YourEveryDayAdam
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
- Messages
- 711
Hello everyone. A friend and I just got back from a 6 night stay at BLT, followed by 2 nights at WL. We participated in the FP+ test and I wanted to share my thoughts on it.
Overall, I must admit that I am pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. I was quite skeptical of the FP+ setup given the new restrictions on fast passes, other info that I had heard on how it would work, and other observations by others here on Disboards. A lot of people, myself included, thought that the spontaneity would be lost on trips, and that you'd have your entire trip planned, including your rides, 6 months in advance. I am happy to report that the spontaneity wasn't lost, and the benefits of FP+ (compared to the old FP system) definitely made up for how the new FP+ system lacks compared to the old FP system.
We did receive two sets of magic bands, one for each part of our split stay. So I decided to get them in different colors...this way we could coordinate bands with our clothes for the day or our moods.
Upon check in at BLT, she scanned one magic band from each person. Check in was painless. We were also able to setup separate room charges for each of us on our magic bands with no problems. We checked in right at 4, and our room was ready right away.
The magic bands we got opened the door and we dropped off our stuff and headed straight to DHS. I had already reserved fast passes for RnR, ToT, and TSMM. I knew my flight landed at 2pm, factored in DME, checking in, and transit time to the parks being about 3-4 hours, so I picked fast passes that started at 6pm. That gave me until 7pm to use the first fast pass.
Now this is where my first positive experience with FP+ came to light... There is NO WAY, that I would've been able to get any real fast passes at DHS, given that I couldn't even get to the parks until 5pm at the earliest...ESPECIALLY at TSMM and RnR. But I was able to get them before I even got to the parks. Made my first day in the parks a much better experience.
Now, this is where I will mention that i'm NOT a morning person. When i'm at WDW, I set my alarm to 9am...or 10am, if there is a late night EMH the night before. Which means I typically don't get to the parks until 11:00 or noon. By this time, the fast passes at a lot of rides are either sold out, or very late in the day (Soarin' and TSMM especially)...Other rides will have pretty long FP return times by then...4+ hours (RnR, Test Track, Space, etc.)
To me, getting up at 7am or 8am to get to the parks early isn't something i'm willing to do on vacation. I like to do my Disney trips much more leisurely. With FP+, I was able to schedule my fast passes starting at noon. Based on the published park hours, crowd calendars, and personal preferences, I had a pretty good sense as to which park i'd be at on any given day several months in advance. So when I got the magic bands, I went in to MDE and scheduled 3 of the rides that have the biggest waits at the park I figured I would be at that day.
Before, I pretty much assumed that being able to ride Soarin or TSMM would be really tough, simply because I wasn't willing to get there at rope drop to get FPs. By the time I got to the entrance of the rides when I started my day, the lines for either was 90+ minutes and the fast passes were past 6pm...if they hadn't already sold out of them. With FP+, that wasn't an issue...I was able to ride them without having to plan my whole day around holding on to a fast pass for 6-8 hours.
Overall, I was pretty accurate at picking the park I wanted to be at. I did switch parks for 2 days during my trip, swapping a MK and DHS day with each other. I made that decision on the day of, and had no problem rescheduling my fast passes for both days using the app. I had FPs for MK and decided to go to DHS, so while I was on the bus to DHS, I opened the MDE app on my iPhone and rescheduled all of my fast passes...I was even able to reschedule and get a TSMM FP at a good time. While still on the bus, I rescheduled the fast passes for my old DHS day to MK FPs without issue. Because of this, I feel better about the complaint of spontaneity being taken away from a WDW trip. I had no problem being spontaneous and rescheduling things on a whim.
Even when I was at a park, I was able to reschedule fast passes on the fly to better fit with how my day was actually going. On a MK day, I got hungry when one of my Space Mountain fast passes was scheduled...The fast pass window had just opened, and I was on the other side of the park. It would've been 30-45 minutes to get over to Tomorrowland, to Space Mountain, go through the FP line, ride, get back, etc...and I was hungry! So I decided to try to reschedule. Popped open the app, asked to reschedule, and it gave me a few new times and one of them was 45 minutes later. So now we had an hour and 45 minutes to eat and get to the entrance of Space to use our fast passes...no problem at all.
Using the old FP system, there is no way to reschedule fast passes. You have to accept the time given to you when you get to the ride. Even if you want a later time than what was being given out at the moment, it didn't matter. With the new system, if something comes up...or i'm just not feeling a ride or want to do something else, it's easy to not have to waste a fast pass.
One night, dinner ran a little longer than we anticipated, then got stuck waiting on Disney busses. Our fast pass window for Soarin' had already started, and there was little chance of making it in time. So I opened the app, figuring they were all gone. But nope, I was able to reschedule for an hour later and we didn't waste the FP.
