No FoP FP+ for me today...Question about modifying - UPDATED

[Sherlee]

Today was my 60 day window to book my FP+ and I was on 7:00 am sharp.. This trip is a three night stay with two days of tickets - solo trip. It was planned to experience Pandora, stay at AKL, and only go to Animal Kingdom for both days. I was not able to get FoP either day. I booked the Na'vi river ride for each day and then two other Tier 2 rides - thus filling my three options. I now can't figure out how to monitor possible availability for FoP. I see the option of modifying my FP+, but will it give me FoP options with a Tier 1 already being held each day? Also, it does not allow me to view my arrival day or departure day FP+ options, I am guessing because I have allotted my two days of tickets. I have been searching for an answer, but not finding it - I feel so stupid!

 

[tlmadden73]

Sorry to hear that. That Fast Pass is going to be a hot ticket item (like the Anna and Elsa Meet and Greets (at MK) were, and like SDMT was). It is just frustrating that people who are trying to book Fast Passes at the first possible second still cannot get them. The amount of people with longer resorts stays simply gobble them up.

The only way to probably guarantee a FOP FP is to book a max 10 night stay to actually book it at 70 days out. (and then do some modifying/cancelling of your room reservation later (at a risk)).

There is no real easy way to check back to see if any FOP Fast Passes opened up without simply just trying to modify your FP every so often and hope you get lucky with the timing. That is the downside to Fast Passes like this that "book up" there is no easy or equitable way to look for cancelled fast passes so you can jump on it. It would be handy if Disney had some sort of waiting list system, but that would take a lot of programming with little benefit to Disney.

I'm not sure if I understand your question about viewing FP options, but you should be able to book Fast Passes for every day of your trip -- check-in day through check-out day (no matter how many days of tickets you have purchased).

 

[Sherlee]

Thank you so much for your quick reply. I again signed on to check for FP+ for my arrival and departure day (days where no FP+ have been booked) and this is the message I receive:

FastPass+ Limit Reached
These Guests have reached their maximum FastPass+ allotment. To continue, remove them from your party. Their existing plans won't change. Or, go back and select a date for which you already made FastPass+ selections.

I had not planned on going to a park on those days, but could possibly add another day of ticketing.
Thank you.

 

[No.1000]

Try clicking on the actual NRJ fastpass and then click modify. It should let you see the other times and other tier 1 options if there are any. Good luck.

 

[cvjw]

You can only make FP+ reservations for the number of days that you have valid tickets. 2 day tickets = 2 days of FP+ reservations.

 

[jaysmom4285]

I haven't been to AK to experience Pandora, but I have heard that the river ride is an easier FP+ to get than FoP, and the standby line can at times be at least tolerable. If you're willing to give up the river ride FP+, you could keep trying to modify the FP+ for that and see if a time for FoP comes up. It's often surprising what will show up if you are relentless about refreshing the screen to modify a FP+. I have been able to obtain FP+ for every Tier 1 attraction (except for the Pandora ones, having not been there) by just constantly refreshing the screen as often as I can stand it. If you should see an available time for FoP that doesn't work for you, take it anyway. It's somehow easier to modify the time for a FP+ than it is to find a new one.

 

[quikah]

If you wind up not getting it you can sometimes get day of FP, especially for singles. The trick is to keep checking by changing the time on the fp selection screen, it will refresh all the options.

It can sometimes take 20-30 minutes to get one (have a phone charger handy) . I haven't tried with any pandora rides, but I was able to get Frozen and mine train last year day of using this technique.

 

[tlmadden73]

You can only make FP+ reservations for the number of days that you have valid tickets. 2 day tickets = 2 days of FP+ reservations.

Hmm ... sorry about the bad info then ... I never realized that (I guess because I have always gone with resort-only reservations with no-expiration tickets (with plenty of days left), so I technically could make Fast Passes for every day of my trip even though I was only going to go to the parks 2-3 days.

Man, I will miss these 10-day no-expiration tickets when they are gone (still 4 days left (8 days left on my son's) after three small 2-day trips since 2014 (when I purchased them)).

 

[mesaboy2]

Hmm ... sorry about the bad info then ... I never realized that (I guess because I have always gone with resort-only reservations with no-expiration tickets (with plenty of days left), so I technically could make Fast Passes for every day of my trip even though I was only going to go to the parks 2-3 days.

Man, I will miss these 10-day no-expiration tickets when they are gone (still 4 days left (8 days left on my son's) after three small 2-day trips since 2014 (when I purchased them)).

You may find the FP FAQ helpful.

 

[fractalpotato]

That is the downside to Fast Passes like this that "book up" there is no easy or equitable way to look for cancelled fast passes so you can jump on it. It would be handy if Disney had some sort of waiting list system, but that would take a lot of programming with little benefit to Disney.

This is by design, as a professional software engineer I can say that waiting list queues are pretty simple, unless the system is designed very, very, very badly, but are not wanted here. First off, for headliners like this a very large percentage of people would book the waiting list as an option and the liquidity of that FastPass is toast. If you didn't get on the waiting list immediately you would never, ever stand a chance of getting it, frustrated guests would multiply drastically. Also it allows Disney to manipulate the supply as they wish (and I'm sure they do, logistics this sophisticated there is just no way they're dropping the entire capacity in one fell swoop and never adjusting it later) without people being able to see the puppet strings moving. It's unlikely you'll ever see a waiting list system unless they did it by lottery, and that would also probably just annoy a lot of people.

Matt

 

[Sherlee]

Thank you everyone for your replies and advice. I thought I would update my post to say that I was able to get a FoP FP+ for my second day, in the mid-afternoon! I pretty much spent most of Thursday refreshing Day 1 on my laptop and Day 2 on my MDE app with no luck. While I was standing in a very long check-out lane yesterday, I dug out my phone and just kept refreshing and one available time popped up. Thank you to quikah for the tip that you only need to refresh the time. I was going back to "start over" each time to attempt to modify.