Morning or Afternoon for Fast Pass?

[KCValerie1]

I am not a fan of the fast pass+ system, it feels way to restrictive to me! With that said we have stayed away from the parks for that very reason. I now find that I will be going in late November and wonder what people find to work best for them? Using the fast pass in the morning, then hoping you can book more later, or taking your chances in the morning and booking fast pass for the busy afternoon. I would love to hear what everyone has found works best for them.

 

[adisneyaunt]

Just keep in mind that IF u book later ones, you cannot get your Next one, until your last one is used. Then you can add one at a time thereafter. So earlier works better imho. But there are those that prefer to go straight to the busiest ride ... Like Mine train...andjust go standby (at park opening ) when it's less busy...so they d get later FP's.
I too do Not like the FP system.... too much " work" for what's supposed to be Downtime/vacation. Just be prepared to realistically Not get to ride everything you want on a particular day or sadly, a visit.
Best of luck..esp .if ur visiting during holiday period...it will be busy so be flexible and Enjoy yourself no matter How many rides you get on.

 

[tlmadden73]

I vote go morning.

Iblike how it gives you flexibility and be "first in line" to make the 4th, 5th, etc. you then aren't locked in for an afternoon fast pass in case u want an afternoon break or an early dinner.

That is the strategy I use. It worked great with my toddler son. We used 6 fast passes that day though we weren't looking for the big rides.

The problem is that if u make one too early it is essentially wasted as standby could have been just as quick.

 

[KCValerie1]

Thanks for the input, I struggle with using them up early when the stand by isn't too long, then I have nothing for the busy afternoon. We all know that the rides you want are not available for fast pass in the afternoon same day.

 

[tanyaandallie]

I am struggling with this as well. Back in the day we went stand by the first 2 hours of the day with very minimal waits. Then we ate lunch then started using fastpass. I'm just not sure if that still works or not!

 

[d-train]

I vote for morning too. Get those first 3 out of the way, then you can continue to get fast passes until the end of the day.

I used to follow the fp afternoon idea, and rope drop the big attractions. But with this new system, not so much. If you can get fp for the am for your 3 musts, then you are free for a days of fast passing whatever is open. This past June I finished my 3 musts be 2 (later than I wanted...) the proceeded to get 18 more fp attractions until 8:15. Also squeezed in 6 non fp rides and the new castle show, and dinner at CHH!

Why 8:15 you Jhht ask....got in line a bit early for Wish Dessert Party to pick the table I wanted...3rd group in line! Got the table!

Great MK day!

 

[nursejackie]

I guess the answer lies in what your park strategies are. We stay on site in December when somedays EMH starts at 7am or 8am so we are always there for those. We ride the most popular rides for the first hour to 90 minutes then have our fastpasses from 9am to 12pm, have lunch and head back to our resort.

BUT, we spend two mornings in AK, again in EMH arriving at either 7am or 8am, and ride the popular rides for the first hour or two. We don't waste fastpasses at AK, as they are definitely not needed in the mornings, so we use them in the afternoon at MK (we have park hopper tickets) so we can secure a ride on the elusive 7DMT without a long queue, alongside a couple of popular rides and then attempt to secure further fastpasses for the less popular rides that are likely to be still available.

We are early risers and want to make the most of EMH so this works for us, but I can see it wouldn't work for everyone. Each to their own eh?

 

[CAS239]

Depends what you want to do. We park hop so we set up fast passes for the afternoon park as you really don't need FP's before say 11am.

I really don't see the point in setting up FP's early to just knock out and move on to trying to get 4th, 5th etc..when you're using FP's so early you don't need them. And going for extra FP's during the day, very high chance any big rides will already have all their FP's taken. So I'd start setting up FP's later in the day, around after 12/1pm when ride lines start to get longer

 

[Babs1975]

We do it both ways, depending on the park we're at. We mostly save fp's for later in the day, but sometimes we get 3 in the morning IF we really want to ride something twice and we know fp is the only way to do it. But there is always the chance it won't be there later in the day too.

 

[js]

For those that say early, when are you visiting? Im wondering about the same thing as OP.

