Annual Pass = Limited # of days for Fastpass+

[WilsonFlyer]

I'm always devil's advocate. That's what I do here. LOL

Having said that, let me set up a scenario for you.

I'm going in the spring. Probably F&G and probably in March... but here's the rub. I don't have everybody's schedule yet so I can't book anywhere (R&B). Everybody has a MB and an AP. All family members. I could easily go online and reserve TSM for every day of March just to make sure I get whatever week I ultimately decide to book.

I'll do you one better...

I actually AM going to F&G for the entire month of March. I'm staying with friends for the month and taking an extended sabbatical. Let's call it a "therapy vacation."

That's just two off the top of my head. I could easily come up with ten more. Expand that to the very REAL possibilities of legitimate FL Residents and you've got a real problem.

Bob, you're a butthole and nobody else thinks like that!

Keep believing that.

There's what people say and what people do. Many times, they are two completely different things, unfortunately. Never underestimate what a Disney fan will do to get a FP and never underestimate people's general inclination to "get one over on the man" in general. Sorry. Color me skeptical.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

FWIW, I do think in a couple of years there will be enough statistical data to support throwing out certain percentages on certain days at certain parks and certain times of the year, etc., etc., etc.

Unfortunately, they can't even start gathering THAT data now (which they should be IMHO and as a technology professional) because they are not allowing people to snow the system. They should be doing that now so statistical factors could be determined and a lot of this could be taken care of in the numbers.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

We have an upcoming 13 day trip for which I had planned 8 days with FP+. We have DVC PAP. I just went into the system and was able to book a 9th day of FP+. I'm not sure why the limits seem to be different.
I can see it becoming a problem if local AP holders take up many days of FPs. I'm sure Disney has thought of this and will set some limits.

I agree and to a fault. What I mean is how to you tell this person that he or she can't book FP+ for the next 8 weekends in a row? They live in Orange County and they go all the time. They are entitled as AP holders unless there are blackout weekends involved, right?

There has got to be something obvious here that I'm missing, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it is.

 

[izzy]

I have a pap and reached my limit at 14 days. I am here now and when I used the first few days I was able to make more fp selections for my 16 day trip. So it appears u can only be holding 14 days of fp at one time. Not sure why others reached a limit earlier.

This was the same experience that I had with my PAP for my 15 day trip.

 

[Sandisw]

Thank you! That's EXACTLY my point. Limiting my AP puts me at a disadvantage to regular ticket holders. It decreases the value of my pass & limits my ability to enjoy the park.

Not really though...the longest MYW ticket is a 10 day so that's the most that would be allowed..but I do think that a limit of 14 is more realistic for an AP holder than 8 as that would allow for hopefully more than one reserved trip.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Not really though...the longest MYW ticket is a 10 day so that's the most that would be allowed..but I do think that a limit of 14 is more realistic for an AP holder than 8 as that would allow for hopefully more than one reserved trip.

There are big point-holders on this very forum that this simply wouldn't work for. Not without them giving up something they have arguably paid for in spades.

Your assumption is a couple of weeks per year per guest. There are a lot of us here that go for 3,4,5 or even more weeks per year. Heck, sometimes I think some people on here live there!

 

[JimC]

At some point I believe fast pass ceases to increase enjoyment. Just like pre-check at the airport. It is convenient as long as the number using it is small. But the more it is opened up, the less convenient it becomes.

Or possibly fast pass reservations mirror advanced dining reservations. And at some point Disney institutes credit card hold requirements at the E-ticket attractions, then extends to all attractions.

While I like not having to queue up for extended periods, I also like the freedom of not needing to plan my movements based on too many reservations. There is something attractive, at least for me, to meander around Disney enjoying whatever happens to capture my interest.

 

[DougEMG]

In the last year we did 52 days at BWV and our next trip we have booked is for 4 weeks at BWV and if I can't book in advance for all 4 of those weeks I'd be pretty pissed off. I would think that anyone booked at a resort would be allowed to book FP+ for each day of their booking. Not being able to do that would really diminish the value of having a large number of DVC point and I can't see Disney doing anything that would reduce the value of buying more DVC points to their customers.

Glad I'm not going to Sept, hopefully by then Disney will have the FP+ program implemented and people will have posted tips on how to make the most efficent use of the system.

 

[tjkraz]

What I mean is how to you tell this person that he or she can't book FP+ for the next 8 weekends in a row?

I doubt it will be an issue. It appears they CAN book 7 weekends in a row...and as soon as one of those weekends passes (down to 12 days being held), they can add another weekend.

FPs are not going to run out 6 weeks in advance. These aren't late-90s reservations for CRT. There are thousands--in some cases tens-of-thousands--of FPs available each day for each attraction.

