Question for the folks who don't like FP+

[sunkissed4]

We've always been RD people and it's more necessary than ever now with FP+. We have two small kids so it's not as important at DHS, Epcot, and AK for us to make RD because we don't even use the 3 FP+ most of the time at those parks.

MK is a whole different story for us. After many trips with FP+, I still haven't found a way to make it work well for our family. RD and get our must-dos done, then schedule FP+ for rides later in the afternoon, but stand by lines are so long by that time that I feel like I'm just waiting around for my FP+ time.

I'm trying no FP+ this weekend at MK. It might be just me, but it stresses me out. I feel like I'm always on my phone checking times, trying to switch times, and dealing with blips.

Unfortunately, I think everyone realizes RD is very important because there seems to be more and more people showing up. Plus 9 am FP+ reservations make the RD lines a bit longer as well.

 

[mom2rtk]

Is this another "you're doing FP+ wrong because you didn't like it" thread?

*snicker, snicker*

 

[Annaml]

I've noticed a lot of threads complaining about SB wait times and the fact that 3 FP+ are not enough to tour a park and ride headliners multiple times.

For the folks who left unsatisfied with FP+, did you arrive at the park at rope drop? Or did you arrive at your standard time (whatever that may be)?

I went yesterday and it was a train wreck. We were there to celebrate my birthday, which was on sunday. We tried to get there at RD, but unfortunately my slow family (despite waking up at 5:30) prevented me from doing so We got into Epcot around 9:15, Soarin' was at 70 and the line was all the way out to the entrance, and Testtrack was also at 70. We rode single rider (we met up with friend and stayed with them the whole day) because it was only 4 of us riding and we didn't mind getting separated. That was a 10 min wait. Then, we rode Mission: Space, which was a 5 min wait for green. Maelstrom was closed when we were there. After lunch we headed to MK, where I had booked FP+ for the 3 mountains last week, but when we went to the kiosk at City hall to check our times, everything got switched up. We talked with one of the Guest relations CM's and her iPad/Mickey touch thing said we had NO FP+. Gone. Luckily, after spending an hour getting this fixed, she just gave us paper FPs for the rides and we were on our way. On the way back to Epcot, I cancelled the FPs we had (that we didn't use) to get some for Soarin. When we went to get one at the kiosk for maelstrom, it said that my FP for Soarin was gone. So the cm was very nice and gave us a FP for my whole party (3 of us at the time, because our friends left) FPs for Soarin. After that we left. Before this experience my experience with FP+ was very positive, but now, not so much. I don't really know how this will all work out in the end.

 

[Annaml]

Also the FP+ lines at all of the attractions I rode (SPace, Splash, thunder, TT, Soarin) were out in the walkway, Except for Soarin.

 

[MermaidMommy]

We are here right now and have only done one day. But for us FP+ was a huge success. We'll see how today goes. We started at AK on an EMH morning. So 8:00. They let us in at 7:45. We went to the Safari but it was closed until 8:15. So we dashed to EE and walked right on and then headed back to the safari for a less than 10 min wait. We went ahead and did Pangani trail as the crowds weren't bad and we like seeing the animals. Then we did Primeval Whirl which was a walk on. And then we did Dinosaur which was a 10 min wait. Then we ran into our first snag as Dino broke down and we had to be evacuated. They gave us fps and we were glad as Kali was at 25 min by that time. This was right before 11:00 am. After that we slowed down more & ate lunch and saw the bird show and Balloo & Louie. Which put us in a 30 min line for ITTBAB. That was right at noon. It's spring break & a level 9 and AK was the not recommended park. Yet we did it by 1:00 with many issues and slowly and didn't use FP+. So I feel rope drop is still the best option. We then switched to Epcot and used our FP+ on TT which had a 105 min wait at 5:00, & SE and Maelstrom. And I didn't see FP+ lines out into walkways. Today we do MK & DHS so I'm interested to see if we run into issues there.

Are you saying that you had FP's for TT and Malestrom? Those are both Tier 1 rides, so if you had FP's for both, you must have been able to take advantage of the one-day booking glitch. If you didn't have to deal with the tiers, I can see why you thought FP was a huge success, but you didn't have the normal FP experience.

