momtosam
Oh, Schmootsie-poo!
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2006
- Messages
- 1,624
I went on our trip with an open attitude about FP+. I guess I'm back with a Fastpass Neutral opinion. This post mostly focuses on scheduling more FP+ after your first three have been used. I didn't have any problems using my first three at all. You definitely need to schedule these before park arrival, though, due to the limited number of kiosks (see below).
My number one complaint is finding kiosks once your first three passes have been used. They are marked on park maps, but are kind of tucked away under awnings and such making them harder to locate. THEY HAVE TO ADD MORE KIOSKS/CMS PRONTO, especially in MK. We spent two days in MK. The first was Tuesday -- low crowd levels, very easy to work the system. We used a total of 7 FP that day, but could have easily pulled more. We went back to the hotel for an afternoon break. I was able to walk up to kiosks and choose rides with immediate availability every time on Tuesday. Friday was a different story. The crowds were much larger, of course, and the kiosk lines were LONG. The FP program the CMs use was glitchy that day and more than one CM showed visible frustration with their iPads. We had a very hard time booking extra FP for all four us using one band. For some reason we were linked together perfectly all week and then on Friday they weren't working that way anymore. Multiple CMs had to scan and rescan more than one of us to get us four FP together on the same ride. We also were not able to pull any immediate use FP that day like we did on Tuesday. FP were available for the rides we wanted, but typically the window opened 90 minutes after visiting the kiosk.
While standing in the long kiosk lines on Friday I asked three different CMs what are you going to do this summer when it is really busy? One positive CM said that without lines she wouldn't have a job, one CM responded that he'd like to see kiosks at every ride, and one very honest CM said she is going to cry, LOL!
Tiering really stinks. At HS we took TSMM because my kids won't do ToT or Rock N Roller Coaster. I didn't try to get more than three FP there. At EP we took TT as our Tier One choice. After using three I tried to get Soarin' and couldn't. That was at about 1:30 on Wednesday. No one in my party was willing to wait 75 minutes to ride it, so I missed out on that ride this trip. I really wish they would get rid of the tiers. If anything it shows that these two parks needs more rides!
A few times I got messed up by changing FP on my phone. It is hard to explain without walking through the screens, but at least twice I wanted to switch a reservation to a different ride. At first it looked like I was changing to a new ride during the same time period. It wasn't until after I hit "done" that a different time popped up. At EP I tried to change a 1:00 for Nemo to Spaceship Earth. It showed my change to Spaceship Earth as 1:00 - 2:00, but after I hit done it came up as 3:20 - 4:20. That time was unusable because we were going to be in the World Showcase by then.
Also at EP we got stuck in Mission Mars during a breakdown. Because of that we missed our next FP and there was nothing we could do about it. I would have changed it on the fly on my phone, but in the bottom of MM I didn't get cell reception.
Finally, I found being tied to the times of my first three FP somewhat stressful. I made the mistake of booking Peter Pan, BTMR, and lunch at BOG in that order. We had to run back and forth across the park to make these times. That was my mistake, but still stressful. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that we did spend two days at Universal. Their Express Pass is very expensive and there is no way I would pay for it, however, I feel like our days were more enjoyable there because we weren't tied down to any ride times. Also crowd levels were very manageable. We all seemed to have more relaxing days there, enough that I would do a split stay next time to take advantage of their express pass as part of their hotel priveleges. Their express pass is not timed. You can walk up to any line at any time. Without a doubt I would pay for that kind of pass at MK.
Having said all of the above, though, in no way would I say FP ruined my vacation. Tuesday at MK was great, Animal Kingdom and HS worked out fine, I experienced a few glitches and missed out on Soarin' at EP, and Friday, a busy day at MK, was glitchy. We did, however, ride all three mountains that day with our first three FP so that was great!
