Fastpass in both parks question

[jennilouwho]

Hi there! My friends are currently at Disneyland and I helped them plan their trip. Last time I went was April though and that might as well have been a lifetime ago with all of the new changes. They are wondering if tomorrow they all go to DL early entry, can the DH go to California Adventure at opening and get RSR fastpasses for all of them? I know you used to be able to just send one runner, but they said Cast members are saying everyone needs to be present. I'm assuming they mean you can't let your family sleep in at the hotel while you grab fastpasses, but just wanting to make sure it's still okay to send one runner if everyone is inside some Disney Park on property

Thanks!

 

[Twinprincesses]

I got all of our passes when we would get them. There were at least 10 ppl in line for RSR that got sent away because they brought their groups tickets with them to get the FP but the people had never came through the gates and were still at the hotel.

 

[Sgtfox]

You should be fine so long as they each used their passes to enter at least one of the parks (DL or DCA) that day. Then the passes will be "active" and can be used to get Fastpasses at either park, regardless of which one they were used to enter that day.

You do not need to have your entire group with you in the Fastpass line either.

 

[pixiewings71]

If you all have entered a park (DLR or DCA) you can send 1 runner to get FP for everyone. But everyone has to be up and have entered one of the parks. It doesn't work if you leave people sleeping while someone gets FP because each ticket must be scanned prior to getting a FP.

 

[jennilouwho]

Okay, so same as always. Thank you. I've let them know.

 

[DarthMole]

The way it was explained to us while in line for RSR FP in July is that every member of your party must have passed through the CA gate that morning. Meaning a DL activation would not work. The tickets had to get scanned at the CA gate. Maybe that was not correct but I recall reading that elsewhere as well.

 

[pixiewings71]

The way it was explained to us while in line for RSR FP in July is that every member of your party must have passed through the CA gate that morning. Meaning a DL activation would not work. The tickets had to get scanned at the CA gate. Maybe that was not correct but I recall reading that elsewhere as well.

This is not correct and many have confirmed that they have had no problems getting a RSR FP for people still in DL. You simply have to have activated your ticket in either park to get FP for either park.

 

[DarthMole]

This is not correct and many have confirmed that they have had no problems getting a RSR FP for people still in DL. You simply have to have activated your ticket in either park to get FP for either park.

OK. Thanks for setting me straight. The cast members were clearly misinformed back then because they kept telling people in line that all tickets had to be activated at CA, that not everyone had to be in the FP line but they had to be in the park. I even recall one guy kept saying tickets activated at DL would not work. Good to know any activation will work. Sorry if I caused any confusion above.

 

[indygirl99]

OK. Thanks for setting me straight. The cast members were clearly misinformed back then because they kept telling people in line that all tickets had to be activated at CA, that not everyone had to be in the FP line but they had to be in the park. I even recall one guy kept saying tickets activated at DL would not work. Good to know any activation will work. Sorry if I caused any confusion above.

When we were there in September 3 of the 8 days we were there we saw people turned away at the actual fastpass machine because not all of their tickets had been scan into DCA. They had been scanned into DL but DCA.

The other days no problem. So I would say it is not consistenat. Nothing unusual for Disney.

 

[Jkpark]

I need to follow this. Worked no problem for us in July and heading back in about 1 month. Hope it still works...

 

[interstate70s]

My DH was our FP runner for RSR in September (The rest of us were in DCA though). He told me that he could easily see why so many were confused if you didn't already know the FP system pretty well. CMs were moving down the RSR FP line, telling guests that "all tickets must be present" He really thought it was a odd way to word it. He thought it made it sound like all guests in your party needed to be there. (they didn't)

 

[sonnyjane]

When we were there in September 3 of the 8 days we were there we saw people turned away at the actual fastpass machine because not all of their tickets had been scan into DCA. They had been scanned into DL but DCA.

The other days no problem. So I would say it is not consistenat. Nothing unusual for Disney.

