Is it possible my fears of FP+ were unfounded ?

[jcvalenti]

Getting ready for a big family trip in 30 days. All of us have purchased Annual Passes, to be picked up at Will Call. Staying off property.

We're all park veterans, but haven't been there since 2012, so all of this "new" stuff is messing with our tried and true approach of hitting rope drop, sending a runner to Fast Pass rides, and seeing things in a perfect sequence. Furthermore, I had a bad experience with my Annual Passes not linking with my MDE account, which required (literally) four hours of time on the phone with tech support over 10 days. Let's just say I was ready for the worst.

Well, today was the first day I could get online and make Fast Pass + reservations. I had never seen the system in action, and given how slow MDE is to pull up ticket and dining information, I was dreading it. Let's just say my initial impression is rather positive. I was able to get on, get everything we wanted to do on Arrival Day, and adjust the times to perfectly match where I thought we'd be in the day. I had to add and subtract some party members, and that went smoothly.

Thinking about it, there's a part of me that kind of likes the idea that I know we have 3 things to do on Day One, no matter how crowded the parks are when we arrive. I'm thinking this might actually make our visit a little less hectic, as we won't be so concerned about rushing to rides like Soarin' at rope drop. Maybe we'll - gasp - actually stop and smell the roses and remember why I loved Disney when I first went 30 years ago, before the era of 2 hour wait times.

Am I flip-flopping too easily ? Once I get down there and actually use it, will be my cautious optimism be crushed ? I suppose I should save any effusive praise until all 24 of us actually arrive and have our Will Call tickets successfully linked with our FP+ reservations, and can get on an attraction with them. But for now, out of the whole new "high tech Disney" experience, this is the one part I'm slightly pleased with so far.

 

[puffkin]

Nope, that is exactly what will happen

I loved the new system. I did a little more work on the front end planning everything, but at least I was in the comfort of my own home doing it. During the trip itself, I have never been more relaxed and less stressed. I loved not doing the FP dash every morning and hitting a waterpark in the am and knowing I had some awesome FP's for that night. We rode so many more rides than ever before. We did FW in Epcot one evening (water park day) and we have never done that before. It was great. At rope drop we rode a lot of 2nd tier attractions over and over and over with no waits. When we walked in the park we could actually stop and watch the morning show or jump in a character line and not feel we needed to rush to the big rides or the FP machines. It was awesome.

 

[rab1022]

Just a note on your APs - I'd pick them up the evening before either at MK or DTD. We waited until the morning to get them at MK and I was in line for at least 30 mins (and the line wasn't very long yet).

 

[jcvalenti]

Just a note on your APs - I'd pick them up the evening before either at MK or DTD. We waited until the morning to get them at MK and I was in line for at least 30 mins (and the line wasn't very long yet).

Thanks. Our usual "day one" routine is to come in on a morning flight, drive straight to The Boardwalk, and stroll into the back entrance to Epcot to pick up our tickets. Rarely does it take more than 10 or 15 minutes to get our tickets squared away, purchase Tables in Wonderland, and be on our way. No sure how obtaining Magic Bands will affect that schedule, as I hear we may have to go to Guest Services if we want Magic Bands right then, rather than having them mailed to us (after our vacation, which is silly).

We like Epcot for Day One because we basically just stroll the World Showcase for a few hours having a few drinks to put ourselves in vacation mood, and then eat and leave early so we can check in to our house (off site) and do a little grocery shopping while the kids go swimming.

 

[jco_direwolf]

Yes, the new system has issues. But the benefits of it will outweigh the start-up issues. To quote Garth "We Fear Change."

Personally I've been psyched about it since it was called X-Pass. the things they can do with it, are just cool.

Maybe it's because I spent 25 years doing Network Operations but every time we change infrastructure, there is pain, and we deal with it and then things are better.

 

[disneybliss2]

That's what happened to us. I grumbled and moaned about the changes and we ended up loving fp+. Granted, there are still things I dislike, such as tiering at DHS, but overall we felt like the change was positive. We are park veterans and tour very efficiently, but felt fp+ helped us to maximize our time even better. We were able to make changes during the course of our trip when I discovered my youngest, who is now tall enough to ride everything, liked a particular ride to repeat and when we switched parks or fp times a few times. I was fearful that it would take out all flexibility but it didn't. I was pleasantly surprised and felt bad for being so pessimistic about it.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Is it possible my fears of FP+ were unfounded...

Yes.

We found they work just fine. A positive move on Disney's part.

 

[itsthatdisneygirl]

I think that you will most likely enjoy your trip more so as it does give you time to stop and enjoy your vacation rather than send a part of your party literally running to get your FP. I've never done rope drop (I'm literally at Disney every weekend if not more) and it makes me happy to think that families that don't have the luxury of living as close as I do now have the same opportunity to stop and take in all the details that make Disney so wonderful that they might have over wise looked over trying to scramble for FP

 

[ktlm]

