Using fastpass after your hour's up

[jlw29]

I have a friend who just got back from WDW over the holiday. They were able to use their fastpasses anytime from the start of their "hour" until the park closed. For example, they didn't use their 10:05 - 11:05 FP for BTMR until 3pm. More than one CM told them that you can't use the FP BEFORE the time printed on it, but you can use it any time afterwards until park closing. This is not how I understood fastpasses to work, but if it's true, great! What am I missing?

 

[DisKim]

Last time I was at WDW, we had a fastpass for SM and we had five minutes to get there until our fastpass was up. We booked from Fantasyland to Splash Mountain and made it just in time only to have the CM tell us that he still would have let us in if we were late. Oh well, at least we got our exercise. I assumed that cm's had to stick to the fast pass times in order to control the fp line.

 

[HeatherC]

This has always been the case for us as well. I guess the secrets out!!
Heather C

 

[ucmann]

When I was at WDW in Aug 01, I found a way to get lots of FP. This originally started as an accident, but (I'm sorry ) I took advantage for the whole trip. When you already have a FP and you try to get another, a ticket comes out and says you cannot have one. If you do this more than 3 times it will stop printing tickets. I then went over to the CM and told them it wasn't working and they gave me another FP. I would figure they have already fixed this loop-hole...does anyone know differently?

Just to make my previous statement clear about the FPs. When it was an "accident" I had the CM help me and I happened to notice that after a few tries the machine stops printing. If it didn't they would constantly run out of paper. What I am trying to figure out is if they have fixed this because it is such a huge loop-hole in the system. I have no intentions of doing this again, but I can only imagine the chaos if a large portion of guest were doing this. Additionally, this doen't not actually break the machine, it just puts a hold on that specific PHP, so anyone else that came afterwards had no issues...sorry sorry sorry, I didn't mean to push anyones buttons, please forgive

 

[tjmw2727]

I guess I am in the minority as we were not permitted to use our FP's after the window at Star Tours. Due to a mix up during our lunch at Sci Fi we were about 10 minutes past our window and the CM did not make an exception. This was in February 04 ~

So consider yourselves lucky and personally I wouldn't count on it - we sure won't!!

TJ

 

[rwodonnell]

Originally posted by ucmann
When I was at WDW in Aug 01, I found a way to get lots of FP. This originally started as an accident, but (I'm sorry ) I took advantage for the whole trip. When you already have a FP and you try to get another, a ticket comes out and says you cannot have one. If you do this more than 3 times it will stop printing tickets. I then went over to the CM and told them it wasn't working and they gave me another FP. I would figure they have already fixed this loop-hole...does anyone know differently?

Alright, I might as well be the first to come down on you. Let me understand, you intentionally broke the FP machines in order to get FPs handed to you that you didn't deserve? I think that's unacceptable behaviour. During my last trip, I spent a half hour easily trying to get a ticket at Test Track because the machines kept going down and there were no CMs around to help. Once they finally got there, the crowd was enormous, by far the largest lines for FP machines I ever saw. Perhaps you and your buddies were going through the lines taking out FP machines. Hopefully they have corrected this "loop-hole".

 

[kilee]

It would be interesting to know what the bottom line is for FP-- is there a general protocol that is followed once the time expires? I see one poster has posted they weren't allowed on, now I had the same expierence in 10/03 at RNRRC. We were almost 40 minutes late though. So has anyone else been NOT let in w/ an expired FP?

 

[CheekyMonkeysDad]

After sprinting from ToonTown Fair to SplashMountain with my son on my shoulders in July heat, we arrived w/ 5minutes to spare on our FP. Covered in sweat, I asked the CM if I had been late, would he have barred my entry. He said that they allow people to come in late, but not early. This may have been only for SplashMountain, or MK, or just the CMs attitude. Looking sweaty and at the end of your rope, yet still polite can help as well.

