My offsite Spring Break FP+ experience at DHS/Epcot and MK

[minmate]

My overall impression after using FP+ as an offsiter is that "we had more positive experiences than negative," which is the same net result of all of our past Disney experiences.

This was not a strictly Disney vacation and we planned only 2 days in WDW parks so we had to make some specific, deliberate choices to maximize the magic in a short amount of time.

I feel as though we accomplished that and had some room for flexibility while also having the assurance of knowing times for three rides all at once; we criss crossed the parka less, toured in one land at a time more which brought the "land" to life more for us, and actually felt like we watched the clock less and stressed less about getting another FP and figuring out how to work around the return window on the fly.

We Never waited more than 20 minutes for anything (rides, food, transportation) except for staking out MSEP/Wishes spot (1 hour, second row).

Rode RNR 5x, TOT 4x, soarin', and TT and watched Fantasmic! From center section all n the same day (all waits less than 20 minutes and/or FP'ed) and many more on Wednesday 4.2

Rode Space 2x, Splash, BTMRR, HM 2x and more, watched FOF, MSEP/Wishes and took a 4-hour break out of park on Friday 4.4

I was told it was crowd levels of 6-7. It's supposedly in the middle of spring break season and the weather was perfect. Anyone know what they were for sure? Because we were pleased by the short wait times and were having trouble understanding the resistance to FP+.

I DID notice FP+ kiosk lines were still long, but I'm guessing offsite prebooking opportunity hasn't caught on completely in awareness yet. That's an issue that should be moot now for all dis'ers (depending on rollout of more Daily FP+).

So, what do you think contributed to our success and I'm curious, if we can figure out how to make it work, why others may be struggling to do so with double and triple the number of days in the parks that we had.

 

[harbin]

I too returned today, had 10 glorious days in WDW. Overall I enjoyed FP+, however I don't agree with your crowd assessment at all. We experienced short wait times only in the morning and late evening hours... During mid day, it was packed! Always over an hour wait (sometimes 2 hours) at all the headliners. We were able to ride our favorites more than once, but used the early am hours/late evening hours to do it, saving our FP+ reservations for mid day. We were onsite guests so never needed a kiosk, however when observing those lines I felt sorry for those people, they were all ridiculously long in the am.

 

[minmate]

I should probably clarify my post about wait times. We, personally, managed short wait times (by my definition short is 15 minutes or less). I didn't mean to imply wait times were short all the time at all rides. I agree that the headliner waits ballooned and did so more quickly than I recall in the past. What I meant is that we managed to utilize a strategy that still allowed us, our family of 6, to tour at a pace that worked for us and get on everything we wanted, some things multiple times. Our strategy at DHS excluded TSM in favor of multiple rides on RNR and TOT and using FP for Soarin in the afternoon. But that was the choice we planned ahead of time and didn't feel like we were missing out. Our strategy at MK was parade/show and mountains heavy and Fantasyland light bc that's where our interests were. The FL rides we skipped by design were PP and Pooh. We only got true time savings value out of our Splash FP yesterday bc lines from 10:30-midnight were nothing everywhere we went. PP did have a 40 minute wait posted at 11 but we weren't interested. That said, I've never gone to WDW expecting all walk-ons all the time, particularly during spring break season. Hope this helps clarify my experience.

 

[dachsie]

I was there last week and would love to know the details of how you rode headliners that many times. I think it would help a lot of folks to strategize.

 

[minmate]

Here was our DHS/Epcot/DHS day on Wed 4.2: At Rope Drop by 8:05 am for 9 am open
RNR 2x
TOT 2x
Star Tours
Watched a few minutes of Jedi Training
Picked up ticket for next Legend of JSparrow
One Man's Dream (breezed through a touch faster than I'd have liked)
Legend of Jack Sparrow
Mike & Sulley Meet & Greet
Hat pic (About 11/11:25 now)
Bus to Epcot
Ball pic
Cola tasting
Figment
Walked World Showcase (counter clockwise) Stopped for turkey leg, orange chicken, Mexican Sat at Lotus Blossom Cafe in shade for 30 minutes out of the sun
2:15 Spaceship Earth FP (Only 10 min SB but app wasn't working to change out out FP)
Sum of All Thrills
Soarin' FP (SB was closed down but FP open. Took 30 minutes from entering to exiting) SB line was opened back up by then and a 30 min wait. We decided to skip it (family consensus) in lieu of...
Nemo
Turtle Talk
4:50 FP M:S Orange (walk on but app not working to change out again :/)
TT single rider (15 minute wait-true time, SB posted 40 min)
Gran Fiesta
Maelstrom
Peeked in thru door at Anna & Elsa
Walked back through World Showcase
Got Frushi from a F&G booth
Rode boat at IG back to DHS (30 minutes approx)
Ate dinner at ABC Commissary (lost our order so we waited for awhile longer than normal)
Close to 8 by now as announcer came over loudspeaker saying the 8 pm F! Was standing room only
TOT 2x
RNR 3x
At 9:30, walked into F! For 10 pm show. Sat center section about 8th row (cold enough to get sprayed) lots of room around us.

