not a fan of fast pass plus

I am not sure if this will have this effect at all .... While I am sure Disney is trying to improve on, what I think the 2013 rate of 79% occupancy at the onsite resorts, there just isn't enough capacity to fit nearly all of the guests on site.

Even if they ran at 100% capacity, unless that entire 20% came from only a few hotels, it wouldn't really put many hotels out of business, it might trim out their profits and their occupancy rates a bit for sure ... but Disney isn't going to hit 100%, they just aren't. The people offsite aren't going to spring for Deluxe resorts, heck they might not even spring for Mods, the price difference is just too steep.

And that's why instead of building DVC's Disney needs to build some more Value resorts. Particularly value resorts that hold larger families...
 

I just sent a rant-y e-mail to a co-worker, so I feel like I should post this while I'm on a roll.

To understand what Disney is offering with FP+, onsite guests now get the following:

1) 1 useful FP at EP and HS (which, of course, cannot be used on the same day)
2) 3 FPs at MK, but with longer return lines, so not as useful as they used to be in FP- days. (Also, FP- is a misnomer. There was nothing minus about it. As such, I will now be referring to FP- as FP*Awesome. FP"+" will now be called FP*Mostly Worthless. Or I will continue to put the + in quotes to show I am using the + ironically)
3) An increased need to be at parks at RD, even though FP Mostly Worthless was designed so that you can "sleep in and enjoy your favorite ride with little or no wait." I will now modify that to say you can't sleep in. You can enjoy your favorite ride (singular) with a slightly shorter wait than the standby line.

In addition to the fun above, offsite guest may also enjoy the opportunity to:

1) Stand in line for 45 minutes to book the chance to stand in line for somewhat less time than the standby line for three rides.
2) Find out that the only rides you wanted have already been scooped up by onsiters, so you can ride whatever is left over.
3) When you complain about your negative experience, you might get a paper FP that you can use "anywhere," except at the actual attraction you selected, thus causing your toddler to cry. And me to become very, very angry at Disney for this whole giant mess.


I know that FP Mostly Worthless detractors have been criticized in the past for wanting FP Mostly Worthless to fail. That is not the case for me at all. I was so happy and relieved when the doom and gloom I predicted at AK didn't materialize. I was watching the MK push hoping for the best. I never wanted this to fail spectacularly and to ruin people's vacations. I just saw that for me, and for many others, there are many issues with the new system that make it much less workable. My only hope now is the Disney will start righting some of these wrongs. I don't think they'll bring back FP Awesome, but they need to make some significant changes to make sure what's been happening the past few days is only a temporary condition.

Rant over.
 
I was just thinking the same thing earlier today. 2015 could be the Year of Magical Discounts.

The thing is, I get the feeling that thanks to the exchange rates, and the practice of selling the rooms much less expensively to overseas guests, international travelers will just fill the place up even if most of us in the US go less or stop going altogether. I'm honestly not sure who, if anyone, Disney considers their "bread and butter" client - who spends the most and thus pays the larger share of the bills.

They don't sell them any more cheaply to NZ'ers! We travel 33 hours to get to Orlando costs us over $10,000 in airfares alone and we can only buy the same tickets and rooms as you. On our last trip we stayed for 28 days and had to buy 2 sets of tickets even though UK visitors who only take 8 hours could buy 21 day tickets....
 
This is not looking good. This makes me worried and a little sad. I'm still hoping they can get the kinks worked out, but it doesn't look promising.
 
/
I just sent a rant-y e-mail to a co-worker, so I feel like I should post this while I'm on a roll.

To understand what Disney is offering with FP+, onsite guests now get the following:

1) 1 useful FP at EP and HS (which, of course, cannot be used on the same day)
2) 3 FPs at MK, but with longer return lines, so not as useful as they used to be in FP- days. (Also, FP- is a misnomer. There was nothing minus about it. As such, I will now be referring to FP- as FP*Awesome. FP"+" will now be called FP*Mostly Worthless. Or I will continue to put the + in quotes to show I am using the + ironically)
3) An increased need to be at parks at RD, even though FP Mostly Worthless was designed so that you can "sleep in and enjoy your favorite ride with little or no wait." I will now modify that to say you can't sleep in. You can enjoy your favorite ride (singular) with a slightly shorter wait than the standby line.

In addition to the fun above, offsite guest may also enjoy the opportunity to:

1) Stand in line for 45 minutes to book the chance to stand in line for somewhat less time than the standby line for three rides.
2) Find out that the only rides you wanted have already been scooped up by onsiters, so you can ride whatever is left over.
3) When you complain about your negative experience, you might get a paper FP that you can use "anywhere," except at the actual attraction you selected, thus causing your toddler to cry. And me to become very, very angry at Disney for this whole giant mess.


