Just Back (Dec 3-11). Refreshing for 7 & HS FP Drops

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Just got back from another great trip. I was nervous going into this one because I rely heavily on refreshing for FP's night before and day of but normally for only 3 people....this trip was 7 people so I didn't know what to expect. Here are some pointers from my trip.

Absolutely break it up into groups of 3 & 4 when refreshing and go for overlapping times when looking for anything popular. Stuff like Dumbo just look for 7, it will be fine. I usually work on the group of 4 first as it will be a bit more difficult and then do the group of 3 to match/overlap.

Will this work for rides such as FOP & SDD? YES! I had the start of the days all nicely laid out with FP's selected and AK planned for 2 days near the end of the trip. After 2 days everyone decided they wanted to do AK the next day! My heart kind of sank a bit knowing that FOP would be the highlight and assuming the odds would be low. That night I was able to get overlapping FP's for the 7 of us for an AM time slot for FOP. One of the things I personally wanted to do this trip was ride SDD at night but of course I was not willing to hold up an entire day of refreshing for 1 evening FP. During the rain one afternoon I managed to get SDD for that night for the 7 of us. The only ride that I didn't look to add day of was 7DMT because we did it once standby right before our MVMCP night and everyone preferred other rides. All other rides we were able to add with reasonably short waits (sometimes we would just go watch a show or grab a snack to fill some time).

It does take more patience and more flexibility than refreshing for a smaller group but it does work.

Now to the Hollywood Studios FP drops. I posted about it a few weeks ago but kind of tucked it away into another thread....didn't want to jinx it for my trip. It is something I watched for weeks leading up to my trip and now can say that for at least 5+ weeks it has worked including during my trip. Every day that I have checked I have noticed 2 FP drops for HS for all of the TSL rides. Same times every day. At 9:31AM it opens up a lot of FP times for all TSL rides including SDD for FP's between 11-12 (start times). At 2:31PM it drops FP's for TSL for 4-5. We used these drops both times one day for SDD. Again we broke it up into 3/4 because I didn't want to risk it not working on a larger group so I do not know how well it works for groups larger than 4. I watched again this morning at 9:31 and it worked. To note, if SDD is down in the morning there is a chance it might not be included in the FP drop (noticed this 1 time a couple of weeks ago). I also do not guarantee this will continue to work but it has been consistent and it did work for us.

I just wanted to post because I do tend to promote refreshing as a great way to plan a trip but also know that many groups are larger than my normal group.[/
 
Thanks for the info. I have to book for a party of 11. Last year we had 12. I didn’t change our passes too much then. We have less time this year so that might come in handy
 
Help. Here now and I can not figure out a quick way to ‘refresh’ in the MDE app. I swear I’m not technically challenged.
I keep changing the time I’m searching for then I have to search thru the list of available fp+ . Am I able to refresh for just the ride I’m interested?
 


Help. Here now and I can not figure out a quick way to ‘refresh’ in the MDE app. I swear I’m not technically challenged.
I keep changing the time I’m searching for then I have to search thru the list of available fp+ . Am I able to refresh for just the ride I’m interested?

That's how it works which is why you see the recommendation for people to grab the first time they see for a ride they're interested in and then modify it. Once you have a ride and are trying to modify it, it always shows first in the list. It's a pain to refresh for 7DMT until you snag that first time. Good luck.
 
Help. Here now and I can not figure out a quick way to ‘refresh’ in the MDE app. I swear I’m not technically challenged.
I keep changing the time I’m searching for then I have to search thru the list of available fp+ . Am I able to refresh for just the ride I’m interested?

Outside of MK it's easier because if you are looking for tier 1 rides they show up at the top when they are available. If they aren't showing at the top just refresh. For MK @PrincessWithABlaster is correct, just get what you can and modify.
 
So I had read a little bit @JETSDAD had posted about FOP earlier in this post. Kept in the back of my mind, but forgot about it today. I coincidentally happened to be refreshing for FP’s at 3.01 today, and low and behold lots of FOP FP’s showed up for between 4 and 5pm!

We rope dropped FOP in the morning, then were able to ride FP again later in the day. Thanks so much for this thread, some very important info!!
 


So I had read a little bit @JETSDAD had posted about FOP earlier in this post. Kept in the back of my mind, but forgot about it today. I coincidentally happened to be refreshing for FP’s at 3.01 today, and low and behold lots of FOP FP’s showed up for between 4 and 5pm!

We rope dropped FOP in the morning, then were able to ride FP again later in the day. Thanks so much for this thread, some very important info!!

That's great! I'm glad that it worked out and it's nice to get some more confirmation on that drop!
 
I agree with the other poster, I had very limited luck with the refresh. Especially at Magic Kingdom. In the early morning it worked some at EPCOT, but that was it. I am just saying don't count on it.
 
So I had read a little bit @JETSDAD had posted about FOP earlier in this post. Kept in the back of my mind, but forgot about it today. I coincidentally happened to be refreshing for FP’s at 3.01 today, and low and behold lots of FOP FP’s showed up for between 4 and 5pm!

