Old FastPass vs FP+

[3DisneyFanz]

What trade magazine?

Themed Entertainment Association.

 

[disneydeal]

I think it's kind of stupid that I have to stay up past midnight on a work night 60 days out to do my picks for the trip. I mean 5:30 am alarm for work will be fun after that. Also what if 63 or 68 days from the time I pick its pouring down or plans change. I've been several times under both ways and I lean towards old system as I dont know what's for breakfast this morning but I have pick what I'm wanting to do in June or miss out?

 

[bcrook]

I think it's kind of stupid that I have to stay up past midnight on a work night 60 days out to do my picks for the trip. I mean 5:30 am alarm for work will be fun after that. Also what if 63 or 68 days from the time I pick its pouring down or plans change. I've been several times under both ways and I lean towards old system as I down know what's for breakfast this morning but I have to an what I'm wanting to do in June or miss out?

I feel this way too. I've also given up ADRs because of the credit card guarantee. I like to have the flexibility to wake up in the morning and say, instead of Kona tonight lets just spend the evening in DHS and eat at the Brown Derby Lounge. If you go to the concierge (or call or cancel on line) even 12 hours in advance, you will get a $10 fine per person!

If you decide at 6:00 am to go to DHS and then cancel your Soarin FP, you won't get a TSMM because they are booked up 20 days in advance. You might not get Rockin Roller Coaster. And at DHS, there isn't much else to do.

With legacy FP everything started fresh each day. If a family showed up on Tuesday at 5:00 pm and had limited access to rides, they could recover on day two. Now, if you show up unprepared, your entire vacation is going to be bad. There is no recovery. That had to happen 60 days ago.

 

[bcrook]

I posted earlier, but wanted to pop back in. I made our FP last night at 60 days out, and I didn't have any trouble getting what I wanted. One of them is 10 minutes later that I wanted, but that isn't a big deal to us. I used the website, and it was easy, didn't crash or anything, and went much easier than I thought it would.

There are a few factors that should be considered. Days your looking for, time desired, and how big your group is. That really makes a difference at even 60 days out.


With my AP this year, I've studied the availability at all seasons.

For a party of 8:
At 60 plus 3, I've been able to get everything available.

At 60 days. I've had trouble getting 7dmt, wishes and parades, and AE.

I've also had trouble scheduling evening rides at MK too. Even at 50-60 days. For example my arrival day was mid afternoon and couldn't get the park until 6:00 pm. Haunted Mansion was gone for the evening, months in advance. Plenty of availibility in the morning.

31-60. I have found Toy Story book up during this time. And found limited availibility for evening at Peter Pan and even RnRC.

Tens of thousands of people stay offsite, so they can't start playing until 30 days out. At this time I have limited availibility especially in the evening for all popular rides and mountains except for Animal Kingdom.

One of my days was close to Columbus Day - apparently that is becoming quite popular.

Also the Parties at MK killed me in the fall. In my four nights, two had Mickey Not So Scary. So along with everyone else, we had to jump on the other two nights that were available for late stays in MK.

The parties funnel people into parks on certain days. And it is crazy. There are no other options. In October they were closing DHS at 7:00 and Dak at 5:00. Epcot is a giant party in the evening so MK is the only choice. It makes it difficult to book Fastpasses on no party nights.

I think there are a lot of factors involved in getting what you want. It's easy at times, and very frustrating at others.

And if for any reason you change any of your plans 30 days later. Well then you have a mess.

 

[bcrook]

We love the new system. I hated having to spit up our group so someone could go run to try to pull FP. I love being able to change things on my phone, and my favourite part is getting past that second tapstile and pulling up MDE to bump up my next FP to what would have been an overlapping time. Gets up through more quickly, don't have to wait around in an area for the next FP window, and then we go on to get our 4th, 5th etc. I can honestly say on our last trip there were days we got up to 7 or 8 FPs without much planning.

I don't think it is fair to suggest that anyone at anytime can expect to get 7-8 good Fastpasses with no planning.

That could lead to a disappointing trip for some. For example in October, my 22 year old daughter and I wandered through all four parks one day to see what we could get for our extra Fastpasses.

