This just in from Disney Parks blog!

[roomthreeseventeen]

I'm confused why people are upset about the kiosks? Aren't they in the same locations of the fast pass - kiosks? And was there limited availability on popular rides on fast pass -? You wouldn't expect to pull a tsm fp at 4 pm even with the old system.

If you want to book a Space Mountain FP+ right after you get off of the Jungle Cruise, it's much easier to pull out your phone than hike across the park.

 

[slickpoetry]

I'd love to hear from someone who has used the kiosks in late afternoon, to tell us what the experience was like and what was still available at that time. Like everyone else, I was planning on using my FP between 1 and 4 PM. Then we were going to find an early dinner. SO I wonder what fastpasses we could get after 5 PM.


And now I need to learn where the kiosks are located. Are they only up near the front gates, or do they have locations throughout the park?

 

[mcd2745]

If you must use the kiosks, then I don't think this is good news at all.

I'd be surprised if that was the case. I'm going to assume you'll be able to use your smart devices as well.

 

[Pamnkevin]

I'm confused why people are upset about the kiosks? Aren't they in the same locations of the fast pass - kiosks? And was there limited availability on popular rides on fast pass -? You wouldn't expect to pull a tsm fp at 4 pm even with the old system.

It's because sometimes the line to use them are long as well. I've seen pics of the cast members though that can use their iPads as kiosks with little or no wait. I would guess that they're the busiest first thing in the morning though. I don't think they'll be an issue in the afternoon. I'm just speculating though

 

[Kate and Family]

Only if they reliably find decent selections remaining when their 3 are done. And I suppose to some degree only if the lines at the kiosks are reasonable enough to take a chance on. I'm hoping that kiosk stipulation is temporary for some reason and that eventually they will let people do it with the app.

I agree.

Also, regarding rope drop, my initial thought was that this would put a crimp in that plan. But on second thought, I am not sure that would be correct. Rope drop and do 3 pre-booked FP between say, 11am and 1-2pm. At which point your time frame for finding decent FP is much larger than if you started looking for them after 8pm.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So for park hopping....

Right now I have my fp+ scheduled for the evening/afternoon parks. Will I need to change my FP+ to the morning parks and then I get to get FP+ for the afternoon parks once I arrive there?

 

[PoohsFan1]

Personally, I would much rather see them eliminate the tiers or allow us to book FP+ at different parks in the same day, even if we are still limited to 3.

Personally, I can't wrap my head around wasting FP+ on rides like Journey Into Imagination, and not be able to ride Soarin' on the same day because the standby line is 2+ hours long!

This is exactly what I was thinking too. They need to get rid of the tiers especially in Epcot. When I was making our FP+ selections I was shocked that Captain EO was a tier two option, I was even amazed that Spaceship Earth was one too since that is a continuous moving ride. I get why Figment and Nemo are tier two rides because of those families that have little guests, but for those families (like mine) that want to ride Soarin, TT, and Malestrom a couple of times during the day, it will be hard for us to do it. I hope since Disney listened to the public about increasing the number of FP+ per day, they will listen to the public about getting rid of the tiers as well. That was the biggest headache I had when making our FP+ selections.

 

[mom2rtk]

I agree.

Also, regarding rope drop, my initial thought was that this would put a crimp in that plan. But on second thought, I am not sure that would be correct. Rope drop and do 3 pre-booked FP between say, 11am and 1-2pm. At which point your time frame for finding decent FP is much larger than if you started looking for them after 8pm.

That's what I would be doing. I figured this was coming and have given it some thought. That seems to be the best balance.

 

[shyjade]

I'm confused why people are upset about the kiosks? Aren't they in the same locations of the fast pass - kiosks? And was there limited availability on popular rides on fast pass -? You wouldn't expect to pull a tsm fp at 4 pm even with the old system.

True, BUT with the old system there were no "tiers", and we could pull FP's from more than one park when hopping. We are much more limited now.

 

[pocahontasgal87]

this is great news! hopefully it takes effect when me and my family visit in Sept

 

[AndreaA]

I'm of two minds about this update. Obviously more FP+ is great, but as others have mentioned, there is the question of whether or not this will FURTHER lengthen the SB lines at rope drop.

I would have thought that the fact that (despite it being common knowledge here) rope drop has historically only been utilized by a minority of Disney visitors would carry over to the FP+ experience. IE, people would still not want to get up that early and would not schedule FP+ for the early hours.

However, it seems as if that isn't necessarily true. There are many reports of long SB lines pre-11am. And that's with people only allowed three FP and many people scheduling them for the afternoon/evening. I can only imagine that full-day visitors with only a slight inkling of what's going on (bolstered by near-constant emails from DisneyWorld after their trip is booked) are going to start cluing into the fact that arriving early means more FP+ opportunities.

I think that means that there will actually be MORE selection in the park for the afternoon (people will be pre-booking in the morning instead, thus freeing up afternoon/evening slots) but unfortunately that means that the morning SB lines will get even WORSE.

UGH. As someone who rarely utilized legacy FP and instead arrived early, zipped through all the SB lines and left, this is not exactly great news. Getting a toddler to go along with a plan that's set in stone (or at least kilobytes) would not have been easy. I will have to hope that by the time we go back, the boys will be able to understand why no, we can't just zip into Pooh for a quick ride because despite it only being 10am, the queue is already 40min and we have to keep to our schedule and get to Peter Pan.

 

[FLchick415]

That's what I would be doing. I figured this was coming and have given it some thought. That seems to be the best balance.

