Here now and loving MM+ and FP+

[wdwfreak]

We're in The World now (on our way to the Studios) and we love the Magic Bands and FP+. I was skeptical before we left because I had heard a lot of negativity about the whole "MM+ mess." I gotta say, after using for three days we love it!

Having the magic bands is so much easier than fumbling for room keys, tickets, IDs, etc. we haven't waited more than 10-15 minutes in any FP line and, yes, they appear every bit as long and daunting as the infamous Twitter pics from a few months back. Don't believe it! Once you're in them they move FAST! It's because you line up outside instead of inside like you used to,

We were at Epcot one day and realized we didn't need the FPs we had scheduled so with the help of a cast member we were able to easily cancel those and schedule ones for MK later in the day.

Granted we are staying onsite so we could book our FPs in advance and haven't had to wait in any of the kiosk lines. Those don't look fun. We are also at each park at rope drop. This is Spring Break after all.

We also haven't had any problems making changes or getting rides and times we want for the same day, We did have to stop at the front desk one day because my daughter'a MB wasn't working on our door lock. But it just took a couple of minutes to fix.

Maybe we're just lucky but the new system has worked great for us. We actually prefer it to the old system. We love scheduling the times we want. We also haven't found that we have much downtime waiting for the next FP window. There are plenty of rides and attractions in each park that are walk ons.

Also, as far as the contention that you won't be able to ride rides multiple times without FP+, it's not entirely true. We rode Everest 3 times and Dinosaur twice at AK, ToT three times at HS and Mermaid and Space each three times at MK.

I can only speak for me and my party but we are really happy with how this has all worked out.

If anyone has any questions I'll do my best to answer them.

 

[Jemmi1218]

We got back Friday and loved it too! Glad there are others who love the new system. The more we post the positive the less negative we will see on here! I like the new system so much better than the old! Glad you are having a great trip.

 

[Ryansdad0727]

We just got back and loved the magic bands. They make everything so easy. I also like FP+ as far as not having to run around collecting FP. I wish they would add 1 or 2 for on site guests or DVC members.

 

[m&m's mom]

Agreed- we just got back yesterday and I would rate it an A-. It would have been just a A if the wi-fi did not cause us to drop off a few crucial times and I had to go stand in the FP+ line but they were very nice and made sure I was happy.
Loved having rook keys and tickets and FP so accessible.

 

[butterfly71076]

We were there 3/1-3/8 and only had one hiccup on our last day with FP+. Otherwise, I loved having the MB too. It was so easy, just scan your band and go. It was great! Especially getting back to the room, loaded down with bags and a tired, cranky child, he would perk up because he wanted to open the door with his band. Our FP+ worked fine, the DDP was not a problem, and charging to the room was perfect!

 

[CarlaLovesDisney]

I'm glad to see a happy account of fp+! It seems that everyone hates it.

 

[Ted C]

I think a lot of what people were hating were the glitches in the system. Literally every single day they are making progress towards being more and more stable which is a good thing I more than sure IT is working 24/7. Glad you had a nice trip.

 

[athumann]

We were there just last week and were huge fans of both the magic bands and FP+!

 

[Tasmen]

This is great news. I'm being cautiously optimistic about our upcoming trip.

 

[Kate and Family]

For those of you who made changes in the park - what type of smart phone did you use? (and did you have problems)

 

[wdwfreak]

For those of you who made changes in the park - what type of smart phone did you use? (and did you have problems)

I used an iphone. It worked well with a few exceptions like when I couldn't get a signal but i think that was more an issue of my provider coverage than the wifi. There were a few attractions with limited times (Toy Story Mania and Enchanted Tales with Belle) as well.

 

[Robo]

I used an iphone. It worked well with a few exceptions like when I couldn't get a signal but i think that was more an issue of my provider coverage than the wifi. There were a few attractions with limited times (Toy Story Mania and Enchanted Tales with Belle) as well.

If you were in a park and the WiFi was working well, you would not have needed "provider coverage."

 

[wdwfreak]

If you were in a park and the WiFi was working well, you would not have needed "provider coverage."

True. I misspoke. Thank you for the correction.

 

[Junebugwv]

I am amazed that there has been such colossal improvements in FP+ since our 10-day trip that ended Mar. 7th. Good news.

 

[laceemouse]

We were there last week and loved the MBs and FP+ also. My daughter has a Droid and did everything on her phone, no problem. We LOVED getting a FP+ for TSMM on the day we needed it while standing in AK! Never could have done that with the old system

 

[rastuso]

We're in The World now (on our way to the Studios) and we love the Magic Bands and FP+. I was skeptical before we left because I had heard a lot of negativity about the whole "MM+ mess." I gotta say, after using for three days we love it!

Having the magic bands is so much easier than fumbling for room keys, tickets, IDs, etc. we haven't waited more than 10-15 minutes in any FP line and, yes, they appear every bit as long and daunting as the infamous Twitter pics from a few months back. Don't believe it! Once you're in them they move FAST! It's because you line up outside instead of inside like you used to,

We were at Epcot one day and realized we didn't need the FPs we had scheduled so with the help of a cast member we were able to easily cancel those and schedule ones for MK later in the day.

