“Refresh” is my new favorite strategy

[Duck143]

I’m curious about this too and didn’t see any replies. We’re a party of 10, should we search for 5 and when we get it search for the other 5? Sounds like a pain, but not sure refreshing would work for a larger party.

We had a party of 7, and I sometimes had to do each person individually to get the FP that we wanted, but it worked for overlapping times. It does help if you have another person booking with you to work on half your party.

 

[SaintsManiac]

This is how we got 4th and 5th and even 6th FPS for TSMM and FEA in January. We rode TSMM
3 times in one evening with FPS and it was our second park of the day!

 

[123SA]

I'm hoping to try this in August. Thanks for posting your experiences.

 

[nighttowll]

Yes it works well but it also takes way to much time. There were times I would be staring at my phone the whole time, while walking, while waiting. It took away from my experience staring at that screen hoping to get something.. I did that 60 days before fast pass. I am not going to do it again when I get to the park.

In the end I need it to be a vacation also and not a equation I need to solve and stare at for long periods of time

I also felt this way. We went the beginning of January and even though we weren’t there over an actual holiday, the parks we’re still packed. I can honestly say without using refresh we probably wouldn’t have rode very much as our tolerance for crowds and lines is very slow. However, I felt like I spent all my free time staring at my phone trying to grab the next FP. I think it took away a little from the trip, and I’m not sure I’d do it quite as much next time. I remember one time in particular. We rode the train around the park, and it took the entire ride for me to find something.

Yes you can try. I did try this last week but often for the big rides I couldn't get anything moved up. They day we were there was considered an 8 for crowd levels via Touring Plans.

I definitely noticed a correlation between the crowd level and how well this worked. The first day TP rated MK at a 6, and we had decent luck finding FP we actually wanted. It worked so well that first day, I got all excited to use it the rest of the trip. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Our other days were 8s and 9s, and many times it would take minutes to show any availability at all for anything, much less for something we wanted. Then when something did appear, it would be the same ride over and over again (IASW) or for a time much later in the day (like 7 to 10 hrs later).

If we just wanted to ride something and didn’t care what, I could usually get Buzz, IASW, or POTC to appear within 5 to 10 minutes of refreshing. But the rest, were really hit or miss, and the headliners were basically non existent. I did stumble across a SDMT for 7pm one morning, but I never had any luck walking it up, and ended up letting it go, so we could get something available to use right away.

We used the refresh technique to ride a number of rides each day, but they weren’t necessarily the rides I would have chosen to do again. We did get one for BTMR the first day, but that was really the only really good one we got at MK, except the SDMT we let go. At AK, I remember we got Everest for late at night, but the crowds were so bad we couldn’t make it from the other side of the park in time, and we ended up missing it. At HS, we got Star Wars a couple of times in a row. The rest were mainly IASW type attractions. Don’t get me wrong. I love IASW, but I understand most people don’t share my love and it can be frustrating when that is the only option coming up. We rode it 2 or 3 times each day because that was all I could get, and then my sister drew the line and was like enough is enough.

So my observations, refreshing worked best:

• If you like riding IASW.
• The earlier in the day you started using it.
  • I had much better luck and a wider variety of choices in the morning than I did in the afternoon and evening. Since you can’t make a 4th until you have used up your first 3, there was more availability earlier on. The closer to closing the worst it got.
• If you didn’t care what you rode and are just looking to not wait in line.
  • For instance, if you’ll be happy with a second ride on X, Y, or Z but don’t really care which. You can usually find something, but it might not be what you actually want to ride if you have a specific one in mind. I wouldn’t want to depend on refreshing for a must do headliner and then that never becomes available.
• For the mid-popularity rides on the less crowded days.
  • The rides that aren’t really headliners, so you don’t won’t to waste a designated FP on them, but are still pretty popular so they still get long or semi long lines. Like Buzz, Pirates, and HM.
• For the “unpopular” rides that use to be walk ons before FP+ on any day.
  • Rides you’d be willing to do if they didn’t have a line, but wouldn’t think twice about if you knew you had to wait. IASW, Barnstormer, JC.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I've found the best options pop up the night before, usually right around park close or later. My guess is that people are looking over their plans for the next day and tweaking them.

