Non-resort guests can not reserve FP+ early

[3happydancers]

We visited as offsite guests at Thanksgiving. We were also left feeling like Disney had lost its magic. Yes we felt like 2nd class citizens as offsiters but it was more than that. Everywhere we went it seemed you needed a FP to do anything without a ridiculous wait--- shows, rides, character meets. Entering a standby line was a serious time commitment-- you knew going in you were in it for the long haul regardless of what the posted time said. There is nothing about this that having 3 FP+ is going to be a solve it all fix for me. So spending more money to stay on site doesn't seem like a viable option. Personally I wouldn't be happy with the on site situation either. It is not worth the cost of a WDW vacation for us to only be able to function in the parks for 2-3 hours at rope drop daily-- 3 scheduled fps isn't going to prolong that much at the hi crowd we have available to go.

So sorry you felt this way! We are a family that stays on property and fear that we will be faced with the same problem with regards to standby lines even with Disney's so called generous "3 fast pass" gift. Prior to this new system, we managed many fast passes through out the day and rode our favorites 2 or even 3 times in the day. We will no longer be able to do this so staying on property is no longer attractive to us. I know some feel differently, but for my family this changes our future vacations. Unfortunately, we are only one family and where one family leaves, another will take our place.

And for the PP that said off site should be fine with day of FP+ bc that was the way it was before-- before we had the same chance as everyone else, the entire onsite population wasn't pulling them 60 days ahead. To let you know how well I expect that to work-- I got up at 6 am every morning for 8 straight days 180 days out from this past trip trying to score a BOG dinner reservation for my DDs 9 th birthday. Any night. Any time. She just wanted to go. Zero luck. I don't need that drama w rides too.

That is how we feel, it is not worth the drama nor is it worth wasting my families vacation time on ridiculously long lines for everything else but the 3 granted fast passes. I am hoping this won't be the case for our August vacation.

For the record, when I spoke to DVC member services they did confirm that waiting until the day of to book fast passes will result in not getting on certain must do rides like Soarin. So those staying off property have valid concerns. And you are right, this new system is not the same as before for day visitors. It is not the same for onsite visitors either.

We also managed to get every dining experience we wanted on this trip, booking the day before, maybe 2 days out, including Be Our Guest dinner. We managed to hit every major attraction by getting up early. Doing the headliners in one park, then taking time to visit smaller less popular things and using our 3 Fast passes at a second park in the afternoon/evening. The longest we waited was for Toy Story Mania, 35 minutes, and only because we didn't want to get fastpasses at DHS because we wanted to keep them for the evening. All our other waits were under 20. We were really worried about waits as our 2 previous trips were during dead times, but were pleasantly surprised at how much we got to do during peak time.

Glad to hear you had a wonderful experience! Just food for thought though, under the old system, you would not have had to worry about choosing which park to use your fast passes because you were able to get fast passes during the morning and then hop over to another park and continue pulling fast passes. Yes, we were still limited to time frames but the usual was around an hour before getting another fast pass and it was very easy to pull more than 3 passes in a day. We did it all the time; no stress, no doing the parks commando style. At least this has been our previous experiences since 2006.

 

[eveandlo]

That is how we feel, it is not worth the drama nor is it worth wasting my families vacation time on ridiculously long lines for everything else but the 3 granted fast passes. I am hoping this won't be the case for our August vacation.

For the record, when I spoke to DVC member services they did confirm that waiting until the day of to book fast passes will result in not getting on certain must do rides like Soarin. So those staying off property have valid concerns. And you are right, this new system is not the same as before for day visitors. It is not the same for onsite visitors either.



Glad to hear you had a wonderful experience! Just food for thought though, under the old system, you would not have had to worry about choosing which park to use your fast passes because you were able to get fast passes during the morning and then hop over to another park and continue pulling fast passes. Yes, we were still limited to time frames but the usual was around an hour before getting another fast pass and it was very easy to pull more than 3 passes in a day. We did it all the time; no stress, no doing the parks commando style. At least this has been our previous experiences since 2006.

