Lines at the FP+ entrances

[stevehousse]

I will say that when this whole MM+ thing came about I thought it was awful! It wasn't until I experienced it that my mind changed! Did it suck not being able to get as many FP as I used to, yes, but we still managed to get on everything we wanted without having to wait in insane lines. I did have the option to pull paper passes when we wnt, and honestly only did that one time. We didn't experience any problems whatsoever. Everyone is going to have their own opinion, but don't judge it until u actually try it.

 

[bhg469]

I'm very excited.. For my first trip to universal in 20 years. I have been posting here for a loooong time and most of that time I have been on board with everything. FP plus is a middle finger to people who like to wing it and go commando because it is adding fast pass to rides that don't need it and in turn increasing stand by lines. Sure regular fast pass is here still but not for long. And our Disney visit is one day because 2 day passes are insane and we don't need 3. Single day prices are insane enough but I gotta go once to see the new stuff.

 

[eddieh]

I actually had two good experiences with FP+. I am an AP. Showed up at MK (once at 10:30AM and once at 12:30PM. Took the railroad to Pete's Silly SIdeshow. Got my FP+ times all within a 3 hour block and left at 4 pm. I didn't have to run around the park and then figure out what time I needed to be back in a specific area. I scheduled my FP+ times around a path that allowed me to take in a show, eat lunch and ride other high capacity, low wait-time rides.

The only issue I had was the wait in the kiosk line (about 20 minutes) while guests are looking for alternate times.

Can't wait until they go fully live for APs. I'll schedule my FP+ either right before or on the way. Hi diddle dee dee...no kiosk lines for me!

 

[Andyjshort]

To me, this is where being a good planner will help a ton. Maelstrom can be a walk-on most days, before 3pm. In the evening it is most definitely likely to be swamped.

I will say though that problem that I think is being illustrated isn't the tier system of distribution, but rather the lac of "must-do" rides in Epcot, the Studios, and AK.

Completely agree the problem is a lack of must do rides. But, on one of the days we arrived at park opening, my son ran for Soarin' fastpasses while we headed over to Test Track. After that we headed straight over to Soarin' then across to Norway and there was already a 2 hour queue for Maelstrom, well before lunch.

The crowds were light in MK so we caught the monorail there instead.

My main problem is being tied to UK summer holidays, we pay the highest prices to stand in the longest queues in the hottest weather. But, I'm in Disney so its worth it (just).

 

[ford91exploder]

My thoughts have been 24 hour advance FP+ for 'on-property' guests regardless of media, "Day-Of" access for all other guests, This still provides a perk for on property guests but it avoids the 6 Month madness which surrounds ADR's, 60 Days out I have NO CLUE what park I want to visit,

PLUS weather and family mood will determine what park I want to see, If it's going to be rainy perhaps AK as lots of shelter exists.

This restores the basic egalitarian nature of FP while giving 'on property' guests an advantage and perk and does not 'punish' those who do not pre-plan for whatever reason by exhausting ride capacity.

 

[ford91exploder]

Some of this is funny. I know people will lie, but a lot of the positives that have been written are from people who havent even used the bands yet and have no clue on what to expect. I was there in September. I even was chosen last March to participate. The only reason why it was good AND I mean the ONLY reason why it was good, is because the paper fast passes were still given out. On the way back to the resort, I talked to everyone who also had a band and these positives written on this thread were never mentioned by people who used the bands.

Am I the only person in this forum who goes to Disney, wakes up in the morning and says to my family "where do you all want to go today"? Then we hop on a bus or boat and go. I hated planning my fast passes and locking into a park, knowing if I change my mind, I got to sit in front of a computer.

No that's the way we have ALWAYS visited parks in past weather and mood play a great deal into what we want to do. Part of this is Disney attempting to lock you in of course because if you have FP+ you will not go to KSC or UNI or anywhere else.

WRONG - I'll just use DVC room and not visit parks at ALL.

 

[ford91exploder]

How did I ignore what you wrote?

