why after 16 trips do I feel like a beginner? FP ugh

[Disney-Kim]

I used to think I was the master planner and knew all Disney. We have 16 trips under our belt. I can book dining reservations for any trip in my sleep...I know what, where, and when lol...but...

this new FP plus just makes me feel old and not interested. I can not believe all the posts about FP on the Theme Park boards...Its like the world changed and people don't know what to do
but it reminds me of the frenzy of booking dining when they changed it from 6 months to 3 months, or free dining. just frenzy

the thing for us...we never use FP on our trips. We never really need too, maybe a couple times here and there but for the most part if the wait is long we don't ride it. been there rode that. maybe next time. explains why we have been on TSMM 2x since it opened haha. we don't care.

now we do want to ride the new Snow white roller coaster and I will book a FP but thats all we care about. I will book others too but its just not the end of the world for us if we don't have them.

as it is it seems for a lot of others...this makes me think? am I missing something, am I going to be sorry...well I am hoping my experience leads me to believe we will be jsut fine

anyway...just wanted to rant a little

 

[Tpiejg]

I think you will be fine, especially if you dont care if you ride something. I am on our twelfth trip and was in frenzy mode about the FP+, but I love to plan it makes me feel like im on vacation when I planning and thinking about our trip. So once I calmed do and realized there wouldnt be any running around to get fp while at the park, i got kinda excited and now its just more planning fun,lol. How you enjoy your trip

 

[Disney-Kim]

I think you will be fine, especially if you dont care if you ride something. I am on our twelfth trip and was in frenzy mode about the FP+, but I love to plan it makes me feel like im on vacation when I planning and thinking about our trip. So once I calmed do and realized there wouldnt be any running around to get fp while at the park, i got kinda excited and now its just more planning fun,lol. How you enjoy your trip

it does seem helpful to not have to get them in the park. but also seems a little more restrictive too...not as spontaneous...like if your standing at the ride and decide...hey lets get a FP for this

 

[bobbiwoz]

We were in parks 2 days this past weekend. I knew we would not get to the MK before 7, and I did get FP+s! including one for the Mine Ride. It was a quick trip to MK, arrive, use 3 FPs and be back at SSR before 11!

We spent the next day in DHS for all things Frozen, and 3 FP+, and stopping by attractions without a long line, like the back lot tour! We had not done that in at least 5 years. What a great day we had! I hope you enjoy your visit too! We really enjoy these FP+!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

There have always been lots of threads and talk about FP's. Books, planning sites etc. - all devoted to it. Overall if you did not use FP's before then it shouldn't make much difference now either.

 

[Jkpark]

I am with you – except still very nervous. I don’t care if we hit every ride, every trip. I love that WDW has more spontaneous street entertainment than DLR, and I love getting to enjoy it without being worried about missing something else. What I am nervous about are (1) the reports that standby lines are longer than usual. I’m not interested in waiting 40 minutes for Pirates or Haunted Mansion – and I don’t want to use a FP + on those. (2) I hear rope drop isn’t as effective as before. I was thinking FP+ a couple must do’s and hit other must do’s first thing in the morning. But with people pushing FP+ earlier to get a 4th, 5th, etc. – Do standby lines start backing up earlier than they did my last trip (Sept 2012)?
In prior years, as the park got busier later in the day, I could pull out my phone to see what FPs were still available and if we wanted one for that time, send a runner. And I could be looking at my phone while waiting in a line. Now – if we want a 4th, 5th – I can either send one person to the kiosk and trust they will pick something good – or bring all 9 people to the kiosk and take a while deciding what else to book. And it sounds like I will want those additional FPs more than before b/c of the longer standby lines.
I guess the good news is I will learn from this trip which will make the next trip better – and I really am happy doing the kids favorite rides and just seeing where the day takes us from there.

 

[Disney-Kim]

So lines are longer now for just regular rides and stand by?

