Misled by fastpass plussers

[Etherflyer]

So your theory is that people are getting FP for rides they don't want to ride?

Don't want to ride is to strong. You get 3 FP+ to start and I think it is safe to say you really only needed 1 or 2 in a given park as that is the whole reason for tears instead of chose the best 3 rides. So you chose 3 and now one or 2 you do not need but you have it so you ride that ride because it only cost you 5 minutes since there is no line. Before if you walked by that ride and stand bye was 15 minutes you might have said let's do something else, parade, shop, show, an attraction that rarely had a line COP CBS LA or any number of things that don't cause others to wait longer. We used to do this all the time but now if we have that fp we ride and the wait is longer for everyone. Do we have more fun? No because this means the wait is longer in stand bye for the ride we didn't get a fp for because we chose TIM over RnR. I would rather they do one at a time and pick the next when done. That way you get the one you really want and time causes people to chose what for them is the best attraction for the wait.

 

[Magpie]

So, if I tell you that I love FP+, then I must be "misleading" you?

You callin' me a liar?

Or could it PERHAPS be that we are different people with different touring styles, and what works for me might not work for you, and vice versa?

Here's what I like about FP+:

Making my FP+ selections 60 days out. Yes, I genuinely look forward to doing that! I think it's fun, and it gets me excited for my upcoming trip.

It aligns beautifully with our touring style (rope drop one park, return to our resort for a nap, head to a different park in the evening with FP in hand).

Walking into HS at five in the afternoon and straight onto TSM.

Heading to the Magic Kingdom in the evening and riding BTMRR in the dark. Never got to do that before FP+.

Yes, some ride lines have gotten longer while others have gotten shorter. It's not difficult to figure out (easywdw.com is very helpful). I'd never use a FP on the Little Mermaid ride, but if you choose to, that's on you. Maybe that FP would be better applied to the Haunted Mansion?

I hope you had an enjoyable vacation despite your FP woes.

 

[Robo]

New Math.

 

[DisneyOma]

New Math.

Which is actually the same math, because math is math. New math just uses different ways to get to the same point, because we finally figured out that not all brains work the same way.

OP, what exactly were you misled into believing? FP+ works great for my family, sorry it doesn't work for yours.

 

[PsychoCelloChica]

I see what you mean. Everybody HAS to pick three DIFFERENT attractions whether they want to or not.

Like before I might have ridden Tower of Terror three times with a fast pass and probably wouldn't have done The Great Movie Ride. But now after I pick my Tower of Terror fast pass I can't pick it again two more times so I end up picking two other things that I might not have done anyway.

What's a curse for you is a blessing for others. Now, I can make MY TOT FP+ for late afternoon and spend the morning in Epcot.

 

[cfmarie79]

There is much to indicate that the over-long standby lines on traditionally short-wait attractions can be linked to the addition of FP+ to those attractions, most of which did not have nor need FP in the past.

This is true

 

[BugsDaddy]

FP+ works for some and does not work for others. How were you "mislead"?

Do you think people are lying to you about their experiences in order to affect your personal ride experience?

 

[LuvDaisy&Minnie]

Well I truly like it. Didn't wait in a standby line over 20 minutes in June. Got 6-7 FP a day depending on the park. I'm sorry you don't like it. Planning a second trip for my hisnand and I now and planning a friends trip too. I enjoy planning and have it all worked out as best I can before I go.

 

[Nanaji]

I really don't understand... you want everyone running around the park getting paper FP for a single ride. I go in May, book my 3 FP for the hard to get and ride the others SB. Past trip I rode everything I wanted , almost walk-on on most. No 4th FP (the CM told me the only thing available would be a walk-on anyway) If HM was busy I came back 15mins later to an empty ride! I do go EMH and rope-drop MK. Longest line is always my 4-5th trip on SM. Why do people want to have one family member racing around the park? Why does FP+ make SB lines longer? Just get your 3 FP+ and line up for the rest like everyone else. Plan your trip, it's not a day at the beach.

 

[bluezy]

There is much to indicate that the over-long standby lines on traditionally short-wait attractions can be linked to the addition of FP+ to those attractions, most of which did not have nor need FP in the past.

I agree that FP+ has increased the wait time at many of the traditionally short-wait attractions; however, larger crowds also have had an influence on that as well. We get to Disney every 2 years or so -- always in June. When we were there in June of 2013, we noticed significantly longer lines on some of our favorite short-wait attractions. Specifically, we waited 30-35 minutes for both Haunted Mansion and Pirates. We had never waited more than 10 minutes for either one of those before -- and usually they were closer to a walk-on attraction. I know we also waited about 10-15 minutes for Spaceship Earth and Gran Fiesta Tour which had always been walk-ons prior to that trip. FP+ was not available to the masses in June 2013 (it was being tested with random guests at one resort while we were there), so we can't blame the longer lines on that.

