FOP Fast Pass. Are us "30 day" off property people screwed???

[RealRickButler]

I'm staying for two weeks in May (May 5 - May 19) and I'm into day 5 of my Fast Pass booking, because I stay at a timeshare and not on property so I fall under the 30 day FP booking.

So far I have not been able to snag a single, and I mean even one, FP reservation for FOP. Has this become the new "sprint to the ride" attraction at rope drop? I always make rope drop so that's not an issue. I'm use to doing the sprint for 7DMT at Magic Kingdom, Frozen at Epcot, and Toy Story Mania at HS. My concern is sprinting to a new land I have never been in and finding a ride with five other people in tote will be a challenge.

I see the advantage of staying on property mainly to take advantage of the 60 day FP booking, but it would be nice if they saved a few FP's so us "30 day" people could fight it out at 7am.

Has anyone been able to snag up a FOP under 30 days?

 

[larie21]

My best advice is keep looking. We were able to get 5 FOP FPs the day of. People will change their plans the week of. Keep refreshing & hopefully you will have some luck.

 

[JBeaty0507]

I would just keep checking. I picked up a FOP FP on maybe Saturday or Sunday for May 8. It's not impossible...but it is difficult. However, people change their plans and they do show up sometimes. I also picked one up in February the day of....so they do exist, you just may have to keep looking! EDIT: Both of these were for 2 people.

 

[WaterLinds]

In addition to the above advice, keep an eye out for late notice hour changes--if the hours are extended, more FPs will become available. During our AK day they extended evening hours a month out, then morning hours 1-2 weeks out, then evening hours again the day before, and then evening hours one more time when the park was already open.

Good luck!

 

[disneygirlsng]

I went in January and a couple days after my 30-day window, tons and tons of FPs magically appeared for all times of the day. Not only for FoP, but FEA and SDMT as well (which I was also unable to initially get). Don't think that happens often, but there's hope!

 

[scrappingbuckeye]

Yes - I went last week and was able to get 2 sets of 2 same day of. I also was able to score a SDMT fast pass day of. You just have to have patience sometimes.

I agree with PP - if they extend hours you can easily pick up fastpasses once they release them.

 

[loves to dive]

Keep trying. We will be there May 7 for a week and I didn't get around to even looking until a few days ago (could have we just don't normally book FPs in advance). I was able to get one for the day we arrive and even looked at days after that and they were available.

 

[Luxurious_Lumiere]

I couldn't even get one for my upcoming on-property stay when booking 63 days out, right at 7am. So frustrating. I guess it'll be constant refreshing for me, but its good to hear others were successful in that endeavor close to the date or day of.

 

[vicb]

I'm staying for two weeks in May (May 5 - May 19) and I'm into day 5 of my Fast Pass booking, because I stay at a timeshare and not on property so I fall under the 30 day FP booking.

So far I have not been able to snag a single, and I mean even one, FP reservation for FOP. Has this become the new "sprint to the ride" attraction at rope drop? I always make rope drop so that's not an issue. I'm use to doing the sprint for 7DMT at Magic Kingdom, Frozen at Epcot, and Toy Story Mania at HS. My concern is sprinting to a new land I have never been in and finding a ride with five other people in tote will be a challenge.

I see the advantage of staying on property mainly to take advantage of the 60 day FP booking, but it would be nice if they saved a few FP's so us "30 day" people could fight it out at 7am.

Has anyone been able to snag up a FOP under 30 days?

Hey OP, I really hope you find some FP for FoP, I'm sure that is stressful. And you are right that is the advantage to staying onsite, getting the 60 day window although some of us on-sit are fighting it out at 60 days too! Not sure how many you are trying for but if more than 2 guests, try searching for smaller numbers and try for overlapping times so whole group can ride together.

Anyway, hopefully park hours for AK will get extended as it gets closer to your trip which might help open more FP or if there are two ROL shows that might divert some of the crowd late at night so you can try stand by. That is what happened for us on our AK Saturday in early May... extended hours. We did get a FP for FoP but on day 60+3 of our trip and later in the afternoon. We hope to use the later park hours to get on Navi River stand by.
Good luck and report back if you get your FP!!

 

[Claire421]

I will be there May 7 - 11 and I was able to get FOP FP for 2 on May 10th. Last week I was able to move up my FP time from 4:40pm to 12:30pm, so they are popping up. Just keep checking!

