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Not to say I disagree with any of your points, but as a super-organized person I am glad with the new FP+ and ADR system. It puts all my stresses and worries away about my vacation ahead. I also think it might not be a bad idea for Disney to offer FP+ to resort guests only or offer less FP+ to off-site guests. Just my two cents. And as homeschool mom said, I am just fortunate I am able to visit WDW no matter what FP or ADR system they have.
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Originally Posted by Ian
<BEGIN MINI-RANT>
This is supposed to be a VACATION!! Relaxing, enjoyable, away from all the craziness of regular life and I swear it's gotten to the point where the "vacation" is more stressful than work! Worrying about Fastpasses so much you stoop to scamming the system??? Look at all the crazy lengths people go to to get ADR's?!?! I mean it's risen to the level of absurdity.
</Mini-rant over>
This is a Disney vacation. This is no time for relaxation or enjoyment. (Think of Tom Hank's voice saying There's no crying in baseball.)
To me, the FP+ spreads the anxiety out, and takes away from it. But, that is progress. I do like the billing to the bracelet.
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2016 POR
2015 CS
2014 WDW-Offsite
2014 Disneyland-offsite
2014 CBR
2013 Dolphin
2012 POR
2012 WDW-Offsite
2011 ASMusic, POR
1998 Dixie Landings
1990's, Dixie Landings, Misc Offsite
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Until I saw last two post I thought hubby and I were in a minority of two! We like booking Fastpasses and ADR's as it takes stress out of where we're going to eat and how long we have to wait for rides. Knowing we've got favourite rides "booked" and a place to sit and eat in a relaxed manner in advance means less stress. Hubby's disability means we're not opening to closing people and what he can do, for how long and pain level varies day to day. Having some things already sorted means not having to worry.
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I actually enjoy the FP+ and ADR because I love planning and the stretched out planning helps to build anticipation for the trip. As my father has said for many years (even in the pre FP and ADR days) Disney World is a work vacation so just go into it with that mindset. If I want a completely relaxing vacation with minimal planning I head to the beach or on a cruise.
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- Brian
First WDW visit: 1984, Village Resort
Last WDW visit: 2015, Caribbean Beach
Next WDW visit: 2018, Polynesian
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Originally Posted by ian
I am totally over fastpass. Any kind of fastpass ... Paper ... + ... Whatever. Just wait in line for heaven's sake!! It worked in disneyland for like 50 years, so what now all of a sudden we're too special to just wait in line for a ride. I firmly believe that if they got rid of fastpass the lines would settle in and everything would have a much more modest wait.
This is supposed to be a vacation!! Relaxing, enjoyable, away from all the craziness of regular life and i swear it's gotten to the point where the "vacation" is more stressful than work! Worrying about fastpasses so much you stoop to scamming the system??? Look at all the crazy lengths people go to to get adr's?!?! I mean it's risen to the level of absurdity.
Put it back the way it was. No adr's. No fastpasses. Just go, relax, enjoy yourself, and de-stress. Eliminate the need for a microsoft project plan for vacations, disney, i beg of you!
amen!
I think, in part, that the other issue is Disney thinking that they NEED to know what the patron is doing at any particular time. Just because they can... but, should they?
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I thought Fastpass was created so guests would spend less time waiting in line and more time shopping/dining/spending money anywhere. It was never intended to be convenient for us as vacation goers, it's supposed to increase their bottom line.
~Nikki~
Last Trip: February 2024
Next Trips: April 2024
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I miss the OLD DISNEY DAYS when you could go and enjoy the magic. A time when you could see Mickey just walking down main street and stop and take a picture. But I guess society has changed so Disney had to change. Now it is more stress than rest. It lost some of the pixie dust in my eyes, but I still love to go.
As for Fastpass+ I feel it just adds to the disappointment months out. If the FPS are all gone now I know I will not get on that particular ride without a long wait which will eat up my day at the park. I usually by pass it and say next trip. I have only been on SDMT once and it was not worth the FP frenzy.
As for ADR's I think free dinning killed the Disney meal. It is a business and they need to make money. The food has IMHO gone down hill except at the signature restaurants. Everywhere else it is $$$$ for crowd pleasing foods that are not in any way worth the extra money. The ADR fill up fast to use up those credits and now you are forced to think about what you want to eat 180 days in advance.
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Originally Posted by BriarRose0708
I thought Fastpass was created so guests would spend less time waiting in line and more time shopping/dining/spending money anywhere. It was never intended to be convenient for us as vacation goers, it's supposed to increase their bottom line.
And bingo.. Great point.
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2016 POR
2015 CS
2014 WDW-Offsite
2014 Disneyland-offsite
2014 CBR
2013 Dolphin
2012 POR
2012 WDW-Offsite
2011 ASMusic, POR
1998 Dixie Landings
1990's, Dixie Landings, Misc Offsite
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Originally Posted by BriarRose0708
I thought Fastpass was created so guests would spend less time waiting in line and more time shopping/dining/spending money anywhere. It was never intended to be convenient for us as vacation goers, it's supposed to increase their bottom line.