Don't get me wrong; I did prefer the old system. We have a trip planned for Disneyland at Easter, and we talked about paper fast passes, and how we hope we can look forward to being able to use them as we once did. One day last year, we did both parks twice in the same day. But given that there is a new system, we rolled with the punches and still had a wonderful trip. From reading threads prior to our departure, it all seemed doom and gloom for the FP+. It did seem that lines went a lot faster (gates, fp returns, etc). I do think there are ways to improve upon fp+, but it wasn't terrible. I do think that if you pay for the option to park hop, you should have access to fastpasses at other parks too.

 

[dougsmom98]

My husband and I mentioned this as well! I think that this would really help customers avoid using valuable early morning time standing in line at a kiosk!

For the record, we are off-site guests who visit Disney annually for at least one week. We have a family of 5, and the reality is that it would cost us over $500 A DAY (nearly $4,000+) to stay on-site versus off-site (we get multiple rooms). If the new FP+ makes our vacation to Disney less enjoyable, we will just choose to vacation elsewhere. I don't think that TSM is worth $4,000.... no matter how much my son loves it.

We are in the same boat. We are a family of 6. We always stay off site because we can't afford the on site price tag. With all of this fast pass stuff going on, we would not be going to the Disney parks if we didn't have days left on our non-expiring tickets. After our non expiring ticket days are used up, if we feel like we are at a major disadvantage by staying offsite, we just won't go to the parks any more. With tickets around $100/person per day, it is not worth it to my family to pay $600 for a day of standing in line. Even if we can access FP+, we use to tour in a way that we could ride space mountain, thunder mountain and splash mouton 3-5 times per day (that's for each ride). We get to the parks at rope drop and stay until close. We will still go to Florida because you can't beat the cost of offsite hotels, condos, and villas, but we will just do different things I guess.

 

[crazyventures]

Currently booked offsite (through a timeshare exchange--too great a deal to consider staying on-site when I'm already paying for cross-country airfare) for Thanksgiving. I'd be reconsidering this entire trip if I wasn't already committed to it.

We were already planning on doing rope drop every morning but I hope the program's problems get worked out before I go Looks like we'll be sticking with DLR for the foreseeable future after this trip, though!

 

[KatieCharlotte]

I think if fastpass+ ends up being a success, floridians will end up having the upper hand. There will be a lot less people in fastpass when you plan and I'm all for it. I will be staying in a Disney hotel as well as having the annual pass. I see it as a positive opportunity that needs just a little more planning. Who cares if you have to plan for fast pass? You can actually get the time you want to go. Instead of going up to get fastpasses for 9 @ night, (even though I don't have a problem with that) you can actually plan to go @ 11. Also everyone is fretting about the 3 a day limit. That's how many my family actually uses it. So I don't think you can get 4 if you tried. You can also get to stay at all-star sports or movie @ $85 a night!

My family cannot stay in All-Stars for $85/night because we have three children and Disney will not allow us to share one room. The cheapest place we can stay onsite will costs us $180/night in a discounted season.

We were easily able to get four or more fastpasses at MK without trying hard or spending all day at the park. All our fastpasses were for much earlier than 9 p.m. at night. FP+ would be awesome if it was just like regular fastpass, except you got to pick your time when you put your ticket into the machine. But it's not.

I like planning. But I also like to be able to easily change my plans because of weather, sick kids, unexpected crowds, and my kids finding new favorite rides. I don't want to be locked into a schedule before I step in the park, or hope that fastpasses will still be available that day when tens of thousands of people could book them weeks ahead. And I don't like depending on technology that has not worked well for lots of people.

 

[Bullseye]

Again, another person who assumes that the choice is "stay onsite" vs. "stay offsite".

Sorry, when offsite guests find out they have to wait in line, to avoid waiting in line, then there will be a lot less guests. Without the attendance, you can expect a fast decline in quality.

The decision is to "go to WDW" or "go elsewhere" NOT "stay onsite" vs. "stay offsite".

Maybe you haven't noticed but there really isn't a slow period at WDW any more! Yeah maybe a few weeks here and there, but for the most part attendance is pretty steady! Yes, it is your prerogative to not go to WDW.

