It's Been awhile since we went...What do I need to know about FP+

[valandemmy]

Are there sample touring plans using the FP +? available anywhere....

 

[Alesia]

Your first step needs to be reading the first couple posts in this thread: http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

 

[sarah_n_brian2006]

My DH and I are in WDW right now and can tell you how it has worked for us. Given it is just the two of us, it's been pretty easy to get passes that we wanted and we have gotten a bunch. Wednesday, we spent the day in MK and used 10 FP+. That was nearly impossible to do before this system.

So, you plan ahead 30 days (unless you are staying on-site and you get 60 days). You can only plan 3. For some reason, you have to plan 3, no less and no more. I personally think that's not the greatest idea from Disney, because if you're only spending a few hours, you may not get to use all 3 and you took over FP+ that someone else could have used. You must use all 3 FP+ before scheduling a 4th. You must use 5, before getting a 6th, etc. If you have MagicBands, you'll just touch it to the Mickey heads at the beginning and end of the line. If you only have the cards, you'll just tap it to the Mickey heads. It worked 8 minutes early for me on Buzz and 15 minutes late on Peter Pan. So don't run over toddlers to make it on time.
My advice, if you're spending the day in the park, plan the first 3 in the morning, unless you don't plan on riding other rides or shows that offer FP+, or even riding those rides again.
For example, I will give you the times of our FP+ from Wednesday to show you how beneficial this system can be in the MK. 9:30-10:30 Peter Pan, 10:35 Winnie the Pooh, 12:10-1:10 Under the Sea, 2:55 Space Mountain, 3:35-4:35 Buzz Lightyear, 3:45-4:45 Haunted Mansion, 4:25-5:25 Under the Sea (again), 5:50-6:50 Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (yes, this was available last minute, we couldn't believe it), 6:45-7:45 Jungle Cruise, 7:55-8:55 Tomorrowland Speedway. We had already spent half a day in the parks on Tuesday and rode the rollercoasters. After a while, we had ridden everything we wanted to and a few, like Small World, we only rode to get out of the sweltering heat. We ended up sitting around Tomorrowland for an hour, resting our tired feet, for our 9:15 ADR for BOG. If not for the ADR, we would have left the park around 8 feeling accomplished. We only waited for 3 or 4 rides, no more than 30 minutes.

The bigger the group you are in will determine how many opportunities you will receive. Also, the time of year will make a difference as well. It's been pretty packed here this week, but planning our days according to the advice from a few websites about where to go and on what day, we've been pretty lucky.
Also, which park you go to matters too. MK this system works great, but you have to go to a kiosk for your 4th, 5th, and so on passes, cannot do these on the app. So other than finding a kiosk, this is pretty easy. Also, this may send you running all over the parks, as you can see from our passes on Wed.
Epcot we have split between our first and our last days. So, we planned to do Seas, and Land on the first day, and Test Track and Mission: Space on the last day. The only attractions here with FP+ are in Future World. Which leaves out the World Showcase and could keep people from WS as well.
We did pretty well with AK yesterday. Around 2, we waited a half hour for Everest and then rode with out FP+. We could have tried again, but it was toooooooo hot. We spent rest of the afternoon indoors watching shows.
We can't speak on DHS yet, as we are going today.

I hope this was helpful to you. Any more questions, I can try to help

 

[Kriii]

I haven't been to Disney in a few years either. Are the kiosks still located at each attraction or have they moved to central locations?

 

[bbjunkie]

We were there last week and had successful experiences with Fast Passes as well. Just to add to the PP advice: if you have a large party, divide it up and look for overlapping times when at a kiosk for your 4th, 5th, etc fast passes. Sometimes, is you have 8 people in your group, you won't necessarily find availability for 8 people on the 7DMT from 8:55-9:55, HOWEVER, you are more likely to find 4 for 8:55-9:55 and 4 for 9:05-10:05---you can still all ride together.

There are centrally located groups of kiosks. Once you have booked your next one, you can edit and adjust it from your MDE app on your phone.