Skipping WDW parks for Universal because of FP+

[jodifla]

We were debating between WDW and Universal for an upcoming trip, and frankly, with the hassle of the new fast passes and magic bands, we've just decided to go to Universal and some waterparks instead.

I can get a 2 day ticket with one free day for the fraction of the cost of a WDW ticket, and then also add express pass. So much easier.

We'll also skip most of Disney dining as well, maybe hitting two spots, because I think the credit card reservation they require is CRAP and I hate it.

 

[Lizard Valley]

I decided to do the same!

I had a 12 night Disney trip planned, but the uncertainly around FP+ just left me disappointed and unexcited. So I switched things up.

We booked a cruise out of Port Canaveral instead (not DCL). That left me with 2 nights before and 2 nights after in DVC, but I just cancelled the 2 nights after to do Universal instead.

I still have 2 nights and a full day before, and have decided to stay out of the parks and just do the pools.

I did write a long letter to Disney last week explaining my point of view, and they called me back yesterday. We spent an hour on the phone discussing what needs to change before I will plan my next Disney vacation.

 

[jodifla]

I decided to do the same!

I had a 12 night Disney trip planned, but the uncertainly around FP+ just left me disappointed and unexcited. So I switched things up.

We booked a cruise out of Port Canaveral instead (not DCL). That left me with 2 nights before and 2 nights after in DVC, but I just cancelled the 2 nights after to do Universal instead.

I still have 2 nights and a full day before, and have decided to stay out of the parks and just do the pools.

I did write a long letter to Disney last week explaining my point of view, and they called me back yesterday. We spent an hour on the phone discussing what needs to change before I will plan my next Disney vacation.

Did you email your letter in, or snail mail? I may do the same.

 

[quandrea]

Similar boat. We are spending twelve nights at the end of January. We will use our annual passes because they are good until feb. No dining though because of ridiculous cancellation policy.

When we spend a week in march we will not be renewing annual passes and will do a resort only trip. Again no dining.

I wonder if we should look into a couple of days at universal. I'd appreciate others' thoughts on this. My kids are 4, 4, and 9.

Disney is getting less and less of my money. I'd like the opportunity to speak to someone on staff about it.

 

[Splashboat]

We are considering the same.

 

[Lizard Valley]

Did you email your letter in, or snail mail? I may do the same.

I e-mailed it to: wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com on Jan 3rd.

I was called back on Sat Jan 11, but I didn't get to the phone on time. The CM had left me a call back number and an e-mail address. I e-mailed her and asked for her to call me yesterday, which she did

I was careful in my wording...I didn't threaten never to come back, because that's obviously not true, and I made several suggestions on improvements.

Just to add, I suggested that DVC and AP could perhaps get more FP+ entitlements, as we're obviously repeat customers and are the ones who perceive the greatest loss. She hadn't heard this before, and thought it was a great idea and would bring it up with the executives.

Perhaps reinforcing the suggestion would be helpful in any letters you might also be writing?

 

[RooRach0906]

Just curious - but have any of you tried the new magic bands or fp+ or just going off of hearsay.
I dont love fp+ and do think they are many things they can do to fix them. I would have been fine with it being left alone.
I think the dining now requiring a credit card is because of people abusing the system.
The magic bands themselves I like, to me it is easier to keep up with and I like that I can wear them in the pool and to me I am not worrying about my card being stolen while I am in the pool.
Again I was just curious about it.

 

[quandrea]

Just curious - but have any of you tried the new magic bands or fp+ or just going off of hearsay.
I dont love fp+ and do think they are many things they can do to fix them. I would have been fine with it being left alone.
I think the dining now requiring a credit card is because of people abusing the system.
The magic bands themselves I like, to me it is easier to keep up with and I like that I can wear them in the pool and to me I am not worrying about my card being stolen while I am in the pool.
Again I was just curious about it.

We used the Magic Bands in November for a short, four day, adults only trip. Not a huge fan. The first time we used them, our credit limit had been set to 0 and our server chased us through the Animal Kingdom in order to have us come back and settle our bill. I felt bad for him. That required a repeat visit to the front desk to sort it our (15 min).