We (party of 2) have ridden FoP 9 times in recent months; 8 of those were snagged the night before. I was also able to grab 4 for friends staying at Disney in addition to our 2 (2 separate "refresh" rounds in the same night - they needed a different timeframe).

In park, I've snagged SDMT, FEA, TT, and Peter Pan as FP #4+.

But I won't lie - it is tedious, may take a bit of time, and does disengage you from the people you're with. Sometimes it's worth it (esp if it's just me and DH) but other times, I am enjoying Disney with people I love and am fine waiting ~20-30 minutes in standby and be present instead.

(I also hope this doesn't become public knowledge LOL)

 

[JETSDAD]

I also felt this way. We went the beginning of January and even though we weren’t there over an actual holiday, the parks we’re still packed. I can honestly say without using refresh we probably wouldn’t have rode very much as our tolerance for crowds and lines is very slow. However, I felt like I spent all my free time staring at my phone trying to grab the next FP. I think it took away a little from the trip, and I’m not sure I’d do it quite as much next time. I remember one time in particular. We rode the train around the park, and it took the entire ride for me to find something.



I definitely noticed a correlation between the crowd level and how well this worked. The first day TP rated MK at a 6, and we had decent luck finding FP we actually wanted. It worked so well that first day, I got all excited to use it the rest of the trip. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Our other days were 8s and 9s, and many times it would take minutes to show any availability at all for anything, much less for something we wanted. Then when something did appear, it would be the same ride over and over again (IASW) or for a time much later in the day (like 7 to 10 hrs later).

If we just wanted to ride something and didn’t care what, I could usually get Buzz, IASW, or POTC to appear within 5 to 10 minutes of refreshing. But the rest, were really hit or miss, and the headliners were basically non existent. I did stumble across a SDMT for 7pm one morning, but I never had any luck walking it up, and ended up letting it go, so we could get something available to use right away.

We used the refresh technique to ride a number of rides each day, but they weren’t necessarily the rides I would have chosen to do again. We did get one for BTMR the first day, but that was really the only really good one we got at MK, except the SDMT we let go. At AK, I remember we got Everest for late at night, but the crowds were so bad we couldn’t make it from the other side of the park in time, and we ended up missing it. At HS, we got Star Wars a couple of times in a row. The rest were mainly IASW type attractions. Don’t get me wrong. I love IASW, but I understand most people don’t share my love and it can be frustrating when that is the only option coming up. We rode it 2 or 3 times each day because that was all I could get, and then my sister drew the line and was like enough is enough.

So my observations, refreshing worked best:

• If you like riding IASW.
• The earlier in the day you started using it.
  • I had much better luck and a wider variety of choices in the morning than I did in the afternoon and evening. Since you can’t make a 4th until you have used up your first 3, there was more availability earlier on. The closer to closing the worst it got.
• If you didn’t care what you rode and are just looking to not wait in line.
  • For instance, if you’ll be happy with a second ride on X, Y, or Z but don’t really care which. You can usually find something, but it might not be what you actually want to ride if you have a specific one in mind. I wouldn’t want to depend on refreshing for a must do headliner and then that never becomes available.
• For the mid-popularity rides on the less crowded days.
  • The rides that aren’t really headliners, so you don’t won’t to waste a designated FP on them, but are still pretty popular so they still get long or semi long lines. Like Buzz, Pirates, and HM.
• For the “unpopular” rides that use to be walk ons before FP+ on any day.
  • Rides you’d be willing to do if they didn’t have a line, but wouldn’t think twice about if you knew you had to wait. IASW, Barnstormer, JC.

I disagree with only being able to find lower tier or less popular rides. We've consistently been able to add many top rides throughout the day and have posted actual results on here. This includes FOP multiple times each day at AK in December. I also posted what I was able to find mid-afternoon at MK on a CL 9 day and it included all the top rides in a short period of time. The larger the group the more difficult (ours have been for a party of 3) but any ride can be found.

 

[nighttowll]

I disagree with only being able to find lower tier or less popular rides. We've consistently been able to add many top rides throughout the day and have posted actual results on here. This includes FOP multiple times each day at AK in December. I also posted what I was able to find mid-afternoon at MK on a CL 9 day and it included all the top rides in a short period of time. The larger the group the more difficult (ours have been for a party of 3) but any ride can be found.

