Not to reopen that can of worms but...

[WillAustin]

I don't understand this scenario at all. Why does the whole group have to be at the kiosk and shouting to each other? Cannot one person go and select an attraction for everyone, and then changes be made via the app/site if needed?

I'm not sure my family will always be accepting of what I decide to pick.

I think he's saying since you have no idea what might be available, it's not necessarily as easy as just picking one.

 

[WillAustin]

IMO there aren't enough attractions for everyone to book a 4th on the app. Making guests go to the kiosks, forces guests to stand in another line. The kiosks keep the 4th FP+ selections a secret. IMO it would be great if they had a board that posted the available attractions and the available times.

This along with the anecdotal data that what shows up on the kiosks isn't the same as what shows up in the app as available makes me wonder how it all is working.

 

[TheDisGuy]

I'm not sure my family will always be accepting of what I decide to pick.

I think he's saying since you have no idea what might be available, it's not necessarily as easy as just picking one.

Indeed exactly what I am saying. In fact I did this on my own a couple times, and went back to the group only to have it cause a bit of a problem. People disagreeing with the selection. But of course some were all excited, others disappointed. But you can't just take something away from someone once they are happy/excited about it... ugh.

Also have to consider that its possible that if you don't jump on the options you are given at that moment, you might not have them in a couple mins.

 

[WillAustin]

Indeed exactly what I am saying. In fact I did this on my own a couple times, and went back to the group only to have it cause a bit of a problem. People disagreeing with the selection. But of course some were all excited, others disappointed. But you can't just take something away from someone once they are happy/excited about it... ugh.

Also have to consider that its possible that if you don't jump on the options you are given at that moment, you might not have them in a couple mins.

When we are there in a few weeks I am going to try the strategy of grabbing whatever is there and then changing it on the app. On our past few trips, I'd just give up if there was nothing available that we wanted to do and not even take any FP.

 

[jenniferyawn]

We were there a couple of weeks ago and used FP+ for the first time. Worked great for my family!

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

We like FP+.

I think we would love FP+ if:
* You could pre-book more than 3/day (5/day feels like a good number to me)
* You could spread those 5/day among multiple parks
* There was no tiering of attractions
* And you could still book more after the 5 pre-booked ones were used
(but I imagine there wouldn't be much available if people could pre-book 5/day)

 

[3DisneyFanz]

As long as you're happy getting something at some time and standing in lines for rides you never had to wait for before it's awesome!

 

[JRennie]

Our daily plan was generally hit the park for RD ride all of the headliners before it got busy and then I booked FP+ often for those same rides in the afternoon. Quite often we did not end up using the fast passes. I found having to plan everything down to the hour I wanted to ride a ride 2 months in advance kind of a pain in the butt.
I'm a neurotic planner type but even that was a bit much. As for the phone apps, this is also irritating because we are from Canada (hellloooo roaming fees) and do not have our phones with us. I'm on a holiday, I'm not there to have my face stuck in my phone trying to make fast pass reservations. Yes, I know there are the kiosks but waiting there for 45 minutes in a line while the confused people ahead of you try to figure it out is a huge waste of time, might as well have stood in the 45 minute line for Splash.

There are a couple of positives to it: not having to run across the park to get a fast pass is nice, and being able to go to the park in the afternoon and still being able to ride headliners is also a benefit.

 

[Luckybee]

We've now had two experiences with fp+. Last Sept/Oct(experience # 1), and just a few weeks ago(experience # 2). The most recent experience was far superior to the previous but that may be more in the nature of our plan rather than fp+itself.

Experience 1....we hated fp+. We hated the lack of spontaneity, we felt scheduled, and we found ourselves unable to accomplish anything close to what we had been previously able to do pre fp+ because of the length of standby lines.

We decided that wouldn't work for us again and as a result made some changes. Understand this worked for us(sort of) but might not work for others if you want long park days . We simply did not wish to be frustrated on a vacation again. We decided that we would simply plan for very very short park days and only do our must do's. Instead of taking 5 or 7 day tickets we decided on only 3 days at Disney (and the rest for Universal which for us with express pass was a far superior experience)

Our first day was MK(arrival day) and we booked 3 fp's with plans for only 2 other rides. Standby lines were shorter than they had been on exp 1 and so we were in and out of MK within 2 and a 1/2 hours. Epcot was even easier. We only used our Tier 1, and only did one ride standby then on to pavilions and dinner at MP's. We decided to not bother with our last MK day since dh wasn't feeling great and we couldn't reschedule the fp's we had (or BOG) for another day...and yes I did check but we had 7dmt, and wishes.

So for our arrival day fp+ was fine for the touring we did do prior to dinner at Cal Grill. It was fine for the time we used it at Epcot. We couldn't reschedule our 3rd day so we just wrote off that day.

