Park Hopper and FastPass+

[Classickat]

I understand that with FastPass+, we are limited to 3 FP per day. And in reading about FP+, I understood it to be that we would be limited to scheduling those FPs at ONE park per day. As park hoppers, we were really disappointed in this and decided that maybe we would remove that option for our upcoming trip in April.

When I called Disney to adjust my tickets, the cast member told me that although we are limited to a total of 3, that they COULD be scheduled all in one park OR spread out amongst any of the parks we planned to visit that day. As long as we didn't go over 3 total, we could schedule in any combination of parks.

I have spoken to Disney directly twice now, and both times I received a different answer! Can anyone who has actually used the FP+ AND PH verify for me? Thanks so much!

 

[Brian Noble]

The cast member is incorrect. One park per day.

(You could call Disney three times with a yes/no question, and get three different answers!)

We won't be dropping our hoppers though. In fact, on some days, we might well use the FP+ reservations in the *evening* park, not the *morning* one.

 

[jimandami]

We had park hoppers in Dec and yes, you absolutely are limited to one park. Whether that will be the case in April, or in July, or in November....who knows? As far as getting PH or not, we really like the ability to go to one park in the morning and then hit another park in the evening or dinner or whatever so we will continue to purchase hoppers. Our strategy is to hit our first park in the morning and ride standby, and then schedule our FP+ in the second park.

 

[jco_direwolf]

As of today (well a week ago, but I've not heard its changed) if you change parks for your FP+ you loose all your current FP+ reservations.

The current "best strategy" seems to be to do rd/morning at park A with out FP+. Then break and goto park B where your FP+ are for the afternoon/evening.

 

[Classickat]

Thank you! Good to know! And I certainly agree with your strategy...do standby in the a.m. and use FP in the evening! We are rope drop goers (and love the early EMH). I am actually kind of excited about the evening FP option with the scheduling ahead of time...saves us the walk to the attraction only to find out there are no FP or the return time is really late. Thanks again! We'll be keeping the PH.

 

[G8r4evr]

I really hope they eventually allow hopper tickets to schedule multi day Fps. You pay a premium for hoppers, so I think it should be included. Maybe even 3 at 1 park and a bonus 1 at the other, as part of the "hopper" upgrade...

 

[jco_direwolf]

I really hope they eventually allow hopper tickets to schedule multi day Fps. You pay a premium for hoppers, so I think it should be included. Maybe even 3 at 1 park and a bonus 1 at the other, as part of the "hopper" upgrade...

Not bad idea but what would you do for Passholders?

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

we're here now and that is still the situation. Many CMs have told me that the park hopping version of FP+ is "in the works" but nobody knows when it will be released. I have a hard time seeing that really work out as people now (in a slow time) are having trouble getting same day "highly desirable" FP (like TSM, Soarin, TOT etc).

We were in AK this morning and Epcot this afternoon - if they let me pick from more than one park of course I'd pick Safari for AK and Soarin for Epcot. Yesterday we were at DHS (I'd take TSM), Epcot (Soarin) and AK (Safari) - IMO unless they put some kind of limit on there is no way they'd have enough FP .....

 

[Laketravis]

I found that even under the current structure the combination of Park Hoppers and FP+ was a pretty good deal.

Go to EMH or recommended park in the morning, ride SB until the crowds set in, move to the park you've got afternoon FP for, maybe even go to a third park in the evening for walk-around, parade, fireworks, or late night SB.

That strategy will hold true until everyone realizes it and the afternoon/evening FP's start to run out.

But right now, it's the best way to do it. Even better now that they've got buses running between the parks.

 

[mom2rtk]

I found that even under the current structure the combination of Park Hoppers and FP+ was a pretty good deal.

Go to EMH or recommended park in the morning, ride SB until the crowds set in, move to the park you've got afternoon FP for, maybe even go to a third park in the evening for walk-around, parade, fireworks, or late night SB.

That strategy will hold true until everyone realizes it and the afternoon/evening FP's start to run out.

But right now, it's the best way to do it. Even better now that they've got buses running between the parks.

With the caveat of course that you must be staying onsite for this to work. Offsite guests cannot schedule FP until they arrive at that second park and what they want might be gone by then.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

With the caveat of course that you must be staying onsite for this to work. Offsite guests cannot schedule FP until they arrive at that second park and what they want might be gone by then.

I agree - from what we've observed this week the peak FP+ kiosk crowds are around 11 - 1 . I think many people are coming in and riding things then scheduling their FP+ and of course there's always a large crowd that enters the park around 11/ 12 - the go in and immediately make their FP+ plans.

so if you are offsite and park hopping - using FP at your afternoon park your choices may be very limited.

Staying onsite is right now a big advantage!

 

[G8r4evr]

Not bad idea but what would you do for Passholders?

I say 3 FPs for your preferred park and then 1 FP for any additional parks for that day. Maybe put a 10 or 14 day advanced cap on the "additional park" FPs.

 

[G8r4evr]

It really is. FP+ definitely made me decide on Pop over one of the DTD or Bonnet Creek resorts.

 

[Laketravis]

With the caveat of course that you must be staying onsite for this to work. Offsite guests cannot schedule FP until they arrive at that second park and what they want might be gone by then.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

If you're not staying onsite, you're screwed.

 

[3happydancers]

I found that even under the current structure the combination of Park Hoppers and FP+ was a pretty good deal.

