Are GAD fastpasses all that??

[dhdozier]

So here is the story.... My family of 4 each have GAD tickets from working for Habitat for Humanity (kids are daughter 11, son 8). We are planning on visiting Hollywood studios this Fri during Star Wars (super busy I know), MK on Monday the 14th, and Epcot on Wed. the 16th. We already have tickets with a remainder of 5days one park with 5 days water option and no expiration that I bought 2 years ago when daughter was still child price. So up to speed now.... I suggested we really should use a ticket for a fast pass especially for Friday at HS during Star Wars weekend. I remember from 2 years ago how packed it is and this is the last weekend to boot. Then we might enjoy using another GAD for fastpass for MK and maybe not at Epcot since we will be there at rope drop to do Soarin and Fast Track (the ony 2 rides we really like there) both parks are not on EMH days- so save the other 2 GAD tickets to use for another trip we could schedule in the fall (I am only 5 hours from Disney). He doesn't think that fastpasses are a good use of money/vs park admission cost and we should use them for admission because he is afraid we might not return and miss out on using 2 tickets. Then further states he really wants to relax, take it easy this trip. I think that having those GAD fastpasses are the way to go to ensure he has this relaxation he wants and I remember how crowded summer can get. Thanks for reading and looking for points of view for recc.

 

[KellyNY]

Be honest, I would not spend it on FP. You can still get FPs regular way even if parks crowded, just get there early.

 

[d1gitman]

We did the FP option, at DL, for my sons birthday last year. It was fantastic! We were able to stock pile additional FP's while we used the FP's from the birthday option. We had non-stop FP's the whole day and it felt like we had the park to ourselves as we never waited.

Personally, if saving money by using the GAD's for admission is not a requirement, i'd get the FP's for sure.

Not sure how many you get for GAD, but for the birthday celebration, we got 6 FP's for everyone in our group.

 

[live4christp1]

We were at SWW on Sunday May 30th. It was crowded but manageable with just regular FP. DH & DS went straight to RRC at rope drop while DD & I went to sign DS up for Padawan Mind Challenge.....got in the first show.

Then DD, myself and dad went toward Muppets just to get out of the craziness of people trying to sign up for the Jedi Training Academy......that line was so long.....there is no way all those people got their kids in that day.....there were hundreds.

DS & DH came of RRC (they were on the first ride) and meet us and we walked right into Muppets. Then over to Star Tours. After Star Tours DS got in line for Jango Fett autograph (the one SW character we had missed two years straight) and at that time I walked to to TSM to get FP's....the line was long to get a FP but moved very quickly (they do a great job of keeping this area moving).....return time was 230 - 330 I think which was fine.

All in all we did everything in the park except Lights Motor Action show, Indiana Jones show and Playhouse Disney Live (DD decided she's to big for it).

We saw the last showing of Beauty & the Beast (5:15 I think) we entered the seating area about 40 minutes before show time and after getting everyone settled I ran up to TOT and got FP for 7:00 - 8:00. Then we saw the last showing of Fantasmic that didn't fill up.

I'd say it depends on how much time you plan to stand in line for SWW autographs. We only Did Jango, Jedi Mickey, Trooper Donald & Darth Goofy.....as we have seen all the other characters (done autographs/photos on a couple of different occasions in the past). If you are interested in the SWW characters be prepared......you can spend almost and entire day just doing those.

 

[mullii5]

Yes...yes....yes...a thousand times YES!!! Especially when combining them with the regular Fastpasses. We just got back from our trip (5/29 thru 06/06)...our longest wait was maybe 10 minutes all week!!!

Let's just use our DHS excursion as an example. Knowing we already had GADFPs for the major rides, we knew we could go where the crowds were not...my oldest daughter and I went to ToT and my wife and younger kids went to Honey I Shrunk the Kids to play. We rode ToT with almost no wait and got a FP for later. The wife and kids were ALONE in HISTK in the relative coolness of the morning. We then rode the Backlot Tour with no wait...later in the day, there was a long line for it. Since we already had the ToT regular FP for later, we were able to use all of our GADFP for TSM. At about 3:00...the wait was about 90 minutes. We rode TSM 3 times with the GADFP (Donald) in less than one hour. We used the Daisy GADFP on Star Tours...the standby wait wasn't as bad but we figured why not use them since we had the FPs.

