WDW too much hassle?

Personally, I am all for FP+ because I no longer have to run into the park at rope drop to get a decent FP time for Soarin, TSM, or EE.

Now, I just stroll into the park and do whatever I feel like until it is time for my FP.

AgentC;2465205 wrote: Universal offers Express Pass at the Royal Pacific, Hard Rock and Portofino which together have 2400 rooms so assuming 4 people per room at any given time 9,600 people have automatic Express Pass.

Assuming WDW did the same thing and excluded the value resort approximately 20,000 rooms would be eligible. Taking that same 4 people per room you now have 80,000 people with front of the line privileges. If you include the values, the room count goes to 30,000 so now you have 120,000 people with front of the line privileges.

So looking at let's say EPCOT which has 11 bookable FP if you count illuminations and the character meeting and let pretend 1/4 of onsite guest visit EPCOT in a given day, you have potentially have 30,000 people with front of the line privileges for EPCOT and we know all of them are going to want to ride Test Track and Soarin. One site I found estimated that Soarin has a daily capacity of approximately 18,000 people (no idea if it is right. I'm not in that much of a math mood today. ;) ) But I think you can see the problem right there- 30,000 potential people with front of the line with a ride capacity of 18,000 just doesn't work.

Compare that to Universal where the Revenge of the Mummy ride has a capacity (again not my figure) of 2000 guest per hour so on a 10 hour day 20,000 people can ride and approximately 10,000 people will have include Express Pass. That works much better, right?

The only solution I really see for WDW is more attractions or less crowds.

Thank you for the extremely rational analysis of this situation. It "cuts to the chase".

The "The only solution I really see for WDW is more attractions or less crowds." gets to the core of the matter.

So the prices go up... and the un-sustainable demand level goes down. Particularly for the sort of "entitlement program" that they (likely regrettably) created for themselves : Fast Passes. Instead of being a bit of a "perk" ... it has come to be the totally expected.

SO,... less crowds and more attractions.

First off...... Move 1........ crowd control. Raise prices. The revenue stream stays the same, some expenses are curbed (less guests...less staff and logistical support), and the customer satisfaction rating among the guests that are there goes up. Sounds like a "win".

That strategy buys time to add Move 2...... park capacity (which they are doing). And when the capacity is added, that strategy allows the justification of further price increases. Sounds like a "win".

This works for a basic business model. It is sad for the people priced out of the market for sure. But then Disney World was and is not affordable for many folks. And despite all the "pixie dust" that floats around, it IS a business after all.

The shrinking middle class in the USA and the surging middle class in many other countries IS going to have an impact on their business model. If it didn't , someone in an expensive office would not be doing their job. Some folks do have the money to go. Park attendance increases prove this. Some folks who used to go X times a year are going X-minus something times a year. Some are not going at all anymore. But the attendance is up.... so enough are going that offset any losses their practices are maybe causing.

It is interesting to look at a graph of Disney's stock prices over the last say 10 years or so. Even the "crash" in 08 hardly shows a blip in the steady upward slope of that pretty steep line.

best,

................john

I don't mind basic planning but I agree. I think this is starting to go way too far.

I will book our TS dinners and because we have PH we go to whatever park we want and then go to where ever dinner is. If we change our mind about one as we get closer to the day, I'll cancel it.

FP I will book - without getting really bent about it and if we are in that park - great - if not, I'm not going to worry about it. WDW isn't about pounding through the rides for us anyway. We're about the atmosphere and time together. :cloud9:

I am a planner. We usually decide on going 7 or 8 months out. So when the 180 day mark comes for ADR's we are all set. We do the 7 day base park ticket.

We plan our vacation like this:

1. Pick our park day visits (i.e. Sunday- Epcot, Monday-Hollywood Studios, Tuesday-Magic Kingdom, Wednesday-Animal Kingdom and then repeat Epcot, Studios and MK for the remainder of the trip.

