Fastpass Plan Opinions

[Herdman]

Monday will be my first time booking with the new Fastpass+ system. We're going from 11/18 to 11/26, which includes Thanksgiving. However, we are planning to have our "off" day on Wednesday of that week, and we are spending Thanksgiving Day and Friday at Universal. I have my Fastpass schedule laid out, but I'm still a little up in the air as to the best way to try and book them. Here is what I am thinking, and please feel free to offer your opinions:

1) Book Frozen Ever After on our Epcot Day - Monday, 11/21
2) Book 7DMT on our 1st MK Day - Saturday, 11/19
3) Then go back and fill in the rest for each day in the parks.

I'm assuming it's possible to jump around from day to day during our stay as opposed to booking all 3 for that park for one day and then moving to the next. What do you think of this plan? Are there other major attractions I should pick and choose before completing each of the day by day Fastpass's? Thanks for the help!

 

[DisneyJoe]

My advice is usually to work backwards from the end of your trip, however, allow for very popular attractions, i.e. Frozen, 7DMT. The reasoning is that those who travel before your trip get to book their FP+ for the length of their trip, which will overlap some of yours.

I'm traveling 11/6-11/13 and I was able to find everything I wanted, Frozen, 7DMT a few different days, Toy Story Midway Mania, Peter Pan, and Soarin. I even still have some to choose which I will do this week.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I would say, yes -- only because that's exactly what I did in making FP+ this morning at 7am!
- I booked Frozen first (one, because it's so popular, and two, if I could only get a Frozen FP+ for a weird time, then I would know how I needed to shift around my other Epcot FP+ for that day to make it work). The times that it offered me first weren't ideal, but I made the FP+ anyway as a placeholder, and then went back later (after making the 7DMT FP+) and was able to "modify" the Frozen FP+ to a more convenient time.
- Then, I booked 7DMT (3x in fact - once in the morning, once on another day at night, and once on the day we leave, just for good measure).
- Finally, I went back and made all of our other FP+, starting with the beginning of the trip (which would have the least availability, because of overlap from other guests' "+10" window, and that availability would no doubt be shrinking fast as other guests were making FP+ for those days at the same time I was), and ending at the end of our trip (which was pretty much wide open because there was so much less overlap with others' "+10" windows, so it was less time-sensitive), and doing the "Tier 1" choices for HS and Epcot first for those days so I could adjust lesser FP+ around them if needed.

Then I took all of our newly-made FP+ times, input them into our personalized touring plans at touringplans.com, and evaluated everything to make sure that they "worked" with our touring itineraries and dining reservations. Since the FP+ times I got on MDE were generally within 15 minutes of the times I'd been shooting for, there wasn't too much tinkering required.

Good luck!

 

[Herdman]

Thanks for the input. @Weather_Lady, that sounds pretty much exactly as I was planning to approach things. Good to know that it worked for you!

 

[JohnD]

You can book up to three per park per day. Yes, 0 to 3 or in-between but only one park in advance.

You could book one FP+ first thing in the morning, travel to Universal and return to MK in the evening for the other two. Totally up to you how you arrange your first three in that one park.

 

[bunnyman]

Just remember, you must use your first three FP+'s daily in the same park, then you can hop around. For our recently completed beginning of August trip, we laid out everyone's "must see rides" first, which were in no particular order Frozen Ever After, Soarin', 7DMT, RnRC, and Tower of Terror. After that it was the rest of the mountains; Space, Splash, Big Thunder, and Everest. The MK is easiest, as you don't have the "tiers", so you can book anything there. I think we did 7DMT, Space Mt., and Splash Mt. on same day. For our first Epcot day we booked Frozen, but since its in the same tier as Soarin' and Test Track, you're really pressed to have to make another two rather pointless FP+'s before you can make #2 (as in really, FP+'s for the Land and Spaceship Earth...really??). Because of this, you're forced to stay later in the day to try and get additional FP's, or spread out your tier A choices over several days. The Studios present a similar problem with the tiering, except RnRC and the Tower are at least in different tiers so you can book back-to-back. While TSMM is nice, since it's also in tier A we usually only get to this off-pear hours is standby is short, or on our extra FP's after the first 3 are used. Lines are much shorter this year with the 3rd track open and somewhat lighter crowds with the construction.

 

[SaltyD]

Another option for booking them is to book your must do-rides late in the day, and hit the parks early to stand on line. Fast passes for Soarin and Test Track will run out, so if you're hoping to snag one of those after you do your first 3, there's a chance they won't have any more.

Make sure when you do your fast passes to do those important ones first and then do the fill-in's once you're set with the priority ones!