First time not staying on site...am I doomed for FPs?

[Klayfish]

I think I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. First, I'd say if you're going to be there at 8am anyway, no need to set a FP+ for that time. That's rope drop time, so just do standby. Doing the hour gap doesn't seem logical to me either. If you have 8, 9 and 10, then just modify as you go. So use the 8am right at 8am. As soon as you tap in, modify the 9am to 8:15am. Then tap into that. Once you do, modify the 10am to 8:45am. Done.

Not sure I'd agree that you can accomplish more by rope dropping and using refresh. For the first little while the park is open, you don't need FP+ anyway. How long that golden window lasts depends on the park and the attraction. For Test Track, that lasts all of a few minutes. By 9:15am, the standby line is long. Pretty sure it's the same for FoP, SDD and 7DMT. The only difference I see by doing rope drop vs. what we do is that you may save a few minutes by not having to wait the few minutes in the FP+ line. As I mentioned above, even when we show up at nearly 11am, by noon we've gone through all 3 FP+ and are already on our way to hitting more if we want.

 

[Denise W]

I think I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. First, I'd say if you're going to be there at 8am anyway, no need to set a FP+ for that time. That's rope drop time, so just do standby. Doing the hour gap doesn't seem logical to me either. If you have 8, 9 and 10, then just modify as you go. So use the 8am right at 8am. As soon as you tap in, modify the 9am to 8:15am. Then tap into that. Once you do, modify the 10am to 8:45am. Done.

Not sure I'd agree that you can accomplish more by rope dropping and using refresh. For the first little while the park is open, you don't need FP+ anyway. How long that golden window lasts depends on the park and the attraction. For Test Track, that lasts all of a few minutes. By 9:15am, the standby line is long. Pretty sure it's the same for FoP, SDD and 7DMT. The only difference I see by doing rope drop vs. what we do is that you may save a few minutes by not having to wait the few minutes in the FP+ line. As I mentioned above, even when we show up at nearly 11am, by noon we've gone through all 3 FP+ and are already on our way to hitting more if we want.

Yeah, but you posted last year on the throwaway thread that you booked a campsite so that you could get fast passes at 60 days, even though you were staying offsite. So are all your strategies still accurate if you were getting fast passes at 60 days rather than 30 days?
Denise

 

[cakebaker]

I think I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. First, I'd say if you're going to be there at 8am anyway, no need to set a FP+ for that time. That's rope drop time, so just do standby. Doing the hour gap doesn't seem logical to me either. If you have 8, 9 and 10, then just modify as you go. So use the 8am right at 8am. As soon as you tap in, modify the 9am to 8:15am. Then tap into that. Once you do, modify the 10am to 8:45am. Done.

Not sure I'd agree that you can accomplish more by rope dropping and using refresh. For the first little while the park is open, you don't need FP+ anyway. How long that golden window lasts depends on the park and the attraction. For Test Track, that lasts all of a few minutes. By 9:15am, the standby line is long. Pretty sure it's the same for FoP, SDD and 7DMT. The only difference I see by doing rope drop vs. what we do is that you may save a few minutes by not having to wait the few minutes in the FP+ line. As I mentioned above, even when we show up at nearly 11am, by noon we've gone through all 3 FP+ and are already on our way to hitting more if we want.

The plus is you could ride the first ride twice- assuming it’s one if your favorites, that’s a bonus. The theory is, you keep bumping up fp’s as you ride, allowing you to start booking the 4th and more sooner. It’s just a strategy I read about though, so not sure how well it works in practice.

In theory, you could get through all 3 fp’s in the first hour. That might require a perfect alignment of the stars though. lol

By not doing rope drop, you lose any availability to ride secondary rides with little to no wait. One just has to weigh which is more important- low crowd levels or sleeping.

