Trial Club Level Fastpass+ Purchase Program Planning & Discussion

[gottalovepluto]

We are staying club level and well within our 90 day window. I never got any type of phone call or E-mail offering this to us. I was on the fence once the nighttime shows were taken away anyway (specifically HEA as I planned on doing this instead of a dessert package), but it doesn't make me very happy that it would not even be offered to us unless I knew about it and called.

Yeah, making a secret test program is weird. Thank goodness for the DIS!

 

[sixcats]

I made our club level fast passes a few weeks back. I had cancelled our Rivers of Light dining package thinking we would use the special viewing passes which are no longer offered. I wasn’t offered a 4rth fastpass, they did use one of my 3 fast passes for Rivers of Light viewing. I wish they would be consistent.

 

[Tessaf]

As of September 16th, there will not be HEA preferred viewing for CL guests. You’ve received your #4 FP in lieu of no viewing at all.

Is that 4th FP only offered for days at MK with HEA or do they allow one on the holiday party nights when HEA isn’t offered?

 

[hiroMYhero]

Is that 4th FP only offered for days at MK with HEA or do they allow one on the holiday party nights when HEA isn’t offered?

DSS has been inconsistent with this 4th FP Offer. They won’t offer a FP to substitute for a viewing if the show isn’t even scheduled.

 

[JJ2017]

Sorry for the re post, but does anyone know what happens to your regular FPs if you cancel a purchased CL day? In trying not to bug my CM too much.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Sorry for the re post, but does anyone know what happens to your regular FPs if you cancel a purchased CL day? In trying not to bug my CM too much.

We don't have any reports on that yet.

 

[DisReno]

Are you staying in one of the AKL DVC CL rooms, a Poly Bungalow, or WL Cabins? Those are the only DVC room types eligible to purchase the trial program.

No, so I'm not eligible. That's okay. I just hope my 60 day calendar opens up when it's supposed to!

 

[yaya74]

Just completed my 3 days of CL FP+ yesterday, and would like to share my 2 cents, especially for those who don’t do rope drop and like to spend time at the resort enjoying the lovely CL lounge.

We used CL FP+ for AK, MK and DHS. I scheduled my 6 FP+ at 10a, 11a, 1p, 2p, 7p, and 8p. We usually left hotel around 9am, went back to hotel around 230p, then left for park again around 6:30-7p. My kids are 6 and 10. I was able to keep them busy by taking photos, pressing pennies, and taking rides that had short wait (15 minutesa or less). My kids loved the wilderness explorers program at AK so they visited the stations in between each FP+.

What I loved about the CL FP+ are:
- riding multiple 1st tier attractions without restrictions: like SDD, A.S.S., FOP and Navi River, all on the same day.
- reserved viewing of HEA: I booked CL FP+ because of this particular viewing area since I would never sit and wait for more than 30 minutes to see fireworks. I really hope Disney would continue to offer this viewing location in the near future. Just what others have mentioned previously, the reserved viewing area for HEA at MK was empty. There were only three families there, including us. I asked the CM if the space is usually empty and she said yes. In comparison, people were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the other side of the rope. Though the view was not 100% obstruction free, my kids and I enjoyed the show very much! We had watched the HEA from our hotel balcony the night before. I asked my kids if the experience was the same and they answered “totally different!”

What I didn’t like about the CL FP+ are:
- inability to manage all CL FP+
- limited availability of FP+: since FP+ are free, you would think Disney would provide unlimited FP+ to those who pay...
- confused CM at Fantasmic: I didn’t see ROL (heard it was bad so we went back to hotel to enjoy our bedtime dessert) so I cann’t comment on that. CMs at Fanstamic were clueless about the CL FP program. The check in CM didn’t know what the program was about but let us in. When we went up to the seating area, a CM asked us to follow the FP+ crowd. But the seating area was very full and I didn’t want to sit on the far left side of the theatre. I saw a reserved section in the center of the theatre with a sign “Dining Package”. So I asked the CM in that section where to go for the CL FP. She was equally confused. So I told her “I paid for the CL FP+ with a reserved seating area. I was told by DSS that seats were reserved with my name!” The CM then let us into the reserved section in the center of the theatre. I just don’t like to “ask” for my seats. Only wishing I could have an easier access to the reserved section, just like the one at HEA.