At Epcot at noon. The only thing available was Nemo. The standby line was 5 minutes. At Dak at 2:00 we could get tough to be a bug only. And the FP line was longer than the standby line. At DHS we got a Star Tours at 6:00 and a great Movie Ride that had no line at all right before close.

I was on site 10 days last year. 5 in July and five in October. We never could pull a fourth Fastpass for any Mountain, Peter Pan, Soarin or Test track. The safari or dinosaur. Never for haunted mansion.

We did miracously luck out one night and got a TSMM for two at 7:00 pm. But never a tower of terror. We got a RnRC once.

I understand how certain family types (those with young kids) certain touring types (those that like the atmosphere and don't really care about riding a lot of rides) and those that enjoy showing up in the evening for a few rides and watch the shows would really like the FP+ system. It totally makes sense. But it doesn't translate well to all touring and family styles. Especially if you have a big group.

 

[bcrook]

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 +.

You know, the problem isn't FP+...it is the lack of rides to make FP+ work properly.

In October of 2013 I was one of the first groups to test FP+ for Kidani. And we had access to legacy Fastpass AND we could book three rides a day through FP+. It was really, really nice.

I loved being able to book Toy Story for 7:00 pm, star tours at 8:00 and Tower of terror at 9:00. And then that same morning go over to Epcot and grab a pass for Soarin ride it, and then two hours later grab one for test track. Eat in the world showcase take the boat down to DHS for my Advanced Ride Reservations.

It was awesome.

It could have been that way for everyone, if more attractions were built. They needed the third track for TSMM 10 years ago. Soarin third screen - should have been there no later than 2014. They should have put in multiple rides in Epcot. Pandora was announced in 2011, it should have been open in 2013. Toy story land should have had been open years ago with multiple attractions including a high capacity monsters inc coaster.

A separate Frozen ride should have been constructed.

They could have had a fifth gate built and opened right now had they started building in 2011 when the Next Gen ideas were being floated around.

Capacity issues is at the heart of this debate. Everyone would love FP+ if there was enough rides to accommodate the demand.

 

[mom2rtk]

You know, the problem isn't FP+...it is the lack of rides to make FP+ work properly.

You said a mouthful.

 

[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.

You still are rewarded for getting to the parks early. Rope drop arrival is still as productive as ever in getting a lot of rides done quickly, and with the massive popularity of 7DMT and A&E in Fantasyland, many good non-Fantasyland rides (like Big Thunder & Splash) are walk-ons for the first hour.

Why the change? Many guests (who visited less frequently than you) were unhappy with the long standby waits before, because they didn't know how to use FP- effectively, which was an insiders' system for the most part. Disney increased customer satisfaction for first timers and those who can't visit frequently, because FP+ is so heavily advertised & bookable in advance, most guests now actually make use of the system, whereas a sizable percentage did not use FP-.

Also, many guests are physically incapable of running around the park grabbing tickets. If you were disabled, or a single mom with kids, or if you were unfamiliar with the park layout, you were out of luck with FP-, while heavy using frequent vistors were riding the headliners multiple times per day. FP+ leveled the playing field for different kinds of guests, and I'm glad.

I haven't found it hard to plan FP's in advance. If you're going to Epcot, for example, is it really any mystery which rides you're going to want FP's for? You must have had a solid idea in advance if you were able to run into the park at rope drop & quickly nab passes for your favorite rides. This is the same process, just by computer. It's a bit more work in advance, but it helps me relax when we're actually at the parks, knowing we've got times set for our favorite rides.

We'll be there in July, too, and I hope you go with an open mind. It's great to be able to do rope drop & ride a lot of rides standby, then go on our FP rides in the late morning or early afternoon when the crowds are swelling. By then the parks are so full (you can't blame the crowded walkways on FP+ as WDW has more visitors than ever) we want to break at our resort, & we return for dinner & fireworks. FP+ also lets us schedule a few sleep-in days each trip, & it's great knowing that we can have a leisurely morning & nice, unhurried breakfast at WDW, then stroll right into a park at noon and get on our favorite ride.

Is the system perfect? No. As others mentioned, WDW needs more rides outside of MK in a big way. But like the big crowds, that is a separate issue from FP+.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

You know, the problem isn't FP+...it is the lack of rides to make FP+ work properly.

