Alex2kMommy said:
A previous poster described a FP gathering scenario that had me puzzled, but now it makes sense! S/he said the whole group went into DL, and while s/he went to a FP machine, the rest of the group exited DL and got in line for CA. S/he then later joined them in line and when they entered CA, they got FPs for GRR and some other attraction.
I was thinking, why didn't they just send one person into DL with the tickets, and the rest get in line for CA? They would have been further ahead in line! But it makes sense, they would not have been able to get DL FPs if they had not entered DL.
You might have seen my topic on this -
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132. If so, you are confused and hopefully I can untangle it.
Scenario 1 - You want to start the day at DL and go to DCA later
Everyone enters DL at say 8AM on a day the park opens at 8AM. You ride some rides and do DL stuff. At say 11AM the group wants to shop for awhile. The FP runner who does not want to shop takes everyone's entrance tickets out of DL and enters DCA. The runner only needs to use his/her one entrance ticket to get into DCA - and heads, for example, to Soarin over Calif to get FastPasses for later use - and while he/she is at it, he/she gets a FP for Grizzly River Run since GRR is disconnected from the DCA FP network and FP pickup will not conflict with other DCA rides. Note that the DCA FP system is separate from DL, and whatever your DL FP times are has no bearing on getting a DCA FP.
Since the entrance tickets were initialized at DL at 8AM and could be used to obtain DL FastPasses, they were also initialized for DCA at 8AM. That is how the DL/DCA system is wired. So the runner to DCA did not need to take everyone to DCA in order to get FastPasses.
The runner then returns to DL and rejoins the group, holding the DCA FastPasses for later use.
I did the above scenario in November, 2005 - twice on the same day, as a matter of fact (we had lots of shoppers in our group
). I also did it in August 2005.
The above scenario will work in reverse if you start your day at DCA - I personally did this in August 2005 - see Scenario 3 below.
Scenario 2 - You want to start the day at DCA and go to DL later and the FP runner does not want to miss anything at DCA
Since DL opens before DCA, and DCA (usually) opens it's gates at 9:30AM on a 10AM opening day, you can grab a DL FastPass before entering DCA. You show up at the DL gates at 9:15, everyone passes thru the DL gates to get the FP initialized for DL, and the runner goes into DL to grab a FP for use later in the day after the group is done with DCA.
While the runner goes into DL, the group exits DL, gets their hands stamped so they can get back into DL, and gets in line at DCA. The runner grabs the DL FP, exits DL (and gets hand stamped as well) and joins group in DCA line at 9:30 to enter DCA when it opens.
This scenario allows you to get your DL FP without the runner having to sacrifice any DCA time with the group.
Note that this scenario does not depend on the tickets being initialized for DCA and DL at the same time (even though they are), because everyone passes into DL and then DCA together.
Scenario 3 - You want to start the day at DCA and go to DL later and the FP runner plans to miss the first few rides at DCA
The other possibility is that the group gets to DCA at say 10:30AM. The whole group passes thru the DCA gate, thus initializing the entrance tickets for FP usage at both DCA and DL. The group chooses a ride or two that the runner does not want to do, and heads into DCA. The runner takes all entrance tickets, and exits DCA, getting his/her hand stamped on the way out. The runner then enters DL, and only needs to use his/her own entrance ticket when passing into DL. The runner gets a DL FP for some ride, exits DL, and rejoins group at DCA. Perhaps on the way back into DCA the runner grabs a DCA FP for something as he/she is on the way to the group.
Again, the downside here is that the runner misses something at DCA.
When we did this scenario 3, we got to DCA at 10AM for regular opening and my family went to Orange Stinger and the Redwood Creek Challenge. I went to DL to get FPs for Space Mtn. On the way back into DCA I got FPs for Grizzly River Run before meeting my family at Redwood Creek Challenge.
