next up? .... FP+....any suggestions? tips? pitfalls to avoid?

[disneyholic family]

so i finished with the whole ADR campaign....
got most of what we wanted...woo hoo!

but now i'm starting to stress (my middle name) about FP+!!!!!

i've never had to do FP+ before...this is our first trip since the system was initiated..

so i have not a clue in the world how to do it...what i should pick...what my strategy should be....what's the best thing to go for, or not bother with....etc etc etc etc etc..

any and all advice, warnings, tips, suggestions, secrets would be MOST welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

unlike ADRs, i don't even know where to begin...

well, i do know what park we'll be in on any given day, since i've had to commit to the ADRs...
but what to do within the park?

go for an immediate FP+ ?
or at rope drop, go to something without an FP+ and then go to the FP+?

and should i use them on parades/fireworks? or just on rides? or difficult character meets?

arrgghhhh....so confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and what about the different age groups..
we're a group of 8, including a 22 month old and a 3.5 year old....clearly they won't be going on space mountain!!

 

[saintrob]

We're a family who never make rope drop! We tend to visit the parks in the evening after spending the day lazing around the pool. I book our fast passes consecutively so that we can complete them roughly within 90 minutes. In MK I book the 'biggies' such as the mine train and Big Thunder and in the Studios, Toy Story.

 

[disneyholic family]

We're a family who never make rope drop! We tend to visit the parks in the evening after spending the day lazing around the pool. I book our fast passes consecutively so that we can complete them roughly within 90 minutes. In MK I book the 'biggies' such as the mine train and Big Thunder and in the Studios, Toy Story.

that's a really interesting approach to the parks!!! going in the evening after a day at the pool...very interesting..

i've been doing a bit of research..found a thread over on the theme parks board..
i didn't even know that you can book 14 days once you get to 60 days..
although i need to book 19 days...so i'll be able to book 14 and then each additional day as a day by day..

 

[Tash87]

You remind me of myself last year lol. I stressed about every detail!

Booking FP was surprisingly easy however we didn't keep most of them on the day or I changed them last minute. I did make a few FP (same time) where hubby and ds went on a ride which he can ride and I made FP for me and dd who is older and wanting more of a thrill.

We are a rope drop family with FP made for early afternoon but most of the time we was leaving the park after lunch as we had already rode what we wanted and had lunch. Also it was soooooooooo busy that even the FP queues were massive.

 

[disneyholic family]

You remind me of myself last year lol. I stressed about every detail!

Booking FP was surprisingly easy however we didn't keep most of them on the day or I changed them last minute. I did make a few FP (same time) where hubby and ds went on a ride which he can ride and I made FP for me and dd who is older and wanting more of a thrill.

We are a rope drop family with FP made for early afternoon but most of the time we was leaving the park after lunch as we had already rode what we wanted and had lunch. Also it was soooooooooo busy that even the FP queues were massive.

good point about lunch...
i have us scheduled for a long sit down Table Service lunch every day - as i know we're going to be hit by the august heat.
DS and DDIL are especially sensitive to heat, so i know they'll probably want to go back to the resort, even after taking a long air conditioned lunch.
And the kidlets (their children) will probably need to nap.

So morning FPs are probably the thing to do - except possibly for fireworks...
although the fireworks should be taken care of by the dinner packages - well, so far i've only managed to get the fantasmic package.
The ROL package isn't available for august yet.

i'm thinking the character meets might be especially important. My grandson adores Anna and Elsa (one of his favorite movies), so if there's a fastpass for that, it would be good. And also the frozen sing along. We'll all enjoy that one.

And he's a big fan of mickey mouse - so that one.
And he's a big fan of ariel - but i think we meet her at lunch at Akershus. So that's taken care of.

but then there's peter pan..that ride can have a multi-hour line...

as for the crowds - i'm afraid of that....summer crowds combined with the heat and humidity....not a pretty picture!!!!
but the only time we all can go!!

 

[Tash87]

When in august are you going? I've heard that later on in the month it gets quieter compared to the rest of the month. I've considered this due to school holidays. We went in November the 2 weeks before thanksgiving and the crowds were horrendous, kinda spoiled it for us.

If you're going to parks in the evening for fireworks I would definitely use the fp's there and have a quieter morning.
If you're planning on going back to resort after lunch I would try and get FP as close to lunch beforehand.