In October of 2013 I was one of the first groups to test FP+ for Kidani. And we had access to legacy Fastpass AND we could book three rides a day through FP+. It was really, really nice.

I loved being able to book Toy Story for 7:00 pm, star tours at 8:00 and Tower of terror at 9:00. And then that same morning go over to Epcot and grab a pass for Soarin ride it, and then two hours later grab one for test track. Eat in the world showcase take the boat down to DHS for my Advanced Ride Reservations.

It was awesome.

It could have been that way for everyone, if more attractions were built. They needed the third track for TSMM 10 years ago. Soarin third screen - should have been there no later than 2014. They should have put in multiple rides in Epcot. Pandora was announced in 2011, it should have been open in 2013. Toy story land should have had been open years ago with multiple attractions including a high capacity monsters inc coaster.

A separate Frozen ride should have been constructed.

They could have had a fifth gate built and opened right now had they started building in 2011 when the Next Gen ideas were being floated around.

Capacity issues is at the heart of this debate. Everyone would love FP+ if there was enough rides to accommodate the demand.

I can half agree with this. The fact that they had to add FP to things like GMR, Figment and Teacups to give enough choices kind of illustrates the fact that they just don't have attractions to justify the system.

I just really dislike the 60 day window part of it. If it was same day selections then it would feel less rigid and more flexible.

 

[bcrook]

I can half agree with this. The fact that they had to add FP to things like GMR, Figment and Teacups to give enough choices kind of illustrates the fact that they just don't have attractions to justify the system.

I just really dislike the 60 day window part of it. If it was same day selections then it would feel less rigid and more flexible.

I agree 60 day is bad.

With more rides, there would be less pressure to book.

Take TSMM at Disney California Adventure. They don't even have Fastpass for that ride. Because they have so much more to do, the demand for that ride is much less.

DHS - had so few attractions they created a monster with TSMM.

Actually, I would suggest that FP+ was a direct result of the craziness surrounding TSMM and the lack of attractions at DHS to counteract it.

I would say Disney would have to double their daily ride capacity to make DHS and Epcot work. And what they are building now will barely cover what they closed. So double DHS after star wars to truly make FP+ work.

That won't happen. I know.

Ride Capacity is the key though.

 

[disneyseniors]

I can understand why people might enjoy having three prescheduled FP+ if they want to arrive later. That can be useful. However we are rope drop people and weren't "super users". We always got plenty of legacy fastpasses by just taking our time and enjoying the less popular attractions in between. Of course many of those less popular attractions have become steadily more crowded for many reasons.

I prefer legacy because of how simple it all seemed. MK isn't too bad as far as attractions go but it's frustrating to use our only useful FP+ at Epcot and then stand there looking at each other wondering what to do next. I got with people who can shop for a while but not for hours. DHS was almost as bad (and might be worse now) because of tiering and FP+ being gone for the few good rides still open. We had no issues with AK but for us that's more of a park to stroll around in.

It's just too much. Schedules and parties and extras and upsells. It's not my idea of a vacation frankly when I have to deal with schedules every day at work. It was once easy to decide in the morning which park to visit and just go. I know that it can still be done but if we want to ride certain favorites it's not so easy.

Also I would schedule FP+ later in the morning until early afternoon and then you can add more. It is still possible to do some things pretty easily first thing in the morning unless the new morning extra changes that at MK.

I agree with you 100% Planogirl We are rope drop, legacy people, too. We had the option to pull a fp wit the old legacy fp while wandering around the parks. I think Disney has done what they wanted as in restructuring the crowds to minor attractions that never had lines before. But it is an inconvenience in so many ways to some of the guests, me included!
If you want a vacation without scheduling, then you might try a day or two at Universal! (blasphemy) We did that last year and it was wonderful to NOT have every second scheduled. Sure, we did Minions and HP first, but we were able to ride HP multiple times in a row without much of a crowd. We were there at rope drop, not onsite, so entered with everyone else. It was freeing to walk around, actually see and interact with characters who still WANDER the parks. The short parades actually stopped for the crowd and interacted with the guests. A lot of fun to see the children dancing with characters. All unplanned! We were amazed at being able to have all this freedom without looking at a schedule which we made several months in advance, so we wouldn't miss our one favorite fp!!!!!
It made me realize just what we are missing now at WDW. These are my opinions only, flamers, but I think a lot of other people feel this way.