All in all, I would consider getting CL FP+ again especially if HEA viewing area is included. I will also write to DSS to voice my opinions about the program, which is an awesome offer that suits my family’s need.

 

[travelgirl77]

This has been a long time coming and now I see that some other changes have happened with the program, but I still wanted to give my feedback. We visited at the end of June and early July, staying split at BC and CR CL. I purchased the extra CL FPs for three days. The biggest benefit for our family was that we had the opportunity to get FPs for Toy Story Land on opening day...I mean far and above the best benefit. And, while the extra fastpasses were nice, as was the nighttime viewing of fireworks, we had some big problems that caused me stress about how much I spent on this program.

First, during our week, we had a couple of days of lots of thunderstorms which resulted in our early, regular fastpasses to be converted to anytime fastpasses, which we could use later, after the storms passed. We are hoppers, however, so I had scheduled CL FPs in other parks, like AK, and all heck broke loose because there simply was not enough time to do them all. For example, one morning we were at MK and our first FP was for SDMT, but it was down (mechanical, not weather), so we went on Tomorrowland Speedway and then had lunch at CRT, after which the heavens opened and our next FP on BTMTR converted to an anytime pass. By this point it was 1:30 pm and we still had 3 fastpasses in MK, but our AK CL FPs were set to start in the 430-530 window. We basically ran through two of our fastpasses once the skies cleared and had one still remaining, but started running late for AK, and the kids were waterlogged so we had to hit the hotel to change. Basically, the kids wanted to go back and finish the FP at MK and not head to AK. I called to make the changes to MK and although they said it was done, we ended up only getting two fastpasses available when we returned in the evening. And, of course the regular CMs know nothing about the program, DSS closes at 5:00 pm, and customer service was swamped due to the weather issues earlier. So, I ate those fastpasses.

Second, my husband threw his back out in the gym on Friday morning. It was outside the 24 hour window so I had to eat the cost of his fastpasses for Friday. The kids and I did the parks alone and attended HEA alone, allowing him to be prone in the hotel room. The next day, he got up to hit TSL, but then needed to head back to the room. The kids and I went to the parks again, but by this point, they were not wanting to go see fireworks either.

Overall, it has the potential to be a good program, but if there is no way to make real changes the day of or day before, then I cannot see us doing this again. Also, this was the first time we went and the fastpass lines were incredibly long.

Don't get me wrong, we had a great trip, but for the amount we paid for this, and now hearing that the nighttime shows will be taken away, the value is better on paper than in reality for our family.

 

[Tessaf]

Just completed my 3 days of CL FP+ yesterday, and would like to share my 2 cents, especially for those who don’t do rope drop and like to spend time at the resort enjoying the lovely CL lounge.

We used CL FP+ for AK, MK and DHS. I scheduled my 6 FP+ at 10a, 11a, 1p, 2p, 7p, and 8p. We usually left hotel around 9am, went back to hotel around 230p, then left for park again around 6:30-7p. My kids are 6 and 10. I was able to keep them busy by taking photos, pressing pennies, and taking rides that had short wait (15 minutesa or less). My kids loved the wilderness explorers program at AK so they visited the stations in between each FP+.

What I loved about the CL FP+ are:
- riding multiple 1st tier attractions without restrictions: like SDD, A.S.S., FOP and Navi River, all on the same day.
- reserved viewing of HEA: I booked CL FP+ because of this particular viewing area since I would never sit and wait for more than 30 minutes to see fireworks. I really hope Disney would continue to offer this viewing location in the near future. Just what others have mentioned previously, the reserved viewing area for HEA at MK was empty. There were only three families there, including us. I asked the CM if the space is usually empty and she said yes. In comparison, people were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the other side of the rope. Though the view was not 100% obstruction free, my kids and I enjoyed the show very much! We had watched the HEA from our hotel balcony the night before. I asked my kids if the experience was the same and they answered “totally different!”

