Our Experience Using the "Refresh Method"

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Stop blabbing about it! The less people who know the trick the better!


Every time I see one of these threads I wonder how long it will be until “Refresh” or “Tap, grab, modify” become moot due to too many people In The Know.

Kind of like how mobile order was amazing when it was released and not many folks were using it AND they didn’t take dining credits. Ahhhhh November 2017. The good old days :cloud9:

Not pertaining to these issues particularly...
Everything I've learned about Disney World that has been helpful has been from the sharing of information on this board. Although it rarely occurs, if I learn something that would be helpful to others I post it. I thought this was the purpose of the whole thing, really, to learn, share, and help each other out. I realized along time ago that when I thought there were still things we knew but most outside The Disboards didn't, well I was just kidding myself. :goodvibes
 
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Not pertaining to these issues particularly...
Everything I've learned about Disney World that has been helpful has been from the sharing of information on this board. Although it rarely occurs, if I learn something that would be helpful to others I post it. I thought this was the purpose of the whole thing, really, to learn, share, and help each other out. I realized along time ago that when I thought there were still things we knew but most outside The Disboards didn't, well I was just kidding myself. :goodvibes
I was joking :rolleyes: How do you think most of us learned about it?
 
I read here that the MDE app was not working for some people- it worked flawlessly for me this trip and 100% contributed to my success in using the refresh method.

Thanks so much for sharing! I was there the same week but was at different parks on different days. MDE didn't work for me most of the time so I wasn't able to attempt to refresh very much. (I've been to WDW 4 times in the past 1.5 years and this was by far the worst.) I'm curious if you were connected to the park's wifi? And were you using the app or a browser? iPhone or Android? Thanks!
 
Thanks so much for sharing! I was there the same week but was at different parks on different days. MDE didn't work for me most of the time so I wasn't able to attempt to refresh very much. (I've been to WDW 4 times in the past 1.5 years and this was by far the worst.) I'm curious if you were connected to the park's wifi? And were you using the app or a browser? iPhone or Android? Thanks!

Use any and all of the above that you have access to. If you aren't getting good results, switch. I use a browser on an iPhone usually with WiFi. But the last week or so trying to refresh at AK with a browser has been a waste of time. Olafs every two to three refreshes. But the app has been very stable ( only AK had been behaving this way, don't know why). If it's taking a while to load via WiFi, switch to data. Basically find a method that's working and stick with it until it stops working well.
 


Does this only work when it's the day of? I've been trying to modify my SDD fastpasses (going next week) for months already and it says no times are available.
 
Does this only work when it's the day of? I've been trying to modify my SDD fastpasses (going next week) for months already and it says no times are available.
The ability to “look for” and Modify FPs is available to anyone with valid ticket media. It’s all dependent upon whether anyone has canceled their SDD FPs and they are in the FP system at the moment you are looking.
 
People who use refresh dont discuss details of refresh haha

Reality is the number of people on dis who know is minuscule in comparison to the number of people in the park at any given time. I just make it a point not to tell anyone outside of family or on here. On Christmas day it worked amazingly well due to the number of non in the know people compared to those in the know. As long as it stays like that, dis board people friends family its minimum compared to the main crowd

In other word. What's discussed on dis stays on dis or we all lose the benefit of not everyone knowing
 
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Does this only work when it's the day of? I've been trying to modify my SDD fastpasses (going next week) for months already and it says no times are available.

As a practical matter yes, it really only works day of. You can occasionally get lucky and find a fastpass by checking in the days leading up to it, but it is only on the day of that the fastpasses for the hard-to-get rides become meaningfully easier to get.
 
Yes. Day of last trip in january woke up with no fast passes on the walk from boardwalk to studios pulled tsm, rnrc, and tot. Then shifted them all up and pulled sdc after those three. Took a break and pulled test track while at the resort and then in the way to dinner at jiko pulled fop at ak. It works better for smaller groups of 2 or 3.
 
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).
 
People who use refresh dont discuss details of refresh haha

Reality is the number of people on dis who know is minuscule in comparison to the number of people in the park at any given time. I just make it a point not to tell anyone outside of family or on here. On Christmas day it worked amazingly well due to the number of non in the know people compared to those in the know. As long as it stays like that, dis board people friends family its minimum compared to the main crowd

In other word. What's discussed on dis stays on dis or we all lose the benefit of not everyone knowing


Isn't everyone technically doing this though? I would think anybody who has tried to get a fast pass on their mobile device would realize that every time you hit a new time, a new set of times pop up. Don't like that time, hit it again and again. You scan in for a ride and then you go to select a new fast pass and tons of options come up. I think mostly everyone does this....maybe they don't realize it's the "refresh method".
 
