My husband didn't believe me about FP+

[3DisneyFanz]

Anything anybody does can always be wrong. Election predictions are usually right, but sometimes wrong. Weather forecasts are usually right, but sometimes wrong. That doesn't mean they're just making lucky guesses most of the time.

Deciding someone who is getting 80% of the votes will win or watching wind blow rain isn't the same thing as trying to guess what's going through someone's mind on vacation. All the analytics in the world won't decifer the whims of an 8 year old.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I always rigged things so that they wouldn't want to. It helps that I was in the rent-a-kid business (nieces and nephews), so I wasn't spending a lot of time before the trip building anticipation of specific attractions, and I don't think we'd go more than every three years, so they outgrew their memories and knew it.

Again, I'm not trying to say that re-riding is bad or that only pre-schoolers would want to. I'm saying that it's not my thing, and that only someone of pre-school age (or septuagenarians and above) have enough influence on me for me to go any extra effort for that. Fortunately, DH is in my camp on this, so that's not an issue.

Maybe this is another reason that we really don't mind FP+ as much as many. When our children were younger, we rode their favorite rides over and over again, often standing in long lines to make that happen for them. Now that they are older, we are all happy riding most of the rides once each day - and for those that we really like to hit more than once (safari, for instance), we are willing to stand in line for it. Those rides have always been worth the wait for us, even with toddlers in tow. FP+ hasn't really changed that.

But if we were still in the "commando" time of our lives, FP+ might have been enough to drive us away.

 

[Jennasis]

Planning my FP+ reservations felt like taking the SAT's to me. It was stressful ("what if I choose poorly??" "what if I don't choose fast enough and I lose out on those coveted headliners??") and it was frustrating to be on at midnight only to discover the window didn't open until 1am (this was before mesaboy pointed out this nugget of MDE stupidity for the rest of us) and then a few minutes into my selection process the whole system crashed. By the following morning, when I logged back on at 7am to finish, most of what I wanted was gone.

Then I found that I could not change my FP+ once the window for it opened up (I am aware this is not normal, but it was a glitch that haunted us the whole trip).

I couldn't find kiosks, and when i did all that was left was crap.

I felt I was moving from one appointment to the next all trip long. Constantly checking my watch/phone.

So, NO, I don't like it. But it's here to stay and I will work around it because I LOVE DISNEY more than I HATE FP+ and MDE.

 

[Colleen27]

I have no problem with someone trashing FP+ that has actually used the system. I realize it will not appeal to everyone. My complaint was with the OP who has not yet used the system and feels the need to start yet another "Let's bash FP+" thread.

The OP is using the system. It isn't just an in-park system; your "use" of it begins not when you scan your band for the first pre-booked ride but when you start booking to begin with. Besides, it isn't as though this is a new meal that you have to taste to really "understand"; there are facts about the system upon which those who know their Disney travel style can base a reasonable judgment.

I've been told over and over again that FP+ wouldn't be as bad as it seemed, that I needed to try it to see. Now I've tried it twice, on two very different trips. And it is exactly what I anticipated. Because we often book at the last minute, I have to check over and over and over again in hopes of finding a slot for the most popular attractions. I spend half the trip watching the clock, making sure we don't miss a hard-won FP+ time. We have to choose between FP for rides that appeal to the teens and rides that appeal to the 7yo because you can't do both in one day any more (Soarin' vs Test Track, Toy Story vs. Rock N Roller Coaster) and you can only pick three a day. I've seen that standby lines have slowed to a crawl as the percentage of capacity allocated to dealing with the 60 day crush for FPs has crept ever upward, I've been in long standby lines on attractions that have never had long waits before, and I've waited in FP lines for 30+ minutes (worrying all the time if we were going to miss our next ride appointment because of it). And I stand by my initial assessment of FP+ - it is a ride rationing system that adds a layer of constant time awareness that is, to me, incompatible with the idea of a relaxing vacation.

 

[mom2rtk]

I LOVE DISNEY more than I HATE FP+ and MDE.

That's ultimately what it comes down to for many of us.

 

[DisneyOma]

This is what my "little longer wait" looked like at TSMM on July 6... A relatively low crowd day. That is the FP+ return line that filled the interior queue, spilled out on to the sidewalk, and snaked its way out of Pixar Place. It was chaos. I'm thinking maybe they gave out too many FP that day. I thought it was worse than Sleazy. I heard quite a few other descriptors from the guests in line...but I can't print them.

