OOOOOooooooo Help Us With This Heated Family Debate

[Spork24]

IMO, the more crowded it is the less likely you are to get quality rolling fourth fastpasses.

Why use up your fastpasses during the early morning when wait times are reasonable. We usually try to set up our first fastpass starting around 10:30-11:30, if we aren't saving our FP to hop later in the day.

 

[seashell7290]

So I don't know what day of the week you are going but there is no rope drop for the world showcase. Frozen opens with the rest of the park. Your plan has you going to 2 parks not at official rope drop times so I am not sure if it would be as effective. Maybe you can try and make it to Epcot for rope drop since it will have a 9am opening and ride frozen for the shortest wait. What time can you get off the boat and feasibly be in your car?

 

[GillianP1301]

If the one day in question is the only day you would be at the 2 parks you're planning for that day, then it would really depend on the two parks and which one had the most critically important ride for me to FP and that's the one I'd book in.

My normal response to this for our trips (we do 10 days in the parks with multiple days at each park), I always do late morning/early afternoon FP and then go with whatever I can get for additional fastpasses for later in the day.

 

[wilkeliza]

I always do the 3 specific must do rides. I try to get them as early as possible but if by the time I get to that day they are only available evening or later then I just take what I can get and try to adjust on the fly later.

So if we are going say for 3 days and doing 4 parks we would do DAK in a day, MK in a day, then HS/EPCOT on the other. For MK we would get 7DMT, BTMRR, and whatever other must do (this is the current must do list of us by FP), DAK would be FoP, Dino, and Safari, then we would decide what is the more important park that trip HS or Epcot. If it is HS we do TSMM, Tower, and Star Tours always the same ones then single rider Rockin or rope drop it. If it is Epcot we decide what top tier that trip between the 3 (usually Frozen right now) then do Spaceship earth and whatever else for the 3rd. It really just depends on the trip but we always prefer to do the must do specifics instead of just whatever we can get because I like to lock in those as best I can. I can understand ride break downs or storms whatever but I'll do what I can with in reason to have a plan for the musts.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Or later in the day when you are at your favorite park during a more crowded and more focused time (focused meaning before or after a planned event: dinner, parade, fireworks) and highly valued rides that will probably not be available as a fast pass the day of.

I focus on quality not quantity. I want my FP's scheduled for attraction I know I will do at times when there will be longer standby times. Sometimes that may mean first park first thing in the morning, other times it may not be until 4 pm. What I never do is assume my 4th FP when scheduling my first three.

 

[tlmadden73]

I think it depends on the make-up of your family.

As recently touring with young (infant/toddler/preschooler) I like the flexibility offered by getting your 3 Fast Passes scheduled and completed by lunch time (12-1 pm) as that is when the kids are definitely ready to roll. Going with preschoolers means you aren't probably going on a lot of the normally long "thrill" rides anyway, and ANY line skipped is a bonus with kids that may be done by mid-afternoon anyway. Who knows if they will be napping or need a break when you have an afternoon or evening Fast Pass scheduled.

Unfortunately this does mean a "wasted" Fast Pass in the morning usually. I've had a 9:30 AM Disney Junior and a 9:30 AM Enchanted Tales. Both had zero line that early, I may have been better off scheduling a mid-afternoon fast pass somewhere else, BUT because of that we had flexibility at lunch to do other things and other "must do" rides (for us) later. It worked out because my son ended up napping like 90 minutes in the middle of the afternoon, so not like we could have done any rides then anyway (at least with him).

I also then like the flexibility of looking at MDE and deciding what to do next, based simply on what FP's are available for your 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. I've been surprised what I've been able to schedule same day and only a few minutes from the current time (Rock-n-Roller coaster for example).

I also choose my fast passes based on location to minimize backtracking. (key with young kids).
For example . .my last fast passes at MK were:
Buzz, then SDMT, then Peter Pan. That gave us the morning in Tomorrowland and put us in Fantasy Land by lunch. In between fast passes you can do other things in the area, Carousel, Teacups, Philharmagic, Small World, Pooh, Princesses, whatever.

 

[AngiTN]

I'm not sure our plans fit any of your options exactly
We book 3 FP for late morning and then book more once they are done. They may or may not be in another park, just depends on what we decide to do.
We may or may not rope drop a given park and ride stand by, just depends what we decide to do. Often we decide to sleep in and hit the park in time to use our first FP at the end of it's window and go right to FP 2
Really, there are just too many variables to have rules. We play things by ear way too much so our rule is probably there aren't rules

 

[DoTheDisFam]

What is stand by? Is that when you've run a bit late for your FP?

 

[ppjluvsdvc]

I am voting for rope drop one park without FP and then FP for the 2nd park. We did this in early June and it worked out great for us. It also depends on what time you are planning on getting to the second park. I had made our FP for 4, 5, &6 that way we could still get a 4th fast pass for later if we wanted.

 

[ppjluvsdvc]

Stand by is the line without FP - nothing to do with running late. You do have a bit of a grace period if you are running late - I think it is 20 minutes after your end time but that may be at the discretion of the CM at the FP entrance. I have honestly never tried it.

 

[DisneyCAL]

Yep schedule FP for park one of the day. So if that means MK in the AM and Epcot at night, then pick 3 majors at MK in to get major stuff done at MK and in hopes that something will be available for 4th, 5th or more at Epcot later.

 

[Minnesota!]

Rope drop first park, FP at later park.

