You can ride TT or Soarin but not both...agghh!

[wisblue]

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

All along, the FP+ people have been saying how great it was to have this system because you didn't have to rope drop. You could sleep in and still ride all your rides.

Now, they're all saying that everyone SHOULD rope drop to ride all their rides.

I really don't get it.

You may not be taking crazy pills, but if you are lumping all of the "FP+ people" into one group by saying that have said that they will now sleep in, you haven't been paying attention.

Actually, I think this thread is a perfect illustration of why I have been saying that I don't think the rope drop crowd will grow much, if at all, because of FP+. The OP recognizes that, if they want to ride both Soarin and TT without a significant line, they have to get to the park at opening. Yet, they still just can't or won't do it. I don't think they are the only ones who feel this way about getting up early.

Then you throw in the many visitors who are oblivious to any strategy, the people who won't get up early no matter how many times they hear it, and the people who will plan to get up early but take longer than they think to actually get the troop up and out, and the number at rope drop won't grow that much. A lot of people would rather wait in a line of an hour or more in the middle of the day than haul themselves out of bed at 7 AM or earlier.

Getting to the park early has always been tip number 1, and most people still won't do it. I don't see that changing dramatically because of getting on one ride. If anything, there may be more people who have gotten to rope drop in the past who will be willing to forego one of the two top rides in exchange for sleeping in.

Reasonable minds can differ on this, and we'll see how it plays out over the next couple of years (if I'm still around that long).

 

[suemom2kay]

Well, OP it is all about choices. You can get your family up, do rope drop and ride Soarin' or TT standby and FP+ the other.... You can present this to your kids and see if they will be more motivated to get out of bed that day.

Or...you can sleep in, FP+ Soarin' and ride TT Standby later in the day. You mentioned in your post that you go April/May, is that the week between April/May? Cause Easter is late this year so I suspect April will be busy.

You can choose to skip IllumiNations an ride Soarin' during IllumiNations.

Easywdw predicts crowds the last week of April into may to be 3-6 depending on the day; projected waits for TT are: 40 Minutes from 3:00-7:00, 30 mins 7-8, 20 mins 8-close.

Now if you're going in those weeks preceding Easter (4/20) are NOT going to be low crowd times IMHO.

Not really a matter of can or can't, its a matter of what you choose to do.

I don't like FP+'s restrictions either, but we will adjust and try to focus on our each other and having fun.

 

[wisblue]

The $100 per ticket is clearly overstated unless someone is visiting on 1 day tickets. That price per day goes down pretty quickly for guests with stays of at least 4 or 5 days.

That said, it isn't cheap no matter how you slice it, and everyone has to decide how to spend their money and what they expect to get for it. Just the amount I save every year by not paying $8 per glass of beer at every sporting event I go to is enough to pay for a DVC AP.

 

[morethananyonex]

The $100 per ticket is clearly overstated unless someone is visiting on 1 day tickets. That price per day goes down pretty quickly for guests with stays of at least 4 or 5 days. That said, it isn't cheap no matter how you slice it, and everyone has to decide how to spend their money and what they expect to get for it. Just the amount I save every year by not paying $8 per glass of beer at every sporting event I go to is enough to pay for a DVC AP.

That's a lot of beer.

 

[mom2rtk]

The $100 per ticket is clearly overstated unless someone is visiting on 1 day tickets. That price per day goes down pretty quickly for guests with stays of at least 4 or 5 days.

That said, it isn't cheap no matter how you slice it, and everyone has to decide how to spend their money and what they expect to get for it. Just the amount I save every year by not paying $8 per glass of beer at every sporting event I go to is enough to pay for a DVC AP.

Plenty of people go for just one day. We did last summer. We also did that on our first trip to Disney. Lots of folks go to Orlando and spend a day or two at Disney, a day or two at Universal, a day at Sea World, etc.

Remember, we here on the DIS are outliers.

 

[wisblue]

That's a lot of beer.

More like a beer or two at a lot of sporting events. We love our local teams, even though they don't always love us back.

