Trial Club Level Fastpass+ Purchase Program Planning & Discussion

[hiroMYhero]

So, what is the consensus on WHEN you can modify the regular FP's . If I modify right after SS books them will I get a call "Hey we told you no duplicates."

No. It’s not like anyone is sitting around watching your MDX account. Once regular FPs are linked to your MDX Profiles, all MDX FP functions apply to them.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Oh well, still excited to try this out. But I'd much rather do 6 FPs in 3 hours (than 6 in 6 hours). But for DHS alone, this will be worth it. Get to do all the Toy Story rides with ease...

Woudn't we all, except it wouldn't actually work in practice.

Sure, there were times when we could have done more than 1 ride per hour- and did mange to fit in an attraction between using our FP.

But other times it just wasn't possible. Now we went over Easter week, when the parks were busy, but even when they aren't FP doesn't = instantly on the ride. Space Mtn and BTMRR are both slow FP.

When I tracked our timing, I realize we spend a surprising amount of time taking care of personal needs. I tend to think we're low maintenance, commando types, but we still spend a good deal of time using the restrooms, getting food/drinks/snacks (even though we carry water), peeking in gift shops, sitting for a moment, etc. (and we don't sit very much!) There were also multiple ride malunction delays.

Though we bypass the majority of gift shops, WDW has lots of creative distractions! We frequently find ourselves having to navigate around crowd/parade/show that blocks the path in front of us.

After many WDW trips, we're well versed in how long it takes to get around, but it is impossible to perfectly navigate the timing of transportation. It always takes longer to get around via bus/boat/monrail and through every park entrance than I think it should.

One FP per hour for 6 hours, plus all of teh aove, kept us pretty busy.

 

[anomamatt]

Woudn't we all, except it wouldn't actually work in practice.

It depends on the park, but my family often does over 10 FPs in 3 hours in Magic Kingdom (our record is 14 FPs between 9-noon). We pre-book only one FP and then grab what is available once you tap into the next ride. It's kind of like FP bingo. And there is not much competition for day-of FPs in the early morning.

--

I was sold on CLFP until I found out you cannot overlap them. Now I'm not so certain. Even if you use your first three "regular" FPs, it would be hard/impossible to pull a 4th day-of FP without overlapping the 3 CLFPs.

How do people best maximize FP use beyond the 6 FPs?

 

[TheFloatingBear]

It depends on the park, but my family often does over 10 FPs in 3 hours in Magic Kingdom (our record is 14 FPs between 9-noon). We pre-book only one FP and then grab what is available once you tap into the next ride. It's kind of like FP bingo. And there is not much competition for day-of FPs in the early morning.

--

I was sold on CLFP until I found out you cannot overlap them. Now I'm not so certain. Even if you use your first three "regular" FPs, it would be hard/impossible to pull a 4th day-of FP without overlapping the 3 CLFPs.

How do people best maximize FP use beyond the 6 FPs?

I haven't gathered all my thoughts yet on our experiences, but I do have to say I felt the most "hemmed" in at MK. We tend to have a loose plan in MK and then follow the FPs as they're convenient to us. I anticipated the CLFP might hinder flexibility, so I only put one at the 9am time, then put the other 2 at night when we were going to be in HS for Fantasmic! My thought was that at least we'd finish the fixed one (at least fixed without calling) early and then there would be more flexibility, and we wouldn't have to worry about the other two CLFPs blocking times, since they were later at night. However, we had a bit of a late start and there were a few attractions down for a while that caused lines on attractions that usually have shorter morning waits. We managed okay but things didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped. Although a big piece of that was also our tardiness - that was a group vote to have a later morning (I lost 3 to 1).

 

[TheFloatingBear]

So, I figured I'd post a couple of pictures of the viewing area for HEA, as well as the view itself. I know there were a few people curious about the difference between this area and the plaza garden fireworks party. Here's a picture of the fireworks - definitely more people in these picture than the ones I took last year at a fireworks party, since I stayed at the back rail. But still a great view! Giant streetlamp is also in most of my pictures! ETA: this was the area when we were there 4/18 - since it's a trial program, I'm sure things could change...

