Seasoned Disney goers confused

[MakiraMarlena]

I understand how fast pass works. I don't understand why fp is needed for some of these attractions. We've used more than 4 fp in a day before.

They didn't add it to those attractions because it was "needed" if by "needed" you mean they weren't all that popular to begin with. They added FP because they have a new system in place that is going to spread the FPs around rather then dole them out to the first people to reach a machine and stick their ticket in. Sure there is a demand for Toy Story Mania but there's only so many FPs to go around for it. They need more FP attractions in order to have more FPs to offer.

the new system is very different from the old system and will take some getting used to, but once you use it you'll see what's going on.

 

[BrerNashville]

I think the main thing you will need to get out of your head is the possibility of doing all the superheadliners more than once in a day. Before, if you knew how to work the FP system, you could ride Soarin, TT, TSMM RNRC, Space, etc two, three or even four times in a day (not all of them the same day, of course). Now, that is virtually impossible, particularly given the tiering in Epcot and HS.

The other big difference is the "window" in the morning to ride a bunch of rides before the lines build up is much shorter than it used to be, b/c FP+ return times start so early and rides that never had FP now have FP+.

What we have found that works is scheduling your FPs back to back beginning around 9:15 or so (ride that one close to 10:15). That way, you have about an hour to ride more popular rides (including those like HM that never used to have much of a line but now do due to FP+ returning) before FP+ kicks in, ride those three, and see what's left for more FP+ the afternoon. You should choose your AM standby rides based on what FP+ seem to be gone or less available in the afternoon. I think easywdw has a list of the attractions and their general availability for a 4th, 5th etc. FP+.

You are right, FP+ has changed things a lot, but it can still be enjoyable, and in some ways more relaxing, as long as you adjust your thinking to the new reality.

 

[FINFAN]

We just got back from our latest trip- 8 days. The thing I don't like about FP+ is that it forces you to criss-cross across the park and walk way more than normal. Its inefficient. The standby lines for all rides are now longer than they used to be. I'm sure its because of FP+. With more people being told they need to sign up for FP+ when they book their reservations, there are more people using FP+. And because you can only get 3 per day to start off with it forces you to ride standby if you're going to ride at all. There were many rides we did not ride this last time because standby was too long and we already had FP+ picked out for 3 other rides. It didn't ruin our trip, but it was sad to have to miss some of our favorites.

this is what I am in fear of happening ^

It is more like scheduling your activities ahead of time. So if you want to see Nemo the Musical...you can now get a FP for the 1:00 show. No more guessing if you may get a seat, just show up, swipe you magic band and they let you in. More scheduling is to help you make better use of your time. While I can schedule ADRs ahead of time, scheduling FP seems more like a pain to me. Our touring styles have changed and rides are just not as important anymore. But if you have a six yrear old Princess I could see making a 60 day FP to see Elsa and Anna so that you have a better plan.

Knowing what the park hours are and what your ADRs are, then you can organize for rides close by...or change them earlier in the day due to rain...not having to wait until you are standing in front of the entrance to see what the wait times are, length of line, etc.

I too have had a hard time figuring out how to make the best use of FP+. I think it is because I am a more an analog thinker than a digital one. I must say that the armband idea of unlocking your door, making purchases and entering the park withotu a card is neat...less cumbersome for sure.

I too, am Anolog..this will be challenging for me

We were never FP "commandos" or whatever the accepted term is today. But yes, there are plenty of seasoned Disney goers that have reported they were able to squeeze in just as much as they were before, with the new system. I think it does require a little bit of strategy change, but probably not much.

Like I said, I'm not a rope dropper and never pulled more than 2 or 3 regular FPs before with the old system, so I can't really give advice on the "how" part. But it can be done.

