Great, Another FP+ Post

[GregShiner]

The days of having a vacation and just going with the flow and deciding what park to go to when the bus shows up are gone.

So true. That is what I have come to miss most on my most recent Disney vacations. Seems to be almost no relaxing in the park and going about casually, unless you either consider very long lines or planning months in advance casual.

 

[famy27]

There are also kiosks at MK by Stitch and also by Diamond Horseshoe. There was a short line at Stitch when I was there last month.

I take the opposite view. I'm on vacation, I don't want to have to run around picking up return tickets based on the return time the machines is offering at the time I arrive at that ride. The return could be for hours later. I love knowing I have my top 3 before I even enter the park.

Of course, I can't get my top 3 at two of the parks. I get one favorite at EP and two at HS. If the tiers were gone, I'd be much less ornery about FP+. I know why they are in place, but it doesn't mean I have to like it

 

[Shaden]

Of course, I can't get my top 3 at two of the parks. I get one favorite at EP and two at HS. If the tiers were gone, I'd be much less ornery about FP+. I know why they are in place, but it doesn't mean I have to like it

They are only in place because Disney has decided to drop money on crowd control instead of attraction construction (for the most part, yes yes FL 2 ... $400 million for ... almost nothing, and avatar coming ... 2017 ???, but 1.5 - 2Billion on MM and FP+)

But really, this is an important part, Disney spins it the same way "I get to ride/see my top 3 attractions" .... except, not really, and not always. And at the cost of higher SB lines at many of the other attractions.

 

[Csaks]

I completely agree with OP. I've got a lot of stress in my life and try not to invite any more. FP+ works poorly with my vacation plans. We have been staying at WDW for our complete vacation and usually stay for about 22 days and just want to go with the flow. If it's raining or we need a slow day, or just want to change our plans, FP+ doesn't work well. So, this trip, instead of staying 3+ weeks in WDW, like we usually do, we are staying our first week at U.S and shopping or doing other things in the area, followed by 2 weeks at Pop. We are getting an AP and next year we will use our AP before it expires, and if we enjoy U.S. we will finish our trip there. WDW is losing some money with us. I realize it is small potatoes to them, but WDW is no longer my happy place. In essesence, I'm voting against FP+ with my $$.

Well they won't miss our vacation money. But they do seem to be turning off us regulars, maybe one day enough of us will do the same then they might notice. Doubt it.
I almost feel guilty of wanting to go back to Universal and not Disney.

I love to plan
When I get there I know we can do the things we want and I can relax.
I hate to get to the last half of the week and realize we can’t get it all done because we slept in.
I can stay home and sleep for a lot less money.
Nothing irritates me more than to miss something because we didn't plan for it.
I plan no matter where we go on vacation. Heck, I did that when we went to Aulani and there are no park rides there!

The lines may be long but guess what…..they always have been.

I have several friends who went 5+- years ago and swear they will never go again because it was too crowded.
Maybe they picked the wrong time of year
Maybe Disney was running a ‘free-dining’ special
Maybe they didn't do any research to see what park to visit on what day
But it wasn't because of FP+ because it wasn't around!

Whatever Disney is doing, they are filling the parks. It is a business and that IS their goal.

Hey, it sounds like they are catering to your type of vacation.

Lines haven't always been long, we've been Jersey Week, Spring Break, Pop Warner, Free Dining, Pin Codes. Living with the Land was never longer than walking up to the boat. Headliners? sure they had lines.

I sleep in at Disney because I was up till 2 doing EMH at MK while you went to bed so you could wake up early for rope drop. Plus we go for two weeks so I don't have to worry about getting it all done before the end of the week.

We found more stuff just wandering around instead of planning every little thing. I find you see more when you are not going from A to B on the 'Plan'. One tends to block out all but the objective.

