Anyone want to plan our FP+ strategy?

[JillianLeigh]

So I feel like I'm in way over my head trying to figure out the best plan for FP+ for our vacation. Here's the details: Jan. 11-16. 4 full park days. 2 days in MK, one Epcot, one DAK. Skipping DHS this time since we don't think the toddler will enjoy many attractions there. 3 adults, one 3 year old DS (most likely 40+ inches by the time our vacation rolls around), 13 month old DD. All of the adults have been on many Disney vacations, so seeing and doing everything is not top priority. I think DS would enjoy most rides, including little coasters like BTMR. Baby girl I'm not too worried about keeping entertained.

Would anyone be willing to tell me what you would do in planning FP+, taking into consideration the baby swap policy? I know it's a long shot, but you guys are the experts!!

 

[Jennytoon]

Start by checking out the first page of Mesaboy's thread here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

With RiderSwap you can double-up on rides a bit as you only need a FP for everyone in the first group that will be riding. So for example, you can make FP only for yourself at Everest, then show up and present DS and DD who will not be riding and get a RS ticket. You then ride on your FP, the two other adults take DS and DD off to ride something that they (and DS) have FP+ for, and then the two adults return later to use the RS pass. Alternately, the rest of the group waits for you to return and moves to the other attraction (let's say KRR) together, where all but you and DD get on, and the rest of your party gets a RS pass. Later, the other adults in the group use the RS pass from Everest and you and DS use the RS pass for Kali for you to ride and him to re-ride.

Its not as complicated to set this up as it sounds, what you do is make the FP all together and then switch someone out to another ride. But coordinating it once in the park can be a tiny bit tricky, so if you weren't planning on using RiderSwap anyway (which you may not have been as you say doing everything is not top priority), then it may not be of interest to you.

My other fave FP+ tip for families is that I like to schedule at least one FP overlapping a planned meal, that way it either turns into 'do your ride and head to meal' or vice versa in your mind, and it's one less time to keep track of. Actually I like to schedule them all around the mid-day meal and use the ends and overlap to make one big block of schedule, with the rest of the day spontaneous, something like:

• 10-11 Jungle Cruise, 11-12 Big Thunder Mountain, 12:45 - 1:45 Peter Pan.

Then I head for JC around 10:45, when we're off that BTMRR is up, head to lunch and when we're done with that it's Peter Pan time. Not as much checking of the watch and trying to remember what times you have.

In DAK the obvious candidates are Everest, Kali River Rapids (although in January maybe not so much), and Safari. Dinosaur or Primeval Whirl could also be good candidates, especially as any adults who wish to ride EE could use the Single Rider line instead of a FP.

In Epcot, the obvious candidates are Spaceship Earth, and Soarin' / Test Track. This is one of the places you can truly win with RiderSwap, as it can be used effectively to FP both Soarin' and Test Track for your entire group where otherwise the Tiers would prevent that.

In the Magic Kingdom, the obvious candidate is SDMT -- other than that there are lots of attractions that are an effective use of FP, but there is also pretty good same-day availability for many. RiderSwap passes are good for some amount of time after you get them (can't remember the # of days), so if you do get some on your first MK day, they can be used on your second for DS to get some nice re-rides in.

 

[honeybunches]

Do you plan to take afternoon naps? When my kids were that age, we went to parks early because they were up and fresh. We returned to the room for a midday rest, then went back out in the evening for dinner and a couple of hours at a park. I've only used FP+ on one trip, but planned the passes for the evening when parks were busier. We haven't used the baby swap.

As for DHS - there is a fun Disney Junior show that my son absolutely loved at that age! If you have hoppers, that might be worth doing just for the 3 y.o.

 

[JillianLeigh]

Start by checking out the first page of Mesaboy's thread here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

With RiderSwap you can double-up on rides a bit as you only need a FP for everyone in the first group that will be riding. So for example, you can make FP only for yourself at Everest, then show up and present DS and DD who will not be riding and get a RS ticket. You then ride on your FP, the two other adults take DS and DD off to ride something that they (and DS) have FP+ for, and then the two adults return later to use the RS pass. Alternately, the rest of the group waits for you to return and moves to the other attraction (let's say KRR) together, where all but you and DD get on, and the rest of your party gets a RS pass. Later, the other adults in the group use the RS pass from Everest and you and DS use the RS pass for Kali for you to ride and him to re-ride.

