Fp+

[CAL2]

hi, this will be our first holiday using FP+. and i want to be prepared. we will be there from 3rd-20th November.

i have read lots and lots of negative comments about FP+, but to me it seems a good thing, it allows you to choose your FP+ times (within reason) which means no more early morning dash to the ticket machine to get a FP with who knew what return time on it, plus the bonus of a min of 3 FP+ tickets a day. Ok so you might not get all the rides you want on the days you want but i would have thought its still workable, (although i can see that being a problem for a one day visit or short stays). but you always had to queue up inbetween FP's anyway or am i looking at this through rose tinted glasses and the reality of it all is so much different ?

so why are so many Dis'er negative about the new system? i'm i being totaly naive about this has the non FP wait line times really increased that much that it out weighs any of the possitives of FP+
cal

 

[g8torphan]

People dont like change.
Don't believe the hype, the large majority of people have had no issues with FP+.


FP+ works great for my family, arrive early (like we did before) and hit a couple of headliners, fillers when the crowds hit around 1030, FP's after an early lunch, indoor shows during the mid day, 4th FP early evening and so on.
Easy as pie.
And we are a short stay family, usually not more than 2 park days per trip.


Agree 100% on not having to obtain randomly timed FP's, and needlessly criss cross the park.

 

[dzneelvr]

Our December trip was the first with magic bands and the Disney Experience process--LOVED LOVED LOVED the convenience and ease of both. Prior to our trip I made sure our DE website was loaded correctly with all the dining, resort, and FP information (had a couple ADRs I wasn't seeing on my account and got a CM on phone right away to get things fixed--I couldn't have done it myself) . I carried a hard copy along in my backpack just in case the transition from site to attraction didn't work or something...no issues at all. We found the DE site's first 3 choices were so much more efficient as far as park location than any other trip. Absolutely no running around a park kiosk to kiosk. We got on Soarin' 3 TIMES during our EPCOT day, which was unheard of when we were doing our own park planning. We chose not to add the ability to pay on the bands but opening our resort door, getting into a park and on attractions couldn't have been better. I asked random CMs about the future of the Magic Bands and they thought it was here to stay--maybe a thinner band eventually--I should be able to use these bands and reload for the next trip or two. No problem, they don't cost anything through the DE anyway.

 

[prudence64]

worked great for us.

I think it's hard to ride the headliners multiple times under the new system, but I honestly could never do that with the old system either. We only got 2-3 fastpasses in the old system. Not sure how people were ending up with like 8. But, it seems like the ones who don't like the new system were the ones who managed to get many fastpasses under the old system.

 

[mom2rtk]

People dont like change.

Wait...... we swapped to DLR because they don't have FP+ (yet) and I was very excited to see all the "change" at DCA with Carsland and Buena Vista Street.

I'm hoping get back to WDW soon as I'm excited about the "change" to the afternoon parade.

I think I'm one of only 3 people actually excited that Maelstrom is going to "change".

Yet I don't like FP+.

If it's all about hating "change" I should see a different pattern here, don't you think?

There are valid reasons for liking FP+. There are valid reason for disliking it. But chalking it up to "hating change" is merely a condescending way to dismiss anyone with an opposing view.

 

[kiford]

Worked great for us too. We usually go at low season (early December) so we hardly ever used fastpasses and that certainly helps our touring style. Although we like the headliners as much as anyone and will ride some multiple times during the day, we also like a lot of other things like the street performers, shows, wandering through shops, sitting and people watching, having leisurely lunch or dinner. We also HATE early mornings. I have to get up before 6 am M-F during the rest of the year. On vacation I want to sleep in. FP+ allowed us to do that - we finally got onto TSMM which we have never been able to do. We also used them for TT and Soarin' for times when they are typically busy.

People complain that FP+ and ADRs remove sponteneity. We don't do any vacations, WDW or elsewhere, completely spontaneously or you run the risk of getting to the last day and realizing that you missed a whole lot. So booking FP+ gave some structure to the days which isn't very different than we've usually done in the past. We used to have a basic plan to go to park A on the morning of day 1, park B in the afternoon and make sure that we got to see Illuminations, etc. When I booked my FP+, I did that same basic plan, picked headliners in those basic times in those locations, made sure I knew when MSEP was happening, Illuminations, etc. and ended up with a plan not terribly different from what we did in the past, except that now we had reservations for specific things. We still park-hopped frequently as we normally do with lots of time between scheduled activities to just do what we felt like. I found that I was able to make FP+ fit my touring style rather than having to adapt to it.

