MDE App Update & Recent “Refresh” Changes Discussion (we’re not doomed!)

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I haven’t updated my app yet after hearing the mixed reviews on the new design, but the refreshing is taking several seconds to load each time. Is that because I’m on the old app, or is there a refresh lag time on the new one as well?

Thank you so much, fastpass refresh test crew!

Are you still seeing the app take several seconds to reload each time you try to refresh? If so, do you mind timing 10 or 20 in a row? I was seeing 3 -5 sec delays this morning and at lunch. After work it was 5 sec. After the parks all closed tonight I went in to change some FPs (I have a sudden urge to make sure that none of our must-does rely on refreshing). It was taking forever. So I timed it. It was 15-17 secs every time for 20 refreshes in a row. It surprised me how regular that was. It was after park close so there shouldn't have been enough people on for there to be bandwidth problems and the browser was working just fine (2-3 secs per refresh) so I don't believe it was my wifi. And in either case I would not expect it to be that regular and consistent. Curious if anyone else is having a similar experience.

 

[shanew21]

Can confirm this worked much better for me yesterday. Was able to grab multiple tier 1 FPs at Epcot later in the day. No second refresh screen.

However, refreshing is still slower than it used to be pre-update.

 

[Meteora]

Are you still seeing the app take several seconds to reload each time you try to refresh? If so, do you mind timing 10 or 20 in a row? I was seeing 3 -5 sec delays this morning and at lunch. After work it was 5 sec. After the parks all closed tonight I went in to change some FPs (I have a sudden urge to make sure that none of our must-does rely on refreshing). It was taking forever. So I timed it. It was 15-17 secs every time for 20 refreshes in a row. It surprised me how regular that was. It was after park close so there shouldn't have been enough people on for there to be bandwidth problems and the browser was working just fine (2-3 secs per refresh) so I don't believe it was my wifi. And in either case I would not expect it to be that regular and consistent. Curious if anyone else is having a similar experience.

Sure! happy to help however I can.

I did 15 consecutive refreshes just now (7:56 AM Eastern). Most typically, it took 5 or 6 seconds. The shortest refresh I had was 3 seconds, but it only happened once, I also had one four second refresh. It took 5 seconds 8 times and 6 seconds 5 times.

So overall, I guess not terrible, but definitely a couple of seconds slower per refresh than it used to be for me. I'll be interested to follow to see if this is specifically an issue with the older version of MDE.

 

[princesspaigey]

I remember doing this my first trip to Disney World in 2014-15! I didn't even realize it was a technique and never read instructions on how to do it--it just seemed logical/intuitive to me. When I started hearing people describe the "refresh method" I was surprised everyone (the research and planner types that would know to check the app for more FP+) wasn't doing it! I FP+'d almost every ride with FP+ capability as we walked to the ride... it was great!

That said, I have a lot of related experience with online games/websites as a child in which refreshing for rarer items etc. and being quick on the draw were part of it, lol.

I've been following this board since page 2! Thank you everyone for continously updating us, testing things out, and reporting back. I'm so glad it seems to be working and we're not doomed!

 

[mrsap]

I remember doing this my first trip to Disney World in 2014-15! I didn't even realize it was a technique and never read instructions on how to do it--it just seemed logical/intuitive to me. When I started hearing people describe the "refresh method" I was surprised everyone (the research and planner types that would know to check the app for more FP+) wasn't doing it! I FP+'d almost every ride with FP+ capability as we walked to the ride... it was great!

That said, I have a lot of related experience with online games/websites as a child in which refreshing for rarer items etc. and being quick on the draw were part of it, lol.

I've been following this board since page 2! Thank you everyone for continously updating us, testing things out, and reporting back. I'm so glad it seems to be working and we're not doomed!

LOL same here! I never knew it was a thing!! If I couldn’t get the time I wanted, I just kept refreshing it until I did! Too funny!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Wow so I just went in to test it out this morning. Decided on Epcot today. Grabbed FEA for 6:30pm. Only had to refresh a few times and was able to get it to 9am.

It's much faster today than it has been.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I remember doing this my first trip to Disney World in 2014-15! I didn't even realize it was a technique and never read instructions on how to do it--it just seemed logical/intuitive to me. When I started hearing people describe the "refresh method" I was surprised everyone (the research and planner types that would know to check the app for more FP+) wasn't doing it! I FP+'d almost every ride with FP+ capability as we walked to the ride... it was great!

That said, I have a lot of related experience with online games/websites as a child in which refreshing for rarer items etc. and being quick on the draw were part of it, lol.

I've been following this board since page 2! Thank you everyone for continously updating us, testing things out, and reporting back. I'm so glad it seems to be working and we're not doomed!

Yep. I figured out before the end of our first trip that different times and attractions showed up each time and to keep trying. Intuitively I knew that 7DMT, etc were possible to pick up if you got lucky but I didn't realize the level of doing it and the strong possibly of success if you keep trying. So these threads pushed me to a higher level, but the basics seem intuitive. But it's not obvious for everyone (although I bet a lot of people's kids figured it out ).

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Wow so I just went in to test it out this morning. Decided on Epcot today. Grabbed FEA for 6:30pm. Only had to refresh a few times and was able to get it to 9am.

