FP+ in practice

[Jfsag123]

So here are specifics. We spent most of our day in Epcot and hopped to MK at about 7pm. We had pre booked FP for Soarin, Nemo, and Turtle Talk for 3:10, 4:10, and 5:10. After using the third fastpass, booked a 4th in EPCOT for Living with the land with a return time of about 10 minutes after it was booked. Did not look for other rides, as we had walked on Test Track and Mission space by doing them at rope drop and have a FP for spaceship earth scheduled for later in the week. Got Mickey bars and left Epcot at about 6:15. Got to MK, took in the atmosphere for a bit, then booked 5th FP for Haunted Mansion with return window again starting 10 minutes after I booked. Rode that, booked 6th FP for Buzz starting 15 minutes later, rode that, then immediately booked 7th for Buzz again because kids wanted to reride. That time the window opened 3 minutes later. Rode that, then walked toward the exit, stopping to meet Tinkerbell on the way. There were literally no families in front of us, met her, then walked happily back to BLT at about 9:30. Lovely day. There were several other rides showing availability at MK, but again, I didn't check specifics because we knew what we wanted to ride and went for that. Someone starting to book additional fastpasses earlier in the day would likely have even more success.

Sorry, I am a little confused. Are you saying that on a crowd level 8 day, you walked on every attraction between rope drop and 3:30 p.m.? That doesn't seem possible, even on a low crowd day.

They didn't walk on every attraction (meaning they didn't do everything in the park) by 3:30.....but every attraction they went on between opening and 3:30 they were able to walk on. Does that make sense?

I get it, because we have done the same. Not, not every attraction you do will be a 'major' one, but there is a lot to see. From rope drop to 11:00 you can walk on mostly good stuff. From 11:00 to 3:00, when not having lunch, you can still walk on a lot of stuff, but some of it may be of the Tiki Room/Philharmagic/Teacups variety.

The second quote exactly. We plan for hitting headliners with rd and FP, and do other stuff in the middle of the day. Worked out to where we didn't really wait for anything. We had the same experience today, this time at DHS.

Did you have to wait very long for the kiosks in the park?

(Have a great rest of your trip)!

The longest kiosk wait was at Philharmagic, which was probably close to 10 minutes. Jungle cruise location had a bit of a wait, but not bad. About 5 minutes. Hardly waited at all at Stitch location and had no wait for the kiosks at Epcot (innoventions west) and DHS (starring roles). Thank you!

You said "across two parks" so can you get FP+ in more than one park now?

Probly used the "loophole"

No loophole - completely on the up and up. But I see others have already clarified.

I read it differently. My take was that the OP was able to walk on pretty much everything using a combination of FP+, finding other attractions that didn't need it, and being at rope drop. And by "everything" I'm guessing that doesn't encompass everything the park has to offer. My biggest question is how anyone can get 7 FP's at multiple parks if the first one didn't occur until 3:30. If I read that correctly, that's 14 FP's, all after 3:30? Or was it meant to say that 7 FP's were used in total between two parks?

Anyway, I'm glad to see that someone was able to use FP+ effectively during a high crowd time. Enjoy!

I meant 7 used in total. I worded it the way I did because I know that some parties split up when's booking their fastpasses. Wanted to note that all of ours were for full parties of 4. Sorry that wasn't clear! And yes, it's definitely high crowd time, as it's spring break, but we're loving every minute of it.

 

[alvernon90]

The second quote exactly. We plan for hitting headliners with rd and FP, and do other stuff in the middle of the day. Worked out to where we didn't really wait for anything. We had the same experience today, this time at DHS.

The second quote was how I meant it, so I guess we did understand each other. I am pleasantly surprised, because it seems the most frequent experience is that even on lower crowd days by early afternoon there aren't any walk-ons, everything has at least a 10 minute wait. It's good to know that proper planning can make that work. I assume that doing afternoon walk-ons means visiting attractions that most repeat visitors skip, like Hall of Presidents. Glad you had a great time.

 

[Jfsag123]

One other note about availability: went to book a 5th FP at DHS (had done Toy Story, Frozen show, and Tower of Terror with first 3, booked 4th for Great Movie ride at 5:10), and, of course Toy Story, RNRC, and ToT were gone, but everything else was showing availability, including Fantasmic. I was really surprised to see fantasmic available for a family of four, as this was at about 7pm, with an 8:30 show time.

 

[smitch425]

One other note about availability: went to book a 5th FP at DHS (had done Toy Story, Frozen show, and Tower of Terror with first 3, booked 4th for Great Movie ride at 5:10), and, of course Toy Story, RNRC, and ToT were gone, but everything else was showing availability, including Fantasmic. I was really surprised to see fantasmic available for a family of four, as this was at about 7pm, with an 8:30 show time.

We got a F! FP on our way to the show last year. We saw an empty kiosk, and thought we would just check. Lol

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

One other note about availability: went to book a 5th FP at DHS (had done Toy Story, Frozen show, and Tower of Terror with first 3, booked 4th for Great Movie ride at 5:10), and, of course Toy Story, RNRC, and ToT were gone, but everything else was showing availability, including Fantasmic. I was really surprised to see fantasmic available for a family of four, as this was at about 7pm, with an 8:30 show time.

This is really an amazing thread. It should be a sticky. I haven't done our trip yet but this is exactly how I see it unfolding. With added benefits like being able to pop into parks late in the day with pre-booked FP+s and ride headliners.