2. Pick where we want to eat. We are somewhat flexible with time and since we are at each of the parks twice, except AK, we are open to switching up the restaurants if necessary.

3. 60 day mark comes and we do the FP+. It was a hassle in the beginning, but we've been doing this 3 times now and it's working out great. We hardly ever got to ride Peter Pan before FP+ was available. There is NO way that I'll wait 45+ minutes for a ride. So, on our past 3 trips we had the pleasure of riding Peter Pan, as well as Soarin' & Toy Mania. Without the new FP+ system we'd probably not be riding these rides because of the wait times. Our last visit to WDW, May 2015, Toy Mania had a wait time of 120 minutes. Really? I won't wait for that amount of time.

We are finding out that some of the FP+ rides, during the day, have short times and we walk right up and hop on. Then we go back into the system and see if we can get a FP+ for something else that originally we did not pick.

To us WDW is about the rides as well as the details that are around the parks. We slow down, from time to time, to take it all in. Realizing how wonderful WDW is. It's a place to be a kid again, yes, but it's also a place to get lost in. Lost in the details, the amazing food, the beautiful resorts. EVERYTHING that keeps people coming back year after year.

For us, WDW is SO worth it:number1::thumbsup:

VacationDisney;2465235 wrote:

To us WDW is about the rides as well as the details that are around the parks. We slow down, from time to time, to take it all in. Realizing how wonderful WDW is. It's a place to be a kid again, yes, but it's also a place to get lost in. Lost in the details, the amazing food, the beautiful resorts. EVERYTHING that keeps people coming back year after year.

For us, WDW is SO worth it:number1::thumbsup:

You are not alone in your thinking. It's so wonderful to know that we're not the only ones who love everything about WDW. In only 29 days, We'll be kids in our happy place once again. We never make many ADRs and rarely used the old FP system. We decided to make several ADRs for our upcoming trip, including 2 lunches at BOG, and a few FP+'s for our must-do attractions, including 3 FP+'s each for the 7DMT and for Peter Pan. Most of the time, we'll stroll around and forget about schedules, while enjoying life. We'll continue doing Disney our way, park-hopping, visiting resorts, enjoying live performers, music, favorite CS meals, etc. and having a great time. Watch for us relaxing on a bench, people watching and enjoying a Mickey bar or another favorite treat in our chosen park of the day.

I would prefer not to have to book TS and FP so far in advance. But, the truth is, it really hasn't been that much of a problem for us. On a 10 day trip we'll have 3-5 TS meals at the most. That's all we're interested in, and we can usually book what we want.

We have always laid out a (flexible) plan of which days we'll be in which parks, just to avoid the "where do you want to go?" thing first thing in the morning. So, knowing what park we'll be in, how we typically walk through the park, and roughly when we'll be in each section, makes it fairly easy to choose FPs.

On our last trip we left our last few days completely FP free and had just as much fun.

Reedy Creek Buccaneer;2465177 wrote: It is going to get better, it will just take some time.

You win the award for the funniest post on the internet.

its only going to get worse. wait until they start using all the data they are collecting to squeeze even more pennies out of your pocket.

missymouseworld;2465182 wrote: Hang in there.....enjoy what you can and don't let the system ruin your vacation. If you are a frequent WDW traveler, get those one or two important rides/attractions at each park that you must do and then go from there. I like the parks, but enjoying WDW for me is much more than that....the restaurants, the resorts, the family time, etc.

I hope it all works out for you and enjoy your trip. :mickey:

That just sounds ridiculous. Pay top dollar for a subpart experience and be happy about it? seriously?

thejens;2465173 wrote: I love WDW and I love to plan...but the FPP just seems like the last straw.

I have been unable to commit in advance for a variety or reasons, but have been thinking about going to WDW and/or Universal this fall and it just seems like a trip to Universal seems so much less stressful. Book a room. Show up. Go to the head of the line. Enjoy lots of great restaurants without making reservations months in advance.

Planning a trip two months in advance at WDW seems ridiculously impulsive and practically irresponsible. Is that really how a vacation should be? Maybe I am getting old.

