Hola! Yes it is me the infamous Anonymouse! I know you missed me! Well, everyone is all in a tizzy over the Magicbands and Fastpass+ so I figured I would add some fuel to the fire with some new things I have heard about Fastpass+. Apparently Chippy does not have as much pull as he thinks he does because he has not been able to get me into the Fastpass+ trials that have been going on.
Anyway back to the topic. I have been hearing that Fastpass+ is not all it’s cracked up to be. There have been so many people booking Fastpass+ that there are no paper fastpasses for the people at the parks that have not been lucky enough to get Fastpass+ yet. So needless to say that leads to a lot of guests not feeling so magical. They are trying to find a balance between both, but not sure how permanent that is since I heard that once Fastpass+ is totally rolled out that paper Fastpasses will be gone.
Remember guys and gals this is all just gossip at this point. Nothing is set in stone yet. You know that as soon we know you will know.
Anywho, that is all the Disney gossip I have for now. For my past gossip articles be sure to check them out here. Got any good gossip/rumors please email me at aonoymouse@chipandco.com or on my Facebook page.
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We were also there the week of 10/13 and had some problems. Despite staying at Wilderness Lodge we were not eligible for the Magic Bands/Fast pass plus and noted all fastpasses were out very early in the day. If it wasn’t for my daughter having a disability access card we wouldn’t have been able to go on certain rides at all. I complained at the hotel but was told the system is still in testing phase.
Those staying offsite will be using FP+ also once the conversion is complete. your RFID ticket will give you access to the new FP+ kiosks and the MyDisneyExperience application on a smartphone. Both of those will be your window to FP+.
We’re seeing a lot of reports from people onsite at WDW this week and some of those have been told that 50% of fastpass inventory was shifted to FP+. Makes sense since this week we are at the point of all resorts live on MagicBands and FP+. They will need to finish this migration more quickly and stop issuing KTTW cards to stop “double dipping” in both systems.
This has been my concern since I first heard of this band and it’s capabilities a few months ago. It is only offered to those staying at a Disney resort – we have time share down there so we don’t stay with Disney. I had heard that with these bands you can schedule ahead of time your rides (not sure if you can yet) so when they do away with the paperless fastpass, what happens to the rest of us who want to fastpass a ride?
Very not fair and I know that some folks have been using both Fastpass+ and the paper ticket fast pass. I have seen some of the bracelets for sale. I wondered if people think they can use them for things like Fastpass+ at Disney.
I hope Disney finds a way to make this system as fair as is possible. I agree about the double dipping on the Fast Passes. Don’t be greedy people – it’s an unfair advantage. Everyone wants to have a great time at Disney, so as the Girl Scouts say, be “Honest and Fair.”
i’m currently at disney world. i love the connivence in how flexible the fastpass+ system is. but today i was in epcot and Soarin’ and Test Track paper fast passes were sold out I’m pretty sure before noon. i would recommend for people who are still using the paper fastpasses would be to go ahead and get your fastpass as soon as you arrive in the park, especially if you think that they will be sold out later. the rides that were sold out this week while i’ve been here was soarin, test track, toy story mania and rockin’ roller coaster and space mountain. we haven’t had a single issue with our magic bands this week.
this is all just so confusing. we are going in January and I have no idea how to use this system. We do not have smart phones so I am hoping we can still get paper fast passes since I believe that magic bands are going to be at all the resorts by then.
we just returned – we had FP+ and we used paper passes – we had no problem getting paper passes.
This is Totally false with the Magic Band system. They are not connected to the paper FP. So I had a FP+ for a ride and a paper fp overlapping by 45 min. Therefore at the SAME time… not on purpose of course, but before I headed to Splash for FP+, I pulled a FP for Ariel’s and it was coming up quick, about an hour or so. There is no connection and I had that confirmed by this and by a few CMs.
Also the only rides I saw FPs running out early on were the ones that always did….SOarin, TSM, etc. You always had to run straight to those rides at 9 to get a FP….this is not new.
We were recently there at the beginning of October. We had a lot of trouble with our Magic Bands. It took about 3 days while we were down there, but it finally got cleared up. The staff was helpful in dealing with our problems. We eventually used the fastpass+ and it worked well for us. We also used the paper fastpass, but not while we had fastpass+ selected. We had no trouble getting paper fastpasses to the attractions that we wanted. It wasn’t particularly crowded at the parks, and keep in mind that attractions like Soarin’ and Toy Story Midway Mania typically are out of fastpasses early in the day anyway. Also, this whole system is still in its testing phase, so I would expect that Disney will make adjustments over the coming months to address these types of things.
