Fastpass+ Question

rjtomlinson1977

rjtomlinson1977

New Member
Original Poster
We're going to WDW in February. We've been to Disney every year since 2008 but last year went to Disneyland instead of WDW for something different. Anyway, we're kind of concerned about this new fastpass+ system. It looks like you can only have 3 a day and on top of that they have fastpasses for rides that are normally walk-on rides. For example, our favorite rides are Pirates and the Haunted Mansion (which typically don't have long lines). Does this new system cause these rides to have long lines or what? Assuming these rides still have short wait times is it worth wasting a fastpass+ on these?
 
CAPTAIN HOOK

CAPTAIN HOOK

Well-Known Member
rjtomlinson1977 said:
It looks like you can only have 3 a day
Click to expand...
No, You got this bit wrong.

When it comes to making your initial FP+ selection (at 30 or 60 days depending on whether you stay off or on property) you can make up to 3 FP+ per person, per day.
On your first day at the parks, once you've either visited your 3 chosen attractions, or their time slot has gone by, you can choose another FP+ from the FP+ kiosks in the parks (assuming that there's any left). Once this has been used you can make another selection
You can only make FP+ for the park that you're in - so if you visit MK and use your 3 FP+ you can book another FP+ from an MK kiosk, or, you could hop to DHS but you'd have to use the DHS FP+ kiosk to make a FP+ selection
EASY !!!
 
rjtomlinson1977

rjtomlinson1977

New Member
Original Poster
This sounds way better. I feel even more excited about going now. I had a co-worker just get back from wdw and since it was his fist time it was all Greek to him. Thanks for your help!!!
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
The other thing to note is that you are correct that a few of the attractions that typically did used to have shorter Standby lines (Mansion and Pirates, for example) now have slightly longer ones as an expense for slightly shorter headliner attractions (the Mountains, for example).

Though there was a study done by some online site that showed the increase on most attractions that had an increase was something like 5 minutes. And if you're there at a slow time of the year, it's possible that the difference may be negligible

-Rob
 
H

Hockey89

Well-Known Member
The new system sucks.... The old one worked much better...yeah, you may be able to finish your first three and then get more, but must of the times suck by then...Hate it
 
BJones82

BJones82

Well-Known Member
Most of the people who HATE it are just anti change... the biggest piece of advice I can say for this is don't let it ruin your trip :) The whole MM+ system does have a lot of benefits and like Rob562 said the additional wait on non E ticket rides is minimal and when I was there in September was not noticeable compared to my previous visits.

Just have fun, get the FPs you want to get for each park and get your extra ones after that :) We found this trip was the first trip we ate at more sit down restaurants because it used to be you either called to make ADRs or you walked up to a restaurant asked if they had any ADRs available, and then asked if other restaurants had times available, each day we would look at our phone as we got to the park (we used to look at a map and times guide) pick our FPs, and then we would make a lunch and dinner reservation at what every restaurants had times available and we worked around it. We are fairly flexible though so I can understand if you are traveling with people who are not flexible this could add another stress to the trip :/
 
T

thomas998

Well-Known Member
rjtomlinson1977 said:
We're going to WDW in February. We've been to Disney every year since 2008 but last year went to Disneyland instead of WDW for something different. Anyway, we're kind of concerned about this new fastpass+ system. It looks like you can only have 3 a day and on top of that they have fastpasses for rides that are normally walk-on rides. For example, our favorite rides are Pirates and the Haunted Mansion (which typically don't have long lines). Does this new system cause these rides to have long lines or what? Assuming these rides still have short wait times is it worth wasting a fastpass+ on these?
Click to expand...

We just got back so let me give you a heads up on what to expect with the fastpass+.

You only get 3 fastpasses to start with. If you know the rides you really want and they are popular then you need to be ready to sign up for them 60 days in advance or there is a chance they will be gone. Mine Train and Frozen are two that vanish very quickly so if you want either of them be ready to pounce on them asap.

second... when you are initially signing up it will only give you few different options that, usually with a lot more time in between each ride than you will want. This is just the first round, take one and then change individual rides for different times, it is much easier than checking out every option they give you to begin with.

third... if you are going to go early to the park then try to sign up for all the earliest fastpass times possible because once they have expired you can then sign up for another one after they have all been used.

fourth... you can't do that online, you have to be in the park you want a fastpass for when you are done with the initial 3 and you have to find a kiosk to do it from. We found out the hard way you can't sign up for say Magic Kingdom rides when you are at the Kiosks in Hollywood Studio... Even though we had reservations for dinner in the Magic Kingdom the CM wouldn't let us get any fastpass for the other park we had to physically show up there first which kind of defeats the purpose of planning ahead.

fifth thing to remember is that the new fastpasses seemed to make every other stand-by line go much slower than it would have in the past.

We saw typical standby lines for pirates and mansion at between 40 and 55 minutes throughout the main part of the day. The only time the lines became under 15 were in after the 9:30 parade on a week night when the park was getting very light traffic. So if you really want those rides you should aim for either doing them at rope drop or at the end of the day when crowds are thinning.... Or sing up for a fastpass.... If you like Space Mountain then I suggest you hit it early and don't bother with a fast pass, it was hardly ever crowded in the first hour after park opening and on two days we were able to walk on, ride return and still walk on with no wait at all... was as if no one wanted to go to tomorrow land anymore.
 
D

dadddio

Well-Known Member
CAPTAIN HOOK said:
No, You got this bit wrong.