 

[Tomh]

At the 30 day mark, you will likely have problems with the big rides. SDD, FOP, 7DMT etc will be hard to come by. I would check for those daily up until the day you are in the park, because they will sometimes pop up. I would also look for 4th, and subsequent FP in the park, and make use of the refresh strategy. I have had amazing luck getting FOP, and NRJ day of, after using our first 3 FP.

Also, I would do Rope Drop and hit some of the big rides before the lines build. You should have no problem getting on anything you want using those strategies.

 

[Klayfish]

Yeah, but you posted last year on the throwaway thread that you booked a campsite so that you could get fast passes at 60 days, even though you were staying offsite. So are all your strategies still accurate if you were getting fast passes at 60 days rather than 30 days?
Denise

Ah, you've got a good memory. Yes, we did a throwaway room last summer. The reason we did that was our very last day of vacation was opening day of TSL. Talk about luck...we had planned our trip before opening day was announced, it was just coincidence. We knew that it was going to be an absolute mob scene. We also happened to be at WDW the day FEA opened, so we knew what to expect. It was also the very last day of our AP and we weren't renewing. So we knew that if we wanted any chance to ride SDD before the year 2020, our only real option was via FP+. Hence, the throw away room. Glad we did, it was insane that day....though I still give WDW credit for how well they managed it. Yes, even then we still used the same strategy for all other days.

The plus is you could ride the first ride twice- assuming it’s one if your favorites, that’s a bonus. The theory is, you keep bumping up fp’s as you ride, allowing you to start booking the 4th and more sooner. It’s just a strategy I read about though, so not sure how well it works in practice.

In theory, you could get through all 3 fp’s in the first hour. That might require a perfect alignment of the stars though. lol

By not doing rope drop, you lose any availability to ride secondary rides with little to no wait. One just has to weigh which is more important- low crowd levels or sleeping.

What you're describing is exactly what I'm saying we do. We go through our first 3 FP+ in an hour by constantly bumping up. We never let all 3 FP+ just run their natural times, unless we have specific plans otherwise....stopping for lunch, seeing a show, etc...

Like I said, I agree that ope drop allows you to ride a few things without messing with MDE. But you can accomplish the same thing without having to be there early. You can do the headliners all via FP+ and the other rides that don't need a FP+ anyway you can do whenever you want.

 

[hswillia07]

Thanks everyone! I'm feeling much better now I'm not worried about Epcot - we'll do Garden Grill for breakfast (if I can get it) and that will get us on Soarin'. I'll FP Test Track, and hope for the best for FEA. MK - we're going to add on MNSSHP, so that should help us out quite a bit since we're mainly in it for the rides and a bit of trick or treating. SDD will be my biggest challenge, I think so I'll just have to cross my fingers and keep checking as many have suggested. Love these boards - thanks again!

 

[hswillia07]

Actually...while I have everyone...we have old magic bands that I can bring - will they have the same functionality as if we had gotten them for this trip specifically? ie can we still use them to make purchases, etc. Thanks!

 

[tex1989]

Strategies aside we have AP's and therefore I can always see what FP's are available 30 days out. I usually check once a day to see what the current day looks like and what 30 days out looks like. The only rides I find not available 30 days out are SDD, FOP, and SDMT. Other than that everything is available. Now some rides, Frozen, TT, Navi River, and Peter Pan might not be available till the afternoon but everything else seems to be there from about 9:15 on. If I were planning such a trip I think I would book everything I could and Rope Drop the three rides I could not FP and go from there. Depending on the park you can get a lot of same day stuff to avoid waits. We are pretty straight forward in our trips and planning. 2 to three times a year for a week staying onsite booking FP's 60 days out. Of course it is just the wife and I so it is a little easier but we have really not tried a lot of the strategies that folks have put forth here and other places.

 

[Klayfish]

Actually...while I have everyone...we have old magic bands that I can bring - will they have the same functionality as if we had gotten them for this trip specifically? ie can we still use them to make purchases, etc. Thanks!

Yes. The only thing they may not do is the long range RFID stuff, like reading your name to display on the exit of Small World.

