Throwaway room (read post #2041 or #2710 before posting)

[ckelly14]

Something odd happened down at the OK Corral last night, or best known as the infamous fastpass+ system.
We are doing a split stay, with our offsite stay being the first week, and our onsite stay being the second week. We did this (offsite 1st, onsite 2nd) without thinking about the implications since that's the way we've always done it.

We were curious as to how this would open up our Fastpass+ 60 day and our 30 day marks on the fastpass+ calendar. I posed this question on the DIS, and the consensus was that at the 60th day from our onsite check-in mark, the calendar would stay grayed out from the 31 day mark to the 59 day mark, and be open at 60 days until the end of our onsite stay.

Wellllllll, it didn't happen that way! Instead, the calendar opened up to allow us to book EVERYTHING, all the way up until the last day of our onsite stay. So instead of having to come back at 30 days each night for our first week, we booked our second week onsite stay AND our first week offsite stay all in one shot. So essentially, all the rest of March; all of April; and most of May (up until our last onsite day), were available to book fastpasses!

It looks like everyone is buying throwaway rooms for the first part of their vacation, when instead it might benefit you all to book it for the last day of your vacation instead. I can only assume that no one has ever tried the offsite/onsite combination, and have only tested out how the onsite/offsite method works?

Just thought I'd share my experience, might change which method works best for you .

The onsite stay opens up the 60 day window, period. Since your off site stay is within this window, it also opens up those dates. Nothing surprising here.

You will get a "+10" advantage for your onsite stay, whether it is first or last in you split stay. However, the disadvantage of booking the offsite first is that you have to wait until 60 days from the onsite stay to book. So for your week offsite, you are booking from 59 to 52 days from the dates in question. If you put the onsite stay first, you will do no worse than booking at day 60.

Confusing, ain't it!

 

[itchin2go]

The onsite stay opens up the 60 day window, period. Since your off site stay is within this window, it also opens up those dates. Nothing surprising here.

You will get a "+10" advantage for your onsite stay, whether it is first or last in you split stay. However, the disadvantage of booking the offsite first is that you have to wait until 60 days from the onsite stay to book. So for your week offsite, you are booking from 59 to 52 days from the dates in question. If you put the onsite stay first, you will do no worse than booking at day 60.

Confusing, ain't it!

I didn't get a "+10 advantage". I had a one night stay, and I could only book check in and check out day at 60 days from check in. So, really, a +1 advantage ....

 

[hiroMYhero]

I didn't get a "+10 advantage". I had a one night stay, and I could only book check in and check out day at 60 days from check in. So, really, a +1 advantage ....

I believe @ckelly14 meant if the onsite stay was 10 days in length.

FP booking is 60 days prior for check-in through check-out day (up to 10 days) and then it converts to a rolling 60-day window.

 

[Candleshoe]

I didn't get a "+10 advantage". I had a one night stay, and I could only book check in and check out day at 60 days from check in. So, really, a +1 advantage ....

The +10 advantage is for ADRs.

The 60 day (+1) advantage is for FPs

 

[itchin2go]

The +10 advantage is for ADRs.

The 60 day (+1) advantage is for FPs

Interestingly enough, I didn't get +10 the last time I booked ADRS. I got +length-of-stay instead .... which was less than 10 days ....

 

[keepmoving4ward]

The onsite stay opens up the 60 day window, period. Since your off site stay is within this window, it also opens up those dates. Nothing surprising here.

You will get a "+10" advantage for your onsite stay, whether it is first or last in you split stay. However, the disadvantage of booking the offsite first is that you have to wait until 60 days from the onsite stay to book. So for your week offsite, you are booking from 59 to 52 days from the dates in question. If you put the onsite stay first, you will do no worse than booking at day 60.

Confusing, ain't it!

I believe @ckelly14 meant if the onsite stay was 10 days in length.

FP booking is 60 days prior for check-in through check-out day (up to 10 days) and then it converts to a rolling 60-day window.

Which is why I posted it under the throwaway room thread. If someone is staying onsite for more than a day (ie, 10 days), then I would not call that a throwaway room, I'd call it a split stay and not intended for this thread.
The 60 + 10 day rule means that you can book 60 days FROM your check in day PLUS up to 10 days AFTER your check-in without having to book at a rolling 60 days.
The advantage to adding your onsite throwaway room (talking about a throwaway room, not a split stay) at the end, you don't have to keep getting up at midnight over and over for every park day. This would work well for people who want to save time and sleep and are not traveling at a busy time. If they book a fastpass at 55 days, its no big thing, but it's still better than 30 days.
If you are looking for that really hard to get fastpass while you are there during Christmas... then yes, add the onsite at the beginning.

Edited to add: Wait... isn't the 60 FP+ up to 14 days, not 10, since that's the longest (United States) possible length of a park ticket? Had me confused there for a second (okay okay, a few hours), so ignore where I mention 10 days, and insert 14 days instead.

 

[keepmoving4ward]

The +10 advantage is for ADRs.

The 60 day (+1) advantage is for FPs

This ^ Yes! That "+1" is the day you check out. Our onsite stay is a check-in on the 9th, and we check out on the 15th. I could only book my fastpasses up to the 15th.

 

[keepmoving4ward]

Interestingly enough, I didn't get +10 the last time I booked ADRS. I got +length-of-stay instead .... which was less than 10 days ....

I guess I would assume it was the same *length of stay, up to 10 day* rule that applied to ADRs also.

 

[keepmoving4ward]

The onsite stay opens up the 60 day window, period. Since your off site stay is within this window, it also opens up those dates. Nothing surprising here.