Did you confirm with the actual guests being turned away that everyone in their party had tickets activated in DL? Or are you assuming that? I only ask because the machine wouldn't choose to discriminate on certain days. The machine would either accept the ticket or deny the ticket automatically. It's more likely that some of the guests were still at the hotel or something and hadn't entered either park yet.

 

[ten6mom]

I did this last week... my whole party went into dl... then I took their hoppers and went to dca to get fast passes for rsr. I was told by two different cm's that the tickets had to be scanned into dca to work.... but they were both mistaken because they all worked to get fast passes.

 

[sonnyjane]

I did this last week... my whole party went into dl... then I took their hoppers and went to dca to get fast passes for rsr. I was told by two different cm's that the tickets had to be scanned into dca to work.... but they were both mistaken because they all worked to get fast passes.

Ok, thanks for posting that. In that case, I think what is happening is CM's are either just plain confused, or they are purposefully saying that to intimidate people from sending runners instead, but bottom line is the machines "know what's up" and will give you the FP's regardless of whether your ticket was scanned at DCA or DL.

 

[indygirl99]

Did you confirm with the actual guests being turned away that everyone in their party had tickets activated in DL? Or are you assuming that? I only ask because the machine wouldn't choose to discriminate on certain days. The machine would either accept the ticket or deny the ticket automatically. It's more likely that some of the guests were still at the hotel or something and hadn't entered either park yet.

I don't assume anything.

I was party to the heated arguments of those turned away at the machines with the passes that said not valid and being told it was because the passes had not been scanned into DCA. Pretty hard to miss the arguments that the passes had been scanned at DL and they were the runners and cast members stating that all pass holders had to be inside DCA not DL.

Like I said I saw it happen 3 days and the other 5 days no problem.

 

[HydroGuy]

OK. Thanks for setting me straight. The cast members were clearly misinformed back then because they kept telling people in line that all tickets had to be activated at CA, that not everyone had to be in the FP line but they had to be in the park. I even recall one guy kept saying tickets activated at DL would not work. Good to know any activation will work. Sorry if I caused any confusion above.

It would not surprise me at all that the majority of CMs at DLR who work on FP rides are unaware that tickets scanned at the opposite but not in their park can still be used for FP acquisition. It is kind of an advanced concept that FP gurus know about and that is about it.

Disney does not tend to school their CMs on all esoterica of possibilities. Rather they try to standardize the CMs on the same info for the greatest possibility of accuracy to guests.

I don't assume anything.

I was party to the heated arguments of those turned away at the machines with the passes that said not valid and being told it was because the passes had not been scanned into DCA. Pretty hard to miss the arguments that the passes had been scanned at DL and they were the runners and cast members stating that all pass holders had to be inside DCA not DL.

Like I said I saw it happen 3 days and the other 5 days no problem.

Please don't take my post here as denying your experience. The practice of scanning tickets at one park and then using them at the opposite park for FP acquisition has been in force since at least 2005. I have personally done it in both directions at the two DLR parks many times - probably close to 20 times - from 2005-2012. If the tickets are parkhopper tickets (do you know for sure the irate guests had PH tickets?) and if the tickets have been scanned at the opposite park on that same day then without fail for the last seven years this has worked for many, many people.

Your experience differs from this and so it is expected that folks would be skeptical - not of the experience, but whether all the facts were properly accounted for.

With that said, if DLR is changing things up then the only we will find out short of them announcing it (and they never announced the dual park FP policy in the first place) is for people like you to report it. And then others report it. And then finally someone authoritative (maybe an editor of one of the online forums or maybe RideMax or TouringPlans confirms it). If they really are doing this policy randomly on different days that seems inconsistent with how Disney operates but it would make it very hard to confirm.

The other thing about this that is hard for me to understand is that with both parks opening at the same time on most days and FPs for RSR running out so early (by 9AM often reported) it is hard to see how folks would first enter DL with their group, then leave DL right away through an exit and get into DCA, get in the RSR FP line (which will be monster by that time - say 10 minutes after the park opens) and then actually getting a FP. Can it be done? Sure, I think I could do it. Would it be hard under today's RSR FP demand? I think it would be except for all the most savvy of DLR experts. And on some days probably not even then.

