LOVE or HATE FP+ Anyone's mind been changed ??

[Buddyex]

our family is going to WDW in May, previous trips to WDW I've always done by myself , the last time being in 2007 and always during off-season in May so Fastpasses have never been much of a concern to me. Although I usually got them when they were convenient, it meant most rides were a walk on compared to a 20 minute standby line, so I've been very lucky in the respect that I've never had to battle huge crowds and lines before at WDW. I understand that a lot has changed in the last seven years from what I have read in the forums and the parks are busier as a result as well as Fastpass+ having an effect on not just the most popular rides but everything else in the parks. I'm looking forward to this trip but am a little apprehensive to how much forward planning it now requires.

I'll be staying onsite for the entire 12 days but my brother's family of 4 are doing 8 days off site and the last 4 onsite, so trying to co-ordinate fastpass plus for a group of 5 with both 60 day and 30 day windows is going to be a tricky affair, part of me is just thinking Hang it and pre-book as few fastpasses as possible and play it by ear and not let my OCD side micromanage every last minute of the day pre-planning everything.

 

[Luckybee]

Duplicate

 

[Angel Ariel]

I was just looking at MK wait times thinking what would I be doing if I had already used my 3 FP's. I'd probably be hoping that there were more available at a kiosk, but not sure what the selection would be. Today is an "8" per EasyWDW with MK being a recommended park. Curious what anyone's touring strategy would be right now.

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Honestly? With these wait times, I would hope we'd have already done our headliners for the day. Waits for secondary attractions aren't bad...we'll wait 20-25 (even 35) mins for attractions (and there are quite a few in that list that are under 20 too), and I'd probably be concentrating on them at the moment. Maybe going backwards through the park, riding HM, JC, then maybe Buzz once or twice before starting to head back to the HUB for Wishes.

Yeah, the headliners are long, but I would have either done the earlier in the day, or would be waiting til closer to closing to go back to them (which choice would deped on whether we had DD with us or not). The secondary waits are not bad for a level 8 day. We saw some higher wait times on our trip over Wine and Dine weekend (and I know that wasn't a 9 or 10 crowd period)

 

[wisblue]

I was just looking at MK wait times thinking what would I be doing if I had already used my 3 FP's. I'd probably be hoping that there were more available at a kiosk, but not sure what the selection would be. Today is an "8" per EasyWDW with MK being a recommended park. Curious what anyone's touring strategy would be right now.

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Well, let's see.

If we were going to be at MK in the evening, we probably would have started the day at another park where we would have ridden the headline attractions and done a few other things without using any FPs. So, we would then have our 3 FPs to use at MK. Once those FPs were gone, we might be sticking around for the MSEP, Celebrate the Magic, and /or Wishes.

Otherwise, we would be choosing from among these things: Buzz, HM, IASW, JC, Tea Cups, Meeting the Circus Stars, Philharmagic, Monster's Laugh Floor, Country Bears, Carousel of Progress (if it's still open), Tiki Room, or Peoplemover, all things with posted waits of 30 minutes or less, which often means that the actual wait times are even less than that.

Thank you for pointing out that there are a lot of things to do at MK with reasonable waits as long as people don't go to the world's most popular theme park expecting to ride its most popular attractions with little or no wait at any time of the day.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Do any of you think that the next incarnation of FP+ should be structured like the Express Pass at Universal? Free and unlimited to guests who stay at the deluxe, on-property hotels and paid for at the gate by all other guests who choose to buy it?

Even if you just limited it to Deluxe Guests, I think there are too. many rooms at that level to make that as feasible as it is at Universal.

 

[Planogirl]

We never hoarded fastpasses and probably pulled at most 5 in one day. However I still dislike having to preplan so far ahead of time and then having to wait in line for a kiosk for a fourth fastpass. I don't want to decide NOW.

It's just a matter of different touring styles.

 

[SmithSmith]

How unfortunate for us if we followed your plan. We would not have done anything at all other than our 3 fp's. None of our favourites including IaSw, Potc, JC,Pooh, PP, and HM etc. had lines of under 20 minutes on any of the 3 days we were at MK in sept/oct....not even after wishes (although the lines did get shorter on our 1 eligible emh night). Matter of fact that is why we had to keep going back to MK (for various short day intervals)since we didn't want to spend an inordinate amount of time in line so with 3 days we had more fp's to work with

Well, I have already posted my complete wait times for you, so you already know what I did. However, for the sake of anyone else reading...

IASW we rode during an EMH on Saturday, Sept 27. It was completely empty.
That same night we FPed PotC. JC had a 10 minute wait during Wishes and a 5 minute wait the rest of the night (you can corroborate this with a TP subscription). We had RDed PP and Pooh the morning before and weren't interested in riding them again so I'm not sure of their availability. HM was also deserted during EMH.