You will get a "+10" advantage for your onsite stay, whether it is first or last in you split stay. However, the disadvantage of booking the offsite first is that you have to wait until 60 days from the onsite stay to book. So for your week offsite, you are booking from 59 to 52 days from the dates in question. If you put the onsite stay first, you will do no worse than booking at day 60.

Confusing, ain't it!

And I forgot to mention. Our onsite stay is 6 days, our offsite stay is 7 days. Based on the logic that I've bolded, our FP+ calendar should have only allowed us to book a 10 day window, which is not what happened.

 

[Itinkso]

The advantage to adding your onsite throwaway room (talking about a throwaway room, not a split stay) at the end, you don't have to keep getting up at midnight over and over for every park day. This would work well for people who want to save time and sleep and are not traveling at a busy time. If they book a fastpass at 55 days, its no big thing, but it's still better than 30 days.

I think when this Thread began there was still tweaking going on with the FP booking windows. And, most were scheduling Throwaways at the beginning of the trip to get the advantage of BoG lunch FPs which no longer exists.

With all onsite reservations plus active tickets, the 60 day booking window fully opens to 60 + 1 (or length of stay). I had a 7-day booking window open due to CM comp tickets and when we added on a YC stay, the 7-day window expanded to 60+.

So, with BoG no longer a factor, your end of stay onsite reservation makes a lot of sense!

 

[ckelly14]

Sorry about the confusion.

I was using the term "+10" not in the literal sense, but in the way it is typically used on this board, to indicate that additional days are available to onsite guests. This is typically limited to the length of ticket, length of stay, 10 days or 14 days, or some combination. Instead of writing all the permutations, many on this board just abbreviate it as "+10".

My point was that booking a throwaway room at the end of your trip is not exactly the same as booking at the beginning of the trip. I agree wholeheartedly that the few days advantage is minimal. However, considering this is the DIS boards, and that multiple 100+ post threads exist on how to snare elusive Wishes, 7DMT, and Anna and Elsa FP+'s, I thought I would point this out.

 

[ckelly14]

And I forgot to mention. Our onsite stay is 6 days, our offsite stay is 7 days. Based on the logic that I've bolded, our FP+ calendar should have only allowed us to book a 10 day window, which is not what happened.

See my above post. Since your offsite stay was in the 60 day window, all those days would open up, in addition to 6 onsite days that are included in the "+10" (but not really...) window. For you this would be 13 total days. All the days open up prior to your onsite stay at the 60 day window. This is independent of you offsite stay, it happens for everyone that has on onsite stay.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

We are using the Salute tickets. We decided to go down a night before our BC reservation. We booked a night at AOA and we cannot book FP for more than the day of our stay at AOA

The CM said sometimes it works. Do both stays show in the same MDE? I also had a CM help with A DR'S at 180 days from the first night. Maybe she linked them somehow? Hope you got the rest of your FP you wanted.

 

[somesong2sing]

I just canceled an onsite stay for this coming August, and I kept my ADRs.

a few months ago we did the same. We had 2 stays during the same time with ADR's I cancelled my reservation and stil kepts all my ADR's. We had originally booked through Disney but ended up getting a Friends and Family Discount through a CM. So, we took that instead.

We are going again in Setember and I am just tryin to figure out if FD trumps the Friends and Family discount even in the fall with FD. We shall sdee

 

[massvacationer]

See my above post. Since your offsite stay was in the 60 day window, all those days would open up, in addition to 6 onsite days that are included in the "+10" (but not really...) window. For you this would be 13 total days. All the days open up prior to your onsite stay at the 60 day window. This is independent of you offsite stay, it happens for everyone that has on onsite stay.

IMHO:
This is not always true. If you book a room and ticket PACKAGE (I think these will have an 8 character confirmation number) , the days prior to check-in do not become available for FP+ when you reach 60 days before check-in. I am at 5 weeks before check-in, booked a tix/lodging package, and the days prior to check-in are grayed out.

 

[Itinkso]

IMHO:
This is not always true. If you book a room and ticket PACKAGE (I think these will have an 8 character confirmation number) , the days prior to check-in do not become available for FP+ when you reach 60 days before check-in. I am at 5 weeks before check-in, booked a tix/lodging package, and the days prior to check-in are grayed out.

Thanks for confirming that window opening. Active tickets open up a full 60+ and most people think the "packaged" tickets do the same - but they can't because they don't become "active" until your arrival day. You are the only person to ever confirm...

 

[keepmoving4ward]

IMHO:
This is not always true. If you book a room and ticket PACKAGE (I think these will have an 8 character confirmation number) , the days prior to check-in do not become available for FP+ when you reach 60 days before check-in. I am at 5 weeks before check-in, booked a tix/lodging package, and the days prior to check-in are grayed out.

Good to know, thank you!

 

[appleorchard]

Trying to understand this about a "phantom person" in the room. My son, who has an AP, doesn't know for sure if he's coming on a trip with us. If I list him on the reservation and book his FP +, but he doesn't come, one of us can use his MB FPs, even though he didn't enter the park that day? And they wouldn't look at me funny for using a MB with a guys name on it lol?

 

[dpswift]

Trying to understand this about a "phantom person" in the room. My son, who has an AP, doesn't know for sure if he's coming on a trip with us. If I list him on the reservation and book his FP +, but he doesn't come, one of us can use his MB FPs, even though he didn't enter the park that day? And they wouldn't look at me funny for using a MB with a guys name on it lol?

This is confusing. When we were at Disneyland someone brought the families tickets to get FPs and was unable to get them because they had not gone threw the turnstyles.

 

[mom2rtk]

This is confusing. When we were at Disneyland someone brought the families tickets to get FPs and was unable to get them because they had not gone threw the turnstyles.

DL has a different system. The tickets there do indeed have to have been used at a turnstile.

WDW is entirely different (for now anyway).