Just Back--Critical Planning When Parks Are Packed!

[pumpkinfish]

Maybe I am crazy, but am I the only one who never uses FP? I am thinking this is because of us going in Sept when we really never needed to. I like to be able to just go on a ride. If DH and I ever saw a line we would go to the next ride. Of course, we also believe that "the early bird gets the worm".

We open the park that we REALLY need to do the rides at. Then in the afternoon we head to another park and do the "slower" attractions like shows, or faster-loading rides that hardly get lines. I understand that this is a busier year, but I think my plan will work better for us (or at least I hope so). Maybe it is also since DH and I have seen it all, and like to take it easy a little more. It's nice to be able to say "I feel like riding POTC" after getting off Buzz, and then saying "I feel like riding Peter Pan" after riding POTC. Of course we know that the lines get longer as the day goes on, but we can cover all the rides during theAM and walk around the rest of the day and maybe only ride a few more rides. I am also hoping to take advantage of EMH in the PM as well (for MK). Hopefully the lines won't be terrible.

All I can say is, I CAN"T WAIT!!!

 

[valeriekc]

I have used Fastpasses after the time has expired, many times. You are correct in stating that it is up to the CM. Once we got FP's for Pooh that were about 4+ hours out. What did we do ? Went to Blizzard Beach ! We swam for a few hours and then came back to the parks , cool and refreshed. We arrived just after the hour window, and the CM was nice enough to let us ride.

BTW , I can tell you from experience that the CM's look at the times on the FP's, but not the dates. I have used FPs from previous trips that were months old. The times are printed in LARGE letters, the dates in small. Keep those old fastpasses.

We were behind a family that had fastpasses from several days before on SM and they were turned away. The CM said "you are not only a couple of hours late but 3 days past"! How embarrassed the family was, in fact they didn't even go to the stand-by line after that humiliating ordeal.
And rightfully so, if everyone abused the system like Scott is suggesting and this family (unsuccessfully) attempted fastpass would not be worth the paper its' printed on.
This is not the 1st time I have seen scammers turned away from CM's that are paying attention and doing their job. The system is not designed to work in that fashion.

 

[mybgirl]

Actually it's two hours, not two hours and 5 minutes. Even though the FP states that you have to wait for 5 minutes after the present FP becomes active (unless a sooner time is printed on the FP ) I have always found that you could get a new FP as soon as the FP return time on the FP was active. I did this numerous times on our last trip (last Christmas). This matches what the FP system has always done, and not what the present FP states.

HI just my ds and I in JUNE


Will try your info .

thank you



good luck to all

MARY AND DS

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

Better than dealing with all this -- just get to the parks early!!

We had all of this FP strategy in our heads because we were going during Easter/Spring Break, and you know what?? For our entire trip, we only used 3 FPs, and no more than 1 in the same park (Test Track at Epcot, Buzz at MK, Kali's River Rapids at AK).

We got to the parks about 45 after opening (had a nice breakfast at the hotel and was at MK at 7:45, AK at 8:45, etc) and rode tons before it got crowded. Everything was walk-on or 10 min. max. wait.

We were newbies and surprised by how well this worked out. Believe me, we were up the whole FP-challenge, but this was way better . . . at least for us.