It allowed me to book breakfast a little later than normal because we knew that we'd at least get to do a few key things. That allowed us to sleep in a bit more which allowed us to stay up a little later; much later than we would normally be able to manage. That coincidently aligned with a couple of EMH nights which also allowed us to hit attractions we wouldn't normally bother to do because it was quite quiet in the parks (MK in particular) at later hours.

We actually found that it was one of our best trips because we felt less stressed since we knew in advance where we were supposed to be and that we'd have the chance to do some things we really wanted. We felt so much more relaxed knowing that we'd be able, for example, do TSMM at this time on this day. So instead of constantly checking my lines app to see if the standby line was reasonable and rushing over to HS in the hopes that we'd get there before it changed, we knew that we could make our way over in a more leisurely fashion. I didn't have as much worry about how long the bus took to load, I didn't rush to the front gates from the bus stop or have to hussle to the attraction. We found that we tended to walk a little slower around the parks, sat down and talked and focused on each other a bit more, and made time for other things like wandering through some of the other resorts we've never visited before.

For those people who do RD, had a commando-style, multiple-FP style which focused strongly on riding headliners over and over, I can see that the new system isn't to their taste, but we loved it.

 

[Suvadoo]

hi, this will be our first holiday using FP+. and i want to be prepared. we will be there from 3rd-20th November.

i have read lots and lots of negative comments about FP+, but to me it seems a good thing, it allows you to choose your FP+ times (within reason) which means no more early morning dash to the ticket machine to get a FP with who knew what return time on it, plus the bonus of a min of 3 FP+ tickets a day. Ok so you might not get all the rides you want on the days you want but i would have thought its still workable, (although i can see that being a problem for a one day visit or short stays). but you always had to queue up inbetween FP's anyway or am i looking at this through rose tinted glasses and the reality of it all is so much different ?

so why are so many Dis'er negative about the new system? i'm i being totaly naive about this has the non FP wait line times really increased that much that it out weighs any of the possitives of FP+
cal

I've used FP+ and I hate the new system:
1. It locks you into a park on a specific day. Unless you are willing to cancel all of your FP+ reservations and try booking the alternates.
2. It eliminates the ability to re-ride the headliners unless you're willing to go SB.
3. SB lines have significantly increased for rides like: Pirates, HM, Little Mermaid.
4. Tiering at DHS or Epcot. You can choose either Soarin' or Test Track , but not both. So your choices are to return to the park another day or ride one of these SB, that's the reason RD remains a great strategy with FP+.
5. FP+ was added to rides that had minimal wait times and never needed it: Living with the land, Captain EO, Figment. These are A-ticket rides.
6. The amount of time wasted waiting for your FP+ return time. When I was there , I didn't have enough time to go on a SB because the line was too long, there was nothing unique in the gift shops, and I didn't want to eat. So you spend a lot of time standing around.
7. By the time you've used your 3 FP+, You can either stand in a Kiosk line to avoid the SB line or go in the SB line. That depends on how long you end up waiting at the kiosks.
8. Booking ADR's 6 months out, then booking FP+ 60 days out. Sometimes the availabilty of a FP+ can interfere with your ADR. So trying to coordinate the schedule can be difficult.
9. The FP+ website: it's not intuitive. You have to book your rides then go back in try to get your desired times. MDE requires a lot of tribal knowledge.
10. Being able to stop and experience and attraction or show spontaneously, is a thing of the past unless you are willing to lose your FP+.

I could continue, but I think this gives you some reasons. FP+ works well for some people, but not for others. People who love the system are not wrong, but neither am I. Also, my issues have nothing to do with not liking change. If I thought the change was good, I'd be on board, but for me FP+ is a failure.

 

[Suvadoo]

There are valid reasons for liking FP+. There are valid reason for disliking it. But chalking it up to "hating change" is merely a condescending way to dismiss anyone with an opposing view.

