Our experience with MBs/FP+ and a few other things

[KyGirl]

We were in Disney a week ago, from November 30 to December 7 and I've really been debating about whether to throw my thoughts out or not. Some of the posters on this board are so scary and I was afraid I would unknowingly bring up some hot button issue or another. But ultimately, I decided if anything I had to say could help somebody with their planning I'd give it a shot.

We drove all night from Kentucky and arrived at Pop for one night at about 7:30 Saturday morning and our room was ready. I was so relieved after our all nighter that I about cried! We took turns napping and taking care of our 18 month old DD, who'd slept the whole way. We'd gotten our bands in the mail about a month earlier and they worked perfectly, as the room key and for charging. My parents decided the day before that they'd also get a Saturday night room at Pop and they had to get their bands at check in. Those bands worked perfectly too. I had really mixed feelings about Pop but I guess that's for another board.

Sunday we checked out, went to Celebration to go to church and lunch and then checked into OKW in a two bedroom villa (on rented points). Our room was ready here too (at about 2:00) and we loved it here so much. It was one of the best parts of our vacation. What a beautiful relaxing place. Celebration was an interesting detour as well. It's a beautiful little town and we loved going to mass at the church there.

Lots of background I guess but for the purposes of this board, we were in the parks Monday December 2 through Friday December 6. I have to say I was really nervous after reading so much about all the new technology and as the planner for the whole crowd I felt very responsible. We really loved the Magic Bands though. They worked for us every single time. For every purpose. We did not have one problem.

I'm still trying to sort out my feelings about FP+ though. We aren't rope drop people so it was really great to have those three choices booked before we left. Especially the biggies TSMM, Soarin, ect, just like everybody says. But one of the things I remember most about this trip is that it seemed like we were constantly either hurrying up or waiting. I spent a lot of time when I set up our FP+ choices looking at maps and trying to plan the day to limit our backtracking but this seemed to leave us rushing to make our first pick and then having to sit around waiting for our second. I'm not sure that this is so much a function of FP+ over FP-, but it was definitely something that I noticed. And as the planner/timekeeper I felt like I was constantly staring at my watch and worrying about the next thing. We were able to change a couple FP+ options on the go but usually by the time we realized we needed to, it was too late. I know that's different than what some have been reporting but I was always disappointed with the available times when I tried to readjust our schedule. We had several close calls when we had problems with Disney transportation or something else unexpected come up where we were running to make prescheduled times. Although I guess that could have also happened with old FP-s, it just seemed way more pronounced and stressful to me this time.

On the positive side though, I used to always be the FastPass runner so it definitely saved my feet to not be running back and forth across the park. And if you asked the rest of the people in my family, they'd probably give you a much more positive review of the system because they didn't do any of the pretrip planning/stressing/researching and they just let me boss them around once we were there. There were no worries for them. Maybe this is just something that I haven't read yet but this wasn't something that I remember many people mentioning, this added level of stress and the whole rushing to wait around thing. Lots of people mention the stress of planning ahead but not so much the stress of making those plans come to life. I felt more of that on this trip even though we purposely made fewer ADRs than normal.

It's worth mentioning that I booked before the tiering was put into place. Like everybody else, I would have been very upset if we'd had those restrictions. Specifically at Epcot. Also, our opinions were definitely swayed by the fact that we were still able to pull old FastPasses. In fact, we could pull them with our room keys and the plastic tickets that Undercover Tourist sent us. We only did this a few times but it definitely affected our days. We used this ability once when we started the day at AK but had FP+ booked for DHS in the evening and we used them a few times at MK. Three a day just really doesn't cut it in that park. At AK, we ended up with some extra safari FastPasses and gave them away. But why do people always act like you're trying to hand them a live snake when you give away FastPasses? Are there really that many people that still don't understand them?

My last thoughts on FP+ are that the one for BOG is worth it's weight in gold! We didn't love the food but at least we got to see what everybody is talking about and see the castle. I would have been very disappointed with the experience if we'd waited in that long line but being able to walk right in made it something to try once. We enjoyed it enough for that.

