GetGlowing
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2006
- Messages
- 1,374
Our trip:
DH & I spent one day in Magic Kingdom pre-cruise using our 10-day NE tickets. They were linked to our MagicBands, though not without issues. Internet Help had to do that for us, and it took a few weeks. But they got us into the park fine. We made our FP+ reservation ahead of time and successfully modified them before our trip.
We were doing a split stay -- did our first night at ASMovies, then spent two nights at Wilderness Lodge. We booked WL first and received our MB for that a few weeks before we added on the night at Movies. As a result, we had two sets of Magic Bands. In MDE, our tickets were linked to the WL MBs. Both resorts' bands worked to open our door at the WL. I don't think we tried at Movies.
Entering the park, I first tried my Movies MB at the turnstile, but it didn't work. However, my MB from Wilderness Lodge did with no issues.
We did Keys to the Kingdom that started at 8:30, before park opening. It's a long tour, and we weren't done at Chamber of Commerce until almost 2pm, the end of our first FP window. (My bad for not factoring in the correct amount of time). No worries, we scooted out of the CoC quickly and arrived at Peter Pan before our window closed. We used our FP+ there no problem.
This is where FP+ is great! Since we were on KTTK before park opening, we couldn't have picked up paper Peter Pan FPs until after our tour. However, with our FP+ reservation we got right in line after our tour. Good times!
Our second reservation was for Big Thunder. This is where the system failed us. When we arrived at Big Thunder, the ride was down. We asked the CM outside the ride what to do since we were in our FP+ window. He said to check back with the ride in a little while to see if it had come back up. Since we had plans to hop to Epcot after our FP reservations, we didn't want to extend our afternoon at MK. So we thought, hey, we have this nifty app that allows us to manage our FPs. Cool. Let's use it.
-- Let me take a minute here to comment on the cell service and the wifi service. It's still terrible. WiFi needs to be stronger. It needs to be in every queue area, snack area, restaurant, waiting area, and place with a bench. We found a lot of dead spots. Plus, with being constantly on the move, phones are always switching their connection from one to the other. It's a huge battery suck. I knew that going in. Power wasn't an issue for me, but I was prepared with external chargers. I've been down that road before. --
Anyway, we thought we'd change our FP+ to Pirates since it's just around the corner from Big Thunder and there was a 25 minute posted wait. Why wait when you can switch your FP+ and just walk right in.
Here's where our problem started. The app only showed two of our three FastPasses. The one for Big Thunder had disappeared, so there was no changing it. We didn't want to change our 3rd FP (Space Mtn), and we had already used the first for Peter Pan, so we were stuck.
Off we go to the Adventureland Verandah FP+ location where there were 3 CMs with iPads assisting guests with their reservations. After waiting for 3-4 parties ahead of us, we were finally to a CM. (Could have waited in the line at Pirates by this time ....) After explaining the situation to the CM, she told us she couldn't help us and that we would have to go to another location with a FP guest relations manager -- Adventureland breezeway I believe. Um, no, we've already wasted too much time on this. The guest ahead of us had also been directed there, so I had no idea what the wait was. By this point, I was really annoyed.
The app has a "Notification" option. We didn't have any notifications from the app at any time, except one from a few months ago saying I had invited someone to join MDE that hadn't been cleared out.
At this point, we decided just to head over to Tomorrowland. Our SM window was opening. We did some attractions there, and our SM FP+ worked fine. Then we decided to hit Starbucks before park hopping.
After getting our drinks, my husband starts looking at emails on his phone -- guess what -- there was one from Disney. Text follows:
I was furious! The email had been sent midway through the FP+ window in question. It's great that there was an email, but I talked with two CMs, one who is a so-called FP+ specialist, and I had an app with a notifications feature. NONE of them suggested there was already a solution to our issue in place. None of them said, maybe check your emails? In fact, if we hadn't stopped for Starbucks, we probably wouldn't have seen the email until that evening or even later.
We were already on Main St with plans to exit in order to park hop, so there was no way we were going back into the park to ride BTM or anything else.
We had a great evening at Epcot -- we got to try Spice Road Table and see Illuminations, plus visit Gran Fiesta Tour. (Could have used a FP for La Cava ... but oh wait, I was park hopping). Come to think of it, I could have used a drink at MK after my frustrations.
We hopped back to MK evening EMH and were able to ride both Pirates and Big Thunder plus some other attractions. The day was saved!
So the moral of this long story is, if you encounter an attraction that's closed during your FP+ window, don't bother with CMs or the app, but check your email if you can. You may find your solution there.
