I was reading Brian Bennett's FP guide (very thurough, good guid) and was confused by something. He claims that "The system doesn't operate on how many Fastpasses are issued for each attraction, but rather is based on boarding times." Can this be true? I don't think it is. For instance, there have been many times that I've gotten a FP for a ride with, say, a 2 hour standby line, but the return time is 5 hours away (Splash, HMH come to mind).

I think it's simply a case of self regulation. There ARE a certain number of FPs distributed for each 5 minute time interval. If a ride is more popular/has a longer standby line, more people are likely to take FPs. So it stands to reason that the longer the standby line, the further out the return time will be because the early times will be taken more quickly as more people want FP.

Unless, of course, WDW's FP system is slightly different than Disneyland's.

Originally posted by Ghoulish Delight
I was reading Brian Bennett's FP guide (very thurough, good guid) :confused: ;)



I was wondering the same thing. I've been told at times that they had given out all the fastpasses for the day. Is this because the return time was past the closing time of the park (due to the long stand-by time)?

If the clock ticks the time at 5 minute intervals, and it is physically possible for the machines to spit out FPs at so many a minute, that would prevent too many given out in that 5 minute time frame. And they can close one or two machines to slow it down even more. So they can regulate the distribution that way to some degree.