Ok, This is not testing anymore, enough

[baileybrad]

We haven't gone since before the "testing" started, and the more and more I read, the more happy I am about it. I'm going to avoid WDW like the plague until this system has its kinks ironed out.

You are a very smart bird, indeed.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

To seriously, answer your rhetorical question.

We took advantage of Surprise Mornings (we just called it Early Entry) then. They really were a perk before FP.

We arrived at the gates....about 45 minutes stated park open.

Disney used to let you in the park about 1/2 before opening. That led to a series of rope drops with actual ropes. Then many times they let you into the ride areas 10 to 15 minutes prior to stated opening.

You then rode to your hearts content for about 2 hours before the lines got bad. Except for during the most busy of times, the lines were still manageable after that for quite awhile except at the most popular attractions because there were no "standby" lines just blowing and going lines and with like SP M 2 sides open.

I liked touring the old way. We did learn how to crush the regular FP game.

When they stopped allowing people to show up late for FPs, the FP game lost some of it appeal.

I am sure that you knew most of this but wanted to share for some who do not understand the concern about FP+ that some folks have.

Well, actually, it was intended to be rhetorical, but I actually learned something seeing as I'm 23, and in all honesty had no idea what it was like before fastpasses seeing as I was younger than 10 and just followed my parents around.

 

[Angel Ariel]

You're welcome

But it does say the time at which you go holds some wager in this debate. And the option is open to everybody to go during low crowds just like the option to rope drop is there for everyone as well

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I completely agree that the time at which you go makes a difference. I will, however, disagree that everyone has the option to go during low crowds.

Teachers, for instance, are often not allowed to take time during school for vacation. I know when I started teaching I only had 3 personal days for the entire year, and I was not allowed to take them in conjunction with any school holidays. My husband deployed that year, so those days were spent with him right before he left. This is in large part because teachers do get school and spring breaks off as well - but, then, those are also the high crowd times at WDW.

Which is another example...military members are frequently limited in when they can vacation. My dad, in the business/health world, can pretty much take time off whenever he wants as long as he has it accrued. That was never the case for DH when he was AD.

 

[rebbyparker]

I completely agree that the time at which you go makes a difference. I will, however, disagree that everyone has the option to go during low crowds.

Teachers, for instance, are often not allowed to take time during school for vacation. I know when I started teaching I only had 3 personal days for the entire year, and I was not allowed to take them in conjunction with any school holidays. My husband deployed that year, so those days were spent with him right before he left. This is in large part because teachers do get school and spring breaks off as well - but, then, those are also the high crowd times at WDW.

Which is another example...military members are frequently limited in when they can vacation. My dad, in the business/health world, can pretty much take time off whenever he wants as long as he has it accrued. That was never the case for DH when he was AD.

Added to the fact that I don't think we're going to see very many low crowd times at Disney anymore. They are doing their best with promotions to fill them up.

 

[ShayBells]

We were also able to get early morning breakfast reservations at places within parks, and get in prior to opening (so nice for castle picture taking), which as far as I know doesn't happen anymore.

Still happens. Just did it at the end of September. and it was awesome! Especially since my reservation was at 9:15 and they let me in at 8:15. I had time to get pictures with the photographers and than they sat me right away at CP even though I was crazy early. Yay

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[ShayBells]

I completely agree that the time at which you go makes a difference. I will, however, disagree that everyone has the option to go during low crowds. Teachers, for instance, are often not allowed to take time during school for vacation. I know when I started teaching I only had 3 personal days for the entire year, and I was not allowed to take them in conjunction with any school holidays. My husband deployed that year, so those days were spent with him right before he left. This is in large part because teachers do get school and spring breaks off as well - but, then, those are also the high crowd times at WDW. Which is another example...military members are frequently limited in when they can vacation. My dad, in the business/health world, can pretty much take time off whenever he wants as long as he has it accrued. That was never the case for DH when he was AD.

Well some people have medical issues or kids or husbands or wives as to why they can't race to get there at rope drop. Every one keeps saying the option is there whether you use it or not. Well it's the same with the timing of your vacation. That's just my point.

I'm not saying it's easy to go whenever. And I know I'm lucky to get to go when I can but the option is the same it's there just like rope drop option is there. Not everyone is just "lazy."

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[Angel Ariel]

Not everyone is just "lazy."

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I never said they were

 

[WillAustin]

Then they have discontinued it since we were there last, in May for Star Wars Weekends. They most definitely let us through the ticket gate early, before the park's official opening time, and had a rope stretched across the street a couple of blocks up from the gate. And the rope was dropped and people ran.

That was brought back only for Star Wars Weekends, so they could do the stormtrooper opening inside the gates.

 

[ShayBells]

I never said they were

Sorry that must of been someone else.

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[Gamegrl1]

What about those meeting other friends and family there and cannot use FP on rides with these people?

