Strategies for Fast Passes

[debidoesdisney]

We will be at DW the week of Christmas and know that the parks are going to be jammed. What are some of your strategies for getting fast passes. Number 1 on my list is Everest, but there are many others too. I have never used a fast pass, but am semi-familiar with how they work. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Plantlady]

Head to the ride you want a fast pass for first. Grab your fast pass... move on to another ride.

Before using the fast pass.. grab another fast pass for a different ride.

There are many more ways to do it, which I'm sure others will tell you about.

 

[DaddyBeast]

Everest: There will be people running for the FP machines at Everest at park opening, and if you are so inclined you could do that. They will probably run out of FP's for Everest early in the afternoon, and the later you get there, the later your FP (for example - get FP at 9am, ride at 11:15am -or- get FP at 11am, ride at 5pm).
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How large is your party? You can take advantage of having several tickets, and if you have children who don't ride the coasters, you can still get FP's using their tickets.
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Safari: If you want to do the safari and Everest in the same day, you need to go and get your FP's for one of them early. Please note that the FP wait times have been getting longer (yes, after you arrive at the safari at your FP time, you will still need to wait for maybe even 30 minutes).
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If you have any more specific questions, please let us know. Hang loose.

 

[MikeAidanEoinMom]

We will be at DW the week of Christmas and know that the parks are going to be jammed. What are some of your strategies for getting fast passes. Number 1 on my list is Everest, but there are many others too. I have never used a fast pass, but am semi-familiar with how they work. Thanks in advance for your help.

Do you have any little kids or babys?????This helped us on our resent trip.... we need 4 people to get FP but needed child swap..... so we would get 2 FP for one attraction and 2 for another and use the child swap pass. So we could hold passes for 2 different attractions at the same time.

 

[bettyann29]

My stratedgy is as I research ahead of time which rides do FP in each park.. As soon as we get to the park we head straight to the ride we want to ride the most and get a FP.. then we go ride one or 2 rides in the area of that ride that way we dont have to walk across the park to ride that ride when its time.. as soon as we get off the ride we had a FP for we go to another ride with FP and get one.. then we ride one or 2 more rides in the area of that ride.. this is what we do continually throughout the day and have always riden everything we wanted.. With EE being so new and everyone wanting to ride it I do get this FP first thing when the park opens to ensure we get to ride it.. I seem to remember in Epcot that EE and Testtrack were the 2 rides that ran out of FP early in the day..

 

[TammyC]

When there is more than one attraction that I want FP for, I get my second one before I use the first so that I can be "waiting" while enjoying my first attraction. Example (for OP who has not used FP before): when FP is issued it will say to return between 10:30 and 11:30. It will also indicate when you can get another FP, which will be 10:30 (or in some instances before 10:30). So at 10:30 I get my next FP then return to the original FP attraction. Whew! I hope that makes sense.

 

[debidoesdisney]

Thanks for all your responses. We are a family of 3. My dh will not ride some things, but it doesn't sound like that would help my ds and I as we would still need another fp. My ds is 19 so darn, that old child swap thing won't work either. When my ds and I went to Universal last year during spring break I paid the big bucks and got the prefered ticket (can't remember the name) but we could get in the no wait line once, on each of the rides. We hit all the rides we wanted in the morning when the lines were short and then used our passes in the afternoon when it got busier. That worked so well. I have very painful plantar facaitis(sp?) in my feet so standing is not good..Not sure how long I will last even with the fp.

How do you find out ahead of time which rides have the fast passes? That's a really great idea to have everything planned out ahead of time.

 

[starlionblue]

There is a way to take full advantage and I've tried it. Trust me, it works. Suppose you are very tight on time. You punch in at Test Track at 11 a.m. and the return time is noon. That means you have one hour to kill. You ride the Peoplemover and see Space Mountain is full too even though you want to ride it. You're in a shop and see your watch: it's 12:05. Horrors! Have to get to TT before it's too late.

DO NOT run to TT yet! DO NOT throw away the FP issued for TT! Punch in at SM and THEN, go to TT. The return time for SM is 1 p.m. What happened? You have TWO FPs. You are officially in the "window" of your first FP so you can still get in the FP line. SM has a return time of 1 p.m. and you get off TT at 12:00. Your FP for SM is still valid! You didn't have to wait that extra hour doing nothing. I did this during my visit in July and it saved me so much time that I rode Big Thunder and SM TWICE EACH in ONE DAY! Hope this helps!

One last thing: DO NOT toss out the FP stub, they collect them before you board to keep cheaters from reusing them. Also, sometimes, you might find a pre-punched FP or two lying on the ground around the FP stations that are still valid. The CMs don't even bat an eye at the kids scrambling to get their hands on unwanted FPs. I guess that's because it means less trash for the cleaning crew to pick up.

The trick: you punched in five minutes after the 1-hour window began for TT so you can still "swipe" a second FP for SM. You cannot do it at 12. You have to wait until the 1-hour window BEGINS. Then, the FP station will issue you a new FP even if the first has not been used yet. And it's perfectly valid! Just remember, the first FP issued must be a few minutes AFTER its return time in order to get a second FP.

Hope this helps!

 

[mousehouselover]

Great tips. Thanks for sharing.

I was in the world right after they introduced FP and we didn't use them because the crowds were really small.

I'm really getting excited about our trip!