What I didn’t like about the CL FP+ are:
- inability to manage all CL FP+
- limited availability of FP+: since FP+ are free, you would think Disney would provide unlimited FP+ to those who pay...
- confused CM at Fantasmic: I didn’t see ROL (heard it was bad so we went back to hotel to enjoy our bedtime dessert) so I cann’t comment on that. CMs at Fanstamic were clueless about the CL FP program. The check in CM didn’t know what the program was about but let us in. When we went up to the seating area, a CM asked us to follow the FP+ crowd. But the seating area was very full and I didn’t want to sit on the far left side of the theatre. I saw a reserved section in the center of the theatre with a sign “Dining Package”. So I asked the CM in that section where to go for the CL FP. She was equally confused. So I told her “I paid for the CL FP+ with a reserved seating area. I was told by DSS that seats were reserved with my name!” The CM then let us into the reserved section in the center of the theatre. I just don’t like to “ask” for my seats. Only wishing I could have an easier access to the reserved section, just like the one at HEA.

All in all, I would consider getting CL FP+ again especially if HEA viewing area is included. I will also write to DSS to voice my opinions about the program, which is an awesome offer that suits my family’s need.

Thank you for all the awesome information regarding your trip!! I just have a quick question regarding your comment on the limited availability. Did you have any problems securing any FP that you wanted? Or if they said it's sold out for CL FP, did they allow you to book it as a regular FP right away?

 

[yaya74]

Thank you for all the awesome information regarding your trip!! I just have a quick question regarding your comment on the limited availability. Did you have any problems securing any FP that you wanted? Or if they said it's sold out for CL FP, did they allow you to book it as a regular FP right away?

I booked my CL FP+ when it was 55 days away from my trip. I had secured FP+ for FOP and DSS when my 60 days window was opened. When I was booking CL FP+, I was told FP+ for FOP and DSS were gone because regular FP+ and CL FP+ are in the same pool. So if I didn’t get any FP+ for FOP and DSS on my 60 day, I would not get any though paying for CL FP+. That’s why in my previous comment I wrote CL FP+ should provide unlimited FP+ for 1st tier attractions.

 

[Tessaf]

I booked my CL FP+ when it was 55 days away from my trip. I had secured FP+ for FOP and DSS when my 60 days window was opened. When I was booking CL FP+, I was told FP+ for FOP and DSS were gone because regular FP+ and CL FP+ are in the same pool. So if I didn’t get any FP+ for FOP and DSS on my 60 day, I would not get any though paying for CL FP+. That’s why in my previous comment I wrote CL FP+ should provide unlimited FP+ for 1st tier attractions.

Thank you for that info! I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about having the them booked at the 90 day and I panicked LOL.
I do agree that if we're paying for these FP+ they should come more with an unlimited option.

 

[yaya74]

This has been a long time coming and now I see that some other changes have happened with the program, but I still wanted to give my feedback. We visited at the end of June and early July, staying split at BC and CR CL. I purchased the extra CL FPs for three days. The biggest benefit for our family was that we had the opportunity to get FPs for Toy Story Land on opening day...I mean far and above the best benefit. And, while the extra fastpasses were nice, as was the nighttime viewing of fireworks, we had some big problems that caused me stress about how much I spent on this program.

First, during our week, we had a couple of days of lots of thunderstorms which resulted in our early, regular fastpasses to be converted to anytime fastpasses, which we could use later, after the storms passed. We are hoppers, however, so I had scheduled CL FPs in other parks, like AK, and all heck broke loose because there simply was not enough time to do them all. For example, one morning we were at MK and our first FP was for SDMT, but it was down (mechanical, not weather), so we went on Tomorrowland Speedway and then had lunch at CRT, after which the heavens opened and our next FP on BTMTR converted to an anytime pass. By this point it was 1:30 pm and we still had 3 fastpasses in MK, but our AK CL FPs were set to start in the 430-530 window. We basically ran through two of our fastpasses once the skies cleared and had one still remaining, but started running late for AK, and the kids were waterlogged so we had to hit the hotel to change. Basically, the kids wanted to go back and finish the FP at MK and not head to AK. I called to make the changes to MK and although they said it was done, we ended up only getting two fastpasses available when we returned in the evening. And, of course the regular CMs know nothing about the program, DSS closes at 5:00 pm, and customer service was swamped due to the weather issues earlier. So, I ate those fastpasses.