 

[sharonabe]

After the first ride we may very well hightail it over two express transportation and get to Epcot hopefully before rope drop to the world showcase and run as fast as we can to get in line for Frozen Ever After. After Frozen Ever After we are pretty well relaxed with whatever we get until we get to Magic Kingdom later in the afternoon/ early evening.

I'm not following your timeline here. FEA opens at 9:00 a.m. when EP opens, not at 11:00 when the rest of WS opens. If you already knew that, then your intention to use the express bus is messed up, because the express bus doesn't start until 10:00 a.m.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I didn't vote, but I'll tell you our strategy.

For a longer trip (5-7 nights, at least 5 park days), we usually rope-drop, so I don't schedule our FP for very early in the morning when the waits are short. I schedule our first one maybe 10:30, then 11:30, and 1:00. On our upcoming trip (also the first week of Aug), we'll plan to eat lunch between FP, then after completing the last one we will head back to the resort for a rest/swim. We probably won't park-hop. I'll book the 4th FP hopefully as soon as we use #3.

For a shorter trip (3 night long weekend), we do tend to park-hop and I will book FP for the second park planned. On those trips, we don't take afternoon breaks.

 

[maxiesmom]

I book FPs for later on in the day (except for 7DMT) and hit the parks at open. Ride everything I can with very little wait.

 

[mousefan73]

Ooooo you folks are coming up with so many other things to consider .. so I'll add in more abouy our dilema.....

1 We will be disembarking off of The Oasis at Port Canaveral that morning. being to adult Disney nuts and knowing that we have as much time in that day as we can to do whatever we can at Disney we are going to move as quickly as possible. We are going to be taking off our own luggage, and we will be in line at the crack of dawn to get off of the boat. We have a car waiting for us in the parking lot and so it's just a matter of how fast can we get to Disney.

2 so what are our wishes earlier in the day. Our hope is to get there as quickly as possible and to start at Animal Kingdom. As soon as we can we're going to get in line for flight of Passage. If we could get Navi River in that'll be great my daughter also would kind of like to go to Everest but I don't know how the time is going to go for the day. it's going to depend on how quickly we can get through Flight of Passage and if we return later in the day.
After the first ride we may very well hightail it over two express transportation and get to Epcot hopefully before rope drop to the world showcase and run as fast as we can to get in line for Frozen Ever After. After Frozen Ever After we are pretty well relaxed with whatever we get until we get to Magic Kingdom later in the afternoon/ early evening.

3 We already have 3 Fastpasses for the evening at the Magic Kingdom. One of our musts is to be in front of the castle for the happily ever after show. We know that that means that we have to be there probably a half hour to forty minutes in advance. So the three fast passes are for the three rides my daughter insisted on (and let's be serious I want to do too) Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. With those three passes we will be able to get to a spot in front of the castle by at least 30 minutes before the show.

4 If we haven't passed out already ( and we have tons of stamina when it comes to Disney World), we will end our day back at Animal Kingdom for extra magic hours, and will take in any rides that we didn't get to in the morning. It sounds like a good ending and yet I see that the lines for Pandora late night are almost as steep as they are during the day.

5 this sounds like a crazy plan, but since it's just the two adults, we are focusing more on specific rides we want to go on then taking in the wonders of each Park completely.

6 now maybe there really isn't anything we can do at this point since it's getting much closer, but I am always a "get those three fastpasses first thing in the morning and look out for whatever you can get later" type of person. I'm gnawing away at the idea of we should have probably gotten those three fass passes for the morning on Flight of Passage and Everest and then gotten in line for Navi River. And maybe it's too late to change but just in case we're talking what ifs, would you have gone for the morning passes or stuck with the focused passes towards the end of the day.

OMG I am exhausted just reading your plans for that day. Good Luck and drink lots of coffee or water due to heat ( though you wont have time to pee )

 

[mamamelody2]

I'm confused by your timeline. It looks like you're only planning one Disney day?? And that is after getting off a cruise and driving there?
If that is so, I don't see how you can possibly make it to AK for rope drop. Especially since in order to have a short wait, you need to be at there at least one hour before opening time.
If you have more than one day at Disney, then do AK on another day and get there early.

 

[DrummerBoy523]

WOW!!! Are we going toe to toe on THIS one!!

You have 3 fast passes to start with.... do you use them early in the day in hopes of gathering more later. Or later in the day when you are at your favorite park during a more crowded and more focused time (focused meaning before or after a planned event: dinner, parade, fireworks) and highly valued rides that will probably not be available as a fast pass the day of.

NOW HERE ARE THE CATCHES.... (1) we're talking about a day when you KNOW you'll be park-hopping (2) we aren't talking in general. We're talking about during a high volume season (for us - early August) and (3) we're talking a short trip, so you don't have the luxury to say, "oh, we'll catch that ride over the next couple of trip days." It's a get it in this day or wait until the next trip whenever that might possibly be.

If I'm park hopping, I rope drop the first park w/o FPs, and make my FPs for the 2nd park.

 

[JETSDAD]

We rope drop and enjoy the short(er) lines for a couple of hours then 3 FP's later in the morning. Then we keep getting more FP's throughout the day. I'd hate to have my FP's tied up until later in the day as it would really limit the number of FP's we could use (and we can typically get additional FP's for headliners throughout the afternoon/evening).

 

[epcotty]

I say start the FPs 1-2 hours after park opening, they're not necessary before then (unless it's a really tough one to get, then get what you can).