I'm actually excited for FP+

[athumann]

I'm leaving in 25 days and have been making my FP+ selections and I'm really excited.

I'm excited to know that I get to ride Soarin' at 3:00pm without having to wait in line for 120 minutes or worry about fast passes being gone for the day by 11:00 am. I'm also excited that for the first time out of my last 4 trips I'm going to be able to ride Toy Story Mania. I'm also excited to know that I can have a relaxing evening at Epcot knowing that I don't have to stake out a spot 2 hours ahead of time for Illuminations.

I also like that I can schedule FP+ times in a way that makes sense for touring. Like making them all in the same area of the park or close to where we have an ADR. I love to plan and know what my day will consist of, I don't mind schedules while at Disney, I've learned the hard way that without one you are doomed!!

I realize there are some limitations but I like the thought of not stressing about fastpass times and waiting for my window of opportunity to get the next one or return times and even missing out on a fastpass altogether.

Maybe my opinion will change afterwards
but for now I'm going to keep my rose colored glasses on and hope all goes well!! I think there are way more positives than negatives!!

 

[mesaboy2]

I'm leaving in 25 days and have been making my FP+ selections and I'm really excited.

I'm excited to know that I get to ride Soarin' at 3:00pm without having to wait in line for 120 minutes or worry about fast passes being gone for the day by 11:00 am. I'm also excited that for the first time out of my last 4 trips I'm going to be able to ride Toy Story Mania. I'm also excited to know that I can have a relaxing evening at Epcot knowing that I don't have to stake out a spot 2 hours ahead of time for Illuminations.

I also like that I can schedule FP+ times in a way that makes sense for touring. Like making them all in the same area of the park or close to where we have an ADR. I love to plan and know what my day will consist of, I don't mind schedules while at Disney, I've learned the hard way that without one you are doomed!!

I realize there are some limitations but I like the thought of not stressing about fastpass times and waiting for my window of opportunity to get the next one or return times and even missing out on a fastpass altogether.

Maybe my opinion will change afterwards
but for now I'm going to keep my rose colored glasses on and hope all goes well!! I think there are way more positives than negatives!!

Glad it works for you.

But seriously, 2 hours for Illuminations? What a stretch.

 

[athumann]

Glad it works for you.

But seriously, 2 hours for Illuminations? What a stretch.

ok so maybe I'm exaggerating a little, I forgot how literally people take things on this board!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I'm leaving in 25 days and have been making my FP+ selections and I'm really excited.

I'm excited to know that I get to ride Soarin' at 3:00pm without having to wait in line for 120 minutes or worry about fast passes being gone for the day by 11:00 am. I'm also excited that for the first time out of my last 4 trips I'm going to be able to ride Toy Story Mania. I'm also excited to know that I can have a relaxing evening at Epcot knowing that I don't have to stake out a spot 2 hours ahead of time for Illuminations.

I also like that I can schedule FP+ times in a way that makes sense for touring. Like making them all in the same area of the park or close to where we have an ADR. I love to plan and know what my day will consist of, I don't mind schedules while at Disney, I've learned the hard way that without one you are doomed!!

I realize there are some limitations but I like the thought of not stressing about fastpass times and waiting for my window of opportunity to get the next one or return times and even missing out on a fastpass altogether.

Maybe my opinion will change afterwards
but for now I'm going to keep my rose colored glasses on and hope all goes well!! I think there are way more positives than negatives!!

Athumann, I'm really excited about all these new changes at WDW too. We leave in 30 days, and it was so nice scheduling FP+ around our ADR's and which section of the parks we would be in.
I'm also looking forward to this being a more leisurely trip, because we don't have to rush to a park opening to snag fast passes. It's already done and planned. I can't wait to ride Toy Story Mania and Soarin' and not having to worry about it!!!
Have a GREAT trip!!!

29 trips to Disney World and counting...next stop POFQ March 2014

 

[mesaboy2]

ok so maybe I'm exaggerating a little, I forgot how literally people take things on this board!

I happen to be someone who has put a fair amount of thought into the value of FP+ at different attractions. One of the reasons I rate Illuminations as a C priority (in other words, fairly useless) is that I cannot fathom a normal-day circumstance where a "decent" spot (by my definition) can't be had all over WS no more than 15-20 minutes before. So claiming a savings of 6-8 times that wait is going to get my attention at least.

Also, I'm going to assume by picking Illuminations that Soarin' or Test Track must not appeal to your group. If either do, they are clearly (in my opinion) superior choices for FP+. At least it looks like you have multiple days planned in Epcot to help deal with the tiering.

