I have a confession.... I LOVE FP+

[first state]

There are no kiosks near the front of the park. If you get stuck in a line behind someone who can't figure out the computer you can be next for 10 minutes. CM said to go to tomorrow land kiosk even though we were in fantasyland, because fantasyland kiosks can have up to an hour wait. If they add 100 kiosks in MK it would help. People who choose 60 days ahead love it. They get 3 good rides. Other book later are locked out. Our trip had bad weather 1 day, we had to change days. Fp+ has no flexabilty to handle this. You are basically treated as someone who walks up and buys a ticket the same day. It worked, but I wouldn't say it is better or worse.

 

[first state]

sorry double post

 

[prudence64]

I was in MK on Veterans Day and had no wait the two times I used the kiosks in fantasy land. Plus, there were CMs there to help me.

 

[first state]

oops

 

[cakebaker]

There are no kiosks near the front of the park.

I believe there are kiosks at Guest Relations and in the Town Square theater.

 

[cakebaker]

If you cancel them someone can pick them up, you just won't get to see the excitement when they score

I missed handing them out too until I realized this...the day we decided to drop a sdmt for 4, I smiled a little thinking we were making someone at a kiosk somewhere very happy.

 

[wdwcoltsfan]

My comment "Watch what happens next week" is just that; how the "new" systems perform under load conditions. If people continue to suggest "just like it would have been with FP-" then where is the improvement? I believe it is in the ability to reserve 3 FP's in advance, but that is only an improvement if you do so early enough when they are still available. Beyond that, I don't see how anything is better and it takes a different strategy today to yield the same results achievable four years ago.

Well, didn't FP+ just go through Christmas an New Years? I'm guessing there are already reports of how it performed during busy times. My guess is some people liked it and some didn't.

Yes, it would have been an improvement for us over 4 years ago. We didn't get to the parks at RD and the lines were insane. Fastpasses were limited and the ones available had a late return time. Hopping to Epcot or Studios wasn't much of an option because those parks were experiencing the same crowd levels. So, it would have been nice to have 3 FP in hand for rides we enjoy. If I can book ADR's at 6 months out, I can manage FP at 60 days out.

Look, I don't love FP+, but our family has figured out a way to make it work for us. I don't like the tiers, but until they do away with them, I will try to work the FP system in a way that is beneficial for our family. I know you don't like FP+. You have carried a narrative throughout the boards that expresses your displeasure with the system. We all get that you don't think it's an improvement. I think some of us are just trying to make the best of the new system rather than focusing on all of the things we don't like about it.

 

[Laketravis]

I know you don't like FP+. You have carried a narrative throughout the boards that expresses your displeasure with the system. We all get that you don't think it's an improvement. I think some of us are just trying to make the best of the new system rather than focusing on all of the things we don't like about it.

Not sure where you are getting all that from. I love FP+ as evidenced by one thread explaining how it will save me $20K over the next five years and another outlining how it allows us to accomplish much, much more for less while in Orlando. Not only have I discussed the same weaknesses you acknowledge you don't like about it, take a look at the next post - it's another who loves FP but found 4 things they didn't like. That pretty much sums it up for most of us, except I've found ways to turn them into advantages.

It also reveals the reality of park dynamics under full load busy conditions, which is why I said "Watch what happens next week", an innocuous comment that didn't indicate WHAT to specifically watch for but to watch. You have to understand what happens under those conditions to make them work in your favor and why I said "it takes a different strategy today to yield the same results achievable four years ago."



.