I know that FP Mostly Worthless detractors have been criticized in the past for wanting FP Mostly Worthless to fail. That is not the case for me at all. I was so happy and relieved when the doom and gloom I predicted at AK didn't materialize. I was watching the MK push hoping for the best. I never wanted this to fail spectacularly and to ruin people's vacations. I just saw that for me, and for many others, there are many issues with the new system that make it much less workable. My only hope now is the Disney will start righting some of these wrongs. I don't think they'll bring back FP Awesome, but they need to make some significant changes to make sure what's been happening the past few days is only a temporary condition.

Rant over.

AWESOME rant :thumbsup2

Your assessment is pretty bang on, even with the cynicism/rantiness.

I too really hope they fix this, I just don't see how they could do anything with a system that limits me to 3 FPs, esp tiered, in one park, that I may have to book/lock into 60 days out when I don't even know what park I will want to be in that day, or what the weather will be like etc .... will be anywhere near as useful, flexible, and enjoyable as the FP Awesome of the past.

I really can see how FP mostly worthless is in fact, worth more
to some. But for us, its just not, and if things play out as they have in MK, it would greatly undercut their arguments that the system is/will be better even for them ...

Lets hope it doesn't turn out that way, that they "fix" this system in a way that makes everyone's trip better ... but I really can't see that being done.

The only thing that I still hold on to is the idea of, once your FP mostly worthless are used for the day, you could have access to any of the FPs still unused in the system, above your 3 pre-booked per day .... That's all I got, but don't see that happening, not even a whisper from anyone official/semi-official/not on this board in a delirious state of hope/desperation.
 
Tell us how you really feel famy27. ;) Just be ready for some to post on the thread to explain why you're wrong.
 
Well, FP+ debacle notwithstanding, attendance WILL go up at Universal no matter what. The Harry Potter expansion in USF opens this summer. The Hogwart's Express will connect the existing IoA Hogsmeade area with the new London/Diagon Alley area in USF. So not only will Universal be selling a lot of tickets, they'll be selling a lot of 2-Park tickets.

They are doing major PR. There are already videos out, one with one of the actors that played the Weasley twins, a big HP weekend convention thing later this month, and a big "streaming" event on the 23rd, where folks suspect they will show more footage and perhaps even announce the opening date. No doubt so they can start filling those hotel rooms. :)

Disney's attendance may go up or may go down, but Universals will go up this year guaranteed.

Personally, I think that if Disney's attendance suffers, it will be NEXT year because THIS year everyone's going to go, hoping for the best, find out what it's like and not reschedule. That's what just happened to us.

With everyone abandoning Disney World to go to Universal, I wonder how long it will be until we see threads complaining about how crowded Universal is and how long the wait times and lines are..Lol.

Do they even have a fast pass system, or is it just standby with the exception of the people who stay onsite at the deluxe hotels or buy the "Unlimited Express" passes? I've never been there, but it seems the problem may just shift from Disney to Universal before long.

I would imagine that Universal has a handful of "must do" attractions, but when everyone who has "front of the line/unlimited express passes" shows up at the same times for the handful of must do's, then you'll end up with long "front of the line" lines...Lol. And if Universal gets that crowded and a large majority of guests purchase "Unlimited Express" passes, then combine that with people who stay at the Deluxe onsite hotels, and here we go again....Lol.
 
You do realize that MANY of the guests to WDW can't afford to stay onsite right ? That's WHY they stay offsite.

And many can't afford to stay onsite as often as they like to travel to WDW, so by your logic, sure they will pay to stay onsite, and thus they will go less, which means WDW will actually be more empty and this will not actually serve the purpose Disney intends ...

:thumbsup2

We have stayed onsite once and defiantly prefer it however we are certainly not onsite or bust it has to represent value for money. When I had a look recently it was about $40USD per night difference between our preferred off site (Raddison) and the cheapest Disney (besides the campsite since out luggage allowance would never accommodate our camping equipment!) that would allow a family of 5. For us it is worth the extra amount by the time you remove the cost of in park parking each day and the perks as they stand now, but this would be something we would re evaluate before booking another trip. The difference would have to be small enough and the perks worthwhile otherwise we would save the money.
I am not a fan of split stays and as well as our Disney days we do Busch, SW, and US (although maybe not for awhile after our last trip-not a great place to tour with young ones and without the express pass the lines are way too long and with the pass the ticket is very poor value) so to pay the extra $$ to be on site when we aren't in the parks seems a waste of $$
 
With everyone abandoning Disney World to go to Universal, I wonder how long it will be until we see threads complaining about how crowded Universal is and how long the wait times and lines are..Lol.


Took less than a month for me to see people start complaining they took the epcot wand down when they finally did take that eye-sore down.

Okay not the best datapoint but a datapoint.
 
With everyone abandoning Disney World to go to Universal, I wonder how long it will be until we see threads complaining about how crowded Universal is and how long the wait times and lines are..Lol.

