“Refresh” is my new favorite strategy

[Klayfish]

lol I'll save you from the others then. I wanted to see if there were any rides that I couldn't get this morning (didn't bother with HS because it's a hot mess right now lol). Mine train was the most difficult but I managed one for early afternoon. FOP I showed above. The rest were within an hour of the time I was looking. Probably 20-30 minutes to get all tier 1 and top rides across the 3 parks. I should do a video sometime. As a side note, we were in line in front of the people who did the video posted above during the AK Moonlight Magic event in May. They were vlogging (you can see my DD in their vlog about the event) but I couldn't recall where I had seen him. Later on it dawned on me that it was from their FP video.

OK, stop. The rumor we need to spread is that it DOESN'T work and the only FP+ you can get is for IaSM.

DW and the kids are picking me up in 30 minutes and we're heading down, can't wait to jump on some rides (well, tomorrow).

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

So the only thing I’m really seeing is that I was on an iPhone and wasn’t switching back and forth between WiFi and cell service. I stayed on cell the whole time as we have unlimited data. Maybe they were intentionally slowing down my refresh times because of that?

We only had two people in our group. We walked stuff back and did just like you said, grabbing stuff for later on and then doing non waiting type attractions in between. I wasn’t picky about the times it gave, unless they were in the far future, and I wasn’t able to walk it back to something within the next 2 hrs.

You used a browser app instead of the MDE app?

Sorry, I don't see anything either.

If you don't mind my asking, do you have APs? Stay onsite or off? Go frequently or first trip?

 

[JETSDAD]

OK, stop. The rumor we need to spread is that it DOESN'T work and the only FP+ you can get is for IaSM.

DW and the kids are picking me up in 30 minutes and we're heading down, can't wait to jump on some rides (well, tomorrow).

Have a great time!

 

[NJlauren]

I haven’t read the whole thread... But I think another reason this works is because if your last FP is at 5, you may not know to try and move that one up. You can’t start searching for additional FP till the first 3 are used. So if a family had a late FP for a ride like 7DMT it may be harder to utilize this ‘refresh’ because that’s one of the hardest FP to move around.

Now I loved it my last trip and we added a day and booked FP the day before and I was able to get everything we wanted in MK except for 7DMT. We rode tons of great rides that day!

 

[SaintsManiac]

I just ran through AK FPs for today and Na'vi popped up 3 times.

And for anyone thinking it doesn't work during busy times, it did for us during MLK weekend. It's all about how much time you want to put in. We were waiting for my husband to ride ToT a few times and that's how we pulled TSMM. HS was packed, too.

 

[desl10]

I don't know to refresh on my phone either but I think it something similar to refreshing a website page on a computer and I think the exact method with the most efficiency is different among different types of phones at least that is what I gathered when I heard a podcast from the Backside of Magic guys when they talked about how to do it on their iphones. I tried to pin down what podcast that was (between 3 and 9 months ago I think) but couldn't find it, though I did find this https://forum.touringplans.com/t/fp-mde-refreshing/42164 From the title it looks promising.

Thanks for posting! Need to listen to this for our trip!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I wanted to see if there were any rides that I couldn't get this morning (didn't bother with HS because it's a hot mess right now).

RnR was by far the easiest to get last week. On Thursday, we kept riding it over and over again just because immediate FPs continued to pop up. I think we did have to wait 5 minutes one time for the grace period to open up.

I almost felt bad for the guests waiting in the 80 minute standby line as we circled the queue for the 3rd or 4th time.

 

[desl10]

I found the most efficient method was to choose my attraction, pick the best available time then continue to refresh until I could move the time up closer to the current time. My phone wouldn’t let me continue to select the same time, so I just switched back and forth between the first two half hour time slots until something came up. It never took more than 5 or so minutes to find something within the next hour or less.

I tried splitting the group up once to see how that worked but I didn’t like that method at all. I was much easier to search for all 5 of us at once.

The only thing I could never get to come up was Navi, so we ended up waiting 70 minutes for that one.

So is this method mostly useful while in park that same day? Not 15 plus days out etc

 

[nighttowll]

You used a browser app instead of the MDE app?

Sorry, I don't see anything either.

If you don't mind my asking, do you have APs? Stay onsite or off? Go frequently or first trip?

I used the MDE app downloaded on my iPhone. We stayed onsite for the trip where we had such bad luck. We don’t have APs for Disney, we have them for the place that must not be named instead. We are type A planners / researchers, rope drop til close type people, and we definitely aren’t first timers. Been going for over 10 years. How I miss the old system. Now that one I’d agree I’d ride headliners over and over all day long.

We usually go to Fl about once every 3 months, sometimes more often, but we don’t always do Disney every trip. So I will definitely concede to the AP holders who say they get this to work for them. I’m thinking it was just extra, extra, crowded when we last went. The park hours were also very short for the crowd levels we were seeing, so that may have factored in as well.