Yep, that's what I was trying to say in my previous post. lol That seems to be the best bet. Rope drop, do as much as you can, have your 3 scheduled FPs for around lunch time and then hope that there's still some decent stuff left for the evening

 

[johde]

All in all I think it's good news, and something I'm not surprised by not that everyone is prebooking.

I guess I don't understand why this is good news...if you have to wait until you use your 3 fast passes, then most of the fast passes will already be gone.

Or otherwise then you have to schedule all your fast passes first thing in the morning, which will kind of ruin the idea of getting there early for rope drop to get on rides w/out waiting.

If they are going to do something, then let it be more scheduled fast passes, or being able to schedule 3 (each) in two parks on same day!

Depending on when you're booking your FP+ for, if most of the FP+ are gone it will be from people booking their first three.

Can you imagine what the kiosk lines will be like, especially in the evenings? I can see people standing in line 45 minutes only to find out the only available FP+ available is for Captain EO!

Personally, I would much rather see them eliminate the tiers or allow us to book FP+ at different parks in the same day, even if we are still limited to 3.

Personally, I can't wrap my head around wasting FP+ on rides like Journey Into Imagination, and not be able to ride Soarin' on the same day because the standby line is 2+ hours long!

I can't see them eliminating tiers during prebooking. But I could see Disney allowing people to change attractions day of without regards to tiers. Possibly after a certain time of day. So, you while your in the park, you could change your Captain EO FP to Soarin' if it's still available.

Something I just read on FB....how will this work if you have a FP for the fireworks or Fantasmic? If you can't get your fourth until you used all three, and one of your three is for nighttime entertainment, are you out of luck?

Hopefully, if Disney is reading these boards, they will come up with a second release criterion for your extra FP+. Otherwise, for a lot of people prebooking Fireworks or Fantasmic would be a waste. You'd be much better off taking your changes that FP+'s will still be available for the fireworks at say 7:00.

 

[KYDisneyDad]

I know we are all hopeful based on this info, but remember: there's a good possibility that they could add additional fast passes for you to select day of after 1 or however many you've scheduled are used from a pool of whatever remains. So people would be getting more fast passes for EO, Figment, Teacups ect. More fast passes on these lower tier rides means standby just gets that much worse and we still are restricted to 3 tiered headliners.
Not trying to be a downer , but I just have little faith in them at this point.
I SO hope I am wrong!

 

[shyjade]

This is exactly what I was thinking too. They need to get rid of the tiers especially in Epcot. When I was making our FP+ selections I was shocked that Captain EO was a tier two option, I was even amazed that Spaceship Earth was one too since that is a continuous moving ride. I get why Figment and Nemo are tier two rides because of those families that have little guests, but for those families (like mine) that want to ride Soarin, TT, and Malestrom a couple of times during the day, it will be hard for us to do it. I hope since Disney listened to the public about increasing the number of FP+ per day, they will listen to the public about getting rid of the tiers as well. That was the biggest headache I had when making our FP+ selections.

This is really my biggest complaint about FP+. I can handle the 3 pass daily limit. I can handle being limited to 1 park per day (even though I spend money on park hoppers), but I really can't stand the tiering at Epcot!

It "was" our favorite park, despite the lack of rides. But now that we must choose between the few rides we actually go on in that park, I foresee us spending less time there. Yes, I know we can do standby, but I refuse to stand in 2 hour lines. That's why I travel at quieter times, during the week, etc. Because Disney has failed to provide more than a couple rides people really like, they are restricting us with tiering.

Maybe Disney is trying to tell me to spend less time in the park and try out a few days at Universal instead?

 

[ChipnDale79]

If you must use the kiosks, then I don't think this is good news at all.

How can this not be good news? it's a step in the right direction.

I'd rather have the option to have more fast passes, even if that means i have to go to the kiosk to get more.

 

[mm1971]

I really hope they allow the multiple park options over getting an extra pass at the park you are in. Of course I'll take both.:good vibes We head over to Epcot for dinner a lot and that would allow us to hit TT or Soarin before or after dinner on those PH nights.

We are heading got the World in August. Hopefully the new bugs will be worked out by then. Eliminating the tiers would be good for everyone.

 

[mcd2745]

I'm of two minds about this update. Obviously more FP+ is great, but as others have mentioned, there is the question of whether or not this will FURTHER lengthen the SB lines at rope drop.

Doubt it. I believe no matter what Disney does, that by and large, those who traditiaonally always made rope drop will continue to do so. Similarly, those who traditionally never could make it to the parks in time for rope drop still won't be able to do so.

 

[Jennasis]

Huzzah! This is fantastic news (and that's coming from a FP+ hater!).

As for having to use kiosks v. App for additional FP+, I'm okay with that. I had no problem waiting my turn to pull old school FP. And they can...and should...simply add kiosks. There should be multiple kiosks in each land. Are there currently?

 

[Traub70]

Something I just read on FB....how will this work if you have a FP for the fireworks or Fantasmic? If you can't get your fourth until you used all three, and one of your three is for nighttime entertainment, are you out of luck?

I hope they also add a time element in to the equation of getting an extra FP+. For example, say after 2:00pm you can acquire another FP+, as long as you have used at least 1 of your pre-scheduled FP+'s but if you use all 3 of your pre-scheduled FP+'s then you will get a 4th one as soon as you use the 3rd one no matter the time. That way some one can schedule a FP+ for any of the nighttime parades or fireworks and still be able to get more FP+'s. Then add the ability to park hop and it MIGHT no be so bad.