Old FastPass vs FP+

[myers2170]

Would like to get many of your take on this:

I used to love planning a disney trip!!! It was always me vs Disney when it came to touring the parks. I loved being the FastPass runner and seeing how many attractions we could hit and how many fast passes we could collect. I felt like we were rewarded for getting to the parks early and following the most basic disney touring principles of collecting fast passes at the earliest possible windows etc. I was really upset when they started enforcing the one hour window of return but I could deal with that. I could go on and on about how much I loved the old system, but now.....onto the new.

My first question is why the change??
Secondly, it is what it is and I will adapt, but it seems difficult to me to plan fast passes,etc 30-60 days out. Our first trip with FP+ comes in July.

For those of you fellow Disney Lovers out there, give me your take on FP+ and if and why you like the new system.

How difficult is securing fastpasses when you want them??

Sorry so long but it just seems to me that FP+ Takes some of the magic away. I'm hoping some of you can convince me otherwise.

 

[Shanti]

Would like to get many of your take on this:

I used to love planning a disney trip!!! It was always me vs Disney when it came to touring the parks. I loved being the FastPass runner and seeing how many attractions we could hit and how many fast passes we could collect. I felt like we were rewarded for getting to the parks early and following the most basic disney touring principles of collecting fast passes at the earliest possible windows etc. I was really upset when they started enforcing the one hour window of return but I could deal with that. I could go on and on about how much I loved the old system, but now.....onto the new.

My first question is why the change??
Secondly, it is what it is and I will adapt, but it seems difficult to me to plan fast passes,etc 30-60 days out. Our first trip with FP+ comes in July.

For those of you fellow Disney Lovers out there, give me your take on FP+ and if and why you like the new system.

How difficult is securing fastpasses when you want them??

Sorry so long but it just seems to me that FP+ Takes some of the magic away. I'm hoping some of you can convince me otherwise.

Have you used FP+ yet? If not, keep an open mind. It has benefits. For one thing, no one has to run around the park gathering FP's (which many people can't physically do, anyway.)

FP+ also allows you to show up mid-day at a park, and still get to ride some headliners without a long wait.

 

[buzznina]

For the way we tour, no RD so arrive late morning and stay late, we LOVE FP+. The old way, we would rarely get any FPs for the top rides and if we did, they were all late at night. Now we are pretty much guaranteed to get a FP+ for our favorite rides and I do not have to run around like a lunatic. The old system definitely favored the folks that went to the parks first thing in the morning and now it does not.

 

[rangerxenos]

For the way we tour, no RD so arrive late morning and stay late, we LOVE FP+. The old way, we would rarely get any FPs for the top rides and if we did, they were all late at night. Now we are pretty much guaranteed to get a FP+ for our favorite rides and I do not have to run around like a lunatic. The old system definitely favored the folks that went to the parks first thing in the morning and now it does not.

This!

 

[pens4821]

For the way we tour, no RD so arrive late morning and stay late, we LOVE FP+. The old way, we would rarely get any FPs for the top rides and if we did, they were all late at night. Now we are pretty much guaranteed to get a FP+ for our favorite rides and I do not have to run around like a lunatic. The old system definitely favored the folks that went to the parks first thing in the morning and now it does not.

While we are early to the parks, I agree that I like the new system better. I never went out of my way for FP before, and I love now that I can plan a headliner in the afternoon with FP+ and ride it early in the morning too. I know people miss the old way, but my preference is +.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

Our family still prefers the old system and we have had 3 trips with the new system.

 

[Sevey13]

Our family still prefers the old system and we have had 3 trips with the new system.

Do you mind elaborating a little bit? The OP has not been for a little while and might appreciate some specific comparisons.

 

[g-dad66]

With paper FP, we could do multiple rides on the grandkids' favorite attractions. The new system makes this virtually impossible.

The upside of FP+ is that you can arrive mid-day and have FP+ for three favorite attractions (well, in two of the parks. Tiers ruin that for Epcot and HS).

Since we are a Rope Drop crew, the downside far outweighs the upside for us.

 

[Tink415]

We've had 6 trips with FP+.

As for the old FP system, we liked it, but we didn't arrive early, have a runner, go later than the time on the FP, etc. We still did lots of rides. Haven't used a touring plan for the last 15 years. I think the old FP system was so great because not many people took full advantage and lots didn't use it at all.