All we use to plan was a TS every night. A lot of them would end up at Epcot but we always get Hoppers and drive ourselves around the World. Disney Buses suck for that. I'd check out what the best park to go to for that day of week and we'd be off. Somehow managed to get all the big stuff in without planing within an inch of my life. You had to plan a bit for Disney in the past and I bet your friends just showed up without an once of research.

Reading all these boards and Facebook pages it is quite apparent Cropper that we both fall into either the love or hate side of the FP+ issue. Even then I don't think it's just FP+ but a series of things that has lead to this point. I'm glad it appeals to you, it just doesn't for us anymore. It's too bad, I remember saving for years to get there because we wanted to go back so bad. I'm actually a bit lost without a WDW trip on the horizon. Gotta come up with something new. Haven't told the wife but DL is starting to look good.

Like I said before, more room for the rest of you Disney freaks.

 

[NMAmy]

I totally agree with the OP. It was almost like a full time job planning our recent WDW vacation. It was stressful and I HATE planning where I will be at a certain time months in advance. It is a VACATION for heaven's sake!!!!! Our recent vacation was more planned than a normal day. Normally as soon as we get home from WDW we are planning when we will go again. Not this time. We don't have plans to return any time soon, if ever again. This is coming from a family that used to go almost every year. I so miss the old Disney

We feel the same way. We've been going every year since 2000, staying for 1 to 2 weeks. Last March, the Universal part of our vacation was great--the WDW portion really sucked in comparison. Long lines, crabby cast members and guests and no really compelling new attractions--no thanks. No more for us for awhile.

We're trying to decide what to do for spring break this year--maybe Universal for a couple days to check out the new Harry Potter attractions and then a few days in St. Augustine. Or we may go to New Orleans instead.

 

[maxiesmom]

Rides that I have never seen crazy standby lines now have them, Living with the Land had a 20 minute standby, REALLY?

If you are indeed a grumpy old timer you would remember that Living With The Land use to have huge lines all of the time. Pre Soarin it took forever to get on LWTL. I think many of us have gotten hugely spoiled by FP and FP+.

 

[ndfan]

I am on my way now on a "spur of the moment"(only a couple of weeks of planning) and I have found fp+ to be great and have been able to get fp for everything we wanted except tsm.... For us we always go in with an idea of which parks we wanted to do so there hasn't really been that much more added stress or planning involved

 

[Shaden]

I am on my way now on a "spur of the moment"(only a couple of weeks of planning) and I have found fp+ to be great and have been able to get fp for everything we wanted except tsm.... For us we always go in with an idea of which parks we wanted to do so there hasn't really been that much more added stress or planning involved

The irony here is that so many people point to FP+ as being better than FP particularly because of TSMM ... because they can "get" it without having to go to RD.

 

[mom2rtk]

The irony here is that so many people point to FP+ as being better than FP particularly because of TSMM ... because they can "get" it without having to go to RD.

Yeah. What a shame they blew up the FP system over one ride.

OK, so maybe they didn't. But sometimes it feels that way.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

For our last trip I loved FP and ADR hunting, when I booked at 100+ days out. For this trip, which I booked T 39 days out, I am loathing it. I have secured every FP I want, but had to overlap a few leaving my window for our family to ride SDMT at 15 minutes long. We'll make it work but that is really micromanaging where we have to be. For us though the ADRs have been the nightmare. We've secured none of the hard to get ones, searching round the clock. I considered this trip a test to see if a semi-spontaneous trip was still viable for us. The early result has been a resounding no. We'll see what happens when we get there.

 

[Suvadoo]

For our last trip I loved FP and ADR hunting, when I booked at 100+ days out. For this trip, which I booked T 39 days out, I am loathing it. I have secured every FP I want, but had to overlap a few leaving my window for our family to ride SDMT at 15 minutes long. We'll make it work but that is really micromanaging where we have to be. For us though the ADRs have been the nightmare. We've secured none of the hard to get ones, searching round the clock. I considered this trip a test to see if a semi-spontaneous trip was still viable for us. The early result has been a resounding no. We'll see what happens when we get there.

