This is a short post for those planning a visit to Walt Disney World in the near future. Disneyland visitors can rest easy — at least for the time being!
After visiting both Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot yesterday and looking again at the situation with the new FP+ kiosks, it’s pretty clear that your selection of which specific kiosk to visit can make a huge difference in how long you’ll have to wait at the kiosk itself, especially if you don’t arrive until after opening time and there are already crowds in the park.
Consider the line for one of the FP+ kiosks yesterday at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I took this picture at the kiosk near the Tower of Terror shortly before 11:00am:
I should note that setting up those FP+ reservations inside the park is something of a labor-intensive process for the cast members staffing the kiosks, so these folks could be standing in line for a while. (And the irony is that FP+ is supposed to help reduce the time you spend standing line.)
Now, look at the line for the kiosks near American Idol. The picture below was taken just a few minutes after the one shown above. Here you can see two very unbusy cast members, complete with FP+ tablets in hand, who without prompting from me were nice enough to pause and smile for the camera, as there wasn’t anyone in line for them to help at the moment:
As this was only about a three-minute walk from the very crowded kiosks near the Tower of Terror, it would have definitely been worth the walk for the poor folks standing in line over there.
I should also note that if you were in the back of the park, the line for the FP+ kiosks near Muppet Vision theater were also non-existent. Note the open machine on the right in the picture below.
Given how unevenly the lines for the kiosks are playing out so far (I saw similar disparities at Epcot), we expect to have some in-plan “tips” in RideMax soon to help steer folks to the shorter lines. In the meantime, remember that it can really pay to look around a bit before you commit to a particular FP+ kiosk.
Have you experienced FP+ yet, and if so, what did you think of the experience?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
I sort of have experienced FP+. I went in October, and so there was still the regular FP system. I didn’t stay in a hotel, so I had to do regular FP. But when I had a FP and was in the line. The lines slowed down, because everybody had to put their “magic bands” up to the little mickey mouse ear thing one at a time. They had to do it twice, also: one to get in the line, and the one where you’re almost on the ride. Just because of that, the line was usually about 5 minutes longer. The time before that I went to Disney World was April 2012, and even during spring break crowds, the fastpass line was shorter than it was in the end of October, which should be a lot less crowded. Also, you can schedule when you have meals. Well, I think that you should just go to lunch or dinner or whatever whenever you like. I think this new Fastpass+ system is dumb, and I think the other one is better. At least Disneyland is still OK. We’re from Utah, so probably our next Disney trip will be Disneyland, anyway.