“Refresh” is my new favorite strategy

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I'm confused about something. If so few people know about this strategy (the talk about how most guests don't use blogs or the DIS to research before going) then how are so many FPs being 'caught and released' for everyone to grab when refreshing? I mean if most don't know to do this then most aren't canceling or modifying their FPs, so I don't know how anyone refreshing is getting any! If it's only DISers and a few others in the know who do this, then how are there enough released for people to refresh and grab?? I would think those who are clueless would have their prebooked three and simply use them up, not cancel or modify them...

Also, off topic, but FEA is the Frozen Norway ride, correct? And that opens at opening? Then what is the Frozen thing that doesn't open until 11?

“Catch and Release” Fast Passes. I like it.

I don’t know why Refresh works so well, but I’m glad that it does.
 
We just returned from a 10-day trip and were really excited to give the refresh strategy a go. I would report mixed results though. Disney wifi coverage throughout the parks was inconsistent. We would find a place that had a strong signal and while standing still the signal sometimes dropped. If you don't have to rely on Disney wifi I would suggest don't. The app really drains your phone battery and is extremely slow. We had 5 in our party and tried to rotate who would look for additional FP's and by the end of the night all of us were down to nothing on our batteries. We did not carry portable chargers and only charged phones while we sat to eat if available. Given that the app was slow, signal was spotty, and constantly trying to refresh to find FP's the result was having one person in our party with their face buried in their phone and that was not an option for us as it was probably our last family vacation together and we wanted to enjoy each other's company. Given what we observed over 10 days though many others probably had a great experience with this strategy as all members of their parties were looking at their phones constantly and not talking so to each their own. Hopefully everyone has the vacation they are looking for while at WDW.

Not sure if it is a result of everyone in the park using the app and wifi at once but we expected a bit more from a Disney product than what we experienced. We certainly did not let it in anyway impact our enjoyment and I'm sure it is something that they will improve over time.
 
I don’t think you necessarily need to have your face buried in your phone the whole time for this strategy to work. Also - I think by this point many people are used to walking, talking with family/friends and using their phone all at the same time. Might just be differences in people, but I’m not sure it’s fair to say that all people using this strategy are sacrificing quality time with their loved ones.

While I did a ‘lite’ version of this in December, I’m looking forward to testing out full refresh in September!
 
I don’t think you necessarily need to have your face buried in your phone the whole time for this strategy to work. Also - I think by this point many people are used to walking, talking with family/friends and using their phone all at the same time. Might just be differences in people, but I’m not sure it’s fair to say that all people using this strategy are sacrificing quality time with their loved ones.

While I did a ‘lite’ version of this in December, I’m looking forward to testing out full refresh in September!

Eh, comments judging people for being on their phones have been a feature of these boards long before “refresh.”

I’m cool with being side-eyed as I miss the “magic” of the fastpass queues.

My son and I set a challenge of using all 25 FP at MK yesterday. We did it plus 5 repeats (and took a three-hour break). It was super fun for us.
 


Eh, comments judging people for being on their phones have been a feature of these boards long before “refresh.”

I’m cool with being side-eyed as I miss the “magic” of the fastpass queues.

My son and I set a challenge of using all 25 FP at MK yesterday. We did it plus 5 repeats (and took a three-hour break). It was super fun for us.

WOW! Now that is impressive.
 
During our trip we didn't see Navi all day (refreshing for other things) but did get FOP to pop for 5 twice.

Tried again today...could get NRJ for 5 pm at 1:30 pm, but was too far out as we were leaving before that. It mostly came up as not available over 300 refreshes.

So would say don't plan on getting any ride as 4th FP in a timely manner. It works a lot of time, but the popular rides are very difficult at times.

Also the in park WiFi is really acting up at times, a lot of errors refreshing.
 
I used my personal hotspot and had much success in Disneyland with MaxPass. Has anyone seen similar success in Disney World using a hotspot vs. wifi?
 


Tried again today...could get NRJ for 5 pm at 1:30 pm, but was too far out as we were leaving before that. It mostly came up as not available over 300 refreshes.

So would say don't plan on getting any ride as 4th FP in a timely manner. It works a lot of time, but the popular rides are very difficult at times.

Also the in park WiFi is really acting up at times, a lot of errors refreshing.

You just have to be willing to work on it, or maybe to search for singles.

My son and I did all four parks yesterday (starting at AK). Got subsequent FP for Toy Story, ToT, RnR, Soarin’, Test Track, Splash, Big Thunder, Peter Pan, Space (plus many easier ones).

In my experience, there are only a few rides that are really hard to get, and even a couple of those - Frozen and Mine Train - are starting to show up a little more often.
 