So again, while I think there was good reason to worry about spontaneity being taken out of a WDW vacation...being locked in to a rigid schedule 6 months in advance...I feel the concerns are overblown and, in reality, won't be much of a problem.
The other benefit I noticed while on the trip was not having to get myself to the entrance of the ride to collect fast passes. That sure saved a lot of zig-zagging around the parks. Before, when I arrived at the MK, it'd be a run to Space to grab a fast pass, then work our way through tomorrow land to fronteir land, doing things like laugh floor, philharmagic, HM, etc. to then get to window where we could pull another fast pass at BTMRR... then head over back to Space at the other extreme end of the park, ride space, maybe eat, and work our way back over to Frontier Land just to then ride BTMRR. Zig-Zagging around the MK 2 or 3 times in the process. With FP+, that was eliminated. My fast passes were already pulled. If I wanted to change them up, I could change my splash fast pass to a BTMRR pass without having to get to the entrance of either ride or wait for the windows to open up and guess what the return time would be at the time I would then be allowed to pull another fast pass. I knew exactly when and where all my fast passes would be as I was riding the bus/monorail to the parks. I wasn't bound to the times that just so happened to be the return times at the moment I was next able to pull a fast pass.
Now there were some downsides... The biggest one being that I couldn't pull two fast passes for the same ride in the same day. The other big one being that once I USED a fast pass in a particular park, I couldn't pull a fast pass in another park for that same day...I was able to change parks, even on the day of, so long as I hadn't used any of the fast passes. Let me elaborate on these negatives:
Some days I just want to ride Space Mountain 5 times. With the old FP system, I could hang out in tomorrow land, pulling SM fast passes and ride it all day. With FP+, that wasn't really possible at all. However, I don't consider this to be a particular negative. Even with SM, there are times when the line is pretty much not there...particularly during the late night magic hours and the parties (MNSSHP and MVMCP). We had one evening EMH and did two christmas parties at the MK while we were on our trip....definitely got my fill of Space and BTMRR re-rides. For Rockin' Roller coaster, the single-rider line is pretty good about being able to ride it over-and-over...same for Test Track and Everest...I never really used FP to reride those rides that much anyway. ToT line, if you go at the right time, can often only be 10 minutes or walk-on at times.
Now, not being able to hop to another park would be a big deal, but I am friends with a few cast members, and they say that's the biggest complaint that Disney has received and they are working to make it so you can hop to another park and still use FP+. I pretty much already expected this, since not being able to would diminish the value of the park hopper option by a good bit. I was able to get around this by using my park pass to pull regular fast passes at the parks we hopped to/from.
My other complaints on it were things that they could fix with some time...mainly the app being glitchy, the website being slow, or the wifi being wonky in the parks, etc. Those are all things that they will fix in time and aren't inherent flaws in the overall system.
The other downside was the entrance to the fast pass line would sometimes get backed up once in a while...usually if someone couldn't figure out how to scan their band, or tried to use a fast pass they didn't have or at the wrong time. Before, the cast member could easily point out that the date/time/attraction on the card was wrong. Now, there is a computer terminal he/she has to go to see what's on the band, and it takes more time to clear up any issues than just simply pointing out what's obvious on the card. A lot of it was due to ignorance on how it worked, people coming late, too early, etc...But I also suspect a good bit of it was people trying to cheat the system and claim they had fast passes when they didn't.
Other observations: Both of our magic bands worked for both or BLT and VWL stay flawlessly. All of our bands opened both doors. The new movie on DME made it sound like, if you did online check in, you might already have a text message with your room number, and since you already have your band then you could skip the check-in desk altogether.
Sometimes getting the magic band to read at the room door was tricky. it was difficult to bend your wrist in the right way to "touch Mickey to Mickey" as they say when explaining it to you. This was mainly because of the door jam/handle/etc. getting in the way of getting the band in the right spot.
It was nice not having to dig out the plastic pouch with my room key, park tickets, fast passes, etc. and dig around in there to find the right card, every time we had to open our room, get in to the park, get fast passes, check the times on our fast passes, use our fast passes, pay for food, souvenirs, etc. You already had it on your wrist and it was ready to go. My card pouch stayed in my pocket pretty much the entire time.
So, I went on this trip being skeptical, but open minded about FP+. After seeing the benefits for me as a night owl, not having to zig-zag around the park to pull fast passes and being able to reschedule fast passes I can't use...I am definitely coming around to it. There are some things they need to work out, but I think they'll be able to with a little more work and maybe some way of quickly indicating to cast members why FP+ wasn't letting someone in a line.
