Just back, and it couldn't have gone smoother!

[NavyDad]

Now you know what some of us* were thinking when reading the fabulous pre-FP+ TRs, with all of the detailed planning, pre-dawn ops, FP runners, military execution, etc.




*based on Disney's actions, a significant number - financially speaking, of course

Honestly, I am one of those detailed, precision planners and the legacy FP worked great for me and my family. We were really able to leverage inefficiencies in the system to get as close to the maximum experience that could be had.

On the other hand I am a systems guy and I understand the basic concepts of queueing theory and crowd control techniques. When you have an inefficient system there are going to be a small number of people that benefit greatly. That's just reality. When you increase efficiency in a system, conversely there is also going to be a small number of people who are going to recieve less of a benefit.

There have been many reports lately that the system was working terrible and now you are seeing reports that the system is working great. I love the DIS but as Josh would say all of these reports are irrelevant because A.) The unique factors of each family size, touring style, days visited, weather conditions and many more make it more than likely their experience will be much different than yours and B.) self sampling on message boards is the absolute worst form of survey you could possibly have.

By human nature, most people will come on here to post and be heavily influenced by their own personal agenda. Then others will chime in based on their own pre-conceptions. Just like in politics the 5% on either side will be the most vocal.

What really matters is the experience of the 60-90% in the middle that would be very unlikely to jump into the conversation on an internet message boards.

These are the people that big companies/organizations market to and the segment this new more efficient system is meant for.....

 

[OtherScott]

Honestly, I am one of those detailed, precision planners and the legacy FP worked great for me and my family. We were really able to leverage inefficiencies in the system to get as close to the maximum experience that could be had.

On the other hand I am a systems guy and I understand the basic concepts of queueing theory and crowd control techniques. When you have an inefficient system there are going to be a small number of people that benefit greatly. That's just reality. When you increase efficiency in a system, conversely there is also going to be a small number of people who are going to recieve less of a benefit.

There have been many reports lately that the system was working terrible and now you are seeing reports that the system is working great. I love the DIS but as Josh would say all of these reports are irrelevant because A.) The unique factors of each family size, touring style, days visited, weather conditions and many more make it more than likely their experience will be much different than yours and B.) self sampling on message boards is the absolute worst form of survey you could possibly have.

By human nature, most people will come on here to post and be heavily influenced by their own personal agenda. Then others will chime in based on their own pre-conceptions. Just like in politics the 5% on either side will be the most vocal.

What really matters is the experience of the 60-90% in the middle that would be very unlikely to jump into the conversation on an internet message boards.

These are the people that big companies/organizations market to and the segment this new more efficient system is meant for.....

Perfectly stated.

 

[NavyDad]

How did he tolerate Primeval Whirl?

I love every roller coaster I have ever riden and very rarely get sick on anything.....

Primevil Whirl makes me sick every time. I usually don't have any problems with other "mouse-trap" style ride but I think the spinning cars on this ride do me in....

 

[jade1]

Seriously. If I were to use the word "lame" when discussing Disney, it would be the "headliner rides." Of course, we have season passes to Cedar Point/Kings Island.

The Banshee opens this weekend! It ain't BTMRR, but it'll have to do:

I will take 7DMT.

Now if WDW would build this partially inside a Lord of the Rings or Maleficent castle or Star Wars mountain or something-then yea I would be interested.

 

[prudence64]

Seriously. If I were to use the word "lame" when discussing Disney, it would be the "headliner rides." Of course, we have season passes to Cedar Point/Kings Island.

The Banshee opens this weekend! It ain't BTMRR, but it'll have to do:

Maybe in my younger days, but I've lost my taste for rides like this.

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

Knock on wood but were here now and the only problem we have seen is "user error"

 

[Mad Hattered]

I will take 7DMT.

Now if WDW would build this partially inside a Lord of the Rings or Maleficent castle or Star Wars mountain or something-then yea I would be interested.

