Some FP+ Info

[bcrook]

Ahhh..... I just saw your location. We're on the other side of the state. We are having thunder snow right now. It's a white out and it only just started. I'd still rather have this than the sleet and ice though. We haven't had a storm this big in over a decade. I'm just glad my other son's college cancelled classes. He has an exam and I had visions of having to drive him across town and back.

We are in the process of getting 4-6 inches of sleet, ice and snow! Oh the joy!!

And I am a little west of you Mad Hattered, and it has ARRIVED! Thunder snow - nice one mom2rtk. Good description.

 

[Robo]

Thunder snow - nice one mom2rtk. Good description.

"Thundersnow" is a legitimate weather term. (HERE)

It's what the meteorologists here have been calling it on the weather reports.

 

[mom2rtk]

"Thundersnow" is a legitimate weather term. (HERE)

It's what the meteorologists here have been calling it on the weather reports.

Yep. And there's no mistaking it. We've heard many loud claps already.

Did you get your driveway shoveled yet Robo? Cuz if you did, it's time to start again!

My shovelers are going to be asleep for a while. Resting up for the big job ahead no doubt.

 

[Mad Hattered]

We have about a 1/2" of ice pellets covering everything right now and it's coming down HARD (and loud). No thunder just yet but they are predicting it.

 

[danceintherain]

All of this could work well for a certain type of visitor. There is no question about that. Unfortunately we're not all cut from the same cloth so conjecturing that the system will work a certain way just seems to make a lot of us uneasy. I know that I dislike many aspects of this but my dislike is also coming from conjecture and having to plan even more. It does seem apparent that more and more planning will be necessary for us to have a good time.

By the way, I believe that there will still be a rope drop stampede. You will still have many people who want to ride that popular ride without worrying about fastpasses and I bet that some have even posted on this thread. I don't see that changing.

Of course there will still be people who arrive at Rope Drop. That will continue to happen regardless of how people respond to FP+. I'm in the group that believes that there will be nothing that will get certain people out of bed first thing in the morning.

While I don't believe the worst about the system, I definitely have my own doubts, if nothing else than having to alter our touring plans at the last minute.

Exactly. I can't see utilization going anywhere but up. The only people who may not utilize the new technology are those who buy their tickets they day they go to the park and those who are just oblivious. I seriously don't see Disney letting people get away without knowing about the technology before they show up at the park. They are just spending too much on it for them to not make sure pretty much everyone who is visiting that day has at least some knowledge and use of the system.

I don't know. There are plenty of people who go to Disney without ever interacting with the website. I suppose it's possible that they could put it in commercials. Even if they have people standing at the entrance or teach all ticket CMs a spiel about it to tell people, how many people will actually listen? The information about FP is on the back of park maps now, and there are still plenty of people who think it's a paid service.

We are in the process of getting 4-6 inches of sleet, ice and snow! Oh the joy!!

Ahhh..... I just saw your location. We're on the other side of the state. We are having thunder snow right now. It's a white out and it only just started. I'd still rather have this than the sleet and ice though. We haven't had a storm this big in over a decade. I'm just glad my other son's college cancelled classes. He has an exam and I had visions of having to drive him across town and back.

I'm in Manhattan, KS, and from the looks of it the snow has been coming down pretty consistently for a while now (DH is home today, so I didn't have to get up with the two year old). No sleet, just snow thus far.
I agree, I haven't seen snow like this in years and I think when I did I was in the northeast, not in Kansas.

So if FP utilization goes up, that's means less SB riders. So all this wild specualtion about SB lines getting longer doesn't make sense.

Well.....that's certainly not possible now.

There will always be a standby line, and there will always be people who will wait in it, even if they can get a shorter wait by booking their "virtual" wait via FastPass. There will also always be a limit on FPs, so everyone will end up waiting standby at some point, unless they're willing to actually spend all the intermediate time shopping and eating (which was the intent of the program, when they first created it).
Right now, it seems that they're managing an overloaded FP line by devoting most of the ride capacity to it, and ignoring an ever growing stand by line. Even if there are only 100 people in the standby line in front of you, if they only move forward at a pace of a person per minute, because there are a constant stream of people in the FP line, you will wait a full 100 minutes to make it to the front of the line.

I have hopes that eventually they get their capacity figured out, and the issue right now is that they're starting to roll out FP+ alongside regular FP, but it is a bit silly that they're obviously overloading the system, when they should have fairly close park capacity numbers. Unless of course February HAS been more crowded than in past years, and they weren't expecting it.

