Our 4th FP+ of the day...

[frozengurl]

Yes, the debate between FP+ and FP- really comes down to a debate between those who go at Rope Drop and those who do not. Sure, those who drink the Kool-Aid will love Disney even if they told you tomorrow that they were discontinuing Mickey Mouse as a character. But I have read a TON of the FP+ vs FP- debates, and for the most part, it seems like the rope droppers and touring planners hate FP+ while those people who come to the parks an hour or two after rope drop are glad they can book 3 FP+ in advance. I am in the latter group...I have only done one rope drop at AK, and while it was nice, my son and i were tired earlier and didn't do anything after 3pm that day except chill at the hotel. I absolutely love the FP+...even if it isn't perfect. It's nowhere near perfect. But even getting 1 FP+ in advance makes my trip. Now, I KNOW I will get on Soarin and TSMM. No doubt about it. I KNOW I will see A&E. No doubt. I have FP+ booked. But I also see the other side...why should I, this lazy non-rope dropper, get to experience Soarin between 9:45 and 10:45 with little wait on a Monday morning when I didn't get there for rope drop? I know every other trip I have ever been on, I have not been able to get FP- for a time before 6pm on Soarin because I usually wasn't walking up to the kiosk until after 11am. I have also seen them be out of FP- many times. So yeah, does FP+ suck for those of you who go to rope drop? Probably. Do I care? Nah. Because for me, I get to do 3 things with little wait every day of my trip and that's all I really care about. If I get a 4th, then woo hoo!!! If not, then oh well.

I am a rope dropper and touring planner and I LOVE FP+! The thing I'm not is commando crazy... I'm on vacation so the idea of running all over the park to get FP's was never fun for me... Having my 3 already booked is wonderful! I like that I can have a touring plan and already what times I'll have my FP's for... It has made it so much more relaxed! And bc of FP, our next trip, we are actually planning some non-RD days and I'm SO excited about that!!!

 

[frozengurl]

This gets to the nub of the question I'm raising. How much are you gaining by blowing through those first 3 FPs? Not that many rides in MK get lines that are very long in the first two hours after opening, especially if you look at actual, as opposed to posted, wait times. You might be able to avoid 3 lines in the first 2 hours, but those lines may not be more than 5-10 minutes long, if that. On the other hand, if you schedule your 3 FPs for 12-2, you can use those FPs to avoid lines that are a lot longer than they were from 9-11. That is why I am asking what rides at MK that one would get FPs for between 9-11, and how much value they would have. The two that would probably make the most sense would be Space Mountain and Peter Pan (if you want to do those) because their lines build up faster than any other attractions at MK. But, it is not difficult to do both of them in the first hour with little or no wait. Mornings with EMH throw another wrinkle into this. With EMH it isn't difficult to do Space, Buzz, Peter Pan, and a couple other of the Tomorrowland or Fantasyland attractions in that first hour. Then, when the park opens for everyone, we have always been able to do BTMRR, Splash, HM, POC, and JC in no more than 2 hours. If you do that, you have done 8 or 9 of the most popular attractions in the park without using a FP, so you will still have your 3 FP+ reservations to use for. If you use the 3 FPs in the first two hours, you wlll be relying exclusively on the vagaries of the FP pool for the rest of your FPs for the day, including during the middle of the day when standby lines are longest.

EXACTLY! I agree... Once again!

 

[frozengurl]

But aren't people reporting that SB lines at RopeDrop are actually significant now?

I was there the weekend before Easter... A fairly busy weekend Sunday was a 7 I believe.... We still did not need a FP for the first 2 hours... Lines were not over 15 min. But thankfully we had splash, thunder mountain, & Peter Pan later in the day bc it did get busy around 11 (which was right when we used our 1st FP at PP) then we went to BOG for lunch and when we were done w/ lunch it was very busy... Lines were minimum 30min. But most were more! We were so thankful we had already finished FL +HM and half of tomorrowland! Now we had our FP's to use! We went to Splash first but then we decided we were ready for a break, so we got on DME and changed our FP for BTMR for a later time in the evening with no problem! When we came back from our afternoon break we were able to ride POTC and we headed over to make our FP at BTMR! We decided to skip the parade & fireworks that night and we were able to ride more rides throughout FL & TL!