The system is still not 100% live. How can parkhopping be implemented if we are just now getting all the parks fully online? DHS just opened MM+ to all guests just 2 weeks go and AP just testing started. Considering that every park and every pass type must be working for parkhopping to function it seems logical that it would be the last thing to come online. If there is no park hopping when the system is out of testing the all of you guys are right, but until that point or something short of Disney flat out saying MM+ will never have it, I see no reason to think that it is not in the plans.

It is after all Disney IT and if there is ONE thing we know Disney is really awful at it's IT (go.com, website crashes)

 

[Disneyfamily4]

Isn't the week between Christmas and New Year's last month peak season? We never went to a paper FP machine, and do not know it they were still there and/or operational. Also .

So you went to Disney during Christmas. You mention that the park was at peak capacity. You then say you never even used the paper fast pass system one time.

HMMM.

So either you dont like rides, dont have children, or love waiting in long lines. Or, you did use the paper fast passes, but didnt want to mention it here, because then that would kinda hurt your claim here.

 

[Lord_Vader]

I'm very excited.. For my first trip to universal in 20 years. I have been posting here for a loooong time and most of that time I have been on board with everything. FP plus is a middle finger to people who like to wing it and go commando because it is adding fast pass to rides that don't need it and in turn increasing stand by lines. Sure regular fast pass is here still but not for long. And our Disney visit is one day because 2 day passes are insane and we don't need 3. Single day prices are insane enough but I gotta go once to see the new stuff.

Hate to burst your bubble but regular FP is now long gone, in the Yesterland files now.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

No that's the way we have ALWAYS visited parks in past weather and mood play a great deal into what we want to do. Part of this is Disney attempting to lock you in of course because if you have FP+ you will not go to KSC or UNI or anywhere else.

WRONG - I'll just use DVC room and not visit parks at ALL.

It is mind boggling, the amount of people who want to claim that the planning several months in advance is a positive.

I work for a large company and so does my wife. All year, we are pretty much robots. We wake up early, get kids ready, drive kids to school, go to work, pick the kids up, go back to work come home, eat and sleep. For a lot of people here, I am sure they go though the same daily routine.

When I go to Disney for two weeks, I don't want to plan. I also do not want to have that feeling that every single day of my trip, there is somewhere I am scheduled to be or else I will lose out. I want to go to bed as late as i want, wake up when I want and to go to the park without looking at my effin I phone every few seconds. Last year I left it in my room all vacation. This year I need to bring it everywhere I go. That is not a vacation, Disney should have not tried to structure everyone's trip.

 

[Lord_Vader]

So you went to Disney during Christmas. You mention that the park was at peak capacity. You then say you never even used the paper fast pass system one time.

HMMM.

So either you dont like rides, dont have children, or love waiting in long lines. Or, you did use the paper fast passes, but didnt want to mention it here, because then that would kinda hurt your claim here.

We went over Christmas, spent two weeks (12/21-1/3) and only pulled a few legacy FPs the entire trip and those were at MK for SpM and BTMRR. We do love rides but much of the time, especially early mornings found them unnecessary. The lines could get outrageous come mid-day but many times the FP allocation was GONE on the E-Ticket rides most people including us wanted to ride (TSMM, TT, Soarin, RR) so it was academic.

 

[Redhawk]

I want to go to bed as late as i want, wake up when I want and to go to the park without looking at my effin I phone every few seconds. Last year I left it in my room all vacation. This year I need to bring it everywhere I go.

No one says you have to take your iPhone into the park, much less "look at it every few seconds". Disney isn't forcing you to do anything. I would say having ADRs available 180 days out or whatever ridiculousness is also Disney trying to structure everyone's trip, but plenty of folks love those.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

No one says you have to take your iPhone into the park, much less "look at it every few seconds". Disney isn't forcing you to do anything. I would say having ADRs available 180 days out or whatever ridiculousness is also Disney trying to structure everyone's trip, but plenty of folks love those.

Either take my phone or go to the kiosk. Which crap would you like to deal with.

 

[Redhawk]

Either take my phone or go to the kiosk. Which crap would you like to deal with.

Again, you don't HAVE to do either.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

Again, you don't HAVE to do either.

Yeah ok. makes perfect sense

 

[Disneyfamily4]

And it is people like that who Disney Salivates over. Their obedient little puppets.

