Staying offsite and just booked advance FP+ for next week!

[2Tiggies]

Just passing on what I was told by Disney guest relations. For certain there will be alot of upset guest. There already are alot of upset guest. apparently there were alot of upset guest with FP legacy and if I had to bet my last dollar I would put it on there will always be a lot of upset guest!

Yes, you can never please everyone all the time. But I have never seen as many unhappy people with a system as I do now, and I am one of them. I really don't recall thread after thread expressing dissatisfaction over the legacy FP system - ever. The posts would come up from time to time about arriving at 10 am and TSM FP's were out to 7.30 pm and those sort of issues, but nothing like we are seeing now. And it's NOT just the DIS; it's everywhere!

 

[lizabu]

Just a couple couple of questions to help get an understanding of how/why you might have been selected: Did you have an MDE Account from a previous stay? Did you have MB's previously? Are you receiving MB's as part of this offering - if so, do you have to purchase them? Did they say they're going to contact you beyond this email or do you have to contact them?? Did the email state how you're going to be able to use them- such as, redeem them at GS or a kiosk if you're not going to get MB's? Sorry for all of this but the follow-on is very important to how other off-site guests might also be handled.

No. I last went to WDW 2 years ago and stayed at the Swan. I have had my tickets linked since July or Aug and made ADRs quite some time ago but don't recall when. I added things like parades and fireworks reminders on the app.

The email said the following:

Since you took the time to plan a dining experience at a Walt Disney World Theme Park in advance, we’d like to invite you to test Disney FastPass+ service so you can reserve access to select Theme Park experiences in advance as well! You can do this by helping us test our Disney FastPass+ service* while you’re here!

With Disney FastPass+ service you can lock-in some of your must do fun before you arrive. That means you can enjoy less time waiting in line and more time having fun. Best yet – it’s included with Theme Park admission.

Complete the following steps by March 6, 2014 if you’d like to participate in this test.

1. Link your tickets
If you haven’t done so yet, you’ll need to link and assign a Walt Disney World Theme Park ticket for each member of your travel party age three (3) or older.

• Click here to be guided through the steps to get started.
• Need tickets? Click here to explore your options.
2. Link your dining reservation
If your upcoming dine reservation is not listed on your My Disney Experience planning page, then click here to link it now with confirmation number: xxxxxxccccc731.

Complete these steps by March 6, 2014. On March 7, we’ll send you a confirmation letting you know you’re part of the test.


Need help? Visit the Help Center.


I didn't wait for them to email me back. I went to MDE and tried clicking FP+ and it let me choose FP+ each day of my stay. March 7-12

HTH

 

[amg35]

Eeek.

I really didn't want to have to plan out each of 9 days to this extent, but now it seems like I will have to.

Going late October, so I'm not sure how hard it will be to get the fast passes for major rides less than 60 days out, but now I'm almost afraid to chance it!

 

[MaryKatesMom]

But if I'm booking a stay onsite less than 60 days out and have already heard there are no FPs left for TSMM or 7DMT, I don't think I'd be satisfied with having a chance to get one day of. It would be like getting wait-listed. So I'd probably decide to just stay somewhere else -- probably US because then I'd absolutely get EP and early entry.

IMO people onsite have to have an opportunity to get major FPs too, no matter when they book.

I'm thinking it may turn out to be the difference between 60+10 vs. plain 60 like the ADR's. Do we know for sure it will be 60 days for the off site guests?

I don't think offsite is the vast majority, 50/50 by most estimates. But if we look at profit, I'm sure it breaks down much higher in favor of onsite. It is going to be interesting watching this based on what has been happening so far.

What I'm hoping is the data collected from MB's will confirm what you said. If they see certain sample of guests from a group, like if you stay Club level you spend X% more than maybe they will add a FP+ to staying Club. Or that certain guest who hold PAP's from the Northeast spend more money on property, than I'm more likely to get a PIN or something. Guaranteed they are watching which groups spend more money in park.

