When you got your 4th, and 5th fastpass (wishful thinking?)

[mouse in my house]

Everyone discusses reserving their first 3 fastpasses ahead of time, but I haven't seen conversations concerning success on getting other ones in the park that afternnon as much. I would like to hear anyone's experience from the last 6 months or so that has tried to get extra ones during the day in the park so
info from these guests who TRIED TO 'SHOP' FOR A FP+ in the afternoon so those who:
stayed in the park and didn't leave to nap/swim in the afternoon
didn't use their 3rd original FP+ for a parade or fireworks
had more than 2 people in their party

I would really appreciate if you said:
how busy it was that day and what time you started looking
how many guests you needed FP+ for
the most popular rides you were able to get

We have older kids so I wouldn't be looking for meet and greets but popular rides like the 3 mountains (space, splash and big thunder RR), soarin, test track, rock 'n' roller coaster, kilimanjaro safaris, kali river rapids. I am trying to get the most difficult for my first 3 but in looking at the long wait times the past few months, I am just wondering how possible it is to pick up the ones we don't get or want to ride again.

 

[sjhym333]

That really is a hard question to answer. I have gotten 7DMT and Anna and Elsa on a 4th, 5th and 6th on some occasions and other days I have gotten attractions that didn't really have any waits to begin with. Last weekend at EPCOT our 4th FP choices were Spaceship Earth, Living Seas with Nemo and Captain EO. All had less than 15 min waits. It really is a hit and miss thing since people are constantly changing their FP reservations which then opens up new ones all the time.

The one piece of advice I would give is that the later in the day the less the choices. So it is sometime helpful to make your FP reservations early and then try to grab additional ones as you go along earlier in the day.

 

[mouse in my house]

Thanks, Sjhym333, I definitely plan to get them as early as I can. One reason I wondered is because another helpful website thedibb.co.uk has a fastpass availability chart updated every 30 minutes. Even though the line for Soarin was 80 minutes yesterday evening, it said fastpasses were available for groups of four. I just wondered if people were really standing in line that long and not getting a fastpass (which would be crazy) or if maybe none were actually available. Every little bit of info helps so I appreciate what you shared from your trip. I would expect the selection you found last weekend to be more the norm.

 

[SSH]

My last trip was during a "slower" time - first week of Dec - and I didn't have any luck getting a 4th FP+. One day we tried at AK after using the first three....but everything was booked. Another day, I left the first park (where we used the first 3 FPs) took a break, then went into the 2nd park, and everything was also booked for the rest of the time, except for lower demand, high capacity attractions which usually don't have a long wait to begin with. It wasn't that big a deal, as we've been to WDW enough - I don't really need to jump on lots of attractions to have a great trip. Just chiming in re: my experiences.

 

[mouse in my house]

Thanks SSH, do you remember if it was closer to early afternoon like 1 pm or later like 6 pm or so when you tried? I started looking at a website that shows when FP are gone and it seems like the good ones (ie long line rides) are by 5 p.m. but I wondered if our first 3 are done at 1 pm if that is usually too late to pick up a 4th. We go about every 4 years so we have ridden most everything (not 7DMT), but yet we would still like to do as much as we could without wasting our day waiting. Either way, it is good to be prepared for the reality so to speak so I am not disappointed.

 

[SSH]

At animal kingdom, it was around 2:30-3pm when we tried...we were just hoping to snag one more popular attraction before leaving for the day, but no luck. In 2nd case, it was MK - we had used our FPs in another park earlier and arrived at MK around 5pm. I usually book my FPs for the later park just for this reason. But that day, it was more impt to us to have them in the first park and we really didn't mind hanging out at MK and doing standby.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We visited in May 2014 (a little outside of the 6-month range, but FWIW...)

