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

[Laketravis]

...I didn't look at your math, mostly because I find the whole notion of this sudden revelation that staying offsite is cheaper than staying on site to be silly, but if you're basing your savings on rack rate-that's not realistic. There's hardly ever a reason to pay rack rate anymore. We haven't paid rack in years.

I don't want to get hung up in some rack rate debate or the value of AP holders to WDW discussion; there are other threads for those.

That's not what this one is about. Rather, it's about using FP+ to it's full advantage by maximizing the available experiences in the parks each day, supplementing those experiences with other Orlando options in order to achieve optimum value, and saving a ton of money in the process. In fact, my savings will make an awesome down payment on a Tesla P85D - 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds is almost as fast as RnRC and I won't need an FP every time I punch it!



.

 

[Laketravis]

Tomorrow I can start making FP reservations for our spring break trip that begins 3/6. A quick glance just now shows several MK attractions with no FP's available for Thursday, 3/5. It will be interesting to see what combination of attractions I can build each day while planning other activities off-site for the rest of the trip.

.

 

[cakebaker]

I don't want to get hung up in some rack rate debate or the value of AP holders to WDW discussion; there are other threads for those.

That's not what this one is about. Rather, it's about using FP+ to it's full advantage by maximizing the available experiences in the parks each day, supplementing those experiences with other Orlando options in order to achieve optimum value, and saving a ton of money in the process. In fact, my savings will make an awesome down payment on a Tesla P85D - 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds is almost as fast as RnRC and I won't need an FP every time I punch it!



.

I'm sure you don't...just like WDW likes to quote the savings of buying into DVC using rack rates- it's an inflated price you never really have to pay, but it makes the savings look great. There's no debate here- basing savings on rack rates simply artificially increases your savings. But I'll give you this- it's a no brainer that staying offsite and eating offsite will save you a lot of money. Nothing new about that, it's been that way since day 1. It works quite well for many, many people.

It really is all in what interests each individual. One man's optimum value is another man's nightmare. A Tesla is definitely not on my wish list and the idea of staying offsite, eating offsite and even looking at Universal ever again makes sticking pins in my eyes seem entertaining. If someone gave me a "free" trip and those were the conditions, I'd stay home. I don't dare assume that what I choose to do on my vacation is some miracle, never tried before idea. That would be silly.

If it works for you, that's great! Glad you found a way to be happy with fp+!

 

[Laketravis]

Just for grins and as somewhat of a warm-up session, I tried to reserve FP's for Thursday 3/5 at MK. Initially I was able to get SM, PotC, and 7DMT for in the evening. While adjusting the times I saw that only three choices were left for 7DMT, and after several more edits the rest of the 7DMT choices disappeared and I'm now told there is nothing else available outside the time I already have.

So 3/5 would have been:

6:30-7:30pm Space Mountain
7:30-8:30pm Pirates of the Caribbean
8:35-9:35pm 7DMT

If we arrive at 5:30pm we can head to Tomorrowland and at least get CoP and maybe PeopleMover before SM, then PotC, then MSEP at 8, then 7DMT at 8:35p followed by Wishes at 9. Somewhat of a tight schedule with a segment of park back-tracking but doable, which gives us Thursday AM until 5pm for other things outside of WDW.



EDIT: As we have no interest in 7DMT I've cancelled these so someone else can get them.

 

[disneyseniors]

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.

.

Well, Lake, I have been following this thread with interest. You see, I am going to see my certified Disney travel agent this afternoon, and we will discuss some of these options openingly. She is a friend of mine, also, and gives me real inside information, which at times may not be consistent with what Disney puts out. Soooooo, my husband and I are dealing with these same issues also. We are weighing the Disney bubble, onsite reservations with all the perks, plus We

Just for grins and as somewhat of a warm-up session, I tried to reserve FP's for Thursday 3/5 at MK. Initially I was able to get SM, PotC, and 7DMT for in the evening. While adjusting the times I saw that only three choices were left for 7DMT, and after several more edits the rest of the 7DMT choices disappeared and I'm now told there is nothing else available outside the time I already have.