 

[dreamfinder]

go to the park without looking at my effin I phone every few seconds.

And why is this? You get sent an email notifying you that your FP attraction is closed.
1) Just put your phone on vibrate, and voila! You only have to look when it vibrates.
2) Just check your email/MDE before you head to use the FP+. Odds are the attraction would be 101 now, and not in the 5-10 minutes it takes you to walk over. Or heck, leave your phone in the room, and then just walk over and find out it's closed, no different than the paper system.

It's really no different than having to pull your paper FP out of your wallet to verify your time.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

And why is this? You get sent an email notifying you that your FP attraction is closed.
1) Just put your phone on vibrate, and voila! You only have to look when it vibrates.
2) Just check your email/MDE before you head to use the FP+. Odds are the attraction would be 101 now, and not in the 5-10 minutes it takes you to walk over. Or heck, leave your phone in the room, and then just walk over and find out it's closed, no different than the paper system.

It's really no different than having to pull your paper FP out of your wallet to verify your time.

Once again, we have a comment from someone who has not even been to Disney to use the bands yet.

Here is an example from someone who actually used the bands. Prior to my September trip, On August 13th, I was forced to decide what ride I wanted to use a fast pass on for September 13th. So I chose Buzz at 9am. However 30 days later, at 9 AM, there was only a few minute wait for Buzz in the stand by line. So I quickly had to go on my phone, to try and switch my fast pass from Buzz to another ride, so I can then just wait in the stand by line of Buzz and still have 3 fast passes left. Sadly, Disney offers extremely slow WIFI, and inside the park there is a very weak signal. In the end, I got screwed out of a fast pass, because I couldnt switch it due to their terrible system. Last year, without the bands, this would not be a problem. I would have woken up, went to Tomorrowland, saw there was no line and me and my family would ride. This year, we have to use our psychic ability to forecast what the park will be like. We are limited to three and when technology fails, we I get 2.

 

[bhg469]

Once again, we have a comment from someone who has not even been to Disney to use the bands yet.

Here is an example from someone who actually used the bands. Prior to my September trip, On August 13th, I was forced to decide what ride I wanted to use a fast pass on for September 13th. So I chose Buzz at 9am. However 30 days later, at 9 AM, there was only a few minute wait for Buzz in the stand by line. So I quickly had to go on my phone, to try and switch my fast pass from Buzz to another ride, so I can then just wait in the stand by line of Buzz and still have 3 fast passes left. Sadly, Disney offers extremely slow WIFI, and inside the park there is a very weak signal. In the end, I got screwed out of a fast pass, because I couldnt switch it due to their terrible system. Last year, without the bands, this would not be a problem. I would have woken up, went to Tomorrowland, saw there was no line and me and my family would ride. This year, we have to use our psychic ability to forecast what the park will be like. We are limited to three and when technology fails, we I get 2.

I have said this many times, I would have no problem with fp + if it was a paid feature, heck I wish fast pass as a whole was paid because then half the people would not use it and wdw might not be 1.5 billion in the hole. If that were the case I might be getting excited for star wars land.

 

[Fractal514]

Some of this is funny. I know people will lie, but a lot of the positives that have been written are from people who havent even used the bands yet and have no clue on what to expect. I was there in September. I even was chosen last March to participate. The only reason why it was good AND I mean the ONLY reason why it was good, is because the paper fast passes were still given out. On the way back to the resort, I talked to everyone who also had a band and these positives written on this thread were never mentioned by people who used the bands.

Am I the only person in this forum who goes to Disney, wakes up in the morning and says to my family "where do you all want to go today"? Then we hop on a bus or boat and go. I hated planning my fast passes and locking into a park, knowing if I change my mind, I got to sit in front of a computer.

I went in October with a group of 10 including two small children, my wife, and a bunch of adult friends. I absolutely LOVED the system, as I was able to coordinate parts of our day in advance and we all got to see each other throughout the day without feeling like the friends we were with had to go at the same pace we went at with our kids. There ARE things about the system that are good, I understand that you don't like it, but please don't dismiss the aspects that some of us do find appealing as being fabricated.