BUT you can always change them when you're there....it's great being able to go on the app and adjust your plans accordingly. Although it's quite annoying knowing how long you spent planning

 

[disneyholic family]

When in august are you going? I've heard that later on in the month it gets quieter compared to the rest of the month. I've considered this due to school holidays. We went in November the 2 weeks before thanksgiving and the crowds were horrendous, kinda spoiled it for us.

If you're going to parks in the evening for fireworks I would definitely use the fp's there and have a quieter morning.
If you're planning on going back to resort after lunch I would try and get FP as close to lunch beforehand.

BUT you can always change them when you're there....it's great being able to go on the app and adjust your plans accordingly. Although it's quite annoying knowing how long you spent planning

yes, the second half of august is much better for crowds...but we'll be there mostly for the first half....arriving august 3rd

 

[MrsIncredible1974]

Excellent thread

FP are next on my to - do list - not surprising as we're travelling to Florida on 27th July so we're only a few days ahead of your visit!

We've already looked at which park we plan to be in for the majority of each day but wondering when to schedule the rides. I've been concerned by recent threads on how busy the parks are generally and, on increasingly long waits even with FP so I'm keen to not bunch them together too much and to allow for enough time to queue and move from ride to ride.

So much to think about...

 

[saintrob]

Excellent thread

FP are next on my to - do list - not surprising as we're travelling to Florida on 27th July so we're only a few days ahead of your visit!

We've already looked at which park we plan to be in for the majority of each day but wondering when to schedule the rides. I've been concerned by recent threads on how busy the parks are generally and, on increasingly long waits even with FP so I'm keen to not bunch them together too much and to allow for enough time to queue and move from ride to ride.

So much to think about...

Even on Christmas Day we had our FPs straight after each other and managed to get the three done without any problems. The longest wait was at Snow White's mine train which was around 15 minutes. You'll be fine.

 

[MrsIncredible1974]

Even on Christmas Day we had our FPs straight after each other and managed to get the three done without any problems. The longest wait was at Snow White's mine train which was around 15 minutes. You'll be fine.

Thank you

We'll be rope drop for the first few days then once the body clocks adjust and the trip takes it's toll we'll get later and later! We tend to eat our TS meals in the evening (ADRs range from 4pm on day 1 to 8pm later on the trip) and we don't head back to the resort mid-day, preferring to be out in one stretch. So maybe just after lunch for FPs on the basis that we can queue in the mornings?

 

[saintrob]

Thank you

We'll be rope drop for the first few days then once the body clocks adjust and the trip takes it's toll we'll get later and later! We tend to eat our TS meals in the evening (ADRs range from 4pm on day 1 to 8pm later on the trip) and we don't head back to the resort mid-day, preferring to be out in one stretch. So maybe just after lunch for FPs on the basis that we can queue in the mornings?

We'll be there at the same time as you! You'll be able to hit quite a few of the rides at rope drop.

 

[disneyholic family]

Excellent thread

FP are next on my to - do list - not surprising as we're travelling to Florida on 27th July so we're only a few days ahead of your visit!

We've already looked at which park we plan to be in for the majority of each day but wondering when to schedule the rides. I've been concerned by recent threads on how busy the parks are generally and, on increasingly long waits even with FP so I'm keen to not bunch them together too much and to allow for enough time to queue and move from ride to ride.

So much to think about...

DD was just telling me today about how everyone's talking about how bad the crowds are now and that there really aren't any times of the year anymore where there aren't crowds..
so i'm worried...

after discussing this with DD, we've decided to go for only morning FPs, since we have lunch scheduled for 12 or 1 every day...
after that i guess we'll try for on the fly FPs....though i don't really understand how it all works yet..

 

[disneyholic family]

Even on Christmas Day we had our FPs straight after each other and managed to get the three done without any problems. The longest wait was at Snow White's mine train which was around 15 minutes. You'll be fine.

that's good to hear!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

even though we're planning on being there are rope drop every day, we'll still have to take it easy inside the park - the 2 and 3 year olds won't stand up to constant running around..
and i don't think we need to do that since we'll be there for 19 days -- well the big group of 8 will be for 19 days....then half leave and the rest of us are there for another 3...