FP+
- A real benefit is being able to schedule rides in the late afternoon or evening, this fits how we like to go to the parks.
-I find its easy to schedule FP+ ahead of time on my laptop, then modify and adjust the times to exactly what I want (all except A&E and luckily that was a one and done for us). I've had trouble with FP for parades and Wishes, but if I keep going back can usually get what I want for at least one day...but I do find it aggravating to have to keep going back.
-I've never tried for a 4th FP+ at a park. It seems like it would be a pain and I don't want to bother.
-I overheard quite a few conversations over Christmas where people were using 2 sets of magic bands to schedule additional FP+, I was shocked.
-Changing things at a park on my iphone is a PIA.
-Thing always need to be changed because ... life happens..rides break down, etc. My family will not tell me 60 days ahead of time what they want to ride, so I do the best I can and make changes while we're there.
-My dd gets upset that I'm looking at my phone so much at the parks... she's 16, that says a lot. I don't always have my phone in my hand constantly during regular life or other vacations.
-It makes me, ... maybe sad is the word, scheduling FP+ for Epcot and DS, and even AK, because it makes me realize there aren't 3 rides we want to and are able to schedule.

I guess overall I like new FP+ but also find it somewhat aggravating.

oh, remember to take a pic of all your FP cause if you need to look up a time at a park, there is a good chance the app will flake out.

 

[Sevey13]

See, I have the opposite experience. With FastPass+, I can do multiple rides on my favorite attractions and guarantee a spot from anywhere in the park right on my phone. The old system this was impossible, as someone would have to run across the park and hope that there were paper passes for later in the day.

The upside of FP+ really lies in the app, the websites, and the kiosks. If you are anywhere near one of these three things (and in the parks you are), then you have the whole 'World' at your fingertips. You may feel the tiers ruin it, but when I look over the tiers there really aren't all that many attractions that I really want a Fastpass on to begin with. At Epcot, for example, just Soarin' and Test Track really, the others rarely have a line when I'm in the parks (I go in mid-May) or I don't mind waiting a few minutes to check out the queue (like Nemo).

I'm a rope dropper too and I find that I really get more out of it than someone who comes later to the parks. I just schedule my FastPasses for the morning, and when they are done just keep making more and more and more, or hop to another park and get a FP there. Unlike the old system, there is not (in my experience) a time delay between when you can get more FastPasses as there was in the old system. You just finish one and make a new reservation. And, another huge perk over the old system, if I am, for example, in Frontierland and I have a FP+ for Space Mountain starting now, I can just pop on the phone or hit a kiosk and push that FP+ out until later so I am not running to get across the park or change it on the fly to whatever might be near me. You physically could not do that under the old system. Instead, if you didn't show up for your window, you would waste a FP spot that someone else might have really wanted. I find that the upsides for me as a Rope Dropper far outweigh the downsides. Really, the only downside I see is the fact that you can't do the same attraction on your initial FP+ setup. That ties in with the tier system, too. This means that you can't, for example, set up three back-to-back FastPasses for Star Tours to ride it a bunch. BUT, could you really do that under the old system, at least conveniently? Meaning without having to send a runner every half hour to hope that you'll get a slot that works for you?

Anyway, I'm totally pro FP+.

 

[Sevey13]

We've had 6 trips with FP+.

As for the old FP system, we liked it, but we didn't arrive early, have a runner, go later than the time on the FP, etc. We still did lots of rides. Haven't used a touring plan for the last 15 years. I think the old FP system was so great because not many people took full advantage and lots didn't use it at all.

FP+
- A real benefit is being able to schedule rides in the late afternoon or evening, this fits how we like to go to the parks.
-I find its easy to schedule FP+ ahead of time on my laptop, then modify and adjust the times to exactly what I want (all except A&E and luckily that was a one and done for us). I've had trouble with FP for parades and Wishes, but if I keep going back can usually get what I want for at least one day...but I do find it aggravating to have to keep going back.
-I've never tried for a 4th FP+ at a park. It seems like it would be a pain and I don't want to bother.
-I overheard quite a few conversations over Christmas where people were using 2 sets of magic bands to schedule additional FP+, I was shocked.
-Changing things at a park on my iphone is a PIA.
-Thing always need to be changed because ... life happens..rides break down, etc. My family will not tell me 60 days ahead of time what they want to ride, so I do the best I can and make changes while we're there.
-My dd gets upset that I'm looking at my phone so much at the parks... she's 16, that says a lot. I don't always have my phone in my hand constantly during regular life or other vacations.
-It makes me, ... maybe sad is the word, scheduling FP+ for Epcot and DS, and even AK, because it makes me realize there aren't 3 rides we want to and are able to schedule.