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Here's the viewing area during the day. I didn't want to take a picture with all the crowds, since I don't know how to blur people out and I'm not really having a "learn new things" week, but as I mentioned, people and strollers stretched under the rope a bit, so we moved forward in the space. So if you look at the top picture, the rope extended along the two paths that bisect the grass.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

In the top picture, you can see Crystal Palace behind the entrance, which is the one on the right. There was a CM there with the list of names. You can also see a cool duck in flight! The bottom two pictures show the view during the day (please note large lamp post!), and another angle of the area, respectively. Hope this helps!

 

[Jessi Robin]

In the top picture, you can see Crystal Palace behind the entrance, which is the one on the right. There was a CM there with the list of names. You can also see a cool duck in flight! The bottom two pictures show the view during the day (please note large lamp post!), and another angle of the area, respectively. Hope this helps!
View attachment 319198 View attachment 319199 View attachment 319200

This is perfect!
We have dinner at crystal palace at 7:35, so should be done there right about when we would check in for HEA

 

[Rileygirl]

It depends on the park, but my family often does over 10 FPs in 3 hours in Magic Kingdom (our record is 14 FPs between 9-noon). We pre-book only one FP and then grab what is available once you tap into the next ride. It's kind of like FP bingo. And there is not much competition for day-of FPs in the early morning.

--

I was sold on CLFP until I found out you cannot overlap them. Now I'm not so certain. Even if you use your first three "regular" FPs, it would be hard/impossible to pull a 4th day-of FP without overlapping the 3 CLFPs.

How do people best maximize FP use beyond the 6 FPs?

FP Bingo! Wow. I think you just started a new family tradition for us: the MK FP Bingo Cup. I have all age 21+ kids with friends/spouses going on a trip next year, and we are going to do this. Thanks for the brilliant idea for a different way to use the FP+

 

[anomamatt]

I anticipated the CLFP might hinder flexibility, so I only put one at the 9am time, then put the other 2 at night when we were going to be in HS for Fantasmic! My thought was that at least we'd finish the fixed one (at least fixed without calling) early and then there would be more flexibility, and we wouldn't have to worry about the other two CLFPs blocking times, since they were later at night.

I like this idea a lot! One could arrive near the end of the first CLFP window, do that one and move onto a regular FP starting at 10. And still have flexibility that you like (and my family does also). The only caveat is that sometimes my family will only spend a morning in a park (and not hop). But with the nighttime shows, we would hop (or come back), so we could use a CL FP or two in conjunction with that.

I need to go back and see if you posted your strategy for other parks. ;-)

And thanks for those pictures. The nighttime shows are VERY appealing to me, even if I don't like the fact that we cannot overlap windows.

 

[anomamatt]

FP Bingo! Wow. I think you just started a new family tradition for us: the MK FP Bingo Cup. I have all age 21+ kids with friends/spouses going on a trip next year, and we are going to do this. Thanks for the brilliant idea for a different way to use the FP+

Yes, do it. It's super fun! It doesn't work as well in the other parks, in part because everything is spread out so much more in the other parks -- EPCOT can work too if you are not that picky. We really like doing it on our 2nd MK day (once we do the rides everyone wants to make sure we do).

 

[Rileygirl]

Exactly my thoughts. 2nd day at MK - we will break into teams of two. I will have to see if any of us can break your record of 14.

Back to this thread topic: thank you to all that have posted on here: if this is still available next year, I would love to do 3 days cl with extra FP and 4 days non concierge: I think a mix would work out great logistically speaking and better on the pocket book too... I hope more come back to report their real time experiences with this program.

Question: has anyone tried to book the cl FP into the fall or Christmas time 2018and been told it's not available? Or how far out has anyone booked? We are going to do late summer 2019 and try and catch Star Wars.....

 

[anomamatt]

Question: has anyone tried to book the cl FP into the fall or Christmas time 2018and been told it's not available? Or how far out has anyone booked? We are going to do late summer 2019 and try and catch Star Wars.....

When DSS called me about an October booking, I asked about this program and he said the latest word from above was that this program was going thru the end of the year and then will be evaluated. He said they just heard this and was definitive about it. That said, Disney changes things on a whim (cough * express transportation * cough) and CMs rarely ever know in advance. So while it seems it is here to stay (for now), it could be gone in a flash with little or no notice.

