MK feels different.

[redsbe]

"That is great for you, but we enjoy riding our favorites over and over, filling in with some other rides. And there was no running around the park, we never ran on FP- but we did run when we were running late for our TSMM FP+ and when we tried to change it the system would not work.

Why do we have to vacation like you???"


I never said you had to vacation like me, I simply said I did not understand why someone would go to WDW and focus on some attractions and ride them over and over again. That is your choice but in my view you were missing on many other aspects of visiting WDW parks.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

You've missing the point here. With the old system, people who liked to move at a slower pace got to go on way less rides than people like you. And according to you, rides are the best part. So the old system kept slower-paced people from experiencing the best parts.

I think you've missed my point. Those that like FP+ say it should be okay that we get less rides because Disney isn't about rides. In no way did paper FPs make you ride more than you wanted. You could have spent any amount of time hanging with your family not riding. If it isn't about rides to them then the old system didn't hurt their touring style.

For our family, riding rides is what Disney is about. The new system is in fact preventing us from doing as much riding as we have done in the past. I am saying that the best part of Disney is the rides but FP+ lovers keep telling me that I am wrong and just being there is what is important. I should be happy that I am getting less rides and more family time.

 

[WillAustin]

Personally, I don't think it's a good value, or fun, to pay $100pp to get 3 rides guaranteed per day.

The best way to maximize your value is to go off-peak.

I definitely agree. People will always say you can ride standby, but I won't pay that to spend 2-3+ hours in lines over the course of a day either.

 

[smithcor]

New here, but a big fan of Disney and have been visiting since I was a kid (80s/90s). I can vividly recall a day near Easter, so about this time of year, when I was probably 5 or 6. My mom and I were trying to meet my dad and sister for the afternoon parade (before cell phones!) and there were so many people walking through the castle that a few people passed out. It was really scary/traumatizing and I'm pretty sure my mom and I ended up walking through the flower bed/grass to get out of the sea of people. Even still, I begged my parents to go back year after year, so it didn't ruin anything for me.

Point being, it's not anything new for the Magic Kingdom to be crazy crowded at this time of year. It might be different to tour now than what you're used to, but you can't really go at this time of year and expect to be able to do everything exactly the way you planned. I've never toured Disney with a rigid plan though; I'm usually just happy to be there and expect to wait in lines, so I'm definitely looking at all this FP+ stuff from a very different angle than most.

 

[smitch425]

You obviously had no clue how FP- worked. You could get one 2 hours after your the time you pulled it or after you used your FP whichever came first.

To be fair, you don't know how it worked either, but you are close. It was 2 hours from when you pulled your current FP or whenever your current FP window opened. You did not have to use the FP.

 

[AnotherWorld]

This will be our first trip to Disney in many years. I will say, I don't like the idea of planning my rides and times 60 to 30 days in advance.

We always loved FP- and used it for all the headliners each time we visited. It was very easy to get 10+ a day. And no, we didn't run ourselves to death. Just the opposite. We would start in one land or area and make our way around the park. FP- was always available until late in the day. Although I can't say how it became in recent years.

I remember one time getting a FP- for Space Mountain just 5 mins before the return time. We took a bathroom break, came back to the ride, grabbed another FP- just after our window opened, rode with the first one, exited the ride, grabbed another FP-, rode with the second one and so on. The return times for FP were not going up fast because nobody was getting them. I don't remember what the standby wait was, but I do remember passing some of the same people in line the second time and hearing them say - "How much are they paying to pass?" A lot of people in the beginning were clueless.

I guess you could say we took advantage of a system that others didn't take the time to understand. But it was available to everyone. And we loved it!

 

[EMode]

"That is great for you, but we enjoy riding our favorites over and over, filling in with some other rides. And there was no running around the park, we never ran on FP- but we did run when we were running late for our TSMM FP+ and when we tried to change it the system would not work.

Why do we have to vacation like you???"


I never said you had to vacation like me, I simply said I did not understand why someone would go to WDW and focus on some attractions and ride them over and over again. That is your choice but in my view you were missing on many other aspects of visiting WDW parks.

