

The one thing that was great was the MK being open to 1am! We saw Anna and Elsa at 12:45am and only waited 5 minutes!!! We also walked right onto several rides and rode many things more than once. Hubby and I just sat on the wall while the kids lapped each other at the Tomorrowland Speedway over and over again....no idea why kids love that ride so much!!! They even went back and did it several times again the next night! Those will be the memories they remember and tell their kids though.

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

Thanks for the follow-up.