I think if you have a good understanding on how the system works now, it'll be easier to work around it and come up with your strategy. But definitely pick peoples' brains here and read up on Mesaboy's FP+ Strategy thread. It helps.

hopefully we fall into the category of travelers who were still able to do as much as in the past and yes, to Mesaboy's guru advice. I think I need to put it on audio so it's get's drilled into my head while sleeping , in the car etc lol

 

[itsthatdisneygirl]

So are the lines that much longer? Are there fast passes for everything now even Jungle Cruise, etc? Someone please explain this to a seasoned Disney lover! I really don't understand fp for Wishes and parades. Is this just to get a better viewing spot?

Please help, do you plan very differently now and more importantly do you see less than before? Should we forget all we've ever known and come up with a new strategy? Do we still know how to do Disney?

I would say that you still know how to do Disney its just a little different.
1) Yes there are FP's for everything...Jungle Cruise, Muppets 3D..the only one that doesn't have any to my knowledge would be Ellen Energy Adventure at Epcot

2) No the lines aren't longer...Malestrom is still 20 mins 40 when tour groups are there

3) the FP for fireworks and parades are for a sectioned off viewing spot..which as with the shows that have FP you are guaranteed entry but not the "best" viewing spot.

I'm a passholder and a local and FP+ has me going on a lot more attractions than I ever would have. I really enjoy it

 

[plutosbuddie]

I will never understand why someone finds it necessary to give a snarky comment in response to a question?? You always have the option of just not responding.

I couldn't agree more.. Your on here for information.. Not rude comments.. Please don't think everyone on here is like this.. I personally have never even been to wdw! I am a so cal disney girl and I pray we never get fp+ It is VERY confusing! Everyone should have the right to be excited and ENJOY the planning, you are going to the happiest place on earth!!! I hope you have a great trip and disregard peoples rude comments!!

 

[SCSteve]

The sad fact is that with the implementation of Fast Pass +, attractions that never needed fast pass now have fast pass. A good example is Pirates. Before Fast pass plus, both left and right queues were standby, now the left side is standby and the right side is Fast pass, so standby capacity was cut in half, so at the crowded times the standby for Pirates will be long.

 

[TooExcitedCantSleep]

I would say that you still know how to do Disney its just a little different.
1) Yes there are FP's for everything...Jungle Cruise, Muppets 3D..the only one that doesn't have any to my knowledge would be Ellen Energy Adventure at Epcot

2) No the lines aren't longer...Malestrom is still 20 mins 40 when tour groups are there

3) the FP for fireworks and parades are for a sectioned off viewing spot..which as with the shows that have FP you are guaranteed entry but not the "best" viewing spot.

I'm a passholder and a local and FP+ has me going on a lot more attractions than I ever would have. I really enjoy it

That's good!!!!! I keep hearing this from other people too....most folks seem to love it!!

 

[FINFAN]

I'm sure this entire MDE, FP+, etc was developed as a way for Disney to make more money going forward. Now they have a way to sell fastpasses or vary the number by resort, or money spent once they decide to do so. Once all the software is more reliable it's pretty much automated.

The use of the FP+ is not complicated but makes touring the parks, IMHO, one more thing to over-plan months in advance.

exactly. They have basically implemented the need for 7 days or more to accomplish what in the past 4 days may have (on average) so they now have the pull of the 60 day lure, getting more on-site bookings, getting more revenue for food etc. I know many say what is the advantage to on-site since the 30 day window is there, but it's seems to me that the EMH(esp late night) is now becoming more valuable thanks to FP+ so there is (to me) a big advantage to on-site. Mcconnellfam96 just posted that they hope to get on every ride they want at MK during a 10 day trip 5 at MK.....well I would HOPE so!(and I'm not being snarky, just saying that is a lot of $ spent to get on a each ride 1 time) they are the perfect example of what I feel the goal of the new system is. I feel like the magic is being sucked out honestly...naive of me I know, but it just feels too controlled now and yes , yes I know, it has always been controlled but it seems much more blatant now. oh well, we will give it a shot and see if we still like it or not. My DD lives there and has been an AP holder for a whole month now, lol...she says she sees the lines for the average rides long now too...and that she is grateful she can come/go as she pleases but for the short trip taker, she says "enter at your own risk" lol. Guess that's us.

