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

[jlsHouston]

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!

Yes I think if the key to saving wait time in lines and being able to utilize the FP+ system beyond 3, lies in selecting rides that are available. Pick your faves for the first 3 and then take what you can if you have the opportunity for anymore FP's.

 

[RMichael21]

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.

Yes, they are. Well, as of February, they were doing it. We had to wait about 40 minutes in single rider as opposed to the 170 minute wait in standby. The only downside is that you don't make your own car, you just select one of the few pre-made ones.

 

[mouse in my house]

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

I don't have anything to do with the following website from Britain but I think it is awesome.
http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/fastpass_plus_availability.php
He has created a FP availability page that is updated every 30 minutes. You can click on a ride to see the calendar for 75 days out and see which days that ride is unavailable for any more FP. Anna and Elsa are the worst,usually full 61-63 days out. The MK parades and fireworks (Wishes) are booked more than a month out usually also. You can see most rides are available to book the night before BUT...you may not get the times you want or the amount of people you want. His availability shows for a party of 4 which I think is the size of an average group. You can observe it throughout an average day and see that there are short 30 minute periods where some popular rides like Soarin may be out in the morning but have a brief availability once or twice during the day.
You can also sign up for FP availability alerts from thedibb to your email. I am going to do that the day we start our vacation.
Touringplans.com has a similar FP availability chart but is for 1 person only and it is a fee website. It seems like they have plans to expand their FP daily information in the future.

What I have noticed from studying that chart and log is that on busy days with a crowd level of 5 or more these rides have a good chance of being out by 12 p.m. for a group of 4 or more (unless you luck up on a brief window where some became available.)
Anna and Elsa, MK parade and fireworks and 7DMT are gone days before of course but the others that go quickly the day of or night before -
Hollywood Studios-
Toy Story Midway Mania
Tower of Terror
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (has a single rider line available though)
Epcot-
Soarin
Test Track (has a single rider line also)
Mission Space
It does seem to me from observing availability for a few busy weekends that Soarin is more of a pain to pick up in the afternoon than Test Track and its lines are longer as well. Luckily we can FP Soarin and do single rider line for Test Track if needed.
Magic Kingdom
Splash Mountain
Peter Pan
Space Mountain
Animan Kingdom-
Kilimanjaro Safaris

Expedition Everest is the other attraction with a single rider line but I think standby moves pretty quickly. I haven't noticed these FP running out during the day either.
I think it is smart to just grab whatever you can even if it is bad at the kiosk for your 4th and then use your app to look for a chance to switch it if something good has a brief availability at some point later in the day. I really don't want to get stuck on my phone while I am trying to enjoy my family though.

 

[totaldisneygirl]

I would say it totally depends on when your day starts. If you start early, and your fast passes end early, you'll have better luck in getting a 4th and 5th!

 

[RushBoingo]

Hi, first time posting here.

I would like to weigh in my 2 cents here on the best tip to get the elusive additional fast passes. This tip though controversial, and goes against everything the Disney Corporation values, is guaranteed to get you some good extra fast passes...

GO ALONE!

Be a single rider, split off from your family, heck travel by yourself.

Obviously a lot of people on here can't (or won't) split off from their family whether it be for age or bonding reasons, but I heavily suggest it.

By myself (and by that I mean, I split from my Dad, Step Mom, and much younger brother mid-afternoon due to their lack of stamina) I could easily secure a decent attraction fast pass by myself at the Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom, and if I looked early enough, I could snag a pass on the exclusives at Epcot and Hollywood Studios too.

I frequently arrived at MK around 8:00 PM from whatever other park I was at, and twice was able to snag a space mountain ride only 10 minutes away, and then after walking out, I could get another one, this time maybe 30 minutes away.

There was one day I wound up using a grand total of 5 extra fast passes (and another where I used roughly 13 FP's altogether though a lot of extra tricks, but that's for another post). After my initial three at Hollywood Studios right in the morning, I ran for the kiosk and snagged a 2:00 ish time for Tower Of Terror (that was one stray time, most others were much later, the other two big rides were also available, but I did not bother to check their times), and then I went to Magic Kingdom later that night, got a FP for Space immediately, I opted for another that was a while later, grabbed a Big Thunder for 1:15 before closing, then ran for the kiosk to reach it before the cut off time for booking new passes and quickly got a Pirates pass (though it was not needed at all).

I should mention by the way that all this happened in the last week of May/first week of June last year, right around the time the Mine Train opened, and right before Gay Days started.

So, if ever possible, I suggest splitting off from your family for a while and see what you can accomplish, even splitting into groups of two greatly increases your odds of a good fast pass.

