Best time to hunt for fast passes?

[crowdream]

Hi all,

We are regular Disney goers but this is the first year I've taken charge of the fast pass booking and so far it's gone very well. We don't stay on site so are limited to 30 days for fast pass booking but so far I've managed to get (for a party of 3 people):

1. 9:35 AM to 10:35 AM - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
2. 12:20 PM to 1:20 PM - Slinky Dog Dash
3. 9:15 AM to 10:15 AM - Avatar Flight of Passage

I started with later times for all the above (Slinky dog seems to be the easiest to get) and managed to get the times down to earlier in the day.

What in your experience is the best times to look for fast passes?

I've not noticed any pattern, except Slinky Dogs seem to pop up late night/early morning UK time.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[crowdream]

Just managed to get another Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for a different day (9:30am this time). I seem to have hit a sweet spot.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Honestly I don't think there is any pattern to it.
Just check randomly throughout the day.
Although when I was looking for an earlier time for an attraction for my last trip I had luck at about 7pm eastern but it was probably just random.

 

[crowdream]

Honestly I don't think there is any pattern to it.
Just check randomly throughout the day.
Although when I was looking for an earlier time for an attraction for my last trip I had luck at about 7pm eastern but it was probably just random.

I've noticed more activity around 5pm - 11pm EST, that's were I've seem most slinky dogs, but then again I've had 3 or 4 Seven Dwarfs in the last 2 hours which is more around 1pm - 3pm EST. So very possibly random.

Out of interest do you know if the fast passes that become available post 30 days are new fast passes or cancelled fast passes from the folks who stay on site?

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I've noticed more activity around 5pm - 11pm EST, that's were I've seem most slinky dogs, but then again I've had 3 or 4 Seven Dwarfs in the last 2 hours which is more around 1pm - 3pm EST. So very possibly random.

Out of interest do you know if the fast passes that become available post 30 days are new fast passes or cancelled fast passes from the folks who stay on site?

Both.

 

[Marie123]

Sounds like you are doing really well! I want to know YOUR tips. How far out are you/ were you as you've been able to move up your times? We are at 50ish days and I have a 3:30pm Minetrain and a 6:40pm Slinky I would LOVE to move up. Wonder if it is easier after the 30 day mark? Thanks for any insight!

 

[King Racoon 77]

First thing in the morning as the sun is rising. Make sure to approach from downwind so as not to spook them.

 

[crowdream]

Sorry @Marie123 , didn't see the question.

Because one of our party of 3 is an annual pass holder we've been limited to booking 7 days of fast passes 30 days in advance but I think we've done pretty well. So this is the breakdown of what I've booked:

2 Seven Dwarfs (9am and 4pm)
2 Slinky Dogs (8:30am and 10am)
1 Avatar Flight of Passage (2pm)
1 Frozen (9:45am)
1 Soarin (10:30am)

The best day by far is the 19th, because of the tier system changes, we've got Toy story Mania@8am Slinky Dog@10am and Alien Swirling Saucers @ 12pm.

I also managed to get a Star Wars, Smugglers run on the 19th but cancelled it to get the slinky dog!

I've definitely found that I've booked more of the big rides between 1am and 2am UK time.

There were loads of fast passes at 12pm UK time on the 19th (7am US time, when the day roles over). Probably down to people cancelling their fast passes to book smugglers run which suggests that most available fast passes (within the 30 day period anyway) come from people cancelling their fast passes.

Hope that helps!

 

[David Giles]

Would love to know if anyone has any info on this too. I’m a ways out from our next trip and not seeing any availability at 30 days for the big rides. Very different to 2016 when everything was available.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Would love to know if anyone has any info on this too. I’m a ways out from our next trip and not seeing any availability at 30 days for the big rides. Very different to 2016 when everything was available.

I've found the same (our last trip was in 2018, but the availability is a fraction of what it used to be, even at 60 days. No Flight of Passage available until the evening of day 4, no Slinky Dog Dash available until mid-day on day 5...).

Just keep trying! People cancel vacations, or change things around, all the time. You're probably most likely to stumble on a dropped Fastpass on the day-of, but the inventory changes by the second. (Granted, this advice hasn't helped me yet -- I'm 12 days out from my vacation and despite trying a few times nearly every day, I've yet to be able to improve any of the Fastpasses I made at 60 days, but I'm visiting during a week of very high crowds. You may have better luck!)

Also, this site has a nice tool if you want to do a quick scan of what was available the last time the tool did a sweep: https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sh...278aebb177d878cccae20&p=10123554#post10123554

 

[Astrotrain]

I often get amazing fast passes day of or night before. You can easily refresh the list over and over again - just click/tap a time at the top and it auto refreshes without having to go back. A lot of people will cancel fast passes day of if they decide to go to a different park or leave a park early. If you have all of your fast passes booked but want a different time you can go into your plans, go to a fast pass you have, then hit "change" and refresh to see what you can snag from there without losing the fast pass you already have.

 

[crowdream]

Well, we're now back from an amazing 3 week holiday and did very well with the fast passes booked after the 7 days allowed for annual pass holders. In total these are the rides I managed to get:

2 Flight of passage
3 Slinky Dogs
2 Smugglers Run
2 Seven Dwarfs
1 Test Track (last day of holiday when it reopened!)
1 Frozen
1 Soaring

We got all the rides we wanted to on the days we went to Disney and not just the ones listed above (we also did universal this time!).

Now our 4 year old is better on the faster rides we will definitely be expanding our ride selection next time!

So I definitely think the strategy outlined above works, I now just need to work out how to book fast passes while in the parks after the 3 pre-bookings have been used up!