CookieandOatmeal
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2014
@JETSDAD Just wanted to let you know that it’s still working. Thanks to your tip, I was able to grab a 4:55 FP for two today at the 2:30 drop!! Thanks so much.
Excellent! I haven't been able to keep an eye on it since the Gold AP blackout started so thanks for the update and glad it worked out for you!
I tried this during my trip in November with no luck. Glad it worked for you though. The other thing that I found was that I was disappointed in myself being on the phone so much looking for the next thing. The refresh strategy takes A LOT of time and I was missing what was happening at the moment.
wow!Just got back from another great trip. I was nervous going into this one because I rely heavily on refreshing for FP's night before and day of but normally for only 3 people....this trip was 7 people so I didn't know what to expect. Here are some pointers from my trip.
Absolutely break it up into groups of 3 & 4 when refreshing and go for overlapping times when looking for anything popular. Stuff like Dumbo just look for 7, it will be fine. I usually work on the group of 4 first as it will be a bit more difficult and then do the group of 3 to match/overlap.
Will this work for rides such as FOP & SDD? YES! I had the start of the days all nicely laid out with FP's selected and AK planned for 2 days near the end of the trip. After 2 days everyone decided they wanted to do AK the next day! My heart kind of sank a bit knowing that FOP would be the highlight and assuming the odds would be low. That night I was able to get overlapping FP's for the 7 of us for an AM time slot for FOP. One of the things I personally wanted to do this trip was ride SDD at night but of course I was not willing to hold up an entire day of refreshing for 1 evening FP. During the rain one afternoon I managed to get SDD for that night for the 7 of us. The only ride that I didn't look to add day of was 7DMT because we did it once standby right before our MVMCP night and everyone preferred other rides. All other rides we were able to add with reasonably short waits (sometimes we would just go watch a show or grab a snack to fill some time).
It does take more patience and more flexibility than refreshing for a smaller group but it does work.
Now to the Hollywood Studios FP drops. I posted about it a few weeks ago but kind of tucked it away into another thread....didn't want to jinx it for my trip. It is something I watched for weeks leading up to my trip and now can say that for at least 5+ weeks it has worked including during my trip. Every day that I have checked I have noticed 2 FP drops for HS for all of the TSL rides. Same times every day. At 9:31AM it opens up a lot of FP times for all TSL rides including SDD for FP's between 11-12 (start times). At 2:31PM it drops FP's for TSL for 4-5. We used these drops both times one day for SDD. Again we broke it up into 3/4 because I didn't want to risk it not working on a larger group so I do not know how well it works for groups larger than 4. I watched again this morning at 9:31 and it worked. To note, if SDD is down in the morning there is a chance it might not be included in the FP drop (noticed this 1 time a couple of weeks ago). I also do not guarantee this will continue to work but it has been consistent and it did work for us.
I just wanted to post because I do tend to promote refreshing as a great way to plan a trip but also know that many groups are larger than my normal group.
Yes, I got FP during a drop for Slinky on Thursday last week. I did it during the afternoon drop so I could ride at night (which I didn't find I liked as much as a daytime ride, but I guess that's a different subject)@JETSDAD Do you know if this is still working? All our FP's are booked, so I can't check current day to see anymore.
Yes, I got FP during a drop for Slinky on Thursday last week. I did it during the afternoon drop so I could ride at night (which I didn't find I liked as much as a daytime ride, but I guess that's a different subject)
Last I checked a few days ago (when the blackout ended) and it was still working.
Question about the anytime FPs that we discussed earlier in the thread. Anyone know how close to closing they have to be to be good for the next day?
No he didn't...he said he'd lost track because it had been changed a few times. That's the part where he used some words (can't remember what specifically) that led me to believe that he had specific info or knew someone on the IT team who was involved with it. Since we were leaving early the next morning and we were coming back from the park, I didn't push for more details...I'm sorry! I really thought we were going to get in trouble because my D had let the cat out of the bag, lol, so I wasn't at my most mentally sharp.@reluctantredhead Any chance your Minnie Van driver mentioned what time the FOP drop was??
We booked a late trip and didn’t get slinky it FOP. I’m trying to under stand this... on the day I’m going to Hollywood should I only have 2 fast passes booked???? Or can I do this method by hitting modify? ThanksNo he didn't...he said he'd lost track because it had been changed a few times. That's the part where he used some words (can't remember what specifically) that led me to believe that he had specific info or knew someone on the IT team who was involved with it. Since we were leaving early the next morning and we were coming back from the park, I didn't push for more details...I'm sorry! I really thought we were going to get in trouble because my D had let the cat out of the bag, lol, so I wasn't at my most mentally sharp.
No, we actually had 6 FP+ that we'd already booked that day (3 "anyone can book" FP+, and 3 Club level FP+), and we'd already used all of our "anyone can book" and one of our club level FP+. So what OP was talking about wasn't a "booked in advance" FP+, but rather a day-of FP+ that you can get while you're in the park. For us, on the dates I mentioned, we had already used our 3 regular "anyone can book" FP+ and were adding more, one-by-one, as anyone who wishes to can. I'm not sure how or if it would work if you were trying to modify one of your pre-booked ones to get one of the "dropped" ones...that might be too many moving parts to work??? But in our case, since the drop was at 2:31 if I remember correctly, we had already burned through our 3 pre-booked FP+ by about 12:15 and were using the refresh strategy to pull 4+ and beyond from that point on...until about 2:27, when I got "ready" lol and made sure that I could be trying for SDD right when the clock struck 2:31. So at 2:31 we didn't have any regular "anyone can book" FP+ and were just trying for the ones that were about to be "dropped" (that OP wrote the post about). Does that make sense? I hope so, lol...it turned out to be harder to explain than I imagined!We booked a late trip and didn’t get slinky it FOP. I’m trying to under stand this... on the day I’m going to Hollywood should I only have 2 fast passes booked???? Or can I do this method by hitting modify? Thanks
We booked a late trip and didn’t get slinky it FOP. I’m trying to under stand this... on the day I’m going to Hollywood should I only have 2 fast passes booked???? Or can I do this method by hitting modify? Thanks
I haven't done this so I'm speculating but if you're trying for the 9:31 drop, you would want to not have either not booked a tier one at all or not used one you've booked. If you book and use a tier 1 you would not be able to pick one up. Also you're other FPs need to be booked later so that the window these open in is free. Take a look at the screen shots in this post to see what times were popping up.