Sooooo Frustrated with FP+

[pcoleman]

So I checked almost every day or weeks before my window opened for FP+ and each time found 7DMR available. Thought this might not be a problem. My window opened and nothing is available.:confused: What happened. I even re-checked earlier dates again and times available. I am re-checking my dates regularly but so far nada. Any input? My only hope is try try before park closing. I am not going to try with the rest of the world at park opening.

[pcoleman]

Just another thought, I have never had to plan this much this far out. Hate it.

[DizneyRox]

Possibly hit a popular week.

Even at park opening, the line gets long fast. You can keep trying, but you don't have much in terms of options. That's the beauty of FP+, everybody is playing by the same rules (or so we think).

[Pirate Granny]

Do u have a large number to book? We booked ours in 2 and 3 persons and arrived together in the "window"

Good luck. we rode three times. Liked the night ride the best!

[VacationDisney]

We did not have an issue getting our FP+ ride for the 7DMR. It must be the week you are going to be there.

I sure hope all this planning pays off for our upcoming trip:thumbsup:

P.S. I agree with you. Planning a trip to WDW has never been so exhausting. We book our resort like 7 months out. Do the ADR's 3 months out. NOW we do rides 2 months out. Heaven help the first timers:confused:

[grumpyguy]

Just booked ours (party of four) for September and had no problem.Two seperate MK days and no problem either day.Must be a busy week?
Keep plugging and good luck:thumbsup:

[marlyn]

I was able to get 7 Dwarves on three separate days during my visit. Not sure why you can't. I suggest you keep trying :confused:

[Disney_Barbie]

same here, no issues getting our's for the most part...
We were just there earlier this month & secured 5 fast passes on two separate days for Dwarf's mine. We reserved those 2 months in advance & got our ideal times, ect. easy as pie!
Then we ended up adding another guest to the reservation only about 2 weeks prior & attempted to secure her the same fast passes as us, Dwarf's mine was the only ride that I could get her in both of the days (but I was able to get her in one of the days) so I can see how it would possible be in issue if you were trying to book only 1 or 2 weeks in advance.
But like I said, when I booked 2 months in advance I had no issues at all
It pays to be a planner @ Disney now

[lightyearfan]

P.S. I agree with you. Planning a trip to WDW has never been so exhausting. We book our resort like 7 months out. Do the ADR's 3 months out. NOW we do rides 2 months out. Heaven help the first timers:confused:

i enjoy the the new booking process for fastpass+, not sure about everyone else but me and dw know which park that were going to be at for that day even as far as 7 months out, and it's nice knowing that we don't have to get to DHS super early and bolt straight towards TSM just to get fastpasses, like everything else it's going to have it haters and lovers. but i could see 1st timers saying what the heck. just my 2cents


Victor

[mechanic]

We are not planners. We arrived july 6th with no linked tickets. Got tickets at hotel, concierge desk helped get them linked. Went to room used tablet to set up fp. (Mde app was updated just before our trip and no longer works on my cell). Was able to get almost every top level ride for at least one of our three days in parks (except 7dmr, tsm and tt). Thinking they must hold some time slots back for last minute bookings. All in all it was pretty smooth and easy. I made an error one day and only booked one fp for each ride, instead of 2. Explained it to ride attendant and was let on with my wife for all 3 choices.

[spoiledraf]

We thought FP+ was a breeze. So many complain that they are on vacation and don't want to work so hard at planning. What is so hard??? Before fast pass plus, if you weren't at Toy Story at the Studios before 10, you didn't ride. Epcot after 10 for soaring, FP return time was at dinner time. Most of the top rides at every park were the same. Now I know when I am going to ride. I can sleep a little later, have breakfast, and actually relax on my vacation! I don't understand how so many commando types think this is harder?! What's harder and less relaxing than being up at 6:30, racing to rope drop and staying til midnight for 5 or 6 days?
The system is evolving. They continue to tweak it. In a couple more years, it will be the norm. People will adjust.
In case you haven't noticed, the parks are full year round now. There is no slow time. They must be making somebody happy. (Me, me, me,)
As always, those complaining make a lot more noise than those who are satisfied. And for Disney, full parks mean an awful lot of people are happy. Money talks. To the complainers, adapt and overcome.

[etibbetts]

We go for 14 nights and do ten day park tickets. Other than the first few days, it is hard to know what park we are going to feel like going to or even what days to leave with no FP+ (as we could only book 10 days since that is what our tickets are). We go to the water parks on our non-park days and we typically choose those by weather. So I agree, it is a pain to decide 60 days out. However, on the other hand, going in September we use to use maybe 1-2 FP a day. So many times we'd get to the park and the big attraction FP were out to late that it interferred w/ dinner or something. I'll be using the new FP+ for the first time this September (we were on paper FP last trip), so I'll wait to see how I like it once I use it.

