Refresh=game changer, crowd calendars=unreliable

[mesaboy2]

And yes, I think it's because you "catch" the time when people cancel FPs or when Disney adds more (the latter is just what I've heard - I don't know if it's true).

Disney generally doesn’t, except as a side effect when hours are extended. The refresh method works because thousands of guests are changing plans at any one time.

 

[Love Tink]

We are back since June 24th, and also found that "refreshing" worked reasonably well, but very dependent on phone and network. Using Wifi on an old iPhone, each "refresh" took a quite a few seconds. Worked better with an android and 4G. I spent an hour one evening at MK trying to get Buzz but they never came up!

There is a very good chance that this happened because Buzz was down. They stop giving out new FP if a ride is down.

 

[DebbieB]

I found using a browser to be much faster than the app, I could get many more refreshes in the same amount of time. This was on an iPhone 7.

I found that too last week. Errors on the app. I snagged a 6:45 Saucers around 2:00pm for 3. Took several refreshes but I got it. I refresh by jumping between 2 times at the top.

 

[Erik the Red]

Is this the way it works best?

So on a 9am opening ...

RD rides for 1.5hours
First FP - 9:45 - 10:45
Second - 10:45 - 11:45
Third - 11:45 - 12:45

Right after you swipe in at your 3rd ride, start refresh strategy for the rest? All your doing is finding the ride you want on your phone and just keep searching until a FP opening pops up?

 

[AngiTN]

There is a very good chance that this happened because Buzz was down. They stop giving out new FP if a ride is down.

No they do not. I found FP for every ride when it was down this week. No matter if it was for weather or for a mechanical outage

Good recent example was for barnstormer. It was down last couple hours of park closing. Not for rain, it was the only ride down in the park. I booked several FP in the last hour (we actually wanted it for DGD to ride it) but each time they converted to an anytime FP. Because it was the last hour of the day these FP were good for any park, any ride, the next day. They clearly did not pull the FP

Pirates was down a couple days ago, obviously not for rain since it's indoors. We booked a couple for it for during the outage

The should stop FP distribution when they are down but I've never seen it happen

 

[AngiTN]

Is this the way it works best?

So on a 9am opening ...

RD rides for 1.5hours
First FP - 9:45 - 10:45
Second - 10:45 - 11:45
Third - 11:45 - 12:45

Right after you swipe in at your 3rd ride, start refresh strategy for the rest? All your doing is finding the ride you want on your phone and just keep searching until a FP opening pops up?

Yes
Take the first FP you see. For whatever reason it seems it's easier to find a FP when you have one to modify vs searching for new times from nothing

 

[AngiTN]

Disney generally doesn’t, except as a side effect when hours are extended. The refresh method works because thousands of guests are changing plans at any one time.

My search tests have shown something else.
No they aren't dumping new FP in but the results returned are simply not only due to changes by other guests. The times that pop up with each search change in ways not possible for that to be the sole reason. There is some randomness in there too

 

[Orsino]

My search tests have shown something else.
No they aren't dumping new FP in but the results returned are simply not only due to changes by other guests. The times that pop up with each search change in ways not possible for that to be the sole reason. There is some randomness in there too

It isn’t just other guests changing plans, but also other guests declining fast passes offered to them. If I recall correctly, when a fastpass is offered to you that fastpass is locked until you decline it. In other words, no one else will see it. This lock is to prevent frustration from guests being offered fast passes only to be denied because some one else booked it before they could.

The flip side of this is that when you search for fastpasses, a large number of fastpasses is locked by other users considering their fastpass options. Once they decline, it goes back to being offered to someone else. That is why refreshing is so critical. And the other users are declining fastpasses constantly. They have to. They are being offered several fastpass options, but can only pick one.

 

[old feller]

None of the people I travel with have smart phones, myself included, so I am very jealous of all of you that can use this technique to get extra fp

I believe you
can use the same strategy at the fastpass kiosk

 

[glocon]

We are a part of 2, here right now, can get anything. But that's the norm honestly. 2 never struggle

Were you able to get a 4th+ fp for FoP?
I’m hoping to be able to do just that on our trip later this month... fingers crossed.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

How do you refresh? Pick a fp (say 7DMT) then keep picking it until a time shows up?

 

[SaintsManiac]

How do you refresh? Pick a fp (say 7DMT) then keep picking it until a time shows up?

Yep

 

[AngiTN]

Were you able to get a 4th+ fp for FoP?
I’m hoping to be able to do just that on our trip later this month... fingers crossed.

Yes, I have before. One trip even got a 5th

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Yep

Thank you! There are only a few we really want, and those are for the ones with the long wait times. We are going to try for the difficult ones when our fp window opens up, but with the tier system, you have to go for another.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

How difficult do you think it will be for a party of 6?

ETA: Most times it will be 3 or 4.

 

[DebbieB]

How do you refresh? Pick a fp (say 7DMT) then keep picking it until a time shows up?

I typically jump between the times at the top.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I typically jump between the times at the top.

Do you recommend doing this if you pick your initial 3 and don't get the time you want, or don't get one at all, or is this strategy strictly for 4th, etc, fps?

 

[JETSDAD]

My favourite topic.

@AngiTN I believe that what @Orsino stated is what you notice rather than randomness. If 1000 people are looking for FP's in a given park, every time they refresh it locks in the ones shown to them. This takes away around 3 FP times per ride in that park so at any given time there may be thousands of times for each ride that are not going to be booked but are still locked to individuals. As soon as they refresh those times go back into the system.

 

[DebbieB]

Do you recommend doing this if you pick your initial 3 and don't get the time you want, or don't get one at all, or is this strategy strictly for 4th, etc, fps?

I just use it for 4th and after. Ive also found if I want a specific ride, I take any time and then try to modify.

 

[AngiTN]

My favourite topic.

@AngiTN I believe that what @Orsino stated is what you notice rather than randomness. If 1000 people are looking for FP's in a given park, every time they refresh it locks in the ones shown to them. This takes away around 3 FP times per ride in that park so at any given time there may be thousands of times for each ride that are not going to be booked but are still locked to individuals. As soon as they refresh those times go back into the system.

I don't believe it locks the ones displayed for you, to you. If it did then you wouldn't be able to loose those FP before you can book them. Many times that has happened to me. And not because I take too long. I'm talking taking no more things than physically possible to click and confirm and I've still lost FP to someone else. So they couldn't have possibly been locked as my selections.