Just returned from WDW, my thoughts on fp+............

[Minnesota disney fan]

My husband and I just returned from wDW on 11/26 from an 8 day trip. I waited to give my thoughts on fp+ until I actually experienced it. Well, it's kinda a love/hate relationship. I loved having my favorites locked in, so we were assured of riding them without standby. However, the waiting for the fp times cut into spontenaity (sp?) somewhat. We also had some cold, very wet weather and couldn't ride some of our coveted fast passes. On our 7dmt day, it rained all day (stormed with tornado watches). We were told we could use our fp anytime that day, but that was not possible. I'm glad I waited 60 minutes for 7dmt earlier in our trip or would have missed it. I liked knowing we wouldn't have to hurry to our favorites at rope drop either. We always go at rope drop. We walked onto our other fav rides without wait many times.
However, after our 3 fp's were used up, it was impossible for us to get another one for the time or ride we wanted to do. The wait times were long in standby also. But we did find that the times stated for standby were not accurate at all. We had a wait time of 30 min. for one ride and actually waited 10 minutes, and that was typical of standby wait times for us. If you go to another park in the afternoon, like we do, you have to wait til you get there to try and get another fp. It would be great if we could schedule another one from anywhere for another park, but not at this time.
All in all, I find that the new fp's restrict our wanderings and riding on a ride we pass at the spur of the moment. We were watching the clock for our fp times a lot! I felt like I was on a tight schedule most of the time governed by our fp's (better not miss them or you might not be able to ride your favorite). It's kinda like when you have a good coupon and don't use it. I felt like I had to use the fp! FP has it's good points but a lot of the bugs need to be worked out too. Personally, I liked the old fp with it's flexibility.
Maybe by next year they will have this tweeked and fixed in time for our next trip.

 

[sjhym333]

I am not sure if I am following your logic. You think that going to a machine that spits out a time that may or may not meet your plans is better than choosing one FP time from four options that allows you to plan out your day? I have heard several people say this on these boards and I am not sure why. I use FP+ all the time and I find it gives me more flexability in my day, not less. Both systems required you to return to an attraction within a one hour window. FP+ lets you choose that window. How is that more restricting? I am just curious.

 

[erasure fan1]

Both systems required you to return to an attraction within a one hour window. FP+ lets you choose that window. How is that more restricting? I am just curious.

Lets be honest, neither FP system was perfect. For me, FP+ is less perfect than the old system. To your question, it was more restricting for us having to go to one of the few kiosk spots and wait in line (that was not quick at all) just to find out there is nothing to get that actually needed fastpass. And the limitation it puts on park hoping is about as restricting as it gets. All in all it gets a big thumbs down from me, totally not worth the investment.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Under the old FP system you could only pick up the FP ticket by visiting the actual ride. So when it comes to Park Hopping you still can't choose your rides until you get to the second park - so no difference

 

[sjhym333]

Lets be honest, neither FP system was perfect. For me, FP+ is less perfect than the old system. To your question, it was more restricting for us having to go to one of the few kiosk spots and wait in line (that was not quick at all) just to find out there is nothing to get that actually needed fastpass. And the limitation it puts on park hoping is about as restricting as it gets. All in all it gets a big thumbs down from me, totally not worth the investment.

Of course the way to not have that happen is to prebook your FP's before you get to the park. I am a local AP holder and I can often get just about any FP (with the exception of A&E and the parades/fireworks) a day or two before. I have gotten 7DMT the day of. I also don't agree with the parkhopping comment. Under the old system, if you spent the first half of the day at the MK and then went to EPCOT you would often find Test Track and Soarin FP's gone so it is no different today except that under the new system if someone cancels their TT or Soarin FP you can pick it up on MDE or the kiosk. The old system the FP just went into the garbage.

 

[disney4life2008]

While I was against FP+ initially (well through recent months) - I have to admit that I enjoy not having to rush to the parks by 830am. My trips have been much more comfortable to be perfectly honest. My qualm with the system is that it has increased the lines of attractions that never had lines before. GMR and Spaceship Earth have always been walk on or at most 10/15 minutes - now waits can be 30 or more minutes. Legacy FP - Soarin would be gone by 11/12 - same with TSMM (and likely would be the same with mine train). So I enjoy the freedom is picking my choices and relaxing. I have yet to select the rolling FP - mainly because attraction wait times decrease as the day goes on (and typically what is left has no wait anyway).

 

[erasure fan1]

Of course the way to not have that happen is to prebook your FP's before you get to the park. I am a local AP holder and I can often get just about any FP (with the exception of A&E and the parades/fireworks) a day or two before. I have gotten 7DMT the day of. I also don't agree with the parkhopping comment. Under the old system, if you spent the first half of the day at the MK and then went to EPCOT you would often find Test Track and Soarin FP's gone so it is no different today except that under the new system if someone cancels their TT or Soarin FP you can pick it up on MDE or the kiosk. The old system the FP just went into the garbage.

