SDFP: CHANGES COMING!! Beware the 7th of June?!

[Willlyb]

1. Is the City Hall kiosk usually open at 8am when rope drop is at 9am?
2. I have a PPO breakfast at Tusker House -- is that kiosk usually open before 9am?
3. For PPO at Garden Grill, is there a kiosk to use before 9am?
4. For PPO at H&V, is there a kiosk to use before 9am?

All days have regular 9am opening, no EMH. THank you.

1. Yes
2. Usually
3. Not usually
4. Not usually

(From what I've read in this thread)

 

[Wohjen]

I don't know if I missed this somewhere but can I change the name and age of a family member that is on my MDE and it show the updated info when scanning in a ride? I know it's been said CM's don't really care but just in case... my daughter who is 19, is not going on this trip. I changed her name and age (to 11) in my MDE and I plan on using her band for my niece to use for SDFP. Will the CMs see the new name and age? I don't really want to explain to my niece what I'm doing and I don't want her to feel like she's doing something wrong, especially if they call her by my daughter's name or if something gets said about age.

 

[dmband]

I don't know if I missed this somewhere but can I change the name and age of a family member that is on my MDE and it show the updated info when scanning in a ride? I know it's been said CM's don't really care but just in case... my daughter who is 19, is not going on this trip. I changed her name and age (to 11) in my MDE and I plan on using her band for my niece to use for SDFP. Will the CMs see the new name and age? I don't really want to explain to my niece what I'm doing and I don't want her to feel like she's doing something wrong, especially if they call her by my daughter's name or if something gets said about age.

Wasting your time but if it makes you feel better go for it.
It does show the name I need the account, not on the band (which of course you can't change anyway) but not the age
Personally I wouldn't even take anyone up to the cm/kiosk. It can be congested to begin with and slows down the whole process. I recommend just having an idea of what you want, see what's available and selecting

 

[ScrapYap]

I don't know if I missed this somewhere but can I change the name and age of a family member that is on my MDE and it show the updated info when scanning in a ride? I know it's been said CM's don't really care but just in case... my daughter who is 19, is not going on this trip. I changed her name and age (to 11) in my MDE and I plan on using her band for my niece to use for SDFP. Will the CMs see the new name and age? I don't really want to explain to my niece what I'm doing and I don't want her to feel like she's doing something wrong, especially if they call her by my daughter's name or if something gets said about age.

You're worried about your niece when she's using your daughter's band to enter a ride with SDFP. The name is the only thing you need to think about here - because it is conceivable (though not at all likely) that the CM will refer to your niece by the name that pops up on the screen (generally seen only by the CM, not by the guest). Since it may be preying on your mind a bit, why not change the name on your daughter's profile to your niece's name - temporarily, just for this trip. (Your niece probably already has a profile on your MDE for her prebooked FP? Is your daughter's last name the same as your niece's? Because you don't ever want two profiles on your MDE that have the exact same name.) Leave yourself a note - a post-it note on the fridge or whatever - to change that name back to your daughter's name after the trip.

 

[Wohjen]

You're worried about your niece when she's using your daughter's band to enter a ride with SDFP. You can't change the age of a family member on your MDE - you would have to call Disney to ask them to "correct" the age of someone whose profile you manage. But you don't want to do that in this case. The name is the only thing you need to think about here - because it is conceivable (though not at all likely) that the CM will refer to your niece by the name that pops up on the screen (generally seen only by the CM, not by the guest). Since it may be preying on your mind a bit, why not change the name on your daughter's profile to your niece's name - temporarily, just for this trip. (Your niece probably already has a profile on your MDE for her prebooked FP? Is your daughter's last name the same as your niece's? Because you don't ever want two profiles on your MDE that have the exact same name.) Leave yourself a note - a post-it note on the fridge or whatever - to change that name back to your daughter's name after the trip.

Thank you! Everyone else including my 11yr son will just go with it. My niece however may not know what to do if she scans into a ride and they ask her anything. But I think I'm just over thinking everything. If a CM says anything, I'll just nudge her along. Yes, they do both have the same last name but my niece goes by her 1st name with her mom's side of family and middle name with us (which is what I used for her prebooked FP). So I switched my daughter's to nieces 1st name. That would be a name she goes by most anyway. For some reason, it allowed me to switch my daughter's birthdate too. I changed it the other day and I just checked. It shows the band of my daughters to be an 11 yr old.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

 

[ScrapYap]

Thank you! Everyone else including my 11yr son will just go with it. My niece however may not know what to do if she scans into a ride and they ask her anything. But I think I'm just over thinking everything. If a CM says anything, I'll just nudge her along. Yes, they do both have the same last name but my niece goes by her 1st name with her mom's side of family and middle name with us (which is what I used for her prebooked FP). So I switched my daughter's to nieces 1st name. That would be a name she goes by most anyway. For some reason, it allowed me to switch my daughter's birthdate too. I changed it the other day and I just checked. It shows the band of my daughters to be an 11 yr old.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

You're right - the system will allow you to change the birthdate of an under-18 profile that you manage. But if the young person has their own MDE account, you can't change the birthdate without calling. Yet another reason to avoid having family members (especially under 18!) set up their own MDE.

