Here now, lovin' the MagicBands, a warning about FP+ and the tiered system...

[Magpie]

Just finished our first full day of touring!

Here's what we've experienced so far:

1. I apparently have teeny tiny wrists. Fortunately the MagicBand can be sized down. Once I did that, I found it very comfortable to wear. Not hot, or irritating in any way.

2. It works great as a room key. Much more convenient than the old swipe cards, slightly more convenient than the RFID cards.

3. Chose not to link a credit card on ours, as it's just too tempting to overspend.

4. No problems with park entry. Super fast and easy! Better than the old turnstiles, imo.

5. Easy to scan, for Extra Magic Hours ride confirmation.

Now, for the glitch. We've planned to go to a recommended park in the morning, leaving our FP+ selections for a more crowded park in the afternoon. Today, that meant Animal Kingdom in the morning, and Hollywood Studios in the evening.

I had booked Beauty and the Beast, followed by Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania.

Beauty and the Beast was a complete waste of a FP+ (no reserved seating), which I already knew it would be. On the other hand, we did want to see it, so I didn't bother trying to change it. They didn't even bother scanning our bands. We showed up early, got great seats, and had a wonderful time.

Then we went to Tower of Terror and got the blue ring of death. The castmember at the entrance was spectacularly unhelpful, saying that she could let us in but that might mess up our Toy Story FP. She sent us around the corner to a FP+ kiosk. We were a little grumpy about that, but fortunately there was a wonderful customer service rep standing right there at the kiosk.

She explained that because I had been terribly proactive and made my FP+ selections two months ago, before the tiered system was in place, it was causing all of our FP+ in that park to come up as errors. Then she said, "I will fix this, for tonight and for the rest of your vacation."

Ah, that's what you want to hear!

She said we didn't have to wait, and she had a young lady take us back to the Tower of Terror where the (still dubious) castmember let us in.

Had a terrific ride!

When we got out, we decided we'd best confirm that everything was fixed, so we went back to the kiosk. There was a new customer service guy there, and he checked our account and said it all looked fine, but just to be safe we should take a picture of the page with our ride selections on it and have that with us when we went to check in at the ride entrance.

We did that, but didn't need it at Toy Story Mania - green lights all the way!

Now, with luck, this means it's all fixed. But, just in case, we plan to carry a picture of our current day's itinerary with us.

SO, if you're like us, and made FP+ selections for either HS or Epcot before the tiered system went into effect, I'd recommend checking in with Guest Services when you arrive. They're aware of the problem, they have what appears to be a simple and quick fix, and you'll save yourself some hassle.

BTW, you'll also get to keep all your pre-tiered choices!

Also, lines are short, guests are happy, saw LOTS of "glow with the show" ears, "feels crowded" (of course!), and actually witnessed a mallard have a close call with a hawk. Or possibly the hawk had a close call with a duck, as even though it attacked first it looked like the duck defended herself by trying to drown it.

Fortunately, no ducks or hawks were harmed in the course of this vacation.

 

[dsnymomof4]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. We will be there in 10 days and also made selections before the tiers went into effect. Per your recommendation, I will make sure to check in with guest services before we have any problems. I also planned on taking a picture of our MDE itinerary before we go just in case. Sounds like overall you had a good experience with MBs.

 

[Karlzmom]

Thanks for the heads up! I already printed out each day's selections as I was concerned what might happen now that tiering is in place. I'll make sure I have them with me as we go.

 

[DebbieB]

A friend of mine arrived last night and she posted on her facebook tonight how much she is loving FP+. She said it seems too good to be true that you have fastpasses already reserved. She is like me, someone who has been there many times and will again so we aren't park commandos. So that may make a difference in satisfaction. We never pulled more than 3 FP per day before.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Wow, first I have heard of the tiers messing up pre-tier FPs. Glad you were able to get it fixed!

 

[ses1230]

Interesting how experiences are different. I did all my FP+ picks before tiering. We have already been to HS and Epcot and haven't had issues.

 

[baileybrad]

We also have RRC and TSM FP+ in place prior to tiering. Trip is less than 3 weeks away. Thanks for the information. Seems like the system is thinking too much in this situation.