 

[Sco]

I can't understand how both the FP+ and standby lines seems so much worse since the LFP machines were removed?
I am local, so I never go at RP anymore. I do like that I can decide I want to go tonight and make reservations online now, but if something happens on he way to the park, it is almost impossible to change times that late in the day and still get the same attraction. But it is not like I couldn't get the same rides before, just took a little more walking. And since standby lines are longer, I can almost never get other rides in, it is 3 and done almost every time I have been there lately. For me, it really feels like I am getting less with FP+. Despite all these arguments for, that is what it comes down to for me, I am getting less, and while I still have a pass, that may change if Disney is going to charge more and give less. And if enough people have the same problem they will change but until then I will complain when asked.
Are they ever going to use some of the other benefits, like texting deals or letting me know about things going on while I am in the park? Because I have yet to see anything like that which could be a benefit.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I'm trying no FP+ this weekend at MK. It might be just me, but it stresses me out. I feel like I'm always on my phone checking times, trying to switch times, and dealing with blips.

That's how I felt on our fall trip, stressed. There was a lot of hurry-up and wait. It was like having 3 ADRs a day.

 

[estherhead]

I'm curious where or how u ate lunch bc this doesn't seem realistic to me or for my family at least. "This was right before 11:00 am. After that we slowed down more & ate lunch and saw the bird show and Balloo & Louie. Which put us in a 30 min line for ITTBAB. That was right at noon." So it's just before 11am and u eat lunch, watch the bird of prey show, meet Balloo+Louie and are standing in line at ITTBAB by noon? Maybe u got something quick and ate it while u walked, really quickly. Not being negative here, I was actually comparing to my tentative touring plan for helpful planning purposes.

Yup. We hadn't planned on Flights of Wonder but we ate at Yak & Yeti as we left KRR. They have chicken nugget kids meals which was a special request. And I like the honey chicken. The seats we found were sandwiched between Flights & Baloo. We got our food at 11:10 and when that first bird flew over our heads at 11:30, the kids had to go see. I didn't go in because I've seen it several times before so I went and got into line for Balloo as it was ending. I was worried the Flights audience would make it longer. And then the kids joined me. So by noon we were walking toward ITTBAB. Even if you all went into the show if you sat in the back and immediately got in line for Balloo you'd be easily done with both by 12:15.

Currently I'm in line to meet Jessie and Woody. We again got here at rope drop (we'll probably take a break tomorrow morning) and easily did Rapunzel & Snow, then Winnie the Pooh, then Barnstormer twice, Dumbo, Little Mermaid, Small World. Between Dumbo & Small World we stopped to get a cinnamon roll at Gastons but they were filming the Middle and it was chaos so that slowed us way down. Now some of us are in line for Jessie and some are riding HM.

Today was harder. Our original plan was to do Rapunel and then PP. But the line for PP at 9:06 was 20 min (probably not really but the sign said that) and our family has ridden it a ton and it's no ones favorite so we skipped it and rode Goofy twice. But the crowds are a little wilder today. I'd say 90% are first timers. At least it feels that way. I haven't seen any fp+ return lines out into the sidewalks yet. But the FP+ kiosks are crazy and I would hate to be offsite right now. Just YUCK.

Walking by Splash & BTMRR they are both at 50 currently.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

We always arrive at rope drop or within 15-20 minutes of it. We hated FP+. We did feel that we got less done. We were locked into our FP+ well before our trip, which had to be based on total guesses as to what the lines would be like for those attractions, and where we would be in the park at a certain time of day. Even though we are annual visitors, our guesses were not correct. We had FP+ we would not have needed with the lines that day. We were there before they opened FP+ up to the masses, and MDE was glitchy and mostly did not work within the park for us to change them to something that actually needed FP+ that day, or it would tell us none were available. Now with FP+ opened up for everyone, the chances of being able to change a FP+ as you need them on the go, is going to be about impossible. Instead of doing areas of the park as we have always done in the past (i.e. grab a FP for the thing in that area that needs one, and then do everything else in that area and even shop a little as we wait for it to kick in), we found ourselves having to criss-cross the park trying to make our FP+ times, as we never seemed to be exactly accurate as to where we would be other than for the 1st FP+ of the day. I found it actually really cut in to my shopping time. I would shop while waiting for a FP time to kick in after doing some other attractions, or after our FP and before moving on to the next area. Now, we had to leave areas before we were done with them to make FP times. If we came back, it would be to pick up other attractions we missed, not to shop. My shopping time was mostly deleted by the time spent moving back and forth across the plus for FP+. Lines were longer to get through FP+, mostly because people weren't familiar with the scanners, and that the scanners took longer to register than a CM just taking a quick glance at a piece of paper. Some of the standby lines did seem longer due to FP+ being added. Even though we always arive at rope drop or shortly thereafter, we really felt like we got less done this trip than we were used to getting done in the past. We also felt much more tied to our phones, which we try to get away from at WDW. We spent a ton of time messing with the glitchy app. FP+/MDE really felt inefficient to us.

