My FP+ Observations

[Figee17]

we just got back yesterday and used FP+ for the first time. we are annual passholders with family less than 30 minutes away so we don't stay onsite...it was TERRIBLE!!!! we were at the kiosk at least 45 minutes at magic kingdom when we arrived at rope drop and got very scattered times.
in HS, we arrived before rope drop to find they already opened the park. we went right to midway mania and were there at park opening time. since we wanted to leave the park early that day and the stand by line said "45 minutes" we just got in line...2 hours later, we were finally on the ride!!! NOT a good experience. they are really alienating the local/annual passholders.


Posted from DISboards.com App for Android

 

[mom2rtk]

we just got back yesterday and used FP+ for the first time. we are annual passholders with family less than 30 minutes away so we don't stay onsite...it was TERRIBLE!!!! we were at the kiosk at least 45 minutes at magic kingdom when we arrived at rope drop and got very scattered times.
in HS, we arrived before rope drop to find they already opened the park. we went right to midway mania and were there at park opening time. since we wanted to leave the park early that day and the stand by line said "45 minutes" we just got in line...2 hours later, we were finally on the ride!!! NOT a good experience. they are really alienating the local/annual passholders.


Posted from DISboards.com App for Android

I'm sorry. I would have been very disappointed with that as well.

I hope you email Disney with your concerns.

On the up side for you, at least advance booking should be coming down the road for AP holders.

 

[EpcotBill]

Why on Earth did I open this thread? All its doing is stressing me out before we leave in 8 days. Thanks a lot

You're welcome.

 

[Figee17]

I'm sorry. I would have been very disappointed with that as well.

I hope you email Disney with your concerns.

On the up side for you, at least advance booking should be coming down the road for AP holders.

I did send an e-mail today and I heard they were doing random trials of annual pass holders and FP+...hopefully I am either chosen or it is in full swing by my next trip!

 

[tazadd0420]

I did send an e-mail today and I heard they were doing random trials of annual pass holders and FP+...hopefully I am either chosen or it is in full swing by my next trip!

Not an ap, but agree ap's should have ability to do FP+ in advance of visit up to 60 days like on site guest. Hope they get this figured out soon for the ap's.

 

[ilovemk76]

The problem I had all week w MDE didn't correct itself with this suggestion. What worked for me was having to delete the APP altogether and reinstall it. Happened all week and it started to get time consuming and frustrating, especially when I was in a park trying to change my FP+ to another time or experience.
And the FP+ kiosk lines were so long!

I am just curious, what brand of phone do you have.

 

[yankeesgirl63]

Losers? Wow. A tad harsh. People are posting their observations. Mine weren't all negative, just stating the FP lines for some attractions were very long. They moved fairly quickly. Not sure why that would ruin your vacation.....

 

[mollygirl13]

I am just curious, what brand of phone do you have.

IPhone 5s

 

[lupp2217]

I sent an email stating my concerns about FP+ and that we will probably not be coming back. I got a follow up phone call and he repeatedly said that it was still in the testing phase and to wait and see what happens. He also said that they aren't told anything, but are excited to see what changes will be made. It seemed like a very scripted response to pacify us.

 

[EpcotBill]

I sent an email stating my concerns about FP+ and that we will probably not be coming back. I got a follow up phone call and he repeatedly said that it was still in the testing phase and to wait and see what happens. He also said that they aren't told anything, but are excited to see what changes will be made. It seemed like a very scripted response to pacify us.

That's exactly what it was.

 

[Nhebron]

I was there Feb 10th-14th and had no issues with FP+. We stayed on site and booked all our FP in advance. I was able to make changes easily once we arrived. We had park hoppers and also followed the crowd calendar, doing the most recommended parks on most days. Lines were not a big deal. I probably waited a max of 20 minutes.

My biggest complaint was being restricted to one park for FP. This caused us to have to rework our plans and do an extra day in DHS that we hadn't originally planned on so hubby could ride RRC. We also had to split our group up due to tiering (couldn't all ride TSM together). These weren't earth shattering issues for us though.

 

[sandgrace]

For all of those that said the FP+ lines were long when you went to the ride, how many minutes would you estimate you waited? How fast did they move? I don't mind lines as long as they're moving. Trying to find some positivity as a DLR regular going back to WDW for the first time in 10 years.

 

[yankeesgirl63]

For all of those that said the FP+ lines were long when you went to the ride, how many minutes would you estimate you waited? How fast did they move? I don't mind lines as long as they're moving. Trying to find some positivity as a DLR regular going back to WDW for the first time in 10 years.

