Our FP+ testing experience 7/19

[nobie47]

Correct, and this continues to be the case.

I'm sure you will have a very smooth trial of the system. I hope my info proves useful for you.

and you are still able to pull regular FP prior to using your FP+ right?

 

[delmar411]

and you are still able to pull regular FP prior to using your FP+ right?

Correct. We haven't park hopped just because it is too much with the kids on my own but I'm going to make an effort to park hop with just myself and my oldest on DH's day off just to see what happens.

 

[nobie47]

Correct. We haven't park hopped just because it is too much with the kids on my own but I'm going to make an effort to park hop with just myself and my oldest on DH's day off just to see what happens.

Thanks so much for your updates! We won't be park hopping but I really wanted to make sure I was able to pull regular passes at HS and AK due to our 2 favorites rides! That was the only reason I was leery of doing the testing.

 

[borgthe]

Disney should offer free wifi in each park so everyone can use the mde

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Disney should offer free wifi in each park so everyone can use the mde

Um, they do? They have for a couple of years. It just doesn't work that well, in my experience. On my last two trips, I've turned off Wifi on my phone and just used my data instead. Much less frustrating.

 

[mom2rtk]

Um, they do? They have for a couple of years. It just doesn't work that well, in my experience. On my last two trips, I've turned off Wifi on my phone and just used my data instead. Much less frustrating.

Maybe the PP meant they should offer free reliable Wifi in the parks.

 

[Tekneek]

The bands all worked at the park entrance and the CM working the touch points was asking about the bands and told me that there were covers I could purchase for the bands that supposedly made them more comfortable. While I'm sure that he was trying to be helpful, it came across as a Disney money grab which seems really distasteful.

Up-sell! A Disney vacation is expensive enough that they really don't need to play that game.

 

[DisneyFive]

And I was just able to book FP+ selections for tomorrow at Epcot. We are going to keep booking selections until the 1day tickets no longer work, half exp on the 28th and half on the 29th so I assume thats when it will stop working. It's mostly just for personal curiosity at this point although I don't really think I want to go to the parks every day for the next week.

We used FP+ at Epcot this afternoon. Test track, soarin and maelstrom. No issues at all.

Thanks for all your replies!

• How flexible are the times you are able to choose for each attraction? Can you choose an hour window of your choice? (as long as that time slot is available)
  
• How many FP+'s each day? 3?

When we did the very early test last Sept, there were options for you to pick the attractions you wanted and then it would automatically assign times. ...Or you could manually search available times for each attraction and choose hourly windows. (this is what we did).

Dan

 

[delmar411]

Thanks for all your replies!


[*]How flexible are the times you are able to choose for each attraction? Can you choose an hour window of your choice? (as long as that time slot is available)

[*]How many FP+'s each day? 3?



When we did the very early test last Sept, there were options for you to pick the attractions you wanted and then it would automatically assign times. ...Or you could manually search available times for each attraction and choose hourly windows. (this is what we did).

Dan

I can choose any hour that the park is open. No hour is blocked out unless I've already booked a FP for that time slot. And yes it's 3 per day.

Once you pick your park, then the 3 attractions, it offers up 4 set options. Once you pick one of those you can go back in and manually adjust each FP to the times you want.

Obviously with just a handful of people using the system ATM I can see all the hours of the day as choices. As the users increase the availability will become highly restricted and this is being reported by the August testers.

 

[DisneyFive]

I can choose any hour that the park is open. No hour is blocked out unless I've already booked a FP for that time slot. And yes it's 3 per day.

Once you pick your park, then the 3 attractions, it offers up 4 set options. Once you pick one of those you can go back in and manually adjust each FP to the times you want.

Obviously with just a handful of people using the system ATM I can see all the hours of the day as choices. As the users increase the availability will become highly restricted and this is being reported by the August testers.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Sounds somewhat similar to our experience.

Edit... I see, so you can choose your favorite three attractions and then adjust the timing? You can choose any combination of three attractions you want? Thanks for the clarification on how to manually choose a time slot. I agree, as this gets rolled out full force, I'm sure availability will be much more limited, but thanks for detailing how you can manually adjust your times.

I wonder if you could choose two Soarin and one Test Track time?

Dan

 

[CariBelle]

Wishes is only offered as a FP+ option for me on a day when MK has EMH, I don't know if that's true for everyone, but it's what I'm seeing on MDE right now.

I'm also playing around with times on our FP+ and every hour that the park is open is not an option for us. We will be there 8/20-8/28 and I'm only getting six or seven time slots available for each attraction. I'm guessing that's because more people are testing during that time and they have already taken the allotted slots per hour.

 

[delmar411]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Sounds somewhat similar to our experience.

