As we told you earlier this week, Disney is cracking down on anyone who tries to cheat the FastPass+ system at Walt Disney World. Today the new policies have gone into use, as well as a more effective way of stopping guests from doing such activities again than we had even speculated.
Beginning today, any guest who uses a FastPass under tickets not used for that day’s theme park admission will have their associated MyDisneyExperience account and the ability to book any further FastPasses locked at the end of that day. The system will apparently run through all accounts to find any culprits overnight, and then lock the account should it find a FastPass was booked illegitimately. Guests with these infractions will have to visit guest relations in order to unlock their accounts. Guest relations will only unlock the accounts if the act was deemed to not be malicious.
Obviously the individual in charge at Disney that decided to go this route when dealing with supposed “cheaters” of the Fast Pass system, read Orwell’s 1984 with glee.
Sounds like you are bitter you can’t scam the system anymore. Bummer.
They were cheaters and thieves.
1984? This is a private company, not the government. Read the book before posting nonsense.
Even if he reads the book, he will still post nonsense.
@Progressive Music Lover ,
Let’s not be posting speculation on here based on alternative facts about something that Disney is doing that you do not like .
There is and has been so much of a problem with the systems at Disney when it comes to the new Fastpass+ System , or any other system they have at Disney and whatever extra entitlements Disney makes available for free with park admission for everyone
there has been people taking too much advantage of it to where they start abusing the privileges
and when Disney changes the rules to where those entitlements cannot be abused anymore or really
whenever something changes there is somebody like you fussing and going all in a bunch over it .
What if Walt Disney World’s Systems never ever changed ? , Would you still be able to afford to visit it again if they never did away with those A through E ticket books that they once had ?
Hopefully they stop the add to party that some use as well.
I’m so glad Disney is finally cracking down on this. I didn’t realize it was an issue until recently, but it explains why it’s so hard to get a fastpass!
They need to stop those are staying on property that link non-disney resort stayers to their MDE account as well and book fast passes at 60 days for those individuals. I get that they all want to ride together, but they should be forced to wait until 30 days out to book rather than at 60 days.
What you are inferring is not fair! If i am visiting with family who lives in the area but I am paying to stay on property I should be able to make their reservations so they can join me! I DO NOT cheat the system I do it fairly! I stay on property and when family come to see me for a day or two while on my vacation I should be able to enjoy the park with them and enjoy the benefit of staying on property!
So long as your linked family members fit onto your Disney resort reservation, there should be no problem. However, if you are booking FP’s for 24 people and have a single resort room with a capacity of four … you are cheating the system.
I don’t believe that Disney wants to punish their local passholder or employees by doing that. Local passholders and employees families visit, stay on property and want to enjoy the attractions with their local friends and family. Why is this in anyway wrong? It is difficult to get the popular attractions 30 days out, the only way I get a fast pass for the popular attractions is when I am joining friends or family that are staying on property. Perhaps they need to allow their local passholders to get their fastpasses farther out then 30 days. I know when a new attraction opens I will not get a fastpass for the attraction for a year or more.
The article says that it applies if the FastPass+ is booked (and used) for tickets NOT used on that day. If those families (or friends) visit, and are actually at the Park, there is no issue under this new policy. This is aimed at cheaters, not legitimate FastPass+ users. If that family member’s or friend’s ticket for that day was used, there is no issue.
I’m Legitimately confused by the way this is worded. Does this mean that if I book fast passes for today but don’t enter the park and don’t use them that my account will be blocked? Or is it only if my band is used for fast pass access to an attraction without being used to enter he park?
I’m sure it is the second scenario but to be honest I’m a little confused as well!
It would be the second scenario. Accounts are only going to be blocked if dummy Magic Bands/tickets are used (expired, extra)…meaning, the ones not scanned to enter the park.
If someone has a different account for each day, then they still get their phantom FP+. Disney didn’t read all of those posted instructions on that really big message board.
So I’m confused about the wording here. Does this mean that if my magic band or card is used to book and access fast passes without being scanned at the gate that my account will be blocked? That makes sense. But the way this is worded it sounds like if I book fast passes for today but don’t go to the park for some reason that my account could be blocked even if my fast pass is not used. Or actually more to the point it sounds like if I book fast passes and don’t use them that my account will be blocked. Which is it?
Read it again. It is very clear.
