TSM standby-less test Oct. 6-9

[agavegirl1]

Avoiding.

Not avoiding. It is a good point. However, my trip to Tuscany, I planned. I bought a guidebook and read it. I made plans accordingly. Then, the museum workers held a Labour Strike the day I planned to visit a famous museum in Florence. The next day, the government had free admission to the government run museums. Talk about not wanting to $%^& off the tourists. We went to the museum for free.

 

[cakebaker]

Point: There is so much to do that it's ridiculous having to spend so much time planning such a small portion of it. Time is fungible; is it better to stand in line for 20 minutes or to spend 20 minutes planning to avoid the line?

I much prefer spending 20 minutes at home planning than waste 20 minutes in the park standing in a hot line.

All the hours I plan at home make for a much more pleasant vacation once I'm there.

 

[wisblue]

I wouldn't extrapolate someone's fp+ reservations to be indicative of all they are interested in at WDW. Many people don't feel there is a value in using fp+ reservations for parades/fireworks/shows. That doesn't mean they are not interested in those experiences, just that they aren't interested in using fp+ for those experiences.

If you aren't choosing to use fp+ for shows/parades/fireworks, then there will be a lot of repetition at parks that aren't MK just because there aren't as many attractions at the other parks.

It may well have been sarcasm (hard to be sure in print) but statements about going to DAK, riding EE, and then leaving the park don't leave much room for extrapolation.

Beside, my comment, and my earlier one on this thread, is not directed at just that post. There are a lot of posters who, while complaining about FP+, have said that there are only two or three rides at DAK,Epcot, or DHS that need a FP. My point is that if you aren't going to enjoy yourself unless you can do a couple of rides multiple times, it might be a good idea to step back and decide if WDW is really the right vacation spot for you. From my experience, if you can't do those things once, even without a FP, you aren't trying very hard.If there are a lot of other things you like to do too, why get so worked up about what FPs you get?

In short, I think a lot of the angst about how awful FP+ is, and how it makes you plan every minute of every day of your vacation, is dramatically overblown, especially by people who are frequent visitors.

 

[mom2rtk]

I much prefer spending 20 minutes at home planning than waste 20 minutes in the park standing in a hot line.

All the hours I plan at home make for a much more pleasant vacation once I'm there.

Try doing that for your 4th and subsequent FPs.

 

[Jennasis]

It may well have been sarcasm (hard to be sure in print) but statements about going to DAK, riding EE, and then leaving the park don't leave much room for extrapolation.

Beside, my comment, and my earlier one on this thread, is not directed at just that post. There are a lot of posters who, while complaining about FP+, have said that there are only two or three rides at DAK,Epcot, or DHS that need a FP. My point is that if you aren't going to enjoy yourself unless you can do a couple of rides multiple times, it might be a good idea to step back and decide if WDW is really the right vacation spot for you. From my experience, if you can't do those things once, even without a FP, you aren't trying very hard.If there are a lot of other things you like to do too, why get so worked up about what FPs you get?

In short, I think a lot of the angst about how awful FP+ is, and how it makes you plan every minute of every day of your vacation, is dramatically overblown, especially by people who are frequent visitors.

And if WDW changes over to FP+ only for it's rides? I suppose we'll just have to jump off that bridge when/if we come to it.

 

[cakebaker]

Try doing that for your 4th and subsequent FPs.

I didn't say I could pre-plan absolutely everything. But I can at least get the first 3 every day out of the way.

 

[cakebaker]

It may well have been sarcasm (hard to be sure in print) but statements about going to DAK, riding EE, and then leaving the park don't leave much room for extrapolation.

That's sort of what I thought. I didn't think I was doing a lot of extrapolating there.

 

[wisblue]

I much prefer spending 20 minutes at home planning than waste 20 minutes in the park standing in a hot line.

All the hours I plan at home make for a much more pleasant vacation once I'm there.

For our 5 day trip between Christmas and New Years last year, I don't think I spent more than about 45 minutes total looking at park hours, deciding which park we would go to on arrival day and in the evenings on the 4 full days of the trip, picking out 3 of our favorite attractions for FPs each day, and then booking those FPs. So, with less than an hour of effort at home in October, we were able to do 15 headliner attractions that would have had prohibitively long standby lines and no paper FP availability. And I certainly didn't feel like I had planned every minute of every day because all of the FPs were in our second park of the day.

Well worth it.

 

[wisblue]

And if WDW changes over to FP+ only for it's rides? I suppose we'll just have to jump off that bridge when/if we come to it.