Now that I think about it, I’m wondering if the super short park days (I can’t remember if they were categorized as value season or not) combined with the large crowds (which were peak season level) was the problem. We probably had half the hours available to us as someone going during peak season normally would, so half the FP time slots available. Our dates were supposed to be “off season” (don’t think that exists anymore) with crowds projected to be between 2 to 6, 6 the beginning of week then tapering off. It didn’t happen. They ended up being 6 to 10 most days and when the park opens late, closes early, and then you need to use the first 3 FP up, it didn’t leave a lot of time left to play around with booking much.

 

[rentayenta]

I played around a bit with FP's this morning to see what could be found around an hour after opening. Went to look for FOP first and this took about 10 seconds (3 refreshes). Not typical but also not the first time it's happened for me.

View attachment 329639

I'd be lying if I said this didn't bring a little tear to my eye. Its just lovely.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Oh funny, we grabbed Navi for 2 people but threw it back after my son said he wanted to leave the park.

"Catch and Release" Fastpasses. I like it.

 

[rentayenta]

"Catch and Release" Fastpasses. I like it.

 

[nighttowll]

I just ran through AK FPs for today and Na'vi popped up 3 times.

And for anyone thinking it doesn't work during busy times, it did for us during MLK weekend. It's all about how much time you want to put in. We were waiting for my husband to ride ToT a few times and that's how we pulled TSMM. HS was packed, too.

I guess, but there comes a point where it’s not worth it. If I have to spend an hour or more refreshing, I could have just waited in the actual line. I could see that being an ok trade off for a new ride that’s averaging 3+ hours, but for most of the rides, not so much.

I felt I put a lot of time into refreshing, so it’s frustrating to hear people say, well you just gave up too fast. I pretty much spent every minute in line, or in a holding pen for a show, or while we walked from A to B, even during a couple of meals, hitting refresh. I know I refreshed for a good 30 minutes straight during one meal. I spent the entire train ride refreshing, a full loop, and the best I could come up with was Barnstormer. I feel like if I’d spent anymore time refreshing, I wouldn’t have actually seen Disney. As it was, I was pretty much ignoring my sister refreshing constantly when we could have been spending time together. If anything, I felt I spent way too much time refreshing and looking at my phone. It made everything much less enjoyable, having to constantly try so hard to find something new to get and missing what was going on around me.

 

[desl10]

Super helpful. Thanks for posting.

Great Video. Anyone have luck with bigger groups like 6?

 

[SaintsManiac]

I guess, but there comes a point where it’s not worth it. If I have to spend an hour or more refreshing, I could have just waited in the actual line. I could see that being an ok trade off for a new ride that’s averaging 3+ hours, but for most of the rides, not so much.

I felt I put a lot of time into refreshing, so it’s frustrating to hear people say, well you just gave up too fast. I pretty much spent every minute in line, or in a holding pen for a show, or while we walked from A to B, even during a couple of meals, hitting refresh. I know I refreshed for a good 30 minutes straight during one meal. I spent the entire train ride refreshing, a full loop, and the best I could come up with was Barnstormer. I feel like if I’d spent anymore time refreshing, I wouldn’t have actually seen Disney. As it was, I was pretty much ignoring my sister refreshing constantly when we could have been spending time together. If anything, I felt I spent way too much time refreshing and looking at my phone. It made everything much less enjoyable, having to constantly try so hard to find something new to get and missing what was going on around me.

I only refreshed when waiting for my husband to ride while we took turns sitting with my daughter. On a 4 day trip I was trying to get certain ones multiple times. I don't think it's worth missing out on your trip experiences, though! I understand why you got so frustrated. That stinks

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Great Video. Anyone have luck with bigger groups like 6?

Our group was 5, and we had them popping up one right after the other.

 

[DisneyDeb83]

I have totally changed our fast pass strategy because of refreshing. Instead of going to the park early for stand by rides, then fast passes mid afternoon, we start usually at 9 am with our first fast pass. I try to get the must-do fp first before 2 others, and start refreshing once I tap in. We are flexible, so I will choose another ride other than the chosen one if it means I can get on it sooner. There have been many times that we have completed 3 rides in the first hour. Then we are free to pick one ride after another, whatever the tier. I check other parks and will move on to another if I can get a good fast pass!

Of course, I can’t always get FOP or SDMT, but I’d rather do something than wait around for our next fast pass. I absolutely hate standby. It’s not that I’m that impatient, but standing in one place for an extended period of time is painful! I can walk the parks all day, just can’t stay still.

As for not talking to my DH while I’m refreshing, we spend a LOT of time together in everyday life, so he doesn’t mine if I ignore him for awhile while I obsess over getting that next fast pass. He appreciates the fact that we rarely wait for any attraction.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love refreshing. I have been able to get some good FP+ doing this. I do it all the time now and my dd just laughs at me. She should be happy because it has worked many times

 

[emmabelle]

I find that it works great, but not if all the FP’s are gone for the day for a particular ride.

We’re going in 18 days with 5 people and I will be refreshing like crazy. We’ll see how successful I’ll be with that big of a party. It’s usually just me and my husband.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

Usually it's just my husband and myself, so forgive me if this is a stupid question...we will be traveling with my brother's family of 4. Can 2 of us be logged in to my MDE account on separate phones and each be refreshing/making FPs for parties of 3?