WIRED article: Disney's $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband

[jade1]

And inside MK

 

[jade1]

And inside EPCOT

 

[jade1]

And inside DHS

 

[jade1]

Ok I should have written "Can't always get your picks back at the times you want them"

Better?

My point is the clean slate for FPs each morning is gone. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the person. For us, it stinks.

That's better, and certainly completely different, but certainly you can see there is possible re-planning available with FP+ as well as ADR's.

And again-the completely clean slate was there, so not accurate either.

 

[Laketravis]

Jade, those Epcot and HS screens you show always show everything by default - it's only after you make your choices that it shows whether those choices are actually available.

Are you still here? I am and the choices left on the same day (or even the night before) haven't been anywhere near that complete for us.


.

 

[jade1]

Jade, those second and third screens you show actually show everything by default - it's only after you make your choices that it shows whether those choices are actually available.

Are you still here? I am and the choices left on the same day (or even the night before) haven't been anywhere near that complete for us.


.

Yea the DHS was for a couple from Michigan-they did not select TSM but wanted/selected RNR/TOT/TSM-I just wanted a pic of it. No not there anymore-but it was a slow week-and I have no reason to believe these are always available. Choosing when to go can certainly make a difference, but options are there.

 

[grimley1968]

Jade, those Epcot and HS screens you show always show everything by default - it's only after you make your choices that it shows whether those choices are actually available.

Are you still here? I am and the choices left on the same day (or even the night before) haven't been anywhere near that complete for us.


.

Jade's photos indicate a trip a couple of weeks ago, before most of the Spring Break crowds arrived. Right now until about the second week of April is Spring Break madness. But Jade's photos do show the Magic that is Tiering.

 

[jade1]

And all of our screens never showed a "check" next to it if it (hence the choose your selections to confirm) where SB-it always said "standby only"-so all of those were available.

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

And inside MK

Jade, those are some great FP's available for the day of. I'm curious- how many people were you booking that for? We're a party of 6, so I'm anticipating more of a challenge for us in terms of same day headliner FP's.

 

[jade1]

That and of all the selections above-the hardest to believe by far would have been A&E and 7DMT which has the selected screens-so the others are much easier to accept as well.

Here is how our screens looked when a selection was not available, "standby only"

 

[Laketravis]

Jade's photos indicate a trip a couple of weeks ago, before most of the Spring Break crowds arrived. Right now until about the second week of April is Spring Break madness. But Jade's photos do show the Magic that is Tiering.

True, I was also in the parks starting the evening of the 6th but my focus was different - I already had our FP's reserved from a month earlier and we would get to the parks to do those and any short SB's there might be in as few hours as possible. We found many of the SB waits to be very low that week so we didn't even bother with the kiosks, then it seemed like somebody threw a switch and by the 13th the picture was completely different.

Our first week (6th-12th) was a test of reserving FP's far in advance and utilizing SB for the rest; our second week (13th-21st) is a test of spontaneity because we had absolutely no FP's reserved in advance and only tried setting them up the day or night before. Results have been MUCH different and the SB lines are much longer this week.


.

 

[jade1]

Jade, those are some great FP's available for the day of. I'm curious- how many people were you booking that for? We're a party of 6, so I'm anticipating more of a challenge for us in terms of same day headliner FP's.

Keep in mind-you should reserve what you want/can as early as possible, there is zero reason to wait for day of IMO. And time of year will matter as well like LT just mentioned.

My goal was simply to see what was available in early March since we were there, and was truly amazed actually-but these were for 2 or 4 only. However-we had 9 AP MB's in our account on the APP and would routinely grab 6 during the week for very good headliners in whichever park we wanted to plan. Were only able to use our bands though. This means TOT and RNR was always available (we prefer RNR over TSM) but TSM is tougher, Soarin and TT were easy-AK was always wide open, MK wide open for the mountains really just tougher for 7DMT and A/E.

Nothing has been more amazing than availability XMAS week though, still can't believe that one.

All they need is more attractions/capacity for the busier weeks IMO-the system is awesome when everything is available. Plus they could start bumping up the QTY.

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

Keep in mind-you should reserve what you want/can as early as possible, there is zero reason to wait for day of IMO. And time of year will matter as well like LT just mentioned.

My goal was simply to see what was available in early March since we were there, and was truly amazed actually-but these were for 2 or 4 only. However-we had 9 AP MB's in our account on the APP and would routinely grab 6 during the week for very good headliners in whichever park we wanted to plan. Were only able to use our bands though. This means TOT and RNR was always available (we prefer RNR over TSM) but TSM is tougher, Soarin and TT were easy-AK was always wide open, MK wide open for the mountains really just tougher for 7DMT and A/E.

Nothing has been more amazing than availability XMAS week though, still can't believe that one.

All they need is more attractions/capacity for the busier weeks IMO-the system is awesome when everything is available. Plus they could start bumping up the QTY.

It sounds like you had great same-day availability on both trips. I already have our FP's booked for mid-May, but was wondering about headliner availability as the day wears on (for 4th, etc). I hope we'll have as good of luck with TOT & RNRC as you did!