Glad your trip was good.

 

[princessmocha]

I am so glad to hear of some good experiences with all of this. The doom and gloom of other posts has been driving me a little nutso . . . lol Can't wait to try out the system for myself in less than 3 weeks!

 

[Momtomouselover]

Glad to hear it is going well! Hope the magic continues.

I'm still not happy with the tier system and was also lucky to choose ours before it came into effect so thank you for the heads up. I have mixed feelings about FP+. When it is just my son and I we were able to get more than 3 FP's and that is really hard to give up but when I travel with a large group/family I think 3 reserved during the busy season will be a plus. I guess I just wish they had left it alone.

 

[princessmocha]

Glad to hear it is going well! Hope the magic continues.

I'm still not happy with the tier system and was also lucky to choose ours before it came into effect so thank you for the heads up. I have mixed feelings about FP+. When it is just my son and I we were able to get more than 3 FP's and that is really hard to give up but when I travel with a large group/family I think 3 reserved during the busy season will be a plus. I guess I just wish they had left it alone.

I completely agree with you. I am not sure how I feel about it. We never pulled a ton of FP in the past, probably close to 5 a day in MK and we aren't really commando park goers, but I always went in with a plan of sorts . . .

I am going to reserve judgement until I try it out myself. I loved the old FP system and sometimes I am very resistant to change! LOL

 

[FlipHipster]

Then we went to Tower of Terror and got the blue ring of death. The castmember at the entrance was spectacularly unhelpful, saying that she could let us in but that might mess up our Toy Story FP. She sent us around the corner to a FP+ kiosk. We were a little grumpy about that, but fortunately there was a wonderful customer service rep standing right there at the kiosk.

I agree with your MB experience, the bands were very cool, worked great. Being able to schedule FP in advance was pretty cool as well but the mobile app was next to useless for us trying to change FP+.

I am interested in your kiosk experience I haven't seen too many posts about them. I regret not trying to use one during our trip 2 weeks ago but we were able to pull FP- so we didn't sweat FP+ much at all. I didn't notice many kiosks but everyone I saw was guarded by at least 2 CM's. I wasn't sure what to make of that. Was the interface simple and easy to use or did it look like the mobile app, basically a re-skinned version of MDE?

I also will miss the legacy system. It's nice to schedule a few FP ahead of time, but I wish FP+ was an add-on perk for resort guests or a ticket upgrade. It seems to me it's inevitable that FP for headliners will become harder to get since there will be a much wider audience competing for them and you can only allocate so many FP per ride per day.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

We also loved the bands! We used them with the dining plan too and it was great!

The only issue we had was at Epcot and it was with the tiered fast pass +. We didn't have any issue until I tried to make a change, but a CM at Soarin helped us and wrote us a pass to use for the ride.

I really loved not having to rush around to get fast passes all over the parks. We actually slept in on a couple of days and still did everything that we wanted to do. It was so nice!

 

[fairestoneofall]

Thanks for the warning on the tiers causing issues. We have one day that this will come into play. Great information!!!

 

[KJF0528]

Thanks for the info. We too booked our FP+ prior to the tiered system being put in place. So good to know!

 

[Magpie]

I agree with your MB experience, the bands were very cool, worked great. Being able to schedule FP in advance was pretty cool as well but the mobile app was next to useless for us trying to change FP+.

Sadly, all we have is a Blackberry, which is beyond useless in the parks. There's no app and it only connects sporadically.

I am interested in your kiosk experience I haven't seen too many posts about them. I regret not trying to use one during our trip 2 weeks ago but we were able to pull FP- so we didn't sweat FP+ much at all. I didn't notice many kiosks but everyone I saw was guarded by at least 2 CM's. I wasn't sure what to make of that. Was the interface simple and easy to use or did it look like the mobile app, basically a re-skinned version of MDE?

We didn't do much with the kiosk, but what little we saw seemed extremely simple. Just walk up, tap your band to the reader, and your current day immediately pops up with all your FP+ listed for you. It looks very, very simple to use.