 

[disneyseniors]

Themed Entertainment Association.

Yes, but what was the issue date, year? What was the exact quote?
You are letting us down, 3disneyfanz
Sometimes you just gotta, "let it go!)

 

[Dis703]

We love the new FP system. We are not morning people so we used to miss out on rides like TSM because FP were gone by 10am. Or when we'd tried to hop to Epcot for the evening Soarin FP were long gone. With the new system we never miss a must do attraction.

I have no problem planning even 60 days out, but we have also done trips at 1-2 weeks out and still get the FP we want. That might mean checking the site several times before what we want shows up, but it's not a big deal to me. I find with FP+ our time spent at the parks is much more relaxed. I plan them in a way to minimize criss crossing around the parks and we hit sections at a time. We pick our first three for before lunch and then add more as needed throughout the day. I love that we can change our FP if we find a line is short or if we just change plans on where we are going to be. We can walk by POTC and if the wait is 30 minutes long and we have more FP we go to a kiosk and it's not unusual to be able to add a FP for just 5 minutes out.

I think it's great we can start to add a fourth from the app. That wasn't a huge deal, but will just add to the overall convenience of the system.

 

[bcrook]

We love the new FP system. We are not morning people so we used to miss out on rides like TSM because FP were gone by 10am. Or when we'd tried to hop to Epcot for the evening Soarin FP were long gone. With the new system we never miss a must do attraction.

I have no problem planning even 60 days out, but we have also done trips at 1-2 weeks out and still get the FP we want. That might mean checking the site several times before what we want shows up, but it's not a big deal to me. I find with FP+ our time spent at the parks is much more relaxed. I plan them in a way to minimize criss crossing around the parks and we hit sections at a time. We pick our first three for before lunch and then add more as needed throughout the day. I love that we can change our FP if we find a line is short or if we just change plans on where we are going to be. We can walk by POTC and if the wait is 30 minutes long and we have more FP we go to a kiosk and it's not unusual to be able to add a FP for just 5 minutes out.

I think it's great we can start to add a fourth from the app. That wasn't a huge deal, but will just add to the overall convenience of the system.

I find it interesting that you mentioned TSMM and Soarin. Those are the two examples people use because their FPs were gone earlier in the day, but not as early as some people let on. If Disney had added a third track to TSMM and a third screen to Soarin years ago, a lot of those problems would have been taken care of rather than instituting a rationing system with tiers.

I would argue that your concerns would have been alleviated by expansion of rides without the hassles of FP+ (Including long lines on rides that didn't need FP before).

But based on the current limitations at Disney, I can understand why this works for you.

When I went to Disneyland this year. I was blown away by how much there was to do in California Adventure. That park has as much to do as Epcot and DHS combined. That is what WDW parks need. At that park you don't need FP for TSMM or Soarin.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Yes, but what was the issue date, year? What was the exact quote?
You are letting us down, 3disneyfanz
Sometimes you just gotta, "let it go!)

The truth is out there.

 

[Dis703]

I find it interesting that you mentioned TSMM and Soarin. Those are the two examples people use because their FPs were gone earlier in the day, but not as early as some people let on. If Disney had added a third track to TSMM and a third screen to Soarin years ago, a lot of those problems would have been taken care of rather than instituting a rationing system with tiers.

I would argue that your concerns would have been alleviated by expansion of rides without the hassles of FP+ (Including long lines on rides that didn't need FP before).

But based on the current limitations at Disney, I can understand why this works for you.

When I went to Disneyland this year. I was blown away by how much there was to do in California Adventure. That park has as much to do as Epcot and DHS combined. That is what WDW parks need. At that park you don't need FP for TSMM or Soarin.

