Offsite Guests - How's it working out for you?

[IWantMyMagicBand]

We're staying offsite in October. Originally we were staying onsite so I was quite happy with the booking 60 days out obviously. Then we switched to offsite and I relaxed a bit as I thought I don't need to plan now. Now that FP+ has opened up to offsite I am panicking again as I have heard that when offsiters go to book 30 days out there is nothing left as onsiters have booked it all. This is, presumably, going to mean more people in the FP queue, increasing standby lines for those unable to get an AFP+? Or does the FP+ allocation for each attraction stay constant and the distribution is altered (e.g 60%onsite, 40%offsite)?
I have 3 kids who all fight, we are "training" them to queue at UK themeparks but we don't usually queue here as I qualify for a Ride Access Pass and I'm not sure I would qualify at WDW.
So.... the question is: have offsiters managed to secure their choice of attraction with little trouble?

 

[4Him123]

We are staying offsite in a couple weeks. We didn't have any trouble getting what we want near the times we wanted. We are doing all rides though, no princess or character meets. We got all the headliners on multiple days and each park. I even changed one last week and got what I wanted. So no troubles. Now we haven't gone yet to see how it is actually going to be using the FP+ system, but so far, it is fine.

 

[Rob562]

We're staying offsite in October. Originally we were staying onsite so I was quite happy with the booking 60 days out obviously. Then we switched to offsite and I relaxed a bit as I thought I don't need to plan now. Now that FP+ has opened up to offsite I am panicking again as I have heard that when offsiters go to book 30 days out there is nothing left as onsiters have booked it all. This is, presumably, going to mean more people in the FP queue, increasing standby lines for those unable to get an AFP+? Or does the FP+ allocation for each attraction stay constant and the distribution is altered (e.g 60%onsite, 40%offsite)?
I have 3 kids who all fight, we are "training" them to queue at UK themeparks but we don't usually queue here as I qualify for a Ride Access Pass and I'm not sure I would qualify at WDW.
So.... the question is: have offsiters managed to secure their choice of attraction with little trouble?

You definitely don't need to panic. First off, for the most part the FP queues won't be any more full than they were under the old system. They just changed how you get the FP. In fact, there was a thread a little while back that showed that Standby times at a large percentage of attractions either stayed the same or went down with the introduction of FP+. (The main exceptions to that were attractions like Pirates and Haunted Mansion that probably don't need FP+ in the first place)

Also, the FP+ choices aren't even coming close to filling up before non-resort Guests get to their 30 days. The only exception I've heard are things like parades and the Anna & Elsa M&G.

So to put your mind at ease, I just went on the MDE site to try and make FP+ for *today*, a very very busy time in the parks. (All parks except Epcot opened at 8am, two parks had morning EMH, MK is oen until 1am tonight)
The only things that do not have any availability right now (8:30am Eastern time) are Anna & Elsa, both parades in the MK, Soarin' and Test Track. Yeah, those Soarin and TT choices are a bit harsh that they're gone before the park even opens for the day, but hey, it's really busy. (They still have times available for tomorrow, so they probably sold out of FP+ this morning or yesterday)

-Rob

 

[Gabe1]

We just completed a trip that was booked under 30 days in advance. We got everything that we wanted in the time frame we wanted. I think being that lucky will depend on if you are attending during any events or holidays in October, if not you should be in very good shape. We moved a couple FP+ around on our phone and that worked too. We could not move a Thunder Mountain FP+ on April 10th, it had been offline for a quick refurb the previous 3 days. Weeks like this past week I'm sure are not as flexible or the MK the day after an all day rain. We ran into this problem one day. The MK was so crowded because there was a big storm the day before. We did our FP+s and go the heck out.

We also opened the parks every day. Staying offsight I'd recommend you plan your days around which park does not have EMHs as queues will have already built in the parks that are hosting EMHs. By opening the parks we were able to walk onto Soarin one morning, Buzz, Splash, HM and Pirares. We tried at Toy during EMH but by the time we got through the the touch to enter (slow at opening) Toy had a 60 minute wait. An hour later at 9am, 30 minutes so that one backfired for us. Toy continued to be a thorn in Standby wait times, that attraction isn't balanced yet with FP+ to Standby ratio and neither is Splash. We pulled 3 FP+s for Splash during our trip and we were happy we did. The other FP+ I would highly recommend or a dinner package is for Fantasmic. Only a small sliver of Fantasmic is for Standby which I think is very wrong. It was full before FP+ or Diners were coming in and the standing room only deck had a private party roped off on that deck. Glad we pulled a FP+ for it. We would have pulled more FP+s for Toy but frankly we didn't need them for most attractions in the Studios and didn't want to commit FP+s to the Studios more than a day.

 

[fireman17]

We too stayed off site and had no problems using FP. Matter of fact we were able to start making choices a week before we left and had all our selections made and glad we did as the crowds grew bigger during the week. Our last day was Wednesday and MK was packed we got on everything we wanted and did other attractions as well. Don't panic my wife did early on reading about FP but it all worked out for us.

 

[sjhym333]

Getting FP's has not really been a problem even up till the day you arrive (the exception is some of the character greets and it understandably gets tougher as the day goes along). I just tried to grab FP's for EPCOT today (busy Easter weekend) and everything was available.