I also will miss the legacy system. It's nice to schedule a few FP ahead of time, but I wish FP+ was an add-on perk for resort guests or a ticket upgrade. It seems to me it's inevitable that FP for headliners will become harder to get since there will be a much wider audience competing for them and you can only allocate so many FP per ride per day.

I'm not sure how that would work, to be honest... the current Frankenstein/patchwork system doesn't seem to be managing very well at the moment. We got to Hollywood Studios at about 8:40 this morning, and ran right over to Toy Story Mania to ride when they opened the gates at 8:45. We walked right on then. But when we strolled past TSM at 9:30am, there was a small cluster of Disney management-types standing staring at the legacy machines, most of which were draped, and the return times which now said 8:30pm. Yes, the FPs were almost all distributed at half an hour past the official open. The Disney folks seemed to be having a discussion about this, but all I overheard was one woman saying, "Where there's a will, there's a way!"

Wouldn't I have loved to be a fly on the wall for that discussion!

I will say, it didn't seem busy at HS this morning. We walked onto pretty much everything we wanted to, and there were plenty of legacy FPs left for other rides like Star Tours.

 

[bumbershoot]

Interesting how experiences are different. I did all my FP+ picks before tiering. We have already been to HS and Epcot and haven't had issues.

And that's what makes it so confusing, and the reason "glitch" is used to describe it. It's not something you can consistently replicate. It just twitches every so often and throws up problems for one person that another person in the same situation doesn't experience. It's why "back up and try it again" has been my refrain for MDE/FP+ stuff.


Glad you're having a good time, Magpie!

 

[Scotch]

SO, if you're like us, and made FP+ selections for either HS or Epcot before the tiered system went into effect, I'd recommend checking in with Guest Services when you arrive. They're aware of the problem, they have what appears to be a simple and quick fix, and you'll save yourself some hassle.

BTW, you'll also get to keep all your pre-tiered choices!

I'll be in a similar situation for our trip. Where do I find Guest Services at HS? Thanks so much for the heads up! I'm wondering if I shouldn't just cancel and redo our HS FP+s just to avoid the headache and standing in line to wait for Guest Services during crazy Xmas week.

 

[LuvFFPlus]

I'll be in a similar situation for our trip. Where do I find Guest Services at HS? Thanks so much for the heads up! I'm wondering if I shouldn't just cancel and redo our HS FP+s just to avoid the headache and standing in line to wait for Guest Services during crazy Xmas week.

It's to the left of the entrance (If you face towards the entrance) towards the walking pathway back to the parking lot near the bathroom and the single security guard..

 

[Magpie]

One more update:

Still having an amazing time! By some lucky chance, all our timings are working out beautifully this trip - even on the busses! (I'm knocking on wood, right now. )

But our FP+ was not working at all, at the Magic Kingdom this evening. It didn't matter, however, as we'd followed the advice of the guest services lady from the previous night and taken a picture of our My Disney Experience page listing all our FP+ selections for the evening. Every time we walked up to the kiosk it'd flash blue, then we'd show our phone with the picture to the castmember, and they'd press a button, it'd flash green, and we were in!

So no hassle, but we'll probably stop by guest services at some convenient time tomorrow and see if they can sort out whatever the problem is.

And we won't be going anywhere without that all-important photo!

 

[LuvFFPlus]

One more update:

Still having an amazing time! By some lucky chance, all our timings are working out beautifully this trip - even on the busses! (I'm knocking on wood, right now. )

But our FP+ was not working at all, at the Magic Kingdom this evening. It didn't matter, however, as we'd followed the advice of the guest services lady from the previous night and taken a picture of our My Disney Experience page listing all our FP+ selections for the evening. Every time we walked up to the kiosk it'd flash blue, then we'd show our phone with the picture to the castmember, and they'd press a button, it'd flash green, and we were in!

So no hassle, but we'll probably stop by guest services at some convenient time tomorrow and see if they can sort out whatever the problem is.

And we won't be going anywhere without that all-important photo!

It might not be your problem and it could be working again for you tomorrow. Just do the same you've been doing and skip a visit to GS. Unless of course knock on wood your MB stopped working for park entry.