Feeling stressed at 132 days out... Fastpass!

[BusySpeechMom]

Ugh. I am trying to keep my eye on the prize.... We get to go to WDW this summer!
Our last trip was in 2013. At that time they were experimenting with the MagicBands and Fastpass wasn't the thing it is now. I was just looking at the FAQ on the Fastpass section of this forum and suddenly felt overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated and sad. Will our trip this summer be completely different from previous years in regards to riding rides, etc.? We used Fastpass but we also jumped on rides spontaneously with maybe a 20 minute wait. For example, ToT and Space Mountain. We would sometimes ride several times in a row in the evenings. Are we in for a whole new "world" in July?

 

[Accident]

Are we in for a whole new "world" in July?

2013 vs now, not really. Crowds are larger, some rides can see multiple hours of waiting for a line the entire day. Many things at some point in the day will go to almost walk on status but it's those couple that don't which are newer, more technically advanced or more thrilling that you have to pick and choose if it's important to your family to wait if you didn't get a fastpass.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

basically what I can tell you is plan your day according to crowds...usually rope drop is your friend! You can get a lot of stuff in between rope drop and like 11-11:30ish. So I would do that and then while planning your FPs I would plan them for the afternoon after lunch when the parks are more crowded. You just need to plan your park days a little more smart than back in 2013

 

[pa. dad]

Depends if you want to get up early, use your 3 fastpasses that you can pre book and what days you go in July.
The crowds do go up a little each year and over the course of many years, it does add up then. One thing I noticed on my recent trip- everybody seems to have the phone apps with the current wait times now. So if something is posting a lesser wait everybody then flock to those attractions and bring the wait times up then. When you had to walk to find a board with the wait times, it was a lot less known by everyone what the wait times were. This does make it a little harder IMO.

 

[BusySpeechMom]

We are going the last week in July (Tuesday-Sunday). We have a split stay - Pop and Polynesian. I have already made our schedule based on morning EMH. We will be at each park as early as possible. With that in mind, should we hold off on scheduling Fastpasses in the morning and keeping them for the afternoon/evening? We plan to go back to the resort early afternoon to rest and then return to a park.

 

[mesaboy2]

We are going the last week in July (Tuesday-Sunday). We have a split stay - Pop and Polynesian. I have already made our schedule based on morning EMH. We will be at each park as early as possible. With that in mind, should we hold off on scheduling Fastpasses in the morning and keeping them for the afternoon/evening? We plan to go back to the resort early afternoon to rest and then return to a park.

Common FP strategies are addressed here.

 

[KittyKitty]

This is my approach. Before 60 days, I decide what rides or parades I want to do, you can have 3, and about when I want to ride them, considering any restaurant reservations, time I want to arrive at the park.

Get up on the 60 day prior mark and put in your requests on MDE. You must have your park tickets on MDE. MDE will give you options of times for all of you choices. Pick the one that gives you the time you want on your 1st choice ride. Repeat for each day. You should be able to reserve all days.

Now go back to the FP+ you have and start rearranging them to your preference. Remember if you want to change BTM from 5pm to 1p,but already have a FP+ for 1pm, MDE won't show you availability at 1pm for BTM. I just put the least favorite FP+'s way late(or early) so there is not conflict on time.

If you have your park tickets on MDE, you could practice picking FP+'s and see how it works. I can see them for the next week or so of today's date. You can always cancel them.

Clear as mud??! Just in case, MDE-My Disney Experience, BTM- Big Thunder Mtn.( my favorite) FP+ fast pass plus.

Have Fun!

 

[Sevey13]

I would schedule my three fastpasses for as early as possible, that way in the afternoon you can keep making more fastpasses. You are limited to three in one park initially, but after you use those three you can go crazy and make as many more FP+ reservations as you want (one at a time) at any park you want. People who tell you Park Hopping is harder now are, in my experience, just resistant to change and want to find things wrong with the system. In actuality, on my last trip, having the FP+ system was great.

Example: In the MK, we had used two of our three Fastpasses. My travel companion and I were relaxing in the rocking chairs at Aunt Polly's during a light rain after an already lengthy morning enjoying the parks. While she snoozed, I took a look at the My Disney Experience app and made a dinner reservation. A few minutes later we hopped on the train in Frontierland and I realized that our third Fastpass (for pirates or something, don't remember) was in the other direction. So I jumped on the app and with a few taps had switched the third fastpass over to a window starting in about 10 minutes from the time I made the change to Space Mountain, which was much more convenient. Not possible under the paper system, plus I was sitting on the train doing it rather than having to run across the park and hope that there actually were fastpasses (according to Disney's research, the average family crossed the park about 18 times pre-FP+).

The thing to remember, though, is that you are going in July. It doesn't matter if it's 2016 or 2012, July is a busy time. Manage your expectations and realize it really isn't Disney's fault that it is a heavy time (and I am not blaming you, either, it's just a reality).

 

[DisneyWisher]

There is a big difference from July 2013 to now....whoever got FPs for Big Movie Ride, Small World, Mickey's Philharmagic, well they do now. Must do FPs go first parades, Wishes (now too crowded imo), Ana and Elsa and 7Dwarfs, at Epcot there are Tiers you get 1 tier 1 option illuminations, Test Track, Soarin', Mission Space and 2 tier 2...same with DHS Tier 1 is Fantasmic, Toy Story, RockNRoller Coaster. Animal Kingdom like Magic Kingdom aren't tiered.
The most popular FPs are Ana and Elsa, 7Dwarfs, Peter Pan, parades and Wishes At Hollywood Studios its Toy Story...for Ana and Elsa and 7Dwarfs ill break my party up and get overlapping times. Example A's FP 11:00-12:00, B's 11:15-12:15, C 11:20-12:20 and D 11:45-12:45...our window is 11:45-12:00...I suggest when making the FPs use a Tablet ot Computer so much easier when you want to move things around. Supposedly next month Disney will start letting you book your "add a fp" ( after you've used your 3 you can start adding 1 fp at a time, after you use 4th book 5th, after used 5th book 6th...well you have to do that from a kiosk, supposedly next month it can be done on a smart phone (thats the rumor anyway) hopefully its true

 

[snayak]

Everybody has their own perspectives and tips for scheduling FP+

Here is what I considered important when planning mine:

1. Group size & ages
2. Time of year / crowd level
3. Touring Style (RD or all day w/ afternoon break or evening only etc)
4. Desired attractions

We were a party of 2 adults, going late October, who didn't mind waking up early.

So we RD'd every day and I booked FP+ for the late morning/early afternoon for the items with the longest lines. It was never super crowded so we didn't wait more the 30m in standby (or we just skipped the attraction). I had zero luck with 4th+ FP - the return times were all later than we wanted to stay at the park (2-4 hours from the time we went to the kiosk). I did pull one for the late showing of Fantasmic but that wasn't full anyway...

I'm a planner, so I knew mostly what we were going to do ahead of time, so booking FP+ only took about 5 minutes and then I went back to sleep.

If you are touring with a larger group, getting blocks of FP can be a challenge, but can be overcome with some persistence. Remember that the times don't have to be exactly the same, just the return Windows have to overlap.

Good luck & have fun!