Suppose hypothetically that someone is planning to stay at WDW from 7-14th June. They have a 14 day WDW ticket. Suppose they then book a one night stay at a WDW resort on 1st June. This opens up the 60 day FPP window for the entire duration of their park ticket, yes? So that they are effectively getting 60 + 7 for their first actual night and 60 + 14 for their last.
They then either just don’t show up to the reservation, or they cancel it and pay the cancellation fee. Presumably cancelling within their “real” FPP window so that the FPPs aren’t also cancelled.
Would that work? Would such a person be a bad person? Would you spit at them if you saw them in the street and say “boooo!”
Edited to add the quote I was replying to, for clarity:
Yes, this.
So in the Prof’s case, it wouldn’t help with TSL.
And the “cancel after booking FPs” plan is a loophole they could close if they wanted to. There is a warning issued I believe if you do this; whether they have followed through with it is less clear. But they could do.
I won’t go into the moral question, but Hamlet said “…there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
He also saw ghosts, and said “There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your touring plan” so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
But wanted to throw out there that the Backside of Magic podcast has talked about booking leading reservations to gain an edge on reserving FPP earlier in a few recent episodes. They go into the specifics of timing.
At some point doesn’t this become more about gaming the system to see if you can get away with it than about doing it because you truly need/want the advantage you’re getting?
Not directing this specifically at @profmatt, more a general question to others - including BSOM podcast guys who I love.
Originally (as in yesterday) my plan was to book a room for my first night and actually stay in it in order to get a slightly earlier jump on the FPPs than my current reservation, which is for my last night.
But having looked at the options I wasn’t excited about any of the hotels, many of which were hugely expensive. And there were practical difficulties with staying my first night on-property.
But then it occurred to me I could book an All-Star room for my first night and just not show up.
And then it occurred to me that if I’m not showing up, I may as well book it for 14 nights ahead of my last day and get the full 60 + 14 advantage.
But I’m not clear whether this would work for my whole trip on day one.
As for morality, no-one objected to me booking a room to get the 60 day advantage when I was actually going to stay in it. It’s not clear to me — given that I’m paying for the room — why it would become wrong if I don’t stay in it.
As someone online wrote, if you go to Burger King, buy a Whopper, thrown the burger in the bin and just eat the bread, then that’s up to you. It’s you’re burger. You paid for it. You can do what you like.
I can’t imagine some unfortunate family would be sobbing because my one night stay at a huge hotel completely scuppers their plans to go to Disney World.
This is a valid question. The more people fine ways to take advantage of technical loopholes, the more we see Disney having to put in place countermeasures, which ultimately impacts the experience of those who are trying to work the system legitimately.
It is much bigger than Disney, of course. The fact is, in government, more and more laws are required because more and more people find ways to take advantage of the system rather than doing the right thing. If everyone did the right thing, the need for more restrictive laws becomes, well, unnecessary.
So, returning to the original question of morality here, I say live by the golden rule.
I was being funny. I know full on about your friend. He has this habit of saying he’s not changing anything… but I’m glad he keeps at it because it’s a lot of fun for those of us playing along at home.
We routinely give advice to people on the dining plan as to how to maximise their benefit. E.g. pick expensive dishes, at expensive restaurants, go for the Fantasmic package, etc. That’s the same thing, isn’t it?
Might be. I guess I don’t make my plans according to any of that, though. I make my plans according to what I want to do on vacation. I suppose the FPP comes into play, though, as something your friend may want to do on his/her vacation.
The point, though, is that you’re doing it so that you can get a jump start on the FPP before everyone else. That means you are, potentially, taking away an opportunity for someone else to obtain a FPP legitimately. Okay, granted, you are “paying” for that right by paying for a room about a week earlier…but in that same week, other families who are trying to get FPP in their 60 day window can’t.
Your Whopper example isn’t quite accurate. It is more like you are at BK ahead of others, and BK only has 1 more Whopper left. But since you are first in line, you buy it and then throw it away. Yes. YOu paid for it, and had every right to buy it. But it also means that the next person in line who wanted a Whopper can’t have one simply because you decided to pay for one you didn’t want.
Well, to be fair, I don’t make such recommendations. Instead, I would only recommend people buying the Dining Plan if they already intended to eat more expensive meals, etc. But you are comparing apples to oranges.
Actually, someone reported recently that there was one random night in the middle of the week they were planning to go on which their resort had no availability. They were bummed and looking at staying offsite as a result.
He has this habit of saying he’s not changing anything… but I’m glad he keeps at it because it’s a lot of fun for those of us playing along at home. 