How early do you book your first MK FP after rope drop?

[bnhonest]

We do our FP for 9:00/10:00/11:00 or there abouts close to it. Yes, we RD and try to hit a top tier at RD, then standby two or three rides that you don't need a FP for, then hit our 9:00 FP closer to 10:00. By 10:00, you are going to start seeing some lines, even if they haven't built fully yet. But we don't wait in lines at all. I think the longest wait we had our last trip (first week of May, crowd level 7) was maybe 10 minutes on Small World. That was it. Everything else was a nearly a walk on in the first hour or we had a FP.

 

[DisneyFive]

10:30 or so, and use that first one towards the end of the time window, then do the next FP at about 11:30

Dan

 

[wdwrule]

Or do you find the day goes better if you book at 9:00 for the first one, and the next two as soon as you can - so you can move on to #4 and beyond as quickly as possible?

This is exactly what we did last week and for us (4 in the party) it worked perfectly!!!! We had so many additional awesome ones after our first 3 scheduled ones. One day we even hopped to all 4 parks and rode many Tier 1 rides in each of the parks. You have to play around with the times on the app but so worth it!!

 

[LucyBC80]

I usually book my first FP+ for 11am and space it out till 2pm for all parks except EPCOT where I start at 9:30am with whichever ride I'm not riding first thing in the morning; ie; if I'm doing Soarin' first then I book a FP for Test Track and vice-versa. FEA will not change our style of touring since it's not a ride I plan on repeating much.

 

[kbmartin]

This is usually our rope drop plan at MK:

• Peter Pan's flight (no Fastpass)
• We judge it from there. Sometimes we run over to Jungle Cruise if it doesn't seem that busy yet.
• BTMR (no Fastpass - we ride as many times as we can!)
• BTMR with Fastpass (9:00-10:00) - We wait until it's just about 10 am or a little after
• Splash Mountain with Fastpass (10:00-11:00) - we ride directly after BTMR
• Pirates of the Caribbean (no Fastpass)
• Haunted Mansion (no Fastpass)
• At least one Fantasyland ride - oftentimes it ends up being the Teacups - OR meet Gaston
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with Fastpass (11:00-12:00)
• Our 4th is always Space Mountain
• At this point, it starts getting busy, but we've used all of our Fastpasses, so we can continue to get more and more!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We do RD, midday break by the pool and then PM park with FP+ starting around 5 pm. We go in August so getting out of the heat is important to us and my kids LOVE pool time as much as the parks.

We've never waited more than 20 minutes for a ride and ride the headliners multiple times a trip. This strategy works for us.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

This is usually our rope drop plan at MK:

• Peter Pan's flight (no Fastpass)
• We judge it from there. Sometimes we run over to Jungle Cruise if it doesn't seem that busy yet.
• BTMR (no Fastpass - we ride as many times as we can!)
• BTMR with Fastpass (9:00-10:00) - We wait until it's just about 10 am or a little after
• Splash Mountain with Fastpass (10:00-11:00) - we ride directly after BTMR
• Pirates of the Caribbean (no Fastpass)
• Haunted Mansion (no Fastpass)
• At least one Fantasyland ride - oftentimes it ends up being the Teacups - OR meet Gaston
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with Fastpass (11:00-12:00)
• Our 4th is always Space Mountain
• At this point, it starts getting busy, but we've used all of our Fastpasses, so we can continue to get more and more!

We use almost the exact same strategy. With the only exception being, we head right to BTMR and Splash at rope drop and ride both as many times as we can until the crowds start to show up.

We try to schedule some of our FPs late morning in Fantasyland and the other FPs in Adventurland shortly after that. Sometimes we'll split them up between different members of our group, other times we'll all ride together. With DD being almost 10 years old we have decided she should have a say when it comes to our FP strategy. Often times we will let her choose FPs on one of our MK days for our entire group. She's gotten pretty good at navigating her way through the MDE app. On the other hand, sometimes she changes her mind at the 11th hour and suddenly remembers she hasn't met Tiana yet this trip and we find ourselves scrambling to change FPs the same day. If we're lucky, she will notifiy us the night before as this gives us better availability to make changes to our FPs.