We recently as a family of 6 went to Disney. We stayed on site at the Art of Animation and LOVED it but could have saved $2000 if we had stayed off site and drove in. We didn’t get a Disney dining plan. For us the dining plan (cheapest one) was going to be over $1000 and we ended up spending about $500-600 on food. No we didn’t do fancy or character but we ate well. We ate breakfast in our room and then took snacks and water bottles in. This was our first trip and we wanted the whole “disney experience” so we stayed on site. We loved the resort and Disney transportation, but I know where you are coming from. If we ever go back, we will stay off grounds. It’s really hard when you have a large family.
We have been 4 times this year, and only this last trip (third week of September) did we have Fastpass+. We did not see any significant delays in getting regular fast passes. While this is being rolled out, if you have the MagicBand, you are also able to still get paper fast passes with your ticket, thus having extra fast passes. The parks were still crowded but I thought it all worked out well. I don’t like the idea of paper fast passes going away. What about those people who are just there for the day and won’t have a magic band? But anyway, IDK how it is now, but it’s only been a few weeks since we were there and I really didn’t notice the wait with the paper fast passes being any longer than usual.
I was just there on Wednesday, and noticed exactly this…by 9:30AM, all the FP’s were distributed for Soarin’ and Test Track.
I honestly like the fact that you have to stay on property to get the Magic bands and use the Fastpass+. My husband works very hard in order for us to stay on property and I think we should get more benefits than just Magic hours. We have already booked our Fastpass+ rides for our trip next month and we are looking forward to it!!
I used the MagicBand and FastPass+ from October 4-13 and we had nothing but problems from our reservations being gone when we checked into the hotel to our bands not working properly. The whole trip was a mess. This was my 17th trip and unfortunately the worst experience I’ve had 🙁 Your above article is something I too witnessed 🙁
Well we could but we’d have to pay more…there’s 5 of us…comparably getting a condo w/ a full kitchen to offset food costs and paying parking @ WDW wound up being cheaper than staying onsite w/ no kitchen and paying extra for food. Adding a food plan just exasperated that amount even more. We’re ok with staying offsite this time, we’ve discussed if there’s a next time we’ll probably go in with a much bigger budget and stay onsite (and wouldn’t have 5 of us then)
Disneys on site Music, Sports & Movies hotels, along with Pop! are comparable budget hotels to those outside of the Disney spectrum, are you sure you cant do those to stay on property? We have a budget too but can always manage those hotels on site.
You just can’t have a paper fast pass at the same time you have a fast pass + is what they said.
Also, the Fast Pass + attractions were running out a lot faster then the regular fast passes which usually had a 30-45 min return time
Considering when I used the regular fast pass system, I would get more than 3 fast passes a day and at multiple parks I used both. The only way I would test the new program was if I was able to use the old fast pass system, and cast members confirmed the multiple times I spoke with them before my trip in September that I would be able to do so. I didn’t spend the extra money to get park hopper passes to not be able to get fast passes in multiple parks. I used just as many fast passes as I did on a normal trip using both.
That’s a good point. But doesn’t FP+ disallow use of paper FP during times of FP+ usage? For instance, if I have a FP+ for Space Mountain at 10am, I couldn’t get any paper FPs until after 11am, right?
I haven’t used the system yet. I go in February.
This has me concerned for our trip at the beginning of January. It’s our first trip to WDW ever (first vacation ever even), and unfortunately the budget will not allow for us to stay on site. That being said I do not believe even if the MagicBands are out of testing that we will be given any anyway. If that’s the case it puts my family at a disadvantage to utilize fastpasses if what is reported in this article is true 🙁
Interesting topic. I tested the system recently and it worked flawlessly. I wasn’t sure I would like it, but the MagicBand, FastPass+ and MyDisneyExperience combination is excellent, at least in my opinion. BUT, to your point, I couldn’t help wondering how this would work for those entering the parks as daytrippers. It is great now during the test period because I was able to get FP+ AND paper FPs as well, so double the fun. But you point out a very good question as to just what Disney has up their sleeves to deal with this going forward. I can’t believe that they hadn’t considered this…. 🙂 WIll be interesting to watch this evolve. Mike.
Thats terrible 🙁 I can see how that would happen, so grateful that I have FP+ but I feel terrible for those who dont. I read that a lot of people have been double dipping (bands + paper) and while that sounds great for those who can, its hurting those who dont have bands at all. Hopefully people will think it thru a bit before double dipping.