Another thing we did was the Candlelight Processional package. At the restaurant, they told us to get in line a half hour before show time. No big deal. When we did this I was shocked how long the line was. We walked and walked to get to the end of it and I was getting so angry. I was about ready to scrap the whole thing because I thought there was no way all those people could get seats and get in for the show. Once they opened the doors though, the line moved really quickly and everybody made it in plenty of time. We got awesome seats. In fact I think better than the front of the line because we were right in the middle. I just wanted to mention this huge line thing because I wasn't expecting it but it was totally not a big deal. It was our first time seeing the show and while I know lots of people are disappointed about some changes, we didn't know any better and we thought it was lovely. A really great show.

Of course, this isn't Disney's responsibility but the main difference between this trip and others is that we were traveling with our toddler. The last time I traveled to Disney with a child, it was me. I think this made the pros and cons of FP+ even more evident. It was great to have things prescheduled so she could avoid lines, but anyone with a toddler knows how well planning works with them! And if she was asleep at an unexpected time, it was such a huge decision to decide to wake her up for a FP+ that couldn't be rescheduled or to just take a pass on her getting that experience. That made it kind of tough. Because she's so young and it was her first trip, it was even harder to decide months ago what she'd like or hate. We were really on the fence about character meets because I thought she might be scared (She LOVED them by the way) so it was kind of a risk to use some of those precious FP+ choices on those. Just a thought for some of those traveling with the preschool set.

One other thing that I thought was more apparent is the learning curve that is evident with a trip to Disney. Obviously everybody reading this is on the DIS and therefore fairly well versed in all this stuff but I always find it shocking how many people drop that kind of money on a trip and obviously do no research. You can tell that many people are clueless about a lot of this stuff and I think the Magic Bands will only deepen that divide, unless Disney does some major education here. We've all gotten the dirty looks in the FastPass lines from people who think we bought the privilege or something and I think that seemed more pronounced when people with brightly colored bands appeared to be cutting the lines. I was also surprised by the multiple times we were in the FP lines behind somebody who was trying to use the bands just to skip the line. They hadn't booked anything but thought the bands were some sort of express pass or something. It just seems like there's even more to learn these days and fewer people are doing their homework. That's one of the main problems that I can see Disney running into with all this new technology.

My only real complaint is how many Christmas parties there are. I don't get this. For us, it doesn't seem worth it to buy an extra ticket for a day that we've already bought tickets. I know people love them though and to each their own. However, it seems like they have them so often that it really cuts down on the time that the MK is available during a week. Especially as we were also trying to avoid parade filming during our trip. That was my major rant for the whole week.

Anyway, overall it was another great trip and we so loved being there with our daughter. I've always loved Disney but it really was true magic seeing it through her eyes. It was much much different but so worth it. I know lots of people say she won't remember it and I know that's true. But she loved every second of it and I'll remember that forever. So for us, it was worth it. But in all honestly, I'm waiting to see how the rest of this FP+ drama shakes out before I book our next trip! There were so many changes happening during this roll out and I was sweating it the whole time! And there were some big changes that we lucked out on but could have really put on a damper on things if our luck had fallen on the other side.

I'm sorry about all the rambling here. That's just how my brain works. If you're not interested, I hope you didn't waste any time reading this. Hopefully some of our experiences might help somebody else out there struggling and worrying over their decisions. Thanks!

 

[ArwenMarie]

I felt the same way, lots of hurrying and waiting. It's hard to describe.

The Christmas parties are a real drag, I agree with you on that. I refuse to pay extra for those tickets on top of park tickets, it's just not worth it to us. But then it ruins MK on the nights of the parties, and then on the non-party nights, it is more crowded. Very annoying!

We went pre-tiering too.

 

[Marshay]

Great recap! We were there the same time and ITA with a lot of your points.

I am the planner and FP runner so it was nice not to run around, we slept in a bit and scheduled our FP+ for either mid morning or evenings. But three was not enough and if we were tiered, that would have been worse.

Yes, I felt there was a lot of waiting around, too. In fact, we actually spent less time in the parks, bc once our mere 3 FP+ were done, we left. And when our Tampa friends joined us, we had to forgo our FP+ bc they didn't have them. So instead of riding anything with them, we just talked the whole time and saw one character.

