WDW To Enforce FP+ Rules

[Kman101]

I'm in the minority here but I like FP+ for a few reasons. I don't game the system and I like it. But I don't like how you can book so far out and I now hate how some are gaming the system.

 

[Master Yoda]

And they are typically the ones on other forums who rant about how great FP+ is.

Or not. I like the new system and have yet to game it once.

 

[Laketravis]

Or not. I like the new system and have yet to game it once.

The two are not mutually exclusive but only one is transparent

 

[po1998]

Hundreds of millions( $1B+ ??) spent on this technology, and no one figured out at the onset that a MB(or other ticket media) that was not scanned at the front gate should not be able to get a FP?

...and it took this long to close the loophole?

 

[RustySpork]

I think FP+ will be a lot better if they close this loophole. I wonder if the people abusing it realize that they're really stealing from Disney since they're taking something they are not entitled too.

 

[Kman101]

I think FP+ will be a lot better if they close this loophole. I wonder if the people abusing it realize that they're really stealing from Disney since they're taking something they are not entitled too.

I know this would never happen but if they close the loophole where the band or card has to be scanned at the tapstiles at the entrance for the FP+ selections to be valid, those using ones that aren't are told "sorry, that's an invalid use of a band and we'll be getting security to escort you out". Maybe that's extreme but this is a terrible loophole they've allowed to exist.

 

[LAKid53]

I think FP+ will be a lot better if they close this loophole. I wonder if the people abusing it realize that they're really stealing from Disney since they're taking something they are not entitled too.

They probably don't care and think they are entitled with the "I paid so much to come here!" mentality. Because the rest of us have somehow managed to visit Disney for practically nothing....

 

[Viget]

I never thought about your 2nd scenario. My daughter has an AP and is listed as family & friends on my MDE. What prevents me from booking FP+ for not just me on a solo trip, but also her? There's no cost to add her to my resort reservation - I'll even get a MB for her. Disney wouldn't have known. But that never would have crossed my mind to do....but I'm sure others do it, until now.

Oh it's even better than that. You don't even need to add her to your reservation, you just need to be friends with her on MDE.

I recently found this out by mistake as we were meeting friends who are AP holders who live in Florida on our trip last week. We had resort reservations at 3 different resorts on May 25th, May 26th-28th, and May 29th-31st. Our friends were joining us for a stay on May 29th, one night only. I was able to score them Pandora NRJ FP+ for May 27th (opening day) even though they didn't have a resort reservation that night. It seems as long as one of your friends has a resort reservation, you can book FPs for the duration of their stay during the 60 day + 10 window.

I think this is actually a bigger abuse, as one friend could plop down $39 or whatever it is for FW campground reservation, and then all the linked friends on MDE could then score FPs for Pandora for those days at the 60 day mark. I don't think there's a limit to the number of "friends" who can do this, as long as they all have valid ticket media (ie APs)

Wonder if they are closing this loophole too.

 

[Master Yoda]

Hundreds of millions( $1B+ ??) spent on this technology, and no one figured out at the onset that a MB(or other ticket media) that was not scanned at the front gate should not be able to get a FP?

...and it took this long to close the loophole?

Odds are that the feature was there just not turned on for the obvious operational reasons. Now that it has become an issue, Disney will flip the switch.

Heaven help guest relations over the next week or two.

 

[LAKid53]

Oh it's even better than that. You don't even need to add her to your reservation, you just need to be friends with her on MDE.

I recently found this out by mistake as we were meeting friends who are AP holders who live in Florida on our trip last week. We had resort reservations at 3 different resorts on May 25th, May 26th-28th, and May 29th-31st. Our friends were joining us for a stay on May 29th, one night only. I was able to score them Pandora NRJ FP+ for May 27th (opening day) even though they didn't have a resort reservation that night. It seems as long as one of your friends has a resort reservation, you can book FPs for the duration of their stay during the 60 day + 10 window.

I think this is actually a bigger abuse, as one friend could plop down $39 or whatever it is for FW campground reservation, and then all the linked friends on MDE could then score FPs for Pandora for those days at the 60 day mark. I don't think there's a limit to the number of "friends" who can do this, as long as they all have valid ticket media (ie APs)

Wonder if they are closing this loophole too.

I know I don't need to add her to my resort ressie - that would just be the best way to get a MB for her. I don't think she'd give me one of her bands without asking questions.

 

[po1998]

Odds are that the feature was there just not turned on for the obvious operational reasons. Now that it has become an issue, Disney will flip the switch.

