Just back. A few observations

[Jenorsi]

We are just back from an MLK weekend trip. Stayed at POR and this was our first experience with Magic Bands and Fastpass plus. We had no problems.

The bands worked every time (only minor glitch was on day one when our band dud not have charging privileges attached even though I linked a credit card. But we hadn't checked into the resort yet. It was a very minor thing and quickly fixed.) (as was the not one but two non working refrigerators we had in our room -- the original and replacement. But Disney addressed quickly and brought us a third.

The app worked well for me and pre planning was easy.

However I felt sorry for the day guests in the park this weekend learning about FP+ and dealing with long lines at kiosks. Today at DHS there was an announcement on the trams and a flier with the map mentioning it but not a lot of "grab you by the lapels: hey, FP is totally different now! Listen up!"

While the technology worked beautifully for us, I think I liked the old FP better. We could get them for all the big rides and towering didn't exist. This will make getting here at rope drop imperative I'd you what to ride multiple headliners and won't wait an hour (like us).

But overall this was a very positive experience for us as resort guests. Quick easy, it worked. The My Disney Experience app is great. All in all a great trip.

I did notice that FP + seemed very fast. When we did have a FP, we basically walked on. In the past I recall a shorter wait with FP but not this short. However we also found that we didn't wind up using all 3 FP+ on a couple of days because of the tiering. We either had one we didn't care about and could n get one for a ride we really wanted.

Hope that helps!

 

[kbuck]

Thanks for the report! Where did you stay in POR? How was the buses? We arrive in 88 days.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I'm happy to hear you had such a great experience!

 

[ariel326]

We are just back from an MLK weekend trip. Stayed at POR and this was our first experience with Magic Bands and Fastpass plus. We had no problems.

The bands worked every time (only minor glitch was on day one when our band dud not have charging privileges attached even though I linked a credit card. But we hadn't checked into the resort yet. It was a very minor thing and quickly fixed.) (as was the not one but two non working refrigerators we had in our room -- the original and replacement. But Disney addressed quickly and brought us a third.

The app worked well for me and pre planning was easy.

However I felt sorry for the day guests in the park this weekend learning about FP+ and dealing with long lines at kiosks. Today at DHS there was an announcement on the trams and a flier with the map mentioning it but not a lot of "grab you by the lapels: hey, FP is totally different now! Listen up!"

While the technology worked beautifully for us, I think I liked the old FP better. We could get them for all the big rides and towering didn't exist. This will make getting here at rope drop imperative I'd you what to ride multiple headliners and won't wait an hour (like us).

But overall this was a very positive experience for us as resort guests. Quick easy, it worked. The My Disney Experience app is great. All in all a great trip.

I did notice that FP + seemed very fast. When we did have a FP, we basically walked on. In the past I recall a shorter wait with FP but not this short. However we also found that we didn't wind up using all 3 FP+ on a couple of days because of the tiering. We either had one we didn't care about and could n get one for a ride we really wanted.

Hope that helps!

We didn't have many issues either. Ran into a few problems at DHS on Sunday, but other then that, it was a pretty seamless trip. Even considering we were offsite. The longest line we waited in was The Little Mermaid at MK and that was about 45 minutes. I checked my MDE app quite often and we just went were lines were short and came back to things that had longer lines. Yes, it was crowded, but it was manageable.

 

[Jenorsi]

I realize autocorrect got me -- I meant to say tiering, not towering when referring to FP+.

We had our car and didn't use the buses at POR but they seemed abundant! We we're in Acadian House. Our first time at POR. I wish we'd had more time to explore the amenities. But I was glad this stay was on site because of our access to Magic Bands.

 

[hedberg1661]

I too had a good experience with FP+ back in December. No real issues.

I too tended to let a FP go unused because of the Tier system.

If they ever let park hopping down the road that would be fantastic.

 

[d1gitman]

...However we also found that we didn't wind up using all 3 FP+ on a couple of days because of the tiering. We either had one we didn't care about and could n get one for a ride we really wanted.

Hope that helps!

for your favorite rides, did you just ride them once or did you do standby as well? very curious as to how your whole attraction usage experience was given the fact that FP+ limited you to 3 FP+'s and were tiered.

 

[CNYDisneyFan]

Thanks for the report. Can't wait to try out the system in May.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Given this is a pretty slow time of the year, the long lines at the kiosks are a real concern. What's going to happen come Spring Break time?

 

[Jenorsi]

We rode some of our favorite rides twice, once with Fastpass and once standby when the lines were shorter. But we did not ride the big ones Soarin, Test Track, Big Thunder, more than once because we are not the type to stand in line for an hour.

There are some drawbacks, but I don't understand folks who would cancel their trips over this. It just wasn't that big a deal.

Also, of course, in my original post, I meant to say 'tiering' not towering.

 

[Jenorsi]

Oh also, we stayed at Acadian House in POR and liked it. We had our car and didn't use the buses but they seemed very plentiful. I wish we had.

 

[Vincent405]

FP lines got crazy long several times. At DHS on Sunday, we had FP+ for RNR from 4-5. We had 3 bands/passes, but my DD8 was not going to ride. So, the plan was for me to get into line, ride and my DW to ride once with her band and then once with DD band.

I got into line and past the first scanner at exactly 4. I walked off the ride at 4:45. The FP line was all the back to the first scanner. I scanned, took 2 steps and stood there in line. Standby line did not move and signle rider maybe moved 4 or 5 people the whole time. Several people got into the single rider line and waited a bit and turned around and left and severa; people also left the standby line.

My DW was able to ride once with her band and we just didn't bother with DD's band.