There are big point-holders on this very forum that this simply wouldn't work for. Not without them giving up something they have arguably paid for in spades.

Disney isn't going to make policy decisions based upon the interests of that small group. Regardless of what they have spent for their DVC points.

People with longer trips can make more FP+ reservations after the start of their trip. After they've begun using some of the 14 reserved in advance. 99% of the time, 14 days advance notice is going to be plenty of time to get exactly what you want.

 

[Sandisw]

There are big point-holders on this very forum that this simply wouldn't work for. Not without them giving up something they have arguably paid for in spades.

Your assumption is a couple of weeks per year per guest. There are a lot of us here that go for 3,4,5 or even more weeks per year. Heck, sometimes I think some people on here live there!

While I know a lot of DVC members go for a lot of weeks in the year--I go 3 to 4 times myself, but in most cases, those trips are probably at least 60 days apart.

My post was referring to a limit of 14 at one time, not for the year, so if a person has two different trips planned that would be less than 60 days apart--it would hopefully at least cover part of the days of the 2nd trip.

As already noted, people who had a limit were able to reserve more once they used some...

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

We are going to DW for 8 days over Thanksgiving and have 3 fastpasses each for every one of those 8 days. Since we have the DVC PAP, we scheduled a 3 day trip to DW starting Dec 22nd.

The fastpass+ window just opened for the December 22 trip, but the MDE has a message saying "fastpass+ limit reached". I can make fastpass+ selections for the days in December, but then get a message that I must "trade" confirmed fastpass+ selections from a different day in order to confirm the new fastpass+ selections.

Has anyone else run into this limit?
It really devalues the PAP if you can only get 8 days of fastpasses.

Yep, but Disney doesn't think it's an issue.

Another Tragic Band example of why this is poorly designed!

 

[dismedvc]

The people she talked with seemed to think the problem was I was trying to make fastpass+ "reservations" at exactly the 60 day mark, and if I tried again tomorrow, it should work.

The limit is still on today, so the problem was not being at exactly 60 days yesterday.

I'm going to cross my fingers that this is a cap to the number of "active" FastPass+ reservations, and not a straight annual cap. For example, once the OP's Thanksgiving trip is over and those FP+ reservations are used, it opens up that number of FP+ reservations for them to add to their December trip. Likewise, for a 14-day stay, once the first few days of the trip are over, it allows you to start adding additional FP+ reservations onto the latter days of the trip.

If it truely is 8 FP+ total in a year, then it certainly does enter the equation for buying an annual pass or not.

Since we're talking about a Passholder, it does make some sense that FP+ can only be used for 7 or 8 days at at time. That may be how they intend to keep Passholders from grabbing a 7pm return on TSM or Soarin--every day of the year--just in case they happen to stop by the parks.

Right now FP+ is only available to those with resort reservations. Eventually Passholders will get their own MagicBands and 366 days of FP+ access. But it seems logical Disney would have to use some protections to keep those Passholders from grabbing dozens or hundreds of purely speculative ride reservations.

In OPs case, as soon as some of those FP+ days from the Thanksgiving trip have passed, FP+ reservations can be made for the December trip.

Purely speculative, of course...

It does however look like what is stated in the last two quotes above is correct, although I will not know for sure until after our Thanksgiving trip starts, and we use the first few days of fastpasses for that trip. I will update what actually happens then.

 

[bumbershoot]

The fastpass+ window just opened for the December 22 trip, but the MDE has a message saying "fastpass+ limit reached". I can make fastpass+ selections for the days in December, but then get a message that I must "trade" confirmed fastpass+ selections from a different day in order to confirm the new fastpass+ selections.

Has anyone else run into this limit?
It really devalues the PAP if you can only get 8 days of fastpasses.

I ran into that *error message*. And then I clicked Back, started again, and the message went away. this was two days ago, so about when you were doing this.

And it was only reached for ME. Not for DH or DS, who are on my account. All our DVC APs are linked and we entered the parks with them several times a couple weeks ago.

We're at home but I was playing around while looking at a different question on the boards, by a person who could NOT make FP+s with their linked AP. I could, even though we had just been there, but were not there, and don't have a reservation again until January.

As I went through the process I got about halfway through then it said I had reached my limit and I had to swap. Clicked to swap (for the fun of it...I had NO other FP+ reservations at all), it said I had nothing to swap. That's when I clicked Back (or maybe Cancel) and started the EXACT SAME process again.

And it went through.

So I consider it to be a glitch, an error message. NOT a policy. Just another floopy moment during this testing phase.

 

[mikek]

just another point here that there's not a hard limit at 8 or 9 days itself.

