Haha, a repeat DISer! I haven’t brought myself to book again on any of our planned trips.
I suspect the limited availability you’re seeing is probably due to being close enough to your 60 day window (and already in a lot of other peoples booking window) and a busy time of year (generally speaking). Also contributing is probably the tiny/basic hours currently published that far out - fewer overall hours of FP booking available.
Hope you have a good trip!
Hoping for a better experience this time although my expectations of "value" are lower!
So we are going the same time and booked the CLFP+ for pretty much the same reason you did. I had the same problem. We went in to move some FP's around right after we booked and we were able to easily. Last week we went to check on FP times and there were none available at AK for Kilimanjaro Safaris. I counted the days and realized it was 2 weeks from our AK day and I just figured it was people booking FP's at their 60 day mark. I was glad we booked our CLFP's at the beginning of our trip with all of the hard to get ones. I am hoping that at 60 days we won't have problems booking the rest of our FP's. I am hoping this program proves itself to be worth it to us. I also will report back when we get back as to how this works.
I agree with most of your post. I do understand why you feel there is not a value for 3 extra any tier FP's without the added viewing areas. I too was torn about this program when they removed the viewing areas because it was cheaper than a dessert party and I would rather have 3 extra FP's than desserts.I have been stalking this thread ever since the program began as there is no information on Disney's website about it. If it weren't for my TA and you guys I would have been at a total loss. So thanks for everyone that has shared their experiences on here.
I called this morning at 9 AM to make our club level fast passes and it went very well. I was only on the phone for about 30 minutes to make 3 days worth of fast passes for 3 people. The CM had to put me on hold several times as she was having some technical difficulties, but in the end she got everything I wanted within 10 to 20 minutes of my requested time - some even to the minute that I asked for. I did ask about the nighttime viewing just to see what she'd say and she only said that had been discontinued - no offer for an extra fast pass and I didn't ask for one.
We now have most of our more difficult to get passes booked, which will greatly decrease my stress level on our 60 day window. That's good as we will be on a cruise at the time, and I will be relying on ship wifi and / or cell phone coverage (we'll be docked in Portland, ME) to make them. I agree with a lot of others that the $$ value of this is questionable under a lot of circumstances. We will be there Dec 15 - 22 and plan on taking advantage of a lot of the holiday extra activities, doing the Keys to the Kingdom and the Scuba tours, etc. Just finding three days where we even wanted 6 fast passes was a challenge. However, with all of the problems with MDE right now and the difficulty of getting fast passes for the newer rides, I'm still OK with the extra cost. At the end of the day, booking this way probably saved my cell phone from being tossed into the ocean 60 days out!
Part of me greatly dislikes the inequity of this program where by spending the extra $$$ for club level we get access to things quite easily that so many folks have to stress, plan and fight to get. I always like the fact prior to fast pass + that everyone, regardless of where they stayed or how much they paid for those tickets, had the same access to the paper fast pass system - much fairer. But the realist in me realizes that those days are gone, and this is the system now. We are very fortunate that we can take advantage of it, and so we did.
Thanks again to everyone for sharing their own experiences on here. For us, at least, this system worked really well and I'm happy with the cost vs value for our trip and our particular circumstances.
I am guilty of literally throwing all my paper notes across my home office the first time I booked FPs so I completely get this. And by "across" I mean about a foot because that's really as far as uncrumpled paper flies- as such it was very unrewarding (and the only time I've ever thrown anything out of frustration just in case any is wondering if you have a maniac on your hands here...At the end of the day, booking this way probably saved my cell phone from being tossed into the ocean 60 days out!
. I cracked under the Disney stress and I wasn't even in a park!
There is something a bit different about the CL FPs I think. On my phone call I remember the CM mentioning the CL FPs were easier to get the times for than the regular ones. The regular FPs give them the exact same problems they give us but the CMs are more familiar with the systems and my CM was able to adjust them to the right times for the most part. I was surprised their IT was as crappy as ours for normal FP booking (ie want a 10 am FP but all you get is 9:50 or 10:20, book it and then find a 10:05, book that and then you can't seen the 10am one you want but then you pull out the app and a 10am one shows. I used to think there were other people booking and dropping those FPs until I was on the phone with DSS and they had the same issues but there wasn't really anyone else booking and dropping them that far out. It's just typical crappy Disney IT.)
Yes, the CL FPP's do have to be changed by calling up DSS. I was just wondering if anyone had experience with doing this day-of. I've had pretty good luck making tweaks for my upcoming trip in a few weeks and will report back on my experience as well.
I modified a few day-of. It was relatively straightforward once I had the CM on the phone, just cumbersome. It would have been much faster/easier to have the ability to do it from the app on my phone. I wanted to know which attractions were available at a particular time (like you can see on the app), but I was told it wasn't possible to do that. Instead I had to name attractions, and she told me what time (if any) those had FP available. We ended up switching to ones I knew would have lots of availability just so that I wasn't on the phone forever asking the CM to check. I wish they would let guests have the ability to modify the extra FPs in the app. At least I can I didn't have to wait on hold at all- my call was answered promptly.
If you change your mind over the next couple weeks just call DSS, it’s easy for them to modify FPs up until the general FP booking starts.