It's much faster today than it has been.

Are you on the Android or iPhone app? The iPhone app is still ridiculously slow for me this morning.

Anyone with an iPhone seeing the app operate really fast? I know Android has been the faster of the two but it seems like the gap may have increased.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Are you on the Android or iPhone app? The iPhone app is still ridiculously slow for me this morning.

Anyone with an iPhone seeing the app operate really fast? I know Android has been the faster of the two but it seems like the gap may have increased.

I'm on iPhone. It was horribly slow for me over the weekend.

 

[Mome Rath]

I'm on a new Samsung, so Android, I'm using my carrier's data not my network and I'm refreshing for AK and it takes an average of 1.75 seconds, give or take.

 

[StacyStrong]

Refreshing has always taken forever for me and still does. The circle goes around a couple times, then stops like it is frozen, and then finally loads a few seconds after that.

 

[CaLuCa]

I remember doing this my first trip to Disney World in 2014-15! I didn't even realize it was a technique and never read instructions on how to do it--it just seemed logical/intuitive to me. When I started hearing people describe the "refresh method" I was surprised everyone (the research and planner types that would know to check the app for more FP+) wasn't doing it! I FP+'d almost every ride with FP+ capability as we walked to the ride... it was great!

That said, I have a lot of related experience with online games/websites as a child in which refreshing for rarer items etc. and being quick on the draw were part of it, lol.

I've been following this board since page 2! Thank you everyone for continously updating us, testing things out, and reporting back. I'm so glad it seems to be working and we're not doomed!

I had an AP in 2015 before we moved here. A friend and I were comparing trips and we talked about how we'd tap our bands, get on the app, and book a new one. She said she did Buzz about 7 times in a row and there were some really ugly looks from the stand by line by about the fifth time she walked by them.

When I was in the parks this weekend and it was not looking good, I first thought spring break must be BAD, but it wasn't THAT crowded. Then I realized it was all this craziness.

 

[emsstacey]

I’m in Animal Kingdom today and it’s really crowded but got FOP for 4th Fp and NRJ for 5th. I had to refresh a dozen times but they finally started showing up. So far, we have rode FOP 3 times today.

 

[Iowamomof4]

There are probably other places I could ask this, but since we seem to have gathered some of our best and brightest "refresh professionals" in this thread, I thought I'd ask here.

We will have a party of 7. What is the max number I should include in each fastpass group to get the best results and still allow us to mostly tour together? We will sometimes just be a group of 4 or 5, but is 4 the max you would try for at one time?

 

[JETSDAD]

There are probably other places I could ask this, but since we seem to have gathered some of our best and brightest "refresh professionals" in this thread, I thought I'd ask here.

We will have a party of 7. What is the max number I should include in each fastpass group to get the best results and still allow us to mostly tour together? We will sometimes just be a group of 4 or 5, but is 4 the max you would try for at one time?

When I had a group of 7 I broke it into 3/4 and would find the 4 first. For some midlevel and lower rides 7 will work fine. 5 will take more work as a single group but can be done with some patience. If you're not having luck with 5 then break it down into 3/2.

 

[CaLuCa]

There are probably other places I could ask this, but since we seem to have gathered some of our best and brightest "refresh professionals" in this thread, I thought I'd ask here.

We will have a party of 7. What is the max number I should include in each fastpass group to get the best results and still allow us to mostly tour together? We will sometimes just be a group of 4 or 5, but is 4 the max you would try for at one time?

We are 6 if DH goes. I try first in 3s, and if it isn't working, I move onto 2s. For the really tough ones, I even do 1s, but that is time consuming. That's when I knew this weekend was a disaster. I couldn't even get fp for 1 for anything but shows or really late 8pm (and this was around 10am).

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

There are probably other places I could ask this, but since we seem to have gathered some of our best and brightest "refresh professionals" in this thread, I thought I'd ask here.

We will have a party of 7. What is the max number I should include in each fastpass group to get the best results and still allow us to mostly tour together? We will sometimes just be a group of 4 or 5, but is 4 the max you would try for at one time?

Last year I almost always did 5. I rarely broke it up. For really hard to get rides it would take way too long to get two groups overlapping. For most of the other rides they would pop soon enough with 5. This year I'm finding that I need to break it up for Mtn level rides to really have the best chance.

 

[CJN]

There are probably other places I could ask this, but since we seem to have gathered some of our best and brightest "refresh professionals" in this thread, I thought I'd ask here.

We will have a party of 7. What is the max number I should include in each fastpass group to get the best results and still allow us to mostly tour together? We will sometimes just be a group of 4 or 5, but is 4 the max you would try for at one time?

With 7 people in a group, presumably you’d have at least two people with a device for searching. I’d have one person search for 7 and another person search for 3 or 4. You never know what’s going to come up and if you initially only search for 4, if you hit something good you’ll never know if you missed out on enough for the entire group.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

With 7 people in a group, presumably you’d have at least two people with a device for searching. I’d have one person search for 7 and another person search for 3 or 4. You never know what’s going to come up and if you initially only search for 4, if you hit something good you’ll never know if you missed out on enough for the entire group.

A very good suggestion. I may do that with my daughter.

 

[mrsap]

Thanks to everyone who tested out the app today! It’s very much appreciated!