Fastpasses hard to get

[pfeifer1990]

We are 5 adults planning our attraction priorities and fast pass strategy. (We will be at WDW for 6 days.)
We need some knowledge as we are planning...

What are the top 5 (across all parks) hardest fast passes to get? (So I can prepare everyone.)

What are the chances that HS will continue to open at 6 am (especially with MMRR opening at the beginning of March)?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Klayfish]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/fastpass-frequently-asked-questions.3491680/

 

[HuskieJohn]

AK - Flight of Passage (must get 60+ 4 to 6 days out)
HS - Slinky Dog Dash (must get 60+ 5 to 6 days out) (as long as there is still no Star Wars FP+ when you make your plans)...A MMRR FP+ availability will no doubt throw an interesting twist if offered.
MK - 7 Dwarfs Mine Train (60 days out ok but might be limited)
EPCOT - Test Track & Frozen Ever After (both within 30 days no problem)...BUT Ratatouille will be open this Summer and I would expect that to be the top FP+ get for a while...IF it is offered.

SDD and FOP are the hardest FP+ to obtain out of everything.

Are you staying onsite or off? Big difference in getting these at 60+ rather than 30+

I have no guess on the 6am openings. It will depend on how many people buy tickets. The flip side is if you get 6am openings that means the parks are expected to be packed.

 

[gharter]

AK - Flight of Passage (must get 60+ 4 to 6 days out)
HS - Slinky Dog Dash (must get 60+ 5 to 6 days out) (as long as there is still no Star Wars FP+ when you make your plans)...A MMRR FP+ availability will no doubt throw an interesting twist if offered.
MK - 7 Dwarfs Mine Train (60 days out ok but might be limited)
EPCOT - Test Track & Frozen Ever After (both within 30 days no problem)...BUT Ratatouille will be open this Summer and I would expect that to be the top FP+ get for a while...IF it is offered.

SDD and FOP are the hardest FP+ to obtain out of everything.

Are you staying onsite or off? Big difference in getting these at 60+ rather than 30+

I have no guess on the 6am openings. It will depend on how many people buy tickets. The flip side is if you get 6am openings that means the parks are expected to be packed.

Would agree with this list and add Peter Pan in MK as the 5th as I have more luck getting same day for Test Track or Frozen than Peter Pan.

As mentioned, it matters if you are staying onsite and can get FPs at 60 days or offsite and can get FPs starting at 30 days.
It also depends on the time of year you are going and how busy the parks will be.
No information has been released as to how long the 6am openings will continue. Most likely until the ride lines for MFSR and RoTR lines fade ( not likely in the near future).

 

[pfeifer1990]

We are going in May and staying on property. Thank you for the help (your information is pretty much what I was guessing.)

Follow up question does it make a difference as to how many fast passes are being needed? (Not everyone wants to do TestTrack but everyone wants to do Peter Pan.)

 

[Klayfish]

Not 100% sure I understand your question, but if you mean is it easier to get FP+ for a group of 3 than a group of 5, then the answer is yes.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

You can split them off. If 3 of the 5 want to do test track then the other 2 can get Soarin or something else. (If that is what you were asking) there are now a lot of new opportunities when it comes to fps. I would definitely consult the link in post #2 because now you don't have to get all 3 same day for the same park. Not sure of how it is done, But I would need to study up on how it works now.

 

[JackOfAllTrades]

unfortunately as parks get more and more crowded year after year we find it gloats to get fast passes for most rides. Obviously some are much easier than others for example living with the land vs soarin. The best thing to do is get a early morning fast pass and refresh your my Disney experience right after scanning your magic band for your ride. I have found if you keep refreshing you can almost find anything

 

[CastAStone]

Answering your other question, except for *maybe* the day MMRR opens, I would be shocked if DHS opens at 6AM again this year. Shocked. I think they'd rather keep it open til 10PM.

 

[Remy is Up]

Havent worried about 60 day Fps in forever. You can pretty much get anything same day. But to answer your question about most difficult to pull FPs, and Ill base it on day of because thats all we do:
1. Slinky- Studios
2. 7DMT- MK
3. Safari- AK
4. Pan- MK
5. BTMRR- MK

Those are the ones we have to spend the most time refreshing for , especially if its a later in the day situation. But, on Christmas Day we pulled Pan, BTMRR, and 7DMT during the day pretty easily. And for the most part other than 7DMT, anything at MK can be pulled and modified easily. Safari is just due to sheer numbers and capacity but it goes quick and is hard to get even day of. Slinky is generally the only one we have to actually work for these days. We have pulled an FoP day of every trip since last spring and now that we live in Florida its pretty often.

