Fastpass booking questions!

[Cvones]

I'm very confused about booking fastpasses. I keep reading about different Fastpass strategies in which people are saying you should just pick anytime available and then you can go back and modify the time to one that more fits your schedule. I have also read people saying to book each person in your trip separately and again modify to fit your schedule.
Is this true? I just don't understand how you can modify the time after the fact if there was nothing available at that time to begin with?
Please shed some light on this for me!!

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

With the way the FP booking system works, it is sometimes difficult to customize the selections. You pick 3 attractions, and it'll show you a few different combinations based on which time slots are available. What some people like to do is just pick one of the options the system gives you. Then, you can go back and modify your selections individually. When you modify your FP+ choices, you pick from a dropdown menu of all of the available times for that attractions.

So let's say you want morning FPs for Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain. You select those 3 attractions, and it gives you option 1:
Splash: 9:00am-10:00am
Space: 11:00am-12:00pm
Big Thunder: 6:00pm-7:00pm

It's pretty easy to just select this option, then go back and modify the time for Big Thunder.

Does that make sense?

 

[Cvones]

With the way the FP booking system works, it is sometimes difficult to customize the selections. You pick 3 attractions, and it'll show you a few different combinations based on which time slots are available. What some people like to do is just pick one of the options the system gives you. Then, you can go back and modify your selections individually. When you modify your FP+ choices, you pick from a dropdown menu of all of the available times for that attractions.

So let's say you want morning FPs for Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain. You select those 3 attractions, and it gives you option 1:
Splash: 9:00am-10:00am
Space: 11:00am-12:00pm
Big Thunder: 6:00pm-7:00pm

It's pretty easy to just select this option, then go back and modify the time for Big Thunder.

Does that make sense?

Ok so even though the time wasn't available when you make the initial selection, it's available when you modify?

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

Ok so even though the time wasn't available when you make the initial selection, it's available when you modify?

Right, because when you make the initial selection, it doesn't show you all of the available times. It just shows you a few different options that work with the 3 attractions you selected.

 

[Cvones]

Ahh ok thanks!! What about the booking for one person at a time? Is that something I should be doing also?

 

[sfeinst]

I see no reason to book one at a time. I booked the group and if needed, went back and rebooked an individual if they wanted a different fastpass. I don't think you save anything booking separately unless you know they definitely do not want the same rides.

 

[Cvones]

I see no reason to book one at a time. I booked the group and if needed, went back and rebooked an individual if they wanted a different fastpass. I don't think you save anything booking separately unless you know they definitely do not want the same rides.

Ok great thanks!!

 

[Rob562]

I see no reason to book one at a time. I booked the group and if needed, went back and rebooked an individual if they wanted a different fastpass. I don't think you save anything booking separately unless you know they definitely do not want the same rides.

I concur. Booking FP+ choices separately for each person makes it much more difficult (and time consuming) to get them all to be the same (or overlapping) times.

If you want to mostly all ride the same rides but perhaps the kids don't want to ride Space Mountain, you book all of the FP+ for what the majority of the group wants to do (or the options that are hardest to get) and then go in and change the ones that need changing (for example, changing the Space Mountain to Buzz LIghtyear for the child and a parent that don't want to ride Space Mountain)

-Rob

 

[dreamfinder]

Ok so even though the time wasn't available when you make the initial selection, it's available when you modify?

It will be available as long as there are slots. Obviously if the time slot is already booked, then you can't change to it until something opens up. I think the system is trying to a) be overly optimistic with timing to minimize chances of people missing their slots b) subtly shape crowd and traffic flow behind the scenes by directing people to certain times/locations

 

[Tinkerkelle]

I did mine this morning (9am UK time so about 4am in Orlando) at my 60 day mark. It was very easy and intuitive. When I clicked on new FP+, it showed me my family and friends list and let me select the members from that group that I wanted to make selections for. It then let me select a park and date (although we could access the whole calendar, the dates of our resort stay were all highlighted and we could only select from those), then I selected the 3 attractions.
I selected the 'best fit' offered, then modified to suit my requirements. You can change time or experience very easily, though sometimes a bit of tinkering is required to move the slots around to fit exactly what you want. Apart from arrival day, I made all mine for mid morning to mid afternoon with the hope of picking up some 4th and even 5th passes at the kiosks - fingers and toes crossed!!
I got everything I wanted except a FP+ for 7 Dwarfs for the early evening of our arrival day - thought we might check into the Contemporary and head over there for our first ride, but no availability left although plenty for everything else (except Anna and Elsa and parade viewing) but got passes easily enough for 7D for days 5 and 8.
Happy planning!

 

[sophie_the_pooh]

When I booked my FP+ for MK, I just picked the option that had the best 7DMT time for us, then changed the times for the other 2 attractions, which was pretty easy.

 

[Cvones]

I did mine this morning (9am UK time so about 4am in Orlando) at my 60 day mark. It was very easy and intuitive. When I clicked on new FP+, it showed me my family and friends list and let me select the members from that group that I wanted to make selections for. It then let me select a park and date (although we could access the whole calendar, the dates of our resort stay were all highlighted and we could only select from those), then I selected the 3 attractions.
I selected the 'best fit' offered, then modified to suit my requirements. You can change time or experience very easily, though sometimes a bit of tinkering is required to move the slots around to fit exactly what you want. Apart from arrival day, I made all mine for mid morning to mid afternoon with the hope of picking up some 4th and even 5th passes at the kiosks - fingers and toes crossed!!
I got everything I wanted except a FP+ for 7 Dwarfs for the early evening of our arrival day - thought we might check into the Contemporary and head over there for our first ride, but no availability left although plenty for everything else (except Anna and Elsa and parade viewing) but got passes easily enough for 7D for days 5 and 8.
Happy planning!

Great thank you! Have a great trip

 

[Minnie1986]

With the way the FP booking system works, it is sometimes difficult to customize the selections. You pick 3 attractions, and it'll show you a few different combinations based on which time slots are available. What some people like to do is just pick one of the options the system gives you. Then, you can go back and modify your selections individually. When you modify your FP+ choices, you pick from a dropdown menu of all of the available times for that attractions.

So let's say you want morning FPs for Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain. You select those 3 attractions, and it gives you option 1:
Splash: 9:00am-10:00am
Space: 11:00am-12:00pm
Big Thunder: 6:00pm-7:00pm

It's pretty easy to just select this option, then go back and modify the time for Big Thunder.

Does that make sense?

This is the best explanation of FP I've seen so far. Thanks for this, because I was also confused and will be making my selections tonight. You just saved me a huge headache!

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

This is the best explanation of FP I've seen so far. Thanks for this, because I was also confused and will be making my selections tonight. You just saved me a huge headache!

Happy to help I found it helpful to play around with the FP booking system before my 60-day window opened up. As long as you have park tickets linked to your account, it should let you look at availability and book for up to 30 days out. It really helped to familiarize myself with the process beforehand!