The Great FP Mystery of 2018

JETSDAD · Feb 20, 2018

It may be the way we tour the parks that helps in finding extra FP's for top rides (though that doesn't account for the MK FP's that I posted on that other thread). We changed our touring style part way through our December trip as a result of the FP's we were able to get fairly easily. We used to be at the parks pre rope drop and hit as many AM EMH parks as we could. Now we arrive shortly after RD and avoid AM EMH (1-2 extra hours of sleep is lovely). We then use our FP's as soon as possible, moving up FP's to earlier times, then begin to add 4th+ within about an hour of park arrival. This way we are adding additional FP's while most people are still using their prebooked FP's. During the rest of the morning hours there is less competition for those dropped FP's. We tour until around 1-2 and then relax at the resort. Grab dinner around 5 and then back to whichever park stays open late (or we feel like going to) until closing in the evening. This way we aren't typically trying to find many extra FP's during the afternoon hours. But yes, we do seem to do very well with FP's using the Android App for 3 people.

And just for fun.....

PrincessWithABlaster · Feb 20, 2018

JETSDAD said:
It may be the way we tour the parks that helps in finding extra FP's for top rides (though that doesn't account for the MK FP's that I posted on that other thread). We changed our touring style part way through our December trip as a result of the FP's we were able to get fairly easily. We used to be at the parks pre rope drop and hit as many AM EMH parks as we could. Now we arrive shortly after RD and avoid AM EMH (1-2 extra hours of sleep is lovely). We then use our FP's as soon as possible, moving up FP's to earlier times, then begin to add 4th+ within about an hour of park arrival. This way we are adding additional FP's while most people are still using their prebooked FP's. During the rest of the morning hours there is less competition for those dropped FP's. We tour until around 1-2 and then relax at the resort. Grab dinner around 5 and then back to whichever park stays open late (or we feel like going to) until closing in the evening. This way we aren't typically trying to find many extra FP's during the afternoon hours. But yes, we do seem to do very well with FP's using the Android App for 3 people.

And just for fun.....

View attachment 303542

You’re doing that to torture me, aren’t you. :duck:

It could well be that starting earlier helps. It would certainly help you grab that first one later and refresh on it to an earlier time. And it definitely helps you get more overall. I kind of feel like I have better luck in the afternoon though which I’m chalking up to there being more volatility. People deciding to call it quits and go back the resorts or decide they can’t make both their ADR and FP. I feel like there’s a sweet spot between maybe 11:00 and 6 (on a 9 pm closure, later if the park is open later). But that’s just an impression.

JETSDAD · Feb 20, 2018

PrincessWithABlaster said:
You’re doing that to torture me, aren’t you.

It could well be that starting earlier helps. It would certainly help you grab that first one later and refresh on it to an earlier time. And it definitely helps you get more overall. I kind of feel like I have better luck in the afternoon though which I’m chalking up to there being more volatility. People deciding to call it quits and go back the resorts or decide they can’t make both their ADR and FP. I feel like there’s a sweet spot between maybe 11:00 and 6 (on a 9 pm closure, later if the park is open later). But that’s just an impression.

If I wanted to torture you I'd have posted this one too. Lol. Been practicing for a December trip with 7 people including overlapping FP's (7 is making me nervous when I'm used to doing it for 3). The one 2 minutes out was pretty good though.

PrincessWithABlaster · Feb 20, 2018

JETSDAD said:
If I wanted to torture you I'd have posted this one too. Lol. Been practicing for a December trip with 7 people including overlapping FP's (7 is making me nervous when I'm used to doing it for 3). The one 2 minutes out was pretty good though.

View attachment 303565

I so need to figure out how you got on Disney’s VIP FP list. :smokin:

You’re making me laugh though. And I need to go try to get FEA with Firefox at my next opportunity.

May the FPs be with your party of 7. I’m wondering if things will change at all between now and Dec. Especially with the club level test going on right now.

AngiTN · Feb 20, 2018

PrincessWithABlaster said:
I so need to figure out how you got on Disney’s VIP FP list. You’re making me laugh though. And I need to go try to get FEA with Firefox at my next opportunity.

May the FPs be with your party of 7. I’m wondering if things will change at all between now and Dec. Especially with the club level test going on right now.

With the cost of the FP for the CL guest I'm going to guess that will not take enough FP to make any difference whatsoever. Truly a needle's worth out of the haystack.

BJC15 · Feb 20, 2018

No idea what the crowds are like today, but just grabbed a pair of Splash FP's for 1:55, this was at 1:15. Took about 5 minutes to score these in the ios app.

tobikaye · Feb 20, 2018

FP Experience Rating: not great to good
Phone Type (iPhone, Android, Windows): iPhone 7
Browser or App (if Browser Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or other): Combo of MDE App and Safari
Do you have APs: I did, others no
Approximate level of crowds when you go (Holiday, Busy, Manageable): Manageable to Busy
Number of FPs you are typically looking for: Depends on the day or trip, but anywhere from 1-5

Any other info you think might be relevant:

If you have multiple people with access to DME, via app or website, everyone look. You can get some way different availability. My cousin and I regularly would get different available times/attractions just by refreshing at different times.

AngiTN · Feb 20, 2018

Here's one example of how strange the times the FP system returns can be
I am playing with it today just to play with it. All of these were for 2
Got a Soarin' for today at 8:00 PM
Had nothing, nothing, nothing, for the past 10 min.
Then suddenly I had a 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, 4:45 show up
Now I see even more times, including a 3:40 as the earliest time. I selected the 3:40, go in to modify and now I see a 3:05 and a 3:30.
Now I go in and not a single time shows available.
There are not that many times changing that fast. It simply doesn't show every available time with every refresh. Plain and simple.

