Fast pass + booking on your park rest days?

[Inga]

Hi

We are heading to WDW end of Nov for 2 weeks. This is our first trip back since the implementation of booking fastpasses 60 days before the trip.

In past trips we have not specifically planned our rest days but took them as we needed them -spontaneously- remember that? - was something you could do before trip planning got this extreme?

Anyhow, I am curious how others handle potential rest days in their schedule and FastPass+ booking...do you book fastpasses for every day of the time you are there and just cancel them when you are there and decide to have a rest day, or are you not booking fastpasses for scheduled rest days in advance?

Honestly, I love trip planning, but deciding 60 days out what rides you want to ride on which days, and at which time, seems a bit much even to this seasoned WDW planner.

Inga

 

[FCDub]

Hi! You can only book FP+ for the amount of days you have on your tickets. So you'll need to sketch out in advance your down days – UNLESS you've got an annual pass, in which case you've got the flexibility to decide later.

Hope you have a great trip.

 

[Inga]

Hi! You can only book FP+ for the amount of days you have on your tickets. So you'll need to sketch out in advance your down days – UNLESS you've got an annual pass, in which case you've got the flexibility to decide later.

Hope you have a great trip.

We are in the parks for 12 days, have a 14 day pass, so we are full up possible to go to a park every day. Question is whether folks book FPs on all days in this situation.

 

[coasternut22]

As an AP holder, I book them on our resort days just in case. I’ve had to move entire days because of things like weather and it helped so much to have tier 1 and morning fast passes booked at optimal times. I also use those days to pencil in fast passes for top tier rides in the event that a ride breaks down on our park day and we can’t reschedule. I do like the insurance policy aspect of it and I always release them if I know we won’t use them. About half the time we actually do go to those parks for the three hours to use those fast passes which defeats the whole purpose of a down day, and I always kick myself at the end of the trip for being so tired. We’ll never learn.

 

[mesaboy2]

You may find the FP FAQ helpful.

 

[Inga]

About half the time we actually do go to those parks for the three hours to use those fast passes which defeats the whole purpose of a down day, and I always kick myself at the end of the trip for being so tired. We’ll never learn.

This is what I am worrying about -it feels overscheduled and I think we would do the same as you guys vs taking a rest day! Hate to give up a hard earned FP!

 

[Inga]

You may find the FP FAQ helpful.

Nothing in that FAQ about whether people schedule rest days with no FPs...not sure how this would be helpful?

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

10 years ago I still planned my rest days in advance.

You can only book FP+ for as many days as you have on a ticket.
If you have a 10 day ticket but will be there for 14 you better decide now.
If you have a 10 day ticket and you're there for 10 days then just make them for each day and cancel if you decide not to use them.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

We are in the parks for 12 days, have a 14 day pass, so we are full up possible to go to a park every day. Question is whether folks book FPs on all days in this situation.

Saw this after I posted.
I would suggest yes book them and then cancel if you don't want them.
Why wouldn't you ya know?

 

[greg9x]

Book all the FP's you can.... you never know if something will happen on one of your other days (major storm, someone doesn't feel well) that you'll end up switching park/rest days. Plus maybe you rest during the day and feel like going to a park for a short bit in the evening.. I usually book evening FP's for when have other stuff planned during the day. Better to have them than not.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Yes, I still book FP+ on our rest days. If we are planning a pool day, I'll typically schedule some FP+ in the afternoon in case we get bored. On our last trip, we had PH+ tickets and I had scheduled a water park day. I scheduled FP+ on the morning of that day, as well, in case the weather wasn't conducive to going to the water parks. Since you are there for so long, chances are you will get good FP+ on many days, so I think if you end up cancelling some, you probably won't miss anything. I would just book them and cancel if you decide not to go.

 

[FCDub]

We are in the parks for 12 days, have a 14 day pass, so we are full up possible to go to a park every day. Question is whether folks book FPs on all days in this situation.

