When do you use your fast passes?

[NicholeB630]

I am wondering when you all use your fast passes? When we went in December I think we used ours later in the morning. I honestly can't remember but I know it wasn't really later in the day. We didn't take to many breaks that trip because it wasn't hot and my son napped in the stroller. Our next trip Sept 2016 it will obviously be extremely hot so I am thinking we probably would take a couple hour break at the hotel so we can stay in the park later at night. So my question is when would you schedule fast passes. We dont park hop. I like to just spend a whole day at one place (or I have at least in the past) so if we are staying till say after lunch leave around 1:30/2 and get back to park around 4 when would you schedule them? Late morning or wait until after you get back in park? Thanks!

 

[mesaboy2]

I recommend late morning to late afternoon when the day's crowds are heaviest. In your case, either just before you leave or just after you return, or both.

 

[Indio]

We did most of ours in the late afternoon this year. It was pretty easy to ride things in the morning, then later when things were more crowded, we had the passes. We usually went back to the parks between 4 & 5.

 

[tinkerbella16]

Since we take breaks each day and park hop, I do schedule most of them for the morning of each park we will be in and then at night try and get some of what is available. On our days where we are just doing AK- we don't plan on arriving until midday, so I will schedule my fps for the afternoon, before our dinner adr at Yak & Yeti since the park will be closed when we finish dinner.. and the same goes for DHS since after dinner, we will do Osbourne Lights and no rides really except for the stuff you don't need a fp for. For our MK days and Epcot days, I don't mind scheduling fps in the morning since getting extra fps at MK is easier with so many things to do there.

 

[NicholeB630]

Well what is late afternoon? If we planned to break after lunch then I feel like during break would be late afternoon right? We could eat like right at 12 or a little before and take a quicker break 1-3 maybe then do the fast passes starting at like 3:30 but that puts our last one into 6ish? Maybe one before lunch then the other two after we get back? I remember doing a lot in the am before crowds so I know we dont need them before like 11 most likely.

 

[lustergirl]

Early morning is great. We take a break during the middle of the day and visit a new park at night, trying to get another round of fastpasses then.

 

[maxiesmom]

We use ours later in the day, once the crowds have grown. Typically we get to the park at rope drop and ride a bunch of rides. The we do either a late breakfast or early lunch, and schedule FPs for just before or after that meal.

 

[bluezy]

We take advantage of the low crowds at rope drop and ride some headliners during that first hour or two. I schedule our first FP+ for about 9:40-10:40 and then schedule the other two immediately after that. We don't usually use the first FP until close to the end of the window so that we can go right to the next FP attraction. Then we have lunch and use the 3rd FP. This allows us to go to a kiosk by about 1:00 to schedule a 4th FP+. If we're staying in the park awhile longer we'll look for an attraction that has immediate (or nearly immediate) availability so that we can possibly schedule a 5th and 6th FP+ if wanted. If we're ready for a break, we'll schedule something for early evening (or whatever time we plan to be back).

 

[tlmadden73]

I guess it depends on crowd levels.

I tried getting all mine before lunch (before 12:30 PM) so I could grab a 4th(or more) fast pass early. it has worked pretty well in my recent trips (though I am touring with Toddlers and most of the big rides we had no plans on doing.)

In hindsight during my last trip ... that was rather wasteful as our earliest Fast Passes (around 9:30 AM) were never needed. Standby line was just as short (or shorter) than FP line.

I still think just getting all your 3 Fast Passes out of the way in the morning gives you the flexiblity for the rest of your day so you aren't worried about if your dinner is running long or if it rains in the afternoon (which it is prone to do).
In my trip in October . .i had 3 fast passes for the morning . .and because of that I was able to get 3 more throughout the afternoon for various rides. Pretty nice when you skip the lines on the majority of rides you do for that day.


This past trip (last week) at MK I had:
9:30 AM - Enchanted Tales - NOT needed that early .. it was an EMH morning, but crowds were still low at 9:30
10:30 AM - Peter Pan (needed ... 50-60 minute wait that early!)
11:40 AM - SDMT - Needed .. but rained out and was actually for the better .. I got a "freebie" to come back any time rest of the day .. so we went back after dark and rode it.
Torrential rain and an afternoon resort break (because of the rain) spoiled any ride plans until after dinner.

I got a 4th Fast Pass for Buzz after dinner (Standby time was 25 minutes) .. but due to skipping the parade at night .. we were able to get a few more rides done after dinner without FP. (all walk-ons pretty much).