Perhaps this will clear up the contradiction:

Would you rather spend 4 days at WDW or 2 weeks at the beach? Roughly the same cost...but which choice provides the greater vacation? The beach of course.

I don't like the onsite rooms. I've had a MK view at the Poly and a savanah view at AKL. They were fine for short stays, but I would go nuts if I had
to stay in one of those cramped hotel rooms for two weeks. But I can get an entire house, with a pool/kitchen/game room for less than one of those cinderblock rooms at ASM.

No two weeks at the beach does not sound better than a Disney vacation and no you don't get to have it all. You don't get a house with a pool AND EMH and FP+...doesn't work that way. You get things for staying on site. It's a trade off, given the choice....whats more important to you.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

Well, this is what I wonder. If Disney has been filling rooms for years with paper FPs being first come first serve, why do some all of a sudden feel like pre-booking is the only thing that is going to make staying on-site worth it? I didn't realize things were so bad at Disney resorts that they needed to add more "perks" to get people to stay on-site.

 

[rachel09985]

I think having an AP only works if you have at least 1 night on site. At least, that is my understanding. That you have to stay onsite for your MDE to get "unlocked" and be able to reserve FP+ in advance.

Once you stay on site once and got the magic bands you were good to go for all of your trips even if you stayed offsite

 

[dayvewc]

Once you stay on site once and got the magic bands you were good to go for all of your trips even if you stayed offsite

Yeah, that was my understanding. Until I called the help desk this evening with a question about my upcoming trip. The CM I talked to specifically said that I wasn't supposed to be able to pre-book FP+ unless I was staying on-site. And that the fact that I am able to do so is a mistake that should be fixed.

I didn't tell her who I was.

 

[Networth]

For the people saying they are going to take their vacation money else where, you do realize Disney does market research and is posting record profits? No offense but 1 or even 100 families(my self included) does not really hurt there bottom line and most people beyond these boards seem to like the new system...My major grip is the tiers

 

[Disneyhappy]

For the people saying they are going to take their vacation money else where, you do realize Disney does market research and is posting record profits? No offense but 1 or even 100 families(my self included) does not really hurt there bottom line and most people beyond these boards seem to like the new system...My major grip is the tiers

I agree that it will take more than 100 families to effectuate a change by Disney but I won't be surprised if there is an accumulative effect over the next couple of years of a slow down of attendance increases and perhaps a slight decline. We love WDW. we visit 3 times a year and own DVC. However, the park attractions are not a huge must for us since we go so frequently. We did have a chance to experience FP+ in early November. It worked well for us because we only really needed 2 FP for our plans. (We did ave difficulty changing one pass the morning of a visit which is likey the experience offsite guests will have.) At the same time, I kept thinking that if we were newer and less frequent visitors, I would not be a happy camper. Since we have returned, we talked 3 different families into going to Universal instead of WDW. Their jaws dropped considering how much we love WDW. Two families planned to stay off site and the 3rd like to be spontaneous. WDW tickets cost way too much to spend so much time planning and/or waiting in line. I think there will be an increase of folks like me and off site folks returning with a very poor experience having an impact with other folks considering a WDW trip.

 

[Mkrop]

It is not just offsiters on this board. I have a friend who has gone to WDW several times. They are a family of 6. They always stay offsite. She does not read a lot of this stuff, I have been sending her some FP+ articles here and there. I have tried to remain positive when talking to her. She finally called me up completely stressed out. She bit the bullet and booked AOA. And yet she is still stressed bc she is not sure how her family will do in a small room like that. So if it goes well than maybe they will book again onsite. If it doesnt she may not want to go back bc her family perfers offsite and WDW once gave them FP and they were equal to everyone in the park and now she feels like WDW is taking it away from them. I think it is harder to swallow if you have already been bc you feel you are getting the shaft, where is you are newbie staying onsite or offsite you dont know any differently.

And I am sure she is not the only one out there, my next door neighbor is a family of 4 so they usually stay onsite but her parents also have a Marriott timeshare so when the big family group goes they stay offsite and she was amazed that WDW is heading in this direction to offsite people as well.

