FPs: Should we start morning or afternoon

[Mango7100]

Our family of 3 (DD5) will be at the parks starting 3/17 for the whole week. I know it’s going to be busy with spring break. What strategy do you think is best to minimize wait times at MK- 1: book fast passes starting in late morning so you can use them up earlier and can grab more for afternoon/evening or 2: ride without FP from RD until 12 and have FPS start in afternoon when crowds are at peak, then hope some FP are left for the night? Currently we have PP from 2-3, BTM from 3-4 (will watch parade in Frontierland before using that FP), and Jungle Cruise from 4-5. Thank you!

 

[Disneylover99]

If you’re going early in the day, get your fp’s early in the day too, then you can try to get more as soon as you use up your 3 fp’s.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I rope drop, take advantage of short lines til about 11 when I usually have my first FP. Then I have the other two in succession so I can then get my extras.

 

[Peppeperoni]

^^^ this. I always do mine early so I can maximize how many I can get throughout the day!

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

If you are going next week and don’t have your Fastpasses yet, you may not have a lot of choice, either way. We scheduled ours starting mid morning so we can sleep in if we want because we like to stay until close. So most of ours are between 10:30-2:30 and we hope to get more as the day progresses.

 

[Klayfish]

You'll find varying opinions on this. We don't rope drop, so it's a non-factor for us. However, we show up around roughly 10am. We see no reason to "save" FP+ for later. We start using them as soon as we step foot in the park and don't stop until we leave.

 

[Mango7100]

Thank you, I’m thinking of moving the Jungle Cruise one then, but BTM and PP are already gone until later in the day anyway for that day. I am hoping there will still be a decent selection for the evening, but I’m worried alot of same day FP will be gone with the crowd level

 

[mi*vida*loca]

It depends on the day. If it's a RD, midday break and PM park day we do our FP+ at our PM park. If we are starting later we start that for as soon as we arrive. We mix up our days. Out of 10 days we only RD 4 days and RD for us is arriving 5-10 minutes before park opening.

We went during Jersey Week and had no problem getting additional FP+ for two people. We got 7DMT, BTMRR, Soarin and many other headliners popped up frequently.

 

[DisDreaming4116]

Thank you, I’m thinking of moving the Jungle Cruise one then, but BTM and PP are already gone until later in the day anyway for that day. I am hoping there will still be a decent selection for the evening, but I’m worried alot of same day FP will be gone with the crowd level

One of the biggest issues I hear in the parks is when people pull up the app it says, "No more FP+ available today for this attraction" and they stop trying. All that means is there are no available FP+ available for that attraction at that exact second. Try again and there could be 4 times available.

 

[chris benton]

We are rope droppers.
I like my first fp window to be 1/2 or 1 hr after open time, and I'll tap into it just before it closes. Depending on what we have planned or crowd conditions, I'll try to move the next Fp window to an earlier time, or let it roll. Same with the 3rd. I like to schedule the low demand / low wait stuff or shows in the afternoon when more ppl are around, that way, I can jump on fastpasses for headliners when they pop up, and not be to worried about missing something else that I had planned to be doing.

 

[karpy111]

We are rope droppers.
I like my first fp window to be 1/2 or 1 hr after open time, and I'll tap into it just before it closes. Depending on what we have planned or crowd conditions, I'll try to move the next Fp window to an earlier time, or let it roll. Same with the 3rd. I like to schedule the low demand / low wait stuff or shows in the afternoon when more ppl are around, that way, I can jump on fastpasses for headliners when they pop up, and not be to worried about missing something else that I had planned to be doing.

Let me understand this. So lets say you have a fastpass for 10 for mine train and dumbo for 11. once you tap in at mine train you can move the dumbo up to say 10:15 to get the fastpasses out of the way??

 

[OB1]

MK offers more opportunity to book good attractions after you use your first 3. The other parks are a little tougher, but still possible. We normally are early for MK, and may spread out in the other parks. If you do rope drop then you can catch a few headliners, then FP other headliners at EPCOT, HS, and AK.
Just a little more - we often hop, so we use our FP at the park we will hop to.

