Here it is - Announcement re More FP+ Beginning 4/28

[jade1]

So what if we miss a fast pass reservation? Like for whatever reason you don't physically swipe your magic band and go to a meet and greet or onto a ride. If it's 2 PM and you have passed all your FP reservations time wise, but didn't physically go to one, does that still count as "using" it?

If I think we need to take a break or want to eat I don't really want to feel like I absolutely have to be at my FP reservation or I won't be able to book more later in the day (assuming there's anything left I suppose).

Does that make any sort of sense?? In a way I really like the pre-booking thing but this is all very confusing

I think if you miss a FP, you can reschedule it after the time elapses anyway. I hope someone corrects me if I'm wrong on that!

I am curious about how this will work as well.

Like ArwenMarie says-just change the 3rd to what you want-you have the advantage of making the change earlier and from an app, otherwise you lose time and have to visit a kiosk.

Losing/skipping the 3rd just means the 4th would become the "3rd" anyway-you only used 2 in your example.

 

[Kelly014]

No, you have to of had all 3 expire and you must have actually used 1 of them. They aren't going to let people who aren't even using them, make more.

Gotcha. Thanks!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I am confused a bit with park hopping.

Right now I am park hopping for example I will be at AK in the morning and HS afternoon evening. I have fp+ for HS in the afternoon. Does that mean I still cannot get fp+ for AK, my morning park?

Man I would be happy just even getting one fp at AK... but I do not want to lose my fp at HS to get it.

 

[delmar411]

I am confused a bit with park hopping.

Right now I am park hopping for example I will be at AK in the morning and HS afternoon evening. I have fp+ for HS in the afternoon. Does that mean I still cannot get fp+ for AK, my morning park?

Man I would be happy just even getting one fp at AK... but I do not want to lose my fp at HS to get it.

Correct. No FP will be available to you at AK.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I am confused a bit with park hopping.

Right now I am park hopping for example I will be at AK in the morning and HS afternoon evening. I have fp+ for HS in the afternoon. Does that mean I still cannot get fp+ for AK, my morning park?

Man I would be happy just even getting one fp at AK... but I do not want to lose my fp at HS to get it.

Under this system you still cannot get a FP at AK in the morning.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Bah this sucks, I really should be able to get a fp for my morning park and still keep my fp for my afternoon/evening park when I really need it.

 

[wallskm]

Well this is interesting. We will be there Monday, it's our 2nd park day of 7. I initially planned all afternoon/evening fast passes and I am not entirely sure I want to mess with them. What to do?

 

[morethananyonex]

I'll preface this by saying this is all just speculation, and I hope I'm not wrong, but these are my thoughts...

FP- was so wonderful for those of us who utilized it fully because even though it was pretty obvious how to do so many people chose not to for whatever reason. I don't see a significant number of people putting the effort into fully utilizing FP+ either. For a large number of the Disney population, the 3 prebooked FP are good enough for them. They aren't going to arrive at rope drop if they weren't going to before. They aren't going to research how to tour efficiently if they didn't before.

Rope drop has always, always been the most efficient way to tour. That's not limited to Disney either, it's a pretty general rule and common sense that arriving early somewhere is best. Rolling FP is not going to encourage the masses of people who don't get to the parks early to do so. If the low crowds weren't incentive enough FP+ won't be either.

The real worry is people like us. The ones who know enough and are motivated enough to use that knowledge. We can screw up rope drop if our numbers are large enough. Time will tell.

 

[jrjankowski8]

After hearing this I though I'd have to change some things, but now that I think about it, I'm just going to leave it as is. Sure you could book all morning FP+, but then your 4,5,6.... are a crap shoot and possible that nothing of worth is available in the evening.

And if I had the option to book morning or evening as a person in the general public. I'd book mid day. That's based on the theory that makes rope drop less crowded than the rest of the day. I think that still carries through.

My concern is that, once people do their first 3, that will cause issues with the next ones and people will take the small world, philharmagic, etc because its all thats left. Therefore the bottom rung rides will be backed up later in the evening. For me, those are the rides you ride when it's crowded.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I'll preface this by saying this is all just speculation, and I hope I'm not wrong, but these are my thoughts...

FP- was so wonderful for those of us who utilized it fully because even though it was pretty obvious how to do so many people chose not to for whatever reason. I don't see a significant number of people putting the effort into fully utilizing FP+ either. For a large number of the Disney population, the 3 prebooked FP are good enough for them. They aren't going to arrive at rope drop if they weren't going to before. They aren't going to research how to tour efficiently if they didn't before.

Rope drop has always, always been the most efficient way to tour. That's not limited to Disney either, it's a pretty general rule and common sense that arriving early somewhere is best. Rolling FP is not going to encourage the masses of people who don't get to the parks early to do so. If the low crowds weren't incentive enough FP+ won't be either.

The real worry is people like us. The ones who know enough and are motivated enough to use that knowledge. We can screw up rope drop if our numbers are large enough. Time will tell.

