WOW, FP+ is worse than I even imagined

[rtravels]

Preach! Amen! I concur. People are getting crazy over this FP+ and it just isn't that serious.

 

[Littlekir]

We had 3 weeks out there this Summer and we loved the new system. We had our doubts beforehand, wondering how we could possibly know what we would be wanting to do in week 3 when we were 60 days from week 1! However, we went with it, made sure we scheduled in 7DMT and A&E, and it really worked for us. We swapped things around when necessary and when we got to the park we even managed to transfer fast pass experiences from one band to another thanks to a lady in the my magic centre after we had made a mistake when reserving times.
We liked that we knew what times we were to go on some rides, rather than running across the park in 100 degrees to obtain a fast pass for a random time that we might not even use in the end or was miles away from where we were at a certain point. We waited in stand by lines that were much shorter for rides we knew we weren't fast passing and had no problems booking fourth and fifth ones, often for splash, thunder, soarin etc. It made our holiday better.

 

[Luckybee]

format issues-delete

 

[Luckybee]

I'm confused--in 7 days, you aren't going to be able to do the things you want to do in Disney World? I'm not being sarcastic here--how is that possible?

Oh we could ...if we were willing to spend 3x as much time as we've had to in the past in standby lines. Im not prepared to do that. So I've sat down with touring plans and prepared a shorter day in almost each and every case as we would have in the past.

At Epcot we're wont get to TT
Our 1st MK day has us arriving at 7:00pm (its a emh night) and doing 7 rides, the parade and dinner at CRT before leaving at midnight. The potential wait times are far less later at night for standby for the rides we don't have fp for
Our 2nd MK day we're at the park from 3 to 9. with a similar amount of rides.
In both cases we're choosing to spend less time in the parks because I refuse to deal with long standby lines.
Its ok though...this is a personal choice for us...and we have the time to go back if we so desire. That said I would never now from a personal perspective go for only a short trip as we have before ie : flying in for a weekend...because it wouldn't be worth it if we could only do maybe 4-6 things in a day.
Again though this is a personal decision. In some ways I've come around to the idea of booking in advance, although my dh absolutely hates it still. (the planner part of me is ok with it . But to me this just seems like a half way measure in that part of day is planned while the other part isn't and so to work around the planned part becomes difficult at best . For example ...lets say I have a FP booked for PP, then we're planning to do small world SB (since it has one of the shorter SB lines....still really funny to me...SM with a line....), but lets say the line is longer than we expect, and our next SB ride has the same problem. But our FP window is now coming up for our next ride....Im sure as heck not going to count on changing it...I know some have but I just spent 3 hrs juggling fp's for our 2 changed days and couldn't even get Splash mountain at the time I wanted and we're 3 weeks away(ive now left that one out too ).
And don't get me started on tiering. We wont do TT at Epcot, We're now only using 1 FP on our HS day and 2 ea day on our 2 Epcot days.

 

[think-like-tink]

I have no wise words to offer. I just hope that OP has a good time.

 

[kbelle8995]

I have to say that I have used FP+ in the parks and absolutely DISLIKED it.

Thank you end of story and I won't do that again.

 

[leebee]

...there is one constant. The MDE system for booking these "golden tickets" is cumbersome, slow and counter-intuitive. The tips and tricks posted on this board have been invaluable for me and others who did not have to waste time with the system. OP, I understand your frustration. … But the system is kind of odd anyway.

This system is the most unfriendly, counter-intuitive system I've ever seen. The only good thing I can say is thanks to ALL of you who have encountered the glitches and frustrations of using MDE/FP+ and have posted your experiences. I have FP+s booked for our trip over Columbus Day weekend (only 36 sleeps left!!) and am going to try to change 1 ToT FP+ to a RnRC FP+. Having read of all the issues regarding glitches and frustration, I posted here to ask exactly HOW to do this before dumping our entire vacation due to a cumbersome, unfriendly system. To make ONE little change, there are 13 steps, all prefaced with the warning: Don't delete or "Cancel" FP because you will lose your FP and not be able to get it back without cancelling your other 2 FPs and starting over. Hmmm, but I want to cancel one FP+ and add another! I would have been totally LOST without this help!! This has to be one of the most expensive, worst systems I've ever encountered!!

