What do you wish you knew the first time you reserved FP+?

[mesaboy2]

During a crowded time such as July 4th week, if I plan to get there at RD, am I better to make my FP for early(like 9:30am), or wait until around 11 or 12? My hesitation with the later is I may not be able to get a 4th FP. Thoughts??

This is a common question, and one I don't think can be answered well. My best answer is I think on particularly crowded days, you have little chance of getting quality fourth FPs no matter how quickly you burn through the first three.

 

[Postal68]

Get them early for the early AM! (If you're morning people...)
You can always get more later.

This simply doesn't make sense. If you are morning people you can get to the park when the crowds are low and lines are minimal and you don't need FP so you would save your FP for afternoon or night when the Parks fill up.

 

[BarbieGal457]

I wouldn't necessarily agree that there are no headliners available for later in the day for your 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. FP. We went to MK on NYE - easily the most crowded day of the year I would think, and got great FPs for our 4-6th ones. That also was mid-afternoon on, say 4:30pm and later. I would say that is luck of the draw as to what is available later in the day. Don't completely count on headliners to be available, but also don't completely rule it out either. This is not to say that people have the experience of not getting headliners later in the day - don't want anyone to think I am negating their experience at all! Just relaying what luck we had.

I second the notion of taking whatever you can get and tweaking times later. For instance, we took Space Mountain just to have it, and a few days later I was able to grab 2 7DMT with just a bit of checking and such. We planned ours for 11:20-12:20, 12:30-1:30, and got 7DMT for 3:20-4:20 I believe. We had a nice easy morning (arrived at about 8am or so) and were able to stroll and jump on things before our FP started, and have a nice long lunch break. We ended up with 3 more FP throughout the night. I believe we got BTMRR again and HM (maybe not a headliner for some but the standby line was outrageous). It paid off to take what I got and tweak later - the standby for 7DMT was into the hundreds of minutes all day. Literally the highest number I have ever seen for standby besides EE when it first opened (a bit foggy but I want to say at least 150 or something - could be wrong).

We found it seemed as the day got later, people were canceling more and more really good things, I guess in anticipation of getting a spot for fireworks. I think mid-day FPs are nice, so you aren't rushing through the morning but aren't waiting to use them until nightfall.

I actually get to book my FP tonight, so this thread was super timely for me!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I wish I'd known what a difference time of year & park hours would make - for both ADRs & FP+.

Booking ADRs at 180 for the end of Aug and FP+ at 60 for the end of Aug is IME way more difficult than booking mid March (& I booked the March ADRs at 165 days).

Everything was available for desirable times for our entire March stay - between RD and FP+ we rode 7D 6x on our 3 MK days.

When I booked last Aug's FP+ I couldn't get 7D before 8pm for any MK day but the last & expect the same for this Aug - at least I'm prepared & will not be frustrated at 1:30am.

We will be there 8/26-9/5. I was hoping FP+ would be easier around that time.

 

[SnackCredit]

I wish I remembered to write down my times on a piece of paper, because going to a kiosk or logging on to the app with a spotty connection is a bit of a chore. (did it for our last trip, and it was really easy)

 

[QueenElsa2008]

Do you think taking a screenshot of the app would work as well?

 

[Madame]

We will be there 8/26-9/5. I was hoping FP+ would be easier around that time.

We can hope, but that was my experience last Aug around the same time.

I was, however, looking for a group of 6 (my MIL was with us) & way too new to the system to fool around with overlapping FP+.

ETA our trip also started earlier, Aug 21.

 

[jerseygirl82]

During a crowded time such as July 4th week, if I plan to get there at RD, am I better to make my FP for early(like 9:30am), or wait until around 11 or 12? My hesitation with the later is I may not be able to get a 4th FP. Thoughts??

I would personally hold off...unless it is A&E or 7DMT

 

[Lorelai]

I've only reserved once but after reading a lot of info on this board, the best tip I saw was that if you don't see what you want, try splitting up your group and getting overlapping windows. You can still all ride together. It worked for me in getting 7DMT for the time we wanted at 30 days out. The other thing I did that was helpful was to play around in the system a bit before the date that I really wanted to book for opened up. Not sure if this will be an option if you have a package and are booking 60 days out with specific dates already locked in??? For us we were staying off site so the app had no idea what our actual park dates would be. Having "practiced" already, I was able to quickly change times and experiences to manipulate the FPs that were offered into the FPs that I wanted.

Question, for other off site guests, do you have to have purchased park tickets in hand to be able to practice?

 

[sharona]

Question, for other off site guests, do you have to have purchased park tickets in hand to be able to practice?

I bought them on the Disney site since there are no discounts at UT for 1 day tickets. The tickets immediately linked to my account and I was able to book/look at FPs. The physical tickets are not expected to arrive for another week. Not sure how it works if you are buying tickets elsewhere.

 

[Lorelai]

That it's all tied to the My Disney Experience which you can access from any computer and make changes at any time. I thought it was all tied to the Magic Band so I waited until I got those before making any FastPasses.

Oh, boy. I'm new to this too and I thought I had to wait until I had park admission in hand to access MDE??

 

[Lorelai]

I bought them on the Disney site since there are no discounts at UT for 1 day tickets. The tickets immediately linked to my account and I was able to book/look at FPs. The physical tickets are not expected to arrive for another week. Not sure how it works if you are buying tickets elsewhere.

I'm buying them on the Disney site too...so, as soon as I purchase, is a MDE account automatically set up for me? Or is that something I then set up myself, as soon as the tickets are purchased?

 

[sharona]

I'm buying them on the Disney site too...so, as soon as I purchase, is a MDE account automatically set up for me? Or is that something I then set up myself, as soon as the tickets are purchased?

Mine was already set up when I bought the tickets.

 

[ehough]

Yes, I just bought tickets on Thursday and they're already linked to MDE without me physically having them (the log in is the same as the account I used to purchase the tickets).

 

[tstottle]

I would personally hold off...unless it is A&E or 7DMT

I would schedule them later. We always go during busy summer times, (although never Fourth of July week) and RD hours are golden....think of it this way: Would you rather have 2-3 headliners at RD plus 3 FP + later, or would you rather have 3 FP+ during the morning hours then one more FP+ later? Or another way to look at it...if the park is going to be crowded enough to be out of FPs by the afternoon, wouldn't you rather have your Fps during the afternoon rather than deal with those long standby lines? Hope this makes sense. Have fun!