Any September guests received FP+ testing invite?

[thorphin]

I really appreciate you posting this. Thanks so much! I just made our reservation for Wednesday, September 25. I've been checking to see if we could get it and honestly just gave up until I saw your post. Thank you

This!

 

[Chela227]

Need some quick feedback, should I FP+ Small world or Ariel at Her Grotto?

Deff Ariel. Never need one for small world even when its crazy busy.

 

[f15robyn]

Thanks to everyone who has been sharing their experiences on this and other threads. In the last two days I've read all 179 pages here and quite a few in other threads.

My question is a little different than the others I've seen. My husband and I just decided to head to the world for Sept 27 to 30. We have annual passes, in the form of the new RFID cards. And I was able to add them easily to MDE (I notice my room keys from May are still listed there as well ).

We're booked at Swan because we want to be walking distance to Epcot and Jellyrolls, and it's just so much less expensive than the deluxe resorts in the same area. We don't do the dining plan or magical express and really don't care whether I pull out a credit card vs a room key or magic band to pay for things (plus I'd have to pull out the AP to get the discount, so the wallet will be open anyway). And finally I love that the cafeteria at Dolphin is open 24 hours.

However, with arriving at Noon on Friday and leaving at 5pm on Monday, and spending at least one late night at Jellyrolls, my rope drop options are limited. Making Fastpass Plus reservations seems like an ideal way to hit my favorites later in the day without having had to be at rope drop to pull regular fastpasses on this short and last minute trip.

I'm tempted to add some cost to this trip for the access to FP+. But the additional cost to switch to BC for all 3 nights is high (+$500 with the annual pass discount). But paying for one night at Pop, even if we don't stay in the room, is much more palatable.

So, has anyone had first hand experience with either a ghost room-only reservation at a testing resort or a one night room-only reservation where you did stay at a testing resort, using annual pass only and not package/MYW tickets, and then being able to make a FP+ reservation for a later date while NOT staying in any Disney owned resort hotel?

I read the comments about someone from the Pod Cast being able to still make FP+ reservations for dates after his stay at Pop. But I also saw some people contradict that.

Much confusion. So now that we've got a couple of months worth of testing out there, I was hoping perhaps someone who's local has done this and could let me know.

Thanks.

 

[MDsMomma]

Anyone have any more luck with bonus fast passes? I've only had luck on one day of my trip the last week in sept.

I still can't get bonus for 26 or 27 my two days of testing.

 

[2009CAN]

I was just messing with my FP+ for MK on Sept 25. I had 3 selections made but went to change them and now I can only make two selections. What gives? Anyone else have this happen?

I haven't yet tried today, but yesterday when I tried to make a change I could ONLY get TWO FP+ so I canceled out of the system.

 

[lazer]

Here now and have used the bands everywhere, ME, room at POR, rides, meals, snacks, charging, park entrance. Have had no issues. 2 minutes before our FP+ ended we were able to change to a new attraction. Seems to be a lot of availability for changing. Obviously, this will most likely change after the testing.

Let me know if anyone has any questions!

 

[jess1662]

I used FP+ for Fantasmic. It is the same entry way as dining seats. You line up together and stay together until seating. The sections are the two middle sections and the right middle is Dining and the left middle is FP+.

I will say the dining section was much more crowded than the FP+ section.

Our experience was the exact opposite. There were barely any seats in the FP+ section, and the dining was almost empty.

 

[MightyGitis]

Our experience was the exact opposite. There were barely any seats in the FP+ section, and the dining was almost empty.

Weird! We went the Friday after Labor Day and I expected it to be more crowded. It did rain quite a bit in the evening which could have turned people away. Perhaps even rescheduled their FP+

 

[BuckeyeMark]

We're headed to POR in October and we got banded.

 

[fflmaster]

With what seems that most if not all resorts are going online with MB and FP+ in October, has any new resorts been offered the MB for the end of September?

 

[jess1662]

Weird! We went the Friday after Labor Day and I expected it to be more crowded. It did rain quite a bit in the evening which could have turned people away. Perhaps even rescheduled their FP+

Ha! We were at HS that day and DID reschedule them because we thought it would end up being cancelled! We went on Sunday, I think.