 

[tex1989]

Yes. The only thing they may not do is the long range RFID stuff, like reading your name to display on the exit of Small World.

If you have Photopass it might effect some of the picture/videos you get. On certain rides if in doubt where you can see your picture coming off the ride, scan you band for the picture you want. On rides like SDMT where there is no photo viewing area you need to have the newer band that still has battery life to send the RFID signal.

 

[fbarker]

The last 2 trips, I haven't been able to get FOP or SDD at 60+X days.

We are going at the end of March and we were able to get SSD at 60+4 (2:15-which I will continue to look for a replacement earlier in the day) and FOP at 60+5 (10:05am)

 

[cgattis]

Thanks SO much everyone! In my head - 'hmmm maybe it's worth the extra $1500 to stay onsite so I can book fast passes...' lol. Luckily, my kiddos are too young for FOP, so that's okay. I was hoping for SDD and I'd be sad to miss out on a FP for SDMT, but maybe if I can be flexible with our times it'll work out. Or...I'll have to deal with the standby line for once! Thanks again!

Your kids will probably enjoy the games in the SDMT line, so standby won’t be too bad

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

You can apply this strategy along with rope dropping and accomplish even more. That’s assuming that there’s availability when you try and bump up the 3nd FP.

One tip I read about that I’m going to try is building in an hour leeway. In other words, schedule FP’s at 8, 10 and 11. The theory is, use the first FP, then modify FP #3 to an earlier time. Assume you’re off the first ride at 8:15. If you were booked at 8,9 and 10, you wouldn’t be able to modify for the 8:15 time because of the 9 am FP. But with that hour gap, you can. Seems like this would work whether you used rope drop or not.

But, assuming you’re entering at rope drop, it’s possible you could ride the 1st ride standby, then use the FP and modify. Again, this assumes there’s availability, but you could add that new FP for anything that was open, and that early, something would be.

Does that make sense? Can anyone shoot a hole in that strategy?

The only hole I can shoot in your strategy is that arriving early for rope drop will make it less likely that you'll still be around for closing time when the lines are even shorter.

I've never heard anyone say that they were able to rope drop 7DMT twice in a half hour, or Space Mtn 4 times in 35 minutes, or Toy Story 4 times in less than an hour, or even Tower of Terror 13 times in less than 2 hours (not that I would recommend that one to anyone).

These are just examples of things that we've done closer to closing time in the parks.

 

[blueant315]

At 30 days prepare yourself to not get FOP, SDD, SDMT or FEA. There’s always a chance that something will pop up closer to the trip, but it will take some effort to check often.

I stayed on site December 2-9 in 2018 and could only get FEA at the 60 day mark, so I don't think you're losing out by staying off site. In our experience, more FOP was added at some point and I was able to pick it up. My husband and son did EMM at DHS since we couldn't get FPs and we weren't going to wait in long lines - they wound up thinking it was a great value. I stayed at the hotel with our 2 year old since she couldn't ride SDD and it didn't seem worth the cost of another adult ticket for our whole family to go. You will most likely save enough on off-site hotels to justify the cost of EMM in my opinion if you are early risers (we are with children who are 4 and 2, unfortunately). My husband balked at the cost initially, but wound up thinking it was a good buy after experiencing it. We've actually changed our strategy for future visits to take advantage of all EMMs offered and just have fewer park days since we won't spend as much time in line.

 

[cakebaker]

The only hole I can shoot in your strategy is that arriving early for rope drop will make it less likely that you'll still be around for closing time when the lines are even shorter.

I've never heard anyone say that they were able to rope drop 7DMT twice in a half hour, or Space Mtn 4 times in 35 minutes, or Toy Story 4 times in less than an hour, or even Tower of Terror 13 times in less than 2 hours (not that I would recommend that one to anyone).

These are just examples of things that we've done closer to closing time in the parks.

