Just Back... FP+ Pros & Cons

[lugnut33]

If you want to ride an attractions multiple times all you need to do is book more days at WDW!! So simple

 

[Gr8t Fan]

- My biggest gripe with FP+ was the waiting between "appointments." Not sure why this felt so different from legacy FP, but we found ourselves sometimes early for an FP+ and, not wanting to backtrack to another part of the park to find another ride, we would just sit and wait for our FP window to open. (I suppose this may be part of the WDW strategy here, as it did encourage us to browse a gift shop or buy an extra snack while we waited.)

OMG, THIS!!

We felt exactly the same way! And I just couldn't get my head around why it felt so different, but it definitely did. Sometimes, my Mom and I actually admitted we were bored waiting for our rides. We waited for legacy FP times, so why the difference? What's wrong with me?!?!?!?

Our family experienced the same thing, waiting around for the next FP+. After some consideration, we decided that in the past we would simply have gone on other rides on the way to our next FP ride, but the wait times in the standby lines at other rides along the way were so high that we were afraid to get in them and chance missing the time for our FP+ attraction so we erred on the side of caution. Rides that normally didn't have much of a line before with legacy FP, now have long lines/wait times with FP+.

 

[Laketravis]

Me?

Everything I said related to FP+ and how it can be used by some to potentially avoid negative experiences people have had, like having significant down time between FP+ returns or experiencing less than half of the attractions they used under legacy FP. The negatives are out there, and it would seem that FP+ threads should try and help people avoid them.

I could simply say we like FP+ because it leads to a more efficient and relaxed touring style, but that kind of blanket statement without some detail and context really isn't all that useful IMHO.

I'm pretty sure Cyrano was referring to the OP.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Our family experienced the same thing, waiting around for the next FP+. After some consideration, we decided that in the past we would simply have gone on other rides on the way to our next FP ride, but the wait times in the standby lines at other rides along the way were so high that we were afraid to get in them and chance missing the time for our FP+ attraction so we erred on the side of caution. Rides that normally didn't have much of a line before with legacy FP, now have long lines/wait times with FP+.

Agreed, the longer SB waits for attractions that never really had them is what I consider to be the biggest downside to FP+

 

[Laketravis]

If you want to ride an attractions multiple times all you need to do is book more days at WDW!! So simple

Was certainly true for us, we found that doubling the days we spent at WDW helped to mitigate the negative effects of FP+. Not necessarily to ride anything multiple times but to ride everything we wanted to.

 

[Laketravis]

That whole waiting-for-an-appointment feeling drove me nuts, too. I think all the pre-planning that's involved now (and the lack of flexibility when changing them at the last minute) makes FPs feel much higher-stakes than they used to. And for me, anyway, when the stakes feel higher, I'm much less likely to take a chance that I might miss that particular opportunity. So for our last two FP+ trips, I would sit, wait, look in vain for a bench, and think about how much I missed flexible-return-time legacy FPs. (People watching is all well and good, but less so when wrangling a toddler in the September heat.)

I'm trying to come up with a way to NOT tour that way next time, so we don't spend so much time sitting around getting frustrated, or looking at our watches feeling stressed. It's going to require some sort of psychological shift on my part. We'll see if I can manage it.

Thank you for articulating the "when the stakes feel higher part" - I think that's exactly what it is. Of course with the "old" system you still had time to kill until the next FP, but the stakes didn't seem as high and you made the decision to pull that FP real time based on current conditions and stimuli.

But with FP+ many people spend weeks/months planning ahead and sometimes several sessions of appointment "manipulation" to achieve the combination of what they desire for their group, sometimes even with a sense of victory once they've been able to accomplish that. The sense of potential loss is much greater should they be faced with missing that "appointment" due to the higher stakes like you mentioned.

 

[DisneyKidds]

I'm pretty sure Cyrano was referring to the OP.

Oops, thanks.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Was certainly true for us, we found that doubling the days we spent at WDW helped to mitigate the negative effects of FP+. Not necessarily to ride anything multiple times but to ride everything we wanted to.

If I'm not mistaken, I think you indicated in a previous thread that you increased your visits to WDW from one week to two weeks in response to FP+. Is that correct?

