Thinking about FP+ strategy is making me crazy!!!

[foreverdis]

DS (15) & I will be at WDW from 7/30-8/9 and I'm chasing my tail trying to figure the best FP+ strategy for us. This is DS's 11th trip, so we are not new to the game, but it is our 1st time with MB/FP+/MDE. We don't always make RD, but we always hop from park to park, usually ending up in whichever park is open latest, whether it be regular hours or EMH, and closing it down, lol!

Should I make FP+ for early hours so we can get more FP+'s? Or should we aim for RD and do SB, making FP's for mid-day, then hoping to be able to get more later on? I keep going back and rearranging our schedule, after I remember that I neglected to schedule a FP for SDMR...on an 11 day stay...

It really is making me crazy, can you please offer suggestions to help me assure that I am using FP+ in the best way???

TIA, Lisa

 

[ukcatfan]

I don't know if this would be helpful for you, but we typically plan out where we will be for each part of the day based on where we want to eat! Some reservations and some QS, but we plan it first then base things around that.

 

[maryj11]

We went this past week and had most of our fastpasses starting around 10:30 or 11:00 . I'm glad we did so we could sleep in a little because we pretty much stayed until closing of the park each night. If you need that extra sleep in the morning just make them around whatever time you think you will make it to the park. You may not get an extra or 4th fastpass for the headliners for later but right before closing is a good time to ride those. There was an opening for Rockin Roller Coaster starting at 7:45 pm when we checked around 3:30 so some will be available for later times and some wont. It depends on how crowded the park is.
It worked out for us and we did everything that we wanted.
Our plans were to get fastpasses to start around 10:30- 11:00 am and do rope drop before our fastpasses to ride standby but we changed our mind on rope drop. What we did was had fastpasses around 10:30 -11:00 am and then the ones that we could not get after we used our 3 fastpasses we rode late right before closing. So actually the hour or so right before closing may be just as good as rope drop because a lot of people clear out of the parks.

 

[foreverdis]

Good ideas, I'll look at my plans again and see if I can make better sense of it! Thanks!

 

[mayshamp]

Take it easy! Doesn't matter how you do it, it's all good! Enjoy!

 

[lroger01]

I think the main thing is to secure the hard-to-get FP+ (dwarves, A&E, TSMM, etc) for times you can live with as soon as you can. The rest are easier to change as plans change. Since you're into hopping - and going for 11 days , I'd plan to do rope drop riding AND FP+ at each park the first time you visit it.

After that, choose your FP+'s for the park you're either starting in or ending in based on which one has attractions you'd most want to do again, or haven't done yet. For some, like TSMM and SDMT, I'd get for every day you're at those parks. You can always cancel it and get something else if you end up only wanting one or two rides on them.

Since 4 or more FP+'s aren't guaranteed - especially during the busier times and with more people getting them - use yours for the rides and times that make the most sense for your touring style. If you get more