Less than a week out; change F+ because of new rules?

[ems_mom]

We have a 5 day trip coming up and I made all our FP+ for late afternoon or evening. On 5/4 our MK FP+ are scheduled for 8-11pm. My thinking was we could go to one park in the AM, go back to the hotel and nap/pool and then hit the park with our FP+ in the evening.

With the new rules, should I redo everything? We have been DVC members since 2007. We are frequent visitors, but I feel with our current setup we will just have 3 rides a day at any park. (We don't do lines over 30 minutes.) I was accepting of that until this change.

Now that we can possibly do more should I change our FP+?

 

[tndisneyfan]

We did the same thing with our FP times. DH thought maybe we should change them but we've decided to stick with what we have.

 

[wisblue]

We have a 5 day trip coming up and I made all our FP+ for late afternoon or evening. On 5/4 our MK FP+ are scheduled for 8-11pm. My thinking was we could go to one park in the AM, go back to the hotel and nap/pool and then hit the park with our FP+ in the evening.

With the new rules, should I redo everything? We have been DVC members since 2007. We are frequent visitors, but I feel with our current setup we will just have 3 rides a day at any park. (We don't do lines over 30 minutes.) I was accepting of that until this change.

Now that we can possibly do more should I change our FP+?

If you get to any of the parks at opening you can do a lot more than 3 rides without FPs and without waiting as long as 30 minutes for anything. At a less busy time like early May you can do even more.

I wouldn't make my FPs for first thing in the morning just to get more FPs that may or may not fit your preferred schedule.

Unless you have ADRs or other plans that would affect them, I wouldn't be making my FPs for as late as 8-11 either. On a day like 5/4 you might find that standby lines are quite low after 8 or 9 PM, and the FPs may be more valuable from say 5-8.

 

[JeremysDisney]

Just make sure you get FP+ for the following rides, for they were the longest during Easter:
Soarin
Test Track
Peter Pan
Echanted tales with Belle
Space Mountain
Toy Story Mania
Rock & Roller Coaster
Safari
Everest

 

[Meech Loves Mickey]

We arrive on Friday & I did not change any of our FP+. We always arrive at RD and are able to get a lot done. As my DH pointed out to me, we never used FP- that much anyway.

 

[TimothyG]

Here's what I would do. I would change my selections on the first day of the trip to have FP+ selections in the morning (first timeframe: 9:45 - 10:45, then 10:45 - 11:45, 11:45 - 12:45). Make sure these attractions are for the ones with the longest average standby lines.

Then, make a selection on the kiosk before grabbing lunch for an attraction in the late afternoon when you plan on returning.

Do this for only one day. If it works out well, you can repeat for the subsequent days on your trip. If this doesn't work out well, then it was only one day and not your entire trip.

 

[shocker]

I've got a sneaky feelin' if I move ours up to morning hours I will be sorely disappointed with all the "C" level rides that are so not popular or FP would NEVER be needed that would be offered to me after our first three are used. Thanks Disney for generously offering up all the scraps. No thanks, I'll keep my prime FP's right where I booked them 60 days out.

Now, if I had 30 day out options or day of options my response might be different. Use up as many as possible ASAP, then grab more to whatever is still available. I'll keep reading reports once implemented, but I doubt I'm changing.

 

[maryj11]

I would say after you use your first 3 it will be hard to get any additional fastpasses for the popular rides.

 

[DisneyWisher]

Just want to let everyone know what I just did. I booked FPs For today I wanted to see what times might be offered. So I just booked FPs for today the 3 Mountains. The earliest I could get was Space at 5pm when trying to change times it says nothing available. When I was there mid March and 3 weeks ago the line for these kiosks was ridiculous at least 75 people deep...standing in line to avoid a line.... I'd keep my afternoon/evening FPs.

 

[wisblue]

I've got a sneaky feelin' if I move ours up to morning hours I will be sorely disappointed with all the "C" level rides that are so not popular or FP would NEVER be needed that would be offered to me after our first three are used. Thanks Disney for generously offering up all the scraps. No thanks, I'll keep my prime FP's right where I booked them 60 days out.

Now, if I had 30 day out options or day of options my response might be different. Use up as many as possible ASAP, then grab more to whatever is still available. I'll keep reading reports once implemented, but I doubt I'm changing.

Time will tell, but it might not be THAT bad.

My daughters were at WDW last week and made their FP+ reservations in the late afternoon and early evening each day. But, because of some brief thunderstorms on a couple of days, they changed around what parks they wanted to go to in the evenings. On one day, at about 4 PM, they were able to get pretty much what they wanted at MK, including Space Mountain at a reasonable time in the evening.

On another day, at about 3 PM, they were able to get FPs for TSMM for that evening at 7:30. Maybe they were just lucky, but I wouldn't just assume that you can't get anything decent for a 4th FP. I also wouldn't plan on getting my first choice, especially at DHS or Epcot, which is why my starting point would be to make FP+ reservations for later in the day and change only if plans change.

 

[maryj11]

Just want to let everyone know what I just did. I booked FPs For today I wanted to see what times might be offered. So I just booked FPs for today the 3 Mountains. The earliest I could get was Space at 5pm when trying to change times it says nothing available. When I was there mid March and 3 weeks ago the line for these kiosks was ridiculous at least 75 people deep...standing in line to avoid a line.... I'd keep my afternoon/evening FPs.

Good point ! Who wants to waste time standing in line at the kiosk ?

 

[jrjankowski8]

in my opinion, the same reason that made rope drop easier before, is going to be the same reason it will still be easy with FP+.

The people who didn't bother with RD in the past (therefore making it easier for those who go early), now have the option to REALLY not go early. They can book FP+ in the evening and it betters their experience. They can still show up late and will now get FP+ no wait times.

So I don't see RD being any different with the new strategy. Sure there will be people that book FP+ in the AM, but isn't that exactly what RD is anyway. By the time the evening rolls around for those people who did early FP+, there won't be anything of worth to get a FP+ for.

But if you have evening passes, you'll take the FP lane right by those people at the busiest time of the day. No matter what the FP rules are, it's still going to be busy in the evening at Disney World. That's how most people enjoy it.

If you were an evening park person before, you're still going to be. Just because you can book FP+ early doesn't mean you'll all of a sudden decide to be an early bird, when you can book whatever late.

 

[jrjankowski8]

And it'll be the same as with RD. SB lines are light in the AM, and people used to get FP- first thing too. That in turn would push FP- times back for everyone across the park and eventually there wouldn't be any left for the top rides. That's what's happening with FP+ too

 

[DVCJones]

Hi!! We were there last week (just left today). Honestly, getting to a park at RD is best. We rode most headliners in the first hour and a half. All FPs were scheduled between 1-8pm. We found we could walk on almost anything after 9pm. We really enjoyed not having to run around getting FPs. We also hopped to a new park at around 3pm most days. We did have a DAS card we only used one day when it got too hot for my DD, but other than that one day we only used the FP+ system the rest of the week.

 

[ems_mom]

I just want to thank everyone for the great advice! Ultimately I decided to to keep 4 out our 5 days of FP+ the same. We are, ahem, older and don't like fighting the crowds at rope drop. I did change our last full day of FP+ times to late morning to mid afternoon. That way we can choose to stay at the same park or hop to another for our last night and take what FP+ are available. We can go where our mood takes us and I like that.

Thanks again!