Special thanks to Starhart81 for the step-by-step directions!

 

[NikkiV72]

We used FP+ in August for 8 days. There were nine of us. We were onsite however so had 60 days. I had no problem getting FP+ that we wanted. We used our FP on our trip without issue. And anything else we wanted to ride, we did with no waits over 20 minutes. From online crowd calendars, it looks to be similar in October so hopefully you have no issues. In the old system, we only pulled FP for certain rides like EE or RNRC and never had issues with the rest of the rides. I actually liked using MM+.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Oh we could ...if we were willing to spend 3x as much time as we've had to in the past in standby lines. Im not prepared to do that. So I've sat down with touring plans and prepared a shorter day in almost each and every case as we would have in the past.

At Epcot we're wont get to TT
Our 1st MK day has us arriving at 7:00pm (its a emh night) and doing 7 rides, the parade and dinner at CRT before leaving at midnight. The potential wait times are far less later at night for standby for the rides we don't have fp for
Our 2nd MK day we're at the park from 3 to 9. with a similar amount of rides.
In both cases we're choosing to spend less time in the parks because I refuse to deal with long standby lines.
Its ok though...this is a personal choice for us...and we have the time to go back if we so desire. That said I would never now from a personal perspective go for only a short trip as we have before ie : flying in for a weekend...because it wouldn't be worth it if we could only do maybe 4-6 things in a day.

While it's a bummer that you are spending less hours in the parks than you would have liked to otherwise, I think that is a feature of FP+ from Disney's POV, not a flaw. That's exactly what they want. Even with five-six hours of park time, they know they will probably get the same amount of money from you, one meal perhaps, etc.

I agree about the shorter trips, really calls those into question especially when there is airfare involved.

 

[crostorfer]

While it's a bummer that you are spending less hours in the parks than you would have liked to otherwise, I think that is a feature of FP+ from Disney's POV, not a flaw. That's exactly what they want. Even with five-six hours of park time, they know they will probably get the same amount of money from you, one meal perhaps, etc.

Once again, we are in agreement.

On Spring Break we were actually bored during the day. Like, really bored. The lines were so long, we could only ride our 3 FP rides unless we wanted to wait 45 minutes in line, which my husband absolutely refused to do. We ended up playing right into their hands. 3 rides, a snack, and then we left.

After Wishes was a different story, my daughter and I walked on everything once the park started to clear out. From late morning until then, however, it was a lot of, "so, what do you want to do?" "Well, I'd like to ride _____, but the wait time says 80 minutes." *Scowl*

 

[rastuso]

Once again, we are in agreement.

On Spring Break we were actually bored during the day. Like, really bored. The lines were so long, we could only ride our 3 FP rides unless we wanted to wait 45 minutes in line, which my husband absolutely refused to do. We ended up playing right into their hands. 3 rides, a snack, and then we left.

After Wishes was a different story, my daughter and I walked on everything once the park started to clear out. From late morning until then, however, it was a lot of, "so, what do you want to do?" "Well, I'd like to ride _____, but the wait time says 80 minutes." *Scowl*

Yet there is an endless stream of people claiming they were at WDW this Summer, and even holiday weekends, and rode limitless rides, and got 8 FPs.

And then of course it's the "stay positive" folks. Like telling your husband to stay positive when he was looking at an 80 minute SB sign would have REALLY helped.

At this point I wonder if FP+ has already scared off a lot of folks, or the Wizard has drawn them away. I mean, 20 minute waits at the worst in early August? Really?

Or, has the whole FP+ crap gotten so many people into this mode of going to the park to use their 3 FPs, and then pay for an expensive meal, then leave. Perhaps there are enough people falling into that trap, but again, I don't see it, because if there were 20 minute waits in early August, I doubt folks would go to their room early.

There seems to be a lot of anecdotal posts in this thread that really don't seem to jive with reality. Unless the multiple rides folks are mentioning were on the teacups.