So 3/5 would have been:

6:30-7:30pm Space Mountain
7:30-8:30pm Pirates of the Caribbean
8:35-9:35pm 7DMT

If we arrive at 5:30pm we can head to Tomorrowland and at least get CoP and maybe PeopleMover before SM, then PotC, then MSEP at 8, then 7DMT at 8:35p followed by Wishes at 9. Somewhat of a tight schedule with a segment of park back-tracking but doable, which gives us Thursday AM until 5pm for other things outside of WDW.

View attachment 537

EDIT: As we have no interest in 7DMT I've cancelled these so someone else can get them.

 

[disneyseniors]

Well, I don't know what I did in the middle of the last post, so here goes: (it just quit and wouldn't move down further for more comments, like I got cut off or something?) soo, we are looking at offsite now. We find we want to visit US, which is surprising, cause we always just wanted Disney! We also want to try other attractions, sites, and find with the savings of not staying onsite and staying exclusively at Disney, we can do that What is appealing to me is that we have the Choice of doing what we want when we want! That has been restricted at Disney due to fp, IMO. What with all the ride breakdowns at every park every day last visit in November, we were discouraged. Also the crowds were higher despite the reported level of 4. The standbys were longer, and what was the kicker for us, no available fp's after using our 3 that we actually wanted to us. Sure, we could have done something we weren't interested in to say we did something, but that's not for us. I will be interested to see what your report is like after trying this experiment. It will be interesting to see what our TA will say. She is honest with us, despite being a Disney employee. She doesn't sugar coat things and agrees with a lot of what I have problems with. So, keep up the great reporting, Lake

 

[Laketravis]

....It will be interesting to see what our TA will say. She is honest with us, despite being a Disney employee. She doesn't sugar coat things and agrees with a lot of what I have problems with. So, keep up the great reporting, Lake

It will be interesting to see what she recommends - I'd like to try and incorporate it into a day-by-day "Orlando" itinerary that tests all aspects starting with advance FP availability and includes the best attainable from WDW.

 

[WillAustin]

That's not what this one is about. Rather, it's about using FP+ to it's full advantage by maximizing the available experiences in the parks each day, supplementing those experiences with other Orlando options in order to achieve optimum value, and saving a ton of money in the process. In fact, my savings will make an awesome down payment on a Tesla P85D - 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds is almost as fast as RnRC and I won't need an FP every time I punch it!

We won't wait in a line over 20 minutes for anything, so for us, maximizing FP+ might be spending 2-3 hours in the park and riding 4-5 rides and just doing it across more days to get repeats.

 

[Laketravis]

We won't wait in a line over 20 minutes for anything, so for us, maximizing FP+ might be spending 2-3 hours in the park and riding 4-5 rides and just doing it across more days to get repeats.

I agree.... what are you thinking you'd do the rest of the day?

 

[WillAustin]

I agree.... what are you thinking you'd do the rest of the day?

The kids enjoyed Universal and they always love pool/resort activities. Shows at night and nice dinners too.

I just noticed that for 3/5 Buzz Lightyear and Peter Pan are already out of FPs 30 days out. Really? Wow.

 

[Cormoran]

We won't wait in a line over 20 minutes for anything, so for us, maximizing FP+ might be spending 2-3 hours in the park and riding 4-5 rides and just doing it across more days to get repeats.

That's a great strategy, if you can afford the additional time and expense. I just can't see the value of spending additional days at WDW to experience the same things I was able to do prior to FP+. It's just not worth it IMO.

 

[WillAustin]

That's a great strategy, if you can afford the additional time and expense. I just can't see the value of spending additional days at WDW to experience the same things I was able to do prior to FP+. It's just not worth it IMO.

I agree. We're lucky enough to have the option. Otherwise, we'd be going somewhere else entirely.

 

[Shaden]

I'm going to back and out let you offsiter/Univeral lovers have some fun uninterrupted, but as a long time AP holder, you must know that the AP discount is released much closer to the arrival dates than other discounts. While the current discount ends in early June, there will be another one released before that one expires. It's been consistent for years now.