 

[ktlm]

We just got back from our latest trip- 8 days. The thing I don't like about FP+ is that it forces you to criss-cross across the park and walk way more than normal. Its inefficient. The standby lines for all rides are now longer than they used to be. I'm sure its because of FP+. With more people being told they need to sign up for FP+ when they book their reservations, there are more people using FP+. And because you can only get 3 per day to start off with it forces you to ride standby if you're going to ride at all. There were many rides we did not ride this last time because standby was too long and we already had FP+ picked out for 3 other rides. It didn't ruin our trip, but it was sad to have to miss some of our favorites.

That is how we felt about it too. We were constantly watching the clock, messing with the app, and having to leave an area we weren't finished with to cross the park to the next FP. The planning 60 days in advance even for people like us who have been many times and have somewhat of an idea where they may be at different times of the day really made us feel inflexible and hampered our day. When we tried to move fast pass times in the park to work better with where we were in the park and how things were going that day, it was next to impossible. For us, it had the opposite effect of what Disney wants. I'm a shopper and love to browse the stores and typically do so before we leave an area, and of course that leads to buying something a lot of times. Instead of getting to an area, picking up a FP, and then doing the other attractions and shopping while we waited for that FP to kick in, we found ourselves having to stop what we were doing and not finish an area before having to rush to the next area to make a FP+ time. Also, because the standby lines were longer for rides that usually had no lines, we wound up taking longer to do the other attractions, and then some of the time we wouldn't even get the attractions done in the area before having to rush off to the next FP+ time, which meant I wouldn't get into the shops in the area at all. It is the first trip that I have ever not been in most of the shops throughout the parks at all. DH loved it. I still made a side trip to Mousegears our last day in Epcot though, but I still think I brought back a whole lot less stuff than I usually do.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

They didn't add it to those attractions because it was "needed" if by "needed" you mean they weren't all that popular to begin with. They added FP because they have a new system in place that is going to spread the FPs around rather then dole them out to the first people to reach a machine and stick their ticket in. Sure there is a demand for Toy Story Mania but there's only so many FPs to go around for it. They need more FP attractions in order to have more FPs to offer.

the new system is very different from the old system and will take some getting used to, but once you use it you'll see what's going on.

This! This is the reason why attractions that never had FP before now do.

 

[FINFAN]

I would say that you still know how to do Disney its just a little different.
1) Yes there are FP's for everything...Jungle Cruise, Muppets 3D..the only one that doesn't have any to my knowledge would be Ellen Energy Adventure at Epcot

2) No the lines aren't longer...Malestrom is still 20 mins 40 when tour groups are there

3) the FP for fireworks and parades are for a sectioned off viewing spot..which as with the shows that have FP you are guaranteed entry but not the "best" viewing spot.

I'm a passholder and a local and FP+ has me going on a lot more attractions than I ever would have. I really enjoy it

but if you only had 3 days would you find it advantageous? My DD feels like you, since she is local and can go whenever too, but feels when we visit her and only have 3 park days ,it is going to be pretty rough trying to accomplish what we would have in 3 days in the past.

 

[ajwolfe]

Just went in May and have to say I believe we accomplished more than we normally do in when we typically go at slower time periods of the year. FP+ was the reason for that, in our opinion. I agree if you don't plan correctly you could be zig zagging the park a bit, so you do need to put some though into when/what rides you are getting the FP+ for. It was nice to know we were automaticaly guarenteed a ride on those 3 rides for the day and took some of the stress off of having to rush to do those first thing during the day.
As far as not being able to ride everything, that was not our case. We were able to ride everything at least once and most things that we wanted to at least twice - including the big headliners.
We didn't feel like stand by times were any longer than they have ever been, but that seems like it's always up for dispute here on the Dis.