We usually save Tomorrowland for the evening hours. The neon lights makes it that much more appealing to us at night. By this time there's usually no Space Mountain FPs left and if we didn't have one prebooked we will have gotten FPs for the other attractions in Tomorrowland and just ride those.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

I totally misunderstood the new rule regrading fp so my family is legally allowed to book a 4 fp once we use the 1st 3

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

I totally misunderstood the new rule regrading fp so my family is legally allowed to book a 4 fp once we use the 1st 3

Yes that is correct. After you use the first 3 you can book 4th, 5th, etc. but they have to be one at a time.

Like this:

1. use first 3
2. book 4th
3. ride 4th
4. book 5th
5. ride 5th
6. etc.

Have a great trip @tinkerbellandeeyor!

 

[IndyJammer]

Yes that is correct. After you SCAN the first 3 you can book 4th, 5th, etc. but they have to be one at a time.
Like this:
1. use first 3
2. book 4th
3. SCAN MB at 4th
4. book 5th
5. SCAN MB at 5th
6. etc.

Have a great trip @tinkerbellandeeyor!

Fixed that for you Po4!

 

[Davey Jones II]

This is exactly what we did last week and for us (4 in the party) it worked perfectly!!!! We had so many additional awesome ones after our first 3 scheduled ones. One day we even hopped to all 4 parks and rode many Tier 1 rides in each of the parks. You have to play around with the times on the app but so worth it!!

So your additional FPs (after your first three) can be at your second park of the day? I wasn't aware of that. Is that a new rule? We've only had one trip so far with FP+.

 

[cavepig]

Depends on the park & time of day but for MK, ST or AK morning I usually do a 10, 11, 12.
For EPCOT morning though they'll be more spaced out, so some ride at 10:00, but then Frozen at like 2:00 to hit it as we go around World Showcase & then the 3rd one at 3:00 to use before we leave.

 

[Luisfba]

This is usually our rope drop plan at MK:

• Peter Pan's flight (no Fastpass)
• We judge it from there. Sometimes we run over to Jungle Cruise if it doesn't seem that busy yet.
• BTMR (no Fastpass - we ride as many times as we can!)
• BTMR with Fastpass (9:00-10:00) - We wait until it's just about 10 am or a little after
• Splash Mountain with Fastpass (10:00-11:00) - we ride directly after BTMR
• Pirates of the Caribbean (no Fastpass)
• Haunted Mansion (no Fastpass)
• At least one Fantasyland ride - oftentimes it ends up being the Teacups - OR meet Gaston
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with Fastpass (11:00-12:00)
• Our 4th is always Space Mountain
• At this point, it starts getting busy, but we've used all of our Fastpasses, so we can continue to get more and more!

So you are always able to get Space as a 4th around noon (after 7D)? Or is it 7D, lunch, Space?

 

[marx]

So your additional FPs (after your first three) can be at your second park of the day? I wasn't aware of that. Is that a new rule? We've only had one trip so far with FP+.

Yes, after the first 3, additional Fastpasses can be any park any tier

 

[wdwrule]

So your additional FPs (after your first three) can be at your second park of the day? I wasn't aware of that. Is that a new rule? We've only had one trip so far with FP+.

Yes, for example you could schedule a Fp for Epcot awhile still physically being in Magic Kingdom (after your 3 MK Fp's are used up). Once your Epcot Fp is used, you can schedule another one there or for a different park.

 

[kbmartin]

So you are always able to get Space as a 4th around noon (after 7D)? Or is it 7D, lunch, Space?

