I don’t blog much about my Disney obsession, but the one time I did it was the best read one I’ve ever written so if you want, you can go read that one here.

I get asked by friends about it a lot and just recently, we had a great few days at Walt Disney World (Saturday – Tuesday of Thanksgiving week) in a one bedroom villa at Disney’s Old Key West Resort. This is an especially busy time of the year and the crowds were high. We had a great time, but it was different then past trips and for one very big reason.

FASTPASS PLUS (or, as you’ll see in all of the Disney publications, FP+)

So go here to read about how it works (or watch anything Disney on television right now and they will sneak in a perky person explaining it.)

I’m going to cut straight to the chase and, as I am prone to do, give you the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Ya ready? Everybody neat and pretty? Here we go:

The VERY GOOD

I really liked that we didn’t need to mess with our booklet or tickets for Magical Express (Disney’s complimentary bus service from MCO to your resort). We just showed up and scanned our bands and we were off. This was awesome.

I like that our room key, park tickets and FP’s were all in one place on our wrist (or in Matt’s case, on his belt loop. He felt it was uncomfortable and this was a good alternative)

I liked that we could so easily pay for everything. No getting in and out of my backpack and it really was convenient.

See? We really did still have fun;)

The BAD

You can ONLY ride 3 headliners per park per day using FP+ (you can ride as much as you want if you’re OK with the stand-by line) ETA this has changed since I posted this! You can now get more at the FP+ kiosks once you’ve used your original 3. In some parks, they’ve even limited which ones you can ride – in Epcot, for example, you can do Test Track OR Soarin’ but not both (to be fair, I’m not sure if this is true all the time or just during busy seasons). At DHS you can do RnR (Rock ‘n roller Coaster)  OR TSMM (Toy Story Midway Mania), but  not both. I think that’s ridiculous.

THE UGLY

This was really just OUR ugly, but we delusionaly thought that since we had our FP+ reservations made, we could sleep in and not get there before the parks open. What I didn’t consider is how exhausting the crowds are. When you get there early, things are quiet and beautiful and lovely and you can navigate your way around quite quickly and easily. Because we had our rides reserved we felt no need to get there early but this was a HUGE mistake. We were all out of sorts this trip and found ourselves exhausted way faster then usual. I firmly believe it’s because we didn’t get there early, take a break, and then return to the parks for the evening as we’ve always done in the past.

Next trip, we will STILL do rope drop and enjoy the parks early in the morning before the huddled masses arrive from the TTC.

Bottom line is this: if you are going during a less busy time I don’t think you’ll notice the difference since this means you can change things on the fly and the crowds are less of an issue overall so riding stand-by is fine. But if you’re going at a time of the year where the stand-by for Soarin’ is 90 minutes by 11am, FP plus may not be your friend. Also, if you’re a park-hopper, you’re kind of screwed as you can only reserve FP+ for one park per day. This is a HUGE problem, in my opinion, and makes me wonder why anybody would spend the extra money for a park hopper and I think definitely hurts annual passholders.

Oh, and if you’re a family with kids of different ages you’re really in trouble. Because if you want to ride Peter Pan and Splash Mountain and Space Mountain and do the Storytime with Belle and you want FP for all of them you are out of luck. We are lucky that our boys want to do the same things, but I think mixed age groups are definitely at a disadvantage. Using the old system, you could easily get FP’s for all of these attractions in the same day with careful planning. That is, sadly, no longer possible.

Next time (which won’t be for at least 18 months) we will attack it differently and hopefully the bugs will have been worked out. And once they’ve done away with the old FP system completely, it may lower the stand-by wait times (not sure how but maybe?) I’m willing to give it another chance. But for now, I am giving FP+ a B- and the only reason it’s not a C or lower is because I really did like the convenience and everything else I love about Disney – the music, the resorts and the food – have remained unchanged:).

Do your homework and plan well, and I know you can still have the most Magical Vacation Ever at Disney World! Happy planning!!

Jen