FPP nightmare please help me

I cannot get the MK FPP available times and my TP to sync up at all. And by the time I get just one to work with what is on my TP, Disney says I’ve taken too long and gives me different time options. And why is my TP suggesting FPP for meet Mickey (example) and then it tells me when I optimize that they don’t offer FPP for meet Mickey??? Why did they suggest it in the first place then ?

What do I do? I am going out of my mind with this. The MK can’t be that difficult can it? Or I can’t be this dumb, can I ?

Honestly I pick my fast passes for what/when I want. Build them in as breaks.

So if Disney’s available time for meet Tinker is at 9:10 to 10:10, but my TP has her down for 11:46, how does that work ? How do I build a break around that ? :

You want that 9:10 FP? Put something in your TP for 9:00, if it isn’t 7DMT or A&E, it will take 15-0 minutes. Put in a 30 minute break, then continue.

Delete Tinker from your plan. I know @brklinck and others will have a better way , I just make it do what I want.

Enter the FPP that you have been able to get into your PTP and then re-optimize (run the optimizer several times until the results are stable). If there is an FPP that it is not using, then look at the ones that it suggests would be good and see if they are available - if so, then swap out the unused one for the new suggestion. Then re-optimize again and see how things look

Getting Optimized PTPs and FPP selections to work with each other is a bit of an art right now. @len and the developers are working on all sorts of new functionality in this regard, so I think that we should see a lot of improvement in the future.

Thank you. Honestly I’m about to give up on the FPP and just go with the plan without it. This is turning my vacation into a nightmare. It doesn’t seem fair.

Don’t give up FPs! No! Never!

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No worries, it can be a daunting task, but the results are worth it! Have you looked at my post on tips for optimizing PTPs with FPP? Making Optimized Personalized Touring Plans with FastPass+

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Yes, I’ve read it a few times. It is helpful, it just seems like the FPP times available negate the TP and the TP negates the available FPP. If that makes any sense.

Try moving stuff around manually to where you want it or where your fpp are then evaluate instead of optimise. Do this a few times to get best results

@marycharlton - let me know how this goes today, please.

Yes, try to move things around manually and then click on “Evaluate”. It will update your times (wait, free, walking, etc.) but it will keep your items in the same order that you placed them. Optimize could change the order that you put things in (which isn’t a bad thing but sounds like you want a little more control over what/when you do things.)

I wanted to do one specific area/land in the morning and another in the afternoon so I had to do a lot of manual adjustments and “Evaluate” instead of “Optimize”.

It shouldn’t be a nightmare - you aren’t 100% tied to what your touring plan says so don’t let it ruin the excitement of planning.

It took me over 2 hours to get a functional MK TP for my last trip (I can usually get one done in about 30 min). I had specific FPPs for specific reasons, and TP continually refused to use them. I painstakingly moved things around, constantly “evaluating”, until it would acknowledge my FPPs. I love planning, but this felt more like a lab session in an Existentialism 101 course. And to add insult to injury, the week I went was some kind of a statistical anomoly; the TP-predicted wait times were SO far off, the plan was in tatters by 11 AM. We got a lot done, but had to drop Pooh, SM, Buzz, and CBJ, and never got a chance to get to Storybook Circus to look around. According to the TP, we were supposed to get all of these done and still have most of 2 hours of “free time”…

I’m going to try the evaluate tool and I’ll see how that goes. I also did a TP where I used 1 hour “breaks” for the FPP, So, for example, if the FPP had me meeting Cinderella at 2 pm, but the TP consistently put her at 10 am, I just made a break for 2 pm lasting 1 hr and then I deleted Cinderella from my list. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one having a hard time with this. My husband sort of feels like since we spend so much of our work time on tight schedules, vacation time shouldn’t be like that. I think we’ll use the TP as a guide, but I don’t think we’ll live by it. Thank you again for all your help !

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I’ll try out evaluate and let you know !

I write down the times suggested by the TP in advance of selecting my Fast Passes. When I select my fast passes I pick the times that work best from the initial set of times to select from and move on. Once I have all of my FPs, for my entire trip, then I go back and individually select the better times available that better meet the times suggested in the TP for each FPP. Sometimes I can get them right on target and sometimes I have to adjust. I put the final times in my TP. If TP tosses one out I don’t worry about it. I still have the FP to use if I need it. I also move some attractions around and evaluate to better fit the day. I never try to do the TP and the selections at the same time. That wastes time in the selection process. :wink: Hope this helps.

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This is a very good point - each FPP selected affects then entire plan, so trying to book FPPs at the same time as you are making your plan can be very frustrating as you are trying to hit a moving target. If you get all of your planning done in advance and then make your FPP selections as soon as the FPP window opens you will have a better chance of getting what you want.

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This is absolutely correct @marycharlton. I think your trouble is that you are trying to work on both systems at the same time. Make a TP first, write down the FPP’s suggested and then go into MDE to book them. Remember, Disney will give you suggested times, but after you select the group, you can change each FPP time slot. I found that picking a grouping farthest away from what I actually wanted was most helpful because then the time slots I needed were more likely to come up (MDE won’t offer time slots it thinks are in conflict with your other FPP’s.)

DO NOT give up on FPP’s. You need them!

After you have put in your FPP’s that are booked in MDE, evaluate the plan; don’t optimize it. See if you like it. It will not bump out your FPP’s if you are only evaluating it. This might be less stressful for you.

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Thanks again everyone ! I will try all these suggestions. Unfortunately, I am planning this only a week out, so many of the FPP options are already booked. Disney World wasn’t this crazy the last time I went… 40 years ago. lol

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