Just returned from WDW and FP+ stinks

[wisblue]

Whatever you say, Wis. Very helpful indeed.

Maybe I should have brought you along to show me how to do it. Obviously, my way and what worked for us was completely wrong and unacceptable.

Luckily not everyone interprets discussion of negative aspects as "complaints". And since neither one of us knows (or maybe you do?) what everyone else's style or expectations are, it would be myopic to suggest to anybody that a plan isn't necessary.

No, I think your plan was a perfect way to plan a 17 day trip. I am glad that you were able to accomplish almost everything you wanted and even found some time to relax.

 

[schrammalot]

We went with it and didn't have any problems. One issue in 8 days of staying there, and it was complete user error. We thought it was great... went to the parks early, made our FP+ reservations for later that day.

 

[Magpie]

Sharing that with you was a bit tongue-in-cheek. Yes, it was a lot of planning and at times I thought it was borderline ridiculous. But it did help immensely, and I can't help but think our time spent would have been much less enjoyable if we hadn't pre-planned to that degree. We came back with the feeling that we had accomplished most everything we wanted to accomplish at a somewhat relaxed pace.

So not only is it a bit bizarre that spending a couple of weeks at WDW may require such a level of planning, I consider it even more bizarre that a theme park now needs an IT Help Desk for it's guests

I don't think it's bizarre. I think it's smart!

I'm going to England in a few weeks. I've been planning and researching this trip for months now, and you know what?

I have a spread sheet!

Because, you know what? While it's entirely possible to have a wonderful spontaneous trip to England, I don't particularly like standing in long lines to see tourist attractions. I do like knowing I'm going to get to see the things that are most important to me. I like paying as little as I can, via online discounts and advance bookings.

If I'd put this much effort into a trip to England, why wouldn't I do the same for a trip to Disney?

I don't want to be one of those tourists who shows up going, "What is this bizarre money? I don't understand the tube! Why did that waitress give me a weird look when I tried to tip her? Omigawd, WHY is there a two hour long line to get into the Tower of London on a Saturday afternoon during March Break!?"

 

[smitch425]

Whatever you say, Wis. Very helpful indeed.

Maybe I should have brought you along to show me how to do it. Obviously, my way and what worked for us was completely wrong and unacceptable.

Luckily not everyone interprets discussion of negative aspects as "complaints". And since neither one of us knows (or maybe you do?) what everyone else's style or expectations are, it would be myopic to suggest to anybody that a plan isn't necessary.

This post is out of line. Wisblue made a valid point, and there is no reasons to be rude.

 

[Laketravis]

We went with it and didn't have any problems. One issue in 8 days of staying there, and it was complete user error. We thought it was great... went to the parks early, made our FP+ reservations for later that day.

That's where it shined for us as well. We were able to make our FP's before tiering came into play, and there were still the old paper FP's available in all of the parks even though we didn't use them that much, so can't say if that would have made our experience better or worse so I'm looking forward to an extended busy period like Spring Break to see how the entire program holds up under load.

 

[clsteve]

Oh, it's not that bad. For instance, here's our plan for when we went for a couple of weeks - included all of our park choices based on our ADR's and FP+ choices combined with favorable park conditions like crowd ratings and when EMH was as well as strategic times and locations for dining and sleeping schedules in addition to RD strategies on those days following any possible late night activities in the park of choice and whether the quarter landed on heads or tails.......

Only took a few weeks of tweaking to get it all right!

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And you had it laminated, I hope - I always do! - in case it rains or I run out of juice on my smart device...

 

[rebbyparker]

You have a spreadsheet for your vacation! Ok so I am not picking on you. I know being on here many are like that and with 14+days I am sure that helped. The thing I keep going back to is... Not only is Disney making people like yourself who are planners and who like to ride multiple times upset with Fastpass+ they are completely alienating a whole other group of people who have ZERO interest in making appointments and spreadsheets for their vacations all so they can be glued to their phone. As if that rant has not been said enough I feel as though it should be repeated

Adjust or die I suppose in the world of theme parks

I would think that a spreadsheet like this would become the norm in planning a WDW vacation. ADR's, BBB/tours and FP+'s need to be kept track of in some manner.

