Well... MagicBands and FP+, Our Experience

[mom2rtk]

Does anyone think that there should a turnstile if they are just letting guests scan their own bands, so no entry into the FP queue unless your band scans correctly? Or just a rope across the entrance that won't be removed until the CM has checked the band is allowed?

I really don't think they can afford to slow the line down that much.

If there is a second tap spot farther up the line, that should take care of anyone "sneaking" by.

 

[quest4dl]

I just wish that the 'veterans' would quit posting the same points over and over again on the same types of the threads and please just answer the questions some of us have posted about our upcoming trips!! Sorry if that's 'off-topic'.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I just wish that the 'veterans' would quit posting the same points over and over again on the same types of the threads and please just answer the questions some of us have posted about our upcoming trips!! Sorry if that's 'off-topic'.

This post, imo, had been very well written, kept on topic, and was reasonable and helpful until it was derailed a few posts ago.

 

[KatieCharlotte]

If you don't follow these boards closely, you won't know that these posters represent a tiny slice of WDW guests who developed a touring approach that maximized the use of paper FPs. And they may not recognize the sarcasm behind some of them. What they see is people who are "experts" on WDW saying that visiting WDW is no longer any fun. And it causes them to second guess spending money on a WDW vacation and reduces their enthusiasm for their upcoming trips.

I think it's important that somebody provide some counterbalance to the gloom and doom that permeates these boards, even if that means that I have to take some shots from the hard core of frequent posters.

My goal is to help infrequent and first time visitors get some information to help them plan their trips. It isn't to develop a core of loyal followers who will respond with and at everything that I say. I don't pretend to be a comedian.

As someone who is not fond of FP+, I will tell the newbies that I'm still going to MK in the spring because nothing beats the magic of the MK. I will still cry when I hear the welcome song, and I will still feel like I am a carefree five-year-old on rides like It's a Small World, Peter Pan, and Jungle Cruise. You will still have a wonderful time. Although, don't be afraid to venture to other parks like Universal Studio/Islands of Adventure or LEGOLAND during your stay.

Whether FP+ is good or bad for you depends on your touring style, how many days you have at the parks, etc, and it's much better than no fastpasses at all, IMO. I also think it's better than the system at Universal, which makes you pay for express passes or an expensive hotel.

I just have some concerns/complaints that I want to share with other people who understand what I'm talking about, and my real-life Disney-loving friends have too many real-world worries at the moment. Part of my concern is for the direction Disney is heading in general, something newbies who are just planning a fun trip shouldn't worry about.

 

[crostorfer]

Whether FP+ is good or bad for you depends on your touring style, how many days you have at the parks, etc, and it's much better than no fastpasses at all, IMO. I also think it's better than the system at Universal, which makes you pay for express passes or an expensive hotel.

To be fair, those "expensive" hotels are less expensive than the Disney hotels, and their express pass is unlimited, for all rides, (*that accept the express pass that is, the FJ and Transformers do not*), all day, each day of your stay. If you ride The Mummy once and love it, you can ride it as many times as you want, with no line. They also allow on site guests into the parks an hour before the general public to enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or on the other side of the fence to ride Transformers, before the general public.

A room at the very deluxe Royal Pacific is significantly less than an extremely moderate room at the Port Orleans.

 

[Laketravis]

Does anyone think that there should a turnstile if they are just letting guests scan their own bands, so no entry into the FP queue unless your band scans correctly? Or just a rope across the entrance that won't be removed until the CM has checked the band is allowed?

I think that many of the delays reported in the FP lines are because of "Blue Mickeys" so the current system functions like a virtual turnstyle without the physical barrier. When we were there it seemed like the time it took to resolve a failed admittance was much longer if it involved checking a computer screen, involving a CM with an iPad, etc..etc.. as opposed to inspecting one or more paper FP's.

If Disney can figure out a way to increase the speed of resolution on those failed reads it could go a long way in reducing the FP lines post-reader.

