Not doing Fastpasses

[moniqueand2]

Hello,

This is my first post. I am reading the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland and interested in following the recommended tour plans.

But, I'm not sold on the idea of obtaining Fastpasses. Is it unheard of to not bother with Fastpasses? I wonder if for me and my kids it's worth the running back to attractions to use the Fastpasses.

The kids are 7 and 10 and are real troopers.

Advice on this idea is needed. Thanks.

 

[4th Gen Disney Fan]

Hello,

This is my first post. I am reading the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland and interested in following the recommended tour plans.

But, I'm not sold on the idea of obtaining Fastpasses. Is it unheard of to not bother with Fastpasses? I wonder if for me and my kids it's worth the running back to attractions to use the Fastpasses.

The kids are 7 and 10 and are real troopers.

Advice on this idea is needed. Thanks.

I just got back from my first trip to the park since they started the Fast Pass program and I would say that it DEFINITELY is worth your time to collect them! I have 4 kids all under 8 years old and there is no way I could get them to stand in line for an hour+ for a ride. The best thing about the passes is that they allow you to go do other things like eat, shop, or go on other rides and then come back when your return window opens. Since the park is so compact, there weren't any problems with going back to a particular attraction when the return window opened.

We collected passes for both Space Mountain and Autopia and then when we went back, both rides were "down". So we found other rides to go on in FantasyLand or rode the Monorail while we waited for the rides to re-open. They honored the passes up until closing time during our visit.

My advice: GET YOUR FAST PASSES!

 

[Girimama33]

Welcome!
First off...when is your trip? If you are going in the summer months, I would certainly use it. You (and your kids) will be happy you did.
Personally, I love FP and utilize it as much as possible. I did not find it intrusive to other things we wanted to do in the parks.

 

[rramstad]

I think there's a big misconception in the initial post.

FP do not expire, so there is no "running back" to use them.

At least at Disneyland, for as long as they've been around, there is no enforcement of the return time printed on the FP.

For my family, with children ages 12, 9 and 6, they are essential.

Here's what we do. If we get to an attraction we like, and we can get a FP, we always do. If the regular line is short, we might right it right then, too. We work our way around the park in an order that makes sense to us, through the morning, and then later in the day, when things get crowded, we use the FP.

There are many threads here about it -- it's much more comprehensive than the Unofficial Guide in terms of how you can use them.

I have a copy of the Unofficial Guide and a lot of the information in there is great, and the touring plans in there are fine too, but they REALLY underestimate how powerful FP can be.

We ran into other families that in the evening were saying they had only ridden six or eight rides. We had to bite our tongues... usually we manage 15 to 20 rides from park open until noonish, take a long break, and come back in the evening... these people had been in the park almost the whole day, but crucially, they had either missed the first hour or so of the day (big mistake, that's probably eight to ten rides right there) or didn't understand how FP work (even bigger mistake, for the E ticket rides can burn up an hour in line, or more!)

 

[bakerudall]

I understand how this idea can sound like an inconvenient run-around, but you will be surprised how easy it is. If this is your first time at DLR, you will be surprised at how close the rides are to each other. Even if you don't plan to run out of your way for a FP, you can just grab whatever pass you are walking past at the time and use it later when you're hot and tired or the lines are long. And you don't have to worry about making it before the end of the window; you can use them hours late if you wish. If you do plan well, your kids will love how you added so many extra rides to their trip.

Trust me, when you are waiting in a long line, feeling the breeze of people rushing past you through the empty FP line, you will wish you had a pocket full.

 

[DanT]

Obtaining and using fastpasses is no more of a hassle than many other things at DL are these days, and can really help you later in the day!

Using fastpasses properly makes for a happy family and a much nicer visit, especially during the summer.

We went a few years ago during October (Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations were up) and the Park was packed...we went early got fastpasses for the rides we wanted to do again later in the day...
We had passes for Indy, HMH, Space Mountain, and Buzz IIRC.
We had a nice morning, went back to our hotel for lunch and a rest...had dinner and returned to the park during the busiest time, they were not allowing new entries at the time.
We used our fastpasses at least 12 hours after we had collected them and were able to do the rides we had collected the passes for in short order while the lines for all of them were over 1 hour each.

Along with this we had done the Fantasmic (when Murphy was new after his initial fail) Desert seating and saw the show, had wonderful beverages and desert items, and then stayed in the same seats for the fireworks.

We were able to do all of this because of Fastpasses and knowledge of what would be busy and when...

 

[jennabennabofenna]

My last two trips i didnt once use a fastpass (except to see world of color, of course

Both times the crowd level was low and the lines were very short (with exception of the m&g's). So to us we would rather wait 20 minutes then get a fastpass and have to remember the return time, on top of remembering our other reservations we had, and trying to keep a 3 1/2 year old and 12month old happy.


