Anyone else afraid new FP+ will push you out of rides?

[sbkline]

We are planning to go back next May after school is out, after skipping this year. Initially, I planned to stay on property, but even then, I thought that booking FP 60 days out was a little too even for me...and trust me, I have a reputation for being and obsessive about my trip planning. Now, for cost reasons, and family size, we are planning on staying off property. With all this talk about wristbands and booking FP 60 days out, and with them doing away with the FP kiosks, I fear that it may result in our trip next year being one in which we are unable to do most of the headliner attractions. I guess it's still better than not going at all and sitting at home in boring Illinois. But I am afraid that gone are the days of being able to do Soarin, Splash Mountain, Test Track, ToT, etc. For guests staying off property, or for those who don't feel like meticulously planning the minutest detail of their trip two months out, will this basically shut us out of most of the FP attractions?

 

[SAV]

The Stand-by lines are always there, so no it will not shut you out.

Get there at rope drop and get some of those headliners done without the long waits, then just wait later in the day.

 

[jlsHouston]

We are planning to go back next May after school is out, after skipping this year. Initially, I planned to stay on property, but even then, I thought that booking FP 60 days out was a little too even for me...and trust me, I have a reputation for being and obsessive about my trip planning. Now, for cost reasons, and family size, we are planning on staying off property. With all this talk about wristbands and booking FP 60 days out, and with them doing away with the FP kiosks, I fear that it may result in our trip next year being one in which we are unable to do most of the headliner attractions. I guess it's still better than not going at all and sitting at home in boring Illinois. But I am afraid that gone are the days of being able to do Soarin, Splash Mountain, Test Track, ToT, etc. For guests staying off property, or for those who don't feel like meticulously planning the minutest detail of their trip two months out, will this basically shut us out of most of the FP attractions?

I think what you are going to find is it will be tough to do the headliner or E ticket rides multiple times without at least one long stand by wait. Using legacy FP and timing we could ride those attractions 3 or more times and that is during busy crowd levels.
But if you are going in May maybe crowds won't be too bad and also by next year hopefully they will have FP available for use at more than one park in a day.

 

[Tom]

It would only shut you out of the major attractions if you're visiting during an extremely busy week or if you don't arrive at the parks at opening time.

 

[rob0519]

We are planning to go back next May after school is out, after skipping this year. Initially, I planned to stay on property, but even then, I thought that booking FP 60 days out was a little too even for me...and trust me, I have a reputation for being and obsessive about my trip planning. Now, for cost reasons, and family size, we are planning on staying off property. With all this talk about wristbands and booking FP 60 days out, and with them doing away with the FP kiosks, I fear that it may result in our trip next year being one in which we are unable to do most of the headliner attractions. I guess it's still better than not going at all and sitting at home in boring Illinois. But I am afraid that gone are the days of being able to do Soarin, Splash Mountain, Test Track, ToT, etc. For guests staying off property, or for those who don't feel like meticulously planning the minutest detail of their trip two months out, will this basically shut us out of most of the FP attractions?

How could you possibly call our wonderful state of Illinois boring? Anyway, we've not seen the new system yet and probably won't until 2015 as we're doing a cruise this year. So until I experience it in action, I won't say I'm worried about being shut out, but I'll say I'm concerned about how it will change the routine we've developed over the last 20 years. We're notorious park hoppers. We are in at least two parks every day. We time our trips during the times when MK has the latest closing times and normally end each night there. I only mention that because so many people are now advising getting to the parks early to do the "headliner" attractions. Because we're out late, we rarely get to a park early.

 

[Master Yoda]

It would only shut you out of the major attractions if you're visiting during an extremely busy week or if you don't arrive at the parks at opening time.

So kind of like the old fast pass.

 

[jlsHouston]

It would only shut you out of the major attractions if you're visiting during an extremely busy week or if you don't arrive at the parks at opening time.

Yes be sure to hit the parks before 11 am and get those FP selections done. I made the mistake of thinking FP+ was so much more flexible than legacy that I could change experiences and times after 2 and still get all the E ticket/headliner rides and that is not the case.
Timing is still a factor with FP+

 

[Tom]

So kind of like the old fast pass.

Pretty much, at least for day guests.

 

[jlsHouston]

Pretty much, at least for day guests.

Yep, I really felt bad for day guests because they have to hit the kiosks to even make initial selections. Then I felt bad for myself for deciding to change my mind about attractions and times at 3 and finding nothing worth having a FP for available for the rest of the night.
Almost every time I would want to change my time or experience while in the park the app wouldn't load on my phone. SO then here I was looking for the Kiosks and standing in another line.

 

[Tom]

Yes be sure to hit the parks before 11 am and get those FP selections done. I made the mistake of thinking FP+ was so much more flexible than legacy that I could change experiences and times after 2 and still get all the E ticket/headliner rides and that is not the case.
Timing is still a factor with FP+

It may be different if you're changing them vs selecting them for the first time. We had relatively good luck changing our FPs in the morning, when deciding to go to a park later, or switch to another one entirely for the day. We never tried TSMM, but we were successful on a few others.

