Anyone NOT do fastpasses?

[cruising spud]

My husband, my youngest daughter (21 years old), and I are going to Disney this summer. We have been to Disney many times before, but not since the fastpasses have come out. We are going for two weeks and getting ten day tickets. I am planning on making a few dinner reservations, but honestly, I just cannot make myself make fastpass reservations for rides.

I am a planner. A Type A. BUT, I just cannot wrap my mind around the thought that Disney wants me to decide which ride I want to be on two months out.

When we do the parks, we arrive before the parks open and head to the rides we really want to do. We have always found that we get on all of the rides we want do. Then, at about 11:30 am or so, we head on back to our room, rest, eat lunch, swim, and then head back out to the parks at about 6:00 pm, where we stroll around and slip onto any rides that don't have long lines. Maybe catch the parade.

So, my question....any reason why this wouldn't continue to work, even though many people are now using the fastpass system?

Thanks for the input.

 

[Jennasis]

Nope. That paln will likely work just fine, and is the model we'll be using on future trips after we we tried FP+ this past September (and didn't care for it).

 

[prudence64]

If you do rope drop, you should be fine. But, it sounds like you already know which rides you really want to do, so why not get fastpasses for them?

 

[ncdj2013]

I guess it would still work if you really want to get to the park when it opens. But why would you not want to take advantage? It's free. You could schedule them for later. It sure has made it easier for us

 

[snayak]

My husband, my youngest daughter (21 years old), and I are going to Disney this summer. We have been to Disney many times before, but not since the fastpasses have come out. We are going for two weeks and getting ten day tickets. I am planning on making a few dinner reservations, but honestly, I just cannot make myself make fastpass reservations for rides.

I am a planner. A Type A. BUT, I just cannot wrap my mind around the thought that Disney wants me to decide which ride I want to be on two months out.

When we do the parks, we arrive before the parks open and head to the rides we really want to do. We have always found that we get on all of the rides we want do. Then, at about 11:30 am or so, we head on back to our room, rest, eat lunch, swim, and then head back out to the parks at about 6:00 pm, where we stroll around and slip onto any rides that don't have long lines. Maybe catch the parade.

So, my question....any reason why this wouldn't continue to work, even though many people are now using the fastpass system?

Thanks for the input.

So it will still work, you'll just find that lines build much faster now, I would say about 60-90 minutes after rope drop versus 120-150 minutes. This is due to the fact that more people are booking FP+ for both headliners and non-headliners, and the return times start right at 9am (not 9:40 or whatever like they used to).

We were at WDW in late October so the crowds weren't that bad - if I were to plan again I would set up FP+ for headliners beginning about 10:30-11am, then hit other rides from RD to about 10:30, get out of the park around 1-2pm and head to the resort, then back to the parks at night to stroll around, etc.

I made the mistake of booking headliners starting at 9am, so at lunchtime all the other rides had long standby times which we didn't want to wait in and that just sucked. Plus there weren't any "good" 4th FP+ for our party of 4-5 (better options for 2 or even 1 person, but not 4 or 5).

I don't see any downside to booking FP+, if you don't want to use it just skip it, no harm no foul. Getting return times at starting 10-11a to 1-2p or so will really reduce your wait time for headliners and you'll feel like you got just as much done (if not more) by hitting the secondary rides first.

 

[lborne]

If you know what parks you will do on what days now, go ahead and reserve some of your favorite rides now for the evenings. Otherwise, you can see what is available the day before.

When you are on your way back to the park at 6:00 pm, see if you can't change the times for some of the FP's that you have.

Don't have to live by them, but if for some reason you can use at least one FP, then you might as well try.

 

[Hootch]

of FP+ is that mid tier attractions have seen standby waits increase. We often saw Pirates at 5-15 minutes. It's not uncommon to see the wait at 25 minutes or more when the lines were shorter. The Haunted Mansion and it's a small world have the same issue.

For our next trip, I'm looking at rope drop with the FP+ reserved for the late afternoon/evening when we return to the parks. That will add some hassle as our return times were pretty loose before.

 

[cruising spud]

Good suggestions. I'm thinking I'll do some late morning and early evening fastpasses.

Thank you.