Unlimited FastPass+ During Thunderstorms?

[grumpydad73]

Has anyone seen this blog post yet?

https://www.mousescape.com/blog/2018/4/2/thunderstorms-can-be-your-best-friend-at-walt-disney-world

This sounds too good to be true. The post suggests that the loophole may already be closed, but it might be worth checking. I'd love to have endless FastPass+ at my disposal for an evening of touring the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Greg Lembrich]

This is possible, or at least has been. The same is true with the MaxPass system at DLR. As the blog points out, however, it requires Disney to not block FP reservations for windows while a ride is closed and/or likely to remain closed. This does not happen reliably, though it does sometimes. Some guest at DLR famously exploited it to gather like 100 anytime FPs on the MaxPass system in one day. Also, the conversion to an anytime FP does not always get processed immediately, so there can be a lag.

Is this a way to occasionally "beat" the FP system? Yes. But I wouldn't bank on it working consistently, especially because Disney tries to close loopholes like this once word gets out and more guests try to exploit them.

 

[Klayfish]

Don't know if it still works, but as of last summer it did.

 

[mom2rtk]

We love doing this at DLR with certain rides that are more likely to go down. It's much easier with an electronic system because you don't have to run around collecting them. Indy goes down a lot. So any time we used a FP and didn't have another one in mind, we would grab one for Indy hoping it would go down. We were surprised how often it paid off. If we decided we wanted something else in the meantime, we'd just modify the Indy we had on hand. One day Matterhorn seemed to be going down a lot, so we kept grabbing those.

I'm really surprise they still distribute when rides are down. That's a pretty big loophole.

 

[marcais]

This was how we got on 7DMT in 2014. We had used the FP we booked for Aladdin and were in the queue when a thunderstorm closed the ride and we got a paper any rode FP to use that day.

It's definitely something I'll be trying out during our trip this August.

I was going to say it could be a way of getting same day FoP FPs, but 7DMT is excluded from the list on that blog post, so I guess if they do it electronically now they can still prevent you getting the most in-demand FPs.

 

[kay1864]

The "in-demand" rides on that list are Splash, Pirates, Space, HM, and Jungle Cruise. And of course, BTMRR, the ride that generated the list. No Peter Pan, 7DMT, or Belle--so not quite "unlimited".

 

[AngiTN]

It's no where near as simple as that blogger makes it sounds. Sorry.
But yes, if you have a FP and a ride goes down, for whatever reason, you get an anytime FP.
But can you easily manipulate and purposely book and plan FP based on weather at WDW? Good luck. That's going to be as easy as nailing jello against the wall. I ain't got the time for that. It would be easier to just stand in line

 

[sls404]

Interesting... I didn't realize the anytime FPs didn't count toward your total allotment. I figured they had to be used before you could book another FP.

 

[AngiTN]

Interesting... I didn't realize the anytime FPs didn't count toward your total allotment. I figured they had to be used before you could book another FP.

No, that would be impossible as there is no way to know when that ride would return to operation.

 

[grumpydad73]

I had a few conversations with some others, and it appears that you can indeed work the FastPass+ system during ride closures resulting from lightning/thunderstorms. Unlimited? Obviously not. But it sounds like you're only limited to the degree that you want to hang on your phone and work the system a little. As a few people have pointed out (and this Mousescape blog does as well), sometimes you may have some time on your hands as you're waiting out a passing thunderstorm.

Is this something that I would plan for? Absolutely not. But it sounds like it could open up a window of opportunity if a thunderstorm decides to interrupt your touring early in the day. We're heading to WDW in July this year, and this is definitely something we're going to try if the weather doesn't cooperate at times. For 30 minutes of "work" on the phone, we might be able to save hours in lines later in the day.

Crossing our fingers that Disney does not close the loophole that allows you to reserve FastPass+ for rides that are closed due to storms!

 

[loves to dive]

Sounds like a lot of work for little reward to me. I'm assuming that the few rides that are open or will be open will have longer FP lines because people already had FPs and others have grabbed them using any time FPs. Now the FP line could potentially be longer than the stand by line. I'll just wait in line or go about my day playing in the rain.