Fasspass Restrictions coming (finally)

[AuburnJen 777]

Maybe this will curb all of the people on other forums telling others to book 10 on a site to get FassPasses.  I doubt it will help a whole lot, but anything is better than letting the status quo go on.

https://chipandco.com/fastpass-restrictions-coming-to-walt-disney-world-340508/

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One of the biggest perks of staying on property at a Walt Disney World is the benefit of the 60-day booking window for FastPass+ reservations. Those who have park only tickets are only able to book 30 days out. Disney has found a way guests are abusing this program, giving some an unfair advantage on those coveted hard to get reservations. Hold on to your Mickey ears, come the beginning of February, a new policy will be set in place to stop the abuse.

 

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Disney has found an alarming number of guests who have been booking room packages to take advantage of the 60-day window, only to cancel their resort hotel room once they are able to book their FastPass+ reservation. This created a “loophole” allowing the guest to keep those hard to get FastPass+ picks ahead of others.

Now, guests who cancel their room reservations will have their FastPass+ reservations canceled as well.  This new policy would immediately also cancel their FastPass+ reservations when their resort rooms are canceled. These guests would have to re-book the reservations once their 30-day window opened for their park only tickets.

 

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This new policy would benefit those who book reservations on property at the Walt Disney World Resorts keeping that extra privilege just for resort guests. 

 

[Breezy2 18]

Nice! This should also make it easier to get Fort reservations. Thanks, Disney, for closing a loophole. Very proactive and thoughtful for "real" guests vs "phantom" guests. 

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Something to note not mentioned here. There is a grace period between when you cancel and when the fastpasses cancel. If you have put something else on your account that would cover the time frame for the FP's they will not cancel. 

I think it is a decent first step but I don't know if it will have meaningful impact for us. People booking the throwaway campsites don't always bother to cancel them. 

[ThemeParkCommando 81]

What happens if I make a resort reservation, book my FP+ at the 60 day mark, and then hold the reservations and cancel at 29 days out?  Will the FP+ still cancel?  Is the resort room reservation still billable for the entire stay or just a one night penalty charge?  I thought that was the way folks were already doing it. 

[keith_h 420]

On 2/4/2019 at 10:31 AM, Katman1356...Jason said:

People booking the throwaway campsites don't always bother to cancel them. 

If they are still paying for the site I'm ok with it. Even if they only use it to get FP's after all what they do with  a site or room is their choice. It is also playing by the same rules the rest of us who actually use the site/room are.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

11 hours ago, ThemeParkCommando said:

What happens if I make a resort reservation, book my FP+ at the 60 day mark, and then hold the reservations and cancel at 29 days out?  Will the FP+ still cancel?  Is the resort room reservation still billable for the entire stay or just a one night penalty charge?  I thought that was the way folks were already doing it. 

The way I understand it they will still keep their FPs. 

 

I wish they would go back to the old system.  Walk up to an attraction, and get a FP.   Completely fair system  

IMHO. Disney creates these silly rules and people find ways around them. 

Yall do know you can book FPs before the 60 day window?   Or is that a loophole people don’t know about???

Try getting a dinner rezzie at Christmas.   They are all booked at the 180 day mark.   Because most people don’t know exactly which day they will eat at...,insert restaurant here, so they make a rezzie for every day they will be at WDW.  And tie up 5-6 rezzies 

And then they finally get to book their FPs, 30 or 60 days out.  

“But wait. Are we sure we want to eat at BOG on Wednesday or Thursday?  Let’s wait till cousin bob decides what he’s going to do. 

As long as we cancel 24 hours before our rezzie we will be fine.”  

Thats why you can sometimes book dining rezzies that morning. 

I think as long as Disney keeps trying to control how we Disney, people will try to beat the system.

Hey Disney...like my mom use to say...K.I.S.S.  

Keep It Simple Stupid! 

And you won’t have to try to close loopholes.  

[caveat lector 181]

I'm just glad that Disney acknowledged the problem. 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

11 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

 

Try getting a dinner rezzie at Christmas.   They are all booked at the 180 day mark.   Because most people don’t know exactly which day they will eat at...,insert restaurant here, so they make a rezzie for every day they will be at WDW.  And tie up 5-6 rezzies 

We've found the best way to get a dining ressie is call and give the CM a date range, not s specific date. Just did it again for SW Storybook at Artists Point. On, line nothing.. Called, gave the CM a time and date range and a ressie was there for the time snd date we were searching for.

Problem with online it's date & somewhat time specific and if someone clicks on a ressie, but doesn't confirm, it's still blocked for several hours.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

11 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

IMHO. Disney creates these silly rules and people find ways around them. 

True. Although thanks to the internet, Disney usually finds out about the loopholes pretty quickly and eventually closes them.

 

11 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

Try getting a dinner rezzie at Christmas.   They are all booked at the 180 day mark.   Because most people don’t know exactly which day they will eat at...,insert restaurant here, so they make a rezzie for every day they will be at WDW.  And tie up 5-6 rezzies 

Good points, Ray. At least Disney quickly closed the loophole where you could book multiple reservations at the same time.

We've often gotten ADRs at really popular restaurants the day before/morning of and I'd bet it's largely because of people cancelling their "just in case" reservations.

 

We don't book a lot of ADRs these days but I will often book "just in case" FPs for popular attractions based on where we "think" we're going to be that day. But because we more or less wing it day by day, we don't use a lot of them.  I do cancel them as soon as I know we're not going to use them - usually that morning when we decide we're going to another park or are not going to get there in time.  

I suspect other people do the same which is why you can sometimes get "day of" FPs also.

 

[tim5055 120]

15 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

Try getting a dinner rezzie at Christmas.   They are all booked at the 180 day mark.   Because most people don’t know exactly which day they will eat at...,insert restaurant here, so they make a rezzie for every day they will be at WDW.  And tie up 5-6 rezzies 

I really believe that they eliminate most of the problems with this when they started requiring payment up front.   To use this, even assuming a $50 dinner for two is going to have to tie up $600 for six months and then deal with getting refunds. 

 

Not it something I would do

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

3 hours ago, tim5055 said:

I really believe that they eliminate most of the problems with this when they started requiring payment up front.   To use this, even assuming a $50 dinner for two is going to have to tie up $600 for six months and then deal with getting refunds. 

 

Not it something I would do

Unfortunately that’s not the case on most dinner rezzies. 

Dinner shows like HDDR do require prepayment. But most restaurants they just hold your card info and only charge you if you don’t show up.   

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

7 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

True. Although thanks to the internet, Disney usually finds out about the loopholes pretty quickly and eventually closes them.

 

Good points, Ray. At least Disney quickly closed the loophole where you could book multiple reservations at the same time.

We've often gotten ADRs at really popular restaurants the day before/morning of and I'd bet it's largely because of people cancelling their "just in case" reservations.

 

We don't book a lot of ADRs these days but I will often book "just in case" FPs for popular attractions based on where we "think" we're going to be that day. But because we more or less wing it day by day, we don't use a lot of them.  I do cancel them as soon as I know we're not going to use them - usually that morning when we decide we're going to another park or are not going to get there in time.  

I suspect other people do the same which is why you can sometimes get "day of" FPs also.

 

Unfortunately you can still book multiple rezzies. It just takes an extra minute or two. 

 

Weve tried, with some success, picking up last minute, morning of rezzies.   I see them all the time for a party of two. But it’s more difficult for partys of 3 or more. 

 

We would prefer to “wing it” but Disney is making it more and more difficult to do that.  Especially since we usually come during the busy summer and holiday times.