DH & I spent one day in Magic Kingdom pre-cruise using our 10-day NE tickets. They were linked to our MagicBands, though not without issues. Internet Help had to do that for us, and it took a few weeks. But they got us into the park fine. We made our FP+ reservation ahead of time and successfully modified them before our trip.
We were doing a split stay -- did our first night at ASMovies, then spent two nights at Wilderness Lodge. We booked WL first and received our MB for that a few weeks before we added on the night at Movies. As a result, we had two sets of Magic Bands. In MDE, our tickets were linked to the WL MBs. Both resorts' bands worked to open our door at the WL. I don't think we tried at Movies.
Entering the park, I first tried my Movies MB at the turnstile, but it didn't work. However, my MB from Wilderness Lodge did with no issues.
We did Keys to the Kingdom that started at 8:30, before park opening. It's a long tour, and we weren't done at Chamber of Commerce until almost 2pm, the end of our first FP window. (My bad for not factoring in the correct amount of time). No worries, we scooted out of the CoC quickly and arrived at Peter Pan before our window closed. We used our FP+ there no problem.
This is where FP+ is great! Since we were on KTTK before park opening, we couldn't have picked up paper Peter Pan FPs until after our tour. However, with our FP+ reservation we got right in line after our tour. Good times!
Our second reservation was for Big Thunder. This is where the system failed us. When we arrived at Big Thunder, the ride was down. We asked the CM outside the ride what to do since we were in our FP+ window. He said to check back with the ride in a little while to see if it had come back up. Since we had plans to hop to Epcot after our FP reservations, we didn't want to extend our afternoon at MK. So we thought, hey, we have this nifty app that allows us to manage our FPs. Cool. Let's use it.
-- Let me take a minute here to comment on the cell service and the wifi service. It's still terrible. WiFi needs to be stronger. It needs to be in every queue area, snack area, restaurant, waiting area, and place with a bench. We found a lot of dead spots. Plus, with being constantly on the move, phones are always switching their connection from one to the other. It's a huge battery suck. I knew that going in. Power wasn't an issue for me, but I was prepared with external chargers. I've been down that road before. --
Anyway, we thought we'd change our FP+ to Pirates since it's just around the corner from Big Thunder and there was a 25 minute posted wait. Why wait when you can switch your FP+ and just walk right in.
Here's where our problem started. The app only showed two of our three FastPasses. The one for Big Thunder had disappeared, so there was no changing it. We didn't want to change our 3rd FP (Space Mtn), and we had already used the first for Peter Pan, so we were stuck.
Off we go to the Adventureland Verandah FP+ location where there were 3 CMs with iPads assisting guests with their reservations. After waiting for 3-4 parties ahead of us, we were finally to a CM. (Could have waited in the line at Pirates by this time ....) After explaining the situation to the CM, she told us she couldn't help us and that we would have to go to another location with a FP guest relations manager -- Adventureland breezeway I believe. Um, no, we've already wasted too much time on this. The guest ahead of us had also been directed there, so I had no idea what the wait was. By this point, I was really annoyed.
The app has a "Notification" option. We didn't have any notifications from the app at any time, except one from a few months ago saying I had invited someone to join MDE that hadn't been cleared out.
At this point, we decided just to head over to Tomorrowland. Our SM window was opening. We did some attractions there, and our SM FP+ worked fine. Then we decided to hit Starbucks before park hopping.
After getting our drinks, my husband starts looking at emails on his phone -- guess what -- there was one from Disney. Text follows:
I was furious! The email had been sent midway through the FP+ window in question. It's great that there was an email, but I talked with two CMs, one who is a so-called FP+ specialist, and I had an app with a notifications feature. NONE of them suggested there was already a solution to our issue in place. None of them said, maybe check your emails? In fact, if we hadn't stopped for Starbucks, we probably wouldn't have seen the email until that evening or even later.
We were already on Main St with plans to exit in order to park hop, so there was no way we were going back into the park to ride BTM or anything else.
We had a great evening at Epcot -- we got to try Spice Road Table and see Illuminations, plus visit Gran Fiesta Tour. (Could have used a FP for La Cava ... but oh wait, I was park hopping). Come to think of it, I could have used a drink at MK after my frustrations.
We hopped back to MK evening EMH and were able to ride both Pirates and Big Thunder plus some other attractions. The day was saved!
So the moral of this long story is, if you encounter an attraction that's closed during your FP+ window, don't bother with CMs or the app, but check your email if you can. You may find your solution there.
