Rumor: Huge FastPass Change (Both Parks Linked Starting April 6)

[WonkaKid]

That's the same version I have so I force closed the app. Nothing. Shut off and reopened my phone. Nothing. Deleted the app and reloaded it on my phone. Voila!!! Success!

As of a few days ago, the app would crash on my iPhone after loading wait times. I uninstalled/reinstalled it this morning and all is well now.

 

[SeaDis]

I've been a pretty loyal Parkhopper buyer for years now. 5 days x 5 people (even 6 days when they had them). When they started enforcing return times, Hydroguy had a great analysis on whether PH were still worth it. That analysis always stuck in my mind each ticket purchase. As gate lines have gotten crazy-longer midday and evening, I have questioned parkhopping further (but still bought 5 x 5 Day PH before this announcement).

I think this finally knocks me back to 1 park per day. Biggest hitch for me is midday breaks. We pull an evening ride on the way out, parkhop, and pull an earlier ride for our late-afternoon return.

If I downgrade to 1 park per day, maybe I will spend the price difference on Maxpass and end up even on cost. But I think (linking the parks' systems) actually diminishes $250 value of Maxpass (on top of) Parkhopper (5 people over 5 days). Unless I can go two hours into midday break and book a Maxpass at "either/other" park from the hotel-- maybe that is equivalent to my midday break disconnected scenario? But now I'm paying double for it.

Oh well... Disney problems. Just not a fan of this one. Maybe it will help the midday gate lines, at least.

Edit: To clarify (hopefully) diminished value of Maxpass + Parkhopper $$$

 

[Tasscrapper]

How do you actually pull a fast pass on your phone instead of at a kiosk?

 

[DisBabe94]

How do you actually pull a fast pass on your phone instead of at a kiosk?

You can't yet

 

[lcp9]

As many have pointed out, a lot of this boils down to personal preference and touring style.

We love rope drop. We don't take afternoon breaks.

Comparing numbers between WDW and DLR is tricky. Because the FPs you get at DLR are for true headliners. The ones you get at WDW after the first 3 are often for secondary attractions that didn't previously need them.

The no reride thing just can't be overcome predictably for us at WDW. Because the things we want to reride do not predictably have FPs available for 4th and subsequent.

The tiering absolutely is about ride capacity at WDW. And I guess they're working on that. But I'm doubtful that anything I have seen in the works is going to change that. Much of what they do involves closing other things first. And when the new stuff opens, far more people will visit the parks than has been added in new capacity. So I think all the ride rationing techniques are here to stay.

I agree the time enforcement really sucked some of the fun out of legacy. But just as a matter of personal preference, I still will take it over FP+. For me, it comes down to wanting to keep that slate blank every day, and have all things still possible before I ever walk into the park.

No doubt any late start day will be better with FP+. Your down day sounds great. We just don't do down days.

Agreed that the onsite folks get a huge advantage at WDW. Everyone touts being able to schedule convenient times as a big advantage of FP+. But I see post after post from people trying to make the most of the only times that were available for this or that attraction. No doubt they are offsite or scheduled last minute.

Not sure that DLR will give any advantage to their onsite hotels thought. They really don't have to. And in spite of the fact that we stay onsite, I would prefer that they keep a hard line of needing to be in the park in order to schedule and then only same day. And even then I worry about people being able to spoof their location and game the system. The minute DLR lets people not in the park schedule FPs is the minute the whole thing gets out of control. Right now I'm still of a mind that this system might be ok, but a lot of it will depend on the details.

Agreed - the beauty of what it is now is that we showed up with our 40" just turned 3 year old, not sure if he would want to ride height restricted rides, to find out he loved rides and wanted to do SM and RSR back to back to back to back. And we could if we planned our time for the day wisely.

 

[lcp9]

I've been a pretty loyal Parkhopper buyer for years now. 5 days x 5 people (even 6 days when they had them). When they started enforcing return times, Hydroguy had a great analysis on whether PH were still worth it. That analysis always stuck in my mind each ticket purchase. As gate lines have gotten crazy-longer midday and evening, I have questioned parkhopping further (but still bought 5 x 5 Day PH before this announcement).