Heaven help guest relations over the next week or two.

They didn't want to deal with "obvious operational issues"? So they knew from the beginning that guests were able to scam the system, but didn't want to deal with the cheaters, so they chose to allow it? Not sure, but is this what you are implying?

 

[Viget]

I know I don't need to add her to my resort ressie - that would just be the best way to get a MB for her. I don't think she'd give me one of her bands without asking questions.

Got you, that makes sense, thanks for the clarification!

My bigger point is that hordes of AP'ers can get FPs at the 60 day +10 mark as long as they are all linked to the same one person on MDE who happens to have a resort reservation, even if it's only the cheap FW campsite kind. $39 isn't much of an investment if it gets you and all your friends a chance to score a FOP FP early on. I'm sure the locals will justify it by the fact that there isn't really any other way to get the FP, as they likely will be all gone by the 30 day window.

 

[Tavernacle12]

Odds are that the feature was there just not turned on for the obvious operational reasons. Now that it has become an issue, Disney will flip the switch.

Heaven help guest relations over the next week or two.

Assuming the new system doesn't screw over innocent people and only the cheaters, wouldn't guest relations be able to easily see the issue when they look into it?

 

[Master Yoda]

They didn't want to deal with "obvious operational issues"? So they knew from the beginning that guests were able to scam the system, but didn't want to deal with the cheaters, so they chose to allow it? Not sure, but is this what you are implying?

Read below.

I would assume the feature was turned off more for ease of operations than anything else as not having it on would avoid the issue of a problem at the gate translating to a problem with FP.

Back in the days of the paper FP we ran into that issue a few times. Something for whatever reason would not work right at the gates and the CM would force the system to let us through. When we would go to get a FP, whichever AP had an issue would not be able to get a FP. That resulted in a trip to guest service to fix the issue.

 

[disneygeek90]

I'm in the minority here but I like FP+ for a few reasons. I don't game the system and I like it. But I don't like how you can book so far out and I now hate how some are gaming the system.

As a local, I absolutely love it. I can schedule a FP day of while still at work, and know I can hop on right on ToT when I get there at 6pm.

The most frustrating thing to me is what we see with a lot of the new rides and FP+ being gone well ahead of the 30 day marker.

 

[LAKid53]

Got you, that makes sense, thanks for the clarification!

My bigger point is that hordes of AP'ers can get FPs at the 60 day +10 mark as long as they are all linked to the same one person on MDE who happens to have a resort reservation, even if it's only the cheap FW campsite kind. $39 isn't much of an investment if it gets you and all your friends a chance to score a FOP FP early on. I'm sure the locals will justify it by the fact that there isn't really any other way to get the FP, as they likely will be all gone by the 30 day window.

I didn't realize that over the past two years when I've traveled solo for runDisney races I could book three separate FP+ sets since (1) we all had APs and (2) both my daughter and son-in-law are linked in my MDE... But doing that would never cross my mind, because, well, it's cheating...

 

[RustySpork]

I didn't realize that over the past two years when I've traveled solo for runDisney races I could book three separate FP+ sets since (1) we all had APs and (2) both my daughter and son-in-law are linked in my MDE... But doing that would never cross my mind, because, well, it's cheating...

No kidding, I have a drawer full of tickets, passes, and keys to the world that I never thought to use to exploit Disney's FP+ system because I'm not a thief.

 

[Master Yoda]

Assuming the new system doesn't screw over innocent people and only the cheaters, wouldn't guest relations be able to easily see the issue when they look into it?

They should be able to, but that will not really matter to a guest that has laid out a month's income for a vacation being stuck in a line behind who knows how many other people to fix a problem.

 

[disneygeek90]

Has this "fix" gone into effect yet? Wonder if we will be able to tell a difference... Was this helping FP+ reservations in advance, or only day of at kiosks?

 

[DisneyCane]

Back to Fastpasses, I don't think it's unreasonable at all to deny entry to the Fastpass+ queue if you try to enter with a ticket that hasn't been scanned at the park that day. However, if they are "locking" accounts immediately that seems excessive. A simple denial by the front line cast member is the equivalent of the paper rejection in the old kiosks.

I assume the harsh penalty is to punish people that try to do something like book FP+ with their AP and then rent it to somebody else for the day to use the FPs.

I guess if you still wanted to do this, you could enter the park with the renter and then leave the magicband with them. You'd have to be getting a pretty high rental fee to make it worth doing. Solving this part of the problem would require the finger scanners a the FP+ entrances but I can't even imagine how much that would back up the FP lines.