 

[Bribrittmom]

I don’t know how you guys get those fast passes by refreshing the app. Never works for me. What’s your secret?

 

[Remy is Up]

No secret at all. Just refresh modify refresh modify and it has gotten to the point it takes minimal time. Get what we want and then relax. Does it take practice to master? A little bit but even on trips every 2 or 3 months before we moved to florida last fall we already had it down and now that we are here we go on a whim on a Saturday or sunday pull fps in the parking lot. Refresh. Chill walk around have lunch jump to another park and just refresh and walk. And some say well you arent in the once a year must maximize the trip. if you dont do something you can come back next week. We like to ride get stuff out of the way and then just chill and grab fps for what we want in a relaxed way. You can use refresh if you use it the right way and emh if you are on property and never have to make a 60 day fps

 

[lisa cameron]

I don’t know how you guys get those fast passes by refreshing the app. Never works for me. What’s your secret?

Same.

 

[Disneyhanna]

I don’t know how you guys get those fast passes by refreshing the app. Never works for me. What’s your secret?

How many people in your party? We are a group of two and it is so easy to pick up same day, even for rides like 7DMT and FoP. I even got Slinky 2x in one day and I wasn't glued to my phone. I would think it's much easier the fewer the people, but you can often split into smaller groups and find overlapping times (remember you can tap in 5 minutes before or 15 minutes late and it's built into the touchpoints).

I just refresh and refresh while in line, waiting for food, etc. Usually it takes a few minutes of refreshing but there's always a lot of waiting time to use. I probably spend 5-10 minutes at a time refreshing for headliners, and 1-3 minutes to find more middle of the road stuff like BTMR, Everest, Safari, etc. I'll give up if I don't find anything and try again later but I almost always do. When I say refresh, I mean reloading the FPs very frequently as in you're tapping and tapping constantly during that time.

We also stack our first three FPs and try to have them done by lunch time because the best odds for picking up FPs are usually before dinner time. The pickings get slimmer in the evening but it's still always feasible. If it says FPs are done distributing you just hit back or whatever and try again. Sometimes I get bored and do this even when I'm not in the park since I have an AP (gotta maintain those refreshing skills ) and even during the busy holiday season it's possible. Maybe less headliners but certainly additional FPs throughout the day.

 

[lisa cameron]

How many people in your party? We are a group of two and it is so easy to pick up same day, even for rides like 7DMT and FoP. I even got Slinky 2x in one day and I wasn't glued to my phone. I would think it's much easier the fewer the people, but you can often split into smaller groups and find overlapping times (remember you can tap in 5 minutes before or 15 minutes late and it's built into the touchpoints).

I just refresh and refresh while in line, waiting for food, etc. Usually it takes a few minutes of refreshing but there's always a lot of waiting time to use. I probably spend 5-10 minutes at a time refreshing for headliners, and 1-3 minutes to find more middle of the road stuff like BTMR, Everest, Safari, etc. I'll give up if I don't find anything and try again later but I almost always do. When I say refresh, I mean reloading the FPs very frequently as in you're tapping and tapping constantly during that time.

We also stack our first three FPs and try to have them done by lunch time because the best odds for picking up FPs are usually before dinner time. The pickings get slimmer in the evening but it's still always feasible. If it says FPs are done distributing you just hit back or whatever and try again. Sometimes I get bored and do this even when I'm not in the park since I have an AP (gotta maintain those refreshing skills ) and even during the busy holiday season it's possible. Maybe less headliners but certainly additional FPs throughout the day.

I do all of that. Yes, we tap into rides 5 minutes earlier and then move up the next one, all done with first 3 scheduled FP by 11am. And I try MUCH longer, like 30 minutes. I do it as home too to “practice”. I only get headliners for the “secret” drop times like 11:01am. But since MK doesn’t have any known drop times, no luck with headliners at MK. I think I had SDMT come up once at like 9pm and couldn’t get it modified any earlier. We are either a party of 3 or 4. But with kids in school we are typically there only during busy times - Presidents Day, Easter, Spring Break.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

It's interesting. I think I'm the only one who has an easier time getting FPs in the afternoon and early evening over the morning. I cannot get anything to move up in the morning (ok, I can get the Tier 2 Epcot rides to move up but that's shooting fish in a barrel). It just does not work. With AK not having a lot of rides I always want to move EE up and nothing comes up not matter how long I go. Until about noon. Then I can get it. And I can get EE for early evening very easily. Not the morning though.

