not a fan of fast pass plus

[mom2mickeyfan]

Thank you so much. That's very high praise. But no, photography is just a hobby I enjoy.

Just as good as the DVD of stock photos I purchased from Disney!

 

[mom2rtk]

Just as good as the DVD of stock photos I purchased from Disney!

Thank you.

 

[summermac]

ONE HUNDRED FORTY NINE DOLLARS for a tent campsite? What? My family can tent camp (darn near RV camp at some places) for a week for that price. Holy cow.

 

[morethananyonex]

ONE HUNDRED FORTY NINE DOLLARS for a tent campsite? What? My family can tent camp (darn near RV camp at some places) for a week for that price. Holy cow.

I think those aren't the basic tent camping ones, could be wrong. I think those are $50.

 

[Shaden]

ONE HUNDRED FORTY NINE DOLLARS for a tent campsite? What? My family can tent camp (darn near RV camp at some places) for a week for that price. Holy cow.

I think those aren't the basic tent camping ones, could be wrong. I think those are $50.

Yes, the basic campsite is $49 ... that is the price for a preferred spot.

 

[aubriee]

Yes, the basic campsite is $49 ... that is the price for a preferred spot.

With the AP discount the $149.00 one is the only one available though.

Edit: Sorry I just checked again and the price is actually $142.88 and that is rack rate for a preferred site. For March 21st there is no standard camp site available either for rack or with an AP discount and apparently the $142.88 is also rack, with no AP discounts on the tent camping sites.

 

[redrosesix]

Wow... finally caught up.

We get there in just under 3 weeks and we have decided this will be our last trip. I wish I had known it would be my last time for a lot of things in my life -- this way at least I know there won't be a next time, at least for a long long time. Sounds crazy in a way, because we were going to buy into DVC for the first time on this trip (and we can't do it from home). we were also planning a grand gathering, pirate cruise and all, and now that ain't gonna happen -- inlaws are saying we should do the new US after the new HP opens instead, and I'm agreeing. Then we're all taking off to the beach or they Keys - not even planning WDW now since there are little guys involved.

But there have been many changes and FP+ was I think where the leopard showed its spots -- WDW does not care about our family having fun, just about money. And it sounding more and more un-fun. There are just too many places for me to travel in the world for me to spend my small amount of vacation time standing in a line.

I know I may sound like a stuck record to some, but this is where I think Disney has made a major miscalculation. ...
Disney was counting on people to see long lines and pass on the rides. They assumed this would translate into time spending money in gift shops, restaurants, etc. What they didn't count on was the perseverance of guests to go ahead and wait in the lines for the rides and then those people turning into dissatisfied guests deciding WDW isn't worth the cost if you can't go on as many rides.

I agree and people might spend more money if they had never decided to make all the merchandise in all of the parks the same, and the same from year to year. Anyone who has been a couple of times already has everything they want. But seriously -- why would people buy a souvenir of a crappy vacation? People would buy a lot more if they actually had good memories.

We are going for 25 nights from 6th August this year. will be our 11th trip and the first time we wont be going to Disney. I just cant face paying a £1000 for tickets and get less than I did last year. We absolutely love Disney but we go at a busy time so the FP is an important part for us. I refuse to stay on site anymore when you can stay at Bonnet Creek in a 2 bedroom for $140 a night and have 5 pools, 2 lazy rivers and lots of entertainment for the kids thrown in. Just a no brainer compared to a tiny room at Disney or a very expensive DVC room. (Although I do just love SSR, its 4 times more expensive than Bonnet Creek). So we are going to spend a week at St Petes Beach and then have 2 and a bit weeks in Orlando actually taking things alot slower than usual. Will go to DC, SW and AQ. Will spend 1 night at a Universal hotel to get front of line access. The big difference at Universal is that even in the summer you can get everything done in 2 days riding all the rides multiple times. It will cost us £160 for 3 of us to have 2 days of front of line which I think is a bargain when you think how much it would cost to buy the express pass. You cant compare this to staying onsite at Disney to get FP+ as it really isn't comparing like with like. My husband doesn't even stay in the Universal room and goes back to Bonnet Creek and meets my son and I again the next day.
So I will be sad not to visit Disney but really hope they sort this out. Even if off site get the ability to pre book, all the spontaneity will have gone. I plan everything but even I dont want to have to decide what ride I ride at what time in 2 months time and I dont want to be stuck to my mobile phone on holiday. Bad enough having to tell my son to "put down the electrical device"! I will be sad that we wont be riding Seven Dwarfs but cant justify £1000 for that. We have so many great memories of Disney and we are so lucky to have been so many times on long visits. I really would just love to sit down and chat to all the people responsible just to see what they were thinking.