Another misconception about those who enjoy the rides. Just because we enjoy riding our favorite attractions multiple times does not mean we are or have missed anything. We've just figured out that some things in WDW are not really of interest to us. It is possible to not love everything there and still have a fabulous vacation

 

[JeremyGNJ]

I guess effort and results aren't supposed to correlate in today's world anymore. Everyone is paying to be there, thus any effort toward making all outcomes equal must be good, or at least better than it was before.

This stuff has "unintended consequences" written all over it. People will always learn to maximize a new system or even get around any limitations.

People, this is vacation!

If you go to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean such as Sandals or Beaches...you don't get to have more fun because you put forth more "effort".

The correlation of effort and results is for normal every day life, not for when you're paying for an experience.

 

[Love Tink]

People, this is vacations.

If you go to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean such as Sandals or Beaches...you don't get to have more fun because you put forth more "effort".

The correlation of effort and results is for normal every day life, not for when you're paying for an experience.

Of course. Except.

Getting there early in the day means you get the location you want at the pool or beach.

Doing research ahead of time means you might get to go on an extra excursion or see a show that will sell out, so others miss out.

All resort restaurants are not created equal, and making reservations means you can eat at good times at the better ones.

A little planning and effort can keep you from overindulging (in sun, liquor, or food) and losing precious vacation time to not feeling well.

And about a dozen other examples.

 

[morethananyonex]

People, this is vacations. If you go to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean such as Sandals or Beaches...you don't get to have more fun because you put forth more "effort". The correlation of effort and results is for normal every day life, not for when you're paying for an experience.

As so many people love to remind others of when they complain that FP+ has reduced their experience, you're paying for admission into the parks not a certain amount of attractions or any attractions at all. The experience you're paying for is walking through the gates.

Every single theme park rewards people who put in more effort. It's not some weird concept people are applying to Disney, that doesn't apply to anything else that isn't boring every day life. Paying for something doesn't entitle you to the exact same experience as someone else.

Even at an all inclusive, people who make it to the pools early get the best chairs, etc. On certain airlines people who "put more effort in" and arrive early get better seats (so a better experience) than people who paid the same or possibly more. At a water park people who put more effort in and arrive early have shorter lines. Hell (heck? Is hell censored here?), on almost every single vacation putting effort in and researching rewards someone with a better vacation, even for the same price.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Here now and I understand Disney is out to make money, however this trip and Wednesday in particular Disney made way less off us. We used to open and close the park which meant way more drinks, snacks and merchandise. Wednesday though we were at MK and left by 4 due to the large crowds at attractions, eateries and shops. It was not fun to say the least. We used the 3 FP and due to new system could not get more. The standby lines were silly and I could not take the people walking into me because they were on their phone or tablet prob trying to book FP.
Today was better thanks goodness, but morning was the best and by 2 the crowds were ramping up.
Do I know this is SB? Yes however I am at the schedule mercy of my sons school and my retail manager job. Which means we can't go during Sept or Nov.
Spent way more this vacation outside of Disney property. Does Disney care? Prob not but they may care when more and more families start to do it.

Disneycrazi...are you just hitting the MK or are you visiting the other three parks? I'm told that the other three parks have been much more manageable this Spring Break.

 

[whiporee]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this.

If you want to avoid the crowds and maximize your riding, go to one of the parties. It's a shorter day, but almost all of the rides are walk-on (certainly during the parades).

It's not as much time per dollar, but I've done it three times, and never had any issues of crowds. That said, I only go in the fall and winter, so it doesn't apply towards to the summer and spring stuff.

As for the FP+ stuff, I used it last year and liked it, and I liked being able to change if it wasn't needed. But I also wouldn't go during a peak season.

I grew up in Orlando, and the crowds today are giant compared to what i grew up with. A low day these days was a busy one back then. I blame the resort culture -- in the old days you had just the Contemporary and the Poly, and Fort Wilderness was a campground. Now there are all those resorts they need to keep filled -- and they funnel them all to the parks.

It is different than 35 years ago, that's for sure.

 

[disneycrazi]

Disneycrazi...are you just hitting the MK or are you visiting the other three parks? I'm told that the other three parks have been much more manageable this Spring Break.

