URGENT: Summer FastPass Experts Wanted!

[c.mouse]

Here's our situation:

We are a family of 4. Mom, Dad and 15 year old twins. We have been coming to WDW since they were 2 and with a couple of exceptions, all of our trips have been in July. Historically, we have been successful following this plan (We always get the Park Hopper option):

Note: We make our FP reservations in the evening between 6pm and 10pm or whenever the park closes.

Rope Drop - We usually do pretty good getting on the mountains plus Pirates, Haunted Mansion and a handful of others.

Lunch around 11:30 or Noon - Eating at this time is usually not crowded and we can get in with an ADR or counter service.

Go Back To Our Hotel Room - When our kids were small we would close the blinds and nap for a couple of hours. As the kids got older, we nap and go to the pool for a while.

Return to the parks for dinner - We return to the parks for and ADR or QS dinner and use our Fast Passes.

What could we be doing to maximize Fast Passes? This year, we were wondering what this would look like if we booked earlier FP's. Should we use them earlier then try to get more for later on in the evening?

Does anyone have a similar system? We have teens, so we tour different than a family with smaller children.

Thanks!

 

[DisneyGirlMI]

We always book our FPs for morning. This allows us to get extra FPs throughout the day.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

What could we be doing to maximize Fast Passes? This year, we were wondering what this would look like if we booked earlier FP's. Should we use them earlier then try to get more for later on in the evening?

Thanks!

I read here the best thing to do is book your FPs early, so you can continue to get them and use them throughout the day. Someone here...possibly @Klayfish I think, mentioned using at least 12 FP in MK easily. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

 

[greg9x]

If your doing everything you want to, then go with your current plan. If you feel your missing out or waiting too long for rides then book your FP+'s earlier in the day so you can try for extra FP's .. but since you are rope dropping to take advantage of lower early wait times and leaving at lunch, it makes sense to save the FP's until evening.... not sure how many extra FP's you could get and if they would be ones you want in the evening.
We don't rope drop very often.. so we generally make our FP's from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (trying move next FP up when check in for one) then go for extra's rest of day. We also do afternoon break, then see what can get for evening park...but we generally are doing lower demand rides or shows, so not pressed to try for too many FP's then.

 

[JETSDAD]

We start using FP's early. MK we will hit a a few rides before using our first FP at RD because there is no advantage to getting through your first 3 if there are no waits. For tiered parks we try to get through all 3 of our FP's ASAP so that we're free to make additional tier 1 FP's. Once we tap our first FP we start moving up the others.

 

[Vertical]

Book earlier FPs so that you can start looking for additional ones. We are a family of four and have always been able to add good FPs throughout the day. We generally don't ride anything without a FP, unless it has a really short wait.

I usually start our FPs for 9:30 for a 9:00 park opening. That allows us to Rope Drop a few rides before our first FP window expires. And the minute we scan the third FP I am on my phone checking for our 4th.

 

[mousehouse23]

I think your present strategy works well with Park Hoppers. It's nice to have the security of 3 Fps in your pocket when you get to the second park at a busier time of day. Sure, you could have one in reserve by instituting a rolling FastPass strategy early on, but if you feel like you're getting enough done at Rope Drop, I don't know that I would.

We will make an exception for Magic Kingdom, because you can score so many consecutive FastPasses if you're on top of refreshing the app. Then again, we don't typically park hop on Magic Kingdom days, because our visits are so full, and transportation is a bigger hassle.

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[twodogs]

We have teens, and we have started to skip the pool break (at WDW; we still do it at DLR because we stay at GCH and walk right to our room from both parks) because it chews too much time of the day (exception is when staying in EPCOT area resorts and the parks of the day are EPCOT and DHS). We try for RD but that has become harder and harder these days with teens who like to sleep in a little. So we generally book FPs from 9-10, 10-11, 11-12. We try to move them up as we use them as OP said. We lunch early, or more importantly, use MOBILE ordering to avoid long lines at most CS restaurants (this has been a game-changer for us). We then try for 4th and beyond FPs and we use the heck out of Refresh (see other threads that explain this). Refresh has also been a real game-changer for us. I think FPs earlier in the day are better if your goal is to maximize FP, as per your post. With evening FPs only, you will have little time to get 4th FPs and beyond. And late at night (if you make it), the stand by lines are dramatically shorter since little kids have gone to bed. Have fun!

 

[c.mouse]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I want to try the rolling FP method but it makes me a little nervous about using up the initial 3 and only scoring a single FP for our return to the parks later. Am I missing something?

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I want to try the rolling FP method but it makes me a little nervous about using up the initial 3 and only scoring a single FP for our return to the parks later. Am I missing something?

You can get more than a single fastpass later. After you use #4 then select #5. Just keep going.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I want to try the rolling FP method but it makes me a little nervous about using up the initial 3 and only scoring a single FP for our return to the parks later. Am I missing something?

You're just missing the experience of having been able to get a lot of FPs which lends confidence.

The one downside I see is if you want to ride headliners at your second park. By headliners I mean specifically 7DMT, FEA, FOP, Navi, and SDD. People's ability to get them varies so if you don't have a day in your plans where they're prebooked then you're taking a risk that you won't be able to ride them with FP. The same may also be true for things like TT, Splash, Space. I find them fairly easy to get but other people have posted that they've had trouble. If you're going back at dinner time that may also make it more difficult to snag them since there are fewer slots open.

Personally I would not completely change a strategy that works for you without testing the new strategy out a little bit. If you have an AP you can make practice day of FPs and get a sense of how well same day refreshing is going to work for you (try to pick days that would be somewhat similar to your trip would be crowd-wise). Assuming you don't have APs, I would try it out for a few days of your trip, not wholesale change all of them. If you like doing it that way, you can see if you can move over more days. If it turns out you don't like doing that, you've only changed a few days. Just watch out for headliners or really must do busy rides. Some people here get them easily but I wouldn't trust that until you see that it works that way for you.