I think it's inevitable. I wouldnt mind as much if standby lines weren't being so negatively impacted by all this. Much as we've loved and used FP up to now, we do plenty of standby lines. It's just always been pretty simple: we're right there, we look up, see the wait time and decide to get in line ... or to move on. It's not so simple now. And the wait times are far from accurate from reports we are reading which doesn't help matters.

Yea, that.

Actually we don't know that. All we know is what the on-line ADR or Central Dining Reservations person tells us. Do we really know that "no availability during the time you requested" actually means "filled to the gills"? Concierges seem to be able to squeeze people in at the last minute. Not always. But often.

What we do know is that neither of us knows. In the coming weeks or months, we are either going to see posts that complain that locals, AP Holders and late bookers are getting completely shut out, or that they are finding spaces on popular rides.

Once I watched a poor CM concierge get berated by a guest who thought with the dining plan they should get in whereever and whenever. She struggled to get him something.

Then once I was with a CM concierge who outright said "You see, what I see" and I know she wasn't lying. Meaning what I bring up on my computer is what all ADR's are available.

Those two incidences lead me to believe that there is nothing held back for the concierge.

 

[*disgal*]

I don't think offsite is the vast majority, 50/50 by most estimates. But if we look at profit, I'm sure it breaks down much higher in favor of onsite. It is going to be interesting watching this based on what has been happening so far.

Really. Offsite is THAT low? huh. I thought it would be more because of all the locals. Hmm.

Still not getting it. Let's assume that there is a subset of prospective guests who will not come to WDW unless they can get a 7DMT FP+. Some of them book more than 60 days in advance and some do not. Let's also assume that all 7DMT FP+ are in a general pool and demand makes it such that they are all gone on the 60 day mark. Isn't it true that all guests in the subset who haven't yet booked their trip by the 60 day mark will refuse to do so? Why would Disney want to systematically exclude all guest who book within the 60 day mark?Wouldn't it be better to make 70% of all FP+s available at the 60 day mark and then 10% more each between the 50-40 day mark, the 35-25 day mark and the 15-5 day marks thereby giving hope to the late bookers? The early bookers are still going to get whatever they want as long as they are vigilant. 70% is still a pretty big number.

JimmyV....you don't have to answer this but I'm so curious. What kind of job do you have? I am like in awe of how you use statistics/numbers etc....you're like a smarty pants or something. My DH is a smarty pants too (valedictorian of law school class) so I can usually pick them out in a crowd. lol (and you've heard opposites attract, right? Hey, he says I have a lot of common sense so.... )

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Do we have confirmation that offsite will be 60 days out?

 

[lizabu]

Do we have confirmation that offsite will be 60 days out?

It looks like I could go as far as May 4 if I wanted to. Those dates are blue while everything past that is grey.

 

[conniehar90]

We are headed down in 3 weeks and staying offsite. I have had my ADR's set up for awhile. I just linked my tickets that I purchased through UCT. Still no access to FP+ or an email invite.

I will keep checking (and hoping)!

 

[Shaden]

There is no way they are going to hold back on the amount of fast passes they release. Just imagine you have someone booking a trip at 58 days out, they get online and can't book any major rides. They will call back and cancel. All available inventory will have to be there at 60 days out. Once it's gone it's gone.

Indeed, have to wonder what will happen to the FPs that are seemingly held back for day of at this point, if the offsite guests can pre-book, I can't really see the reason for reserving some for day of, since the entire point of the system is to "lock people in" ahead of time.

 

[redrosesix]

No. I last went to WDW 2 years ago and stayed at the Swan. I have had my tickets linked since July or Aug and made ADRs quite some time ago but don't recall when. I added things like parades and fireworks reminders on the app.

The email said the following:

Since you took the time to plan a dining experience at a Walt Disney World Theme Park in advance, we’d like to invite you to test Disney FastPass+ service so you can reserve access to select Theme Park experiences in advance as well! You can do this by helping us test our Disney FastPass+ service* while you’re here!

With Disney FastPass+ service you can lock-in some of your must do fun before you arrive. That means you can enjoy less time waiting in line and more time having fun. Best yet – it’s included with Theme Park admission.