Wow, double the time, two weeks required to get everything done. That doesn't say much for FP+. That's actually scary! Do you think a full two weeks is required of everyone, or were there other reasons you extended to two weeks? I don't have two weeks!!!!

Would you mind sharing the touring strategy you employed that required double your normal time at WDW for you to see everything you wanted to once. Like I said, that is kind of scary, the thought that it requires two weeks to get everything you want done. I've heard there are different touring strategies out there and I'd like to explore if there are ways to avoid having that be the case for us using FP+, as it was for you.

Thanks.

 

[erc]

Under the old system we never rode every ride either, but that had more to do with the fact that we always had people in our group that either didn't want to ride so it wasn't worth waiting or using a FP for, or we had done it in a previous visit, and we didn't feel it was worth doing on this visit. We only rode an attraction multiple times if we got off the ride and saw that the SB line was still fairly short. And this only happened within the first hour of park opening.

So I am guessing that the new FP+ system will not be much of a change in how we have toured the parks before. If I had gotten used to being able to go on each ride and riding them multiple times, then I could probably see how it would be a negative. But we had fun just the same. Sometimes it is fun to look around and enjoy the surroundings.

 

[cgattis]

Our family experienced the same thing, waiting around for the next FP+. After some consideration, we decided that in the past we would simply have gone on other rides on the way to our next FP ride, but the wait times in the standby lines at other rides along the way were so high that we were afraid to get in them and chance missing the time for our FP+ attraction so we erred on the side of caution. Rides that normally didn't have much of a line before with legacy FP, now have long lines/wait times with FP+.

Exactly what we experienced. But unlike a PP, that actually did NOT encourage me to spend more money. It actually left a bitter taste in my mouth, and made me NOT want to give them more, since I already felt like I was getting less for the money spent on tickets than in the past.

 

[ktlm]

Well, at least you got to ride RNRC once. It is one of my favorite rides and thanks to FP+ I didn't get to ride it at all this trip. We pick TSMM for our FP+ because DD loves it (I like it too). Like you, our experience was that on a low crowd day, the RNRC line was already 40 minutes within 20 to 30 minutes of park opening. The single rider line was already 30 minutes. We checked several times that day, and they were never below those waits. DD won't ride so DH and I would have had to have taken turns going through the single rider line and we weren't willing to give up more than an hour of our day to do that and neither of us thought it was fair to go and make the other one give up the ride as we both like it. We had booked our FP+ early in hopes of maybe getting a 4th for it, but not only was that not available at the kiosk we were told there were NO FP+ left for ANY attraction in the park for the rest of the day so we could not get a 4th at all. This was at about noon. As a result, no RNRC at all for DH or I. In the old days, we would either grab 2 regular FP for RNRC and take turns riding, or if the single rider line was only 10 or 15 minutes (which it most often was) we would just take turns doing that.


Not only that, but we had high hopes that by running to TSM at opening we would get a 2nd ride on it. We usually only rode it once with FP, so we thought that would be at least one bonus to FP+. We had our FP+ for that from 9 to 10, so we thought we would get there, ride standby and then use our FP+. We were unlucky enough to get there the week that they tested TSMM as FP+ only- no standby ride at all.

So...thanks to FP+, only 1 TSMM ride (which wasn't different for us) and NO RNRC ride (which was very different).

I also was not a fan of the fact that since we love Soarin and got FP+ for that, we single rider TT and so our memory maker pictures don't have any of us together. Thank goodness DD is 8 and can single rider. If she was 6, that would have been a problem.

 

[Laketravis]

If I'm not mistaken, I think you indicated in a previous thread that you increased your visits to WDW from one week to two weeks in response to FP+. Is that correct?

Wow, double the time, two weeks required to get everything done. That doesn't say much for FP+. That's actually scary! Do you think a full two weeks is required of everyone, or were there other reasons you extended to two weeks? I don't have two weeks!!!!

Would you mind sharing the touring strategy you employed that required double your normal time at WDW for you to see everything you wanted to once. Like I said, that is kind of scary, the thought that it requires two weeks to get everything you want done. I've heard there are different touring strategies out there and I'd like to explore if there are ways to avoid having that be the case for us using FP+, as it was for you.