On our arrival day (Saturday May 4th, estimated crowd level of 6/10 on the touringplans scale), we tried to get a 4th FP+ around 6pm in the Magic Kingdom. Peter Pan, our first choice, was "sold out" for the day. There was availability for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, but not until the last hour before the park closed, when lines would be dwindling, anyway. We were able to get a FP+ for Haunted Mansion (which had a 30-40 minute estimated standby wait that evening) for around 8:00pm, the earliest available for that attraction.

I had to wait in line (at the indoor Liberty Square FP+ location next to Hall of Presidents) for 15-20 minutes to even get the FP+. We all quickly decided that waiting 20 minutes for a FP+ to "save" ourselves 20 minutes in line someplace else wasn't worth it. We never tried getting a fourth FP+ again, after that.

 

[mouse in my house]

We visited in May 2014 (a little outside of the 6-month range, but FWIW...)

On our arrival day (Saturday May 4th, estimated crowd level of 6/10 on the touringplans scale), we tried to get a 4th FP+ around 6pm in the Magic Kingdom. Peter Pan, our first choice, was "sold out" for the day. There was availability for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, but not until the last hour before the park closed, when lines would be dwindling, anyway. We were able to get a FP+ for Haunted Mansion (which had a 30-40 minute estimated standby wait that evening) for around 8:00pm, the earliest available for that attraction.

I had to wait in line (at the indoor Liberty Square FP+ location next to Hall of Presidents) for 15-20 minutes to even get the FP+. We all quickly decided that waiting 20 minutes for a FP+ to "save" ourselves 20 minutes in line someplace else wasn't worth it. We never tried getting a fourth FP+ again, after that.

Thanks Weather_lady,
I am starting to realize that if the "busy park scale" is more than 4, it is unlikely to get any good fastpasses the day of, especially with our family of 5. Since I will choose mine Sunday, I have been a little obsessive studying FP availability and wait times. For example, today, since Epcot had EMH at 8 a.m. basically when the park opened, FP for Test Track, Soarin and Mission Space were all gone for parties of 4. I know some people may cancel but still highly unlikely anyone could get one easily after lunch. I have learned that if I were to be there on a day like that, in which they are gone the night before anyway, I would plan my FP for after 11 or 12 and ride standby the first 2 hours. We wouldn't pick up any good ones for our 4th or 5th anyway so I wouldn't want to mess up my chance at riding them once in the early a.m. on standby and then be able to ride a 2nd time with our FP.
I have really read of so few people getting decent 4th or 5th FP, it is really depressing. I can't believe MK only has 4 FP kiosk areas as is the other case with the other parks. What were they thinking? I wonder if it is Disney's plan to make the kiosk access an issue so we don't get too many FP? Like you say, if you have to go a decent distance to get to a kiosk and then wait for 20 minutes to even check on a new FP, you may have not helped yourself.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Thanks Weather_lady,
I am starting to realize that if the "busy park scale" is more than 4, it is unlikely to get any good fastpasses the day of, especially with our family of 5. Since I will choose mine Sunday, I have been a little obsessive studying FP availability and wait times. For example, today, since Epcot had EMH at 8 a.m. basically when the park opened, FP for Test Track, Soarin and Mission Space were all gone for parties of 4. I know some people may cancel but still highly unlikely anyone could get one easily after lunch. I have learned that if I were to be there on a day like that, in which they are gone the night before anyway, I would plan my FP for after 11 or 12 and ride standby the first 2 hours. We wouldn't pick up any good ones for our 4th or 5th anyway so I wouldn't want to mess up my chance at riding them once in the early a.m. on standby and then be able to ride a 2nd time with our FP.
I have really read of so few people getting decent 4th or 5th FP, it is really depressing. I can't believe MK only has 4 FP kiosks and I think AK has 7. What were they thinking? I wonder if it is Disney's plan to make the kiosk access an issue so we don't get too many FP? Like you say, if you have to go a decent distance to get to a kiosk and then wait for 20 minutes to even check on a new FP, you may have not helped yourself.

