"gathering" fast passes???

[FosterA]

We've never been to WDW and I'm planning a trip next Nov so I lurk on here alot to try to figure it all out. I keep hearing "get to rope drop, gather fast passes, etc". I'm confused because I thought there was a chunk of minimum time between getting the passes. I hear alot on here about how people spend the morning at the parks hitting headliners and gathering fast passes before lunch so they can take a break and come back and use them. huh? If passes are at least an hour apart, how can you "gather" a whole lot of them before lunch.
Help please

 

[ValpoCory]

We went to Disney World with one of my friends who is a DVC member. He broke out his wallet and showed me fast passes to almost every fast pass ride in the parks. He keeps them from previous trips, and they never look.

Hopefully your gathering doesn't turn into that type of hoarding.

 

[Brandis]

They probably mean having a runner gather FPs for one attraction for everyone in the group and then meet up with them somewhere.

As in the morning FP times might be less than 2 hours away, as soon as the FP window for the first attraction opens you will be able to gather another round of FPs for the next attraction. In the meantime, just visit attractions which have less long standby wait times.

Then you can use those Fastpasses you collected in the morning after lunch for example.

 

[Bradsdadg]

You can't really gather a mess of them. You can get them, and use them when the time says. Most of the time people say you can use them the same day, even past the printed time. But no further then the same day.

 

[newdeal]

Get a fast pass, ride some other rides until you can get another one, get another fast pass and so on. Then once it gets busier in the mid afternoon use those passes. This is especially good for toy story mania except fast passes run out so early you can only get three or so

 

[Robo]

He keeps them from previous trips, and they never look.

Never say never.

They recently addressed that issue by creating a new FP design with a much larger date.

 

[Robo]

Get a fast pass, ride some other rides until you can get another one, get another fast pass and so on. Then once it gets busier in the mid afternoon use those passes. This is


especially good for toy story mania except fast passes run out so early you can only get three or so

With the very recent new "lowered capacity" situation at TSM... which now means fewer FP's issued per day, I think being able to get three FP's before they run out is getting less likely.

More likely to be able to ride Standby first-thing, then maybe get one or two additional FP's that day.

(Everything can depend on the overall crowd level at DHS, of course.)

 

[JLR]

Plan getting fast passes in your touring plan. So for example, on our AK day we went straight to EE picked up FP and rode it standby(the FP return time was 9:40) then we went to dinoland and rode PW, TS and played fossil fun games. Then I picked up FP for Kali (it was after 9:40 at that point) and we watched flights of wonder. Because the FP return time was so quick we were abe to pick up a FP to the safari as soon as FoW was over. So at that point we had three sets of passes. Then we watched its tough to be a bug, had lunch, saw festival of the lion king, picked up FP for Dinosaur (my dd thought she didn't want to do it, then changed her mind) we went ahead and rode the rides we had FPs for. Even though it was past the return time, we did not have any trouble. We picked up an extra FP for Kali during this time. Often the FP return time for less popular rides is SHORTER than the time it would take to stand on line! So what people mean is watching the time printed at the bottom of your FP that tells you when you can return and pick up a new FP whenever that window opens up. It may involve some (or a lot) of walking whch is why large groups may designate a walker to go get FPs for everyone else. They do have to take the tickets with them and they can only use the tickets for people who have legally entered the park (so you can't go early with everyones tickets andpick up FPs for late arrivals.)

 

[beautyqueen]

Thanks OP for asking because I really want to have the FP thing figured out when we go, I think since my dh walks for his job..miles a day he will be our "fp runner" He just doesn't know it yet

 

[GoofyGirl1717]

Once you have a fast pass you have to wait til the "window" (the time you can come back and ride) is open or two hours later,which ever comes first, to get another fast pass with the same ticket.

example--You get a FP for Space Mt at 9:05am it has a return time at 12:00pm -- 1:00pm you can get another set of FPs at 11:05am.

another tip--if you have a child who can not ride or doesn't want to ride something go ahead and get a FP with his/her ticket as well. You can then let older child ride once with mom and then go again with dad if you want.

 

[Dan Murphy]

It is more a figure of speech here, Foster. You are correct, you can't really 'gather' fast passes, in the literal sense of gathering one after another, there is that time factor. The super early visitors to the parks each day, I think, like to sort of think they are gathering, like picking flowers one after another, but in practice, no.

 

[havoc315]

Often in the morning, especially when it is less crowded, FPs are spaced an hour apart or less. So it could be possible to grab FPs to 3 attractions before lunch.

For example, at 9 am, grab a FP for Peter Pan, with a 10:05 return time. At 10:05, grab a FP for Space Mountain, with a 11:20 return time, and at 11:20, grab a Splash Mountain fastpass for 1pm, or whenever.
So before lunch... you have 3 FPs saved up, and can use them in the busier afternoon.

 

[mjp12831]

if you get there for am emh at 8, you should be able to at least have accumulated 3 by noon and possibly 4. I'm always a runner - leave the slower walking family to go get another fast walking, then meet them somewhere. accumulating them in the am means enjoying the afternoon and early evening much more.