 

[jj1403]

We DISers really need to agree on a sarcasm font.QUOTE]

Best Idea Ever LOL

 

[tjbjrjaj]

We tried to book our fastpasses for March last night and it was a mess. we wanted Soarin, Test track and Illuminations viewing. None of the "options" were what we wanted. We don't want to do The Land again. We have been AP holders a number of times and frankly we don't have time for The Land on this trip! If we selected Test Track then Soarin disappeared. Any thoughts? My husband was up until 1:30 trying to figure this out. and why would we want FP to TurtleTalk when we were trying to get Test Track?

 

[shalom]

If we selected Test Track then Soarin disappeared. Any thoughts?

You're not doing anything wrong. It's just that you can't have both Soarin' AND Test Track. FP+ limits you to three FPs per park, but some of the parks are "tiered," meaning you get one FP from this group, and one from the next group, and one from the last group. Soarin' and Test Track are in the same tier, so you can only FP one and will have to ride the other on standby.

 

[sonofanarchy]

You're not doing anything wrong. It's just that you can't have both Soarin' AND Test Track. FP+ limits you to three FPs per park, but some of the parks are "tiered," meaning you get one FP from this group, and one from the next group, and one from the last group. Soarin' and Test Track are in the same tier, so you can only FP one and will have to ride the other on standby.

Yeah, but FP+ is awesome because you can change from Soarin' to Test Track on the fly. And heck, the ability to change your mind is a FAR superior perk than being able to get a fastpass for each ride.

 

[shalom]

Yeah, but FP+ is awesome because you can change from Soarin' to Test Track on the fly.

I'm pretty sure no one in my family has used a Soarin' FP, to be honest, although some of the kids like it. But when it comes to FPs, it's Test Track all the way!

 

[Laurencw94]

The new FP+ system is still a test and as of last week was fully in all the parks instead of just Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. They are constantly taking reviews and opinions into consideration as they expand and build upon the whole system.

You can book Fast Passes 60 days in advanced and yes even though you can only book three a day at one park and not three at each park it is very useful. With the Legacy Fast Pass system you got whatever time the machine gave you no matter what. Now you can plan out and pick your times so you can leave out a lunch break or make sure you can ride the rides you most want to before you plan on leaving.

Again it is a test and are constantly moving forward and making adjustments and can't be expected to be flawless right out of the gate.

 

[Laketravis]

The new FP+ system is still a test and as of last week was fully in all the parks instead of just Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. They are constantly taking reviews and opinions into consideration as they expand and build upon the whole system....

Again it is a test and are constantly moving forward and making adjustments and can't be expected to be flawless right out of the gate.

While that may certainly be true, I'd like to point out (again) that certain elements have not changed since this current "test" began last summer:

1. One park per day
2. No attraction twice
3. Limit 3
4. Tiers (added 4Q2013)

I think most people would agree those 4 components have caused the highest degree of DIS-satisfaction; even guests who loved FP+ add a "but" and include one or more of the above as something they would like to see changed.

So if this was truly a test with the intent to tweak those above 4 components, Disney has literally collected tens of millions of data points while this "test" has been ongoing. And yet, those components have remained static.

One would think that would certainly be enough data to make interim decisions in which to tweak those elements and mitigate the continued guest frustration as evidenced not just by posts in the DIS universe but all of social media in general.

That's what leads me to believe that those elements are pretty much what we get. There can be and is all sorts of speculation as to what different versions this could all take and why Disney isn't revealing any of those changes to anyone, but that could mean there simply aren't any changes to reveal. That's why I referred to Occam's Razor in another thread.

 

[sunkissed4]

Just wanted to share a little info with everyone. I went to DHS Sunday and was asked by a CM if I wanted to receive a survey for my experience, of course I do! Just got the email and I'm in the middle of completing the survey and they're actually asking a lot of questions about FP+.

My favorite...

Not counting any extra paper or electronic Disney’s FASTPASS® tickets you received, how would you describe the number of Disney FastPass+ selections you received?

