Which FP strategy?

[mikewdw]

which do you favor and why?
get early FP and try to get 4th & 5th later on
get them for afternoon when crowds back up the standby lines?
also, if go back to hotel & swim how does this factor into decision?
just looking for different angle than I have thought of?
thanks
mikewdw

 

[Disneylover99]

Our strategy is different depending on our arrival time and park we are visiting.

MK is our number one priority for rope drop. If the park opens at 9am. We tour hard for the first two hours and eat lunch at 11am to avoid lunch crowds. Our first fp is from 11-12, which we use after lunch, just before 12. Our next FP is 12-1, which we use right after our first fp, so we schedule these rides in the same land. Our third fp is 1-2. It's usually for Space mountain and we will do People Mover and Carousel of Progress while we wait for Third fp to open up. Then we head back to the resort.

Evenings are for fireworks, parades, shopping, World Showcase, etc.....if lines are short (depending on park) we will standby a few attractions.

 

[Music City Mama]

Our strategy is different depending on our arrival time and park we are visiting.

Pretty much this -- it just depends. It also depends upon the time of year you're visiting. The 4th, 5th, etc. are going to be easier to get (at least for anything worthwhile) at slower times of the year. Also, it's going to be the easiest at MK since it has the most attractions. I'm more inclined to still do RD and plan my FPs for late afternoon/early evening than to attempt for additional FPs. I just have to evaluate each day (arrival time and park) and figure it out.

 

[Disneylover99]

Pretty much this -- it just depends. It also depends upon the time of year you're visiting. The 4th, 5th, etc. are going to be easier to get (at least for anything worthwhile) at slower times of the year. Also, it's going to be the easiest at MK since it has the most attractions. I'm more inclined to still do RD and plan my FPs for late afternoon/early evening than to attempt for additional FPs. I just have to evaluate each day (arrival time and park) and figure it out.

I don't even bother trying to get a fourth fp. I've waited in line a few times for one and that just drives me nuts. I'll try it again if there are no lines.

 

[Delirium]

A lot of factors. First and foremost, the park plays a big part. Never before 11:00 at MK. Never before 10:00 at HS and Epcot. Never at AK at all. At, MK, there are so many options for a 4th FP, you'll get something you want later in the day. At Epcot, there aren't really enough decent choices for a 4th FP, but we like to work our way back to the countries so we'll start FP a little earlier. At HS, our goal is to hit RNR at rope drop to avoid the Toy Story chaos and use FP on Toy Story mid-day. That gets both headliners taken care of and we fill in FP for Tower of Terror and Star Tours mid-morning or early afternoon. Because of the shows, we also split HS into 2 or 3 half-days and either hop out mid-day or in late afternoon, so a 4th FP does not make sense to use there. We don't want to get stuck there witing for a 6 o'clock FP, when we are ready to leave at 3 o'clock. AK, we don't use FP at all. We always hit the headliners early (sometimes over two mornings) and hop to MK, Epcot, or HS later that afternoon. We save our FP for the second park in those situations.

 

[pens4821]

We went last January when it was just starting, and we booked afternoons. Tentatively, for next May, we are thinking of going early to one park, ride a couple headliners, then back to the resort. Then, in the evening, make FP for between about 3 and 7 ish. Not too worried about the 4th and more FP, except maybe MK where you could maybe get something of a little value still.

 

[xlsm]

We are rope droppers who travel in summer. Our most recent trip was last August 5 - 12 with crowd levels at a 9. I usually make my first for 9:30-10:30 mark, but don't go until the end of the time window. Then i make my second for as close to 10:30 as possible, so I can go from one right to the other. I make sure the rides are fairly close together (we did peter pan/mine train one day and splash/big thunder the next). Then I make my third for after lunch, somewhere between 1 and 3pm (MK day 1 was splash, MK day 2 was mine train). Then we get a 4th from a kiosk for later in the evening if we're taking a break, or for a current time if we're sticking around. We've never had trouble getting pretty much whatever we wanted at the time. I know my answer is focused on MK, but that's the only park we used more than 3 FPs each day.

We're going to employ the same strategy for this July. We only had to wait in two lines of any real length (30 minutes)
A note on kiosk lines...
Sometimes they look REALLY long, but in reality, it's just a bunch of families standing all together. So it might look like there are 20 people ahead of you, and it's really only 4 or 5, because the people are all together. The kiosk by the jungle cruise seemed to be the easiest to get to, and the one in the breezeway between frontierland and adventureland was always annoyingly backed up. It wasn't that it took a long time to get through the line, but it's just a smallish space and people who were in line for the kiosk tended to be in the way of everyone who just wanted to shop, use the restroom, or just pass through to get to the other side.