Go to EMH or recommended park in the morning, ride SB until the crowds set in, move to the park you've got afternoon FP for, maybe even go to a third park in the evening for walk-around, parade, fireworks, or late night SB.

That strategy will hold true until everyone realizes it and the afternoon/evening FP's start to run out.

But right now, it's the best way to do it. Even better now that they've got buses running between the parks.

Can you tell me where I can read up on buses running between parks? As of last August, this was not the case and I am pretty excited to learn about it!

 

[Robo]

Can you tell me where I can read up on buses running between parks? As of last August, this was not the case and I am pretty excited to learn about it!

Disney has had "direct" transportation between the parks since they have had multiple parks.
That's how they provide transportation for "park hopping."

What is NEW (as of this month) is they have added buses that run between the MK gates and DHS and DAK.
Previously, those parks' bus routes terminated at the TTC/MK parking lot and a ride on the monorail or ferry boats was required
to start or complete the journey to/from the MK gates.
(The Epcot<>MK run still requires a monorail change-over at TTC.)

--------------

There is "direct" transportation between all the WDW theme parks.

Most routes are via Disney Buses.

Here are the "park-to-park" Disney Transportation direct connections:

MK> Epcot = Monorail to TTC, Switch to 2nd Monorail to Epcot
MK> DHS = Direct Bus
MK> AK= Direct Bus

AK> DHS= Direct Bus
AK> Epcot= Direct Bus
AK> MK= Direct Bus

DHS> MK= Direct Bus
DHS> AK= Direct Bus
DHS> Epcot= Direct Bus (Epcot Front Gate) or Boat (Epcot Intl. Gateway)
......Boats ("Friendships") make 3 interim stops at the Epcot area resorts.

Epcot > MK= Monorail to TTC, Switch to 2nd Monorail to MK
Epcot > AK= Direct Bus
Epcot> DHS= Direct Bus (Epcot Front Gate) or Boat (Epcot Intl. Gateway)
......Boats ("Friendships") make 3 interim stops at the Epcot area resorts.

The buses have their destinations shown on them on illuminated signs.
The bus stops at the parks are also marked with signage.

As a rule-of-thumb, allow 40-60 minutes to get from the gates of one park to the gates of another park.

 

[3happydancers]

Disney has had "direct" transportation between the parks since they have had multiple parks.
That's how they provide transportation for "park hopping."

What is NEW (as of this month) is they have added buses that run between the MK gates and DHS and DAK.
Before those parks' buses terminated at TTC/MK parking lot and a ride on the monorail or ferry boats was required
to start or complete the journey to/from the MK gates.
(The Epcot<>MK run still requires a monorail change-over at TTC.)

--------------

There is "direct" transportation between all the WDW theme parks.

Most routes are via Disney Buses.

Here are the "park-to-park" Disney Transportation direct connections:

MK> Epcot = Monorail to TTC, Switch to 2nd Monorail to Epcot
MK> DHS = Direct Bus
MK> AK= Direct Bus

AK> DHS= Direct Bus
AK> Epcot= Direct Bus
AK> MK= Direct Bus

DHS> MK= Direct Bus
DHS> AK= Direct Bus
DHS> Epcot= Direct Bus (Epcot Front Gate) or Boat (Epcot Intl. Gateway)
......Boats ("Friendships") make 3 interim stops at the Epcot area resorts.

Epcot > MK= Monorail to TTC, Switch to 2nd Monorail to MK
Epcot > AK= Direct Bus
Epcot> DHS= Direct Bus (Epcot Front Gate) or Boat (Epcot Intl. Gateway)
......Boats ("Friendships") make 3 interim stops at the Epcot area resorts.

The buses have their destinations shown on them on illuminated signs.
The bus stops at the parks are also marked with signage.

As a rule-of-thumb, allow 40-60 minutes to get from the gates of one park to the gates of another park.

Boy do I feel dumb! I knew about the monorail and the boats, but never realized there were buses that went from park to park. Then again, we really don't hop much. Thanks!

 

[Laketravis]

Boy do I feel dumb! I knew about the monorail and the boats, but never realized there were buses that went from park to park. Then again, we really don't hop much. Thanks!

Well, as far as I'm concerned there weren't until Robo said there were.

 

[Robo]

Well, as far as I'm concerned there weren't until Robo said there were.

So many guests don't know about those routes that I just post the info every once in awhile.

And, again, the NEW info concerns the MK gate stops for DAK and DHS.

Also, when the Resort Monorail and MK Express Monorail is not running (due to maintenance) as is the case for several more weeks, there will be buses that run to/from the MK "monorail resorts" (and to/from TTC) to/from the MK front gate bus terminal.

It is POSSIBLE (when the Resort Monorail and MK Express Monorail is not running) that there might also be a direct bus to/from Epcot and the MK gates bus terminal, but I'm looking for a post from a recent guest confirming or denying that info.

 

[3happydancers]

So many guests don't know about those routes that I just post the info every once in awhile.

And, again, the NEW info concerns the MK gate stops for DAK and DHS.

Also, when the Resort Monorail and MK Express Monorail is not running (due to maintenance) as is the case for several more weeks, there will be buses that run to/from the MK "monorail resorts" (and to/from TTC) to/from the MK front gate bus terminal.

It is POSSIBLE (when the Resort Monorail and MK Express Monorail is not running) that there might also be a direct bus to/from Epcot and the MK gates bus terminal, but I'm looking for a post from a recent guest confirming or denying that info.

Either way Robo, thanks for the info. I've sent a copy to my email to have as reference for now!