We waited about 10 min for our Peter Pan FP because the line stretched back to the carousel. BTMRR was between 10-15 min one of our days and it was between 5-10 min the other. Other than those 2 rides, things moved a lot quicker. Not sure what the hold up was for those. Overall, nothing to fret about and they were definitely better than the 60+ minute stand by lines! The day we waited almost 15 min for our BTMRR FP the standby was 2 hours. Ugh!!! But, yes, the lines did keep moving.

 

[DSLRuser]

IPhone 5s

Now what service? and. Do you keep extra programs closed? and. How much memory is left on the device.

service. = if you have one of the slower service providers like sprint, and you fail to get a good connection for the disney wifi, your device will constantly get hung up trying to get updates from the database. All the ME App is, is a database query tool. The connection to the database matters.

closed programs = all IOS devices since the 1st one have suffered from poor performance if you have a ton of open programs in memory. So if during the day, you Facebook app is open in the back ground, and movies, and tunes, and games for the kids. these all eat up ram, and cause the app you are wanting to use to slow down. to close open programs, double tap the home button and flick up to close all open apps. I go one step further and hard reboot my iPhone a few times a day. Its the only way to ensure your iPhone is not the bottle neck.

device memory = if you iPhone memory is almost full, the ME app has to constantly delete its database query before it pulls down the new one. If any of the above get in the way of that process, the app will hang.

Point of all this is, the app is not the problem. the device itself and the networks supporting it are the bottle necks.

 

[ilovemk76]

We waited about 10 min for our Peter Pan FP because the line stretched back to the carousel. BTMRR was between 10-15 min one of our days and it was between 5-10 min the other. Other than those 2 rides, things moved a lot quicker. Not sure what the hold up was for those. Overall, nothing to fret about and they were definitely better than the 60+ minute stand by lines! The day we waited almost 15 min for our BTMRR FP the standby was 2 hours. Ugh!!! But, yes, the lines did keep moving.

I figured the lines moved. They need to get the lines out of the main area.

 

[stormer]

We experienced the same thing when we were there Feb. 15-22. We had a great time, but a different experience than we are used too. 3 FP+s we're note nought. We always got more under the old system. I agree with PP that except for MK it was very hard to make changed to your selections. The FP lines were crazy long, but most moved quickly. I was lucky enough to get my FPs the day the tiering glitch happened and that was a big help. I can't imagine having to choose only one tier 1 ride.

 

[tazadd0420]

I figured the lines moved. They need to get the lines out of the main area.

Agreed. Need some sort of queue or something. Is everyone coming back at the same time?

 

[yankeesgirl63]

I figured the lines moved. They need to get the lines out of the main area.

Definitely. The Peter Pan FP line blocked the exits for both Philarmagic and Peter Pan and caused confusion with all the people. That helped to slow everything down too. At least BTMRR had a winding queue that kept people from blocking the walkways/main area.

 

[Disneytam]

We were in Disney Feb.4-12 and had some problems with the FP+. The magic bands were fine but we like to park hop and it took us a day or two to figure out the best way to do this. What worked best for us was going at rope drop to one park doing a few of the more popular rides and as soon as the park started getting crowded we went back to our resort had a nice lunch and relaxed and then about dinner time went to the park that we had FP+ at and do those rides. The nights that MK was open late most of the rides were walk on but part of that was probably due to the time of year that we went. I would not want to be doing the parks with FP+ at a busy time of year.

 

[mollygirl13]

Now what service? and. Do you keep extra programs closed? and. How much memory is left on the device.

service. = if you have one of the slower service providers like sprint, and you fail to get a good connection for the disney wifi, your device will constantly get hung up trying to get updates from the database. All the ME App is, is a database query tool. The connection to the database matters.

closed programs = all IOS devices since the 1st one have suffered from poor performance if you have a ton of open programs in memory. So if during the day, you Facebook app is open in the back ground, and movies, and tunes, and games for the kids. these all eat up ram, and cause the app you are wanting to use to slow down. to close open programs, double tap the home button and flick up to close all open apps. I go one step further and hard reboot my iPhone a few times a day. Its the only way to ensure your iPhone is not the bottle neck.

device memory = if you iPhone memory is almost full, the ME app has to constantly delete its database query before it pulls down the new one. If any of the above get in the way of that process, the app will hang.

Point of all this is, the app is not the problem. the device itself and the networks supporting it are the bottle necks.

Thanks for your input. Even after reading all of this I still believe the MDE app is glitchy.