Old fashioned fastpass

[lynng]

Is the old way of fast passing still available ?
Really don't want to plan what day we go to which park , so far in advance. Thanks

 

[DLPDreams]

No sorry. It all has to be pre booked now. You can take your chances and see what is available on the day at a FP kiosk and book then, but anything remotely popular seems to go long before that during a busy time - and as you are going at Easter, it will be busy .

 

[chmurf]

you need to prebook 3 and once you've used them up, you can try to get new ones at FP+ kiosks, and then it works somewhat like the old fashioned way (one at a time)

but you first have to use your 3 initial FP+

as PP mentionned, at a busy time, if you don't book in advance (60 days onsite, 30 days offsite) the most popular rides/experiences will only be available in the standby line. (TSMM, Meet Anna&Elsa, Test Track, Soarin', 7DMT, for a quick list)

Also not that both DHS and EPCOT are tiered, you can't book 2 headliners as part of your initial FP+ selection.
You will need to choose between Soarin' and Test Track for example.

 

[lynng]

Thanks for the replies.
Why o why did they have to change it?

 

[zavandor]

Even if I could exploit the old system and use a lot of FP during the day, I have to say I prefer the new one.
Expecially because you cna book FP+ for the evening, for a late arrival or to park hop. For example, morning and afternoon at AK without FP, then MK for Wishes and 3 FP+. It was impossible in the past.

 

[alibeau]

We are going in August, not sure if we are even doing Disney this time but if we do.....

We usually decide the day/evening before which park to go to, would there be any fast passes available at that point? There is no way on earth I could book FP's 30 days in advance - our days of planning are well and truly over!

This new system would have suited us on our early trips though where we did have a plan of which parks we were going to on which days but we don't plan any more

Ali

 

[BudgieMama]

We are going in August, not sure if we are even doing Disney this time but if we do.....

We usually decide the day/evening before which park to go to, would there be any fast passes available at that point? There is no way on earth I could book FP's 30 days in advance - our days of planning are well and truly over!

This new system would have suited us on our early trips though where we did have a plan of which parks we were going to on which days but we don't plan any more

Ali

We were there late August 2014 and found changing stuff on the fly very easy. On our final morning, we cancelled all our FP+ in MK and booked everything we wanted at Epcot at 7.30am that morning. That included Soarin' in the morning, as we had to leave by 1pm... and we knew we wouldn't make rope drop because of sorting out our luggage.

I'd suggest maybe looking at the crowd calendars and booking some in advance... Then if you change your mind, you can reschedule for another park

 

[DLPDreams]

Sorry to go OT, but it is looking very likely that the US children will go back to school a week later than usual in August this year due to a late labor day. 24th August seems to be most of their first days back. I think this means that crowds won't start to drop off as early as previous Augusts. I therefore wouldn't risk booking headliner FPs the night before, or that morning - not until the US children have gone back to school anyway. Unfortunately we leave on 27th August to return home, so I'm planning for very busy - if it's not so much, then it is a bonus .

Funnily enough I read a thread on here (not in UK bit) where a US woman was stating that because of above, that she felt that most crowd predictions were out quite considerably for the latter half of August. Predictors don't seem to have considered this in their scoring, but then she pointed out that their crowd levels are based on historical data!

 

[maclondon]

If i were you id just book a bunch of Fast Passes for every day yuo have tickets
if you use them well and good - if not change on the day.

I'm doing that for the days we are off site - i'm just picking randomly
if we want to use them good - or change when we are there.

I for instance have no idea what rides the kids will LOVE and want to go back for etc. I'll re schedule those for aftenoons later in the holiday

Obv some you have to select and stick with but thats basically A&E and 7DMT.

 

[disneyholic family]

DD was there in early/mid november, when it shouldn't be that bad. But she found that there were no good FPs to be had when she tried to rearrange her schedule. She was very happy she'd pre-booked everything despite not wanting to do it.

 

[pickers1982]

Try not to stress too much about fastpass + we booked rides at the 60 day mark but changed them regularly and whilst on holiday. Just make a rough plan then if you change your mind just change. Dont see yourselves as locked in

 

[disneyholic family]

Try not to stress too much about fastpass + we booked rides at the 60 day mark but changed them regularly and whilst on holiday. Just make a rough plan then if you change your mind just change. Dont see yourselves as locked in

this depends on when you're there.
DD was not able to rearrange her FPs once she was in orlando.
There were no good FPs left when she was there.

 

[wilma-bride]

We were there late August 2014 and found changing stuff on the fly very easy. On our final morning, we cancelled all our FP+ in MK and booked everything we wanted at Epcot at 7.30am that morning. That included Soarin' in the morning, as we had to leave by 1pm... and we knew we wouldn't make rope drop because of sorting out our luggage.

I'd suggest maybe looking at the crowd calendars and booking some in advance... Then if you change your mind, you can reschedule for another park

It's fair to say that things have changed a lot since then. We were there in March 2014 and had no problem switching things around and booking/changing FP+ the night before or sometimes event he morning of.

However, in October our experience was completely different. We couldn't get any times before about 6 or 7pm for the more popular rides in any of the parks after about midday the previous day. We tried to switch our Soarin' FP+ for Test Track 2 days before and could only get 5.40pm. There seems to be very little late availability now, certainly far less than there used to be.

OP, I'm afraid that if you don't want to spend all your time waiting in lines, the only thing to do might be to pre-book FP+ for each day ont he days you think you 'might' be in each park and cancel them if you don't need them, or hope that you can change them if you decide to do a different park. Better to have some booked and not need them than have none booked and not be able to get any.