 

[KurtC]

Do you have to have a valid park admission or just a CL room booked to take advantage of this program? Our AP's expire mid-way through our trip later this year. I can't renew (as far as I know) until 60 days prior to expiration, but I would want to book the CLFP+ at 90 days....

 

[hiroMYhero]

Do you have to have a valid park admission or just a CL room booked to take advantage of this program? Our AP's expire mid-way through our trip later this year. I can't renew (as far as I know) until 60 days prior to expiration, but I would want to book the CLFP+ at 90 days....

What others have done is purchased multi-day tickets to book the CL and Regular FPs.

Then, they apply those tickets to their AP renewal.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

It depends on the park, but my family often does over 10 FPs in 3 hours in Magic Kingdom (our record is 14 FPs between 9-noon). We pre-book only one FP and then grab what is available once you tap into the next ride. It's kind of like FP bingo. And there is not much competition for day-of FPs in the early morning.

--

I was sold on CLFP until I found out you cannot overlap them. Now I'm not so certain. Even if you use your first three "regular" FPs, it would be hard/impossible to pull a 4th day-of FP without overlapping the 3 CLFPs.

How do people best maximize FP use beyond the 6 FPs?

I thought (Maybe that's the problem, I think too much) that even though the CL FPs are not something you can switch back and forth without assistance from signature services, , that you could still manipulate your own fast passes around them. Am I understanding this incorrectly?

 

[anomamatt]

I thought (Maybe that's the problem, I think too much) that even though the CL FPs are not something you can switch back and forth without assistance from signature services, , that you could still manipulate your own fast passes around them. Am I understanding this incorrectly?

I thought that too. But when I asked earlier in this thread was told you cannot overlap them in mde. The system knows you have other plans and prevents an overlap.

 

[Rileygirl]

But if you take floating bears strategy, and do one cl FP first thing in the am, and two FP cl late at night, then we can go to town with your regular FP during the bulk of the day, or play FP bingo.
If you are doing the cl FP thing, then you have decided on a big park day at least three times because to utilize them all, plus nighttime show, you are looking at minimum 7 hrs in theme park. Minimum!

We tend to break in the afternoon when parks are at the hottest and most crowded. We are all adults (celebrating the youngest turning 21) so I think this will work well for us at magic kingdom. Go hard in the morning for 4 hrs, big break, then FP evening with fireworks. Easy big park day.

I would not be doing this 3 days in a row however. I would mix in a late day start with the FP starting mid afternoon, have a good adr in there, this would work well at akl or Epcot where there are less actual rides, and the rides are further apart geographically. With 6 FP, and no tier for three of them, you can do all of the good stuff at these two parks without doing rope drop I think. Easily. Stress free. Super sweet when I think of pandora especially (have not been yet so it's a priority.)

Hollywood Studios may translate to a more difficult park to do- when Star Wars land opens - the cl FP will be an incredible bonus if it's still 90 days, no tier, and double down on fav e ticket ride with regular FP.

Hmmm. We have not been for 3 years, and this is more than a year away. I'm thinking I will have to save for a 4 day concierge/ 4 day regular room trip....

 

[ColoradoMom12]

90 days until we check out of our CL stay in July, and I was just able to book our CL FP! So excited!! Thanks to this thread I was able to immediately go in and modify the non-CL FP to duplicate some of the attractions (FOP, which we’ve never been able to get FP for...the disadvantage to traveling to Disney at the busiest times of the year. We are very excited to finally do this one!).

Ran into a slight issue with our annual passes expiring on day 2 of our trip. It was telling the CM that we weren’t able to book past our first day (due to the expiring AP). She had to put me on hold and get tech support on the line to override that (we intend to renew the APs but can’t for at least another month). It was solved fairly easily, but I was on the phone for almost an hour getting the issue resolved. All in all, very happy we were able to take advantage of this opportunity! Can’t wait for July!!!

 

[TheFloatingBear]

I would not be doing this 3 days in a row however. I would mix in a late day start with the FP starting mid afternoon, have a good adr in there, this would work well at akl or Epcot where there are less actual rides, and the rides are further apart geographically. With 6 FP, and no tier for three of them, you can do all of the good stuff at these two parks without doing rope drop I think. Easily. Stress free. Super sweet when I think of pandora especially (have not been yet so it's a priority.)

This is indeed what we did at AK - and it worked really well - I will write up some details when I get home and can look at my color-coded chart!