 

[redrosesix]

I happen to be someone who has put a fair amount of thought into the value of FP+ at different attractions. One of the reasons I rate Illuminations as a C priority (in other words, fairly useless) is that I cannot fathom a normal-day circumstance where a "decent" spot (by my definition) can't be had all over WS no more than 15-20 minutes before. So claiming a savings of 6-8 times that wait is going to get my attention at least.

Agreed. there are a couple of times we had to wait about 30 minutes during Pres Week but for the times they are going it would be a non-issue. I suggest they look at your thread and re-think it. Even Figment would have a longer wait

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I found it shocking that Illuminations made Tier 1 in Epcot. I would choose it if it were Tier 2 - I mean, what else is there?

ETA - To the OP - have a great time.

 

[athumann]

Athumann, I'm really excited about all these new changes at WDW too. We leave in 30 days, and it was so nice scheduling FP+ around our ADR's and which section of the parks we would be in.
I'm also looking forward to this being a more leisurely trip, because we don't have to rush to a park opening to snag fast passes. It's already done and planned. I can't wait to ride Toy Story Mania and Soarin' and not having to worry about it!!!
Have a GREAT trip!!!

29 trips to Disney World and counting...next stop POFQ March 2014

Exactly, so glad someone agrees!!! Have a fabulous time!

 

[dixiegirl]

I'm leaving in 25 days and have been making my FP+ selections and I'm really excited.

I'm excited to know that I get to ride Soarin' at 3:00pm without having to wait in line for 120 minutes or worry about fast passes being gone for the day by 11:00 am. I'm also excited that for the first time out of my last 4 trips I'm going to be able to ride Toy Story Mania. I'm also excited to know that I can have a relaxing evening at Epcot knowing that I don't have to stake out a spot 2 hours ahead of time for Illuminations.

I also like that I can schedule FP+ times in a way that makes sense for touring. Like making them all in the same area of the park or close to where we have an ADR. I love to plan and know what my day will consist of, I don't mind schedules while at Disney, I've learned the hard way that without one you are doomed!!

I realize there are some limitations but I like the thought of not stressing about fastpass times and waiting for my window of opportunity to get the next one or return times and even missing out on a fastpass altogether.

Maybe my opinion will change afterwards
but for now I'm going to keep my rose colored glasses on and hope all goes well!! I think there are way more positives than negatives!!

OP - Good for you! This is exactly the way I walked into the FP+ system/process when we went in Oct. I knew the system was new and could run into issues but kept a completely open mind and decided to just enjoy the testing out the new system.

DH and I really enjoyed FP+. We encountered no major issues although I know others have - I can only speak of my own experience. We really loved the fact that we didn't have to run to TSMM to get a fast pass at RD or rush right over to Soarin'- always hated that!

I hope you have a great trip!

 

[kidd_freeper]

FP+ will be advantageous for those who like to sleep in, for those who don't need to ride every ride and for those who don't like to play the game of how best to maximize the experience.

For those who are trying to get the most bang for the considerable bucks spent on tickets, or those that don't like standing in long lines, FP+ is far worse that the old FP system.

 

[PrincessJo]

We were at WDW last month and used FP+ exactly how you described. It worked perfectly for us and we had a wonderful time.

Enjoy your trip!!

 

[DisneynBison]

We were just at Disney World in January and loved using FP+ over using the old fastpass system last year in January. A few tweaks here and there could help it out but overall Disney is on the right path with it.

 

[ettinkerbell]

I was very satisfied with my FP+ during my Nov '13 trip

 

[drstrangelove]

I'm leaving in 25 days and have been making my FP+ selections and I'm really excited.

I'm excited to know that I get to ride Soarin' at 3:00pm without having to wait in line for 120 minutes or worry about fast passes being gone for the day by 11:00 am. I'm also excited that for the first time out of my last 4 trips I'm going to be able to ride Toy Story Mania. I'm also excited to know that I can have a relaxing evening at Epcot knowing that I don't have to stake out a spot 2 hours ahead of time for Illuminations.

I also like that I can schedule FP+ times in a way that makes sense for touring. Like making them all in the same area of the park or close to where we have an ADR. I love to plan and know what my day will consist of, I don't mind schedules while at Disney, I've learned the hard way that without one you are doomed!!

I realize there are some limitations but I like the thought of not stressing about fastpass times and waiting for my window of opportunity to get the next one or return times and even missing out on a fastpass altogether.

Maybe my opinion will change afterwards
but for now I'm going to keep my rose colored glasses on and hope all goes well!! I think there are way more positives than negatives!!