When we checked in a second time for our split stay, my husband's band was malfunctioning (40 min to check in after checking in online).

I didn't mind fast pass plus, although, the system does have a tendency to erase my fastpasses. I am strongly opposed to the cancellation fee on dining. I think it should strictly be a no show fee. I understand this is because of abuse of the system.

We are going for twelve days in a few days. Planning a family trip for that much time is a real pain now. I don't like trying to predict where we will be. The system is very slow and booking fastpasses for twelve days is cumbersome. Again, the system keeps erasing my passes or kicks me out halfway through my work.

My Disney trips are a pain right now and that saddens me. For the first time in many years, we are not renewing our Annual Passes.

 

[Lizard Valley]

Just curious - but have any of you tried the new magic bands or fp+ or just going off of hearsay.
I dont love fp+ and do think they are many things they can do to fix them. I would have been fine with it being left alone.
I think the dining now requiring a credit card is because of people abusing the system.
The magic bands themselves I like, to me it is easier to keep up with and I like that I can wear them in the pool and to me I am not worrying about my card being stolen while I am in the pool.
Again I was just curious about it.

Magic bands: Actually have no problem with the concept and appreciate not having to bring a card to the pool, and told them so. I have no experience with using them, so couldn't comment on that.

FP+: I had to choose between RnRC and TSMM while making my selections. While TSMM is the smarter choice for FP+, having a FP+ for RnRC right before leaving the park (a tradition) will make the majority of our group happier. I explained that I was disappointed that I even had to choose, and suggested they increase HS to at least 2 headliners, and giving the option for both to be on the same ride if that's how I'd prefer to use them. Same for Epcot. And it's not FP+ per se that I don't like, it's the rules and limitations, and these can be improved upon.

With things as they stand right now, and knowing what my boys like to ride and how often, FP+ is a downgrade to me. It doesn't need to be, and with enough guest feedback saying the same things, there's a good chance that the situation will improve before I start planning a future trip.

Dining cancellations: I brought this up too, as I'd decided to cancel my arrival night ADR - can't take the chance my flight will be delayed. I also cancelled a couple of in-park ADR's because weather was going to play an important part of my day-to-day planning. I suggested they change it to a "no-show" penalty; as long as you notify the restaurant you won't be there, they can give the tables to someone else.

MDE: Where to begin? Does this sound familiar?

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And this is for every ride, every day, just to schedule the times I want.

Add all of this together, and I decided that I just didn't want to spend my money at Disney this year. I'll wait until the problems have been fixed and re-evaluate next year.

 

[MouseMomx2]

I am sorry to hear that so many are abandoning WDW because of the new systems...especially since it seems so many have not even tried it for themselves. Our group of 10 just came back from a two-week stay, including New Year's Eve, and had absolutely no issues with our MagicBands or FP+. We had a 3-resort split-stay (OKW, BWV, GFV) and all of our bands worked perfectly throughout the trip. I honestly cannot say enough about them. They were wonderful and really made our vacation so much easier.

 

[RooRach0906]

We used the Magic Bands in November for a short, four day, adults only trip. Not a huge fan. The first time we used them, our credit limit had been set to 0 and our server chased us through the Animal Kingdom in order to have us come back and settle our bill. I felt bad for him. That required a repeat visit to the front desk to sort it our (15 min).

When we checked in a second time for our split stay, my husband's band was malfunctioning (40 min to check in after checking in online).

I didn't mind fast pass plus, although, the system does have a tendency to erase my fastpasses. I am strongly opposed to the cancellation fee on dining. I think it should strictly be a no show fee. I understand this is because of abuse of the system.

We are going for twelve days in a few days. Planning a family trip for that much time is a real pain now. I don't like trying to predict where we will be. The system is very slow and booking fastpasses for twelve days is cumbersome. Again, the system keeps erasing my passes or kicks me out halfway through my work.

My Disney trips are a pain right now and that saddens me. For the first time in many years, we are not renewing our Annual Passes.

Im sorry you guys had trouble with the MBs themselves.