Now my parents went with us and they were completely confused about bands, FP, etc. they don't want to plan and they don't use smart phones. They are seasoned Disney folks and very unhappy about MB, FP, etc. they go again in a May and not sure what they are going to do...

I agree about the Xmas parties too. We have a AP so shelling out another $60 pp is a splurge. We decided not to do it and found we had only one night all week to see MK at night, Wishes, MSEP.

I loved the MB esp for our room key and charges. Ours worked all week, thankfully.

 

[princesslover]

I'm still trying to sort out my feelings about FP+ though. We aren't rope drop people so it was really great to have those three choices booked before we left. Especially the biggies TSMM, Soarin, ect, just like everybody says. But one of the things I remember most about this trip is that it seemed like we were constantly either hurrying up or waiting. I spent a lot of time when I set up our FP+ choices looking at maps and trying to plan the day to limit our backtracking but this seemed to leave us rushing to make our first pick and then having to sit around waiting for our second. I'm not sure that this is so much a function of FP+ over FP-, but it was definitely something that I noticed. And as the planner/timekeeper I felt like I was constantly staring at my watch and worrying about the next thing. We were able to change a couple FP+ options on the go but usually by the time we realized we need to, it was too late. I know that's different than what some have been reporting but I was always disappointed with the available times when I tried to readjust our schedule. We had several close calls when we had problems with Disney transportation or something else unexpected come up where we were running to make prescheduled times. Although I guess that could have also happened with old FP-s, it just seemed way more pronounced and stressful to me this time.

Bolding mine. I too, felt exhausted by the timekeeping. We actually lost our Soarin FP+ because we were relaxing in the room that morning because we had the Candlelight Processional that evening, and I didn't want to get to Epcot too early. When we got to the bus stop at 10:30, I realized our window for Soarin ended at 11:10. I thought it *began* at 11:10. We raced there upon park entry, but between the long bus ride and the long line t get in, we missed it by 30 minutes. I tried to change it while on the bus, but like you said we were too late. The only times conflicted with our CP meal or the time we needed to be in line, so that didn't work. Luckily, we still had TT because we reserved pre-tiering as well. But it meant a 50 minute standby for Soarin. I kicked myself for the rest of the day...after that, I had everything written down on paper so we wouldn't forget. I felt so bad, like I let my family down.

It makes me wonder how many other people have made a similar mistake? Or maybe I am just really, really dumb.

I feel the same way re: Candlelight Processional. We were in line one hour early, and the line was still super, super long. I liked the show, but not worth so much time waiting (IMO).

I share your sentiments with the party also. We are glad we did it twice, but no more. Between trying to muscle our way to all the different shows, parades, etc, we barely went on any rides at all. No more. As a matter of fact, I think our next trip will be non Christmas altogether.

Thanks for posting!

 

[Marshay]

Also, yes, we found we couldn't change our FP+ either as nothing was available ... And the week was only supposed yo be a crowd of 4-6. Imagine if it was more crowded?

I'm hoping that when FP- goes away that it will open up more FP online, so then the system would work better for same day changes. We were only able to change same day two times all week.

 

[wiigirl]

Great recap.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I kept looking down at the band wishing it had a clock on it...otherwise known as a watch. If I'm going to have to wear something on my wrist, can they put a cheapie clock it for crying out loud!

 

[princesslover]

Also, yes, we found we couldn't change our FP+ either as nothing was available ... And the week was only supposed yo be a crowd of 4-6. Imagine if it was more crowded?

I'm hoping that when FP- goes away that it will open up more FP online, so then the system would work better for same day changes. We were only able to change same day two times all week.

I too, was disappointed at the availability of both FP+ and FP-. It makes me wonder if it was because many people there booked pre-tiering, so were able to make reservations for all headliners? The day we were in Epcot, I think FP- were gone by 12:30 for Soarin and TT. I don't go to Disney enough to know if that is normal for early December or not.

 

[magicbob]

Some of the posters on this board are so scary and I was afraid I would unknowingly bring up some hot button issue or another.

Some of us may sound scary from time to time, but we're actually just a bunch of harmless teddy bears.

 

[rebbyparker]

These are great posts and bring up some things to think about. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.