Thoughts?

Feeling the same way.:(

Reedy Creek Buccaneer;2465177 wrote: It is going to get better, it will just take some time.

Happy for your optimism but it isn't going to get better... it will only get worse...

We've done the fast pass + system twice now. We've really, really enjoyed it both times. Perhaps we are in the minority but we enjoyed not having to run for fast passes. With a 1 year old now we REALLY enjoy not having to split up to grab fast passes then backtrack to an attraction. We like knowing we will get on our favorite attractions without issue even if we can't make it into the park until 11am. Even with the early glitchy app we didn't have issues moving around fast pass plus reservations the day off even just an hour or two before ride times.

I've been going to disney world since 1987 and this has made our trips better.

We just started planning a trip for 6 in december. I won't lie, I'm a spreadsheeter. For a 7 day trip we made 8 ADRs without hassle, at 130 something days out. We'll pick tentative fast pass plusses at 30 days. We're excited to do it. For our style of vacation the whole my magic plus system works.

We actually enjoy the planning. We go yearly so starting about three months after we come home we look at traffic calenders and menus. six months out we book dining and activities like Pirates League. We then can talk amongst our family to see who is most excited for what and it helps with our 4 year old to show her youtube videos of rides and restaurants(she likes to see where she is going to go and helps with preparing her for things that might scare her like haunted mansion). 60 days out we get fastpasses for our cannot miss attractions but we feel like all the preplanning helps.

It takes the confusion out of who wants to do what each day as far as park and food goes. We have time inbetween meals to do what we want. We also utilize the fourth, fifth and sixth etc fastpass after we use up our must dos and let our daughter decide whatever they have available that she wants to do. For us it's nice to have something Disney to do all year and to have the decisions made before we go on stuff that most don't agree on "on the fly". But I can see how some would get aggravated. It's a lot, we just happen to enjoy our Disney fix by planning.

RunDMV;2465261 wrote: That just sounds ridiculous. Pay top dollar for a subpart experience and be happy about it? seriously?

A subpar experience is not acceptable, but just trying to encourage the poster not to let the FPP booking system ruin their vacation and planning process at a place that they obviously love, which was apparent in their post.

I can't help but be hopeful (heck, I'm a Mets fan) for things to get better, as another poster said. If not, then vacations will change and that will be unfortunate.

I was a little skeptical with booking things in advance. I loved the fact that we could go and ride what we liked. We never used the old FP paper days. BUT now I wouldn't have it any other way. I plan a trip and ask the kids "what do you really want to ride?" than I book that park with FPP for the day and get what they really want. I book at times I know we will be up and ready (nothing early morning) I know how the kids are and I would never make it in the parks before Noon. The best part of FFP is you know exactly what you are riding and when. after they are gone we just wing it for the rest of the day. As for dinner we really never make reservations because the kids like to eat when ever and where ever, so we play that one by ear.. Trust me I was really against the whole FP+ when it came out, but give it a chance and you will see. It makes the day go better. Knowing you are going to get the rides you want.

Now they ask me to "make sure you get this ride or that ride" months in advance.. It's nice knowing when we get there we are a sure thing for the ride we want..And not rushing to make it before the crowds or FP is gone..

Is it a "hassle" to have to book these details in advance. Well, yeah, no question it's a bother that has to be dealt with. And there are a few people who seem to enjoy it, nothing wrong with that, if it floats your boat. But for the rest of us, the real question is: "Is it worth the "hassle"?

Disney seems to be betting really big that most guests will find that it is worth it to have the benefits that come from extra planning.

For us, visiting this past Christmas week with free dining (first and only time we've been to WDW since FP+ was started) we found that the advantage of having FP's for attractions like 7DMT and TSM (we saw standby wait times as long as 180 minutes) and getting ressies at the places we wanted to dine on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was definitely worth the hassle of being up at midnight months before to book them.

At different times of year, your mileage may vary.