Tomh
1100 miles too far North.
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2008
- Messages
- 6,597
I have read a LOT of posts / threads about FP+ over the course of the last few months. Some positive, some not so positive. We just returned from a 2 week long stay at Disney, with 10 days of park tickets, and it was our first experience with FP+
The GOOD:
It is nice to know your timing ahead of time, to schedule rides to fit around shows, meals, parades, etc. We had absolutely NO trouble using our FP+ Every ride, every time all three magic bands worked flawlessly. We had little trouble moving FP+ around using the app, THOUGH . . . the app is glitchy at best. I noticed frequently that the home page on the app would not show our FP+ or dining reservations, instead telling us that there had been a network glitch. However, going to the menu, then FP+, then opting to change a single FP+ would allow me to see all of our current FP+, making me think that the problem was not a network glitch, it was an issue with the app. Arriving later in the day is not necessarily suicide, you still get at least 3 rides.
The BAD:
Well, stuff happens. If you are held up in a line, take longer to eat than you expect, or get to the park later than expected, it will cause all sorts of issues with your FP+ If you miss a FP+ for something like Toy Story Midway Mania (yup, we did) you are out of luck, no way you are rescheduling it. We all got sick during our trip, and on a number of occasions missed rope drop. In addition, the Villains party which I thought we would be admitted to at 4:00 didn't open until 5:00. I had planned our FP+ for TSMM from 3:30 until 4:30, so we missed that. We had expected to make rope drop on our full day at DHS, but because we were sick, we ended up sleeping in that day, which meant no chance of hopping on TSMM standby at RD, AND we missed our FP+ window for RNRR as well. Bummer. So, the bad of the whole FP+ system, as many others have suggested, is it's rigidity. You need to make those selections for the headliners at the 60 day mark, but should anything come up at a later point that interferes with those selections, you are out of luck.
So, it is kind of a love hate relationship I have with the system. When it works, it works great, but you are severely limited in the number of rides you will manage to get with it, AND it just doesn't have the flexibility to allow you to handle the kids of problems that arise during a vacation. If something comes up while you are there, you are pretty much out of luck to reschedule headliners.
For that reason, my suggestion would be to schedule your FP+ for headliners later in the morning, maybe between 11 and 12. Use those first two slots between 9 and 10, and 10 and 11 for lesser rides that you will have much better odds of being able to reschedule should something keep you from making rope drop.
The GOOD:
It is nice to know your timing ahead of time, to schedule rides to fit around shows, meals, parades, etc. We had absolutely NO trouble using our FP+ Every ride, every time all three magic bands worked flawlessly. We had little trouble moving FP+ around using the app, THOUGH . . . the app is glitchy at best. I noticed frequently that the home page on the app would not show our FP+ or dining reservations, instead telling us that there had been a network glitch. However, going to the menu, then FP+, then opting to change a single FP+ would allow me to see all of our current FP+, making me think that the problem was not a network glitch, it was an issue with the app. Arriving later in the day is not necessarily suicide, you still get at least 3 rides.
The BAD:
Well, stuff happens. If you are held up in a line, take longer to eat than you expect, or get to the park later than expected, it will cause all sorts of issues with your FP+ If you miss a FP+ for something like Toy Story Midway Mania (yup, we did) you are out of luck, no way you are rescheduling it. We all got sick during our trip, and on a number of occasions missed rope drop. In addition, the Villains party which I thought we would be admitted to at 4:00 didn't open until 5:00. I had planned our FP+ for TSMM from 3:30 until 4:30, so we missed that. We had expected to make rope drop on our full day at DHS, but because we were sick, we ended up sleeping in that day, which meant no chance of hopping on TSMM standby at RD, AND we missed our FP+ window for RNRR as well. Bummer. So, the bad of the whole FP+ system, as many others have suggested, is it's rigidity. You need to make those selections for the headliners at the 60 day mark, but should anything come up at a later point that interferes with those selections, you are out of luck.
So, it is kind of a love hate relationship I have with the system. When it works, it works great, but you are severely limited in the number of rides you will manage to get with it, AND it just doesn't have the flexibility to allow you to handle the kids of problems that arise during a vacation. If something comes up while you are there, you are pretty much out of luck to reschedule headliners.
For that reason, my suggestion would be to schedule your FP+ for headliners later in the morning, maybe between 11 and 12. Use those first two slots between 9 and 10, and 10 and 11 for lesser rides that you will have much better odds of being able to reschedule should something keep you from making rope drop.