Don't let it get you down. The Fastpass limit shouldn't hurt your wait times too much in the aggregate. We may have only used our allotment of 3 each day, but by combining it with at least one rope drop arrival in each park (2 rope drops in the MK, our favorite park, plus evening EMH on our last night) we still got to do every single headliner in every single park (plus 80-100% of the non-headliners) and hardly ever had to wait more than 10 minutes for anything, even though we only toured in 2 four-hour "blocks" every day with a big nap break in between. As long as you can get there first thing in the morning and make good use of the first hour, you'll still come out way ahead.

 

[mouse in my house]

Thanks Weather_Lady.

 

[sjhym333]

Thanks Weather_lady,
I am starting to realize that if the "busy park scale" is more than 4, it is unlikely to get any good fastpasses the day of, especially with our family of 5. Since I will choose mine Sunday, I have been a little obsessive studying FP availability and wait times. For example, today, since Epcot had EMH at 8 a.m. basically when the park opened, FP for Test Track, Soarin and Mission Space were all gone for parties of 4. I know some people may cancel but still highly unlikely anyone could get one easily after lunch. I have learned that if I were to be there on a day like that, in which they are gone the night before anyway, I would plan my FP for after 11 or 12 and ride standby the first 2 hours. We wouldn't pick up any good ones for our 4th or 5th anyway so I wouldn't want to mess up my chance at riding them once in the early a.m. on standby and then be able to ride a 2nd time with our FP.
I have really read of so few people getting decent 4th or 5th FP, it is really depressing. I can't believe MK only has 4 FP kiosk areas as is the other case with the other parks. What were they thinking? I wonder if it is Disney's plan to make the kiosk access an issue so we don't get too many FP? Like you say, if you have to go a decent distance to get to a kiosk and then wait for 20 minutes to even check on a new FP, you may have not helped yourself.

A couple of thoughts. I always tell people to avoid parks that have early EMH. The logical thinking for most hotel guests is...hey that park is open earlier lets head there. So all those hotel guests head there (night EMH is different, especially at the MK). I recommend people head to a different park on early EMH days because they tend to be a little less busy.

Honestly there seems to be some stress about the available kiosks as if there are hour waits to get a 4th FP. That has not been my experience. As both CM's and guests have come to understand the FP+ system it has helped move the lines along nicely. On a rather busy day a couple of weeks ago I waited less then 5 minutes to get to a Kiosk and the CM's were very helpful in getting people to make a choice and move along.

As for getting a FP for a prime attraction during a very busy day...it is no different then the old system during the mid-afternoon. We all remember seeing the A-frame signs that said...all the FP's have been distributed for the day. When you have a lot of people in the parks it stands to reason that the availability to get FP's decreases. As someone who worked at Disney during legacy (paper) FP I can tell you on very busy days it was not unusual to be out of FP's before lunch. This really isn't different.

Lastly, it is a vacation. Everyone needs to relax a little. Here is my 2 cents. If you go to WDW during Easter, Christmas, July 4th or Thanksgiving you have to go in expecting that it will be very crowded and your ability to do a lot of things decreases. It is a simple math equation. More people=less things to do. Add to that: the parks have been busy even on what used to be slow times and it gets even harder during busy days. The best thing you can do is make a plan. Get your FP's for the things you HAVE to do then be prepared to wait in line for other things. Include in your plan those attractions that you can duck into to get out of the crowds with minimal waits: Hall of Presidents, Carousel of Progress, Country Bears, American Adventure, any movie in World Showcase, Universe of Energy, etc. Then you will be doing things while waiting out the crowds to slow down into the later evening.

 

[mouse in my house]

A couple of thoughts. I always tell people to avoid parks that have early EMH. The logical thinking for most hotel guests is...hey that park is open earlier lets head there. So all those hotel guests head there (night EMH is different, especially at the MK). I recommend people head to a different park on early EMH days because they tend to be a little less busy.