Have a great trip!

 

[Wohjen]

You're right - the system will allow you to change the birthdate of an under-18 profile that you manage. But if the young person has their own MDE account, you can't change the birthdate without calling. Yet another reason to avoid having family members (especially under 18!) set up their own MDE.

Have a great trip!

Ok, then that's why. My daughter was 17 the last time she went.
Thank you! We are 20 days away and can't wait!!!

 

[iwannavacation]

Just back from 8 days and thanks to you ScrapYap my vacation was awesome!!
We bought extra bands for our family of 4 after our first day in the parks and the 3 extra fastpasses a day made our days in the park perfect! Most days we did not arrive to the parks till noon but were able to book major rides. I read and reread your original post many times and at one point i was going to post a question but after rereading your post again i found my answer. So yes the answers are in your original post and i cannot thank you enough for all your time and effort you put into this post! Thank you very much!!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I also want to thank @ScrapYap for this awesome info! We will be going for my first visit in September and I am so looking forward to it, especially now that I know about this loophole! It reminds me of Disneyland; the first few years with FPs the computer system would just register a ticket, not that the ticket was used that day. So my friends and I (we were in high school) would always collect everyone's tickets from various trips and pass them around for others to use on their trips. My friend and I once had 4 different paper tickets going each, so we had to keep track of which was used for what FP and when the passes would be good for. At that time the CMs also didn't enforce the end of the return time, so if you got a FP from 11-12, you could pretty much use it anytime after 11, all day.

 

[ScrapYap]

I also want to thank @ScrapYap for this awesome info! We will be going for my first visit in September and I am so looking forward to it, especially now that I know about this loophole! It reminds me of Disneyland; the first few years with FPs the computer system would just register a ticket, not that the ticket was used that day. So my friends and I (we were in high school) would always collect everyone's tickets from various trips and pass them around for others to use on their trips. My friend and I once had 4 different paper tickets going each, so we had to keep track of which was used for what FP and when the passes would be good for. At that time the CMs also didn't enforce the end of the return time, so if you got a FP from 11-12, you could pretty much use it anytime after 11, all day.

It was the same at Disney World in the golden age of the paper fastpass. They never expired. I learned that here on the DISboards more than 10 years ago - and was always grateful. Nice to be able to pay that favor back, in a way, with this thread.

 

[marciemi]

I also want to thank @ScrapYap for this awesome info! We will be going for my first visit in September and I am so looking forward to it, especially now that I know about this loophole! It reminds me of Disneyland; the first few years with FPs the computer system would just register a ticket, not that the ticket was used that day. So my friends and I (we were in high school) would always collect everyone's tickets from various trips and pass them around for others to use on their trips. My friend and I once had 4 different paper tickets going each, so we had to keep track of which was used for what FP and when the passes would be good for. At that time the CMs also didn't enforce the end of the return time, so if you got a FP from 11-12, you could pretty much use it anytime after 11, all day.

We did the same at Disneyland but with the special AAA tickets they had back in early 2003 - they were good for unlimited FP's at a time (but only one per ride at a time). So when we'd hit a park each morning, I'd take the kids on the things without FP (Dumbo, Astro Orbiters, etc.) and my husband would run a circuit of the park and pick up FP's for pretty much every ride, which we'd then use at our leisure through the day since they didn't enforce the end time. As you can imagine, this was a short lived "experiment".

 

[GrnMtnMan]

special AAA tickets they had back in early 2003 - they were good for unlimited FP's at a time (but only one per ride at a time).

I got these tickets too when I went to Disneyland!

 

[canyoncam]

Just back yesterday from one great trip! Only two of us and we did a split stay, both room only. I created 4 phantom children for 4 extra bands as we as we were hopping each day so I figured it would be nice to try for three extra SDFP in each park. I did assign real names to phantoms but just had the bands "named" SD1 colored red for AM and SD2 colored grey for PM.I used our prebooked FP+ in our first park each day. I also found a set of old RFID cards at home before I left and took those just because, only used once in MK.

Observations:

1. It would be hard to get good times in the AM especially for AK and Epcot, but by refreshing several times I did get all we wanted for there especially as it was only two of us and they were secondary attractions.

2. I bought the carabiner magic keepers and had both my SD pucks on one carabiner and still wore my ticketed band. No comments from any cast members while using SDFP about all the different bands.

3. As we usually arrived to our second park around 1pm and there was still good avsilsbity for night time which I would use the SDFP PM band for and I used any leftovers or fourth SDFP from the AM park band for an earlier time slot and could always get a fifth if I wanted. Same for my ticketed FP fourth and fifth which was easier to maneuver as I could use the app to constantly refresh choices and always wound up with good times and attractions.