I’m glad you had great luck. I’m not discounting you. I do believe you can get headliners using this method. I just don’t think you always will.

I can only tell you what we experienced. On the lower crowd level days, we had more options. In the morning, we had more options, but a couple days in the afternoon / evening we had zero options. Like refresh for 10 minutes or longer where it just kept saying zero availability. Then when something would finally come available it was always the same 2 or 3 lower popularity rides. Maybe the crowds were just extra bad, or maybe more people than normal were using the refresh method, or maybe I just had bad luck. I would have loved for it to have yielded headliners for us, but it didn’t, and that’s kind of my point. For extra rides it’s great, but if I had gone into it thinking this is how I’m getting on A, and it never worked out, I’d have been disappointed. I planned out our must do rides with our designated FP and anything extra we got by refreshing was just that extra. I think people need to be aware, this isn’t a guarantee. The fact we’ve both used the method and experienced different outcomes just proves that.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I disagree with only being able to find lower tier or less popular rides. We've consistently been able to add many top rides throughout the day and have posted actual results on here. This includes FOP multiple times each day at AK in December. I also posted what I was able to find mid-afternoon at MK on a CL 9 day and it included all the top rides in a short period of time. The larger the group the more difficult (ours have been for a party of 3) but any ride can be found.

But that's your experience. Other people have different experiences. I honestly know all the tricks and use them (I tried on two different browsers and the iPhone app) and I can not duplicate your success. I honestly thought that you just didn't realize how long you were refreshing or maybe that you were even exaggerating because it did not jive with my experience. I don't believe that anymore. I do believe that you can get top tier rides whenever you want. But I believe the person you quoted also. I believe they were not able to get what they wanted despite doing everything you're doing. I really believe there are variables beyond party size and crowd level that we don't know or understand. So I think your experience is valid, my experience is valid, and @nighttowll experience is valid.

(can I pay you to do my same day FPs? ).

 

[JETSDAD]

But that's your experience. Other people have different experiences. I honestly know all the tricks and use them and I can not duplicate your success. I honestly thought that you just didn't realize how long you were refreshing or maybe that you were even exaggerating because it did not jive with my experience. I don't believe that anymore. I do believe that you can get top tier rides whenever you want. But I believe the person you quoted also. I believe they were not able to get what they wanted despite doing everything you're doing. I really believe there are variables beyond party size and crowd level that we don't know or understand. So I think your experience is valid, my experience is valid, and @nighttowll experience is valid.

(can I pay you to do my same day FPs? ).

I offered to do that for family who thought buying tickets when they got there was a good idea. I said I'd keep lining them up with FP's all day. They declined.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I offered to do that for family who thought buying tickets when they got there was a good idea. I said I'd keep lining them up with FP's all day. They declined.

Seriously?? I guess other posters were right that most people have no idea about FP+.

 

[JETSDAD]

Seriously?? I guess other posters were right that most people have no idea about FP+.

They figured it would be fine, they'd just ride whatever there were short lines for. It happened to be one of the busiest days of the year (Columbus day?....we're Canadian and they didn't realize it would be a holiday) so they didn't ride much. I looked for FP's during their 2 days just out of curiosity and had my normal luck.

I will say though that when Disney updated the app in May (right near the end of my last trip) things changed drastically for a while. Dropped FP's weren't going back into the mix. When I can't find a FP for Winnie the Pooh there's an issue lol. Thankfully it's back to normal.

 

[DizneyMommy]

They figured it would be fine, they'd just ride whatever there were short lines for. It happened to be one of the busiest days of the year (Columbus day?....we're Canadian and they didn't realize it would be a holiday) so they didn't ride much. I looked for FP's during their 2 days just out of curiosity and had my normal luck.

I will say though that when Disney updated the app in May (right near the end of my last trip) things changed drastically for a while. Dropped FP's weren't going back into the mix. When I can't find a FP for Winnie the Pooh there's an issue lol. Thankfully it's back to normal.

