So all i get now is 3 or have I lost it??

[disneycrazi]

Yes, 3 rides are all you are rationed.

Rationed yes great word....because yes they might run out of passes or attractions......love this word.....made me laugh on this dreary snowy day!!

 

[3happydancers]

Don't worry, if Disney starts selling additional FP+ reservations like I believe they will, then you will be able to purchase as many extra FP+ E-tickets as you'd like for a small fee per each.

Not willing to pay additional money especially if I stay on property.

Then you can be happy again...

We've decided to do park hoppers because we will do rope drop to get on one must-do ride in the morning. Will have FP+ booked at another park for the afternoon. We will plan at least two afternoons in Epcot to compensate for the tier system. DHS only has one tier A attraction we will go on, and so we might do one morning there and an afternoon/evening for Fantasmic. The only park we are not sure about for planning is MK.

If one has an AP, then planning a second trip to a park can work (if you have extra vacation days), but for those who do not, going to a park a second time to compensate, benefits Disney for now you have used a second park ticket, which is not cheap. Rope drop would work and then plan your FP+ for the afternoon could work.

 

[tpettie]

QUESTION….

Is the MK still giving a "Bonus" fast pass making it 4 ???

 

[66Tink]

QUESTION….

Is the MK still giving a "Bonus" fast pass making it 4 ???

Great question! We had this option when we stayed at the YC in August during the testing phase and the "bonus" FP was much appreciated in MK Would be curious to know the answer....

 

[Fernandak]

I just made my FP reservation and I get only 3 for MK

 

[ucfknight]

QUESTION….

Is the MK still giving a "Bonus" fast pass making it 4 ???

Who was eligible to get the bonus FP in MK?
I was just there last week for 5 days and only got 3 selections in MK.

 

[mom2rtk]

QUESTION….

Is the MK still giving a "Bonus" fast pass making it 4 ???

Who was eligible to get the bonus FP in MK?
I was just there last week for 5 days and only got 3 selections in MK.

No reports of a bonus FP for some time.

 

[morethananyonex]

Before it was free, it was nonexistent. If - big if - Disney were to start selling supplementtal FastPasses, it would be optional, not required.

Maybe they could work that into a new slogan or something.

They could take this stance with attractions too. Close everything down built after 1972! Non existent before that anyways, so nobody should really care.

 

[LJC1861]

What is this 'tier' system that people are referring to? This is the first I have heard about that. Can someone explain?

 

[morethananyonex]

What is this 'tier' system that people are referring to? This is the first I have heard about that. Can someone explain?

At Epcot and DHS you have to split your 3 FP+ between 2 tiers. You get one choice from tier 1 and 2 choices from tier 2. Tier 1 holds TT/Soarin/Illuminations/Character Spot/Maelstrom and TSMM/RnRC/Beauty & the Beast/Fantasmic. Tier 2 holds the rest of the FP+ attractions for each park.

Essentially you have one useful FP+ in Epcot and anywhere from 1-3 in DHS depending on your preferences.

 

[coolbrook]

Just back and I have a comment about fp+. I liked it. We have been about 13 times over the years and have learned to tour with fp and maximize their use. Here is what we liked about fp+. Being able to choose a return time, not having to go to the ride (or some other not logical location where the machine was) to pull a fp, being able to change a fp+ when we decided to ride a different ride at a different time, easy to use kiosk to change fp+ with helpful cast member. You say, "what is the difference between going to the fp machine and the fp+ kiosk?" Well, you can go to any fp+ kiosk in the park to change fp+ rather that just the one fp machine for that ride to pull fp. We do not have a smart phone and did not bring an ipad or computer on our vacation and did just fine at the kiosk. I did make fp+ reservations online before we left home. Also, about the magic bands, we liked them too. Faster and easier for park entry, room entry, photo pass scanning, dining plan use, purchases, and scanning by parking guard at resort where we had dining reservations. Try it, you may find you like it. In the good old days there were occasional problems too, room cards not opening door, fast pass return times too far out, no fast passes available for a must-do favorite. In the survey I took yesterday after getting home I did say I would like more than 3 selections however. I hope that will be changed in the future.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Disney has until August to get this figured out as far as our family is concerned. We're making the trip to Orlando for two weeks no matter what. We're staying offsite in a townhouse at Windsor Hills and have APs for Universal/Islands of Adventure. If Disney has this FP+ mess is sorted out and guests can get more than 3 FPs per day (esp. at MK), then we will visit the Disney theme parks too (purchasing 7 days tickets for our party of 6). If they do not, we'll skip Disney all together.

I'm glad we have a bit of time before our trip to see how everything shakes out. I feel sorry for those whose trips are coming up soon who didn't know about all these changes when their trips were planned.

 

[mousireid]

As Annual Passholders and a son diagnosed with autism we are suffering through the changes too. I am not saying it is not doable - we rarely stay onsite, we never manage to spend a full day at any park and often go for about four hours and leave (five if we eat there). CURRENTLY we feel having APs is not beneficial in comparison to those staying onsite, no magic bands, no FP+ preordering - it seems Annual Passholders just don't factor much into their priorities right now - I know they have spoken of rolling out these services but it may come too late for this family. Our APs expire in April and after the understandable reasons for changing the GAC to DAB we are working twice as hard at any park to ride perhaps one or two that my son can manage while trying to accommodate my daredevil daughter. The next couple of months we are squeezing out as much as we can from our passes but I dislike the lack of spontaniety that worked so well for us before and made us consider spending that chunk of money on passes for the sheer easiness and joy we experienced albeit in sporadic amounts.
When we go next, it will now only be at rope drop, using our FP+ selections for DDs two choices and one for DS extra choice ( when you ride maybe one ride only in a park and in comparison with this time last year it is hard for him to understand) while using his DAB. By lunchtime we would be gone anyway so doesn't sound like much of a sacrifice but I will MISS the after dinner nip over to the park (well just over an hour away) to do a few rides and MAYBE watch fireworks if DS can handle it. Do you think they will have FP+ available at 6pm for rides in the park still - especially BTMRR? Has anyone experienced this yet?
I know it will likely get better in many ways, change is hard and we know it all too well. It seems like swimming upstream and I personally am tuckered out on a daily basis without fighting the system at Disney for 'fun'.
Still love Disney just working through it til April!