 

[KyGirl]

Bolding mine. I too, felt exhausted by the timekeeping. We actually lost our Soarin FP+ because we were relaxing in the room that morning because we had the Candlelight Processional that evening, and I didn't want to get to Epcot too early. When we got to the bus stop at 10:30, I realized our window for Soarin ended at 11:10. I thought it *began* at 11:10. We raced there upon park entry, but between the long bus ride and the long line t get in, we missed it by 30 minutes. I tried to change it while on the bus, but like you said we were too late. The only times conflicted with our CP meal or the time we needed to be in line, so that didn't work. Luckily, we still had TT because we reserved pre-tiering as well. But it meant a 50 minute standby for Soarin. I kicked myself for the rest of the day...after that, I had everything written down on paper so we wouldn't forget. I felt so bad, like I let my family down.

It makes me wonder how many other people have made a similar mistake? Or maybe I am just really, really dumb.

I don't think you're dumb at all! That's how I felt all week too! Almost panicked making sure we got everything done on our list at the end of the day. And if something didn't work out it was like I'd disappointed everybody. Not that anybody would have said anything (or probably noticed!). I was really putting this pressure on myself. But it's just a lot to remember. I felt like I needed to study my cheat sheet every morning and then consult it all day and keep up with everything. I don't really know why this happened with the FP+ so much more than with FP-. I mean, you still had a return window with those so it wasn't like that was any different. Maybe because these new FP+ feel like such a commodity that it's harder if you let them go than in the past. I don't really know but it's kind of hard to explain.

It just seemed like a new level of stress in the parks, to me anyway. Of course, my family was pretty unconcerned about it all. I always say that taking them to Disney is like trying to herd cats around. And that was before we went with a toddler.

 

[KyGirl]

Also, yes, we found we couldn't change our FP+ either as nothing was available ... And the week was only supposed yo be a crowd of 4-6. Imagine if it was more crowded?

I'm hoping that when FP- goes away that it will open up more FP online, so then the system would work better for same day changes. We were only able to change same day two times all week.

It was way more crowded than I was expecting that week too. I know that's somewhat controversial though as one person's crowded is another's deserted so I didn't even get into that!

 

[KyGirl]

I kept looking down at the band wishing it had a clock on it...otherwise known as a watch. If I'm going to have to wear something on my wrist, can they put a cheapie clock it for crying out loud!

I kept saying that all week too! I think it's a great idea. If you're going to be watching the clock it might as well be on your pretty magic band. Instead of the watch that felt weird on my "wrong" wrist. And I bet I checked my magic band for the time 100 times that week.

 

[ktlm]

But one of the things I remember most about this trip is that it seemed like we were constantly either hurrying up or waiting. I spent a lot of time when I set up our FP+ choices looking at maps and trying to plan the day to limit our backtracking but this seemed to leave us rushing to make our first pick and then having to sit around waiting for our second. I'm not sure that this is so much a function of FP+ over FP-, but it was definitely something that I noticed. And as the planner/timekeeper I felt like I was constantly staring at my watch and worrying about the next thing. We were able to change a couple FP+ options on the go but usually by the time we realized we needed to, it was too late. I know that's different than what some have been reporting but I was always disappointed with the available times when I tried to readjust our schedule. We had several close calls when we had problems with Disney transportation or something else unexpected come up where we were running to make prescheduled times. Although I guess that could have also happened with old FP-s, it just seemed way more pronounced and stressful to me this time.

This is close to how we felt too. I didn't need park maps because we have been going to WDW annually or sometimes bi-annually for years and I know where everything is and thought I had a decent idea based on past trips of where we would be at certain times during the day. I spent 3 hours when I booked FP+ tweaking and re-tweaking times (and dealing with glitches) to try to get our FP+ where we would not have to backtrack or run across parks. Even as familiar as we are with WDW, it didn't work.

