Limiting all guests to 3 FP+ choices per day

[Gabe1]

I sorta believe that, though.

Sure. I can imagine how the survey was worded. Would you be interested in Disney offering Starbucks as an Option at wdw over nes cafe sludge. Disney knows how to lead guests. I for one though never had the Starbucks survey at parks or emailed and I get my share of surveys and most are crafted to lead us to answer what they want the results to be. If they are stupid surveys I don't hit the finish prompt any longer.

 

[ford91exploder]

And I will add that the bands only worked our last 2 days (out of 9) for FP+ usage. Not user error - system error.

Sounds like our 2 vacations using the MM+ system, The bands work OK, but the MM+ backend system hoses access and entitlements requiring one to spend hours with Tech Support and/or GR.

 

[ford91exploder]

Sure. I can imagine how the survey was worded. Would you be interested in Disney offering Starbucks as an Option at wdw over nes cafe sludge. Disney knows how to lead guests. I for one though never had the Starbucks survey at parks or emailed and I get my share of surveys and most are crafted to lead us to answer what they want the results to be. If they are stupid surveys I don't hit the finish prompt any longer.

I would not have minded at all if Disney simply changed coffee vendor perhaps even with signage

 

[coachwnh]

I agree. I have read so many reviews of this new system from members saying how great it is. But, they mention they are pulling paper FPs too. My family of 5 was there in December and had only the new system to use (because we were at Pop), only the 3 FP+s a day, with the tiering in Epcot so it was really only 1 FP+ a day. We used to ride TT 3 times and Soarin 2 times a day. This trip most Epcot days we only rode Soarin 1 time (with PF+) and TT zero. TT was the ride we would power walk to at opening but it was down one day and most of the other days we gave up and slept till lunchtime (not like us) because the Brazilian group which had rooms either side ours the entire 10 nights were loudly talking outside, laughing and slamming their doors till late and kept us up. At MK we found ourselves walking around in the afternoon for hours waiting for our third FP time not able to pull a paper fast pass with long lines for everything - even the people mover and this was the week before Christmas when school was still in session. This new system stinks. Even doing the best we could with it, getting there before park opening most days, racing from ride to ride in the morning and FP in the afternoon. I also saw long lines like I had never seen before (and we go every year at the same time). Pirates for example was zig zagged out to just out of the covered atrium. While the right side for FP had no one in it. After this trip we will likely not go back unless we have to be in the area anyway. And that speaks volumes coming from me a HUGE Disney fan who has gone to WDW at least once a year my entire 40 years on this planet. They need to increase the amount of FP per day and remove the tiering. But really I wish they had added more rides and not wasted money on this new system. Just my opinion.

Your experience is exactly what Im afraid of.

 

[kelknight84]

I'm curious, how many people actually visited Disney before legacy Fastpass? When your only option was to stand in line. Disney doesn't owe you Fastpasses, they haven't even been around that long. If you go to the park on a busy day it's going to be busy, fastpass or not.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I'm curious, how many people actually visited Disney before legacy Fastpass? When your only option was to stand in line. Disney doesn't owe you Fastpasses, they haven't even been around that long. If you go to the park on a busy day it's going to be busy, fastpass or not.

I visited WDW for many years pre-FP, and I stood in line without complaint. In the post-Fastpass world, I will once again stand in line without complaint, but that doesn't mean I don't think that WDW is making a huge mistake by replacing the legacy FP system with FP+.

No, WDW doesn't "owe" us Fastpasses, but nobody expects their WDW touring experience to get worse or less efficient over time, instead of better. WDW didn't have to add Fastpass in the first place, but it did, and those guests who made good use of it understandably came to rely on it as a perk that was rolled into their ticket price, and which added appreciable value to their vacation experience. Now its value to those guests is being significantly diminished, and unless WDW drops ticket prices to bridge the gap (which we all know isn't going to happen), those who came to rely on FP are entitled to be disappointed that they're paying more money to see less and do less.