We have not been to WDW yet (West-coasters...been to DLR a bunch) so the nice thing is that we won't know the difference about all this MyMagic+. It sounds good from where I sit (as long as it works without any/too many glitches!). As long as my hotel room door opens, as long as I can get in the park ASAP, as long as I can utilize the FP+ picks I make...I'm good. Sounds like it's going to save me some walking and since I had foot surgery last year that suits me fine.

There is a possibility another family member may join our trip at the last minute and it did occur to me that they may not be able to get the same FP+ picks as us (or any? although we're going at a very slow time of year) but I've already told myself "Hey, they'll just have to forego that attraction while we experience it." It's not going to kill any of us if they shop, eat or ride something else while we're doing our FP+ attraction. There'll be plenty else to do all together - we'll just check our attitudes and be thankful for being there because it's going to be great!

As far as the rest of it...I'll just say it must be nice that this is the biggest thing some folks have to worry and fuss about. It's too bad for those that are actually inconvenienced but if they don't like it, honestly, there are lots of other places to travel (imagine, you could go to the real Paris, not just the chocolate-covered WDW one!). Or people could just wait until the dust settles with the "testing" and see how it shakes out. More time to save for a vacation, meanwhile.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

A few things are for certain: both programs involve a specific strategy.

In order to take advantage of either program, you must have a specific vacationing strategy.

Each program makes it harder for some people, and easier for others to get fastpasses.

Fastpass- seemed to appeal to the "camp outside the store before the release of product x" type of crowd, while Fastpass+ seems to appeal to the "preorder and go by after work to pick it up" crowd.

I don't know that one can be considered better or worse than the other, as they clearly cater to different types of people.

 

[Shaden]

Well, just like the people saying people should be at the park for rope drop then, so they can get the FP- they want instead of being lazy...I'll say you snooze you lose if you don't plan them when Disney tells you to.

Dear God, what did people do before fastpasses existed?!

For what it's worth, my trip is in 15 days, and all the headliner attractions I want for all 8 days are available at just about every hour of every day.

Hrm, what did people do before fastpasses, well, there were a lot less people so fastpasses weren't as necessary, of course as others have pointed out, there were still other options.

MK pre 2000 15 Million annual visitors, 2013 18 Million
MGM pre 2000 9 Million visitors, 2013 10 Million
Epcot pre 2000 10 Million, 2013 11 Million
AK pre 2000 8 Million, 2013 10 Million

In the case of MK 3 Million more visitors per year is 8200 more people in the park every single day of the year (on Average) that is a MASSIVE increase in the needed capacity of rides.

So ... um ... yea.

And as we have tried to explain, "for what its worth" ... its not, its not worth much at all. We have tried to explain that as long as there is a minority of people using FP+ ... their experiences aren't really transferable to the system when its fully rolled out, unless you are going to try and account for the impact of the tens of thousands more people trying to us FP+, which is where many of us can extrapolate some rather unpleasant outcomes.

 

[xie]

A few things are for certain: both programs involve a specific strategy.

In order to take advantage of either program, you must have a specific vacationing strategy.

Each program makes it harder for some people, and easier for others to get fastpasses.

Fastpass- seemed to appeal to the "camp outside the store before the release of product x" type of crowd, while Fastpass+ seems to appeal to the "preorder and go by after work to pick it up" crowd.

I don't know that one can be considered better or worse than the other, as they clearly cater to different types of people.

That's a good analogy, camping the line in hopes of winning vs. pre-ordering for a guarantee.

The former group are the ones you see sleeping on the sidewalk two days before Black Friday. The latter group are the ones that figured out how to buy the same thing online for the same price on Cyber Monday.

FP- is also good for morning people. FP+ favors those of us that prefer to sleep in.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

That's a good analogy, camping the line in hopes of winning vs. pre-ordering for a guarantee.

The former group are the ones you see sleeping on the sidewalk two days before Black Friday. The latter group are the ones that figured out how to buy the same thing online for the same price on Cyber Monday.

FP- is also good for morning people. FP+ favors those of us that prefer to sleep in.

28 pages. It took 28 pages for us to reach these analogies.

Here's to 28 more of fighting over BUT THREE FASTPASSES! WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUMS!

 

[ShayBells]

28 pages. It took 28 pages for us to reach these analogies. Here's to 28 more of fighting over BUT THREE FASTPASSES! WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUMS!

28 pages on this thread plus the hundreds more on all the others that seem to come down to the same thing. You either like FP+ or ya don't.

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[Shaden]

That's a good analogy, camping the line in hopes of winning vs. pre-ordering for a guarantee.

The former group are the ones you see sleeping on the sidewalk two days before Black Friday. The latter group are the ones that figured out how to buy the same thing online for the same price on Cyber Monday.

FP- is also good for morning people. FP+ favors those of us that prefer to sleep in.

Its actually not a good analogy at all.

