Just back...spontaneity alive and well!

[julieb5]

The My Disney Experience App. It should have your FPs listed on it. When you use your magicband for your 3rd FP, start looking for FP #4. They will give you 3 options for each ride but don't forget to swipe right to get earlier times or left for later times than it shows right away.

Thank you so much for the info!! Last time we were there you could not add the 4th FP from the app so this will be exciting to not have to wait in the lines this year

 

[W.E.D.]

OP,

#6 Totally awesome!!!

 

[Murron]

Oh and we got the ooey gooey butter cake sundae with chocolate milk and cookies and malty salty pretzel ice cream, caramel, whipped cream, chocolate chips and cherry on top

I just gained 10 lbs reading this! Yum...

 

[DisneyFive]

We did switch planned parks, but never bothered trying for FP as the pickings were pathetic. We were savvy enough to maneuver around old school style and never wait more than 10-15 minutes. It was delightful not feeling like a slave to a schedule.

That's what I was afraid of. Insert sarcasm here: Spontaneity is alive and well as long as you stay with your predefined park schedule that you had set 60 - 180 days out.

Gone are the days of getting to any park, any day, and having a level playing field with everyone else for FP's.

I love the idea of spontaneity at Disney, it just has it's tradeoffs. In the end, the benefits may significantly outweigh the negatives though.

Dan

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Thank you so much for the info!! Last time we were there you could not add the 4th FP from the app so this will be exciting to not have to wait in the lines this year

The downside is the release of this function on the app coincided with extraordinarily limited availability. Now that the 4th FP+ is more accessible to all, it's also far harder to get one.

 

[krsb09]

Interesting, we also had a terrible experience at check in (which continued months after check out actually...) at BWV last November. This was after years of booking there. We changed resorts for our trip this year but were talking about going back next year. I'm sad to hear things have not improved.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

That's what I was afraid of. Insert sarcasm here: Spontaneity is alive and well as long as you stay with your predefined park schedule that you had set 60 - 180 days out.

Gone are the days of getting to any park, any day, and having a level playing field with everyone else for FP's.

I love the idea of spontaneity at Disney, it just has it's tradeoffs. In the end, the benefits may significantly outweigh the negatives though.

Dan

I feel like this post is from mid-2014.

 

[Jennasis]

That's what I was afraid of. Insert sarcasm here: Spontaneity is alive and well as long as you stay with your predefined park schedule that you had set 60 - 180 days out.

Gone are the days of getting to any park, any day, and having a level playing field with everyone else for FP's.

I love the idea of spontaneity at Disney, it just has it's tradeoffs. In the end, the benefits may significantly outweigh the negatives though.

Dan

It was the lack of FP that allowed us (forced us?) To be spontaneous. We park hopped daily and never waited for rides because we DITCHED fast pass and toured old school. No appointments to keep...just doing what we felt like doing. No keeping to a schedule we made 60+ days out.

 

[DiannaVM]

That is probably the best attitude to have. Then you'll either be pleasantly surprised (and you could be, people do cancel fastpasses so good ones might pop up) or you'll be prepared at least if you don't see any good ones.

That's the attitude I took. I was still pleasantly surprised last time when we went looking for a fourth FP at DHS at around 3 p.m. and found one for Fantasmic!

 

[pigletgirl]

It was the lack of FP that allowed us (forced us?) To be spontaneous. We park hopped daily and never waited for rides because we DITCHED fast pass and toured old school. No appointments to keep...just doing what we felt like doing. No keeping to a schedule we made 60+ days out.

We did a lot of that on our last trip. It was so unbelievably freeing! I think we did maybe 1 of our FP's each day. We were in the parks 8 days and did almost everything we wanted.

It's nice to know it can be done!

 

[DisneyFive]

I feel like this post is from mid-2014.

It was the lack of FP that allowed us (forced us?) To be spontaneous. We park hopped daily and never waited for rides because we DITCHED fast pass and toured old school. No appointments to keep...just doing what we felt like doing. No keeping to a schedule we made 60+ days out.

I fully admit that I am living in the past and lamenting in this thread.

Spontaneity at WDW is a state of mind. As long as you are willing to give up some of the benefits of working and scheduling your trip in advance , I fully see how the benefits of spontaneity could outweigh the negatives. However, to say that being spontaneous at WDW doesn't come with it's negatives is very misleading. (I'm not saying the OP or anyone in this thread is saying that). I just miss the days when being spontaneous was even easier.

I do feel that the more you've been to WDW, it's much easier to be spontaneous. You don't HAVE to do the headliners since you've already done them many times before. You also know the ropes well enough to still make things work for you regardless.

Dan

 

[Jennasis]

I fully admit that I am living in the past and lamenting in this thread.

Spontaneity at WDW is a state of mind. As long as you are willing to give up some of the benefits of working and scheduling your trip in advance , I fully see how the benefits of spontaneity could outweigh the negatives. However, to say that being spontaneous at WDW doesn't come with it's negatives is very misleading. (I'm not saying the OP or anyone in this thread is saying that). I just miss the days when being spontaneous was even easier.

I do feel that the more you've been to WDW, it's much easier to be spontaneous. You don't HAVE to do the headliners since you've already done them many times before. You also know the ropes well enough to still make things work for you regardless.

Dan

As long as you get that NOBODY said anything remotely like that lol.

But absolutely the more familiar you are with WDW, and in my case as a DVC owner and knowing we'll be back in short order (September) makes it much easier to be spontaneous...or at least MY definition of spontaneous, which may differ from other people's.