Why I think Disney will never change fp+ plus to allow use in multiple parks

[mom2rtk]

Correct me I'm wrong, but I think you are saying that someone uses their first FP+ for a headliner at a tiered park, and then hops to an un-tiered park where they can use the other two for headliners instead of being limited to "tier 2" attractions.

Unless all parks do eventually become tiered (which I haven't ruled out), this isn't necessarily a problem. I believe the ONLY reason all parks aren't tiered already is that some of them (theoretically) have enough attractions to allow someone to reserve all three of their FPs for headliners. So, theoretically, it would not be a problem for someone to use two of their slots for headliners at that park, even if they already rode a headliner at another park. They were still limited to only one headliner at the tiered park, where tiering was needed. Does that make sense?

In my example, I was using the 2 tiered parks, DHS and Epcot. In my example one would be hopping for the sheer purpose of circumventing the tiering. They would do TSMM and ToT at DHS then hop to Epcot and ride Soarin. Next day they do RnR and ToT at DHS before hopping to Epcot to do TT.

Of course, Disney could structure it so they did not get tier 1 attractions in both parks. But I think they need to keep this structure as uncomplicated as possible, so would be torn in how to proceed with it.

 

[surferdave]

They just retro-fitted a number of the bus stops to fit the new articulated buses. Why would they spend money on the new larger buses, or the new bus stops if they wanted to discourage park hopping by permanently limiting FP+ to only one park?

They didn't need the increased capacity for hopping, I'm sure the existing buses could handle the traffic during the middle part of the day from park to park. It's the ever increasing traffic of getting people into the parks in the morning and out in the evening that demanded those changes.

 

[postesf]

I can't stress over what may or may NOT happen. However, I DO park hop. EVERY TRIP. Muiltiple times. It is well worth the cost to me. Not having the option to hop (which is not a topic here), does stress me. We may not hop every day, but we hop more than we don't hop. If we do a 7 day trip, we may only not hop once or twice. Especially, the last few days of our trip, we will do 1/2 days in the parks.

So, for ME, I hope they do accommodate this option with FP+ in some form or fashion. I think for 1st time visitors, not hopping is ok, but I personally don't like feeling restricted when I'm there.

If we park hopped in the past and used the legacy fastpasses while hopping in the past, I see no reason they can't make it work now.

 

[SleepDoctor]

They didn't need the increased capacity for hopping, I'm sure the existing buses could handle the traffic during the middle part of the day from park to park. It's the ever increasing traffic of getting people into the parks in the morning and out in the evening that demanded those changes.

Many of the guests leaving any one park in the evening probably started at a different park in the morning (i.e hopping)

 

[shalom]

They were still limited to only one headliner at the tiered park, where tiering was needed. Does that make sense?

It does. I may be over influenced by the rumor that the only reason you can't reserve FPs in two parks is that Disney "forgot" to include that option. Which seems unlikely, but OTOH could indicate either there's a much higher percentage of people using parkhoppers here than among guests as a whole, or that Disney is trying to lock people into parks with FP+ and spread crowds that way as well as by rides, or both.

If Disney's trying to spread crowds across the parks, and if they're concerned that parkhopping with some parks tiered and some untiered would encouraged more people to visit the tiered parks more often, then tiering all the parks might be their first step in dealing with that.

 

[cigar95]

If I was at Disney planning, my suggestion would be that you can only pre-pick 3 fastpasses in one park, but if you are in another park, you can choose FP's based on what's left for that park.

You just won't be able to choose an FP that comes within one hour of a pre-chosen FP at another park.

That's pretty much how it worked for us last month - after our three at the Studios in the morning, we got another in the evening at MK - but *only* after we arrived at MK and physically went to a kiosk.

So the idea that hopping won't be allowed with FP - it already is.

 

[magicbob]

That's pretty much how it worked for us last month - after our three at the Studios in the morning, we got another in the evening at MK - but *only* after we arrived at MK and physically went to a kiosk.

