FastPass+ Strategy?

[ColoradoEquestrian]

Hi! With a goal of riding the most rides; what have you found to be the best strategy in timing your FP+ attractions? All in the morning to free up potential additional FP+ later in the day; all in the afternoon so you don't waste FP+ on attractions when lines are shorter; some other approach?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Depends on what rides I plan on doing. If Space, Splash, and Thunder, I prefer to spread them throughout the day. I don't want to try and rush through my Fastpasses just to get a fourth because that means I'm running back and forth across the park, eliminating what I consider to be the primary benefit of FP+ in the first place. However, if my FP attractions are all physically close to one another (Mermaid, Mine Train, Peter Pan for example), I'll cluster them up early in the day so I can get another depending on what I feel like that evening.

 

[Weather_Lady]

It depends, in part, on when you arrive. Typically my family's strategy is to arrive pre rope drop, and there's no reason to use FP+ during the first couple of hours after park opening, when the lines for headliners are still reasonable. We save our FP+ for the headliners we know we'll reach during higher-crowd times of day, either just before we leave for our nap break (11am-12:30pm-ish) or just after we return to the parks, but before dinner (4pm-6pmish).

The only exception is Animal Kingdom: if we're visiting Animal Kingdom in the morning and hopping elsewhere in the evening, we don't use any FP+ at AK all, since we generally find we can do everything we want in standby with a rope drop arrival. On those days, we make the FP+ in our second (evening) park.

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

Depends on what rides I plan on doing. If Space, Splash, and Thunder, I prefer to spread them throughout the day. I don't want to try and rush through my Fastpasses just to get a fourth because that means I'm running back and forth across the park, eliminating what I consider to be the primary benefit of FP+ in the first place. However, if my FP attractions are all physically close to one another (Mermaid, Mine Train, Peter Pan for example), I'll cluster them up early in the day so I can get another depending on what I feel like that evening.

Thank you so much -- these are really good strategies for me to consider in our planning!

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

It depends, in part, on when you arrive. Typically my family's strategy is to arrive pre rope drop, and there's no reason to use FP+ during the first couple of hours after park opening, when the lines for headliners are still reasonable. We save our FP+ for the headliners we know we'll reach during higher-crowd times of day, either just before we leave for our nap break (11am-12:30pm-ish) or just after we return to the parks, but before dinner (4pm-6pmish).

The only exception is Animal Kingdom: if we're visiting Animal Kingdom in the morning and hopping elsewhere in the evening, we don't use any FP+ at AK all, since we generally find we can do everything we want in standby with a rope drop arrival. On those days, we make the FP+ in our second (evening) park.

Thank you! We like to get there before the parks open to take advantage of lower crowds, so your strategy lines up with our timing -- thank you! And that's a great tip on AK.

 

[BrianV]

Are you park hopping? If so, we found a really good strategy is to book late afternoon fastpasses in park #2. Then the day of, go to park#1. Fastpasses aren't needed for most rides until 11-12AM. Then go out for lunch or off for a swim. Then head to park #2 around 4 or so. You can hit the three headliners you booked plus all of the less popular rides that have seen their lines dwindle as the evening went on.

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

Are you park hopping? If so, we found a really good strategy is to book late afternoon fastpasses in park #2. Then the day of, go to park#1. Fastpasses aren't needed for most rides until 11-12AM. Then go out for lunch or off for a swim. Then head to park #2 around 4 or so. You can hit the three headliners you booked plus all of the less popular rides that have seen their lines dwindle as the evening went on.

We are definitely park hopping! Thanks for this tip!

 

[RushBoingo]

In my experience, having early morning fast passes at Hollywood Studios and Epcot are worthwhile considering that the lines for Toy Story and Soarin are both long from park opening, so an opening fastpass is usefull there, and then that gives you the best shot at potentially getting a valuable 4th fast pass is so desired. For Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, the variety of rides (MK) and general good balance of light crowds and strong ride capacity (AK) make getting the 4th FP+ not a big deal/not needed

Note advice works better with smaller groups. The bigger the pack, the smaller selection of 4th fast passes available. On the other hand, if you are all by yourself, you can secure numerous extra fast passes no matter what time of day.