Please tell me ToT is down...

famy27

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
So, in my continued quest to stalk FP"+" availability, I see that at as of 11:45 am FL time, FP+s are gone for TSMM and for ToT. I'm hoping this is incorrect, and that ToT is down, because otherwise...Grrr. I don't think I can imagine any scenario under paper FP where ToT FPs were gone before noon on a Thursday at the end of January.

This makes me sad for offsiters. RD is now necessary both to ride the rides and to get any kind of decent FP"+"s.

Also, so much for the flexibility of moving your FP"+"s around on the same day. I played around with EP a bit yesterday and couldn't get Soarin' much past noon. I suspected this would happen when everyone was on the system. It was great in October when it was just onsiters who could access, but now that availability has pretty much disappeared if you can't do it on a low crowd level day in January.

*****

Interesting. I went back into MDE, and now it shows ToT availability. I am guessing people must be cancelling FPs for them to show back up. Or maybe the ride was down, even though it said "Standby Available"
 
Per MDE, TOT is up and running with a 20 minute wait.

I just tried to make FP+ reservations for today, and was offered TOT in all 4 options, including one with a return time of 12:55, just about an hour from now.

I see your update: I guess one of the messages here is that if there's something you really want you shouldn't give up after one try.

BTW, when I tried to change that 12:55 time I was given a full array of possible return times through 7 PM, when the park closes.
 
So, in my continued quest to stalk FP"+" availability, I see that at as of 11:45 am FL time, FP+s are gone for TSMM and for ToT. I'm hoping this is incorrect, and that ToT is down, because otherwise...Grrr. I don't think I can imagine any scenario under paper FP where ToT FPs were gone before noon on a Thursday at the end of January.

This makes me sad for offsiters. RD is now necessary both to ride the rides and to get any kind of decent FP"+"s.

Also, so much for the flexibility of moving your FP"+"s around on the same day. I played around with EP a bit yesterday and couldn't get Soarin' much past noon. I suspected this would happen when everyone was on the system. It was great in October when it was just onsiters who could access, but now that availability has pretty much disappeared if you can't do it on a low crowd level day in January.

We had the same thing happen to us "on the ground" Tuesday the 14th.

We were in DHS and, luckily, beat the FP+ tiering system by a single day when we had made our FP+ ressies...so we had FP+ to TSMM, TOT, and RNR.

But, by 10 AM, the FP's (paper ones...they were still doing paper then) for TOT were for 6:30 to 7:30, and by 11 AM they were gone. Nothing on the MDE app, either (we checked, for ha has).

And standby lines were 90 min at 11, and 120 min by noon.

Now, I'm pretty sure they WERE having tech issues of some sort...they were only running 2 elevator shafts (the right most 2), and even those went down while we were in line (past the pre-show..so we got to watch them scramble to fix). But I have no idea if those "issues" were scheduled service times on the other two shafts (so they reduced the number of FP's available in preparation for that) or if they were Estops/unscheduled down time.
 
It seems to change minute-by-minute. Just checked EP. Soarin' now says Standby. Mission Space said SB only. I reloaded and Soarin' is still unavailable but MS is now available. Checked again. Unavailable again.

It's FP+ roulette!
 


To add to my post, above, there also seemed to be a LOT of large tour groups in the park that day, too. More than I typically see, and a couple of them much larger than the ones I typically see.

No idea if that had any effect (though I saw their FP "runners" on a couple of occasions sitting outsipde kiosks waiting for their next FP window to open).
 
Soarin FP being gone for the day by noon would not be unheard of, but it would be surprising on a non peak day.

I just checked, and was offered Soarin on 3 of my 4 choices. BUT, TT is now listed as Temporarily Unavailable.
 
I got it to offer me Soarin' for 7:55 to 8:55. It was only in one of my four choices. It said MS was standby only again. I have a screenshot, but I can't figure out how to attach it. Every time I reload MDE, I get different choices.
 


There are three possible explanations:
(1) Guests, possibly big group leaders, making a lot of FP+ changes, thus creating new openings. Unlikely to explain so many variations in availability, IMO.
(2) Technical glitches, unintentional quirks in the system.
(3) A more sophisticated effort to direct guests to or away from certain attractions.
 
There are three possible explanations:
(1) Guests, possibly big group leaders, making a lot of FP+ changes, thus creating new openings. Unlikely to explain so many variations in availability, IMO.
(2) Technical glitches, unintentional quirks in the system.
(3) A more sophisticated effort to direct guests to or away from certain attractions.

(4) This system is generally bad, and is clearly demonstrating the lack of flexibility unless you want to keep your nose in your phone and try to "snag" one of those spots before they are gone ???
 
(4) This system is generally bad, and is clearly demonstrating the lack of flexibility unless you want to keep your nose in your phone and try to "snag" one of those spots before they are gone ???

I suspect this is the correct answer. If I change it to one person instead of three at HS, I can make an FP+ for TSMM. If I try to copy it to the whole group, it won't let me.

Availability seems to be changing continually. Very interesting. I definitely don't want my face buried in my phone, but it is good to know that even if something is gone, it might not be gone forever.
 
RD is now necessary both to ride the rides and to get any kind of decent FP"+"s.

Just as before, RD will not be necessary, but a valuable tool if you want to hit the headliners with the smallest wait possible.
 