Fastpasses allowed you to go at any point in the day assess the situation, and pull fastpasses for attractions you wanted to go to, when you wanted to go to them. Yes there was an advantage for some going early in the morning, but many fastpasses for headliners were still available at midday and even in the afternoon and evening (particularly in the offseason, but also year round) Some were always gone, TSMM Soarin, etc. But generally speaking you could FP stuff throughout the day, even better, if FPs were gone in a park for attractions you wanted to hit, you could hop to another park and FP stuff there.

Fastpass Plus will require you to book ahead of time, to lock in. The CEO even talked about this in the article linked several times on these threads. The entire POINT of FP+, is to make you lock in. Will there be same day flexibility ? Some, yes no doubt, and more in the off season. But, for headliners and major attractions in the parks ? Good luck if you don't pre-book. There will still be an advantage for those waking up early, they are just going to have to wake up 60 days in advance instead of going to the park early. Those people are still going to "get the jump" on people who take a more casual approach, they are just going to suffer the inflexibility that goes along with locking in 60 days out. If anything this is going to make it so that MORE are gone earlier in the day, and we have already seen some evidence of this, Soar and TT gone before noon in offseason, return times starting at mid to late afternoon on the day, and this is just in the testing phase.

So yea, not the same at all. There is no cyber Monday a few days later with stock still available. FP+ every day is Black Friday, you either prebook 60 days out, or hope to god the stock isn't gone when you show up on the day, and we all know how that works.

 

[rebbyparker]

28 pages on this thread plus the hundreds more on all the others that seem to come down to the same thing. You either like FP+ or ya don't.

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Not so much if I like it or not. It's what do I do to make it work for me? Disney keeps changing things, so that part's pretty difficult.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

Its actually not a good analogy at all.

Fastpasses allowed you to go at any point in the day assess the situation, and pull fastpasses for attractions you wanted to go to, when you wanted to go to them. Yes there was an advantage for some going early in the morning, but many fastpasses for headliners were still available at midday and even in the afternoon and evening (particularly in the offseason, but also year round) Some were always gone, TSMM Soarin, etc. But generally speaking you could FP stuff throughout the day, even better, if FPs were gone in a park for attractions you wanted to hit, you could hop to another park and FP stuff there.

Fastpass Plus will require you to book ahead of time, to lock in. The CEO even talked about this in the article linked several times on these threads. The entire POINT of FP+, is to make you lock in. Will there be same day flexibility ? Some, yes no doubt, and more in the off season. But, for headliners and major attractions in the parks ? Good luck if you don't pre-book. There will still be an advantage for those waking up early, they are just going to have to wake up 60 days in advance instead of going to the park early. Those people are still going to "get the jump" on people who take a more casual approach, they are just going to suffer the inflexibility that goes along with locking in 60 days out. If anything this is going to make it so that MORE are gone earlier in the day, and we have already seen some evidence of this, Soar and TT gone before noon in offseason, return times starting at mid to late afternoon on the day, and this is just in the testing phase.

So yea, not the same at all. There is no cyber Monday a few days later with stock still available. FP+ every day is Black Friday, you either prebook 60 days out, or hope to god the stock isn't gone when you show up on the day, and we all know how that works.

I don't see how there is any real evidence of this. Our trip is in 15 days, yet every headlining attraction is available for almost every hour of every day I'm there. I still haven't booked all my FPs. This is 15 days, not 60 days. Saying they'll be gone at 60 days is good for shock value, but not something to assume will happen until it happens. For all we know, they'll up fastpasses allowed after the test to account for that.

Either way, for those of us who can't or choose not to make it to the FP- machines until noon anyway, it's still a better deal. No matter how you slice it, it's never worth it for me to use the FP- system, yet I have almost a full trip of FP+ this time. That's why the analogy is relevant.

 

[Shaden]

I don't see how there is any real evidence of this. Our trip is in 15 days, yet every headlining attraction is available for almost every hour of every day I'm there. I still haven't booked all my FPs. This is 15 days, not 60 days. Saying they'll be gone at 60 days is good for shock value, but not something to assume will happen until it happens. For all we know, they'll up fastpasses allowed after the test to account for that.

Either way, for those of us who can't or choose not to make it to the FP- machines until noon anyway, it's still a better deal. No matter how you slice it, it's never worth it for me to use the FP- system, yet I have almost a full trip of FP+ this time. That's why the analogy is relevant.

YOU ARE IN A TESTING PHASE !!!! NOT EVERYONE IS USING FP+, IN FACT ITS A SMALL PORTION OF GUESTS. HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TRY AND EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU !?!?!?!?!

They can not UP the fastpasses available, there is FININTE ride capacity, they can not exceed this capacity.

 

[mousiemom]

I called and asked about the kttw cards, fp, etc. the cm told me as we all know this is still in the testing phase. you do not have to use you mb if you don't want, you can also still get kttw cards for everyone in your party and still get fp @ the park as usual or you can do the fp + with mb and still use your kttw card too!!!! I went over the same thing again just to make sure, we are checking in on 11/30 with 20 people so I wanted to make sure.