 

[vallerii]

I wasn't sure we were going to like it, but having just got back we LOVED it. I went with the plan of booking things relatively early in the morning and then leaving flexibility for the afternoon. We got on everything we wanted for the most part, we didn't have to run around all over the park, and we even fit in things on the fly, and had flexibility for the afternoons and evenings.I really loved the fact that even though we got in really late the first night we had guaranteed spots on rides that on the old system (FP-) would have been loooong gone and booked. Granted other than SDMT, Toy Story and Soarin we had a 1 year old so we were basically doing more of the kiddy rides and not all the top tier. If we hadn't done a lot of our planning and booking online and at home first it would have been more annoying.
A few things we DIDN'T like though:

• The option A,B,C thing is a little annoying. I had to go back and individually change things to get a better time one ride at a time. I wish it would just let you pick a ride, show the available times and click what you want without the "suggestions" So much switching things around that could have been much simpler.
  
• The fact that you can't split your first 3 passes over more than one park.
• The fact you HAVE to essentially pick 3 passes, then go through such a rigamarole to be nice and cancel them if you are only using 2.
• That the app didn't work well in the parks. I had a fast pass to cancel from one park so we could make 3 for a new park instead and couldn't get into the app anywhere on the walk over from Bay Lake, or at the front of the park and then had to deal with a snotty kiosk girl when we tried to add 2 from MK who said we had to cancel the one from EPCOT first (time already passed) I told her I'd been trying to load the app and cancel it all over the park and that's why we were at the kiosk. She said we had to cancel on the phone first, then we could book the others (wouldn't have been a big deal if the girl wasn't **dripping* with snark and attitude telling us all this. Furthermore, so what are people who DON't have phones supposed to do. Why can't you cancel a FP at a kiosk and is that even correct?) Of course, when I went to pull up the app on the phone to show her then it worked of course (OF COURSE....finally right?) I almost wrote down her name to complain the girl was such a little snot.

 

[Newsies]

I LOVE FP+ TOO!!!

 

[IndyRnRfan]

Before we went (recent trip got back 2/5) I printed off a list of FP+ locations from easywdw. Also read Josh's notes about which were the least busy. Very handy to have IMO. We came off of Jungle Cruise and hit that FP location to book our next one - now that was convenient!

We will do this next.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

There are no kiosks near the front of the park. If you get stuck in a line behind someone who can't figure out the computer you can be next for 10 minutes. CM said to go to tomorrow land kiosk even though we were in fantasyland, because fantasyland kiosks can have up to an hour wait. If they add 100 kiosks in MK it would help. People who choose 60 days ahead love it. They get 3 good rides. Other book later are locked out. Our trip had bad weather 1 day, we had to change days. Fp+ has no flexabilty to handle this. You are basically treated as someone who walks up and buys a ticket the same day. It worked, but I wouldn't say it is better or worse.

I've read about long lines at the Fantasyland kiosks - however on this trip (Jan/ Feb 2015) we didn't encounter long lines there. I walked up to a kiosk directly a couple of times and was behind one person a few times (granted the poster is right if the person has no clue you could easily be stuck there).

We had 'bad' weather on our leaving day 2/5 - it was supposed to bucket rain in the morning so we decided to switch from MK (where I had FP for 7D, BTMRR and ETwB) to DHS. I couldn't get a FP for TSM 2 days before, one day before or even the evening before but that morning one opened up (for the 3 of us) from 9:25 - 10:25! Thanks to that FP and the weather (always great when it buckets rain at RD) we rode TSM 3 times (2 SB), 2 rounds of Star Tours (one FP one SB) and saw Frozen - we were done and on the way out of the park and heading home before 11:20.

 

[MrInfinity]

Rangermom,
Obviously you're in good company! We loved the new system, and we've been going to WDW and DLR the better part of our life. To me, it was really refreshing. The pressure to compete for being first in line to get a ticket was lifted... and since we could pick our FP's in advance from home, I could queue up days never before imaginable. By putting together simple days that accomplished what we had to do, it freed up the rest of the day to do other things. I thought I would hate it because I was on the Dis in 2013 when it was just rolling out, and ppl thought the world would end, but in practice it worked out really well. One other great part is it freed us up to spend more family time together. Since we're pulling our tickets months in advance, when we get there, there's nothing left to worry about! As a result, we spent so much more time together on vacation -- instead of running for that next ticket, we'd just... enjoy wherever we were. Looking forward to going back in December!