 

[TreeSapp]

Actually the same article said that offsite guests will NOT be able to book using MDE at all, only through the kiosks. We are AP holders, and have been told from the beginning that we WOULD get MB, but hasn't happened yet (locals so we don't stay onsite), the last estimate we were told (in October) was to expect in January.

Yuck

 

[rebekah8284]

Double post

 

[rebekah8284]

Our trip to WDW is in three weeks and we are staying at Shades of Green so although we are on site we are not eligible for FP+. My biggest worry is that when we arrive at the park in the morning will we be able to book FP+ for all 13 of us going at the same time? Has any other large group experienced booking FP+ the day of? With the discount we get at Shades and the sizes of the rooms there is no way our extended family could afford to stay onsite. And whereas I am still excited about the trip I do worry about how much time we will spend waiting in line. The kids are older now and will be wanting to go on the big rides. We have been planning this trip for a year and a half and I am really hoping that the new FP system doesn't mess up this trip.

 

[Laketravis]

For the people saying they are going to take their vacation money else where, you do realize Disney does market research and is posting record profits? No offense but 1 or even 100 families(my self included) does not really hurt there bottom line and most people beyond these boards seem to like the new system...My major grip is the tiers

I certainly agree with your point and want to offer something else to consider in regards to record profits and increased attendance.

Record profits can be largely attributed to huge price increases. I believe the increased attendance is due to pent-up demand after coming off of one of the biggest global recessions in history. The parks were literally empty for several years. People couldn't afford to go. Many of the people who are going now won't be able to afford another trip for several years.

And many of the ones who comprise the current crowd have a euphoric sense of exuberance because of increased returns on investments or a new job or just an overall warm fuzzy feeling that the economy is better.

In other words, there are more people with lower expectations willing to spend more money right now. It's sometimes referred to as the "Goofy Money" crowd.

It would be foolish for Disney to believe that will continue without pullback, and while they can and will take maximum advantage of the good times right now, I really do believe that the spike in attendance is temporary and in the long run the ramp up in pricing coupled with all of these other changes will decrease demand.

And when that demand decreases, Disney will be faced with a much more critical consumer.

 

[Brian Noble]

The parks were literally empty for several years.

Not quite. Attendance has dropped year-over-year only once in the past five years, going back to 2007 (which was an increase over 2006). The recession began in late 2007, and the one drop was 2010 vs. 2009---and that was not a substantial dip.

2008-20012 numbers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amusement_park_rankings

2007 numbers (including percentage change over 2006)
http://www.teaconnect.org/sites/default/files/misc/files/2007erareport.pdf

Granted, there was a lot of discounting to get there (both by travel providers and by Disney itself). But still.

 

[Laketravis]

Not quite. Attendance has dropped year-over-year only once in the past five years, going back to 2007 (which was an increase over 2006). The recession began in late 2007, and the one drop was 2010 vs. 2009---and that was not a substantial dip.

2008-20012 numbers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amusement_park_rankings

2007 numbers (including percentage change over 2006)
http://www.teaconnect.org/sites/default/files/misc/files/2007erareport.pdf

Granted, there was a lot of discounting to get there (both by travel providers and by Disney itself). But still.

Correct. I wasn't trying to say that attendance had dropped, but I didn't do a good job of stating that there wasn't substantial growth in attendance over those years.

"Literally Empty" was a poor choice of words.

The parks certainly didn't "feel" (subjective) as crowded as they do now, and the much larger jump in attendance from 2011 to 2012 is probably going to be repeated when 2013 figures are released. I don't think that attendance growth will be sustained over the coming years.

 

[Laketravis]

Back to the original topic, I think it's also worth noting that we are coming up on the one month mark since legacy FP was disabled at AK (time flies!) and off-site guests are still limited to in-park FP+ selections.

 

[Planogirl]

Back to the original topic, I think it's also worth noting that we are coming up on the one month mark since legacy FP was disabled at AK (time flies!) and off-site guests are still limited to in-park FP+ selections.

I think that that is definitely worth noting and I doubt that that will change. I'm hopeful that setting up FP+ on the website will eventually be possible since they have the new tests coming up but I still have my doubts about pre-booking.