You just have to be willing to work on it, or maybe to search for singles.

My son and I did all four parks yesterday (starting at AK). Got subsequent FP for Toy Story, ToT, RnR, Soarin’, Test Track, Splash, Big Thunder, Peter Pan, Space (plus many easier ones).

In my experience, there are only a few rides that are really hard to get, and even a couple of those - Frozen and Mine Train - are starting to show up a little more often.

Like i said, 300 refreshes at least...maybe something earlier would have showed up in another 300, but wasn't going to spend the time as we were done with everything else and ready to go (otherwise would have just done standby). 99% of the time it was saying unavailable, so those late times were even rare.

Most other rides it has worked, just not NRJ for us. Just a heads up to those planning on refreshing that it doesn't always go as easy as some make it out to be.
 
Like i said, 300 refreshes at least...maybe something earlier would have showed up in another 300, but wasn't going to spend the time as we were done with everything else and ready to go (otherwise would have just done standby). 99% of the time it was saying unavailable, so those late times were even rare.

Most other rides it has worked, just not NRJ for us. Just a heads up to those planning on refreshing that it doesn't always go as easy as some make it out to be.
It's easier to grab a late time and then modify it to make it earlier.

At least imo
 
Most other rides it has worked, just not NRJ for us. Just a heads up to those planning on refreshing that it doesn't always go as easy as some make it out to be.

We had the same experience with NRJ a few weeks ago. I was able to refresh for all of the other headliners, some multiple times but NRJ never showed up once.

We ended up waiting 70 minutes, which was our only wait over 10 minutes during our entire 7 day stay. Refresh saved a ton of time for us, and usually didn’t take more than a couple of minutes to find something good.
 
This is my experience after two days at MK (08/12) and Epcot (08/13) for a party of 4.
Refresh worked so good that I felt bad for people at the end. But thanks for everyone who commented here and shared their experience. I don’t think many people will catch on to this, because it does require some tech saviness, good planning, and patience in many cases. It’s easy to abandon that strategy and giving up after a few minutes of refreshing and not getting what you want. But for me, as you will see, standby line is much worse than digging in your phone after tapping in, to get your next FP before your current ride starts. I will never touch my phone when I’m on the ride since you want to enjoy the rides so make sure you don’t get carried away with this as it’s easy to do so. Make that a rule. In queues where there is no service, turn your WiFi on and use the Disney free WiFi. Also bring a power bank charger if you have one, as your phone battery will run out.

At MK, I only stood in standby for pirates. I had EMM (which I highly recommend) so didn’t have to worry about 7DMT, PP, and Winnie the Pooh. But for everything else, FP was always easy to 1) grab first time available 2) refresh to move it up to the current time. We rode space mountain twice, Splash mountain twice, BTMR twice, JC, buzz, tommoroland speedway, dumbo, barnstormer, tea cups, under the sea twice, it’s a small world, HM, meet Mickey, both princess fairy tail halls, meet ariel, all with that strategy. We started at 10 am after our EMM breakfast, and were done with everything listed above before 7 pm. On the splash mountain ride my 6 year old was skipping and singing/whistling through the fast pass line and getting these looks from the people in standby line that I just felt bad for them.

At Epcot, the only thing we waited in standby for was FEA a little after opening, for a whole 15 minutes. Fast passed all rides, doing soarin twice, and FEA 3 times total. Daughter is a big fan so that made her day. We had pre booked FP for TT, but we didn’t look for more because on that ride, even the FP line was around 30 minutes (standby was 145). Everything that had a FP line we were able to grab, even illuminations at the end. Soarin was popping up a lot when refreshing btw. FEA took a bit of refreshing to get. Abt 10-20 mins each time. Standby line was never under 40 mins after we finished our first ride.

I will be doing the same thing at HS and AK later this week. I’m worried about SDD and NRJ with this strategy, but will see if we get them.

Continuing with my post, I was at HS this Wednesday (08/15) and AK today (08/17) and refresh worked great.
I did everything on FP for party of 4. At HS my pre booked FPs were Toy story mania, tower of terror and rock coaster.
I was able to do tower of terror again, toy story mania two more times, Aliens swirling once (popped more for me, but wasn’t very exciting ride), and SDD once. SDD was not easy to get. Wasn’t popping up for me at all, and did once in the afternoon and grabbed it quickly. I did grab FPs too for a couple of shows and fantasmic towards the end.

At AK, I did kali, ee, dinosaur, safari all twice with refresh.
I had prebooked FOP FPs, but was able to grab it 2 more times! So we did it three times in one day. I don’t think that’s very common and I think was lucky. NRJ was popping a lot in the morning, when I didn’t want it (was trying to adjust FOP time), but once I wanted it in the afternoon I could get it only once, after a lot of refresh, and a little more than an hour far out, and couldn’t move it closer. So surprisingly FOP was easier than NRJ with refresh..