ETA - Each of the lines above are what I see when I click a refresh

Duck143 · Feb 20, 2018

JETSDAD said:
If I wanted to torture you I'd have posted this one too. Lol. Been practicing for a December trip with 7 people including overlapping FP's (7 is making me nervous when I'm used to doing it for 3). The one 2 minutes out was pretty good though.

View attachment 303565

My party is going to be 7 of us too and I have been practicing. Do you usually split 4 and 3?

oneinvader1 · Feb 20, 2018

How are users “refreshing” when trying to modify a time for an attraction? I do not have a refresh button on the app. Are you just picking times over and over? That’s the only way I can make it search over and over- TIA - trying to gear up for mid March

JETSDAD · Feb 20, 2018

Duck143 said:
My party is going to be 7 of us too and I have been practicing. Do you usually split 4 and 3?

That's what I do because I don't want to deal with 2-2-3 and trying to overlap 3 times. First I just have a look with 7 because you might get lucky (MK I have found stuff available for 7). After that I look for the group of 4 first and once I get something for 4 I work to get something to overlap with the 3.

JETSDAD · Feb 20, 2018

oneinvader1 said:
How are users “refreshing” when trying to modify a time for an attraction? I do not have a refresh button on the app. Are you just picking times over and over? That’s the only way I can make it search over and over- TIA - trying to gear up for mid March

Using the android app you can just keep hitting the same time over and over (this is what I do). I believe with iPhone you have to hit a different time and switch back and forth.

Duck143 · Feb 20, 2018

JETSDAD said:
That's what I do because I don't want to deal with 2-2-3 and trying to overlap 3 times. First I just have a look with 7 because you might get lucky (MK I have found stuff available for 7). After that I look for the group of 4 first and once I get something for 4 I work to get something to overlap with the 3.

Awesome! I can totally handle splitting 4 and 3. I was refreshing yesterday afternoon and I scored a FP for Na'Vi for 4 for last night. Of course, I released it

MainMom · Feb 20, 2018

JETSDAD said:
That's what I do because I don't want to deal with 2-2-3 and trying to overlap 3 times. First I just have a look with 7 because you might get lucky (MK I have found stuff available for 7). After that I look for the group of 4 first and once I get something for 4 I work to get something to overlap with the 3.

Interesting. We will be a party of 6 next month. I’m guessing I’ll have better luck splitting up when checking for additional FP’s.

JETSDAD · Feb 20, 2018

MainMom said:
Interesting. We will be a party of 6 next month. I’m guessing I’ll have better luck splitting up when checking for additional FP’s.

Yes....again, might as well check the 6 first (you never know). Then I'd go with a 3-3 split and overlap.

revdon64 · Feb 20, 2018

Not Great, Samsung Note 8, MDE App, No APs, We used to go during off-peak seasons... those don't exist any longer, 5 or 6 FPs

It was particularly bad on our last trip in January of 2018 - the only FPs that seemed available as 4th or if our plans changed were things that you wouldn't FP anyway (shows, Small World, Figment, Nemo, etc)

Roxyfire · Feb 20, 2018

FP Experience Rating: Excellent
Phone Type (iPhone, Android, Windows): iPhone 7 Plus
Browser or App (if Browser Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or other): MDE
Do you have APs: Yes but not local
Approximate level of crowds when you go (Holiday, Busy, Manageable): Busy (June and October)
Number of FPs you are typically looking for: Always 2
Any other info you think might be relevant:
Overall ease of grabbing FP per park ranked
1. HS (surprisingly few people check for 4th+ there, we've tapped into TSMM or ToT and gotten another one for right after)
2. AK (EE over and over again)
3. EP (have gotten good headliners for the evening)
4. MK (mountains are usually gone but it can be done with persistence, usually hours later. More reliably can get Pirates, HM, JC, Meet & Greets.)
Mentally I think it's important to have a priority based on what you like or what's nearby or whatever works. I usually grab something and then work to modify it to something better.

Roxyfire · Feb 20, 2018

PrincessWithABlaster said:
You’re doing that to torture me, aren’t you.

It could well be that starting earlier helps. It would certainly help you grab that first one later and refresh on it to an earlier time. And it definitely helps you get more overall. I kind of feel like I have better luck in the afternoon though which I’m chalking up to there being more volatility. People deciding to call it quits and go back the resorts or decide they can’t make both their ADR and FP. I feel like there’s a sweet spot between maybe 11:00 and 6 (on a 9 pm closure, later if the park is open later). But that’s just an impression.

I'm not sure if it makes a huge difference, but we normally do not start redeeming FP until 10:30. I schedule for 9:30-10:30, 10:30-11:30, 11:30-12:30. We RD the first 1.5h or so, then use the first two back to back, eat, and then take the third. At which point we will pick something right then (if its available) or later in the day (3:30 pm or later, most common scenario).

PrincessWithABlaster · Feb 21, 2018

AngiTN said:
Then suddenly I had a 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, 4:45 show up
Now I see even more times, including a 3:40 as the earliest time. I selected the 3:40, go in to modify and now I see a 3:05 and a 3:30.

These are the weird ones that make me think Disney might be adding to them (or moving them around from different databases). They obviously don’t look like FPs that were held by other people and now dropped. They show up all at once with regular intervals between them (15 mins in this case) and then disappear as people snap them up. Sometimes i’ll see one of the times linger thru a couple refreshes.

AngiTN · Feb 21, 2018

I don't even think it is something they add from different data bases.
I don't think every available time shows up with every search.
I don't have a reason for it but I just don't think the data base can switch that fast. There are not even full seconds between my searches.

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