 

[frozengurl]

Oops MDE not DME... Goodness all these abbreviations!!!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Oops MDE not DME... Goodness all these abbreviations!!!

That's all right - I called it MDE to a CM at a kiosk and was corrected. He told me it was MDX not MDE in a semi-snotty way.

I asked him if it was an acronym. He said yes.
I asked if the acronym was for My Disney Experience. He said yes.
I asked what letter the word experience started with. He said E.
I asked, Not X?

The CMs had a good sense of humor and laughed at that point, but you could tell that they had all been taught that MDX was the "proper" acronym for this thing. Right or wrong, is it really something worth correcting an guest over?

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I really feel as though once the word is out about how fp+ works, rope drop will be busier, people will have to start getting their advance fp for earlier in the day and standby lines will get much longer. I really think this is the calm before the storm only because people don't know how to use it to their best advantage yet. This will translate into less headliners available later in the day at the kiosks. Also, I've read of several people losing their fastpasses that they reserved online in advance and Disney isn't seem to be doing much to help them out. I felt so bad for a lady that posted that she actually lost her A&E fastpasses and couldn't get them back!! If I had a trip planned, and I lost my reserved fastpasses, i'd cancel my trip. I'm sorry but there's no excuse for Disney to roll out a new system if they haven't worked out all the kinks yet.

 

[minmate]

This gets to the nub of the question I'm raising. How much are you gaining by blowing through those first 3 FPs? Not that many rides in MK get lines that are very long in the first two hours after opening, especially if you look at actual, as opposed to posted, wait times. You might be able to avoid 3 lines in the first 2 hours, but those lines may not be more than 5-10 minutes long, if that.

On the other hand, if you schedule your 3 FPs for 12-2, you can use those FPs to avoid lines that are a lot longer than they were from 9-11.

That is why I am asking what rides at MK that one would get FPs for between 9-11, and how much value they would have. The two that would probably make the most sense would be Space Mountain and Peter Pan (if you want to do those) because their lines build up faster than any other attractions at MK. But, it is not difficult to do both of them in the first hour with little or no wait.

Mornings with EMH throw another wrinkle into this. With EMH it isn't difficult to do Space, Buzz, Peter Pan, and a couple other of the Tomorrowland or Fantasyland attractions in that first hour. Then, when the park opens for everyone, we have always been able to do BTMRR, Splash, HM, POC, and JC in no more than 2 hours. If you do that, you have done 8 or 9 of the most popular attractions in the park without using a FP, so you will still have your 3 FP+ reservations to use for. If you use the 3 FPs in the first two hours, you wlll be relying exclusively on the vagaries of the FP pool for the rest of your FPs for the day, including during the middle of the day when standby lines are longest.

I agree with your assessment of strategy; however, if an overwhelming number of guests book FP+ between 9-11 (or the first couple hours, whatever they may be) for the rides you want to do early morning, then we might see early morning standby lines getting longer faster. If everyone employed the strategy as you suggest, the scenario would work (not taking into account the fact EVERYONE probably won't get the times that we all consider optimum).

I think it still remains to be seen how additional FP+ bookings will affect strategy. More days and more awareness needs to occur to establish a new history.

 

[wisblue]

I agree with your assessment of strategy; however, if an overwhelming number of guests book FP+ between 9-11 (or the first couple hours, whatever they may be) for the rides you want to do early morning, then we might see early morning standby lines getting longer faster. If everyone employed the strategy as you suggest, the scenario would work (not taking into account the fact EVERYONE probably won't get the times that we all consider optimum).

I think it still remains to be seen how additional FP+ bookings will affect strategy. More days and more awareness needs to occur to establish a new history.