 

[RedM94]

I just want to say that I am one of those who booked a ghost reservation at POP prior to staying at Kidani for a week. I also cancelled my RO at POP. My magic bands worked flawlessly. What a joy not to have to give out family AP's and then collecting them after entering the parks everyday. Also not having to dig out my KTTW card to get back in the room. Loved being able to schedule new fantasyland attractions and do them all in one afternoon.

Right or wrong, if I had to do it all over again I would.

 

[Marblies]

Our experience was the exact opposite. There were barely any seats in the FP+ section, and the dining was almost empty.

Same for last night.9/14. Walk-ups and empty tables at restaurants. 10 minute standby wait at ToT. FP+ seating packed. We had better seats by not doing FP+.

 

[DisneyMarv]

just got back from my stay at the Contemporary Resort the Magic Bands work well in the Resort also at the theme parks no problem what so eve. Everything went smooth i also loved the fast pass plus viewing for wishes.

 

[JMNE]

Alright, my end of trip follow up. We never did get the dining plan linked so was a bummer (but not a big deal). We also upgraded to APs and did not lose our FP+ that we had already picked out. Our APs were immediately available on our magic bands. Overall I love the band and I love FP+. I am interested to see how it all works when everyone has it and the parks are busy. I did run into a couple of times when I was stuck with a FP+ that couldn't be used (our fault) or changed so it was a bummer to miss out on those. But I love that I could sleep in a bit this trip and not wake up the kids to make it to rd every morning (in fact, we never went to rd for the first time ever).

 

[Yellowstonetim]

We did 9 nights at POR with the MB's Sept 4 to 14. The bands worked great. We only had one issue entering Epcot early on, and it was fixed in less than 2 minutes by a CM with a tablet.

There is one negative to the bands that we found. You must touch the band to the scanning device, whatever that may be. Generally it is best to place the flat portion of the band against the scanner. However, when you have it on your wrist, placing it flat against the door scanner to your hotel room next to the handle is not a natural position. Also entering the resort you had to reach your arm out and touch the scanner. It was difficult to twist your arm/wrist to place the band against the scanner. Sometimes we had to take the band off or use our card to enter the resort.

On the other hand, the Mickey head globles at the entrance to the park worked great and were easy to use. I think Disney needs to rethink the shape and location of some scanners for use by wristbands.

 

[JMNE]

There is one negative to the bands that we found. You must touch the band to the scanning device, whatever that may be. Generally it is best to place the flat portion of the band against the scanner. However, when you have it on your wrist, placing it flat against the door scanner to your hotel room next to the handle is not a natural position. Also entering the resort you had to reach your arm out and touch the scanner. It was difficult to twist your arm/wrist to place the band against the scanner. Sometimes we had to take the band off or use our card to enter the resort.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that my kids rarely let me open the door- they wanted to do it- but I didn't find it uncomfortable or difficult to touch "Mickey to Mickey" on the door.

 

[lazer]

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that my kids rarely let me open the door- they wanted to do it- but I didn't find it uncomfortable or difficult to touch "Mickey to Mickey" on the door.

^^ same, I NEVER opened the door. I've been impressed with the knowledge of the employees. We've had zero problems and everyone is eager to "scan them" at restaurants and see them in use!

 

[MightyGitis]

^ I would also like to commiserate the poor angle for Band to Reader contact at most registers. Some of the counter service had it right but not all. Sometimes I ha to spin the band and put Mickey on the inside of my wrist so I could go palm forward at counter registers.

 

[thorphin]

For me, when I wear the magic band, it seems to slip around at a weird angle so that the mickey head is hanging diagonally off the side of my wrist, if that make any sense.

I have pretty tiny wrists (can touch my pinky with my thumb when wrapped around my wrist), but the bottom of the RFID chip is pretty narrow, so it ends up rotating around so that the side of my wrist (rather than the flat/top part) is underneath it.

Anyway, not very comfortable, but perhaps the resulting angle is a better match for how the readers are positioned. We'll find out in a couple of days (squee!).