ITA with this! I am not an uber planner but I am at the park by RD. But I stay onsite, buy a park hopper and stay all day AND we eat all of our meals in the park. I don't want to be told I can only have 3 FPs, of any kind, per day. Sometimes we're in the parks for 14 hours or more. I don't want to be required to book rides at 60 days out or decide to miss them altogether. Just NOT FUN.

If this does come about, I see FP+ as the new BOG ADR. People will quickly figure out that the only way to get FP+ for the rides you want will be to get online at 60 days out and pre-book. People who don't pre-book will get less than scraps. There will simply be NO FP+ availability on the day of. If they hold back a certain percentage as some people have suggested, that opens a whole 'nother can of worms.

I see no reason why they should hold any back -- if people pay to stay onsite they should have access to all of the FPs until they are used up.

We are staying off-site in March. DD has never been to Disney, so this whole thing will be new to her. I figure there's enough to see without the FP+ hassle. If we can't ride something because of a 2 hour wait to ride a 5 minute ride, so be it. We're just happy to be going on vacation at Disney (so many people never get to go due to budget restraints). But I'm saving over $1,000 in lodging, so it's a win for me and my budget. Yeah, we'll have to pay for parking. I doubt the $60 will break us. lol

We do have our dining reservations. Thank goodness those don't require FP+. People would starve!

This was what they were counting on when they designed the system. No matter how horrible it is, no matter how many veterans decided never to visit again, they will still make lots and lots of money.

But you probably will have a good trip -- there is nothing like the first time.

 

[DebbieB]

ONE HUNDRED FORTY NINE DOLLARS for a tent campsite? What? My family can tent camp (darn near RV camp at some places) for a week for that price. Holy cow.

$149 would be preferred during holiday season. That site is for an RV.

http://www.mousesavers.com/2014-ft-wilderness-campsites-rates-season-dates/

Campsites are designated as Partial Hookup (electricity and water provided), Full Hookup (electricity, water and sewer provided) and Preferred (electricity, water, sewer and cable TV hookups, plus more convenient location). Each site has a picnic table and charcoal grill. Most sites feel fairly secluded because there are stands of trees and bushes between sites.

 

[redrosesix]

Just can't help thinking that FP+ is making the whole system change into a big mess, when it's really only part of the new RFID system. And it has been mentioned in other threads -- the RFID system would be a great way to use FP- ie no more paper tickets. Seriously they should have just kept the old system. FP+ would have been an amazing perk for staying onsite, and I'm pretty sure they would have made more money in the long run.

 

[glamdring269]

I tested FP+ in October and liked it but have to admit our test wasn't reality. We still had access to paper FP and the entire park was not using FP+ yet. So based on my experience + what I'm reading in this thread I'd like to summarize my feelings here in sort of a top 3 list....

1) FP+ attempts to cater to all but really ends up just hurting everyone. It seems like the ultimate (for Disney) in taking from the perceived few and attempting to hand out to the many. It just doesn't work and I don't think it will ever work. I'm sure the 'old' system sucked for some people. You would get to the FP kiosk and all of them would be gone for the day. But that was only for very few rides, TSMM, Soarin, and maybe Test Track? The latter two being more of a function of a park that is less about rides and more about the experience.

This was easily countered by doing what some people just don't like doing... get up early and get to the park. Guess what, this is actually doable by everyone regardless of how old your kids are. I know we used to do it when I was young which is probably why it's programmed into me as an adult.

2) FP+ needs to be available in multiple parks per day. We pay for park hopper for a reason. Talk about taking something away. The only decent line avoidance park hop strategy now is to rope drop in the morning and save your FP+ for the afternoon/night. I think allowing FP+ in 2 parks (or 4) would help offset the loss of paper FP from the typical rope drop/paper FP madness crew. Give me the option to at least feel like I'm being efficient.

3) Technology is not for everyone. Let's face it. You see it every day at the grocery store. There are people who just struggle with anything tech based. People still whip out the check book. People still struggle figuring out how to use the card reader. People are going to struggle aligning their little Mickey face with the other little Mickey face on the kiosk. And for every person who struggles with tech you have others who do not and get impatient with those who do. Add in the fact that Disney is maybe one of the worst offenders when it comes to horrendous customer interfaces for all things tech and it's a recipe for disaster that is going to further cut into efficiency. Let's go ahead and toss in some summer Florida heat and we're definitely talking Magical memories now!

I'm ending the tech discussion at the parks. I don't even want to get into the use of the web/mobile app in its current state...

*** (literal) Bottom line here... I'm glad we're not going back for a 1.5-2 years. Hopefully they will have everything worked out by then.

 

[ktlm]

I know I may sound like a stuck record to some, but this is where I think Disney has made a major miscalculation. They are counting on people to ride less. What we are seeing is that people who go to WDW actually expect to ride the rides. Shocking I know!

