How bad is it booking fast pass+ at the 30 day mark?

[marynpaul]

Just questioning how bad is it booking fast pass + at the 30 day window for offsite. I am wondering what experiences and outcomes of booking during that time frame. Any advice will be be appreciated.

 

[capegirl]

I was freaking out about booking at 30 days, but with the exception of Anna & Elsa I was able to get everything we wanted including FP for parades and Wishes. The only problem I ran into was coordinating ADR's that were already in place, with FP times. I did have to move things around a bit, but it did work out.

 

[Planogirl]

We did pretty well when we were there about three weeks ago. I did get them at exactly the 30 day mark.

I booked the dwarfs ride and two of the mountains at MK and Everest, the safari and Dinosaur at AK. Of course A&E was gone and so were the preferred seating areas for the fireworks and parade.

I watched this at the dibb to see what was left. http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=835236 I hope that this is pretty accurate.​

 

[mdb78]

I'm doing this right now since we'll be there may 10-12. The only thing I couldn't get was the frozen meet and greet, which I expected. Easy to grab the other attractions and then modify the times with no problems.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Just questioning how bad is it booking fast pass + at the 30 day window for offsite. I am wondering what experiences and outcomes of booking during that time frame. Any advice will be be appreciated.

It isn't bad at all.

Anna and Elsa have been out for us and Mine train is not always available for our party of 6. That said--I have been able to book it off some afternoons and evenings. Other times it was simply too late. Sometimes it wasn't available at all but that isn't often.

But for the most part--all other attractions were. Some within even a week or a day of us heading over. (Just this week, I switched my test track to Soarin but then yesterday switched it back to Test Track for today. Obviously the spring break rush is over.)

 

[LaurenT]

As others have said, I booked at exactly 30 days. There were even a few late slots for SDMT. Everything else except A&E was available during most times of the day, and this was for Easter week.
I even changed my friend's Wednesday FPs this past Tuesday evening because she decided she wanted to go back to AK with her daughter instead of MK. I got EE, Dino and Kali during the mid morning - it was a bit of a dance to get it and K Safari was completely unavailable, but that was one day ahead in a park that doesn't have a lot of attractions during Easter week ... AND AK was expressly not recommended on EasyWDW!
Hopefully this real time post will get people to stop worrying so much....
ETA - I'm not interested in special areas for wishes or parades ... So I haven't noticed availability on those. I imagine they sell out quickly because it's not ongoing all day. It's a limited space for a one time thing .... But you really don't need it. Frontierland has lots of great spots for parades and if you reall want prime viewing for fireworks (which you can also see from lots of places) you could always do the dessert party.

 

[mombrontrent]

My experience was just like everyone else above us. We are going in three weeks so I have spent the last week or so booking our FP+ everyday. Besides the day I was trying for 7DMT (which I got) I didn't bother getting up at 1am, I just booked in the morning and got everything I wanted at the times I wanted. Only things that were not available were FOF parade and A&E which I wasn't interested in anyways. Even now I am able to move my FP+ around as I "tweak" my schedule with no trouble.For what it's worth we are going May 2-12th so not peak time for sure but by no means low time either.

 

[Greenfield1984]

We are a party of 4 - we got everything we wanted except A&E (of course). Seven Dwarves we got a decent time but it took me going back in and checking many times (at first only 10:00pm was available which doesn't work for my little ones). Also was surprised to find we couldn't get Enchanted Tales in the morning, only late afternoon was available. Otherwise we didn't have trouble getting any of the times we were looking for.

 

[sharona]

If you have a large party, say 6, try splitting up and looking for availability for parties of 2 or 3. You can find overlapping FP windows and still all ride together.

 

[Trinity88]

I just booked them at 27 days and got everything I wanted except mine train (so we'll rope drop that one). I did have to move some of my plan around to accommodate (Toy Story in particular, I wanted earlier in the day, ended up with 7pm). It was just for 2 of us, so that may have helped.

 

[mdb78]

My experience was just like everyone else above us. We are going in three weeks so I have spent the last week or so booking our FP+ everyday. Besides the day I was trying for 7DMT (which I got) I didn't bother getting up at 1am, I just booked in the morning and got everything I wanted at the times I wanted. Only things that were not available were FOF parade and A&E which I wasn't interested in anyways. Even now I am able to move my FP+ around as I "tweak" my schedule with no trouble.For what it's worth we are going May 2-12th so not peak time for sure but by no means low time either.

Same here, didn't get up at 1am either. Around 10am on Fri, booked FP for May 10th for HS. During the afternoon yesterday, booked FP for May 11th for MK.

I even changed my friend's Wednesday FPs this past Tuesday evening because she decided she wanted to go back to AK with her daughter instead of MK. I got EE, Dino and Kali during the mid morning - it was a bit of a dance to get it and K Safari was completely unavailable, but that was one day ahead in a park that doesn't have a lot of attractions during Easter week ... AND AK was expressly not recommended on EasyWDW!
Hopefully this real time post will get people to stop worrying so much....

That's good to hear. I was planning on booking FP for AK for May 12th today, but wasn't allowed since we have the 3 day FL resident pass and we already used one of the days back in Feb, so when we are there next month we have to add on one more day to our passes, then book the FP for the last day (kind of forgot we needed to add that day, LOL).

 

[mombrontrent]

I just booked them at 27 days and got everything I wanted except mine train (so we'll rope drop that one). I did have to move some of my plan around to accommodate (Toy Story in particular, I wanted earlier in the day, ended up with 7pm). It was just for 2 of us, so that may have helped.