Very good! Usually the highest ticket is 10 days without an annual pass or a non-U.S. offer. You should definitely take advantage and book FPs for every day. Worst case scenario you wake up, want to hang out instead of going to a park, and cancel them.

What you also might want to do is sort of think about when you might WANT to take a break and plan some evening FPs. So you'd be able to rest in the morning and then arrive early evening refreshed with key FPs ready to use.

 

[AngiTN]

We book ours for each day because we go to the parks every day, just not all days. We never take 100% days off. We used to but I find I prefer a bunch of shorter days vs. rest days mixed with long days.

But we've never stuck to a trip as planned when we booked the FP. We always rearrange things once there. There's maybe 5 FP that are hard to get, the rest you can find day of pretty readily.

 

[cvjw]

Yes, book them for all days. Nothing says you have to use them.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I would book FP+ in the evening on rest days. That's what we are doing. Last trip we realized we much prefer shorter days over full rest days. By dinner time we were a bit restless and had agency tickets that we couldn't upgrade. This trip our "rest days" are get up late, hit the pool and then have FP starting around 5 pm. We have tickets for everyday of our trip.

 

[fla4fun]

I book my FP for every day of my trip, to make sure I have my must do attractions. If I need a rest day, then I look at the scheduled FP and figure out which day I'll be least bothered by giving up.

For example, on my last trip, I only had one AK day scheduled, because the trip before had been very AK intensive. But I decided I needed a break on Monday (AK day was to be the following Thursday) and I really wanted that MK day. So I dropped my FP for AK and booked MK FP instead. Now, it was easier for me because those days were solo days - if you have a large group you may have more trouble shifting things around. But that's how I do it, and I always make sure I cancel any FP I won't be using, so someone else can pick them up.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

On my rest days, I usually book FP+ for those impossible to get's if I can get them (SDD, FOP, 7DMT). I don't generally care about run of the mill rides, but there is always a chance that I won't get my FP+ for those rides on the other days, or we get rained out or the ride is closed or who-know-what. I like the insurance policy.

On our last trip, we booked Alien Swirling Saucers on our hotel day just in case we got to the park and found that the line was unbearable. It was not and we were able to just wait for it, so we were able to cancel the FP+. But we are glad we had it just in case.

 

[KittyKitty]

Since you have park ticket for everyday you are visiting, I would book FP's for all days. Then when you decide to have a rest day, release the ones you don't want. You will make another guest very happy!

 

[Klayfish]

Hi

We are heading to WDW end of Nov for 2 weeks. This is our first trip back since the implementation of booking fastpasses 60 days before the trip.

In past trips we have not specifically planned our rest days but took them as we needed them -spontaneously- remember that? - was something you could do before trip planning got this extreme?

Anyhow, I am curious how others handle potential rest days in their schedule and FastPass+ booking...do you book fastpasses for every day of the time you are there and just cancel them when you are there and decide to have a rest day, or are you not booking fastpasses for scheduled rest days in advance?

Honestly, I love trip planning, but deciding 60 days out what rides you want to ride on which days, and at which time, seems a bit much even to this seasoned WDW planner.

Inga

Trip planning is only this "extreme" if you want it to be. You can plan however you want. Sure, it's hard to plan what rides you want to do 60 days ahead, but that's the beauty of the current system. You can change it...on the fly. We do it all the time.

Like a few others have mentioned, we don't plan "rest" days where we don't go to the parks at all. To us, it seems like a waste. We're there for WDW, not a hotel pool. Believe me, we don't do park open to close every day...or any day for that matter...but we also don't avoid the parks all day. Sometime we'll just hit a park from 10am to 1pm and be done, we'll spend the rest of the day relaxing. So yes, we book FP+ for every day. If we don't use them, we drop them. Easy peasy.

 

[TIME4DIZ]

Book them every day. This will give you some flexibility to adjust your rest day without feeling like you’re missing out on FP opportunities.