That written policy (you know the one I posted a few pages back?) is pretty clear. All I would like to see is for just one of you to step up to the plate here and admit that you know you're violating it, but intend to continue to do so as long as they let you. That would be where the accountability comes into play.
Have a great trip your next time to WDW. You can go on using those expired FP's until WDW decides to start enforcing their written policy.
ETA: Now if you could provide the name of someone who is in a position of authority at Disney that told you otherwise, that would be a completely different thing too. You know, someone who is in a position to dictate or even influence policy. Anybody?
1) What you posted is not a policy. It is instructions. They ARE two different things. Policies are far more complicated. Policies are communicated to the CMs. And has been stated several times, CMs are told that late FPs are allowed.
2) Return Time in those instructions could be interpreted differently. It could mean the return
window, or it could mean the start of that window.
3) The back of a Fastpass states:
Please enter the FASTPASS entrance at the attraction between the times notes on the other side.
Cannot accept early arrivals. Valid only on date printed.
(See the link in my signature for my Fastpass page that has images of the front AND back)
There are various interpretations of the above. First, the first line says, "Please". Disney would _like_ you to return during the designated window - that makes the flow of the lines more predictable, and not as subject to short term peturbations. Disney is not going to advertise it that you can use it any time after, because then it can't be predicted. But there is nothing about expiration.
There is no ambiguity of not being allowed in early. Not gonna happen. Why? It would make the Fastpass system stupid. Go up, get a Fastpass, then use it right away? Then everyone would do it, and the Fastpass line would be just as bad as the standby line.
4) Disney needs to allow flexibility for problems. Attractions can - in some cases, often - do break down or get canceled. If it's down during your return window, they are not going to say tough luck...they tell you to come back later. And later on, the CM isn't going to look closely at your FP and say, "Hey, you're late, the ride was broken down from 10:30-noon, but your FP is for 1pm, so go away!" They allow all late comers.
4a) If they allow late comers in the case of attraction failure, how much of a problem is it to allow it regardless? We're not talking large percentages of people here, and it eliminates the need to have a CM later in the day have to find out if an attraction had failed, for how long, potentially get it wrong and start turning away a lot of angry guests.
5) What if guests have legitimate reasons? Say, we got a FP, but despite our ADRs we were seated an hour late for lunch, service was slow, and when we got out we were 10 minutes past our return window?
6) A Fastpass is essentially holding your place in the standby line for you. By being late, you are, in fact, benefitting the people in the standby line. It's kind of like standing aside and allowing other people to pass. When you get back in the line, you've actually had a positive effect - people have gotten to ride sooner. The people still behind you are unaffected at all (despite what their
perception might be) - if you had been on time, then they'd still be in the same position in line.
Disney needs to be flexible with it, and the easiest way to be flexible is to
encourage people to be within their window, but simply allow them to be late.
The only possible negative effect is that if a very large percentage of FP holders came late, at roughly the same time, flooding the Fastpass line and bringing the standby line to a halt (although see #5 above). But that is highly unlikely as in reality only a small percentage actually use their FP late, and most of those are still spread evenly throughout the day.
Fixed seating attractions could be an issue - typically the FP return time relates to an actual show time, and if a large number of people were late, then they could exceed the seating capacity. But there are relatively few fixed-seating attractions with FP, and the quantity of FPs are likely controlled enough (or the attraction not popular enough) that that would ever happen.
I will admit that I and many others use the fastpasses how many cm's have said we could. Please dont ask any cm's on your next trip any questions because a lot of them must be lying.
But the truth is that CMs are trained to accept any FP for that day after the window opens. If you believe it's wrong to go to an attraction outside of the window, that's cool. I will continue to go late, and as Disney allows me to as part of their pollicy based upon how they train the CMs.