I would love to cut through the biased examples and get a good idea of what is really happening. Disney has complete control over everything. They can change how many and when they release FP+s, and really impact people. Heck, maybe they are limiting early FP+ release, and holding back more. Or maybe they are giving out fewer FP+ to begin with. Or maybe attendance is flat, but average length of visit is dropping.

Whatever is happening, the MDE site is a horrible, user unfriendly site. Once you get your first FP+s chosen, changing them is insanely hard, since you can only change the ride OR the time. There may be tons of new Dwarf Hill FP+ this morning, but the odds of me finding them are fairly nil, since I can only look at 3 5 minute periods out of 42 or so that would work for me.

And I can't restart and only choose one FP, and save the other 2 for late releases. I have a feeling a LOT of people don't realize they are spending more time on MDE than they are saving at the parks.

regardless, I am now stuck in MDE, since I have Mansion FPs that I don't want to lose, but I'll never know what else is out there, except for the 3 time slots I have for other FPs, without spending tons of time on MDE, and risking screwing things up more.

But I'll stay positive, and I'm sure everything will work fine. Well, I'm positive my days at Universal will be filled with much better rides, so there's that. And I'm positive I won't be spending much time at WDW for the next 3-5 years.

-Jason

 

[amg35]

Yet there is an endless stream of people claiming they were at WDW this Summer, and even holiday weekends, and rode limitless rides, and got 8 FPs.

And then of course it's the "stay positive" folks. Like telling your husband to stay positive when he was looking at an 80 minute SB sign would have REALLY helped.

At this point I wonder if FP+ has already scared off a lot of folks, or the Wizard has drawn them away. I mean, 20 minute waits at the worst in early August? Really?

Or, has the whole FP+ crap gotten so many people into this mode of going to the park to use their 3 FPs, and then pay for an expensive meal, then leave. Perhaps there are enough people falling into that trap, but again, I don't see it, because if there were 20 minute waits in early August, I doubt folks would go to their room early.

There seems to be a lot of anecdotal posts in this thread that really don't seem to jive with reality. Unless the multiple rides folks are mentioning were on the teacups.

I would love to cut through the biased examples and get a good idea of what is really happening. Disney has complete control over everything. They can change how many and when they release FP+s, and really impact people. Heck, maybe they are limiting early FP+ release, and holding back more. Or maybe they are giving out fewer FP+ to begin with. Or maybe attendance is flat, but average length of visit is dropping.

Whatever is happening, the MDE site is a horrible, user unfriendly site. Once you get your first FP+s chosen, changing them is insanely hard, since you can only change the ride OR the time. There may be tons of new Dwarf Hill FP+ this morning, but the odds of me finding them are fairly nil, since I can only look at 3 5 minute periods out of 42 or so that would work for me.

And I can't restart and only choose one FP, and save the other 2 for late releases. I have a feeling a LOT of people don't realize they are spending more time on MDE than they are saving at the parks.

regardless, I am now stuck in MDE, since I have Mansion FPs that I don't want to lose, but I'll never know what else is out there, except for the 3 time slots I have for other FPs, without spending tons of time on MDE, and risking screwing things up more.

But I'll stay positive, and I'm sure everything will work fine. Well, I'm positive my days at Universal will be filled with much better rides, so there's that. And I'm positive I won't be spending much time at WDW for the next 3-5 years.

-Jason

Stay positive and for you!

 

[3Gsandme]