 

[Mummycat]

We're doing the Disney part of our trip 17-31st August. We did similar dates 2 years ago and found we got more done and had more pool time then we ever have on previous trips at a quieter time of year! It was our first time of using FP + but it worked really well for us. We try and use the early extra magic hours or get to the park just after opening, then have our fast passes booked for late morning. We then have a quick service meal around 1pm to cool down then head back to OKW and have afternoon pool time. Table service meals booked for between 6-7pm followed by more parks/fireworks/hotel exploring etc. The kids were 9 and 11 last time which is an easier age-only a few meltdowns from the youngest but generally handled the heat and tiredness really well. With all the careful planning you're doing it will be perfect

 

[disneyholic family]

We're doing the Disney part of our trip 17-31st August. We did similar dates 2 years ago and found we got more done and had more pool time then we ever have on previous trips at a quieter time of year! It was our first time of using FP + but it worked really well for us. We try and use the early extra magic hours or get to the park just after opening, then have our fast passes booked for late morning. We then have a quick service meal around 1pm to cool down then head back to OKW and have afternoon pool time. Table service meals booked for between 6-7pm followed by more parks/fireworks/hotel exploring etc. The kids were 9 and 11 last time which is an easier age-only a few meltdowns from the youngest but generally handled the heat and tiredness really well. With all the careful planning you're doing it will be perfect

the second half of august is great!
during our last big trip of the entire family (back in 2011), i noticed a big drop in crowds right around the 16th of the month..
we can't do that this year as our kids and their spouses are all teachers, so they have to be back for school year preparations...
which is why we're starting at the beginning of august..

when we were planning which park to be in for the ADRs, we decided against the morning EMH park as we figured regular rope drop would be challenging enough!!
but we definitely plan on being there for rope drop!!
doing a few biggies right away....and then the FP's at 10, 11, 12 or something like that..
and then head to our table service ADR...

i'm trying to keep my expectations in check...
it's difficult to know how toddlers will react...i hope they're happy to see mickey and company, but with the crowds, heat, noise etc., there's no way of predicting....
best to follow crush's advice and just go with the flow

 

[Westcoastwild]

I stressed over this too so I completely understand. Figure out first which ones are hardest to get. How it works:

Something like Frozen, or...maybe Big Thunder- there won't be any fp+ available the day of, because everyone wants to ride those. also, those standby lines are the worst. So you want to make those your priority.

So you use your initial "priority" passes consecutively in the morning. Because once you use those, you can book another fast pass. And once you use that, you can book another. So there had been a few days (my trip was short notice) that I had two booked in the morning and then the last booked late at night. DON'T do that. Because I didn't realize how long stand by lines are even with the kiddie rides. Fp+ only works really because 1) they have fp for nearly everything and 2) they allow a lot more of the fast pass line on the ride than the stand by. So the stand by line moves very slowly, even on the usual people eaters. So those extra fast passes that you get after you use your 3 initial are critical because it allows you to walk on to the "filler" rides. You basically just look at the wait times and pick an advantageous one or say you're walking past small world, and the standby is long but it would be nice to sit down...so if you have that fast pass to use, you book right then and there and walk into the fast pass line.

on a side note, EMH are awesome because the fast pass doesn't exist so the ratio for the lines doesnt exist. So the lines move SO much faster during that time. I don't use EMH much in CA but I really recommend doing so in FL.

 

[P800aul]

A Quick scan of the thread would suggest you may not have seen this https://www.disboards.com/threads/fastpass-frequently-asked-questions.3491680/ forgive me if you have. I found it very good when I first looked at FP+. We go in October and have a couple of strategies.

First I plan every day (a plan can be changed or ignored, no plan equals long waits and a grumpy family) so I know what park we intend to visit each day. I've work this out from crowd calendars and as this will be our 8th year I've pretty much got this down. The first week I plan for a morning park and a different park in the afternoon so then it's a judgment call which park I FP+ for. The hard to get rides are listed in the FAQ so for example first day almost certainly will be rope drop at MK no FP+ will be needed for any of the rides at that time in the morning, although by mid morning a wait of 15min for some will be needed, we would leave the park around mid day - lunch outside - sleep - then another park around 4 - 5 pm that's when a FP+ would come in say at TT, RNR or TSMM at Hollywood. The second week I plan some spare afternoons for water parks shopping and other visits however often we finish up at Epcot or another park

You get the idea, plan where you want to go (on a spreadsheet), if you are early you may not need FP+ first thing so don't waste them, if you intend to be in the parks at the busy time (in our case mid day) use them then or save them for the second part of the day, for the tough to get rides. You do see some people with FP+ walking through when there's a wait time of 5 mins (the time it takes you to get on the ride) they know they've wasted their FP+.