 

[holden]

We always book our FP + for early morning. After we use the first one I try to move up the times on the next FP+ and keep going that way. Sometimes it’s possible to use the FP+ in less two hours and then we pull additional FP+.

After you scan your 3rd FP+ go on the app immediately to pull he 4th. Do this each time you redeem a FP+.

 

[CAQDaddy]

We often use a plan similar to yours except for the FP's. We RD and accomplish a whole lot early. We try to plan our FP's between 11 and 2. It's usually late morning as the crowds really start to build so wait times increase. Doing the FP's late morning/early afternoon allows for more FP's later in the day and since standby lines are long by then you feel like you are getting value with you FP's. You can also use the refresh strategy during your
break to get good FP's for your evening park.
It seems you've been successful with your current plan so you might just change it up on a few days to see if you like the changes. If it ain't broke don't fix it

 

[jsbowl16]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I want to try the rolling FP method but it makes me a little nervous about using up the initial 3 and only scoring a single FP for our return to the parks later. Am I missing something?

We go every July or August just like you, tour the same exact way with the break in the afternoon and we also do our fast passes at night. We like to have three guaranteed rides at night. I have thought about doing them in the morning but you can get so much done in the first few hours that fast passes arent really needed and then by the time you get back after your break and use your first fast pass there likely wont be much left for fast pass selections. Some people do it our way and others do them in the morning. If you weren't doing an afternoon break I would say do them in the morning.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I want to try the rolling FP method but it makes me a little nervous about using up the initial 3 and only scoring a single FP for our return to the parks later. Am I missing something?

Even after you select your 4th FP, you can continue to refresh and will likely be able to move the teturn time up closer to the current time. Just keep repeating this and it’s very easy to get 10-12 FPs per day.

Also, in your evening park the lines will eventually get short enough that you don’t need more FPs if you stay late.

 

[Klayfish]

We're summer people too, we love that time of year.

Yes, we start using FP+ as soon as we step foot in the park. We aren't rope drop people, or mid-day break people. We sleep in a bit and show up around 10am, give or take. We stay until we're ready to leave, which could be anywhere between 3pm and 6pm. The exception would be if we planned to be in the park at night for shows or fireworks. In those cases, we don't even show up at the park until 3pm or so. We hang out at the house in the morning (we stay offsite). Sure, it's hot in the middle of the afternoon, but that's the perfect time for Philharmagic, CoP, Dinosaur, Muppets, etc...

We will go through 6-10 FP+ in a typical day, sometimes more. Like I said, we start them as soon as we arrive. For example, our first FP+ is set for 9:15am to 10:15am, then 10:15am to 11:15am and 11:15am to 12:15pm. We show up at 10:00am and hit our first FP+ immediately. Then it's time for #2, then we move #3 up and start grabbing more.

 

[DisneyOma]

We go in August, and save the pool time for evenings/nights when it isn't so freaking hot on that concrete and the water is a bit cooler than warm pee.

 

[Rivergirl2005]

We have teens, and we have started to skip the pool break (at WDW; we still do it at DLR because we stay at GCH and walk right to our room from both parks) because it chews too much time of the day (exception is when staying in EPCOT area resorts and the parks of the day are EPCOT and DHS). We try for RD but that has become harder and harder these days with teens who like to sleep in a little. So we generally book FPs from 9-10, 10-11, 11-12. We try to move them up as we use them as OP said. We lunch early, or more importantly, use MOBILE ordering to avoid long lines at most CS restaurants (this has been a game-changer for us). We then try for 4th and beyond FPs and we use the heck out of Refresh (see other threads that explain this). Refresh has also been a real game-changer for us. I think FPs earlier in the day are better if your goal is to maximize FP, as per your post. With evening FPs only, you will have little time to get 4th FPs and beyond. And late at night (if you make it), the stand by lines are dramatically shorter since little kids have gone to bed. Have fun!

How successful are you at EP HS and AK? We've done really well at MK but it makes me nervous at the other three. We are a party of four going in June as well. (Sorry op for asking on your thread)

 

[Tiggerlover91]

We're summer people too, we love that time of year.

Yes, we start using FP+ as soon as we step foot in the park. We aren't rope drop people, or mid-day break people. We sleep in a bit and show up around 10am, give or take. We stay until we're ready to leave, which could be anywhere between 3pm and 6pm. The exception would be if we planned to be in the park at night for shows or fireworks. In those cases, we don't even show up at the park until 3pm or so. We hang out at the house in the morning (we stay offsite). Sure, it's hot in the middle of the afternoon, but that's the perfect time for Philharmagic, CoP, Dinosaur, Muppets, etc...

We will go through 6-10 FP+ in a typical day, sometimes more. Like I said, we start them as soon as we arrive. For example, our first FP+ is set for 9:15am to 10:15am, then 10:15am to 11:15am and 11:15am to 12:15pm. We show up at 10:00am and hit our first FP+ immediately. Then it's time for #2, then we move #3 up and start grabbing more.

I read here the best thing to do is book your FPs early, so you can continue to get them and use them throughout the day. Someone here...possibly @Klayfish I think, mentioned using at least 12 FP in MK easily. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

I was close!

 

[HopperFan]

We book as early as we can then roll them all day long.
If we rope drop then we book starting around 10-11 window.
We rarely get in any SB lines.
MK we can roll all day long and done 12-20 depending on how long there.
Epcot we have rolled and gotten ALL options including Illuminations.
DHS, Slinky is tough be you can pretty much roll for all the rest.
AK, FOP is very tough but you can get most else depending on time of year.

The only time I book at night is if we are not doing a park all day.