mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Good! Just in time for the first Santa Ana's of the season this weekend.
I hope those Santa Ana winds blow down all those cheesy signs they put up with hero’s/ characters all over the place.
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News Pacific Wharf to be Reimagined into San Fransokyo
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
I hope those Santa Ana winds blow down all those cheesy signs they put up with hero’s/ characters all over the place.
JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
I have numerous live trip reports here that indicate otherwise. Mind you, we usually travelled in September, but we absolutely got two (usually three) headline rides every day of our 10-day trips.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Are you claiming the tiers were not enforced for certain days? Or that you made additional day-of selections which were therefore not pre-booked?
JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Hmmmm, well now you’ve got me thinking ….
From my Live TR, this was our last trip to WDW when FPP was still offered, in September of 2019. (Hurricane Dorian disrupted/rearranged the first two days, if I recall.)
It certainly looks as if a couple of parks did not have tiers.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
This definitely looks better than whatever system they have going on now. Even just having 1-2 headliners secured per park would be better than waking up at the butt crack of dawn everyday on vacation.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Every park except Magic Kingdom had tiers and/or restrictions.
I can't speak for 2019, but I remember in 2018:
-You couldn't pre-book both Pandora rides in advance at AK
-You couldn't pre-book both Soarin' and Test Track at Epcot, among others
-You couldn't pre-book both Toy Story Mania and RNRC at DHS, among others (this undoubtedly got more complicated/harder once the newer rides started opening)
Outside of explicit tiers, you basically weren't going to get rides like FEA or SDMT if you weren't staying on Disney property unless you got very, VERY lucky.
Clearly lots of people loved FP+ (there wouldn't be such an outpouring of misplaced nostalgia from many if they didn't), but it was not the perfect system that many convinced themselves it was in retrospect. Could it be gamed by people who were extremely well-versed in it, as any system can? Sure. Was it the best system for most people? I'd argue it wasn't.
JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
FP+ was absolutely the best system for Hubby and I.
Bestie and I totally gamed DL last year using Genie Plus and Multiple ILL’s, but in my book, free is always better than paying through the nose.
Cut and paste from our Live TR (President’s Day week February/2022), 5 day PH’s:
Final Ride Tally:
Pirates 7
Haunted mansion 6
small world 6
Buzz 5
Indy 5
Jungle cruise 5
GotG Mission Breakout 4
Mr Toad 3
Pooh 3
space mountain 3
Alice in wonderland 2
Autopia 2
BTMRR 2
disneyland railroad 2
Great moments with Mr Lincoln 2
Incredicoaster 2
Little Mermaid 2
Millennium Falcon 2
Philharmagic 2
Radiator Springs Racers 2
Rise 2
Snow White’s Enchanted Wish 2
Soarin 2
star tours 2
Storybook canal boats 2
casey jr train 1
Davey Crocket Canoes 1
Jesse’s Critter Carousel 1
Luigi’s Rollicking Roadsters 1
Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree 1
Matterhorn 1
Monsters Inc. 1
Peter Pan 1
Pinocchio 1
Pixar Pal Around (Mickey Ferris Wheel) non-swinging 1
Roger rabbit 1
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-thru 1
Spiderman 1
teacups 1
Tiki room 1
Toy Story Midway Mania 1
Total ride count: 93
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
It’s not really “misplaced” if you were on vacation and staying on-site. A demo who i imagine make up the majority of the 1-2 times in a lifetime WDW vacationers.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
So you agree, it would have absolutely been better if you visited DLR pre-2016, where the only option was free FP. Vs. a much more complicated system that gave you much less freedom of choice than old school FP did. You would have been able to do everything you did then and more, because there were no restrictions whatsoever on what you could do/acquire FPs for.
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PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Oh sure, by all means, it's better if you have the time and money to waste on Disney World's little games.
Not all of us have the money or patience to waste on such things.
Realistically, you were still waking up at the crack of dawn anyway if you wanted to do everything on your itinerary. Crowd patterns and weather (if going in the summer) basically necessitate that if you want to tour remotely efficiently.