Complete the following steps by March 6, 2014 if you’d like to participate in this test.

1. Link your tickets
If you haven’t done so yet, you’ll need to link and assign a Walt Disney World Theme Park ticket for each member of your travel party age three (3) or older.

• Click here to be guided through the steps to get started.
• Need tickets? Click here to explore your options.
2. Link your dining reservation
If your upcoming dine reservation is not listed on your My Disney Experience planning page, then click here to link it now with confirmation number: xxxxxxccccc731.

Complete these steps by March 6, 2014. On March 7, we’ll send you a confirmation letting you know you’re part of the test.


Need help? Visit the Help Center.


I didn't wait for them to email me back. I went to MDE and tried clicking FP+ and it let me choose FP+ each day of my stay. March 7-12

HTH

Your email is very similar to the one I got at the 60 day mark ie. it doesn't assume you have tickets. We didn't have tickets when we got the email either, but we could have booked fp's if we had had them.

So I'd say it's all about the ADR and having MDE set up.

 

[Planogirl]

It looks like I could go as far as May 4 if I wanted to. Those dates are blue while everything past that is grey.

Wow, that is wonderful. And totally unexpected by me at least.

I do wonder how the system will be able to handle all of this though.

 

[redrosesix]

I'm thinking it may turn out to be the difference between 60+10 vs. plain 60 like the ADR's. Do we know for sure it will be 60 days for the off site guests?



What I'm hoping is the data collected from MB's will confirm what you said. If they see certain sample of guests from a group, like if you stay Club level you spend X% more than maybe they will add a FP+ to staying Club. Or that certain guest who hold PAP's from the Northeast spend more money on property, than I'm more likely to get a PIN or something. Guaranteed they are watching which groups spend more money in park.



Yea, that.



Once I watched a poor CM concierge get berated by a guest who thought with the dining plan they should get in whereever and whenever. She struggled to get him something.

Then once I was with a CM concierge who outright said "You see, what I see" and I know she wasn't lying. Meaning what I bring up on my computer is what all ADR's are available.

Those two incidences lead me to believe that there is nothing held back for the concierge.

I hope they figure out that the more rides Canadians do, the more they spend on food. And if they have to wait for even 25 minutes they leave and spend all of their money elsewhere. So Canadians should get 9 FP's per day.

But seriously, while we were there we were approached 4 times by CMs doing surveys in the parks on the new system. But they didn't want to survey anyone from outside the US. I actually don't know what that says about what they were looking for.

 

[Shaden]

I don't think offsite is the vast majority, 50/50 by most estimates. But if we look at profit, I'm sure it breaks down much higher in favor of onsite. It is going to be interesting watching this based on what has been happening so far.

That Can't be true during high season ...

I thought there was only capacity for like 35 000 people ON site ... ???

 

[ckelly14]

If you book a resort room in order to take advantage of the 180+10 feature for ADRs, and then cancel your resort reservation, your ADRs get wiped out too. No reason to suspect that they will not do this with whatever reservation you relied on in order to be able to pre-book FP+. It would be a risky strategy to cancel an ADR 25 hours in advance only to find out

ADR's do not get wiped out if you cancel the resort stay...

 

[clsteve]

No. I last went to WDW 2 years ago and stayed at the Swan. I have had my tickets linked since July or Aug and made ADRs quite some time ago but don't recall when. I added things like parades and fireworks reminders on the app.

The email said the following:

Since you took the time to plan a dining experience at a Walt Disney World Theme Park in advance, we’d like to invite you to test Disney FastPass+ service so you can reserve access to select Theme Park experiences in advance as well! You can do this by helping us test our Disney FastPass+ service* while you’re here!

With Disney FastPass+ service you can lock-in some of your must do fun before you arrive. That means you can enjoy less time waiting in line and more time having fun. Best yet – it’s included with Theme Park admission.

Complete the following steps by March 6, 2014 if you’d like to participate in this test.

1. Link your tickets
If you haven’t done so yet, you’ll need to link and assign a Walt Disney World Theme Park ticket for each member of your travel party age three (3) or older.

