My FP+ Park Strategy WILL SAVE ME ALMOST $20,000!!!

[Laketravis]

The funny thing about this (well that people would go after lake for this) is this is EXACTLY what SO MANY people who LIKE FP+ have been saying they like about it. They spend less time in the parks, they spend more time just relaxing at their resort, they don't do as many rides they just go into the parks for a few hours and the rest is relaxation by the pool, drinks and food and all that jazz.

Awesome, Lake is doing the exact same thing, and he is going to save a bundle of money doing it.

I wonder how many Travel Agents will follow this type of thinking? "Why pay the extra cost to stay onsite? Just book your 3 FPs, so you know you have them, don't rush to the park for RD, enjoy time at a much less expensive resort, potentially much nicer than you were going to stay at, travel leisurely to the parks (and many of them offer fantastic shuttles to wdw, though renting a car is also dirt cheap), and then come back to your resort. All while saving a bunch of money."

Yeah, I've always tried to have an open mind about it. I enjoy a good discussion, sure. But I was always open to ways to make it work for us. And once I starting looking at how much more we could accomplish (and save!) by no longer staying and eating on-site, all the while enjoying the same benefits each day in the parks, it became a no-brainer.

Will we miss staying on-site? I don't know for sure. Maybe. But that "bubble" that we've enjoyed for 40 years is slowly being burst by outside influence anyway. And when we were at USO we realized that they've got a pretty good "bubble" effect as well and they aren't nearly as big.

I honestly do have to give FP+ credit for all of this; had it not been for the changing dynamics of our park days we probably would have continued wasting so much $$$$ each year.

.

 

[Cormoran]

I still dion't understand your logic. Are you telling me that the ability to book your FP+ reservations at 60 days out isn't enough of an incentive to stay onsite?

 

[Laketravis]

I didn't even mention the effects on our travel to/from. We've always flown, and that's an additional $2K a year. But since we can leave Austin at 9pm and arrive in Orlando by 1pm the next day driving straight thru (and I've always loved a good road trip), the travel cost is less than a third and we'll have the use of our vehicle the entire time we are there. This also gives us an opportunity to possibly expand our vacations with some of the destinations between us and Orlando, like New Orleans!!

I'm starting to love FP+ more and more!!

 

[Laketravis]

I still dion't understand your logic. Are you telling me that the ability to book your FP+ reservations at 60 days out isn't enough of an incentive to stay onsite?

I've got 20,000 reasons that tend to outweigh any advantage that one might provide.

 

[cakebaker]

I'm glad for you, really. I have to say though, it's just not going to be the same without your posts pointing out all the negatives associated with fp+. I kinda got hooked on reading them. Nothing lasts forever I guess...sigh.

 

[bocaj1431]

I totally get it.

I am sure there will be others who are not entirely happy with how FP+ has impacted their Disney vacations and seek other options. Some will probably choose plans such as the OP and I am sure there will be those who decide not to even bother with DW. And of course there will be those who see FP+ as a positive change and continue the same vacation patterns.

The new system has a very big impact on how you approach the parks now.

For us, we will continue to vacation in DW because we belong to DVC and we still love DW. But we are not going to spend as many days in the parks. We will spend more time at the hotels and participate in the activities they offer. We will also try some some Orlando activities that we may not have otherwise decided to participate in. This will definitely save us money too. Let's face it, less time in Disney always saves you money. And, we would not have chosen to do so if the FP+ did not impact us in a way that led us to see less value for the cost of a park ticket.

 

[mom2rtk]

This is an excellent example of the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" line of thinking I've been posting about for a while.

If you give a customer a reason to consider staying offsite they will rent a car.

If they rent a car, they will spend their food dollars offsite.

If they spend time offsite, they will decide to check out the other attractions to visit in the area.

If they like those other attractions, they will devote fewer days to Disney on future trips.

Pretty soon those cookie crumbs add up and Disney is out $20K.

 

[Laketravis]

I'm glad for you, really. I have to say though, it's just not going to be the same without your posts pointing out all the negatives associated with fp+. I kinda got hooked on reading them. Nothing lasts forever I guess...sigh.

Well, I reserve the right to change my mind again! LOL! Seriously, though, right now it's an untested strategy. We have a Spring Break trip to Orlando coming up next month that I didn't factor into the annual plan because we've never done Spring Break before, but it emulates this strategy very well - we will be staying off-site at one of those condos, will have a rental car, have AP's to both WDW and USO and I won't be making a single ADR - which feels weird because that's a first.