Our MK and EP (FW) experiences were very similar (again, when combining regular and GADFP). We rode Soarin' 2 times and TT 3 times and never waited more than 10 minutes....same for Space Mountain, Peter Pan, Splash Mtn and BTMR. My wife and I joked through the week that we may never be able to go back to WDW because we are so spoiled by the GADFP.

I hope this helps!!

 

[Robo]

Are GAD fastpasses all that??

Nope.

 

[d1gitman]

Nope.

Yup.

 

[WiscMomof2]

I think if you already have tix they are a godsend. We like to ride our favorites multiple times and this will allow us to do it and not have to run around like maniacs collecting FP, not to mention cut down our touring time.

 

[SignMeUp]

I agree with the camp that says the GAD FPs rock!

We were at DHS for SWW on Sunday, May 30th. We used it first thing (after we got the kids signed up for JTA) to ride Star Tours. The stand-by wait said 20 min, but the line looked longer. The FP line wasn't even open yet, but with our immediate FP return time, the CMs opened the FP line for us and we zoomed by all those waiting in the stand-by line. Then we used the GAD FP to ride TSM twice back-to-back... that was awesome and would not have been possible w/out the GAD FP. We didn't have to make a mad dash to that side of the park at RD, we just casually strolled over there around 4pm long after all the TSM FPs were gone for the day, and rode TWICE with very little wait in the FP line. My dh and oldest son also rode RnR twice using the FPs. We didn't even bother with regular FPs because we rode everything we wanted (twice in many cases) using the GAD FP.

We learned that using the GAD FP at RD was really awesome for the more popular rides... like they did on Star Tours, when we got to Epcot for Soarin' and MK for Space Mt and Buzz, they opened the FP line just for us since we had FP in hand with an immediate return time. The CM at Buzz said they don't open the FP line until 10am, so she escorted us to the front of the line where FP and stand-by lines merge.

It was SO nice not having to worry about rushing somewhere just to grab a FP and then have to wait till later to use it. We were all spoiled by the GAD FP and are not looking forward to having to go back to the regular FP system on our next trip.

 

[kimgg]

Yes. I agree. I would also rather use them during the summer when the heat and lack of patience with waiting is worse than the fall. Unless you are sure you will use them for a ticket purchase (not fp) in the fall I'd use them now rather than later for FP. It's getting hotter by the day. I missed them when we went to DHS on our last day (not at rope drop, we were trying to take it easy our last day) after having them the previous weekend (SWW).

Used in combination with Lines or other mobile app, it makes for a much more relaxed day instead of sticking to a strict touring plan. LOVED it.

 

[Jess6001]

We used the GAD fastpasses last week in WDW and let me tell you, they were AWESOME!! We had 3 GAD vouchers, we used one at DHS, and two at MK (on different days). It was so awesome...we would use the GAD fastpasses in the mornings, so we could get right on the big rides. In the meantime, we would grab regular fastpasses for the afternoon and evening. That way we were guaranteed two fastpasses for at least 3 big rides. Basically, we never waited in one line longer than 10 mintues for our 9 day trip. We LOVED them. I hope there's another promotion next trip that allows us to get the fastpasses.

 

[dhdozier]

Thanks so much for the input. I really appreciate the scenarios and will let hubby read them to slam dunk the deal with using the GAD tickets as a fastpass for at least 2 of the parks - MK and HS!

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Promotions and Celebrations board.

 

[SCPP]

Robo finally misses one.

We had 7 vouchers and used 3 in DHS. Along with regular fast passes we rode TSM 13 times during our trip. We used 2 in MK and at one time on that day had 12 FP in hand and still had 3 credits on the card. We used the others at Epcot and AK.

