Last night I was able to secure a FP for Test Track starting at 10:50 a.m. I’d wanted it a little earlier to make it fit with my plan, but it’s no big deal except that I can’t get my plan to use the FP at all. I keep getting the “This plan does not use the FP+ reservation . . .” message, but I’m not sure why, as without it there’s a 41-minute wait and there are no other scheduled attractions anywhere in the plan that would seem to conflict with using it at 10:50 a.m. I thought maybe adding a forced 25-minute rest break after Spaceship Earth would bump it up to the FP time and prompt it to be accepted, but it didn’t help. Any thoughts?
Essentially what it is telling you is that the plan it has come up with takes less time than the best plan using your FPP. If you goal is to have the minimum total wait time for the day, then you are better off not using that FPP.
If you really want to use it, delete TT from your plan and schedule a break for an appropriate amount of time that starts within your FPP slot, and use the “break” to ride TT. Be sure to allow for walking time to and from TT.
Thank you for your quick response! We plan to be in Epcot until afternoon and have plenty of free time so I’d rather go for a shorter wait at TT. At that time of day, do you know what would be an appropriate wait+ride time for TT?
If there was one change I would like to see in TP, it would be the ability to “lock” selected FPP times. I frequently have “other than shortest wait possible” reasons for making a specific FFP time, and I run into this constantly. For now, as @brklinck said, adding a break at your FPP time is probably the best way to do it. For TT I would probably use 60 min; ths will account for FPP waiting time, the ride itself, and walking. If you’re done a few minutes early, use it for a “real” break, shopping, restroom, snack, whatever - or get a head start on your next TP step.
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If you go into the Crowd Calendar for the day in question, you can then drill down in the EP entry to see predicted wait times thriughout the day for the attractions. A good rule of thumb is to take 1/4 of the stated wait time as the FPP wait time.
Totally agree with this. In fact I think I asked Len about it a couple weeks ago. Like for example, I don’t care that I’ll have a short wait riding KRR at RD. I WANT to ride it at 2pm with a FPP because it’s fricken hot and I want to cool down! Need a lock feature!
For me there’s also a maximum tolerable wait. For a variety of reasons, I do much better if I’m moving more often than just standing around, so if a Touring Plan just looks at my total wait time it doesn’t tell the whole story. I’d rather have six attractions all with 10 minute waits, than five walk-ons and one 45 minute wait.
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If the TP does not want to comply with moving my rides to coincide with my FP times, I just create a break for that time and put in the notes where I am supposed to be and when. I don’t even bother putting my FP times/rides into the plan at all. It’s too complicated.
For instance, I could only get a FP for Seven Dwarfs Mine after 5/35pm on one of our vacation days for this coming May, but no matter how many times I tried to move the ride to fit that time frame (i opted for 5:35-6:35), their computing system would always put the ride around 12:35-1:15. So I deleted the ride and added a break at 5:35 for about 45 minutes, putting in the notes that it was the FP time for Seven Dwarfs Mine, which covered the additional walking time to get there. Done!