For example, we currently have reservations at the Wilderness Lodge. Our first 3 days are under a 37% AP discount, the remaining days are rack rate. We're just waiting for the new AP rates to come out and it's a quick call to have them make the adjustments to our reservation. And, if you can't get AP, there's always another discount of some kind. Going the time of year you're talking about- there's not much chance there won't be discounts.

I didn't look at your math, mostly because I find the whole notion of this sudden revelation that staying offsite is cheaper than staying on site to be silly, but if you're basing your savings on rack rate-that's not realistic. There's hardly ever a reason to pay rack rate anymore. We haven't paid rack in years.

We are WDW lovers first and foremost. This is a nice attempt to try and cast off this thread as off site lovers / Universal lovers. I have only ever stayed onsite at WDW, went to UNiversal 4 or 5 years ago, WDW every year since.

Have been a WDW AP holder, instead of condescendingly pointing out the advantages of the AP, YOU should be aware that for the last couple years the AP discounts have been almost identical (and in some cases identical) to the General Public offers, only they are released closer to the date of arrival.

Many people pay rack rate, not all the resorts are included, even at the resorts that are ... not all the rooms are discounted, not all the dates are covered many people can only travel during times with no discounts.

There is nothing "silly" about this. There really are some advantages, the people who extoll the virtues of FP+ point them out all the time. One of which is being able to pre-book your FPs, enter the parks at any time during the day you want (which they argue they wouldn't get without FP+), use those three, take in the sights and sounds, and then retreat to your resort. For many people that just isn't worth it, not for the price you pay at WDW. However, if you could do this, and do other things in Orlando, and pay less ? ... Sounds a lot better.

Its not that staying offsite as a possibility is a sudden and new option (just like RDing under FP+ and getting a ton done isn't sudden or new either, despite what you might think reading the positive FP+ posts), its that FP+ has changed the calculus, it makes other options more appealing, including staying off site (and including not doing Disney at all).

 

[Cormoran]

We are WDW lovers first and foremost. This is a nice attempt to try and cast off this thread as off site lovers / Universal lovers. I have only ever stayed onsite at WDW, went to UNiversal 4 or 5 years ago, WDW every year since.

Have been a WDW AP holder, instead of condescendingly pointing out the advantages of the AP, YOU should be aware that for the last couple years the AP discounts have been almost identical (and in some cases identical) to the General Public offers, only they are released closer to the date of arrival.

Many people pay rack rate, not all the resorts are included, even at the resorts that are ... not all the rooms are discounted, not all the dates are covered many people can only travel during times with no discounts.

There is nothing "silly" about this. There really are some advantages, the people who extoll the virtues of FP+ point them out all the time. One of which is being able to pre-book your FPs, enter the parks at any time during the day you want (which they argue they wouldn't get without FP+), use those three, take in the sights and sounds, and then retreat to your resort. For many people that just isn't worth it, not for the price you pay at WDW. However, if you could do this, and do other things in Orlando, and pay less ? ... Sounds a lot better.

Its not that staying offsite as a possibility is a sudden and new option (just like RDing under FP+ and getting a ton done isn't sudden or new either, despite what you might think reading the positive FP+ posts), its that FP+ has changed the calculus, it makes other options more appealing, including staying off site (and including not doing Disney at all).

Ordinarily, I would just push the like button, but I must say: Bravo Sir, well said!

 

[cakebaker]

Have been a WDW AP holder, instead of condescendingly pointing out the advantages of the AP, YOU should be aware that for the last couple years the AP discounts have been almost identical (and in some cases identical) to the General Public offers, only they are released closer to the date of arrival.

My only point in mentioning AP holders was to counter the notion that AP holders are local day guests and that Disney doesn't value the AP holder. I think that's wrong.

 

[Laketravis]

The kids enjoyed Universal and they always love pool/resort activities. Shows at night and nice dinners too.

I just noticed that for 3/5 Buzz Lightyear and Peter Pan are already out of FPs 30 days out. Really? Wow.

