FP+... who hates it

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That's awesome! I think we had an especially crowded day. My mistake was waiting in the line for TSMM FP. We were in that line for an hour, at opening, and our return time was 6:15 PM. We should have just skipped TSMM and started out by riding ToT, then Indiana Jones (Journey was down :( ). That first hour spent waiting for FP kind of killed us. I researched and tried my best, but it didn't go well. FP+ would've been helpful that day for us. We never got to go on ToT at all, and I hate that we missed it. I won't even admit how long we waited for Indiana Jones. It's honestly embarrassing.

I loved that place. It was pretty busy for me too (mid August), but I had an advantage in that I was a single, so things like Indy I could use single-rider and reduce the number of attractions I "needed" FP. But yeah, you messed up with TSM. ;) I don't think I have ever, I repeat ever, seen such a huge mass of people in line for an attraction before! Sorry to hear you missed Journey and Tower of Terror there--the ride seemed milder than the others, so from that perspective you didn't miss much, but it was interesting to see the different story going on there. :goodvibes
 
I dislike FP+ very much.. There is not a ride anywhere that I will wait for 30 mins. 20 is pushing my limits.. Those of you who will say, why do you go to disney then,, I go because my wife loves disney, and i enjoy it very much... First trip 1996 was almost my last, waited 45 mins for splash, bout the same for space.. I hated it said I wouldn't go back. Then DW tells me, theres a new thing called fast pass, doesn't cost extra, I agreed to give it another try.. Loved it.. enough that my family has been back almost every year since..
Guess what.. I could go, ride everything I wanted, and not stand in line for usually more than 10 to 15 mins.. Granted we have always gone in slow times usually mid oct, week after thanksgiving...
I never ran for a fast pass once, unless walking at rope drop to an attraction counts as running.. Never had more than one fast pass at a time. Never used one after it expired, could still easily use 6 to 8 in a day... and we could usually walk right on mansion, pirates, etc with minimal waits..
I know there are no longer the slow times we were used too.. but we still could ride most rides with a 15 to 20 min wait.. Went for 4 days end of january, was only able to land one sdmt and that was for later in the evening... I'm sure if we had been staying for a week to 10 days we could have done better.. I don't think people will find as much available at 60 days if they are only going to be there for 3 or 4 days..
Fast pass + did not allow us to change plans like we could in the past, one day we decided to go to epcot instead of hs, the only thing we could get a fast pass for that we had any interest in was SE. which had always been a walk on for us.. As far as scheduling 4th FP the only options that were available were rides that we always walked on before..
Did it ruin our trip no, Did we have to settle for doing a lot less then we were used too,, YES... Will we be back yes reservations for oct, but if we continue to have our experiences go down and the price go up we will have to rethink in the future,,,,,,,,,,,,
 
We were here in July and FP+ was OK. Didn't love it but it wasn't as bad as Spring Break in 2014. We are here now and I still dislike it but for different reasons. In the first 4 days of our trip, 3 days had rides that broke down and locked our FP+s from getting any extra ones. I miss the flexibility of deciding which park to visit when we get up in the morning (kids and weather issues). The standby lines have been super long all week (55 for Pirates, 30 for Figment, 30 for Peoplemover...... worse for the big ones). It took us 80 minutes to do babyswap for Soarin' (start to finish for 2 groups to go and return). Not sure why it was so slow loading but it nearly cost us our next FP+s.

I know my opinion is not a popular one and I don't expect to change anybody's mind. Just sharing my thoughts.

It would really, really help if we could get the additional FP+s on our phones instead of going thru the kiosk.
 
I reflect on my trip I took last December quite a bit. I hated the pre planning, gave up trying to make the fp times, and was generally disappointed that I didn't get as much done as I have in previous years. I'm just not a planner.
Please tell me how to get headliners a couple of days before because I have a friend going next month and at 30 days out she couldn't get Belle, A&E, any of the parades and she's taking 2 little girls with her. Thanks.
 

Having spent yesterday at a UK theme park where their equivalent is expensive, their queues are inefficient and their staff don't seem to care, I would have traded anything to be using Disney's FP+ system. It was a dream for us last August and is making enjoying theme parks back home much harder as we're not willing to spend our admission fee plus a 200% mark up for their FP system here, which means lots of waiting for everything! In low season!!

I'm sorry, though, OP that it doesn't work for you. I guess whatever system you use, someone loses out :(
 
I don't like having to plan so far in advance what ride I want & at what time I'm going to be where.
I don't like having to stay up at night to schedule the rides we want 60 days out. And yes I realize I don't technically have stay up at night waiting for the window to open, but if I have to book rides 60 days out I'm going to make sure I get what my family wants.
I don't like having to check the time to be sure to be at X place at X time when in the parks. My DD fussed at me during our last trip because I kept looking at my phone to check the schedules, times, & when we had rides down to see what was available. It took some of the magic out, for us.
I refuse to go looking for a kiosk, then wait in line just to go wait in another line for a ride. It's stupid. They should make it available to schedule the 4th, etc FPs on your phone.