I still hold the somewhat conspiratorial belief that "wait less in lines" doesn't mean what we think it does. It's code for "go on less rides" as opposed to "ride more rides with shorter waits."

For those determined to ride the rides, this is actually resulting in MORE time spent in line (I have informed you thusly). Disney was counting on people to see long lines and pass on the rides. They assumed this would translate into time spending money in gift shops, restaurants, etc. What they didn't count on was the perseverance of guests to go ahead and wait in the lines for the rides and then those people turning into dissatisfied guests deciding WDW isn't worth the cost if you can't go on as many rides.

And before someone chimes in with "you can still ride standby," I am talking about both FP and standby lines. You won't be able to ride as many rides if you have to wait longer in standby for each one. So we have people going home frustrated and unhappy because they only had time to ride a handful of rides. There have always been some people who experienced this. At the risk of sounding callous, those people were almost always to blame for their own misery because they didn't do a lick of research (I'm not talking about uber-planning... merely knowing that Harry Potter is not at WDW, etc.).

Now the playing field has been leveled. Even those "in the know" are experiencing the misery equally.

FP+ feels like an ultimatum... lower your expectations and ride less or don't go. I think they're too over-confident that their "base" will take whatever they dish out and say "thank you, may I have another."

I think you may be right. I know that with FP+, we felt like we wasted much more time criss-crossing the park, standing in line, and getting less done than on our usual trips. We felt like the park was "more crowded", but in retrospect, I really don't think that was the case- I think FP+ made it FEEL more crowded. (Funny- how everyone seems to report their dates felt much more crowded than usual since FP+ started isn't it?). We had no luck changing FP+ times in park because MDE glitched and rarely worked. I actually was not happy that it REDUCED my shopping time. I'm a shopper and I felt like I didn't have time to browse the stores in each area because we were in a hury to get somewhere else. I really did shop significantly LESS because of MDE/FP+. And...we were there when it wasn't tiered and we could use FP- as a back up- although some of them were harder to get.

 

[mefordis]

OH, no. I am afraid now this whole FP+ debacle is going to make Universal more crowded. WAit, we have FOTL passes for staying onsite. No problem!

 

[johde]

And that is exactly what happened on Saturday night-got to MK right as the fireworks were ending, watched the 11:00 MSEP, then went and walked onto every ride-you could even see Ariel in her grotto with no wait! (So we found this out by accidentally walking into the grotto entrance instead of the ride entrance and thankfully they let us just walk out! It was 12:30 am, cold, and we were a little brain dead. . .) I realize that not everyone can stay that late, but if you can, it is great!

Hopefully, the smart people who couldn't, were the people who could show up at 8:00 a.m. for MK RD. In my experience, the late nights are OK most of the year, but totally magical on 9-10 days. Knowledge is king of those days, be it with FP- or FP+. From noon to 7 trying to get on any of the headliners just beats you down. That's the time to do Country Bears, Tiki Room, Monsters Inc (yes it may have a bit of a line), intermingled with your meals and parade (if current playing). Or ideally, you arrive at 8:00 about 1:00 you return to your resort to swin and nap then return to the parks about 7:00 for even activities and more riding until 1:00 a.m. or 3.00:a.m. if you/re onsite.

 

[crayon3448]

We leave in 9 days for Disney. DH and I definitely made the most of FP when it was the 2 of us and I don't think we'd be very happy with the changes if were just the 2 of us. But now we have our 15 month old, so we were preparing it to be a slower trip to begin with. Gone are the days when DH and I were able to run all over the park, eat whenever we wanted, etc. so scheduling with the FP+ around her nap times and meal times was nice for us.

So I am not completely worried about the trip and I'm waiting to withhold judgement (we're also used to going over spring break so the crowd will hopefully be lower this trip). I'm curious as to the FP+ experience of other families with very young children, has anyone read any of those?

 

[diskev]

We leave in 9 days for Disney. DH and I definitely made the most of FP when it was the 2 of us and I don't think we'd be very happy with the changes if were just the 2 of us. But now we have our 15 month old, so we were preparing it to be a slower trip to begin with. Gone are the days when DH and I were able to run all over the park, eat whenever we wanted, etc. so scheduling with the FP+ around her nap times and meal times was nice for us.

So I am not completely worried about the trip and I'm waiting to withhold judgement (we're also used to going over spring break so the crowd will hopefully be lower this trip). I'm curious as to the FP+ experience of other families with very young children, has anyone read any of those?

With a child that young you should treat it like the park hopper strategy. Arrive at rope drop and go stand by til lunch. Head back to the hotel for nap then back in the evening where you can use your FP+. The whole negative aspect of FP+ won't be apparent to you for a few more years. Once your little one gets older and wants to (and can) do more, you'll feel the pinch.