Second, my husband threw his back out in the gym on Friday morning. It was outside the 24 hour window so I had to eat the cost of his fastpasses for Friday. The kids and I did the parks alone and attended HEA alone, allowing him to be prone in the hotel room. The next day, he got up to hit TSL, but then needed to head back to the room. The kids and I went to the parks again, but by this point, they were not wanting to go see fireworks either.

Overall, it has the potential to be a good program, but if there is no way to make real changes the day of or day before, then I cannot see us doing this again. Also, this was the first time we went and the fastpass lines were incredibly long.

Don't get me wrong, we had a great trip, but for the amount we paid for this, and now hearing that the nighttime shows will be taken away, the value is better on paper than in reality for our family.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am sorry to read about your husband’s injury during the trip. Hope he is back on his feet by now.

 

[IceQueen182]

This has been a long time coming and now I see that some other changes have happened with the program, but I still wanted to give my feedback. We visited at the end of June and early July, staying split at BC and CR CL. I purchased the extra CL FPs for three days. The biggest benefit for our family was that we had the opportunity to get FPs for Toy Story Land on opening day...I mean far and above the best benefit. And, while the extra fastpasses were nice, as was the nighttime viewing of fireworks, we had some big problems that caused me stress about how much I spent on this program.

First, during our week, we had a couple of days of lots of thunderstorms which resulted in our early, regular fastpasses to be converted to anytime fastpasses, which we could use later, after the storms passed. We are hoppers, however, so I had scheduled CL FPs in other parks, like AK, and all heck broke loose because there simply was not enough time to do them all. For example, one morning we were at MK and our first FP was for SDMT, but it was down (mechanical, not weather), so we went on Tomorrowland Speedway and then had lunch at CRT, after which the heavens opened and our next FP on BTMTR converted to an anytime pass. By this point it was 1:30 pm and we still had 3 fastpasses in MK, but our AK CL FPs were set to start in the 430-530 window. We basically ran through two of our fastpasses once the skies cleared and had one still remaining, but started running late for AK, and the kids were waterlogged so we had to hit the hotel to change. Basically, the kids wanted to go back and finish the FP at MK and not head to AK. I called to make the changes to MK and although they said it was done, we ended up only getting two fastpasses available when we returned in the evening. And, of course the regular CMs know nothing about the program, DSS closes at 5:00 pm, and customer service was swamped due to the weather issues earlier. So, I ate those fastpasses.

Second, my husband threw his back out in the gym on Friday morning. It was outside the 24 hour window so I had to eat the cost of his fastpasses for Friday. The kids and I did the parks alone and attended HEA alone, allowing him to be prone in the hotel room. The next day, he got up to hit TSL, but then needed to head back to the room. The kids and I went to the parks again, but by this point, they were not wanting to go see fireworks either.

Overall, it has the potential to be a good program, but if there is no way to make real changes the day of or day before, then I cannot see us doing this again. Also, this was the first time we went and the fastpass lines were incredibly long.

Don't get me wrong, we had a great trip, but for the amount we paid for this, and now hearing that the nighttime shows will be taken away, the value is better on paper than in reality for our family.

My experience in June was very similar- right down to the problem with storms converting my FPs to anytime FPs and it causing a scheduling mess, and the inability to change FPs the day of when we encountered issues. It became very stressful at times trying to make the $50/person/day worth it. I agree that the ability to FP all of the TSL rides in one day (particularly opening day! wow!) and lack of tiering overall are good benefits. Now that HEA nighttime viewing (which we loved) has been eliminated, the value is much more questionable in my mind and I'm debating whether to use this program for our November trip. A way to change CL FPs via the app would be helpful, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hope your husband is better!

