Fastpass Drops?

I too believe that it’s mostly cancellations but I experienced a time when almost every ride dropped at once. I went on Saturday December 28, a day that hit max capacity and they stopped selling Disneyland Park tickets. Refreshing maxpass basically made a stressful trip into an enjoyable one. Some of the notable grabs are as follows. All were for a party of 5 or 7:

8:30 - Indy for a half hour out
11:00 - Space Mountain for an hour out
1:00 - Matterhorn for 5 minutes out (yes really)
3:00 - Big Thunder for a half hour out
4:30 - Haunted Mansion Holiday for a half hour out
6:00 - Big Thunder for a half hour out.

Two days later I was getting Guardians, Soarin, and Toy Story at a half hour out easily throughout the day. This was on December 30 with ridiculous crowds. At 3pm, I snagged a 7:30pm Radiator Springs for 5.

But the thing I remember most was getting those big drops with 7-8 rides all showing up at once. It didn’t happen very often, but I certainly remember it. Most of the time Grizzly Rapids was just showing up. In fact that ride was keeping the app from saying all fast passes were distributed for CAAdv. Kept refreshing for 10-15 minutes, then BAM a bunch of rides showed up at once. This is why, in my anectodal opinion, I believe there are drops. BTW, last year I took advantage of the known Toy Story Land Drops at Hollywood Studios, and boy oh boy was that awesome. So I was indeed looking for them at Disneyland.
 
I've cancelled Radiator Springs many times, just because it's my go to FP to grab if I'm watching a show and I don't plan on hitting the rides right after. Sometimes, it just doesn't fit in with the flow of my day when the time comes, so I gladly throw it back in the pool. I can always do the single rider lines if I change my mind and there's no FP availability later on.
We cancelled it today. :confused3
 
So those of you who have picked up the cancelled FPs on your trip haven’t said how many people were in your party. We will have 6 of us on our June trip. I’m guess our chances to pick up cancelled FPs will be slim.

My last two trips have been with a party of 6. Many cancelled passes were pulled. You'll do fine.
 


Thanks OP for sharing this. At WDW, we pretty much FP our way around the parks by constantly checking for availability. It is good to know I may be able to do some of that for our DL trip.
 
I need more clarification to wrap my head around this. Once you open maxpass and one park is greyed or dulled out (I can't remember which happens) because there are no longer FPs left, do I still try to open it and look for FPs? Or, if FPs come available, it is no longer greyed out?
 
I need more clarification to wrap my head around this. Once you open maxpass and one park is greyed or dulled out (I can't remember which happens) because there are no longer FPs left, do I still try to open it and look for FPs? Or, if FPs come available, it is no longer greyed out?
If you open and a park is greyed out, I hit the "back" button and then hit select a max pass again. I do this until the park I'm looking at shows as not greyed out, which will happen when a fastpass becomes available.

Once you are in for a given park, you can refresh that park over and over again. When there is no pass available, I get the "something went wrong" error, but I just go back and refresh again.

I'm using Android, so if you are on an Apple your experience may differ slightly.
 


I need more clarification to wrap my head around this. Once you open maxpass and one park is greyed or dulled out (I can't remember which happens) because there are no longer FPs left, do I still try to open it and look for FPs? Or, if FPs come available, it is no longer greyed out?

It was pretty cold when we were in the parks so Splash Mtn and Grizzly River never ran out of FPs.

That made it really easy to just click back then select a park to see what other attractions would pop up.

So it just took 2 clicks for each refresh.
 
It is so easy to get Fastpasses for Disneyland. Make sure you buy Maxpass. We rode Soarin and Toy Story Mania 6 times last time we were there. Also Radiator Springs has a fast single rider line, just a heads up.
 
So those of you who have picked up the cancelled FPs on your trip haven’t said how many people were in your party. We will have 6 of us on our June trip. I’m guess our chances to pick up cancelled FPs will be slim.
I have had success with party sizes from 1 to 10. Oddly enough, I have had success when I picked more people than fewer people at the same time. Probably just a timing issue, but you never know what algorithm is in place for this.
 
It is so easy to get Fastpasses for Disneyland. Make sure you buy Maxpass. We rode Soarin and Toy Story Mania 6 times last time we were there. Also Radiator Springs has a fast single rider line, just a heads up.
Yep, here's to hoping they essentially do the same at Disney World at some point and make FPs day of only and work like they do at Disneyland now. Obviously there are no more paper FPs there, but they could do it where if you don't have MaxPass, you have to go to a kiosk, if you have you can use your phone. Would make trips so much easier and more enjoyable at Disney World.
 