Sure, it sounds nice to get one headliner, but you could end up in a situation where you had to book three and you ended up with some that were basically worthless.
While a lot of people ended up going to Epcot with Test Track or Soarin, booked, sure...and then they'd get stuck things like Figment and Nemo for their other FPs (two rides where it wasn't THAT big of a benefit to get a bump over standby guests). OR they'd end up booking shows, where there truly was NO benefit whatsoever.
Your chances of getting a headliner of actual value once your three were up were also very, very slim.
Imagine FP+ came to DL. Sounds great, right? Book things in advance, yeah! Except that (we'll assume in this circumstance that there are no ILLs, as that was not yet a thing in this scenario):
1. You basically weren't going to get ROTR, RSR, or MMRR unless you stayed at a Disneyland Resort Hotel and booked more than 30 days in advance.
2. You can't book Space Mountain AND Indy; you have to pick one.
3. Because everything else is booked, your other FP+ selections end up being Big Thunder (respectable) and Pooh (...less so). Because if you TRULY want the full FP+ experience, basically everything except Tiki Room, Lincoln, the Mark Twain, the treehouse, the castle walkthrough, etc. gets FP. Yay! (?)
4. And then by the time you get through your FP selections, a lot of the other things that are desirable are gone (and remember, basically EVERYTHING is on the system) or waits are prohibitive.
And oh yeah, as a local, you'd have to book FP+ selections 30 days out. Meaning you're basically never going to do ROTR or RSR (unless you're willing to queue up in prohibitive queues) unless you get very, very lucky, because the hotel guests have gobbled up all of the good stuff closer to the 60 day out mark.
Now, if you don't actually care about some of those headliners, maybe it's not that big of a deal, but given that you'd be visiting as tourist (and would thus ostensibly be interested on the big fancy rides you're seeing advertised to get you to book a trip), it definitely has its downsides. But it sure sounded great to a lot of WDWers that didn't know any better, and they unknowingly (IMO) got snookered.
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mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Well I definitely wouldn’t have been pleased with FP+ coming to DLR as an annual pass holder. Don’t need all those vacationers booking up all those FP times. As a vacationer staying onsite however I’m not sure how one can argue that FP+ wasn’t a better system for them than Genie +.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
I would much prefer to walk in and book whatever ride I want rather than having to hope that I can get it 30 or 60 days in advance, and I say that as someone who has never been a local to either resort.
Especially since the "difficulty" of booking FPs/Genies/whatever the day of has always been, in my view, greatly exaggerated.
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
I agree with this. Disney World it would not be uncommon to see 90 minute - 3 hour lines for headliners like Rock N Roller Coaster, Avatar, Safaris, Space Mountain, and 7 Dwarfs Mine Train even in the morning. Imagine just being a vacationer and not knowing Disney's fastpass system. I'm sure this happened to many people.
It basically requires you to stay on Disney property and go online at 3am 60 days before your visit.
If you can understand and use the system it can be an advantage, but then you are now scheduling out your vacation. It pits the guests against eachother in a much different way than other themepark front of the line passes work. I'd rather have none of it.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
Well, I am glad they didn't forget.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Glad they are finishing a project nobody asked for, meanwhile we still have construction walls in the hub of Disneyland cause someone didn’t like the Baxter rocks and thought walls would be better.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Wasn't a fan of the rocks (or the Astro Orbitors placement) but the yeah the walls being there for 4(?) years now is ridiculous.
SuddenStorm
Well-Known Member
WDI is becoming far to reliant on meta humor. It's been a staple of every new addition in the last 10 years.
Make something good. And putting a ride control panel in the queue isn't good theming.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
It’s not even in the right land. Lol
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Can you imagine if they opened New Tomorrowland in 1967 and in the pre-show of Monsanto's Adventure Thru Inner Space there was a rusty upside-down control panel salvaged from the Flying Saucers?
No, I can't either. Because WDI in the past had taste and style, and knew when to move on.