We rope dropped FOP in the morning, then were able to ride FP again later in the day. Thanks so much for this thread, some very important info!!

So there definitely is something to this one as suspected. I haven't followed it enough yet on a daily basis to know how reliable it is but they definitely are drops worth keeping an eye on!!


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I agree with the other poster, I had very limited luck with the refresh. Especially at Magic Kingdom. In the early morning it worked some at EPCOT, but that was it. I am just saying don't count on it.

What time of year did you visit and how many in your group? MK is generally considered to be the easiest park for quick, multiple refreshes.
 
So there definitely is something to this one as suspected. I haven't followed it enough yet on a daily basis to know how reliable it is but they definitely are drops worth keeping an eye on!!
I’ve been keeping an eye on this one and looks to be pretty reliable! I wish there was an AM drop as well like at HS, but it’s still pretty rad for those who book later than 60 days (we often book last-minute getaways, so will be using this approach for our weekend trip in 2 weeks).
 
Just got back from another great trip. I was nervous going into this one because I rely heavily on refreshing for FP's night before and day of but normally for only 3 people....this trip was 7 people so I didn't know what to expect. Here are some pointers from my trip.

Absolutely break it up into groups of 3 & 4 when refreshing and go for overlapping times when looking for anything popular. Stuff like Dumbo just look for 7, it will be fine. I usually work on the group of 4 first as it will be a bit more difficult and then do the group of 3 to match/overlap.

Will this work for rides such as FOP & SDD? YES! I had the start of the days all nicely laid out with FP's selected and AK planned for 2 days near the end of the trip. After 2 days everyone decided they wanted to do AK the next day! My heart kind of sank a bit knowing that FOP would be the highlight and assuming the odds would be low. That night I was able to get overlapping FP's for the 7 of us for an AM time slot for FOP. One of the things I personally wanted to do this trip was ride SDD at night but of course I was not willing to hold up an entire day of refreshing for 1 evening FP. During the rain one afternoon I managed to get SDD for that night for the 7 of us. The only ride that I didn't look to add day of was 7DMT because we did it once standby right before our MVMCP night and everyone preferred other rides. All other rides we were able to add with reasonably short waits (sometimes we would just go watch a show or grab a snack to fill some time).

It does take more patience and more flexibility than refreshing for a smaller group but it does work.

Now to the Hollywood Studios FP drops. I posted about it a few weeks ago but kind of tucked it away into another thread....didn't want to jinx it for my trip. It is something I watched for weeks leading up to my trip and now can say that for at least 5+ weeks it has worked including during my trip. Every day that I have checked I have noticed 2 FP drops for HS for all of the TSL rides. Same times every day. At 9:31AM it opens up a lot of FP times for all TSL rides including SDD for FP's between 11-12 (start times). At 2:31PM it drops FP's for TSL for 4-5. We used these drops both times one day for SDD. Again we broke it up into 3/4 because I didn't want to risk it not working on a larger group so I do not know how well it works for groups larger than 4. I watched again this morning at 9:31 and it worked. To note, if SDD is down in the morning there is a chance it might not be included in the FP drop (noticed this 1 time a couple of weeks ago). I also do not guarantee this will continue to work but it has been consistent and it did work for us.

I just wanted to post because I do tend to promote refreshing as a great way to plan a trip but also know that many groups are larger than my normal group.

Will confirm... had a 1:25 SDD FP. Got off the ride at 2:30, about a minute later I refreshed twice and got another SDD for an hour and a half later. It was awesome. This was Jan 10th
 
Will confirm... had a 1:25 SDD FP. Got off the ride at 2:30, about a minute later I refreshed twice and got another SDD for an hour and a half later. It was awesome. This was Jan 10th

I love SDD!! lol I'm like a little kid on that ride more than any other and getting extra same day FP's for it is a lot of fun! Glad you were able to catch one of the drops!!
 
I love SDD!! lol I'm like a little kid on that ride more than any other and getting extra same day FP's for it is a lot of fun! Glad you were able to catch one of the drops!!

My 15 yo DD is too afraid to try it. She is afraid of heights and the farthest from a thrill-seeker. I can barely get her to go on 7DMT. She watched a YouTube video of SDD, gave me my phone back, and said, “I’m sorry. I WANT to want to try it.” So we got a FP for TSMM instead. Oh well :(
 
So I often recommend looking night before for FP's on the hardest to get rides. I personally find 10-12 to be the best time to look. I decided to take a look around 11 tonight to see about getting the hardest to get FP at each park for tomorrow (3 people). 7DMT took under a minute (I'll admit that is not something to expect to happen frequently) but then it only took 23 minutes to get them all. SDD is one that I would have taken more time to try to move up if I were there now but just to show that it's always worth looking the night before.

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Thanks @JETSDAD! This gives me hope for getting the 7DMT I didn’t try for at 60+ days out because I didn’t think my granddaughter would like it (wrong). I tried tonight from home just to see and sure enough 2 times popped up. Of note, I did have to choose 7:00 pm to get these afternoon times, otherwise nothing showed up.
 

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