We did Epcot as well and it was much better, also the second MK day was better till 2 pm. We skipped HS this visit in exchange for Cocoa Beach Day. Also skipped AK this visit. We will be back in October and will do all 4. Will prob spend more time in AK and Epcot and just do MK once since in October we always do MNSSHP. This year doing it twice in fact. The party nights seem better as a whole so that should help. We love love Disney but Wednesday at MK was pretty much.....well.....redonkulous

 

[Mkrop]

To the original point about the MK being different with the new FP+ system ... yeah, I get that it's different. Frankly, I've been enough times over enough years that my experience was basically different every single time I've been to WDW. So, if you can't manage to snag 10 FPs in a single day anymore, does that mean you'll have a different experience than when you could? Yeah. but it doesn't HAVE to mean you have a worse experience. That part, I just don't get. Maybe you'd end up riding one or two less rides but spent a lot less time and energy sprinting around the park collecting fast passes. To me, that's at least got an even money chance of making your day better, not worse.

Why do you keep assuming there was this massive amount of sprinting involved? No sprinting in our family. We never even did the RD run. We could never get there until at least 5 to 10 minutes after park opening and we could still maximize our FP usuage

Question: Is it FP+ making vacations worse, or would they still be worse as Disney went to enforcing FP time windows on the first gen FP?

The FP time enforcement definitely changed how we toured but if asked to compare I would say that FP+ is making it worse bc we cant use our FPs the way we enjoy. This could mean riding the mountains several times. JC several times, which is our family's favorite ride, or riding TSMM to compete with each other. To us that was part of the fun.

You've missing the point here. With the old system, people who liked to move at a slower pace got to go on way less rides than people like you. And according to you, rides are the best part. So the old system kept slower-paced people from experiencing the best parts.

And this new system makes less rides for those who dont have smartphones or the ability to log on at 60 days at midnight, or those offsite who cant book until 30 days, or those who might not be able to buy tickets ahead of time. This just moved the "line" to ge the FPs to a different time. So maybe you could not be there for rope drop to get the FP but now there is someone who vitrually cant get the FP bc they dont have a computer or cant be on the computer at T60days.

"That is great for you, but we enjoy riding our favorites over and over, filling in with some other rides. And there was no running around the park, we never ran on FP- but we did run when we were running late for our TSMM FP+ and when we tried to change it the system would not work.

Why do we have to vacation like you???"


I never said you had to vacation like me, I simply said I did not understand why someone would go to WDW and focus on some attractions and ride them over and over again. That is your choice but in my view you were missing on many other aspects of visiting WDW parks.

Bc we have been a lot and dont need to go on Stitch or Country Bear Jamoborees, or we know that Star tours might not agree with hubby. But we do know that going on Jungle Cruise multiple times makes us all laugh and be silly. We know that we think it is fun to compete with each other on TSMM. Each time we go we try something different but we do know the things we dont care for, and the things we love to do over and over again. May sound silly but going on Barnstomer even with a 16 year old is fun for us, it is nostalgic. But with no repeats unless we want to stand in super long lines is what makes us bummed out...I dont get why this is so hard to see.

People, this is vacation!

If you go to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean such as Sandals or Beaches...you don't get to have more fun because you put forth more "effort".

The correlation of effort and results is for normal every day life, not for when you're paying for an experience.

Not true...been to Sandals and as someone said, the first people get the good chairs. We got one of the last available spots for snorkeling the whole week we were there why bc we made the effort to book it, same with golf and massages.

Most places you need to be first in line to get in, whether it is an actual line or a virtual line, but it is still first come first serve. Even at the Baltimore Aquarium, you may get in on a busy day, but you have a better chance of getting in if you buy ahead of time...if you plan your day to be there. Meaning put forth the effort and you get to do the fun things!

 

[2Tiggies]

Equal for everyone is another way of saying that you will no longer be rewarded for your effort.

Only not everyone is equal. So those who put in maximum effort are now being cast into the same lot as those who put in little to none. Giving everyone equal access is very different to disregarding work invested to get more from a system where it's a free for all and voluntary to use it (or learn to use it more efficiently).

