ARRRRRRRGH FP+ Nightmares

[PlutosPal31]

I was able to get most of my fast passes around 10:00 am this morning. I hope everyone else was able to get through the issues. It can be very frustrating.

 

[skittles67]

I had the same issues booking my fp this morning. I was on at exactly 7:00 and it took at least 15 minutes to book my first fastpass due to getting olaf or the spinning wheel of death. After more than an hour I got my 3 or 4 hardest to get then quit. By late morning everything worked fine to grab the rest. Frustrating.

The spinning wheel of death!

 

[TheNameless]

I just called and was welcomed with "Due to heavier than usual call volume the first agent will be available in 90 minutes".

Maybe they should have fast passes for customer service. Sorry to hear of everyone's troubles.

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

@tex1989
Thank you for your post! I was trying to add fastpasses for my upcoming trip & thought there might be a glitch with my account or computer. I then tried the app on my phone without success. I came to the Dis to see if anyone else was having problems & saw your post. I then knew to keep trying & after several hours, I was able to add my fastpasses.

Sorry to anyone who has to deal with this aggravation! I agree that for the money everyone is spending, Disney should find a way to fix this.

I hope you all get the fastpasses you want!
Happy travels!

 

[Roxyfire]

@tex1989
Thank you for your post! I was trying to add fastpasses for my upcoming trip & thought there might be a glitch with my account or computer. I then tried the app on my phone without success. I came to the Dis to see if anyone else was having problems & saw your post. I then knew to keep trying & after several hours, I was able to add my fastpasses.

Sorry to anyone who has to deal with this aggravation! I agree that for the money everyone is spending, Disney should find a way to fix this.

I hope you all get the fastpasses you want!
Happy travels!

Agreed! Things like this should "just work" especially with how hard it is to get certain FP anyway. I realize there's going to be some downtime but based on the frequency and severity of recent outages, it seems pretty unstable at the moment.

 

[TheDonAndMikeShow]

I agree that with Disney’s resources, and the fact that they’ve moved everything online now, the system should at least function.

That said, OP, if you don’t like some of your FP times, try modifying. If nothing good comes up, refresh (pick “morning” or “afternoon” or a specific time to just to make it search again) and keep trying. You’ll be surprised at the differing options.

Have you had any experience refreshing before you get to the parks????

 

[Roxyfire]

Have you had any experience refreshing before you get to the parks????

People are changing their plans all the time, not just the day before. Even when I grab fastpasses at 60+whatever day mark, I end up tweaking them here and there to better fit with other things like dining reservations and shows. It doesn't hurt to check if you want to change things around. Even if you're afraid of accidentally losing something good, there's at least one confirmation message before you do it.

 

[tex1989]

The one thing that seems to be consistant in the replies is that issues are had at the 7:00 AM window and if you suffer through it to get the tough ones, those coming back later seem to have fewer issues filling out their times. May be you just have to fight for SDD, FOP and maybe Seven Dwarfs Mine Train but the rest can be done later without problems. I do notice a ton of availability at 30 days when I check because of our AP's (can always look out 30 days because of them)

 

[Cramden]

Well got home from work and it's working fine. Missed out on FOP and SDD. Other than that everything else is fine. I have 60+ days to keep trying for those 2. That said the aggravation of this morning was totally unnecessary.

 

[jemlover]

It just amazes me that a company as big as Disney cannot figure out that they need to increase their server capacity especially in the mornings. They certainly have the money to do it. They apparently just don't have the motivation to make the necessary changes.

 

[bookgirl173]

Up at 5:30 CDT for 6:00 FP+ at the 60 day mark and the system was all about crash, crash, crash. So between my PC, I-Pad, my phone, and my wife's phone we were able to cobble together our plans for our September 22 trip. Did not get times I liked so much but they will be okay and I got SDD and FOP so I have no issues there. We are also going to the 7:00 AP event in Toy Story Land so we get two SDD.

It was just absolutely nuts the number of times we were kicked out, kicked off or got to see Olaf's head laying on the ground. Another one that I have never seen before came up as well. The system telling me that every FP+ for every park was taken for 60 days plus 4. That was a new one.

Oh thank you for posting this! I was right there with you yesterday, only I’m in CA so I was ready to go at 4:00 am with my phone, iPad and laptop. I noticed there were problems with the site for a couple of hours on Monday night, so I wasn’t shocked when the experience was a mess - but it really was a mess. As others have said, going incognito and using multiple browsers (including Opera!) all did nothing. I couldn’t call because this is a surprise trip and I didn’t want my kids to hear (or wake up at that hour). I was eventually able to chat with someone on the Mom blog thing and they confirmed that there was an internal issue effecting everyone. I even saw a notice today when I logged in to the effect that “FastPass problems have been corrected” today. For others booking soon I hope this is correct and gives you a little peace!