From my experience late night EMH is an excellent time to tour Magic Kingdom. I prefer it to RD. Perhaps next time you should just bite the bullet and stay on prop.

 

[Luckybee]

Well, let's see.

If we were going to be at MK in the evening, we probably would have started the day at another park where we would have ridden the headline attractions and done a few other things without using any FPs. So, we would then have our 3 FPs to use at MK. Once those FPs were gone, we might be sticking around for the MSEP, Celebrate the Magic, and /or Wishes.

Otherwise, we would be choosing from among these things: Buzz, HM, IASW, JC, Tea Cups, Meeting the Circus Stars, Philharmagic, Monster's Laugh Floor, Country Bears, Carousel of Progress (if it's still open), Tiki Room, or Peoplemover, all things with posted waits of 30 minutes or less, which often means that the actual wait times are even less than that.

Thank you for pointing out that there are a lot of things to do at MK with reasonable waits as long as people don't go to the world's most popular theme park expecting to ride its most popular attractions with little or no wait at any time of the day.

Guess it depends on your definition of reasonable. It is mid 40's at MK tonight which is darn cold. Normally at this time of yr with that kind of weather before FP+ most of those attractions would be 10 min tops (if that) and now.....

 

[Laketravis]

Honestly? With these wait times, I would hope we'd have already done our headliners for the day. Waits for secondary attractions aren't bad...we'll wait 20-25 (even 35) mins for attractions (and there are quite a few in that list that are under 20 too), and I'd probably be concentrating on them at the moment. Maybe going backwards through the park, riding HM, JC, then maybe Buzz once or twice before starting to head back to the HUB for Wishes.

That's pretty much what I was thinking as well. Today is a Friday with a crowd level "8" - I'll be arriving on a Friday evening in two weeks on a day that is supposed to be a "6".

I'll have three FP's for the evening and if the secondaries look like that or better I may be able to knock out several of them. Three FP's, a few secondaries, fireworks and a parade over the course of roughly 3 hours should be a good test of my "More for Less" strategy.


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[Minniesgal]

For us it is the perfect system I love it. We are not big park people prefer the resorts but we do like to go for maybe 3 hours a day and do out favourites, then go back to the pool or the mini golf or a water park. For us it is the perfect system as we used to get up early every day and do the morning now we can sleep in arrive about 11am and do what we want by 2pm with pre-booked FP+ and go get on with the rest of our day. Tiering also doesn't bother us as if we can't do soaring and Test Track the same we day we will book them on consecutive days. Evenings if we go to a park we do shows etc.

We are DVC members and know we will always be back. We have also done so much park time over the years it no longer matters how many times or even if we get to ride a particular ride. We also go for 18 nights so have several days at each park. We like this better than the previous system.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Guess it depends on your definition of reasonable. It is mid 40's at MK tonight which is darn cold. Normally at this time of yr with that kind of weather before FP+ most of those attractions would be 10 min tops (if that) and now.....

This weekend is the Princess 1/2 Marathon. I would be willing to bet that has a lot more to do with tonight's wait times than FP+ does. RunDisney events increase the crowds no matter what time of year it is.

 

[Luckybee]

Well, I have already posted my complete wait times for you, so you already know what I did. However, for the sake of anyone else reading...

IASW we rode during an EMH on Saturday, Sept 27. It was completely empty.
That same night we FPed PotC. JC had a 10 minute wait during Wishes and a 5 minute wait the rest of the night (you can corroborate this with a TP subscription). We had RDed PP and Pooh the morning before and weren't interested in riding them again so I'm not sure of their availability. HM was also deserted during EMH.

From my experience late night EMH is an excellent time to tour Magic Kingdom. I prefer it to RD. Perhaps next time you should just bite the bullet and stay on prop.

LOL....bite the bullet ?? What bullet ?

I didn't say it was painful to stay on property if that's what you meant...it certainly isn't a cost issue for us. It is an issue to be blunt, and you wont like this, but quite frankly the deluxes are not up to the standards I want for the price they are charging. I much prefer "real" deluxe hotels.

We did have access to EMH on the last trip for a night(remember....we did a 1 night booking to get our fp's at the 60 day mark). Sadly I didn't find the walkons that you describe. Perhaps we missed them. Perhaps I was instead so blinded by the lines we did see that we just gave up out of frustration....yep think that was it

 

[wisblue]

Guess it depends on your definition of reasonable. It is mid 40's at MK tonight which is darn cold. Normally at this time of yr with that kind of weather before FP+ most of those attractions would be 10 min tops (if that) and now.....

It clearly does depend on how long someone is willing to wait for something and has nothing to do with how long waits might have been under a system that is no longer in effect. The person who posed the question has made it clear that he dislikes comparisons to a system that is no longer in place, so I limited my response to what I would do if I were at MK today with those wait times.