We will be between Christmas and New Years Day so Im thinking if I use early, I wont be able to get for later since it will be extremely busy. I have asked a question and started a theead about if I should use before we leave the parks for the day or more towards 10 pm - 12 am. If that is my strategy, Ill only have three a day but not sure I could even get more, like the OP, if we are going at very busy times.

 

[tanyaandallie]

Depends what you want to do. We park hop so we set up fast passes for the afternoon park as you really don't need FP's before say 11am.

I really don't see the point in setting up FP's early to just knock out and move on to trying to get 4th, 5th etc..when you're using FP's so early you don't need them. And going for extra FP's during the day, very high chance any big rides will already have all their FP's taken. So I'd start setting up FP's later in the day, around after 12/1pm when ride lines start to get longer

This was my thoughts and the strategy we followed on our last trip. I'm assuming it will be ok again this trip. Or I hope so!

 

[CAS239]

For those that say early, when are you visiting? Im wondering about the same thing as OP.

We will be between Christmas and New Years Day so Im thinking if I use early, I wont be able to get for later since it will be extremely busy. I have asked a question and started a theead about if I should use before we leave the parks for the day or more towards 10 pm - 12 am. If that is my strategy, Ill only have three a day but not sure I could even get more, like the OP, if we are going at very busy times.

We park hop and no matter the time of the year...we hit the first park fairly early. Key is to making it to rope drop and riding a bunch. Leave the first park around noon. Drive back to hotel to nap, shower..then head to the second park around 4ish. We have FP's set up starting around 6pm when it's busy.

I wouldn't start them as late as 10pm because the later you get, the more the crowds thin out. I'd start afternoon FP's around like 4-7pm.

We don't bother knocking out FP's early because A) you really don't need FP's in any park earlier than about 11am...and B) I prefer to have top ride FP's when the rides have long lines vs using all my prebooked ones early then getting extra ones for rides like Buzz lightyear, spaceship earth, Bugs life, etc. Usually all the big rides are long gone

 

[js]

We park hop and no matter the time of the year...we hit the first park fairly early. Key is to making it to rope drop and riding a bunch. Leave the first park around noon. Drive back to hotel to nap, shower..then head to the second park around 4ish. We have FP's set up starting around 6pm when it's busy.

I wouldn't start them as late as 10pm because the later you get, the more the crowds thin out. I'd start afternoon FP's around like 4-7pm.

We don't bother knocking out FP's early because A) you really don't need FP's in any park earlier than about 11am...and B) I prefer to have top ride FP's when the rides have long lines vs using all my prebooked ones early then getting extra ones for rides like Buzz lightyear, spaceship earth, Bugs life, etc. Usually all the big rides are long gone

Thank you. We wont be park hopping. We will be there between Christmas and New Years day. Would this strategy still work? For instance, we plan on MK on December 30. Their last Firework show is at midnight. Im thinking the crowds wont start to dwindle until after midnight. We will be there at RD, which will be at/right before 7 am and plan to head back to SSR at/after 11:30/12 pm lunch.

Thanks.

 

[CAS239]

Thank you. We wont be park hopping. We will be there between Christmas and New Years day. Would this strategy still work? For instance, we plan on MK on December 30. Their last Firework show is at midnight. Im thinking the crowds wont start to dwindle until after midnight. We will be there at RD, which will be at/right before 7 am and plan to head back to SSR at/after 11:30/12 pm lunch.

Thanks.

I'd start FP's around 4/5ish. Dec 30th is pretty decently packed at MK so you'll benefit from having FP's when it's real busy. Use your FP's then go on a phone or kiosk and see what other FP's are still available. Might be able to grab Buzz, Pirates, Splash, Small Word, etc..the big ones like 7dmt, PP, Space will likely all be gone, but there should still be some extra FP's available you guys would like

 

[js]

I'd start FP's around 4/5ish. Dec 30th is pretty decently packed at MK so you'll benefit from having FP's when it's real busy. Use your FP's then go on a phone or kiosk and see what other FP's are still available. Might be able to grab Buzz, Pirates, Splash, Small Word, etc..the big ones like 7dmt, PP, Space will likely all be gone, but there should still be some extra FP's available you guys would like

Thanks. We dont plan on getting back to MK at night until 930-10 pm. I guess Ill start to plan for 9 pm arrival?

