Our Experience Using the "Refresh Method"

[Remy is Up]

It comes down to what percentage of the overall guests are "informed"guests. The busier the day, in our experience, the lower the percent, thus making refresh easier. On Christmas day people were willingly getting in a 2 hour line for hm and I pulled a fp for 5 minutes from the pull. SDD can be some work but it's the only one I found I have to work for. Again, depends on how you want to approach the parks.

 

[Disneylover99]

Good point.

Shhhhhh.....let's just let everyone believe those extra FP+ are in fact impossible to get. Move along, nothing to see here.

And let's face it, when Figment and Small World are over an hour wait, we're happy with any and all fp's we can get when we refresh.

 

[Disneylover99]

[QUOTE="Remy is Up, post: 60273757, member: 623411"]It comes down to what percentage of the overall guests are "informed"guests. The busier the day, in our experience, the lower the percent, thus making refresh easier. On Christmas day people were willingly getting in a 2 hour line for hm and I pulled a fp for 5 minutes from the pull. SDD can be some work but it's the only one I found I have to work for. Again, depends on how you want to approach the parks.[/QUOTE]

Yes. Very true. Lots of first timers go Christmas week. I'm always surprised at the number of people I meet that week who have never been.

 

[fiasco32]

Does refreshing work even late in the day? We're going for two days in early March and not entering the parks until 1pm. Our 60-day FPs won't be used up until 4 or 5pm and I'm worried about not really being able to ride anything good the rest of the day.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

It always boggles my mind when someone figures this out then shares it so that so many more will know! LOL shhh or everyone will do it

 

[WaterLinds]

Does refreshing work even late in the day? We're going for two days in early March and not entering the parks until 1pm. Our 60-day FPs won't be used up until 4 or 5pm and I'm worried about not really being able to ride anything good the rest of the day.

You can try to move those prebooked FPs up as you go so they’re used up earlier—after you use the first one, try to modify the next to be sooner, etc. That will give you more time.

But yes, it can still work in the evening, you just have less time to work with so might not pull as many. We used refresh in the early evening at MK last year and got Buzz and Space—at MK there’s almost always something you can get. The tier one rides at other parks could be hard with less time, but you never know!

 

[JETSDAD]

Does refreshing work even late in the day? We're going for two days in early March and not entering the parks until 1pm. Our 60-day FPs won't be used up until 4 or 5pm and I'm worried about not really being able to ride anything good the rest of the day.

We had very good luck at Epcot this past week in the evening. Generally the mornings I find the best luck but evenings can be good as well. The later it gets the less the chances of getting anything decent.

 

[chiisai]

Anyone try this today (or tomorrow)? Curious how well it works on a busy (holiday) weekend.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

I have searched for a FP while standing at the attraction many times. Usually within 5 minutes we get a FP for the ride. However I have never been able to get one for 7DMT or FOP but not without trying.

 

[Disneylover99]

Does refreshing work even late in the day? We're going for two days in early March and not entering the parks until 1pm. Our 60-day FPs won't be used up until 4 or 5pm and I'm worried about not really being able to ride anything good the rest of the day.

I find refresh works well for me later in the day at MK, but not so much at the other parks. The later the park closes the better.

 

[cakebaker]

I don't see why you wouldn't. We got a ton of them during Xmas week, which is the busiest time of year. In fact, we had more success that week than we did in summer. I almost wonder if it's easier when the crowd is larger because there are more people using the system...i.e. changing plans.

My trip is in early May. While I’m not expecting low crowd level ( there’s a cheerleading thing I wasn’t aware of when I booked), I don’t expect it to be as heavy as during the summer and certainly not holiday levels. From what I’ve been reading, success with this is variable. I can get headliners with FP, I have EMM’s planned and we’re pretty much a one and done for almost all rides and EMM’s will take care of those we’d like to ride multiple times. Really, I’m just looking for 4th and mores on secondary rides. It’s just my grandson and I, so this is a much more ride focused trip than I normally make. We’ve been often when a single search would turn up nothing we were interested in, so hoping using this might be more productive. I would never count on this for headliners other than as bonus rides though.

 

[Klayfish]

Anyone try this today (or tomorrow)? Curious how well it works on a busy (holiday) weekend.

It works great. As I mentioned before, we have had great success even during the busiest week of the year...Xmas/NYE. It may take a bit of patience, but you should hopefully have great success. The only attraction we didn't get was FoP...we got every other headliner we tried for.

