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

[Cluelyss]

Here is blurb on the Disney FastPass+ Kiosks page:
"To find the nearest FastPass+ kiosk, check the theme park Guidemaps for specific locations."

So the answer to your question is yes. It is best to get the latest guidemap when you enter the park as locations do change.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/fastpass-plus-kiosks/

The MDX app also shows locations under the "Guest Services" tab. I used this a lot while in the parks.

 

[123SA]

Like many, I am having a hard time planning out the fast passes. I just envision myself freezing or making dumb choices when I realize what I want is not actually available.

Party of 5. My check in date is 8/30, check out 9/12. My fast pass 60 day point is 7/1/15 meaning on Jun 30th I stay up until midnight (or 1am) and start to book. Low level crowds expected.

Our first MK day is 9/2. I've been trying to plan a day around a 11am ish 7DMT FP, when it suddenly occurred to me, is that even likely to be available? How do make any plans when you just don't know what will be available?

 

[Cluelyss]

Like many, I am having a hard time planning out the fast passes. I just envision myself freezing or making dumb choices when I realize what I want is not actually available.

Party of 5. My check in date is 8/30, check out 9/12. My fast pass 60 day point is 7/1/15 meaning on Jun 30th I stay up until midnight (or 1am) and start to book. Low level crowds expected.

Our first MK day is 9/2. I've been trying to plan a day around a 11am ish 7DMT FP, when it suddenly occurred to me, is that even likely to be available? How do make any plans when you just don't know what will be available?

Keep an eye on this site in the days leading up to your booking date.

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=835236

Most attractions, outside A&E and maybe some parades/fireworks should have availability most, if not all, days of your trip if you are booking at the 60-day mark.

 

[Ava]

Like many, I am having a hard time planning out the fast passes. I just envision myself freezing or making dumb choices when I realize what I want is not actually available.

Party of 5. My check in date is 8/30, check out 9/12. My fast pass 60 day point is 7/1/15 meaning on Jun 30th I stay up until midnight (or 1am) and start to book. Low level crowds expected.

Our first MK day is 9/2. I've been trying to plan a day around a 11am ish 7DMT FP, when it suddenly occurred to me, is that even likely to be available? How do make any plans when you just don't know what will be available?

Another tip I read here that helped me last year was to see what your most difficult to get FP choices are (A&E, 7DMT, TSMM, parades/fireworks are probably the most hard to come by) and book for those days first. Also, if you want A&E try to plan for it as late in your trip as possible, as there will be more availability the farther out you go. When you're booking, it's faster to just choose the 3 attractions you want and let the computer choose times for you, save it, then go back into that day and change the times.

 

[123SA]

Is there a way to practice? I would feel so much more comfortable if I could make a few reservations and then cancel them. I don't have an AP or an extra ticket to link.

Yes, we do want to aee A&E. But we plan to do that on 9/9 -- well into the trip and I don't think I care what time for that one. I guess I'll just book for all 5 of us as suggested and then go back and modify it to take out the boys and get something else for them.

I was thinking I'd do

A&E for 9/9 first - -do I do the rest of the day?
7DMT for 9/2, 9/5 and 9/9
TSMM for 9/1, 9/6
then just start booking FP starting at 8/31 through the rest of my trip.

 

[Cluelyss]

Is there a way to practice? I would feel so much more comfortable if I could make a few reservations and then cancel them. I don't have an AP or an extra ticket to link.

Yes, we do want to aee A&E. But we plan to do that on 9/9 -- well into the trip and I don't think I care what time for that one. I guess I'll just book for all 5 of us as suggested and then go back and modify it to take out the boys and get something else for them.

I was thinking I'd do

A&E for 9/9 first - -do I do the rest of the day?
7DMT for 9/2, 9/5 and 9/9
TSMM for 9/1, 9/6
then just start booking FP starting at 8/31 through the rest of my trip.

Yes, book the entire day at once, and for your entire party.

There are some great YouTube videos out there that you can watch beforehand, but the system is really very intuitive and easy to use.

 

[123SA]

YouTube videos! Excellent. Thanks so much!

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

Like many, I am having a hard time planning out the fast passes. I just envision myself freezing or making dumb choices when I realize what I want is not actually available.

Party of 5. My check in date is 8/30, check out 9/12. My fast pass 60 day point is 7/1/15 meaning on Jun 30th I stay up until midnight (or 1am) and start to book. Low level crowds expected.

Our first MK day is 9/2. I've been trying to plan a day around a 11am ish 7DMT FP, when it suddenly occurred to me, is that even likely to be available? How do make any plans when you just don't know what will be available?

I had almost exactly the same situation, except I am going the 5/25 to 6/1, planning on MK on 5/27. Had no problem grabbing a 10:55am FP+ for 7DMT for 3 people. I suspect since you are touring during a low crowd level time you will be successful. Definitely grab your MK FP+ reservations first and then go from there.

 

[MataHari22]

Ok, this might be a stupid question, but after a search, I cannot find the answer, and I cannot read all through 131 pages. I booked my package today and I just linked my resort reservations with our 6 day base tickets and MVMCP tickets. (Going 11/12-11/20) It all seems to be in there. Then, I clicked on FP+, because I too wanted to do a practice run and refresh my memory about scheduling fast passes. When I went to put in my confirmation number, it just says and error message that the reservation is already linked to an account...... How do I know it won't do that when my 60 day window opens up? Will it not do that on my FP night? I would have sworn last year, that I got to sign in and do a practice run, but I forget. All the posts I'm finding about FP+ assume that you're signed in already and have that FP+ linked already. I'm not finding any info about what happens iif signing in is a problem. Thanks.