Agree with Brian. My husband and I were at Disney in January. We like everyone in were waiting in line then all of a sudden groups of people were running to hurry to the fast pass line. I’m not talking 4 or 5 it was close to a dozen at a time. I understand those people want to see and do as much as they can But so dont the ones in line too !! I disagree with the whole Fast Past thing !! Year after year changes are made to improve functions at Disney but Fast Pass was and is not appreciated by us folks that go to Disney year after year only to see groups of kids,adults trample others down just to get in line !!!
I don’t understand what this means exactly. Why would people book Fast Pass if they weren’t using their tickets and going to the Park?
They were using old tickets and dummy tickets to book extra fastpasses beyond the 3 at the kiosks in the park, thus hogging them from people doing things the right way.
Evidently the Fast Pass system allowed any pass to work, regardless of whether or not the person whose pass it was entered the park. So people were giving passes to others, allowing them to double book fast passes, while not using the pass themselves.
They were using this loophole to double/triple up on their FPs.
People were using more than one band that wasn’t theirs to get extra FPs on poeples account that werent in the park
Say a family owns 5 Magic Bands. Two people go to Magic Kingdom for the day, but they bring all 5 Magic Bands. They use 2 bands to get in the park, but all 5 bands to schedule and access FastPasses, giving 2 people a total of 15 Fastpasses rather than the standard 6.
Any word on whether “change party” culprits from yesterday are really locked out today?
Any response?
LONG OVERDUE…!!!
I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE YELLING ABOUT!!!
I think Disney has done a great job of stopping cheaters from people, who were hiring handicapped people so that they would’t have to wait in line to the people that made many dining reservations then sold them to others. This is just another step that must be taken to help assure that everyone has a good time. Keep up the good work.
Great? This stuff has been going on for YEARS! As a computer programmer myself, the guest should not have been able to use a FP on a MB which was not used to enter the park. Likewise, if someone booked at FP at 60 days out, the ability to use that FP should be authorized only when they are staying on property, and listed on an active reservation.
Love your comment. My husband is an app programmer. He just shakes his head at some of the poor functionality on the my Disney experience app and Web page.
I wonder…how many bloggers are going to get their MDE accounts blocked…
Also, the people that benefit are the ones who visit 1 time or are not passholders. They will finally have a chance to ride the mine train. Lol.
One thing I don’t understand though maybe someone can help…if I’m a passholder and I book FP thinking I may go in 30 days out but I don’t go for whatever reason. Would I get blocked out from future selections?
I think that is not the abuse they’re referring to…..if you book a FP but don’t enter the park and hence don’t use the FP, that isn’t “illegal” (even if you forget to go onto MDE and cancel the FP, I think). But if you went in and used the “legal” FP on your legal Magic Band/ticket but then also tried to use an old MagicBand/ticket you didn’t use to enter the park (it wasn’t scanned at the tapstile) before your return time expired (like, riding a second time within the FP return window) THAT would be illegal and then your account would be blocked that night. Just one example.
It seems that the number of fast passes that will be freed up for others to use will be miniscule. The real problem is the number of fast pass reservations made and then not canceled when plans change is what ties up a large number of fast passes that no one gets to use. As a season pass holder I often make plans and don’t end up going. That’s the nature of fast passes to get the good ones you have to reserve early. As a courtesy to others I try to remember to cancel them but Disney doesn’t penalize you in any way if you don’t. That to me seems to be the bigger problem if they are serious about freeing up fast passes for others to use.
People would remember to cancel FPs they wind up not being able to use if Disney charged them like they do with missed dining reservations. I understand forgetting to cancel FP if plans change but charging a penalty would maybe ensure people remember to cancel in time.
I don’t understand either. How on earth can someone cheat the Fastpass system? Wish everyone could just live honestly.
The ENTIRE purpose of Fastpass has nothing to do with Guest experience, and it’s only goal is to keep people out of lines, and in the stores buying stuff. The people who were ‘cheating’ the system for fast passes weren’t buying much, most of them cast members who also had someone in family with an annual pass.
What I really wish they’d do is let us have more than 3 FPs per day in one park (the initial FPs)….say, 5. And let them be for whatever attractions we want, even the same attraction twice in some cases. Too many times the 3rd FP we’ve booked for a certain park is for something we don’t really want to do but had to pick something in order to move on to a 4th FP choice in the same park or elsewhere, so we’ve sometimes skipped that 3rd FP attraction (let it expire without going to the ride/show). And get rid of the Tiers so we CAN book stuff like the River Journey and Flight of Passage for the same day….or Soarin’ and Test Track and Frozen Ever After for the same day….etc. With more FPs available, people maybe wouldn’t be tempted to cheat the system (and I never did cheat the system and am amazed there was even a message board somewhere about how to do it).