The angst over that possibility is even more overblown than the angst over FP+, which is at least a reality.

I will never say never, but I think there is a less than 1% probability that WDW will ever go to FP only for all rides. If it happens at all, I think it will probably be for a couple of the most popular rides and maybe then at only the busiest times of the year. It would be analogous to a park closing due to capacity.

As you say, I will worry about that if and when the time comes. If it does come, I know I wouldn't be happy about it. But, I also wouldn't have that many years left to deal with it.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Beside, my comment, and my earlier one on this thread, is not directed at just that post.

Nor was my comment directed at your post. I believe I quoted someone else, and it was that person to which I was responding.

In short, I think a lot of the angst about how awful FP+ is, and how it makes you plan every minute of every day of your vacation, is dramatically overblown, especially by people who are frequent visitors.

I get it. You don't see an issue with that level of planning. That's fine. Others, like myself, do not want to plan what time we will be going on what ride 2 months ahead of time. When I was planning my FP+, it was no longer just "what park on what day" and "which ADRs" to plan, but all of the following:

1. Which park on which day
2. What ADRs to plan around (since they were booked long before)
3. What time do we think we'll get back to the hotel the night of the Wine and Dine 1/2 marathon
3a. How much sleep we'd want to get
3b. What time would we be heading to the park the next morning
4. How long we anticipate spending in park 1 that day
5. What time we plan to park hop, so we have all of our FP+ done by then

etc, etc..

Prior to FP+, our planning consisted of choosing:

1. Which park, which day (based on crowd calendars)
2. Where to eat (which we have favorites in each park, so once park days were decided, what days to get which ADRs pretty much fell into place on its own).

Is *every* minute of our day planned with FP+? No. But did I have to take into account a lot more when planning out FP+? Yes.

Is it nice to be able to choose times for the day after the marathon that will allow us to sleep in? Yes. I've never said anything negative about that aspect of the system. But there is a lot more level of detail that we found we had to think about in order to plan FP+, and it was not *fun*. Planning used to be fun for me, but this wasn't.

As I said in another thread - I fully plan on having a fantastic vacation. Whether that is in any way due to the changes or is in spite of the changes remains to be seen. Regardless of which it is, I will have a great time because I love WDW. Disliking some of the decisions they are making doesn't change how much I love the parks.

 

[cakebaker]

For our 5 day trip between Christmas and New Years last year, I don't think I spent more than about 45 minutes total looking at park hours, deciding which park we would go to on arrival day and in the evenings on the 4 full days of the trip, picking out 3 of our favorite attractions for FPs each day, and then booking those FPs. So, with less than an hour of effort at home in October, we were able to do 15 headliner attractions that would have had prohibitively long standby lines and no paper FP availability. And I certainly didn't feel like I had planned every minute of every day because all of the FPs were in our second park of the day. Well worth it.

Exactly the same for us- its just not the massively cumbersome job some would make it out to be and in exchange , you're guaranteed that you're going to get to ride the popular rides.

We plan a lot for our vacations, fp+ hasn't changed that- but little of our planning is spent picking out rides and getting the fp's reserved.

 

[Angel Ariel]

That's sort of what I thought. I didn't think I was doing a lot of extrapolating there.

And yet the poster in question here quoted my response and said he agreed.

 

[cakebaker]

And yet the poster in question here quoted my response and said he agreed.

I can't explain what he posted - when you say you ride 1 thing and leave I assume you mean it.

You'll have to ask him, not me.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Exactly the same for us- its just not the massively cumbersome job some would make it out to be and in exchange , you're guaranteed that you're going to get to ride the popular rides.

We plan a lot for our vacations, fp+ hasn't changed that- but little of our planning is spent picking out rides and getting the fp's reserved.

You may not find it cumbersome, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean that it isn't cumbersome for others.

Comments like the bolded are very dismissive - basically insinuating that those who make those comments are lying.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I can't explain what he posted - when you say you ride 1 thing and leave I assume you mean it.

You'll have to ask him, not me.

I wasn't asking you to explain anything. I think he already explained what his point was quite well.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

Wow, this thread is STILL going??? And has completely devolved into FP+ pro vs. FP+ con. The TSMM test ended 6 days ago. A mod threatened to shut this thread down 6 days ago if it didn't get back on topic.

Some People Love FP+
Some People hate FP+
TSMM is in a park with no rides so it gets crushed by crowds

Did we need 121 pages to get there?

I like turtles.

 

[wisblue]

Nor was my comment directed at your post. I believe I quoted someone else, and it was that person to which I was responding.



