Fast Pass question / disagreement

[HaleyB]

Okay, can anyone settle this for me. I have been told by a CM that a fast pass expires at the end of the day it is issued (not the end of the return time window). This was a few years back. Someone just said to me that they do expire and the CM was just being nice and letting us use them. Well we have used 'expired' fast passes many many times and never once has a CM said anything about it. So now I am wondering if there is an official policy or just an unwritten rule, or if we have just been real luckey in the past. So I guess this is my question:

1) Have you EVER been told your FP was invalid because you missed your return window?

2) If you are a CM, can you tell me if there is a policy on this?

Thanks. I would hate find out I was wrong about this while trying to use a FP. I really can not imagine Disney telling a guest "too bad, you are too late to ride" but then I could always be wrong (shh, don't tell anyone I said that).

Haley.

Going for 12 days in May/June

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Yikes- I had no idea this was a hot topic. Never mind.... forget I asked.... anyone want to talk about something else?

 

[Joyciemc]

I'm really interested in this... There was a post a little while ago that you can use your FP anytime after the window opens. It never occured to me to try this, because there is an 'end time' on the ticket. However, if you are allowed to, I definitely want to know- that would be great! The only thing I don't understand is why there is an hour of time printed on the ticket, if they are good for the rest of the day. Can't wait to find out if this is true!

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

oh oh you let out the secret!!!!!!!ha ha this summer was so busy we did use a few FP after they said we could

 

[CarolA]

Officially the fast pass expires when it says it does. Exceptions are made for things like ride breakdowns, Weather issues on Test Track etc. So yes, a NICE CM might let you go after your time but they are not required to and could say no. I have seen them say no at the Safari ride.

 

[WDWAurora]

If that's happening that often, no wonder the standby lines get so crazy at night! Everybody from earlier coming in, plus the people who really have fast passes for that time period....There should be a policy on this if there's not. I understand being nice for breakdowns, weather, etc...but as a general rule? I don't like it. Am I the only one who thinks that could affect standby time in the worst way?

 

[justhat]

We were told in January that they are good anytime after your window begins, including other days. A CM at TT told us this because it was our last day there and we had a FP when TT broke down. We asked if he knew approximately when it would be back up and he said probably not till later that night (it was around 1pm at the time) or the next day. When we told him we were going home that day he said to bring it back for our next trip. Well, since we were coming back in February we did bring it back (unfortunately, lots of people probably didn't have that opportunity) and we used it without a problem. We asked a CM during our February trip about this policy and we were told that it was true, that you could use them anytime after the beginning time. This CM was at Peter Pan, which I have never seen break down so I thought it must be true for any ride. We got FPs for BTMRR but then ended up eating a sit-down lunch and missed our time. We went back a few hours later and the CM read the time on them and said "Come on in!" We asked a few more times about this since we were in such shock and had rushed to just make our FP time many times in the past and each one confirmed that this was true. A CM at RnRC said that they print the time window on there so that most people come back then, rather than just having like 3 hours of people come at one time, say after a parade. Of course, this is probably an unofficial policy, like being able to reuse a refillable mug on multiple trips or using a used PH ticket(not to get a debate going on that), but it seemed to work for us, and we even used some FPs on our October trip that we saved from February.

 

[goofyernmost]

Just one more reason to hope for the quick and painful death of the Fastpass system. I don't know who thought of the set-up but he or she ought to be banned from ever making any future decisions about anything including what color socks to wear.

The system has been self defeating since day one and is obviously only getting worse as CM's, in an effort to make EVERYBODY happy, have given up on enforcing the proper use of it. A bad idea that has become a nightmare!

 

[dcentity2000]

"EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!"

Oh Oh OH! goofyernmost, I have an idea: Why don't YOU, goofyernmost, get a fastpass? Then YOU can be the person who gets on the ride first. There we are, problem solved

Rich::

 

[InstImpres]

Originally posted by goofyernmost
Just one more reason to hope for the quick and painful death of the Fastpass system. I don't know who thought of the set-up but he or she ought to be banned from ever making any future decisions about anything including what color socks to wear.

The system has been self defeating since day one and is obviously only getting worse as CM's, in an effort to make EVERYBODY happy, have given up on enforcing the proper use of it. A bad idea that has become a nightmare!

Am I alone in loving this system? We are able to do 2 rides in the time of 1. Yes, it adds a little to stand by, but good planning makes it perfect. Even in slow seasons, we get an FP for a favorite ride, get on standby line, ride, than use our FP and ride again. We had a blast. I think I rode more things than ever

JMHO
Sandy

 

[goofy4tink]

I also, like the FP system. I haven't had any problems using it. I do have to say that we don't use it a whole lot. But, when we do, it has worked well.

