The Incredible message for my trip :)

[Lisa loves Pooh]

To clarify my point-don't think it makes hopping an attractive feature. I think FP+ would allow me to justify hopping better.

 

[itchin2go]

To clarify my point-don't think it makes hopping an attractive feature. I think FP+ would allow me to justify hopping better.

Yes, in comparison to legacy, where it would make (lots) more sense to stay in the same park, having collected FPs to use at night.

Under new FP, it would still make just as much sense to stay in the same park, but assuming 4th FP and beyond doesn't come into play, and assuming the travel doesn't bother you, hopping to a second park where you use your 3 FPs would be an equally good strategy.

Whereas, hopping was not an equally good strategy before.

I think ....

 

[cakebaker]

You might as well have just done MK RD, taken a break or whatever you do between hops, then MK again in the afternoon with your 3 FPs

Not really. There are more attractions to do than we can get in with 3-4 hrs at the MK. We make many more morning trips to the MK than any other park. In fact, I don't think we rope dropped at Epcot or HS even once this trip. Normally we would, but we stayed long enough this time it just wasn't necessary to do it to work around tiers. During this past trip, we didn't stand in any lines at all in the mornings at the MK- none. Virtually every ride was a walk on and this included btmrr and splash on one morning. It's amazing what A&E and SDMT have done to other attractions in the morning at the MK.

 

[DoingDisney]

Now as to the advantages of park hopping with FP+ vs regular FP. With hopping, I can now make the MK a morning park most days and ride what we want to ride without FP+. We then can go to Epcot or HS and ride headliners as our evening park.

I think you mean ONE headliner ...

At the expense of not pulling FPs earlier in the day.

 

[DoingDisney]

Not really. There are more attractions to do than we can get in with 3-4 hrs at the MK. We make many more morning trips to the MK than any other park. In fact, I don't think we rope dropped at Epcot or HS even once this trip. Normally we would, but we stayed long enough this time it just wasn't necessary to do it to work around tiers. During this past trip, we didn't stand in any lines at all in the mornings at the MK- none. Virtually every ride was a walk on and this included btmrr and splash on one morning. It's amazing what A&E and SDMT have done to other attractions in the morning at the MK.

Its funny you mention this, I had a friend there the same time as you on the last trips, the wait times they reported weren't "walk-ons" many rides in MK had 20+ min waits by 9am. But, I suppose we might define "walk on" differently.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I haven't fully synthesized the whole thing in my brain. I'll pull you through my whole thought process and maybe you can help.

The cost of hoppers has always put me off, and they just seemed unnecessary. We have had great trips without them, and the truth is, when we did have them, we hardly used them.

My daughter really wants to do a few things in DHS. There's not enough to do for us to make a day out of it. On our last trip, for Thanksgiving day, I decided we needed a nice easy-going day. We would just have dinner at DHS and then see Osborne Lights. What a festive way to celebrate the holiday, right? And it truly was. Then, I realized, hey - we're not going to a park earlier in the day. We can make a few FPs so the family can ride a few rides on the way to dinner. Bonus! That, too, worked out well.

So now, for this next trip, she wants to duplicate that night, but we're not going over Thanksgiving, and I really don't have the same rationale for not going to the parks on a certain day. So, I'm thinking - hoppers.

Then, I'm thinking - hoppers? For, essentially, 2 rides? Plus, no Osborne Lights this time.

So then, I think - how ELSE can I use hoppers in my trip? To make it worthwhile ... Epcot dinners? Best use I've found so far.

And because of FP+, I feel duty bound to figure this out before my FP window opens up (which is not for a good long time, thank goodness). Because then I will have to decide whether to use the FP+ in the first park or second park ... assuming I factored in hopping on multiple days.

So, that's why I really am considering hoppers. Thoughts?

That makes sense. So it's really more about the fact that DHS doesn't have enough stuff for your family to do to fill a whole day? I get that. And I see because you have to prebook the FPs now you have to make the decision now versus in the past where you could wait. Still sounds pricey to me but we have never bought them (except when we stayed at Beach Club once)

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think the usual logic is RD one park, do all the rides you want and then hop to a second park with your 3 FP+s, knowing you can parkhop and still have 3 FPs later in the day, not worrying about them being gone.

That makes some sense, though I don't see how it necessarily makes hopping more attractive per se.

Essentially at that point after 2 days you would be reversing your hopping.

Day 1 MK RD, Epcot Park Hop
Day 2 AK RD, HS Park Hop

Ok... then what ?

