Magic Kingdom Fastpass help!!

[Wdw1015]

My FP day is coming up on Friday and this is the first time I've done it with getting additional FP's throughout the day. I'm kinda stressing out with the best strategy for Magic Kingdom. We are going to be in Magic Kingdom on June 14th and the morning/early afternoon of our departure day, June 16th (so obviously not an issue this day). Do I:

1. Book FP for the morning hours but that goes against everything I've done before. Prior advise was to take advantage of low crowds in the morning (we are rope drop people) and schedule FP for the afternoon. But that lessons your chance of obtaining additional FP's.

2. Book them for 9-10, 10-11, 11-12 for example and hope that there are additional ones to grab as the day goes on. My concern is that not knowing how busy it will be, I hate to waste the morning time on fastpasses and then be stuck with long lines in the afternoon. One example is Haunted Mansion. I don't necessarily want to use one of my first 3 FP on it. But I also don't want to not be able to get to it until the afternoon and be stuck in an hour long line??

 

[JETSDAD]

Haunted Mansion I find an easy ride to get as an additional FP. Enjoy the first hour of park time hitting rides with little wait and then use the first FP towards the end of it's time. Then use the 2nd FP at the beginning of it's time (at this point I'm also moving my 3rd up to an earlier time). You get the benefit of the low time but also use FP's. Then just keep adding more. Just know that it may take a bit of refreshing and the larger the group the more work it will take. The other parks I push to use them all quickly in order to open up more tier 1 rides asap but MK is different, so long as waits aren't building quickly.

 

[Christinecinti]

We always start our fast passes late morning or even early afternoon (depending on how long we're planning to be there). We've found if we rope drop we can get a lot of rides done that first couple hours. I've debated the same thing you are many times... should we do them a bit earlier in hopes of getting more fast passes overall . I just keep thinking for us we likely get more rides doing it the way we have since we get right onto quite a lot at first , and then still shorter lines for couple hours after. But of course depends on what rides (we don't care about 7DMT but we do everything else) and how many of you /what works for you

 

[Haley R]

We usually book our FPs for 10-11, 11-12, and 12-1. The last one can sometimes be later depending on if we have an adr for lunch. If we grab something quick to eat then we do the 12-1 time slot. We normally get space, splash, and 7dmt for our first three and get additional for the others. We’ve never had a problem getting haunted mansion as a FP later in the day.

 

[blabadie]

Our family's touring style sounds a lot like yours. Normally we rope dropped and used our fastpasses in the early afternoon, then left for an afternoon break before heading to a park for a dinner adr. We never tried to pickup additional fastpasses bc I didn't want to deal with the kiosk and our method seemed to work.

For this trip, I'm trying to use fastpasses midmorning to early afternoon (ideally before lunch around noon but that depends on park hours and adds so varies from day to day). Then I plan to book a 4th fastpass to use either in early afternoon at the same park (if there's something worthwhile) or in the evening at the park where we have dinner plans.

However, if my touring plans shows fastpasses are unnecessary in the morning (like on some MNSSHP days at MK), I think I may just revert to my old fastpasses in the afternoon method.

 

[Klayfish]

There's no "right" answer here, do what you feel comfortable with. MK is the one park that we find easiest to grab additional FP+...no park is "hard", but MK is easiest. We never rope drop, we'd rather get extra sleep. We'll show up around 9:30-9:45am usually. We make our FP+ from 9-10am, 10-11am and 11-noon. We use MDE a lot and will move our FP+, so we'll be done our 3 FP+ by 11am usually. This is especially true in the summer, where we find it easiest to get FP+. Then we'll start grabbing more. HM is very easy to get as a 4th, 5th, 6th FP+. We'll go through 8 or more FP+ in a 5 or 6 hour window, including time we take to eat lunch.

 

[only hope]

We start our fp 10-11, 11-12, 12-1. We use the first one at the end of the window, as lines are building by then and we don’t wait more than 15mn for anything. We immediately use the second one, then attempt to change the third one to an earlier time. HM is very easy to get a 4th+ fp for. Pirates, Mine Train, the mountains, and the characters are a bit harder, but even most of those can be picked up with persistant refreshing if you have a small group.

 

[Cloe Colton]

MK is one of the easiest to get more fp's throughout the day, I can usually snag a Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan and Jungle Cruise and our FP's usually end at 3-4

 

[Soupermom]

Haunted Mansion I find an easy ride to get as an additional FP. Enjoy the first hour of park time hitting rides with little wait and then use the first FP towards the end of it's time. Then use the 2nd FP at the beginning of it's time (at this point I'm also moving my 3rd up to an earlier time). You get the benefit of the low time but also use FP's. Then just keep adding more. Just know that it may take a bit of refreshing and the larger the group the more work it will take. The other parks I push to use them all quickly in order to open up more tier 1 rides asap but MK is different, so long as waits aren't building quickly.