One of the main reasons I don't like fp+ is the booking so far in advance plus we like to park hop and their is no way to split them between parks (I told Disney this in a survery when we got back in September.) Plus we also will decide to go earlier and later to the parks than we first intended based on our daughter and when she gets up in the morning (She is the type that you let her sleep.)

 

[com_op_2000]

I am sorry to hear that so many are abandoning WDW because of the new systems...especially since it seems so many have not even tried it for themselves. Our group of 10 just came back from a two-week stay, including New Year's Eve, and had absolutely no issues with our MagicBands or FP+. We had a 3-resort split-stay (OKW, BWV, GFV) and all of our bands worked perfectly throughout the trip. I honestly cannot say enough about them. They were wonderful and really made our vacation so much easier.

I would consider your trip a dream.
When I used FP+ for DW and I back in early Dec. None of our FP+ selections worked at any of the three parks. Instead of showing green at every pass it showed blue. We had to be pulled off to the side, checked with the hand-held screening machines, and I had to pull out my hardcopy of my selections before we were allowed on. I complained at the resort front desk, through DVC MS, and I now wish I had gone to the complaint desk at the parks before leaving.
I have multiple DVC membership numbers and the MDE web-site will not allow me to create multiple MDE accounts. I need to be able to keep the points I am using from each DVC membership in different accounts of MDE, due to different groups traveling on different membership numbers. Plus the system it will not allow me to have my AP to be used on multiple MDE accounts.
I have also, talked with WDW CMs about the limitations of the system and what I need to be able to do. I was told there is nothing they are going to do to help me - as they want everyone to have only one MDE account. This makes my planning much more involved and problematic for me as to keeping each trip separate within one MDE account is very confusing.

 

[RooRach0906]

Magic bands: Actually have no problem with the concept and appreciate not having to bring a card to the pool, and told them so. I have no experience with using them, so couldn't comment on that.

FP+: I had to choose between RnRC and TSMM while making my selections. While TSMM is the smarter choice for FP+, having a FP+ for RnRC right before leaving the park (a tradition) will make the majority of our group happier. I explained that I was disappointed that I even had to choose, and suggested they increase HS to at least 2 headliners, and giving the option for both to be on the same ride if that's how I'd prefer to use them. Same for Epcot. And it's not FP+ per se that I don't like, it's the rules and limitations, and these can be improved upon.

With things as they stand right now, and knowing what my boys like to ride and how often, FP+ is a downgrade to me. It doesn't need to be, and with enough guest feedback saying the same things, there's a good chance that the situation will improve before I start planning a future trip.

Dining cancellations: I brought this up too, as I'd decided to cancel my arrival night ADR - can't take the chance my flight will be delayed. I also cancelled a couple of in-park ADR's because weather was going to play an important part of my day-to-day planning. I suggested they change it to a "no-show" penalty; as long as you notify the restaurant you won't be there, they can give the tables to someone else.

MDE: Where to begin? Does this sound familiar?

change time
select all
next
blank screen (I'm on a mac, I suspect this is where Donald duck pops up)
back

change time
select all
next
blank screen
back

repeat 10X

yeah! I can pick a time!
next
blank screen
back
blank screen
back

change time
select all
next
blank screen
back

repeat 6 times

return to beginning

And this is for every ride, every day, just to schedule the times I want.

I wasn't aware of the headliner thing, as our daughter was/is short enough that she can not do most so we have not done them in a while. I'm sad to hear about that and agree with you.

The only trouble with the MDE app or site I experienced was when I was on my tablet and it kept reverting back to moblie mode which happens with a lot of sites (so irritating).

I do wish that there wasnt a credit card for dining but do understand why I think they did it. I also think it would be best if they could change it to a no show fee because sometimes things happens that are out of peoples control, such as kids getting sick.

I really do feel for the people who are having trouble, I hope they takes the feedback and is able to fix the system soon.

 

[momof2disprincesses]

We just returned from a 2 week stay over Christmas and New Years also.

HATED the new dining plan policy and emailed Disney as soon as I got home to express my displeasure. That was Jan. 6 and I have not heard from them regarding my email yet.