But anyway I think this strategy works great, however for headliners SDD, SDMT, Pandora rides, TT, FEA) you need to be a little persistent and lucky. For all others 1-5 minutes of refresh is all you need. That was my experience this week. Good luck.
 
Like i said, 300 refreshes at least...maybe something earlier would have showed up in another 300, but wasn't going to spend the time as we were done with everything else and ready to go (otherwise would have just done standby). 99% of the time it was saying unavailable, so those late times were even rare.

Most other rides it has worked, just not NRJ for us. Just a heads up to those planning on refreshing that it doesn't always go as easy as some make it out to be.

Sorry you didn’t get lucky. With 300 refreshes you certainly put in the effort!

Na’vi is definitely a tough get. The one I saw least (once in two weeks) was the new Aliens ride in Toy Story Land. I actually saw Slinky several times, but Aliens was impossible.
 
It's easier to grab a late time and then modify it to make it earlier.

At least imo

Yep, that's how been doing it.

In the NRJ case, first got 9:15pm and was able to get it down to 5pm. But that was it and still too far out for us.
Only 3-4 times showed up the whole time was refreshing.
 
I have been using refresh for a few years pretty diligently, usually for a party of 4, but sometimes (like our trip last weekend), for a party of 6. It is much easier to do with a smaller party. Sometimes just my DH and one DD want to ride something, and party of 2 is much easier than 4. I do try to break up our party into smaller parties, and this often works. All that said, I would not think Refresh is going to be a slam dunk strategy for all party sizes, at all times of year, for the headliners at all parks. It works well, and sometimes it works amazingly, but it is not a get-every-ride when you want it promise.

We have had trips such as the one around Christmas last year when I got FOP 3 times in one afternoon for a party of 4 with Refresh. Other times, like last weekend, I could not get FOP other than for many hours later than we were going to be at AK, and only for half of our party. I could never get a time at all for the other half of our party (and I did try getting just anything and modifying etc and nothing worked). I did however, have a lot of luck with TSM, RR, TOT etc but never ever got SDD. Not once over hundreds of Refreshes over many hours. That may have been due to SDD being down due to storms for several hours, however. Had good luck with booking any time available for the ride we wanted and then repeatedly modifying to get a sooner time, for all but FOP and SDD. Aliens was easy to get over and over with a little persistence.

WiFi was spotty in places, so don’t rely on it.

I hope many people don’t find out about refresh so it will stay useful! But if you plan to use it, know that it has unpredictable limiatations, and it isn’t a promise of getting any ride at all, no matter the time. It can seem so easy, or it can be frustrating and fruitless. Good luck and pixie dust to everyone!
 
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Around 4 pm yesterday I was messing with refresh at home, basically because I was bored. I got TSM and Alien Saucers for two to pop up after a few refreshes. Only saw AS pop up like once or twice, TSM quite a bit. Never saw SDD though.
 
I have been using refresh for a few years pretty diligently, usually for a party of 4, but sometime (like our trip last weekend), for a party of 6. It is much easier to do with a smaller party. Sometimes just my DH and one DD want to ride soemthing, and party of 2 is much easier than 4. I do try to break up our party into smaller parties, and this often works. All that said, I would not think Refresh is going to be a slam dunk strategy for all party sizes, at all times of year, for the headliners at all parks. It works well, and sometimes it works amazingly, but it is not a get-every-ride when you want it promise.

We have had trips such as the one around Christmas last year when I got FOP 3 times in one afternoon for a party of 4 with Refresh. Other times, like last weekend, I could not get FOP other than for many hours later than we were going to be at AK, and only for half of our party. I could never get a time at all for the other half of our party (and I did try getting just anything and modifying etc and nothing worked). I did however, have a lot of luck with TSM, RR, TOT etc but never ever got SDD. It once over hundreds of Refreshes over many hours. That may have been due to SDD being down due to storms for several hours, however. Had good luck with booking any time available for the ride we wanted and then repeatedly modifying to get a sooner time, for all but FOP and SDD. Aliens was easy to get over and over with a little persistence.

WiFi was spotty in places, so don’t rely on it.

I hope many people don’t find out about refresh so it will stay useful! But if you plan to use it, know that it has unpredictable limiatations, and it isn’t a promise of getting any ride at all, no matter the time. It can seem so easy, or it can be frustrating and fruitless. Good luck and pixie dust to everyone!

This! 100% my experience as well. Great for most things Most of the time but the biggest headliners are very hit or miss. Thank you for posting.
 
