A&E FP - Really any chance?

[Frozen2014]

Yesterday my DD5 was with me at the computer. I was scanning my Facebook feeds and one of them had a picture of A&E from one of the (many) Disney feeds. (The feed was advertising one of the HS events). She called out so excited "Anna and Else!. Can you scroll back mommy? I want to see."

Like most other moms...want so desperately to get FP (but not standing in line for hours). We're going 3rd week in Oct. But it seems like A&E FP is now like trying to get a BOG ADR.

We're coming Sun - Sat and will be hitting MK for the full day on Mon & Thurs (but Thurs closes at 7pm). We'll also go for a couple hours on the Sun and on the Fri for MNSSHP.

Any chance of grabbing a FP for any of those days? My ideal plan is for the Thurs, but will take any.

 

[GAJulie]

I'm going in September, and was unsuccessful, despite logging on at midnight. I can't say what the availability will be in October vs September, but I think what might cause you a bit of trouble is that fact that you are a Sunday arrival. I am as well, and I have friends who are arriving on Saturday, a day before me. They were able to get A & E, while I was not.

Sorry, I don't mean to be doom & gloom on this...just haven't had any success myself, and I think the Sunday arrival was my undoing...they were gone before my "window" even opened!

Good luck and pixie dust to you!!

 

[lsenquiz]

Checking in on Sunday seems to hurt peoples chance's. Mostly because everyone that is coming from Saturday to Saturday got to make FP for Anna & Elsa the day before you did for the same days you are looking for. So, I would not get my hopes up too high but there is always a chance.

We are going in September from Friday Sept 12th - Sunday Sept 21st and the first day I could get was the 19th. By Saturday morning A&E FP+ for the whole week were gone.

Definitely use the strategies that have been released for getting these FPs,
1) start with last day the minute your FP window opens (midnight ET)and work your way back
2) if you can't find anything for your whole party try reducing party size and then adding on(to try to get FP+ at different times that overlap

 

[BlueFairy]

Are you staying onsite? That will give you a better chance than waiting until 30 days with an offsite ressie.

If you can justify a Touring Plans subscription, get the Lines App and watch the posted wait times. If your DD can stay up until the end of the night you will wait much less.

Also, reported wait times have been more in the 80 - 120 minute range since they made all the A&E changes.

Personally, I wouldn't try to do rope drop. Too much insanity for me.

If the Frozen events at the Studios get extended, read up and go do those things. Also, be sure to have a good spot for FoF parade so your daughter can see them there.

 

[Missyrose]

Your best chance would be to start your search with the last day of your trip and search for just one person. Then you can either try to copy the FP+ reservations from one person to another in your group or you can continue to search for one person at a time and look for overlapping A&E times.

People are realizing that the Sunday arrivals are proving problematic because so many more people arrive the day before. But you also have that final Sunday to search for while the Saturday arrivers don't.

There's also the issue of severely shortened hours in the fall/winter because there are so many Halloween and Christmas parties. So that affects the number of FP+ slots available when people sign on at 60 days out.

 

[GigiDisneyfreak]

I did my FP+ on Mon. at 12:10 a.m. (It did not open at midnight checked back 10 minutes later and it was open). I was able to book my party of 4 with a selection of times after 11 a.m. there weren't any options for earlier. I was also able to select all 4 of us at the same time but I know that others have reported not being able to do more than 2 at a time. The dates available to me weren't until the end of my trip though. I am arriving on a Fri and staying for 9 nights so the 2 days I looked for that I would be at the MK and able to find times were a Thur and a Sat. So you should definitely look at the end of your trip. I think it is harder in the slower times because WDW probably has less CM scheduled so the friends of Anna and Elsa are fewer and the hours are shorter several days of the week because of MNSSHP. Good Luck trying to get them I know how hard it is to disappoint a child when they are excited for something. Remember to keep trying if you can't get them and to try all the other different techniques people on the Dis have been trying.

 

[Claki]

We're going in September. I tried at midnight at 60 days and there were several openings for 4 after 11 a.m. on the fifth day of our trip and the 3rd day of the trip in the afternoon. After I booked for A&E on our fifth day, I checked the third, and then our 1st MK day. That day was all booked by ten minutes after midnight. I don't know if I would have gotten it if I'd tried first.

This was my first time booking Fastpass+ and I didn't know what I was doing so I didn't even mess with the method to try for one person and then copy it over to everyone. Good luck!

 

[angelia denise]

We are officially arriving at WDW resorts from Wed., 9/10 to 9/19, (actually arriving Sun.9/7 through to Wed., 9/10- to WDW Hilton) and I was very worried that I had missed the A&E fast pass because we were out of town, I had no internet service, and my cell phone wasn't working! I was well into my 2nd day (maybe 3rd, don't remember) of being able to snag an A&E fast pass on Wed., 9/17, and low and behold I got it! The time is 12:20-1:20, and there are 3 of us. I was shocked! I checked back later the next day to see out of curiosity if it was still there, and it was gone. I definitely think it helped that I had a longer pool of days to choose from.