The way I look at it, I took a best guess on what I booked and if our plans change, I'll see what I can change the FP to as I go. If nothing is available, it's no worse than when I would get to the park and see no paper FP available.

[lightyearfan]

We thought FP+ was a breeze. So many complain that they are on vacation and don't want to work so hard at planning. What is so hard??? Before fast pass plus, if you weren't at Toy Story at the Studios before 10, you didn't ride. Epcot after 10 for soaring, FP return time was at dinner time. Most of the top rides at every park were the same. Now I know when I am going to ride. I can sleep a little later, have breakfast, and actually relax on my vacation! I don't understand how so many commando types think this is harder?! What's harder and less relaxing than being up at 6:30, racing to rope drop and staying til midnight for 5 or 6 days?
The system is evolving. They continue to tweak it. In a couple more years, it will be the norm. People will adjust.
In case you haven't noticed, the parks are full year round now. There is no slow time. They must be making somebody happy. (Me, me, me,)
As always, those complaining make a lot more noise than those who are satisfied. And for Disney, full parks mean an awful lot of people are happy. Money talks. To the complainers, adapt and overcome.

well said i agree 110% on everything that you stated im glad that someone else has noticed that the parks are jammed all year round, i tried to explain this on another thread that the last 3 trips in late Sept mind you me and dw couldn't sniff spaceship earth as the lines were wraping around both sides of the attraction, needless to say since we've done this ride multiple times we didn't ride the same could of been said for test track we were lucky and got soarin for a 630pm fp return, i'm rambling again nicely said

VIctor:mickey::thumbsup:

[spoiledraf]

Another thought....
I have read that you can now get another fast pass once you have used or passed the time slot of all your previous FP+ times. How is this any different from the old fast pass? You could only use or acquire one at a time before and so it is again. You just have to schedule early times then go as you wish. And just like the old paper FP, some rides will be booked solid, which see ms to be another complaint of the "I don't want to plan" group. You always had to plan. Now it's just a different technique!
Adapt my friends adapt.
The World is still evolving!

[DizneyRox]

How is this any different from the old fast pass? You could only use or acquire one at a time before and so it is again.
Actually it is a lot different. The old system allowed you to grab another about 5 minutes before the start of the upcoming FP. For me, that allowed me to run to another attraction, grab a FP for everyone and run back.

You could also get one two hours after your last one. This is the biggest change. At 10am I get a FP for Soaring with a return time of 2pm, I could actually get another FP at 12pm. Then get another at 2pm right before I rode Soarin.

It's actually significantly more crippled than the previous implementation. Good or bad, I think the jury is still out on it. It's probably better for the more casual WDW visitor, bad for first time visitors as well as commando style visitors, really bad for locals.

[indytraveler]

I feel for you pcoleman. My family went a few weeks back over the 4th of July week. Problem with us trying to schedule 60 days out was, my son was playing in a baseball tournament at ESPN WWoS. The baseball schedule didn't come out until a week ahead of when we arrived.

By the time we arrived all FP's for 7DMR were taken for the week. So much for getting a fighting chance to ride that attraction. We did however ride it and waited 45-50 min in standby line.

My biggest problem with FP+ is that if we weren't staying on property and we just showed up at the park and spent all that $ to get in and went to get our FP's for the day only to find out that the 1 ride we wanted to go on was "sold out" I wouldn't be happy. Yes, I know we were there during a holiday week. We were at WDW during Xmas week last winter and rode everything we wanted to do with the old FP system. As a matter of fact on Xmas Eve, we were in the MK and with the old FP system the longest queue we waited on all day was Goofy's Barnstormer for 45 min.! We were staying off property at the All-Star Vacation Home Rental. If we did that now we wouldn't be able to get our FP's until we got to each individual park.

As a matter of fact AK was utilizing this system then and my brother and family went there and was totally annoyed by the process. No they weren't 1st timers either. I do see what Disney is trying to do. They want their resorts full, which fills up their parks and keeps as much $ on the property. By increasing the parking and admission prices 2x a year they are doing just that.

Sorry I got off topic a little, but all this goes hand in hand and I'm not buying. At least my kids are all grown and they got to experience WDW at their young age.