The best thing was that we did not hit a single rope drop. Our kids are hitting teen age years and getting up at 730 the first week out of school to hit 9 AM rope drop was not going to happen.

Our last day (Mon 6.7) the vote was for DHS. We had been at Mk until 130 AM the previous night. We got up around 10 and made it to DHS at 11:15. Grabbed a FP for ToT timed for 230.

We rode TSM once using GAD, ate lunch, watch OMD, rode TSM a second time using GAD (wait was 150 minutes, FP long gone), rode GMR, rode RnR using final credit on GAD, and then used regular FP for ToT. We left at 330. In 4 hours we rode all 3 headliners including TOy Story twice, had lunch and saw 2 other attractions.......total wait ZERO, late sleep insured.

The GAD FP made our 10 day stay incredible. In essence we had 296 fast passes for 6 people before we entered the gates.
We rode TSM 8 times, Soaring 6 times, the mountains in MK countless times and rode the Safari and EE without ever waiting and then got extra rides using fast passes.

 

[Momtomouselover]

We found them to be priceless!! We never had to wait in a line longer than 10 minutes if it had a FP option and didn't have to worry about making it to rope drop. We used them for 8 days and it was just wonderful. Actually, not sure how I will ever return during a *busy* time without them.

I'm not a very patient person and we were a large group so it would have been unbearable without them on the busy days. We did have days where we had left over FP's that we gave away but mostly because the children couldn't ride all the headliners or some of the group (my parents left early) or we all left because we were just were tired. Between the GAD FP and collecting the regular FP's we just had too many, LOL . It was fun to give them away and share the magic!

One day on a very hot day in AK we rode the Kali rapids ride 4 times and 3 of them were in a row!!

 

[dhdozier]

I talked Dh into using them at Hollywood studios Friday and let's just say he is now a convert too! Star Wars crowds are no biggie with those little life savers in hand. Also used it at MK yesterday - crowds and heat were insane! We did stand in line for 25 min at Pirates and Haunted Mansion (no fastpass for these and I LOVE THEM so had to ride) so that is an indicator of how crazy it was and EVERYTHING was packed. Even the guy who ran Country Bear Jamboree said the shows to that attraction hadn't seen packed out crowds like that in a long while. We are going to Epcot Wed. and we may have to use another there.

 

[pmickus]

Now that my DSIL is back from Iraq she is able to purchase the Military Salute tickets for herself and our family for $99 (4 days) so I want to use our GAD vouchers for the busy 4th of July week. One of the days we are going to go to MK late afternoon to visit through the evening hours (we will hit another day at MK rope drop later in the week). Has anyone had good results in obtaining GAD FP in the late afternoon. I know Disney only guarantees them until 11am but I wonder how many people are actually using them for FP.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Now that my DSIL is back from Iraq she is able to purchase the Military Salute tickets for herself and our family for $99 (4 days) so I want to use our GAD vouchers for the busy 4th of July week. One of the days we are going to go to MK late afternoon to visit through the evening hours (we will hit another day at MK rope drop later in the week). Has anyone had good results in obtaining GAD FP in the late afternoon. I know Disney only guarantees them until 11am but I wonder how many people are actually using them for FP.

There has been no reports of anyone being denied a GAD FP card later in the afternoon, even during the busy times of spring break. The 4th itself at MK would really be the only time I think this would maybe come into play if everyone else redeemded thier cards that day but I doubt that would happen as alot will think the blackout date of July 4th applies to all GAD redemptions.

 

[pmickus]

There has been no reports of anyone being denied a GAD FP card later in the afternoon, even during the busy times of spring break. The 4th itself at MK would really be the only time I think this would maybe come into play if everyone else redeemded thier cards that day but I doubt that would happen as alot will think the blackout date of July 4th applies to all GAD redemptions.

Great to hear. We would be using the 3rd and 5th. No way am I going near MK on the 4th even with GAD FP.