You have a really unique perspective. You see the good and bad about FP+. The thing that bothers me the most is when people love FP+ and just can't understand why others hate it. I think it all depends on your touring style. IMO FP+ needs to be deleted.

 

[Csaks]

If you are indeed a grumpy old timer you would remember that Living With The Land use to have huge lines all of the time. Pre Soarin it took forever to get on LWTL. I think many of us have gotten hugely spoiled by FP and FP+.

Old timer as in 2001, I don't count the times when I was a kid.

 

[Me!Thatswho]

We just came back from a quick, last-minute booked trip. It was our first time with only having FP+ as an option. On our last trip, we piloted FP+, but still had FP available in all parks. Actually, if memory serves me correctly, I think Disney pulled out the FP machines out of Animal Kingdom on the last day of our trip. But I digress..

Without question, this trip was miserable because we hit what my DS14 called the trifecta of evil: 1) crowds (much heavier than we expected), 2) the weather (FYI: we were there for Tuesdays downpours), and 3) FP+. During our many trips to WDW, we have dealt with the crowds (two trips to WDW over NYE) and the weather (have experienced everything from heat & humidity to near freezing temps) and it never bothered us. We were always able to roll with the punches, change things/parks on the fly, and, over the course of a trip, do and see everything we wanted to do. But now, with the limitations of FP+ thrown into the mix, we actually accomplished less per day than we ever have in the past - even during NYE.

Our touring style has always been commando: 10+ rides (including all of the headliners, most multiple times), at least one major show (re: Little Mermaid, Nemo, etc) and several of the non-ride attractions (re: Country Bear, Tiki Birds, etc.) per park day. Not this trip. We only managed about 6 rides and one non-ride attraction per day, and skipped over the shows because we were tired of waiting in line. For the first time ever, we spent more time at the resorts than in the parks. We had more fun riding the monorail or the boats in order to see the different Christmas decorations at the resorts (many of which we have seen several times) or swim at the pool than waiting in the standby lines.

I'm sorry, 30 minutes for Journey into Imagination or 40 minutes for the Haunted Mansion means Disney is no longer a good value in terms of our time or our money.

Speaking of money, I have read many people speculate that one of the factors behind the MB & FP+ was to somehow coerce people to spent more money because they will spend less time riding rides. Ironically we spent the least amount of money on this trip per day that we ever have before. For a family of 4, we spent $100 per day solely on food and drinks. This was because a) we honestly couldn't find anything special thanks to the drastic reduction in the variety of souvenir options, and b) we were unable to get any ADRs at the restaurants we usually like to eat at and, because we were tired of waiting in lines already, we were unwilling to wait at a sit-down in hopes of last minute availability.

Like others have said, we have decided this will be our last trip to WDW for a few years, depending on whether/when the new Star Wars and Pixar attractions will be built. And, even though we live in Massachusetts and Florida is only two and half hours away by plane, we will be returning to either DL or DLP to get our Disney fix. The simple truth of the matter is that sitting on a plane for six hours to go some where to have a few days of fun (no FP+, no ADRs, no planning) is definitely more appealing to us than sitting in line six hours for have a few minutes of fun.

 

[famy27]

For our last trip I loved FP and ADR hunting, when I booked at 100+ days out. For this trip, which I booked T 39 days out, I am loathing it. I have secured every FP I want, but had to overlap a few leaving my window for our family to ride SDMT at 15 minutes long. We'll make it work but that is really micromanaging where we have to be. For us though the ADRs have been the nightmare. We've secured none of the hard to get ones, searching round the clock. I considered this trip a test to see if a semi-spontaneous trip was still viable for us. The early result has been a resounding no. We'll see what happens when we get there.

