Instant return FP is the Bomb!

[Gisele]

Matterhorn still has single rider line.

It does? Hmm it's my understanding it was done away with in favor of it's new FP line.

 

[nutshell]

It does? Hmm it's my understanding it was done away with in favor of it's new FP line.

It still has single rider, along with FP.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Hmm interesting. Thank you. I had found this subject an eye glazing over experience when watching you tube videos about it. Lol And didn't have the patience to read all of the posts here about it. It sounds like it isn't going to be much of an improvement if any at all.
Sigh...

It's an improvement because you have the potential to pull a FP and use it immediately, so you can use more FP in a day. Also, there's potentially less criss-crossing and FP running and all that...

I thought the FP system was fine, but this seems like a nice upgrade.

 

[KatieCharlotte]

They just removed the automatic 40 minutes minimum wait. People are hypothesizing about them changing the FP volume, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case according to the employees I've talked to. They literally just stopped saying that at, for instance, 10:00, the soonest time was 10:40, and they made it 10:00 instead.

The parks were also not especially crowded when this took effect, which had exaggerated the effect.

And not having an automatic 40 minute wait time opened up more FP early in the morning, which has a ripple effect all day on the rides that don't run out of FP. People who pulled FP at 9:20 a.m. got them for 9:20 a.m., instead of 10 a.m., so there were 10 a.m. FP available for the people who pulled them at 10 a.m., etc. Even when instant FP weren't available, the times would be sooner than under the previous system. The only negative would be a slowdown in standby lines at the start of the day, but you can avoid standby by pulling the instant FP return. I have no idea whether Disney has also increased the available FP in anticipation of MaxPass, as some people have theorized, but just eliminating the 40 min minimum would have a noticeable effect, especially when the crowds were lighter.

 

[mom2rtk]

And not having an automatic 40 minute wait time opened up more FP early in the morning, which has a ripple effect all day on the rides that don't run out of FP. People who pulled FP at 9:20 a.m. got them for 9:20 a.m., instead of 10 a.m., so there were 10 a.m. FP available for the people who pulled them at 10 a.m., etc. Even when instant FP weren't available, the times would be sooner than under the previous system. The only negative would be a slowdown in standby lines at the start of the day, but you can avoid standby by pulling the instant FP return. I have no idea whether Disney has also increased the available FP in anticipation of MaxPass, as some people have theorized, but just eliminating the 40 min minimum would have a noticeable effect, especially when the crowds were lighter.

It will be interesting to watch the impact of this over time. Those going right now really have a great opportunity. People have been conditioned for years to not pull FPs early because of the return time wait. Once people figure out the instant access thing, there will be more usage early in the day.

 

[KatieCharlotte]

It will be interesting to watch the impact of this over time. Those going right now really have a great opportunity. People have been conditioned for years to not pull FPs early because of the return time wait. Once people figure out the instant access thing, there will be more usage early in the day.

Hopefully they won't figure it out until after my trip next month. Our last Disney trip was during the period when FP+ was strictly limited to three per day and the booking system was glitchy, so it would be nice to have good timing for once.

 

[Gisele]

It still has single rider, along with FP.

Oh nice. Gracias
That gives me one less thing to complain about then. Lol

 

[Gisele]

Matterhorn still has single rider line.

Good to know. Thank you

 

[TeamTnC]

Ok so I have not been to DL in about 8 years, kids are now 17 and 15 and can't wait as well as DW. I use to know every trick in the book, now I feel like a newbie all over.
I understand the instant time,s that sounds great, but knowing that, how do you incorporate those with the ones that don't seem to be instant, meaning when do I get a FP for SM, the Splash, etc. How do you incorporate those with the instant ones? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wenrob]

Ok so I have not been to DL in about 8 years, kids are now 17 and 15 and can't wait as well as DW. I use to know every trick in the book, now I feel like a newbie all over.
I understand the instant time,s that sounds great, but knowing that, how do you incorporate those with the ones that don't seem to be instant, meaning when do I get a FP for SM, the Splash, etc. How do you incorporate those with the instant ones? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Use the app to keep an eye on the times. Pull a couple "instant" ones then pull one with a longer wait time. Kind of like riding standby first then getting your FP.

 

[TeamTnC]

Use the app to keep an eye on the times. Pull a couple "instant" ones then pull one with a longer wait time. Kind of like riding standby first then getting your FP.

So is there an app now that lists FP times?

 

[Skyegirl1999]

So is there an app now that lists FP times?

The official Disneyland app. When you click on a ride with FP, it will show you the current return times for the FPs being issued.

 

[wenrob]

So is there an app now that lists FP times?

Yep, just look up Disneyland in your App Store. We found it pretty accurate.

 

[wenrob]

@TeamTnC I forgot to add in my original post that we'd pull two "instant" FPs, the longer FP and then go back to ride them so that by the time we were done with the right now ones we didn't have much of a wait for the longer one.

