MFSR - 1st day of FP+

Let's see how those standby times hold up throughout the day. MFSR is a popular rope-drop attraction, so wait times were always long in the first couple of hours of operation (up to and sometimes over 2 hours), but typically were normalizing in the 45-60 minutes range after the initial surge. What I fear is that FP+ will prevent the standby line from alighting, and will stay at or above 100 minutes throughout the evening. That will preclude guests from being able to marathon the ride in the last hour of the day, because the standby line will never subside due to the constant flow of FP+ riders.

We'll see what happens.

The RotR issues aren't going away anytime soon. I do think it's smart for Disney to reduce the number of guaranteed Boarding Groups, but the speed with which even the Backup Groups have been disappearing is troubling. When we were there a few weeks ago, it was routine to be able to score a backup Boarding Group more than an hour after the park opened. Some of that was due to the 7 AM opening time that even on-site guests had difficulty with, but with spots for the attraction gone within seconds now, it places far too much to chance and technical ability than should be allowed even by Disney standards.

I'm pretty confident that I could still walk into DHS and get a Boarding Group for RotR given my experience with the system, but first time guests should not have their only day available to visit DHS be clouded by a rookie mistake or minuscule technical problem.

Its about 3pm and the disney world app has the wait time listed at 145 minutes.

@JT14 - Though to be fair, SDD is at 120 minutes, RnR is at 105, and ToT is at 95. It looks like DHS is just really busy right now, though FP+ and the shifting of tiers is certainly not helping things much. Further proof that there's no such thing as an "off-season" at Disney World anymore. However, this is technically a holiday week, and it has traditionally been a bit busier around Presidents Day.

That's true. Everything is pretty high today. I am watching it closely though since I will be going in May and I make my FP+ selections in a few weeks. I was thinking of not using FP+ on MFSR and just wait the usual 60 minutes in the evening, and instead use FP+ on either SDD or MMRR, but if the lines for MFSR stay pretty high all day for the next few weeks, I may have to rethink it.

DHS is never quiet these days. All boarding groups for Rise going inside 2 minutes is proof of that.

I checked last night around 7pm, and it was 70mins, but Rise was down, so that would have forced a few more people that way.

Also, today is the first day of the Princess marathon weekend, so the combination of President's day on Monday, and the influx of runners has really pushed attendance thru the roof.

I for one will be keeping well clear of WDW this weekend

I don't know if you've been on SDD before, but I think the coaster is way overrated. IMHO, it's kind of like Peter Pan or 7DMT in that the lines are more of a function of the ride's limited capacity than its quality. I was really underwhelmed by the second launch that amps you up as if you're going to launch like the start of RnR, but end up taking off like a Yugo with your foot on the floor.

It's definitely worth some monitoring over the next few weeks, but I would worry most about trying to ride MFSR at the end of the day. That's what we did when we were at WDW a couple of weeks ago, and never waited more than 15 minutes in the last hour or 2 of the day. I'd be concerned that FP+ will keep the standby line long ALL day, with little to no relief at the end of the night. At least that attraction has a single rider line, so if you're going alone (and don't mind being stuck in the engineer's seat) or with others that don't need to ride all together, it is a viable option over using FP+.

Personally, I would probably go with MMRR and see how that attraction handles guests for the first month. There's been very little revealed about that attraction's capacity, so if it's a slow loader, or runs into regular technical issues (like RotR), that FP+ reservation might save you a lot more time in a standby line than the other 2 Tier 1 attractions.

Thanks for your input Russell. I am going for a week and the plan is two days at each park so I think one day I will do MFSR as my FP+ and then MMRR as the other and then take my chances with SDD. I haven’t been to WDW in about 3 years so I haven’t been on SDD but it seems like that would be a 3rd choice for me for tier 1 FP+ selections. I am a huhe Star Wars fan so I look forward to seeing everything.

Earlier in the week I’d managed to get a FP+ for Smuggler’s Run, so on a chilly Saturday afternoon I went over to DHS for a couple of hours, to see how that line would work out. My FP+ was for 2:20, so I arrived at the park just after 1:30. It was still very busy, but a lot of people were moving out as I walked thru the gates. A steady loop around the park, saw me pass by Slinky which was at 135min standby. By the time I got to MFSR it was 2:21, and the standby line was at 120min. I pinged my card, and wandered in. You actually get a better photo op. of the Falcon, as you are higher up than the regular line, but after that it becomes the usual bland FP+ line. You can see some of the workshop, but no real opportunities to take any photos. Within a couple of minutes I was standing outside the door to the Hondo briefing room, and after one side was filled with standby, the FP+ line started to fill the other side. I’m not sure if they are issuing fewer than normal fast passes for MFSR, but we didn’t fill the one side, so standby people joined our group.

I heard rumors that some CM’s were not allowing people to wait for a pilot’s seat, but I had no problem. With my orange pilot card in hand, I ventured thru the walkway, and sat in my favorite left side seat. I made one mistake on the way back to base, which I’m certain put us under 10,000 instead of over. Bummer, especially as we scored over 12,000 before Hondo took his cut. (13,000 is the max, so we were close) Yeah, we took a bit of a beating, but 9930 was my 2nd highest score (9980 is my best). The 2 engineers didn’t smash those buttons quite as well as they could have done, but it was a good run, and a lot of fun especially with a ½ decent right side pilot to fly with.

I exited the ride building at 2:40, so a 20min total experience. Not bad for mid-afternoon on a busy Saturday.

I’ll be back at DHS on March 7th for my first ride on the runaway railroad. I’ll get there early, to see if I can get a boarding group for Rise, and later hopefully another ride on the Falcon. The new passholder magnets will be available at EPCOT as well, so it’ll also be a Skyliner trip, and most probably fish and chips at the UK pavilion .... :)