 

[minmate]

MK Day Fri 4.4 At Rope Drop by 7:50 am Space Mermaid Philharmagic Small World Tangled bathrooms/Gastons Tavern Haunted Mansion Pirates Dole Whip Swiss Family Treehouse Sleepy Hollow ice cream sandwiches while castle stage show runs (11:45 am)
Carousel of a Progress
TTA 2x
Laugh Factory
Buzz
Tom Sawyer Island
Festival of Fantasy parade
Splash FP 4-7:45
Break at hotel (this includes travel time, swimming, nap and dinner)
I staked out parade spot by Casey's at 7:45 and rest went to Stitch. I called them back as it was not easy saving their spots alone)
Casey's Corner snacks while waiting
9-10:30 MSEP/Castle show/Wishes
BTMR (had FP but didn't need it)
Laugh Factory
Space
Slow walk down Main St to see Goodnight Kiss from in front of RR station

Other than the tangled bathrooms, I omitted potty and picture stops. We do a lot of both but not so much in the first hour or so bc we focus on rides then.

 

[minmate]

I was there last week and would love to know the details of how you rode headliners that many times. I think it would help a lot of folks to strategize.

I'd love to know your touring plans too!

 

[jenninaustin]

Thanks for posting your plans! I've told my family I need an hour of their time today to strategize about MK - the only park that's blowing my mind since we only have one day in it and my kids are 5 years older than the last time we went. Your plans might help me TONS. I think a key question for them will be - how important is Peter Pan?

 

[minmate]

Thanks for posting your plans! I've told my family I need an hour of their time today to strategize about MK - the only park that's blowing my mind since we only have one day in it and my kids are 5 years older than the last time we went. Your plans might help me TONS. I think a key question for them will be - how important is Peter Pan?

With only two days in parks that's what we had to do too, get really concrete about our choices. We could've skipped small world and done PP in it's place with a 20-25 minute wait but my kids insisted on Small World. (IDK why!!!)

I forgot to add that we did Sum of All Thrills at Epcot (after Spaceship Earth).

Good luck with your plans and have a magical day!

 

[daisy87]

Thanks for your posts minmate! I'm staying offsite for 2 weeks the end of August and feel much more at ease after reading this

You accomplished much of what we like to do and if we had days similar to you in the summer I'd be extremely pleased

It's good to know big headliners can still be enjoyed multiple times with fastpass+!

Thanks again!

 

[keypooh90]

Wow! Those touring plans worked great! Glad to hear FP+ worked out for you.

 

[minmate]

Thanks for your posts minmate! I'm staying offsite for 2 weeks the end of August and feel much more at ease after reading this

You accomplished much of what we like to do and if we had days similar to you in the summer I'd be extremely pleased

It's good to know big headliners can still be enjoyed multiple times with fastpass+!

Thanks again!

Hope you have a great time! Not sure how close your hotel is but depending on how you handle heat, I would say planning a break midday would be very helpful in August. If you don't want to go back to your hotel, doing some more low-key attractions could help. We normally wouldn't do Laugh Factory, TTA and Carousel of Progress all together like that so early in the day because they are all sit-down and low key, but that's really all we had left unless we wanted to go standby in a longer line (which I was willing to do for Splash which was at 30-40 minutes just before noon) but the rest of the gang didn't feel the need to do it twice knowing we had an FP at 3:40.

If we could've moved our Splash FP earlier (nothing else was available when I checked around 10:30 a.m.) we would've probably left the park earlier and skipped FOF parade. (I wanted to see that fire breathing dragon though!).

Even though we could've gone around and done some multiple rides SB during that break time (probably encountering longer lines of 30-50 minutes) I think our group's attitude would have deteriorated by evening.