Honestly there seems to be some stress about the available kiosks as if there are hour waits to get a 4th FP. That has not been my experience. As both CM's and guests have come to understand the FP+ system it has helped move the lines along nicely. On a rather busy day a couple of weeks ago I waited less then 5 minutes to get to a Kiosk and the CM's were very helpful in getting people to make a choice and move along.

As for getting a FP for a prime attraction during a very busy day...it is no different then the old system during the mid-afternoon. We all remember seeing the A-frame signs that said...all the FP's have been distributed for the day. When you have a lot of people in the parks it stands to reason that the availability to get FP's decreases. As someone who worked at Disney during legacy (paper) FP I can tell you on very busy days it was not unusual to be out of FP's before lunch. This really isn't different.

Lastly, it is a vacation. Everyone needs to relax a little. Here is my 2 cents. If you go to WDW during Easter, Christmas, July 4th or Thanksgiving you have to go in expecting that it will be very crowded and your ability to do a lot of things decreases. It is a simple math equation. More people=less things to do. Add to that: the parks have been busy even on what used to be slow times and it gets even harder during busy days. The best thing you can do is make a plan. Get your FP's for the things you HAVE to do then be prepared to wait in line for other things. Include in your plan those attractions that you can duck into to get out of the crowds with minimal waits: Hall of Presidents, Carousel of Progress, Country Bears, American Adventure, any movie in World Showcase, Universe of Energy, etc. Then you will be doing things while waiting out the crowds to slow down into the later evening.

I am a very good planner and thus my intent to find out as much as possible about the new fastpass+ system. The last Disney trip we did was to Disneyland in 2012 during July 4th week and it turned out well with the old FP system and careful planning. It is indeed a "vacation" but please remember this, there are two general types of visitors to Disney World (I know i am simplifying but bear with me.)
1. Someone like you who seemingly holds an annual pass, lives not too far away or is able to visit 5x or more a year. You may additionally only need FP and dining reservations for fewer than 4 people?
2. Other people who may only take their family a few times or less before their kids are grown, have to make airline reservations, hotel reservations, dining reservations months ahead. If they are visiting each park once during their visit, of course, it will bother them more than you if they don't get the ride they wanted or the restaurant they wanted.
You can always go back and try it again on your next visit. When we go we are going to each park once with a 5th day as an extra day to see whatever park we felt like we didn't finish. If we miss out on a lot of rides etc. we will be very upset.. This is different than your situation.
I fully understand from your posts that you: almost always get the FP you want the night before, never wait more than 5 minutes at a kiosk for an extra FP and never wait more than 15 min in a FP line for a ride. Great, awesome, wonderful for you. Sharing your great experience is good for other posters. What isn't good is when you keep discounting, nay I say, fussing at others that might not have had that experience. I assume as a passholder, you are smart enough to pick and choose good crowd days for your visit?
There are a good number of people replying to posts on this website and others who: did wait more than 5 minutes at a kiosk, did wait more than 15 min in a FP line, and couldn't get the FP they wanted. Sorry but just because that isn't your experience doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Sorry Disney PR helpers.
When we go, we are doing HS Star Wars activities one day but our plans became more complicated when Disney announced they were closing the MK the Sunday we are there at 7 p.m. We are not buying park hopper add-ons this time because it will be $350 for the 5 of us. We have loved park hopping in the past. We have successfully had great success witht the old FP system. I don't ever remember not getting anything good in a park after lunch but that is possible now either due to larger crowds or the way it works, who know for sure. So in my case I have to plan which park to go to which day just right or we will be walking in circles not accomplishing much when we are there. I do worry about wasting my money but I am not "stressed out" and I hate that it bothers you but I am not freaking out or being unrealistic. I am just going to be as prepared as I need to be. I will definitely report afterwards if we have the awesome luck you have had or not after our trip.

 

[SAV]

When I was there in June 2014, I was able to secure extra FP+'s all 7 days we toured. I used up my initial allotment before noon to get on the must do's and then picked up extra's all day long. I didn't wait in more than a 10 minute line to get the extra's at the kiosk's. I had the most extra's (3 more) on the MK days. At AK, I had them for KS, EE, Kali, FOLK, Dinosaur. I didn't need it for Nemo.