Great statement, wholeheartedly agree.

Worked great for us too. We usually go at low season (early December) so we hardly ever used fastpasses and that certainly helps our touring style. QUOTE]

From your post, it looks like your didn't visit in Dec 2014 According to a lot o fposters who were there this year, it was not the same. The parks were crowded, and it was difficult to obtain FP's.

 

[Laketravis]

hi, this will be our first holiday using FP+. and i want to be prepared. we will be there from 3rd-20th November.

i have read lots and lots of negative comments about FP+, but to me it seems a good thing, it allows you to choose your FP+ times (within reason) which means no more early morning dash to the ticket machine to get a FP with who knew what return time on it, plus the bonus of a min of 3 FP+ tickets a day. Ok so you might not get all the rides you want on the days you want but i would have thought its still workable, (although i can see that being a problem for a one day visit or short stays). but you always had to queue up inbetween FP's anyway or am i looking at this through rose tinted glasses and the reality of it all is so much different ?

so why are so many Dis'er negative about the new system? i'm i being totaly naive about this has the non FP wait line times really increased that much that it out weighs any of the possitives of FP+
cal

The folks who like it will tell you it's great because you can be assured that you can use the three FP's you are able to schedule for any time during the day regardless of how packed the parks are. If you are an early riser and want to maximize your experience with shorter wait times beyond those three for an hour or so, then morning RD would be of some benefit.

The folks who don't like it will tell you that you will get less done in the parks each day, that once you use your three FP's you will be faced with very limited choices for any additional ones and increased SB wait times at other attractions, that you may feel you are not able to accomplish as much as you'd like each day, and that having to reserve your spots on popular attractions up to 60 days in advance presents it's own set of challenges and frustration.

I believe in your case, since you are coming from England and may spend an extended period of time at WDW for holiday, you may find yourself identifying with the first group. Disney's intent is for guests to be compelled to stay longer and they accomplish that thru a variety of methods; since our friends from across the pond tend to stay for two to three weeks or more at a time you'll be able to spend plenty of leisurely days at the parks and that fits nicely with Disney's intent and will work best for you.

 

[Angel Ariel]

hi, this will be our first holiday using FP+. and i want to be prepared. we will be there from 3rd-20th November.

i have read lots and lots of negative comments about FP+, but to me it seems a good thing, it allows you to choose your FP+ times (within reason) which means no more early morning dash to the ticket machine to get a FP with who knew what return time on it, plus the bonus of a min of 3 FP+ tickets a day. Ok so you might not get all the rides you want on the days you want but i would have thought its still workable, (although i can see that being a problem for a one day visit or short stays). but you always had to queue up inbetween FP's anyway or am i looking at this through rose tinted glasses and the reality of it all is so much different ?

so why are so many Dis'er negative about the new system? i'm i being totaly naive about this has the non FP wait line times really increased that much that it out weighs any of the possitives of FP+
cal

For the length of time your trip is going to be, you should be absolutely fine with FP+. You have enough days there to book Soarin on one day and TT on another, TSMM on one day, RNRC on another, etc. Tiering in Epcot and DHS is not really a problem when you're there for as long as your trip is going to be.

For us, FP+ worked very well for our arrival day (entered the park around noon, coming directly from MCO) and for the 1 other day we didn't enter a park until noon (after the Wine and Dine 1/2 marathon).

For our full days in the parks, we did not enjoy FP+ as much. We did not find much flexibility to change times around as we were touring, and we ended up doing more back tracking and criss-crossing than we ever did with legacy FP. We will fix that as much as we can on our next FP+ trip, but that's what we experienced on this trip. Because there was not much flexibility, and lines were not short (not crazy long, but not short either), we didn't want the consequence of the standby line if we missed the FP+ reservation, so we did what we could to make the FP+ reservation. We felt very locked into our plans, unless we wanted to accept the longer standby lines. Of course, Disney's said many times that one of their goals with this was locking people into their plans - they accomplished that with us, but we didn't enjoy it.