That being said, I thought I would really dislike FP+ as we were FP power users and I thought the new system would really slow us down. After our experience with it in June 2015, I'm a fan. It worked really well for us. We were able to get at least 1 extra FP+ every day and in fact, used 10 at MK in one day -- and we took a 5 hour break in the afternoon. We got on a total of 20 attractions that day (in about 9.5 hours in the park). There were many walk-on attractions at rope drop and after about 9:00 at night (including Haunted Mansion).

 

[spinandmarty]

don't want to get into fastpass arguments, i realize it works for some, just not for me... I acknowledge I have usually gone in Oct, or early Nov, a few in mid to late Jan... at MK I could always in a day, ride splash 3 or 4 times, BTMR 3 or 4 times, space a time or 2, wait no more than 5 to 7 mins for pirates or HM and often walk right back on.... At the studio's, Tsmm 2 to 3 times, TOT 3 to 4 times, RNR a time or 2, Star Tours never more then 5 to 10 mins... Epcot, Soarin 2 to 3 times, Test Track 1 or 2 times, Maelstorm walkon, Spaceship earth walkon... I never had a fast pass runner, or ran for a fastpass myself, never used a fastpass after it expired... I go to WDW to ride rides, don't want to hear how much more there is to do there... Don't really care for shows, parades bore me, don't want to meet Mickey or Minnie or Donald or Goofy... I'm there for rides... Don't tell me it wasn't fair with the old fastpasses, what could be more fair than you wake up in the morning, go to a park, and everyone has the same chance... But no you don't want to go to rope drop, that's your choice..... myself I don't want to stay up till 8:30 or 9:00 for fire works that's not fair, you should have them at 6:00 to be fair to me

 

[Tomh]

FP+ is a mixed bag for us. I do think that we take good advantage of it, and it certainly is nice going into the park knowing you already have a ride on TSMM scheduled, but I miss the times when we could do Haunted Mansion 6 times in a row with no line, or Buzz Lightyear. I miss being able to ride TSMM standby, then on FP, and then be able to get a third one for later in the day, and sometimes if you really moved it, and it wasn't a super busy day, you might even manage to sneak in ride number 4 with a FP. Those days for sure are gone.

 

[bumbershoot]

off topic:

Which is actually the same math, because math is math. New math just uses different ways to get to the same point, because we finally figured out that not all brains work the same way.

And yet every 20 or so years they change it and call it "new math". And they NEVER have it as an add-on; they replace it. So when I hit 5th grade my mom could not help me anymore, because she did not understand what I was being taught in math. (her sister, 2 years older, was taught the same stuff I was 30 years later, so they must have changed it in between my aunt and mom) It's *hard* to teach yourself a math you don't get. DS thinks in singapore/common core, and I homeschool him, and I ended up teaching it to myself, and it took a solid amount of time and a LOT of brain pain to get it for me.

There's no "finally", and at least in my knowledge "new" math isn't ever taught alongside the "old" stuff; it just replaces it.


That has nothing to do with FP+.

Though maybe it goes along with how I hate it, but wished for it at DLR on our last trip BUT do NOT NOT NOT want it to show up at DLR. (yeah, confusing...just like teaching yourself a math that isn't intuitive for your brain!)

 

[DisDadDVC]

I feel misled by clicking on this thread.

 

[Magpie]

off topic:



And yet every 20 or so years they change it and call it "new math". And they NEVER have it as an add-on; they replace it. So when I hit 5th grade my mom could not help me anymore, because she did not understand what I was being taught in math. (her sister, 2 years older, was taught the same stuff I was 30 years later, so they must have changed it in between my aunt and mom) It's *hard* to teach yourself a math you don't get. DS thinks in singapore/common core, and I homeschool him, and I ended up teaching it to myself, and it took a solid amount of time and a LOT of brain pain to get it for me.

There's no "finally", and at least in my knowledge "new" math isn't ever taught alongside the "old" stuff; it just replaces it.


That has nothing to do with FP+.

Though maybe it goes along with how I hate it, but wished for it at DLR on our last trip BUT do NOT NOT NOT want it to show up at DLR. (yeah, confusing...just like teaching yourself a math that isn't intuitive for your brain!)

If we're going off topic here...

Singapore math is brilliant! Many years ago, I thought I couldn't teach my kids math because I'd done horribly in school. Didn't get past grade nine in math, and that was a pity-pass. But I had to, so I worked through Miquon and Singapore with them, and to my surprise I discovered I actually can do math. Who knew?

