Interesting. I have read about a tiny notation at the far bottom right corner of the FastPasses. It says GP and then time. It apparently stands for Grace Period and is 15 minutes past the end time printed on the fast pass. I've seen a pic and for a fastpass that was from 9:05-10:05, there's a notation saying GP 10:20. The person tried to enter at 10:15 and was allowed access....
ETA: I read farther in the story and they were allowed access a few minutes late at a couple of attractions but not EVERY one. So, while YMMV, probably still best to stay within the guidelines to avoid tears.
Last edited by TinaMouse; 04-07-2012 at 08:31 AM. Reason: update
Working hard for that next WDW trip!
I have been planning our park touring plans today. I obviously abused FP more than I admitted. This is going to seriously hamper how we tour the parks!
If no-one out there understands, start your own revolution and cut out the middle man (Billy Bragg)
The interesting thing is that Im not seeing the negative buzz regarding the FP enforcement like I thought I would... Either Im not looking at the right places for input or its really not as bad as people thought it would be.
And with Spring Break season in full swing, you would think that it would be all the buzz if it was problematic.
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The search function is like the Force. It may take practice, but the more you use it, the more control you will have over it!
I agree. I thought we'd hear all kinds of stories about CMs turning people away. Maybe there were far more obeying the rule than we thought!
Working hard for that next WDW trip!
I hope so, too Tina. You read my mind on this one.
Stephanie
My take on this is that over the past few weeks, with all the online discussion about this issue, I think people actually realized that they were taking advantage of the system, and now it's working as it was designed to do. So as scooby said, even though the new system is going to affect how she tours this next time, the "fault" (if you can even call it that) is with the person, not the system.
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
Ill go ahead and ask... going off of what Dan mentioned....
Outside of some people having to change some of their FP-related habits, has anyone felt like it improved the system? As an (but not hte only) example: Was the FP line truly a faster wait or did it seem like you still waited longer than necessary? (Ive done that on TT and Soarin' with a FP on occasion.)
Disney-Inspired Author and Blogger
CoHost of the Behind The Ears Podcast... Check it out on iTunes
Admin of The WDW Community Facebook page.
The search function is like the Force. It may take practice, but the more you use it, the more control you will have over it!
Our LONGEST wait Christmas 2010 was with a FP on Soarin! And it was in the proper window.
If no-one out there understands, start your own revolution and cut out the middle man (Billy Bragg)
Not knowing the full circumstances, scooby, but that sounds like exactly the type of imbalance that the new regulations are attempting to fix. The whole concept of the FP was that your wait would be minimal with a FP. If the FP queue is way long, that's probably the result of others delaying their FP usage till later, and they all just kinda showed up at the same time. With the regs, in theory it should be a more or less steady stream of folks going through the FP queue.
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
My family and I were at WDW from 3/11 through 3/16. We used FP as often as we could and it seemed like the FP line moved more quickly. Having said that, we only visit DL or WDW once a year, and I have no statics to back that up, but it seemed to us that we got on the rides where we used FB quite quickly. I think we used FP three times for Star Tours and we always got on the ride pretty quickly.
Brian
The only time I ever get held up in a FASTPASS line is when the Cast Member in charge of the merge point allows far too many regular line members past, or at a rate far greater than what seems to be needed. But I guess this could possibly be a result of too many folks returning to the FASTPASS queue at the same time.
Speaking of that, does anyone know just how many Fastpasses are given out for each five-minute increment? I've had a FASTPASS machine spit out a time that was five minutes later than the rest of my family's tickets.
Seems like I always get stuck at Peter Pan. Even with the fast pass, you can wait quite a bit before you merge into the near-front of the regular queue. I HATE getting stopped there and then watching everyone not understanding the FastPass give you the evil eye as you walk by. LOL.
Working hard for that next WDW trip!
It depends on the hourly capacity of the ride. The higher the capacity, the more fastpasses will be given out.
But remember, even if your fastpass lists a return time 5 mins later the the rest of your party, you still have 55 minutes of overlap that you can return together.
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" -- Donald Duck
Has anyone recently used a fastpass beyond it's printed time without issue?
Someone told me that Disney was going to get stricter on the use of Fastpasses during the window of time printed on each pass. I know that we can never use one before the first time and thye MUST be used in the same day, but in the past, we have often used our fastpasses in the evening, no matter what time we collected them earlier in the day.
Thanks for the help! 80 days and counting!!!
So Excited!
I believe they started putting warning signs on the fastpass machines and were strictly enforcing - I think it started about a month or so ago.
Not sure if they've continued it, but I anticipate so because rumor on the DL side of htings (where they weren't yet enforcing when WDW started) is that DL is about ready to start.
I'll see if I can find that thread.
ETA: I was off a little bit - started enforcing at WDW beginning of March.
If you click here - it goes to that thread, starting with an image of new fastpasses.
Cathy
Everything I have read and heard says this is in place with a brief 'grace' window only. Will completely change how we tour.
I haven't heard or seen anyone being able to use the FastPass beyond the window time at Disney World. That did start back on March 8th (or very close to that date).
I'm just back from my annual Memorial Day trip and this was the first time with the enforcement policy. Quite honestly, I had more of a difficult time trying to fill in time before my dining reservation than I did for any FastPass I had in my hand. It's an hour window, you know what your times are before you insert your admission ticket to get the FastPass so all you need to do is plan accordingly. I didn't bother to see if the five minute grace period before the window or the supposed fifteen minute grace period after the window was being honored. I just used the hour I was given for the attraction.
AlbertaMinnie, I merged your thread with one that is already in progress. Im sure you can find a lot of info here.
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The search function is like the Force. It may take practice, but the more you use it, the more control you will have over it!
When we were at DHS 2 weeks ago, the enforcement definitely changed the way we did fast passes. We found ourselves criss crossing the park a bunch to get what we wanted. However, the lines seemed to move more quickly (FastPass & Standby) and for the first time we were able to make multiple rides on TSM, RnRC, Star Tours and ToT, so maybe the intent is working to everyone's advantage. Granted we had no ADR's. So I guess we will find out more when we go back in July for a full week at all of the parks and have ADR's.
Thanks for merging GusMan and thanks so much everyone for all the information - it REALLY will change the way we tour the parks.
We were very guilty of collecting FP's all day long and saving them to use all night long.
By reading some of the comments, maybe the enforcement has turned out to be a really good thing!
66 sleeps and counting......!!
So Excited!
AlbertaMinnnie, please don't take this personally as it's in no way directed to you as many people have admitted that saving fast passes and using them whenever is their standard practice, but as a Disney parks veteran going to either DL or WDW on a regular basis since 1967, it never occured to me in the least to ever try to use a fast pass beyond the printed return time. I'm not making any kind of judgment, in fact I'm a little embarassed I never thought of doing it, but in all honesty, it never even crossed my mind once, since the fast pass system was established 13 years ago. (Maybe that's the result of being taught by nuns for 9 years!) I've probably thrown away dozens of fast passes over the years because I found myself, for whatever reason, outside the return time window! I am glad the new time enforcement does seem to be making the wait shorter for both fast passers and stand bys!
I've been in on this discussion for quite a few months now. And while I also never used FPs outside of the printed window, I don't really blame people for not obeying a policy that Disney itself went out of its way to NOT enforce, and they made it clear that people could use their FPs whenever they wanted. I do think this new enforcement will cause the lines to even out more, which was one of the design specs of the program in the first place.
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
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