I guess overall I like new FP+ but also find it somewhat aggravating.

oh, remember to take a pic of all your FP cause if you need to look up a time at a park, there is a good chance the app will flake out.

-I've done the 4th at another park. It wasn't a pain at all, I just walked up to a kiosk, scanned my card, and off I went.
-I find the second band thing to be pretty low, in my opinion. Why would people game the system like that and deprive other families of an experience? Just mean
-I have had no problem with the iPhone app. I found it intuitive and pretty reliable. That said, my last use was two years ago when it was still just rolling out so the program may have changed since then, but I would hope it wouldn't backslide.
-As for things like rides breaking down and family, etc., is the ride breaking down any different than under the old system? I genuinely don't know...do you get a sort of open-ended pass?

 

[MelanieRI]

I would say there is pluses and minuses to both paper FP and FP+. In the old days, if a favorite ride was on the FP system, you could try to get multiple FP for that. I felt like it worked b/c I'd rather have multiple FP for Space Mountain then 1 for Space Mountain and 1 for Peter Pan. That left Peter Pan FP open for someone who maybe enjoyed that ride more then SM. As someone who liked to park hop, I like that I could still get FP at the next park I hopped to. Now I have decide which park I want to use the FP+ at. And I don't like how the FP+ are tiered at certain parks either. However, as someone who goes at busy times like Christmas it's nice to know that we'll at least have 3 FP+ picks that we'll be able to use with the parks being so crowded. And if you do ADRs, you're able to schedule your FP+ around them, where if you pulled a paper ticket, you didn't have an option for the return time.

I don't feel like it's too difficult securing the FP+ when you want them, as long as you are planning as soon as the window opens. Sometimes, I book a trip past the 60 day mark and then, I only have a tough time getting stuff like 7 Dwarfs Mine but just keep checking back if it's really important.

I'm sure everything will be fine!

 

[Tink415]

-I've done the 4th at another park. It wasn't a pain at all, I just walked up to a kiosk, scanned my card, and off I went.
-I find the second band thing to be pretty low, in my opinion. Why would people game the system like that and deprive other families of an experience? Just mean
-I have had no problem with the iPhone app. I found it intuitive and pretty reliable. That said, my last use was two years ago when it was still just rolling out so the program may have changed since then, but I would hope it wouldn't backslide.
-As for things like rides breaking down and family, etc., is the ride breaking down any different than under the old system? I genuinely don't know...do you get a sort of open-ended pass?

Yea, I'm being lazy not wanting to get a 4th FP, but they change the location of the kiosks, and there are lines. Maybe next trip!

When a ride breaks down your FP will disappear from the app and you get an email telling you what you can do instead. Something like FP anytime at certain rides. We've used it for other rides and the same ride when it came back up. The first time it happened I didn't know to check my email and saw it after we had left the park.

I have iphone 6s and AT&T service, I think the app is slow and flakey. I try to get other family members to be the MDE planners but they won't go for it. lol.

 

[Nancyg56]

For the way we tour, no RD so arrive late morning and stay late, we LOVE FP+. The old way, we would rarely get any FPs for the top rides and if we did, they were all late at night. Now we are pretty much guaranteed to get a FP+ for our favorite rides and I do not have to run around like a lunatic. The old system definitely favored the folks that went to the parks first thing in the morning and now it does not.

I like the new system as well. I admit that I don't get my bloomers in a bunch planning them, I just book them around the times we will enter any given park. I do wish I could use MdE to book additional passes once the ones we have are expired.

 

[Jennasis]

I still prefer the old system. On a personal level, booking FP+ in advance gives me anxiety...like I'm taking the SAT's and I'm afraid of choosing the wrong answer. I've found that with some attractions, changing "on-the-fly" as so many tout as an advantage, isn't possible as there are no FP available to change TO on the day of, or the times are then so limited as to be not usable for us.

I do not care for the hunt for a kiosk to make that elusive 4th FP. That is, assuming there is even anything other than Small World or Turtle Talk left by the time we are able to try for a 4th. I understand that we should be able to make the 4th from our phones soon.

The new system has made making multiple rides on my favorites nearly impossible like we used to do with original FP.

It IS good for our arrival day as we drive and typical arrive around 4pm.

Otherwise, the new FP is absolutely MEH for us.