 

[jazyjewel]

I, for one, love the fast pass system. Why wait in a longer line than you absolutely have to?? Everyone has the option of getting one. But, the use of them after the time has expired is an abuse of the system. They won't let us on before the time because they can only have so many people in the fast past line per hour. So, the use of the fast pass after the time has expired totally defeats this purpose. I understand if the ride breaks down, but that should be the only reason to use it after it expires. JMHO
Julie

 

[seashoreCM]

However if some hours seem to be unusually busy for the fastpass line, the system should be tweaked to issue fewer fastpasses that actually mature in that hour.

I am led to believe that, the longer the time between issuance and maturity, there is an increasing chance that there will be a no-show, the fastpass being discarded.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[disneyjunkie]

Originally posted by goofyernmost
Just one more reason to hope for the quick and painful death of the Fastpass system. I don't know who thought of the set-up but he or she ought to be banned from ever making any future decisions about anything including what color socks to wear.

The system has been self defeating since day one and is obviously only getting worse as CM's, in an effort to make EVERYBODY happy, have given up on enforcing the proper use of it. A bad idea that has become a nightmare!

Do you really think that everyone who gets a FP knows about this rule? There's still a large number of park guest who don't have a clue about the whole FP system.

My son and I have 2 FPs from left from our August 2001 trip. One is for Test Track and one is for Dinosaur. I keep them to put in our scrapbook, but then I learned about this rule. I'll take them with us on our next trip. If we can use them fine, if not, fine.

 

[2tinksmom]

We love FP and really don't use it that much!! But when we do, FP is soooooo sweet!!

 

[tjmw2727]

I don't know that I would count on using a FP after the window.

We missed our return time for Star Tours by about 10 minutes due to a really slow lunch at Sci Fi. We should have had plenty of time but even with a ps our wait for a table was over 1/2 hour and service was very slow. We were aware that there was a chance our fp wouldn't be accepted but we decided to try it anyway. The CM made such a big deal about us missing the return time that it almost wasn't worth it. After the CM thought I had sufficiently learned my lesson we were allowed to ride via fast pass. If the line had not been 60 mintues and if it wasn't our last day I would have definately skipped it.

Earlier in the week we had FP's for test track and it broke down before our window. I was told by the CM's that my pass would not be good any other day and the ride would not be up and running that day. If it was back and running that day I would have been able to use the fp any time after my return time.

So I guess if the ride is broken you can use the FP anytime that day, otherwise I would plan on being on-time.

TJ

 

[HaleyB]

I love the FP system (and so does Disney) because it works. It works because Disney is commited to making it work. The FP line gets prefered treatment over the standby line. I do not think honoring 'expiried' FP's has any negitive effect in the real world (you could argue that everyone might show up at the same time, but not if you understand statistics at all) If honoring the FP's caused a problem Disney would not do it. I had an AP at DL for many years and was never turned away there, and in California the FP system has reduced wait times for everyone (stand by too, just feels longer when people are walking by you). DL has fewer parks and more FP rides per park , so this may not hold true in WDW, but I would be surprised.

Thank you Justhat for confirming for us what we were also told by a CM.

The only people who do not like the FP system are the ones who never used it, or never used it with enough forethought to make it work. But that is fine with me, by all means, ride stand by if you prefer it.

Anyone who thinks it is a bad thing that CM's go out of there way to make guests happy should not go to DW- umm, isn't that why we love it there?

 

[DisneyVillain]

Originally posted by HaleyB
1) Have you EVER been told your FP was invalid because you missed your return window?

2) If you are a CM, can you tell me if there is a policy on this?

I asked these questions earlier this year and...

1) Someone said they had seen others turned away, but no one said that they had been turned away.

2) Safari Steve (Disney CM) said that it is up to the CM at the FP entrance whether to honor an expired pass.

 

[swilphil]

I love FP. I think the vast majority of the people go to the ride during the time allotted because they are so eager to ride.

 

[walt's assistant]

Originally posted by DisneyVillain
Safari Steve (Disney CM) said that it is up to the CM at the FP entrance whether to honor an expired pass.

We tried the FP system for the first time last week and we thought it was terrific. We asked a CM at TestTrack this very same question and his answer was consistent with Safari Steve's (above). The CM told us that it is best to return during the time slot specified as there are no guarantees a CM will honor the FP thereafter.

WA

 

[kaygela]

I love the fastpass system. But ,I believe that like so many things, if the system becomes abused, it will either falter or result in strickter rules for everyone. I honestly believe that most people are anxious to ride and will return in the time allotted. Unfortunately, if some people decide to just gather fastpasses and use them whenever they could spoil a good thing for everyone. We need to just all be considerate.