Even though I remain skeptical that FP+ is going to have a major impact on crowds and standby lines at park openings, I am more interested in talking about the optimum strategy for now and the short term future. There have been people on this board who were talking about redoing all of their FP+ reservations for trips this week so that they could get a 4th FP as soon as possible.

I would really like to know what 3 FPs someone would get for the first two hours that would save them that much time compared to what they could save by using FPs a little later.

If it develops that early morning crowd patterns change significantly, I can think about changing my strategy then. But, in the meantime, I think that making your 3 FP+ reservations as early as possible may result in you getting more FPs for the day while doing fewer attractions than if you had saved those FPs for later.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Even though I remain skeptical that FP+ is going to have a major impact on crowds and standby lines at park openings, I am more interested in talking about the optimum strategy for now and the short term future. There have been people on this board who were talking about redoing all of their FP+ reservations for trips this week so that they could get a 4th FP as soon as possible.

I would really like to know what 3 FPs someone would get for the first two hours that would save them that much time compared to what they could save by using FPs a little later.

If it develops that early morning crowd patterns change significantly, I can think about changing my strategy then. But, in the meantime, I think that making your 3 FP+ reservations as early as possible may result in you getting more FPs for the day while doing fewer attractions than if you had saved those FPs for later.

I do understand what you are saying and I think we're just gonna have to wait and see. Hopefully it'll be figured out by the time I make my ressies in Aug for my Oct trip.

To answer your question tho the 3 I can think of would be A&E meet, 7DMT (obvi when it open up) and Peter Pan. Although if you went to PP first you'd be OK. But if I remember correcy it was about a 30 min wait already at 9:25 am on a most recommended crowd level 4 in Dec. So def saves some time. I'm thinking that A&E first thing could be advantageous b/c you get that one out of the way while everyone else is in line and then maybe you'all have shorter lines for Rapunzel and Merida too. Just gotta wait n see.

 

[Shaden]

Even though I remain skeptical that FP+ is going to have a major impact on crowds and standby lines at park openings, I am more interested in talking about the optimum strategy for now and the short term future. There have been people on this board who were talking about redoing all of their FP+ reservations for trips this week so that they could get a 4th FP as soon as possible.

I would really like to know what 3 FPs someone would get for the first two hours that would save them that much time compared to what they could save by using FPs a little later.

If it develops that early morning crowd patterns change significantly, I can think about changing my strategy then. But, in the meantime, I think that making your 3 FP+ reservations as early as possible may result in you getting more FPs for the day while doing fewer attractions than if you had saved those FPs for later.

I am going to try a couple days burning FPs quite early, and seeing just how many we can pull throughout the day, for what attractions, etc.

I am very much looking forward to this change, and think this might allow FP+ to work a lot better for our touring style, but that also depends on just how many more people are now using FP+, what the availability is compared to previous years, etc.

We will see. I begin the trip Friday afternoon, and will have some good reporting by Monday or tues.

 

[Shaden]

Report!
After using last prebook FPP at Pooh, went to FL kiosks and wait less than 1 minute in line.
#4- Booked Buzz at 2:45 for 2:55-3:55 window
After bathroom break, rode Buzz.

DS4 wanted to go to Laughing Floor, so went to FP kiosk by it, no wait.

#5- Booked Laughing Floor at 3:19 for 3:25. Clock struck 3:20 and used FPP to enter line with green mickey.

Didn't look at other availability. Sorry.

THIS report, looks extremely promising for commando users.

They were essentially able to STACK FP+s. Using 2 within the same 1hour period.

This is something I will be trying to do in particular.

 

[Mad Hattered]

THIS report, looks extremely promising for commando users.

They were essentially able to STACK FP+s. Using 2 within the same 1hour period.

This is something I will be trying to do in particular.