I still can’t get over the fact that WtP even HAS FP. What on earth for? Ours at DL never has more than a 3 minute wait except when it is hot out and Splash is busy because they are next to each other.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

They figured it would be fine, they'd just ride whatever there were short lines for. It happened to be one of the busiest days of the year (Columbus day?....we're Canadian and they didn't realize it would be a holiday) so they didn't ride much. I looked for FP's during their 2 days just out of curiosity and had my normal luck.

I will say though that when Disney updated the app in May (right near the end of my last trip) things changed drastically for a while. Dropped FP's weren't going back into the mix. When I can't find a FP for Winnie the Pooh there's an issue lol. Thankfully it's back to normal.

Oy. You can lead a horse to water, I guess.

That's interesting on the app update. I'm always paranoid about those and they always seem to have one right before our trips. May seems to be a time when they mess with MDE.

 

[JETSDAD]

Oy. You can lead a horse to water, I guess.

That's interesting on the app update. I'm always paranoid about those and they always seem to have one right before our trips. May seems to be a time when they mess with MDE.

I just pray that they don't play with it right before my December trip when I try to manage FP's for 7. I'm looking forward to TSL opening so that I can see how difficult those FP's will be to get.

 

[pooh'smate]

I can't wait to try this on our trip in September.

 

[nighttowll]

Oy. You can lead a horse to water, I guess.

I say forget about the horse. Let him wonder around lost looking for those short lines, and you guys can get me all those FP instead or at least help me figure out what I’m doing differently.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

So for those of you who have had refresh success on previous trips, do you book your FP (those you make ahead of time) for headliner rides, or do you book 3 rides that are close to each other that you can try to modify the times for and ride right away before moving to a different part of the park with a 4th FP? I really want to try this - just not sure how it will work without risking not getting to ride certain things.

 

[JETSDAD]

So for those of you who have had refresh success on previous trips, do you book your FP (those you make ahead of time) for headliner rides, or do you book 3 rides that are close to each other that you can try to modify the times for and ride right away before moving to a different part of the park with a 4th FP? I really want to try this - just not sure how it will work without risking not getting to ride certain things.

I always book 3 FP's that I would most want (hardest to get) just in case. Really though, the 1st FP is the important one to me. We typically start modifying as soon as we tap our first FP. For the most part we don't hop all over the park....we will choose an area and then just get FP's for that area....when we decide to move to another part of the park we start looking for FP's there. There are certain rides that we will take anytime and make a special trip across a park for (FOP being the obvious one right now). My wife's favourite ride is TSM so we will ride it 3 or 4 times in a row. At EPCOT we often do the tier 1 FP's twice in a row before moving on (after using our first 3 FP's asap). There are times when I get nervous dropping certain FP's and risk not being able to find them again but I trust the refreshing system. I do know that others find it more difficult so I would never tell anyone to not book 7DMT or FOP (those will normally be my 1st FP in those parks) especially for people who may not visit very often. Play around ahead of time to see what sort of results you have and then at some point just give it a shot.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I say forget about the horse. Let him wonder around lost looking for those short lines, and you guys can get me all those FP instead or at least help me figure out what I’m doing differently.

I was thinking of typing this up anyway. I tried to figure out what was different between me and the folks like JETSDAD. I did not have wild success with trying to figure that out but I found a few things that might help. These are based on me being a geek and spending way to much time making practice FPs and poking at the FP system. I literally timed myself getting FPs in various crowd conditions over multiple runs and variables. I did not put the results in a spreadsheet so I'm not an over the top geek.

Tips For People Who Do Not Have Fantastic Success With Refreshing to Do a Little Better

1. If you are new to this, go read the FP stickies and come back. Go on. Seriously, go read them. Lots of good info there. The FP priority list is in line with how easy or hard it is to get an FP day of in general. I do find M&Gs to be higher up the list in difficulty than they are listed in the priority list though.

2. Do all the widely reported things like splitting your party and grabbing any time for a ride you want and then modifying it to walk it in to the time you want.

3. If you have an iphone ... buy an Android. No. Just kidding. Mostly. But if you happen to have access to an Android phone as well, try them both (and report back which is better).