 

[IceQueen182]

Just completed my 3 days of CL FP+ yesterday, and would like to share my 2 cents, especially for those who don’t do rope drop and like to spend time at the resort enjoying the lovely CL lounge.

We used CL FP+ for AK, MK and DHS. I scheduled my 6 FP+ at 10a, 11a, 1p, 2p, 7p, and 8p. We usually left hotel around 9am, went back to hotel around 230p, then left for park again around 6:30-7p. My kids are 6 and 10. I was able to keep them busy by taking photos, pressing pennies, and taking rides that had short wait (15 minutesa or less). My kids loved the wilderness explorers program at AK so they visited the stations in between each FP+.

What I loved about the CL FP+ are:
- riding multiple 1st tier attractions without restrictions: like SDD, A.S.S., FOP and Navi River, all on the same day.
- reserved viewing of HEA: I booked CL FP+ because of this particular viewing area since I would never sit and wait for more than 30 minutes to see fireworks. I really hope Disney would continue to offer this viewing location in the near future. Just what others have mentioned previously, the reserved viewing area for HEA at MK was empty. There were only three families there, including us. I asked the CM if the space is usually empty and she said yes. In comparison, people were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the other side of the rope. Though the view was not 100% obstruction free, my kids and I enjoyed the show very much! We had watched the HEA from our hotel balcony the night before. I asked my kids if the experience was the same and they answered “totally different!”

What I didn’t like about the CL FP+ are:
- inability to manage all CL FP+
- limited availability of FP+: since FP+ are free, you would think Disney would provide unlimited FP+ to those who pay...
- confused CM at Fantasmic: I didn’t see ROL (heard it was bad so we went back to hotel to enjoy our bedtime dessert) so I cann’t comment on that. CMs at Fanstamic were clueless about the CL FP program. The check in CM didn’t know what the program was about but let us in. When we went up to the seating area, a CM asked us to follow the FP+ crowd. But the seating area was very full and I didn’t want to sit on the far left side of the theatre. I saw a reserved section in the center of the theatre with a sign “Dining Package”. So I asked the CM in that section where to go for the CL FP. She was equally confused. So I told her “I paid for the CL FP+ with a reserved seating area. I was told by DSS that seats were reserved with my name!” The CM then let us into the reserved section in the center of the theatre. I just don’t like to “ask” for my seats. Only wishing I could have an easier access to the reserved section, just like the one at HEA.

All in all, I would consider getting CL FP+ again especially if HEA viewing area is included. I will also write to DSS to voice my opinions about the program, which is an awesome offer that suits my family’s need.

Great review! I'm curious since you loved the HEA viewing as much as I did- without it, would you use the CL FP program again?

 

[ktlm]

Great review! I'm curious since you loved the HEA viewing as much as I did- without it, would you use the CL FP program again?

I'm curious about that too. We made the decision not to purchase it (not that it was offered to us- I would have had to call since I got no E-mail or phone call about it from Disney) specifically because the HEA viewing was suspended. We were going to do the dessert package for HEA just for the viewing area, so the CL FP program made sense financially. Half of it would have been made up by not having to do the dessert package. I planned to do that and cancel the dessert package, as we don't care at all about the dessert. We also had dining packages for ROL and Fantasmic, but they were for places we would eat anyway- so that wasn't a big deal. Without HEA, I couldn't justify the price in my mind. To me the main benefit was avoiding the tiers, and I couldn't make myself spend $450 for that when we have ridden everything before except for Pandora and the new Toy Story rides. If it was a first trip and I was completely stressed out because of the tiers and worried we couldn't ride things, then maybe, but we are at the point now and DD is old enough that it will not be the end of the world if we miss something. Honestly, I think they suspended HEA because they are doubling up on the dessert parties and want the space since they added the after fireworks party. They now have before and after fireworks dessert parties with everyone from both parties in the viewing area.

 

[yaya74]

Great review! I'm curious since you loved the HEA viewing as much as I did- without it, would you use the CL FP program again?