Day 3 Epcot RD, MK Park hop
Day 4 HS RD, AK park Hop.

You might as well have just done MK RD, taken a break or whatever you do between hops, then MK again in the afternoon with your 3 FPs. It doesn't actually get you any more rides or what not, just changes the order in which you get them. And of course, you are doing so at the sacrifice of the time you could have saved in the mornings pulling FPs in your RD park. Now sure before 10:30 or 11 those often don't save you much time, but even saving 10-20 mins on 3 - 5 rides adds up, esp when many other rides literally have waits under 5 mins. You could be doing 3 rides instead of 1 by pulling FPs in the morning ... (well under legacy you could)

Yeah, that's where my train of thought was going too...why not just go back to the same park at night. I see though if you know you can have the three FPs booked it would make you more likely to buy a hopper, assuming it worked into your schedule, maybe ADRs or something.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Speaking only for me and having gone to Disney since the 80s and having enjoyed the hopper concept for all that time until they made it a purchases feature...

Once I had to pay for it, I saw no benefit. The claim was giving guests what they needed and let them compose their ticket their way by paying for extra options. Hopping was just not something I did often enough to warrant paying for it. (For comparison, at the time we did not do E-ride nights either because we didn't want to pay extra. Though in hindsight, it was a steal.)

Fast passes were usually swooped up or at really late times. So meh. I did not want to pay to hop.

FP+ would allow me to guarantee 3 attractions for my hop. Thus, since I know I would get some cool rides, I could see paying for the hop. Maybe.

We have a family of 6 with 5 tickets we had to buy in 2012 and adding park hopping was pricy. So we did MNSSHP instead. Not quite as cheap as parkhopping, but a better use of the money for us.

We have APs at this time, so it is a non issue for us.

Makes sense as long as you could build a schedule that would make the price worth it I guess? We never buy them because times four people is just too much for the amount of times we use them.

 

[itchin2go]

That makes sense. So it's really more about the fact that DHS doesn't have enough stuff for your family to do to fill a whole day? I get that. And I see because you have to prebook the FPs now you have to make the decision now versus in the past where you could wait. Still sounds pricey to me but we have never bought them (except when we stayed at Beach Club once)

I will probably not pull the trigger on them, but it is something I go back and forth on. We would probably be better off having an offsite shopping day, and then doing DHS that night. But then, I'm not sure I want to eat at Brown Derby again, which was part of the draw. My daughter also loves the shop in DHS with all the Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise. And I keep thinking, boy, all this for 2 rides and a shop? LOL

DHS is definitely the driving factor, but being able to have the FPs that night is part of what makes it attractive. If we had never had that experience last trip, I wouldn't even be thinking about this.

 

[amg35]

While certainly not always the case, going another day is often a "locals" strategy and not as easy to do with guests who are only there for 5 or 6 days. So when you take the "go another day" option out of the equation, one is left with, (at tiered parks), go early if you want to ride another tiered ride, or wait in a very long line and burn much of your day. I don't think I am going out on a limb when I say that most visitors who are only in town for 5 or 6 days will want to ride many of the tiered rides. They are the headliners after all. So if we assume that one wants to ride multiple headliners at a tiered park, we are now down to one option.....Get there early. And this has always been the case. So I am not faulting FP+ for creating some new problem. It didn't. But this thread isn't about bashing the utility of FP+. It is about FP+ and its creation of spontaneity. And now that we have concluded that out of town folks with limited time who want to ride multiple headliners at tiered parks have to arrive early, the concept of spontaneity erodes. Some would even say evaporates.

Yes, but if SDMT had been around pre-FP+, you (presumably) wouldn't have had any trouble pulling a legacy FP for it, being there at rope drop. That's one of those things that seems like a wash for me.



I see the hopping thing brought up quite a bit. We don't hop so that aspect of FP+ doesn't really impact our trips. Just curious why you didn't like visiting Epcot in the mornings?

I don't know maybe you are both right, I have to be honest, I don't really care all that much!

 

[ArwenMarie]

Yes, in comparison to legacy, where it would make (lots) more sense to stay in the same park, having collected FPs to use at night.

Under new FP, it would still make just as much sense to stay in the same park, but assuming 4th FP and beyond doesn't come into play, and assuming the travel doesn't bother you, hopping to a second park where you use your 3 FPs would be an equally good strategy.

Whereas, hopping was not an equally good strategy before.

I think ....