We had an AMAZING experience with FP+. I simply LOVE it. On my epcot day, which was the extra MH epcot day so it was pretty crowded, we had a great time. We arrived at rope drop and the four of us (me, wife, son (6) and daughter (8), walked to Soarin. We walked on. After it was done, my wife and daughter went over to their scheduled princess breakfast in Norway while my son and I rode Soarin again, this time about a 15 minute wait. After Soarin, my son and I had breakfast, went on the Livign with the Land boat ride (he LOVES the giant lemons and giggles for 5 minutes after the ride about them) and then we met my wife and daughter. We had a FP for Test Track, so we did that, then had a FP for Space and did that. We walked over to do Nemo because we had a FP+ for talking with crush, but there was no wait so I changed it to Spaceship Earth, which had a 40 minute wait. After crush, we walked onto soaceship earth with our FP. I love that we were able to adjust it on the spot. We got to do every ride we wanted and had the ability to control when and where we did them. It set up a great afternoon of walking around the lake slowly and no rushing back to jump on a late FP to Soarin or test track.
I think FP+ is awesome. While I would love a 4th FP+ and the ability to multipark them, I suspect eventually multiparks will be an option and on-site guests or delux guests will eventually get a perk of an extra FP, but until then I think the system is solid. I will eventually post about my whole trip in the main forum, but I saw this and had to reply. Enjoy your trip and all the best to you and yours.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We actually liked FP+ too when we went in December.

We went & rode Toy Story at rope drop, then rerode it with a short wait. ToT was almost walk on too that early. Then we hopped to Epcot for lunch & rode our FP+ selections after lunch.

It worked great for us!

 

[tanyaandallie]

I'm optimistic it will work for us, especially at MK. I do wish we had more than three as it would be far more flexible then.

I am hoping that at MK it will be more like it was before FP- times were enforced when we did all we wanted to do in the morning while gather up fp- and then came back in the evening to use them. We won't have as many but I envision we will tour the morning with no fp+ and come back in the evening and use our fp+. Again, it would be nice if we had more than 3 so we could use a few in the morning. I am going to be so happy that our fp runner (ME!!!) is not having to run all over the park collecting fast passes in the heat!

We shall see. I am very glad that our trip is during the summer so many many people will have had a chance to experience FP+ and hopefully many of the kinks will be worked out by the time we go.

Change is always hard. Before our last trip fp return times were just starting to be enforced and everyone was freaking out. It was an adjustment for us and I much preferred it when they were not enforced but we made it work. We will roll with the punches and hopefully make this work for us as well.

 

[ksinniger]

that's what we just did, but without the break in the middle of the day. We set our FP+ for fantasyland rides for afternoon/evening times, got to MK at rope drop, and did tomorrowland (ALL of tomorrowland), BTMRR, and lunch at CP with little waiting, then killed time between the FP+ rides with the things you normally do in the afternoon (Tiki Room, Philharmagic, carousel, etc). While I would have loved 1 or 2 more FP+ in the MK, we saw so much and fit so much into one day, we were quite happy.

 

[athumann]

FP+ will be advantageous for those who like to sleep in, for those who don't need to ride every ride and for those who don't like to play the game of how best to maximize the experience.

For those who are trying to get the most bang for the considerable bucks spent on tickets, or those that don't like standing in long lines, FP+ is far worse that the old FP system.

I'm a die hard rope drop fan and don't usually sleep in. I think it will be advantageous for those of us that like to park hop. I plan on being at our chosen park at rope drop to ride the headliners along with other favorites and then park hopping in the evening knowing that we will be able to ride the headliners or at least some at our 2nd park of the day.

In the old days by the time we would get to our 2nd park chances were that FP would be gone for the day for the popular rides and wait times could be long.

 

[athumann]

We actually liked FP+ too when we went in December.

We went & rode Toy Story at rope drop, then rerode it with a short wait. ToT was almost walk on too that early. Then we hopped to Epcot for lunch & rode our FP+ selections after lunch.

It worked great for us!

This sounds exactly like what I am planning to do, I'm glad it worked out well for you!!

 

[sdkuhn77]

I am also excited about the FP+ process (so far). We leave in 50 days and I liked picking out which rides I want and when I want to ride them. It was nice to not have to worry about getting fast pass tickets at the parks and you are at the mercy of the time they give you.

I only had one park (epcot) where I changed my adr from dinner to lunch to make the flow of our day easier. I also love how I was able to pick a lot of indoor activities in the afternoon, so incase it is hot outside, it will be nice to do indoor stuff during the heat of the day.

We will see what happens in 50 days, but so far I am a fan!