I'm not going to let this bother me....May has always been a good time to visit and we were there in 2013 and I don't think it's become insane in one year

 

[com_op_2000]

Having been more times than I can count. My feeling about FP+ is that it takes away all spontaneity from our trips.
If you do not plan a day at the parks 60 days in advance you are behind the 8-ball. That is not how I like my DVC trips to be. I want to get up in the morning, have a relaxing breakfast, go somewhere, do something I like, then come back to my villa, and relax.
With the options included when choosing FP+ you have no choice of picking times for rides, as you get four options and then no others. Even changing your preferences within the three choices you made, make no difference as it returns the same times as the previous four time frame options.
Do not tell Mickey but due to FP+ I am getting SW passes next year and BG passes the next year.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Having been more times than I can count. My feeling about FP+ is that it takes away all spontaneity from our trips. If you do not plan a day at the parks 60 days in advance you are behind the 8-ball. That is not how I like my DVC trips to be. I want to get up in the morning, have a relaxing breakfast, go somewhere, do something I like, then come back to my villa, and relax. With the options included when choosing FP+ you have no choice of picking times for rides, as you get four options and then no others. Even changing your preferences within the three choices you made, make no difference as it returns the same times as the previous four time frame options. Do not tell Mickey but due to FP+ I am getting SW passes next year and BG passes the next year.

You can go back in and modify the FP times. You don't have to just stick with the options they pull together. Just choose one of those 4 and then go into modify and when you select a FP it will ask if you want to change the experience or the time. Select the time and it will give a much longer list of options for the day.

 

[wdrl]

Having been more times than I can count. My feeling about FP+ is that it takes away all spontaneity from our trips.
If you do not plan a day at the parks 60 days in advance you are behind the 8-ball. That is not how I like my DVC trips to be. I want to get up in the morning, have a relaxing breakfast, go somewhere, do something I like, then come back to my villa, and relax.
With the options included when choosing FP+ you have no choice of picking times for rides, as you get four options and then no others. Even changing your preferences within the three choices you made, make no difference as it returns the same times as the previous four time frame options.
Do not tell Mickey but due to FP+ I am getting SW passes next year and BG passes the next year.

Funny, but our experiences with FP+ have been quite different than yours. With the exception of an attraction or two, we've had no trouble getting FP+ within a day or two of our visit. We've also had lots of success changing the times for our selected attractions. Once we select the "Best Option" and the times set by the computer, we then go back in and check for better times for individual rides. Quite often, we find better times are offered by the system after we have already secured a specific FP+.

 

[Wigit12]

I feel exactly the same way. Everything has changed just before our big trip with my daughter-in-law bringing her family for the first time. I feel like I just don't have the same knowledge we've always had in the past. A lot of this will be brand new for us since our last trip. Daughter-in-law doesn't like to "plan" much and I feel like we don't have much of a choice.
Not easy to "go with the flow" when you have a large group.

 

[Meerkatx]

Funny, but our experiences with FP+ have been quite different than yours. With the exception of an attraction or two, we've had no trouble getting FP+ within a day or two of our visit. We've also had lots of success changing the times for our selected attractions. Once we select the "Best Option" and the times set by the computer, we then go back in and check for better times for individual rides. Quite often, we find better times are offered by the system after we have already secured a specific FP+.

. Im happy to hear it wasnt nearly they hassle im expecting. Thank you for the post

 

[eporter66]

We will be doing FP+ for the first time. But, we are only purchasing a 1 Day Park Hopper. We are going to MK for the MNSSHP, so no magic band for that day, and we usually get to do whatever we want once it gets to around 8-9pm with little wait time. We have day passes from my parents, they volunteer for the Disney Marathon, but did not use their free pass this year, so we will use those for our EPCOT day.

I am interested to see how the new system works, maybe it will make things a little easier by knowing you have the ride you want reserved. I do enjoy all the planning that goes into the vacation, so this will just be another new option, I think it will work out fine. As for EPCOT, we just need to get our Soarin, Mission Space and Fast Track in - then it is time to eat our way around the world!!!

 

[lilclerk]

I am totally with you! I just made our selections for our September trip yesterday and I pretty much picked randomly I figured the only major thing we wanted was the mine train, so I got that a couple of days. I also made sure to get a TSMM one day, and everything else is just booked so they're there. I figure I'll move them around while we're there if I need to, or we just won't use them.