4. I sometimes booked an attraction just because it was available at a time we would be by it. Twice this worked to my advantage as the ride went down and I received anytime FP for other attractions. Pooh went down and we redeemed for Splash (which I had really wanted but just could not get) and both Kali (fourth AM FP) and Dino (one of my 3 PM FP) went down and I redeemed them for Everest along with my two other FP for Everest (one of 3 PM FP and my fourth ticketed FP) which gave us four rides on Everest right during ROL and as the crowds let out. One great night there! And we always request front row so that shows how fast that moved us along.

5. Already touched on, but REFRESH, REFRESH,REFRESH when looking, especially if you are looking for a smaller group. Often BTMRR, Space, Everest, RnRC would show no availability but upon refreshing several times I got them, maybe not the exact time I wanted but a time that was doable. I never had anyone waiting behind me at a kiosk so I felt comfortable doing this. Maybe different if there was a line behind me.

I didn't always use all 6 SDFP, but in MK they were greatly appreciated. Longest line we waited in all week was half an hour for the bus at Disney Springs. In the sun. After eating at T-Rex and having a Ghiradelli shake. Misery!!!

And I think we set a record getting off 7DMT, running to Space with a FP just as fireworks were ending (and our FP time) and getting off that ride all in under 8 minutes!!! The loading CM at Space was looking for a party of two and we were the first party of two in the line just as we passed through the second FP scanner.

 

[bwbuddy5]

I created 4 phantom children for 4 extra bands as we as we were hopping each day so I figured it would be nice to try for three extra SDFP in each park. I did assign real names to phantoms but just had the bands "named" SD1 colored red for AM and SD2 colored grey for PM.

So, no admission media was attached to the phantoms?

 

[canyoncam]

So, no admission media was attached to the phantoms?

No. I should clarify I booked room only and had bought our tickets from UT before the last increase.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Just back yesterday from one great trip! Only two of us and we did a split stay, both room only. I created 4 phantom children for 4 extra bands as we as we were hopping each day so I figured it would be nice to try for three extra SDFP in each park.

Thanks for this update! This is similar to my trip-we have a package stay but added 2 phantom children, and we have 2 extra bands from my sister's previous trip. I've been debating whether we should use one set for AM park and one for PM park, so this helps a lot-we'll probably play it by ear when we get to the parks!

 

[ScrapYap]

I did assign real names to phantoms but just had the bands "named" SD1 colored red for AM and SD2 colored grey for PM.

Glad you had a great trip. Just so you know, the names printed on the bands are only for the convenience of the guest - those band names have no functionality. Each band will tap into the name on the profile when used for FP entrance. If you have sets of profiles with the identical names on your MDE (one real, one phantom), there is a good chance that they will eventually get merged. Might be a good idea to change the phantoms to something slightly different.

 

[canyoncam]

Correct. Phantoms themselves are named Kathy, Cassandra, Daniel, and John my non Disney going family members. I did see those names pop up on screen when tapped. SD1 and SD2 labeled the bands for my convenience.

 

[otterpop]

I remember reading this question somewhere, but I don't think there was ever an answer...

What is the best way to maximize the benefit of using both FP's and SDFP's in one day at two parks?

We're going at the end of July and if we wanted to do rope drop for Park #1 until early/mid afternoon and then Park #2 for the late afternoon and evening, what would be the best strategy of using SDFP's and hopefully getting a Tier 1/popular rides for Park #2? We are DW vets, but this will be our first time using SDFP's and have two sets of phantoms already in place (so depending on what's available we could potentially get 6 SDFP's per person).

1. Should we book our regular FP's for Park #2, do rope drop rides at Park #1, get and do SDFP's for Park #1, then head over to Park #2?
2. Should we book our regular FP's for Park #2, get SDFP's for Park #1, do rope drop rides at Park #1, do SDFP's for Park #1, then head over to Park #2?
3. Should we book our regular FP's for Park #1, do rope drop rides at Park #1, do FP's for Park #1, then head over to Park #2 and get SDFP's when we get there?
4. Am I missing any other scenarios?

I realize that there are a lot of variables involved, some luck and no guarantees, but I'm also guessing that there is a strategy to possibly maximize the benefits/chances of getting FP's and SDFP's for the "popular" rides at two parks in the same day...

Thanks for any comments and suggestions!

Evan

 

[tippytoes]

5. Already touched on, but REFRESH, REFRESH,REFRESH when looking, especially if you are looking for a smaller group. Often BTMRR, Space, Everest, RnRC would show no availability but upon refreshing several times I got them, maybe not the exact time I wanted but a time that was doable. I never had anyone waiting behind me at a kiosk so I felt comfortable doing this. Maybe different if there was a line behind me.

How long would you say you spent at the kiosk refreshing each time? Trying to get a sense of what you mean by "several" times