A quick bit of math to end the post, without factoring the averages of anything, there is a 50/50 chance a timeslot for a fastpass will have one left, rather than be completely drained when the slot has otherwise sold out. And since people at Disney by themselves is the smallest demographic for them (because who would go to Disney by themselves (this guy)) the odds are greater that you can take one of these passes left behind.

Thanks for reading everyone.

 

[jayinthe813]

On March 28 we did 3 fast passes for MK starting at 7PM (buzz, space mountain, thunder mountain). After the last one we went to the FP kiosk in Frontierland and the only remaining ones were for "its a small world" and the "mad hatter" teacups. We did the Mad Hatter so all in all we did 4 fastpasses.

 

[RushBoingo]

On March 28 we did 3 fast passes for MK starting at 7PM (buzz, space mountain, thunder mountain). After the last one we went to the FP kiosk in Frontierland and the only remaining ones were for "its a small world" and the "mad hatter" teacups. We did the Mad Hatter so all in all we did 4 fastpasses.

That's surprising that there was any left considering that you were going for a fourth at 10:00 PM for four people during spring break. Nice catch. The best I was able to do for a non-single rider 4th FP during the summer was get getting 4 people into the first fantasmic show one night, and Space Mountain for 2 people one hour before closing for another.

 

[Pan]

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

Touringplans.com is really helpful

 

[seahawk7]

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.

I believe they are still doing single rider for Test Track.

 

[Tuvalu]

I believe they are still doing single rider for Test Track.

True. And yesterday at 10:30 a.m. the single rider standby wait was 55 minutes !

 

[seahawk7]

True. And yesterday at 10:30 a.m. the single rider standby wait was 55 minutes !

Oy! Well that's not good for anyone.

 

[jlsHouston]

Well I never rode TT this trip...every time I checked the wait times when we were at EPCOT or thinking about wandering over the wait time was so long I figured the stand by would be pretty bad too. Missed all our FP's the first day for EPCOT so got up and into the park by 9 am and ran to Soarin and stood in line...it was like a 55 minute wait ( posted at 70 ) at 9:10 am. Parks were so busy last week...

 

[RonAnnArbor]

Here is where strategic planning really comes in if you are a very frequent visitor -- watch the attractions that have easy-crowd-flow entry, and watch for frequent breakdowns. Carousel of Progress is excellent for this....If you see the cast members pacing back and forth panicing and the carousel turns more than one rotation -- get on the VERY NEXT ride...chances are great it will break down. Then they give you fastpasses as you exit that are good for any attraction...

 

[Fe Maiden]

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.

We'll be using FP+ for the first time this August and I'm really struggling with maximizing it. I understand booking them early to be able to get extras sooner, but our family likes to stay out late too. We avoid the EMH morning parks so getting to the parks at 9 or soon after is not that big of a deal even with being out later the night before. For the MK would it make sense to tour the park in the morning w/o using FPs and save them for when we come back in the evening? Or do we use them up in the morning/early afternoon and play the kiosk game in the evening?

Also, is there a different way we should approach the tiered parks?

 

[Philharmagically]

In a party of 2, I was able to get FPs for a second ride at Soarin' (9:20 Spaceship Earth, 10:20 Soarin' 11:20 Turtle Talk) in the evening on Monday. Although the availability probably increased because of the rain...
And on Tuesday I got FPs for Space Mountain (final FP finished at 5), and then Splash after the fireworks.

 

[Mouse Wizard]

Is there a reason for going to the kiosks to get a 4th fastpass? Why can't you use the app?

Are standby lines: basically the same, shorter, or longer? For rides with fastpass and those without? (Mostly for those rides that had legacy fastpass.)

 

[Tuvalu]

Is there a reason for going to the kiosks to get a 4th fastpass? Why can't you use the app?

Are standby lines: basically the same, shorter, or longer? For rides with fastpass and those without? (Mostly for those rides that had legacy fastpass.)

The app does not allow you to make fastpass choices past the initial 3. You must use a kiosk for a 4th (or more).

Standby lines are longer for attractions that never had fastpass before but do now. Standby lines for rides that had legacy fastpass are about the same.

 

[jayinthe813]

We'll be using FP+ for the first time this August and I'm really struggling with maximizing it. I understand booking them early to be able to get extras sooner, but our family likes to stay out late too. We avoid the EMH morning parks so getting to the parks at 9 or soon after is not that big of a deal even with being out later the night before. For the MK would it make sense to tour the park in the morning w/o using FPs and save them for when we come back in the evening? Or do we use them up in the morning/early afternoon and play the kiosk game in the evening?

Also, is there a different way we should approach the tiered parks?

It depends how you set up your schedule and what park you want to visit. All I will say is by evening, FP is all eaten up, especially for the good rides. Evening seems busier than the early morning hours.

I prefer nights at MK, so I'm sure to pick Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain in the evening, and in the morning do Epcot or HS. If you have EMH, you can use that to your planning advantage.