So, in my continued quest to stalk FP"+" availability, I see that at as of 11:45 am FL time, FP+s are gone for TSMM and for ToT. (snip)...Grrr. I don't think I can imagine any scenario under paper FP where ToT FPs were gone before noon on a Thursday at the end of January.

This makes me sad for offsiters. RD is now necessary both to ride the rides and to get any kind of decent FP"+"s.

(snip) now that availability has pretty much disappeared if you can't do it on a low crowd level day in January.

"
A few years ago I was there first week in December. I chose that week because it was slow although not sure whether as slow as end of January.

Toy Story Mania fastpasses (all they had was same-day paper back then) were gone in the 11 AM timeframe.

Both then and now they could tweak the FP issuance rate, namely decide how much of the ride capacity would be left for standbys. While the typical FP acceptance rate was 4 FP to 1 standby, the issuance rate was probably somewhat smaller, for example 2 FP to 1 standby.

Note that if the issuance rate was close to the acceptance rate, then the FP queue would get long at times.

If the ride can take 1500 guests per hour then a 2:1 issuance rate means 1000 FPs issued for each hour. For FP+ the issuance rate would be split between advance FP+ and same-day FP+, another tweakable parameter.
 
I got it to offer me Soarin' for 7:55 to 8:55. It was only in one of my four choices. It said MS was standby only again. I have a screenshot, but I can't figure out how to attach it. Every time I reload MDE, I get different choices.

It is almost as if people are actually using the FP+ system the way it was intended. Certainly Disney wouldn't throw changed FPs back into the pool for someone else to you. The system is supposed to be an evil money grab.

I remember when people called this FastPass Pixie Dusting and said it was their favorite thing to do when leaving the park. How dare Disney take that away from us and give it ... everyone?

I'm sort of sorry for the sarcasm.
 
(4) This system is generally bad, and is clearly demonstrating the lack of flexibility unless you want to keep your nose in your phone and try to "snag" one of those spots before they are gone ???

You're right. It was better when someone would snag a 7:30pm FP for Soarin' but end up back in world showcase and decide to let it go to waste.

Having them change it to Maelstrom and then having Disney make it available to you is incredibly inflexible.
 
Does it make a difference if you try to change at one of the kiosks instead of through the app on your phone?
 
You're right. It was better when someone would snag a 7:30pm FP for Soarin' but end up back in world showcase and decide to let it go to waste.

Having them change it to Maelstrom and then having Disney make it available to you is incredibly inflexible.

One thing: It didn't get wasted, though. It just allowed the standby line to increase it's contribution to capacity by one.

That's the thing nobody talks about: It's a zero sum game. The ride has a certain capacity, period. The only thing FP, FP+, and any other whizbang ride que system does is changes who gets that seat....and FP/FP+ are "foolproof" in that, since there will always be a standby line, there will always be folks to use the "unused" line que reservations.

The rest of what you say has some merit....because now, instead of waiting in the standby line hoping to grab that slot from the WS abandoner...there is some mechanism that someone else could snag it (possibly on very short notice). But doing so is going to be at the expense of increasing the throughput of standby. Now, it might ALSO mean there is one less person IN the standby line, too. That remains to be seen...

There are pluses (excuse the pun) and minuses to the new system..that's for sure. How it all balances out....we need more history to get any where near an accurate picture.
 
It is almost as if people are actually using the FP+ system the way it was intended. Certainly Disney wouldn't throw changed FPs back into the pool for someone else to you. The system is supposed to be an evil money grab.

I remember when people called this FastPass Pixie Dusting and said it was their favorite thing to do when leaving the park. How dare Disney take that away from us and give it ... everyone?

I'm sort of sorry for the sarcasm.

Do you believe that, when a ride is listed as "standby available" or "temporarily unavailable", all of the FP+ have actually been booked? The only reason the rides suddenly become available again is that someone changed their FP+? ToT and Mission Space at noon in late Jan? So if we want to make any changes in this amazing flexible system, we have to keep checking over and over, hoping for what we want to appear?
 
Per MDE, TOT is up and running with a 20 minute wait.

I just tried to make FP+ reservations for today, and was offered TOT in all 4 options, including one with a return time of 12:55, just about an hour from now.

I see your update: I guess one of the messages here is that if there's something you really want you shouldn't give up after one try.

BTW, when I tried to change that 12:55 time I was given a full array of possible return times through 7 PM, when the park closes.

For all of the concern about first timers...how are first timers going to know that they need to continue to check the app for availability after the app says there is none?
 
For all of the concern about first timers...how are first timers going to know that they need to continue to check the app for availability after the app says there is none?

And, likewise, I've seen lots of concern from and regarding off site guests (and I don't mean from the poster you're quoting...I'm not pointing fingers at any specific people here...want to be very clear about that) in many threads.

I'm not sure, given (at this point) they can't use MDE, how they're expected to do that, either. Having to check kiosks over and over (or have the Ipad wielding CM's check over an dover) doesn't sound much better than the "fastpass sprint".

But we'll see.....
 
pilferk said:
And, likewise, I've seen lots of concern from and regarding off site guests (and I don't mean from the poster you're quoting...I'm not pointing fingers at any specific people here...want to be very clear about that) in many threads.

I'm not sure, given (at this point) they can't use MDE, how they're expected to do that, either. Having to check kiosks over and over (or have the Ipad wielding CM's check over an dover) doesn't sound much better than the "fastpass sprint".

But we'll see.....

Also a good point that I hadn't considered
 

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