I can really only go by my trip and we did book our fastpasses when we were able to and still couldn't get 7dmt. We used our 3 passes and then it was off to wait in a very long line for at least 20min just to find out that the only one we could get was for something like pirates. So booking it ahead of time really didn't help. As for the park hopper, the old system still let you get fastpasses, the new one you CAN'T. Yes it is true with the old system if you hopped to the studios, you couldn't get on toy story, or if you went to epcot, soarin was going to be a no chance and test track was only a possibility. But the fact is you could still get a pass for the other rides that were not gone for the day. As for the cancels bit, if you park hopped you can't pick up those fastpasses if you used your original FP+ selections at the first park you were at. And really, how many people actually cancel but just don't show up? I doubt its a very significant number of people canceling. Also remember you are local and can go whenever so sure you will be able to often get 7dmt. We are not local and had one shot and couldn't.

 

[sjhym333]

"As for the park hopper, the old system still let you get fastpasses, the new one you CAN'T. Yes it is true with the old system if you hopped to the studios, you couldn't get on toy story, or if you went to epcot, soarin was going to be a no chance and test track was only a possibility. But the fact is you could still get a pass for the other rides that were not gone for the day. As for the cancels bit, if you park hopped you can't pick up those fastpasses if you used your original FP+ selections at the first park you were at. And really, how many people actually cancel but just don't show up? I doubt its a very significant number of people canceling. Also remember you are local and can go whenever so sure you will be able to often get 7dmt. We are not local and had one shot and couldn't."

Actually this is incorrect. Once you use your 3 FP's at one park you can then park hop over to another park and go to a kiosk and get a FP at the new park. So if you use your 3 at the MK then park hop over to EPCOT you can pick up a FP at EPCOT, though just one at a time. You can also pick up a 4th, 5th, etc in the same park after you use your first 3. The inconvenience is the kiosks but it helps to know which ones get busy and which ones don't.

As for cancellations...it was a CM who told me not too long after FP+ went live to keep checking MDE or at the kiosk throughout the day. People cancel FP's all the time and they are returned into the system and can be picked up be other people. I have done this several times. I have found FP's for attractions that were not available earlier but now were. I have told friends and have said it here several times...if you are not going to use your FP's then please cancel them so that someone else can enjoy them.

 

[Hockey89]

Of course the way to not have that happen is to prebook your FP's before you get to the park. I am a local AP holder and I can often get just about any FP (with the exception of A&E and the parades/fireworks) a day or two before. I have gotten 7DMT the day of. I also don't agree with the parkhopping comment. Under the old system, if you spent the first half of the day at the MK and then went to EPCOT you would often find Test Track and Soarin FP's gone so it is no different today except that under the new system if someone cancels their TT or Soarin FP you can pick it up on MDE or the kiosk. The old system the FP just went into the garbage.

It is truly amazing how wrong someone can be while be so confident...

 

[sjhym333]

It is truly amazing how wrong someone can be while be so confident...

It's truly amazing that someone can say something without giving any back up for a rude comment

 

[Ralphlaw]

As for me, I liked the older system of not actually having to show up during the FP window that you were given. We would hit the parks in the morning and get a FP at a kiosk, and then show up whenever to use it. It was a perfect way to stay spontaneous while still employing fastpass. We did this all the time, sometimes showing up hours after our window and still being able to get right on. I do wonder why they truly needed to clamp down on that.

Excuse the metaphor, but it's kind of like scheduling sex for Friday at 11:30 versus just getting carried away in the moment. I know, this may get censored, but I can't think of a more apt metaphor. Perhaps it's like a great song just popping up on the radio versus punching it up on your iPad. No, not as good.

I miss the excelsior of scoring great fastpasses after a rope-drop run through the park compared to punching a bunch of buttons on the phone. Face it, some of the mission and adventure are gone with FP+.

 

[DisneyGirl3820]

We went at the end of October this year and the crowd level was surprisingly higher than anticipated--if I didn't have my Fastpass+ picks all set I would have gone crazy. You spend tons of money to go to WDW and not being able to get on the rides you want while you're there is so frustrating. IMHO, Fastpass+ is definitely a good thing. Everything done online 30-60 days before gives peace of mind to those of us that always manage to have trips during crowded times of the year. We're going back at Easter break and you better believe I'll be very happy to have those rides locked in beforehand