I have never had an issue getting a FP for Space immediately after 7D. Maybe in case someone is wondering, we have been going to WDW for the past three years at almost the exact same time. Usually this is around August 15th or just a bit later - right before I have to report back for school for teacher work days (sometimes we come back the night before). I wouldn't call it a super busy time, but I wouldn't say it's dead at that time, either. Because of the heat/humidity, we would usually take a break after our 4th FP, head back to the resort for a nap or to swim, and come back around 5-5:30. There are always FPs available all the way until park close (although at the very end there aren't many good ones), and that's just how we roll. We like doing FPs for just about everything. At night, we've gotten FPs for things like Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, meeting talking Mickey, etc. I swear I've gotten Space Mountain late, too.

 

[Ava]

I have never had an issue getting a FP for Space immediately after 7D. Maybe in case someone is wondering, we have been going to WDW for the past three years at almost the exact same time. Usually this is around August 15th or just a bit later - right before I have to report back for school for teacher work days (sometimes we come back the night before). I wouldn't call it a super busy time, but I wouldn't say it's dead at that time, either. Because of the heat/humidity, we would usually take a break after our 4th FP, head back to the resort for a nap or to swim, and come back around 5-5:30. There are always FPs available all the way until park close (although at the very end there aren't many good ones), and that's just how we roll. We like doing FPs for just about everything. At night, we've gotten FPs for things like Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, meeting talking Mickey, etc. I swear I've gotten Space Mountain late, too.

We also travel in late August and have been able to get some good FPs at MK in the evening. Last trip we decided at the last minute to go to MK after we saw the early show of HDDR. (We'd ended up not going to a park on arrival day so we had an extra day on our tickets.) We were able to get FPs for BTMRR, HM, and one other that I can't remember on the boat on our way to the park at around 6:30pm.

 

[Buddy Lightyear]

Thank you to everyone sharing their thoughts here on this thread. I'm finding all the suggestions very helpful! I'm in the beginning stages of planning a trip for next year and I am quickly starting to realize that it can be a complicated process. Looking forward to reading more suggestions!

 

[jsmla]

If you want quantity over "quality" and are focused on MK, I would pre-book one single FP at 9:30 for a hard to get FP attraction (e.g., 7DMT, PP). My plan would be to "rope drop" 1-2 rides, then use your single FP. Then start adding whatever is available one at a time (as soon as you tap into the next ride, get the next FP focusing on whatever is close and soonest). In the morning in MK, you could easily go through 6+ FPs this way by 1pm.

I'm very interested in trying this! I didn't realize you could prebook only one FP. Just to make sure-would this work?

60 days out:
Prebook 7DMT for 9:00 AM(ish)

Day of:
Rope Drop
Ride Peter Pan (I enjoy the standby queue)
Ride 7DMT using FP
Book FP for Buzz Lightyear
Ride Buzz standby and with FP
Book FP for an attraction with availability within the next hour
Ride FP attraction (fill in time with less popular shows and rides in same land)
Continue as long as practical

I'll be solo and know from experience that SDFPs are for the non super headliner attractions are usually fairly easy to get in September. With this method I don't need to wait an hour between FPs, right?

Thanks!

 

[IndyJammer]

I'm very interested in trying this! I didn't realize you could prebook only one FP. Just to make sure-would this work?

60 days out:
Prebook 7DMT for 9:00 AM(ish)

Day of:
Rope Drop
Ride Peter Pan (I enjoy the standby queue)
Ride 7DMT using FP
Book FP for Buzz Lightyear
Ride Buzz standby and with FP
Book FP for an attraction with availability within the next hour
Ride FP attraction (fill in time with less popular shows and rides in same land)
Continue as long as practical

I'll be solo and know from experience that SDFPs are for the non super headliner attractions are usually fairly easy to get in September. With this method I don't need to wait an hour between FPs, right?

Thanks!

I would go ahead and make Buzz for 10:00 - then as soon as I scan my mb at 7D, I'd 'modify' my Buzz to as early as possible. (And you could even make a 3rd for 11:00 and just modify it after you modified your 2nd FP)