I do like not having to rush to get a FP for a certain ride when entering the park.
I do like not having to worry about losing a paper FP.
 
I reflect on my trip I took last December quite a bit. I hated the pre planning, gave up trying to make the fp times, and was generally disappointed that I didn't get as much done as I have in previous years. I'm just not a planner.
Please tell me how to get headliners a couple of days before because I have a friend going next month and at 30 days out she couldn't get Belle, A&E, any of the parades and she's taking 2 little girls with her. Thanks.

Most people are referring to headliners are talking about rides, not attractions. The stuff you mention is much more limited in numbers and I wouldn't plan on getting them at 30 days unless you fall across a lucky cancellation.
 
The obvious problem is there are not enough quality attractions at WDW. If there were there'd be enough FP+s for everybody even up to a day before.

MK is pretty good, with A&E and SDMT being the only FP+s you can't get easily even a few days out. I personally think A&E should be everywhere; meet them at MK, HS, EP and AK. If Disney did that it would lessen the demand at MK and improve the FP+ situation. can't get an MK FP+? Then meet A&E and with an AK FP+. I believe Disney is completely dropping the ball on this one. But for non A&E Fps there is enough diversity in families and ride availability to give everyone what they want. PP is available a week beforehand, so is Splash, so is meet Mickey Mouse.

The other non-MK parks just don't have enough rides: FP+, FP-, or non FP at all won't change the fact that there aren't enough great rides at EP, HS, or AK.

If Disney wanted to improve the guest experience they would've taken the $2 billion they spent on My Magic + and built 1 more awesome attraction at HS, EP, and AK. That would have improved the line situation. But they didn't, because they want to track us as we walk around the parks with our Magic Bands on our wrists.

They want to know how long after I buy a Dole Whip am I in the bathroom. They want to know how long you take in the bathroom. They want to know when you get to the park and when you leave. They want to know when you go into a store or a restaurant. They want to know if families eat dinner together or if they are in separate parts of the parks. Does the dad and son go off together and leave the mother and daughter together or do they do things as a family unit? They want to know EVERYTHING about you.
 
If Disney wanted to improve the guest experience they would've taken the $2 billion they spent on My Magic + and built 1 more awesome attraction at HS, EP, and AK. That would have improved the line situation. But they didn't, because they want to track us as we walk around the parks with our Magic Bands on our wrists.

They want to know how long after I buy a Dole Whip am I in the bathroom. They want to know how long you take in the bathroom. They want to know when you get to the park and when you leave. They want to know when you go into a store or a restaurant. They want to know if families eat dinner together or if they are in separate parts of the parks. Does the dad and son go off together and leave the mother and daughter together or do they do things as a family unit? They want to know EVERYTHING about you.
Here's my question: Do you really think Disney employs enough people to analyze the reams of information FP+ is providing? I look at all of this data collection as a huge waste of time because corporations do not have the capability to analyze the information. They need a computer like Watson, but last I heard it wasn't ready for prime time.
 
I love planning... I'm an uber planner but having to decide which parks that I will attend on which days is a drag...especially so far ahead. But that isn't my real issue.
I don't feel that I was able to DO everything that I wanted to because of FP+ limitations. I felt as if Disney was controlling our experience. Again, no haters please, this is just me and my families opinion.
At Universal, we made decisions on the fly, watched wait times on our phones and asked the people running the rides when the best time was for the shortest line. We controlled what we did and when.
I spoke to several people on the buses and everyone seemed to have the same opinion as we did of FP+.

This was our first trip in the spring. We had gone twice before during NJ week when the crowds were much lower. Maybe that was problem.
I don't know anything about people abusing or scamming the system so I can't comment.
We have used the paper fast pass system and that worked amazingly well for our family.

As this was our 3rd trip as a family, we knew what we wanted to do and when so I don't feel cheated. We were happy to hang out at the pool each afternoon and gel.
 
We preferred the legacy FP system over FP+ as we experience fewer attractions overall under FP+. The biggest reason for this is because we're repeat riders...we like to ride our favorites several times and skip many of the rides we don't like, including many "classics" that some people love. For instance, we haven't ridden Jungle Cruise in a couple of years, we've only done Space Mountain and TOT once and will likely never do them again, we will never experience Rock-n-Roller Coaster. We're hit-or-miss on Haunted Mansion...sometimes we'll hit it, sometimes we skip. But the kids can't get enough of BTMRR and Splash, they'd do Mine Train and TSM more if the lines weren't so long, and they'll ride Star Tours and POTC as much as we allow and can tolerate. For repeat riders--regardless of the attraction--FP+ just doesn't work as well as FP did.

