Disney Fast Pass Plus (good idea or Bad idea)

[The_Doge]

My family and I are going to head down to Florida and enjoy The Magical Disney World it holds but lots of things have changes in about a year or so. Last year when my family went we heard rumors about the Fast Pass Plus but, luckily, they were not in affect yet. Now that were going in 2014 and the Fast Pass changed from getting tickets to setting up in advanced, it sound nicer than running around the park hoping to get a time you want from the machine. A couple of days ago we were setting up the fast pass plus and finding out that the fast passing is worse than its ever been, in my families opinion. The fast pass schedule that you get to set up can be set up 60 day before you go to the park, BUT if you are not staying on property than you can only set up the times for the Fast Passing 30 days before you go to the park. PLUS if your not staying on property than you can only do 3 times for fast passing instead of planning all the times for fast passing rides if your staying on property.
SO THEN when my mom, the one who is in charge of the times for fast passing and schedule for rides, HAS ONLY 3 passes she can get BUT when she tried to get time for the rides we want all the good times are taken and all the fast passes that are left are usually at 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM. ( no one likes to go on rides that late) Anyways to make a long story short we got the times we wanted and agreed that we hate the new system for fast passing. So guys what are your guys opinion on the new Fast Passing do you Like it or Hate it?

 

[Drewby]

I like the new system. It helps keep my day organized: Splash Mountain at 1pm, Parade at 3, Space Mountain at 6, Dinner reservations at 7, and Thunder Mountain at 8. Then Wishes is at 10.
Some people don't like having their whole day planned out, but time management gives you more free time than if you were running from attraction to attraction getting the fastpasses like the old system. The new way, you just hop on your app and select what you want.

You are correct, if you are not staying on property, you can only select reservations 30 days in advance. But this is not so bad. FastPass times rarely fill up. I am an annual passholder and I live 40 mins out from WDW; needless to say, I am there weekly. Sometimes our visits are so impromptu that I end up making FP+ reservations the day before, or sometimes even the morning of!! I rarely run into issues with good slots being taken up. Anna and Elsa character meet ups are almost always booked, and since the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is new, that is booked too. But I never have an issue with other attractions.. When is your family visiting?

Also, everybody is restricted to 3 passes for reservation in advance, but there's a feature called the "rolling"/"4th" fastpass. After you use all 3 pre-reserved passes, you can visit a kiosk in the park and reserve 1 more attraction that is not fully booked. Then, after you redeem this "4th" pass, you can revisit a kiosk and reserve another fastpass, which is where the "rolling" name comes from. Thus, as the night progresses, the selections get worse and worse, but hey! anything beats waiting in line!!

edit: feel free to ask any more questions. I know a lot about this new system. I might as well be a FP+ cast member

 

[Anubis]

Last time I was at disney world they had the old fast passes, and I loved them, they let us ride almost all the rides in only 1 day. We got to go to all 3 parks and ride the major ones because of them and I like that system. The new way doesn't seem like a way to make fast passes easier, but more of a way to get people to stay in the in-park hotels. I liked the way everything was set up with the old fast passes, but I should try out the new fast passes before making a true judgement.

 

[Bird]

I enjoy the new system. It makes everything easier. They're getting all the kinks out still, but all is going well with the system. My favorite part of the entire system is when cast members get asked " Wheres Fast Track? And do i need a test pass to get in quick? " I laugh to hard inside when i hear that. A LOT of people mix up Test Track and Fast Pass.

 

[Bindingkey]

it's good when you KNOW what rides are the regularly long lines. there's no point to getting an advanced fastpass for a ride with a 10 minute wait, especially if the queue line is essentially part of the experience itself.

 

[CaptainGianna]

I havn't used the new system yet. But I do like that disney doesn't charge unlike universal who does charge. I think it's unfair to charge extra money to be able to cut the lines. By what I am hearing I think its crazy to start planning your day out 60 days in advanced so I do think that the original method was better. But this new method allows disney to give a benefit to their hotel guests because like in Universal they give a free fast pass to people staying at the hotel. Having stayed at both disney and universal hotels, I personally believe that Disney is a lot better!