Change Coming to FP+ Booking

[Tinkerbella16]

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/

 

[Beacon Joe]

Well, that sucks. I can swing staying up past midnight; it only requires a couple of extra cups of coffee the next morning. 7:00 AM, and I'm on my way to work and won't have a shot to get online until ~ 12 hours later.

ETA: Well, either the rumor is right, or the FastPass+ feature on the website is broken. 1205 Eastern, my itinerary page says, "60 days to go," and the FP+ selection screen won't let me advance beyond June.

 

[MOM2FOUR]

Wish I had seen this earlier. I've been up trying since midnight.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

Well, that sucks. I can swing staying up past midnight; it only requires a couple of extra cups of coffee the next morning. 7:00 AM, and I'm on my way to work and won't have a shot to get online until ~ 12 hours later.

ETA: Well, either the rumor is right, or the FastPass+ feature on the website is broken. 1205 Eastern, my itinerary page says, "60 days to go," and the FP+ selection screen won't let me advance beyond June.

Thanks for letting me know about it not working at midnight. Prime example of why this is going to be loved and hated - while some will like it better at 7am, lots of people go to work at that time. Also, those on the west coast would have to get up at 4am.

Luckily I don't have work on my FP day this year, so I will wake up at 7am with no problem.

 

[Tyaloo]

I don't know how I feel about this yet! Will there be more people all trying to book their FPs at 7 am than there was at midnight? Only time will tell. Midnight worked better for me because I leave for work at 6 am, but I will survive and just be happy I'm going to Disney !

 

[MOM2FOUR]

I can tell you it sucked for me last night. I got no sleep because I kept trying for hours. Thank you to the original poster! I was able to secure all my FP at 7 am this morning. WHY DIDNT DISNEY ADVISE FOLKS OF THIS CHANGE? I now have to leave for work after being up almost all night.

 

[Tyaloo]

oh no! @MOM2FOUR - sorry to hear that I do find it surprising that it wasn't announced.

 

[lemon meringue]

I feel bad for the people who were up all night last night. There could have at least been a message on everyone's MDE page similar to the one that's put up when magicbands ship. The first time I ever booked ADRs at 180 days I thought the start time was midnight. Totally my mistake for not being informed but I stayed up all night trying to get in just thinking the site was down or too busy (which happens a lot anyway). I imagine that's what last night's 60 day fastpassers felt like. Sorry guys! Hope you all have a good day despite lack of sleep and that you get/got the FP's you wanted anyway.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

I feel bad for the people who were up all night last night. There could have at least been a message on everyone's MDE page similar to the one that's put up when magicbands ship. The first time I ever booked ADRs at 180 days I thought the start time was midnight. Totally my mistake for not being informed but I stayed up all night trying to get in just thinking the site was down or too busy (which happens a lot anyway). I imagine that's what last night's 60 day fastpassers felt like. Sorry guys! Hope you all have a good day despite lack of sleep and that you get/got the FP's you wanted anyway.

That is the first thing I thought of when I first read about it! I thought it was strange that the change was happening so fast, so I can only imagine the amount of people who didn't know about the change.. and stayed up until midnight, not knowing they would have to wait until 7am this morning.

 

[Herdman]

My guess is they changed it so there wouldn't be a moving target for when the parks are open past midnight. I believe I've heard that if one of the parks is open late you can't book a FP until all parks are closed. This way they can just say 7:00 AM and have a set time.

 

[cdeev8690]

I better change the alarms on my phone's calendar to alert me at 6:30 AM instead of 11:30 PM the evening before! Thanks so much for the heads up

 

[MOM2FOUR]

Has anyone found any information released from Disney about the change? I'm still really upset that in this day and age when we can communicate by so many means, they couldn't let their guests know of the change in advance.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

My guess is they changed it so there wouldn't be a moving target for when the parks are open past midnight. I believe I've heard that if one of the parks is open late you can't book a FP until all parks are closed. This way they can just say 7:00 AM and have a set time.

That was the case in the beginning of FP+, but it doesn't happen anymore - not since last year at least.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

Has anyone found any information released from Disney about the change? I'm still really upset that in this day and age when we can communicate by so many means, they couldn't let its guests know of the change in advance.