This is it. It makes hopping or returning to the same park now equally good where before it was a detriment to hop in terms of FP. But it doesn't make it better unless there is some other non-FP-related reason you are planning your schedule that way.

 

[itchin2go]

This is it. It makes hopping or returning to the same park now equally good where before it was a detriment to hop in terms of FP. But it doesn't make it better unless there is some other non-FP-related reason you are planning your schedule that way.

Thank you. Yes.

Edited to add: with my reason being that there is hardly anything to do in DHS, but my daughter wants to go there for 2 rides and a gift shop.

 

[cakebaker]

I think you mean ONE headliner ...

At the expense of not pulling FPs earlier in the day.

No, I meant headliners. We visited each park more than once, we rode the headliners.

We didn't need FP+'s earlier in the day so we sacrificed nothing.

 

[cakebaker]

Its funny you mention this, I had a friend there the same time as you on the last trips, the wait times they reported weren't "walk-ons" many rides in MK had 20+ min waits by 9am. But, I suppose we might define "walk on" differently.

My first question to you, with you being new to the Dis and only having a handful of posts, is how do you know the exact dates I was at WDW?

Regardless, I can't help what your friend told you. I know what we did. I define a walk on as being a ride that I can board taking no longer to board than it takes me to walk through the queue without stopping or waiting. Not sure there is another definition.

Are you trying to insinuate I'm lying?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Its funny you mention this, I had a friend there the same time as you on the last trips, the wait times they reported weren't "walk-ons" many rides in MK had 20+ min waits by 9am. But, I suppose we might define "walk on" differently.

Or we may say the two weren't physically together and found different waits at different times of day. All it proves is that it isn't "always" one way or the other.

 

[cakebaker]

Makes sense as long as you could build a schedule that would make the price worth it I guess? We never buy them because times four people is just too much for the amount of times we use them.

Admittedly, we have AP's for 3 so park hopping so that was not an issue for those. We only had to pay for 2. We'd still get it, but it's not like we had to buy for everyone the last few trips. It has gotten pricey though.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Yeah, that's where my train of thought was going too...why not just go back to the same park at night. I see though if you know you can have the three FPs booked it would make you more likely to buy a hopper, assuming it worked into your schedule, maybe ADRs or something.

Again speaking only for me--some like greater variety. And once everything within one park is completed that you wanted to do, it may be time to hop elsewhere. For itchin's example, I wonder if park hopping it catch just the couple of attractions at DHS would be cheaper than an extra ticket day.

My best vacation ever was back in 1992. Poly concierge!!! Us kids got "bored" as the week went on and we started hopping in and out of parks. While repeats can and were indeed fun, hopping made it so we weren't stuck at one park for the 2nd or 3rd day in a row once we had accomplished all we wanted to.

I could see strategies today doing something similar. On day 2 or 3 of MK, you may not need FP anymore, save them for you other park you hop between.

 

[Number Six]

No, I meant headliners. We visited each park more than once, we rode the headliners.

We didn't need FP+'s earlier in the day so we sacrificed nothing.

Your earlier post that the other guy posted made it sound like you could ride more than one headliner with the new fastpass at Epcot or Hollywood Studios on the same day, can you do that with the groupings?. This one says you visited parks more than once to ride more than one headliner. I'm confused again!

 

[DoingDisney]

My first question to you, with you being new to the Dis and only having a handful of posts, is how do you know the exact dates I was at WDW?

Regardless, I can't help what your friend told you. I know what we did. I define a walk on as being a ride that I can board taking no longer to board than it takes me to walk through the queue without stopping or waiting. Not sure there is another definition.

Are you trying to insinuate I'm lying?

Pretty easy to search things on this board, like most boards.

 

[DoingDisney]

Again speaking only for me--some like greater variety. And once everything within one park is completed that you wanted to do, it may be time to hop elsewhere. For itchin's example, I wonder if park hopping it catch just the couple of attractions at DHS would be chooser than an extra ticket day.

My best vacation ever was back in 1992. Poly concierge!!! Us kids got "bored" as the week went on and we started hopping in and out of parks. While repeats can and were indeed fun, hopping made it so we weren't stuck at one park for the 2nd or 3rd day in a row once we had accomplished all we wanted to.

I could see strategies today doing something similar. On day 2 or 3 of MK, you may not need FP anymore, save them for you other park you hop between.

I think the daily variety is a pretty good point here Lisa, I do get that and I can totally see how FP+ would facilitate that.