I agree with others that the best solution would be to charge the $10 for a no show but allow guests to cancel up until like 10 minutes prior or whatever. We consistently saw so many people being turned away at restaurants because they didn't have an ADR, so you know those tables would get filled easily with a shorter cancellation time.

We used our magic bands with absolutely no issues and really liked them. I was emailed a pretty long survey by Disney after our trip for our feedback specifically about the magic bands and shared my feelings honestly.

We loved being able to sleep in daily, hit the parks in the afternoon and then make it to our favorite rides. However, we were not happy with the limit of only 3 passes at each park.

We upgraded to DVC AP's when we arrived and park hopped often. It was a bummer to not be able to use fp+ at more than 1 park per day.

We also found the task of changing a fp+ selection to be cumbersome on Disney's app/website. You'd think the largest company in the US would have better IT people and their sites would be much, much, much easier and user friendly. I still find their lack of technology shocking.

The only issues we had with our fp+ selections was once we upgraded to AP's, it still didn't allow us to make fp+ selections for the rest of our days there. We had to call to get that fixed and the person on the phone was sympathetic and helpful.

Overall, I will not abandon Disney for Universal over all of this but I will certainly NEVER do the dining plan again unless things change with the cancellation policy.

 

[StregaNona]

We, too, are seriously considering going to other (non-Disney) parks and attraction the next time we are in the Orlando area. We don't know from one day to the next where we want to go, what we want to eat, etc.

 

[glamdring269]

I just hope that everyone who is skipping WDW is at least providing feedback to them with specifics on why. Hopefully that feedback will lead to future improvements.

I have to admit though, we were there in October and had absolutely no issues. Definitely more of a fan of the FP- system but in terms of execution of the plan, from the Magic Bands to the FP+ usage at the rides, we had no problems. I do agree with an earlier poster that the MDE system is awful. Whoever programmed that does not understand efficiency. It is not intuitive at all.

 

[quandrea]

I just hope that everyone who is skipping WDW is at least providing feedback to them with specifics on why. Hopefully that feedback will lead to future improvements.

I have to admit though, we were there in October and had absolutely no issues. Definitely more of a fan of the FP- system but in terms of execution of the plan, from the Magic Bands to the FP+ usage at the rides, we had no problems. I do agree with an earlier poster that the MDE system is awful. Whoever programmed that does not understand efficiency. It is not intuitive at all.

I recently wrote a long email to guest communications. I believe disney is appealing more to the first time or once in a lifetime visitor. My reading over on theme park strategies suggest those are the guests who love to plan. As dvc members is it fair to say we generally appreciate flexibility? Recent changes hinder flexibility.

Do you think disney is courting the first time visitor over repeat guests? Perhaps we repeat guests don't spend enough.

 

[SuperRob]

My wife and I were originally going to take just one day out of our seven day trip to do Universal (we're Harry Potter fans, and love that whole area). We're going to do two this year instead, but it doesn't have anything to do with MagicBands. It's more the sheer cost of the park tickets at Disney, combined with the rollout of Diagon Alley. We were able to find a pretty good deal on five day, park hopper passes for WDW through Expedia, and we're going to get a two day, park to park with transfers for Universal.

 

[quandrea]

My wife and I were originally going to take just one day to do Universal (we're Harry Potter fans, and love that whole area). We're going to do two this year instead, but it doesn't have anything to do with MagicBands. It's more the sheer cost of the park tickets at Disney, combined with the rollout of Diagon Alley. We were able to find a pretty good deal on five day, one park passes for WDW through Expedia, and we're going to get a two day, park to park with transfers for Universal.

Do you get express pass? Where do you get universal tickets? It's all new to me. I agree with wide passes. Annual passes for the family would be two thousand five hundred dollars.

 

[Sammie]

Everyone needs to do what they feel is best for them, but remember you can go to the parks, ride these rides as many times as you want, Fastpass+ is not stopping you from doing that.

You simply can not use Fastpass+ to ride multiple times and honestly I think for the masses it is very fair.

We have been going to Disney for over 35 years, annually and we love being able to plan in advance a few of our favorites and know that we can still get to our dinner reservation without worry. With the old system it was a crap shoot as to what time you would get, if you even got one at all.

I just wish they had done this sooner.