Granted we are staying onsite so we could book our FPs in advance and haven't had to wait in any of the kiosk lines. Those don't look fun. We are also at each park at rope drop. This is Spring Break after all.

We also haven't had any problems making changes or getting rides and times we want for the same day, We did have to stop at the front desk one day because my daughter'a MB wasn't working on our door lock. But it just took a couple of minutes to fix.

Maybe we're just lucky but the new system has worked great for us. We actually prefer it to the old system. We love scheduling the times we want. We also haven't found that we have much downtime waiting for the next FP window. There are plenty of rides and attractions in each park that are walk ons.

Also, as far as the contention that you won't be able to ride rides multiple times without FP+, it's not entirely true. We rode Everest 3 times and Dinosaur twice at AK, ToT three times at HS and Mermaid and Space each three times at MK.

I can only speak for me and my party but we are really happy with how this has all worked out.

If anyone has any questions I'll do my best to answer them.

Riding Space 3 times is nice, and I've not seen ANYONE else say the line for it is short enough for that, so I'm a bit intrigued on how you did that without spending a large part of your day in Space's line. I'm assuming it was during EMH, or you dedicated a RD to it? Or, the park wasn't busy that day, which makes your "love" of FP+ sorta meaningless.

What in this writeup do you believe was only doable because of FP+? Dinosaur and Mermaid are known as walkons.

Yes, you can get one park's FP+ while being in another park. But is the ease of doing that really all it takes for you to "love" FP+?

How do you believe FP+ improved your WDW trip? To preface that, do you like to ride rides, or is that not in your touring style? Those questions are key in really getting an idea of if your post impacts others' future trips.

-Jason

 

[edistopluto]

We used both in first week of December. We loved it and everyone we talked to with the bands had a good experience. Our FP's were easy to make and we changed a couple of times. We were at the BC and I think they were having a test period. The convenience was great and the less I have to take into the parks the better. In my case it was my iPhone and nothing else.

 

[rastuso]

We used both in first week of December. We loved it and everyone we talked to with the bands had a good experience. Our FP's were easy to make and we changed a couple of times. We were at the BC and I think they were having a test period. The convenience was great and the less I have to take into the parks the better. In my case it was my iPhone and nothing else.

Any experience last year really doesn't compare to now. And even now really doesn't compare to what it will be like once everyone is well aware of prebooking, including off-site folks, which are a HUGE number.

Let alone if the rumors are true about tiering coming to the MK once Dwarf Hill opens.

-Jason

 

[wdwfreak]

Riding Space 3 times is nice, and I've not seen ANYONE else say the line for it is short enough for that, so I'm a bit intrigued on how you did that without spending a large part of your day in Space's line. I'm assuming it was during EMH, or you dedicated a RD to it? Or, the park wasn't busy that day, which makes your "love" of FP+ sorta meaningless. What in this writeup do you believe was only doable because of FP+? Dinosaur and Mermaid are known as walkons. Yes, you can get one park's FP+ while being in another park. But is the ease of doing that really all it takes for you to "love" FP+? How do you believe FP+ improved your WDW trip? To preface that, do you like to ride rides, or is that not in your touring style? Those questions are key in really getting an idea of if your post impacts others' future trips. -Jason

I love FP+ because I like to plan. Because we never waited more than 10 or 15 minutes. Because we never had to send a runner. That's why. My love of the system is certainly not "meaningless" as you so eloquently put it. We rode Space Mountain at RD, using a FP and right before close in the same day. I didn't say it was in a row. We've ridden a ton of rides, at least 15-20 per day. And crowds are not light. I also didn't say FP+ allowed us to ride 3 times. I said I prefer it over the old system. We weren't digging around for FP tickets. We had no problems with the scanners and the lines moved fast.

 

[rastuso]

Well, my "meaningless" comment was obviously stating that if you were getting rides due to low crowds, FP+ was meaningless in that.

And, since one of the big items you state as why you love FP+ was that you rode Space 3 times, yet then say that 2 of those were RD and right before close, when Space is almost always a walkon, I am still struggling to see what made FP+ so amazing.

If it is nothing more than the normal: no more running (may or may not be different in teh big scheme of things), change 3 rides on the fly (for now), and no more fumbling for keys (which most people didn't really suffer from), then when I see folks say "thank goodness, FP+ is still going to be amazing", I fear for them.

I don't think there is any argument that FP+ and the MBs change a lot of minor things during your visit. HOWEVER, I really have yet to see anyone coming back now with a "we loved FP+" opinion say anything that makes me believe FP+ has improved anything regarding getting lots of rides. And I certainly see very little evidence proving FP+ has NOT lessened the ride situation for everyone except those who are happy with only 3 rides a day.

I would still love to see anyone who has been there in the past month or so give a report showing us all how FP+ improved (or even did NOT decrease) the number of rides that they got on rides that have historically been known to have long lines during the same time period.

When I see a report such as that, it would fundamentally change my beliefs about FP+. I am begging anyone to show us the real silver lining, and it just seems to not really be there.

You state you've ridden 15-20 rides a day. Quite frankly, if you know how to use FP+ to get to that result, every FP+ hater on the DIS is BEGGING you to tell us what we are missing here.

-Jason