 

[scrapbookersdis]

We didn't link our park tickets to our resort reservation or make advance FP+ reservations. When we got to the Studios last week, I used the Magic Band (which I had been given at resort check in) to make 3 FP+ reservations for the group.

 

[Disneyhappy]

Before it was free, it was nonexistent. If - big if - Disney were to start selling supplementtal FastPasses, it would be optional, not required.

I'm not saying selling FPs is a good or bad idea, only that I would not be "happy" to pay for it when previously we did not have to. Our family personally has been spending a crazy amount of our disposable income at WDW for a good 15 years but after our experiences with the limitations and demands of extra planning with FP, we stopped an add on of points to our DVC and are in the process of putting one of our other contracts up for sale. The experience has just not been the same. Of course, we will still go, just not as frequently. We have been migrating to Universal (and other national destinations) more and more. That said, I think all families need to experience WDW and will continue to do so. I feel really bad for the offsite folks. Hopefully we will feel differently with time and start spending more time and money there again but we have not been happy with the continuing trends.

 

[PSUGuy]

Haven't read the whole thread so this might have been said, but it's a trade off I'm happy to make. For years our strategy has been to hit a park at RD, tour until the park gets crowded then hop to Epcot. We often don't need FP at the RD park, but when we get to Epcot the FP windows for major attractions are way into the late day or actually the machines are closed. We went in Oct, naturally scheduling FP+ for TT, Soarin' etc in the afternoon and we found this to work fine for us. On our AK day I'll probably burn the FP+ at EE, Safari and Dino in the AM and just drink around the World at WS, a horrible sacrifice, I know.

Bill From PA

 

[mom2rtk]

Haven't read the whole thread so this might have been said, but it's a trade off I'm happy to make. For years our strategy has been to hit a park at RD, tour until the park gets crowded then hop to Epcot. We often don't need FP at the RD park, but when we get to Epcot the FP windows for major attractions are way into the late day or actually the machines are closed. We went in Oct, naturally scheduling FP+ for TT, Soarin' etc in the afternoon and we found this to work fine for us. On our AK day I'll probably burn the FP+ at EE, Safari and Dino in the AM and just drink around the World at WS, a horrible sacrifice, I know.

Bill From PA

I'm glad the new system is working for you. Just as an FYI though you won't be able to replicate your experience of scheduling TT and Soarin' on the same day again since those selections are now tiered.

 

[3happydancers]

I'm not saying selling FPs is a good or bad idea, only that I would not be "happy" to pay for it when previously we did not have to. Our family personally has been spending a crazy amount of our disposable income at WDW for a good 15 years but after our experiences with the limitations and demands of extra planning with FP, we stopped an add on of points to our DVC and are in the process of putting one of our other contracts up for sale. The experience has just not been the same. Of course, we will still go, just not as frequently. We have been migrating to Universal (and other national destinations) more and more. That said, I think all families need to experience WDW and will continue to do so. I feel really bad for the offsite folks. Hopefully we will feel differently with time and start spending more time and money there again but we have not been happy with the continuing trends.

We are DVC owners too and are very disappointed with all these changes, especially with fast pass. We are not planning to add on but we are planning to sell off at least part of our points. We have 160/50 contracts. We'll have no need to keep them should Disney continue to make poor choices at least for my family. Presently we were suppose to stay at AKL in August for 10 days but we are changing our plans and will spend 5 of those days at Universal (our first time visiting US). We'd cancel completely but we are using up banked/borrowed points. We did send off a letter to Disney with our concerns and disappointments (not mean just stated the whys and possible solutions) but I have not heard back from them. I sure hope they are listening.

 

[GOOFY D]

You know, this very thing hit me like a ton of bricks today while I was driving. It hit me: Only 3 FPs??????? On previous trips we had it all down to a science and pulled MANY FPs per day and rode our favorite attractions multiple times. LOVED our visits.

We have been on the fence for months now about celebrating my 50th birthday at DW this March, but I just cannot pull the trigger. I like things that make sense, and for my family, these new bands do not make sense and will totally change the way we tour. I just don't think we're gonna like it.

The whole FP situation is bad enough but if we have trouble even getting into our room because the MBs are on the fritz like so many have posted????? I do not have a high tolerance level for those types of annoyances.

Feeling sad about this whole situation.

Yeah, it sure seems that it has lowered the "value" of a trip to WDW. I do not care to spend that kind of money to spend the majority of my time standing in lines. They really missed the boat on this one.

 

[GOOFY D]

We are DVC owners too and are very disappointed with all these changes, especially with fast pass. We are not planning to add on but we are planning to sell off at least part of our points. We have 160/50 contracts. We'll have no need to keep them should Disney continue to make poor choices at least for my family. Presently we were suppose to stay at AKL in August for 10 days but we are changing our plans and will spend 5 of those days at Universal (our first time visiting US). We'd cancel completely but we are using up banked/borrowed points. We did send off a letter to Disney with our concerns and disappointments (not mean just stated the whys and possible solutions) but I have not heard back from them. I sure hope they are listening.

Yeah, that is my concern as well. We own DVC, but Disney's decisions like these cheapen the value of vacationing at WDW. In turn, it makes me question my DVC ownership. I know for sure I will not be adding on anytime soon.