 

[horizons82]

As has been said, it will be difficult to get FPs for the most popular attractions if you have to make your FPs same-day and do not arrive early enough.

While a few posts say this is no different than how the legacy FP system worked, I would slightly disagree. With legacy FP, guests had to physically go to each of the attractions to pick up the FP they wanted, which were often at different ends of the park. But now, with the few clicks of a mouse, people can not only pick out FPs in advance much more conveniently, but do all of the popular rides they want at once (except for tiers).

So while the situation for those off-site is similar to legacy FP, with FP+ you have FP spots being taken before the park opens and even those doing it in the park can do it all at once instead of physically needing to travel to each attraction. So between the advance FP arrangements and the fact you don't have to physically go to each ride, I think that does create a higher disadvantage for those arriving later than it used to, leaving many fewer FP spots than there might have been available under legacy FP for a longer time in the day. IMHO.

 

[rob0519]

I use a blackberry z10 phone. I called Disney and was told they will not be writing any apps for my operating system. I tried porting the android version, but could not get it to work. At least not yet. So I'll need to change phones or carry a tablet in the parks I guess.

 

[lilclerk]

I use a blackberry z10 phone. I called Disney and was told they will not be writing any apps for my operating system. I tried porting the android version, but could not get it to work. At least not yet. So I'll need to change phones or carry a tablet in the parks I guess.

I think you can also use the mobile version of the website to set up FP+.

 

[CheshireCat12]

If you do MK during the evening EMH when they are open until 2 AM, you will be able to ride to your hearts content. Shorter waits at late-night.

 

[rob0519]

That's exactly why we stay late of we can.

 

[horizons82]

Just for the heck of it I was checking out FP availability for DHS for this coming Monday the 24th.

Unless there is a technical issue or some kind of temporary problem, the FPs for TSMM are already completely gone. While FPs are available for all other attractions, it says 'stand-by only' for TSMM and it will not let you select an FP for that attraction (as of the time of my writing this).

Assuming this is because the FPs are already 'sold-out' in advance and not due to some technical glitch, this is exactly the kind of issue I have been expecting to and afraid would occur.

The question is, do they still hold some FPs for the same-day people at the park, or are all of the FPs completely gone once people take all that are available in advance?

I guess this will create a similar situation as those hoping to snag hard-to-get ADRs...people will be checking MDE the night before to see if something opens up last minute. If someone were to cancel their FP for an attraction that is already 'sold-out' of FPs, would a FP then become available again for someone else to select it?

 

[oldguy51]

I wonder what impact this will have at rope drop and EMH? Do we think that a lot more people will show up at these times due to the FP+ and that will eventually cause long waits for headline attractions even at these times?

 

[sjhym333]

Just for the heck of it I was checking out FP availability for DHS for this coming Monday the 24th.

Unless there is a technical issue or some kind of temporary problem, the FPs for TSMM are already completely gone. While FPs are available for all other attractions, it says 'stand-by only' for TSMM and it will not let you select an FP for that attraction (as of the time of my writing this).

Assuming this is because the FPs are already 'sold-out' in advance and not due to some technical glitch, this is exactly the kind of issue I have been expecting to and afraid would occur.

I also just checked and I also could not get Toy Story Mania for Monday but today, tomorrow and Tuesday are all still available. Wonder why Monday is not.

 

[cw1982]

How could you possibly call our wonderful state of Illinois boring? Anyway, we've not seen the new system yet and probably won't until 2015 as we're doing a cruise this year. So until I experience it in action, I won't say I'm worried about being shut out, but I'll say I'm concerned about how it will change the routine we've developed over the last 20 years. We're notorious park hoppers. We are in at least two parks every day. We time our trips during the times when MK has the latest closing times and normally end each night there. I only mention that because so many people are now advising getting to the parks early to do the "headliner" attractions. Because we're out late, we rarely get to a park early.

I was already planning to do MK our first day there, since that is a day when they have EMH until 2 am... does MK typically get less crowded later in the evenings on other days too, or does this hold true mostly during EMH? I think they close at midnight the rest of that week, so it would be kinda cool to be able to head over there after using FP+ on attractions at other parks and still be able to enjoy MK.

 

[disney4life2008]

Just for the heck of it I was checking out FP availability for DHS for this coming Monday the 24th.

Unless there is a technical issue or some kind of temporary problem, the FPs for TSMM are already completely gone. While FPs are available for all other attractions, it says 'stand-by only' for TSMM and it will not let you select an FP for that attraction (as of the time of my writing this).

Assuming this is because the FPs are already 'sold-out' in advance and not due to some technical glitch, this is exactly the kind of issue I have been expecting to and afraid would occur.

The question is, do they still hold some FPs for the same-day people at the park, or are all of the FPs completely gone once people take all that are available in advance?

I guess this will create a similar situation as those hoping to snag hard-to-get ADRs...people will be checking MDE the night before to see if something opens up last minute. If someone were to cancel their FP for an attraction that is already 'sold-out' of FPs, would a FP then become available again for someone else to select it?

I just checked Monday 24th and was able to get TSMM - I looked at the other time options and it is showing availability for the entire day. Maybe there was a glitch when you checked.