What are DVC'ers opinion of the current FP+ program? I am concerned...

[edk35]

I have not BEEN on here in months.....but started hearing about FP+ from friends who have recently been on trips this month. This triggered me to investigate further. YIKES!!! Not too many happy peeps with this new 3 a day rule. Honestly I am leary to book a trip any time soon...hoping the new program gets tweaked. Even the Disney commercials about the magic bands/FP system is misleading.

 

[mrsgoose8]

Well maybe it's because I was never a park commando, but I am very happy with fast plus. I feel more relaxed. And especially bc I have DVC! I know I can ride my favorite rides on my next trip or whatever takes the pressure off.

I liked that we could opt to get fast passes later in the day without having to rush to the park at opening.

We also have small kids so we just CAN'T run around from fast pass to fast pass anyway.

Some people have had "bugs", which really can be expected from any new system that is rolled out.

I personally haven't so I guess I might feel differently if it were me

I wouldn't let it hold you back from going back! There's so much to love about Disney, not just fast passes!

 

[edk35]

I like the idea of making ressies for certain rides like Toy Story and Soarin but I am not thrilled that you can ONLY get 3 per day and that some are tiered. Also, that you have to use all 3 in the same park ....so no park hopping. I am reading so much negative about this new system I am wondering if it will change.

 

[DebbieB]

I have not BEEN on here in months.....but started hearing about FP+ from friends who have recently been on trips this month. This triggered me to investigate further. YIKES!!! Not too many happy peeps with this new 3 a day rule. Honestly I am leary to book a trip any time soon...hoping the new program gets tweaked. Even the Disney commercials about the magic bands/FP system is misleading.

I used it in November and loved it! Love being able to make fastpass reservations for any time of the day and not having to go to the ride to get them.

 

[mrsgoose8]

I like the idea of making ressies for certain rides like Toy Story and Soarin but I am not thrilled that you can ONLY get 3 per day and that some are tiered. Also, that you have to use all 3 in the same park ....so no park hopping. I am reading so much negative about this new system I am wondering if it will change.

I don't love them being tiered either, though I understand it.

I do get what you're saying. We aren't big park hoppers... But I think FP+ will make me more likely to park hop. I can arrange for all my favorite rides in the afternoon and go (& wait in like... Gasp!) at another park in the morning.

I don't really mind waiting in line (even with my 3 & 1 yr old last year!) ... I expect it.

 

[Chuck S]

It worked fine for me in November, though there is a little learning curve. I booked some FP+ times in the morning, when they really weren't needed (Soarin' being the major exception) So I'd book after lunch rather than the mornings.

I like the system, it needs a little tweaking here and there, but overall it worked fine.

But then, I grew up in CA and remember waiting 45min to an hour for even the C-ticket rides during the summer in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

[River Country]

It worked fine. i wish that they would not tier them anymore. I had booked mine for my December trip prior to the tiering so i was good but had to make changes and FP- was still around so it worked out but now that FP- is gone and i only get 3 per day idk how i will like it

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Don't be scared OP! We've done three trips now with the new system and I quite like it. I think you could also classify me as a 'FP Super User' or 'Recovering Park Commando', the people most complaining, and we still really liked it. We found ourselves sleeping in a few days instead of getting up for rope drop every day which was nice for a change. Despite how it appears on the surface, the system is actually pretty flexible. Each day of my trip I rearranged times for my FP+ selections. It was easy, there were never any availability issues and this was including days with 10 level crowds. There were often times that instead of waiting 30 minutes for my FP+ window to come around I would just reschedule the ride to be right now, and walk right on. So awesome!

The bands are handy too. We still did rope drop many mornings, and we found that we never really needed our morning FP+ reservations so I wound up rescheduling them for afternoons. I also went armed with 15 past room keys (shame on me I know), to pull legacy FP, and I never really used them, so I know it will be okay when the paper FP goes away completely.

Book a trip. It will be different. But embrace the difference and you will have a good trip.

 

[edk35]

I think MK needs MORE than 3 a day. Don't like the tiering at EC or HS either. I can see the pros of being able to book times ahead of time...just don't like the number they are giving each day.

 

[edk35]

Don't be scared OP! We've done three trips now with the new system and I quite like it. I think you could also classify me as a 'FP Super User' or 'Recovering Park Commando', the people most complaining, and we still really liked it. We found ourselves sleeping in a few days instead of getting up for rope drop every day which was nice for a change. Despite how it appears on the surface, the system is actually pretty flexible. Each day of my trip I rearranged times for my FP+ selections. It was easy, there were never any availability issues and this was including days with 10 level crowds. There were often times that instead of waiting 30 minutes for my FP+ window to come around I would just reschedule the ride to be right now, and walk right on. So awesome!