Even if that meant you had to go to Universal Orlando to do it. *hint hint*

 

[Julylady]

Just back from a week at WDW. Magic Bands worked great all week, but MDE not so much. I had picked all my FAst Passes 60 days in advance. The light always turned green when it was supposed too! My 9 and 12 year old loved wearing the bands and used them easily. The FP lines went quickly and our waits were usually less than with the old FP system.

The 12 year old had charging privileges which worked out really well. We let her approach the food carts and order /pay herself. It gave here a little independence which she loved.

Twice the rides we had FP for went down and we were sent an email offering a switch. Once we substituted another ride . The other time we waited until the ride was running much later in the day. Both times the mickey's turned green.

Our big change was that for the first time in 10 trips we did not park hop. And.....we found we did not miss it a bit!

All that being said, the MDE app did not work at all in the park. Three times we wanted to change our selected fast passes for either different rides or times without success. The website would tell us to try again later or would just freeze up. Very disappointing. We also had problems with connecting to the WIFI in the hotel room all week,

In the past we typically used 3-4 fast passes a day and are not ride repeaters on the same day . I really liked that we entered the parks already knowing our fast past time windows. I also liked not having to run around and collect them from the fast pass machines.

Despite the crowds last week , this was one of our best trips ever enhanced by Magic Bands to a great degree. I was skeptical going in , but came out a Magic Band convert.

 

[jade1]

Even if that meant you had to go to Universal Orlando to do it. *hint hint*

Oh we go to US so agreed. If they can do it.

But Hulk and D Dragons (bunch of welded pipes) are to similar to Cedar IMO-HP kinda but not a coaster really, the rest eh. EE is much more immersive into the mountain IMO, even with a still Yeti. US/IOA have not shown me that yet. RNR gets away with it because it's smaller and a dark only ride-kinda like Mummy. Even BTMRR has a great design IMO, 7DMT is as well but too small in comparison.

 

[Love2Cruise]

We have also just returned from a 4 day trip and spent 3 days in the parks. We were very apprehensive about the crowds and the new Fastpass plus system, since we had previously loved the old system. Well we had a wonderful time! It was me, my DH and DD(15). Yes it was very crowded in all the parks, but we are early risers, so rope drop is easy for us. Using park hopping and FP+ for afternoon riding, we only waited for 20 to 25 minutes only once or twice a day. We rode our favorites in the AM, first 2 hours the park was open, then used MDE to choose other attractions during the busier times. It all worked out great for us, but I can see challenges with the FP+ if you have a mix of both small children and teens because you would have to choose between the FP+ which appeal to the little ones and the FP+ for the thrill rides unless you were all willing to split up. When you are able to get more than 3FP's per day, that will help families who have both small and big kids!

 

[TeamBlack]

Does anyone else think it's weird that if there a positive trip thread, a small group appears and tries to convince the op that they didn't really have a good time?

 

[Shaden]

Does anyone else think it's weird that if there a positive trip thread, a small group appears and tries to convince the op that they didn't really have a good time?

No one has tried to do that.


And Magpie you were right, you didn't say it rained, you just said the park had all but cleared out, and noted on your AK night the park was empty.

Sorry for talking about the rain, I think I was confusing posts between threads.

 

[Magpie]

No one has tried to do that.


And Magpie you were right, you didn't say it rained, you just said the park had all but cleared out, and noted on your AK night the park was empty.

Sorry for talking about the rain, I think I was confusing posts between threads.

Actually, I said the opposite. I said: "This was, indeed the first time I've actually seen (small) crowds at Animal Kingdom right up to close - even at 9pm!"

Meaning, while I expected Animal Kingdom to have cleared out by 9pm, that wasn't what happened. There were actually a noticeable number of people left, which I found quite surprising, having experienced truly empty Animal Kingdom last Christmas.

That said, most of the people in Animal Kingdom appeared to be standing in line for characters or browsing the shops. Everest and the other rides were walk-ons. We saw several riders just hopping off and jumping right back on again for another round.

