Tests on FP+ for everyone at Animal Kingdom

[Lisash]

Went to Animal Kingdom yesterday and was given the below on arrival, so it appears tests on rolling out FP+ to all have begun.


It was total bedlam! All regular FP machines covered and CMs directing you to FP+ stations where people with IPads booked you your 3 choices for day.
Firstly iPads weren't working properly so took ages. My nephew had to help a CM reboot hers at one point. At 11am earliest time for Everest was 7pm and none of our others were before 3.30pm. Which is a worry when standby for Everest was only 30 mins so park busy but not heaving. There were 7 of us and our FP for Kilimanjaro start times ranged from 3.30 to 4.05 so very narrow time slot for us all to ride together and CMs were getting everyone to take photos of the iPad screen as proof of times just in case?
I wasn't feeling the love. I don't know if people will be able to go online eventually like with magic bands. I was a big fan of those in summer. This way You would need to be there super early to get a reasonable FP time and worry is on busier days they will all be gone quite quickly. I'm sure lots went unused yesterday. I know ours did as it was quicker to just stand in line.
A CM asked us what we thought as we were leaving. My DH just looked at him and said 'I highly recommend you don't try this at MK anytime soon as, I fear you will cause a riot' he completely agreed with us.

 

[Elise79]

It's been running over a week now - I don't think that the FP return time would have been much earlier with paper FP at 11am as the major rides have been running out quickly anyway.

I don't think the plan is for day guests to be able to pre-book that will remain an onsite perk.

TBH we were there the first day of the test and it wasn't too bad. They will not be going back to old style FP - this is all part of the test and adjust. There is only one way this is going

 

[chmurf]

Went to Animal Kingdom yesterday and was given the below on arrival, so it appears tests on rolling out FP+ to all have begun.

It started on the 18th to be exact.

It was total bedlam! All regular FP machines covered and CMs directing you to FP+ stations where people with IPads booked you your 3 choices for day.

Interesting.
Over the last 10 days, we only heard reports of guests who told how surprisingly smooth things were going, and how short the FP+ reservations line were, and how efficient CMs were.
it's even no longer a cause for rant or flame on the US side of these boards ...
That was probably a bad day at the wrong FP+ kiosk at the wrong time.

At 11am earliest time for Everest was 7pm and none of our others were before 3.30pm. Which is a worry when standby for Everest was only 30 mins so park busy but not heaving.

the FP+ will enable more people to get FPs for their rides, so we need to expect that quite a few attractions (and EE, and KS are busy) will see FP patterns like those we knew for TSMM and Soarin' for example, where on busy days, FPs would be completely gone by 11am
Also consider that, if the park was not crazy busy, it can also come from the fact that onsite guests have reserved FP+ for the afternoon or evening, and have done RD at other parks and will hop to DAK later to fulfill their FP+ reservation

There were 7 of us and our FP for Kilimanjaro start times ranged from 3.30 to 4.05 so very narrow time slot for us all to ride together

weren't you linked ? The kiosks give you the opportunity to scan all of your party's Tickets and link them as a group in order for you to all get the same FP+ return time.

and CMs were getting everyone to take photos of the iPad screen as proof of times just in case?

I think it's a good advice.

This way You would need to be there super early to get a reasonable FP time and worry is on busier days they will all be gone quite quickly.

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm picking on you, I'm not. I just try to express my thoughts on the subject.
But, getting to the parks early, to get Fastpasses for a reasonable return time, and seeing Fastpasses gone eatly at busy times ... doesn't that sound exactly like the old Fastpass system ?

At non peak times, I've seen fastpasses return times for TSMM at 5pm when it was only 9:30 on an EMH day, and they were all gone by 11am.
The only difference is that it used to happen only at the most popular rides, and now it will come to rides that used to be sold out later in the day.

But at the end of the day, it doesn't change a thing to the fact that, no matter if its a regular fastpass, or an offsite FP+, if you want a decent return time, be there early.

I'm sure lots went unused yesterday. I know ours did as it was quicker to just stand in line.

you'd be amazed at how many paper fastpasses went unused. I can bet we all have several of them in our "souvenir box", I know I have.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience at DAK with the offsite FP+ system, but I also think that for many guests, it's the fact of changing, that causes the issue, not the change itself, because, aside from the 3 FP+ limitation, the system hasn't changed much (and the time wasted with rebooting an iPad can be weighed against the time needed to crisscross the park to go fetch a paper FP and return to the ride later.)


my $.02 and ymmv

 

[Lisash]

Apologies I was just sharing my opinion on what we experienced. I will leave it to experts from now on.

 

[chmurf]

wow, that's rude.

 

[Lisash]

Apologies if you feel that way but to refer you to you OP you make a point of apologising if it feels like you are picking on me, so clearly you were aware your post would offend in first place.
I just made my original post to share how the system was working and my thoughts on how I found my experience. I am well aware this may differ from other peoples opinion and that is fine. I just wasn't expecting such a detailed and harsh critique on why I was wrong.
I thought the whole spirit of these boards was to respectfully share thoughts and opinions.

 

[Portugal1000]

Went to Animal Kingdom yesterday and was given the below on arrival, so it appears tests on rolling out FP+ to all have begun.


It was total bedlam! All regular FP machines covered and CMs directing you to FP+ stations where people with IPads booked you your 3 choices for day.
Firstly iPads weren't working properly so took ages. My nephew had to help a CM reboot hers at one point. At 11am earliest time for Everest was 7pm and none of our others were before 3.30pm. Which is a worry when standby for Everest was only 30 mins so park busy but not heaving. There were 7 of us and our FP for Kilimanjaro start times ranged from 3.30 to 4.05 so very narrow time slot for us all to ride together and CMs were getting everyone to take photos of the iPad screen as proof of times just in case?
I wasn't feeling the love. I don't know if people will be able to go online eventually like with magic bands. I was a big fan of those in summer. This way You would need to be there super early to get a reasonable FP time and worry is on busier days they will all be gone quite quickly. I'm sure lots went unused yesterday. I know ours did as it was quicker to just stand in line.
A CM asked us what we thought as we were leaving. My DH just looked at him and said 'I highly recommend you don't try this at MK anytime soon as, I fear you will cause a riot' he completely agreed with us.

Thank you for your review. We will be offsite again next summer and I am going to wait and see what happens at all four parks before deciding whether to invest the £1000 in Disney tickets. This will be our 11th trip and as much as we love Disney I just don't want to have a lesser experience than I am use to. We really do utilise the FP so it would make a big difference to us being limited to 3. I can live with that, if like onsite guests I can pre book but if its a case of only being able to book when we get to the park I will see what others experience. We are going on 6th August so will hopefully have lots of feedback before I need to make a decision. We have also decided to spend a week at Tradewinds in St Petes and we will spend a night at Universal to take advantage of 2 days express pass. So along with Discovery Cove, Aquatica and Busch we will have plenty to keep us occupied. I really do hope offsite guests will be able to book in advance. I think it would be great to be able to book evening fast passes. We are rope drop people but also like to spend at least one evening at each park. Last August 10th we were at MK till 11 and rode Splash 3 times and TM 5, and no queue atall. Love those rides at night.