My husband didn't believe me about FP+

[3DisneyFanz]

I don't consider being able to book three whole rides as having my whole park day planned.

Depends on what times you end up with and how bad SB times are for other things. Bad spacing of FP+ and long lines elsewhere means those 3 things dictate your entire schedule.

 

[Flight]

Sorry OP, I know exactly how you feel. Making ride reservations is not my idea of fun either.

I join you in feeling that making reservations for rides weeks or months in advance kind of takes some of the enjoyment out of the experience. Your husband is right to be somewhat incredulous. "You mean we have to make a reservation for two months from now to ride on Dumbo? That's nut's!"

 

[BigAlsGal]

Its not so bad.

 

[itchin2go]

It amazes me when people trash FP+ before they even give it a chance. I think it is an advantage to plan your vacation two months in advance. It is much better than wasting valuable vacation time planning it or standing in long lines.

I didn't see OP "trash" anything. She said she was aggravated at having to plan so far out and wondered how she could have a relaxing vacation. I don't equate that with trashing anything.

OP - I know it's aggravating, but you're ahead of the game just knowing that you can book 60 days in advance. Take an educated guess at which parks you'll be at on which day and book something. Do not view these ride reservations as being carved in stone. If you change your mind during your vacation, change your fastpasses and make the best selections you can then.

You're not alone, but the system has been in place for awhile and doesn't appear to be going anywhere. With that being the case, your best course of action is to roll with it as best as possible.

 

[BudgieMama]

As someone who battles with anxiety, I find being able to book things in advance a huge help with the relaxing once I'm on my holiday. (I generally don't find holidays relaxing at all, wherever I go. Everything needs more planning than being at home!).

I'm sorry you're finding the planning process stressful, OP, but unlike the dining reservations, there are no penalties to making your FP+ reservations before your trip and not sticking to them, or switching them around on the day of. If you want the big stuff, you might be tied into the original time if you want to use a FP+ rather than the standby line, but otherwise you can change stuff or ignore stuff if it fits better with your day.

I hope you have a great trip!

 

[Nancyg56]

I think there is no harm in planning your FP now, and tossing them if you do not want to use them. The problem I think you will face if you have nothing planned is that instead of three attractions that you know you like having relatively short lines, you will be faced with long lines for every attraction. October is busy now, way busier than a few years ago so the lines are long.

you know how you usually tour, even if all you have is a rough plan so try to book your passed around that. You can change them as younger closer, but at least you have something if you find that there is not much open.

 

[Jon84]

Agree with others, just book them. We always end up moving or replacing on the fly. For example you have a FP for Peter Pan's Flight and you manage to walk on instead, so change the FP to something else.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

My advice - book FP+ the day before you enter the park. Keep your vacation relaxed. If you can't get a FP+ for something really important to you, hit that ride at rope drop or late at night.

You do not have to become a crazy planner to enjoy your WDW vacation.

 

[disnut8]

I don't consider being able to book three whole rides as having my whole park day planned.

I agree with this statement but I think the frustration that some feel is that you need to plan which days are going to be in which parks and then stick to that plan. Decided and basically cementing that on Monday, we'll be at Magic Kingdom and on Tuesday we'll do Animal Kingdom, etc. and then needing to stick to that schedule because of FastPasses is daunting. Especially for people who don't have another Disney World vacation on the horizon in the near future. And then there is the one hour time frame (yes, it can be extended by five minutes at the beginning and fifteen minutes at the end but I wouldn't rely on that all the time) so your time during that day is structured and if you want an ADR, you have to plan around that.

For me, personally, FastPass Plus is great. But, there's only two of us and we like the same things and we don't do ADRs. Before FastPass Plus, there was no way we'd be able to ride Toy Story Mania and now it's a breeze since we can just click a button on the mouse either 60 or 30 days before we leave and we know we'll be riding. We aren't rope drop people at all and we're not into characters.

But - thinking about FastPass Plus if we took our son and his family to Disney World makes me take a huge pause.

 

[cakebaker]

WDW has never been a relaxing vacation to me, neither has DL. If relaxation is my goal I choose cruising or the beach, not the parks.

If you've got your adr's planned then you already know what parks on what day. Plan your fp+'s for those parks.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I agree with this statement but I think the frustration that some feel is that you need to plan which days are going to be in which parks and then stick to that plan.

Yep - this is why we still haven't booked a single FP+ for our vacation, which starts in 10 days.

 

[Nancyg56]

WDW has never been a relaxing vacation to me, neither has DL. If relaxation is my goal I choose cruising or the beach, not the parks.

If you've got your adr's planned then you already know what parks on what day. Plan your fp+'s for those parks.

Lol! We brought the little family down the street. They are exhausted! And we deliberately planned slow days! We tried to tell Mom what Disney is like....she would not listen. Thank goodness for those preplanned FP because they are still sleeping!! Lol!!

 

[Lucius Best]

We are booking FPs for October. The last time we went was 5 years ago, before FP+. It's very aggravating to have to plan our days 2 months in advance! We thought it was bad enough having to arrange ADRs so far ahead.

