New to the board need some strategy advice

[RhodyDisneyFan15]

Fist off, let me introduce myself. My name is Matt and I come from a family of huge Disney fans in Rhode Island. My mom usually does all the planning but this time it's just me and my girlfriend going...I'm 23 and she is 24. We went most recently in August and are going this coming May. This will be my 12th time going to Disney. After a few years of staying off property, we will be staying at AS Music. Now that me and my sister are older and have significant others we've needed to stay at a bigger, more affordable location.

Anyway enough about the boring stuff. Sorry if these questions have been asked/answered constantly and sorry if this ends up being a little long! All help is greatly appreciated though!!

The new FP+ system so far sounds a bit disappointing. We usually would get at least 6-8 FPs a day and now are only limited to 3 max. I'm not too familiar with a new, good strategy for getting the best use out of the 3 so here are a few questions for those who have been with the new system.

-When is the best time to use the FPs? From what I've read it seems like saving them for the night is the best option.
-When park hopping, is it best to save them for the second park or will time slots run out?
-Is it necessary to plan them ahead or would booking them the day before or even just the day off be ok?
-Do rides run out of FPs as they used to the later the day goes on?

Lastly, we are going in May (18-25). How crowded is it then? I've never been in May usually we go in August or April.

Any advice/tips/strategies are very much appreciated. Thanks everyone!

 

[JennyDrake]

Anyway enough about the boring stuff. Sorry if these questions have been asked/answered constantly and sorry if this ends up being a little long! All help is greatly appreciated though!!

Welcome and it's nice to meet you!

The new FP+ system so far sounds a bit disappointing. We usually would get at least 6-8 FPs a day and now are only limited to 3 max. I'm not too familiar with a new, good strategy for getting the best use out of the 3 so here are a few questions for those who have been with the new system.

-When is the best time to use the FPs? From what I've read it seems like saving them for the night is the best option.

IF you are rope drop people, I would save them for afternoon. (more on this in a minute.)

-When park hopping, is it best to save them for the second park or will time slots run out?

I'm not sure I understand the question

-Is it necessary to plan them ahead or would booking them the day before or even just the day off be ok?

DON'T WAIT!!!!

-Do rides run out of FPs as they used to the later the day goes on?

During busy season, many will be gone days in advance.

Lastly, we are going in May (18-25). How crowded is it then? I've never been in May usually we go in August or April. (see below)

Any advice/tips/strategies are very much appreciated. Thanks everyone!

It is probably going to be about as busy as when you are used to going, but keep in mind that every year crowd levels seem to creep up.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you do rope drop and hit the attractions you want to see hard and fast and take advantage of EMH mornings. This is particularly critical at the MK. If you do midday breaks, then plan your FP for your return to the parks in afternoon. If you like to stay until park close, if it is not an EMH pm park, crowd levels improve during the last two hours, so I would not use FP+ then.

FP+ has definitely changed things. I've been there during December (transition) and last month. Standby lines are much, much longer than what you've seen in the past--even as recently as December, when there were still traditional FP. In February (NOT holiday weekend) standby for HM was 60 min, IASSW was 35 min, BTMRR was 70 min, etc.

If you want to ride TSM or Soarin, BE SURE to get FP+.

Again, rope drop is your new best friend!

 

[RhodyDisneyFan15]

Thanks for the reply Jenny. We are definitely rope drop people and will hit the ground running to get in our favorite attractions early before lines build up. As for the FPs, we are going to book them ahead anyway just wanted to get a sense of how necessary it was. I'm sure after our first or second day we well get a feel for how to go about maximizing our Disney experience.