 

[debidoesdisney]

starlion blue - great suggestion and I will do just that. How long do you have past the "report time" to actually report? Does that make sense?

 

[Deb & Bill]

There is a way to take full advantage and I've tried it. Trust me, it works. Suppose you are very tight on time. You punch in at Test Track at 11 a.m. and the return time is noon. That means you have one hour to kill. You ride the Peoplemover and see Space Mountain is full too even though you want to ride it. You're in a shop and see your watch: it's 12:05. Horrors! Have to get to TT before it's too late....

Except you probably would be holding a FP for Test Track (Epcot) at 11AM and over in the MK at 10AM. Unless you are a fast mover. Even the monorail wouldn't get you there that quickly. You have to use your ticket at a park in order to get a FP. You can't bring another person's ticket with you and get them a FP for a later time if they aren't in the park already.

The first FP time is usually around 10AM. EE and Soarin' ran out by about 2PM or 3PM during Thanksgiving week.

Some attractions (shows like Lights, Motors, Action) will allow you to hold a second FP since everyone goes at the next show time. You'll get in about 5 minutes before the general crowd.

 

[Sokrmom]

My recommendation, simply based on how the crowds went on our trip the 1st week in November.
MK-Get FP for Big Thunder Mountain RR/Haunted Mansion/Peter Pan--whatever you prefer to ride MOST!, first thing.

Epcot-Head to Test Track, get a Fast Pass. Do Mission Space, wander over to Soarin' , taking your time (to utilize the hour + window) grab FP for Soarin', head back to Test Track and then back to Soarin'. These were two of our favorites!

AK--Get a FP for EE as soon as you arrive in the park. They will run out!

MGM- We did fine getting right on the rides here. Absolutely don't miss ToT & RR.

Have fun!

 

[debidoesdisney]

Thanks Sokrmom!

Questions:

Are all the fast pace booths right at the rides that you want them for?

How can you find out ahead of time which rides have fast passes available, so I can make my plan of attack?

What is the window of time that you have to use a fast pass and how strict are they with that?

Thanks to whoever can give me answers!!!

 

[MikeAidanEoinMom]

Thanks Sokrmom!

Questions:

Are all the fast pace booths right at the rides that you want them for?

How can you find out ahead of time which rides have fast passes available, so I can make my plan of attack?

What is the window of time that you have to use a fast pass and how strict are they with that?

Thanks to whoever can give me answers!!!

The booths are right by the ride. http://allearsnet.com/tp/fastpass.htm gives you a list of FP attractions. We used our FP AFTER the window of time and never had a problem. They will not let you use them before. The CM at everest looked at our pass chuckled and said "your late" one time.

 

[debidoesdisney]

MAEM -THANKS SO MUCH. That is exactly what I was looking for!!! MUCH APPRECIATED!

 

[Lindy Loo]

Remember if you are going to use the photopass, TEST TRACK photos can be put on to the CD for FREE!!!! I guess this would have been changed since your last visit, and as you are a planner like me ( I was about to put the link for the list of FP rides up ) then you might like to know this too.


Here we are in the front row. First time my DD 4 rode !

have fun !!! xx

 

[teach22180]

Just fyi, Haunted Mansion is NOT a fastpass. I was surprised about that myself on our last trip. so don't count on that one! As many times as I read the list, I was just sure it would be. Nope, prepare to stand in line!

 

[debidoesdisney]

Remember if you are going to use the photopass, TEST TRACK photos can be put on to the CD for FREE!!!! I guess this would have been changed since your last visit, and as you are a planner like me ( I was about to put the link for the list of FP rides up ) then you might like to know this too.

Things are always changing at Disney. Excuse me for my ignorance, you have my interest piqued, what's a photopass?

teach-thanks for the info on HM. THat is definately on my list of "do-overs" but is always such a loonnnnggg wait. Maybe will have to skip this time and save for a less crowded time.

 

[photobob]

Our usual strategy is similar to what others have said with a little variation. I'm usually the fastpass runner. Let's say we are going to MK. We arrive a opening, while my party heads to Splash Mountain I briskly walk to Space Mountain to get FP for everyone. Then I head back to Splash(Long walk I know, but I don't mind) we usually ride Splash and BTMRR a couple of times each with no wait. Depending on the time for Space we may grab a FP for later on Splash and head towards Huanted Mansion, Philharmagic and work our way towards Space for the FP window of time.
At Epcot I run to Soarin and while others go to Test Track and wait for me. We'll do the standby and maybe kill a little time around there and grab a FP once the time window opens, then go do Soarin. If time frame works out sometimes we'll be able to walk back and forth between Soarin and Test Track a couple of times using Fp twice on each, and checking out other attractions and shops between in between FP times.
At MGM we get FP for RNR and do Tower of Terror usually a couple of times in the standby line which is usually a short wait at opening and then go do RNR and get another FP for later.
At AK I head to EE to get fastpasses and then meet everyone at Safari.

The key to touring parks I've found is to arrive at the time the park opens and try to do the major rides right away with a combination of FP and the shorter waits on standby lines and then start do the lesser attractions which should still be fairly short waits because people are still coming in and going to the big rides. The key to the whole thing though is arriving early..

 

[krier32]

We are about to take our first trip to Disney over the Christmas Holiday.
My question about fastpass is: When you register, do you have to register everybody in your party indvidually or when one person registers, does it give you the option to register your whole party. It is just going to be my wife, myself, and 2 children.

Thanks,
Don