I guess time will tell. I hope I did not make you feel disbelieved. I want to try to add some historical perspective and a little outside current reality perspective to the whole thing. I also hope to not discourage you or others from posting experiences like this because it that happens we will not learn of new trends at the parks - which is why many of us come to forums like this.

 

[Malcon10t]

Did you confirm with the actual guests being turned away that everyone in their party had tickets activated in DL? Or are you assuming that? I only ask because the machine wouldn't choose to discriminate on certain days. The machine would either accept the ticket or deny the ticket automatically. It's more likely that some of the guests were still at the hotel or something and hadn't entered either park yet.

And we also know guests never lie to a CM.

I have been FP runner numerous times for our group, where they check in at DL, and give me their APs, and I head to DCA for RSR FP. I have never had a problem, as recently as Oct 14th.

 

[cats mom]

And we also know guests never lie to a CM.

I have been FP runner numerous times for our group, where they check in at DL, and give me their APs, and I head to DCA for RSR FP. I have never had a problem, as recently as Oct 14th.

I was in line behind some folks who tried the "I promise everyone is in the park Mr. CM, something must be wrong with your system" thing. Except I heard them talking about how a CM had printed extra FP's for them at BTMMR the previous morning when they did the same thing. It didn't work for them on RSR though.

I've done the RSR FP run while everyone else was at DL a couple of times. I was sweating it the first time because CM's were making a point of saying everyone must have entered DCA that day, DL wouldn't do. But it wasn't a problem. I did have to hustle though HydroGuy.

 

[indygirl99]

It would not surprise me at all that the majority of CMs at DLR who work on FP rides are unaware that tickets scanned at the opposite but not in their park can still be used for FP acquisition. It is kind of an advanced concept that FP gurus know about and that is about it.

Disney does not tend to school their CMs on all esoterica of possibilities. Rather they try to standardize the CMs on the same info for the greatest possibility of accuracy to guests.

Please don't take my post here as denying your experience. The practice of scanning tickets at one park and then using them at the opposite park for FP acquisition has been in force since at least 2005. I have personally done it in both directions at the two DLR parks many times - probably close to 20 times - from 2005-2012. If the tickets are parkhopper tickets (do you know for sure the irate guests had PH tickets?) and if the tickets have been scanned at the opposite park on that same day then without fail for the last seven years this has worked for many, many people.

Your experience differs from this and so it is expected that folks would be skeptical - not of the experience, but whether all the facts were properly accounted for.

With that said, if DLR is changing things up then the only we will find out short of them announcing it (and they never announced the dual park FP policy in the first place) is for people like you to report it. And then others report it. And then finally someone authoritative (maybe an editor of one of the online forums or maybe RideMax or TouringPlans confirms it). If they really are doing this policy randomly on different days that seems inconsistent with how Disney operates but it would make it very hard to confirm.

The other thing about this that is hard for me to understand is that with both parks opening at the same time on most days and FPs for RSR running out so early (by 9AM often reported) it is hard to see how folks would first enter DL with their group, then leave DL right away through an exit and get into DCA, get in the RSR FP line (which will be monster by that time - say 10 minutes after the park opens) and then actually getting a FP. Can it be done? Sure, I think I could do it. Would it be hard under today's RSR FP demand? I think it would be except for all the most savvy of DLR experts. And on some days probably not even then.

I guess time will tell. I hope I did not make you feel disbelieved. I want to try to add some historical perspective and a little outside current reality perspective to the whole thing. I also hope to not discourage you or others from posting experiences like this because it that happens we will not learn of new trends at the parks - which is why many of us come to forums like this.

Don't worry about about stating what your experience has been. I am a big girl and don't get hurt feeling when others tell what their experience has been, even when it is different than mine. That would be a waste of time and energy for me.

You are right about each person posting what their experiences are and that is how we know what is going on. This is also when we sometimes see things changing. Sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad.

Happy for you that your trip was much better this time.