My youngest is now 7 and can go all day. Unfortunately we're done with WDW til they fix the mess they've created. I can't justify telling my kids they only get to ride TSMM once (without a significant wait) when just two years ago we rode it four times in one day.

 

[NickyKnack]

Assuming that paying your "fair share" for the limited resource isn't enough; that it has to be used in a way that satisfies a particular standard...
Is it acceptable for a single person stay at the campground for a weekend, even though they are keeping that family from using it for their week-long vacation?

To use the other posters Analogy of buying a limited game system...
I don't see it so much as buying a limited number game system and using it only to play movies, so much as I see it as buying it and then just tossing it out. You're not going to use it, but now you have effectively made sure no one else can either.

Would it have been ok for someone single/family to reserve the campground for a week to get the FP+ EMH and parking perk, use it as their "base" to hotel hop from Universal SW, Disney, etc as long as they stayed there...maybe one night? Would that be enough? Would it be worse?

In my opinion the night they stayed would be better, the rest of the time they stayed would be the same issue.

Was that wrong, because a family couldn't book the yucky hotel room we didn't stay in that one night? Should we have packed up our 11 days of clothes and stuff and moved it twice to avoid taking the room we weren't using, away from a family who could have?

I think that goes back to something I stated in the very first post I made on this subject, I think it all comes down to availability. In my mind it only becomes an issue when you take advantage of something with a limited capacity which is in high demand and thus likely to keep someone else from having mom something they need. (Whether the word need is actually applicable here is also debatable, but according to my definition of the word it applies.) There are dozens upon dozens of yucky rooms available on Orlando on any given night, so you no one was denied anything they couldn't replace.

Who gets to make the call as to whether or not I am using something I paid for, in the way that "some of you" would think is ok or a "bad idea?"

You do, I do, they do.
I'm not going to tell anyone how to live their life, short of the point where they harm someone else in an undeniable way. That's not my place, and it's a job I wouldn't want even if it were on offer. I didn't say anything to those who were talking about this directly, as I wasn't going to wave my finger and say "no, you can't do that." I just wanted to point out when the prior poster implied that the reason everyone who thought it was wrong did so because it was cheating Disney by not paying their "fare share". I could care less what it does to Disney, my concern is for the poorer families who may only be able to stay at Disney by taking advantage of one of those 49 dollar camping lots. That once in a lifetime trip for a mom, a dad, and their child/ren who have always dreamed of staying on property and this is the only way they could ever pull it off. And who for whatever reason can only pull it off during that time. I know the odds sound astronomical - but I know several families who are like that. They are already planning to use that kind of set up when they go and they are trying like crazy to make family, both their time off from work, school, ect all align so that they can take that one vacation their kids have been asking for.

My post wasn't meant to tell anyone what to do, just to remind people that there were other people who might be effected by their choices. Not to tell them what to do, but to ensure that all sides were considered before a choice was made. All I can do is make sure that all sides get heard, after that it's none of my business what anyone else wishes to do.

 

[mummabear]

You also said in your opinion it's cheating. If something is not wrong how is it cheating? That makes no sense to me.

I said it is currently technically allowed, a loophole I hope Disney closes, you should only get on site perks for the amount of time you have paid for them. It is really no different to booking one night to get a kttw card so you can access emh for your trip...

 

[mummabear]

There is already a thread debating the moral and ethical repercussions of reserving and paying for a campsite but not actually (gasp) sleeping at it:

Throwaway Rooms

Personally I don't care if people pay for a campsite they don't use, I do think they should only be able to book FP+ reservations for the # of nights they pay for though.
It will be interesting to see if Disney cotton on and start over selling the sites...

 

[3happydancers]

So at first i was mad about the onsite perks til someone on this very thread mention a throw away room and then i thought hmmm okay then someone else mentioned campgrounds for 49 bucks and I did just that!! My magic bands are on their way and already made my fastpass + selections...genius!!

I won't yeh or ney this practice but I will say it was a good "business" move on your part. Some might feel this is not ethical but you paid for your room and there is nothing that says you must sleep there. The flip side is that some may feel like a room has been taken away from others who really wanted to stay there.

Hope you enjoy your vacation!

 

[the who #3]

i just spent one of the most pleasant weeks at disney world that we have had in the last 6 yrs. fast pass plus was one of the reasons. i had rooms reserved for 3 families and they were all just perfect and close together.

we loved fast pass plus! i might not have done so well myself, but my granddaughter and her friend figured out the system and used their cell phones to set fast passes for us all and that made it possible for us to get in all the rides we wanted. the last few trips we were unable to do that.

the new bracelet system also worked beautifully. no errors at all. maybe we were just lucky, but we loved it.