Just Back Today, Bad FP+ Experience for Offsite

[joybeth]

Just got back from staying offsite in timeshare with my sister's family. Yesterday we were at HS and my sister got in the FP Kiosk line 30 minutes BEFORE park opening and there was no FP available for Toy Story. My sister took my niece to the stand by line and waited 70 minutes at park opening! The day before at MK we got FP for Haunted Mansion, Small World and Dumbo. Not a mountain to be had! I have a magic band and could have booked my FP in advance, but could not book for the rest of the family. Needless to say, we wish we would have made other plans for the weekend because it felt like the money spent on Disney tickets was not worth it for the experience we had.

jb

 

[poppinspenguins]

Reinforces my plan to not return until this is altered in some way.

Was it your family's first visit, or had they not been in awhile? What were their thoughts?

 

[Planogirl]

It has been pretty busy and I was wondering how hard it would be for offsite people on such days. It doesn't sound good so far.

 

[bcrook]

Just got back from staying offsite in timeshare with my sister's family. Yesterday we were at HS and my sister got in the FP Kiosk line 30 minutes BEFORE park opening and there was no FP available for Toy Story. My sister took my niece to the stand by line and waited 70 minutes at park opening! The day before at MK we got FP for Haunted Mansion, Small World and Dumbo. Not a mountain to be had! I have a magic band and could have booked my FP in advance, but could not book for the rest of the family. Needless to say, we wish we would have made other plans for the weekend because it felt like the money spent on Disney tickets was not worth it for the experience we had.

jb

Sorry about this. But thank you for reporting. I can't see it getting better during busy times. If off site guests eventually gets advance access then the online battle begins and there will be no flexibility for anyone. We will have to lock rides in far in advance. Either way it looks bad.

I alternate between my DVC and offsite timeshare, I am just not risking it off site. I am going to explore other places.

 

[joybeth]

Reinforces my plan to not return until this is altered in some way.

Was it your family's first visit, or had they not been in awhile? What were their thoughts?

My sisters family had not been in a couple years. They were disappointed and don't plan to return in the near future. They had used legacy FP in the past and had a great experience. Crowd levels were crazy, but they have to travel when the kids are off school (like most people).

 

[cmwade77]

I personally think that Disney should make say 40% of the FP+ available in advance and the rest are day of only. At least if they insist on going through with the crazy idea.

 

[Denise W]

I know I read on here that "day of" FP+ were released right as the parks opened. If you were there 30 minutes before opening were you trying at that point to get Fast Passes or did you access the kiosk after the opening time? That could have been the reason they found nothing available.

Denise

 

[larryz]

I'm glad this is still in "testing," and no actual vacations were ruined in the process...

 

[Rosebud123]

Thanks for posting. It's depressing, but I'd rather know and be prepared for my April trip.

 

[rluey29]

We were there as well. Worst visit we have ever had. Blue Mickey for ever FP+ on Sat. Peter Pan FP+ was not available. Basically we got to do three rides because waits were terrible. Stood in line for FP+ for 50 mins over two days.
Our passes expire in April and we will not be renewing. Our kids are very disappointed and that is the hardest part.

 

[Disney Dad 88]

You were in the worst possible spot, not staying on site, thus no Magic Band, thus not able to book in advance. It was a super busy weekend, on top of that. It is imperative you stay on site at least one night to get your band. Once you have that you can at least book 3 in advance, and any future visits you can book in advance. These are the new rules of the game like it or not!

 

[Praying Colonel]

You were in the worst possible spot, not staying on site, thus no Magic Band, thus not able to book in advance. It was a super busy weekend, on top of that. It is imperative you stay on site at least one night to get your band. Once you have that you can at least book 3 in advance, and any future visits you can book in advance. These are the new rules of the game like it or not!

"The game is rigged--but you cannot lose if you do not play."
--The Wire

As many have posted in this thread (and others), there's a 3rd option that Disney has to consider. Vacationers are not captive audiences and can spend their money elsewhere if the experience degrades sufficiently for them to look at other options.

 

[poppinspenguins]

You were in the worst possible spot, not staying on site, thus no Magic Band, thus not able to book in advance. It was a super busy weekend, on top of that. It is imperative you stay on site at least one night to get your band. Once you have that you can at least book 3 in advance, and any future visits you can book in advance. These are the new rules of the game like it or not!

I understand why people do this. I really do. Disney is using people as lab rats right now to test systems. People save years for this vacation and dont want it ruined. I totally get that.

But, on principle, I refuse to ever do this (easy for me to say, I dont have any current trips planned!!!)...I just cant plop down another 100 at minimum to adhere to the new rules of the game. I can do a whole lot of others things in orlando with those 100 dollars.