FP+ didn't ruin our trip by any means. We had a great trip! Still had just as much fun as we usually do. But FP+ didn't *add* to our trip either. And, yes, in the past legacy FP use has added to our vacation in a way that FP+ did not. So we did miss that,but like I said, FP+ didn't ruin our trip or make the whole experience negative either. We are adapting and hopefully our next trip won't have the criss-crossing issue that this trip did - that was really the main thing that took away from the trip at all.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Agree 100% on not having to obtain randomly timed FP's, and needlessly criss cross the park.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I absolutely did have randomly timed FP+ that I could not modify to a different time despite trying to repeatedly up to and during our trip (Unsurprisingly A&E and 7DMT). A&E I only managed to get *at all* from a cancellation thread here, so I only had 1 option in the first place.

We also criss-crossed the park more on this trip than we have on any other trip in the past. Something I hope to fix on our next trip, but was the reality for this last one.

Neither of these things ruined our trip by any means. Nor am I saying those things weren't issues some had with legacy - I know they are. I just disagree that FP+ solves those issues 100% of the time.

 

[nkereina]

After experiencing FP+ on two different trips now, I'm still on the fence as to whether I like it.

One unanticipated negative is that it truly impacts wait times at the rides that were never a problem doing stand-by for before. For instance, the week before Thanksgiving which is relatively slow, we saw 20 minute waits for Figment, 30+ minute waits for Pooh and Small World, 25 minutes for HM, etc. This is a week that had crowd levels 2-4 on the crowd calendars. The theory is that because people can/are forced to pick 3 FP+ options, they choose one of these rides either by default, because of availability, or because of the tiering that's in place and that is then backing up the stand by lines in the parks.

Because of this, we ended up doing headliners in the morning at rope drop and using FP+ later in the afternoon for some of these "less popular" rides. I don't mind waiting 20+ minutes for Splash, but I have a hard time waiting 20+ minutes for Pooh so FP+ was better used there for us. This is a way of thinking I hadn't considered before our trip, so our FP+ reservations were frequently changed on the fly.

 

[Squirlz]

Great statement, wholeheartedly agree.

Worked great for us too. We usually go at low season (early December) so we hardly ever used fastpasses and that certainly helps our touring style. QUOTE]

From your post, it looks like your didn't visit in Dec 2014 According to a lot o fposters who were there this year, it was not the same. The parks were crowded, and it was difficult to obtain FP's.

We were there December 7-14. Crowds were low to medium, stayed on site so I made all my FPs early but ended up changing many of them on the fly. Did everything we wanted to do with no problems.

 

[prudence64]

I felt like the crowds were much higher than I'm used to when we went in early NOvemeber, so was grateful to have the fast passes reserved ahead of time.

 

[erc]

From reading the multiple threads it sounds like crowd level will make or break your experience with FP+. Although there have been a few folks that said they were there Christmas week and it worked for them.

We have always been to whatever park we are visiting at opening. I think the late comers were always hurt by the old FastPass system. They would arrive to 50+ minute lines for every popular ride, and FastPass return times of 5PM and later. I'm talking during busy times of the year. FP+ probably helps them the most as they can guarantee at least three headliners in advance even if they arrive at the park at 11.

 

[disneyseniors]

and I had to chime in. Before we actually used and experienced fp+ this last November, I was on the "hate" it side. I listened to all the arguments and felt it would be a big hassle! Then, I went to book my fp+'s at 60 days out and found out that it was easy. No, I did not get up at midnight to do this. I got up as usual, had coffee, woke up, and then got online! I have to say that I am NOT tech savvy. I was apprehensive about the whole process because of this and "all the planning". I used the tricks offered by other Disers and that helped a lot with planning.
Well, we got to the parks and used our fp+'s as planned. We are early risers so we always do rope drop (we are not commandos in any sense of the word, just early risers) I was surprised at just how much we enjoyed using them! We were able to walk on to the attractions we really wanted to see. It was great. We booked ours at 9, 10, 11 ish, so that we could hit them in the am. This worked out well for us. We did have to do stand by to do other rides, but we have always had to stand in lines even before fp! I like standing in some lines and interacting with other people - have met some wonderful people that way. Of course, I wouldn't stand in a 2 hour line, but we all have to make the choice of how long we will stand and for what attraction anyway. We actually didn't use some of our fp+'s as we usually had one or two must do rides, and the other was just a bonus. We always go back to the resort to rest at noonish, then off to another park. We never got another fp for the pm park, but we could have if we wanted to. It worked well for us.
So, for a former fp hater, we have found out we actually like them. I know it doesn'twork for everyone, so please don't flame for sharing our actual real experience with fp+ It just fits our style, I guess. BTW, my daughter hated all the planning for everything. She will probably not be back to WDW for a long time, if at all due to that. I hope Disney will get a good compromise of this much debated system that will work for all of us.