 

[Nole95]

We were there from 1/10 - 1/13 for the marathon and stayed at POR on a room only reservation.

We received out MagicBands prior to arrival.
Since we were only going to Epcot after the marathon, we separately purchased two one day tickets and linked them to our MagicBand on the MDE website.

Upon arrival at the airport the MagicBands worked perfectly to get onto the Magical Express bus.
We had done online check-in and everything was ready when we arrived at the resort. MB worked perfectly to get into our room and to make any purchases.

When it was time to go to Epcot on Sunday, both MBs worked perfectly for park entrance.

Once our tickets were linked to our MBs, we made our FP+ selections for Epcot about a month out.

The thing I liked is that when it became clear that we would not make our Soarin time, I jumped right on my IPhone while on the bus and was able to push it out a hour because there were times still available.

Here is what I did not like. I can somewhat understand the tiering and limiting the advance reservations to three per person. What I cannot understand is that once you are physically in the park, why Disney does not allow additional FPs to be pulled.

My Soarin FP ended up starting at 3:10 on Sunday and was my last FP+ scheduled for the day. On the MDE app, I could clearly see that FP were still available for TT. Once my Soaring FP had been used, I can see no reason why I should not be able to schedule a TT FP.

Taking this a step further, say I wanted to schedule my advance FPs for later in the day, but still arrive at the park at RD. Once I am in the park, I think I should be able to schedule another FP so long as the time did not interfere with something I already had scheduled. From that point, the same rules would apply in that I could not schedule another until that FP was used or two hours had passed.

 

[Mad Hattered]

To be fair, those "expensive" hotels are less expensive than the Disney hotels, and their express pass is unlimited, for all rides, (*that accept the express pass that is, the FJ and Transformers do not*), all day, each day of your stay. If you ride The Mummy once and love it, you can ride it as many times as you want, with no line. They also allow on site guests into the parks an hour before the general public to enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or on the other side of the fence to ride Transformers, before the general public.

A room at the very deluxe Royal Pacific is significantly less than an extremely moderate room at the Port Orleans.

I totally agree. Although you should know, Transformers DOES have an express line. I used it about 12 times last September.

Now back to your regularly scheduled discussion.

 

[mom2rtk]

I totally agree. Although you should know, Transformers DOES have an express line. I used it about 12 times last September.

I believe that makes you a ride monger. Watch out for the haters.

 

[larryz]

I believe that makes you a ride monger.

AND a loop-holer!

mutter mutter mutter ride monger mutter mutter loop-holer!

 

[bumbershoot]

To be fair, those "expensive" hotels are less expensive than the Disney hotels, and their express pass is unlimited, for all rides, (*that accept the express pass that is, the FJ and Transformers do not*), all day, each day of your stay. If you ride The Mummy once and love it, you can ride it as many times as you want, with no line. They also allow on site guests into the parks an hour before the general public to enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or on the other side of the fence to ride Transformers, before the general public.

A room at the very deluxe Royal Pacific is significantly less than an extremely moderate room at the Port Orleans.

The pricing structure you mention CAN be true. It can also not be true. Depends on what else is going on and what rooms are actually available.

 

[ciera321]

Suggestions for Disney:

1. Tiering is bad. Don't do it. If everyone wants to fast-pass ride Soarin and Test Track once in their Epcot day, LET THEM. If you've got so many guests in your park that you cannot give each of them a ride time for these two rides, then perhaps you're selling too many tickets.
2. Three fast passes is not enough. It needs to be at least four, preferably five.
3. Forcing all three FP to be in the same park is bad. For example, when guests get rained out top tier rides at one park, they should be able to reschedule the converted Omni passes at ANY park.
4. Park Hopping guests should be able to schedule their 3 passes anywhere they darn well want (after all, they paid you extra for daily multi-park access).
5. Offering Omni passes to replace closed rides is a nice gesture, but make sure there are other rides available to pick, or it just looks like you don't know what you're doing. (Opening up Omni pass selections to all parks would help with this, at least for those with PH/AP access.)
6. Do some more serious work on the in-park Wifi and App/Database infrastructure. The app should not crash so frequently and searches should not time out constantly.
7. Make the FP+/band reading system a ton more reliable, so your CMs can turn guests with "blue" results away with confidence to be helped by a FP+ booth CM, instead of being bullied into letting them through.