You can move FPs up to earlier times?

 

[JETSDAD]

You can move FPs up to earlier times?

Yes. Especially in tiered parks it's valuable. Once you tap your first FP go on and modify your 2nd FP to an earlier time. Once you use the 2nd, modify the 3rd. This was you get through the first 3 and can book additional tier 1 rides starting early. It all requires availability but with some refreshing it's not usually too difficult, especially in the morning.

 

[Klayfish]

You can move FPs up to earlier times?

Yes. On a "good" day, we can go through all 3 of our FP+ in an hour, give or take.

 

[Soupermom]

Would anyone want to comment on my tentative touring plan for MK? We haven't been to WDW in years and have never used the new FP system. We will be going the first Monday in June (4 adults), day after Gay Days ends, and its supposed to be an "8" day in crowds. I'm not sure if I'm planning too much or two little into the time frame in my head. LOL

Rope Drop
Space Mtn
Buzz
7DMT (FP+ #1, then get #4 for POC)
HM
IASW
Philharmagic (if time to fill)
BTMRR (FP+#2, then get #5 for Soarin')
lunch at Pecos Bills
Splash Mtn (FP #3, then get #6 for Epcot Character Meet)
POC (FP#4, then get #7 for Soarin', if available)
Philharmagic (if missed earlier)
COP
TTA
WDWR
Any others we can walk on if we want
Monorail to Epcot...

I'm wondering what time I should shoot for when getting the first three FP+s?? We want Splash in the afternoon so we can dry out.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[JETSDAD]

You won't be able to get FP#4 until you've used all 3 of your pre-selected FP's. Then #5 after using #4 and so on. Other than that, it's still doable.

 

[Wdw1015]

Would anyone want to comment on my tentative touring plan for MK? We haven't been to WDW in years and have never used the new FP system. We will be going the first Monday in June (4 adults), day after Gay Days ends, and its supposed to be an "8" day in crowds. I'm not sure if I'm planning too much or two little into the time frame in my head. LOL

Rope Drop
Space Mtn
Buzz
7DMT (FP+ #1, then get #4 for POC)
HM
IASW
Philharmagic (if time to fill)
BTMRR (FP+#2, then get #5 for Soarin')
lunch at Pecos Bills
Splash Mtn (FP #3, then get #6 for Epcot Character Meet)
POC (FP#4, then get #7 for Soarin', if available)
Philharmagic (if missed earlier)
COP
TTA
WDWR
Any others we can walk on if we want
Monorail to Epcot...

I'm wondering what time I should shoot for when getting the first three FP+s?? We want Splash in the afternoon so we can dry out.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Just fyi that you cant get additional FP until the first 3 have been used...

**someone beat me to it!

 

[TinkSassy]

We were there last week with a crowd level 10. It looks like your plan is doable (aside from having to not get a 4th FP until the first 3 are used - then they are one by one). I would try to modify the time up on Splash and get that done before lunch in case you have a delay in the start window for PoC. We would do our first 3 by 11am and then I would book one and we would do a show until it opened and as soon as we scanned in book the next. Closest time I got with that crowd level was a 30 minute wait - more popular rides were about 1-2 hours before I could get a FP window. Remember to keep refreshing the screen to look for better times - first one shown is usually awful.

 

[Soupermom]

Yes. On a "good" day, we can go through all 3 of our FP+ in an hour, give or take.

But are they always the same blocks of time available, 9-10, 10-11, etc?

 

[Soupermom]

Just fyi that you cant get additional FP until the first 3 have been used...

**someone beat me to it!

I thought you could get one as soon as one was used? This is so confusing. LOL
My friend was there the week before Easter and said she would get one as soon as she used one, even after using the first one, two, etc.

 

[Wdw1015]

I thought you could get one as soon as one was used? This is so confusing. LOL

Only after your first 3 have been used

 

[JETSDAD]

But are they always the same blocks of time available, 9-10, 10-11, etc?

I start the day with 9-10, 10-11, 11-12. After I tap into the first I will get on immediately to move up the 2nd FP. I might find something for 9:10-10:10, or something like that. Once I tap that one I move up the 3rd the same way....this one might end up being 9:30-10:30.

 

[Soupermom]

Only after your first 3 have been used

Okay, thanks. Back to the drawing board I go...