Park hopping/FP strategy

[LSUfan4444]

a) Take advantage of short wait times early in the day at your first park, and have prime fast passes waiting for you at your second park of the day.

Usually, this is what we do. The only time we will plan early FP+ is when we either know we will be in MK for an extended period of time or we know we are park hopping and the park we are hopping to has multiple options for FP selections that we would be happy with.

Our focus is almost always on the quality of FP, how we use them and where than quantity.

 

[Trinity88]

I personally go with Plan A. I didn't have much luck refreshing in mid December. I couldn't get any of the big rides. I think I was able to get Star Tours, but that was it at HS, none of the mountains at MK, not even Everest at AK. And I tried for even 1 person. I know others have had better luck, but I won't count on it in the future.

 

[Remy is Up]

On a trip of that length I am in the camp of use a combination of both. I am not a fan of leaving FPs for later in the day because for attraction centric tours of the park I believe doing RD at a NON EMH park or if on property using EMH and then Setting FPs for 9/10/11 respectively, refresh, move up, and in any park you can knock out as much as you want by 11 or 12 and then break for the day, then do a relax evening in another park and use your refresh to grab new FPs. On the other hand we have days where we just go to a park and use FPs whenever we get there. It really comes down to which parks, size of party, time of day etc. Planning a trip like that gets very specific but still leaves flexibility if you max out the refresh system and choose the right parks each day. Refresh has worked perfectly for us on the past 3 trips ( Christmas Eve- New Years, Late January, and March). We will do it again in two weeks and be in Orlando for 9 days ( not all of that will be Disney, its a book end trip with Family in the middle, so on property The first Friday- Monday, Villains after hours Thursday, On property Friday-Sunday). But based on texts from friends aand family already in orlando who go a ton and only use refresh, its still working well. The only commentary I would make on that is these are all AP holders who go to the parks regularly and have maximized the refresh process through practice and use, so your results may not be the same.

 

[Christinecinti]

What always works for us on Nov trips (busy Nov around T-giving not slower Nov- although I wish LOL) is to book our FP late morning-early afternoon. We usually do them between 11:30-2:30ish. We had great luck getting additional FP's. Now rides like 7 dwarves or slinky dog didn't show up to add too often (or at all)... but weren't only the small rides either. We got things like Soarin, Frozen sing along, Tower Terror, Haunted Mansion, Pirates etc often. But your mileage may vary. Never went in Oct. We're going in July and our FP strategy will be different since taking a mid day break most days due to heat. Was considering saving the FP till evening park, but decided to go ahead and do them in morning park but between 10:30-1:00ish so can leave in heat of day. Will try to get a 4th FP for the evening park right when we use last morning one. And then if need be ride smaller things in evening/enjoy atmosphere (hey- any excuse to sit down and have icecream right? LOL)

 

[maryj11]

Depends on what rides you want. If you want FOP then you need to do FP's for what ever time of day you want to be in AK. Just make a decision on which hard to get FP's you want like FOP, Slinky Dog etc then plan on if you want to go mornings or evenings to that park on those days. You can mix it up and do FP in morning some days and evenings some days.

 

[Ellie Webbs]

Plan A all the way! We've rarely been able to score decent fast passes same day bit then we've always travelled March- May time. Unless the prospect of a figment fast pass is of interest (true story lol)

 

[Davey Jones II]

Are you staying on site? There is EMH every day at 7 AM with an 8 AM opening at AK and MK and 6-9 AM EMH with a 9 AM opening every day you're there. SO, if you're not entitled to EMH, you will be at a disadvantage and I would do FPs in park 1, because so many people would beat you into the park. If you are onsite, and able to get there at the beginning of the EMH, I would do FPs in park 2.

That`s a good point, and yes, we will be staying on-site. However, even during EMH, we use the contrarian approach of avoiding the superstar attractions that the herd walks/runs to.

So, say for example, we`re going to MK for EMH. We do as many rides as we can while most people do 7DMT and PP, then have FPs for those rides after 8 a.m. If DHS is our second park and we can live without SDD that day, would we be better off trying to get same-day passes at DHS?

 

[mamamelody2]

That`s a good point, and yes, we will be staying on-site. However, even during EMH, we use the contrarian approach of avoiding the superstar attractions that the herd walks/runs to.

So, say for example, we`re going to MK for EMH. We do as many rides as we can while most people do 7DMT and PP, then have FPs for those rides after 8 a.m. If DHS is our second park and we can live without SDD that day, would we be better off trying to get same-day passes at DHS?

Well, yes, I would do that. BUT, HS will probably be very busy due to Galaxy's Edge and same-day FPs may be hard to come by. It's a tough call.

 

[SaintsManiac]

That`s a good point, and yes, we will be staying on-site. However, even during EMH, we use the contrarian approach of avoiding the superstar attractions that the herd walks/runs to.

So, say for example, we`re going to MK for EMH. We do as many rides as we can while most people do 7DMT and PP, then have FPs for those rides after 8 a.m. If DHS is our second park and we can live without SDD that day, would we be better off trying to get same-day passes at DHS?

No. Book your FPS at HS.

 

[Bethany Nelson]

I'm going to say it depends on a lot of factors. I was there by myself in March and started with the idea of RD one park with FP in the second park, but quickly nixed that in favor of refreshing.
However, I spend a massive amount of time refreshing. Not that there were not FP available, but that I was trying to get the perfect time or the best FP. Part of this was probably because I was by myself so it's a super easy thing to do while you are waiting, but, if I was with a group I would probably not want to do that and miss actually spending time with people.
So I would consider:
-how large your group is. The larger the group, the more intricate FP refreshing would be and take longer.
-how mobile is the group. smaller children, older adults and anyone who moves slower will make hopping and moving take longer
-what are your must-dos. If you can't get a 7DMT in advance and want it, you can probably get it, but refreshing is going to take a long time as opposed to stuff like Little Mermaid, figmet etc.
-what park you will start in and go to. You can RD HS at the crack of dawn and get the TSL rides, but, by that time, waits for RNR, TOT and ST are going to be huge. Are you ok bailing at that point and moving on?
-how long are you planning to spend in each park. I RD HS on and managed TSL right before the park opened normally. I booked it to TOT and a reasonable wait to come out to the fact that no shows were starting for awhile and everything had a wait time longer than I wanted(except muppets). That was when I decided to just schedule FP and refresh.

I would say on balance, I preferred to schedule FP in the park I RD starting around 9:30/10 and then see what was open in the other parks without a clear destination in mind. Again, this was easier on my own, but I got to ride FOP 4 times and SDD 3 using this strategy. Had I scheduled FP for my second park later in the day, I would not be able to take advantage of that.
The only exception, I would say, may be epcot because, if you can RD, you have a good chance of hitting at least 2 out of the 3 major rides and the smaller ones will have lower waits. I know some may disagree with me on that point, but it's my two cents.