Let me know if you have any questions! I'll be happy to answer them.
Overall, I must admit that I am pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. I was quite skeptical of the FP+ setup given the new restrictions on fast passes, other info that I had heard on how it would work, and other observations by others here on Disboards. A lot of people, myself included, thought that the spontaneity would be lost on trips, and that you'd have your entire trip planned, including your rides, 6 months in advance. I am happy to report that the spontaneity wasn't lost, and the benefits of FP+ (compared to the old FP system) definitely made up for how the new FP+ system lacks compared to the old FP system.
We did receive two sets of magic bands, one for each part of our split stay. So I decided to get them in different colors...this way we could coordinate bands with our clothes for the day or our moods.
Upon check in at BLT, she scanned one magic band from each person. Check in was painless. We were also able to setup separate room charges for each of us on our magic bands with no problems. We checked in right at 4, and our room was ready right away.
The magic bands we got opened the door and we dropped off our stuff and headed straight to DHS. I had already reserved fast passes for RnR, ToT, and TSMM. I knew my flight landed at 2pm, factored in DME, checking in, and transit time to the parks being about 3-4 hours, so I picked fast passes that started at 6pm. That gave me until 7pm to use the first fast pass.
Now this is where my first positive experience with FP+ came to light... There is NO WAY, that I would've been able to get any real fast passes at DHS, given that I couldn't even get to the parks until 5pm at the earliest...ESPECIALLY at TSMM and RnR. But I was able to get them before I even got to the parks. Made my first day in the parks a much better experience.
Now, this is where I will mention that i'm NOT a morning person. When i'm at WDW, I set my alarm to 9am...or 10am, if there is a late night EMH the night before. Which means I typically don't get to the parks until 11:00 or noon. By this time, the fast passes at a lot of rides are either sold out, or very late in the day (Soarin' and TSMM especially)...Other rides will have pretty long FP return times by then...4+ hours (RnR, Test Track, Space, etc.)
To me, getting up at 7am or 8am to get to the parks early isn't something i'm willing to do on vacation. I like to do my Disney trips much more leisurely. With FP+, I was able to schedule my fast passes starting at noon. Based on the published park hours, crowd calendars, and personal preferences, I had a pretty good sense as to which park i'd be at on any given day several months in advance. So when I got the magic bands, I went in to MDE and scheduled 3 of the rides that have the biggest waits at the park I figured I would be at that day.
Before, I pretty much assumed that being able to ride Soarin or TSMM would be really tough, simply because I wasn't willing to get there at rope drop to get FPs. By the time I got to the entrance of the rides when I started my day, the lines for either was 90+ minutes and the fast passes were past 6pm...if they hadn't already sold out of them. With FP+, that wasn't an issue...I was able to ride them without having to plan my whole day around holding on to a fast pass for 6-8 hours.
Overall, I was pretty accurate at picking the park I wanted to be at. I did switch parks for 2 days during my trip, swapping a MK and DHS day with each other. I made that decision on the day of, and had no problem rescheduling my fast passes for both days using the app. I had FPs for MK and decided to go to DHS, so while I was on the bus to DHS, I opened the MDE app on my iPhone and rescheduled all of my fast passes...I was even able to reschedule and get a TSMM FP at a good time. While still on the bus, I rescheduled the fast passes for my old DHS day to MK FPs without issue. Because of this, I feel better about the complaint of spontaneity being taken away from a WDW trip. I had no problem being spontaneous and rescheduling things on a whim.
Even when I was at a park, I was able to reschedule fast passes on the fly to better fit with how my day was actually going. On a MK day, I got hungry when one of my Space Mountain fast passes was scheduled...The fast pass window had just opened, and I was on the other side of the park. It would've been 30-45 minutes to get over to Tomorrowland, to Space Mountain, go through the FP line, ride, get back, etc...and I was hungry! So I decided to try to reschedule. Popped open the app, asked to reschedule, and it gave me a few new times and one of them was 45 minutes later. So now we had an hour and 45 minutes to eat and get to the entrance of Space to use our fast passes...no problem at all.
Using the old FP system, there is no way to reschedule fast passes. You have to accept the time given to you when you get to the ride. Even if you want a later time than what was being given out at the moment, it didn't matter. With the new system, if something comes up...or i'm just not feeling a ride or want to do something else, it's easy to not have to waste a fast pass.
One night, dinner ran a little longer than we anticipated, then got stuck waiting on Disney busses. Our fast pass window for Soarin' had already started, and there was little chance of making it in time. So I opened the app, figuring they were all gone. But nope, I was able to reschedule for an hour later and we didn't waste the FP.