We've got a 6 day cash reservation onsite and then an immediately following 7 day DVC points stay. We're getting MB's from those stays (didn't already have MB but have existing PAP's). At 60 days from the first check in it let me make FP+'s for all 13 days.

(actually i found a bug where you could make them before 60 days if you let them pick which park and then edit them)

BUT- it behaved oddly. I gave the first 10 days no problem.
On day 11 it gave all of us but guest A and complained Guest A had too many days. So I made them for eveyone but guest A and then just copied from mine to Guest A

On day 12 it did they same thing but this day it complained about Guest B. I worked around the same.

On Day 13 it did the same thing but this time with Guest C. Same workaround.

So I suspect there's BOTH some rule figuring out AND some website programming issues going on.

Also based on earlier observations I think there's some programming link to reservation check in date plus 14 days. That might be tripping up the OP also.

I have no idea what the intended rule really is (or will be)- but as an interim work around - I would try to book one set in one persons name. Then book the second trip in the other passholders name. Then see if it allows you to copy them all between each other. My guess would be that will work fine at the moment.

 

[dismedvc]

When talked to the MS supervisor again today, she said the IT resources are working to get the Magic Your Way tickets working as close to perfectly as they can get them for fastpass+ and magic bands.

While they are allowing Annual Passholders to participate in what is still considered the test phase of fastpass+ and magic bands, they probably will not be fixing any AP glitches until they are done with the MYW fixes.

In theory, every type of pass will be "fixed" before they do the full rollout.
I will leave it to others to comment on when that might be and how glitch free the final product ends up.

 

[papertraveller]

Our next three booked visits are less than eight days, and more than 60 days apart, so if it's rolled out by then, all should be fine.

But our last visit was a glorious two weeks. So just imagining how that would play out in the future: If I can book my Day 9 FastPass+ only at the end of Day 1, then I'm at a disadvantage behind the people whose vacation starts on my Day 9. They would have booked already.

I do fully realize that I have the perspective of an out-of-towner. Managing the needs/patterns of Florida pass holders is another matter altogether.

 

[mikek]

Our next three booked visits are less than eight days, and more than 60 days apart, so if it's rolled out by then, all should be fine.

But our last visit was a glorious two weeks. So just imagining how that would play out in the future: If I can book my Day 9 FastPass+ only at the end of Day 1, then I'm at a disadvantage behind the people whose vacation starts on my Day 9. They would have booked already.

I do fully realize that I have the perspective of an out-of-towner. Managing the needs/patterns of Florida pass holders is another matter altogether.

just to repeat- i have 13 days in a row for my coming trip with no problems.

The cut off seems to be 14 days at a clip. So a 15+ day trip you have to roll over some part way through once you are there.

 

[dismedvc]

just to repeat- i have 13 days in a row for my coming trip with no problems.

The cut off seems to be 14 days at a clip. So a 15+ day trip you have to roll over some part way through once you are there.

However, it appears if you have two different trips, once you "max out" on the first trip (in our case 8 days of fastpass+ with 7 nights booked) it says you have reached your limit and cannot reserve additional fasspass+ for future trips that are within 60 days of your first trip. The only exception being if you are willing to "trade out" fastpass+ days from that first trip. Otherwise you have to wait until you begin using the fastpasses for that first trip before you can get fastpass+ for the second trip.
However to quote a wise man.

Purely speculative, of course...

 

[Sammie]

We just returned from a trip and at that time had our Annual Passes linked to our Magic Band.

I am able to book Fastpass+ without a resort reservation from now until Dec. 24.

I can book as many days as I want. 3 passes per day.

I have no idea what the plan is concerning Annual Passes, but right now mine works on a daily basis up to 60 days in advance.

We used 8 days of Fastpass+ on our more recent trip and I see no limit to book anything at this point going forward.

 

[tjkraz]

We just returned from a trip and at that time had our Annual Passes linked to our Magic Band.

I am able to book Fastpass+ without a resort reservation from now until Dec. 24.

I can book as many days as I want.

I have no idea what the plan is concerning Annual Passes, but right now mine works on a daily basis up to 60 days in advance.

Did you actually book FP+ for a large number of days (say, 14+)? Just curious.

Even being able to see FP+ availability as a passholder--with no hotel reservation--seems to be new.

(EDIT: FWIW, I just went into my own MDE account and it is not letting me pick FP+ for any day of my choosing. I'm also a current passholder with the ticket properly linked to my account. The only days it will allow me to pick are the ones that overlap with my December WDW hotel stay.)

Things seem to be moving pretty quickly in the NextGen world. I read the other day that third party ticket sellers are now getting "paper" tickets with RFID chips embedded. That's what day guests will use unless they choose to pay extra for a MagicBand.

Also saw a rumor that the legacy FP machines could be removed entirely as early as January. Not sure how reliable that is, though.