MDE and FP+ with 1 day's notice - success story

[kay1864]

Some friends of mine are at WDW this week. Like many typical guests, they:
- had not bought tickets
- had not made ADRs
- had not made FP selections
- are staying offsite
- but they did have an MDE account

So the day before they left, I sat down with them and we selected their rides on RideMax. They're going for 5 days, so I suggested 1 day for each park, except allow 2 days for MK.

- For which days/which parks, we used the RideMax recommendations (which also matched easywdw)
- We selected FP attractions (but not times) based on the mesaboy list. (RideMax has tiering built in)
- After plugging in the rides for each park, RideMax generated their touring plans, including FP+ times

Then they got on MDE to buy their tickets, to select their FPs based on the FP times in the RideMax schedule, and a few ADRs.

Total planning time:
Time on RideMax planning a 5-day trip: 45 minutes
Time on MDE getting 5 days of FPs: 15 minutes
Time on MDE getting ADRs: 10 minutes

True, by waiting to the last minute, my friends did not get FPs for 7DMT or A&E, but they got all their other FPs, and they got the ADRs they wanted (including Fantasmic). And no running around the park for paper FPs.

Moral of the story: you don't HAVE to plan your trip 60 days in advance. But it does help to plan in advance, even if it's only 1 day .

I mean, geez, at some point you have to choose which park/which day. Might as well do it before you go, instead of on the morning of your first day. Plus you don't have to wait in line for the FP kiosk behind all the people who haven't decided which rides they want to go on.

 

[bellazachmom]

That's great!

 

[MattRyan]

Did they get desirable times for the FP+?

I'm getting tickets this Saturday for a trip beginning the following Sunday and I've been stressing that I'll be stuck with undesirable rides that I can get early or in the morning or desirable rides but only late in the evening.

 

[kay1864]

Did they get desirable times for the FP+?

Yes, but no 7DMT (as I mentioned). They were able to adjust them to the times per the RideMax schedule.

Lots of guests are still unaware of FPs. And of the ones that are aware, many don't know about MDE (they know only the kiosks). So any advance planning will put you ahead of the game.

I'm getting tickets this Saturday for a trip beginning the following Sunday and I've been stressing that I'll be stuck with undesirable rides that I can get early or in the morning or desirable rides but only late in the evening.

It might help to do your touring plan before Saturday. That way you know (a) which rides you will use your 3 FPs for, and (b) what timeslots to adjust the FPs to. Much better than guessing IMHO.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Great feedback.

 

[Lizzim]

2 questions:

1. How big was the group?
2. What rides did they actually get FP+ for?

I ask because I have experienced issues getting the FP+ I wanted when staying offsite (in early Feb before the 30 day window was available) and travelling as a group of 8. Curious to know if that has improved....

 

[kay1864]

2 questions:

1. How big was the group?
2. What rides did they actually get FP+ for?

I ask because I have experienced issues getting the FP+ I wanted when staying offsite (in early Feb before the 30 day window was available) and travelling as a group of 8. Curious to know if that has improved....

4 people, headliners (BTM, Splash, Space Mtn, Peter Pan, TSM, Star Tours, Soarin, Mission Space, Everest, Kali, Safari). Only problems were with 7DMT and A&E. TSM was late in the day.

If you were trying at a kiosk on day-of, then yes I expect you would have problems getting headliners.

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

Some friends of mine are at WDW this week. Like many typical guests, they:
- had not bought tickets
- had not made ADRs
- had not made FP selections
- are staying offsite
- but they did have an MDE account

So the day before they left, I sat down with them and we selected their rides on RideMax. They're going for 5 days, so I suggested 1 day for each park, except allow 2 days for MK.

- For which days/which parks, we used the RideMax recommendations (which also matched easywdw)
- We selected FP attractions (but not times) based on the mesaboy list. (RideMax has tiering built in)
- After plugging in the rides for each park, RideMax generated their touring plans, including FP+ times

Then they got on MDE to buy their tickets, to select their FPs based on the FP times in the RideMax schedule, and a few ADRs.

Total planning time:
Time on RideMax planning a 5-day trip: 45 minutes
Time on MDE getting 5 days of FPs: 15 minutes
Time on MDE getting ADRs: 10 minutes

True, by waiting to the last minute, my friends did not get FPs for 7DMT or A&E, but they got all their other FPs, and they got the ADRs they wanted (including Fantasmic). And no running around the park for paper FPs.

Moral of the story: you don't HAVE to plan your trip 60 days in advance. But it does help to plan in advance, even if it's only 1 day .

I mean, geez, at some point you have to choose which park/which day. Might as well do it before you go, instead of on the morning of your first day. Plus you don't have to wait in line for the FP kiosk behind all the people who haven't decided which rides they want to go on.

~Wow! This is fabulous & super helpful advice!!! Thank you so much for sharing this! I hope your friends have fun!

 

[Meldev]

What is the latest time FP+ is available for Anna and Elsa? I may try to meet them prior to MNSSHP. Thanks (and sorry if this is the wrong thread but since we've got an experienced FP+ poster here I thought I'd try)

 

[ParrotBill]

Moral of the story: you don't HAVE to plan your trip 60 days in advance. But it does help to plan in advance, even if it's only 1 day .

I mean, geez, at some point you have to choose which park/which day. Might as well do it before you go, instead of on the morning of your first day. Plus you don't have to wait in line for the FP kiosk behind all the people who haven't decided which rides they want to go on.

No, you don't, but for regular visitors, planning every day out for a week's visit leaves you with no room to decide we'd like to stay late and sleep in tomorrow instead, or in the last few days leave the parks unplanned. If you do, you risk an unpleasant FP+ situation.

We were delayed getting to the park one morning because of an ECV failure. The FP+ plan for the morning was not valid. MDE barfed and would not let me change the plans from any of our phones. So we got to AK at 10am, had to visit a Kiosk, and all FP+ available were now for late afternoon and the headliners we had were all gone. They scheduled two and gave us one "any ride" FP because of the MDE failure. We stayed until 3 to take the Safari and then left the 5pm unused.

Again, we are not first timers expecting to stay all day from rope drop to last call. We visit for a 4-5 hours at a time, then go eat, enjoy the pool, etc. and maybe come back later. A 4-5 hour window used to be great for FP, now, not great for FP+ unless you stay exactly on your advance schedule.

This is our finding after 3 visits with FP+.