My 30 Day FP+ at 1:00 AM Experience

[sweetnjmom]

So last night was my first night to book FP+ and while pretty much everything--except for A&E and FOF parade--was available at 30 days, 7DMT was only from 5:30 PM on ... and we won't be in MK then as we have a dinner ADR and then the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise that evening. So I'm hoping that I'll have better luck on my other two MK days (5/6 and 5/8) as we'll be there in the evening both of those nights and they are also estimated to be lower crowds than the Sunday. We shall see...

I chose Meet Ariel for my son, just before our BOG lunch ADR (if there is no line, I'll switch it), then Peter Pan's flight from 12:40-1:40, then Splash Mountain from 1:45-2:45.

We want to see the FOF parade before we leave MK for the day... any suggestions for a good viewing spot?

 

[Robo]

I chose Meet Ariel for my son, just before our BOG lunch ADR (if there is no line, I'll switch it),

1. then Peter Pan's flight from 12:40-1:40, then Splash Mountain from 1:45-2:45.

We want to see the FOF parade before we leave MK for the day...

2. any suggestions for a good viewing spot?

1. You might want to ride PP as standby (either drop the FP or ride another time)
so that you can experience the brand new (and very entertaining) PP interactive queue.

2. Deep in Frontierland, (past Country Bears) where it begins.
Use your Splash FP at 1:45, or so, then it's just a short walk to your FoF parade
viewing spot.

 

[Mikie]

I'm bad at listing exact locations (in front of XYZ doorway) but I've had good luck getting decent spots in Frintierland with less wait than Main Street. Although last time when it was just my son and I interested in the parade, we walked to Main Street from tomorrowland and found a spot right by the hub, 1-2 people back from the curb at about 15 min before parade start (since the parade begins in frotierland, it was at least 25 before it got to the hub) and our view and photos there with the castle in the background are amazing!

 

[sweetnjmom]

1. You might want to ride PP as standby (either drop the FP or ride another time)
so that you can experience the brand new (and very entertaining) PP interactive queue.

2. Deep in Frontierland, (past Country Bears) where it begins.
Use your Splash FP at 1:45, or so, then it's just a short walk to your FoF parade
viewing spot.

Thanks for the map, Robo! You're so great with them! The plan to see FOF in Frontierland seems to be the one we'll try.

And as for Peter Pan... for now we'll keep the FP, because my 5 year old may not want to wait in a long line (assuming they are still long waits)--despite a fun interactive queue--but we'll be at MK two other days and we could conceivably hit it again.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Are you going to be there at RD? If so, I'd change the Ariel FP to something else. You can pretty much walk right in and see her with a 20 minute wait or less until nearly noon. You might not have luck switching it out day of until something too late in the day for you to use based on your scheduling constraints with the ADR.

 

[AlohaAnnie]

We have an evening planned at Hollywood Studios before we check in to our Disney Resort stay. I will be booking HS evening FP for us at 30 days. I am hoping to grab a TSMM.

 

[sweetnjmom]

Are you going to be there at RD? If so, I'd change the Ariel FP to something else. You can pretty much walk right in and see her with a 20 minute wait or less until nearly noon. You might not have luck switching it out day of until something too late in the day for you to use based on your scheduling constraints with the ADR.

We DO plan to be there at rope drop... however, our plan is to head right to Space Mountain (and parent swap) and hopefully do most of the Tomorrowland attractions my son likes (Buzz, Speedway) before heading to Fantasyland and doing the teacups, carousel, Winnie the Pooh, etc. Our Ariel timeframe is 10:10 to 11:10 and our BOG ADR is 11:25... so I was thinking we'd probably arrive at 11/11:05 and when we're done we'll go to the ADR.

 

[Monykalyn]

I second the Frontierland viewing for FoF parade-it seemed to have more shady spots to wait in too. We hadn't really planned to see the parade last trip-lucked out into a great spot when scheduling a 4th fastpass at the kiosk there (and there is also a SotMK spot nearby too if I remember right).

We rode 7DMT at night last year and the scenes were really neat at night.

 

[sweetnjmom]

I've since booked two other nights -- though at EPCOT and HS -- and I was able to get the choices I wanted at the times I wanted (both in the afternoons).

EPCOT was really hard for me to pick FP+ for, because my son is afraid of heights/speed and that nixed both Test Track and Soarin' which are the two top pics (both were available). We actually used our Tier 1 for Illuminations just to have a spot to walk into to see it, if he's awake enough after our day there. Our others were Spaceship Earth and Turtle Talk. Honestly we probably don't need any FP+ at EPCOT because our main goal is to walk around the countries and do the Agent P stuff, but I booked them anyway.