And like our Jungle Cruise FP return line in June:

IMG_8030 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

When we were there earlier this month, we found quite a few lines outside the FP+ queues, just like these. So many people in them were in the wrong line (they thought they were in the standby one) or they were way early for their FP+ time. Explaining that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time (to nonEnglish-speaking guests most of the time I was close enough to hear the conversation) took time, and it was frustrating. Of course, then there were the boys blocking the TT turnstile until their FP+ time, until the CM finally asked them to move to the side, after I stated "excuse me" louder and louder. The boys were flirting with the CM girls, and I almost got their CM names to report them.

 

[asheleycs]

Deciding someone who is getting 80% of the votes will win or watching wind blow rain isn't the same thing as trying to guess what's going through someone's mind on vacation. All the analytics in the world won't decifer the whims of an 8 year old.

They absolutely will. Perhaps not for an individual 8 year old, but among 10,000 families, you bet. That is a very important distinction. Disney can't predict if *I* will stay, but they absolutely can predict how many people will make reservation in advance, how many will change it, how many will not use it, and change those estimates on the fly based on crowds that enter on any particular day. I can't predict if a specific person will have a heart attack today, but I can predict with a very small margin of error how many people in the US will.

 

[blondemom]

We just returned from 12 days at WDW. My biggest complaint with fast pass plus was having to constantly check what time it was (and my phone dying) so we can get to our ride. We waited once 40 minutes for our Test Track fast pass. We saw super long stand by lines for Space Ship Earth (45 minutes), It's a Small World (30 minutes), and what used to be "walk-on" rides. We waited 25 minutes to board the People Mover!!! My kids were frustrated with the long waits, so we ended up spending more time outside of the parks. We decided that 5 anywhere/any time fast passes would have made our park days much better. There is really nothing in Epcot that appeals to my boys other than Test Track or Soarin'. Living with the Land was always 5-15 minutes. And even I could not sit through Imagination or Nemo twice. This system did not work for us. We simply went to a park, rode the rides, and left. We used to spend many hours a day in each park. I'm sure other families love it.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

We used it this past nov and I don't like it, we just finished planning our FPs for October. It's nice knowing that I won't be able to ride 7DMT 2 months before I arrive unless I'm willing to wait 2hrs in stand-by(sarcasm, if you can't tell). This'll be the 2nd trip I've used it and neither time was I able to get a FP for the mine train. That's just ridiculous.
The old system wasn't broken.

 

[Jennasis]

On the plus side, 7DMT is worth neither wasting a FP on nor waiting for more than 20 minutes (nor was it worth the excruciating wait for them to finish it). That's ONE way I've learned to work around the system LOL!

 

[minniecarousel]

Update: DH was able to get FP+ for 7DMR! He scheduled a couple others for MK.

Something that I hadn't thought of but someone pointed out a few pages back: you could probably get FP+ for the evening on a popular ride that previously couldn't get unless you were in that Park early in the day (& no guarantee that it'd be for after dark) At Disneyland, Radiator Springs Racers is still a hot ticket FP & they were out of FPs for the day within a hour of opening! Like Thunder Mtn., it's fun to ride at night. So there's a plus for FP+!

 

[cakebaker]

Out of FP's within an hour?? Wow.

Glad to hear it all worked out! Hope you have a great trip!!

 

[Angel Ariel]

OP - I'm glad you found the FP+ you wanted! I hope you have a wonderful trip

 

[3DisneyFanz]

We just returned from 12 days at WDW. My biggest complaint with fast pass plus was having to constantly check what time it was (and my phone dying) so we can get to our ride. We waited once 40 minutes for our Test Track fast pass. We saw super long stand by lines for Space Ship Earth (45 minutes), It's a Small World (30 minutes), and what used to be "walk-on" rides. We waited 25 minutes to board the People Mover!!! My kids were frustrated with the long waits, so we ended up spending more time outside of the parks. We decided that 5 anywhere/any time fast passes would have made our park days much better. There is really nothing in Epcot that appeals to my boys other than Test Track or Soarin'. Living with the Land was always 5-15 minutes. And even I could not sit through Imagination or Nemo twice. This system did not work for us. We simply went to a park, rode the rides, and left. We used to spend many hours a day in each park. I'm sure other families love it.

Did you stay on property? If so did you spend the extra time at the resort or downtown Disney? I suspect that you doing what you did is the dream scenario for this system. You paid for admission, used limited resources in the park and then went elsewhere on property to potentially spend money on top of what you'd already committed to them.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

They absolutely will. Perhaps not for an individual 8 year old, but among 10,000 families, you bet. That is a very important distinction. Disney can't predict if *I* will stay, but they absolutely can predict how many people will make reservation in advance, how many will change it, how many will not use it, and change those estimates on the fly based on crowds that enter on any particular day. I can't predict if a specific person will have a heart attack today, but I can predict with a very small margin of error how many people in the US will.