 

[1lilspark]

My sister got a pair about 14 Days out Friends of hers got a pair day of this past Sunday it’s trial and error

 

[Liljo22]

I'm staying for two weeks in May (May 5 - May 19) and I'm into day 5 of my Fast Pass booking, because I stay at a timeshare and not on property so I fall under the 30 day FP booking.

So far I have not been able to snag a single, and I mean even one, FP reservation for FOP. Has this become the new "sprint to the ride" attraction at rope drop? I always make rope drop so that's not an issue. I'm use to doing the sprint for 7DMT at Magic Kingdom, Frozen at Epcot, and Toy Story Mania at HS. My concern is sprinting to a new land I have never been in and finding a ride with five other people in tote will be a challenge.

I see the advantage of staying on property mainly to take advantage of the 60 day FP booking, but it would be nice if they saved a few FP's so us "30 day" people could fight it out at 7am.

Has anyone been able to snag up a FOP under 30 days?

Yes this has become the new "sprint to the ride" attraction. The recommendation is to line up 75-90 minutes BEFORE park open if you want to ride at rope drop. They will start letting people in at about 45 minutes before park open and hold everyone at the entrance to Pandora. They will let everyone into Pandora about 30 minutes before park open. The line will quickly get up to 3-4 hours but you should be in the first 100 people if you follow this and be off the ride before the park officially opens. There is a great video by TP on Youtube that follows this.

Like others have said though, keep trying because more will pop up if they change hours or people change plans.

 

[BellaandMickey]

I wasn’t able to get any even at 60 days out. I keep checking but I think the chances are slim.

 

[Miffy]

Keep trying. Long after the 60-day mark I decided to join my sister on her upcoming trip. With some diligent--not insane, but persistent--checking and refreshing, I was able to either join with her on her FP+s or make overlapping FP+ reservations for everything, including FoP, although FoP did require some work. But not hours of work. Just a bit. And my sister is flexible, because one of the times had to be changed by a few hours. I've been able to get FoP FP+s the day of several times now, and the night before is also a good time to try. Stay positive! You will get your FoP FP+s if you persist!

And, in case this needs to be said: it's worth the effort. FoP is amazing!

 

[joelkfla]

Hint: refresh the search screen a few times each time you check. Availability changes literally second to second. I think that when the system offers an availability to one user, it won't display the same availability to another until the first user either leaves the screen or times out. Then it suddenly pops up for someone else.

 

[DavidNYC]

Even if you don't ever get a FP, plan at least one day of getting on the line 5 minutes before park closing. The line moves very quickly (we had 80 minute wait posted when there in Feb and actual wait was 40) and the line is actually great - it zipped by.

And keep trying when you're at AK, we did have one pop up while were at Rivers of Light for that evening!

 

[PrincessBelle39]

We were in WDW in July last year. We stayed onsite and could still not get FOP FP. It's luck. We did the park closing thing as mentioned by DavidNYC and this worked best for us. Wait time was listed as 120minutes but was in fact about 55minutes.

 

[mamaofsix]

To me, the less stressful option would be to show up an hour before rope drop and ride it first. Checking for fp's every day, refreshing, etc. for the next 30 days or constantly refreshing on the 'day of' sounds so time consuming and anxiety inducing! If you're planning to be there for rope drop anyway, why bother with all of that hassle? Line up for the ride well before official opening, enjoy the inter-active queue and be off before the rush starts. Easy peasy!

 

[JenSinMA]

I am 3 days into my 4 park day bookings as an off-site guest, and I have not gotten FoP or 7DMT. I have planned to do 7DMT standby early enough in the day that it should be no more than a 30 minute wait. But I also hope to get some luck with same day FP+ additions once I'm there. If not, I may have to skip FoP this trip. :-(

 

[slpeters]

In addition to the above advice, keep an eye out for late notice hour changes--if the hours are extended, more FPs will become available. During our AK day they extended evening hours a month out, then morning hours 1-2 weeks out, then evening hours again the day before, and then evening hours one more time when the park was already open.

Good luck!

This, definitely. We got our second FOP FP this way a couple weeks before our trip. At that point I could have picked up several different days of my trip if I had wanted them.