Do they even have a fast pass system, or is it just standby with the exception of the people who stay onsite at the deluxe hotels or buy the "Unlimited Express" passes? I've never been there, but it seems the problem may just shift from Disney to Universal before long.

I would imagine that Universal has a handful of "must do" attractions, but when everyone who has "front of the line/unlimited express passes" shows up at the same times for the handful of must do's, then you'll end up with long "front of the line" lines...Lol. And if Universal gets that crowded and a large majority of guests purchase "Unlimited Express" passes, then combine that with people who stay at the Deluxe onsite hotels, and here we go again....Lol.

I believe these are limited in the amount that are sold but not idea what the limit is. We were not happy with the amount of time we waited using one of these for the amount it cost. I personally hate them, I hate that the people with the most spare $$ get to have the best time.
We bought one for the day as we had 2 under 3 and their parent swap is rubbish, the standby lines were sooo long it was impossible so we got one so we could rush through the rides, but between the lines it doesn't work on and the length of the wait time with the pass it was a total waste of money and we have decided not to do US until the kids are tall enough to ride as well.
Busch gardens however has become our 2nd favourite park and they do a great pass that allows you to ride their headliners once (plus one a 2nd time) for a small amount (like $20 or $25 per person).
I would hate if WDW started charging for extra FP+'s or giving more depending on the tier of your hotel-the way FP- was fair to all was one of things that made us choose Disney
 
Thanks for this. It just affirms what I already knew and was planning.

We have stayed off-site and on-site, and last trip we fell in love with Windsor Hills. It serves the purpose for value and space. This last trip was also the first trip in awhile we were able to part ways with Disney during our vacation and it was NICE. Nice to go to other restaurants, not depend on buses, go to the beach, visit a Lakeland relative we hadn't seen for a couple of years, go to the outlet malls... more relaxing of a trip.

Based on that, and what is going on with FP+, which I just can't like no matter how much I try... we are going to stay in a condo, go to the beach, spend one overnight in a Universal hotel and a couple/few days at Universal, more beach time... and do the MNSSHP. Besides DTD, that is all I will see of Disney this year. It seems like just enough.
 
Not sure how big your total party will be but I've heard that campsites can be booked for up to 10 people.

I know you are not the only one to suggest the "throwaway" camp site but I have a real problem with that idea.

#1 No matter how you try to justify it, you are trying to cheat the system!

#2 As someone who has camped at FW previously, (with youngest DS in a dome tent) I know there aren't that many partial campsites in the first place. To have someone book one, for 1 night, just to get in on the benefits of FP+, isn't very nice. I would hate to think a family who was wanting to camp would not be able to do so because the sites were bogusly (I made that word up! ;)) booked.

With all this talk about "throwaway" campsites I imagine it will just be a matter of time before Disney closes that little "loophole" and requires the length of stay to be equal to the number of days on your park tickets.

For the record, I am staying at The Swan in April and am none too happy about FP+ :mad:. I will have to wait it out and see if the rules governing who can use it to pre-register their FP+ selections, will relax a bit.

In the meantime, I have sent both an e-mail and a letter to WDW Guest Communications letting them know my opinions & concerns regarding FP+.

If anyone wants to do the same:

WDW Guest Communications
P.O. Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

TC :cool1:
 
All this does is drive more people to stay at Disney resorts. I know I wouldn't stay offsite and hope I can get on rides and hope there is fast passes when everyone staying at a Disney resort can book their fastpasses 60 days prior to their visit. I would spend the money to stay onsite to ensure my kids get on 3 rides a day especially during peek seasons, but most people cant afford the extra and are going to be disappointed with not being able to get on rides with out along wait.

The flaw in your reasoning is that on-site guests are having to wait in long standby lines as well. Sure, they have it a LITTLE better because if they pre-booked, they can have a shorter wait for a few prime rides. But overall, pre-booking ability is only a slight improvement over what off-site guests are experiencing. It appears that WDW's effort to "spread the FP wealth" and make everyone equal is merely resulting in making everyone equally miserable standing in longer lines (totally predictable outcome BTW).

Not so long ago, we "negative nelly naysayers" seemed to be just a vocal minority. But the longer this goes on, the more it seems like the people actually benefitting at all from FP+ are the outliers (e.g., the small number of people who slept in, never bothered with FPs, and just like to soak in the atmosphere and "people-watch").

It's not that it sucks for offsite guests, it just sucks MORE for them.

:thumbsup2

We have stayed onsite once and defiantly prefer it

I prefer it, too, but I never get defiant about it. :lmao:
 
I hope people do realize that it is still the testing phase for this project and the numbers and ability to book FastPass+ in more then one park will increase? Also, there are mobile kiosks and fixed kiosks. Many of those kiosks are still located in the locations where the legacy fastpass were located. I know this to be extremely the case in AK.
 













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