My experience is very similar. Our first trip with FP+ was October 2013, with access to paper FP, no tiers, and tons of flexibility, even same-day. We loved it. The tiers turned me off and then only three per day from Jan-Apr was even worse. The 4th FP made it more tolerable in June and August, but our Sept trip was last-minute and really highlighted the weaknesses of the system. WE couldn't get two overlapping FPs for TSMM for any day of our trip at 16 days out. This is a six-year old ride. Ridiculous. I did get A&E eventually after stalking the system, but that is way more planning than I really wanted to do.

I pointed out in the DLR thread that I had to plan my June WDW trip before I planned my March DLR trip. One of my co-workers planned a 12-day trip to Europe about 30 days out. She didn't have to worry that the Louvre or Eifel Tower were "sold out" at 60 or 180 days in advance. I'm just not loving the direction Disney is taking here.

 

[Shaden]

Speaking of money, I have read many people speculate that one of the factors behind the MB & FP+ was to somehow coerce people to spent more money because they will spend less time riding rides. Ironically we spent the least amount of money on this trip per day that we ever have before.

A) very interesting report, and I very much understand why you would have experienced what you did, and why you would feel the way you do. The great thing about legacy FP was that, each an every day every person was on equal footing, and could adjust what they wanted to do based on how they felt that day. Now, you are competing against what has been booked up for the last 60 days.

B) As per the quite above ... this is NOT speculation, this has been the stated goal by Disney execs in interviews to Forbes, and Shareholder conference calls. This is the purpose of FP+ in particular. To 1) Lock you in, spending more of your Orlando money in WDW than other attractions and 2) Increase the amount you spend in the parks by not standing in line and, though not stated, by spreading out your FPs by the hour, ensuring you stay in the parks at least that amount of time. ... also the bands are apparently increasing the propensity to spend...

 

[anniemae]

You know, I kept wonder what was bothering me so much about Disney now, and a pp nailed it on the head. It is about the value for the money. You pay an enormous amount of money to go to Disney, just to get into the park. Never mind the hotel, flights, food etc. But to enter the park, it is very expensive. Now, I don't mind paying for something if it is worth it, but to pay that amount of money to fight crowds, wait in long lines for rides like figment etc. I have to wonder if it is worth it.

It just seems like you pay more money to ride less rides and get lower quality food, service etc.

 

[Csaks]

A) very interesting report, and I very much understand why you would have experienced what you did, and why you would feel the way you do. The great thing about legacy FP was that, each an every day every person was on equal footing, and could adjust what they wanted to do based on how they felt that day. Now, you are competing against what has been booked up for the last 60 days.

B) As per the quite above ... this is NOT speculation, this has been the stated goal by Disney execs in interviews to Forbes, and Shareholder conference calls. This is the purpose of FP+ in particular. To 1) Lock you in, spending more of your Orlando money in WDW than other attractions and 2) Increase the amount you spend in the parks by not standing in line and, though not stated, by spreading out your FPs by the hour, ensuring you stay in the parks at least that amount of time. ... also the bands are apparently increasing the propensity to spend...

I think the bean counters have screwed that one up. We also have spent less during our trips lately and have increased our Universal days. And now are probably not going back for a long while.
These guys keep opening more and more stores yet they stock them all with the same stuff. Seen one store you've seen them all. I'm loving it, our keepsakes spending has gone way down.

 

[MelissathePooh]

Let me preface this by saying I am thrilled that some people are going and loving the whole new set up, but yeah for our family it has become one giant crowded micromanaged monster.

We stopped at Fort Wilderness last Sunday to go by the Trading Post to pick up a pin my husband wanted. The gate CM would not let us in - not to just drive back to the Trading Post and leave - not allowed. She told us to go back and park at MK if we wanted to go to the parks??? We have an AP - we can park for free if we wanted to go to MK and we sure as heck would pick an easier resort if we were just trying to avoid the MK parking lot. She was not going to let us in for any reason. I'm not sure if she would have for a dining reservation, but she made us turn around and leave.

