my thoughts after using the magic bands

[markpenske]

We used the magic bands on our last trip (Oct. 2013).
Overall my opinion is not good.
Here is an example of what I found:
We head to epcot for the day. We have pre-scheduled fast passes with our bands for Test Track, Soarin & Mission space. The problem is so did everyone else in the park. The paper fast passes for these rides were all gone before 11:00am and the stand-by lines were crazy long. In past trips we get a fast pass for one of these rides and then go do a less popular attraiction while we waited. Over the course of a full park day we could do our favorite rides several times. Not any more.
Again, this we last year, I don't know how much has changed. I think its ever worse now that you can only pick 1 top attraction per day.
That's my opinion.

 

[TDC Nala]

The major thing that has changed is that there are now no more paper fastpasses.

You can pick "one top attraction per day" only at DHS and Epcot; AK and MK are not tiering ride categories.

As for DHS, Tower of Terror, which many consider a major attraction, is not in the top tier.

It has definitely been established that the new system does not work for guests whose preference was using fastpass to take repeat rides on certain attractions. That hasn't changed.

 

[Magpie]

We used the magic bands on our last trip (Oct. 2013).
Overall my opinion is not good.
Here is an example of what I found:
We head to epcot for the day. We have pre-scheduled fast passes with our bands for Test Track, Soarin & Mission space. The problem is so did everyone else in the park. The paper fast passes for these rides were all gone before 11:00am and the stand-by lines were crazy long. In past trips we get a fast pass for one of these rides and ten go do a less popular attraiction while we waited. Over the course of a full park day we could do our favorite rides several times. Not any more.
Again, this we last year, I don't know how much has changed. I think its ever worse now that you can only pick 1 top attraction per day.
That's my opinion.

Thank you for sharing your opinion!

We were last in Disney, back in December 2013. While we had access to both FP+ and FP-, we found we really didn't need FP-. That said, unlike you, we tend to be "ride once and move on" people.

Here's what we did. We arrived at the park recommended by EasyWDW by rope drop. We rode everything we wanted to ride while the lines were still short. Then we went back to our resort for a nap, and headed out to our second park of the day in the late afternoon. This is the park where I'd booked all our FP+. By this point it's more crowded, and normally we'd never get to ride something like Soarin' or Toy Story Mania, because the FPs would be all gone. It was a real treat, walking into TSM without a wait at 6pm!

In general, I would recommend that if you want to ride both Soarin' and Test Track, use your FP+ for Soarin' and use the single rider line before 10am for Test Track. We got several rides on Test Track in the morning, just going through the Single Rider line, over and over.

Similarly, if you really want to ride Everest, then just stop by Animal Kingdom the last hour it's open. We could have ridden Everest over and over without pause, if we'd wanted. We were almost the only people on the train!

I think it's now more important than ever, to know tips and tricks like these.

I have another trip booked for April, and I'm really looking forward to it. I think I've got an even better grasp now, than I did in December, of how to use FP+ to my benefit.

 

[markpenske]

another thing I forgot to mention is I do not like planning my attractions 60 days in advance.

 

[TDC Nala]

I haven't seen any reason that REQUIRES one to plan them 60 days in advance. When I used FP+ I booked everything the day before or the morning of. Will need to check and see how that works in the new year.

I have a friend who booked herself a FP+ to Soarin' while walking to the attraction from IG. Have another friend who booked MK fastpasses to match ours within an hour of joining us in the park.

 

[Magpie]

another thing I forgot to mention is I do not like planning my attractions 60 days in advance.

You should be just fine planning them the night before. They don't seem to start running out until the actual day.

 

[sapdaddy2]

another thing I forgot to mention is I do not like planning my attractions 60 days in advance.

I agree with you. Sometimes we don't know what park we are going to until that morning.

 

[Daizylover]

another thing I forgot to mention is I do not like planning my attractions 60 days in advance.

Me either it takes some of spontaneity out of your day. I think the old fast pass program was better, but I've not been since the Magic Band program has started. I'll let you know how I feel about that in mid April.

 

[1153rsmith]

another thing I forgot to mention is I do not like planning my attractions 60 days in advance.

That is the biggest complaint I have with all the changes and the crowd increases over the past few years. I don't want to have to plan months in advance what I will ride and where I will eat. It takes all the fun out of it.

On vacation I don't want to have to be so structured.

 

[markpenske]

So, you get your 3 passes per day. When you use those passes the bands works great. The problem is good luck trying to do anything else that day.
We've vacationed at Disney world 15 times now and the bottom line is we spent a lot more time doing nothing this past trip.
I voiced my opinion to Disney and I encourage anyone else that feels the same.
www.disneyworld.com "contact us"

 

[kidd_freeper]

MB = good
FP+ = meh