Another misconception about those who enjoy the rides. Just because we enjoy riding our favorite attractions multiple times does not mean we are or have missed anything. We've just figured out that some things in WDW are not really of interest to us. It is possible to not love everything there and still have a fabulous vacation

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

The FP+ system has it's flaws but it's still new and Disney will I'm sure continue to improve as time goes on. The problem that we found was that we were spending more time queing for the FP+ reservations than what the stand-by queue was! We would end up waiting until the middle of the day to make our fast passes purely because we didn't want to stand in line to by-pass a line!

I think Disney are missing a trick by only allowing 3 FP+ per park per day. Hopefully they'll change that limit.

 

[3Gsandme]

Only not everyone is equal. So those who put in maximum effort are now being cast into the same lot as those who put in little to none. Giving everyone equal access is very different to disregarding work invested to get more from a system where it's a free for all and voluntary to use it (or learn to use it more efficiently).

That's not true. So much hyperbole.

With legacy FP, it was easier to get your reward. Or more clear. Since FP+ is new, the best way to maximize the system hasn't been figured out, but you can bet people are trying and as soon as it is people will go back to working the system like they always did. Please note: as long as you're not breaking any rules I don't care if you work the system. That's not meant to be a negative statement.

But, even now, people who work harder are still being "rewarded" over those who don't. The difference is in FP+ distribution, but people who work harder/smarter (rope drop, knowing where to spend their FP, researching crowd levels, etc) still have an advantage for their work. We've all read the threads here about people whose friends and loved ones refuse to do any research, make ADRs or take any advice. I really do believe that a large portion of park goers fall in that range. The hyper planners, like us at the DIS, aren't the norm.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Speaking only for my family and me, it's FP+. As I stated earlier, I didn't even know that Disney didn't enforce the return times until they stated that they were going to enforce them. I returned during my window for each fastpass. I still pulled significantly more than 3 and used multiple fastpasses for multiple rides.

But it seems that there are many here no grasping this. They are convinced that grabbing 5, 6, 7, or even 10 fast passes meant that you hopped off one ride, sprinted to the next fast pass machine, ran across the park to another ride, etc. They don't seem to grasp that you could grab multiple FPs, enjoy the atmosphere, spend time with your family, and do off the beaten path stuff all without splitting up your party, running yourself ragged, or completely stressing out. Our vacations were perfectly relaxing for us and we were able to do everything we wanted - many of them multiple times.

Ita!

It's interesting that it continues to be assumed that if you prefer legacy fp, you must have been one of those people who ran around the park doing nothing but getting fps and you waited to use them at the end of the day. It doesn't seem to matter how many of us say that isn't how we used the system at all.

Yes, I would be plenty happy to have legacy fp with times enforced over having fp+.

 

[wdw&sonny]

I like the idea that so many of you have, that we should be rewarded with more fast passes for greater effort. Life is full of rewards for the strong, the fast, the brilliant. I am from a family of athletes who excel academically, too.

If only Disney would put the FPs on top of a mountain at the end of a marathon and have you take a Mensa exam to get them....that would be great...

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I never said you had to vacation like me, I simply said I did not understand why someone would go to WDW and focus on some attractions and ride them over and over again. That is your choice but in my view you were missing on many other aspects of visiting WDW parks.

Thank you for your concern, but I can assure you I'm not missing out on anything. With how many times I have visited, plus my time as a CP, I have learned very well what I enjoy and what I don't. I was excellent at maximizing all of my favorites with fast pass. I was able to ride my favorite rides multiple times, often during times of the day that I most enjoyed them (trust me when I say that Jungle Cruise, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain are great new experiences when you do them in the dark after riding them during the day) and get in some of my less-than-favorites. I knew not to waste my time on rides I don't enjoy or that make me feel sick. I was able to take in favorite shows, look in favorite shops, enjoy favorite snacks, ad even just sit back and relax while I people watch (outside ABC Commissary is one of my favorite places for this). So, unless there is some giant hidden part of the parks besides rides, shows, atmosphere, music, shopping, food, and people, be not concerned. I'm taking in all of my favorites and am able to avoid wasting time on things I don't enjoy.