When EVERY manager and CM you've asked over a 5 year period tells you it's NOT "against the rules" to use them anytime between the first time on the FP and park close, your experience confirms this, and it's more convenient/preferable for you to use it at a time later than the "window" that just happened to be available when you were near the machines, I'd say that's a pretty good "excuse". You can't "break a rule" when the "rule" doesn't exist!
Precisely! :sohappy:
With all due respect, I honestly don't think being "late" causes the harm that some feel it does. And I am not singling you out, this goes for everyone who feels the "latecomers" are hurting the system. And I appreciate the fact that you pointed out being "late" is NOT "against the rules"!
I don't know how many FPs are given out an hour, and I know it varies by attraction, expected attendence, and other factors, but this will be a hypothetical example anyway. Let's say for my example ride, that it's 500.
So, for the 2 PM to 3 PM hour, let's say only 300 of those show up. This means that EVERYONE in the standby line at this time is actually getting on 200 people EARLIER than they would have if all those people would have been "on time", like the sticklers want them to be. Everyone who uses standby is actually BENEFITING from people being "late", at each and every part of the day that not all FPs allotted through that time have been used yet. They just don't notice it, because they haven't been "held up" by it. So this time they are GAINING by the FP's not being "on time" goes unnoticed. But the fact of the matter is, had those 200 people showed up during their "window", the standby folks in the queue between 2 and 3 would have had to wait LONGER.
So, when do the other 200 "late" people come back? They may trickle in throughout the day, or they could theoretically all show up at once. But until all 200 use their FP, everyone in standby is still getting on the ride EARLIER than they would have had all those people been "on time".
Even if all the "latecomers" show up after the 3 PM parade, they are reclaiming their rightful spot in line. This may grind the standby line to a halt for a little while, and people in standby might feel like they are being "held up" by them, but the reality is had these "latecomers" been "on time", they would have STILL ridden the ride BEFORE these people in standby, and as a result, the standby line would have been more backed up when these people getting "held up" entered. But the standby people would have gotten on the ride NO EARLIER had all the FPs been "on time". In fact, even if the standby people are "grinded to a halt" and "held up" by a bunch of FPs returning "late", as long as there are still SOME unused FPs (for that time and earlier) that haven't returned yet, they are STILL getting on the ride quicker than they would have if EACH AND EVERY FP allotted by the machines for valid entry up to that point had returned precisely on time!
So, I feel that the "latecomers" are truly not hurting anyone; for each FP that is used late means that is one less person that standby had to wait behind all day up until the time that the FP holder uses their pass, which then equalizes the "late" FP user's position relative to all standby riders behind them.
Or in other words, if I use a Peter Pan's Flight Fastpass at 11 PM at night, that I got at 10 AM in the morning simply because that's when I rode it the first time and was next to the machine, but the return time was for noon and I didn't want to backtrack to Fantasyland at that time because I was in Tomorrowland then, and I was getting the FP for a possible late night "encore ride" anyway - this means that EVERY person who rode the ride standby between noon and 11 PM BENEFITED by one person from me not being there "on time". By presenting my pass at 11 PM, I am reclaiming my place in line, and those riding after that get on exactly when they would have, relative to my ride, had I been "on time".
Lastly, I can't say this is always true, but in my experience, whenever I see a FP queue extremely backed up with "latecomers", such as Space Mountain, this has usually been due to the ride being DOWN one or more times throughout the day, and large numbers of people not being able to ride "on time" even if they wanted to!
PS. This post is not intended to be argumentative, but I wanted to use logic and math to show that statistically, being late doesn't damage the system. And as long as the unwritten policy, confirmed to me by any CMs and managers that I ask, is that they are accepted "late", I will not feel guilty about using them "late" whenever it is convenient and to my advantage to do so!