We open one park, close another every day. We take midday breaks and relax so we can keep up the pace. I can see where those who don’t break in the afternoon might get worn out.

 

[epcotty]

Sometimes i really miss the legacy FP.

I know we miss it too, it was so much less hassle and more fair.

Getting to the main question, staying onsite can spoil you for FPs. But we know from experience it's easily possible to get almost everything you want at 30 days or less before. Anything you don't get either rope drop, refresh when getting later fps throughout the day and see if it's possible, or get in line in the last hour and it should be fine

 

[fairestoneofall]

Depending on when your trip is, you may experience lower crowds. We went at the very end of September. And while we had FPs for SDD, we also did standby with a 40-minute wait closer to park closing.

 

[BCink]

Hi all! We're considering a quick trip in the Fall and it will be our first trip not staying on site. I struggled to get certain FPs we wanted last Fall at 60 days out, so I'm worried about losing that 30 days! Is there any hope for things like Slinky Dog and FEA at 30 days out? Thanks so much for any feedback/advice!

Just keep checking MDE even on the day of. The end of January I grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to Animal Kingdom around 2:00 PM and wound up scoring FP for me and two friends for FOP for a 5:00 PM slot!

 

[Magical2017]

When in the fall are you traveling? We went at the end of August last year. We had FP for some of biggies but found great success using the refresh strategy. FOP opened up mid day, and it only took a few tries to get it. There were 4 in our party. We also got in line a few minutes before the official park closing and got right on. I am not sure about how SDD would work, as we ended up skipping DHS.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

We're a party of 5. DW, me, DS14, DD11, DS11 (twins). We used to rope drop in the old paper fast pass days, but with the current system it's unnecessary. If you're up early or want to rope drop, there's nothing wrong with it. The parks are less crowded in the first hour, there's no doubt. However if you know how to use MDE and refresh, you can be every bit as "productive" as a rope dropper, even if you show up at noon.

RnR is my favorite ride in WDW, I bet I've been on it at least 100 times. I honestly don't think I've ever ridden it standby, certainly not since the current system came out. Same with 7DMT, I don't think we've ever been in standby. Ditto for Test Track, PP, Na'vi and Space Mountain...can't remember last time we did those standby. For other popular rides such as TSMM, Splash, BTMRR, FEA, Soarin', ToT, etc...we ride them using FP+ probably 90% of the time, but there are times in the day when you can do them standby with a 10 minute wait. TSMM and Soarin' are straight walk on rides in the last 30 minutes before park closing. FEA is the same in the first hour (but you don't need to show up at 8:15am for a 9am park open), BTMRR and Splash are walk ons during fireworks.

Here's an example of how we'll set up our FP+. We'll set them back to back to back. So let's say we pick times of 10am-11am, 11am to noon, noon to 1pm. We show up in the parks at 10:50am. So we're at the back of our first FP+ window. We go do that ride, and when we get off, it's already time for FP+ #2. Let's say it's now 11:10am. We tap into that, and as soon as we do, I jump on MDE and modify FP+ #3. I move the time to 11:15am, so that when we get off FP+ #2, it's time for FP+ #3. Doing that, we'll have all 3 initial FP+ done within the first 45-60 minutes we're in the park. Then we start grabbing more...if we want. Some days we just go ride to ride to ride, some days we take a more leisurely pace and may go do things like Pixar or CoP or Laugh Floor.

Don't worry, even if you don't do the things we do, if you have a basic understanding of the system you'll be fine at 30 days. Since we're offsite people AND have APs when we go, we're also limited to having only 7 days of FP+ in any 30 day period. Our summer trips are over 2 weeks long, so that means days 8 and beyond can't be booked until we've used day 1 on our trip and so on. In other words, we can only book them 7 days in advance. We still do just fine.

You just need to write a darn book! Boy the money you'd make! However, then our "DIS secret" would be out for everyone to know about and then that refresh strategy isn't our "friend" any longer.