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

yes Disneygirl, it was really crowded before Thanksgiving and leading up to it too. So, we found that having the 3 fp's was a tremendous help in being able to ride what we wanted. I think that when it is crowded it will work the best for everyone. However, we usually go when it is a slower time of year and with rope drop we have no problem riding all we want. It was effective, looking back on our trip in November, for that crowded time of year. So I guess I still have a love/hate relationship with them. I liked having them at Thanksgiving time to lock in the rides, but did not like having to check all the time and co=ordinate our fp times with other activities and our adr's! I guess it's a personal thing. I don't have a smart phone to change my fp's or get other ones, so have to fight the crowds at the kiosks. I just wrote down my fp's, drs, on a small sheet of paper and put that in my pocket. It worked okay for us, just a lot of checking. I hope Disney works out the bugs from this system or improve on it soon. How? I don't know but feel it is a work in progress we have to live with at this time. We honestly used theone we really wanted and ignored the others if we didn't want to use them, so we still had them locked in but didn't use most of them. I know I sound schizpphrenic about fp's, but after using them myself I can see the advantages too. It won't alter our next WDW visit next year in the least; just usewhat we want to and do what we want the other times. It won't be the first time we have stood in line for attractions. We have met some wonderful people while waiting in the lines, over the years, so it's all good, it's Disney!!

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Eeek, sorry for all the types. I have a new land line phone that keeps buzzing at me for no reason!!!Ugh, I'm gonna go insane soon............................................................

 

[TXDisney]

Depending on how picky you are about rides and if you don't mind waiting on line is the big things for me. I love that your guaranteed your fav rides everyday if you book far enough in advance. Outside of MK the other 3 parks WR only really love 3 rides or so oer park. So we lock up thise fp. The 1hr time frame I don't like. I'd like for them to change it to 30min.

 

[FrostyNaples]

It is if you're making FP's 180 days out.

No one is making FP+ 180 days out, not possible

Weather being the biggest problem. Also just a matter of how you feel that day. Let's say you plan it all out and decide you're going to hit MK on Thursday. You figure you'll show up early and save your FP's till later when the park is very busy. You end up with 7 DMT at 7:00. Day turns out to be slow so you do everything you want at MK by 4 but there's been a 70 minute wait for 7 DMT all day. If you want to ride that you basically have to kill 3 hours waiting around or just give up and don't ride it.

70 minutes is less than 3 hours, stanby line maybe?

If you have never been to MK the problem is much worse. I saw people that had FP's to Dumbo. With the new Dumbo there really isn't much of a wait any time I've been there and the kids love the play ground.

In the end if you pick wrong or something happens you are out of luck. We had a problem because my daughter wanted to go on Toy Story as opposed to ToT. Son and I had ToT and RnRC FP's, wife and daughter had RnRC and TS Fp's. RnRC was close almost all day which if I had know that son and I would have had TS and ToT FP's. End result there was no way to get on TS without a huge wait so no TS for us and no RnRC for us.

Let's not confuse what FP+ is meant to be folks.

To all of the whiners, complainers, etc. What YOU want FP+ to be, is a paid program, in which for a nominal fee or subscription, you can get into any FP line at any attraction, any time of day.



Guess what, FP+ is currently free, you will have to use it how it currently functions.

 

[wdisney9000]

Let's not confuse what FP+ is meant to be folks.

To all of the whiners, complainers, etc. What YOU want FP+ to be, is a paid program, in which for a nominal fee or subscription, you can get into any FP line at any attraction, any time of day.


Guess what, FP+ is currently free, you will have to use it how it currently functions.

Paid program? Legacy was free as well. I preferred to simply wake up early and hit a park like MK around rope drop and knockout the marquee attractions early (Space, Splash, BTMRR, PP, ) and even have time for a few others (HM, POTC, TTA) before hopping to another park like Epcot for lunch and getting FP for at least 1 other marque (Soarin or TT) and still ride Maelstrom (RIP), Nemo, Land, SSE throughout the rest of the day. Thats almost impossible to do now because FP+ times are spread out over nearly a four hour period. Id rather wake up early than try and guess what Ill be in the mood to ride or eat 60-90 days out.

Also, legacy didnt allow for people to try and scam their way in by claiming MDE error or acting like they didnt understand the system. And the amount of time you can spend waiting a kiosk for your extra FP+ can be longer than the time it would take to walk to the attraction for legacy.

 

[sjhym333]

One of the things we have done to compress out FP times is check the MDE app after we get off of a ride we just used a FP to get on and try to move our next FP up to an earlier time.

Also, legacy didnt allow for people to try and scam their way in by claiming MDE error or acting like they didnt understand the system. And the amount of time you can spend waiting a kiosk for your extra FP+ can be longer than the time it would take to walk to the attraction for legacy.

Having worked at a FP attraction when they were still spitting out paper FP's I can tell you that people tried to scam the system all day/every day. People can be creative while trying to be selfish.

You could walk to the attraction for a legacy FP but the time might be for 6 hours from when you got there.