So we did and my husband emailed Disney a lengthy complaint with a picture of us at Universal telling them where we went to spend our money It was enough that Disney actually called back and said they were putting one of the pins back for him to pick up that Tuesday. It was a special Humphrey Bear pin and he collects all things Humphrey. At any rate we went back after we checked out of Universal and had that same gate CM - she gave us a hard time again and we said simply she could let us in or call her manager. She did and we went back to the Trading Post and got the pin finally. The whole thing was just ridiculous though.

Counter that with the employees at Universal that INSISTED on replacing a $90 sweater I had just purchased for my son after my daughter spilled her pumpkin juice on it. They replaced the sweater with a new one AND gave my daughter another pumpkin juice - all at their request after they saw what had happened. I didn't ask - they saw it and swooped in to "make this right, it is our pleasure" was the phrase the lady said. Disney has just turned into a lowest common denominator kind of place.

 

[Shaden]

Let me preface this by saying I am thrilled that some people are going and loving the whole new set up, but yeah for our family it has become one giant crowded micromanaged monster.

We stopped at Fort Wilderness last Sunday to go by the Trading Post to pick up a pin my husband wanted. The gate CM would not let us in - not to just drive back to the Trading Post and leave - not allowed. She told us to go back and park at MK if we wanted to go to the parks??? We have an AP - we can park for free if we wanted to go to MK and we sure as heck would pick an easier resort if we were just trying to avoid the MK parking lot. She was not going to let us in for any reason. I'm not sure if she would have for a dining reservation, but she made us turn around and leave.

So we did and my husband emailed Disney a lengthy complaint with a picture of us at Universal telling them where we went to spend our money It was enough that Disney actually called back and said they were putting one of the pins back for him to pick up that Tuesday. It was a special Humphrey Bear pin and he collects all things Humphrey. At any rate we went back after we checked out of Universal and had that same gate CM - she gave us a hard time again and we said simply she could let us in or call her manager. She did and we went back to the Trading Post and got the pin finally. The whole thing was just ridiculous though.

Counter that with the employees at Universal that INSISTED on replacing a $90 sweater I had just purchased for my son after my daughter spilled her pumpkin juice on it. They replaced the sweater with a new one AND gave my daughter another pumpkin juice - all at their request after they saw what had happened. I didn't ask - they saw it and swooped in to "make this right, it is our pleasure" was the phrase the lady said. Disney has just turned into a lowest common denominator kind of place.

First time I have done this in .... 4... 5 years (depending how you count them) ... I just put in a request for a quote from a TA for the last 4 or 5 days of our upcoming planned WDW vacation in May ...

We haven't been to Universal in 5 years ... but ... with how stuff has been going at WDW ... its looking like it might be a solid option.

 

[MelissathePooh]

First time I have done this in .... 4... 5 years (depending how you count them) ... I just put in a request for a quote from a TA for the last 4 or 5 days of our upcoming planned WDW vacation in May ...

We haven't been to Universal in 5 years ... but ... with how stuff has been going at WDW ... its looking like it might be a solid option.

I won't lie, our family prefers the experience at Universal now. We don't go for more than 3 nights and it isn't the same as Disney, but they don't try to be. What Universal has held strong to is that too much is not a good thing. Yes they built a new "value" resort, but they did not give that resort FOTL. They have kept that contained to the 3 onsite hotels or the number they sell. Add to that the resorts are far nicer than anything on Disney property and much more reasonably priced.

I think that makes a difference in the attitude of the guests as well. Everyone there knows exactly what they were willing to pay for a particular experience so there is no sense of competition to see who can get the most above everyone else.

The Universal employees reflect that - way less stressed out than Disney, but the guests always seem way less stressed out. Obviously this is our personal experience, but it comes from a family who has been on these boards since 2000, DVC since 2002 and multiple trips per year since 1998. Not to say anything except - we've been going to Disney for a long enough time to see all the ups and downs and changes.