When it comes to making your initial FP+ selection (at 30 or 60 days depending on whether you stay off or on property) you can make up to 3 FP+ per person, per day.
On your first day at the parks, once you've either visited your 3 chosen attractions, or their time slot has gone by, you can choose another FP+ from the FP+ kiosks in the parks (assuming that there's any left). Once this has been used you can make another selection
You can only make FP+ for the park that you're in - so if you visit MK and use your 3 FP+ you can book another FP+ from an MK kiosk, or, you could hop to DHS but you'd have to use the DHS FP+ kiosk to make a FP+ selection
EASY !!!
Click to expand...
One other thing that I like is that when you go to choose your 4th+ FP+, you might note that there are some FP+s available with near immediate ride times. These are likely not to be rides that you would normally grab a FP for, but my thinking is that jumping in a FP line right now is better than waiting in a 15-20 minute line for that ride and immediately after I can jump to the kiosk and see what else is available.

Also, you will note that some kiosks are super busy while other are not busy at all. Sometimes, it's better to walk a little ways to a non-busy kiosk. The FP runner in me doesn't mind that at all.
 
GlenDhu

GlenDhu

New Member
thomas998 said:
We just got back so let me give you a heads up on what to expect with the fastpass+......
Click to expand...
Thank you for posting, I am glad I read your post. Especially after today's experience.
WE are going for our first trip at Christmas this year. Today is 60 days out from our arrival at a Disney hotel. so I was online refreshing every 30 seconds waiting for the fastpass to activate(at about 3pm my time).
When it did I was blown away by how quickly the timeslots filled and the available attractions just dropped out.
I was also surprised that I could book for Christmas day, and days after Christmas. I was all done for 3 parks in 12 minutes. I got all at Magic Kingdom on Christmas day, most of the options we wanted were just not available and Christmas is 62 days away.

I am so glad I was online as soon as I was eligible to book the fastpass reservations.

I am curious how others went for Christmas time bookings.

Cheers
 
T

thomas998

Well-Known Member
GlenDhu said:
Thank you for posting, I am glad I read your post. Especially after today's experience.
WE are going for our first trip at Christmas this year. Today is 60 days out from our arrival at a Disney hotel. so I was online refreshing every 30 seconds waiting for the fastpass to activate(at about 3pm my time).
When it did I was blown away by how quickly the timeslots filled and the available attractions just dropped out.
I was also surprised that I could book for Christmas day, and days after Christmas. I was all done for 3 parks in 12 minutes. I got all at Magic Kingdom on Christmas day, most of the options we wanted were just not available and Christmas is 62 days away.

I am so glad I was online as soon as I was eligible to book the fastpass reservations.

I am curious how others went for Christmas time bookings.

Cheers
Click to expand...

I am curious myself as to whether the system can be gamed by people. Since you can start booking 60 days in advance of your trip and if your trip goes for 7 days you could really be booking 66 days in advance for the last of your trip... Now I can cancel my room 45 days in advance with no penalty.... so if I was going and didn't really want to stay at a Disney Hotel, could I book my hotel at Disney, sign up for my fastpass+ and then cancel my room but still keep my fastpass+ slots while now using a non-Disney Hotel?
 
docdebbi

docdebbi

Well-Known Member
thomas998 said:
I am curious myself as to whether the system can be gamed by people. Since you can start booking 60 days in advance of your trip and if your trip goes for 7 days you could really be booking 66 days in advance for the last of your trip... Now I can cancel my room 45 days in advance with no penalty.... so if I was going and didn't really want to stay at a Disney Hotel, could I book my hotel at Disney, sign up for my fastpass+ and then cancel my room but still keep my fastpass+ slots while now using a non-Disney Hotel?
Click to expand...


I have no doubt that people have been doing that both for dining and FP. can't stop it. it's wrong, but alas, I can understand why they do it.
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
thomas998 said:
I am curious myself as to whether the system can be gamed by people. Since you can start booking 60 days in advance of your trip and if your trip goes for 7 days you could really be booking 66 days in advance for the last of your trip... Now I can cancel my room 45 days in advance with no penalty.... so if I was going and didn't really want to stay at a Disney Hotel, could I book my hotel at Disney, sign up for my fastpass+ and then cancel my room but still keep my fastpass+ slots while now using a non-Disney Hotel?
Click to expand...

I believe with FP+ those FP+ reservations will be cancelled within a day or so.
Dining reservations won't, though.

-Rob
 
RonAnnArbor

RonAnnArbor

Well-Known Member
dotNetInternt said:
Most of the people who HATE it are just anti change.
Click to expand...

SO SO very not true -- most people who hate it are season passholders and DVC members who have no use for the new fastpass system -- we don't go to one park and spend all day there. We don't plan our day around the rides. We don't plan on staying in the park all day long. You come to pick and choose what you experience, and rarely spend more than 3 or 4 hours in any park...and the new fastpass+ system simply sucks for us. It means NOT being able to select the experiences you want -- and it means standing in lines just to get secondary tier experiences in the second park visited for the day. It means not being able to control your day at all, since you are forced into Disney's schedule for you. Even though you can "tweak" the times for your experiences, doing so is not feasible since large blocks of time are already blocked-out, and you are not offered more convenient times.

I think the fastpass+ system IS really great for first time visitors -- you can guarantee you can do the most important rides -- sort of -- until you realize you can not select Toy Story Mania AND The Great Movie Ride...etc...

Its a terrible system, and even Disney knows it. They knew it throughout the beta testing period -- and they chose to ignore any feedback they were getting from their annual passholders and DVC members -- in fact, that group was the LAST to be added to the FP+ system.

To say people just "hate change" is so far off the mark. Its a system that penalizes those who know and go to the parks the most.
 

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