The FP line for Buzz was ofter backed up past the Laugh Factory entrance and Big Thunder wrapped up to the exit. We didn't ride Space Mtn, but it also was far into the open courtyard-type area.

 

[wiigirl]

Thanks for the report!

 

[chimilady]

I was also there the same weekend and we did NOT have a good experience. Well, first of all, the app kept crashing my phone. and my husband's phone. And my MIL's phone. And my phone is brand new, purchased black friday weekend, and I have good coverage and know it's not my phone. Secondly, even with making reservations a week in advance, I couldn't get times for things I wanted on FP+. The earliest I could get TSM was from 5:15 - 6:16. And I only got it for 2 of my 4 options, the other two the system substituted Rock N Rollercoaster, and considering I don't ride coasters, I was semi pissed. At DHS for example, they used to let you in the queue for Disney Jr. right up until the show started (This was our 3rd trip in under 18 months, the previous one being in August). Now you have to be there a minimum of 10 minutes beforehand, and only FP+ holders are let in last minute. Things that were previously walk on are now very long of a wait. For example, Star Tours was never more than 10 minutes, and now the lowest I saw it the whole day was 40 minutes, with most times being over 60. Because you can only choose one big ticket ride now for your FP, people are filling in their time with lesser rides, so the lines for those are long. I mean, has there ever been a line out the door for Muppet Vision, but there was on Sunday. I don't ever recall a 45 minute wait for the LM show at DHS either, but there was on Sunday. I definitely feel screwed. There is no way I am going to drop this kind of money on a vacation and do less than I could do just 5 short months ago. And we're rope drop people.

Don't even get me started on MK, that was a mess. I feel sorry for the people going this summer and during spring break.

And for AK, well, if you have to create a super winding queue for the safari ride just for FP+ holders, that should tell you something. And there is nothing else worth using a FP+ reservation for there since it's all walk on. We only used the one, and that was for the Safari. (of course the summer, there will be Kali River Rapids, but it was winter and cold, so I'm sure it was walk on this weekend.)

Same at Epcot. I would have GLADLY given up my selections for a FP for the Frozen Princesses, that was 3.5 hour wait on Thursday, and I heard from friends over 5 hour wait on the weekend. That is just stupid that I can't use FP for that. I couldn't care less about Maelstrom or any of the lower tiered rides there, but yeah, there should be more princesses.

My husband I talked about it in depth and decided our next Orlando trip will be a Universal or Seaworld trip. It will be at least 2 years before we go back to Disney, just enough time for them to figure all of this mess out. You shouldn't ask us to pay more, and have us be able to accomplish less. In case it matters to anyone, we used Josh's crowd calendar too, which has NEVER steered us wrong before. And I don't think it did this time either, I can't even imagine what it would have been like if we had done MK on Saturday or Sunday!!!

 

[Anonomom]

for your favorite rides, did you just ride them once or did you do standby as well? very curious as to how your whole attraction usage experience was given the fact that FP+ limited you to 3 FP+'s and were tiered.

Not the OP, but we were in the parks this past weekend and between RD and FP+, we did a lot of repeat riding. For some headliners, we rode SB early in the morning then visited again later with our FPs (and actually, using baby swap, that meant my older kids got to ride some things 4x). For others, we just rode them multiple times in the morning, knowing that we had our FPs for other favorite rides so we could afford to stay in one place longer.

Now, mind you, we didn't ride all of the headliners -- for example, my kids don't like BTMRR, so we used our FPs for ETWB, PP and the Rapunzel M&G. DD and DH rode Space Mountain twice first thing in the morning while I took the smaller kids on Buzz Lightyear twice and Winnie the Pooh once. Basically, until around 10:00, we could have ridden almost all of the rides in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland multiple times if we chose to (and I presume the other lands were similar).

My most pleasant surprise this weekend is how many FP+s we were able to get at the last minute, for times we wanted. Since this was a last-minute trip, the earliest I booked any FPs was three days out. On Tuesday, I booked our FPs for DHS two hours before the park opened and was able to get a 10:55 am slot at TSMM. And we changed a lot of FPs on the fly as we were able to cross several rides off our list early in the morning. I really enjoyed the flexibility.

I will admit that it would be nice to have more than 3 FPs at MK. We made a few silly choices (like waiting in a 45-minute line for lunch at BOG and another 45 minutes to meet Merida). That wasted some prime touring time and we missed out on riding lesser rides that weren't top FP priorities but that had developed long lines by afternoon. A few extra FPs would have softened the effect of those choices.

ETA: We were at MK on Sunday; arrived about 5 minutes before the 8 am RD. Everything we rode before 10 am was a walk-on, except for Tomorrowland Speedway, where we waited about 10 minutes. We were at DHS on Tuesday with the very limited purpose of doing Jedi Training, riding Star Tours and TSMM and playing at the playground before heading home. Star Tours was a walk-on until around 9:30 and by the time we rode for the fourth time, had about a 15 minute wait.

 

[Vincent405]

I can't even imagine what it would have been like if we had done MK on Saturday or Sunday!!!

We did MK on Saturday since it was DD birthday. I have notes of what we did and will post later. It was packed.

 

[Jenorsi]

I will say there seems to be some inconsistency to the experience. One poster did FP+ three days out and got TSMM for mid morning and I did mine a week or more out and could only get it for 1 p.m. I think it was the same day but could be wrong about that. Seems a little random. I thought the longer lines we saw on so so attractions were because of the MLK weekend crowds but it will be interesting to see whether that's an effect of having FP+ on so many more rides.

Also, I found the My Disney Experience site was less reliable and crashed more on my laptop at home than on my phone in the parks. Just my experience.