We also had a change of plans mid trip which screwed up my last 3 pre-planned days. The only thing I wasn't able to get the night before was 7DMT. I didn't try for A&E.

 

[dlmof2]

Is there an app to see if all the fast passes have been distributed for a day?

 

[sjhym333]

I am a very good planner and thus my intent to find out as much as possible about the new fastpass+ system. The last Disney trip we did was to Disneyland in 2012 during July 4th week and it turned out well with the old FP system and careful planning. It is indeed a "vacation" but please remember this, there are two general types of visitors to Disney World (I know i am simplifying but bear with me.)
1. Someone like you who seemingly holds an annual pass, lives not too far away or is able to visit 5x or more a year. You may additionally only need FP and dining reservations for fewer than 4 people?
2. Other people who may only take their family a few times or less before their kids are grown, have to make airline reservations, hotel reservations, dining reservations months ahead. If they are visiting each park once during their visit, of course, it will bother them more than you if they don't get the ride they wanted or the restaurant they wanted.
You can always go back and try it again on your next visit. When we go we are going to each park once with a 5th day as an extra day to see whatever park we felt like we didn't finish. I am being so careful because we aren't going back for a long time and if we spend $7,000.00 (5 days in WDW and 3 at Universal) on this trip and we feel like we missed out on a lot or if we have bad luck with rides etc. we will be very upset. This is different than your situation.
I fully understand from your posts that you: almost always get the FP you want the night before, never wait more than 5 minutes at a kiosk for an extra FP and never wait more than 15 min in a FP line for a ride. Great, awesome, wonderful for you. Sharing your great experience is good for other posters. What isn't good is when you keep discounting, nay I say, fussing at others that might not have had that experience. I assume as a passholder, you are smart enough to pick and choose good crowd days for your visit?
There are a good number of people replying to posts on this website and others who: did wait more than 5 minutes at a kiosk, did wait more than 15 min in a FP line, and couldn't get the FP they wanted. Sorry but just because that isn't your experience doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Sorry Disney PR helpers.
When we go, we are doing HS Star Wars activities one day but our plans became more complicated when Disney announced they were closing the MK the Sunday we are there at 7 p.m. We are not buying park hopper add-ons this time because it will be $350 for the 5 of us. We have loved park hopping in the past. We have successfully had great success witht the old FP system. I don't ever remember not getting anything good in a park after lunch but that is possible now either due to larger crowds or the way it works, who know for sure. So in my case I have to plan which park to go to which day just right or we will be walking in circles not accomplishing much when we are there. I do worry about wasting my money but I am not "stressed out" and I hate that it bothers you but I am not freaking out or being unrealistic. I am just going to be as prepared as I need to be. I will definitely report afterwards if we have the awesome luck you have had or not after our trip.

Wow. All I can say is wow. My post was never intended to be a slam against you. It was truly meant to be helpful. Sorry if you didn't feel that way. You are asked for experiences and I told you mine and yes since I am an AP holder I get to experience FP's a lot more then someone who does it one week every couple of years but because I am an AP holder I see lines, additional FP's more often then most. I have a lot more experience then many here. The problem is you are asking for unknown information. Since everyday at the parks is different how can anyone know what FP's will be available or how long a kiosk line is? So someone says 5 mins and someone else says 30 mins. Does it matter??? That was one moment in one day. When you go it will be completely different. You could wait 10 mins? How does that change anything? It will be what it is when you get there. You may get a great 5th FP and say wow or may try to get a 5th FP and get nothing. That is all I need to say about this. Sorry if you don't like my experiences or thoughts.