Overall Ive warmed to it and Im so happy Disney implemented it. It allowed us to rediscover Universal(for which I am eternally grateful), and allows us to just "pop in" to Disney for a few hours which is all we'll be doing in the future now . We're also spending far less money with Disney now too so that has to have a pretty big value....although I must admit that Universal is now getting most of that

Next trip it will only be 1 Disney day so I expect fp+ will work even better for us then too !

 

[poohfriend77]

I am wondering about Splash? We have a FP for 2:30-3:30 with the intention of watching the 3pm parade at the beginning then heading straight to Splash. Do you think we will have a problem getting to the FP check in point before 3:30? Thanks!

I think you'd be OK, as long as you go as soon as it's over. The line grew steadily from about 3:20-3:30. We were just standing there talking to some friends and taking pics, when we noticed the line had gotten huge. It still only took a couple minutes to get to the scanners though, and I think you have a 10 minute grace period.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Indeed exactly what I am saying. In fact I did this on my own a couple times, and went back to the group only to have it cause a bit of a problem. People disagreeing with the selection. But of course some were all excited, others disappointed. But you can't just take something away from someone once they are happy/excited about it... ugh.

Also have to consider that its possible that if you don't jump on the options you are given at that moment, you might not have them in a couple mins.

I take requests and then I head to the kiosk while they do something else. I do my best.

But if folks are having this issue with a fast pass selection, I would presume that they have these issues throughout their vacation.

But then again, when we travel--it's all about taking I to account everyone's interests and realizing that, for lack of a better phrase, take turns. Very rarely is 100% of our party all gung-ho with all decisions. So I don't expect everyone to be happy. True during paper fast pass and true now.

I don't get why someone would make a stink if you had booked Haunted Mansion instead of pirates, for example. Not my kind of group dynamic.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I'm not sure my family will always be accepting of what I decide to pick.

I think he's saying since you have no idea what might be available, it's not necessarily as easy as just picking one.

I take requests and try to check them in that order.

"What do you want to do? If that isn't available, what is your second choice? (And possibly third?)"

We do this anytime there is ambiguity about availability for something be it Disney or elsewhere. We find it effective for setting expectations that what we want as our first choice may not be available and it allows less disappointment since they are being given the opportunity to have back up choices. Less disappointment that way except for the disappointment that naturally comes when you cannot get your first choice.

 

[Barnabe]

When we are there in a few weeks I am going to try the strategy of grabbing whatever is there and then changing it on the app. On our past few trips, I'd just give up if there was nothing available that we wanted to do and not even take any FP.

I'll be interested in hearing what was available on the app vs kiosks

 

[TLSnell1981]

It wasn't broken...wasn't fixed. IMO I still don't like the "enhancement".

 

[Barnabe]

We've now had two experiences with fp+. Last Sept/Oct(experience # 1), and just a few weeks ago(experience # 2). The most recent experience was far superior to the previous but that may be more in the nature of our plan rather than fp+itself.

Experience 1....we hated fp+. We hated the lack of spontaneity, we felt scheduled, and we found ourselves unable to accomplish anything close to what we had been previously able to do pre fp+ because of the length of standby lines.

We decided that wouldn't work for us again and as a result made some changes. Understand this worked for us(sort of) but might not work for others if you want long park days . We simply did not wish to be frustrated on a vacation again. We decided that we would simply plan for very very short park days and only do our must do's. Instead of taking 5 or 7 day tickets we decided on only 3 days at Disney (and the rest for Universal which for us with express pass was a far superior experience)

Our first day was MK(arrival day) and we booked 3 fp's with plans for only 2 other rides. Standby lines were shorter than they had been on exp 1 and so we were in and out of MK within 2 and a 1/2 hours. Epcot was even easier. We only used our Tier 1, and only did one ride standby then on to pavilions and dinner at MP's. We decided to not bother with our last MK day since dh wasn't feeling great and we couldn't reschedule the fp's we had (or BOG) for another day...and yes I did check but we had 7dmt, and wishes.

So for our arrival day fp+ was fine for the touring we did do prior to dinner at Cal Grill. It was fine for the time we used it at Epcot. We couldn't reschedule our 3rd day so we just wrote off that day.

Overall Ive warmed to it and Im so happy Disney implemented it. It allowed us to rediscover Universal(for which I am eternally grateful), and allows us to just "pop in" to Disney for a few hours which is all we'll be doing in the future now . We're also spending far less money with Disney now too so that has to have a pretty big value....although I must admit that Universal is now getting most of that

Next trip it will only be 1 Disney day so I expect fp+ will work even better for us then too !

I'm glad you have found a way to make FP+ work for you. I just can't imagine paying over $100 for two and a half hours at MK. Do you have annual passes? It's just too expensive in IMO. I agree with you about Universal. It is a fun and relaxing experience compared to WDW with FP+.

