Here now, the magics gone because of FP+

[brockash]

We've never managed more than 6 or 7 rides in an entire day. i'm not sure what the problem is?

Wow, to me that's totally crazy. I guess that just goes to show how different ppl.s priorities and vacations are. I can't imagine ever spending a whole day at MK and only doing 6-7 things. I can certainly understand OPs frustration. While 6-7 from 9- 1230 doesn't seem horrible, we definitely get more than that done on our usual before fastpass+ trips. I can also understand the frustration of having to be or dig out ur phone constantly...we enjoy our vacations with a break from the electronics and I def. don't like having to deal with that just to enjoy spending time in the parks.

 

[TJA]

Maybe now that you've had your 1st day, you can go through your FP's tonight and move things around accordingly. I found that I could switch my FP's without issue the night before, but on the day-of there weren't many options. In fact, I pretty much changed our entire itinerary each night for the next day, including dining times. We were just there last week (Easter week) and breezed through every park, rides were walk-on. Good luck!

 

[AndreaA]

It never fails to amaze me how low some people set their expectations just because it's Disney.

I don't care if it's DisneyWorld or my local amusement park, if I'm not riding an average of 4+ rides per hour, then it is money wasted. Now I might not always actually ride that many... sometimes we're taking pictures or relaxing, or having a snack, but I want the ABILITY to ride that much and if I can't even do that during the "slow" season, then it's a complete waste of money. The Disney "ambiance" covers the inflated ticket prices, it doesn't cover decreased number of rides possible.

 

[stairstepmom]

So sorry you're feeling stressed OP! We certainly felt like we got to do less than usual in Jan, and I too felt stressed by being tied to my phone as you know, life with 8 kids happened and I needed to move some FP+s (most of the time I couldn't - party of 11 and all.)

For my pre-FP+ Memorial Day trip, we knocked off 11 rides/repeats in N/FL and a relaxing snack in Gaston's by 11:30am (9am open). By 7:15pm we'd done every single ride except Space (including 2x on BTMRR and Splash) and we would've been able to do 2 rides on Space that day if we hadn't spent 2 hours in CRT instead

No way could I accomplish that day with FP+.

We made the best of the situation and I kept my stress to myself and my kids still had a great time, but it is definitely hard to see such a change in touring style. Time heals all wounds though (and gets rid of that bitter aftertaste of the kool-aid!)

I hope you find more magic on the rest of your trip!

 

[JeremyGNJ]

It never fails to amaze me how low some people set their expectations just because it's Disney.

I don't care if it's DisneyWorld or my local amusement park, if I'm not riding an average of 4+ rides per hour, then it is money wasted. Now I might not always actually ride that many... sometimes we're taking pictures or relaxing, or having a snack, but I want the ABILITY to ride that much and if I can't even do that during the "slow" season, then it's a complete waste of money. The Disney "ambiance" covers the inflated ticket prices, it doesn't cover decreased number of rides possible.

I have never been to any amusement park anyway that you could ride 4+ rides in an hour. MAYBE a little local carnival or something, but any park you pay admission to, has an average wait of 20 minutes per ride.

 

[wallskm]

MK is the least recommended park for today on easywdw. We just got back from AK and are resting up before heading to MK to use our FP and see the parade. Had a great time at AK. Did all the rides first and walked on everything and was done with all that by 9:45 (8 am opening). Saved our FP+ for tonight. It was more crowded than I expected but we had no problems.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

6 attractions and a major meet and greet in about 4 hours the week after Easter sounds pretty good! What did you manage to do before?

Is it just that the attractions you did weren't the attractions you really wanted?

Who was able to do 4 rides per hour every hour even in the old days - unless they were all complete walk-ons? 4 rides in 4 hours would have been 16 rides.

 

[MichiganDVC]

lol!!! I haven't used it at the parks, but I am having to use it for planning right now. And..it is very difficult to plan your day with a two year old. You are too funny though. You seem to be taking it personally that some people don't like fp+.

Nah, just having to listen to the-world-is-ending posts for the last year about FP+ has gotten to me. And soooo many people who vow not to return until FP+ is sorted out or gone or changed, even though they never used it. Just seems a little reactionary.
You know how when you want someone to try a bite of some food and they wrinkle their nose and make stink-face before they take a bite? You know they already hate it before they've even tasted it. Never gave it a chance. Same thing. Just seems silly to spend all that money on a vacation and say, "well, THIS is gonna suck." Yep, I can guarantee it will.

Maybe 3 out of those 7 things were things they had no interest in but rode them anyway because waits were too long at the stuff they really wanted to do. Maybe in years past they rode 10 things by mid day. Geez people are allowed to have their own version of a bad day at WDW.

OP sorry you have a bad day. Next time try drinking the Kool Aid before you head out that seems to help others

For me, the Kool-Aid is going to WDW and being happy. I arrive at Boardwalk Villas...see my room that opens up to the clown pool....hear the laughter of the children splashing below...walk out onto the Boardwalk and hear the music, smell the popcorn, see the B&Y Club across the lake...take it all in as I slowly walk toward International Gateway....arrive at Epcot, hear the music change as I enter World Showcase....go to UK and get a souvenir stein of Stella...and all is right with the world.

When I was a kid, I would arrive at Poly with my family (after 22 hours in a Ford van, 1980s style), walk toward the lobby and hear the music piping out of the foliage...walk in the lobby and smell that wonderful smell that only Poly had....go to our room after being driven on the paths by a CM in a golf cart (which I always thought was so fun), change into our suits and head out to the pool. Splash around all day, often turning around to see the castle in the distance.