It took me nearly 2 hours to finish up reservations for the week. I did ok, but not really the sweet reward I had hoped for being uber prepared! I was a complete nightmare at work yesterday. And, seriously, it left me thinking about my next vacation being one that I would not have to plan out every second so far in advance. Maybe Disney is just too crowded for me. Who am I kidding? I made a fantastic plan in Disney World for my wonderful family and I am lucky to be able to do it. I so hope things are much smoother for everyone else.

And fwiw, here is the message I sent yesterday and the reply I received today (because of course I sent feedback!):

I seem to have had the unfortunate timing to be trying to reserve my FastPasses for our upcoming vacation while you're experiencing serious technical problems with your site. I woke up at 3:45 (we're on the West Coast) to make reservations, but I'm told that you're currently down. Last night your entire site seemed to be down as well. Bummer! I don't have all day to keep checking - are you able to make a special accommodation for plans impacted by this outage?

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Really? Disney, you often dazzle me with your customer service. This, however, is a serious swing-and-miss.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

We all pay the price so I'm not seeing the difference between something not working for me vs someone else. The real difference is some can roll with it and some I guess cannot.

Wow.

 

[TheDonAndMikeShow]

People are changing their plans all the time, not just the day before. Even when I grab fastpasses at 60+whatever day mark, I end up tweaking them here and there to better fit with other things like dining reservations and shows. It doesn't hurt to check if you want to change things around. Even if you're afraid of accidentally losing something good, there's at least one confirmation message before you do it.

Thank you so much, I have had no luck up to now trying the refresh system a month out from my trip. I read and saw how at the parks

 

[TheDonAndMikeShow]

Thank you so much, I have had no luck up to now trying the refresh system a month out from my trip. I read and saw how at the parks

those in the know were refreshing back and force to basically find everything they want so I was surprised I saw nothing change when doing the refresh for like a half hour...

 

[Roxyfire]

those in the know were refreshing back and force to basically find everything they want so I was surprised I saw nothing change when doing the refresh for like a half hour...

That refresh strategy is mainly for the same day for sure. But like if you want a particular FP and don't have it yet, just check randomly here and there but it won't be as drastic as a same day change. Also look out for when they extend hours and you might find one during those times as well. If you watch these boards you'll see people talk about it and you should be able to jump on that pretty easily.

 

[KNovacovschi]

I understand your frustration. We will be there Sept 22nd as well and Tuesday was hell booking FPs. I have never in all the time we've been booking online had as much trouble as I did on Tuesday. What normally takes me 20 mins took an hour and 20 mins. My DD was laughing at me because I was yelling at both laptops and my iphone the whole time and swore I never wanted to see Olafs head again, lol. I made sure to book FOP and SDD first and second, which took me alone 20-25 mins to book, and was lucky to get great times. They really need to work on making that site better. I get there is a lot of traffic but that's nothing new. I was lost at first when the screen was faded out saying all booked for that day. At least it's done now and we can relax. I'm hoping when I book FPs in the new year the site is better.

 

[TheDonAndMikeShow]

That refresh strategy is mainly for the same day for sure. But like if you want a particular FP and don't have it yet, just check randomly here and there but it won't be as drastic as a same day change. Also look out for when they extend hours and you might find one during those times as well. If you watch these boards you'll see people talk about it and you should be able to jump on that pretty easily.

Thank you so much

 

[2hapykdz]

Up at 5:30 CDT for 6:00 FP+ at the 60 day mark and the system was all about crash, crash, crash. So between my PC, I-Pad, my phone, and my wife's phone we were able to cobble together our plans for our September 22 trip. Did not get times I liked so much but they will be okay and I got SDD and FOP so I have no issues there. We are also going to the 7:00 AP event in Toy Story Land so we get two SDD.

It was just absolutely nuts the number of times we were kicked out, kicked off or got to see Olaf's head laying on the ground. Another one that I have never seen before came up as well. The system telling me that every FP+ for every park was taken for 60 days plus 4. That was a new one.

That was us yesterday! Really sucked....took 4 hours to cobble together an ok lineup....but didnt get SDD or Mine Train!!!

 

[markb681]

My arrival is Sept 18th...So my FP+ day was last Friday...I was very lucky...had ZERO problem with the MDE site @ 7am...but I still couldn't get FP for SDD or FOP until 60+5&6....but I'm staying for 8 days and was able to get ALL the other headliners at very good times

 

[evilqueenmindy]

Just FYI for anyone looking for FOP, KEEP CHECKING. My trip is from 9/20-23, I wanted FOP for Saturday, 9/22, it was totally unavailable (I missed the 7am by a few hours, so I didn't have much hope) I've been checking several times a day since then, and this morning I was able to score FOP for the time I wanted. It's tedious, but plans change all the time, if you really want an FP, its worth it to keep checking.