 

[Silock]

I love it, too, except for all the things I hate about it.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

There are no kiosks near the front of the park. If you get stuck in a line behind someone who can't figure out the computer you can be next for 10 minutes. CM said to go to tomorrow land kiosk even though we were in fantasyland, because fantasyland kiosks can have up to an hour wait. If they add 100 kiosks in MK it would help. People who choose 60 days ahead love it. They get 3 good rides. Other book later are locked out. Our trip had bad weather 1 day, we had to change days. Fp+ has no flexabilty to handle this. You are basically treated as someone who walks up and buys a ticket the same day. It worked, but I wouldn't say it is better or worse.

Bad weather can strike at any time.

We can only book at 30 days. So while you may have found nothing good, we have. My family just rode 7DMT yesterday with FP's at a decent hour (5:25). They were booked at 30 days around 6 or 7am. I originally had 6 booked, but dropped 2 when my husband took my son on a camping trip.


As far as bad weather--that has been part of Disney since it opened. It happens. Understandable that you would make the choice to change or drop a park, but FP+ has little to do with that.

And a few times we have made FP a day or two before. We had little issue and didn't feel same day guest at all. That sad--ominous weather is known ahead of time. If it is a 100% washout, this isn't a surprise you wake up to. So there is *some* time to make adjustments. Maybe not all you like--but certainly more than a same day guest

I cannot speak to the kiosk issue as as rarely use them and when we have--we have only used the one in Tomorrowland.

 

[soniam]

Before we went (recent trip got back 2/5) I printed off a list of FP+ locations from easywdw. Also read Josh's notes about which were the least busy. Very handy to have IMO. We came off of Jungle Cruise and hit that FP location to book our next one - now that was convenient!

I see the maps and descriptions in the cheat sheets, but I didn't see anything recommending which were the least busy. Where is that? Thanks

 

[wisblue]

Not sure where you are getting all that from. I love FP+ as evidenced by one thread explaining how it will save me $20K over the next five years and another outlining how it allows us to accomplish much, much more for less while in Orlando. Not only have I discussed the same weaknesses you acknowledge you don't like about it, take a look at the next post - it's another who loves FP but found 4 things they didn't like. That pretty much sums it up for most of us, except I've found ways to turn them into advantages.

It also reveals the reality of park dynamics under full load busy conditions, which is why I said "Watch what happens next week", an innocuous comment that didn't indicate WHAT to specifically watch for but to watch. You have to understand what happens under those conditions to make them work in your favor and why I said "it takes a different strategy today to yield the same results achievable four years ago."

.

You're killing me!!!

 

[Laketravis]

You're killing me!!!

LOL! Wis, it's like I posted in another thread:

I don't know anyone who's stated they "like" tiering.
I don't know anyone who's stated they "like" being limited to one park
I don't know anyone who's stated they "like" only being able to reserve three and then only one per attraction.
I do know that everyone does "like" being able to reserve 3 FP's in advance.
And after you've used your 3 FP's, I think everyone agrees the only difference is the old system used paper to issue additional FP's and the new system uses kiosks.

So it seems to me that everyone likes and dislikes the same things about FP+ just for different reasons. In my case, I "love" the advanced reserve component because as I've illustrated in another thread I can use it to my advantage by accomplishing more in Orlando while spending less money.


.

 

[cakebaker]

I love FP+

A change of heart to say the least- wouldn't you agree? I'm glad you've finally come over to the dark side! Welcome! We're a happy folk here all blinded by pixie dust and basking in the magic.

 

[adrienne21snow]

I like it too and the our first experience was over Easter 2014. However, I love planning and may be something of an outlier. I saw an ad for FastPass+ a few days after returning from a trip to Disneyland-the concept was so enticing to me that we were at Disney World within 60 days.