4. If you have an iphone download the Firefox or Chrome browser apps. I had noticably better success with Firefox than either the app or Safari. I don't know why and it doesn't make sense because it takes longer for the webpage to load than the app (as you would expect) but I consistently got headliners 5 to 10 mins sooner with Firefox than the app (which you would not expect since it's slower so I got in fewer overall refreshes). Note that it was taking half an hour to an hour to get headliners when I was practicing.

This is one of the things that leads me to believe there are factors on the back end of this software affecting refreshing that we don't know about.

5. Switch back and forth between WiFi and data in the parks to use whichever is faster at the time. It changes.

6. Noon was my witching hour for FPs. I got FOP in 10 mins at 12:45. Other people have reported that they also got FOP around noon. I had been trying to get one additional FP for my son on EE at 11:00. Party of 1 (DH and DD already had one) to overlap their 11:15 EE. Could not do it. Could not get an overlapping time with 15 mins refreshing. At 12:15 I popped on and was able to get all 3 of them EE basically immediately within minutes. This leads me to believe either that there is less switching of FPs in the morning or Disney might start seeding FPs into the system around noon. That is total speculation on my part and there is no solid evidence for it, but it would kind of make sense that around noon they would have a sense of how many people are in the parks that day and start adjusting. Again total speculation. But if you can have all 3 FPs used by noon be on the lookout for headliners around then. Don't be discouraged if you can't move up FPs in the morning because it may get noticably better after noon (others have reported better luck in the morning though so YMMV).

7. Don't get hung up on getting back to back good FPs. There are lots of activities to do that don't require FPs and there are easy to get FPs. Alternate to give yourself time to refresh and also not have to walk them in so far. So for example, after prebooked 7DMT, plan to go see Mickey's philharmagic. After tapping 7DMT, try to get PP for half an hour or 45 mins from then. If you can get it close enough to go right after 7DMT great, go, if not go to MPh and keep trying. Go on PP (assuming you got it), grab IASW (which most everyone should be able to get right away with no problem). Tap IASW and start trying to get JC with a plan to go visit Mary Poppins (or see Country Bears) if you can't get JC right away. This worked very well for me to reduce frustration when I couldn't get headliners because I was still getting things. It reduced time on the phone because I wasn't trying to walk FPs in to be immediately available, and allowed for smelling the roses by not trying to go ride to ride all the time. I felt like I really got a lot of good things and did all that I wanted but I was a little more balanced about things.

7. Don't buy package tickets. Buy them separately and do so a month or two before your FP window opens so you have freedom to practice. Try making same day FPs on a couple days that should have similar crowds to the days you're going. See how long it takes you to get what you want. Try splitting your party to see how easy you can get overlapping times. Try at different times of the day. See what gives you the best results and get really comfortable with the interface.

And that's all I got. Good luck.

 

[Dean1953]

We are here for 3 weeks in timeshares, with AP's that expire June 22. At 30 days, I was able to get everything that I wanted, including three FOP's before noon. That was for the first 7 days, as allowed with AP's. So far, booking 7 days out for 3 persons has been a challenge. No FOP's or Mine Train at 7 days but have been able to get them the day of use, but not ar convenient times. My problem is with MK, HS and Epcot. I doubt if I'll book any more FP's at Epcot because we book either Test Track or Soarin, then Spaceship Earth (not our favorite) before noon but can't get Mission to Mars before 7 PM (and half of the time, its not available at any time). Hollywood Studios isn't much better, with TSM closed this week. R&R Coaster has times starting ar 6-7 PM. The decent rides at MK (the Mountains) aren't available before 5 I periodically at night spend 20-30 minutes trying to adjust times but have little success, even trying the night before. I have some success trying the morning before use but find it difficult lining them up one hour apart. My best success is going in after using the first FP and changing times them. I've found FOP that way but not at a convienient time, so we passed on it. The same with amine Train. After 5, the number of FP's becomes limited or nonexistent. Fortunately, being here for 3 weeks, we don't have to ride something 10-15 times and are spending a maximum time of 4 hours at a park per day, and using the water parks 3.times per week for the second and third week, so we are happy so far. Fortunately, I have only 3 more days to book FP's on this trip because I'm getting really tired and frustrated at the amount of time I have to spend doing it.