[Mickey91]

I like being able to us my Magic Band and not keep up with passes. Short of that I hate the new system. We are staying onsite in Sept. My DH and I have APs and we are planning to use the 2day tickets toward an AP for my daughter. But, until we get there, she only has a 2day ticket in her name for fastpasses. So it doesn't even matter that we are staying onsite cause we will still only get that day's passes for most of our trip. Then you add in the tier system at EPCOT and DHS. There isn't enough on tier 2 to even make it worth using FP. Most of the tier two rides are walk on anyway.
We were able to ride everything we wanted in a day at each park except MK and EPCOT which usually took two days with the old FP system. We were able to ride our favorites more than once. Now we can't get n all the rides with FP. It is really annoying The new system is not worth the money spent.

[mechanic]

Just a few points positive and negative:
I thought it worked fairly well. The last minute choices were plentiful.

I still think they must hold back some availability for the day of arrival bookings. If I am wrong then it's something they need to do so balances out for locals and day ticket holders.

45 minutes isn't bad for the hottest new ride.

Christmas eve is actually the least crowded day of the holiday season.

If you didn't have a smart phone, the kiosk lines were as long as the ride lines.

There is really no reason they shouldn't be able to offer park hopping fastpasses.

Magic bands are better than I thought they would be, but need work. Had to remove them at hotel doors and hotel drive up gates to get proper angle.

[Pirate Granny]

Caution....those 2 day tickets are now going to be linked to your name...may be hard to take both of your tickets and have them roll it into an AP for daughter....

[VWL Mom]

We are staying onsite in Sept. My DH and I have APs and we are planning to use the 2day tickets toward an AP for my daughter.


Caution....those 2 day tickets are now going to be linked to your name...may be hard to take both of your tickets and have them roll it into an AP for daughter....

Pirate Granny is correct, if the two day tickets are part of a package you will only be able to use her ticket towards her AP.

[pcoleman]

Update: So, I ?HATE ?THIS PROCESS even more. Since we are staying at SOG we are considered off site so had to wait till 30 day mak and had to go into system EVERYDAY at midnight to obtain fastpasses. Don't know why Disney won't let SOG link days all together. I get the 60/30 day thing. Have to have something to encourage staying on site. Two of my days Disney was having internet problems and couldn't get in until 2am. One day Disney decided to do a software update. Why they would choose this time is beyond me. With all that said. Huge problems trying to get what we want at the times we want. Is the entire world going this week? I have been stalking the site and last night I was able to grab ONE FP for 7DMT. I had to re-schedule all my passes and pray I could redo times back with est of my family. I will continue to keep trying but we are a family of 4. With all that said, a vacation shouldn't be this hard. I'm the Disney nut in my family and have decided this will be last Disney trip for a long time.

[DizneyRox]

Pirate Granny is correct, if the two day tickets are part of a package you will only be able to use her ticket towards her AP.
You could only ever use one ticket for upgrades to another.

Are you saying that tickets are now linked to a person upon purchase with a package? Used to be upon first use via the ticket tag (biometric) system. That's a pretty big change as well, I never, ever, EVER would do a package, but that would be a little known fact I think needs more attention.


...I'm the Disney nut in my family and have decided this will be last Disney trip for a long time.
I'm hearing this a lot lately...

[pcoleman]

What people don't understand is i had to go in system every night to make FP only for one day that was released. I don't have a package. I am at Shades of Green. I have 7day tickets. Each night disney will only release one day for these off site tickets. Only those staying on site can make them 60 days out and all at once for entire length of stay.

[indytraveler]

I'm the Disney nut in my family and have decided this will be last Disney trip for a long time.

We said the same thing after our last visit earlier this month


What people don't understand is i had to go in system every night to make FP only for one day that was released. I don't have a package. I am at Shades of Green. I have 7day tickets. Each night disney will only release one day for these off site tickets. Only those staying on site can make them 60 days out and all at once for entire length of stay.


Thanks for clearing up staying off site and tickets

[DizneyRox]

What people don't understand is i had to go in system every night to make FP only for one day that was released. I don't have a package. I am at Shades of Green. I have 7day tickets. Each night disney will only release one day for these off site tickets. Only those staying on site can make them 60 days out and all at once for entire length of stay.
I didn't think the 30 rule was confusing. I figured that since they don't know how long you were staying, then 30 days was 30 days. The reason 60+ days works is they know how many days you are staying (be it 1 day or even 60). When off site, they don't know and don't want to let someone take fastpasses away from people who are actually staying there.

Disney really needs to be a little more consistent though with on-site vs off-site. Anything ON Disney property I would think should be considered on-site and be given the same perks as such. Because SOG hasn't made a deal with Disney, but Swan Dolphin hasn't shouldn't be up to the guests to deal with/figure out.