However, we were suppose to go back to DL this month (trip is postponed now, ignore my ticker i still havent updated it) and were DEFINITELY planning on using fast passes!!

 

[moniqueand2]

Thank you for the advice. It will be summer and hot. I like the idea of using fastpasses just to allow some wandering around or sitting rather than waiting in line.

 

[sojodave]

Is it true you can only pull one Fast pass at a time? Or, can you pull multiple Fast Passes?

 

[papamouse1]

If you are there in the summer, then you definitely won't be sorry if you try and use the FP to your advantage. Like jennabenna said, if the crowds were low, it might not matter, but summer will be busy. Only other advice I would give is remember, you should never let a FP affect your enjoyment of the park. Get them (won't take 5 minutes) then if it works out to use them to your advantage, great, but if not, just don't use them. Do the parks at your kids speed and enjoy every single moment... after all, you had to give up a kidney to afford it right?

 

[papamouse1]

Is it true you can only pull one Fast pass at a time? Or, can you pull multiple Fast Passes?

If your FP time is within 2 hours of when you got it, then you can't get another one until that time comes up. If the FP you have is for later in the day, then in 2 hours you can actually gat another FP and then you have 2 FP's at the same time... 2 hours is the magic number

 

[Girimama33]

Is it true you can only pull one Fast pass at a time? Or, can you pull multiple Fast Passes?

From what I have read, RRCS and CA Screamin' are disconnected from FP (also WOC). DCA is not related to DL FP. You can collect a FP once every 2 hours or after your return time (for your last obtained FP)...whichever comes first, then you can grab another.
Here is some more good info to review.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32518085&postcount=5

 

[DanT]

Check the time printed on the bottom of the fastpass, it will tell you when you can collect another....early in the AM it is often less than 2 hours..
Our last visit we had 6 or 7 by about noon...and used them later in the evening...
We even gave one pair away late on our last nite for Space since we were leaving..

 

[Astylla]

I used to be one of "those" people , wondering why bother with fast pass when you can wait in line and be done with it. Growing up FP wasn't even around in WDW so it never bothered me nor occurred to me to even give it a try. First trip to DL with DH in 2009 he convinced me it was a good idea..and how right he was. While we don't go crazy with them or plan things around FP , we do grab them as we go by and throughout the day. We also do not have children so we dont use a battle type plan of attack to maximize everything. We head to our favorites first - Splash Mountain , Space Mountain , Star Tours , BTMRR , Matterhorn and go from there.

I think it's a great system to take advantage of.

 

[aymekae]

I agree, we use them rarely in low peak times, as we prefer to wait the 15 minutes and do what we want to do when we want to do it. As the wait times get longer though, we use them more and more. Honestly, it does nothing for you but free up MORE time on your vacation. For instance, Space Mountain is a huge hit for both of us, so we usually like to start off our day there. We grab a FP, then jump in line and ride it within minutes. Then we have that FP to ride it again later, pretty much whenever we want (and we always want!)

I don't find it that far to walk anywhere in the parks, to each other, or DTD, so it doesn't seem strange to me to ride several rides at DL in the morning, collect a few FP's, then jump ship to DCA, ride a few more, grab another FP, head to DTD for lunch, then back to DL to use our FP's and hit a few other attractions that are either short wait times (Tiki) or lengthy rests (Pirates) since we're dragging our feet by that time. Then dinner, then back to DCA or whatever nightly entertainment we want to see. We use FP's to get our money's worth, that's for sure!

 

[lk2500]

Read through the posts and links above and figure out which attractions are disconnected, etc...

Is it just you with the kids? As other said the rides are pretty close together. There are a few prior posts where people have listed plans of attack for gathering fast passes, I'll try to link one...

If you have 2 adults assign a Fastpass runner and just hold everybody's tickets. Then you can run gather fastpasses while the others chill. You can even go between parks with the tickets. That minimizes running around for the kids.

 

[coaches24]

I used to only use FP if the line was really long and then I would always come back at the time it said to. Because of that I spent a whole lot more time in line and got much less done each day.

Last week we were in the parks and I tried collecting FPs early for rides we wanted to ride a lot and not worrying about the return time. It was amazing the difference it made in our trip. We got more done each day than we ever would have before. And some rides that we love (like Indy) that we normally would get to ride once a day we rode like 2 or 3 times a day. We didn't run around out of our way and collect FPs like some suggest and I now see why they do that, but we did pick them up when we were near those rides as we went to others. If you follow the return time then FP isn't much help but if you learn to collect them early while getting non FP rides done them it can make a huge difference in how much you get done.

 

[bumbershoot]

Check the time printed on the bottom of the fastpass, it will tell you when you can collect another....early in the AM it is often less than 2 hours..

Don't bother trying to figure out 2 hours, etc, just look at the FP itself. It tells you clearly when you can get another!