At WDW, FP+ definitely added more stress and made the trip less enjoyable for us. It was nice to have that 1st FP+ of the day (Soarin, TSM, Safari, ETWB), instead of having to book it to that ride at rope drop. But other than than that, I felt like I was constantly staring at my watch or looking at my phone to be sure I had my times right and worrying about the next thing. Also, we never seemed to be in the area of the park we needed to be when that next FP+ time rolled around -even though I had worked hard to try to get them set up where we would be. FP+ involved a lot of criss-crossing the park and wasting time. We really felt like we did not get as much done because of it. We would have to leave an area and criss-cross the park to get to the FP+ and then at some point we would have to criss-cross back to the area we had not finished. We are used to maximizing time and doing whole areas before leaving, so we don't waste time going back and forth. We could barely even get MDE to work in the parks so changing FP+ times was next to impossible. The few times MDE worked to get us to the point where it could be changed, we couldn't get any times to come up to change to. DD(7) complained that I was spending too much time on the phone and was upset by that (usually at WDW I put down the phone and it is all about her). By the 2nd half of the week, we had decided to rely on the FP- system and not use our FP+ unless it was convenient for us. I'm really scared about our next trip, especially with tiering in effect. In fact, we have been every year at least once for the last 6 years, and for the first time ever we currently have no plans to return next year unless things change. We don't want to go with the tiering, or if the rumors are true that they are not going to let you book FP+ until 30 days out, so that you can not cancel your trip after you realize you can not get FPs for the attractions that are most important to you. We will probably go to DL unless they institute FP+ there, which I don't see happening. If we do, we will really miss EPCOT next year. We are talking about even branching out and taking our trips to non-Disney places until all of this gets sorted out. I have to be an optomist and believe that at some point WDW is going to realize that this isn't working well for their repeat customer base and will come up with a better plan.

 

[Brian_WDW74]

Per the Looking for the Live Report and Just Back Threads? sticky thread, I have moved this to the Disney Trip Reports board.

 

[NMAmy]

That was a great report. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

And I totally agree with you about comparing free fast passes to a live snake. Some people are too suspicious.

 

[princesslover]

I don't think you're dumb at all! That's how I felt all week too! Almost panicked making sure we got everything done on our list at the end of the day. And if something didn't work out it was like I'd disappointed everybody. Not that anybody would have said anything (or probably noticed!). I was really putting this pressure on myself. But it's just a lot to remember. I felt like I needed to study my cheat sheet every morning and then consult it all day and keep up with everything. I don't really know why this happened with the FP+ so much more than with FP-. I mean, you still had a return window with those so it wasn't like that was any different. Maybe because these new FP+ feel like such a commodity that it's harder if you let them go than in the past. I don't really know but it's kind of hard to explain.

It just seemed like a new level of stress in the parks, to me anyway. Of course, my family was pretty unconcerned about it all. I always say that taking them to Disney is like trying to herd cats around. And that was before we went with a toddler.

Thank you. You have no idea how bad I felt, but in the scheme of things, it didn't really affect our vacation of course. It was just a reminder that you can't really "relax" and go with the flow on a Disney vacation anymore. Because the moment I did relax, we missed a pretty important FP+. What was really annoying is that even the regular FP- wasn't an option in that case because they went so fast.

It did seem like a new level of stress in the parks. But like you said, my family didn't really notice as much. For the record, I thought it was busy too. We were there December 4-11, so we overlapped with you.

 

[wen8jr]

Great report and very insightful.

I plan like this - everyone else is so laid back because I do it all. It can be stressful even when it goes great, much less when it doesn't. I wish I could have someone plan like this for me just one time...I don't know if I would be able to relax or question every moment.

I understand the stress completely that you had on your trip and I knew that it would be exactly this way for me with FP+ too. With the tiering, and the FP- going away (unknown which resorts it would impact and when), we chose to postpone our Christmas trip. We don't know for sure when we will be back - waiting for some of this to clear up or we will plan to go at a slow time if we can.

Pre-planning to this degree is completely different than snagging a FP- on the go. We always knew we wanted to ride the headliners and we knew what we had to do to make sure we did - but we still had the ability to "go with the flow" throughout the day and be where we wanted to be in the park or go to a different park that day. Adding "appointments" to your entire day is not fun.

I just don't want to watch a clock that much when on vacation to get to ride a ride. ADRs, parade times, fireworks, etc. are enough already. I don't want every single moment and movement to be preplanned.