 

[skier_pete]

As others point out, Disney will let you use a FP later the same day. The person that had a wallet full of passports was breaking the rules, and in general in my view they DO check the date frequently. But, as far as using them late on the same day, we do this a lot, and have never been stopped before.

Especially at MK - I typically go and grab a FP every time I am eligible. Admittedly we go at a slow time of year, but for example:

When park opens, we get FP for Peter Pan:
Return time 9:50 - 10:50 next eligible FP: 9:50

@ 9:50 we get FP for Jungle Cruise
Return time 10:30 - 11:30, next eligible FP: 10:30

@ 10:30, we get FP for BTMRR
Return time 11:15 - 12:15 PM, next eligble FP: 11:15 AM

@ 11:30 PM, we're over in tomorrowland - get a FP for Buzz Lightyear
Return time 12:10 - 1:10 PM, next eligible FP: 12:10 PM

@12:10 PM still in tomorrowland - get a FP for Space Mountain
Return time 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM, next eligible FP: 2:20 PM (2 hrs after I got that one, since the return time is > 2 hours out.)

So, now I have 5 sets of FP (Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, BTMRR, Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain), which now that it is mid-day and the lines are all long, we go back through the park and use them. Meanwhile, we can still gather MORE FP as we go for using later. We usually don't stay in the park real late, so I don't think I've ever gotten more than about 8 sets of FP. At a busier time of year, the return times might be a lot more spread out. An example of this is at DHS.

Got FP right at Rope Drop before riding TSM Standby - return time 9:50 AM -10:50 AM.
Come back to TSM at 9:50 AM for another set, this time return time is 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM. Next eligible is 11:50 AM (two hours later).

At 11:50 AM, the TSM FP were all gone for the day. But we did get to ride it 3 times with very little wait.

Of course, the flip side to Disney allowing this is the FP return lines are much longer late in the day. (I don't care what Robo says, it DOES affect the FP crowds Disney allowing this.)

Does that all make sense?

Added: I should point out that I am the "FP runner"...I take everyone's tickets and go and get the FP - we usually try to pick up FP for rides that are not too far away from us, but in the past I've run across the park and back to do this. Usually while the others are taking a potty break or doing a little shopping. (You should NEVER do a FP run while your family is "saving" a spot in another line for you. that is extremely rude.) But to the PP that said you don't really "gather" them, I think getting a set every 30-45 minutes and running around the park to get them follows the very definition of "gathering".

 

[vicki_c]

I call it gathering. I have this photo from a morning / lunch @ MK. This was on our afternoon break. We were in the park from RD to 1:30 (including a TS lunch). We just collected or gathered these throughout the morning while we rode other things (oh, one was gifted to us). There was nothing commando about our day. We went back to MK around 6 PM or so and started using them. So to me, it's "gathering", even if you're not getting them all in an hour or anything.

I looked @ my close up photos of them (LOL -have those too!) and we picked up FPs at:
8:59 AM
10:11 AM
11:09 AM
1:05 PM
And one someone gave us walking out of the park.

 

[tardin1964]

I call it gathering. I have this photo from a morning / lunch @ MK. This was on our afternoon break. We were in the park from RD to 1:30 (including a TS lunch). We just collected or gathered these throughout the morning while we rode other things (oh, one was gifted to us). There was nothing commando about our day. We went back to MK around 6 PM or so and started using them. So to me, it's "gathering", even if you're not getting them all in an hour or anything.

I looked @ my close up photos of them (LOL -have those too!) and we picked up FPs at:
8:59 AM
10:11 AM
11:09 AM
1:05 PM
And one someone gave us walking out of the park.

I don't know....i guess I'm old fashion. Why can't everyone just follow the rules. Don't want to start a whole debate.... but you should ride the ride you have a FP for during the return time stated on the ticket. If evryone gathered FP's and held them till later in the day it would just screw up the whole system. Those that follow the rules always seem to get the short end of the stick.

 

[Robo]

...you should ride the ride you have a FP for during the return time stated on the ticket. If evryone gathered FP's and held them till later in the day it would just screw up the whole system.

It doesn't.

Those that follow the rules always seem to get the short end of the stick.

Disney makes the rules, and the rules are that you can use a FP at any time after the Return Time on the date that the FP is received.

No short sticks given.
Everyone is given the same opportunity when using FP.

 

[larryz]

I don't know....i guess I'm old fashion. Why can't everyone just follow the rules. Don't want to start a whole debate.... but you should ride the ride you have a FP for during the return time stated on the ticket. If evryone gathered FP's and held them till later in the day it would just screw up the whole system. Those that follow the rules always seem to get the short end of the stick.

 

[soontobehoyt]

No one seemed to bring this up yet for OP, but be careful of which FP's you get and when. If you are aiming for efficiency, I find it makes the most sense to go for the most popular FP's first, otherwise those get "sold out" quicker and you end up with a long period (e.g. picking up a fastpass at noon with a window from 5-6 means you can't pick up another fastpass till at least 4, by that point the window for the 4 o'clock fast pass will probably be much later.

 

[whitneyNC]

It doesn't.



Disney makes the rules, and the rules are that you can use a FP at any time after the Return Time on the date that the FP is received.

No short sticks given.
Everyone is given the same opportunity when using FP.

preach it...