Yep, here's to hoping they essentially do the same at Disney World at some point and make FPs day of only and work like they do at Disneyland now. Obviously there are no more paper FPs there, but they could do it where if you don't have MaxPass, you have to go to a kiosk, if you have you can use your phone. Would make trips so much easier and more enjoyable at Disney World.

It’s probably not the preferred opinion on this side of the board, but I do like knowing what my first 3 attractions will be when I arrive.

That’s one thing I did miss at Disneyland.
 
I’m assuming these cancellations get immediately booked by someone? Any tips on grabbing these quickly?
 
I’m assuming these cancellations get immediately booked by someone? Any tips on grabbing these quickly?
Click fast. You just have to get used to quickly skimming and grabbing it without really thinking - you can always cancel, but good ones will be gone if you deliberate.

For instance, once RSR is gone for the day, if I see it pop up, I just confirm as quick as I can without even checking the times. My brain registers that RSR is showing and I just click, click, click! Then, if I see it’s 9pm or something too late for us, I just cancel it.
 
I’m assuming these cancellations get immediately booked by someone? Any tips on grabbing these quickly?
Typically.

Even when you see them, if you hesitate (and sometimes even if you don't) before selecting them you sometimes get a screen that says that your selection is no longer available.

Early on, I often made the mistake of asking my party "Hey, do you guys want to do X?" before selecting, and then I'd select it and it would be gone.

So now my fingers are trained that when something pops up to select it and book it immediately, and then ask my party if they want to do it. If they do, sweet. If not, I cancel it and then go back to refreshing.

So that's the first tip. Second is a corollary to that: If something you see is suddenly not available, keep watch over the next 30-60 seconds because it might pop back up due to the original grabber releasing it.

Third is don't get discouraged and give up. Persistence pays off, I've never gotten to the point where I wasn't able to get something as long as I kept putting the effort in.
 
I’m assuming these cancellations get immediately booked by someone? Any tips on grabbing these quickly?
Yep, if you even have an inkling you might want it, book it and then cancel if you change your mind or the rest of your party doesn't want it. Since there is no penalty for booking and canceling, might as well.
 
It is so easy to get Fastpasses for Disneyland. Make sure you buy Maxpass. We rode Soarin and Toy Story Mania 6 times last time we were there. Also Radiator Springs has a fast single rider line, just a heads up.

RSR does not always have a fast single rider line. I have been there many times where the CMs are yelling out that its 45-60 minutes for SR for that ride.
 
Yep, if you even have an inkling you might want it, book it and then cancel if you change your mind or the rest of your party doesn't want it. Since there is no penalty for booking and canceling, might as well.

Oh my gosh I feel dumb now... I always hesitated on grabbing one that popped up way later out because then I have to wait 90 minutes to book another one, but if I'm understanding correctly here when you cancel you are able to immediately book another? Does it work the same if you cancel one you made previously? Like say first thing at 8am I got a maxpass for HM at 6pm and around 2pm I get a MP for RSR at 5pm so ordinarily I wouldn't be able to get another MP until 3:30 and then I immediately cancel my HM pass that I got hours earlier would I now be able to book another MP for another ride? Hope that makes sense!
 
I have had success with party sizes from 1 to 10. Oddly enough, I have had success when I picked more people than fewer people at the same time. Probably just a timing issue, but you never know what algorithm is in place for this.

I've experienced similar which I agree is probably just timing but also this is partly why I suspect the app just allows your whole party if there's even just 1 cancellation.
 
Oh my gosh I feel dumb now... I always hesitated on grabbing one that popped up way later out because then I have to wait 90 minutes to book another one, but if I'm understanding correctly here when you cancel you are able to immediately book another? Does it work the same if you cancel one you made previously? Like say first thing at 8am I got a maxpass for HM at 6pm and around 2pm I get a MP for RSR at 5pm so ordinarily I wouldn't be able to get another MP until 3:30 and then I immediately cancel my HM pass that I got hours earlier would I now be able to book another MP for another ride? Hope that makes sense!

If you cancel the fastpass that "started the cooldown timer" for you, you can immediately pick a new one. So in your example, cancelling the HM fast pass would do nothing for you because your cooldown for that already elapsed fully. But if you canceled the RSR fastpass, you could select a new one immediately.

You may already know this, but also keep in mind that once a pass becomes active, you are eligible to select another pass as long as 30 minutes has passed since you selected it. And even if 30 minutes hasn't passed, once you scan into the attraction you can then select a new pass.
 

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