5 Fastpass+ Tips to Improve Your Disney Experience
by: guide4wdw – Collin
Utilizing the Fastpass+ system is a must for any Disney vacation. Not only does it allow guests to pre-plan their vacation, but also greatly increases the amount of attractions you can complete within a given day. However, using a few particular tips when setting up your passes can greatly improve your Fastpass+ experience.
1. Plan Ahead
Well, we’ll start with the simplest tip on the list and one that many of you certainly already know, Plan Ahead! For many first time guests, this can be quite frustrating. Having to choose the attractions you want to ride and the particular times you want to ride them weeks in advance can be quite intimidating. However, if you do plan near the beginning of your Fastpass+ booking window, your experience will be much better. For resort guests, reservations for attractions can be made up to 60 days in advance (30 days for offsite guests). Utilizing that window of opportunity and booking the day of will almost guarantee you a chance at your favorite attractions.
2. Pick Your Favorites
Again, this one seems fairly self explanatory, but when I say pick your favorites, give it a little thought. These choices are likely attractions that you will be guaranteed a ride on during your time in the parks. Take a poll from the guests in your party and have each person pick one attraction that is their “must-do” for that particular day. It will relieve some of the stress of racing to that attraction in the morning, and guarantee a smile for each guest in your party.
3. Timing Is Everything
When scheduling your Fastpass selections, make sure to schedule at not only times that fit your dining reservations and other pre-planned experiences, but also accommodate the additional Fastpass+ option. For those of you who may not know, once you utilize your 3 attraction passes for the day, you can book an additional pass on a rotation for any other attractions available on that given day. For example, if you used all three of your passes in the Magic Kingdom, but Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin still has pass availability, you can schedule an additional fastpass for that attraction. Once that pass is used you can repeat the process of adding a single additional pass until the distribution is depleted for all attractions for the day.
4. Account for Park Hopping
For many, changing parks in the middle of the day is a great way to experience two parks on the same day or to spread out your time across all of the parks. However, with fastpass+ it presents a few problems. If you plan on visiting a park in the morning and then one later in the afternoon or night, be sure to plan your Fastpass+ selections and times accordingly.
Typically, you have a few options. First, you can plan all of your passes early in the morning at your first park with hopes of getting to the second park in time to book your additional one selection before they have disappeared for the day. Second, you can book your passes for the second park and just attempt to get to your first park early enough to ride whatever you’d like before the crowds really start to build. It’s not the perfect situation currently for Fastpass+ but there are a few different options to still get the most out of your park hopping experience.
5. Be Patient!
If you can’t get the particular attraction fastpass+ that you want, keep checking the app or online reservation system. Many guests will cancel a vacation or change their selections on a daily basis. Also, while it has never been confirmed officially, it is rumored that fastpasses are distributed in waves as dates approach in order to accommodate both annual passholders and offsite guests who cannot book as early as resort guests. Being persistent and checking back frequently really will open up a lot of opportunities, especially for new attractions like Flight of Passage. Also, and perhaps my favorite tip is to check the My Disney Experience App for canceled selections throughout the day if you couldn’t get the reservations you wanted. Things happen and reservations are canceled by other guests that you can pick up as quickly as they drop them. Of course, you don’t have to constantly check your phone, but if you get a moment while eating or waiting on a show to begin, take a quick look and you never know what you may find!
So, those are our favorite tips! If there’s anything we can help you out with or you need any recommendations for scheduling passes, feel free to ask! We’d be happy to help you out with any questions you may have throughout the planning process.
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