 

[chiisai]

It works great. As I mentioned before, we have had great success even during the busiest week of the year...Xmas/NYE. It may take a bit of patience, but you should hopefully have great success. The only attraction we didn't get was FoP...we got every other headliner we tried for.

Good to hear, thanks.

 

[intertile]

Was in WDW from February 16th - Feb 22nd. Here is how we used it:
1) We always make our 3 initial FP at the 60 day mark
2) With the exception of Wednesday(Epcot day), our days in the park start between 11-1. We have our first 3 FP done by 4-5pm.
3) I was able to book Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, Space Mountain, Peter Pan, Soarin, Test Track, Toy Story Mania, RnR, Tower, and Frozen ever after.
4) As soon as I tapped the turnstile on the 3rd FP I would start hunting for the next. I would grab whatever time was available and keep refreshing to move up.
5) On multiple occasions I grabbed FP that conflicted with other plans. I would go to the CM at the ride and speak very nicely to them asking to use my FP earlier. Every CM allowed us to do so, with the exception of 7 dwarves mine train.

The system works great, as long as you keep your expectations in check. It will be very TOUGH to get FOP, 7DMT, and SDD, though not imposible. You really need to be persistent. Understand that you will have your face in your phone for quite sometime trying to get the FP you want. The earlier you start using up your first 3 FP, the better your chances. MK is by far the best park to use this system.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

This thread is interesting in that constantly scouring MDE for same day FP+ is thought of as some sort of secret trick!

 

[cakebaker]

Understand that you will have your face in your phone for quite sometime trying to get the FP you want.

That’s exactly what’s causing my hesitation about changing our standard rope drop using stand by in the am, park hop and FP’s for our evening park. I’m just not sure I’d actually like spending so much time hunting down FP’s. I’m attached to my phone every day, all day. I like not having to be on vacation so much.

I’ve also not noticed any current pattern for drops, the original reason for my interest in this. I’ll probably just stick with what we know, it’s worked well for many trips and if something pops up, consider it a happy accident.

 

[detroitdad]

It was hit and miss for us while we were there over a busy week Feb 16-22 but overall not bad results. I originally had a FP for FOP at 4:30pm (it was our 3rd pre-booked FP so we were hostage to standby lines until that time) and just got lucky enough to catch one at 2pm instead which allowed us to leave AK early and head over to Epcot for the rest of the day. I think we managed a Mission Space, Spaceship Earth as our 4th and 5th FP of the day. After that it was really too late to catch anything else. I also found that checking for harder FP (like FEA and TT) were easier late at night before the next day. That's how we got FEA. I didn't feel like I had my nose in my phone too much. Getting the FP for a headliner or more popular ride was never that easy however I will admit that once you found one (even if at a much later time in the evening) it worked well to grab it and keep refreshing for an earlier time. I think the best one we had was for FEA which was originally at 8:10pm and with refreshing eventually got it up to 4:30pm. I checked off and on--not non-stop and eventually worked out for the earlier time. MK was by the far the easiest for getting earlier times once you had the FP on your MDE.

 

[Wood Nymph]

OP here...so glad that I posted my experience Good to see so many people could possibly benefit from refresh and grab & modify To answer a few posters questions about using the MDE app....we used Disney's wifi 100%. This was the first time in the past few years that it worked flawlessly. My connection was solid and fast the whole week. My phone is the Google Pixel 3 (Android).

I followed an older thread about this method and it said that the android phones were much better at getting fps with this method than iPhones were. Maybe this was why it works better for some people than for others.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I followed an older thread about this method and it said that the android phones were much better at getting fps with this method than iPhones were. Maybe this was why it works better for some people than for others.

The Android app refreshes twice as fast as either the browsers Ive played with (on iPhone and Android). It definitely does NOT translate into twice the success rate though. It helps you a little bit but definite not the difference between 'I get anything I want in 10 mins or less' and 'i spent all day refreshing and couldn't get any headliners'.

 

[intertile]

That’s exactly what’s causing my hesitation about changing our standard rope drop using stand by in the am, park hop and FP’s for our evening park. I’m just not sure I’d actually like spending so much time hunting down FP’s. I’m attached to my phone every day, all day. I like not having to be on vacation so much.

I’ve also not noticed any current pattern for drops, the original reason for my interest in this. I’ll probably just stick with what we know, it’s worked well for many trips and if something pops up, consider it a happy accident.

This is the best way to use the refresh method. Book your 3 FP, plan your day, and if you get to grab 1 or 2 more it's a bonus.

I will say, I did average about 5-6 total fp's a day last week. Only 7dmt, fop, and sdd were unobtainable.