Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Isn't there a FP for illuminations now? I don't think I will ever understand the need for that unless they either issue blindfolds to anyone that doesn't get one or perhaps someone is unable to look up and see the fireworks. Perhaps a better viewing spot, but, how many were ever able to get that in the past unless you were willing to stand in place for about three hours. No show would ever be worth that much a waste of my life. I saw so many people with a FP for Philharmagic and yet for some strange reason we all got to see the show at exactly the same time. Whoda thunk it?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>I'll go to Epcot to finish my day with a glass or two of wine in France while I view Illuminations. No reservation required.<< But wouldn't it be nice if you could wander into Epcot, hop on Soarin' with no wait, and then head over to your wine and fireworks? If park hopping was allowed, you could still have a quick stress-free visit, but you could also get on a headline attraction withotu waiting >>Isn't there a FP for illuminations now?<< Yes, and it's a top-tier FP (along with Test Track, Soarin', Maelstrom, and...the Character Spot...why?). From what I saw in the park, it looked like the reserved viewing areas were at Showcase Plaza (near the main bridge from Future World), the island near International Gateway, and the Venitian island in front of the Italy pavilion. Those locations all have nice views of the show, but even with FP+ you still need to get there early, since it's all open space any way Parades, fireworks, and shows at the other parks also have FP now, with their own reserved viewing areas
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<From what I saw in the park, it looked like the reserved viewing areas were at Showcase Plaza (near the main bridge from Future World), the island near International Gateway, and the Venitian island in front of the Italy pavilion. Those locations all have nice views of the show, but even with FP+ you still need to get there early, since it's all open space any way>> I'll stick with my location in France. The view isn't great, but the wine is. ;-)
Originally Posted By RoadTrip In many ways information overload and planning have greatly diminished the Disney park experience... especially for first-time guests. When I first visited WDW in 1991 the internet as we know it today didn't exist. There were guidebooks but I wasn't aware of them at the time. My first visit came with no expectations whatsoever. It was GREAT. Everything was new, exciting and exceeded expectations because I really had none. I'm sure my touring was highly inefficient, and I spent time on some attractions that could have been better spent on attractions I bypassed. But it was a fantastic experience. I still try to approach my visits, to the extent possible, in the same way. I know that each day I will experience some things in a way different than I have in the past.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "I'm currently going through the My Disney Experience to plan things for a quick trip in a couple weeks, and have a few more observations:" Do you do anything other than take trips to DW or DL?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Yep, I also plan my trips to WDW and DL. Given how complicated it's becoming, that's practically a fulltime job of its own at the moment!
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORGOCH: No Goofyernmost, ducklin', I ain't the one who's makin' things more complicated. Walt Dizzy Whirl management is! Just read what hopemax had ta say an' I rest my case...
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh I like that you can use fp+ for character meets and premium viewing spots for parades and some shows. Sometimes those are the things that are the priority. When we were there back in October, I used one of our fp+ for Illuminations, and it was great to have a killer view without camping out for hours. We also used a couple for meeting characters. As far as keeping track of times, the phone app worked fine. I had some trouble getting mydisneyexperience to work 100%, but that wasn't one of the problems. As far as getting the times you want for the experiences you want, I was able to lock in my three choices, then go into an individual choice and change the time or even the attraction without changing the other two. So far, the whole thing seems to work much better than obamacare.
Originally Posted By LadyandtheTramp First problem, is that I have a Windows smartphone, and there is no My Disney Experience so I can't use that. We were at MK today, and got our 3 fastpasses. The problem is that it took us 15 minutes in line to get to the CM to get our FPs. That ended up ok, with a Space Mountain FP in 30 minutes, Pirates at 1 hour and 30 minutes, and Peter Pat in 4 hours. Which we were not planning to stay for, but your are mandated to pick 3 FPs. So our FP at Peter Pan kept someone else from using. We went on Space ok, but then walked over through Fantasyland and everything had extraordinaryly long lines. The FP return for Peter Pan at 2:00 was 1/2 hour long. Haunted Mansion was 45 minutes. Believe it or not, the Tiki line was out the quque and over to the Tiki statutes. We waited for our Pirates FP, and that line (for FP) was out to the stroller parking, so we skipped that. I don't know if it is My Disney Experience or something else, but the lines were horrible.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Judging from the reports I've read MyMagic+ is only as complicated as you want to make it. Considering the number of times I've experienced every ride at WDW (either there or at some other Disney park) why would I stress myself out if I missed a few of my favorites? Anything that conveniently reduces waits, even if its for one or two rides during my trip, outweighs everything else for me.
Originally Posted By TMICHAEL Wow, from the sounds of it, I'm definitely not heading back any time soon, if ever. It appears that you will never be able to have a spontaneous WDW experience ever again. Too bad.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Sure you can. No one says you HAVE to use it. I just don't get the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands...
Originally Posted By leobloom My concern is the kiosks will be awful to deal with when you have long lines of clueless guests. My prediction is you'll have guests given the option of choosing FP for a bunch of attractions that they know nothing about. I can see them having to ask the CMs about the various options ("What's this Space Mountain? Is the Riverboat a scary ride? etc."). That could slow things down considerably.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> No one says you HAVE to use it. << To be fair, you didn't HAVE to use FP before, but you were at a disadvantage if you didn't. Of course, if all the "good" FP+s are gone by 11:00 during busy season, then you won't have to worry about using it, if you're an off-site guest.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Hey, I just left there, four days ago, with a totally offsite, spontaneous visit. There was nothing at all complicated about it. It was simple, almost as simple as my first visit 31 years ago. Complicated comes from staying onsite, feeling the necessity to depend on Disney Transportation, and making ADR's. Hopefully, this whole thing doesn't backfire on them and diminish onsite rather then enhance it.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>Of course, if all the "good" FP+s are gone by 11:00 during busy season, then you won't have to worry about using it, if you're an off-site guest.<<< I'm really not convinced that is what is going to happen. I don't know anymore then you do. If it's that way they will be having some problems to deal with. But, I prefer to wait and see what actually does happen.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>First problem, is that I have a Windows smartphone, and there is no My Disney Experience so I can't use that.<< I'm still rocking the Blackberry, so I'm in the same boat. If you really wanted to twak things, you could try to do it on the regular website from your phone, but I don't want to think about how slow that would be >>Believe it or not, the Tiki line was out the quque and over to the Tiki statutes.<< Do they still have the construction walls up at the entrance? When I was there a couple weeks ago, they had walls up that blocked 2 of the 3 rows for the pre-show, which could easily back things up into the walkway, even if there is room for all those people in the next showing Similar to you, I found nearly all of the waits at MK surprisingly long. HM and POTC were both in the 40 minute range for the majority of the day, with everything adjusted proportionally. I'm not sure if it's a result of FP+, or it was just busy in the park that day (Cosmic Ray's was a madhouse, so it could have been *that* busy), but none of the other parks on other days had any noteworthy crowds
Originally Posted By sjhym333 On Saturday the MK started out slow because of the rain but by the time we left at noon the place was packed. EPCOT was a lot less busy when we headed there next. Soarin and Test Track at 45 mins. We walked onto Maelstrom
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Has anyone else seen the new WDW TV commercials featuring the Magic Bands? I was surprised to see it air here in SF last night.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I saw one about a week ago, and was quite surprised to see it. It was interesting that they basically said "Stay at a WDW hotel so you can beta test this product". We all know that's what's been going on for a long time, but I didn't think they would advertise it like that so blantantly That said, the overall setup with Lumiere singing about the basic FP+ concept seemed to work pretty well at getting the point across quickly and clearly