I'm going to use that trip as a basis for the lack of ADR's and 60 reserve window and see how we fair with dining offsite and FP reservations at the 30 day mark (which is coming up pretty quick). We already know we'll miss CSR but the condo sounds like some decent digs.

From this point forward, though, our perspective will be somewhat like that of a local FL resident. It will be interesting.

.

 

[Laketravis]

This is an excellent example of the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" line of thinking I've been posting about for a while.

If you give a customer a reason to consider staying offsite they will rent a car.

If they rent a car, they will spend their food dollars offsite.

If they spend time offsite, they will decide to check out the other attractions to visit in the area.

If they like those other attractions, they will devote fewer days to Disney on future trips.

Pretty soon those cookie crumbs add up and Disney is out $20K.

Exactly - we realized that after all these years, we had never been to Cape Canaveral or anything else the Atlantic coast offers (deep sea charter!!!) within a couple hours from Orlando. I'm not complaining, we enjoyed being inside WDW the entire time, but I'm beginning to think of it as the "Maze Runner" effect.

Now, it could all suck and we decide nothing beats a couple of weeks strictly on-site - but we'll see.

 

[kaytieeldr]

AP's = Free Parking. We used 3 FP's per day on our most recent visits that were FP+ only. The kiosks never had any headliners left and we figured out pretty quickly that it was faster to stand in the SB line for the attractions that the kiosks had left for FP+

.

How did you tour in the pre-FastPass decade/s, and how vastly does that duffer from standby lines for headliners now?

 

[Cormoran]

Exactly - we realized that after all these years, we had never been to Cape Canaveral or anything else the Atlantic coast offers (deep sea charter!!!) within a couple hours from Orlando. I'm not complaining, we enjoyed being inside WDW the entire time, but I'm beginning to think of it as the "Maze Runner" effect.

Now, it could all suck and we decide nothing beats a couple of weeks strictly on-site - but we'll see.

You already know you'll have an excellent time, because you enjoyed your recent Universal trip so much. There is an awful lot to do in Orlando and I think you'll be surprised by how spontaneuos your vacation will be.

I totally understand what you're saying. Disney decided to implement FP+ and ration rides and now you have adapted to this touring change, by reducing the time and money spent at WDW. As a previous poster speculated, how many more people are adapting to the WDW changes by reducing time and money spent at the parks and resorts? I just don't think WDW offers enough incentive for me to spend all of my vacation time at the resort. I have accepted that I will pay more and experience less on my upcoming WDW trip.

What really surprises me is I am more excited about Universal than I am about WDW. I just think the ride reservation thing has sucked out a lot of the spontaneity for me. I can't just pretend to go with the flow when I feel my time is managed.

I think you should send a thank you note to WDW and explain how much you appreciate FP+ and how much money their new system has saved you.

 

[kaytieeldr]

The funny thing about this (well that people would go after lake for this) is this is EXACTLY what SO MANY people who LIKE FP+ have been saying they like about it. They spend less time in the parks, they spend more time just relaxing at their resort, they don't do as many rides they just go into the parks for a few hours and the rest is relaxation by the pool, drinks and food and all that jazz.

Awesome, Lake is doing the exact same thing, and he is going to save a bundle of money doing it.

I wonder how many Travel Agents will follow this type of thinking? "Why pay the extra cost to stay onsite? Just book your 3 FPs, so you know you have them, don't rush to the park for RD, enjoy time at a much less expensive resort, potentially much nicer than you were going to stay at, travel leisurely to the parks (and many of them offer fantastic shuttles to wdw, though renting a car is also dirt cheap), and then come back to your resort. All while saving a bunch of money."

That requires a very delicate balancing act from a professiin in which the entire earnings are commission-based.

 

[Laketravis]

You already know you'll have an excellent time, because you enjoyed your recent Universal trip so much. There is an awful lot to do in Orlando and I think you'll be surprised by how spontaneuos your vacation will be.

I totally understand what you're saying. Disney decided to implement FP+ and ration rides and now you have adapted to this touring change, by reducing the time and money spent at WDW. As a previous poster speculated, how many more people are adapting to the WDW changes by reducing time and money spent at the parks and resorts? I just don't think WDW offers enough incentive for me to spend all of my vacation time at the resort. I have accepted that I will pay more and experience less on my upcoming WDW trip.

What really surprises me is I am more excited about Universal than I am about WDW. I just think the ride reservation thing has sucked out a lot of the spontaneity for me. I can't just pretend to go with the flow when I feel my time is managed.

I think you should send a thank you note to WDW and explain how much you appreciate FP+ and how much money their new system has saved you.

