no FPs ??

Lines are long. Generally speaking, it's beneficial to get a FP if you really want to ride something. Mine Train for example has long lines almost immediately after park opening (check the app), so it pays to have one. The 'lesser' rides don't seems to be that bad.

Disney wouldn't be handing out paper fast passes and shutting down the standby lines if the lines weren't long.

They just came off their summer crowds, so it might die down a little, but crowd levels don't swing as much as they used to.

EeyoresBestFriend;2429915 wrote: Has anybody tried going and not bothering with any FPs? Or to get less than the three?

How are the standby lines generally? Thoughts?

We're wondering the same thing. I see on some trip reports that folks had fp+ for a certain attraction that had a standby wait that was acceptable. Of course you have to get 3 if you get any.

My niece has the app on her phone and checks wait times when she has a chance (pre-trip fix). In the last week or so she's seeing acceptable (20 min or less) wait times on a lot of our favorite attractions. Yes, some others - Buzz maybe - have 50 min or more waits.

Our next trip - the fp+ experiment trip - is the 3rd week of January. Crowd levels for our first three days are high - MLK weekend - but after that crowd levels are low. We'll be at least five, veteran WDW guests.

Saturday is our arrival day, and not a park day. Sunday we're opening Epcot - with fp+ (we hope - haven't gotten to our 60 day window yet) but we're not doing any afternoon park - we're going to Hoop De Do Revue!

Monday is also a non park day - 1900 Park Fare for a late breakfast and maybe some resort touring near Epcot. Tuesday, which is to be a low crowd day, we're opening Magic Kingdom without fp+ and using them for Hollywood Studios in the afternoon - must do Toy Story Mania.

We're opening AK another day, planning no fp+ til our afternoon park. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck with your trip planning.

Jan

We went this past December without getting FP+ rides in advance and it was HORRIBLE. We will NEVER do that again.

Lines were EXTREMELY long and we spent so much time waiting for rides it was frustrating to say the least. We have been 4 or 5 times the first week in December and this was the worst trip EVER as far as wait times for rides and just the crowds alone. Epcot World Showcase was PACKED with people. You could hardly find an opening to get past some slow moving people:thedolls: The walkway was packed with people.

We were a little lucky this past trip as Disney had not eliminated the FP machines. We were able to use them and did get to do some of the rides that ABSOLUTELY require a FP (like Toy Mania).

We are ALL set for our trip at the end of this month and got our FP+ rides all picked out:thumbsup:

Just another reason to hate this new FP+ system. To me, it puts a major cloud over the trip, and will reduce the number of WDW trips we do. Since I hate DL, that means new or alternate vacation options. I like the "fp" system at Universal.

VacationDisney;2430111 wrote: We went this past December without getting FP+ rides in advance and it was HORRIBLE. We will NEVER do that again.

Lines were EXTREMELY long and we spent so much time waiting for rides it was frustrating to say the least. We have been 4 or 5 times the first week in December and this was the worst trip EVER as far as wait times for rides and just the crowds alone. Epcot World Showcase was PACKED with people. You could hardly find an opening to get past some slow moving people:thedolls: The walkway was packed with people.

We were a little lucky this past trip as Disney had not eliminated the FP machines. We were able to use them and did get to do some of the rides that ABSOLUTELY require a FP (like Toy Mania).

We are ALL set for our trip at the end of this month and got our FP+ rides all picked out:thumbsup:

Don't forget:

Last December, guests were still double dipping in the FP+ and legacy FP.

That is no longer an issue.

We're here now, and finding that many of our FP+ choices were a waste ... we really didn't need them.

Now, for some things (like TSMM, Peter Pan, Soarin') they are a MUST, and I'd recommend them for others (like Haunted Mansion, which now always seems to have a 45 minute line), but for others, they have been a basic walk-on, FP+ or not.

So, you have to book for the "big" things (New Mine Train for example), and since you have to book three, you might as well book for other things that are must-do's.

We're finding that mornings are still pretty slow, so you can get a lot done without FP+, and then use FP+ later in the day, or at a second park if you're park hopping.