Returned recently from a sort of last minute 5 day trip to Florida and thought I'd give some positive feedback to change it up. We did not stay on-site (10 minute drive away roughly) and we had a group of 8 for both of the parks we did.
I found out about a month before the trip that we were going to WDW, and I haven't been keeping up with WDW news since I'm a DLR annual passholder on the opposite coast. I managed to squeak in some reservations at least! Imagine my surprise when I pop over here to read up, and I discover that MK is on this new fastpass+ system that everyone seems to dislike in one way or another. This had me a little worried since we had a few first timers with us, as well as people that hadn't been in over 10 years. I wanted to make sure we got to do everything but I didn't have much time to plan.
A couple days before we left I looked up where the new FP+ kiosks were so I would know where to go once we hit the parks. We had regular card tickets.
Our first day was MK and we headed over to the FP+ kiosk area in Fantasyland after arriving at the park roughly 1.5 hours after opening. We waited in line for a few minutes before a Cast Member scanned all of our tickets and tied our names to them. I named the attractions we wanted (Space, Thunder and Peter Pan since Splash was down) and it only took a few seconds for him to produce multiple schedules. He made sure we had no conflicting reservations and I snapped a photo of the schedule and we were good to go for the whole day!
Let me just say as the usual FP runner, I felt that this system made my "job" a lot easier, since I never had to check wait times or run across the park or really plan anything. However, I'm the kind of person who FP's the same rides every time since they're usually the busiest. We waited in short lines for most of the day and our fastpasses were definitely worth it for the rides we chose (all were 60+ minutes at the times we rode them).
The next day was DHS and we arrived 2 hours after park opening. I had thought FP+ wasn't active in this park yet but it was, and I found myself quite happy that I wouldn't have to run all the way to ToT or RnR for passes while my friends hung out at Star Tours! Since we had arrived so late I was prepared for all Toy Story fastpasses to be taken, and they were. The first FP+ line we saw was long, but a CM quickly showed us to another shorter line and in less than a minute we were planning our schedule. I mentioned we had a dinner reservation and the CM quickly mixed and matched schedules for ToT, RnR, and Star Tours (since no Toy Story) until it worked out, I snapped a pic and we were off for the day.
I found that all I really needed to do was plan when we ended up where so we had minimal walking between attractions, but that's something I usually do anyway even with paper FPs. In the end it worked really well for us, even if we did have 60 minutes to wait for TS, but we definitely had those 60 minutes to spare.
I really liked being able to simply tap my card to enter the parks and use my FP+, and so did the rest of our group. I saw a lot of Magic Bands during our stay, and all I could think about was how easy it would be to have everything on that band. I wouldn't have to pull my card out of my wallet so much, which was the only thing that bothered me. All in all we had a very fun time, and I'm now planning a trip for my family so we can try out the bands relatively soon.
I know a lot of people dislike this system, but I feel like it fits my style perfectly. Of course I didn't have the experience of having to make my FP choices from home or actually use Magic Bands, but I know I would have picked the same FPs I did that day in the parks with the ride closure knowledge I had. There is still room for error and for my opinion to change, but for now I think the new system works really well for me.
Did anyone else have a positive experience? What about with Magic Bands? Are there any major problems I should be prepared for? I know the system is new and I expect problems to come up, but by the time we go back next Jan I hope most things are ironed out. For now we're back to DLR with good old fashioned paper passes.
I found out about a month before the trip that we were going to WDW, and I haven't been keeping up with WDW news since I'm a DLR annual passholder on the opposite coast. I managed to squeak in some reservations at least! Imagine my surprise when I pop over here to read up, and I discover that MK is on this new fastpass+ system that everyone seems to dislike in one way or another. This had me a little worried since we had a few first timers with us, as well as people that hadn't been in over 10 years. I wanted to make sure we got to do everything but I didn't have much time to plan.
A couple days before we left I looked up where the new FP+ kiosks were so I would know where to go once we hit the parks. We had regular card tickets.
Our first day was MK and we headed over to the FP+ kiosk area in Fantasyland after arriving at the park roughly 1.5 hours after opening. We waited in line for a few minutes before a Cast Member scanned all of our tickets and tied our names to them. I named the attractions we wanted (Space, Thunder and Peter Pan since Splash was down) and it only took a few seconds for him to produce multiple schedules. He made sure we had no conflicting reservations and I snapped a photo of the schedule and we were good to go for the whole day!
Let me just say as the usual FP runner, I felt that this system made my "job" a lot easier, since I never had to check wait times or run across the park or really plan anything. However, I'm the kind of person who FP's the same rides every time since they're usually the busiest. We waited in short lines for most of the day and our fastpasses were definitely worth it for the rides we chose (all were 60+ minutes at the times we rode them).
The next day was DHS and we arrived 2 hours after park opening. I had thought FP+ wasn't active in this park yet but it was, and I found myself quite happy that I wouldn't have to run all the way to ToT or RnR for passes while my friends hung out at Star Tours! Since we had arrived so late I was prepared for all Toy Story fastpasses to be taken, and they were. The first FP+ line we saw was long, but a CM quickly showed us to another shorter line and in less than a minute we were planning our schedule. I mentioned we had a dinner reservation and the CM quickly mixed and matched schedules for ToT, RnR, and Star Tours (since no Toy Story) until it worked out, I snapped a pic and we were off for the day.
I found that all I really needed to do was plan when we ended up where so we had minimal walking between attractions, but that's something I usually do anyway even with paper FPs. In the end it worked really well for us, even if we did have 60 minutes to wait for TS, but we definitely had those 60 minutes to spare.
I really liked being able to simply tap my card to enter the parks and use my FP+, and so did the rest of our group. I saw a lot of Magic Bands during our stay, and all I could think about was how easy it would be to have everything on that band. I wouldn't have to pull my card out of my wallet so much, which was the only thing that bothered me. All in all we had a very fun time, and I'm now planning a trip for my family so we can try out the bands relatively soon.
I know a lot of people dislike this system, but I feel like it fits my style perfectly. Of course I didn't have the experience of having to make my FP choices from home or actually use Magic Bands, but I know I would have picked the same FPs I did that day in the parks with the ride closure knowledge I had. There is still room for error and for my opinion to change, but for now I think the new system works really well for me.
Did anyone else have a positive experience? What about with Magic Bands? Are there any major problems I should be prepared for? I know the system is new and I expect problems to come up, but by the time we go back next Jan I hope most things are ironed out. For now we're back to DLR with good old fashioned paper passes.