A. 3 Disney FastPass+ selections in one theme park per day were more than I expected
B. 3 Disney FastPass+ selections in one theme park per day were just what I expected
C. 3 Disney FastPass+ selections in one theme park per day weren't enough for what I expected

Hopefully this is a hint that we will eventually get more than 3. I can only wish!

 

[PlayaMan]

While that may certainly be true, I'd like to point out (again) that certain elements have not changed since this current "test" began last summer:

1. One park per day
2. No attraction twice
3. Limit 3
4. Tiers (added 4Q2013)

I think most people would agree those 4 components have caused the highest degree of DIS-satisfaction; even guests who loved FP+ add a "but" and include one or more of the above as something they would like to see changed.

So if this was truly a test with the intent to tweak those above 4 components, Disney has literally collected tens of millions of data points while this "test" has been ongoing. And yet, those components have remained static.

One would think that would certainly be enough data to make interim decisions in which to tweak those elements and mitigate the continued guest frustration as evidenced not just by posts in the DIS universe but all of social media in general.

That's what leads me to believe that those elements are pretty much what we get. There can be and is all sorts of speculation as to what different versions this could all take and why Disney isn't revealing any of those changes to anyone, but that could mean there simply aren't any changes to reveal. That's why I referred to Occam's Razor in another thread.

And it also doesnt rule out any future "tweaks" and changes to the FP+ system especially given the fact that we are constantly reminded that Disney has people watching the DIS and that people should voice their concerns about the FP+ system to provide feedback.

You have just as much of a guess as to what will happen as Laurencw94 does. It doesnt make her position any less valid than yours because you happen to disagree with her.

I seem to recall that you have changed your position as well on certain facets of the FP+ rollout.

It will be interesting to revisit your various ponderings and speculations a year from now.

 

[wisblue]

The new FP+ system is still a test and as of last week was fully in all the parks instead of just Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. They are constantly taking reviews and opinions into consideration as they expand and build upon the whole system.

You can book Fast Passes 60 days in advanced and yes even though you can only book three a day at one park and not three at each park it is very useful. With the Legacy Fast Pass system you got whatever time the machine gave you no matter what. Now you can plan out and pick your times so you can leave out a lunch break or make sure you can ride the rides you most want to before you plan on leaving.

Again it is a test and are constantly moving forward and making adjustments and can't be expected to be flawless right out of the gate.

I agree with you. I think the main focus of the current test is to test the operation of the system as it goes through various levels of activity, including gradually adding all resort guests, then gradually taking some resort guests off paper FP, then eliminating paper FP at all parks and allowing offsite guests to book FPs at the parks, and now starting to allow annual passholders without a resort stay to make advance reservations (something some people didn't expect to happen). There could be more to come, like allowing offsite guests with park tickets purchased in advance to make advance FP+ reservations.

I wouldn't expect changes to the specific features of FP+ to be made until that operational testing is complete, so I wouldn't draw any conclusions based on the fact that changes haven't been made in the last few months. In the meantime, Disney can be gathering data on how guests use FP+ to make final decisions about those features. Of the ones that people dislike the most, I expect that some form of allowing FPs in more than one park will come eventually.

 

[clsteve]

Again it is a test and are constantly moving forward and making adjustments and can't be expected to be flawless right out of the gate.

You forgot the "we" between the and and are....

 

[Laketravis]

You have just as much of a guess as to what will happen as Laurencw94 does. It doesnt make her position any less valid than yours because you happen to disagree with her.

Perhaps you missed the first part of my post: "While that may certainly be true".


I am not disagreeing, nor am I trying to incite an argument. Not even sure where I indicated that her(?) position was any less valid than mine. I simply offered a counterpoint based on Disney's actions and lack of actions.

Your post, on the other hand, is entirely focused on me for some reason with not a single mention or reference to the actual points of discussion.

Strange.

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

I'm starting to think this FP+ isn't a good idea. We like to go to a Disney stay about 10 days with a Hopper pass. I got to thinking the FP+ doesn't really work well with a Hopper. So I can save some money and while Im saving money, maybe I will just buy a 7 day ticket instead of 10.

I can take that money and visit Universal.