 

[TooExcitedCantSleep]

Just went in May and have to say I believe we accomplished more than we normally do in when we typically go at slower time periods of the year. FP+ was the reason for that, in our opinion. I agree if you don't plan correctly you could be zig zagging the park a bit, so you do need to put some though into when/what rides you are getting the FP+ for. It was nice to know we were automaticaly guarenteed a ride on those 3 rides for the day and took some of the stress off of having to rush to do those first thing during the day.
As far as not being able to ride everything, that was not our case. We were able to ride everything at least once and most things that we wanted to at least twice - including the big headliners.
We didn't feel like stand by times were any longer than they have ever been, but that seems like it's always up for dispute here on the Dis.

This is great news!!!!! I believe you..... because this is what I keep hearing from a lot of other folks too!! A different poster just said the same thing a page back!! Thanks a bunch!!

 

[FINFAN]

The sad fact is that with the implementation of Fast Pass +, attractions that never needed fast pass now have fast pass. A good example is Pirates. Before Fast pass plus, both left and right queues were standby, now the left side is standby and the right side is Fast pass, so standby capacity was cut in half, so at the crowded times the standby for Pirates will be long.

thanks for your post, it helps to visualize how the rides are affected by the new system.

 

[mmmcl]

We just got back from a 9 day trip...6 days in the parks. It was our first time using MB/FP+, and I have to admit that I was very skeptical. We had a few issues early on with our tickets not showing up, but that was at least partly our fault. Other than that the system worked great and we actually LOVED it. I found that we did as much as or more than we ever did before, and didn't feel like we were constantly running back and forth across the park to get to or pull FP's. It was a bit of a pain to have to find a kiosk to book a new FP, but I believe I heard that they are working on making that option available on the app. I felt like FP availability was probably about the same as before...you weren't going to get soarin, TSMM, or SDMT very late in the day, but at least you had the option to reserve those in advance and not have to risk getting trampled in the stampede at RD. It did seem like SB times may have been a bit longer than usual, but we only rode SB once or twice and chose to do that when lines were a bit shorter. In contrast, I found the FP lines to be very reasonable which surprised me. Like I said, I was very skeptical about the new system...so much so that I wasn't very excited about our trip and seriously considered changing our plans and going somewhere else besides disney. I know I'm in the minority, but I was very pleasantly surprised and they new system actually suited our touring style quite well. I have to give it 2 thumbs up (sorry, can't find emoticons on the app). I hope you have the same experience that we did.

 

[FINFAN]

Just went in May and have to say I believe we accomplished more than we normally do in when we typically go at slower time periods of the year. FP+ was the reason for that, in our opinion. I agree if you don't plan correctly you could be zig zagging the park a bit, so you do need to put some though into when/what rides you are getting the FP+ for. It was nice to know we were automaticaly guarenteed a ride on those 3 rides for the day and took some of the stress off of having to rush to do those first thing during the day.
As far as not being able to ride everything, that was not our case. We were able to ride everything at least once and most things that we wanted to at least twice - including the big headliners.
We didn't feel like stand by times were any longer than they have ever been, but that seems like it's always up for dispute here on the Dis.

care to share your touring plan? How many days were you there? Glad the trip was awesome, that's how vacations are supposed to be.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I do NOT want to spend a vacation with my nose in my phone looking for the next available ride so I already know I will be at a disadvantage.

I got so sick of taking my phone in and out and in and out that I finally just stuck it in my bra. We were CONSTANTLY checking the FP times and the wait times. We were keeping in eye on the lines and the rides broken down or back up even through our fancy Brown Derby dinner. The app has its advantages (saves your feet), but you will see TONS of people walking like zombies while watching their phones.

 

[guggzy]

I will never understand why someone finds it necessary to give a snarky comment in response to a question?? You always have the option of just not responding.

If there was a "like" button I would hit it!

 

[ajwolfe]

This is great news!!!!! I believe you..... because this is what I keep hearing from a lot of other folks too!! A different poster just said the same thing a page back!! Thanks a bunch!!

Have fun!!!

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

May STUNK for us.