 

[G8rchamps]

Kids are old enough that we bought AP's last August- we stayed at POP that weekend and so we have our bands. Your post is very timely as we have started planning atrip for Feb and are really having a hard time planning day/parks/rides/etc.. Looks like we will do 1 MK, 1 AK, 1HS, and the last day was to be a MK/Epcot with a nice dinner that night at Epcot. So what do we do, use the FP+ at MK in the morning and have none for Epcot? That will basically leave us Nemo and Figment before dinner. If legacy is still there in a month they will be gone for Soarin and TT before we get there - and if we use our passes at Epcot we get one of those 2 rides.

How cool for a last day of a trip to hit rope at MK and hit the highlights, then monorail over to Epcot by 3 for TT, Soarin, Nemo, Figment, France for dinner, and Illuminations. Oh well, I guess..

Quickly getting frustrated. I can handle the 1 park part- but when you add tiering I just want to smash something. Looking like we will not renew our passes untill the dust settles on this mess.

 

[docdebbi]

i hate to accept this thought, but i believe they want us to have less FP+ per day so we achieve doing fewer attractions. indeed those of us who knew how to efficiently use FP were able to experience many more attractions per day, including multiple rides on same attraction, than those who didn't. When more FP get used, the standby lines get longer- by definiton.
I am sure that this led to complaints from those who were new to WDW and didn't do their homework before arriving, or were just too lazy to go get FPs, or just like being spontaneous. I am continually amazed when i speak to people who went to WDW and came back saying they didn't even know FP existed!!!!

therefore, by limiting the number of FP+ available, we pros don't get as many and so stand by lines are theoretically shorter, although we are not seeing this in reality. although i wonder if the currently longer standby lines are because of double dipping, which goes away this week. I know that I did double dipping in October- why not?
sadly, i fear that we, the ones who frequent the place and were efficiently using FP, are the ones to lose out here. i strongly believe there should be more than 3 per day/1 park. it will seriously impact my future trips

 

[ford91exploder]

I visited WDW for many years pre-FP, and I stood in line without complaint. In the post-Fastpass world, I will once again stand in line without complaint, but that doesn't mean I don't think that WDW is making a huge mistake by replacing the legacy FP system with FP+.

No, WDW doesn't "owe" us Fastpasses, but nobody expects their WDW touring experience to get worse or less efficient over time, instead of better. WDW didn't have to add Fastpass in the first place, but it did, and those guests who made good use of it understandably came to rely on it as a perk that was rolled into their ticket price, and which added appreciable value to their vacation experience. Now its value to those guests is being significantly diminished, and unless WDW drops ticket prices to bridge the gap (which we all know isn't going to happen), those who came to rely on FP are entitled to be disappointed that they're paying more money to see less and do less.

I also did Disney without FP, Pre-FP lines moved MUCH faster and you can still see this if you go to DL, Even during the holidays the line at DL for TSMM is an hour or less. Compare this to the usual standby wait 90-180 minute wait at DHS for the same ride with the same capacity and even with FP the it's about 20 minutes from entering queue to getting on ride vehicle.

I'm sure someone will now mention that DL is a small local park, Indeed it is but it still had 16 million visitors in 2012, WDW had something like 23 million UNIQUE visitors for all 4 parks. DL+DCA probably had 18.5 million unique visitors total.

Key difference in attraction wait time is FP If FP went bye-bye everyone's wait would be a lot shorter.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I am continually amazed when i speak to people who went to WDW and came back saying they didn't even know FP existed!!!!

I believe this is the main reason that we are currently limited to 3 FP+ per day. For the many that had no clue about FP, they are now being inundated with the FP+ information, and I bet you would find it difficult to find (an onsite guest at least) who wasn't aware of FP+. I also believe that many offsite guests are aware of it now too due to the publicity MM+ is getting.

I would hope that the limit of 3 per park and the park hopping limit will be adjusted eventually.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I also did Disney without FP, Pre-FP lines moved MUCH faster and you can still see this if you go to DL, Even during the holidays the line at DL for TSMM is an hour or less. Compare this to the usual standby wait 90-180 minute wait at DHS for the same ride with the same capacity and even with FP the it's about 20 minutes from entering queue to getting on ride vehicle.

I'm sure someone will now mention that DL is a small local park, Indeed it is but it still had 16 million visitors in 2012, WDW had something like 23 million UNIQUE visitors for all 4 parks. DL+DCA probably had 18.5 million unique visitors total.

Key difference in attraction wait time is FP If FP went bye-bye everyone's wait would be a lot shorter.

