Would you trade FP+ for no fast passes at all?

[whiporee]

When I was growing up and going to Disney, there weren't any fast passes -- you just waited in line, whatever the line happened to be. With all the complaints about FP+ and having to make reservations and advance planning, I wonder if people would be happier if Disney just scrapped the whole idea.

No fast passes, no head-of-the-line fees -- just you go, you get in line, you go onto the next thing. Would that be better in some folks mind than the intricacies and issues that come along with FP+? There'd be no more merging the FP lines, so when you got into a standby you knew what you saw was what you got. There'd be no need to run to collect Fps like the old system, and it would put areal oomph back into EMHs.

Just curious what folks thought.

 

[ghtx]

It would be much worse.

 

[surferdave]

The parks (or park, if you mean pre-Epcot) were a lot less crowded in those days, and a lot cheaper too. As I said the last time this came up, I would love to visit 80's or 90's WDW again. I'd even pay 2014 prices to do it.

 

[detarica]

Funny you say that...One of things I enjoyed about our recent trip to Disneyland was that many of the rides had much shorter lines. And when we got in lines, they moved fast unless the ride had issues. Most of the rides at DL do not have a FP option.

That being said, it is a smaller resort with more rides per park than any of the parks in Florida.

The low waits times coupled with blue skies and nice temps for 7 days straight made us wonder why we had not visited earlier

 

[AAPDisney]

I am eager to try FP+ in November! I am optimistic that it will be better (certainly better than no FP at all). Waiting in line has got to be one of the biggest downers associated with theme parks.

 

[mom2rtk]

The parks (or park, if you mean pre-Epcot) were a lot less crowded in those days, and a lot cheaper too. As I said the last time this came up, I would love to visit 80's or 90's WDW again. I'd even pay 2014 prices to do it.

 

[surferdave]

Yes, I stole the last part from you.

 

[mom2rtk]

Yes, I stole the last part from you.

LOL, I'm honored. Steal away!

 

[btk2333]

No way - I'd rather visit the parks today than any previous iteration- are they perfect? No - are there things I miss about the old days? Yes- but things are pretty darn good now

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

no

 

[xipetotec]

When I was growing up and going to Disney, there weren't any fast passes -- you just waited in line, whatever the line happened to be. With all the complaints about FP+ and having to make reservations and advance planning, I wonder if people would be happier if Disney just scrapped the whole idea.

No fast passes, no head-of-the-line fees -- just you go, you get in line, you go onto the next thing. Would that be better in some folks mind than the intricacies and issues that come along with FP+? There'd be no more merging the FP lines, so when you got into a standby you knew what you saw was what you got. There'd be no need to run to collect Fps like the old system, and it would put areal oomph back into EMHs.

Just curious what folks thought.

Not at all. We went in March, had zero problems with FP+, it worked very well for us. If I had one complaint was that the APP wasn't super fast... but oh well...

If I were to change anything it would be that you can only make FP+ for the day you are there. But it's not the end of the world. We had a lot of cases of "Oh hey, let's see if there are FPs available for this... yep... let's go"

 

[microscopes]

Not at all. We went in March, had zero problems with FP+, it worked very well for us. If I had one complaint was that the APP wasn't super fast... but oh well...

If I were to change anything it would be that you can only make FP+ for the day you are there. But it's not the end of the world. We had a lot of cases of "Oh hey, let's see if there are FPs available for this... yep... let's go"

THIS ^

Times a thousand million.

When fastpass first came out, you had to walk up to the ride, insert your card, and receive your paper fast pass.

They need to either go back to that OR make it so you can't add a fastpass until the day youre going to that park.

 

[DebbieB]

No - love FP+. Love being able to pick any time of the day, not being restricted to the return time clock of a specific ride.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I dunno, it would keep the fuss to a minimum, but then I'd never get to ride Toy Story Mania again.

 

[JosieMouse]

If Disney did way with FP I might cancel my trip. Don't want to wait over an hour for headliners.

 

[mitchwebb]

No, love FP+. Would never have gone week after Christmas thru NYE without it.

 

[jcjen519]

I remember waiting in lines well over an hour to ride the big rides before fastpass came along. no way would i want to return to that.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

Not at all. We went in March, had zero problems with FP+, it worked very well for us. If I had one complaint was that the APP wasn't super fast... but oh well...

If I were to change anything it would be that you can only make FP+ for the day you are there. But it's not the end of the world. We had a lot of cases of "Oh hey, let's see if there are FPs available for this... yep... let's go"

THIS ^

Times a thousand million.

When fastpass first came out, you had to walk up to the ride, insert your card, and receive your paper fast pass.

They need to either go back to that OR make it so you can't add a fastpass until the day youre going to that park.

Completely agree! Personally, my ideal FP+ situation would be that you can't make FP+ reservations until that day. I think being able to make them from your phone is great, but you need to be able to book that 4th fast pass from your phone rather than going to a kiosk. So, how I would fix it would be to have it so you cannot book a single fast pass until an hour prior to park opening. You can have a maximum of 3 fast passes out at a time. As soon as the window for your first fast pass opens, regardless of whether or not you have used it, you can select another fast pass (like how it worked with the old system, but electronically by phone). This way, you can be in the fast pass line for Space Mountain and obtain a fast pass for Splash. I think that sounds great.


Now, since that wasn't really the question, I'm going to go against the grain here and say I do think I would rather have no fast passes rather than the current system, but that is based on my experience from January. I haven't been since they tweaked it to where you can now add in new fast passes throughout the day. It might be better now. In January, FP+ was making it so rides like Imagination had a 20 minute wait. 20 minutes for Imagination during the last week in January is ridiculous.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

The parks (or park, if you mean pre-Epcot) were a lot less crowded in those days, and a lot cheaper too. As I said the last time this came up, I would love to visit 80's or 90's WDW again. I'd even pay 2014 prices to do it.

I first went for Christmas 1989, if you saw the photos you would be shocked by how quiet it was. I loved WDW, but, I swore never to go back for Christmas as it felt dead and lacking in atmosphere. Times change. A simple answer would be no, FP+ is needed and FP+ is a much fairer system, especially for the most popular rides, long may it reign.

 

[microscopes]

I remember waiting in lines well over an hour to ride the big rides before fastpass came along. no way would i want to return to that.

You still do that...