Oh, and I wanted to mention, the FP return lines do often look long, but we never waited for what would be deemed an unacceptable time. Usually when the line looks long it is because a party going through the scan point either doesn't know how to match up their band to the scanner, entered the wrong line or had the wrong time for their FP return. The problem is usually quickly remedied and the line gets moving again.
My number one complaint is finding kiosks once your first three passes have been used. They are marked on park maps, but are kind of tucked away under awnings and such making them harder to locate. THEY HAVE TO ADD MORE KIOSKS/CMS PRONTO, especially in MK. We spent two days in MK. The first was Tuesday -- low crowd levels, very easy to work the system. We used a total of 7 FP that day, but could have easily pulled more. We went back to the hotel for an afternoon break. I was able to walk up to kiosks and choose rides with immediate availability every time on Tuesday. Friday was a different story. The crowds were much larger, of course, and the kiosk lines were LONG. The FP program the CMs use was glitchy that day and more than one CM showed visible frustration with their iPads. We had a very hard time booking extra FP for all four us using one band. For some reason we were linked together perfectly all week and then on Friday they weren't working that way anymore. Multiple CMs had to scan and rescan more than one of us to get us four FP together on the same ride. We also were not able to pull any immediate use FP that day like we did on Tuesday. FP were available for the rides we wanted, but typically the window opened 90 minutes after visiting the kiosk.
While standing in the long kiosk lines on Friday I asked three different CMs what are you going to do this summer when it is really busy? One positive CM said that without lines she wouldn't have a job, one CM responded that he'd like to see kiosks at every ride, and one very honest CM said she is going to cry, LOL!
Tiering really stinks. At HS we took TSMM because my kids won't do ToT or Rock N Roller Coaster. I didn't try to get more than three FP there. At EP we took TT as our Tier One choice. After using three I tried to get Soarin' and couldn't. That was at about 1:30 on Wednesday. No one in my party was willing to wait 75 minutes to ride it, so I missed out on that ride this trip. I really wish they would get rid of the tiers. If anything it shows that these two parks needs more rides!
A few times I got messed up by changing FP on my phone. It is hard to explain without walking through the screens, but at least twice I wanted to switch a reservation to a different ride. At first it looked like I was changing to a new ride during the same time period. It wasn't until after I hit "done" that a different time popped up. At EP I tried to change a 1:00 for Nemo to Spaceship Earth. It showed my change to Spaceship Earth as 1:00 - 2:00, but after I hit done it came up as 3:20 - 4:20. That time was unusable because we were going to be in the World Showcase by then.
Also at EP we got stuck in Mission Mars during a breakdown. Because of that we missed our next FP and there was nothing we could do about it. I would have changed it on the fly on my phone, but in the bottom of MM I didn't get cell reception.
Finally, I found being tied to the times of my first three FP somewhat stressful. I made the mistake of booking Peter Pan, BTMR, and lunch at BOG in that order. We had to run back and forth across the park to make these times. That was my mistake, but still stressful. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that we did spend two days at Universal. Their Express Pass is very expensive and there is no way I would pay for it, however, I feel like our days were more enjoyable there because we weren't tied down to any ride times. Also crowd levels were very manageable. We all seemed to have more relaxing days there, enough that I would do a split stay next time to take advantage of their express pass as part of their hotel priveleges. Their express pass is not timed. You can walk up to any line at any time. Without a doubt I would pay for that kind of pass at MK.
Having said all of the above, though, in no way would I say FP ruined my vacation. Tuesday at MK was great, Animal Kingdom and HS worked out fine, I experienced a few glitches and missed out on Soarin' at EP, and Friday, a busy day at MK, was glitchy. We did, however, ride all three mountains that day with our first three FP so that was great!
Oh, and I wanted to mention, the FP return lines do often look long, but we never waited for what would be deemed an unacceptable time. Usually when the line looks long it is because a party going through the scan point either doesn't know how to match up their band to the scanner, entered the wrong line or had the wrong time for their FP return. The problem is usually quickly remedied and the line gets moving again.