Edit... I see, so you can choose your favorite three attractions and then adjust the timing? You can choose any combination of three attractions you want? Thanks for the clarification on how to manually choose a time slot. I agree, as this gets rolled out full force, I'm sure availability will be much more limited, but thanks for detailing how you can manually adjust your times.

I wonder if you could choose two Soarin and one Test Track time?

Dan

Any 3 different attractions, no double booking the same ride unfortunately.

 

[DisneyFive]

Any 3 different attractions, no double booking the same ride unfortunately.

Once this goes fully live and regular 'ol FP's are gone, this will be a HUGE bummer. Let alone if they enforce only three FP+'s.

At Epcot the only attractions we pull FP's for are Soarin and TT. Typically TT is only once, but Soarin is two FP's at least!

I hate to sound spoiled, but I don't want to sit in a long SB line when we used to be able to manage it much better with FP's!

Dan

 

[2Tiggies]

Um, they do? They have for a couple of years. It just doesn't work that well, in my experience. On my last two trips, I've turned off Wifi on my phone and just used my data instead. Much less frustrating.

I've read some reports that it has improved. Whether that is the case I don't know, but we were there from the first week of September last year at which time it was still fairly new (only MK and Epcot had wifi at the time) and it was terrible There were a handful of very specific spots in each of those two parks where wifi would kick in and work, one of which was the queue for Splash Mountain of all places! But for the most part it just didn't work at all, kept losing connection and resulted in a battery being drained way too quickly from continuously trying in vain to connect so there were a few evenings when I ended up with no phone at all.

I really do hope it's improved. It's one thing having free wifi for all those using social media in the parks, but adding MDE is going to have an enormous impact on the volume of users so this is going to be interesting

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I've read some reports that it has improved. Whether that is the case I don't know, but we were there from the first week of September last year at which time it was still fairly new (only MK and Epcot had wifi at the time) and it was terrible There were a handful of very specific spots in each of those two parks where wifi would kick in and work, one of which was the queue for Splash Mountain of all places! But for the most part it just didn't work at all, kept losing connection and resulted in a battery being drained way too quickly from continuously trying in vain to connect so there were a few evenings when I ended up with no phone at all.

I really do hope it's improved. It's one thing having free wifi for all those using social media in the parks, but adding MDE is going to have an enormous impact on the volume of users so this is going to be interesting

We were there last October and it was terrible. I'd heard reports that it was better, but we were just there last month and it still was no good in the parks. I don't know if it's the app that's bad or the Wifi or both.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Once this goes fully live and regular 'ol FP's are gone, this will be a HUGE bummer. Let alone if they enforce only three FP+'s.

At Epcot the only attractions we pull FP's for are Soarin and TT. Typically TT is only once, but Soarin is two FP's at least!

I hate to sound spoiled, but I don't want to sit in a long SB line when we used to be able to manage it much better with FP's!

Dan

Only one per attraction is a major issue for me, too. We only pull FPs for Soarin' at Epcot. At DHS, we only pull FPs for TSM. On a typical DHS day, we'll ride TSM 4 times, three of those times with FPs. The fact is at DHS, TSM is one of only two rides (the other being Star Tours) that holds any appeal for my young kids. I agree with the previous poster who said in some thread that the TSM FP "problem" is because of a lack of options in that park, not because it's the be all and end all of rides.

 

[ses1230]

Once this goes fully live and regular 'ol FP's are gone, this will be a HUGE bummer. Let alone if they enforce only three FP+'s.

At Epcot the only attractions we pull FP's for are Soarin and TT. Typically TT is only once, but Soarin is two FP's at least!

I hate to sound spoiled, but I don't want to sit in a long SB line when we used to be able to manage it much better with FP's!

Dan

Agreed.

 

[delmar411]

Once this goes fully live and regular 'ol FP's are gone, this will be a HUGE bummer. Let alone if they enforce only three FP+'s.

At Epcot the only attractions we pull FP's for are Soarin and TT. Typically TT is only once, but Soarin is two FP's at least!

I hate to sound spoiled, but I don't want to sit in a long SB line when we used to be able to manage it much better with FP's!

Dan

It does suck for those who don't use FP at all the different rides just at a couple. But I guess you could ride soarin SB at rope drop with a scheduled ride at TT and Soarin later and then use the 3rd for something else (we choose maelstrom but I wouldn't ride it normally).

 

[delmar411]

We were there last October and it was terrible. I'd heard reports that it was better, but we were just there last month and it still was no good in the parks. I don't know if it's the app that's bad or the Wifi or both.

It's been terrible the past few weeks. I rarely can connect to it at all.

 

[DisneyFive]

One more question regarding FP double dipping.

So, you were chosen to test the FP+ system which meant you got the wrist bands, right? How were you able to use the regular paper FP machines? Did you also get the old Key To The World card as well?

My basic question is, how were you able to use the regular FP machines if you were using the wristbands for all the other stuff?

Thanks!!
Dan