Do we actually have verification of this? There are in fact multiple ways to get add’l fp’s and since I am at Disney now I can verify the only thing that has changed….No more SDFP’s at the kiosks using extra non-ticketed Magic Bands. It only took them 5 years…Personally I wish they would offer more than 3 a day even by charging extra.
We’d gladly pay extra if we could get more than 3 FPs. Make it like the “front of the line pass” at Universal, where you can go on everything once through the FOTL entry (that’s at Uni Hollywood, not sure if it works the same at Uni Orlando), with no set times as far as I know.
BiL stayed at home today so cousin who showed unexpectedly could go with the rest of us (14 total). She used his MB for the attractions we’d already booked for 14, because she isn’t on our MDE and we couldn’t transfer them over.
Nothing malicious, nothing exhorbinant, but I guess we will find out tomorrow if his MB is locked from FP+. All 14 of us are on same MDE, but cousin wasn’t.
Doesn’t sound too bad to me….you traded one person’s use for another, so nothing “extra” happened. Please come back and let us know if anything happened with the account, though? But the cousin didn’t use the MagicBand for entering the park? That part would be tough, I think, because the user’s fingerprint is associated with the MB/ticket. And supposedly the FP scans are linked to the band used to enter the park(s). If locked out of MDE, you’d have to visit Guest Relations so maybe they’d unlock it with the explanation of the unexpected cousin’s visit.
Tom, it seems no ones’ MDE accounts are being locked. Based on the timing of your article, a MDE would not have been locked at your publish time.
I assume you had a trusted source regarding the locking of the MDE was coming.
Do you have an update since no one is reporting this is happening?
Thanks
I highly doubt that anyone who got their account locked by cheating the system really wants it out there publicly lol
Agreed but the question is where did you get this information? Your story was picked up by a number of fan sites and created a small measure of panic that guests would have their accounts locked and possibly worse.
The information comes from a document distributed to thousands of cast members this week, we don’t make up stories.
We technically cheated, because BiL stayed home so cousin who just got AP yesterday at MK could take his MB to use his FP+ with the rest of us. I checked his band this morning and added FPs for him today. I could add, so don’t think he got locked. The entire account, which has about 14 of us on it, is definitely not locked.
any update on this one chad? still not locked?
As of a few minutes ago, MDE account is still working generally. I also did test FP+ for BiL for tomorrow and it worked. Egregious cheating with multiple FP on tickets for SDFP or other schemes I am not aware of might have flagged cancellations. In this case, we just had a guest with no fast passes use FP from band of guest who stayed home. I know Tom has outlined they were taking steps for addressing multiple use cases.
Regardless, we will count ourselves as lucky, and cousin has her AP set up and can make her own FPs with the rest of us now. No more shenanigans!
its entirely possible that whatever new program they wrote to scan the system is having problems and hasn’t gone into effect yet. This is My Disney Experience we’re talking about, there is probably a bug or 2 they have to work through before locking accounts.
Any account lock reports a week in?
Yes! Locked here! We are annual pass holders for a family of 8. My kids used their father’s fast pass to get on a ride at Epcot. He did not join us that day. We didn’t realize this was against the rules since our tickets are technically already paid for entry to the park. His account was locked for not entering the park but having a fast pass used. I had to call and get it unlocked. She nicely explained the policy, which we didn’t realize beforehand since we have already paid the entry- whether we go or not- and informed me she could unlock it as a courtesy the 1st time. Any additional violations will need to speak with another department. Needless to say, we won’t do this, again. I understand there is fast pass abuse of priveldges going on but it never occurred to me to think that annual pass holders would be abusing the system since we have paid for park entry, anyway. It feels as if we have paid for the right to use the fast pass. In any case, I understand now. Rules are Rules.
I’m curious about how you used for your father’s fast pass? Did you use up fast passes on your annual pass, and then transfer a fast pass from your father to one of your annual pass accounts? If so, then I can see why that would be prohibited, as you were able to pre-book more than others. However, I’m still not sure I understand why you cannot transfer a fast pass from your father’s account to your kids if he decided not to use it, and if they had not already used fast passes of their own.
It hurts my brain too much to try to figure this all out. I think it’s probably best if I just avoid transferring fast passes for any reason. I really don’t want to get into trouble.