How can this possibly be a relaxing vacation?! What are our chances of getting same-day FPs? We generally hate stand-by lines. Are those as bad as they always were?

I understand your frustration, went through the same aggravation before our first FP+ trip. It doesn't have to be super complicated. Once you've identified which parks you want to go to on which days, it can be as simple as picking your three most important rides that you know will be busy, and making FP reservations 10am/11am/12pm. Standby lines are as bad as always, in some cases worse for rides that did not have old paper fastpass but now have FP+. Same day availability depends on the park (lots more FP rides at MK) and the crowds (more people, less same day FP).

7DMT is the exception (along with A&E), those have been getting gobbled up faster and faster. I would think with almost all other rides, there will be FP available the night before (but can't attest to what times would be available). For 7DMT FP, not sure it's worth the effort checking every day, there won't be more added to the system. You might try checking for smaller numbers. If you can't get FP for 7DMT, it is still easy to ride with "short" wait either at rope drop or before park close. If you get to MK before rope drop and go straight to 7DMT, might have about 20 minute wait. Right before park close on our trip, posted standby wait was 40 minutes, but we were on in 11 minutes.

 

[Jennasis]

WDW has never been a relaxing vacation to me, neither has DL. If relaxation is my goal I choose cruising or the beach, not the parks.

If you've got your adr's planned then you already know what parks on what day. Plan your fp+'s for those parks.

And if A) no ADR's have been planned or B) ADR's were planned for restaurants outside of a park?

 

[Lucius Best]

It amazes me when people trash FP+ before they even give it a chance. I think it is an advantage to plan your vacation two months in advance. It is much better than wasting valuable vacation time planning it or standing in long lines.

It amazes me when people trash other people's valid opinions/questions/concerns. OP has been trying to book her FP+ reservations (unsuccessfully in terms of getting FP for 7DMT), thus she is "giving it a chance" right now. If it works for you, great. If OP doesn't enjoy planning her vacation two months in advance, she's entitled to that opinion, not everyone considers it an advantage.

 

[usd2bmd]

We just got back on Wednesday from our first trip in 6 years. This was our first experience with FP+ and I am still not convinced that it is a good thing (for us personally). We have always somewhat planned out what park we would go to on what day, but we usually only hit some parks (AK and DHS) for 1/2 day or less). Even booking FP+ at the opening of the window didn't allow us that flexibility. there were several FP+ that we gave up this trip in place of going back to the resort to hit the pool to cool down.

We have no plans to go back right now but we do know it will not be in August again, even thought that was always our vacation time. We will try for November or February/March when it is less crowded and not nearly as hot.

 

[itchin2go]

It amazes me when people trash other people's valid opinions/questions/concerns. OP has been trying to book her FP+ reservations (unsuccessfully in terms of getting FP for 7DMT), thus she is "giving it a chance" right now. If it works for you, great. If OP doesn't enjoy planning her vacation two months in advance, she's entitled to that opinion, not everyone considers it an advantage.

Thank you for saying this. You took the words right out of my mouth.

This is a new system for many. It's complicated. If they take a minute to digest it or express frustration, that's not really unexpected or a reason to chastise them.

 

[Robo]

- 7DMT is the exception (along with A&E), those have been getting gobbled up faster and faster. I would think with almost all other rides, there will be FP available the night before (but can't attest to what times would be available).

To that MK list, I'd add two more:
FP+ for MSEP
FP+ for Wishes.

 

[cakebaker]

And if A) no ADR's have been planned or B) ADR's were planned for restaurants outside of a park?

I was responding to the OP who it would appear has adr's. The OP didn't clarify what the ADR's were so can't be specific, but I'm assuming at least a couple are inside a park somewhere. In general, if you have adr's in a park, schedule fp+ for that park. You can schedule a different park on a day you don't have an adr. If your adr's are outside a park, don't schedule fp+'s for that time period. If you're planning on dining at a resort that is close to a particular park, then fp+'s at that park before or after dining would be a good choice.

For us, an adr is what pins us to a particular schedule on a specific day. FP+ is optional and costs nothing to skip or change. There are 3 FP+'s that we feel lock us in and that's SDMT, A&E and Wishes. Outside of that, anything we have booked can be changed or done at a time when the lines don't demand a FP+.

 

[GreatLakes]

We are booking FPs for October. The last time we went was 5 years ago, before FP+. It's very aggravating to have to plan our days 2 months in advance! We thought it was bad enough having to arrange ADRs so far ahead.

How can this possibly be a relaxing vacation?! What are our chances of getting same-day FPs? We generally hate stand-by lines. Are those as bad as they always were?

You don't have to plan that far in advance if you don't choose to just as you don't have to have any ADRs if you don't want. I had days during my last trip where we didn't go to the park we had planned so we either re-did our FP+ selections that morning of just went standby. We assume we will be standing in lines. It isn't that big of a deal and helps us slow down and just enjoy the moment without rushing from place to place to try and get in one more ride.