That was the intended purpose but it hasn't worked as they imagined. We spend far more time standing in other lines that never had much of a wait prior to FP+. We used to FP the big name rides and blow right through the others that didn't have much of a wait with the paper FP system. We had all kinds of time for looking through shops and getting snacks and such but now, we spend most of our time in lines. By the time we get the attractions done, we are ready to get the heck out of there.
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Originally Posted by 1DisneyNut
That was the intended purpose but it hasn't worked as they imagined. We spend far more time standing in other lines that never had much of a wait prior to FP+. We used to FP the big name rides and blow right through the others that didn't have much of a wait with the paper FP system. We had all kinds of time for looking through shops and getting snacks and such but now, we spend most of our time in lines. By the time we get the attractions done, we are ready to get the heck out of there.
Exactly. What I should have added to that post is that no one can account for how people will actually behave - it's backfired on them in many ways, and it's also made our experience as guests more difficult in many ways. At the end of the day, though, I'll always choose to believe that guest experience is not necessarily the priority or the criteria used when the "powers at be" make decisions.
~Nikki~
Last Trip: February 2024
Next Trips: April 2024
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I agree with most on these issues. We still like going to Disney World but FP+ and the Disney Dinning Plan have done much to take away from the experience (magic). I want to say the dinning has improved a bit lately, but you still have a lot of industrial offerings that are more or less the same at each restaurant. I will always be a fan of the old FP system, where there was more spontaneity and less chance (if you got to the parks early, like we did) of not getting a FP unless you have an itinerary ironed out months in advance. It has made vacations and planning a bit more stressful. There is one advantage to FP+ in that you can be guaranteed of an E-ticket without standby and without having to get to the park really early, but the tiered system makes it so that is about all you will get. Perhaps they could split the FP+ to allow less spots for preplanning and then allow some for people that come to the park (like the old system - you have to be there to get it). I know there would be many issues with this, but it is just a thought. They may be better to just get rid of it all.
Of course, my biggest wish is that they took the money they spent on FP+ and added some more E-tickets - if they had done that, the lines would not be nearly as bad. As it is now, they have only a limited selection of E-tickets. I do believe this is getting better, but it took them a long time to realize it.
As mentioned, we still like Disney, but for a while they were spending all their resources on figuring out how to get every last dime out of people, rather than building new/more experiences. I am thankful to Universal for providing competition to push them towards building. I am still convinced that Disney World is far more concerned with getting new customers than getting people to return.
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After reading all these post and thinking about, you know what I hate the most about FP+ and the DDP? It's that I am always looking at my watch, trying to figure out if I have time to do something else before whatever it is I planned to do months in advance. Prior to the original FP system I almost never looked at my watch while I was in one of the parks.
Actually this past week I took a vacation day in the middle of the week, and took my kids to a local amusement park. The only time I looked at my watch was late in the day, when I was wondering how much time we had left until the park closed.
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Originally Posted by Park Hopper
Of course, my biggest wish is that they took the money they spent on FP+ and added some more E-tickets - if they had done that, the lines would not be nearly as bad. As it is now, they have only a limited selection of E-tickets. I do believe this is getting better, but it took them a long time to realize it.
Yeah I agree completely with this. They wasted close to $2 billion on this silly system that's turned a vacation in Disney World into something you need a PhD to complete successfully. If you consider they spent $100 million on Mission:Space, $2 billion could have built 20 new e-ticket caliber attractions. Probably not given that MS is like 20 years old now, but even if you double those costs you could have put 2-3 top quality attractions in each of the four parks. Now THAT would have cut down on wait times!
Originally Posted by Speedy1998
After reading all these post and thinking about, you know what I hate the most about FP+ and the DDP? It's that I am always looking at my watch, trying to figure out if I have time to do something else before whatever it is I planned to do months in advance. Prior to the original FP system I almost never looked at my watch while I was in one of the parks.
Actually this past week I took a vacation day in the middle of the week, and took my kids to a local amusement park. The only time I looked at my watch was late in the day, when I was wondering how much time we had left until the park closed.
Agree with this, as well. Even more so, I hate what it does to our kids. The opportunity to be spontaneous if there's an opportunity that presents itself for them to do something magical (like a character meet and greet or one of the little side shows or events they do around the parks) half the time you have to disappoint them and say, "No sorry we have a Fastpass for such-and-such in 10 minutes or no we have a dining reservation we can't be late for so you can't see Mickey Mouse."
I hate that as a parent.
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Originally Posted by Speedy1998
After reading all these post and thinking about, you know what I hate the most about FP+ and the DDP? It's that I am always looking at my watch, trying to figure out if I have time to do something else before whatever it is I planned to do months in advance. Prior to the original FP system I almost never looked at my watch while I was in one of the parks.
Originally Posted by Ian
Agree with this, as well. Even more so, I hate what it does to our kids. The opportunity to be spontaneous if there's an opportunity that presents itself for them to do something magical (like a character meet and greet or one of the little side shows or events they do around the parks) half the time you have to disappoint them and say, "No sorry we have a Fastpass for such-and-such in 10 minutes or no we have a dining reservation we can't be late for so you can't see Mickey Mouse."