 

[BeerMe]

I hated running at park entry to get FP. I love the ability to get what I want long before we go.

 

[Gracie09]

I like the new system as well. I admit that I don't get my bloomers in a bunch planning them, I just book them around the times we will enter any given park. I do wish I could use MdE to book additional passes once the ones we have are expired.

I agree with this. I have stood on longer lines to get the fourth fp than for some rides.

 

[AngiTN]

Would like to get many of your take on this:

I used to love planning a disney trip!!! It was always me vs Disney when it came to touring the parks. I loved being the FastPass runner and seeing how many attractions we could hit and how many fast passes we could collect. I felt like we were rewarded for getting to the parks early and following the most basic disney touring principles of collecting fast passes at the earliest possible windows etc. I was really upset when they started enforcing the one hour window of return but I could deal with that. I could go on and on about how much I loved the old system, but now.....onto the new.

My first question is why the change??
Secondly, it is what it is and I will adapt, but it seems difficult to me to plan fast passes,etc 30-60 days out. Our first trip with FP+ comes in July.

For those of you fellow Disney Lovers out there, give me your take on FP+ and if and why you like the new system.

How difficult is securing fastpasses when you want them??

Sorry so long but it just seems to me that FP+ Takes some of the magic away. I'm hoping some of you can convince me otherwise.

My favorite part? I can ride a ride in a time frame I want to.
Want to ride 7DMT during Wishes? Book a FP then. It would be next to impossible to plan to pull a paper FP to give you a ride during the time you need. Standby would be even more impossible.
It was a real issue for us in DL/DCA. We wanted to ride RSR at night. There was no way to pull a FP to be sure we got a night one. We didn't want to waste hours in a stand by line. I found myself really wishing I had FP+
I realize there are some negatives, namely needing to plan what park you'll be in when.
But for us, the positives to FP+ outweigh the negatives 2 to 1

 

[richmo]

I'm overall OK with the new system. I like the ability to set things up a month in advance. I'm/we're offsite more often than not, so we don't get the 60 day window...but that hasn't been a problem at all. As others have mentioned, it's especially nice if you're not getting to a park early, which is most useful on arrival day.

But the system isn't perfect:
- I'd like to see split advance FP's for park hoppers (for example, schedule 2 at MK, one at Epcot)
- For that matter, I think it would be nice for park hopper/AP's to automatically get a 4th advance FP, but it would be Ok to have the restriction of at most 3 in any one park (in advance, that is)
- Not thrilled with the tiering. This is more a fault of not having enough "E" ticket attractions at Epcot and DHS right now. I don't like it, but I can see why it might be necessary. (And the tiering could be what's keeping the above two points from happening)
- The kiosk lines can be long. I keep hearing that we should be able to add the 4th FP on our smartphones "soon", but it still hasn't happened.
- I'm bad at remembering when my times are when I'm in the park. It would be nice to have some "read only" stations where you could touch your magic band and see your times and maybe standby wait times. I know that's all available in MDE, but I'd be pulling my phone out a lot less...

 

[msmama]

I HATED the old FP system so the new one works just fine for me.

Running at park entry? No thanks. Not how I want to vacation. And the times I got yelled at for NOT running or being in someones way as I leisurely walked down main street - I'm glad those days are past.

Rope drop is better now, I think. Because many people now plan their FP+'s for later in the day, it seems (I don't know if it's true) that the rides are less busy in the morning (or maybe everyone is going to 7D and PP, but I don't have to because I have my FP's for later). At less busy times I can get a good half a park done before lunch (heck, even Presidents Day weekend we got a lot done in the morning)!

I've never scheduled a 4th from a kiosk but I've never needed to either. And I still have never waited more than 20-30 minutes for a ride. Actually, that's not true and the one issue I've had with FP+. It's happened several times that I'm in front of a ride (Pooh, it's always been Pooh) and have 40 minutes until my FP time AND there's a 40 minute wait (and we've done everything else in the immediate area). Still, options are nice (and my son always picks to play in the stand by line of Pooh, which means I can get on my phone and change our Pooh FP to something else)!!

I don't find I'm on my phone too often, but that's also a conscious choice. In fact, I don't know what people are doing on their phones a lot of the times (I put no faith in wait times at all unless I see the line for myself). I may pull it out when we're in line, while my son is off playing (like above in the pooh line) but really, I don't know why I would have to keep checking it. That will change a bit when they start with the 4th FP from the app thing, but still, I think I'd get the FP and then put the phone away.