One other tip is, as all FP+ are one hour apart you can spend time between rides not doing a great deal, so once you've gone through the first FP+ check point of a ride you can move your next one to a nearer time if its available.

Hope this helps

Regards

Paul

 

[disneyholic family]

I stressed over this too so I completely understand. Figure out first which ones are hardest to get. How it works:

Something like Frozen, or...maybe Big Thunder- there won't be any fp+ available the day of, because everyone wants to ride those. also, those standby lines are the worst. So you want to make those your priority.

So you use your initial "priority" passes consecutively in the morning. Because once you use those, you can book another fast pass. And once you use that, you can book another. So there had been a few days (my trip was short notice) that I had two booked in the morning and then the last booked late at night. DON'T do that. Because I didn't realize how long stand by lines are even with the kiddie rides. Fp+ only works really because 1) they have fp for nearly everything and 2) they allow a lot more of the fast pass line on the ride than the stand by. So the stand by line moves very slowly, even on the usual people eaters. So those extra fast passes that you get after you use your 3 initial are critical because it allows you to walk on to the "filler" rides. You basically just look at the wait times and pick an advantageous one or say you're walking past small world, and the standby is long but it would be nice to sit down...so if you have that fast pass to use, you book right then and there and walk into the fast pass line.

on a side note, EMH are awesome because the fast pass doesn't exist so the ratio for the lines doesnt exist. So the lines move SO much faster during that time. I don't use EMH much in CA but I really recommend doing so in FL.

yes by installing this system, disney has made the easy rides difficult...they used to be good filler rides...dependable...and now they're not..
annoying

 

[disneyholic family]

A Quick scan of the thread would suggest you may not have seen this https://www.disboards.com/threads/fastpass-frequently-asked-questions.3491680/ forgive me if you have. I found it very good when I first looked at FP+. We go in October and have a couple of strategies.

First I plan every day (a plan can be changed or ignored, no plan equals long waits and a grumpy family) so I know what park we intend to visit each day. I've work this out from crowd calendars and as this will be our 8th year I've pretty much got this down. The first week I plan for a morning park and a different park in the afternoon so then it's a judgment call which park I FP+ for. The hard to get rides are listed in the FAQ so for example first day almost certainly will be rope drop at MK no FP+ will be needed for any of the rides at that time in the morning, although by mid morning a wait of 15min for some will be needed, we would leave the park around mid day - lunch outside - sleep - then another park around 4 - 5 pm that's when a FP+ would come in say at TT, RNR or TSMM at Hollywood. The second week I plan some spare afternoons for water parks shopping and other visits however often we finish up at Epcot or another park

You get the idea, plan where you want to go (on a spreadsheet), if you are early you may not need FP+ first thing so don't waste them, if you intend to be in the parks at the busy time (in our case mid day) use them then or save them for the second part of the day, for the tough to get rides. You do see some people with FP+ walking through when there's a wait time of 5 mins (the time it takes you to get on the ride) they know they've wasted their FP+.

One other tip is, as all FP+ are one hour apart you can spend time between rides not doing a great deal, so once you've gone through the first FP+ check point of a ride you can move your next one to a nearer time if its available.

Hope this helps

Regards

Paul

thanks for the link...i'll check out the thread..

i definitely do spreadsheet planning!!!
you don't want to see the schedule that i had for our cruise on allure of the seas...
an excel with pretty much every minute scheduled!!!
i'm a nutjob!!

i haven't seriously looked at what's particularly important or difficult yet..
i have to consult with the rest of our 8 people group (specifically DD and DS)..

but the things i'm sure i'll try to get FPs for are:
Epcot:
anna and elsa character meet
soarin
the ride in norway whatever it's called now
maybe test track? does mission space have a line on the wimpy side? it never used to, but i don't know what FP did to it..

i know that's more than 3, but we'll be there for 3 weeks, so i can spread out the FPs

AK:
not sure....i suppose maybe KS? and dinosaur?
are they recommended for the shows (festival of the lion king and nemo?)

DHS:
TSM
TOT
?? (is there anything else in this park? we don't do RNRC)

MK:
hmmm....tough one to figure...way too many things to do...
splash mountain
space mountain
talking mickey
pooh?
peter pan?
dwarves?
that car driving ride (the kidlets will adore this one)
what about haunted mansion and pirates - are they still safe? or do we now need FPs?