Isn't everyone technically doing this though? I would think anybody who has tried to get a fast pass on their mobile device would realize that every time you hit a new time, a new set of times pop up. Don't like that time, hit it again and again. You scan in for a ride and then you go to select a new fast pass and tons of options come up. I think mostly everyone does this....maybe they don't realize it's the "refresh method".

I do not believe that most people refresh. If they know to look at all for additional FP's most just open the app, look at what is available, and choose from those. Yes there are quite a few of us who know to keep looking but I say that the majority do not. To some of us it just seemed like the obvious thing to do as you've stated but I'm here now and so many just look and move on. My favourite is when they keep looking to see what has the shortest line and are deciding which SB line to get in. I'd think that if they were in the app they could instead try to find a FP but that doesn't seem to be the case.

And yes, it is working great as usual right now.
 
I do not believe that most people refresh. If they know to look at all for additional FP's most just open the app, look at what is available, and choose from those. Yes there are quite a few of us who know to keep looking but I say that the majority do not. To some of us it just seemed like the obvious thing to do as you've stated but I'm here now and so many just look and move on. My favourite is when they keep looking to see what has the shortest line and are deciding which SB line to get in. I'd think that if they were in the app they could instead try to find a FP but that doesn't seem to be the case.

And yes, it is working great as usual right now.

Agree! We went for the first time 2 years ago and at the start of my planning I knew NOTHING. What I did know was that I could get additional fast passes after my initial 3. However, I did not have the knowledge I do now. I still think, "How can people not know this?!" when it seems so obvious, but many just don't!
 
Isn't everyone technically doing this though? I would think anybody who has tried to get a fast pass on their mobile device would realize that every time you hit a new time, a new set of times pop up. Don't like that time, hit it again and again. You scan in for a ride and then you go to select a new fast pass and tons of options come up. I think mostly everyone does this....maybe they don't realize it's the "refresh method".

Yes. This. We went 3 ish weeks after they changed it so that you could get a 4th from a phone. By the end of that trip I was refreshing. Admittedly I did not really know how successful it could be so I didn't spend half an hour refreshing for 7DMT but I was refreshing for other things. I'm pretty sure that even if I hadn't run across people talking about it here I would have gotten to the point of spending longer looking for headliners.

I think refreshing has a shelf life. Either because it will become too popular or Disney will change things. But enjoy it now and adapt later.
 
The MDE app (both mobile and browser-based) seems surprisingly challenged by high loads. as a developer, I could imagine Disney being hard at work on a solution that would let people have the same functionality without pinging their servers every second. maybe something akin to touringplans’ ADR finder, where you could subscribe to be notified when a certain fastpass became available. We can dream!
... of course then you’d have a huge spike as everyone scrambled to grab the single FP. i’m not sure whether that’s any better than the distributed load of everyone refreshing…
 
For those reading this post who have not used refresh before, just be careful. It does not work this easily for everyone in every circumstance. Do not chuck your 60 day FPs and your RD strategy until you have tried this in the parks. A lot of people cannot get headliners in 3 refreshes. Some people cannot get headliners in 300 refreshes. I love refreshing, but I never depend on it for getting headliners - those are pixie dust for me. It took me a half hour of constant refreshing to get FEA for a party of 2 last year. Definitely try it out, definitely appreciate all it can get for you, but don't depend on it being easy until you know that's how it works for you.

This X10. Refresh worked wonderfully for us in Jan party of 4, but I never could get the big headliners. So don't count in it! Still we had FP for every ride and got tons done. Lots more than before the app.
 
This X10. Refresh worked wonderfully for us in Jan party of 4, but I never could get the big headliners. So don't count in it! Still we had FP for every ride and got tons done. Lots more than before the app.
The most important thing here: OP was a party of 2. That means she was eligible any time a party of 2 or more canceled. A party of 4 will never hear about the 2- or 3-person parties that she would have. (Counter moral: If you're willing to split your party up, you might find more—best case scenario, overlapping FPs.)
 
I can't refresh for another tier 1 until all 3 of my original FP's are used correct? Same I imagine when visiting Toy Story Land.
 
I can't refresh for another tier 1 until all 3 of my original FP's are used correct? Same I imagine when visiting Toy Story Land.

Inside the same park, yes. You may find the FP FAQ and FP FAQ Addendum threads helpful.
 
The most important thing here: OP was a party of 2. That means she was eligible any time a party of 2 or more canceled. A party of 4 will never hear about the 2- or 3-person parties that she would have. (Counter moral: If you're willing to split your party up, you might find more—best case scenario, overlapping FPs.)

OP here...nope, we were a party of 3. And I've had the same success rate with a party of 5.
 
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