The state of math education in western schools is appalling. I tutor math now, and the first thing I warn parents is that I will not follow the public school curriculum. I teach kids how to manipulate numbers with confidence, instead. Mostly mental math, actually. Three of my former students are now in university and doing math that's way beyond me.

 

[PirateD]

I haven't used it yet, but I've read a lot of threads about it. What I've noticed is two very different main perspectives-

Group 1: Pre-FP+ Had to wait in long lines and little or no FP availability. Post-FP+ Never wait in any lines over 20 minutes and 3 FP+ is plenty.

Group 2: Pre-FP+ Never waited in long lines over 20 minutes and plenty of FP availability. Post-FP+ Have to wait in longer lines now and 3 FP+ is not enough.

I'm prepared for longer lines and feeling like it won't be enough since we would fall solidly in Group 2 Pre-FP+. I'm trying to figure out how to make it work for us, but not sure that I will be able to since whatever we did right before seems like it will be wrong now.

Still planning to have fun even if we hate it.

 

[Hopelessly_Devoted]

We think the new system is crap, but we make the most of it and still enjoy our vacation.

 

[GaryDis]

Specifically, we waited 30-35 minutes for both Haunted Mansion and Pirates. We had never waited more than 10 minutes for either one of those before -- and usually they were closer to a walk-on attraction.

I remember being at the park when HM and PotC were both walk-ons or nearly so.

But I also remember being at the park when one, the other, or both had 30 minute+ lines - pre FP+. I remember being in line at PotC where it eventually got crowded enough for them to open the second loading line. I had to force myself to get on that line because I really wanted to ride it, even though the line was longer than I thought it deserved to be. And I remember being at HM with the line backed all the way to the gate where it meets the path to Fantasyland (or as close to the gate as it could get); I skipped those.

So what's the difference? Maybe I wasn't paying attention to the day-of-week guidelines back then. Or maybe the busy time was during our one New Year's trip (the only time we've gone during a busy season). I don't honestly remember.

Or maybe some of the people who say the HM and PotC should be walk-ons are only remembering the times they rode it because it was a walk-on, and not the times they skipped it. I don't know. I just think I need better data to draw conclusions (though I'm unlikely to ever get that data).

 

[caroline1851]

It's definitely frustrating that you can only get 3 fp+ and not anymore until you use them up, that unless you go at rope drop and hit most attractions, lines will be 30+ min for even typically less busy rides, that there's no way to do Disney without planning and knowing what you're doing, etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on. That's why....I'm never going to be one of those people that want to go to Disney every year. the last time I went, ds and I had a great time, but we had to be up early each day, have a plan and go, go go for the beginning part of each day. Later in the day and evening a little easier to just enjoy the sites and not worry about riding anything in particular, etc. Lines were usually too long by then anyway.

 

[123SA]

We think the new system is crap, but we make the most of it and still enjoy our vacation.

I agree mostly.

Positive:
We liked not running all over the park to get FP.

Negative:
There are not enough kiosks. There weren't enough kiosks the first week in Sept when the parks were pretty empty. I can't imagine what it is like in high crowd times. On the other hand, there probably aren't any FP to get after 2pm, so I guess it doesn't matter.

The locations of the kiosks are very strange and not necessarily convenient.

I felt like I was looking at my watch the entire vacation. Trying to pick extra FP that worked around meals and shows was a pain..but I guess that is no different than paper FP.

I wish they would have a separate kiosk line for people who don't know what they are doing.

I agree with the other posters -- the lines for all rides were longer.

I don't understand how the intergration of FP and stand by lines work...it was very frustrating to stand in the FP line and watch a bunch of stand by people go in while we waited. I couldn't figure out why I didn't have to wait AT ALL in the stand by line at meet Ariel in the grotto and yet the FP line was being held for me to walk by. At Soarin, I swear the stand by line was faster sometimes.

FP tiering is difficult to manage if you don't go on the big rides. For example, I don't ride rock and roller coaster. I had to take the FP though in order to be eligible for a 4th FP with the rest of my family. However, in order to make the FP show up as used, I had to walk through the whole damn line -- of course, it didn't wreck our trip, but it was a PITA. I thought I could just click it off at the entrance. I did that then went over to TOT kiosk to get a 4th FP for the group, but I wasn't eligible, so I got it for the rest of the group. The FP kiosk person was no help. I had to walk back to RnRC, walk through the line, argue to be let out (what was up with that??) and by the time I got back to the kiosk, I couldn't get a FP in the same time slot as the rest of my group. On our 2nd day at HS, the RnRC FP was our 5th FP, so I figured I was okay in not going to the line...that I could just change it to something else. Nope. The FP kiosk person was so baffled by it, he gave me a paper FP good for me and 5 people on any ride except TSM.


Over all...based on the way my family tours, the old way was a better fit for us.