For HS, I got TSMM, Star Tours and my "throwaway" pick of Muppet Vision 3D. I might have picked the Frozen Singalong (despite my son not being terribly into Frozen) if the timing had worked out better, but there were only morning options and we are hopping that day with an early breakfast ADR at AK and plans to stay there until lunchtime.

Tonight is my next chance for 7DMT at MK. Since I won't be able to stay up, I'm going to set my iPhone to buzz at 12:58... hopefully there will be lots of evening slots available like there were for that Sunday when we weren't going to be there at night. And I'm also hoping for the early MSEP but I have a feeling they are all gone. Other pick will likely be Haunted Mansion, since I heard the lines are longer now. It's my favorite ride at MK.

 

[Ambear]

I'm confused a bit here, maybe I'm missing something cause I'm definitely not a fast pass expert but... I was able to make all my fast passes for all my vacation days right on the 60 day mark. It sounds like youre making your selections all on different days? Maybe it's different for 30 day windows?

 

[Alfalfa]

I'm confused a bit here, maybe I'm missing something cause I'm definitely not a fast pass expert but... I was able to make all my fast passes for all my vacation days right on the 60 day mark. It sounds like youre making your selections all on different days? Maybe it's different for 30 day windows?

I'm inclined to think there isn't as much left at 30 days out as there is at 60 days out.

 

[Robo]

I'm confused a bit here, maybe I'm missing something cause I'm definitely not a fast pass expert but... I was able to make all my fast passes for all my vacation days right on the 60 day mark.

It sounds like youre making your selections all on different days? Maybe it's different for 30 day windows?

With no WDW resort reservations, at 30 days out, guests must make their FP+ selections one-day-at-a-time. as EACH DAY becomes 30 days in advance.

FP+ questions like these are answered (and FP+ Priorities listed) in the highly recommended, super-complete, often discussed, gotta love it, gargantuan juggernaut, constantly updated and refreshed by the DISboard's own mesaboy2... FP+ thread found HERE.

 

[Ambear]

With no WDW resort reservations, at 30 days out, guests must make their FP+ selections one-day-at-a time.

Ohhhhh that makes sense now then. I mean, it doesn't make sense as far as the inability to book all fps at one time, but I get what the poster is saying now. Thanks!

 

[capegirl]

We are staying in that gray area of Disney property known as SOG , and we were able to get everything we wanted at midnight on the 30 day mark, BUT not always at the TIMES that we wanted causing conflicts with ADR's; I did have to drop a few dinners. Just this week, I was suddenly able to get a Wishes FP for one of our MK days, and I'm not so sure this is a good thing...we'll see. It was rather frustrating to have to burn the midnight oil for each park day, but it all worked out pretty well.

 

[mombrontrent]

Tonight is also my 30 day window for MK. I am assuming you are booking for May 6th as well. There is still evening times available for 7DMT for the 4th and 5th right now so I am confident you will have no trouble booking an evening time for the 6th. Since my DH will still be up at 1am I am going to get him to do ours(with explicit instructions ). I plan ongoing 3 day time FP for MK on the 6th and 3 evening FP for MK on the 8th so I will most likely just have him try for 7DMT on the 8th. I booked my AK FP yesterday when I woke up in the morning at 7am and had no trouble booking the FP I wanted at the times I wanted. Good luck tonight! If you don't want A&E I see no problem booking everything at 30 days vs 60, you just might have to settle for 7DMT later in the day then if you made them at 60 days. Everything else seems widely available.

 

[itchin2go]

I've since booked two other nights -- though at EPCOT and HS -- and I was able to get the choices I wanted at the times I wanted (both in the afternoons).

EPCOT was really hard for me to pick FP+ for, because my son is afraid of heights/speed and that nixed both Test Track and Soarin' which are the two top pics (both were available). We actually used our Tier 1 for Illuminations just to have a spot to walk into to see it, if he's awake enough after our day there. Our others were Spaceship Earth and Turtle Talk. Honestly we probably don't need any FP+ at EPCOT because our main goal is to walk around the countries and do the Agent P stuff, but I booked them anyway.

For HS, I got TSMM, Star Tours and my "throwaway" pick of Muppet Vision 3D. I might have picked the Frozen Singalong (despite my son not being terribly into Frozen) if the timing had worked out better, but there were only morning options and we are hopping that day with an early breakfast ADR at AK and plans to stay there until lunchtime.