Its not as complicated to set this up as it sounds, what you do is make the FP all together and then switch someone out to another ride. But coordinating it once in the park can be a tiny bit tricky, so if you weren't planning on using RiderSwap anyway (which you may not have been as you say doing everything is not top priority), then it may not be of interest to you.

My other fave FP+ tip for families is that I like to schedule at least one FP overlapping a planned meal, that way it either turns into 'do your ride and head to meal' or vice versa in your mind, and it's one less time to keep track of. Actually I like to schedule them all around the mid-day meal and use the ends and overlap to make one big block of schedule, with the rest of the day spontaneous, something like:

• 10-11 Jungle Cruise, 11-12 Big Thunder Mountain, 12:45 - 1:45 Peter Pan.

Then I head for JC around 10:45, when we're off that BTMRR is up, head to lunch and when we're done with that it's Peter Pan time. Not as much checking of the watch and trying to remember what times you have.

In DAK the obvious candidates are Everest, Kali River Rapids (although in January maybe not so much), and Safari. Dinosaur or Primeval Whirl could also be good candidates, especially as any adults who wish to ride EE could use the Single Rider line instead of a FP.

In Epcot, the obvious candidates are Spaceship Earth, and Soarin' / Test Track. This is one of the places you can truly win with RiderSwap, as it can be used effectively to FP both Soarin' and Test Track for your entire group where otherwise the Tiers would prevent that.

In the Magic Kingdom, the obvious candidate is SDMT -- other than that there are lots of attractions that are an effective use of FP, but there is also pretty good same-day availability for many. RiderSwap passes are good for some amount of time after you get them (can't remember the # of days), so if you do get some on your first MK day, they can be used on your second for DS to get some nice re-rides in.

Thanks so much for all of this info! Good idea booking a FP+ close to a meal. I'll have to remember that. I guess what is confusing me most is how to decide who gets what FP+ when we plan on using the baby swap.

Do you plan to take afternoon naps? When my kids were that age, we went to parks early because they were up and fresh. We returned to the room for a midday rest, then went back out in the evening for dinner and a couple of hours at a park. I've only used FP+ on one trip, but planned the passes for the evening when parks were busier. We haven't used the baby swap.

As for DHS - there is a fun Disney Junior show that my son absolutely loved at that age! If you have hoppers, that might be worth doing just for the 3 y.o.

My kids are able to nap in the stroller, and my toddler is close to dropping his nap, so I don't know that going all the way back to the room would be worth the time or energy. This will be my kids' first trip to Disney, so I'm sure we'll figure out what works and doesn't work on day one. It's hard for me to not do DHS since I love the atmosphere, but I have no idea how my toddler will do at shows, and we're not sure we're willing to spend the extra $ for park hoppers that we may or may not use.

 

[Jennytoon]

Thanks so much for all of this info! Good idea booking a FP+ close to a meal. I'll have to remember that. I guess what is confusing me most is how to decide who gets what FP+ when we plan on using the baby swap.

Well, the reason I said it was trickier in execution is because in order to "maximize" the RS strategy for the most rides, only some of the group would be riding at any one time for a RS swap. This means either splitting up in the park or having some of the party wait around for the rest of the party. For this reason, since it seems like you are OK with skipping some things for the grownups and have a pretty relaxed attitude, I would recommend that you start with the list of rides that DS can go on and DD can't. These are really the only rides where RS will have value for DS (and remember that if you have two and you split the FP between the adults, then he will get to do one ride once and one ride twice because he will need a FP for one of them). It may be that this list is long enough to cover all the FP you are willing to split people up for, and you can call it a day and decide to use other strategies to get grownups on the few other "adults only" rides that are a can't miss for your group. Unless of course you have an odd # of DS only rides, in which case you can use an adults-only one for the other half of the pair.

 

[GatorMama]

Oh man this post reminded me that I had not at all considered the rider swap when deciding which FPs to get! Back to the drawing board for me!