I'm curious about that too. We made the decision not to purchase it (not that it was offered to us- I would have had to call since I got no E-mail or phone call about it from Disney) specifically because the HEA viewing was suspended. We were going to do the dessert package for HEA just for the viewing area, so the CL FP program made sense financially. Half of it would have been made up by not having to do the dessert package. I planned to do that and cancel the dessert package, as we don't care at all about the dessert. We also had dining packages for ROL and Fantasmic, but they were for places we would eat anyway- so that wasn't a big deal. Without HEA, I couldn't justify the price in my mind. To me the main benefit was avoiding the tiers, and I couldn't make myself spend $450 for that when we have ridden everything before except for Pandora and the new Toy Story rides. If it was a first trip and I was completely stressed out because of the tiers and worried we couldn't ride things, then maybe, but we are at the point now and DD is old enough that it will not be the end of the world if we miss something. Honestly, I think they suspended HEA because they are doubling up on the dessert parties and want the space since they added the after fireworks party. They now have before and after fireworks dessert parties with everyone from both parties in the viewing area.

Since my family don’t go to WDW frequently, it is important that we get to ride the new rides in one trip. I plan to go to WDW not until 2021/2022 when Tron, Star Wars, Guardian of the Galaxy and many other new attractions are available. So the CL FP+ program will help my family to ride the new rides.

 

[TinkBink]

I spoke to DSS yesterday to ask about my January 2019 trip. The cast member told me there is no official end date to the program and they expect to continue booking into next year!

 

[JJ2017]

Booking on Monday! I'm a bit torn on our MK day (xmas party day). We have been the past two years during the same time on on our particular MK day, it has opened up at 7 am for EMH. I'm going to assume that it will be the same this year. We usually follow the strategy of booking early FPs so we can look for more.

So thinking (am I overthinking?):

From 7 am - close to 9 am - hit the small Fantasyland rides like Winnie, LM, Meet Ariel, Small World, and maybe Enchanted Tales (for me and DD and DH/DS can ride Space?). Then:

FP - 8-9 PP
FP - 9 - 10 7D
Last year there was a Move in Shake it at 10
BOG at 11:15
FP - 11:30 - 12:30 (maybe 11:45 - 12:45) HM (***once scanned search for 4:30 - 5:30 FP)
CL - 12:30 - 1:30 Big Thunder
CL - 1:30 - 2:30 Splash
2:00 - Parade from Frontierland (maybe)
CL - 2:30 - 3:30 Pirates
CL - 3:30 - 4:30 - JC (or maybe Buzz)

(should everything maybe be pushed 30 minutes later?? i'm guessing we will only have until the 6:00 window to try to refresh for a final FP due to the xmas party)

 

[IceQueen182]

Booking on Monday! I'm a bit torn on our MK day (xmas party day). We have been the past two years during the same time on on our particular MK day, it has opened up at 7 am for EMH. I'm going to assume that it will be the same this year. We usually follow the strategy of booking early FPs so we can look for more.

So thinking (am I overthinking?):

From 7 am - close to 9 am - hit the small Fantasyland rides like Winnie, LM, Meet Ariel, Small World, and maybe Enchanted Tales (for me and DD and DH/DS can ride Space?). Then:

FP - 8-9 PP
FP - 9 - 10 7D
Last year there was a Move in Shake it at 10
BOG at 11:15
FP - 11:30 - 12:30 (maybe 11:45 - 12:45) HM (***once scanned search for 4:30 - 5:30 FP)
CL - 12:30 - 1:30 Big Thunder
CL - 1:30 - 2:30 Splash
2:00 - Parade from Frontierland (maybe)
CL - 2:30 - 3:30 Pirates
CL - 3:30 - 4:30 - JC (or maybe Buzz)

(should everything maybe be pushed 30 minutes later?? i'm guessing we will only have until the 6:00 window to try to refresh for a final FP due to the xmas party)

Good luck booking! Just my two cents, I think I might schedule your 3 CL FPs in the morning in a row (8 if an option, 9, and 10 a.m.), and have the regular 3 FPs for the afternoon post-BOG so that you can refresh and move up as needed. It depends on the schedule and park/tiering, but I found myself wishing I had scheduled my CL FPs first instead of the other way around during our June trip since it made the afternoon challenging.