Timing of fast passes at Magic Kingdom.

[addacollier]

What time of the day do you book your fast passes? We normally go for mid afternoon when the park is at peak attendance. And we usually go for Space Mountain, 7DMT & usually Splash Mountain. The main benefit, is that we can have a crack at the west side of the park in the morning followed by shows and fast passes in the afternoon. The down side is that once our 3rd fast pass is done, there’s not much left for a 2nd wave of fast pass. So is there merit in booking fast passes in the morning so you can attempt to have more later in the day?

 

[GlassHalfFull]

What time of the day do you book your fast passes? We normally go for mid afternoon when the park is at peak attendance. And we usually go for Space Mountain, 7DMT & usually Splash Mountain. The main benefit, is that we can have a crack at the west side of the park in the morning followed by shows and fast passes in the afternoon. The down side is that once our 3rd fast pass is done, there’s not much left for a 2nd wave of fast pass. So is there merit in booking fast passes in the morning so you can attempt to have more later in the day?

with how crowded the parks are these days.. you more than likely aren't getting a 4th fast pass that is worth you giving up the rope drop waits or lack there of. It blows me away watching people use their Pirates FP at park open etc.. I am a 11 am, 12 or 12:30 and 1/1:30 kinda guy myself with lunch between the 11 am and the end of my second one. This allows me to rope drop and do a whole side of the park, if not more.. and then relax the rest of the afternoon and MAYBE get a 4th fast pass before we leave for the day.

 

[Tom 55]

AS early in the morming as possible. That way we can pick up a 4th or 5th even a 6ths fastpass in a day.

 

[Schneewittchen]

I used to get FPs in the afternoons when it was busy, but I've changed tactics lately.

More recently, I get 3 big ticket FPs for 9, 10 and 11 am. Usually a combination of Peter Pan, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs or Big Thunder Mountain. I spend the rest of the day snagging FPs. You can easily do 15 attractions without ever waiting more than 15 or 20 minutes.

 

[Much-Pixie-Dust]

I usually save them until 6 at night. We go to park at rope drop and knock out as much as possible until about noon. Then head back to resort to swim. We typically fastpass BTMRR, SDMT, and Splash because we enjoy them more at night. Sometimes we watch the fireworks, but generally we ride a few rides because the lines aren’t as long.

 

[Kevin_W]

with how crowded the parks are these days.. you more than likely aren't getting a 4th fast pass that is worth you giving up the rope drop waits or lack there of. It blows me away watching people use their Pirates FP at park open etc.. I am a 11 am, 12 or 12:30 and 1/1:30 kinda guy myself with lunch between the 11 am and the end of my second one. This allows me to rope drop and do a whole side of the park, if not more.. and then relax the rest of the afternoon and MAYBE get a 4th fast pass before we leave for the day.

that is pretty typical for us as well. 1st fastpass 2-3 hours after the park opens, we we can enjoy low crowds first thing. then hit our FP+ rides, then after that we see what the MDE gods have in store for us with extra FP+ or we just wander and see shows/streetmosphere/low-wait attractions.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I typically avoid 9am fast passes because you can usually ride a few things at rope drop with no FP. Then your first Fast Pass is 10am when the park starts filling up.

The only one I'd say get a FP at any time is the Mine Train.

 

[graphite1326]

Later in the day and in the front of the park (Space MT., Pirates, Buzz). We always head strait to the back and do Splash and BTMR first and work our way towards the front. It's generally less crowded first thing in the morning. Most people start at the front of the park.

 

[JIMINYCR]

We find that by going in early you can get on many attractions before crowds build. So we take advantage of that. Then our FP+ are prescheduled for beginning around the 10:30 - 11:00 time. After doing the three prime picks its hit or miss as to the follow up being decent picks or not. We do ride the best ones first when we arrive, then use the FP+ on them again so we get multiple rides on the best ones.
On our last trip by the time we got past the early afternoon it was pretty impossible to get a choice for anything worthwhile. That remained true for all the parks.

 

[danlb_2000]

Mid-morning to early afternoon. Late enough that we have time to hit some rides early before the crowds build, but not so late that we loose out on getting more later in the day.