I think this finally knocks me back to 1 park per day. Biggest hitch for me is midday breaks. We pull an evening ride on the way out, parkhop, and pull an earlier ride for our late-afternoon return.

If I downgrade, maybe I will spend the price difference on Maxpass; but I think this actually diminishes $250 value of Maxpass (5 people over 5 days). Unless I can go two hours into midday break and book a Maxpass from the hotel-- maybe that is equivalent? But now I'm paying double for it.

Oh well... Disney problems. Just not a fan of this one. Maybe it will help the midday gate lines, at least.

Yeah this blows. I don't think the extra $$$ is worth it to us now. Which leads me to wonder if this was just a byproduct of the new system, or if the loophole was purposefully closed. I can't pinpoint a good reason for purposefully closing it.

AND - now that you can't hold passes at both parks, I wonder what that means for MaxPass and being able to book from your phone at DL for a DCA ride, and vice versa. It seems like if you had a ticket scanned at either park you should be able to book for both parks, since you could theoretically use a runner to take the tickets and book a FP with a phone.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

I haven't read all posts but can we get more fastpasses at one time with the new system?

 

[Khokhonutt]

...now that you can't hold passes at both parks...

I don't think you can't hold passes in both parks. My understanding is that you could hold FPs in both parks, but now you have to abide by current FP rules when getting cross park FPs. I.E. If you have a FP that's more that 2 hours out in DL, you could get another in CA after 2 hours has passed. Do I have that correct?

If that's the case, I could potentially see the phone being used (with maxipass) to get say, night time rides for rides with FP.

 

[Niltiac]

I haven't read all posts but can we get more fastpasses at one time with the new system?

No, you can get fewer at one time. The basic rules haven't changed, but before you could get a FP in DL and then immediately get one in DCA, since DCA doesn't "know about" the other FP. Now the two parks' FP systems talk to each other, so you have to wait until you're eligibile for a new FP regardless of which park it's in. If you were willing to run back and forth between the parks, you could get more FP before this change.

 

[robert_j]

This is really too bad because, like others, I always took full advantage of the FP system at both parks. It also makes me wonder what the value of MaxPass will be. With two hours between FPs, it is really not that much trouble simply to walk over to the other park. Now, if they reduced the FP window for MaxPass (e.g., 1 hour instead of two), that would be a real incentive to upgrade.

 

[mom2rtk]

You can still get a new one when the window for the first one opens or 2 hours after pulling the previous one, whichever is sooner. It will say at the bottom of your ticket when you are eligible for another. The next one can be from either park. You can hold more than one at a time if you have later return times.

 

[alvernon90]

If you have a FP that's more that 2 hours out in DL, you could get another in CA after 2 hours has passed. Do I have that correct?

I do believe that is correct. What people are complaining about is the inability to violate that 2 hour window. Most common scenarios are (1) leaving DL for a mid-day break and grabbing a DL FP, then walking through DCA to grab another FP for that park before going back to hotel; or (2) family enters DL at rope drop and grabs FPs, then one family member takes all tickets and runs over to DCA to grab FPs for later that day (works especially well for RSR).

You can still do these, but the two hour window makes it much less worthwhile.

 

[agamble]

AND - now that you can't hold passes at both parks, I wonder what that means for MaxPass and being able to book from your phone at DL for a DCA ride, and vice versa. It seems like if you had a ticket scanned at either park you should be able to book for both parks, since you could theoretically use a runner to take the tickets and book a FP with a phone.

They have already said that yes, you will be able to pull a DCA FP while in DL using the Max Pass app. Which is of course why they needed to close this loophole.

