Does anyone have any advice for how I should be planning my family's April trip? The whole non-specific "spring" rollout of FP+is beyond frustrating for me. I have this nightmare scenario (although I freely admit this a first world problem of the highest order) that I'm in the last stages of packing the day before we leave and the Disney bigwigs announce that FP+ is going live the day I arrive. Any thoughts on how much lead time they will give us? I'm open to pure speculation.
I am honestly thinking about changing our trip to DL. I haven't paid in full for anything, and I am willing to swallow the change fee on our airplane tickets. My sister lives in Orange County, and she tells me that DCA is amazing now that it's renovations are complete.
I expect a more gradual approach. Disney loves to soft-open things, and I can't imagine something like FP+ won't be the same way. The one cross over I can think of is how Dumbo is now. They tested out the new way of queuing over at the Rockin Rollercoaster well over a year before they implemented it at Dumbo. They added interactive queues at a few other attractions to varying degrees before making Dumbo entirely different. It was gradual. They tested. They reconfigured.
I seriously doubt that in a situation when they can operate both types of FP at the same time for a while during which they get the kinks out, they won't do so. Yes, they've already done some testing, but I doubt they'll go straight from the old FP system to the new one without a trial period, and a gradual descent.
Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part, since I'm in the "spring" group, and any misfires on Disney's part could greatly influence my vacation one way or another. I'm also in the group that won't be buying my tickets far enough in advance to truly benefit from the 60 days in advance part.
Am I wrong in thinking that you could just opt out and use the existing FP system?
Even if they are going to do away with it eventually (no one here knows for sure), seems doubtful that this could be the case in April.
That's exactly what I'm hoping for. They certainly try to avoid making big changes during crowded times, and "spring" means Spring Break. I would not be surprised if they unleashed the FP+ along side FP- early in March, and slowly phased out FP- throughout the summer. In my head, it seems likely that they will give a full 60 days of a buffer to allow for the transition. I'd expect a minimum of 30 days, so it isn't sprung on people. Keep in mind that MOST people don't research their vacations as in depth as some of us. They likely won't risk alienating people who may not have been in 5 years, and have no idea what's happening.
Worst case scenario, I expect it to look something like this (this is entirely my own speculation):
They announce a date for total switch over some time in the future. Let's say it's May 15th.
March 15-April 15 - Both programs operate alongside each other. You can use both, one, or neither.
April 15-May 15th - Both programs operate, but you must choose one.
Past May 15th - No FP-, but FP+ will have been in operation for 60 days. (that's if they take away regular FP at all, though I expect that even if they don't, the number of FPs available for "walk-ups" will be very low)
Has anyone had the FP+ option pop up on their vacation plans yet?
Until that happens, it will be difficult to determine what time frame we're looking at.
Looks like they have answered a few more questions for us in the T&C
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/media/park-experience-terms-and-conditions.html
"To make a FP+ selection for you or your friends, you must retrieve a Resort package reservation including valid park admission through your account, or associate a valid park admission to your account."
"When you initially make FP+ selections for a park park, you will select a FP+ Experience
Set and if plan change, you may modify the entire FP+ Experience set until the first FP+ Experience is redeemed or the first unredeemed experience expires. You may modify an unredeemed individual experience any time prior to the end of the day."
Another fun gem
"Availability of a FP+ experience, the number of experiences you may select, and arrival windows are limited and vary based on factors such as theme park you are visiting, the attraction or experience, the time of year and the day of the week, and prior demand. In addition, the number of days for which you can hold FP+ selections at any given time is limited."
Yeah...I noticed that the other day. It's still too vague for my liking.
But Mousemerf said it was 3 and only 3 for everybody, no more and no less forever.
So I'm the only one who sees this as a huge profit center.
Forever is a strong word.
Personally I think WDW/ DL is going in the wrong direction in this whole process with opposite results of what they are trying to achieve. FP+ will make the park rides less available, the lines longer and more unhappy guests.
If they want to increase revenue and improve the product then spend their $$ on more rides and sell super FPs like US.
You're assuming that you know what they're trying to achieve.
I'm sure people were skeptical of regular FP when it was first rolled out, but now we're concerned with it going away.
I do think that they're definitely giving an edge to on property guests. We are more likely to use the Disney website, therefore, more likely to notice the change first. Even if I wasn't a DISer, I expect that FP+ will be added to the menus on the website, which will make on-property stayers more likely to see it. When I went as a kid, we stayed in a condo off property, and didn't purchase tickets until arriving in Orlando. Even though the internet was prominent by then, my parents wouldn't have gone to the Disney website to figure things out.
What makes you think that's not what's coming next?
I think Disney is still trying to portray the illusion that a Disney vacation is an "every man's" vacation. The idea of equality is very appealing to people. Also, Universal doesn't sell out of their front of the line passes during slow times. People know that they don't have to buy them, so they don't. It's a cost vs. benefit thing.