Wow, thanks so much for your honest review! I could not agree more with your suggestions for Disney. I realize this new system is still in the testing phase, but I truly hope that Disney listens to guests like you who have experienced both FP systems. I'm hoping they are willing to make changes as guests weigh in on FP+!!!!!

 

[3happydancers]

Hi - I did this directly on Universal's website. I will confess that I've never in my life used a travel agent. But you can search for packages right there on their site and compare rates from all 4 of their official resorts. It also returned results from "affiliated" hotels, but we wanted to be on Universal property so we chose one of the 4 Loews properties. I am unsure what kind of benefits you'd get from those others.

I do think in value season you could save money above the price you quoted by staying at Cabana Bay instead of Hard Rock, if you are okay to try a brand new moderate. (We know we are gambling by staying at a brand new hotel, but we know many people who have stayed at the Loews deluxe hotels on Uni property and loved them, so we figure the new one will be okay!) The big difference between staying at their Deluxe (Hard Rock) and the new Moderate (Cabana) is that you don't get the unlimited Express Pass. We don't think we'll need it during the slow season though.

Thanks a bunch! I'll check out US website out. When I asked my dd about a possible change for her sweet 16, her eyes absolutely lit up! She was stressing out that her special trip was going to be ruined due to the new changes at the World but she did not want to say anything. So happy we are making this change in our vacation now.

 

[vcgirl925]

To be fair, those "expensive" hotels are less expensive than the Disney hotels, and their express pass is unlimited, for all rides, (*that accept the express pass that is, the FJ and Transformers do not*), all day, each day of your stay. If you ride The Mummy once and love it, you can ride it as many times as you want, with no line. They also allow on site guests into the parks an hour before the general public to enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or on the other side of the fence to ride Transformers, before the general public.

A room at the very deluxe Royal Pacific is significantly less than an extremely moderate room at the Port Orleans.

This.

Were there in Sept. and we were able to FOTL Transformers. A weeks stay at the lowes royal pacific and four day park passes with FOTL access was much cheaper than Disney. Plus, it's unlimited.

 

[DAZY3BYZ]

1. Tiering is bad. Don't do it. If everyone wants to fast-pass ride Soarin and Test Track once in their Epcot day, LET THEM. If you've got so many guests in your park that you cannot give each of them a ride time for these two rides, then perhaps you're selling too many tickets.
2. Three fast passes is not enough. It needs to be at least four, preferably five.
3. Forcing all three FP to be in the same park is bad. For example, when guests get rained out top tier rides at one park, they should be able to reschedule the converted Omni passes at ANY park.
4. Park Hopping guests should be able to schedule their 3 passes anywhere they darn well want (after all, they paid you extra for daily multi-park access).
5. Offering Omni passes to replace closed rides is a nice gesture, but make sure there are other rides available to pick, or it just looks like you don't know what you're doing. (Opening up Omni pass selections to all parks would help with this, at least for those with PH/AP access.)
6. Do some more serious work on the in-park Wifi and App/Database infrastructure. The app should not crash so frequently and searches should not time out constantly.
7. Make the FP+/band reading system a ton more reliable, so your CMs can turn guests with "blue" results away with confidence to be helped by a FP+ booth CM, instead of being bullied into letting them through.

Our Future at WDW:

As it stands, our annual passes expire in May and we do not plan to renew them, for a number of reasons. Some personal, and some to do with what it is like to "vacation" at WDW right now. One thing I don't mind saying is that we feel we spend too much money to be on-property guests at WDW for the current level of service and access to things. The prices need to be lower, or the experience needs to improve.

