2) The lines to do fastpass plus signups were VERY long. I was there at rope drop during a low-crowd week and still had to wait on line in all parks for 15-30 minutes on some occasions just to get my fastpass plus. And not being able to change a time on my phone just because I'm staying offsite was absurd. I would have to wait on line for 15-30 minutes all over again
Completely agree with you. You should be able to use your phone or website. I have a feeling that eventually that will be the case, but they didn't want to overload the system. I'm not sure if I completely agree with waiting so long each and every time you want to visit a kiosk. The lines are long at the beginning of the day, but do taper off throughout the day and once the park is more evenly distributed with crowds, it also helps.
4) I hated how the whole fastpass plus made the disney experience feel-as someone who was coordinating what we were going to do each day, this felt like work for the first time. And there was also a lot of stress and running to make our hour windows for rides or else risk losing them. All sense of reason was gone. At major rides like space mountain if you showed up 5 minutes early or 5 minutes late and that stupid scanner didn't turn green you were denied entry. It's an amusement park, not the DMV. The sense of fun and spontaneity is being drained for an adult with kids going to Disney. If your kids have to pee, that's too bad. Make your window or lose it. Zero understanding that a large percentage of their customers are parties with young children, and there is nothing more unpredictable (except maybe the weather) than the behavior of a young child.
The old Fastpass system was the same way. You would have to "run to make your hour windows or risk losing them". Same goes for showing up early and late. You might argue that is a relatively newer rule, but when you make an appointment or a reservation anywhere else in the real world, how is it handled? Can you show up 2 hours late for a dinner reservation and expect to be seated? Can you show up an hour early to a doctor's appointment and expect to be seen? No. Disney even has its grace periods, but even then you have an hour time frame to use them. With Fastpass+ it is even better than before, now you can at least attempt to change them to fit your schedule or if you don't make your time, just change it. Legacy Fastpass you were stuck with what you were given and if you missed it, then you really were out of luck. With or without children, disabilities, reservations, ride breakdown, or pure forgetfulness, when the parks are trying to serve hundreds of guests per hour at each attraction, you do have to realize that some organization, rules, and restrictions do have to be put into play to ensure that it works.
6) The 3 ride limit at magic kingdom is absurd-with so many rides affected by lines, why are you forcing people to make choices? Again it takes the fun away for the person planning. They are literally asking you to plan your entire day before you even get there. And once you're there, you feel pressured to plan it right, or else stand on line for a ride you misjudged.
In the days without Fastpass, you'd show up to the park, walk around, and visit attractions you wanted to visit, but even then if a line was too long, I bet you'd skip it. You may even go in to the park having a general idea of what you want to do with certain rides you really want to hit. Fastpass has never been about being able to skip the lines at all the attractions you want to do. You still had to pick which attraction to get a Fastpass for and were blocked from getting another for around 2 hours. If you picked incorrectly, you'd have to wait in line or until you could get another. It's hard to say where they got the 3 or if it will change, but I'm sure you can think of your top three rides you must do. This is what FP is for; to ensure you get to do your must sees. It won't cover everything, but it will help.
7) I hated separating from my family during my fastpass plus wait-I missed my kids' faces on entering the park becasue I have to run ahead to make sure we get the fastpassses and don't stand on line for the rides they want to go on. To be fair, I used to run ahead to fastpass one ride in the past as well (i.e. toy story in DHS-however, I could be there and back before my family even made it to the wizard's hat-now I ahve to wait on line and do this whole process of choosing the whole day-I lost the first 30 minutes with my family every disney day)
You are not forced to separate from your family. FP+ kiosks will take longer because you combining all your Legacy Fastpass travel time together to pick all 3 of your choices at once, and you get to pick what time. The old system, you rushed ahead to make sure you got a decent time. It may eat up some time at the beginning of the day, but unless you are wanting attractions that will run out in the first hour, I would use that first hour to get as many attractions in with your family as possible. That first hour the park is open is where you will have the least waits even for bigger attractions. So the 30 mins in one lump sum, may seem like a lot, but the constant running ahead of your family to grab them at each attraction probably took just as much time.
10) I'm on the Winnie the Pooh regular standby line. There is NOBODY waiting in the fastpass line. Zero people. However, the lady running the line held us for nearly 15 minutes at that branch point. With my 1 year old screaming I asked her why she couldn't move us forward. Her answer: "just in case someone comes with a fastpass." Now as someone holding a fastpass I of course would want to get in fast. But there was NOBODY there, and she held the standby line for almost 15 minutes. She said this was part of the new policies. The standby line would be hled for stretches to minimize the waits for people with fastpasses.
I'm a little skeptical on just holding you there for that long without any movement just in case FP comes along. The post merge line would have had to move a little bit to at least let your line inch a long. There are some other factors that you might consider, what if the ride had a temporary stop. Both lines are going to stop moving in that case, and unforuntatly FP backups do mean longer waits for standby. Leaving that gap may have helped ensure the backup wouldn't get as bad. Another thing is that many attractions have a post merge "fill to line". It's an invisible point in the post merge line that they fill up to make sure that the merge point doesn't get too congested and helps ensure that the FP wait is equal post merge for everyone. In any case, FP will move faster as it should. If you had a Fastpass, you'd want to ensure that the ride delivered upon their promise of little or no wait. New policies are trying to ensure that ratios, waits, and experiences (Both FP and standby) are more in line with all attractions so that guests don't feel like one attraction does things differently.