• Click here to be guided through the steps to get started.
• Need tickets? Click here to explore your options.
2. Link your dining reservation
If your upcoming dine reservation is not listed on your My Disney Experience planning page, then click here to link it now with confirmation number: xxxxxxccccc731.

Complete these steps by March 6, 2014. On March 7, we’ll send you a confirmation letting you know you’re part of the test.


Need help? Visit the Help Center.


I didn't wait for them to email me back. I went to MDE and tried clicking FP+ and it let me choose FP+ each day of my stay. March 7-12

HTH

Sorry lizabu, I had posted the question to OP- velvetsqueeze-- I guess that means you received one as well- that's excellent!

Could you please keep is updated on what they send back since it looks like they're going to let you know on your arrival date if you're selected for the test.

It will help many if we can know if you'll need MB's, if you'll be able to access the App and make changes, etc.

Very exciting, if it all comes together

 

[bcrook]

That Can't be true during high season ...

I thought there was only capacity for like 35 000 people ON site ... ???

The top number of on site guests is probably around 90,000 at 90%+ capacity (based on 25000 rooms). In peak time I would imagine there are about 200,000+ Total guests wandering around.

 

[bcrook]

Just a couple couple of questions to help get an understanding of how/why you might have been selected:

Did you have an MDE Account from a previous stay?

Did you have MB's previously?

Are you receiving MB's as part of this offering - if so, do you have to purchase them?

Did they say they're going to contact you beyond this email or do you have to contact them??

Did the email state how you're going to be able to use them- such as, redeem them at GS or a kiosk if you're not going to get MB's?

Sorry for all of this but the follow-on is very important to how other off-site guests might also be handled.

I was sitting with my friend who got the same email yesterday. We went through the steps. It was exciting to see it unravel.

He had an AP.
No MagicBand, one not being shipped.
He has not stayed on site.
He could book out 60 days.
He could only schedule 7 days of FP like an AP
He set up his MDE account in December. He has been checking everyday since his 60 day mark - jan 17.
He has several ADRs.

He WAS irritated by the interface and how he had to go through so much to re arrange choices. I told him to join the club. . He even had a personal coach sitting by him!

 

[lizabu]

Sorry lizabu, I had posted the question to OP- velvetsqueeze-- I guess that means you received one as well- that's excellent! Could you please keep is updated on what they send back since it looks like they're going to let you know on your arrival date if you're selected for the test. It will help many if we can know if you'll need MB's, if you'll be able to access the App and make changes, etc. Very exciting, if it all comes together

Sure. I don't know how it will work either. It let me select FP+ attractions on MDE but I don't have magic bands. I guess I'll figure it out on Friday. Maybe you just wave your card in front of the scanner thing. I'll let you know.

BTW...sorry if I wasn't supposed to answer. I thought maybe you wanted feedback from everyone who got an invitation so you could figure out how it works.

 

[velvetsqueeze]

Just a couple couple of questions to help get an understanding of how/why you might have been selected:

Did you have an MDE Account from a previous stay?

Did you have MB's previously?

Are you receiving MB's as part of this offering - if so, do you have to purchase them?

Did they say they're going to contact you beyond this email or do you have to contact them??

Did the email state how you're going to be able to use them- such as, redeem them at GS or a kiosk if you're not going to get MB's?

Sorry for all of this but the follow-on is very important to how other off-site guests might also be handled.

No MDE from a previous stay. No MB's (our tickets are the credit card ones). We are not receiving MB's. No further contact requested, but I'm sure they will email the snot out of me over the next year. The email didn't state how I would use the FP's, but I already know that I will use the RFID-enabled ticket card the same way as the MB's: just hold it up to the Mickey and wait for it to turn green.

 

[Shaden]

You know better - the implication for on-site guests is that there are now more people competing for a finite number of FP+ reservations ahead of time. That is absolutely a change for the worse for on-site guests.

BB ... I think you generally started positive about FP+ ... I notice more and more negative coming from you ?>>