FPP - how to use?

[catherinen]

We are taking our second trip back to WDW this August. Our party is me and DH and DDs 8 and 14. 2 nights at Royal Pacific Universal followed by 15 at OKW, with DDP. Our 180 window is nearly here so am thinking about ADRs.

But now there's FPPs to add to the building blocks of our plan too! I am struggling trying to think what kind of time of day we should be using our FPPs to get best value in terms of saving time in lines. We are rope drop people and last time we usually stayed at the parks till after lunch, then went back to the pool and either stayed there or went out again.

Do you think we should schedule FPPs for either side of lunch? We hope to have got lots done by being there for rope drop, and I'm expecting that we won't need to use any FPs before about 11.

For those who have used FPPs, what would you do? Any advice gratefully received!

 

[Tony Bush]

Was thinking the same for our trip in October. I've been reading the 'cheat sheets' on Easywdw.com . They are very good, and Josh has just started putting in the plan using fast pass plus..

Tony

 

[catherinen]

Thanks Tony. I hadn't seen these cheat sheets before - they're brilliant. I love the maps. As we were last in WDW in 2012 we will definitely need to refer to maps and these are so much better than Disney's own for actually getting around.

 

[zippy99]

I like the idea (suggested by fans of FastPass+) to head to a park early do rope drop and attractions in standby and then save your fast passes for later in the day when it is busier or if you park hop for your second park

 

[wilma-bride]

We are going in seven weeks and, although we were there in October, this is the first time we have used FP+

Our strategy has been as follows:

On days we plan to do only one park, we have booked FP+ for 'secondary' attractions (i.e. attractions we like but wouldn't be our first choice) plus one 'headliner' (Expedition Everest at AK, Soarin' or Test Track at Epcot, Toy Story Mania at DHS and Space Mountain or Big Thunder at MK) for late morning/early afternoon (if you have a TS booked for breakfast/lunch/dinner it will automatically avoid these times)

On days we plan to 'hop' we have booked our FP+ at the second planned park for mid/late afternoon.

On one day, we plan to do all four parks in one day and have booked our FP+ for our third park, which we're hoping to hit mid afternoon.

On days when we plan to hit the parks at rope drop, we will use standby for our favourites/must do's and then use FP+ to ride favourites (headliners) again and do some of the secondary attractions.

I must admit, I found it quite daunting at first but, once I got into it, I actually quite enjoyed moving things around and trying to get the perfect combination to suit our day.

Oh, and we have also booked FP+ for arrival day (late evening) and days we don't actually plan to be in the park (again, late evening) so, if we fancy popping into, say, Epcot on our first night for something to eat, we can also do a couple of rides if we want If we are too tired or decide not to go, we will just cancel (similar to cancelling an ADR - except with no credit card charge ).

 

[catherinen]

Thanks Wilma. We're one park per day people, so think we'll do FPPs late morning/after lunch as you suggest. I'd also wondered about days we don't plan on being at the parks, eg days at Busch. I'll probably book FPPs anyway and cancel.