At DHS:
9:30 - Disney Junior - NOT needed .. the park was barely full that early
10:30 - TSMM - NEEDED .. even that early the line was 50-60 minutes
11:30 - Star Tours .. NOT needed - 10 minute wait .. we rode it several times before lunch. (Would have liked to done GMR instead ..but can't because of the stupid tiering)

And because of an afternoon rain (that we stuck out) and low crowds .. I could get a FP pretty much for anything else the rest of the day. The flexiblity to look and grab whatever was nicer than having a FP pre-scheduled for the afternoon (because it rained from 5-7 .. we would have had to get soaked to get something scheduled .. so we just used that time to do Muppets and dinner)

 

[Crystal824]

It depends on the day, crowds, and what I want to FP. We did a few days last trip that we used FP in late morning and afternoon. We also did a few days where we hit rope drop and waited to use our FP when we came back to a park at night (I mostly did that when we were going to the MK at night though or if wanted to FP a nighttime show, which tied up my FP all day anyway).

 

[JimmyV]

For years, the early hours have always been about getting to the headliners. Now, we use RD to go to a few headliners, but mostly do things that we would otherwise do later in the day. For example, while everyone is running to Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, we might do one headliner, and then walk on a whole bunch of things for almost two full hours, leaving the headliners alone. Then we use FP for them between 11:30 and 3:30, more or less. Last time we were there, on an Epcot Day, we went to Soarin' at RD and instead of making out traditional beeline to Test Track, we went to Innoventions and had the place to ourselves, including Sum of All Thrills. And then to Spaceship Earth and Ellen's Energy Adventure. We never used to do those things early in the day. But even on a crowded day, it felt like we were all alone because no one else was following or path. In fact, when we did the tour of the home of the future, we actually were alone. So unless getting lots of extra FPs is realistic, we use ours between 11:00 and 3:00.

 

[Mikie]

In your case, with your plan to return to the same park, I would probably do 2 before break and 1 upon return.

Like a PP stated, I wouldn't want to put all 3 before break because then likely, one of your 3 very valuable FP+ selections is being used between 9-10 when standby is short enough already. Crowds and lines would build enough for a FP to be valuable (to me) prior to break, so I'd probably arrive at park open, have FP for 10:45 and 11:45ish - I'd tour up until nearly the end of FP #1 window, then ride my first two FPs back to back, go have lunch, take my break, then have a FP planned upon my return. After using it, either use the app to pick short lines, look for FP at kiosks, or simply let our mood be our guide!

 

[kmb584]

I schedule ours for 10-11, 11-12, and 12-1, or some variation thereof. I find that at 1pm I'm still able to get decent, albeit mostly not headlining attraction, FP+ for times that work for us. We also frequently hop in the afternoon and are able to then book our 4th FP+ at a kiosk as soon as we arrive.

 

[Fizban]

I am wondering when you all use your fast passes? When we went in December I think we used ours later in the morning. I honestly can't remember but I know it wasn't really later in the day. We didn't take to many breaks that trip because it wasn't hot and my son napped in the stroller. Our next trip Sept 2016 it will obviously be extremely hot so I am thinking we probably would take a couple hour break at the hotel so we can stay in the park later at night. So my question is when would you schedule fast passes. We dont park hop. I like to just spend a whole day at one place (or I have at least in the past) so if we are staying till say after lunch leave around 1:30/2 and get back to park around 4 when would you schedule them? Late morning or wait until after you get back in park? Thanks!

If we are doing rope drop then we know we are going to get on some of our rides with low to no queues first thing. In that case we do our Fastpasses for later in the day. If we are doing a leisurely wake up and then to the parks we will do them as soon as we get to the parks to make sure we do get on our favorite rides. It's all relative to the plan of the day.

 

[NicholeB630]

Thanks everyone. I def agree with being able to get on the non headlines right away with no waits while others rush to the headliners. I think what we would do especially for MK is do 2 before our lunch break and than save one for right when we get back and hope to get another one (which we've never tried) When we went in Dec and got there at 8 for RD we did Carpets, Pirates, Tree house, Buzz, Astro, Speedway, Met Stitch, Had a dance party with the Incredibles and I think did one more ride all before noon. Of course non were head liners but the areas we were in were empty and it was great!! I think this time we would maybe go straight to a headliner like BTM and then schedule it for a FP later too so we could ride first, but after going straight there than hit other rides where there are no lines!

 

[bluezy]

Thanks everyone. I def agree with being able to get on the non headlines right away with no waits while others rush to the headliners. I think what we would do especially for MK is do 2 before our lunch break and than save one for right when we get back and hope to get another one (which we've never tried) When we went in Dec and got there at 8 for RD we did Carpets, Pirates, Tree house, Buzz, Astro, Speedway, Met Stitch, Had a dance party with the Incredibles and I think did one more ride all before noon. Of course non were head liners but the areas we were in were empty and it was great!! I think this time we would maybe go straight to a headliner like BTM and then schedule it for a FP later too so we could ride first, but after going straight there than hit other rides where there are no lines!