 

[jlsHouston]

I had no luck getting 4th and 5th FP's during my trips in 2014, early March which was moderately busy, Memorial Day weekend which was busy, and mid August which was PACKED and HOT . And in fact my August trip was somewhat marred by wet weather which seemed to always coincide with a FP- selection for an outdoor ride...which then went to cancel mode. In fact several of my MK days I ended up with 1 FP used before we either left to do a different park (and no FP's could be used because we had used 1 at MK but not the other 2 so then we weren't eligible for any at a different park) or we went back to the resort to hang out or to DTD.

While I like the ability to select 3 FP's from the app when it works, or my computer, I dislike the limits of FP+ compared to the simplicity of legacy FP.

And I found the kiosk lines during SWW and then in mid August more trouble than they were worth.

I'm sure part of my disappointment with FP+ is I am somewhat technically challenged.

From what I can tell the only way to probably be successful getting more than 3 FP's per day, is to pick your 3 favorite for the park of your choice and make them as close together and in as early in the morning as possible, when you can probably walk on all the rides. Then immediately hit the kiosk at the park you want your extra FP's with as soon as you use up the first 3.

I noticed in August the attractions and rides at HS were basically all FP rides and if you didn't have a FP there was no stand by after 3 in the afternoon. I felt like HS was a FP disaster last August.

 

[Coaster Lover]

Was able to get up to a 7th FastPass (in a Single Day) on my trip last week. We had spent the morning at HS and had all our FastPasses for the morning (the 9 am -10 am FastPass for Tower was not really necessary, but the 10:05 am -11:05 am for RnRC and the 11:30 am - 12:30 am for Star Tours certainly saved some time). We had lunch at the studios, caught the Frozen show, then headed over to the Magic Kingdom. Lines at the FP kiosk near Philharmagic were relatively short throughout the afternoon/evening, so never waited more than about 5 minutes to get additional FastPasses. To be honest, I think the big reason we got so many additional FastPasses was because we weren't too concerned what we got them for. The four we ended up getting were Mansion, Pooh, Jungle Cruise, and Space Mountain. Mansion and Pooh each saved us about 20-30 mins, Jungle Cruise saved us about 45 minutes, and Space Mountain saved us about 70 minutes. I'm a BIG planner, I like to have a nice game plan of what to do and when to do it. But, oddly, with FastPass+ and the MDE app, I found being flexible yielded the best results. When booking additional FastPasses, we not only were looking at what experiences were available but when they were available. For example, a FastPass window that would open in an hour for Jungle Cruise was a better option than a FastPass window that would open in five hours for one of the mountains. We also used the MDE app quite extensively to move to where lines were shorter. So, if Splash Mountain was showing a 10 minute wait, we were almost certainly heading that way, even if we were on the other side of the park. I realize that this goes against everything the heavy planners (like myself) like to do, but it really worked out well! We were able to see all the major attractions in Studios and Magic Kingdom (including a good portion of the D- and C-ticket attractions in Magic Kingdom) in a single day during Spring Break season... which I thought was pretty good!

 

[bethymouse]

I am so new to this FP+ system! I have never used it before! From all of the stories I hear, I sure do miss the old fast pass system! We're going in June ( 16-22). I don't like the fact that you're not allowed to book whatever you want, especially if you're only limited to 3 or 4! IMHO you should be able to book FP+ as you wish, even if it is riding TT 3 times in a row! Is it really true that you can't book FP+ for Soarin and Test Track? That doesn't seem right to me! Help! I'm a nervous Disney planner. I've been to Disney every year ( except 2014) since 2007!

 

[Coaster Lover]

From my experience, book your FastPass for Soarin'. Test Track lines seem to fluctuate a lot throughout the day. If you are watching the MDE app, there's no reason you should have to wait more than 30-45 minutes if you go at the right time of day (meaning you're willing to wait past the morning/mid-day rush). Going straight to Test Track or Soarin immediately after the rope drop and having a FastPass for the other is always a good game plan too...

 

[jlsHouston]

Are they still doing Single Rider for Test Track? That is how we did it last year was we picked Soarin for the FP and then we did SR for TT. Or doing the FP for one and running for the other at rope drop is also a good plan.