Keep checking, this morning I actually found a May 6th Mine Train FP+ for 9:25-10:25 for a party of 5. I did't take it though since I doubt I can get my family there that early.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

In Dec. 2014, I booked FP+ at 26 days and had no issues. Anna/Elsa wasn't available and neither were FP+ for the parades but I generally don't watch those anyways.

I was even able to get 7DMT for one evening.

 

[marynpaul]

Thank you ever so much for the encouragement and tips..

 

[srobinet]

I feel better after reading some of these. Do you think I need to get up at 1:00 a.m. to get Toy Story for 5/18? That would have me booking this Saturday 4/18 correct? We have a 4 day pass with the first day in parks being 5/14/15.

 

[mombrontrent]

I feel better after reading some of these. Do you think I need to get up at 1:00 a.m. to get Toy Story for 5/18? That would have me booking this Saturday 4/18 correct? We have a 4 day pass with the first day in parks being 5/14/15.

You won't have get up at 1am. Just book in the morning and there should be plenty of times available.

 

[debmich]

If you have a large party, say 6, try splitting up and looking for availability for parties of 2 or 3. You can find overlapping FP windows and still all ride together.

When you say you split up your party, exactly what did you do? We have a party of 8 and I have already had to "work" the system to get ADR's. Do you mean that you only select 2 or 3 of your party at a time to obtain fp for and then come back and select another 2 or 3 more etc., etc.,?

 

[sharona]

When you say you split up your party, exactly what did you do? We have a party of 8 and I have already had to "work" the system to get ADR's. Do you mean that you only select 2 or 3 of your party at a time to obtain fp for and then come back and select another 2 or 3 more etc., etc.,?

Yes, that is what I mean. It was just 2 of us but I imagine it would work similarly for larger parties. The 7DMT was only coming up as available after 8pm and we wanted it earlier in the day. I selected all 3 FPs for DD then selected all 3 for me separately. I chose the same attractions and just took whatever times were offered then went back and individually changed the times on each attraction to line them up together or overlap if the same time wasn't available for both of us. We ended up with 11:05am and 11:10am FPs for 7DMT and the others I was able to get the same start times (BTMRR and Space).

 

[jomass]

Being a 30-day “second class” guest who just went through the process, I can give you an honest and fresh perspective. While some of it is subjective, I will mainly stick to the facts. If you are staying off-site, you stand little or no chance of getting certain FP at 30 days out, mainly A&E, FOF parade and Wishes to some degree. You will also be limited to later day FP for 7DMT and to some degree ETWB. And depending on time of year and how busy, you can count on later FP for Soaring, Test Track and Toy Story. I did not run into any issues with Animal Kingdom. Now all of this holds true if you immediately log in at midnight (or 1:00AM depending on park closing that day). If you wait until the next day, your chances for 7DMT dwindle to the point where they will be gone, or at best only have very late times like from 9:00 PM on.
Now for the subjective part, it makes one feel like they are being treated second class for daring to not stay onsite somewhere. Disney is trying to entice (euphemism for strong-arm) you into to paying for one of their properties. Back to facts now, if you don’t stay there, then you really do not fully benefit from the FP system. However it’s advertised as the greatest thing since sliced bread for everybody. If they want to be upfront, then at the very least there should be a footnote stating something along those lines. What Disney should really do is level the playing field by at least reserving some FP for those who can’t reserve until 30 days out. That would be a little easier to take than fighting for scraps.
All is not lost though if you don’t mind constantly scanning their site your Disney Experience home page. A good strategy is to not book all of your FP for the entire group per attraction. So if you get 2 out of the 3 you like, then take the rest of the people and book single FP for different attractions around the same time. Check several times a day for the impossible to get ones with one of your single person FP attractions. You can then change that one FP to the new one should it show up. This greatly increases your odds because you are looking for a “single” slot instead of say 6 (if that’s your party size). This worked for me to get A&E for my daughter and granddaughter. I got 2 at different times but I was then able to later go back and exchange for new times that were at the same time (which was 12:30-1:30 PM, perfect!). I would say that I’ve put in a good 30 hours of combing the sites over the last 3 weeks, but in the end I was able to get just about everything I wanted. The only one that never panned out was earlier 7DMT. All 3 days at MK for me are at like 5:30 pm at the earliest. I have yet to find earlier slots that opened up. That one stinks because it doesn’t work well with the plan to leave the park at like 3:00 for a few hour break. So we are leave earlier, or stay later. Again it’s my little punishment for not staying in the mouse house, oh well.
Finally, you can do stand by with early morning ADR breakfast reservations before the park opens. You can get reservations as early as an hour before. This will get you inside the park early and at the very front of the rope drop lines before they let the masses stampede in. I am doing this twice. It does nothing for FP other than let you use them for other attractions, while you get to see the attractions with long waits before the crowds and lines build. Of course you still face the problem with most ADR’s being booked 180 days out. But again keep checking, people change plans and things open up. That’s how I found them. You can also use third party sites that will scan ADR’s for you for a nominal fee. This is worth it if you really want something that’s hard to get. I got Akershus lunch ADR for my family using this.
So moral of the story is, off-site = second class. But it does not mean you can’t get what you want if you’re willing to put the time in. I find it quite ironic that a vacation, which is supposed to be a decompressing stress relief, requires so much work and induces so much stress in order to just get what you pay for. It’s really crazy when you think about it!
Good luck!

 

[BarbieGal457]

I booked FP+ for this past NYE 8-9 days out, and got Splash, BTMRR, and 7DMT all on the first try and at amazing times! I'm sure people change their plans many times in the last 30 days leading up, and even the day of. That day for out 5th FP we got HM, which was out all day. They announced it was gone just before we got up to the kiosk, and when we did, one was there! Even the CM was shocked but we snapped it up.