 

[Winnowill]

Yeah, this completely wrecks my ability to ride RSR twice a day, every day that we are there. And it really means that the evening RSR ride FP has to be strategically considered. As busy as it has been, RSR FPs have been running out altogether in two hours. Given the linked parks, they may take longer now, but now it wouldn't do to have a FP for, say Indy, that's 40 minutes out when nighttime RSRs open up, if that's one of your goals...and then you must consider that getting that RSR nighttime FP means you can't get another at DL for another two hours.

There's no way of looking at this that doesn't just SUCK.

 

[scrapshappen]

You can still get a new one when the window for the first one opens or 2 hours after pulling the previous one, whichever is sooner. It will say at the bottom of your ticket when you are eligible for another. The next one can be from either park. You can hold more than one at a time if you have later return times.

I can confirm this is correct. We pulled a FP at 9:45 am for RSR with a return time of 6:10 pm. Just for the heck of it, I tried to get a BTM fastpass about 11:15 and it said I was already holding a FP. But at 11:45, I was able to get Splash Mountain FPs.

 

[abuck75]

Have they announced if you can use maxpass outside the park.

Trying to determine if you can continue to strategically pull FPs during a break.

 

[DisneyMaleficent50]

Thank you for the confirmation on the linked systems...bummer but only real concern for me is getting a rsr nightime fastpass. Going to have to watch what time frame those are now available

 

[mom2rtk]

I love pulling as many FPs as the next person. But the linked systems had to happen in preparation for the electronic system. There's no way there were going to let someone pull FPs half the day in DL and at the same time line up a bunch of FPs for DCA for later in the day without even having to invest a walk to the other park. Everything will run out much faster with it being electronic, but it would go exponentially faster if you could be lining up both parks at once without at least the investment of walk across the esplanade. They needed a regulator on this.

 

[agamble]

I love pulling as many FPs as the next person. But the linked systems had to happen in preparation for the electronic system. There's no way there were going to let someone pull FPs half the day in DL and at the same time line up a bunch of FPs for DCA for later in the day without even having to invest a walk to the other park. Everything will run out much faster with it being electronic, but it would go exponentially faster if you could be lining up both parks at once without at least the investment of walk across the esplanade. They needed a regulator on this.

Yes. And I imagine the system isn't set up to distinguish between park hopper or non. If you could pull double FP you could have some people pulling FP at DCA "just because" when they don't have access or don't plan to attend the other park that day. With the systems connected people have to choose which park to pull a FP for next and they won't be pulling FP at the other park that they can't/won't use. I think the biggest bummer is the two hour rule. Because you must wait two hours to pull a FP if the FP is for later in the day it will be a pain for those who want say RSR FP for nighttime. They can time it right to get the FP, but now they can't get another one at DL to use for two hours. That is a big bummer. And by the time they can get another FP it is possible that Space Mountain will be done distributing FP for the day. Other than scenarios like that I don't think it's a huge deal. Early in the day FP are generally for 40-80 minutes away and many rides have shorter waits. But as the FP times get further out and the standby lines get longer it will be frustrating having to wait two hours to get another FP for those who are used to hopping between parks.

 

[DisBabe94]

I love pulling as many FPs as the next person. But the linked systems had to happen in preparation for the electronic system. There's no way there were going to let someone pull FPs half the day in DL and at the same time line up a bunch of FPs for DCA for later in the day without even having to invest a walk to the other park. Everything will run out much faster with it being electronic, but it would go exponentially faster if you could be lining up both parks at once without at least the investment of walk across the esplanade. They needed a regulator on this.

Yeah, I mean I get that it's a necessary evil to close this loophole for the upcoming MaxPass and I do think it will help to slow down the distribution of FPs such as Radiator Springs that people will often hop for. But I just... It rubs me the wrong way. It's the implication that now Disneyland and DCA are more like one giant park, when in reality they are completely separate and you have to pay admission to BOTH separately. It just feels like the systems should be separate since you have to pay admission separately.
Alas, they had no choice I suppose and perhaps there will be more positives to this that we aren't aware of as of now... time will tell as they release more info on MaxPass.