 

[Frozen2014]

Thank you for all the responses. Had no idea that arriving on a Sunday is a big disadvantage. But makes sense as all those arriving the day before can grab the FP before us. Thank goodness at least we decided to stay onsite. Didn't realize all the advantages at the time...so glad I talked dh in to it. Well, this helps with the decision that I should definitely sign in at midnight (as opposed to waiting for morning) and give it a try. Will try for the Thurs first and then try the Monday (or even Friday for MNSSHP from 4-7pm). Thanks all.

 

[Aurora0427]

Good luck, OP! We are traveling 12/11-12/17, with a late flight out on our last day. I'm hoping I can at least get something for the day we fly out if nothing pops up earlier in the week.

 

[mjohnson96]

Yeah we are going o be in the same boat this week We are Sun - Sun since I have APs over at US and we have two nights booked at RPH and seeing the new DA before WDW.

Going to do the last day first, and honestly if I can only get A&E on the Sunday we go home I might just change flights around I am going to try the 2 route first and not all 4 since oldest DD really could care less and she would want to use her FP to ride one of the mountains instead.

 

[Gracie09]

We are staying onsite and our 60 days starts today. Last night we (at midnight) we got a&e on our fourth day at 1:00 go six people. We didn't have to split or anything.

 

[kastoney]

Agree with others, provided you are staying on site and look for later in the trip fist you should be ok if you schedule right at the 60 day mark at midnight. We just had success last week. My hubby and I tried at the same time from multiple devises and they had FP available for all but the first 3 days of our 9 day trip.

 

[Aurora0427]

The thing that worries me the most is that I only get FP+ choices that interfere with our dining reservations. Just my luck the only open window will be during our CRT reservation or Chef Mickey. Which won't be movable. Several of our choices I can probably move around, but not all.

 

[yulilin3]

My experience:
We are Ap holders and live 20 minutes from the magic so we don't really plan in advance. My niece is turning 3 in 2 weeks and my daughter and I decided to record birthday messages from all the face characters that she loves, of course on top of the list are Anna and Elsa. On Thursday morning (July 17) I went to see if I could find fp for my DD and myself for Saturday (July 19) so only 2 days.
Tried getting both at the same time, nothing. Tried getting only one and it worked. Got one for 9:40am to 10:40am. Tried later in the day for the other one and only an evening slot was available so I grabbed it. Friday 18th tried in the morning to get them closer together nothing...Friday night, bingo got the exact same time slot as the first one. We went yesterday and recorded birthday messages with (in order) Tink (5 min wait), Ana and Elsa fp, Rapunzel and Cinderella (10min. wait), Ariel (15 min wait) Snow White (5min wait) Peter Pan (10 min wait) Tiana and Naveen (5min wait) left the park at 5:30pm after riding 7DMT with fp using the same technique .
It can be done, it takes time and patience

 

[mom2rtk]

There's also the issue of severely shortened hours in the fall/winter because there are so many Halloween and Christmas parties. So that affects the number of FP+ slots available when people sign on at 60 days out.

I think that's a big piece of what has been going on. But I also wonder if they have cut back the schedule to one room instead of two to save staff availability for MNSSHP.

Hopefully not.

 

[Frozen2014]

My experience:
We are Ap holders and live 20 minutes from the magic so we don't really plan in advance. My niece is turning 3 in 2 weeks and my daughter and I decided to record birthday messages from all the face characters that she loves, of course on top of the list are Anna and Elsa. On Thursday morning (July 17) I went to see if I could find fp for my DD and myself for Saturday (July 19) so only 2 days.
Tried getting both at the same time, nothing. Tried getting only one and it worked. Got one for 9:40am to 10:40am.

I've seen this comment a couple times. SO is the better strategy to request on 1 FP for A&E and then go back and add myself? (DS and DD will do something else during this time). Will the second one always be available? I wouldn't want to send a 5 year old in by herself (and would want to capture the magical moment myself). Or is requesting 2 the same thing? I can see this being challenging though since from what I see, you select the person first in the FP process.

PS - For the fun of it, I check FP for this Thursday for A&E and it was not graded out (i.e. I think meaning it is available)

 

[yulilin3]

I've seen this comment a couple times. SO is the better strategy to request on 1 FP for A&E and then go back and add myself? (DS and DD will do something else during this time). Will the second one always be available? I wouldn't want to send a 5 year old in by herself (and would want to capture the magical moment myself). Or is requesting 2 the same thing? I can see this being challenging though since from what I see, you select the person first in the FP process.

PS - For the fun of it, I check FP for this Thursday for A&E and it was not graded out (i.e. I think meaning it is available)

First of all your 5 year old can't go in by herself.
This is what you do: you request one first (it could be yours) then go in and request one for the other member. I tried doing the "copy fp" option and that never worked.