 

[Robo]

Did you get your driveway shoveled yet Robo?

Nope, and it's not going to be, unless some neighborhood kids come ringing our doorbell looking for a few bucks.

We're not planning on going out at all today, but we have a 4WD full-sized SUV in the garage
that doesn't mind the drifts... if we DO decide we "need something."

 

[tinkerbell 766]

I am still really confused about all this
I have a trip coming up in June (8th - 15th, following a week long cruise on the Fantasy). I am from the UK and, assuming the system is fully in play by June, I assume that I will have to reserve our FP+ slots before I leave home (as Internet access is unreliable and expensive). How far out do we think these can be booked? Presumably, it will be first come first served, and so the earlier they are reserved the more choice one would have. Right? Therefore, I assume that if I wait until I arrive at WDW to sort out my FP+ slots, I will be at a disadvantage.
We do not have the full website up and running here in the UK yet, and I am finding the IPad app fraught with glitches, so I am unsure how I am going to handle this. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Robo]

I am still really confused about all this
I have a trip coming up in June (8th - 15th, following a week long cruise on the Fantasy). I am from the UK and,


1- assuming the system is fully in play by June,

2- I assume that I will have to reserve our FP+ slots before I leave home (as Internet access is unreliable and expensive).

3- How far out do we think these can be booked?

4- Presumably, it will be first come first served, and

5- so the earlier they are reserved the more choice one would have. Right?

6- Therefore, I assume that if I wait until I arrive at WDW to sort out my FP+ slots, I will be at a disadvantage.
We do not have the full website up and running here in the UK yet, and I am finding the IPad app fraught with glitches, so I am unsure how I am going to handle this.

7- Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

1- A very big assumption to make.

2- Maybe. Could be. Unknown.

3- All of this is unknown. Some suggest 60 days.

4- Likely.

5- Unless they make the "reservations" available in "metered-out over time" bits.

6- Likely, but still quite Unknown

7- I'd put any worries on the back burner for now.
And, stay tuned.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Oh right, perhaps the system will be unchanged when we go.
I would prefer that, really!!!! At least I would have some idea what I was doing then!!!
Thanks Robbo xx

 

[mom2rtk]

How far out do we think these can be booked? Presumably, it will be first come first served, and so the earlier they are reserved the more choice one would have. Right? Therefore, I assume that if I wait until I arrive at WDW to sort out my FP+ slots, I will be at a disadvantage.

Your best bet is to stay plugged in here on the DIS. Once it starts to roll out, this place will light up like a Christmas tree.

It is generally thought that eventually when in full swing the system will allow FP+ to be reserved 60 days out. But if it rolls out tomorrow (it won't) those with trips a couple weeks out would then be reserving much closer to their actual travel dates. Disney feels no obligation to give a full window when these things roll out.

Many folks hoped Be Our Guest would open reservations 180 days out because that's just what they do for dining. I never thought so and of course they did not. And it was an absolute MESS on the phones that day!

I honestly do believe the reports of them planning to roll it out by resort though. That would give them a chance to fine tune the issues as they arise.

 

[UNCFanatik]

Rope Drop is equivalent to being able to get 1-2 FP wait times without the fastpasses. So if we are limited to 3 FP+ a day, getting to rope drop would be like getting 5 FP+. More people will figure this out, and the "value" of the rope drop will disappear.

The other thing that will affect Rope drop will be the lack of hopping and FP+. Rope drop at one park will be crucial to be able to ride a few rides if the second park of the day has the FP+ reservations.

I just hope people will be too tired to get up and go to the park. BUT even that is less likely if EMH evenings go away. The parks will be closed earlier.

There is still a large portion of people that will not do RD for any reason because they would rather sleep in on their vacations. I do not think this will change the "value" of RD.

And this could increase park hopping for those that do RD and then hop to another park for their FP+

 

[mom2rtk]

Nope, and it's not going to be, unless some neighborhood kids come ringing our doorbell looking for a few bucks.

We're not planning on going out at all today, but we have a 4WD full-sized SUV in the garage
that doesn't mind the drifts... if we DO decide we "need something."

Awesome! I've got you on speed-dial if we need anything!

Actually, being the busy body that I am, I've already been out in it this morning. I wanted a few more things at the grocery store and wanted to see how it was. We were only in the store about 20 minutes and when we came out the car looked like it had been there all night! When the lightning struck near us, I thought maybe it was a transformer blowing. I was very happy to hear the thunder clap confirm that it had been lightning. I'm paranoid about the power ever since the 01 ice storm.