 

[toonaspie]

We plan to do Epcot and DHS in the same day. I'm still wondering if I should use my FPs on Epcot or hold out will we get to DHS around 2 in the afternoon. The only ride in Epcot I really need the FP for is FEA. However I'm wondering if it will be manageable to RD to FEA and still be able to walk on Soarin and other rides in that area and save my FPs for DHS.

Any thoughts?

 

[kathy884]

What helped me decide was first doing a custom touring plan in touringplans.com without any fastpasses. I think you can do this without a subscription. Put in all your attractions, the parade, Wishes, where you want to eat and when, hit optimize, and you get a good order and projected times and waits. If it gives you too many gaps shorten the day so it puts everything in order without gaps. With that, see what the lines are going to be in the morning and if a fast pass is even worth it. (e.g. why get a FP for the Jungle Cruise if you are doing it first thing and the wait is only 12 minutes. Instead do fastpasses for your first three rides that appear to be 25 minutes or more. I also after getting the fastpasses, put them into touring plans and do the plan again and then tweak my fastpass times to work better with the plan if I see gaps. (It might not be enjoyable for everyone, but I really enjoyed tweaking my touring plan and fastpasses to line up a great plan for my MK day.) Also, once you have your plan order the way you want, hit the evaluate rather than Optimize button to recalculate times, etc.// Also, I'd say if it's morning or afternoon grab a 7DMT FP if you can get it. The line for that one is always long and that's a FP that seems to be very popular and not available to many people. As an offsite visitor I could only do my planning 30 days in advance and I still did very well, but 7DMT was the one fastpass I couldn't get, so I will end up doing a 49 minute wait for that. My second longest wait is only 21 minutes (prediction), and so much is walk on.

 

[tanyaandallie]

We plan to do Epcot and DHS in the same day. I'm still wondering if I should use my FPs on Epcot or hold out will we get to DHS around 2 in the afternoon. The only ride in Epcot I really need the FP for is FEA. However I'm wondering if it will be manageable to RD to FEA and still be able to walk on Soarin and other rides in that area and save my FPs for DHS.

Any thoughts?

I personally would try and get headliners done at RD and FP the 2nd park!

 

[js]

What helped me decide was first doing a custom touring plan in touringplans.com without any fastpasses. I think you can do this without a subscription. Put in all your attractions, the parade, Wishes, where you want to eat and when, hit optimize, and you get a good order and projected times and waits. If it gives you too many gaps shorten the day so it puts everything in order without gaps. With that, see what the lines are going to be in the morning and if a fast pass is even worth it. (e.g. why get a FP for the Jungle Cruise if you are doing it first thing and the wait is only 12 minutes. Instead do fastpasses for your first three rides that appear to be 25 minutes or more. I also after getting the fastpasses, put them into touring plans and do the plan again and then tweak my fastpass times to work better with the plan if I see gaps. (It might not be enjoyable for everyone, but I really enjoyed tweaking my touring plan and fastpasses to line up a great plan for my MK day.) Also, once you have your plan order the way you want, hit the evaluate rather than Optimize button to recalculate times, etc.// Also, I'd say if it's morning or afternoon grab a 7DMT FP if you can get it. The line for that one is always long and that's a FP that seems to be very popular and not available to many people. As an offsite visitor I could only do my planning 30 days in advance and I still did very well, but 7DMT was the one fastpass I couldn't get, so I will end up doing a 49 minute wait for that. My second longest wait is only 21 minutes (prediction), and so much is walk on.

I'm not the OP but I really appreciate this information and do not know why the heck I didn't think of it, but that is max planning and I'm all over that AND
I have a subscription to TP.
I will do this today or tomorrow. My FP opens next Thursday. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this out in such detail.
I just printed it.

 

[toonaspie]

I personally would try and get headliners done at RD and FP the 2nd park!

My booking was yesterday but this was ultimately what I decided to do. We're gonna try and hit RD at Epcot two days in a row. If we can get FEA knocked out on day 1 it would make things extra convenient for our bigger Epcot day on day two.