 

[cruisnfamily]

There was a trip report or a posting somewhere where the guy said he used fast passes from his last trip! And, he got extra fast passes on this trip to use on his next trip

I didn't comment at the time but I'm sure the system is NOT meant to work like that! I think he must have been lucky with unobservant CMs collecting the passes.

 

[CheekyMonkeysDad]

I am all for cheating the mouse, but that "Break the FP machine scam" takes the cake. It's like asking for more babyswap tickets than you need... Ok, it was an accident, we both got baby swap tickets and we only did it the one time and we felt dirty afterwards.

 

[sunking]

i just returned from disneyland and i used my fastpasses there several hours after my "return" window was up...they actually made an announcement on the train indicating that they would honor the fastpasses after the window but not before...i inquired about this and they said that if the crowds aren't "too big" then they will allow it but that it is up to the CM that is monitoring the fastpass return line...i never knew about this...i also always hustled from one thing to another to ensure that i got in prior to my fastpass expiration...now i know!!!!

 

[mplsmom1]

We just got back and we're told by almost every CM that we could come anytime after your window. I wondered if it just was because the parks were so crowded but didn't question our luck. Because the parks were so busy it did make it very nice not to have the time pressure.

"breaking the fast pass machine to get another" - that's awful.

 

[ligirlz]

I just got back too and used a few fastpasses after the time was up (about an hour or so late - we had bad luck on or waiting for some rides the last week in March) they just waved us in. It wasn't that busy on the FP line so I guess that's why they let us and if it was busy that might be a different story. But I saw alot of people getting stopped who were early and they were told to come back after that designated time.

 

[ucmann]

Just to make my previous statement clear about the FPs. When it was an "accident" I had the CM help me and I happened to notice that after a few tries the machine stops printing. If it didn't they would constantly run out of paper. What I am trying to figure out is if they have fixed this because it is such a huge loop-hole in the system. I have no intentions of doing this again, but I can only imagine the chaos if a large portion of guest were doing this. Additionally, this doen't not actually break the machine, it just puts a hold on that specific PHP, so anyone else that came afterwards had no issues...sorry sorry sorry, I didn't mean to push anyones buttons

 

[StaceyA]

I would have to hear from the OP but maybe they didn't "break" the FP machine, maybe it was because it was the same card being used over and over so the machine itself stopped giving FP's....of course it could be that they broke the machine, but we don't know that for sure.....OP please let us know!!

 

[StaceyA]

Originally posted by ucmann
Just to make my previous statement clear about the FPs. When it was an "accident" I had the CM help me and I happened to notice that after a few tries the machine stops printing. If it didn't they would constantly run out of paper. What I am trying to figure out is if they have fixed this because it is such a huge loop-hole in the system. I have no intentions of doing this again, but I can only imagine the chaos if a large portion of guest were doing this. Additionally, this doen't not actually break the machine, it just puts a hold on that specific PHP, so anyone else that came afterwards had no issues...sorry sorry sorry, I didn't mean to push anyones buttons

We must have posted at the same time....I think that is what I thought....it just stops printing the FP's for you...but if someone else came up with a park pass, they would be able to get one...right?

Thanks for clearing it up.

 

[ucmann]

Originally posted by StaceyA
We must have posted at the same time....I think that is what I thought....it just stops printing the FP's for you...but if someone else came up with a park pass, they would be able to get one...right?

Thanks for clearing it up.

That's exactly right, the machines still work just fine (I agree this doesn't make it right though...)

 

[Augustheather97]

we were told in March 04 that if we missed the hour window to return it would still be usable ALL day...and we did it that way and it worked well

 

[Augustheather97]

ok.....what happened to my count down clock???

 

[tjmw2727]

Originally posted by Augustheather97
we were told in March 04 that if we missed the hour window to return it would still be usable ALL day...and we did it that way and it worked well

Bummer - my kids were so dissapointed in late Feb when we missed our window at Star Tours due to bad performance and a 45 minute wait at Sci Fi, with a PS!

I still won't plan on using my FP after the window but if something unforseen happens again I will push a bit more.

Txs

TJ