Change Coming to FP+ Booking

[MOM2FOUR]

Had to report this tidbit. My husband phoned Disney and this is what he was told...

"I was told that it has always been 7 am, and that only yesterday were they informed that they were going to a hard 7 am fast pass time."

Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

[dreamfinder]

I guess it's always nice to be called above average! I honestly didn't know anything about the new FP system until I researched it at the WDW website. I saw I could make them 30 days out and I called Disney and asked when they opened each day online and they said midnight. I haven't been since 2013 so I just assumed everyone got their FPs in advance now. I'd love to know how many folks log on at midnight to get FPs on average days. To leave so many people hanging out there unnecessarily seems rude. But let me ask you, if FPs sell out in advance, does that mean there are none available the whole day at the park when you arrive?

It is entirely possibly yes, that no FP+ will be available day of. As no one outside of WDW knows the exact details, there was speculation for a while that some might be held back, but as you can find out online, some attractions are fully booked. This would require any guest to wait in the standby line the day of to try to ride the attraction.

Had to report this tidbit. My husband phoned Disney and this is what he was told...

"I was told that it has always been 7 am, and that only yesterday were they informed that they were going to a hard 7 am fast pass time."

Has anyone ever heard of this?

Disney CMs on the phone are notoriously unreliable. Most of them aren't located on property, and only know what the computer (or a colleague) tells them. It's entirely possible to call 5 times, and get 5 different answers. Most of the time the answers you will get here will be more accurate than ones from a CM.

 

[thomas998]

Just a heads up, I just saw this - starting tomorrow, May 18th you will be able to book fastpasses at 7am instead of midnight. This will be good for some, but I'm sure not everyone! I have not seen anything official from Disney, so would love any reports if your FP window opens tomorrow!

http://www.kennythepirate.com/2016/05/17/change-coming-to-fastpass-booking/

This isn't the kind of change that makes the system better for visitors. They need a different kind of system for disbursement of times, stop lumping all the fastpasses into a single bucket that gets drained 60 days out by whoever is able to stay up or get up early enough. They need to simply randomly throw fastpasses out a few at a time starting 60 days on... it would even the playing field for all the visitors that don't all live in the Eastern Time Zone.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

This isn't the kind of change that makes the system better for visitors. They need a different kind of system for disbursement of times, stop lumping all the fastpasses into a single bucket that gets drained 60 days out by whoever is able to stay up or get up early enough. They need to simply randomly throw fastpasses out a few at a time starting 60 days on... it would even the playing field for all the visitors that don't all live in the Eastern Time Zone.

That would pretty much do away with the perk of onsite guests getting the benefit of getting to make fastpasses at 60 days out before the offsite guests, and to me getting up or staying up is worth it to get what I want. It's not that big of deal , you have to get up early for 180 day ADRS and free dining so why get so upset about fastpasses? Airfare bugs be a lot more because there is no set time, every time Southwest extend their schedule it happens at a different time of day and they won't tell you when., that's way more annyoing to me

 

[thomas998]

That would pretty much do away with the perk of onsite guests getting the benefit of getting to make fastpasses at 60 days out before the offsite guests, and to me getting up or staying up is worth it to get what I want. It's not that big of deal , you have to get up early for 180 day ADRS and free dining so why get so upset about fastpasses? Airfare bugs be a lot more because there is no set time, every time Southwest extend their schedule it happens at a different time of day and they won't tell you when., that's way more annyoing to me

For dining I don't try to get the 180 window, I just hit the dining site on a regular basis a few weeks prior to the trip and thus far the dining I want always opens up sooner or later... That doesn't happen with fastpasses thought for some reason people don't ever cancel them.

 

[djlaosc]

So, this change may now be better for certain people, but for everyone now living in Europe - we will now all be in work (around 12pm-1pm)!

 

[dreamfinder]

This isn't the kind of change that makes the system better for visitors. They need a different kind of system for disbursement of times, stop lumping all the fastpasses into a single bucket that gets drained 60 days out by whoever is able to stay up or get up early enough. They need to simply randomly throw fastpasses out a few at a time starting 60 days on... it would even the playing field for all the visitors that don't all live in the Eastern Time Zone.

May I ask how having them all go line at midnight worked for people living in the Eastern Time Zone? If anything, that put us at a disadvantage. If anything Europe and Pacific coast benefited most from having it go live then. People in California could book at 9PM their time, and people in Europe were able to book at 5/6/whatever AM their time. I personally find it much easier to do something at those times, instead of getting up in the middle of the night.

 

[Cartoons626]

So fast passes open up at 12 noon now for UK guests? Thanks

 

[BrianV]

May I ask how having them all go line at midnight worked for people living in the Eastern Time Zone? If anything, that put us at a disadvantage. If anything Europe and Pacific coast benefited most from having it go live then. People in California could book at 9PM their time, and people in Europe were able to book at 5/6/whatever AM their time. I personally find it much easier to do something at those times, instead of getting up in the middle of the night.

Agreed. For east-coasters 12 was well past my bed time. But I'm always up at 7am! I used to just wait until morning before anyway.

As with any such thing people have different preferences. But the old system was definite bad for me and the new one much better for me.