Un-used Fast Passes

[ms.yt]

I'm all for giving away Fastpasses that you can't use. We gave away a couple of sets this trip, and the families that got them seemed very appreciative. However, that being said, there's a way to do this and a way not to do it. The way I did it was to spot a family with the same number of people that I had fastpasses for and ask them if they would like to have them.

We were in line for what I think was Mickey's Philharmagic (I can't remember for sure) last week, and a woman came up to the end of the line near where we were with 5 Fastpasses and announced, "Does anybody want these Fastpasses?" Of course, everybody said yes as it was about 175 degrees outside and super crowded. A guy behind us quickly snatched them out of her hand and took 3, leaving 2. There were 4 of us, so we didn't have any use for 2. I wasn't that worried because Philharmagic moves pretty quickly once a show gets out, but if that was a more coveted Fastpass, the way she did it could have produced some problems.

I did, however, get a little bit of satisfaction when the guy who snatched the 3 tickets first looked at the fastpasses & got confused because they were surprise fastpasses issued by Winnie the Pooh machines. We heard them say, "These aren't for this ride, they're for Winnie the Pooh." Then they headed over toward that ride. Of course, by the time they went there by mistake, we were already in the theater. I looked at the door while we were in the holding area, and I never saw them enter, so it basically did them no good since they went to the wrong ride!

 

[Buckalew11]

I always give mine away if i'm leaving the park for the day and not returning.

I get out of line (if I'm in it) and do not give anyone my place in line. I don't see anything wrong with that (even exchange) but still, I give them away out front. I love it when people know the wonderful thing they have been given. You really feel like you have spread the magic!!!

 

[SandrA9810]

You're not changing the dynamics of the line by giving away your fastpasses... if you didn't get them, they would've gone to the next person that walked up to the machine.

There's a set number of fast passes given away for each 5 minute period based on how many riders can go through in an hour. Some of the new rides seem to go by every minute now...

The thing that changes the dynamics of the line are not people with fast passes but those with rider switches or no strings or re-ads. Because they are not calculated into the amount of fastpasses given out.

Kari's a CM at Thunder. And she'll have guest walk up to her saying that they cannot use the fast passes and ask to hand them to some one else.
When I worked in Photopass, I used to take all the "special fastpasses" she would collect from working merge (the point where they take the tickets)... and give them away to families that I took pictures of. Like if it was thier first day, I'd asked if they'd like to "conquer the mountains"... and I would give them rider switches or re-ads to get on all 3 mountains without having to wait in line.
I saved a father from a melt down with his son because of this. He was on older boy, but probably with some mental delays. The dad wanted to go back to the resort for a nap, but the son didn't want to leave. So I asked the son what was wrong and he told me he didn't want to leave and such. It was summer time, so I told him, don't you know that the rain comes at 4pm every day, if you stay here and get rained on, you're going to have to go back to your hotel and get dry clothes on. Then I handed him 4 re-ad tickets and told him, when he comes back into the park he can go on any two rides without waiting in line. The dad found me the next day just to tell me thank you for helping him out.

Who knows if you'll be the next one to get special treatment. Fast passes are given priority entrance, because they came to that attraction like 2 hrs previously to get that FP... although sometimes I've seen FP being distributed for a 1/2 later and the stand-by time is like 45 minutes long. Why not grab a FP... relax or wonder and then go ride the ride in a 1/2hr instead of waiting in line. When you get in the stand-by line... that's exactly what you're doing, you're standing by until there's a spot open. It's your choice...

 

[tasha99]

I've given many fastpasses away. Usually, we collect them in the morning and use them all in the evening. There's been a couple times when we decided not to come back, though, and gave away our "collection" as we were leaving.

 

[IDoDis]

I've given many fastpasses away. Usually, we collect them in the morning and use them all in the evening. There's been a couple times when we decided not to come back, though, and gave away our "collection" as we were leaving.

We do the same thing. Get to the parks early where you don't really need a fast pass, but grab them anyway. We ride as many rides as we can without using fast passes and collect passes until we leave the park for our afternoon break. When we come back later and the park is crowded with long lines -- wa-la! We then use our fast passes and avoid the long lines.

I have given them away before, too. If we are just too pooped out and want to leave the park, I hand them to someone else to use.

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

For the few of you who said you were denied the use of an expired fastpass by a CM, if that happens again I would ask that CM to get their Lead. CM's should be accepting your expired fastpasses. Now if they are from a different day thats a little different, if they were a few days old and you had a nice excuse I would certainly just let you through, however if they were 6 months old then sorry I would probably politely decline to accept them...haha...but thats only if I looked close enough to even see the date.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Let's say that you get a Fast Pass for Peter Pan that is good from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM. At 12:30, your kids decide that they want to go to a water park for the afternoon and you acquiesce. You now have a set of Fast Passes that you won’t be using. Should you throw them away or give them to strangers?