Yet there is an endless stream of people claiming they were at WDW this Summer, and even holiday weekends, and rode limitless rides, and got 8 FPs. And then of course it's the "stay positive" folks. Like telling your husband to stay positive when he was looking at an 80 minute SB sign would have REALLY helped. At this point I wonder if FP+ has already scared off a lot of folks, or the Wizard has drawn them away. I mean, 20 minute waits at the worst in early August? Really? Or, has the whole FP+ crap gotten so many people into this mode of going to the park to use their 3 FPs, and then pay for an expensive meal, then leave. Perhaps there are enough people falling into that trap, but again, I don't see it, because if there were 20 minute waits in early August, I doubt folks would go to their room early. There seems to be a lot of anecdotal posts in this thread that really don't seem to jive with reality. Unless the multiple rides folks are mentioning were on the teacups. I would love to cut through the biased examples and get a good idea of what is really happening. Disney has complete control over everything. They can change how many and when they release FP+s, and really impact people. Heck, maybe they are limiting early FP+ release, and holding back more. Or maybe they are giving out fewer FP+ to begin with. Or maybe attendance is flat, but average length of visit is dropping. Whatever is happening, the MDE site is a horrible, user unfriendly site. Once you get your first FP+s chosen, changing them is insanely hard, since you can only change the ride OR the time. There may be tons of new Dwarf Hill FP+ this morning, but the odds of me finding them are fairly nil, since I can only look at 3 5 minute periods out of 42 or so that would work for me. And I can't restart and only choose one FP, and save the other 2 for late releases. I have a feeling a LOT of people don't realize they are spending more time on MDE than they are saving at the parks. regardless, I am now stuck in MDE, since I have Mansion FPs that I don't want to lose, but I'll never know what else is out there, except for the 3 time slots I have for other FPs, without spending tons of time on MDE, and risking screwing things up more. But I'll stay positive, and I'm sure everything will work fine. Well, I'm positive my days at Universal will be filled with much better rides, so there's that. And I'm positive I won't be spending much time at WDW for the next 3-5 years. -Jason

Both experiences can be true. Two families can visit at the same time and have two vastly different experiences. Perception plays into it. I've said numerous times that I grew up in Cedar Point country. It is not unusual, on a busy day, to have 15-20 minute waits for minor rides. In fact, my kids have waited that long to ride the Whip in a small amusement park near our home. So, a 20 minute wait for a second or third tier ride at Disney still works out for us as we don't perceive that was an unreasonable wait.

We don't visit frequently, so we still enjoy the tiki room and the carrousel of progress. They rarely have any waits to speak of and we're still adding an attraction to our "done it" list without waiting in a long line.


Lastly, traffic flow through the park varies greatly and if you're in a bad traffic pattern you're going to wait longer. That's why I like MDE.

 

[wisblue]

No, it actually shows windows for all day, which surprised me. I have a FP+ for a time I won't even be allowed in the park for. Wonder if I could demand entry!

To be clear, I knew this was coming. I was very active in the anti-FP threads early this year.

The folks that say "it worked great for us" are clearly either
1. staying on site and nabbed FP+ at 60+ days out
2. not big riders, and more than happy with 3 rides a day
3. lucky with MDE
4. going when FP has historically been unnecessary


-Jason

Wrong.

We had a recent visit (first week in August so not the slowest time of year) in which we used our daughters CM tickets for entry and couldn't make FP+ reservations in advance. We rode MANY more than 3 rides per day by arriving early and getting FPs at the park same day.

Sure, we didn't have the same selection of FPs as we would if we booked them 30 or 60 days out, but I can accept that when I am getting free admission. Even then, we went to see the Frozen fireworks one evening, and at 7 PM we were able to get FPs for Star Tours and TOT to use before we set up for the fireworks.

At MK we had a wide selection of FPs available (both time and attractions) when we went to a kiosk at about 9:30, except for the mine train, which we did right at opening. It was great to be able to schedule 3 things around our lunch reservation and our plans to see the FOF parade, something you couldn't do with paper FPs.

Sorry if FP+ has ruined your Disney vacations. But don't assume that everyone shares your narrow view of its benefits.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Whatever is happening, the MDE site is a horrible, user unfriendly site. Once you get your first FP+s chosen, changing them is insanely hard, since you can only change the ride OR the time. There may be tons of new Dwarf Hill FP+ this morning, but the odds of me finding them are fairly nil, since I can only look at 3 5 minute periods out of 42 or so that would work for me.

