Lots of Love for Fastpass+

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I can book my times in advance so I don't have to physically run all over the park exhausting myself.

I get to put my cute little Magic Band up to the cute little Mickey head and watch it turn green.

I can bypass the line for at least three major attractions every day I am in a park (I know of no other park where one can do this without paying extra or staying in an expensive onsite hotel).

I don't have to pay one extra dime for it, whether I stay onsite or off.


I don't always get exactly my first choice of attractions I want, but hey, there are always limited resources in life. Last fall, even staying onsite, we never got a Fastpass for Anna and Elsa or SDMT. So we saw Anna and Elsa at MNSSHP with a 10 minute wait. We rode SDMT with no wait because we went during Hallowishes and most others were watching fireworks (so we got to ride it with fireworks going off overhead - AWESOME!). We always have the chance to visit our favorite attractions, either by strategic planning, or just plain old fashioned waiting in line (which, by the way, we do less of at Disney than at any other theme park).

I am sorry for those whose vacations have been disrupted by the new system, but for our family, Fastpass+ greatly improves our enjoyment of the parks. We will keep coming back again and again.

To Disney and the Imagineers!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

We LOVE it too! It has worked very well for us. I love knowing there are 3 attractions that I can ride with little if no wait, and I love not having to carry anything with me, because my MagicBand does all the work and Memory Maker is the bomb! No more carrying around the camera in the parks...

 

[kaybird]

Love love love it!!! FP+ and Magic Bands made us plan extra trips last year because of the great way they work!

 

[Stefecatzz]

ITA!! Words cannot express how I Do Not miss running to all corners of the park to get a paper FP in the heat before I even begin the day in the park. I really love going into the park knowing that the FP's are already set & I can skip one if I choose & now have the option of getting a 4th afterward. I only have a basic cell phone (I know, I know...but I really like my bill as it is for now) so I haven't had the frustrations others have experienced with the app not working, etc. I reserve all of mine before my trip, take a photo w/my cell & save it as my wallpaper for the day so I have easy access to my schedule. If I need to change something or want the 4th one, I find a kiosk & the CMs are always pretty helpful.

And since I enjoy the pre-planning, I don't mind spending the time online to keep checking back if the attraction I want isn't available at 1st. I have always gotten 7DMT, parades, etc. if I wanted them on the 2nd or 3rd attempt of checking back. I know people who have large groups or families may have good reasons to not like it, but for myself or my party of 2, it works out beautifully!

 

[Chitownpeeps91]

Glad that three rides with no wait gets you so excited. In the old days you were able to ride much more with little to no wait. That is no longer the case with fast pass plus.

Enjoy your trips. We were not happy & will be looking at other options for our hard earned vacation dollars.

 

[ShayBells]

Your first reason is one of the main reasons I love it. I never used legacy cause if this reason. I only used it if the time was right or I was handed a special one. So this way I get three rides where I don't have to wait which is nice to know.

But I have a love/hate relationship with it (the hate part comes in when I waited 30 minutes to get on small world when I've never waited to ride that ride in my life.)

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

Same sentiments here. I get very confuse when people talk about quitting WDW for Universal because of FP+. When I was planning my Universal Studios trip last year, I ended up staying at ASM versus Cabana Bay because it was much cheaper with the added value of Magical Express, free resort parking and free theme park parking. To get the perks at Universal Studios, I had to pay $200+ extra per night for Portafino or pay $100 OOP for the express pass. I love Harry Potter and really enjoyed WWOHP, but I just don't see how bad is FP+ compares to the system at US. I remember when US had a system similar to the FP- and took it off and started the Express Pass system. Wasn't that worst than the FP+ now at WDW?? Off site guests can book at 30 days---still something.

I'm getting old. I don't think I can do the mad dash for FP- anymore. The run between Soaring and TT was not fun. Power walk to Peter Pan Flight--a nightmare. Forget about TSMM, FP- always ran out on me for that one if I didn't do rope drop. I had to keep track of time by the minute, so I could run for my next FP- 5 minutes ahead and fed the machines so I didn't have to waste a single minute for my next FP-. As for A&E, I recall my daughter's 8am BBB appointment so I could wait on line for Rapunzel while she is doing BBB with my sister. Why?? If I didn't get to the line early enough, I could risk the chance of not seeing Rapunzel at all since the line would close at some point. Those were the crazy time.