You might wind up liking it. No use stressing out or worrying about it, it is what it is. Just be prepared for that fact that you might find it is better in theory than use, and it might take time away from you rather than add it. Some people do love it, you may be lucky enough to be one of them. For us, I liked having that first FP+ of the day and not having to make the morning run for FP. I also did like that on arrival day we could go to EPCOT in late afternoon and have a FP+ for Soarin. However, especially in the tiered parks, we are now rushing in the morning, to get to those rides where the lines build up quickly that we do not have FP for, so it is pretty much a wash. Instead of me making a run alone to Soarin for FP while DH and DH mosey through the front of the park and stop for pics with characters, now they have to rush with me skipping the characters while we all book it to TT before the line gets long. Even in non-tiered parks, we are now rushing to things we don't have FP for and probably won't be able to get one for by the time our 4th opens up, or that used to have short lines, but now the lines are longer during the day because of FP+. So it has pretty much gone from me rushing somewhere on a FP run when we hit the park and DH and DD taking it easy and enjoying things, to all of us rushing somewhere. We also found that as much as I thought based on all our old trips that our FP+ times would be right where we would be in the parks with our schedule, that they were not and we were criss-crossing the parks and having to stop what we were doing and leave areas unfinished. We also found that changing times on MDE when we weren't going to be where we thought at a FP+ time was about impossible. FP+ actually takes our enjoyment time away. We do less shopping and feel like we are constantly watching the clock or are on our smart phones not enjoying the atmosphere or rushing somewhere and not getting to spend enough time in areas. So, turns out we like magic bands, but hate FP+. We are trying one more trip to WDW with FP+, but depending on how that goes with FP+ we are talking about not going back for a while and branching out to more non-Disney locations. Hopefully, you will feel more positive about it than we do!

 

[CharmedLife]

I'm with you OP. We used it for the first time in February and it was the first time in years that we didn't split up when entering the parks so that hubby could do the "dash" for FP while we went somewhere else. As the week went on we actually even slept-in a few mornings and hit the water parks, something we've never done before because we were so focused on getting to rope drop and getting those hard-to-get FP. I felt like we got more relaxed through the week as we got used to the planned FP and comfortable moving stuff around on MDE (which we didn't have any problems with).

We did rope drop once or twice and I found that, as usual we were still able to get a lot of things done in that first hour regardless of the fast pass. So in the end I think we went on more rides and spent less time criss-crossing the parks because I was able to pick the times and order for my FP.

I'm with most in that I still hate the tiering at DHS and Epcot and I was hoping they would have gotten rid of it by my next trip later this month cheer2 but we'll make do. I think having the pre-planned FP for late afternoons will actually make it easier to handle Disney in the summer (something I swore I'd never do but alas, DD is starting high school and we just can't get away with taking her out of school anymore).

All in all, I had dreaded FP+ because of the constant negative threads about it but in the end our whole family ended up liking it and we didn't have any technical issues while we were there.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Kristina4109]

We just used FP+ for the first time on our June trip. We loved it. It is not perfect, and the app is quite buggy. But the FP+ experience we liked very much. We did not have any problems at all.

I am notorious for being a "front loader" - hitting the parks at RD and going on as many attractions as possible before pooping out. (At DL that often means early entry at 7:00am.) This past trip, we actually spent a morning at the pool and didn't hit MK until 11:00am - we could do this because we had FP+ set up in advance.

It's going to take some getting used to and no, it's not perfect, but we made it work for us.

 

[jcvalenti]

One problem I did experience and maybe you all know how better to do this ... We have a "tagalong" for our first few days (my niece is flying down with my family to enjoy a few extra days at the parks). She didn't have a ticket this AM when I made our first day FP+ selections. Later in the morning, she had her ticket linked and I wanted to "add" her to our original schedule. I couldn't find a way to do that.

I ended up making her individual FP+ reservations, but they weren't in the exact same window (though there is a little overlap). Is there any way to add someone on to a group, or would I have to cancel out the original FP+ and make new FP+ selections for the group, if available, in order to all share the exact same ride window.

I will say I'm confused by the app - I pulled up my account on that, and it didn't see our tickets or our FP+ selections yet. Are they using some separate database for the mobile app ?

 

[Missymouse18]

We absolutely loved FP+. We did not experience a single problem and actually felt that it was much more convenient than the old way. We were never huge FP users anyway, so this was an exciting change for us, as we usually wouldn't trek around the parks searching out FPs in the past.
Hope you have a great trip!!

 

[itsthatdisneygirl]

Is there any way to add someone on to a group, or would I have to cancel out the original FP+ and make new FP+ selections for the group, if available, in order to all share the exact same ride window.

I will say I'm confused by the app - I pulled up my account on that, and it didn't see our tickets or our FP+ selections yet. Are they using some separate database for the mobile app ?

1) You will have to link her as your friends/family which is easy to do through the app or website. Go to My Account, Friends and Family, Add a Guest, They will give you several options choose whichever fits/is easiest for you. Then go to your FP+ selections for that day choose manage, then select the copy option and choose her icon as the one you want to copy "to" and if those FP's and times are still available she will copy. You may need to cancel her FP's first though

2) sometimes it can be buggy trying refreshing and if not hard reset it you can always go the "hard" way and use the regular site.

 

[jcvalenti]

1) You will have to link her as your friends/family which is easy to do through the app or website. Go to My Account, Friends and Family, Add a Guest, They will give you several options choose whichever fits/is easiest for you. Then go to your FP+ selections for that day choose manage, then select the copy option and choose her icon as the one you want to copy "to" and if those FP's and times are still available she will copy. You may need to cancel her FP's first though

2) sometimes it can be buggy trying refreshing and if not hard reset it you can always go the "hard" way and use the regular site.

Thanks. Figured that out after the fact ... but was able to go in and cancel the extra FP times and make new ones. Really like this thing so far. Only thing I couldn't FP that I wanted to so far was Seven Dwarves Mine Ride.