New FP+ and midnight at the computer

[chaphome]

After sitting at my computer for the 60-day window to open so I could book FP for our upcoming trip, I'm not sure I'm loving this new system!

The spontaneous touring around the parks seems to be vanishing!

[Amy]

I miss the more spontaneous days at the parks too ~ luckily we don't really do much table service dining so we don't have to make dining ressies. We also haven't gone since they have the new FP+ system so I've not had to go through that either.
Did you manage to get the ressies you were hoping for?

[Marty Moose]

On our last trip at the end of January, we didn't decide until about three weeks prior. With a lot of FP+ stalking on the MyDisneyExperience web page, we were able to get what we wanted and at times we wanted. I'm not a fan of the system, but we were able to make it work.

[Polynesian Princess]

I hate the lack of spontaneity too. We've figured out a way to make all of the advanced planning work for us, but I still am not a fan of the new system (though I love the magic bands themselves).

[ImagineerWannabe]

I waited up until midnight to book the FP's I wanted for my last trip as well. I checked again in the morning and times were still available for everything I'd booked. I should have gone to sleep, but hindsight as they say...and it could be harder at busier times of the year. Hope you got everything you wanted.

[Polynesian Princess]

I think it depends on how particular you are about what you want. If you absolutely must have a fastpass for SDMT at 1:15 pm on June 24th, it might be worth staying up to ensure you get it. But if you're more flexible and simply want a SDMT fastpass at some point during your trip, waiting probably won't hurt anything.

Party size is also a consideration. Booking fastpasses for our party of 11 last May was a nightmare that took hours of work. The system never allowed us to link reservations, so it was extremely dificult to find overlapping times. The worst was the fastpasses for Anna and Elsa. We literally only had 5 minutes of overlap where all 11 fastpasses were active.

[chaphome]

I was able to get everything by it really gets hard trying to figure out what you're going be doing two months from now! I can't even figure out why to do next Saturday....lol!

At least it's all done and I can just enjoy now!

[Belle1082]

I am already starting to freak out about booking our FP+ and I still have a couple of weeks before we are 160 days out!
We have 6 adult 2 kids and 2 infants going, so booking everything and making sure timing works with naps, etc is going to be a challenge! I wish they opened up park hours and EMH/LMH so I could at least figure out what parks we want to go to and when.
Why is this vacation planning so fun/so stressful?!?!

[chaphome]

You may find it easier to book FPs in smaller groups around same time frame...I always seem to "strike out" when I request FPs for bigger groups of people.

[Belle1082]

I think it depends on how particular you are about what you want. If you absolutely must have a fastpass for SDMT at 1:15 pm on June 24th, it might be worth staying up to ensure you get it. But if you're more flexible and simply want a SDMT fastpass at some point during your trip, waiting probably won't hurt anything.

Party size is also a consideration. Booking fastpasses for our party of 11 last May was a nightmare that took hours of work. The system never allowed us to link reservations, so it was extremely dificult to find overlapping times. The worst was the fastpasses for Anna and Elsa. We literally only had 5 minutes of overlap where all 11 fastpasses were active.

Any tips on booking for a large party??
I will be working on booking FP+ for 8 people and I'm slightly nervous!

[Polynesian Princess]

I think it depends on how particular you are about what you want. If you absolutely must have a fastpass for SDMT at 1:15 pm on June 24th, it might be worth staying up to ensure you get it. But if you're more flexible and simply want a SDMT fastpass at some point during your trip, waiting probably won't hurt anything.

Party size is also a consideration. Booking fastpasses for our party of 11 last May was a nightmare that took hours of work. The system never allowed us to link reservations, so it was extremely dificult to find overlapping times. The worst was the fastpasses for Anna and Elsa. We literally only had 5 minutes of overlap where all 11 fastpasses were active.

Any tips on booking for a large party??
I will be working on booking FP+ for 8 people and I'm slightly nervous!

If you are not all staying on one reservation, go ahead and link your accounts now. This will allow you to book everyone's fastpasses using one account (instead of logging in and out of three separate accounts like I had to do because our accounts wouldn't ever link for some reason ).

Have everyone tell you what fastpasses they want now too and make a rough template of what you plan to book for what day. This was another headache that I dealt with - trying to get everyone in the party to communicate what they wanted.

Book all of the fastpasses you want everyone to experience together before you book the ones where you'll be splitting up. Since it's been a year, some things may have changed, but when I was booking once you split up people within a party, you could never rejoin them on new fastpasses for the rest of the day. So if people A, B, C, & D are all staying in one room, you can book them collectively as a group. But if you get A & B fastpasses for ToT while C & D get fastpasses for RnRC, you can't then make the whole group fastpasses for Star Tours. It will only let you book them as the smaller groups of A & B and C & D, so you have to hope and pray that they'll give you time slots that overlap. Obviously this problem gets bigger and bigger the more people there are involved.

Good luck!

[Belle1082]

Would Be Our Guest really not have reservations available by 6am of the 180 day in advance time line??

[Amy]

Would Be Our Guest really not have reservations available by 6am of the 180 day in advance time line??

People are sort of crazy about that place yet, I would guess it is a possibility. I think reservations open up at midnight of the 180 day window don't they?

[Polynesian Princess]

Would Be Our Guest really not have reservations available by 6am of the 180 day in advance time line??

It's definitely a possibility. Online reservations open at midnight, plus people staying on property can book up to 190 days out (the first day of your trip has to reach 180, but you can book for up to 10 days after that). If you don't get what you want, keep trying. Things almost always open up as people change thier mind about their reservation, cancel their trip, etc.

[Belle1082]

Would Be Our Guest really not have reservations available by 6am of the 180 day in advance time line??

It's definitely a possibility. Online reservations open at midnight, plus people staying on property can book up to 190 days out (the first day of your trip has to reach 180, but you can book for up to 10 days after that). If you don't get what you want, keep trying. Things almost always open up as people change thier mind about their reservation, cancel their trip, etc.

Hmmm...we are definitely staying on property and 180 away is today and even at 2:45am when I was up with my son, I could not find one reservation for Be Our Guest. I cant' even find a reservation for Chef Mickey's for that day either. Am I missing something?! Does EVERYONE stay up until midnight to make these reservations??