I'm much relax in my touring plan now, thanks to FP+. I still able to do multiple headliners with rope drops or single rider lines. I can change FP+ selections with my phone. I love FP+ and MB, and can't wait to see what's next with the technology.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm truly thrilled for people who like FP+. I don't feel the same way but it's nice when you can go to WDW and get exactly what you expect.

 

[momof2n2]

Glad you have a lovely trip.
As folks who love to re-ride I'm not sure we will have as glowing a review, but I'm happy your trips have gone so well.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

I'm glad to see others love it too. I love doing RD at one park then knowing I have FP+ later in the day at the park I'm hoping to for the evening. You couldn't do that with the old system. All the FP- for popular attractions would likely be gone before dinner.

 

[busymommy2pink]

We also LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! We are NOT rope drop commanado types. That is not a vacation to us. We like sleeping in, taking our time and not only being able to get LATE fastpasses because we weren't up at the crack of dawn. We also found there to be lots of selection the day of as well, and were able to easily change times and switch attractions and add more via the app while in the park. I am so pleased with it!

 

[cakebaker]

We like it a great deal too. We're booked with everything we wanted for our upcoming June trip and can't wait! Glad to hear it worked for so many others as well.

Gone are the days of not being able to get to an afternoon park and enjoy headliners. Mornings are a breeze using standby at the MK, afternoon and evening FP+'s are great! No more end of distribution for the day signs for us!

 

[spinandmarty]

Happy it works for you... I used to ride at least 6- to 8 major attractions with no wait, and most of the secondary rides were a 10 min or less walk on... Never ran at rope drop never ran for a fastpass, never used a fast pass runner... I've adjusted but don't feel I'm getting the value I used to...

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Oh how I (not so fondly) remember the days of waking everyone up at 6 am to make emh rope drop. We always travel in July and that was the only way to ride and get fp for the top rides without a 2 hour wait. Arriving at the parks around 10 a.m was never an option as fp would either be gone or very late return time for the major rides. This July will be our first trip with the magic bands and knowing that my family can sleep in a little after a late night and arrive at a park at our leisure with fp for the top 3 attractions is major. Seriously, my dh HATED early mornings so much that the only thing getting him to agree to return is the new fp system. Thank you Disney!

 

[itchin2go]

I get to put my cute little Magic Band up to the cute little Mickey head and watch it turn green.

Seriously?

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Glad that three rides with no wait gets you so excited. In the old days you were able to ride much more with little to no wait. That is no longer the case with fast pass plus.

Enjoy your trips. We were not happy & will be looking at other options for our hard earned vacation dollars.

Do you attribute this directly to Fastpass+? Couldn't it be because of the huge increase in crowds over the last several years?

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Seriously?

I'll admit it's not the BEST thing about Fastpass+, but I try to appreciate the small things in life.

 

[mom2rtk]

Do you attribute this directly to Fastpass+? Couldn't it be because of the huge increase in crowds over the last several years?

Disney knows their attendance. And they chose a ride rationing system over the alternative of adding enough attractions to (at least) keep up with growth.

The increase in crowds didn't sneak up on Disney. They set out to make it happen. And kudos to them for being successful! But they made choices on how to deal with that in the parks.

 

[cakebaker]

I'll admit it's not the BEST thing about Fastpass+, but I try to appreciate the small things in life.

You're not alone. We think it's kind of neat too.

Ignore and enjoy!

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

I was pretty pleased with it overall, too. In fairness (and I've said this elsewhere here) I was not overly familiar with legacy FP so maybe that makes a difference. The only thing we wanted at MK that we couldn't get was A&E, and the only thing there we couldn't ride more than once was SDMT. But we went about two weeks after SDMT opened (and the sisters were pretty new there as well), so I was happy with what we managed to do. Tiering does unfortunately mean that my family still needs to rope drop at DHS and Epcot, but honestly those days worked very well for midday pool breaks. Being able to schedule Kali River Rapids as the last ride on a really hot day was a real bonus too.

I did wonder, though. My teenage daughter and I are starting to plan a trip for just the two of us, and she said she'd like the next trip to be more relaxed and not go-go-go all the time. I asked if she felt overscheduled with FPs and stuff and she said "NO, Mom, those were fine...but honestly could you maybe dial it back a notch next time?"