That's how we felt about and we had the benefit of using it before there were tiers.

 

[estherhead]

Are you saying that you had FP's for TT and Malestrom? Those are both Tier 1 rides, so if you had FP's for both, you must have been able to take advantage of the one-day booking glitch. If you didn't have to deal with the tiers, I can see why you thought FP was a huge success, but you didn't have the normal FP experience.

Yes, we were able to take advantage of that. Though even without it the Maelstrom line was 20 min when we got there. I wouldn't have minded that.

Also, I was mainly commenting on the rope drop advantage. I couldn't disagree more that it isn't huge. It will always be huge because people just can't do it despite their best intentions.

Today I'm feeling the crowds much more. But we also didn't move fast enough for a lot of things. Level 9 FEELS like a level 9.

I'll check back in later. Walking in to Crystal Palace.

 

[estherhead]

Just wanted to say I'm posting pics about every 30 minutes on Estherhead on Instagram or EnchantingBeginnings on Facebook if you want to follow along. Then you can see what we are/were really doing. Tho you won't find Flight of Wonder pics because I didn't go in and my family didn't take any pictures! Can you imagine?

 

[pbrim]

My issue with FP+ is that it's just too much advance planning and not everyone can schedule out their days months in advance. My friend and I both have medical problems that mean we never know until the day when we will be able to go to the park and how long we will be able to stay. So planning in advance is almost impossible, and we fear that on the day, our only choice may be to skip some rides or endure long lines that will lead to more pain and shorter park days. I've got FP+ for all our must-do rides, but most days I'm not even trying to schedule FP+, it's just too stressful. This trip had been in the planning for months, with too much invested to cancel, but it will be a while before we go again. The whole point is to have fun and relax, not get ulcers.

 

[redrosesix]

I've noticed a lot of threads complaining about SB wait times and the fact that 3 FP+ are not enough to tour a park and ride headliners multiple times.

For the folks who left unsatisfied with FP+, did you arrive at the park at rope drop? Or did you arrive at your standard time (whatever that may be)?

Always arrived at RD, always did EMH even if we hopped out shortly after they ended. We had planned to do some of the headliners SB to be able to ride again, but there just wasn't enough time since SB lines were longer for the other rides too.

I hope they don't give out more than 3 FPs -- SB lines would never move if people were constantly entering the FP return line.

 

[xie]

I've noticed a lot of threads complaining about SB wait times and the fact that 3 FP+ are not enough to tour a park and ride headliners multiple times.

For the folks who left unsatisfied with FP+, did you arrive at the park at rope drop? Or did you arrive at your standard time (whatever that may be)?

Okay so we did it all kinds of different ways during our 9 days using FP+. Sometimes we rope dropped and used the FP at night, sometimes we used them in the afternoon, sometimes we used them in the morning and went off property at night. None of those things is why I don't like FP+.

I don't like the new FP+ system because it's absolutely trashed standby lines in the parks. I don't understand it really, and nor do the crowd tracking websites yet (as evidenced if you read their postings, they have hypotheses but nobody is really sure), but somehow even on "slow" days the standby waits are now horrendous.

We used to pull 3-5 paper fast passes a day, and we would wait in any standby line 30-45 minutes or less. Now we get 3 FP+ and standby lines are measured in hours. In theory, our experience should have been more or less the same, but it wasn't. It was much worse and we managed to ride many fewer things. At times, we looked at the posted wait times, translated minutes to hours, and left the park and Disney property entirely. We went places in Orlando we'd never been before. Not sure that's what Disney had in mind.