Yeah, I saw that this morning as I prepared a mock-up for the actual days I'm going to start scheduling 30 days out tomorrow - a lot of stuff already distributed or closed for refurbishment. Surprising.

After yet another round of revisions, here's what I finally came up with before releasing them back into the pool for others. I'm encouraged to see how it makes for a nice compression technique over just a few hours in the park while physically placing us where we need to be for parade/fireworks, releasing a majority of the day for other things at other venues:

 

[mom2rtk]

That's a great strategy, if you can afford the additional time and expense. I just can't see the value of spending additional days at WDW to experience the same things I was able to do prior to FP+. It's just not worth it IMO.

That is a tough pill to swallow. Of course one way to afford more days would be to consider staying offsite.

It's a real challenge for us though since it comes as my daughter enters high school and we need to be away less days instead of more.

 

[johde]

Your plan is an interesting one, and one I've thought about at times. For my last trip, I took the extreme opposite approach. Using FP+ to squeeze as much Disney as possible into 1 leftover park hopper day. I'll admit it helps I was travel solo and visiting Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens "thrill rides" weren't high on my list. But, it was Jan 4th and a crowd level 7-8 day in all the parks. In 1 day from 8:00 til Midnight I did the following with my first experience with FP+

DAK (EMH)
1. Safari
2. Everest
3. Dinosaur

Bus to DHS
4. TSMM 9:40-10:40 FP+
5. Great Movie Ride
6. ToT 10:40 - 11:40 FP+
7. Muppetvision 3d
Early Lunch at ABC Commissary (Steak)
8. Star Tours 11:25-12:25 moved FP+

Boat to Epcot
9. Journey into Imagination 1:15-2:15 FP+ (was hoping for SE FP+ but those were all way in the evening)
10. Spaceship Earth

Monorail to MK (some of the non FP+ items are probably out of order)
11. Festival of Fantasy Parade
12. Country Bears
13. Pirates of the Carribean 3:25-4:25 FP+
14. Enchanted Tiki Room
15. Haunted Mansion 4:30 - 5:30 FP+
Dinner at CHH
16. Buzz Light Year 6:00 - 7:00 FP+ (worst return line of the day)
17. Pooh 6:50-7:50 FP+
18. Main St. Electrical Parade
19 Wishes and Celebrate the Magic.
20 Jungle Cruise 8:30 - 9:30 FP+ (situationaly not needed rushed there after wishes with no line by the time cruise returned long line)
21 Splash Mountain.
22. It's a Small World 9:40 -10:40 FP+ (not needed)
23. Little Mermaid.
25. Mickey's Philharmagic
26. 7DMT
27. Peter Pan (through new Standby Line)

Yes it was a long tiring day. I've done something similar Pre-FP+ but not with crowds like there were on the 4th. So, for $35 in ticket value off a ticket purchased in 2009. 2 meals in park (lunch yes good and priced acceptible dinner was just OK) and 30 vacation club points (purchased resale so Disney didn't make any money directly off me there their). It was a nice start to the vacation. (I ended up renting out my other 30 points to stay at Cabana bay).

 

[Laketravis]

That is a tough pill to swallow. Of course one way to afford more days would be to consider staying offsite.

It's a real challenge for us though since it comes as my daughter enters high school and we need to be away less days instead of more.

That's exactly why I want to test how much can be comfortably scheduled over the course of fewer days by incorporating other venues yet still experiencing the best WDW has to offer.

 

[clsteve]

It's funny, the "Law of Unintended Consequences " is always a risk when you implement something that is designed to manage or influence human behavior. NextGen is very much about keeping some guests like off-site in-Park longer to get them to spend more, while perhaps getting off-site out of the Parks sooner so they can spend more at the broader Resort. Lake's hit on an interesting side effect of this that's popped up in a lot of threads. I remember Jade's picture posts talking about this very thing you're pointing out. I don't think Disney implemented this so that on-site and DVC'ers can have half Park days and time off to explore the rest of Fla.

It's an interesting trend to watch.....