Bravo! Wonderfully written post that I hope you share with Disney. As it stands right now, I am not sure that our family will be back to the World with these changes. It will be a diminished experience and at a premium price. Its so disappointing.

 

[xie]

Does anyone think that there should a turnstile if they are just letting guests scan their own bands, so no entry into the FP queue unless your band scans correctly? Or just a rope across the entrance that won't be removed until the CM has checked the band is allowed?

Also a question for the OP, do you think overall including standby and FP+ you got on more or fewer attractions than with standby and paper FP on a similarly busy day? A lot of the expectation of only being allowed 3 FP+ will be that standby lines move quicker once no-one has paper FP.

A turnstile that doesn't unlock unless your band turns green would help quite a bit, especially during peak season when there are a lot of people trying to crowd their way through. The CMs are just people - a noise in another direction, or a coworker calling their name, or another guest talking to them and distracting them - anything like that makes them turn their heads, and then they aren't looking. How easy would it be for you to spend HOURS with your eyes focused on the scanners?

We rode fewer attractions this time than on any previous trip. We didn't notice the standby lines being any shorter than they were the same week last year, many seemed longer. We also had bad luck with attractions being unexpectedly closed for hours on end for technical problems and weather, so that contributed to our "riding less".

 

[xie]

To be fair, those "expensive" hotels are less expensive than the Disney hotels, and their express pass is unlimited, for all rides, (*that accept the express pass that is, the FJ and Transformers do not*), all day, each day of your stay. If you ride The Mummy once and love it, you can ride it as many times as you want, with no line. They also allow on site guests into the parks an hour before the general public to enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or on the other side of the fence to ride Transformers, before the general public.

A room at the very deluxe Royal Pacific is significantly less than an extremely moderate room at the Port Orleans.

Reading the fine print on our vacation package, it looks like Transformers can be express passed, but not Forbidden Journey. Doesn't matter to us anyway as with 1 hour early access, we'll go straight to FJ or Ollivander's anyway.

And yes, agreed on the room cost. I remember staying at Port Orleans for 80 bucks a night. And for the quality of the fixtures, mattress, and size of the room, 80-100 bucks a night is a fair price for the Moderates at WDW.

 

[ucfknight]

A turnstile that doesn't unlock unless your band turns green would help quite a bit, especially during peak season when there are a lot of people trying to crowd their way through. The CMs are just people - a noise in another direction, or a coworker calling their name, or another guest talking to them and distracting them - anything like that makes them turn their heads, and then they aren't looking. How easy would it be for you to spend HOURS with your eyes focused on the scanners?

And that's why you have to scan twice. Once at entry to FP return line and once at the merge point with the standby line.

 

[xie]

I think that many of the delays reported in the FP lines are because of "Blue Mickeys" so the current system functions like a virtual turnstyle without the physical barrier. When we were there it seemed like the time it took to resolve a failed admittance was much longer if it involved checking a computer screen, involving a CM with an iPad, etc..etc.. as opposed to inspecting one or more paper FP's.

If Disney can figure out a way to increase the speed of resolution on those failed reads it could go a long way in reducing the FP lines post-reader.

This is true. Right now, if they would only have a second cast member pull these guests out of line and to the side to resolve their issues, it would help keep the line moving - but they weren't doing this when we were there. If there was a problem, the CM would start talking to the guest, and depending on the configuration for that particular FastPass line, people would start slipping by. Some would scan bands and others would just walk.

Somebody mentioned that the inside CM at the second FP place should catch the walkers - unfortunately, that's where people lie and say "but it scanned outside!" and stuff like that. The system is so buggy the CMs are afraid to argue with them.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I believe that makes you a ride monger. Watch out for the haters.

You know me. I've been single-handedly trying to destroy other vacationers trips since the 70's.