FastPass+ Basic Info, Suggested Priorities, And Strategies--Part II

[Montana Minnies]

Very happy to have gotten a surprise email from disney that they are doing a test for FP to BOG at lunch ! Scored a lunch time on 21 Oct and did the happy dance since that was one of a few I was unable to score a res /FP. My neighbors got the email too so it looks like it is being sent to WDW resort guests. Hope someone else got a happy email too!

Congratulations!
I hope we have the same luck as you. We are going Dec. 9-20, but the majority of our group is not showing up until the 13th. We were not able to get dinner at BOG, so are hoping on getting a FP for lunch there while my sister, myself & one of our nieces will be there.

 

[n2mm]

Very happy to have gotten a surprise email from disney that they are doing a test for FP to BOG at lunch ! Scored a lunch time on 21 Oct and did the happy dance since that was one of a few I was unable to score a res /FP. My neighbors got the email too so it looks like it is being sent to WDW resort guests. Hope someone else got a happy email too!

I got one too the other day. It was the first Time I've ever received one. I had already gone to the site and booked it a day earlier as I had been waiting for my window to open. My first day arrival if oct 18, so got the email just under 4 weeks prior to arriving.

 

[siskaren]

You will be able to book one day at a time exactly 60 days prior, not 30 days.

For example, let's say you are onsite Dec 1-5, and offsite Dec 6-8. You can make FP+ for Dec 1-5 on midnight October 1st, but will need to wait until October 6 to make reservations for Dec 6, October 7 for Dec 7, etc

Just to be nitpicky, for a trip starting on December 1, you wouldn't be able to book FP+ on October 1, you'd have to wait until October 2 because October has 31 days. (And then of course for December 6 you'd have to wait until October 7 and so on.)

 

[donp]

Congratulations! I hope we have the same luck as you. We are going Dec. 9-20, but the majority of our group is not showing up until the 13th. We were not able to get dinner at BOG, so are hoping on getting a FP for lunch there while my sister, myself & one of our nieces will be there.

You can book the lunch usually even without the email. There is a whole thread if you search for it that has all the info you need. It opens up to book about 27 days before your arrival. Good luck!

 

[johnnyf0614]

My family of 5 will be staying at a DVC studio at AKL, as a guest of a friend who is a DVC member. Because this room only allows for 4 guests, I will not be able to add the 5th person to our MDX itinerary until we check in. It will be my wife and I, and our kids 12, 11, and 6. We plan to add my wife and kids to the itinerary/MDX as the 4 onsite guests, and then add me once we get there. Our friend who is a DVC member said we can do this. And they will give me my MDX band then. As I understand it, I can make FP+ reservations 60 days out for the 4 guests, but the 5th guest will have to wait until 30 days out. We are going during NYE so this is going to be a challenge. So the 6 year old can't (or won't) ride the tier 1 rides like RR, ToT, TT etc. So if I make the FP+ reservations for her on MDE to those rides, can I use the reservation? Or can we switch the day of? Since I will be the "5th" guest?

I don't think it's possible unless the 5th person is under 3 years old.

 

[Gryhndmom]

Congratulations!
I hope we have the same luck as you. We are going Dec. 9-20, but the majority of our group is not showing up until the 13th. We were not able to get dinner at BOG, so are hoping on getting a FP for lunch there while my sister, myself & one of our nieces will be there.

Wishing you luck to get one too !

I got one too the other day. It was the first Time I've ever received one. I had already gone to the site and booked it a day earlier as I had been waiting for my window to open. My first day arrival if oct 18, so got the email just under 4 weeks prior to arriving.

I like the fact I could preorder the meal and drinks and have them delivered to the table. Sure hope this becomes a permanent. FP ,

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

My family of 5 will be staying at a DVC studio at AKL, as a guest of a friend who is a DVC member. Because this room only allows for 4 guests, I will not be able to add the 5th person to our MDX itinerary until we check in.

It will be my wife and I, and our kids 12, 11, and 6. We plan to add my wife and kids to the itinerary/MDX as the 4 onsite guests, and then add me once we get there. Our friend who is a DVC member said we can do this. And they will give me my MDX band then.