Are we going to plan a party? I'm pretty sure there are at least 12 of us we could count on for sure. I'd be all in if it means we could screw up rope drop! Just make sure it's after Avatar opens because that is the only time we'll be back.

 

[dramadrew]

I'll be going in less than two weeks so I am hoping since this is so fresh, most visitors won't catch on to this change. I feel some average Joes may still be figuring out FP+ in general. Most of my fastpasses are in the first part of the day. I'm content with my choices. If the lines are short and I am able to get another fastpass, then great. If not, well I already picked my top choices.

 

[ArwenMarie]

No, you have to of had all 3 expire and you must have actually used 1 of them. They aren't going to let people who aren't even using them, make more.

Not arguing, but where did it say these specifics?

 

[Praying Colonel]

Wow, best of both worlds!

No FP limit and the ability to park hop should make the commandos happy and pre-booking still available should make those that want to sleep in happy.

Curious to see how this affects touring. I used the rope drop, afternoon break, nighttime FP+ strategy and loved it. Will the mornings require FP now?

Well, not so much, at least in my case.

Part of the "commando playbook" is taking advantage of low standby waits early in the morning. IMHO this is going to make standby waits longer in the morning.

It encourages people to burn through their FP+s as quickly as possible in order to get the additional FP+s. This is especially true if one can draw a 4th FP for a Tier 1 attraction that would otherwise be blocked out (e.g., TSM if you pre-booked RnRC).

With more people using early FP+ in the morning, it will make the standby waits longer for those attractions in the morning than they would've been otherwise.

So there's a benefit you get from the subsequent FP, but a trade-off in morning standby wait time. How much are you giving back? Remains to be seen, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[morethananyonex]

Are we going to plan a party? I'm pretty sure there are at least 12 of us we could count on for sure. I'd be all in if it means we could screw up rope drop! Just make sure it's after Avatar opens because that is the only time we'll be back.

If we get the whole team FP+ haters on board we might have almost 20 people !! Let's start planning.

 

[Mad Hattered]

If we get the whole team FP+ haters on board we might have almost 20 people !! Let's start planning.

Oh, I think there are more than 20 of us. We could even have t-shirts made!!

 

[MrInfinity]

I've recently made my FP reservations and have decided against changing them in the hope of getting more later in the day. My logic is that I am happy that the attractions and times I have picked will save us time. If I have to stack them together and use a FP for Space Mountain at 9.05 am when I could have walked on so that I can hope to get the Barnstormer at 5 pm as my fourth one then the first 'good' FP I had, really had no value .... can you see where I'm going with this?

I think it may work for some better than others. I guess I'm just tired of planning now and want to close the schedule book so I can give my head a rest before we arrive on vacation

I agree here. It's not worth switching your 12- 1- and 2- FP's which will save you an hour each to 9- 10- and 11- to save 10 or 30 min, all to hope to get something mediocre later in the day. You could have had headliners in the busiest times quickly. I think all this change is really going to do is make Rope Drop less beneficial as some ppl will push theirs up in the day.

To all the Commandos rejoicing, I just don't see this as a "return to FP-". It is sort of like that, yet totally different because the main benefit to FP- was that it was only used by 20% of the guests. Now, almost 100% of guests are pulling 3 FPs months ahead of all the rope-dropper commandos. The availability is not going to be anything at all like the days of FP-.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I agree here. It's not worth switching your 12- 1- and 2- FP's which will save you an hour each to 9- 10- and 11- to save 10 or 30 min, all to hope to get something mediocre later in the day. You could have had headliners in the busiest times quickly. I think all this change is really going to do is make Rope Drop less beneficial as some ppl will push theirs up in the day.

To all the Commandos rejoicing, I just don't see this as a "return to FP-". It is sort of like that, yet totally different because the main benefit to FP- was that it was only used by 20% of the guests. Now, almost 100% of guests are pulling 3 FPs months ahead of all the rope-dropper commandos. The availability is not going to be anything at all like the days of FP-.

Uhhhhh....we are? I still very much hate FP+....just so we are clear. And yes, we know it's not returning to it's glory days. We know almost 100% of the people are using it. That is why we hate it.

I'm headed to Moe's Tavern now. It should be an interesting read to catch up on later.

 

[ilovemk76]

But can you use the 4th (why isn't it more than 4 total?) in another park from where you used your previous 3?

Did you read the short article?

" Guests will also be able to select and use their additional FastPass+ entitlements when they hop from park to park."

 

[Mad Hattered]

Did you read the short article?

" Guests will also be able to select and use their additional FastPass+ entitlements when they hop from park to park."

Did you read my reply about 3 posts after I posted that?

 

[morethananyonex]

Like FP-, this will probably work really well at MK and AK. Decent, dare I say good FP- options were available at those parks well into the day. I imagine FP+ will be similar. We all know why it won't work nicely most times of the year at Epcot and DHS, but FP- were harder to get later into the day there too.