Around 4 pm yesterday I was messing with refresh at home, basically because I was bored. I got TSM and Alien Saucers for two to pop up after a few refreshes. Only saw AS pop up like once or twice, TSM quite a bit. Never saw SDD though.

On Sunday I was able to get a same day FP for SDD but it is not for the faint at heart. I started at around 9 am and it didn't pop up until at 12. I'm sure I refreshed more than 300 times. I was at home on my computer.
 
Continuing with my post, I was at HS this Wednesday (08/15) and AK today (08/17) and refresh worked great.
I did everything on FP for party of 4. At HS my pre booked FPs were Toy story mania, tower of terror and rock coaster.
I was able to do tower of terror again, toy story mania two more times, Aliens swirling once (popped more for me, but wasn’t very exciting ride), and SDD once. SDD was not easy to get. Wasn’t popping up for me at all, and did once in the afternoon and grabbed it quickly. I did grab FPs too for a couple of shows and fantasmic towards the end.

At AK, I did kali, ee, dinosaur, safari all twice with refresh.
I had prebooked FOP FPs, but was able to grab it 2 more times! So we did it three times in one day. I don’t think that’s very common and I think was lucky. NRJ was popping a lot in the morning, when I didn’t want it (was trying to adjust FOP time), but once I wanted it in the afternoon I could get it only once, after a lot of refresh, and a little more than an hour far out, and couldn’t move it closer. So surprisingly FOP was easier than NRJ with refresh..

But anyway I think this strategy works great, however for headliners SDD, SDMT, Pandora rides, TT, FEA) you need to be a little persistent and lucky. For all others 1-5 minutes of refresh is all you need. That was my experience this week. Good luck.
Hi, Thank you for your inspirational post . Can you tell us
1. What devices (iPhone etc.) you are using in the parks to acquire your Fastpasses.
2. Are you using the Disney WiFi.
3. Would you mind posting how your days and MDE useage go. Meaning in general the fastpasses and times you have already acquired before arriving in the parks and then how your day goes with riding tapping and acquiring/modifying your fastpasses.
4. Please allow me to explain that I was so late making our 8/24 - 8/31 trip plans that after reading most peoples experiences I only made a few fastpass selections. I am hoping that as some have said one to two days before arrival some decent fastpasses should become available and I will try to set up my initial fastpasses at that time.

I do understand quite well how Refresh works but have enjoyed your real time description of your experiences.
 
Hi, Thank you for your inspirational post . Can you tell us
1. What devices (iPhone etc.) you are using in the parks to acquire your Fastpasses.
2. Are you using the Disney WiFi.
3. Would you mind posting how your days and MDE useage go. Meaning in general the fastpasses and times you have already acquired before arriving in the parks and then how your day goes with riding tapping and acquiring/modifying your fastpasses.
4. Please allow me to explain that I was so late making our 8/24 - 8/31 trip plans that after reading most peoples experiences I only made a few fastpass selections. I am hoping that as some have said one to two days before arrival some decent fastpasses should become available and I will try to set up my initial fastpasses at that time.

I do understand quite well how Refresh works but have enjoyed your real time description of your experiences.

From our experience (we're hard core refreshers, and were just there in June/July)

1. We all have Android phones

2. We use our own data, the WiFi is a bit spotty simply because so much demand is placed on it.

3. For us, we always book our first 3 FP+ for as soon as we arrive. We're not rope drop people (we think FP+ and refresh make rope drop totally unnecessary), so if we have a morning planned, we'll show up at 9:45am or so. Therefore, we'll schedule our first 3 FP+ for 9-10am, 10-11am, 11am-noon. When we arrive at 9:45am, we're already at the back end of FP+ #1 window. We go right to that. By time we get off, it's already time for #2. We go right to it. While in line for #2, I'll jump on MDE and move #3 up to 10:30am. So as soon as we get off #2 it should be time for #3. When I'm in line for #3, I jump on MDE and go for #4. Rinse and repeat. If we have an afternoon planned, we'll do the same thing, just starting later in the day. Honestly, we found this summer trip a bit harder than trips past for refreshing, but still had plenty of success. Understand however that our definition of "success" means getting a FP+ for 5-10 minutes from "now" so that we can literally just hop from ride to ride...unless we're planning lunch, dinner, a show, etc...so we set high standards. Even with that, we still had plenty of success. In a 6 hour park visit, including time to stop and eat, we probably average 6-8 FP+. We also do some attractions w/out FP+ simply because they aren't needed, such as Philharmagic, CoP, etc...

4. You'll have much better chances to add/modify the day of your FP+ plan, instead of trying 24-48 hours in advance. Not saying you can't have success one day out, but day of is much easier.
 
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