As I understand it, I can make FP+ reservations 60 days out for the 4 guests, but the 5th guest will have to wait until 30 days out. We are going during NYE so this is going to be a challenge.

So the 6 year old can't (or won't) ride the tier 1 rides like RR, ToT, TT etc. So if I make the FP+ reservations for her on MDE to those rides, can I use the reservation? Or can we switch the day of? Since I will be the "5th" guest?

I don't see why you can't make them for her, then use her MB for access, since she won't be riding them. The trouble will be when you all want to use a FP+ for an attraction, like Toy Story Mania. Even though it's a busy time of year, you might have luck copying the FP times over to your new band when you get there.

 

[slzer0]

Wish me luck.. I'm approaching the cxl date for my trip. Starting to see new FPs like Pan, Pooh, and Buzz. Hoping some FOF and Wishes show up! I'd like to lock this down before the 30 Dat mark when its rumored that more are released. (Phone CM is unaware of this)

 

[buyerbrad]

My wife and I are going the week of March 14-21 and staying off-site. We are going to AK on March 16 and MK on March 18. My understanding is that we can book our FP+ for BOTH parks starting on February 16. What is to prevent us from entering our tickets as if we are attending AK on March 4, booking our MK FP+ starting on February 4th, and then just switching our AK date to March 16th on February 16th? It would give us access to get the much more difficult MK FP+ 12 days earlier.

 

[WuvEeyore]

My wife and I are going the week of March 14-21 and staying off-site. We are going to AK on March 16 and MK on March 18. My understanding is that we can book our FP+ for BOTH parks starting on February 16. What is to prevent us from entering our tickets as if we are attending AK on March 4, booking our MK FP+ starting on February 4th, and then just switching our AK date to March 16th on February 16th? It would give us access to get the much more difficult MK FP+ 12 days earlier.

If you are staying offsite, you can only book one day, 30 days out. If you book on Feb. 4th, then you can only make them for March 6th. On Feb. 16th, you can only book them for March 18th. It won't give you access 12 days earlier.

 

[EGW113]

If DH, DD3, and myself all want to ride 7DMT but will need to use the parent swap so one can sit out with our infant DS, how many fastpasses will we need? One for each of us or just one for DD & one for the first parent who rides?

TIA!

 

[Beka]

I've read the original post & didn't see it in there, and the app doesn't make this clear: How do I edit existing fast passes? For example: say I booked 6 people and only 4 want to ride, can I drop those 2 who don't want to ride? Also, say I booked 3 FP+, but I really only want to use 2 of those, can I drop the one I don't want to use? Or how do I change just one of the selected FP+, or edit the times? This whole process is so confusing and makes me a little crazy. We're a go with the flow type family but have a few rides we do FP on (TSMM, BTMRR) and I hate to tie up a FP I know we won't use.

TIA!

 

[siskaren]

I've read the original post & didn't see it in there, and the app doesn't make this clear: How do I edit existing fast passes? For example: say I booked 6 people and only 4 want to ride, can I drop those 2 who don't want to ride? Also, say I booked 3 FP+, but I really only want to use 2 of those, can I drop the one I don't want to use? Or how do I change just one of the selected FP+, or edit the times? This whole process is so confusing and makes me a little crazy. We're a go with the flow type family but have a few rides we do FP on (TSMM, BTMRR) and I hate to tie up a FP I know we won't use.

TIA!

There is actually a link in the first post to a post in easyWDW that gives a thorough explanation (including screen shots) of how to make and modify FP+ reservations. Rather than have you go back and look for the link, I'll post it here:

http://www.easywdw.com/forums/showthread.php?21568-New-Examples-of-Booking-and-Modifying-FP

 

[BobH]

I had all my fastpasses selected for our family of 6. 3 fastpasses for 3 attractions. We didn't need 5 fastpasses for Splash mountain so I cancelled a couple because we were going to sit it out with a grandchild that was too short. I thought I'd go looking for a couple Anna&Elsa passes and found that I risked losing 7DMT with our group because I had to select a new group of 3 fastpasses. So I put us all back on Splash Mountain and feel lousy about wasting a couple fastpasses for that but Disney gives me no other choice. I guess if your party is going in a lot of different directions you might be OK but for me I was opening Pandoras box by trying to cancel 1 fastpass choice and tying to keep the other two selections with my family.