As for the comment about how mainly "abusers" liked the legacy FP system better...we only had one trip where FP return times weren't enforced, and we only rode one ride in an entire week outside of the stated return system. We did learn quickly to maximize the FP system with enforced return windows. Basically, we kept an eye on when we were eligible to pull our next FP, so typically we were able to pull 8-10 per day. We always traveled in the fall, and other than our Soarin' and TSM FPs that were pulled more than an hour or so after park opening, our FP return times were typically 40-60 minutes in the future. Especially at the MK, we never experienced return times that were 2 hours or more in the future. FP was spectacular...we'd get to a land, pull a headliner FP, do something with short or no wait, pull another FP as soon as we could, then use our FP, then do a SB ride or whatever, lather, rinse repeat, as we made our way through the park. There was no criss-crossing, no running. I was the "runner" but while I was pulling FPs, my husband and kids were hitting the bathrooms, getting a snack, or, if we were in Fantasyland, riding the Carousel (because I don't do things that go in circles).

FP+ has made RD more important for us, and the first two hours in the parks are more rushed than they were before. We now know that if we're traveling any time that is even moderately busy, once 11:00 hits, we're going to be excluded from most rides because the lines will be too long for us (more than 20 minutes; 30 minutes is usually our max). So while under FP we knew that we could leisurely make our way through the parks through the day, now we're cramming as much in during the first two hours as possible. So that's a pretty significant change for us. Those first two hours never felt so necessary in the past. We're getting up earlier more days now than we did under the old system.

I should also note that we're a party of 4 and we have two younger kids (8 and 5 now) so we generally don't do late nights. So things like evening EMH or even staying until close if that close comes after about 10:00 don't work well for us. I can see how FP+ is more beneficial for smaller groups or for groups who are comprised of adults and older kids/teens who can keep up with the late nights. But for us, it's a pretty significant decrease in the value we get from a Disney vacation.
 
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Love it too! I adore the fact that I can pre book 60 days out, and not have to worry about not being able to ride my favs. Plus, no more rope drop for me. I can sleep in!!! This worked perfectly for me and my husband during our last trip.
 
I could have written this entire post, especially the bolded part:

We preferred the legacy FP system over FP+ as we experience fewer attractions overall under FP+. The biggest reason for this is because we're repeat riders...we like to ride our favorites several times and skip many of the rides we don't like, including many "classics" that some people love. For instance, we haven't ridden Jungle Cruise in a couple of years, we've only done Space Mountain and TOT once and will likely never do them again, we will never experience Rock-n-Roller Coaster. We're hit-or-miss on Haunted Mansion...sometimes we'll hit it, sometimes we skip. But the kids can't get enough of BTMRR and Splash, they'd do Mine Train and TSM more if the lines weren't so long, and they'll ride Star Tours and POTC as much as we allow and can tolerate. For repeat riders--regardless of the attraction--FP+ just doesn't work as well as FP did.

As for the comment about how mainly "abusers" liked the legacy FP system better...we only had one trip where FP return times weren't enforced, and we only rode one ride in an entire week outside of the stated return system. We did learn quickly to maximize the FP system with enforced return windows. Basically, we kept an eye on when we were eligible to pull our next FP, so typically we were able to pull 8-10 per day. We always traveled in the fall, and other than our Soarin' and TSM FPs that were pulled more than an hour or so after park opening, our FP return times were typically 40-60 minutes in the future. Especially at the MK, we never experienced return times that were 2 hours or more in the future. FP was spectacular...we'd get to a land, pull a headliner FP, do something with short or no wait, pull another FP as soon as we could, then use our FP, then do a SB ride or whatever, lather, rinse repeat, as we made our way through the park. There was no criss-crossing, no running. I was the "runner" but while I was pulling FPs, my husband and kids were hitting the bathrooms, getting a snack, or, if we were in Fantasyland, riding the Carousel (because I don't do things that go in circles).

FP+ has made RD more important for us, and the first two hours in the parks are more rushed than they were before. We now know that if we're traveling any time that is even moderately busy, once 11:00 hits, we're going to be excluded from most rides because the lines will be too long for us (more than 20 minutes; 30 minutes is usually our max). So while under FP we knew that we could leisurely make our way through the parks through the day, now we're cramming as much in during the first two hours as possible. So that's a pretty significant change for us. Those first two hours never felt so necessary in the past. We're getting up earlier more days now than we did under the old system.