I concur. With no FP at all, lines would diminish. But FP hasn't gone away. It's been made into FP+ with FP being added to attractions that don't need it, which is going to make everyone wait even longer than before. The only people that FP+ might "help" are those who never bothered to learn anything about FP (or who chose not to use it) in the first place, and who now might give FP+ a try. Is this what we've come to? WDW increasing everyone else's wait times in order to improve Fastpass access for guests who don't really want to use Fastpass?

 

[G8rchamps]

Well- since I have to make 3, I have Spaceship Earth, Nemo, and Test Track for Feb 17th. Yea!?

 

[CaptainShortty]

I wonder why they give you until the next day. It should only be good for the day of. Also, does this create an issue with FP+ for the next day? Like you said, you were in MK, but if you were scheduled for 3 FP+s the next day at EPCOT, and you have an additional one at MK to use in that instance? This brings up the issues of not being allowed to park hop with the FP+, because obviously, you can.

So, if I'm wording this correctly, this goes back to the person who put up the screen shots of the FP+ that had the idea of adding park hopping. It's obviously doable. If they can extend a "complimentary" pass to you for your ride being down for 48 hours, regardless of where you are headed the next day, then technically you can park hop with the new system (under this one circumstance currently).

Depending on what time the attraction goes down will determine if the FP+ is good for the next day or only day of. I don't know what the algorithm is but it has to do with the fact that they want all guests to be able to get on without strongly impacting the wait time for the given attraction.

 

[Gabe1]

I would not have minded at all if Disney simply changed coffee vendor perhaps even with signage

They have, around the same time as Starbuck Main Street opened. They replace NesCafe at resorts and quick service with Joffery.

 

[ford91exploder]

They have, around the same time as Starbuck Main Street opened. They replace NesCafe at resorts and quick service with Joffery.

Not what I meant, I despise the intrusion of Starbucks into the world even though it's my favorite coffee shop. Joffrey's is OK but why not have Starbucks everywhere - oh forgot it's more expensive than Nescafe/Joffreys

I would have liked to have Starbucks coffee at the Main St Bakery - a Original Cinnamon roll with a Starbucks venti christmas blend would have been a treat.

The rolls at Gaston's are flavored differently and are generally somewhat stale to boot.

 

[Kristoff]

I just booked a trip for April and I am struggling with how I want to handle levering the 3 FP+ per day.

In order to maximize my time I'm considering whether it makes more sense to book the FP+ for the afternoon and hit the parks as soon as rope drops. I am assuming (and this is a big assumption on my part) that with people having specific wait times, the crowds at rope drop will lower since people will come to the park around the time of their first FP reservation.

Has anyone had any experience getting there before rope drop and seeing how much bigger or smaller the crowd is compared to the past before FP+ was implemented?

 

[coachwnh]

I just booked a trip for April and I am struggling with how I want to handle levering the 3 FP+ per day.

In order to maximize my time I'm considering whether it makes more sense to book the FP+ for the afternoon and hit the parks as soon as rope drops. I am assuming (and this is a big assumption on my part) that with people having specific wait times, the crowds at rope drop will lower since people will come to the park around the time of their first FP reservation.

Has anyone had any experience getting there before rope drop and seeing how much bigger or smaller the crowd is compared to the past before FP+ was implemented?

My opinion is its never a bad idea to get to a park for rope drop. You really can do quite a bit with limited or no waits during that first hour.
We saved most or our FP+ choices for afternoon or evening all three trips when we used the bands. But thats how we normally do the parks (In early and out by mid day) Good luck!

 

[DisneyJoe]

with people having specific wait times, the crowds at rope drop will lower since people will come to the park around the time of their first FP reservation.

Not necessarily. For example, my strategy when hitting 2 parks is to make my FP+ in the second park, but then get to the first park as early as possible and ride standby.

 

[LaurenTheSLP]

I am planning on using the FP+ for the afternoon/evening and arriving for EMH and rope drop in the hopes that we can ride what we want in the AM without long waits. Hope it works out!

 

[coachwnh]

I am planning on using the FP+ for the afternoon/evening and arriving for EMH and rope drop in the hopes that we can ride what we want in the AM without long waits. Hope it works out!

I really believe thats the best way to do it!