Tonight is my next chance for 7DMT at MK. Since I won't be able to stay up, I'm going to set my iPhone to buzz at 12:58... hopefully there will be lots of evening slots available like there were for that Sunday when we weren't going to be there at night. And I'm also hoping for the early MSEP but I have a feeling they are all gone. Other pick will likely be Haunted Mansion, since I heard the lines are longer now. It's my favorite ride at MK.

Regarding Haunted Mansion as a FP, we were there at Thanksgiving and I feel like waits are under 20 minutes until around noon.

 

[sweetnjmom]

Tonight is also my 30 day window for MK. I am assuming you are booking for May 6th as well. There is still evening times available for 7DMT for the 4th and 5th right now so I am confident you will have no trouble booking an evening time for the 6th. Since my DH will still be up at 1am I am going to get him to do ours(with explicit instructions ). I plan ongoing 3 day time FP for MK on the 6th and 3 evening FP for MK on the 8th so I will most likely just have him try for 7DMT on the 8th. I booked my AK FP yesterday when I woke up in the morning at 7am and had no trouble booking the FP I wanted at the times I wanted. Good luck tonight! If you don't want A&E I see no problem booking everything at 30 days vs 60, you just might have to settle for 7DMT later in the day then if you made them at 60 days. Everything else seems widely available.

Yeah, we'll be at MK at night on May 6th and I'm hoping for an evening 7DMT slot. I needed a morning one on May 3rd but none were available so I reorganized my schedule. As for Haunted Mansion... perhaps not the best use of FP+ but Jungle Cruise is closed for refurb during my week there and we'll have already hit Space Mountain, Peter Pan and I wasn't really sure what else to use it on. We'll choose Buzz, Speedway and Cinderella meet for our FP+ on the 8th. I book my AK FP+ on the 7th.

We are staying in that gray area of Disney property known as SOG , and we were able to get everything we wanted at midnight on the 30 day mark, BUT not always at the TIMES that we wanted causing conflicts with ADR's; I did have to drop a few dinners. Just this week, I was suddenly able to get a Wishes FP for one of our MK days, and I'm not so sure this is a good thing...we'll see. It was rather frustrating to have to burn the midnight oil for each park day, but it all worked out pretty well.

We weren't going to drop ADRs as they are highly sought-after character ones and I'm choosing FP+ that my 5-1/2 year old son will also like. If it were just me and my husband, we'd be choosing completely different ones.

 

[jomass]

So last night was my first night to book FP+ and while pretty much everything--except for A&E and FOF parade--was available at 30 days, 7DMT was only from 5:30 PM on ... and we won't be in MK then as we have a dinner ADR and then the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise that evening. So I'm hoping that I'll have better luck on my other two MK days (5/6 and 5/8) as we'll be there in the evening both of those nights and they are also estimated to be lower crowds than the Sunday. We shall see...

I chose Meet Ariel for my son, just before our BOG lunch ADR (if there is no line, I'll switch it), then Peter Pan's flight from 12:40-1:40, then Splash Mountain from 1:45-2:45.

We want to see the FOF parade before we leave MK for the day... any suggestions for a good viewing spot?

Good luck with 7DMT. I am going the week before you with a couple of days overlap. I tried 3 times at the stroke of 1:00 and never got anything eaflier than 5:30. I'm sure the resort guests who have a 30 day jump on us snag all of the earlier ones before we even have a chance, is what it is. But you should have no problem getting later ones again as long as you log on at FP VIRTUAL RD. I've resigned to the fact that we do an early park breakfast in order to hit 7DMT early before the RD rush, or we stand in line.

 

[2Tiggies]

I've had good luck getting decent spots in Frontierland with less wait than Main Street.

Frontierland is a great location for parades if you aren't trying to take photos with the castle in the background. It's also easier to avoid the major congestion on Main Street when everyone tries to leave afterwards. If you are taking photos though, and what you want in them, can be the make or break on Frontierland for you.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm looking for feedback on viewing the FoF parade as well. I have FPs scheduled for a very busy Saturday in June (rated 9 on easyWDW). I'm sort of a wimp in the heat so want to avoid standing in the sun for too long. But I want a good spot to photograph the parade.

I'm thinking I might have to ditch the FP. Is that area on the inner island of Town Square?

Is there any talk of that viewing area changing any time in the next couple months?

Can someone recommend a shaded spot to wait and give me an idea of how early I'd have to be there on a level 9 day to get a front row spot?