Help with new fastpass please!

[XAVIER]

Hi all.
We will be back at WDW in late July and although I think I understand the new fastpass system I do have some concerns about it.

We usually get park hoppers and jump between parks halfway through the day. But this does not seem practical anymore given that you can only get FP's in one.

Also it appears that by doing this system they are pre-loading the most popular rides with everyone booking them up as soon as they get in the park or even before hand.

We are only really interested in the new Dwarfs mine ride at MK and Soaring over at Epcot and would be very disappointed if we travelled down from Universal where we are staying only to find that these were fully booked up for the day.
Can this happen before lunch? And is there anyway of knowing before you get a ticket at the gate? As this may influence us in changing to a hopper ticket instead.

 

[VWL2001]

Can this happen before lunch? And is there anyway of knowing before you get a ticket at the gate? As this may influence us in changing to a hopper ticket instead.

Yes, it can, and probably will. Chances are it will happen before the park actually opens, because of prebooking the fastpasses. And you can only prebook for one park. So if you park hop, you will end up going standby for the high demand rides.

Getting a MDE account and loading the phone app will help, and you may be able to see what fastpass and wait times are before you purchase your ticket.

I would suggest prebooking a fastpass for the attraction you want to see in the afternoon (perhaps the 7DMT). Be at Epcot at rope drop and go directly to the ride you want to do there, before the lines grow to 2 hours on Soarin'. Then in the afternoon, you can use your MK fastpass that is prebooked, because there will be no FP+ left by then and the lines will be horrendous.

 

[XAVIER]

Sorry what's an MDE account?

If we were to get to any of the parks before say, 10:30ish would the main rides still be available on fastpass or is it still risky?

 

[goeva]

My Disney Experience Account.
You can download the app and track all the activities on your phone.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

We arrived home Sunday night and on the Wednesday before we were in line right after rope drop behind a family that I heard talking about how they were unable to get a fastpass plus for the mine train the whole week they were there. Depending on the size of your party and travelling in July, you may be running out of time to get a fastpass plus for the mine train. I would say the chance of arriving at Magic Kingdom at 10:30 in July and getting a fastpass plus for the mine train very very slim! Soarin' might be a bit easier but even that one I think would not have great chances if you have a larger group if arriving at the park at 10:30. I would say that I can't see hitting both parks on the same day and getting a fastpass plus for both of these rides.

On another note, we did both of these rides right at park closing and got on very quickly. Soarin' had a 15 minute wait and we walked right on at 8:55. The mine train said it had a 65 minute wait 20 minutes before closing. We got in line and waited about 25 minutes.