I think the confusion comes from this comment of mine:

"We could have kept riding Buzz over and over, as the park had pretty much emptied out by this point, but my husband's basically a once-and-done kind of guy. And he was tired. So we headed out for the busses." That was a Magic Kingdom evening, and we were less than half an hour away from an eleven pm closing. I would expect the parks to be emptying by that point!

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

No glitches at all with our FP plusses this time (compared to when we visited last December, and half our parks didn't show up). Every single time we scanned our bands, it worked - instantly!

Even the readers seemed better at picking up our bands.

Didn't see any lines in the FP returns. Never had to wait for anything, if we had a FP for it. And we just picked our other times wisely. Never stood in line more than 15 minutes all week, even Standby. Rode and saw everything except the Rock and Roller Coaster (which makes my husband sick) and Country Bears (which we didn't get around to).

Only saw the FP entrance backed up twice in nine days, due to other guests blocking the entrance and arguing with the cast members. Which, come to think of it, is also exactly how often we got stuck in a Quick Service line, while slow-pokes mulled over the menu, repeatedly changed their minds, failed to do simple mental math, and tied up the cast member on the cash.

And after visiting all four parks on Sunday, which was apparently a "level 9" crowd level, I'm totally not worried any more about coming down during high crowd periods. It was completely manageable!

Most interesting comment... as we were hopping from the Magic Kingdom over to Animal Kingdom in the afternoon, we heard a girl comment to her group, iphone in hand, "I wonder how many people are on this bus because they saw the wait times at Animal Kingdom?"

This was, indeed the first time I've actually seen (small) crowds at Animal Kingdom right up to close - even at 9pm! So I do wonder if the ease of checking wait times at other parks is causing some increase in park hopping. But, even with that, Everest and all the other rides were still walk-ons and the waits for characters weren't completely unreasonable.

Everest in the dark is the Best. Coaster. Ever.

I miss Disney already...

Awesome! I've never rode Everest in the dark, we will have to try that

 

[Viva Las Disney]

Maybe in my younger days, but I've lost my taste for rides like this.

I was thinking the same thing. I still love coasters and would jump on that ride in a heartbeat but I'd need to take it easy for the next half hour to recover.

I've always wondered why people compare Disney to thrill parks, Disney has always been about atmosphere and providing rides the whole family can enjoy together.

Disney could easily compete with Six Flags and Cedar Point on a thrill level if they wanted to, they could have thrown up a half dozen or more "off the shelf" coasters and flat rides for what Expedition Everest cost alone, but then they'd just be another thrill park.

Glad you had a good time OP!

 

[wendybeth75]

We went last week as well and had a great experience. There was only one time that the FP line was long and that was for Splash Mountain. The only complaint that we had was that we couldn't book dining through the MDE app on our phone. That was an ongoing issue and the CMs confirmed it is system wide. We did the Easter egg hunt in the WS at Epcot and had a blast. Also the Muppet search looking for evil Constantine was a lot of fun. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and went in knowing it would be more crowded than our typical fall trips and just rolled with the flow. FP+ made it nice not to have to trample or be trampled to get FP for TSM or Soarin!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

The Banshee opens this weekend! It ain't BTMRR, but it'll have to do:

This looks like my personal idea of hell.

Magpie, I'm glad you had a good trip; it definitely sounds like FP+ is optimally suited for your type of touring.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Everest in the dark is the Best. Coaster. Ever.

Indeed it is! Possibly the best experience to be had at WDW. I can't wait for AK to become a nighttime park!

 

[rastuso]

Does anyone else think it's weird that if there a positive trip thread, a small group appears and tries to convince the op that they didn't really have a good time?

Actually we are pointing out how FP+ was not the reason for the good time. I'm pretty sure AK is nice with low crowds, regardless of Fastpass. And the last 30 minutes is always great at the Magic Kingdom.

But you can sleep in and still ride TSMM, so does it really matter if there is anything negative about it?

-J

 

[Magpie]

But you can sleep in and still ride TSMM, so does it really matter if there is anything negative about it?

-J

What could possibly be negative about sleeping in and still riding TSM?