I should also note that we're a party of 4 and we have two younger kids (8 and 5 now) so we generally don't do late nights. So things like evening EMH or even staying until close if that close comes after about 10:00 don't work well for us. I can see how FP+ is more beneficial for smaller groups or for groups who are comprised of adults and older kids/teens who can keep up with the late nights. But for us, it's a pretty significant decrease in the value we get from a Disney vacation.
 
i define it by people that would get fastpasses and hoard them to use one after the other later in the day instead of going during the 1hr window.
going during the 1hr window was always the rule but it was not enforced.
i always followed the rule so i usually didn't get more than 3 fastpasses on any given day where as others would collect 10 and then use them later just because they "could".
i had no problem with them enforcing the rule but everyone that was abusing it then complained complained complained about having to follow the rule.
people that abused the system are now finding that they really cannot abuse it with FP+ and it angers them.
i like FP+ because it helps to make sure everyone is following the rule not just the honest people.

did i say EVERYONE that LIKED FP- abused it?
nope.
pretty sure this is what i said...
"it seems like its generally the people that used to abuse the FP- system that are not a fan of the new system in practice."

This is your definition of abuse...this was allowed by WDW and DL.

You should not paint such a broad brush and called people abusers, they were not doing anything that was not condoned by the parks.

We rarely "abused by your definition" the window. What we dont like is not being able to repeat rides and the tiers. This new system did not level the playing field, it just moved the line to midnight at 60 days. Level playing field was the first come first served when ALL people with an admission ticket were treated the same at park opening.
 
This is your definition of abuse...this was allowed by WDW and DL.

You should not paint such a broad brush and called people abusers, they were not doing anything that was not condoned by the parks.

We rarely "abused by your definition" the window. What we dont like is not being able to repeat rides and the tiers. This new system did not level the playing field, it just moved the line to midnight at 60 days. Level playing field was the first come first served when ALL people with an admission ticket were treated the same at park opening.

Totally agree. No level playing field now......especially if you are offsite and booking 30 days out.
 
I know I am in the minority, but I really like the new FP+ system. As far as pre-planning, we are already making our ADRs 180 days in advance, so we know what park we plan to be in each day. With the new system we know we will get our top rides without having to get to the park at opening. We like to do mid morning character breakfasts on both our AK and DHS days. This allows us to plan a late night the day before, and these are half day parks for us anyway. This typically puts us the park by around 11 AM. Before FP+ we often did not even go to DHS because FP would already be gone for TSM, and return times would be very late for others.

I would rather spend the time planning at home prior to the trip than spending the time while on vacation deciding what FP to get next and if the return time will work with our already planned ADR time. I actually found the old system more stressful to manage.

We do go to Disney often enough that we do not mind if we don't get to ride everything on every trip. We also spend most afternoons at the resort when the parks are their most crowded. I know the new system does not work well for how others vacation, but for us it is a much better experience.
 
Hate is a strong word. But I don't love FP+ either. I made sure to make my FP reservations 60 days out and had no problem scoring FPs to all the mega attractions the days we wanted.

But the whole thing certainly seems to drive up wait times overall. Especially at minor attractions. We had to wait 30+ minutes to ride Figment for crying out loud. We got in the Standby line and watched hordes of FP+ people stream by us. If we had all been in one line we'd probably all have gotten on with wait times of less than 15 min.

Maybe I miss the days of when FP was only for the biggest attractions.
 
The only thing I hate about FP+ is the tiering system in Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Okay, the major thrill ride headliners are understandable, but it's a headscratcher how certain other attractions are considered tier 1.

For Hollywood Studios, we had FPs for Toy Story (tier 1, extremely long standby lines, very fun ride), Star Tours (had a 10-20 min wait when we went, but got to almost walk on), and, thanks to the limited tier 2 choices, Muppets.

...and Muppets had a 5 min wait, and we've never been shut out of a showing. A Movie Ride FP would have been more useful, but it's bafflingly a tier 1.
 
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i define it by people that would get fastpasses and hoard them to use one after the other later in the day instead of going during the 1hr window.
going during the 1hr window was always the rule but it was not enforced.
i always followed the rule so i usually didn't get more than 3 fastpasses on any given day where as others would collect 10 and then use them later just because they "could".
i had no problem with them enforcing the rule but everyone that was abusing it then complained complained complained about having to follow the rule.
people that abused the system are now finding that they really cannot abuse it with FP+ and it angers them.
i like FP+ because it helps to make sure everyone is following the rule not just the honest people.
I always followed the return time rule, too, and managed to use more than 3 fastpasses in a day. On average, we used 5, on a really good day, up to 8 or 9. So no, I didn't abuse the system and there were many more guests who knew how to use the sytem to their advantage, within the rules.
 
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