Recent experiences at the MK Kiosks?

[soniam]

The fact that there are so few kiosks is absolutely inexcusable. This system has been live for over a YEAR now, and was in an extended "testing" period for many months before that. Removal of kiosks (like the one at Storybook Circus) is especially insane if the infrastructure is already in place for it.

The Disney website currently lists only FOUR kiosk locations in Magic Kingdom. FOUR stations for tens of thousands of people each day. Compare that to the number of restroom areas, there are 23 listed restroom areas.

Why weren't all the old FP- stations re-purposed as FP+ kiosk areas? The space was already there, they had to have some sort of electrical conduit there.

Don't give them ideas. They may start closing/removing restrooms

 

[soniam]

I have had pretty good luck with both of our FP+ trips. At MK in March, I hit the kiosk between Frontierland and Adventureland in the breezeway just before the parade passed by. There were only two couples in front of me, and they only have one line for all kiosks there. In late July, I hit that same one twice with a 10 min wait max for an immediate FP+ at Buzz. In late July at AK, we went to the Disney Outfitters one and waited 5 min. In March, I just walked right up to the same kiosk; there were at least 2 CMs with tablets that were free. Plus, I usually go to the kiosks by myself while DH and DS are using the bathroom, having a snack, playing at playground (Swiss Family Treehouse, Tom Sawyer Island), or waiting in line for something (food, ride).

 

[hpriamson]

Don't give them ideas. They may start closing/removing restrooms

Maybe they should just put kiosks in the restrooms. Multitasking.

 

[soniam]

Maybe they should just put kiosks in the restrooms. Multitasking.

I love that I'm all about multitasking, especially at WDW. Maybe in the food lines too. You could get an FP+ and order a meal at the same time.

 

[kaymil]

When we were there the end of February, the City Hall kiosk was there and available to use freely, and no one was at it.

What I found frustrating was not a lack of kiosk; I actually stood in line for about 15 min. at the philharmonic kiosks, finally got my 4th fp in under 60 seconds from a cast member on an iPad when it was my turn, then continued towards the castle to discover that there was about 10 more kiosks just a few feet away with much shorter lines. That really confused me. I'm hoping someone else knows what I'm talking about because it sounds a little crazy now as I type this for Disney to have two sets of kiosks feet from each other but still enough out of view to not notice them right off, and it makes me wonder if maybe in my Disney stupor I was disoriented or something.

The other annoying thing was that most of the people in line had no idea what the heck they were doing, but that's humanity; it'd be nice if Disney could find a way to fix that, but I doubt it...

 

[summerw]

Has anyone seen this? It would be great to hear first-hand experience of this playing out.





Disney continues to allow guests visiting Magic Kingdom through April 12th to book a 4th FastPass+ in advance, so long as they set up their FP+ no earlier than two days in advance. Guests who have already booked FastPass+ for dates through the 12th will be assigned a 4th low priority FastPass+ experience, which can then be modified to the attraction and time of your choice. The two attractions currently being assigned are it’s a small world and Journey of the Little Mermaid. This is basically an attempt to lower waits at the kiosks for 4th, 5th, etc. FP+ users.
http://www.easywdw.com/news/a-few-newsworthy-notes/

 

[KEVD]

Has anyone been to the FP kiosk in Adventureland this week? I'm curious if that one has been any less busy than usual with JC being down for refurb (less foot traffic in that area?).

 

[Nhebron]

Do you need to use a kiosk to book 4th fast pass or can you use your phone?

 

[Mickey & Minnie Mom]

Do you need to use a kiosk to book 4th fast pass or can you use your phone?

Must use kiosk to book 4th fastpass and all subsequent ... Once selected at kiosk, modifications can be made using phone.

 

[lauradis]

Do you need to use a kiosk to book 4th fast pass or can you use your phone?

Disney continues to allow guests visiting Magic Kingdom through April 12th to book a 4th FastPass+ in advance, so long as they set up their FP+ no earlier than two days in advance. Guests who have already booked FastPass+ for dates through the 12th will be assigned a 4th low priority FastPass+ experience, which can then be modified to the attraction and time of your choice. The two attractions currently being assigned are it’s a small world and Journey of the Little Mermaid. This is basically an attempt to lower waits at the kiosks for 4th, 5th, etc. FP+ users.
http://www.easywdw.com/news/a-few-newsworthy-notes/

what the above poster said if you missed it.... but I wouldnt bank on it they keep switching up the rules so who knows what they will do in next 6 + months.

 

[Missyrose]

Perhaps I'll send an email to them with my experience. I'm an experienced park goer but I've only been twice since FP+ came along. I had a reservation at BOG for dinner at 7:40 and I got in the kiosk line at 7:00 and was done at 7:28 I'd say. I figured I didn't even need a FP for Pirates as late as we wanted to ride it (and I was right...we could have walked right on) but it was the only ride left we really wanted to do and hadn't done so... haha!

