Fastpass Day Disappointment

[butterscotchcollins]

Just a theory but is it possible that they're getting harder to get because people are getting savvier with using the system? I must admit this was my first trip having a pre-paid ticket and getting to book FP+s and it was a bit overwhelming and confusing (even with all of my research before my 60-day window opened up). I imagine if you've done it a couple of times you get faster at snapping up the good ones, and it's been a while since the system was implemented so there is more widespread info on the tips/tricks.

 

[MaleficentRN]

Maybe I should write a book. I've always gotten the FPs and ADRs I want with maybe a little tweaking. I booked FPs last week and got two days with SDD at 12:30 and 2:30 and two days with SDMT. I start with the most popular rides the furthest day out and work backwards. Anything I want to tweak I start looking at 30 days out. Always seems to work for me.

 

[MomOTwins]

I think part of it is that with the large number of non-disney hotels that can book FP at over 60 days, it is cheaper for people to do longer stays, and the big ticket rides fill up. It's almost a disadvantage for those who stay on property because the higher rates mean you are more likely to cut back on days.

Another factor is they do not limit the number of FPs you can book at the 60-day mark for a given ride on your trip. So you can book SDD 3 days in a row if you are unsure what day you want to do HS, and then closer in time drop some and rebook at a different park. I think they have a better system on the Disney Cruise reservation page, where for the very popular activities (e.g., Palo brunch), you can only have one advance reservation and have to cancel and try to rebook if you want to switch days.

 

[RunningGamer]

People are constantly dropping and modifying their FP's because they realize they can't make it to their ADR and to the FP, or realize they slept in and won't make it into the park in time, so drop the FP. If you are willing to be flexible about what rides you do when during your time in the park that day, then it is possible to get FP's day of for the popular rides (sometimes even multiple times that day once you've used up the first three).

Refresh, refresh, and refresh some more as you get closer to your trip and especially day of when you are in the parks. With the popular rides, grab the first time slot that pops up and return to refreshing and modifying the FP to walk back the time. It's a great way to pass the time when you do decide a line is worth the wait and doesn't take much effort to just keep refreshing to check.

 

[Suejacken]

Maybe I should write a book. I've always gotten the FPs and ADRs I want with maybe a little tweaking. I booked FPs last week and got two days with SDD at 12:30 and 2:30 and two days with SDMT. I start with the most popular rides the furthest day out and work backwards. Anything I want to tweak I start looking at 30 days out. Always seems to work for me.

I do the same thing and I book the ride I want the most first at each park then go back and get the other two for those days

 

[seashoreCM]

I think part of it is that with the large number of non-disney hotels that can book FP at over 60 days, it is cheaper for people to do longer stays, and the big ticket rides fill up. It's almost a disadvantage for those who stay on property because the higher rates mean you are more likely to cut back on days.

Another factor is they do not limit the number of FPs you can book at the 60-day mark for a given ride on your trip. So you can book SDD 3 days in a row if you are unsure what day you want to do HS, and then closer in time drop some and rebook at a different park.

I suppose that the non-Disney's hotels participating in Fastpass Plus each pay a fee to Disney for that privilege. (I suppose that any or all of these hotels could also get Disney buses and/or Magical Express by paying more fees which Disney has the right to make a profit from.)

Yes, I booked 7 Dwarves Mine Train, Slinky Dog Dash, Frozen Ever After, and Flight of Passage twice each (spread out over 8 days). Not so much while deciding what day to ride them but rather to better assure I wouldn't be left out if the ride broke down during my FP+ time. FEA did go down during one of my times.

I made a last minute decision to forego a Hollywood Studios day (day 8) to do an extra Epcot day, no hopper pass. I cancelled that SDD FP+ about an hour before it matured. So another guest doing refreshes was lucky to land a morning SDD on the day-of.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

Maybe it's just really busy, or maybe disney IT was having an off morning. I totally forgot to do my fastpasses last week (party of 2) and did this yesterday instead. I normally don't bother doing them that far in advance but after they changed the tiers for DHS (grrrr) I figured it was a good idea. Keep checking, especially if you want to do FOP. The refresh strategy has never failed me for that ride.