 

[cakebaker]

We've been twice since FP+ started and found it a vastly improved experience for us. We no longer have to worry about availability in afternoon parks and it allows us to relax more rather than rushing from one park to the next hoping there's something left.

We'll be at WDW starting this Saturday for 8 days- we don't worry about getting SDFP's for the most part. We don't use FP+ in the mornings, we mostly schedule them for the afternoon or evening hours and we get plenty of attractions in each morning without a lot of waiting in line. In the evening, it's usually 3 rides, dinner and whatever is going on at a particular park that night- fireworks, parades etc. If it's an EMH evening, we get in lots of attractions without the need for FP+.

It certainly works well for us. Shortened trips, or just a couple of hours in a park would never work for us. There are far too many things we enjoy seeing to just focus on getting in, riding 3 and getting out.

 

[js]

As a hard core paper FP user, I was not thrilled to be picking FP+ 60 days out for our first FP+ trip. We lost some flexibility/spontaneity, and the app doesn't always work right, but it was fine, our trip was not ruined, we still had a great time.

There were two days on our trip where FP+ really worked awesome. On arrival day, we went to HS mid-afternoon and had 3 FP in hand for TSMM/ToT/ST. We never could have done that before FP+. There was also one very slow MK day (rained all morning). In the afternoon we got over a dozen additional FP at kiosks, most had return time only 5 minutes away. We never got that many FP that quickly with paper FP, and we didn't have to walk as far.

On the flip side, on the majority of our days, we didn't get as many rides on headliners as we used to. With old paper FP and rope drop, our first three FP of the day might be Thunder/Splash/Thunder, or Everest/Safari/Safari, or Soarin/TestTrack/TestTrack, or TSMM/RnRC/ToT. None of those plans are possible with FP+ tiers.

Hi. I was a hard core paper fp'er too.

When you say one day you got over a dozen extra fp is this because after each time you used your fp you would find a kiosk and just ask for a new one? Are there kiosks where we do this ourself or do we need to see a cm?

I guess it should be standard for us disers to know where the fp kiosks are located since this will help I think.

Thank you.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Its definitely much much better!

 

[AllieBoo]

As long as you're happy getting something at some time and standing in lines for rides you never had to wait for before it's awesome!

I have to say that was not our experience at all. We were there last week and did not wait in line longer than 15 min for anything - and we rode everything we wanted to in all 4 parks. With FP+, we were able to ride 7DMT three times (over three different days) and we didn't have to race for the FP machine at park opening to do it - we leisurely walked there when our FP+ window opened. Same with TSMM and Soarin - I was even able to move TSMM the night before we went from 9-10 am to 9-10 pm., when we decided we wanted to sleep in the next day. That would never have been possible the old way; we would have had to be there at park opening and head straight to the fp machine.

 

[TheDisGuy]

I take requests and try to check them in that order.

"What do you want to do? If that isn't available, what is your second choice? (And possibly third?)"

We do this anytime there is ambiguity about availability for something be it Disney or elsewhere. We find it effective for setting expectations that what we want as our first choice may not be available and it allows less disappointment since they are being given the opportunity to have back up choices. Less disappointment that way except for the disappointment that naturally comes when you cannot get your first choice.

Honestly this sounds like even MORE work and stress. I'd rather just deal with the person making a stink. Taking requests 1st, 2nd, and 3rd from a group of people ranging in size from 5 - 13 (depending how many people are together at that moment) up to 39 requests, and then going to the kiosk, waiting in line and trying to keep all that straight in my head ... no thanks.

We just didn't need to do this with legacy. We just pulled FPs for rides as we toured the parks, we never felt limited in the FPs we would get so there was no worry. No one would complain in Tomorrow land about pulling an FP for Space Mountain, because they knew that when we made it to frontier land we would pull for BTMRR. We didn't need to manage expectations. Now MK is still pretty ok, though we had less availability with FP+ than with legacy FP on our last trip, the other parks are FAR worse. There is just no way we are getting as much done in Epcot, or HS, or AK. Sure we can always rope drop and get a ton done, but we could ALWAYS rope drop get a ton done, have greater access to FPs for the rest of the day and shorter SB lines. In no way does FP+ make this better.

Its one of the things I just don't get when people complain about FP+ and the response is "you can still get a lot done, just rope drop" ... um ... thats not a new feature of FP+. That was always an option, but beyond your RD you had more availability ahead of you. Of course on the busiest times of year I can see how FP+ looks better for later in the day arrivals and for night arrivals, but moderate crowds and lower crowds, not really. And those advantages of FP+ are really only felt if you would have skipped the rest of the day anyway, or would rather skip the rest of the day. All things included, if you look at the ability to get things done from park open to close and assumed you would take advantage of the entire duration of park hours to ride rides, I can't see how FP+ is a net positive. In particular situations and with particular touring styles it obviously is, those styles and situations just don't usually align with ours, except arrival day perhaps