I looked and couldn't find anything from their official site. Not sure how Kenny the pirate got the info.

 

[lemon meringue]

My guess is they changed it so there wouldn't be a moving target for when the parks are open past midnight. I believe I've heard that if one of the parks is open late you can't book a FP until all parks are closed. This way they can just say 7:00 AM and have a set time.

I agree with you that this is probably the reason behind the change. The late park closings did cause confusion. It just would have been considerate to let people know directly. I always get an email reminding me that it's my day to make Fastpasses (late on the day of, not beforehand) so there is certainly already a system in place that could have easily been altered to accommodate this.

 

[MOM2FOUR]

Kenny the Pirate replied to my post and stated Disney did not make this information available to the public. I guess they just decided to let their guests hang in limbo all night. Why would they do something like that?

 

[dreamfinder]

Kenny the Pirate replied to my post and stated Disney did not make this information available to the public. I guess they just decided to let their guests hang in limbo all night. Why would they do something like that?

Because it doesn't affect the average guest? Pretty sure they never published the time before, just a 60 day advance.

 

[MOM2FOUR]

I'm pretty much as average as they come. I'm not staying on the property, just booking my FP 30 days out. And it's crazy at midnight on MDE, FP disappear before your eyes at the 30 day deadline. I'm sure there were a ton of people out there waiting. But maybe the "average" guest doesn't book FP in advance?

 

[dreamfinder]

I'm pretty much as average as they come.

Except that is where you are wrong. You are a member of at least 1 WDW related forum. And you are thus immediately an above average WDW guest. You joined approx 10 days ago, and were given number 111492. So that means there are roughly 112000 members of this site, and the forum that shall not be named has about 575000 members, and I think all the other sites are much much smaller. Figure a fair bit of overlap, so maybe 650000 unique between the two. If every single member went to WDW in a row, equates to a whopping 10 days of MK guests. 10 days. I'll let that sink in. So what, 1/30th of MK guests in a given year are involved enough with their WDW vacation to post and learn about things such as the exact minute FP+ opens up? Now admittedly there are people that just read certain non-forum sites, or just the Unofficial Guide, so have an idea how it works. But how many of the members of this forum don't go in a given year? Or even just how many people ask how to make FP+ reservations, or who come on in a panic 15 days out not realizing they could make them in advance (look for the threads, there are plenty). You @MOM2FOUR , and the rest of us forum members are a drop in the bucket in the overall number of Disney guests.

Now in your specific case, you are definitely at a disadvantage. The popular rides where one would actually need to book at midnight, on site guests already had a 30 day head start. So who knows, maybe 95% of the FP+ for those rides were gone already. Heck, they could be 100% booked and you are out of luck.

 

[MOM2FOUR]

Except that is where you are wrong. You are a member of at least 1 WDW related forum. And you are thus immediately an above average WDW guest. You joined approx 10 days ago, and were given number 111492. So that means there are roughly 112000 members of this site, and the forum that shall not be named has about 575000 members, and I think all the other sites are much much smaller. Figure a fair bit of overlap, so maybe 650000 unique between the two. If every single member went to WDW in a row, equates to a whopping 10 days of MK guests. 10 days. I'll let that sink in. So what, 1/30th of MK guests in a given year are involved enough with their WDW vacation to post and learn about things such as the exact minute FP+ opens up? Now admittedly there are people that just read certain non-forum sites, or just the Unofficial Guide, so have an idea how it works. But how many of the members of this forum don't go in a given year? Or even just how many people ask how to make FP+ reservations, or who come on in a panic 15 days out not realizing they could make them in advance (look for the threads, there are plenty). You @MOM2FOUR , and the rest of us forum members are a drop in the bucket in the overall number of Disney guests.

Now in your specific case, you are definitely at a disadvantage. The popular rides where one would actually need to book at midnight, on site guests already had a 30 day head start. So who knows, maybe 95% of the FP+ for those rides were gone already. Heck, they could be 100% booked and you are out of luck.

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?