Our local MLB team lets you carry in small plastic bottles of soda or water in soft cooler bags, and we take full advantage of that. If I want a beer I can wait until I get home.

 

[Kellykins1218]

Until they digitally remaster the film, or better yet, create a whole new movie, I don't think Soarin' is worth it.

We do. Our family would ride it all day long if we could!

 

[wisblue]

Plenty of people go for just one day. We did last summer. We also did that on our first trip to Disney. Lots of folks go to Orlando and spend a day or two at Disney, a day or two at Universal, a day at Sea World, etc.

Remember, we here on the DIS are outliers.

I also remember that people on the DIS are outliers when we consider how many people have park strategies and how many are willing to get to a park at opening to get in a couple of extra rides.

 

[Kellykins1218]

I just want to jump in to say how annoying it is to me that the pro "rope drop" people just assume that everyone can do this. It has been my experience that when on vacation kids generally stay up a little later thus want to sleep in a little later. To not let them do this makes for sleep deprived children who are not going to enjoy their experience as much. I would never do this to my kids for the purpose of sticking to a "touring plan" that requires everyone up and out super early. I also wonder how pleasant this truly is for the young children of rope droppers. Just sayin'

Our kids are not early risers at home but this isn't home, it's Disney World. We get up at the crack of dawn and they LOVE it. We see Main Street when it's almost empty, rarely have any wait for any ride, and we either go back for a nap or leave the parks around dinner time so they can get to bed early (which is easy since they're getting up early) So, to answer your question, for some young children of rope droppers, it's extremely pleasant. We do Illuminations and fireworks towards the end of the trip if they are interested but usually they would rather do mornings. Then when we get home, we're back to dragging them out of bed in the mornings

 

[mom2rtk]

I just want to jump in to say how annoying it is to me that the pro "rope drop" people just assume that everyone can do this. It has been my experience that when on vacation kids generally stay up a little later thus want to sleep in a little later. To not let them do this makes for sleep deprived children who are not going to enjoy their experience as much. I would never do this to my kids for the purpose of sticking to a "touring plan" that requires everyone up and out super early. I also wonder how pleasant this truly is for the young children of rope droppers. Just sayin'

I understand that everyone has an internal clock. And messing with one's internal clock on vacation can sure suck some of the fun out of the experience. Mine is an early clock. I'm up whether I set an alarm or not. So rope drop has been great for me. But on the flip side, I find it very hard to stay in the parks until close and enjoy those lower ride lines and night entertainment.

But I do get very annoyed when people think the world should somehow accommodate them because they choose to sleep late (as in taking away some of what early risers enjoyed with legacy FP and "saving" capacity for the late risers.)

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

I'm another one who thinks the tiering stinks !!! We used FP+ in December during Christmas week and it worked great plus we were still able to pull FP- so we were able to get the FP- for the ride we couldn't get the + for. I'm so anxious knowing that come may when we go I'm going to have to stand in line for an hour or more for 2 of these rides. Thankfully we will be going to each park multiple times but still upsets me that I won't be riding these rides as much I would like on the same day with out having to wait in line! . FP really spoiled us!

 

[xipotec]

We were lucky enough to be there the week before the tier system started, but we got a dose of what it would be like toward the end, when viewing current FP options.

Personally it was MUCH better before the tiers. I am not sure the value of the system as we experienced no problems at all with wait time in FP que.

The worst set up for tiers is EP. WDW needs a FP option for both Soarin and TT. It only makes sense to do this.

Every other ride is usually a very very low wait time with perhaps the exception of Maelstrom.

I think FP+ made our trip so much better. I would schedule 6 FP if possible. We were able to do so much more, even leisure shop and character visit, ride every ride more than once and have 2-3 sit down ADRs per day.

Granted it was November , but even with a larger crowd things would have been much easier.

 

[morethananyonex]

We were lucky enough to be there the week before the tier system started, but we got a dose of what it would be like toward the end, when viewing current FP options.

Personally it was MUCH better before the tiers. I am not sure the value of the system as we experienced no problems at all with wait time in FP que.

The worst set up for tiers is EP. WDW needs a FP option for both Soarin and TT. It only makes sense to do this.

