Day of FP's - What, if anything, did we do wrong?

Ditto to the above. Curious too - how many people in your group? Also was the CL 5 the predicted or actual?

I’m wondering if you tried everything in the above post. I’m hoping that process will work for me in a couple weeks, but there’s never a guarantee.

1 Like

CL’s were 5’s and 6’s? When were you there? Just got back sounds like xmas time?

What does, “I tried for 10 minutes to get anything mean?” to me, trying for 10 minutes means refreshing about 200 times, give or take. The reason I say this, is that the 1st time, I didn’t quite fully understand that searching for a 4th FP meant FURIOUSLY refreshing, and not just doing a search once or twice while on the way to our next attraction. And at that time, I only found the same shows you mentioned, Philharmagic, Bug, Muppets, etc. My last trip, I figured it out. You have to be “in the zone,” and know what you want, and what time you want it. Once you figure out what works for you to refresh, and scan the results in a split second, and refresh again, possibly change party sizes, go down to two member party, single party member, all the little silly tricks - we CRUSHED Fastpasses. Just CRUSHED em. Possibly a lower crowd level than you, possibly just luck of the draw. I’d be confident in getting almost anything day of on a mid level cl day, but, you gotta be diligent and fast on the refresh. I even scored a same day FOP - took about ten minutes of face buried in phone, but we were waiting for Lion King to start, so I could focus.

7 Likes

Ok, with this method in mind…there is no way this is flying with my family. If this “face in the phone” won’t fly with your family, what should your FPP strategy be? What times should you aim for when choosing if you’re not going to be able to sit and refresh. I can’t even imagine how pissed my husband would be if I did that all day… sounds fun for a solo trip or a ride-driven trip. What about a “family-time” trip?

2 Likes

Curious why “face in the phone” won’t work. My family is very anti screens in lieu of family time (as am I), but when I explained it was worth me putting my attention on my screen for 5 minutes to avoid standing in line for 30+, they got it. I also explained that this behavior will likely take place while waiting for something (ex: food, parade, ride, character, etc).

Perhaps that might help?

That being said if it still won’t work for your fam, I would create a touring plan and then look for the longest wait. Add a FP for that one and then look for the next longest (keeping in mind tiers if you are planning HS, AK or EP), and so on for the third. Then you know you are at least saving the most time possible.

4 Likes

I don’t think it requires “face in the phone”. I search/modify/etc during “down” time. While waiting for people to use the restroom, while waiting to board an attraction, occasionally a bit while walking from place to place. I definitely don’t put FPP ahead of interacting with my family.

6 Likes

I agree. My family would rather I spend 5-10 min looking for FPs than spend 45 min in line. That leaves 35 minutes of more quality family time, IMO.

1 Like

See OBNurseNh’s post.
For me, it was a combo of face in phone along with what OBNurseNH says.
I explained it to my better half. On our next trip, if we go again, we will switch off “Fp Duty.” On this last trip, she got the hang of it, and scored a few.

Most of our FP hunting was in line after tapping in, or walking on the way to the next attraction, or while seated, waiting for a show, or on People Mover, or waiting for Bug, Frozen SIng Along, etc, you get the drift. At times when searching seemed to take a few minutes, that’s what I mean by “face in phone.” Once you score, you’re good. you can’t book two at a time, so you have to wait to tap in to the next one to search.

Here’s a basic plan of attack I’ve used for staying in one park am until you plan to leave (if hopping, then of course, do what works best for you:)
Line up the 3 FP’s early.
DO what you can before the 1st FP.
Tap in for that first fp, and think about trying to modify that 2nd fp (if it makes sense.)
Once you tap in for that 2nd fp, think about modifying that 3rd fp if it makes sense.
Once you tap in for that 3rd, start searching for the 4th

Schedule the easier loading lower wait attractions/shows for when the park gets busy, so you can score extra fastpasses for the good attractions while you are navigating through the stuff you won’t mind missing too much, OR, you can get back to with minimal wait.Shows are great for this, IMO, along with constant loaders, like People Mover, or breaks, things like that. And if you are in a fastpass line, after you tap in, start searching for the next one while you are waiting.

I let my fam know ahead of time, that I’d be searching, so sometimes, I’d kinda be in the background while we were walking, or waiting in line. At times, I asked the wife to lead the pack while I kept up the rear while searching. I didn’t feel like I missed out on ANYWHERE NEAR as much as I did for our first trip when I was the only leader of the pack. Actually, once I got the hang of the FP hunt, it was far more relaxing. You can tell the ppl that are fp hunting. Several times, a few ppl commented while I was on the hunt when we were waiting in line. I’d pump my fist, and tell the fam something like, “Just scored another a Splash for 5 m from now!” and the other “hunters” in line would throw me a “NICE!” or, “Sweet!” or, “Good one!”

Also - @Kkerr76 - When your husband wants to do a specific ride two or three times, maybe he’ll understand that 5 minutes of searching is WAAAAAAAY better than being in line for 30 minutes. If I were you, I’d try to enlist him in being a fastpass hunter. When you score exactly what you want, when you want it, it’s a bit of a rush.