 

[monkeybug]

I had all my fastpasses selected for our family of 6. 3 fastpasses for 3 attractions. We didn't need 5 fastpasses for Splash mountain so I cancelled a couple because we were going to sit it out with a grandchild that was too short. I thought I'd go looking for a couple Anna&Elsa passes and found that I risked losing 7DMT with our group because I had to select a new group of 3 fastpasses. So I put us all back on Splash Mountain and feel lousy about wasting a couple fastpasses for that but Disney gives me no other choice. I guess if your party is going in a lot of different directions you might be OK but for me I was opening Pandoras box by trying to cancel 1 fastpass choice and tying to keep the other two selections with my family.

Instead of canceling just select "change experience" for the part of your group that won't be going on Splash.
For one of our MK days I have
Splash
Space
BTMRR
A&E
Peter Pan
Buzz Lightyear

I got those by splitting our party up. If you are doing it from the website you can select "change time" and then choose just part of your group to change the time for, once you've changed the time you can change the experience for that group.

 

[geaux_half]

I had all my fastpasses selected for our family of 6. 3 fastpasses for 3 attractions. We didn't need 5 fastpasses for Splash mountain so I cancelled a couple because we were going to sit it out with a grandchild that was too short. I thought I'd go looking for a couple Anna&Elsa passes and found that I risked losing 7DMT with our group because I had to select a new group of 3 fastpasses. So I put us all back on Splash Mountain and feel lousy about wasting a couple fastpasses for that but Disney gives me no other choice. I guess if your party is going in a lot of different directions you might be OK but for me I was opening Pandoras box by trying to cancel 1 fastpass choice and tying to keep the other two selections with my family.

The only time I think the Cancel rather than Update FastPass+ button should be used is if you aren't looking to experience 3 attractions in one park before hopping to another park or if you are in a park that has tiering and you don't want any attraction in one of the tiers. By cancelling a FP you will then be able to book an additional FP in the 2nd park or in the tier that you need without waiting for the unwanted FPs to expire.

 

[Cluelyss]

The only time I think the Cancel rather than Update FastPass+ button should be used is if you aren't looking to experience 3 attractions in one park before hopping to another park or if you are in a park that has tiering and you don't want any attraction in one of the tiers. By cancelling a FP you will then be able to book an additional FP in the 2nd park or in the tier that you need without waiting for the unwanted FPs to expire.

Once you cancel, you cannot add the 3rd back on without calling Disney IT or scrapping the other 2.

 

[KimBean]

Fast Pass selections in a mere 13 days critique my selections:

10 days:

MK - ETw/B, Mine Train, Ariel's Grotto
AK - Safari, Lion king, Kali River
EP - Sp Ear, Test Track, Character Spot
HS - Toy Story, ToT, Frozen
AK - Safari, EE, Pals Outpost
MK - A&E, Cind&Rap, PP
HS - Toy Story, ToT, Frozen (dd6 will want to see this twice.)
MK - Big thunder, Splash Mtn, Mine Train
EP - Soarin', Nemo, Turtle Talk
MK - Haunted Mansion (first day open after refurb, fingers CROSSED), jungle cruise, pirates

Caveats - Obviously I'll get Anna and Elsa whenever I can take them.

I know lion king FP is only PA but thinking if we do RD Safari, and then FP Safari right after (my DH loves getting pics of animals) by the time we head over there for first showing that the FP line might help us out.

I know Frozen sing a long you can get a pass that day but trying to eliminate walking back and forth over the park.

Lack of RnR and Space Mtn - only my DH does them so he can single rider while we do something else.

Nemo - probably a waste... but I want Turtle Talk and timing them right before a Coral Reef ADR.

 

[g-dad66]

Lack of RnR and Space Mtn - only my DH does them so he can single rider while we do something else.

Space Mtn doesn't have Single Rider.

Only RnR, Test Track, and Everest have Single Rider line.

 

[KimBean]

Space Mtn doesn't have Single Rider.

Only RnR, Test Track, and Everest have Single Rider line.

Thank you! I did not know this. Okay, I have it down for last day during EMH while we ride People Mover one last time, so I think we'll be ok. We will just get over there first thing in morning.