Every other ride is usually a very very low wait time with perhaps the exception of Maelstrom.

I think FP+ made our trip so much better. I would schedule 6 FP if possible. We were able to do so much more, even leisure shop and character visit, ride every ride more than once and have 2-3 sit down ADRs per day.

Granted it was November , but even with a larger crowd things would have been much easier.

Well that's the problem with Epcot, Epcot can't have a FP+ option to get both Soarin' and TT because as you said every other ride usually has a very very low wait in comparison, even the other tier 1 options. The vast majority of people would be choosing both of them, not leaving enough to go around if their goal is to have people locked into their schedules.

I agree that Epcot is the most problematic. They are virtually offering 1 FP+, as the others are almost always useless unless you are a Mission Space fan, but even that doesn't usually draw huge crowds anyways.

FP+ would be pretty awesome if they gave you 6 per day, it would be pretty relaxing like you said. Unfortunately, there's just not enough spaces to go around to give everyone 6.

 

[DividedSky]

So when you go to a buffet, do you refuse to allow yourself or your children to take TWO chicken wings? Or *gasp* go back for seconds?

If two chicken wings are left, and both your kids love chicken wings, do you use a runner to make sure one of your kids gets both wings?

 

[mom2rtk]

If two chicken wings are left, and both your kids love chicken wings, do you use a runner to make sure one of your kids gets both wings?

Did you think runners actually "ran"? Perhaps pushing others out of their way?

If I was at the buffet and both kids loved wings, I would bring the last 2 back on my plate for them so that we didn't need 3 people standing up there taking up space.

 

[DividedSky]

Did you think runners actually "ran"? Perhaps pushing others out of their way?

I know for a fact some people run and shove and push. I experienced it first hand.

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

Our kids are not early risers at home but this isn't home, it's Disney World. We get up at the crack of dawn and they LOVE it. We see Main Street when it's almost empty, rarely have any wait for any ride, and we either go back for a nap or leave the parks around dinner time so they can get to bed early (which is easy since they're getting up early) So, to answer your question, for some young children of rope droppers, it's extremely pleasant. We do Illuminations and fireworks towards the end of the trip if they are interested but usually they would rather do mornings. Then when we get home, we're back to dragging them out of bed in the mornings

That's us - getting up for school and work is rough (getting my 13 year old out of bed each day is a job on its own!)...but we can all fly out of bed happy and ready to go bright and early at WDW.

 

[mom2rtk]

I know for a fact some people run and shove and push. I experienced it first hand.

I'm sorry you experienced that. It wasn't the norm and I never experienced it. The term "runner" as used here is typically giving all your cards to one person to retrieve the fastpasses. It allows the others to shop or use the restroom or slowly walk to the next attraction. And it also kept the crowds down at the FP machines.

 

[Lindabobinda]

Yes, our family feels the exact same way. We can only do rope drop once or twice during our 8 days trips to WDW. We like the evening entertainment, fireworks, etc, and don't get home until late sometimes. The kids get more and more tired as the week goes on. The parents need to take an hour in the morning to check email and follow up on work stuff here and there. Our arrivals get later and later.

If you can believe this, my brother-in-law actually looked into selling his DVC membership immediately after he heard about the tiered FP at EPCOT and HS. We have had great success using FP in the past - I guess that you could call us FP junkies. He really feels that our trips are now going to lose something significant. I can't say that he is wrong.

I am sure that it is no big deal for some, but it is for us.

 

[morethananyonex]

If two chicken wings are left, and both your kids love chicken wings, do you use a runner to make sure one of your kids gets both wings?

That makes no sense. Why would I give one of my own children both wings leaving the other with nothing?

I think the question you meant to ask to illustrate your "gotcha" point is would you send a runner to get the last two wings for your children, leaving other potential wing eaters without any. My answer? Yes, I absolutely would. If we saw there were 2 wings left and my children wanted them, why wouldn't I get up and get them? We all paid the same for the buffet, if people want the chicken wings they have the same opportunity as I do to get them. Neither set of children are more entitled to having wings than the other. You want them? Get up and get them.