I get it. You don't see an issue with that level of planning. That's fine. Others, like myself, do not want to plan what time we will be going on what ride 2 months ahead of time. When I was planning my FP+, it was no longer just "what park on what day" and "which ADRs" to plan, but all of the following:

1. Which park on which day
2. What ADRs to plan around (since they were booked long before)
3. What time do we think we'll get back to the hotel the night of the Wine and Dine 1/2 marathon
3a. How much sleep we'd want to get
3b. What time would we be heading to the park the next morning
4. How long we anticipate spending in park 1 that day
5. What time we plan to park hop, so we have all of our FP+ done by then

etc, etc..

Prior to FP+, our planning consisted of choosing:

1. Which park, which day (based on crowd calendars)
2. Where to eat (which we have favorites in each park, so once park days were decided, what days to get which ADRs pretty much fell into place on its own).

Is *every* minute of our day planned with FP+? No. But did I have to take into account a lot more when planning out FP+? Yes.

Is it nice to be able to choose times for the day after the marathon that will allow us to sleep in? Yes. I've never said anything negative about that aspect of the system. But there is a lot more level of detail that we found we had to think about in order to plan FP+, and it was not *fun*. Planning used to be fun for me, but this wasn't.

As I said in another thread - I fully plan on having a fantastic vacation. Whether that is in any way due to the changes or is in spite of the changes remains to be seen. Regardless of which it is, I will have a great time because I love WDW. Disliking some of the decisions they are making doesn't change how much I love the parks.

Sounds like we will be there the same time as you. Our daughter is back from Florida but she is going down for 2 weeks to get in some hours toward maintaining her seasonal CM status. Since she will have a room at one of the value resorts for part of the time, we are going down to join her for a few days that include the half marathon weekend. But, when we go to the parks it will be with her gate passes, so we don't have anything to plan.

 

[Planogirl]

Wow, this thread is STILL going??? And has completely devolved into FP+ pro vs. FP+ con. The TSMM test ended 6 days ago. A mod threatened to shut this thread down 6 days ago if it didn't get back on topic.

Some People Love FP+
Some People hate FP+
TSMM is in a park with no rides so it gets crushed by crowds

Did we need 121 pages to get there?

I like turtles.

Hey, you forgot to mention that a few of us sang. I like turtles too.

This thread is sort of on topic. It keeps batting around the hypothesis that at least some rides will become FP+ only and that that is why Disney is running these tests. Of course none of us really know but when did that keep DISers from having an opinion?

 

[vacationer1954]

This is an extreme example of what I mentioned in my earlier post. Some guests have gone to WDW so many times that they have trimmed down the list of things they really enjoy doing to just a few. And then they wonder where the "magic" went. A couple of new attractions wouldn't change things that much, especially if they aren't exactly the type that you like.

Yes good point. But I think people get wedded to an idea that they cannot move past and they end up ruining their own enjoyment because they place so much stake in getting something specific.

It's just the opposite for us- we keep finding more things to do. 15 trips and there is so much we haven't experienced yet!

For us, it is the live entertainment we've been enjoying more and more. During our last trip we spent a good bit of time enjoying the British rock band, the band that plays on the streets in the studios, and the African band that plays in Harambe.

I think others have mentioned how a lot of this has to do with what kind of guest you are. I know a lot of guests just buzz through the Oasis at Animal Kingdom instead of seeing it as one of the three main attractions in the park (the other two being the safari and the Asia walk through).

I much prefer spending 20 minutes at home planning than waste 20 minutes in the park standing in a hot line.

I agree. I think guests who managed to book airline travel, who book hotels and who figure out how to stay fed have no problem with FP+.

My point is that if you aren't going to enjoy yourself unless you can do a couple of rides multiple times, it might be a good idea to step back and decide if WDW is really the right vacation spot for you.

We teach our kids to let others take "firsts" before they take "seconds". Maybe going standby-less can help make sure that more people can get their "firsts" instead of having those people in the same line with people going back for seconds.

 

[Luvchefmic]

Wow, this thread is STILL going??? And has completely devolved into FP+ pro vs. FP+ con. The TSMM test ended 6 days ago. A mod threatened to shut this thread down 6 days ago if it didn't get back on topic.

Some People Love FP+
Some People hate FP+
TSMM is in a park with no rides so it gets crushed by crowds

Did we need 121 pages to get there?

I like turtles.

I do too but let's have an argument about it shall we Buzz ?

Opinions are one thing, but I think some posters should have taken this to PM or private email a LONG time ago.