Can't you change both now at the same time with the new-ish screens? I know before you could really only change experience or time without going back in multiple times. But now you can pick change experience and it gives you the available times to pick from.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Both experiences can be true. Two families can visit at the same time and have two vastly different experiences. Perception plays into it. I've said numerous times that I grew up in Cedar Point country. It is not unusual, on a busy day, to have 15-20 minute waits for minor rides. In fact, my kids have waited that long to ride the Whip in a small amusement park near our home. So, a 20 minute wait for a second or third tier ride at Disney still works out for us as we don't perceive that was an unreasonable wait.

We don't visit frequently, so we still enjoy the tiki room and the carrousel of progress. They rarely have any waits to speak of and we're still adding an attraction to our "done it" list without waiting in a long line.

Lastly, traffic flow through the park varies greatly and if you're in a bad traffic pattern you're going to wait longer. That's why I like MDE.

This is a good point. Perception varies from group to group.

On our last trip, we went at RD, then used our FPs, then did the stuff like CoP and Tiki room and watched the parade etc. It's still a huge drop in what we used to be able to do, but we see it as a fun day.

The biggest decline for us is not being to do as many multiple rides. That's where Universal won out big time. I loved being able to say yes when my kids want to do something again (and again and again).

We've also lost complete interest in at least two parks since FP+, Epcot and DHS. We went to DHS this time for the Frozen stuff, but we wouldn't have otherwise. MK is still worth it to us, as is AK just because the theming is amazing.

 

[Dan Murphy]

.....ARE YOU FRICKIN' KIDDING ME!....

No, just regular kidding you.

We like fastpass.

 

[Starhart81]

This system is the most unfriendly, counter-intuitive system I've ever seen. The only good thing I can say is thanks to ALL of you who have encountered the glitches and frustrations of using MDE/FP+ and have posted your experiences. I have FP+s booked for our trip over Columbus Day weekend (only 36 sleeps left!!) and am going to try to change 1 ToT FP+ to a RnRC FP+. Having read of all the issues regarding glitches and frustration, I posted here to ask exactly HOW to do this before dumping our entire vacation due to a cumbersome, unfriendly system. To make ONE little change, there are 13 steps, all prefaced with the warning: Don't delete or "Cancel" FP because you will lose your FP and not be able to get it back without cancelling your other 2 FPs and starting over. Hmmm, but I want to cancel one FP+ and add another! I would have been totally LOST without this help!! This has to be one of the most expensive, worst systems I've ever encountered!!

Special thanks to Starhart81 for the step-by-step directions!

Glad I saw this and glad I helped. To be honest, I like FP+, but I'm kinda nuts. I can definitely see how frustrating FP+ can be, but I like a challenge. I also love making plans, and I love Disney World. I enjoy having every hour of every day planned out, but I know some of you don't. I am sorry that some of you have had bad experiences, but I still feel Disney World is the happiest place on earth. If you have questions, there are a lot of people on here willing to help, and I will also help whenever I can.

 

[justussix]

Used FP+ in late August and found it fine. Once our first 3 were done, I actually liked the kiosk system because I didn't have to walk all the way over to a FP ride to pull an additional pass. I could see what was available in the entire park at the closest kiosk and pick the one we wanted to do. It was just my wife and I and our five kids 12 and under. So we had a pretty big group that generally stayed together and didn't move terribly fast through the parks.

Seems to be the sleep in crowd suffers the most. Like a previous poster, we tend to get there early and ride quite a bit before lunch at 11:00 or so. Then we use our FP+ for headliners. Then we get out of the heat for the afternoon in the CoP, HoP, or other mild indoor attractions mixing in the parade, dinner, then a few rides after dinner prior to the MSEP and Wishes.

Walking through the parks in the afternoon, I can see the lines are longer and would not be fun. Of course the heat was pretty crazy when we were there. Being able to book 60 days out only seemed to be a significant advantage for a couple of things. Of course, if it's your daughters dream to meet Anna and Elsa - that's a pretty big deal.

 

[Planogirl]

I agree with those who said that like or dislike is a matter of perspective. I don't like it because I don't like being scheduled to this degree but I can understand that many others don't mind this. A lot depends on what you want to ride too. If I want to ride Star Tours three times in a row then I hope to be able to do so. Luckily the lines seem reasonable but what about during a busy time when we would go? Time will tell.