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Florida man used Disney employee iPad to magically skip lines

Florida man used Disney employee iPad to magically skip lines

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Here’s a real travel hack

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Firework Show Back To Walt Disney World Resort In Lake Buena Vista
Photo by Liao Pan/China News Service via Getty Images

There are tons of books and blogs telling you how to have a magical Disney World experience, but one Florida man discovered the ultimate travel hack: using an app that lets you skip lines running on a possibly stolen employee iPad (via Gizmodo). According to central Florida’s WESH2 news, 30 year-old Rennan Carletto allegedly did just that in June, by giving himself and a group traveling through the park with him an unauthorized jump to the front of the line.

According to a WPTV report, Carletto was leading an unauthorized tour of Hollywood Studios (Disney World’s worst park, no offense) and using the iPad to skip lines for the park’s rides by making reservation overrides. One Disney World fan site theorizes that he may have been taking advantage of Disney’s system that lets people with disabilities reserve certain times for a ride so they don’t have to wait in line. This would seemingly agree with a quote reported by WDW News Today, which classified the app as “a private app for qualifying guests” that’s only installed on devices owned by Disney World.

Having access to Disney’s private app sure beats FastPass

However Carletto was pulling it off, it seems like it was both easier and better than the confusing FastPass/MaxPass reservation system (which is due to be replaced by a service called Genie Plus).

Of course, as with every travel hack there were a few minor tradeoffs and inconveniences — Carletto ended up having to give the iPad back to a Disney investigator, and was issued a warning by Disney for trespassing. He reportedly told authorities that he didn’t know it was stolen (though it apparently wasn’t ever reported as such).

While I absolutely wouldn’t recommend trying to get your hands on an employee iPad, here’s one piece of travel advice from someone who grew up in Florida and had a December birthday: it’s almost winter, or at least what passes as winter in the Sunshine State, which means that Disney is entering what’s traditionally its slow season. While the wait times won’t be instant like they were for our friend Carletto, they’re likely to be significantly shorter in the off-season.