There is also a matter of perspective of what people consider darn cold. I wouldn't be going on Splash Mountain, despite its walk on status, but mid 40's is not going to send us into hibernation, just like it didn't when we faced temperatures like that at Disneyland when we were there between Christmas and New Year's.

 

[SmithSmith]

LOL....bite the bullet ?? What bullet ?

I didn't say it was painful to stay on property if that's what you meant...it certainly isn't a cost issue for us. It is an issue to be blunt, and you wont like this, but quite frankly the deluxes are not up to the standards I want for the price they are charging. I much prefer "real" deluxe hotels.

We did have access to EMH on the last trip for a night(remember....we did a 1 night booking to get our fp's at the 60 day mark). Sadly I didn't find the walkons that you describe. Perhaps we missed them. Perhaps I was instead so blinded by the lines we did see that we just gave up out of frustration....yep think that was it

I know of your aversion to WDW deluxes. I know you find them inferior. That's all I meant.

 

[AustinTink]

Even if you just limited it to Deluxe Guests, I think there are too. many rooms at that level to make that as feasible as it is at Universal.

Maybe just the higher end deluxe hotels to filter it even further.

 

[Luckybee]

It clearly does depend on how long someone is willing to wait for something and nothing to do with how long waits might have been under a system that is no longer in effect. The person who posed the question has made it clear that he dislikes comparisons to a system that is no longer in place, so I limited my response to what I would do if I were at MK today with those wait times.

There is also a matter of perspective of what people consider darn cold. I wouldn't be going on Splash Mountain, despite its walk on status, but mid 40's is not going to send us into hibernation, just like it didn't when we faced temperatures like that at Disneyland when we were there between Christmas and New Year's.

On a side note....I agree esp sitting where we are right now(with -3 F that mid 40's) isn't all that bad, but that said for MK it is cold and it does send a whole lot of people into hibernation and traditionally those times would be much slower and therefore more walkons.

 

[MrInfinity]

I much prefer "real" deluxe hotels.

Hehe... Cant help but notice you much prefer hotels that do not come with the perk that would get you on more of the rides you are ultimately going there for. Everything is a tradeoff! Sure there are better hotels out there than a Disney one. But they don't give you EMH... or a 10-min boat ride to the MK.

We did have access to EMH on the last trip for a night(remember....we did a 1 night booking to get our fp's at the 60 day mark). Sadly I didn't find the walkons that you describe. Perhaps we missed them. Perhaps I was instead so blinded by the lines we did see that we just gave up out of frustration....yep think that was it

Well, I never found late EMH to be great, cuz we tend to stay till EMH, see lines are still long, and leave, cuz we have little kids. I think to get the late EMH benefit, you have to stay an extra hour to let those regular crowd lines filter thru the ride. After that, I bet it'd be pretty good. We just don't stay that late. We do, however, get a ton done in morning EMH's.

 

[Luckybee]

I know of your aversion to WDW deluxes. I know you find them inferior. That's all I meant.

You'll be surprised to know btw...that we are doing a few days on property in May....we're booked for off property but because of friends coming down who will be on prop; we added 3 nights at the Poly to be able to spend time with them hanging by the pool etc. Of course we now find out the pool may not open as scheduled even though CM's are still saying it will be opened next month but that's a whole other story...

 

[Luckybee]

Hehe... Cant help but notice you much prefer hotels that do not come with the perk that would get you on more of the rides you are ultimately going there for. Everything is a tradeoff! Sure there are better hotels out there than a Disney one. But they don't give you EMH... or a 10-min boat ride to the MK.



Well, I never found late EMH to be great, cuz we tend to stay till EMH, see lines are still long, and leave, cuz we have little kids. I think to get the late EMH benefit, you have to stay an extra hour to let those regular crowd lines filter thru the ride. After that, I bet it'd be pretty good. We just don't stay that late. We do, however, get a ton done in morning EMH's.

If there are future trips after May (and the "if" is a definite if since we really fell in love with Universal last time around) then I expect if the system stays the same we'd likely just book throwaways for any nights that we would need emh, or fp's. Then we could stay where we choose , still have the perks, and actually save money...I like that better...lol )
But if Jades suggestion of 8 fp's for deluxes ever came to fruition with the added tiering removed or even 2 tier 1 attractions out of those 8....that would convert this fp+ hater in a NY second. Then I'd "bite the bullet".Of course then though it would be almost impossible to ever get a deluxe booking....it would be like booking BOG for dinner.

 

[wisblue]

Maybe just the higher end deluxe hotels to filter it even further.

Even then, the number of guests at the high end resorts combined with WDW's higher overall attendance makes that unlikely.