So again, while I think there was good reason to worry about spontaneity being taken out of a WDW vacation...being locked in to a rigid schedule 6 months in advance...I feel the concerns are overblown and, in reality, won't be much of a problem.
The other benefit I noticed while on the trip was not having to get myself to the entrance of the ride to collect fast passes. That sure saved a lot of zig-zagging around the parks. Before, when I arrived at the MK, it'd be a run to Space to grab a fast pass, then work our way through tomorrow land to fronteir land, doing things like laugh floor, philharmagic, HM, etc. to then get to window where we could pull another fast pass at BTMRR... then head over back to Space at the other extreme end of the park, ride space, maybe eat, and work our way back over to Frontier Land just to then ride BTMRR. Zig-Zagging around the MK 2 or 3 times in the process. With FP+, that was eliminated. My fast passes were already pulled. If I wanted to change them up, I could change my splash fast pass to a BTMRR pass without having to get to the entrance of either ride or wait for the windows to open up and guess what the return time would be at the time I would then be allowed to pull another fast pass. I knew exactly when and where all my fast passes would be as I was riding the bus/monorail to the parks. I wasn't bound to the times that just so happened to be the return times at the moment I was next able to pull a fast pass.
Now there were some downsides... The biggest one being that I couldn't pull two fast passes for the same ride in the same day. The other big one being that once I USED a fast pass in a particular park, I couldn't pull a fast pass in another park for that same day...I was able to change parks, even on the day of, so long as I hadn't used any of the fast passes. Let me elaborate on these negatives:
Some days I just want to ride Space Mountain 5 times. With the old FP system, I could hang out in tomorrow land, pulling SM fast passes and ride it all day. With FP+, that wasn't really possible at all. However, I don't consider this to be a particular negative. Even with SM, there are times when the line is pretty much not there...particularly during the late night magic hours and the parties (MNSSHP and MVMCP). We had one evening EMH and did two christmas parties at the MK while we were on our trip....definitely got my fill of Space and BTMRR re-rides. For Rockin' Roller coaster, the single-rider line is pretty good about being able to ride it over-and-over...same for Test Track and Everest...I never really used FP to reride those rides that much anyway. ToT line, if you go at the right time, can often only be 10 minutes or walk-on at times.
Now, not being able to hop to another park would be a big deal, but I am friends with a few cast members, and they say that's the biggest complaint that Disney has received and they are working to make it so you can hop to another park and still use FP+. I pretty much already expected this, since not being able to would diminish the value of the park hopper option by a good bit. I was able to get around this by using my park pass to pull regular fast passes at the parks we hopped to/from.
My other complaints on it were things that they could fix with some time...mainly the app being glitchy, the website being slow, or the wifi being wonky in the parks, etc. Those are all things that they will fix in time and aren't inherent flaws in the overall system.
The other downside was the entrance to the fast pass line would sometimes get backed up once in a while...usually if someone couldn't figure out how to scan their band, or tried to use a fast pass they didn't have or at the wrong time. Before, the cast member could easily point out that the date/time/attraction on the card was wrong. Now, there is a computer terminal he/she has to go to see what's on the band, and it takes more time to clear up any issues than just simply pointing out what's obvious on the card. A lot of it was due to ignorance on how it worked, people coming late, too early, etc...But I also suspect a good bit of it was people trying to cheat the system and claim they had fast passes when they didn't.
Other observations: Both of our magic bands worked for both or BLT and VWL stay flawlessly. All of our bands opened both doors. The new movie on DME made it sound like, if you did online check in, you might already have a text message with your room number, and since you already have your band then you could skip the check-in desk altogether.
Sometimes getting the magic band to read at the room door was tricky. it was difficult to bend your wrist in the right way to "touch Mickey to Mickey" as they say when explaining it to you. This was mainly because of the door jam/handle/etc. getting in the way of getting the band in the right spot.
It was nice not having to dig out the plastic pouch with my room key, park tickets, fast passes, etc. and dig around in there to find the right card, every time we had to open our room, get in to the park, get fast passes, check the times on our fast passes, use our fast passes, pay for food, souvenirs, etc. You already had it on your wrist and it was ready to go. My card pouch stayed in my pocket pretty much the entire time.
So, I went on this trip being skeptical, but open minded about FP+. After seeing the benefits for me as a night owl, not having to zig-zag around the park to pull fast passes and being able to reschedule fast passes I can't use...I am definitely coming around to it. There are some things they need to work out, but I think they'll be able to with a little more work and maybe some way of quickly indicating to cast members why FP+ wasn't letting someone in a line.
Let me know if you have any questions! I'll be happy to answer them.