The third track and theatre might help but that's only part of why we love it. The flexibility is what we love the most. With the old system first someone had to run around and get FP or we as a family had to which just meant more back and forth wasted time. And you never quite knew what return time they were going to have when you got there. Sometimes it was an hour or two later sometimes it wasn't until the evening. If it was during dinner or our afternoon break we were out of luck. Of course by the time we were going and using the old system they were enforcing the return time window. I imagine in the days they didn't that would have been much more helpful. This way if I'm going to be eating at BoG at 12 I make sure I get a FP for 7DMT right before or after since it's right next to us. I wouldn't be able to plan that sort of thing with the paper system because there is no predicting the return time.

I also like that it's offered on a lot more rides and attractions. Sure IASW was never a 1 hour wait so technically it may not have needed a FP, but I don't care to wait even 20-30 minutes for a ride if I don't absolutely have to, so if I can snag a FP and wait under 5 minutes vs. 20 I'm absolutely going to do it. Adding it to M&G was great as well. We never even bothered to stop for those lines but now we get a FP for those as well.

I can understand why someone who loved the old system might not be thrilled with the new one. But we were never thrilled with the old version so the changes have all been pretty much positive for us.

 

[bcrook]

The third track and theatre might help but that's only part of why we love it. The flexibility is what we love the most. With the old system first someone had to run around and get FP or we as a family had to which just meant more back and forth wasted time. And you never quite knew what return time they were going to have when you got there. Sometimes it was an hour or two later sometimes it wasn't until the evening. If it was during dinner or our afternoon break we were out of luck. Of course by the time we were going and using the old system they were enforcing the return time window. I imagine in the days they didn't that would have been much more helpful. This way if I'm going to be eating at BoG at 12 I make sure I get a FP for 7DMT right before or after since it's right next to us. I wouldn't be able to plan that sort of thing with the paper system because there is no predicting the return time.

I also like that it's offered on a lot more rides and attractions. Sure IASW was never a 1 hour wait so technically it may not have needed a FP, but I don't care to wait even 20-30 minutes for a ride if I don't absolutely have to, so if I can snag a FP and wait under 5 minutes vs. 20 I'm absolutely going to do it. Adding it to M&G was great as well. We never even bothered to stop for those lines but now we get a FP for those as well.

I can understand why someone who loved the old system might not be thrilled with the new one. But we were never thrilled with the old version so the changes have all been pretty much positive for us.

Yes, I like being able to choose a time and not just being given a random time.

 

[cedricandsophie]

While I like the app we are park hoppers. Out of 10 days at Disney we go to the parks one day and hit three parks at least. The rest of the time we hang at the resort, go to spring baseball at ESPN, etc. We tend to do highlights at parks and then move on. The new fast pass does not work well for us because we might get a good ride at one park and then two we don't want. Then when we move to a second park our other passes haven't expired yet so we can't get new ones. I know most people don't do Disney like this so I'm sure the new system works great for those that hang in one park all day.

 

[Angel Ariel]

And you never quite knew what return time they were going to have when you got there. Sometimes it was an hour or two later sometimes it wasn't until the evening.

I'm not debating that you may not have known the information, or that you personally necessarily had a way to get that information - but there was a way to get that information as long as you had a smartphone.

Disney had a "Mobile Magic" app for a while well before MDE came around (2009, now that I found the link) that had wait times as well as posted FP return times. There were also a lot of (accurate, from our experience) unofficial apps where users could input wait time information and it time stamped how recent that information was (wait times and FP return times). Mousewait, for example, has been around since at least 2009, and Touring Plans' Lines app has been around since at least 2009. So, speaking for ourselves, we generally did have a pretty good idea of what the FP return times were.

Disneyland had Mobile Magic too, but now MDE does what Mobile Magic used to even though DLR still has the legacy system. And for those who don't have smartphones, Disneyland also has a fantastic phone system called "ask Otto" which has been in place since 2012. You can call it and ask anything, including current FP return times. I still used it on our trip this past November. Otto's kind of fun to call There's no reason WDW couldn't have implemented something similar.

So, while I appreciate that being part of why you like FP+ better, the above quote that one "never quite knew what return time they were going to get" was not true for everyone once the age of smartphones and apps hit.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Yes, I like being able to choose a time and not just being given a random time.

I'm really curios what percentage of people try to change things so they are choosing a time versus those that just take whatever they are given? I'm not sure that FP+ is any less random for 90% of people than the old system was.