The bands are handy too. We still did rope drop many mornings, and we found that we never really needed our morning FP+ reservations so I wound up rescheduling them for afternoons. I also went armed with 15 past room keys (shame on me I know), to pull legacy FP, and I never really used them, so I know it will be okay when the paper FP goes away completely.

Book a trip. It will be different. But embrace the difference and you will have a good trip.

Would those past room keys have worked? LOL Yeah I think I would use the FP times for the afternoon/night vs. morning.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Would those past room keys have worked? LOL Yeah I think I would use the FP times for the afternoon/night vs. morning.

Yes. They did work for parks that still had legacy FP paper machines. You can use any old room key with a magnetic strip that you didn't have ticket media attached to. Lots of controversy around this though, but they do work. We were given current room keys that worked and our APs also were able to pull legacy FP as well. But like I said, we went armed for battle, but mostly found the FP+ to be sufficient.

 

[Dasha Hermosilla]

Don't be scared OP! We've done three trips now with the new system and I quite like it. I think you could also classify me as a 'FP Super User' or 'Recovering Park Commando', the people most complaining, and we still really liked it. We found ourselves sleeping in a few days instead of getting up for rope drop every day which was nice for a change. Despite how it appears on the surface, the system is actually pretty flexible. Each day of my trip I rearranged times for my FP+ selections. It was easy, there were never any availability issues and this was including days with 10 level crowds. There were often times that instead of waiting 30 minutes for my FP+ window to come around I would just reschedule the ride to be right now, and walk right on. So awesome! The bands are handy too. We still did rope drop many mornings, and we found that we never really needed our morning FP+ reservations so I wound up rescheduling them for afternoons. I also went armed with 15 past room keys (shame on me I know), to pull legacy FP, and I never really used them, so I know it will be okay when the paper FP goes away completely. Book a trip. It will be different. But embrace the difference and you will have a good trip.

Well said... We have done two FP+ trips and the first in October was the worst. I love the ability to do one park quick in the AM and the in the afternoon go to DHS and ride TSM or Epcot and ride TT. Never could have done that under the old system. I agree to just embrace it and hope for changes that make it better (more than three at MK please!).

 

[wdrl]

Count me as another person who has used the new MDE/MagicBand/FastPass+ system and is pleased with it. Its caused us to change some of our Park visiting habits, but we don't think we have lost much in the transition. In fact, I think we've gained some things due to the new system.

Some people have the misconception that they have to book FastPass+ 60 days out if they want the most popular attractions. But the track record so far has shown that many people are successful in getting FastPass+ for everything they want the night before, if not the same day.

There is also a misconception about Park Hopping. With the old system, if you spent the morning at Epcot and didn't arrive at DHS until 3:00 PM, there was virtually no way you'd get a FastPass for Toy Story Mania. Now, you can visit one Park in the morning and be assured that you'll have a TSM FastPass+ for later in the afternoon.

Undoubtedly, the affects of the new system are not the same on all guests. Some guests will benefit from the new system, some will lose features that they loved, and some will hardly notice the change. It reminds me of when DVC reallocated the point charts in 2009/2010. Those members who usually booked Sunday to Thursday stays were hardest hit by the increased point costs. They were the ones most vocal on the internet about the "harm" caused by the changes. Those members who did weekend stays saw their point costs go down. Yet, the weekend crowd was pretty silent. The same seems to be playing out with the new system. The segment that feels it is losing something is the most vocal, while those that are liking it (or at least neutral about it) have been pushed to the background.

 

[lovin'fl]

I am another one that was very pleased with FP+ when we used it in Oct and Dec. We never got more than 2 paper FP/day, before FP+, anyway. We like to go to the parks early, especially EMH, and can ride a lot before it gets crowded. We found that we could still do this with FP+ and used our 3 FP+ for a second park later in the afternoon (as of our Dec trip that still worked...not sure now that they are pulling out all the paper FP machines). While selecting our FP+ on the website (and setting up my inlaws, all 10 of them, who were also on our Dec trip) it was a pain and a lot of glitches...took 5 hours to get all 4 families done/set-up. But while at WDW, we had zero issues and could easily use the app to make changes. We loved it. We were there from Dec 19-25 and never waited more than 20 minutes for a ride...and we rode everything we wanted to. But, in full disclosure, we do not do parades or fireworks or character meets or the silly rides...just do the bigger attractions (so we don't waste FP+ on fireworks viewing or character lines or IASW and such).

 

[MinnieGi]

We went during the most crowded time - 10 days over Christmas break and honestly had a really nice time using it! Now there are certain things I'm not thrilled with and that being the tiered system for Epcot and DHS!!

However what I really enjoyed is being able to change time and attractions on the go for the FP+! What I originally thought would be good times I ended up changing as we were walking on rides in the morning. So I would then set up the FP for early afternoon or even in the evening at a different park if we were not going to use any in the current park.

