Changes in Implementation
At first, a guest could only hold a single Fastpass at a time; if a guest tried to insert a park ticket into another Fastpass machine before the time shown on their previous Fastpass, the machine would generate a ticket with a message printed on it stating that it was not yet time to obtain another Fastpass. Since the initial rollout of Fastpass, the rules have been relaxed a bit, and now additional Fastpasses can be had sooner after one another (maximum 2 hour interval between obtaining two Fastpasses), but still only one Fastpass per attraction per park ticket in every interval.
Vacations to Disneyland which were booked through AAA Vacations in 2006 came with park admission tickets which could be used to collect Fastpass tickets from multiple attractions at one time. Under this exclusive program, a guest could hold multiple Fastpass tickets per park ticket for multiple attractions at the same time. This Multi-Fastpass feature was discontinued as of January 2007, and all AAA ParkHopper tickets since then have been Standard Fastpass.
A bug in the first implementation of Fastpass allowed guests to get a pass by using tickets other than Disney's own admission media. Old tickets and even passes for other parks would result in the machines printing up another Fastpass. This has since been corrected; a ticket will come out stating "This card has not been scanned for admission".
Epcot's Mission: SPACE was the first attraction built with Fastpass in mind, with a specific queue area for it. Earlier attractions were retrofitted for Fastpass by rerouting the queue area to allow a shorter line near the boarding area.
Fastpass is used mainly on the most popular park attractions, such as Space Mountain, Test Track, Expedition Everest, Soarin' and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror; therefore, the rides that offer Fastpass service vary over time. Smaller attractions would not benefit from Fastpass due to short or fast-moving lines.
On August 30, 2007, the Walt Disney Company filed a patent for using Short Messaging Service on mobile devices as a way to get and use FastPasses in the park. The patent additionally indicated that guests staying at Disney hotels would be allowed to make early reservations for attractions using their in-room television.
The World of Color show at Disney California Adventure uses Fastpass as the only method of getting tickets for entering the Paradise Park viewing area aside from obtaining reserved seating vouchers through a World of Color dining package at select Disney California Adventure table service dining locations or a World of Color picnic package.
Read more about this topic: Disney's Fastpass