I hate that as a parent.
This sums up my feelings about it as well. We visited WDW last month for the first time since 2012, the days of the old FP paper system. We did not have the dining plan because we didn't want to wind up with more time constraints, in addition to the pre-scheduled FP. I was disappointed in how little spontaneity we were able to have. Many times I felt like we were rushed for time and could not linger and enjoy the little side shows and things like that for more than a minute or two.
When we visited in 2012 we were able to be more spontaneous and because the lines were shorter, we were able to ride more, see more, do more. We met many characters with a 5-10 minute wait. In the summertime when crowds are high.
The kids know they want to ride the things you have FP for but they also get caught in the magic and want to stop and see this or do that and we have to keep on walking to get to where we need to be. I would say "we'll come back" but in most cases we never made it back there.
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IMO, Disney is cracking down on this because private VIP tour companies are taking a bite out of "official" Disney VIP tours. With constant crowds year round now there has never been a bigger demand for VIP tours with no waits. Obviously the official VIP tours get access to whatever Disney chooses to give (including underground tunnel movement and prime placement at shows and on rides.) Those tours cost a lot of nickels though and most of us aren't going to drop several thousand dollars for a day at the park to avoid lines.
A slightly less expensive option are the unofficial "VIP" tours. They cost less, use former cast members with lots of knowledge, and prepare everything, but by using a supply of annual passes they were able to provide lots of fast passes as well. This business model is why Mine Train fast passes are never available. VIP companies were reserving lots of good passes early in the day.
That business model is kind of sucky for people like me who aren't going to spend the coin for a VIP tour because a relatively small number of guests were getting lots of fast passes leaving fewer for everyone else. But I don't think Disney cares about that aspect. I do think they care about expanding their own official VIP tour business. If unofficial VIP tour companies can't provide a steady flow of fast passes then lots of their customers will spend the extra money for an official tour. And believe me, if there are guests with money in hand willing to pay thousands of dollars for no wait you'd better believe Disney will accommodate.
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Originally Posted by Ian
Yeah I agree completely with this. They wasted close to $2 billion on this silly system that's turned a vacation in Disney World into something you need a PhD to complete successfully. If you consider they spent $100 million on Mission:Space, $2 billion could have built 20 new e-ticket caliber attractions. Probably not given that MS is like 20 years old now, but even if you double those costs you could have put 2-3 top quality attractions in each of the four parks. Now THAT would have cut down on wait times!
Agree with this, as well. Even more so, I hate what it does to our kids. The opportunity to be spontaneous if there's an opportunity that presents itself for them to do something magical (like a character meet and greet or one of the little side shows or events they do around the parks) half the time you have to disappoint them and say, "No sorry we have a Fastpass for such-and-such in 10 minutes or no we have a dining reservation we can't be late for so you can't see Mickey Mouse."
I hate that as a parent.
You must have missed the official word from Disney that fastpass + INCREASED spontaneity.
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Originally Posted by sicemdawgs
IMO, Disney is cracking down on this because private VIP tour companies are taking a bite out of "official" Disney VIP tours. With constant crowds year round now there has never been a bigger demand for VIP tours with no waits. Obviously the official VIP tours get access to whatever Disney chooses to give (including underground tunnel movement and prime placement at shows and on rides.) Those tours cost a lot of nickels though and most of us aren't going to drop several thousand dollars for a day at the park to avoid lines.
A slightly less expensive option are the unofficial "VIP" tours. They cost less, use former cast members with lots of knowledge, and prepare everything, but by using a supply of annual passes they were able to provide lots of fast passes as well. This business model is why Mine Train fast passes are never available. VIP companies were reserving lots of good passes early in the day.
That business model is kind of sucky for people like me who aren't going to spend the coin for a VIP tour because a relatively small number of guests were getting lots of fast passes leaving fewer for everyone else. But I don't think Disney cares about that aspect. I do think they care about expanding their own official VIP tour business. If unofficial VIP tour companies can't provide a steady flow of fast passes then lots of their customers will spend the extra money for an official tour. And believe me, if there are guests with money in hand willing to pay thousands of dollars for no wait you'd better believe Disney will accommodate.
How did I miss all this going on? I feel guilty doubling up on child swap and Fastpass+, although it is sort of necessary in our current family situation. Maybe I will hire out our toddler to help people skirt the system. I seriously won't be going back till everyone is tall enough to ride everything.
It is the same thing that happened with the GAC card. People were taking advantage and then the people who really needed it paid the price.
The fact people would go through such great lengths to not have to wait in a line speaks volumes about society and mostly my generation of parents. Everyone's kids are too special to wait in line.
I would write more in my rant but I am currently experiencing double vision and migraines from starting at our laptop screen trying to plan my "spontaneous" vacation. Sure hope the kids are in the mood for Tower of Tower and the Brown Derby two months from now and they certainly better refer to the Clipboard of Fun before asking to use the toilet. Toilet breaks are highlighted in yellow!
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