Thanks.

Kidd, we've been back and forth on this enough already simply because you don't get the response you seem to be looking for.

Tell you what - why don't you just post a touring plan that you recommend for everyone? And be specific, please. Like what attractions when, what parks when, how far in advance to reserve those FP's, how to do so regardless of group or family size, reserve flexibility for things like ADR's and kiddie meltdowns, you know...specifics.

Because from what I've already seen, your recommendations so far have been to not spend more than 6 hours in the park, to be out by noon, etc. I'm not sure how much can be accomplished with that strategy?

 

[jharaldson]

- My biggest gripe with FP+ was the waiting between "appointments." Not sure why this felt so different from legacy FP, but we found ourselves sometimes early for an FP+ and, not wanting to backtrack to another part of the park to find another ride, we would just sit and wait for our FP window to open. (I suppose this may be part of the WDW strategy here, as it did encourage us to browse a gift shop or buy an extra snack while we waited.)

I have seen a comment like this a few times in other threads and have always been confused by it as well. Regardless if you reserved a 2:00 PM FP via MyMagic 2 months in advance or if you pulled a 2:00 PM FP from a paper FP machine at noon the end result is you still have a 2:00 PM reservation.

 

[mom2rtk]

I have seen a comment like this a few times in other threads and have always been confused by it as well. Regardless if you reserved a 2:00 PM FP via MyMagic 2 months in advance or if you pulled a 2:00 PM FP from a paper FP machine at noon the end result is you still have a 2:00 PM reservation.

But in the past if you missed your headliner FP, you could just go pull another. Now your odds of having another headliner available after the first 3 are far lower. That just adds to the "high stakes" feeling of the new system.

 

[erc]

But in the past if you missed your headliner FP, you could just go pull another.

You could only do that in the past because a very small percentage of park guests were using FastPass.

So really what made FastPass such a great experience was the fact that you were using it and 8 out of 10 others were not.

 

[jeffbear]

It's worth noting for this comparison, though, that Universal in general seemed much less crowded/less popular than Disney, which helped the EPs work.

This goes wildly under-noted.

 

[mom2rtk]

You could only do that in the past because a very small percentage of park guests were using FastPass.

So really what made FastPass such a great experience was the fact that you were using it and 8 out of 10 others were not.

And it wasn't because I was blocking their access to the FP machine.

One of the reasons so many more guests are using FP now is because so many more attractions have FP now.

And honestly the reason doesn't matter. I do know there's no going back. But part of the reason people are sitting around waiting for their FP window to open is because it's much harder now to replace it.

I also think it's because the things they used to do while they waited have longer waits because they now have FP for the first time.

 

[Laketravis]

One of the reasons so many more guests are using FP now is because so many more attractions have FP now.

As well as having to pick three as part of the reservation process. Not one, not two, but three. (Cue Monty Python, "The number shall be......")

I've been told that is because WDW determined that the "average" guest used 3 FP's with the old system.

So now, everyone is forced to be "average" - and that's simply against human nature.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

But part of the reason people are sitting around waiting for their FP window to open is because it's much harder now to replace it.

Exactly. Don't want to risk missing the FP+ so we'd rather stand around (and we're not using the "extra time" to spend $ in the gift shops either) until our time is up.

We have one more trip on our APs in April and then we are done with WDW for awhile due to a number of things involving our family dynamic, vacation time, FP+, rising cost vs. decreasing value, etc. We may give WDW another try after some new attractions are built (and we don't consider a new Frozen meeting place a new attraction), we'll see how it all plays out. And that's saying a lot for our family as we have always had another trip to WDW in the works and have been there yearly (at least) for the past 21 years.

 

[erc]

And it wasn't because I was blocking their access to the FP machine.

Absolutely not. I just think people arguing the pro's and con's of FP+ just need to admit to the elephant in the room.

1) The experience is worse for those who were savvy enough to take full advantage of legacy FastPass in the past.

2) The experience is better for those who never caught on to legacy FastPass in the past.

3) The experience is the same for those who use FP+ in nearly the same way that they used legacy FastPass.