 

[mom2rtk]

You were in the worst possible spot, not staying on site, thus no Magic Band, thus not able to book in advance. It was a super busy weekend, on top of that. It is imperative you stay on site at least one night to get your band. Once you have that you can at least book 3 in advance, and any future visits you can book in advance. These are the new rules of the game like it or not!

Since Disney neglected to inform them of these new rules, do they get a "do-over"?

 

[sethschroeder]

So first off - ANOTHER THREAD WITH THE SAME TITLE????

Anyways there is a question everyone needs to ask... If FP+ were all gone for TSMM they are all gone at 1 per person compared to last year at this time where people could have had 2 passes and you could have not gotten any....

The only difference I see in this is that EMH starts 60 days before park opening so more people make it to the party from onsite, am I missing something here? Did we just have a thread about how LONG the FP+ lines are lately and people suspect they are over giving FP+ ticket times?

 

[mom2rtk]

So first off - ANOTHER THREAD WITH THE SAME TITLE????

Anyways there is a question everyone needs to ask... If FP+ were all gone for TSMM they are all gone at 1 per person compared to last year at this time where people could have had 2 passes and you could have not gotten any....

The only difference I see in this is that EMH starts 60 days before park opening so more people make it to the party from onsite, am I missing something here? Did we just have a thread about how LONG the FP+ lines are lately and people suspect they are over giving FP+ ticket times?

What you are describing merely supports the position that Disney never had the ride capacity to make this work.

They should have spent the $1.5B on new attractions followed by FP+ down the road as the next phase.

This smoke and mirrors routine is biting them in the behind this week.

 

[sethschroeder]

What you are describing merely supports the position that Disney never had the ride capacity to make this work.

They should have spent the $1.5B on new attractions followed by FP+ down the road as the next phase.

This smoke and mirrors routine is biting them in the behind this week.

While it could have been spent on attractions they still would be over crowded at the busiest times of year unless they got 2 head-liners in every single park or created a whole new park as well as 1 head liner in each park.

What Disney is doing is developing the infrastructure for the next 20-30 years. This system will allow them to track data to make more money to make more rides in the future if they choose to. This system allows them to deliver content never before possible. This system fits with the mindset of quite a few people to schedule what they are going to do on vacation (how about going to europe and just getting a room and a plane ticket...). This system allows for integration into the 21st century technology we have on us at all times (55% of americans have smartphones and that number is growing). This system is the infrastructure that can have additional things built into it over the years.

The 1.5 billion did not go just to FP+ and likely decided that 1.5 billion would actually have a return/break-even in the next couple years with dividends in the future. Not sure Disney's practice but I would suspect they would at least want a 4x+ payout under a certain timeline. This can be soft-dollars such as tracking who goes to which restaurant or what rides go over best with which age groups or who stays for the fireworks and if they get something to eat before them?

 

[morethananyonex]

I'm sorry for your crappy experience OP. How they're handling offsite guests is shameful IMO and I hope it gets fixed soon.

Funny though, a couple months ago people were shouting from the rooftops how awesome FP+ is because you could even change headliners during the day during Christmas and NYE! Where'd all those people go? Those of us saying the true test will be when everyone is FP+ only were told we were being negative. I was there at the beginning of February when it was much slower, TSMM was gone about 1.5 hours into park opening, ETWB was gone as well as PP, on low crowd days. Awfully similar to FP-.

Truthfully I don't hate the system (but I would not go as an offsite guest at the moment), but people need to be real about what it is. It's not a magic system that makes FP easy to get for everything and everyone. The limitations are still there. People are still losing out. As many people have said, once offsite guests get their prebooking the running of the bulls for TSMM will happen slowly from 60 days out instead of right when the park opens and it will happen online, but it's still happening. Those who are not in the know lose out, just like they always did.

The problem can't be remedied until Disney increases desirable ride capacity, increases FP+ capacity at the mercy of stand by(please no!), or decreases the number of people in the parks. They can play with the numbers as much as they want, but at the end of the day someone is still losing out when there isn't enough ride space to go around. FP+ didn't fix anything, it put a band aid on the real issue. An issue that even a small chunk of that MM+ money could have helped.

 

[estherhead]

That is awful. I have confidence they will adjust this some way in the future, but I won't be going to Disney and staying offsite until the testing is over and the iphone ap MDE will work for offsite guests too. It's sad. I hope offsite guests get MDE and preplanning options VERY soon. I love my Windsor Hills vacations.

 

[joybeth]

I know I read on here that "day of" FP+ were released right as the parks opened. If you were there 30 minutes before opening were you trying at that point to get Fast Passes or did you access the kiosk after the opening time? That could have been the reason they found nothing available.

Denise

The kiosks inside the park were staffed by cast members and operational prior to the official opening of the park. We were able to get ToT and RR and Great Movie ride, so it was just TSM that was gone prior to park opening.