MDE Refreshing

[Jo-Anne]

i see a lot of people referring to “keep refreshing” to try for same day fast passes while in parks or at certain times of the day in advance of trips. I see the refresh link on the main page of MDE, so do I have to keep backing out back to the main page to refresh every time I go into a current FP modification or is there a faster way to refresh while I’m in the Fastpass trying to modify? Thanks

 

[Klayfish]

No, I think you're referring to the "refresh" on the front page of MDE to refresh the entire app? In the "refresh" we talk about here, you do it on the page where you're trying to get a FP+ for a certain attraction. So let's say you are in the park and are looking for a 4th (or 12th...LOL) FP+. You pick the park and then pick the time you want. Look for the attraction you want. If it's not available, you click on a time at the top of the page and it will "refresh". So if you're looking for a 5pm FP+ you can just keep hitting the 5pm button and checking to see if something comes up. If you have a rotten Apple product, I think you have to pick a different time, so you'd go 4:30pm, then 5pm, then 4:30pm and so forth.

Conventional wisdom is that if you're doing that and find a FP+ for the ride you want but the time is all wrong, take it anyway and then try to modify it. So if you wanted 5pm but 9pm came up, take it. Then modify that using refresh until you move it back to 5pm. That's what I do and it works like a charm. We almost always get to ride whatever we want, whenever we want doing this.

 

[lmcarr49]

I was able to get FOP FastPass while I was in Animal Kingdom. I kept refreshing and it popped up. I was refreshing for 20 straight minutes while we were at a restaurant.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Refresh works so well I almost dont even care about the 60 day window anymore! Don't tell too many people

 

[ColoradoMom12]

I don’t know if it’s like this for others, but I have much better luck when I refresh using the website (as opposed to the MDE app). I find much more availability doing it that way. Slightly less convenient, but I find the results are worth it.

 

[lmcarr49]

I don’t know if it’s like this for others, but I have much better luck when I refresh using the website (as opposed to the MDE app). I find much more availability doing it that way. Slightly less convenient, but I find the results are worth it.

You are right! I used the website and found FOP fastpasses while in the park. The app kept crashing.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I don’t know if it’s like this for others, but I have much better luck when I refresh using the website (as opposed to the MDE app). I find much more availability doing it that way. Slightly less convenient, but I find the results are worth it.

That's my experience as well. It seems to vary with different browsers. I have the Firefox browser on my iPhone solely for this reason (safari was the worst for me).

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

I tried refreshing for the first time this trip and was able to get Test Track for 11 am around 10:30 am and FoP for 2 pm around 11 am. A ton of FoP times popped up after only refreshing 3 times. Same with Test Track. I didn’t have luck with SDD on our DHS day, but we had Fastpasses that worked well with our plans anyway.

I did have to carry a phone charger with me and “plug in” whenever I found an outlet (which luckily ended up being at a lot of our TS meals). The MDE app kills my phone battery.

 

[JETSDAD]

I don’t know if it’s like this for others, but I have much better luck when I refresh using the website (as opposed to the MDE app). I find much more availability doing it that way. Slightly less convenient, but I find the results are worth it.

I normally use the app with success. I do switch to the website if the app simply won't work but I haven't noticed any significant difference between the two for success rates. I like the app because if it errors while you are selecting a FP it will let you retry where the site just loses the FP.

 

[jvz82]

I used refreshing on my trip last week and it did work great for the most part. If there wasn't any availability for a time or ride that I wanted, I just kept refreshing over and over and almost always found something. However, my experience was I never found any big ticket fast passes, like for FOP or Slinky Dog, or 7DMTR, etc. I know other people have had different experiences and do get the popular rides using the refresh, but I was pretty persistent and didn't have any luck. So definitely worth a try, but probably don't rely on it if there's a popular ride you really want to go on!

 

[chris1212]

When using the refresh strategy, how many FP's do you search for at a time? 4? Or break into smaller groups and hope to get over lapping times?

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I used refreshing on my trip last week and it did work great for the most part. If there wasn't any availability for a time or ride that I wanted, I just kept refreshing over and over and almost always found something. However, my experience was I never found any big ticket fast passes, like for FOP or Slinky Dog, or 7DMTR, etc. I know other people have had different experiences and do get the popular rides using the refresh, but I was pretty persistent and didn't have any luck. So definitely worth a try, but probably don't rely on it if there's a popular ride you really want to go on!

That has been my experience as well. Works great other then a handful of the most popular rides.

When using the refresh strategy, how many FP's do you search for at a time? 4? Or break into smaller groups and hope to get over lapping times?

Start with 4 in most cases. If you aren't getting one, then try to split it. I always figure it's worth a try spending a couple minutes looking for the larger party first.

Hey @JETSDAD, on your recent trip with 7 did you have to split your group or no?

 

[FairWahine]

I’m a passholder and arranged myself a fun solo Saturday outing to HS yesterday using this strategy. I had wanted to go after dark to see the holiday projections but on Friday evening, while watching some TV with DH, I got a 9:45 FP for SDD. A morning trip, it is then!

I use Google Chrome to access MDE since I’ve found that the “refresh” works better than in the app.

I got to SDD at about 10:40. After a fantastic ride and then a quick beverage at Baseline, I used my 10:50 FP for Star Tours and while I was in that short line, I refreshed my ToT FP up to 11:55. Saw all the park’s decorations and some street entertainment, got into line for ToT at around 12:40. While in the ToT line, I got my 4th FP for Alien Swirling Saucers for 1:35. Out of the park by 2:15 as the Saturday crowds continued to grow. Fun day!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

@FairWahine - LOL, you timed your SDD ride photo face perfectly.

 

[BK2014]

Does this work for rides that show that there is no more FP+ availability for that day, or just for rides that have availability, but at inconvenient times? For example, if I have 3 Magic Kingdom FPs booked for a morning, can I try searching by modifying one them with the hopes that a SDMT FP pops up, even though it says there are no more FPs for that day?

 

[disneygirlsng]

Does this work for rides that show that there is no more FP+ availability for that day, or just for rides that have availability, but at inconvenient times? For example, if I have 3 Magic Kingdom FPs booked for a morning, can I try searching by modifying one them with the hopes that a SDMT FP pops up, even though it says there are no more FPs for that day?

Yes. People are always changing and cancelling their plans. FPs open up all the time.

 

[FairWahine]

For me it seems that I have the best luck the night before and day of.

 

[JETSDAD]

That has been my experience as well. Works great other then a handful of the most popular rides.



Start with 4 in most cases. If you aren't getting one, then try to split it. I always figure it's worth a try spending a couple minutes looking for the larger party first.

Hey @JETSDAD, on your recent trip with 7 did you have to split your group or no?

We're here now and for most of the larger rides I have been splitting 4 and 3 and getting overlapping times. It has been a great trip so far and I have had more success than I had expected with FP's for 7. I will probably post something when I get home but here's an example for today that I just got now while sitting out the rain storm in our room as we plan for the evening (when it hopefully dries up a bit).