And tip them off to what might turn out to be an award-winning park strategy? Naw. Besides, they are probably too busy laughing all the way to the bank over throw-away rooms.

Funny thing, I was an FP+ beta tester before most people ever even heard about it. I thought at first it would really be cool, but then that was before tiering and all. And I've never, ever, been part of the "We'll never go back!" crowd because we really do enjoy WDW but just needed to find that combination of value that we enjoyed for so many years. Because aside from all the things that WDW offers, the balance of perceived value plays a large part in the equation for everyone whether it's conscious or not. I think this new strategy will tilt value back in our favor. More importantly, after several years now of adapting to FP+ as an on-siter and maximizing usage as best I believe we could have, switching gears and becoming an off-siter will be a totally new perspective to which I'm looking forward to helping optimize for others. Just be sure to send a portion of those dollars saved to an address I'll be posting shortly. LOL!

 

[hiroMYhero]

Th

AP's = Free Parking. We used 3 FP's per day on our most recent visits that were FP+ only. The kiosks never had any headliners left and we figured out pretty quickly that it was faster to stand in the SB line for the attractions that the kiosks had left for FP+

.

Thanks for your reply. Because I always visit with CM friends, we were always relegated to "day of" FPs and found that the pickings were slim. I guess it was nice not to wait 30 minutes for Barnstormer but would have been better if we could have acquired headliners.

As an offsite guest, would you consider a Throwaway Room for the 60-day FP booking and then truly throw the room away? You're very good at all the logistics and what's available to you so, am just wondering. It just seems that utilizing a Throwaway Room and then canceling affords the most benefits to offsiters.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We already drive instead of fly and stay off site. How much money can fast pass + save me?

 

[AustinTink]

I'm with you 100% Lake Travis. Must be an Austin thing. This spring break we will be enjoying the bubble at Universal, giving them the time and money investment we had always intended for WDW. We plan to hop over to MK for one day to observe mainly and see what the new system can do for us, the offsite visitor. When our 3 FPs are done and nothing is left to pull at the kiosk other than Stitch, it will be time to go back to UO and go say hi to Harry. We know he stills loves us, even if Mickey doesn't.

 

[Laketravis]

Th

Thanks for your reply. Because I always visit with CM friends, we were always relegated to "day of" FPs and found that the pickings were slim. I guess it was nice not to wait 30 minutes for Barnstormer but would have been better if we could have acquired headliners.

As an offsite guest, would you consider a Throwaway Room for the 60-day FP booking and then truly throw the room away? You're very good at all the logistics and what's available to you so, am just wondering. It just seems that utilizing a Throwaway Room and then canceling affords the most benefits to offsiters.

I don't think I'm going to consider the Throwaway Room. We've already got tons of bands from previous stays and with the AP we can reserve FP's for up to 7 days at a time, 30 days in advance. So the only advantage to the throwaway room is the extra 30 days to reserve FP's and I've never had any issues even at 30 days. Probably because we don't do princesses or 7DMT.

.

 

[Shaden]

If I did my math right, in your original calculation, the dining plan accounts for $25,000 of the original costs, so your "new" plan saves you $5,000 solely through off-site lodging, or $1,000/year.

Folks, not all Texans are this ridiculous. People like LakeTravis just get more air time, and actively seek attention.

Funny, I don't think many people here think he is ridiculous at all. This really makes sense. FP+ has, as part of its purpose, changed the availability of rides and the need to standing in longer SB lines, it forces a change in touring strategy and attempt to manipulate your behaviour, the reaction is to limit the control the system has on you, and extract the most from it while minimizing the cost to yourself.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Our 2-3 trips anually have decreased to once a year. I think, we may skip next year all together. Not only are we vacationing elsewhere...for less $$$$, but we are also visiting Universal this year.

It wasn't just FP+, that changed our vacation habits. Although, it was the straw, that broke the camel's back.

 

[mom2rtk]

Funny, I don't think many people here think he is ridiculous at all. This really makes sense. FP+ has, as part of its purpose, changed the availability of rides and the need to standing in longer SB lines, it forces a change in touring strategy and attempt to manipulate your behaviour, the reaction is to limit the control the system has on you, and extract the most from it while minimizing the cost to yourself.

Agreed. The introduction of FP+ has forced many of us to go back to the drawing board with our trip plans. We previously had it all down to a science. Magical Express + onsite stay + dining plan + length of stay park hoppers = a great trip. Once you decide that is no longer going to add up to a great trip, it's time to evaluate all the pieces of the equation to maximize outcomes. Sometimes (as in LT's example) Disney comes out on the losing end of the equation.