When I have FPs we're not going to use for whatever reason, I pass them along to another family. It's a great way to share the magic!

 

[kaytieeldr]

When I worked in Photopass, I used to take all the "special fastpasses" she would collect from working merge (the point where they take the tickets)... and give them away to

That doesn't seem right... any FastPass - even the "special" ones - is intended to be used once, period. They shouldn't be getting recycled by CMs, even as a nice gesture.

The special FastPasses are distributed for special reasons.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

You could always save the fastpass and use it later. I am not 100% sure on Disney World's policy but at Disneyland a fastpass never expires and can always be used at a later time.

I could be wrong but I think it needs to be used on the day you get it at any time after the time indicated on the pass. I did not read the whole thread yet so if I am wrong PLEASE tell me I would love to save up my extra passes and use them all on the last day where we try to hit all the parks.

 

[SandrA9810]

Actually they are recycled... part of disney's eviromentality.. i hope i got the spelling right.

Any case, re-ad that are given out have a date window of 15 days. They're mass printed with the expiration date of the 15th or 30/31st on them. The daily fastpasses are placed in one bucket to be recycled, and the re-ads are placed in another bucket to be redistrubuted if the ride goes down. Occasionally throughout the day, the buckets do get full, and well Kari shoved EVERYTHING in her pockets (she's done this for a very long time now) and instead of cleaning them out before she leaves, I get to do it before I do laundry. Usually if Splash goes down... well every one automatically heads over to Thunder and all of sudden Thunder now has 50 re-ads from guest that just got walked off splash.
Rider switch tickets were also recycled more freely, but more and more guest were hanging on to them to get thier whole party in. So they started dating them. So they print out about 15 or so rider-switches in the morning, and as the person in merge collects them, they get sent back down to the greeters.

Are you saying that if a CM comes up to you with enough re-ads for your entire party to go on a ride without waiting in line, you would turn them down???
I used to my advantage of what I could get a hold of. Unlike other areas that have stacks of no strings books around for CM's to use, I barely could find one of my managers to have a book, let alone even on them. I even went to my area manager and she still would not give me a no strings book.

And since there's absolutly no value to fast passes because it is available to all guest that walk through the park, it doesn't hurt the company at all. Some one tried to throw a law suit or something out there against disney for providing "perks" to government offices. Well it got laughed at from the beginning because giving them fast passes held no value what-so-ever.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

While we often end up using FPs later in the day, if we have opportunity to give away what we cannot use, then we will.

 

[S. C.]

Any time I save for the recipients of my generosity comes from the people waiting in line. That family may avoid a 30 minute wait, but the 300 people in line will all have to wait a bit longer to make up for it.

The fast pass doesn't create any more riding time. Every time that someone uses a fast pass, everyone else in line waits just a bit longer. No matter how you slice it, the same number of people are going to get to ride the ride. When you give a family a set of fast passes, you are shifting everyone in the line back one family so that they can move to the front. You haven't made any more ride spaces available, you've just shifted who gets to ride when. Why should you reward one family and punish everyone else in line?

If giving away the fast passes was a good thing, wouldn't it be just as good if the CM running the ride occasionally told everyone in line to wait because she wants to let a family that happens to be walking by ride without waiting?

Then count us as guilty of putting a few families back further. We use our privileged front of the line/lounge for test track for General Motors workers. And yes we normally share the privilege by inviting others from the back of the line and/or the ones walking away because the line is too long to go with us.

And yes if GM continues to sponsor test track we will continue to do this. Was wonderful to see the look on the families faces who were leaving the following day and test track was shut down previously when they tried to ride. And some whom it was their first time on test track and it may have created a special memory for them.

 

[ilovedisneyparks]

Ah ok I have sort of a tough question. I have 5 YES 5 expired FastPass's from Disneyland last July 2008. They are:
-Big Thunder
-Space MountainX2
-Indiana Jones
-Buzz Light Year
Whenever I go to Disneyland again do you think the CM's will let me by if I cover up the date with my thumb. I'm thinking they will just take it as long as you give them something. I don't think they really study it. I'm willing to give it a try. I can't bear to throw them away! Too bad I don't have one for Splash Mountain!

 

[Jennasis]

Giving your FAstpasses to another family does jack squat to hamper those waiting in standby. Somebody was going to get in line with that FP, be it me, or the guy at the FPO machine ahead of/behind me.

I have found standby wait times, across the board, to have been significantly reduced by the FP line.