Even this slight negative I quoted above isn't really a change from legacy FP+. there is no way FP- would have been available for those rides under legacy system at that time (post 5pm).

Also, this is exactly want WDW wanted all along: virtual queues, all the time, for every ride. FP- was the precursor until the technology advanced to allow the OPs kind of day; a day with no lines and a lot of contentment.

Edited to add: what about RnR? Did you ride it at all? Another day? SB at RD?

 

[C-CMom]

So here are specifics...

This was very helpful. Thanks for posting. Glad you're enjoying!

 

[Shmily01]

So glad to hear something postitive about FP for once. Gets me excited once again for our trip this fall! Thanks!

 

[lustergirl]

Thanks for sharing such a positive experience!!

 

[Jfsag123]

This is really an amazing thread. It should be a sticky. I haven't done our trip yet but this is exactly how I see it unfolding. With added benefits like being able to pop into parks late in the day with pre-booked FP+s and ride headliners.

Even this slight negative I quoted above isn't really a change from legacy FP+. there is no way FP- would have been available for those rides under legacy system at that time (post 5pm).

Also, this is exactly want WDW wanted all along: virtual queues, all the time, for every ride. FP- was the precursor until the technology advanced to allow the OPs kind of day; a day with no lines and a lot of contentment.

Edited to add: what about RnR? Did you ride it at all? Another day? SB at RD?

We did RNRC with rider swap, as DS is too short to ride. DH rode alone while I took the kids to Characterpalooza, then it was my turn. Did not get to fully utilize RD at DHS because we went for Jedi Training sign-ups. Got the exact show time we wanted, then walked on to Star Tours.

To continue the info, at MK today for RD. Did jungle Cruise, Pirates, Big Thunder, and Splash all within the first hour of park opening. I had a Splash FP scheduled for later in the day, so swapped it out in the app for a Mickey meet FP for after our BOG dinner. Also rode small world, met Woody and Jessie, rode carousel, used FP at Cindy/Rapunzel and Peter Pan, had lunch at Pecos, then watched the noon parade. Back at the resort for a break now before heading back out. Fully intend to keep grabbing fastpasses this evening after Mickey. We were super users before and shall be again

You're welcome to everyone above and thanks for the well wishes!

 

[DISNEYD14]

We had a similar trip in October, for us it really was flawless. Our first day in MK we had 7 FP, and it was only open until 7pm due to MNSSHP
One tip I would recommend is after you book 4th FP at kiosk check your app if applicable, many new rides popped up on app that were not showing available on kiosk

We scored PP, BTMR, SM, POC and JC with this plan.

 

[Jfsag123]

We had a similar trip in October, for us it really was flawless. Our first day in MK we had 7 FP, and it was only open until 7pm due to MNSSHP
One tip I would recommend is after you book 4th FP at kiosk check your app if applicable, many new rides popped up on app that were not showing available on kiosk

We scored PP, BTMR, SM, POC and JC with this plan.

Love it - thanks for the tip!

 

[MainMom]

Thank you for sharing your plan! Have a great rest of your trip.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

What is your average wait time when you do stand by rather than doing FP+?

And they still had FP tickets available for Buzz Lightyear after 6pm on a crowd level 8 day?
Has that ride lost that much interest or do you think this was just luck?

 

[Jfsag123]

What is your average wait time when you do stand by rather than doing FP+?

And they still had FP tickets available for Buzz Lightyear after 6pm on a crowd level 8 day?
Has that ride lost that much interest or do you think this was just luck?

We haven't really waited in any stand by lines. We have been diligent with rope drop everyday and have had great success walking on standby attractions consistently with that. Have been using FP+ for headliners and visiting less popular attractions in the middle of the day, then have been using additional fastpasses in the evenings. Longest SB line so far was actually Gran Fiesta Tour, which we rode at about 7pm tonight - about 7 minutes lol. This morning we did Peter Pan, Pooh, met Ariel, rode Little Mermaid ride, Barnstormer, Dumbo, met Minnie/Daisy/Donald/Goofy, and teacups twice all with no waiting.

And Buzz still seemed popular to me. Had decent standby lines in the evening when we went. Maybe people just aren't using FP for this one as much? Who knows.

 

[grecorj]

Great reporting Jfsag123! Keep it coming!

 

[MrInfinity]

Wow. It's so nice to read about ppl having fun using FP+. We did! It's hard to talk about it out here cuz it always seems like a battle with people insisting it doesn't work that well. You've got me wanting to go back -- Now. I have to wait till December? Ugh.... Enjoy the rest of your trip. Keep posting whatever you feel helpful! I'm gonna follow this one.

 

[Jfsag123]

No new extra fastpass info, as we didn't try for any yesterday, but wanted to share that we decided to add a day to DD and my tickets and head to Animal Kingdom for half a day tomorrow on our departure day. Booked fastpasses for Saturday on Thursday night and was able to get exactly what I wanted (lion king show, Kilimanjaro safari, and dinosaur) for the exact times I wanted (between 10:30am and 1:30pm). Keeping the Disney times rolling as long as possible, as we don't want this trip to end.

 

[shpooey]

Thanks for the detailed responses and the daily updates while you're on vacation! It's great to hear the specifics of what you try to do and what you're able to do, and is helping me to make my own plans.

Hope the last couple days of your trip are great!