Now we are rope droppers so we walked onto so many rides!! And I think the rope drop crowds were much lighter because of FP+. So we got even more done than usual. We literally walked onto everything in MK the two mornings we were there and never used FP+ and that included several rides each for Space Mountain and BTMR - would have been splash too but it broke down right as we walked in!

DHS we always used our fP for TSM and then rode stand-by for RNR and TOT and again in the morning there were not long lines. Epcot too was a pain with Soarin and TT. We did do them both, stand-by again in the morning is minimal wait.

What I really liked about magic bands is I no longer was fumbling to find keys when we got to the room or tickets at the park gate or my cc for purchases...

 

[edk35]

I now can see where this new system is beneficial to some extent..especially at HS or EC for securing fast pass times for say Toy Story and Soarin. I get that. I like that. I even like the idea of getting to the parks at rope drop..which is what we usually do....and saving the FP's for an afternoon or evening park but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DISNEY give more at MK. That is the one park that I don't think 3 is enough. Then you have my kids who like to ride things multiple times....and don't like to wait in lines longer than 20 min. so this is going to be interesting. I think I will pick a NON PEAK NON HOLIDAY time to go. I also don't like the tiers....

 

[JACKie SPARROW]

SO how does this FP+ work for those staying off site with APs?

We are DVC members and took advantage of the PAP deal last year. We have 3 trips planned with the APs but unfortunately don't have enough points for our trip in March, so we are staying at WBC.

Thanks!

 

[Anal Annie]

Don't be scared OP! We've done three trips now with the new system and I quite like it. I think you could also classify me as a 'FP Super User' or 'Recovering Park Commando', the people most complaining, and we still really liked it. We found ourselves sleeping in a few days instead of getting up for rope drop every day which was nice for a change. Despite how it appears on the surface, the system is actually pretty flexible. Each day of my trip I rearranged times for my FP+ selections. It was easy, there were never any availability issues and this was including days with 10 level crowds. There were often times that instead of waiting 30 minutes for my FP+ window to come around I would just reschedule the ride to be right now, and walk right on. So awesome!

The bands are handy too. We still did rope drop many mornings, and we found that we never really needed our morning FP+ reservations so I wound up rescheduling them for afternoons. I also went armed with 15 past room keys (shame on me I know), to pull legacy FP, and I never really used them, so I know it will be okay when the paper FP goes away completely.

Book a trip. It will be different. But embrace the difference and you will have a good trip.

We were just there last weekend for 5 n / 4 d and were not huge fans of the band thing. The parks were very crowded and when we first arrived the old FP machines were already covered up at MK and AK. By Tues. they had covered up the remaining machines at HS and EP so there IS NO MORE PULLING OLD FPs!!! We spent a LOT of time waiting in standby lines. An hour one day for Pirates and about 40 min. for it on another day. 50-60 min. for Haunted Mansion. One day we thankfully had FP+ for Jungle Cruise bcuz the standby line was 70 min.!!!!! TOT was only running at half capacity a lot of the time for some reason so the standby line for that was often 70-80 minutes. Once the RNR standby line hit 60 min. they cut off the single rider option. We found that the posted standby times were almost NEVER accurate. There were a lot of the Brazilian Tour Groups there and they would show up with their fast passes and get in line and then the standby lines would just STOP moving until they went through.

FP+ is practically worthless at Epcot as there just aren't enough rides to bother with it (AND they're tiered so you can only pick either Soarin' OR TT) so they've totally ruined Epcot for us. We were there on a reg. opening morning last Sat. by 45 min. before rope drop. We were only about 20 or 25 ft. back in the line. We beelined for Soarin' and rode it standby which worked FINE but then by the time we finished and got over to TT the standby line was about an hour long (single rider wasn't open or something). Once we finished TT we went over to Mission Space and spent nearly 40 min. in the standby queue there. It was 11:30 when we finished these 3 rides - we had been there 3 hrs and 15 min. and that's all we accomplished. IT SUCKED. Epcot is now at the bottom of our to do list with the horrible lines there.

We didn't have any glitches with the bands and I can see potential with the system but we were NOT liking that it ruined park hopping and the 3 / day limit wasn't enough for us. We have APs and always park hop so in the past would probably pull about 3 FP's at each park we visited - so twice as many as what we could get with the Magic Bands FP+ system. We spent more time waiting in lines we've NEVER waited in before on this trip than ever.

Count us as NOT FANS (at least with the way it's currently set up).

 

[Greatfalls]

JACKie -- I'm pretty sure you can do FP+ off your PAP even if you are staying off site. I have an active PAP, too. I did a test last week on MDE to see if I could get FP+ selections for an dummy date without any room reservation, and it gave me the option to make selections.

 

[disneypoor]

How does FP+ work if you don't buy your tickets until you get to the gate? Do you have to have online availability to book them? We are going in May and were just going to buy park tickets when we got there, but maybe that is a bad idea??? Thanks!

Susan