 

[bcrook]

There is still a large portion of people that will not do RD for any reason because they would rather sleep in on their vacations. I do not think this will change the "value" of RD.

And this could increase park hopping for those that do RD and then hop to another park for their FP+

I hope your right, but you have to admit that the incentive to do rope drop has to increase. There will be much more need for rope drop because of the new rules.

If nothing else it will be important for anyone who wants to take advantage of the new park hopping perk (if that is how you want to look at it.)

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Thanks!!!!

 

[Quin]

Another person hoping the system can be worked without having a smart phone. DH wants us totally away from the real world on vacation this May: no internet-connected devices, even plain cell phones probably just locked up in the room. I see his point, but the enthusiastic (over-enthusiastic?) adoption of the technology by vendors of all kinds including WDW makes it harder and harder to just walk away and relax. Because once you have the silly thing in your hand it's almost impossible not to sneak a peek at your social media, or answer one little e-mail, and it just escalates.

And FWIW I'm a bit SW of KC and took a vacation day today - I knew I could get in to the suburbs to work but did not know that I could get home again. Looks like I was right. We've got just over 6" on the ground and it's not even noontime yet; supposed to keep snowing here until early tomorrow morning. With the wind there may be some pretty nasty drifts out on these country roads, too. Just hoping I can get out tomorrow morning.

 

[UNCFanatik]

I hope your right, but you have to admit that the incentive to do rope drop has to increase. There will be much more need for rope drop because of the new rules.

If nothing else it will be important for anyone who wants to take advantage of the new park hopping perk (if that is how you want to look at it.)

I agree, the incentive will increase but do not know if that would still be powerful enough for people to abandon their vacation mentality that they will not get up early for RD. Inversely, there will be those that previously did RD for attractions such as TSMM that will no longer do so because they have a FP+ for it later in the day. They may want to use their FP+ on it and then try to do SB at closing when the SB lines are shorter.

 

[mom2rtk]

Another person hoping the system can be worked without having a smart phone. DH wants us totally away from the real world on vacation this May: no internet-connected devices, even plain cell phones probably just locked up in the room. I see his point, but the enthusiastic (over-enthusiastic?) adoption of the technology by vendors of all kinds including WDW makes it harder and harder to just walk away and relax. Because once you have the silly thing in your hand it's almost impossible not to sneak a peek at your social media, or answer one little e-mail, and it just escalates.

And FWIW I'm a bit SW of KC and took a vacation day today - I knew I could get in to the suburbs to work but did not know that I could get home again. Looks like I was right. We've got just over 6" on the ground and it's not even noontime yet; supposed to keep snowing here until early tomorrow morning. With the wind there may be some pretty nasty drifts out on these country roads, too. Just hoping I can get out tomorrow morning.

I think LOTS of businesses decided to just close today. I do feel for anyone who has to travel home in this later today. We're in the MO suburbs and even those busy roads were already treacherous at 9 this morning. You know, for the few people crazy enough to go out and see......

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

Another person hoping the system can be worked without having a smart phone. DH wants us totally away from the real world on vacation this May: no internet-connected devices, even plain cell phones probably just locked up in the room. I see his point, but the enthusiastic (over-enthusiastic?) adoption of the technology by vendors of all kinds including WDW makes it harder and harder to just walk away and relax. Because once you have the silly thing in your hand it's almost impossible not to sneak a peek at your social media, or answer one little e-mail, and it just escalates.

Our family doesn't even own a phone or a phone that can connect to the internet. The only wireless device we have is our laptop and of course we would not be bringing that into the park with us! The idea that we will have to go to a kiosk to check our FP+ return times doesn't sound great to us. Of course, I know our type of family is few and far between.

 

[mom2rtk]

We have about a 1/2" of ice pellets covering everything right now and it's coming down HARD (and loud). No thunder just yet but they are predicting it.

Yuck. Double Yuck. At least we had dry roads under all this snow. Good luck with the mess!

Just remember. At least you guys are 4 hours to closer to Disney than we are!

 

[WillAustin]

I agree, the incentive will increase but do not know if that would still be powerful enough for people to abandon their vacation mentality that they will not get up early for RD. Inversely, there will be those that previously did RD for attractions such as TSMM that will no longer do so because they have a FP+ for it later in the day. They may want to use their FP+ on it and then try to do SB at closing when the SB lines are shorter.

I agree with you. There will always be a significant number of people that won't get up early, no matter what.