5 Likes

I agree- whether this works is fairly family-dependent. The only way it works for us is because I can’t ride a lot of the rides, so while I’m waiting I"m looking. And when they’re done riding, I’m done. We don’t go to WDW often enough for me to spend a lot of time doing this, there are things I’d rather be doing (like, everything there :grin: ).

My family accuses me of tuning out enough already without adding the phone into the mix. I have the ability to be lost in my own thoughts at any given moment- which annoys others and embarrasses me at times. So, more of that I really don’t need, for any reason or length of time.

So for our next trip, I’m buying club level FP, which pretty much eliminates the need for, and/or the ability to get, day-of FPs. Although I might start looking after we use our first 3 “free” FP in the morning, for FP windows that open after our CLFP in the afternoon/evening. However, with afternoon breaks, and the occasional ADR, this just doesn’t leave a lot of time for more FP. This is not a solution for everyone, obviously, but it’s a way for us to maximize our Fps without spending a lot of time on it.

4 Likes

I think that’s the thing. It drives DH crazy when I’m texting a friend or playing a game, I’m not sure if he’d get FP searching. I also can’t decide if it would be fun or make my anxiety worse? I’m anxious about how my anxiety is going to go this trip (ha! See what I did there :upside_down_face:?) I’m trying as much as possible to minimize this. DH does not enjoy technology and I don’t think would enjoy doing FP hunting at all. I guess I’ll just schedule our day like we aren’t going to use extra FPs, but try it out on our first day (which will be a MK day). Then if we get some extras great, but if it’s causing problems I can put away my phone and make peace with it. It’s all about the flexibility, right? Plan and read so you can swerve!

6 Likes

It really didn’t take that long most of the time. Most of the time I did it in lines when my family was looking at the queue or talking about things not relevant to me (I have a husband and 3 boys. Discussions on Pokémon and the intricacies of Star Wars and Marvel do not interest me much.). The few times I did it outside the queue, my husband would lead the way, but most of the time it only took a few minutes. My husband remembers PPF taking longer, but really not a big deal. The more you do it the faster you get at it. My husband takes longer doing it because he typically does not work the FP system.

4 Likes

Yep. For me, making a plan isn’t so much about executing it as all the learning I acquire while designing it. So we might have a clue which way to swerve. :joy:

One other thing I might do is put my eldest on the hunt. He’s very tech-savvy and hides in his phone anyway (although he’s getting better about that). He might really enjoy the process, whereas I don’t. And he’s smarter than DH and I put together, so if there’s a way, he’ll find it. And won’t mess around with my MDE.

5 Likes

I mostly searched while in lines or waiting for stuff to start where I’d otherwise be people watching or just sitting/standing. Also, it really doesn’t take that much concentration like texting to just refresh and scan.
We will have 6 people this trip. Is it reasonable to get multiple sets (3 and 3 or 2 and 2 and 2) of FPP for same attraction that overlap? I’ve only tried this trick with much success for parties of 2 or 3.

2 Likes

I did the constant modifying while my family was on Small World to land a Soarin’ FP for the evening. After Small World was over, I realized that I just missed by 13 month old son’s reaction to Small World (he was on my lap) while I had my head in my phone. I was really annoyed with myself and didn’t do any more modifying while we were on rides. Did it cost my some better Fastpasses? … I’m sure it did. But I decided it wasn’t worth it. I just went with the best FP options available (usually not great) when I signed on and then if the kids were talking a break, I would modify during those times. It’s a balance between how much you care about getting the best FP options vs how much you want to avoid your head in your phone.

7 Likes

The problem is, they think it ALL should be relevant to me. :rofl:

The amount of military history I endure from DS20, Pokemon Go from DH, discussion of unknown ppl in her grad school from DD- it never ends. And they really want me to know this stuff. Thank God for DS26 who can’t talk about his work, lol.

2 Likes

Splitting the group is what I will be trying for a few. Hoping it works. Have my mom, my sis and me all set up on MDE so we
cam divide and conquer if needed.

1 Like

Yes! No FPP modifying while on rides! (Particularly dark rides where phone glow can be distracting.)

3 Likes

We tend to get our original 3 fastpasses and use them before looking for any others. I am not willing to deal with US roaming charges so I rely solely on park wifi. If it is not working well, we just find the nearest kiosk and see what is available. One of the only times I was looking for a fastpass in line was while waiting for FOP. I knew we would be a while even with our fastpass so I took a few minutes to track down a fastpass for KS for after dinner. Got exactly the time I wanted without modifying.

I found that there weren’t a lot of day of fastpasses for the big rides, but we mostly managed them either at rope drop or with our original three fastpasses. Our touring plan got us on everything we wanted with minimal waits even without a lot of same day fastpasses.

1 Like

Luckily, my husband knows better. :laughing:

1 Like

Yes, we overlapped frequently with 5.

2 Likes

The MK day was predicted 3 and actual 5. I probably did 15 refreshes over the ten minutes for party of 5 or 7 so I think that was the mistake. I did not realize how many refreshes were required to hit those good rides. I would hit on something marginally useful to us (like a late Splash) and just grab it and sit on it rather than try to look for something else.