Illuminations and Fast Pass

[Richard Costa]

We have been to Illuminations many times since 88, but not recently. I see now you can Fast Pass it, but what does that mean? Special viewing section?

Thank you.

 

[WEDWDW]

Yes,viewing section is between Disney Traders and Port of Entry.

 

[Alesia]

There are many great locations for seeing Illuminations. Personally, I think it's a huge waste of a fastpass.

 

[CAS239]

You get viewing at the front of world showcase.

I also agree with Alesia on it being a waste of a fast pass. There's so many spots you can watch Illuminations from that a FP is not needed. Then you run the risk of the wind blowing toward the FP area. So all the smoke is heading your way. You can leave the area and go elsewhere, but then you've wasted a whole tier one FP all day.

I'd put it toward Test Track or Soarin and watch Illuminations from many of the other spots

 

[whitney37354]

We did this FP+ on our last trip because we had our mothers with us and wanted them to have a good view & not be crowded. It stormed that night & the show was delayed 45 minutes. We stood in the rain in our ponchos with very few others in the FP+ section & we could lean on the rails. It was okay, but not as nice as the FP+ spot for Wishes in MK.

 

[nilla]

There are many great locations for seeing Illuminations. Personally, I think it's a huge waste of a fastpass.

Not once you pose the question, "what else would you use that FastPass on? Turtle Talk with Crush?"



We got it as a replacement FP in June, and loved the area.

 

[nilla]

I'd put it toward Test Track or Soarin and watch Illuminations from many of the other spots

You get three, and can only pick one out of the two you listed. That leaves two empty slots to fill.

 

[Alesia]

Not once you pose the question, "what else would you use that FastPass on? Turtle Talk with Crush?"



We got it as a replacement FP in June, and loved the area.

You wouldn't have loved it if you would have happened to be downwind that night

Personally, I would much rather use that fastpass on Soarin' or Test Track. If you get the Illuminations fastpass, you can't get either of those.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I agree that there are better spots around the lagoon. Even with FP+, you still need to get to the area early to get a good spot by the railing. I would't waste the FP+ unless you get it later in the day and you want to give the area a try.

 

[nilla]

You wouldn't have loved it if you would have happened to be downwind that night

Personally, I would much rather use that fastpass on Soarin' or Test Track. If you get the Illuminations fastpass, you can't get either of those.

We had Soarin' at 11:30am, missed our next two FPs, then scheduled Illuminations as our fourth in the afternoon. Soarin' and TT were long gone by then.

 

[Alesia]

We had Soarin' at 11:30am, missed our next two FPs, then scheduled Illuminations as our fourth in the afternoon. Soarin' and TT were long gone by then.

Illuminations is a tier 1 fastpass. If you choose it as one of your initial 3 fastpasses, you cannot get a fastpass for Soarin' or Test Track. It's often not available as a 4th fastpass.

I very much recommend against getting an Illuminations fastpass as one of your original 3.

 

[jcarwash]

I was also able to get IllumiNations as a fourth FastPass. I was happy to get it, but I prioritized Soarin' as my original tier 1 FastPass. I obtained the IllumiNations FastPass at around 1:45pm on the day of my visit.

 

[nilla]

Illuminations is a tier 1 fastpass. If you choose it as one of your initial 3 fastpasses, you cannot get a fastpass for Soarin' or Test Track. It's often not available as a 4th fastpass.

But it was available as our 4th FastPass.

I agree that we wouldn't pick it as one our original three, but we were able to get it as our fourth.

 

[CAS239]

You get three, and can only pick one out of the two you listed. That leaves two empty slots to fill.

Yea...

You can only pick one from tier one. Which is why I said I'd rather put that Illuminations FP toward TT or Soarin, or even Living with the Land instead of Illuminations.

Far too many spots to have a great view

 

[nilla]

Yea...

You can only pick one from tier one. Which is why I said I'd rather put that Illuminations FP toward TT or Soarin, or even Living with the Land instead of Illuminations.

Far too many spots to have a great view

I agree, but if you can get it as your 4th, it's not a bad idea, IMO.

 

[drea21]

We are going to try it next week. We don't do TT or Soarin, (DD is afraid of just about every ride) and we check into BC in the afternoon and then will just head to Epcot for dinner/WS/Illuminations that night. We are people to FP It's a Small World, so we definitely aren't the normal FP users, only you know your group the best and what they like, if it make sense for you to skip the line of a more popular ride then like the others have said, plenty of spots for Illuminations.

 

[AKL_Princess]

It was definitely worth it to us, but we added it in the afternoon.

 

[Simba's Girl]

We chose it for one of our days at Epcot. IMO it also depends upon how long your vacation is. We have 3 FP days at EP, so I felt fine with scheduling it.

 

[KT0191]

We chose it because it was seriously the only FP from Tier 1 for us to choose from in September lol. We aren't doing TT or Soarin'. Living with the Land is getting a refurb so we were left with Illuminations. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Robo]

We did this FP+ on our last trip because we had our mothers with us and wanted them to have a good view & not be crowded.

What's getting lost in all of this "There are better uses of a FP" discussion, is that choosing the FP viewing area for IllumiNations can put you among (and/or behind) a larger CROWD than if you just pick another spot on your own.

Nearly ANY spot.