Both instances, sure I loved the rides and the parks. But the happiness for me starts when I enter my favorite resorts. Always has, always will. No FP here or there will ever make it or break it for me. No ride will either. Its just 2-5 minutes of my day. For me, its the small things, all added together, that make for a great vacation 25 times and counting. Its the smells, the foods, the pools, the views, the rides, the restaurants, the characters, the castle, the beer, the beer, the beer, etc...

More details would be good though, I hope the OP comes back.

Me too. I would love to hear what she expected and why her morning didn't meet her expectations. Would help answer a lot of comments and questions, including mine. I don't think she'll be back though....

 

[petrymom]

I hate when I have a full breakfast, go on 6 rides and meet Anna and Elsa all before 12:30 pm! What a terrible day

 

[karen4546]

I hate when I have a full breakfast, go on 6 rides and meet Anna and Elsa all before 12:30 pm! What a terrible day

My thoughts Exactly! We were in WDW in February and had no problems with FP. With only the 2 of us going in September I am happy to use FP plus instead of "running" to try and get FPs. Even at 45 I enjoy TSM and with FP plus I think I have been on more rides in a day at WDW. No bad experiences with it so far. But a "bad" day in WDW is better than not being in WDW.

I hope OP has a better experience

 

[ilovemk76]

It never fails to amaze me how low some people set their expectations just because it's Disney.

I don't care if it's DisneyWorld or my local amusement park, if I'm not riding an average of 4+ rides per hour, then it is money wasted. Now I might not always actually ride that many... sometimes we're taking pictures or relaxing, or having a snack, but I want the ABILITY to ride that much and if I can't even do that during the "slow" season, then it's a complete waste of money. The Disney "ambiance" covers the inflated ticket prices, it doesn't cover decreased number of rides possible.

We must have the worst local amusement parks. We never do that. To include walking to a ride, stopping for something to eat or drink, going to bathroom and even going into a shop, we would have to average about 5-10 minutes per ride to get that average.

I am not on a death march when I go to a park.

I get my money's worth when I leave and have great memories of my day.

 

[Mommytwotwins]

Sounds like you have done a lot! I have a friend who has been there since Monday and she said lines were great and she has hardly had any long waits. They have been able to do everything they wanted

 

[MichiganDVC]

We must have the worst local amusement parks. We never do that. To include walking to a ride, stopping for something to eat or drink, going to bathroom and even going into a shop, we would have to average about 5-10 minutes per ride to get that average.

I am not on a death march when I go to a park.

I get my money's worth when I leave and have great memories of my day.

I feel like getting my money's worth means I had great memories of my day.

 

[juliebug1997]

You can't compare FP+ over Christmas and FP+ now. FP+ was only in the testing phase for onsite guests and offsite guests were still using traditional FPs. When AK changed to all FP+ it was much worse than the other parks.

Actually, we were already there when AK changed over to all FP+.

And, if not everyone was on the FP+ system and it was still in testing, I should have been able to change my FP+ selections the day of or the day before. I could do neither.

 

[pigletgirl]

We did MK this morning. Prepark ADR, rope drop at Fantasyland ( what a joke ), couldn't swap out our later FP+ for Splash mountain at 10:00am. They were all gone. My morning was spent checking my phone for FP+. I'm over it. My vacation shouldn't be so stressful. Every ride had much longer than usual times, because of FP+. We managed Pooh, TLS, Dumbo, IaSW, HM, A&E (11:15fP), POTC and out of the park at 12:30pm. To me that's awful. I'm done after this trip.

So you are going to cancel the trips you have booked, per your signature?

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

But OP said they left at 12:30. That's not exactly a whole day.

Hey, I'm not blasting the OP, I just wanted people to know this is not the end of the world for everyone. Fully YMMV.

Our replies were not to the OP. It was the one that posted that they only did 6 or 7 rides in a whole day so they didn't understand what problem the OP had.

 

[wisblue]

The OP did 5 rides before an 11:15 FP for Anna and Elsa, something that a lot of people ( not me) apparently would be glad to have as the ONLY thing they did before noon. But, thanks to FP+, the OP was able to enjoy it with little wait and still do a number of other things.

Enjoyment is obviously personal and subjective based on one's own preferences and expectations. But, a lot of people would have been satisfied with that morning, especially with 2 FPs still to be used.

Based on the wait times I saw this morning, it shouldn't have been difficult to do 5 of the most popular attractions in the park before 11 AM. For example, it should have been easy to do Splash and Thunder Mountains, JC, HM, and POC in that amount of time and still have 3 FPs to use. To me, that's a pretty good two hour start to the day with a lot of potential still to come.

If you're expecting walk ons at all popular rides all day you're probably going to be disappointed.

 

[Tink0513]

Crowds are a little more than I expected. It is the most recommended park for today. I saw many school groups yesterday and today. I think it is the end of the Easter week crowd so I'm thinking next week it will slow down a bit. Still manageable today. Just got off Dinosaur. The FP took about 5 min and Stand by showed 30 min.

This weekend is also the cheerleading competition at the WWoS!

 

[dawgsgirl]

Wow, some not-so-nice people on this board!!

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

I'm sorry to hear the new layout of things isn't working for your method of touring.

I worry about this for me. We really had a system that worked for us before, but my nearly 16yo DS keeps telling me that "any change messes with someones workflow." (1) out of the mouths of (what used to be) babes... (2) absolutely they are messing with my workflow, but I assume that I will learn to adjust after a trip or two and the new system will also be tweaked as WDW sees fit (3) I will still get frustrated because WDW, including FP+, is throwing me some curve-balls that smack me in the head; whereas when FPpaper was first introduced, it was nothing but good and curve-ball-free - for me anyway.

I will just have to put on my happy-vacation 'tude and my big-girl panties.