Disney can't because their policies prevent them from being able to accurately get a control group on anything. People book hotels in hopes of catching a discount and may or may not have any intention of going but it's still a room. Some of those same people also book tons of ADRs in hopes of catching a deal and are hedging their bets on where they'll be able to get a FP+ on so while Disney might know someone with 8 ADRs on a given day are going to cancel some they have no idea which ones. Same token while I'm sure people are booking things like Journey Into Imagination because they have to book three and they really have no interest in doing it you aren't going to see that happen much with things like 7dmt or TSMM. Either way wait times for FP return and SB have shown that if they are attempting to guess these things they're doing a pretty poor job of it.

 

[danny1649]

Fellow Disers OP has solved problem and now seems happy. I think you can tell by deleted posts that some replies were inappropriate. I have said this before , use report post instead of quoting it. because when you quote it in your reply it forces mods and webmasters to delete your post also. If you report a post it might be a while before action is taken or if we are on board , quickly. We can't be on boards 24/7 , so give us a chance to take care of your report. We look at all reports when we log in , first thing we do. If your report is rejected you will receive a report and my case, reason it was rejected. I appreciate that we have so many great members on this Board. Plus a good poster might go off tracks some times . If your post is deleted it is not a condemnation of you personally , just your post. We do not carry a grudge against anyone. Thanks To All , Danny

 

[AllieBoo]

We used FP+ for the first time this past June and we LOVED it! I'll admit I was skeptical, and did not like having to make reservations so far in advance, but once we got there, it was worth it. We were able to ride Soarin, 7DMT, and Peter Pan multiple times (on different days) and I was able to get Anna& Elsa at a great time. The best part was that we were able to schedule them for later in the morning, so we didn't have to do rope drop or get there soon after to run to the FP kiosk like we used to. We were able to ride all of the other rides we normally do and we never waited more than 20 min for anything.

 

[buzznina]

Our family is also a big fan of FP+ and like the fact that we can lock in 3 of our favorite rides. We were not a fan of the old FP system because the families that liked to do RD would suck the FPs dry. We like most of the parks a lot better at night then in the morning, so by the time we would get there and I would grab our tickets to run to the ride FP stations, if I was lucky they were still giving out FPs for late evening or like most of the times, there were no more FPs available. Now I can arrange them throughout to day and not have all our FP rides late at night and have a much better chance at getting the rides we want. Our vacations to WDW have been the most relaxing trips we take, we take our time and just enjoy the time we are spending there as a family. This also started more when I stopped doing park tour plans as well, now we just plan for the parks we will go to on which days, get our FPs and MAYBE do 1 or 2 ADRS. Looking forward to another relaxing vacation at WDW in November

 

[lugnut33]

And this is one of the big reasons fp+ works so well for us. We park hop and so make multiple trips to each park during our vacation.

It's not a problem at all for us. One trip into Epcot we'll do one and then catch the other on another day. We could use rope drop for Epcot, but we much prefer it as an evening park. It's especially nice to be able to go to Epcot at 5-6 in the evening and know we have headliners to ride instead of knowing fp's are sold out. And not only do we not have to choose which to get fp+'s for, I expect we'll get to do each multiple times during our trip.

I can only imagine how long fp distribution would last on what is sure to be an incredibly popular attraction. I'm actually glad they're tiered. It loosens up availability.

They didn't tier Epcot (or DHS) because they wanted to "loosen up availability". They did it because they have neglected those parks for years and there is a dearth of major attractions. Tiering isn't for for the benefit of the guest.

 

[flicx]

There are undeniable truths about fast pass plus that legacy guaranteed. With fast pass plus you can be totally shut out of fast passes for certain attractions for your entire trip 60 days in advance. With legacy if you arrived at the park early that did not happen, you got one, maybe not for the time you want but you got it. You didn't need near the level of planning involved with plus under legacy. It was a much simpler system to use. Both systems may require rope dropping one in real life lines the other in virtual lines. So plus offers a different line that's all. The secondary attractions are now much more bogged down under the plus system, rides such as pirates that now have 1 line dedicated to plus are nowhere near as efficient loading as they were under legacy(non fast pass then). Plus has shined a light on how slow Disney has been to add attractions to the parks. All in all for many of us the system is a flop, it just doesn't measure up to legacy. It will be interesting to see if they ever do install plus at other parks. If not I see it as Disney admitting failure.