So the idea that hopping won't be allowed with FP - it already is.

So you were not only able to get FP+ for more than one park, but you were able to get more than three FP+ in the same day?

Curiouser and curiouser...

 

[JimmyV]

Isn't this entire discussion academic? People can park hop under the current regime, and the preferred strategy seems to favor it, so paying extra for the hopper pass is still going to be worthwhile to many.

• Example #1: People are saying that AK is a half day park. Fine. Get there at RD and do Safari on SB, go over to EE and ride it twice in succession, SB, and then wait in a 20-30 minute SB line for Kali, and bolt out of the park. Head over to DHS where you made your advance FP+s on line 60 days in advance and ride TSM, ToT, and one other ride.
  
• Example #2: Start your day at Epcot. Hit Soarin' at RD, head over to TT where you wait in a 20-30 minute SB line. Do Mission Space, Spaceship Earth and one other ride all in the next 90 minutes, and you are out of there by 11:00-11:30. Grab lunch at Sunshine Seasons and take the monorail over to the MK where you have afternoon/early evening FP+ reservations at Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Belle.

Why does the system need to build in any greater flexiblility than that? Yes, these examples require that you wait in SB lines in the morning. But I really don't think that anyone at HQ is losing any sleep trying to figure out a way for you to avoid that.

 

[AthenaBolina]

Isn't this entire discussion academic? People can park hop under the current regime, and the preferred strategy seems to favor it, so paying extra for the hopper pass is still going to be worthwhile to many. [*]Example #1: People are saying that AK is a half day park. Fine. Get there at RD and do Safari on SB, go over to EE and ride it twice in succession, SB, and then wait in a 20-30 minute SB line for Kali, and bolt out of the park. Head over to DHS where you made your advance FP+s on line 60 days in advance and ride TSM, ToT, and one other ride. [*]Example #2: Start your day at Epcot. Hit Soarin' at RD, head over to TT where you wait in a 20-30 minute SB line. Do Mission Space, Spaceship Earth and one other ride all in the next 90 minutes, and you are out of there by 11:00-11:30. Grab lunch at Sunshine Seasons and take the monorail over to the MK where you have afternoon/early evening FP+ reservations at Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Belle. Why does the system need to build in any greater flexiblility than that? Yes, these examples require that you wait in SB lines in the morning. But I really don't think that anyone at HQ is losing any sleep trying to figure out a way for you to avoid that.

.

This is pretty much what I've been thinking about doing during our trip. This is our 2nd time so we are perfectly happy skipping certain things....even TT

 

[cigar95]

So you were not only able to get FP+ for more than one park, but you were able to get more than three FP+ in the same day?

Curiouser and curiouser...

Yes. Because it was fairly close to closing, only one additional FP was possible at MK, and the key is that it couldn't be done in advance - it had to be done at a kiosk, rather than with the MDEx app.

 

[jlm196]

We are head to WDW in May and we currently have PH passes. I have been going back and forth on whether to keep them or not. In the end we will keep them because I am hoping to be able to hit rope drop at one park and get in a few headliners, eat lunch, take a swim and then hit up a second park with our FP+ choices. Only time will tell if this is a good strategy.
Do I hope they eventually add the ability to PH - of course but for now we just have to roll with the punches.

 

[glamdring269]

The biggest roadblock to this right now is the app itself. Disney would be embarrassed if people suddenly had to manage 2 parks in one day on that app. The click-through menu design of the current app is already bad enough. Imagine having to do it for 2 parks in one day!

 

[shalom]

Isn't this entire discussion academic?

Pretty much, yeah. Didn't you notice that F+ was in the title? Have yet to see an FP+ thread that doesn't end up with a large percentage of theory and speculation.

 

[revdon64]

What if it shook out more like 3 tiered FP+ per park per day, but if you haven't scanned your MB into the next park where your FPs are located by 1 hour prior to their use, they're released back to the kiosks?

That encourages hopping, but limits hoarding. Just a thought.