 

[Bullseye]

The lesson we learned from our last visit is FP+ works great for people

See Jimmy... I knew you'd change your mind once you used the system

 

[TravelAgentJen]

Yes, we were able to take advantage of that. Though even without it the Maelstrom line was 20 min when we got there. I wouldn't have minded that.

Also, I was mainly commenting on the rope drop advantage. I couldn't disagree more that it isn't huge. It will always be huge because people just can't do it despite their best intentions.

Today I'm feeling the crowds much more. But we also didn't move fast enough for a lot of things. Level 9 FEELS like a level 9.

I'll check back in later. Walking in to Crystal Palace.

Thanks for all your "Live Reporting." It's very helpful

 

[magicbob]

See Jimmy... I knew you'd change your mind once you used the system

You left off the end of his sentence. But, then, you knew that already, didn't you?

 

[estherhead]

Just finished day 2. So we've now done bits and pieces of all four parks. We didn't use FP at MK at all. And it stunk. Lol. We did rope drop with our little ones & met Rapunzel, the Pooh, Barnstormer twice, Dumbo, Ariel, IASW, HM, and met Woody and Jessie. Our kids opted to skip PP. That was originally on our list. That was 9-12. Then we ate at Crystal Palace & switched to DHS. We fooled around a bit at the beginning of rope drop and the Middle was filming so our coffee and Cinnamon roll at Gastons slowed us WAY down at 10:00. I did get to see the kids of the cast tho so that was cool.

At DHS we had FP for GMR, TSM, and Star Tours. Our plan was to see shows all afternoon which would have been perfect. But some kids needed a serious break. So we only used the FP+ & then called it quits & came home instead and went back for Fantasmic.

As many have said on here 3 FP+ at MK is ridiculous. I'd rather see tiering at MK and get 5 FP+ then how it is currently. So this is my first truly negative thing about FP+. We are here 6 days and we are doing 2 MK rope drops and 1 staying until midnight. And we will use two days of our FP+ there. We do have to do almost every single attraction at MK & meet many characters because we super love the park, but still, that is dumb.

Also I did see a FP+ line out into a walkway at Star Tours at 3:00 today. We actually got in it. It was a very long line but only took 3 minutes to get to the front. And Star Tours area was an absolute zoo today. Worse by far than Pixar Place and I didn't think that possible. So I was happy with the efficiency of the line even tho it was in the walkway.

So far our score is
AK- FP+ didn't bother us at all, we didn't use it & didn't care.
DHS & Epcot were fine. We didn't see a huge impact.
MK- annoyed me.

I noticeably can tell my feet hurt less. Let me just say my sister & I once pulled 106 FPs for our families in one day at MK. So we were heavy users of FP. I think that's why my body can tell the difference.

Also our kids haven't complained about not getting to ride things multiple times. I think they might even enjoy the slightly slower pace. Goofini was the only redo requested and at 9:15 it was a walkon so a second ride was no problem.

I'm very very analyzing this FP+ thing currently. But if I take that nitpicking out of the equation, we are having a fantastic time. Even tho the crowds are ridiculous, it's so fun to watch newbie crowds enjoy the shows. ITTBAB at least half the audience jumped out of their seats in shock at the bugs. And Fantasmic tonight lots of people were gasping & a lady in front of us cried she was so touched & then her whole family hugged at the end. No joke. It's fun to watch people see what you love for the first time and delight in it with you.

I think it might be impossible to do WDW relatively thoroughly without 5 days & a hopper. A 1 day ticket to MK is pointless. At least it is on spring break.

 

[Bullseye]

You left off the end of his sentence. But, then, you knew that already, didn't you?

Well yeah I eliminated most of his post. I was just messing with him.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I can't understand how both the FP+ and standby lines seems so much worse since the LFP machines were removed?

FP+ lines are building because it takes longer to scan MBs than it does to check paper FPs, then add in the glitches people mention here w/FP+s not showing up, etc..so FP+ line builds.

SB line builds because the ratio of SB/FP+ riders changes because of the long FP+ lines. The # of FP+ riders to SB riders is increasing substantially to get the long FP+ lines cleared out, which causes the SB lines to slow as well.