Help with "Fast Pass Management"

[nicolemarie]

I have a plan for our first night at Disney and wonder if it is possible. We are arriving Sat March 25th and are doing dinner at California Grill at 9:00 (Wishes is at 10:00). After dinner, I thought we might go to MK for a little while since it is open until midnight. Obviously, it will probably be really crowded, but I thought I could send my DH over on foot while we wait at CG (assuming we arrive at CG at 8:30 and aren't seated until ADR time of 9:10)to grab some FP's for after dinner. Will our tickets work if we aren't all in the park? Would we all need to swing by MK to pick up some FP's before our dinner? If anyone knows, please let me know!!

 

[dreamscometrue47]

You won't be able to get fast passes this way; the fast pass system will recognize that your ticket has not been used for admission that day. You have to use your ticket for admission first.

 

[nicolemarie]

Thanks for the info!!

 

[WDWNicole]

There's also a chance that there will not be any more fast passes available or they may not be for a time that works with your dinner schedule.

On a past trip to the AK, we had reservations for the character breakfast and wanted to get FPs for the safari for right after breakfast. My DH had to wait at the FP machine until the time kept going up so that we got the FPs for a late enough time, so that we knew we'd be finished with breakfast. Then he just ran across the park to meet up with us.

 

[lucysdad]

If you have a fastpass time of, say, 9:30, it will be good that whole day after 9:30. We didn't know that until a CM at AK told us. I wasn't sure it would really work that way in all the parks, but it did.
Lucy's Mom

 

[Can'twaittogo]

I'm so glad you brought that up. My only experience is at Disneyland and like lucysdad said all fastpasses were good for the rest of the day, not just the 1 hour window printed on the ticket. This seemed to be a little known fact. I have been reading these boards for about 6 weeks trying to get as much info as I can about WDW and I have only ever read about people racing back for the 1 hour window. I was beginning to think it is different at WDW. Please confirm you can use the fastpass anytime the same day after the 1 hour window.

 

[HydroGuy]

I'm so glad you brought that up. My only experience is at Disneyland and like lucysdad said all fastpasses were good for the rest of the day, not just the 1 hour window printed on the ticket. This seemed to be a little known fact. I have been reading these boards for about 6 weeks trying to get as much info as I can about WDW and I have only ever read about people racing back for the 1 hour window. I was beginning to think it is different at WDW. Please confirm you can use the fastpass anytime the same day after the 1 hour window.

I am the FP Wizard at DLR, and am planning first WDW trip in May. It appears that WDW now has same policy as DLR to accept late FPs. Though on some rides such as Soarin the CMs frequently give grief.

 

[KayakDaddy]

Let me piggy back on the original question...

The question was can you get Fastpasses for an attaction using a key/ticket that hasn't been used for admission to that park yet that day.

dreamscometrue47 says that they won't let you do this - that's too bad.

I have a slight wrinkle to that question though and I'm hoping this will work. We'll be staying at BCV in May and my plan for one day is to do AK in the morning and then Epcot in the evening after the afternoon resort nap/swim/break. My plan was to get a head start while the kids are napping and walking over to Epcot will all of the tickets and getting Soarin fastpasses.

Will I be able to do that? The tickets will have already been used for admission that day, just not at that park yet. Will the FP machine recognize that and not issue me the precious paper?

 

[dreamscometrue47]

hmmmmmmm...that situation has never come up for us...I also wonder what the answer is...Anyone??

 

[mjmcca]

Let me piggy back on the original question...

The question was can you get Fastpasses for an attaction using a key/ticket that hasn't been used for admission to that park yet that day.

dreamscometrue47 says that they won't let you do this - that's too bad.

I have a slight wrinkle to that question though and I'm hoping this will work. We'll be staying at BCV in May and my plan for one day is to do AK in the morning and then Epcot in the evening after the afternoon resort nap/swim/break. My plan was to get a head start while the kids are napping and walking over to Epcot will all of the tickets and getting Soarin fastpasses.

Will I be able to do that? The tickets will have already been used for admission that day, just not at that park yet. Will the FP machine recognize that and not issue me the precious paper?

I doubt it will matter Soarin FP sell out very quickly. I dont think there would be any left during an afternoon naptime

 

[valeriekc]

Let me piggy back on the original question...

The question was can you get Fastpasses for an attaction using a key/ticket that hasn't been used for admission to that park yet that day.

dreamscometrue47 says that they won't let you do this - that's too bad.

I have a slight wrinkle to that question though and I'm hoping this will work. We'll be staying at BCV in May and my plan for one day is to do AK in the morning and then Epcot in the evening after the afternoon resort nap/swim/break. My plan was to get a head start while the kids are napping and walking over to Epcot will all of the tickets and getting Soarin fastpasses.

Will I be able to do that? The tickets will have already been used for admission that day, just not at that park yet. Will the FP machine recognize that and not issue me the precious paper?

I'm sorry that will not work. The passes have to be scanned that day at the respective gate of the park you are wanting passes to.
I know it because I've tried it. And to make your particular situation tougher, the fastpasses for Soaring have been usually completely distributed for the entire day by 12:00-2:00pm (depending upon crowd sizes).
Now if you're really determined....have the entire family walk to the international gateway at EPCOT, go in, then change your mind and walk out and go to AK.
Then you leave AK with everyone's passes a little after 11 and go straight to Soaring and get FP's for all. (this only makes sense if you have full hopping on your admission media and don't really have another morning you would like to spend at EPCOT)
sounds awfully crazy in retrospect though.

 

[CleveRocks]

Now if you're really determined....have the entire family walk to the international gateway at EPCOT, go in, then change your mind and walk out and go to AK.
Then you leave AK with everyone's passes a little after 11 and go straight to Soaring and get FP's for all. (this only makes sense if you have full hopping on your admission media and don't really have another morning you would like to spend at EPCOT)
sounds awfully crazy in retrospect though.

BUT ...
Do we know that the Disney computers will allow this??? It may be that if the passes are read at Epcot, then later read at AK but not AGAIN read at Epcot, that you won't be able to get FPs inside Epcot (since the computer will recognize that those passes were not used to re-enter Epcot). Interesting idea, but I wouldn't rely on it working.

 

[nicolemarie]

I agree with above post - I would only do that if the "FP Runner" was going to go all the way to Soarin after everyone enters Epcot, get the FP's, and then runs back and all go to AK. It does sound like lots of trouble - but really only for one person. Epcot is so close to BCV. My DH actually enjoys the challenge of dashing all over the park to retrieve FP's for everyone. We always have something to ride!!

 

[Chrisypoo]

I was listening to the WDW Today podcast (one of the hosts helped to write the UG), and they mentioned this situation. They said that they thought it was possible for one person to take all the admission tickets, tell the CM at the park entrance they were there for FP for all tickets, and scan them all through the machine so they'd be "used".

I'm not sure if all CM's would let you try this because you'd be doing the finger-scan thing for all tickets (which on another Podcast, they said they had people test it and got through just fine when they used someone else's card). I suppose it would depend on the CM.

They have pretty good Podcast summaries over at the wkwtoday.com website, so there might be more info than I remember.

 

[cindyfan]

this all sounds way too confusing to me!
Back to the OP.... that late in the evening you won't get FP anyway.... they will have all be distrubuted.
What kind of pass do you have? Are you sure you want to waste a day for maybe an hour inside MK?
Tons of people leave right afte Wishes.... so you will fight crowds trying to get out while you are going in.
But then I thnik you have a good chance to just get into the standby line.