 

[disneyseniors]

and I had to chime in. Before we actually used and experienced fp+ this last November, I was on the "hate" it side. I listened to all the arguments and felt it would be a big hassle! Then, I went to book my fp+'s at 60 days out and found out that it was easy. No, I did not get up at midnight to do this. I got up as usual, had coffee, woke up, and then got online! I have to say that I am NOT tech savvy. I was apprehensive about the whole process because of this and "all the planning". I used the tricks offered by other Disers and that helped a lot with planning.
Well, we got to the parks and used our fp+'s as planned. We are early risers so we always do rope drop (we are not commandos in any sense of the word, just early risers) I was surprised at just how much we enjoyed using them! We were able to walk on to the attractions we really wanted to see. It was great. We booked ours at 9, 10, 11 ish, so that we could hit them in the am. This worked out well for us. We did have to do stand by to do other rides, but we have always had to stand in lines even before fp! I like standing in some lines and interacting with other people - have met some wonderful people that way. Of course, I wouldn't stand in a 2 hour line, but we all have to make the choice of how long we will stand and for what attraction anyway. We actually didn't use some of our fp+'s as we usually had one or two must do rides, and the other was just a bonus. We always go back to the resort to rest at noonish, then off to another park. We never got another fp for the pm park, but we could have if we wanted to. It worked well for us.
So, for a former fp hater, we have found out we actually like them. I know it doesn'twork for everyone, so please don't flame for sharing our actual real experience with fp+ It just fits our style, I guess. BTW, my daughter hated all the planning for everything. She will probably not be back to WDW for a long time, if at all due to that. I hope Disney will get a good compromise of this much debated system that will work for all of us.

I just wanted to add that I don't have a smart phone, ipad, etc. I have an old fashioned flip phone, so I could not fix any fp's with this. That is my choice, so it is not a problem. I carried a written copy of fp's times and adr's, or other information I felt I might need. It fit into my pocket. Worked for us It was funny to see others reaction, when I said, "I'm going to check our fp times", and pulled out my paper. It was funny. Anyway, just toshow you that a non tech type person, such as myself, can use the fp system without problems!

 

[Laketravis]

I just wanted to add that I don't have a smart phone, ipad, etc. I have an old fashioned flip phone, so I could not fix any fp's with this. That is my choice, so it is not a problem. I carried a written copy of fp's times and adr's, or other information I felt I might need. It fit into my pocket. Worked for us It was funny to see others reaction, when I said, "I'm going to check our fp times", and pulled out my paper. It was funny. Anyway, just toshow you that a non tech type person, such as myself, can use the fp system without problems!

LOL! I do have a smartphone, but I wrote ours down on a piece of paper as well because I just found that much easier.

 

[CAL2]

thanks for all your replies, they were all very interesting.

my worries were that the SB lines have gotten longer. our last visit was in May 2011, and rides like IASW,Ellen and figment were walk on's , and others like POC and buzz were 10-15 min waits. from what you are saying it seems that this is no longer the case we don't mind waiting in SB lines but our max is 30 mins, so I'm hoping that for the time of year we are going that will be about right for the non headliners.

so after reading your replies this is the plan we have come up with. as we don't mind getting up early we will plan for RD, do as many headliner rides as possible, have early lunch, and then the 3 FP+ for more headliner rides after lunch/early afternoon. then take it from there as to whether we try and add more FP+ (if available) just do SB lines, go to another park or do other things like visit hotels, DTD, swimming, DBW or just chill out with a drink.

cal

 

[prudence64]

When I went in early nov. We never waited more than 2o minutes, but I didn't try to do everything.