 

[Cluelyss]

Ok, this might be a stupid question, but after a search, I cannot find the answer, and I cannot read all through 131 pages. I booked my package today and I just linked my resort reservations with our 6 day base tickets and MVMCP tickets. (Going 11/12-11/20) It all seems to be in there. Then, I clicked on FP+, because I too wanted to do a practice run and refresh my memory about scheduling fast passes. When I went to put in my confirmation number, it just says and error message that the reservation is already linked to an account...... How do I know it won't do that when my 60 day window opens up? Will it not do that on my FP night? I would have sworn last year, that I got to sign in and do a practice run, but I forget. All the posts I'm finding about FP+ assume that you're signed in already and have that FP+ linked already. I'm not finding any info about what happens iif signing in is a problem. Thanks.

With a package, your tickets won't "activate" until your 60 day mark, so you won't be able to do a practice run. This is exactly how mine looked for my last 2 trips with FP+ up until that day. Try not to worry, everything will be fine once your booking window opens.

 

[MataHari22]

With a package, your tickets won't "activate" until your 60 day mark, so you won't be able to do a practice run. This is exactly how mine looked for my last 2 trips with FP+ up until that day. Try not to worry, everything will be fine once your booking window opens.

Ok, thanks. Just made me nervous getting that message that the reservation number I entered is already linked to an account. My mind jumps to the nightmare of that happening on my 60 day mark and not being able to sign in and make my FP. :-/

 

[Nigel Channing]

So your entire party shows up when the 60 day booking window hits? Right now we have our tripped booked for September. My wife has a 1 day ticket leftover from a previous trip. I can book fastpasses for my wife and I but the kids don't show up. I just want to make sure they'll be there when our 60 day window opens.

 

[Cluelyss]

So your entire party shows up when the 60 day booking window hits? Right now we have our tripped booked for September. My wife has a 1 day ticket leftover from a previous trip. I can book fastpasses for my wife and I but the kids don't show up. I just want to make sure they'll be there when our 60 day window opens.

Yes, everything will show once your booking window opens.

In the meantime, you can practice on DW's ticket if you haven't used the system before.

 

[Nigel Channing]

Yes, everything will show once your booking window opens.

In the meantime, you can practice on DW's ticket if you haven't used the system before.

Excellent. Thanks!

 

[tots05]

we bought our tickets from undercover tourist and we choose an e ticket. From what we can understand, we bring this e ticket to any disney customer service/ticket booth and they will issue us the real tickets. We are also planning on getting magic bands for my 2 kiddos. Will the magic bands invalidate the tickets then when we try to link the bands to through my disney experience account? what would happen to our fastpass selections when this happens? sorry for all the questions, this will be our first trip when all the new things started showing up i.e. magic bands, fasts +, etc.

 

[wdwpracticalprincess]

We're staying offsite so can only book fastpass+ at 30-day mark. DIS vets, is it even worthwhile to stay up late to try to book 7DMT, pan, mtns, etc.? Will anything be available?

Trip is first week October during crowd levels 3-5 with 3 generations. TIA!

 

[mesaboy2]

We're staying offsite so can only book fastpass+ at 30-day mark. DIS vets, is it even worthwhile to stay up late to try to book 7DMT, pan, mtns, etc.? Will anything be available?

Trip is first week October during crowd levels 3-5 with 3 generations. TIA!

The second post addresses availability questions such as yours.

 

[MainMom]

I am booking FP+ for 11 people tonight. Is my best strategy, for 11 people, to take the FP's farthest away from the time you actually want so it's easier to modify? I am trying to book the same FP's for 11 at the same time & ride.

ETA-I'm very nervous to do it this way and try to modify for 11 people.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Here now I'll give ya the skinny:

Anna and Elsa wasn't that bad unless I went in downtime 30 - 50 mins waits when I saw

Soarin over test track just ride single rider! You most likely will end up in the same cart anyway.

Rockin Roller coaster over ToT definitely the lines for RR were out the door long we again did single rider, separate but felt like a fast pass to me!

 

[MainMom]

I started with a plan of looking for all 12 at once and would switch to smaller groups if necessary. I was able to find everything for all 12 without breaking up, including 7dwarves. The earlier of my 2 MK days, I had at least 5 choices of times for 7dwarves, but not times I particularly liked and the later MK day I had lots of availability all day, still no breaking up. I did do that MK day only at midnight, but then went to bed and did all the rest (all 12, no problems at all) at 2 pm the next day. I have since played around with a couple of times and always got plenty of ride and time choices still for the entire group at day 42 and 38 and 35 so far.

If you're a night owl anyway, I think you'll easily get all you like at midnight. If that's tough, I'd really think you can easily wait until the next morning or afternoon. I also watched a youtube walk through of the process so I'd know what the screens looked like beforehand, so I'd not be seeing it the first time when I'm tired and impatient

Well, I went back to start to re-read the thread and this post made me feel much better about booking my group together!