Fastpass + SUCCESS during Christmas time

M2DD's

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 20, 2007
Messages
1,634
I thought I would share my successful experience of booking my FP for Christmas week. I was so worried leading up to last night because all the negative reviews I had read had gotten me worried we wouldn't get our choices and not get the coveted A&E and 7 mine FP. Plus the fact we were going over Christmas made me second guess our decision to go. We were already not getting our first choice of resorts and not getting any good times we wanted for BBB. Lets just say so far we were not off to a good start planning this vacation:sad:

So now here's the good part: I logged onto MDE at 11:01(CST) and began booking our FP. We were able to get EVERYTHING we wanted for the exact dates and times including 7 mine ride, A&E , Frozen sing along,fantasmic and the Christmas paradepixiedust:

Here is how I did it and hopefully it could help some fellow disers out:goodvibes
First, I think were mainly picking the right park for the day and avoiding parks with EMH. I used easyWDW & touring plans crowd calander to pick the best days. Even though 95% of our listed at 10's there are still better parks to visit on certain days. For our family I booked all our FP in the afternoon that way we could do shorter lines in the am and save the FP's for the afternoon when the parks get busy. Even though my kids are teenagers I'm exhausted by the evening and we tend to head out early(before 9).

Secondly, I started with out last day first which is Dec.30th and instead of working backwards from their I did our 3 MK days first followed by Christmas day and the Eve. I took the option that gave me the afternoon FP and moved on. I didn't linger over the exact time since I could always go back and modify the times later.

Christmas day- I was worried the most but having spent 4 Christmases in the past at the park I knew the am would be less crowded. I picked HS this day because we have done MK and Epcot before. I was able to get everything I wanted and I was surprised how many time slots were still open. We will prolly go to the MK first thing and then leave around 10 just because there is the best feeling walking down mainstreet with all the yummy smells and looking at the castle Christmas morning:santa:

Wishing everyone the best of luck getting Fastpasses during the busiest time of the year:wizard:
 
Thanks for the post! My FP day is October 22, so I'm hoping for the same success! We are also headed to HS for Christmas Day!!
 
I just wanted to jump on your "happy wagon". I was very afraid that I wouldn't get what I wanted, but I got all of it (except one A&E is later in the day on the 30th).

I even got an error message "Mind If We Try Again?" but I was able to work through it. I jumped on my phone and it worked like a charm.
 

I would think your good fortune includes your getting there on the 19-20th and booking 10 days out? Glad you had success!:wizard:
 
This is giving me hope! My FP+ day is coming up soon, and I'm planning for our group of 9. We'll be at AK on Christmas day.
 
I'm happy to hear you had a positive experience. I have two more days to wait until I can get FP+. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
 
Yeah - good news!!! I make mine tonight and I'm worried.....being Xmas week and all. One quick question, did you happen to see if the Fantasy of the Sky Fireworks was offering FP on December 30th? That's the one I am most worried about and if a FP is not even there, well, then I will pick something else earlier in the day....Thanks!
 
I would think your good fortune includes your getting there on the 19-20th and booking 10 days out? Glad you had success!:wizard:
True, but I also got A&E and 7DMT for the 23rd which is only 4 days into my trip.

Yeah - good news!!! I make mine tonight and I'm worried.....being Xmas week and all. One quick question, did you happen to see if the Fantasy of the Sky Fireworks was offering FP on December 30th? That's the one I am most worried about and if a FP is not even there, well, then I will pick something else earlier in the day....Thanks!
I didn't see Fantasy in the Sky *or* NYE IllumiNations. I've been to both both and it will be packed. I figure it's part of the charm.
 
I would think your good fortune includes your getting there on the 19-20th and booking 10 days out? Glad you had success!:wizard:

While I do think longer trip has helped I was able to get A&E and & mine train on my 4th park day which has been open for a bit for booking before my dates opened up:goodvibes


This is giving me hope! My FP+ day is coming up soon, and I'm planning for our group of 9. We'll be at AK on Christmas day.

There were a lot of open times for all rides at AK. I just checked a few minutes ago :thumbsup2

Yeah - good news!!! I make mine tonight and I'm worried.....being Xmas week and all. One quick question, did you happen to see if the Fantasy of the Sky Fireworks was offering FP on December 30th? That's the one I am most worried about and if a FP is not even there, well, then I will pick something else earlier in the day....Thanks!

I just looked for you and it wasn't listed. We will change to it also if/when it opens:surfweb:
 
I also had a good experience last night...uh... I mean this morning lol.

I started hitting F5 at about 11:58, and sure enough, it seemed to open exactly at 12:00. My stay is for Dec 19-24 for a party of 3, and I jumped straight to Dec 24 and grabbed A&E, 7DMT, and the noon christmas parade. I got those locked in at about 12:02 I would guess. Then, the site went down and the Incredibles boy kept telling me to "try again." This lasted for about 10 minutes. I was afraid those Christmas Eve selections didn't go through, but when the reservation site finally came back alive, they were still there. Then I began to work backwards from the 23rd to the 19th. By the time the site came back up at 12:10 or so, it looked like all A&E were gone for my stay, but plenty of 7DMTs were still available on all days.

I'm not sure if I got lucky or if the FP+ horror is blown out of proportion, but either way, my experience was good.
 
I just wanted to jump on your "happy wagon". I was very afraid that I wouldn't get what I wanted, but I got all of it (except one A&E is later in the day on the 30th).

I even got an error message "Mind If We Try Again?" but I was able to work through it. I jumped on my phone and it worked like a charm.

Glad you were able to get on your phone I didn't have any trouble on my laptop.
Now lets hope your state doesn't give us bad any bad weather. We fly out on the last flight out of Milwaukee on the 18th:santa:
 
Trip 20 to 28 Dec. Yesterday I could get all the fastpass I wanted. My tip: Go backwards. I was able to get A&E, 7MDT, and MSEP for christmas eve!! So happy. You first got bad hours but then you can change them. good luck for all
 
Awesome to hear the good news.

What I ask of those going during Christmas is to update us during that time as to the length of FP+ lines. I'm curious if Disney is dumping a whole bunch of FP+ into the system during that time.
 
True, but I also got A&E and 7DMT for the 23rd which is only 4 days into my trip.


right I think that is due to your arrival early in the holiday period...curious what those arriving a few days later will find! (nervously counting down to our fast pass plus window later this week, lol).:wizard:
 
Trip 20 to 28 Dec. Yesterday I could get all the fastpass I wanted. My tip: Go backwards. I was able to get A&E, 7MDT, and MSEP for christmas eve!! So happy. You first got bad hours but then you can change them. good luck for all

How were you able to reserve FP+ already? My trip is for the same dates, but our 60-day doesn't open until midnight tonight...?
 
How were you able to reserve FP+ already? My trip is for the same dates, but our 60-day doesn't open until midnight tonight...?

if your window opens on the 20th, it would have been at midnight last night/this morning?
 
if your window opens on the 20th, it would have been at midnight last night/this morning?

If you're just going by the calendar, i.e., Oct. 20th, Nov. 20th, Dec. 20th, yes. But it's technically not until tomorrow if your counting back 60 days. MDE is showing 61 days for me.

Tried doing FP+ (in a panic after reading that message), and don't have access yet.
 
if your window opens on the 20th, it would have been at midnight last night/this morning?
No, because October has 31 days. Check-ins for 12/19 were open today, 12/20 will open tonight.
 
There will be more available because of the late hours. When it closes at 12 vs 7 on party nights that's 5 more hours of availability.
 














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