Just a thought on MK....I'd schedule all 3 FP's before you plan to leave the park for a break. That way you can schedule the 4th one before leaving the park and have it ready to use when you get back. If you schedule the first 3 for something like 10:00-11:00, 11:00-12:00, and 12:00-1:00 you could easily be finished using them by 12:15. You would have a lot more options available for a 4th FP if you're scheduling it at 12:00ish rather than waiting until late in the afternoon to try and schedule it. And if you schedule that 4th one for say 5:00 but then decide you'd rather wait until after dinner to return to the park, you could modify/change it on your phone or computer (or most likely at the concierge desk at your resort).

Heading to Frontierland at rope drop is a great plan. We did that for an 8am opening in June. There were literally 20 of us walking in that direction. We did both Splash and BTMRR twice by about 8:45 (and that included a 7 minute stoppage on Splash during the 2nd ride). We also did HM, IASW, Buzz, Peoplemover, and COP, spent some time in the HM gift shop, and had 2 bathroom breaks all by 10:30. We could have gotten more done but we weren't rushing around at all. We knew we still had 2 days of MK time ahead of us so we knew we'd have plenty of time to get on everything we wanted to do. If Pirates had been open when were there, I'm sure we would have headed over to Adventureland either before or after we rode HM and IASW. We ended up getting a FP for Jungle Cruise later that night and we rode Magic Carpets with no wait at about 10:00 p.m. We've found that early mornings and late nights are the best at MK!

 

[NicholeB630]

Just a thought on MK....I'd schedule all 3 FP's before you plan to leave the park for a break. That way you can schedule the 4th one before leaving the park and have it ready to use when you get back. If you schedule the first 3 for something like 10:00-11:00, 11:00-12:00, and 12:00-1:00 you could easily be finished using them by 12:15. You would have a lot more options available for a 4th FP if you're scheduling it at 12:00ish rather than waiting until late in the afternoon to try and schedule it. And if you schedule that 4th one for say 5:00 but then decide you'd rather wait until after dinner to return to the park, you could modify/change it on your phone or computer (or most likely at the concierge desk at your resort).

Heading to Frontierland at rope drop is a great plan. We did that for an 8am opening in June. There were literally 20 of us walking in that direction. We did both Splash and BTMRR twice by about 8:45 (and that included a 7 minute stoppage on Splash during the 2nd ride). We also did HM, IASW, Buzz, Peoplemover, and COP, spent some time in the HM gift shop, and had 2 bathroom breaks all by 10:30. We could have gotten more done but we weren't rushing around at all. We knew we still had 2 days of MK time ahead of us so we knew we'd have plenty of time to get on everything we wanted to do. If Pirates had been open when were there, I'm sure we would have headed over to Adventureland either before or after we rode HM and IASW. We ended up getting a FP for Jungle Cruise later that night and we rode Magic Carpets with no wait at about 10:00 p.m. We've found that early mornings and late nights are the best at MK!

Good advice!! Thanks!

 

[epcotty]

Afternoon now, tried morning before but ended up changing some due to standby times being low

 

[NicholeB630]

I am really torn. It seems to make sense to use the earlier so we could get a 4th one right before we leave the park but also it seems like a waste to use them to early because most likely standby lines wont be bad between RD until almost lunch I wouldn't think in Sept? But maybe I am wrong. Do lines maybe get longer around 11? Maybe we could start it at like 11:30 then do 12:30 and a 1:30 (around those times) Grab a quick lunch inbtween them then head out. We would have from 9 till the first FP to ride whatever we want with less lines. We have never done Splash Mountain and I think I'll plan that FP for the last one right before we leave park in case we get soaked!!!!

 

[123SA]

I am here now and I wished I scheduled all of my FP for 10, 11 12pm. In Spetember, my experience is you absolutely can get many more FP at MK if you use them. For example today at MK we had

10am SPlash - saved 10 minutes
11 pooh needed 25 minute wait
12 7 dwarves - needed

then at 12:10 we went to kiosk and selected 1:55 for space mountain - -we could have gotten one for 12:20 but we were headed to lunch. After space, we got another one for Buzz almost immediately, then space again for 3:40 - -we went and met Goofy Donald Daisy Minnie and came back. I didn't ride space mountain. I waited until my family entered the ride, then I went to a kiosk and got them another one for 4:00. They went right back on. By using my FP early, I was able to just keep selecting more. We left after that last Space Mt.

On Wednesday, we used 9 FP at MK. On Tuesday we used 7 at DHS. On Monday we used 5 at Epcot