 

[Afabena]

My FP day was this morning...I wasn't able to snag SDD, FOP, PP or FEA during the times I wanted (chose TT instead of FEA). My plan is to either rope drop or try and ride towards the end of the night for those 4.

 

[Stephy811]

Was FoP available in the evenings or not at all? I make FPs in a few days and that’s the only one I really care about!

 

[Afabena]

Yes, it was available in the late afternoon on 60+4. Also SDD was available in the late afternoon on 60+2. PP was also available, but I was being picky about the time.

I would say have multiple devices ready to go the morning of your booking. This morning the website was sketchy. At first the website couldn't load anything and said someone ate the page (that was around 6:55). At the same time I tried the app, and the app said I didn't have any tickets linked (I almost had a panic attack). Then at 7 I went back to the site and it worked for maybe 6 minutes, and then it crashed and I had to go back to the app but luckily the app cooperated for the rest of the FP bookings. Now I totally understand when people say Disney's tech is terrible.

 

[Gentry2004]

We did an AP for one glorious year - spent 28 days in Disney - and for all 4 trips (7 days each) I had full availability on every ride by day 6. Our trips were the week before Christmas, the week before Easter, mid August., and the week of election day in November. I made sure to put FOP (and for the latter trips SDD) near the end. This was 12/2017 - 11/2018.

I'm really shocked to hear people with 10 day trips have had these issues.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I was horribly upset when they announced the "Good Neighbor" stuff as I knew that would kill a major perk of staying on property. Unfortunately now that Disney has giveth, it's a bit harder for Disney to taketh away. With all of the perks being killed (charging for parking, no advantage of FP+, no advantage on extra magic hours) I really have to wonder what management is thinking. I guess part of it is that they don't have trouble filling up the Disney hotels as it is.

 

[Gentry2004]

I was horribly upset when they announced the "Good Neighbor" stuff as I knew that would kill a major perk of staying on property. Unfortunately now that Disney has giveth, it's a bit harder for Disney to taketh away. With all of the perks being killed (charging for parking, no advantage of FP+, no advantage on extra magic hours) I really have to wonder what management is thinking. I guess part of it is that they don't have trouble filling up the Disney hotels as it is.

I posted above you. I'm not sure if its all the fault of the Good Neighbor hotels. IIRC that program was in full swing during my AP year and yet I was still able to get everything on a 1 week trip, at various times of year, during various festivals, free dining, party season, etc.

 

[mdsouth]

I was horribly upset when they announced the "Good Neighbor" stuff as I knew that would kill a major perk of staying on property. Unfortunately now that Disney has giveth, it's a bit harder for Disney to taketh away. With all of the perks being killed (charging for parking, no advantage of FP+, no advantage on extra magic hours) I really have to wonder what management is thinking. I guess part of it is that they don't have trouble filling up the Disney hotels as it is.

I have to agree with you. Having opened up the Good Neighbor hotels to 60 days FP has really had an impact. And with the extra charges for parking, etc, there really is no big advantage to staying on property anymore except for location.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I posted above you. I'm not sure if its all the fault of the Good Neighbor hotels. IIRC that program was in full swing during my AP year and yet I was still able to get everything on a 1 week trip, at various times of year, during various festivals, free dining, party season, etc.

The 10 day trips surprise me. But before good neighbor, I was almost guaranteed to get almost any FP by 60+4 except the hottest new ticket which was 60+5 (average stay was 3 days). Your statement was you had to go out to 60+6. So I still think Good Neighbor has had a significant degradation on the FP+ perk.

I agree there seems to be more contributing factors if people at 60+10 can't get it. But Good Neighbor is definitely part of it.