The only thing that concerns me about that report Shaden, is the fact that they literally booked them 5 minutes before they could use them. That would lead me to believe they could have just rode standby with the same result. Had those selections been Space at 30 minutes out and Splash 30 minutes afterward I would be all over it.

 

[Shaden]

The only thing that concerns me about that report Shaden, is the fact that they literally booked them 5 minutes before they could use them. That would lead me to believe they could have just rode standby with the same result. Had those selections been Space at 30 minutes out and Splash 30 minutes afterward I would be all over it.

I agree that that is quite possible, but I wouldn't also put it past the average user to get in a 30 or 45 minute line, and not even bother to check or book FPs for it ... heck they did it all the time under legacy.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I agree that that is quite possible, but I wouldn't also put it past the average user to get in a 30 or 45 minute line, and not even bother to check or book FPs for it ... heck they did it all the time under legacy.

To answer your question from the other thread...people are reporting that once you get your 4th FP at the kiosk or CM Ipad that you can move it around for a different time if available using the app. Someone yesterday moved one up from 3.5 hours out to 45 minutes out. They weren't stacking them, though.

I know you will try.

 

[Shaden]

To answer your question from the other thread...people are reporting that once you get your 4th FP at the kiosk or CM Ipad that you can move it around for a different time if available using the app. Someone yesterday moved one up from 3.5 hours out to 45 minutes out. They weren't stacking them, though.

I know you will try.

Indeed I shall, and now, I think I am up late enough that if I get up early ... I will be tired enough tomorrow night to sleep despite the excitement for my flight Friday morning.

Goooood night !

32.5 hours til touchdown in Orlando ...

 

[Mad Hattered]

Indeed I shall, and now, I think I am up late enough that if I get up early ... I will be tired enough tomorrow night to sleep despite the excitement for my flight Friday morning.

Goooood night !

32.5 hours til touchdown in Orlando ...

Have a great trip!!!! And break it!!

 

[2Tiggies]

I know you will try.

We're counting on it!

 

[wisblue]

I agree that that is quite possible, but I wouldn't also put it past the average user to get in a 30 or 45 minute line, and not even bother to check or book FPs for it ... heck they did it all the time under legacy.

One reason people might get in a standby line even though FP return time is not far out is that they are already holding a FP for something else and aren't eligible to get another one.

 

[wisblue]

I do understand what you are saying and I think we're just gonna have to wait and see. Hopefully it'll be figured out by the time I make my ressies in Aug for my Oct trip.

To answer your question tho the 3 I can think of would be A&E meet, 7DMT (obvi when it open up) and Peter Pan. Although if you went to PP first you'd be OK. But if I remember correcy it was about a 30 min wait already at 9:25 am on a most recommended crowd level 4 in Dec. So def saves some time. I'm thinking that A&E first thing could be advantageous b/c you get that one out of the way while everyone else is in line and then maybe you'all have shorter lines for Rapunzel and Merida too. Just gotta wait n see.

I'm also skeptical of a 30 minute standby wait at PP less than 30 minutes after the park opens. That could be an example of a posted wait being a lot longer than the actual wait. We have seen that many times at PP and other rides in the first hour or two after park opening. Disney loves to post inflated wait times at the most popular rides early in the day to encourage guests to move on to a less popular one. Witness the routine posting of 20 minute wait times at Under the Sea even though there is literally nobody in the standby line.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

I'm also skeptical of a 30 minute standby wait at PP less than 30 minutes after the park opens. That could be an example of a posted wait being a lot longer than the actual wait. We have seen that many times at PP and other rides in the first hour or two after park opening. Disney loves to post inflated wait times at the most popular rides early in the day to encourage guests to move on to a less popular one. Witness the routine posting of 20 minute wait times at Under the Sea even though there is literally nobody in the standby line.

I would be skeptical too except I waited in it. I slacked off one morning and got to the park about 9:10 instead of before rope drop. I only had FP+ b/c I was at Pop and had scheduled FP+ in the afternoon. That line was all of 30 mins when I got there ~9:30.