My Fpass experience so far..

[Cluno]

It is a crazy mixed up system IMHO. I don't know how the OP got a FP+ for BOTH Soarin and TT. They are in the same tier so to speak, and I could only book one of those! I guess I am an Old lady because I prefer the old paper fast pass. Besides, they were souvenirs in some cases.

OP listed five FP at EPCOT, so either Soarin or TT was likely the 4th or 5th.

When we went to EPCOT, we had a FP for Soarin and planned to RD TT. As it turned out, TT was down first thing, but we got it as a 4th FP that evening.

ETA: Just saw split group explanation as to why TT and Soarin' for OP.

 

[BigRedDad]

"It sucks" but "Using the kiosks, we were able to get 5-7 FPs a day, do everything we wanted and when we wanted." And that's bad?

Waiting in line at kiosks? Just seconds. Now, with FP+ you get in lines that can be 30-45 minutes long. You use to be able to almost walk right on with FP. For rides, I do not like waiting. I will go commando style in the morning and enjoy all of the shows the rest of the day. I do not like planning exactly where and when I have to be on vacation. FP+ requires it.

 

[12_Ears_Dad]

Now, with FP+ you get in lines that can be 30-45 minutes long

Not what I've heard from multiple ppl. The most I've heard for a fp wait is like 20 minutes.. 30 minutes is more the exception then the rule I would think..

 

[Rutt]

First of all I want ask what's all the fuss? No it's not a perfect system, but I think the way it is set up is the way it has to be to cater to the most guests the best way. It's tiered to give the most people a chance to experience one of the most popular attractions. We were at a disadvantage because we're off property.

There is no real big fuss honestly if you leave the Disney Boards. Most people I have spoken with like it, even most people on here (by a large margin) appear to. As is the case with most things in life, a very vocal minority makes it appear worse than it is.

Having been in the last two Septembers and this past January as well, most of the less popular rides were still walk ons for me, including POTC (did it five times in one day in Sept 2014), IASW, at one point even Space was a walk on. The more popular rides always had a wait (PPF, SDMTR, Splash, Thunder, Pooh) which varied from 15 mins to the 45 min wait for SDMTR, but even those were the posted times and very rarely were they actually that long.

I feel like a lot of those complaining about the lines are really just upset because an advantage they enjoyed over visitors for years (how to work the paper system) is now gone. They also seem to remember a time when the parks were nowhere near as crowded as they are now. The Parks are more popular than ever as far as I know...

 

[Rutt]

Not what I've heard from multiple ppl. The most I've heard for a fp wait is like 20 minutes.. 30 minutes is more the exception then the rule I would think..

Ive never waited more than 15 with a FP.

 

[Doug Means]

I hear all this complaining about not being able to be spontaneous. I'm not really sure how spontaneity was such a great thing. lets just say as i walk into MK with no fast passes and i decide to go to SpaceM first. i walk fairly fast there get in a short line. as i wait i say i want Splash mountain next. well the line has had time to gather. big wait, but if i had a member run to get paper fast passes while i walked to space mountain, we would get a time, Not of my choosing, to come back too. not spontaneous. as we go to splash we stop and get a FP for thunder, time not of our choosing. not spontaneous. even if we decided to go get the max fast passes before we did anything, we still never got the times we wanted! how is that spontaneous? the only way to be truly spontaneous is not to use the FP system at all.

Now, i plan for 3 fast passes and get to choose my times. i know for example that i am doing Snow white, Thunder Mt, and splash at specific time of my choosing. when i get to the park I'm going to scurry right to space mt. i have ADR for lunch at be our guest and dinner at Ohana. now, i have specific blocks of times to decide what shows i want to see, or if i need a 4th FP, or if i want to rest at the pool, or well do whatever. i know that no matter how long I'm in a FP line it would not be that long of a wait, plus i have an hour to make it. so, if i decide to go to a show i know will overlap my fast pass time its not that big of a deal or if i know a show starts late in my fast pass time frame, i will make sure i hit that ride right away at the time. lots of flexibility in that.

the system is what it is. I'm going to make it work for my family the best it can. we love disney and will continue to go until i can't afford it. we go about every other year, and don't see that changing soon. complainers complain, i choose to find the best in the situation and make it as positive as it can be. AND for the most part its always been great.

 

[mnagel55]

Just returned from the world this weekend and I am afraid I have to agree that its not as good as the previous system. Perhaps it is just our family, but we have never planned out our days to this degree in the past. We used crowd calendars to pick a park, but that was about it. We never even bothered with dining reservations for this reason. This past week FPs were gone by mid afternoon most of the times I looked. The fact that once you used up your FPs you can only get singles is ridiculous. On several occasions the next FP was several hours later...so no new FPs until that 1 was over. I suspect that part of the problem is only a percentage of park goers used FP in the past, but now that its on line everyone gets them so the overall utilization is way up.
The wrist band thing is cool and works well, but I am not in love with the way the FP system is running. Overall, regardless of the park, I found that the traffic moved in fits and starts. You would see a great 'slug' of people show up out of nowhere in either Standby or FP. In several cases Standby had less people in it that FP?! We road Everest twice in standby before actually using our FPs LOL I am so used to seeing Disney hum like a fine tuned machine that the crowd/traffic thing really stood out. I have to give D its due, they had the buses running very well....so maybe there is hope for the FP system too.