 

[chris benton]

Let me understand this. So lets say you have a fastpass for 10 for mine train and dumbo for 11. once you tap in at mine train you can move the dumbo up to say 10:15 to get the fastpasses out of the way??

An earlier time slot has to be available for you to grab, but YEEEEESSSSSS!
And just in case, you can also do it for that 10am fp for Mine Train. If there's a fp at 9:30 available for you to grab, and it makes sense for you to move it to an earlier time because you are ahead of schedule, then you can modify it to that earlier time slot. Then, you can immediately move your subsequent fp's to an earlier time slot because they won't be overlapping any more.

 

[karpy111]

An earlier time slot has to be available for you to grab, but YEEEEESSSSSS!
And just in case, you can also do it for that 10am fp for Mine Train. If there's a fp at 9:30 available for you to grab, and it makes sense for you to move it to an earlier time because you are ahead of schedule, then you can modify it to that earlier time slot. Then, you can immediately move your subsequent fp's to an earlier time slot because they won't be overlapping any more.

BRILLIANT. THANKS!!!!

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Was just there March 7-11. It was crowded, very long lines. No FP were available at any park after 7 pm when I was there. App said “fast passes have concluded for the day.”

 

[b5sgqueen]

Week of March 1st. I actually began moving my FP earlier in the day because stuff was getting so crowded. I vote for scheduling the first one at about an hour after open.

 

[MousetersInc]

An earlier time slot has to be available for you to grab, but YEEEEESSSSSS!
And just in case, you can also do it for that 10am fp for Mine Train. If there's a fp at 9:30 available for you to grab, and it makes sense for you to move it to an earlier time because you are ahead of schedule, then you can modify it to that earlier time slot. Then, you can immediately move your subsequent fp's to an earlier time slot because they won't be overlapping any more.

You can also "leapfrog" your 3rd FP into the second slot—e.g. you had a 10:00 Mine Train, a 11:15 Big Thunder Mtn, and 12:15 Splash Mtn. You can get off the mine train at 10:10 and modify the Splash Mtn to 10:15, keeping Big Thunder at 11:15. That's why—when I have a choice about it and don't have to just take what I can get—I like to leave ca 15 minutes between #1 and #2.

 

[gharter]

If you are doing RD (assume 9 am opening), I would schedule the first Fp around 10:30. That gives you time to enjoy shorter lines, usually, for the first 90 minutes or so. Then when the crowds start to pick up, your FPs start. Be sure to refresh and try and move up FPs as you can.

 

[eeudj]

Our family of 3 (DD5) will be at the parks starting 3/17 for the whole week. I know it’s going to be busy with spring break. What strategy do you think is best to minimize wait times at MK- 1: book fast passes starting in late morning so you can use them up earlier and can grab more for afternoon/evening or 2: ride without FP from RD until 12 and have FPS start in afternoon when crowds are at peak, then hope some FP are left for the night? Currently we have PP from 2-3, BTM from 3-4 (will watch parade in Frontierland before using that FP), and Jungle Cruise from 4-5. Thank you!

Not sure if you are interested but I joined touringplans.com.. so worth it! They have hundreds of plans to help you organize your day and incorporated in the plans are suggestions for Fast passes and what times to get them. You may want to check it out.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We do three parks in a day so we only go once during s 2 week stay. Always start at AK when it opens early for guests. This week we got in in avatar line as soon as park opened. Had about 30 min wait. Then went to Navi river and had another short wait. Went over to the safari which was just opening and walked on. Had a 30 min wait for Everest. Saw the bird show and lion king. Then headed over to Hollywood for a 115 fast pass for roller coaster and 230 FP for toy story mania. Left there and headed to Epcot where we had a late pm FP for soarin and did single rider for test track. Saw a couple shows and a late dinner at the Hacienda where we watched the Epcot fireworks. Great very efficient day. In the past we have been lucky to combine an early AK with a late Epcot so we also managed to fit in frozen at the very end of the night in Epcot.