We were there last July and ALL THREE of our FP+ experiences were cancelled because of a huge rain/thunder storm that lasted throughout much of the day so the rides I'd picked were closed down. The rain was torrential (I'm not kidding....probably one of the worst I've seen) for hours and rescheduling all 3 of those was a nightmare. In fact I don't think I ever did. What I truly dislike is that you cannot pull another FP until you use the ones you have - as used to there was a 2 hour wait then you could get another (if the one you picked was for example 5 hours later). It seems (if I remember right) last summer I was just out of luck with the 3 FP+ I had picked that got cancelled due to weather. I also had no idea where those kiosks were.

I like the idea of FP+ and reserving in advance but the practice of it leaves a lot to be desired....

When weather (or some other issue) shuts down an attraction, you should get an email that says you can now use your FP+ reservation at any time the rest of the day, for (almost) any attraction. No rescheduling needed. Unless you changed your mind about your FP+ reservations because of the weather, then you'd have to reschedule them yourself via MDE.

 

[dmband]

It's almost like they are trying to limit the number of FPs each person gets

Bingo
I have said this all along
The point of fp+ and limiting you to three is to make you experience less and in turn you have to stay longer to experience the same amount of stuff, which of course leads to more money for Disney via food, tickets, hotel.
Exactly why you can't park hop with fp+ and exactly why they tier good rides at parks that don't have many attractions.
They have it set up so you can't easily do everything you want in a short period of time like you could have done in old fp says

There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to book extras fp+ via the app
It's simple programming to see if you have used the first three yet.
There is no reason there isn't more stands to do it in park, heck there where like five plus machines at every ride before now there are four total listed for fp+

 

[ArwenMarie]

Bingo
I have said this all along
The point of fp+ and limiting you to three is to make you experience less and in turn you have to stay longer to experience the same amount of stuff, which of course leads to more money for Disney via food, tickets, hotel.
Exactly why you can't park hop with fp+ and exactly why they tier good rides at parks that don't have many attractions.
They have it set up so you can't easily do everything you want in a short period of time like you could have done in old fp says

Good point. If you have to have a longer trip, then you can have shorter days in the parks, enjoy your onsite resort, shop, eat out, go to the pool. All adds up to more money overall and it also creates ride capacity without building rides.

 

[dmband]

Good point. If you have to have a longer trip, then you can have shorter days in the parks, enjoy your onsite resort, shop, eat out, go to the pool. All adds up to more money overall and it also creates ride capacity without building rides.

Another example of how they control you indirectly is riding a popular attraction more then once in a day...
In old fp you could ride the same ride multiple times via fp where now the popular attractions are booked solid almost always (soarin for example - I don't think anyone has got sdfp)
So you end up either standing in a long line which makes you experience less and forces you to come back for the other things you could have been doing instead
Or
You have to come back a second day to ride the popular attraction because you were off doing other things
Either way they get you a second time, kaching

 

[sharona]

I started this thread to get some info on people's recent experiences with the kiosks. I'm hoping it won't continue to devolve into yet another "I hate FP+" thread... we all know the system stinks, let's figure out how to make the best of it.

Does anyone have any recent kiosk experiences to share?

 

[nilla]

I don't want to derail the FP kiosk discussion but I wanted to briefly respond - the cost of the Universal deluxe resorts that come with express pass is much less than the cost of the WDW deluxes and if you have a Universal AP and get the AP discount on the rooms, it's more in line with paying for a moderate in off season or a value during peak season. It's a much better onsite perk than being able to make 3 FP/day 30 days sooner than offsite guests.

Yeah, but Universal doesn't have the Haunted Mansion, so discussion over.

 

[richmo]

My favorite was Frontierland. It was always much less crowded than others. Most crowded was outside Stitch...

That was my experience as well.

 

[GillianP1301]

Another example of how they control you indirectly is riding a popular attraction more then once in a day...
In old fp you could ride the same ride multiple times via fp where now the popular attractions are booked solid almost always (soarin for example - I don't think anyone has got sdfp)
So you end up either standing in a long line which makes you experience less and forces you to come back for the other things you could have been doing instead
Or
You have to come back a second day to ride the popular attraction because you were off doing other things
Either way they get you a second time, kaching

I got a same day FP for Soarin' last August. We hopped to Epcot at 5pm, went to kiosk right away and got a 7:30 Soarin FP. Not a peak crowd time, so that makes a big difference, but it's not impossible.

 

[KEVD]

Used three different kiosks today at MK after we used 3rd FP... Frontierland, the one by Philharmagic and the one near Stitch. No lines / no waiting. All return times were within about 20 mins and we got everything we wanted: Haunted Mansion, Buzz and Space.

 

[MolonLabe]

After 7 days in the parks (posting on the bus back to cbr now) the extra fast passes are usually pretty useless.

Having booked 7dmt for 3 of our MK days meant not using access to extra fp's till 3pm at the earliest.

Getting 9-10 pm fast passes for Pooh or philharmonic isn't worth squat when they are walk on that time of night anyway.

Change on the fly? Good luck unless you are OK with 10pm return times, if anything for some head liners.

Kiosks are hit or miss but generally not bad.

I don't find having a CM there helpful, it's very straight forward.

Low crowd levels overall this week. Basically mirrors previous trip, change on the fly and add ons are useless due to awful options or times when rides are walkons any way.