 

[TeamTnC]

The official Disneyland app. When you click on a ride with FP, it will show you the current return times for the FPs being issued.

App works great, thank you for the suggestion. Now I need to figure out when to pick them up for Space Mountain and GOTG and not lose the ability to hit all the quick ones. That will really slow things down.

 

[Steven G]

I was at Disneyland this weekend. My son and I were at park opening on Sunday at DL. We were a little late but still before official opening, so there were lots of people in front of us waiting to get into tomorrowland and space mountain. Typical long line for standby, so I got the fastpass for space mountain, and it was for 8:05-9:05, which was instant. We got in fastpass line and I believe I was the first person to use fastpass for sm that morning on space mountain. We basically got in front of lots of people that were using standby.
I figure that eventually, more people will know about instant fastpasses, so this trick won't work as well, but I still found it humorous. I know it may not be best use of fastpass, but we only wanted to ride space mountain once.

We did same thing for btmrr, and instant fastpass.

GOTG ran out of fastpasses about 11:30am, so we had to do standby, oh well. It was about 60 min, maybe 70...

 

[bdiddy]

The heat is keeping a lot of people away. I know of two different families who were going to go today but changed their mind due to the weather... and that's just people I know. Since it looks like it will be cooler in a couple of days, they're just going then instead.

It might make Wednesday/Thursday busier since SoCal APs may have looked at this week and decided to wait for the nicer weather then... which is exactly what the two families I know did.

When you say "the heat", what kind of heat are you talking about? I'm having a hard time imaging how it will be out there! We live in NE Ohio and we get some pretty crazy extremes here. I've seen everything from -25 to 100. Our summers are usually anywhere from 75-95 with average humidity although sometimes it can spike up. Like today we spent it at the zoo and it was 85 and the humidity was 45% and it was hot but SOOOO much more tolerable than Disneyworld in the summer. So it sounds like DL may be more similar to our summer than to Florida. But I'm curious that when you say it's hot for that area, what kind of temps and humidity is that exactly?

 

[camosun]

App works great, thank you for the suggestion. Now I need to figure out when to pick them up for Space Mountain and GOTG and not lose the ability to hit all the quick ones. That will really slow things down.

The best strategy for GoTG, SM, RSR is to ride them standby at opening or during EMH if you have it... but first grab a fastpass for one of them. All 3 of those offer fastpass during EMH.
If you get the fastpass early in the day and it already has a longer return time it doesn't really hurt you because most other rides have short standby lines in the morning.
We would also get a RSR pass before our afternoon break and would have a night return time. GoTG would already be gone by that time.
Also as mentioned above (if you don't mind extra walking), collect one or two instant return fastpasses then get the headliner fastpass. Then go back and ride the instant ones to fill the time as you wait for the headliner.

 

[Robinjay]

It was a very interesting day today! It was beautiful out and maybe high 80s. It was our first visit since the fastpass changes and it it pretty amazing! We were not in a rush or hurry, but felt like it was a fastpass jackpot! Arrived right at rope drop and between 8-1 used 10 fast passes and rode 5 additional rides/attractions. (We had a few more fastpasses that we did not use.) It was not crowded at all, at least it wasn't until the early afternoon when we left.

Star Tours
Buzz
BTMRR
Pirates
Used Star Tours FP
USED BTMRR FP
USED HM FP didn't need though
USED BTMRR FP
USED splash FP
Snack time
USED HM FP
USED BTMRR FP
USED Star Tours FP
Went down Main street, got an iced tea
USED Splah FP
Went to Tom Sawyer's Island
USED HM FP
Went home and had a late lunch.

We had a Space Mountain fastpass, but it was down when we went to ride it and we just didn't feel like going back over there at the end of our visit (and we were hungry). We also pulled an additional BTMRR fast pass that we couldn't get back to use. We didn't rush to make any times and it seemed that with every fastpass we pulled except Space Mountain and the last Splash, return times were within 3 minutes of when we pulled them. It was madness!!! I felt like I was in Vegas or something.

Our first time on BTMRR this morning, they were waiting for the ride to fill before sending it out! I haven't seen that in a long time. Only one train was running.

Maybe it was super slow this morning or this was just a fluke, but at one time six of our fastpasses were all valid in the 10:00 hour. Four of them were all open at one time.

Just wanted to share our experience

 

[Mommy to Kayla]

When you say "the heat", what kind of heat are you talking about? I'm having a hard time imaging how it will be out there! We live in NE Ohio and we get some pretty crazy extremes here. I've seen everything from -25 to 100. Our summers are usually anywhere from 75-95 with average humidity although sometimes it can spike up. Like today we spent it at the zoo and it was 85 and the humidity was 45% and it was hot but SOOOO much more tolerable than Disneyworld in the summer. So it sounds like DL may be more similar to our summer than to Florida. But I'm curious that when you say it's hot for that area, what kind of temps and humidity is that exactly?

It's been quite lovely, weather wise. High 70s since we got in on Thursday. However it's suppose to get back in the 80s this week.