To give you a different perspective. It takes me far longer than others to get headliners. The one time I got FEA, it took half an hour of basically constant refreshing (my son really wanted to go on it and half an hour of refreshing was still better than 40 minutes in line). The times I've gotten FOP it's taken 30-60 minutes (no, I've never done it for 60 minutes in the park - that was playing along at home). Party of 5. For rides like BTMR, Splash, etc I 'll break up my party into 2/3 but things like FEA and FOP I so rarely ever see them that getting overlapping times would basically be impossible. But less popular but good rides (JC, PotC, Dino, EE, Soarin, etc) I can get in times that I consider reasonable (10-15 mins usually after noon). That's my experience which I know is different than others here but no less valid.

 

[Gehrig1B]

We find it pretty easy to get E-rides same day also. 7DMT has been the most difficult. We regularly get FOP, SDD, Frozen... all same day. No evidence other than anecdotal but it seems it is easier to get more when the parks are more crowded as well, maybe more changes being made by park-goers?

 

[Disneyhanna]

I do all of that. Yes, we tap into rides 5 minutes earlier and then move up the next one, all done with first 3 scheduled FP by 11am. And I try MUCH longer, like 30 minutes. I do it as home too to “practice”. I only get headliners for the “secret” drop times like 11:01am. But since MK doesn’t have any known drop times, no luck with headliners at MK. I think I had SDMT come up once at like 9pm and couldn’t get it modified any earlier. We are either a party of 3 or 4. But with kids in school we are typically there only during busy times - Presidents Day, Easter, Spring Break.

Ah, 3-4 is probably a bit tougher plus the holidays just make everything harder. I didn't know about secret drop times, I will have to look into that! That's frustrating that nothing is showing up in 30 minutes, I know holidays will be a lot more challenging to get more FPs but people drop so often that you'd think something would show up. Not sure about the truth in this but I saw somewhere recently that when you see available FPs, you basically have all of them "on hold" until you refresh or it times out or something like that. Perhaps you're just unlucky, or maybe internet speed or something is in play. Have you had better luck at home during non-holidays? It's honestly all just so much luck so maybe you've had bad luck a few times and others have had good luck, and we all just assume that's how it always is. I hope that it works better for you next time!

We find it pretty easy to get E-rides same day also. 7DMT has been the most difficult. We regularly get FOP, SDD, Frozen... all same day. No evidence other than anecdotal but it seems it is easier to get more when the parks are more crowded as well, maybe more changes being made by park-goers?

Maybe the crowds are all first-timers who have have no idea about additional FPs, leaving those of us in the know able to get all of them! I noticed that the new tiering in HS seems to have made getting more FPs even easier (at least compared to my past trips) since people get their one tier 1 and then never try for more. ToT and RnRC had immediate return times all day when I was there. I agree that 7DMT is hardest to pick up, with MK in general just being harder to find immediate return times.

 

[Remy is Up]

I think everyone is going to have their own experience with refresh and making use of the "specific Ride" drop times.
I know for us, even in groups of 3 at times, we have zero issue regardless of crowd level, park, or attraction. Some are obviously a bit more work, may take 10 minutes or so, but, I cant think of a time in the past year that we have not gone over one day on the weekend and not gotten FPs for whatever we wanted. We have also done it with a larger group and done the split/overlap and that has worked great as well. The later in the day you go, after 4 or so, the more difficult headliners can get, but, with some practice, getting FPs is not a difficult task. Keep in mind, likely on a given day, maybe 20% of the people in the park actually understand ALL of the rules and how to use FP+. Most think you can only get 3, cant move times once you have it or change attractions. Even on busier days, I feel like based on our experience on a day like Christmas Day, since APs Except Platinum are blacked out on holidays and even in the summer for some APs, The mix of the crowd skews even heavier to less percent of people who understand FP+. Im not sure why the results would be so different for some to others, but it obviously is as shown in this very thread.

 

[JackOfAllTrades]

The MDE fastpass system all works off a certain algorithm. So as long as you keep refreshing it will always pop up. Obviously the E ticket attractions will happen much less than the easier to get ones. Once you see a time pop up immediately click it. It does not matter if it’s for 8hrs later because once you have the fast pass it is very easy to modify and find a better time. For example if you use a fastpass for spaceship earth at 9am and then immediately refresh and see a test track for 8pm, reserve it and probably six out of ten times you will be able to modify the time down to within an hour of the current time.