Your experiences with a FastPass free day

[Uncranky Donald]

Hello WDW travelers

I am having a lot of anxiety about syncing up my park days with the ADRs I have made for a trip in June.
The 1st half of my stay is with 5 friends & all but 1 are 1st timers. It is hard for me to not "optimize" every moment as I forget they won't know what they are missing and above all I don't want to overwhelm them.

No matter which way I slice it, I have 2 days where the 1st park visit of the day will not be the one with FPs. We would do this park FP free, then go to the 2nd park (around 12:30) to do our FPs,ADR (dinner), then any further FPs available. Do many of you feel at ease just going with the flow in the AM not having FPs? Say from 9:30am-12? The 2 parks I would do are MK & AK. TIA for any suggestions or experiences

 

[Robo]

Do many of you feel at ease just going with the flow in the AM not having FPs? Say from 9:30am-12?

Make that 9:00-11:30 and you've got a winner.

 

[Accident]

from about noon to 4pm there is a lot of same day fastpasses, even for popular rides (usually, varies day by day). locals aren't planning 60 days in advance to visit (and most aren't doing 30 either). the system is well balanced lately.. rope drop as your mentioning is a great way and most wouldn't have fastpasses until near 11:30 or 12 that do rope drop.

 

[DisMommyTX]

AK is easy without FP. Only the Safari and Everest are issues for us, so our strategy wold focus on those. We always see all three shows every visit, but even during the busiest times arriving 30 min early virtually guarantees good seats. Kali and Dinosaur are optional for us, and all other minor attractions usually have short enough lines.

Do you have another day at MK with FP? It would be difficult to hit everything in one morning even with FP. Without it, I wouldn't even try. MK is a great park without FP because you can enjoy some of the minor attractions that others rush by. Hit a couple favorites while taking time to soak up the atmosphere.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

A FP free morning from rope drop to late morning hop is 100% doable, even in June. Don't be afraid of lines with a 25-30 minute wait later in the morning. At AK, RD Safari, then use the single rider line at Everest if the wait is too long.

But can I ask why you are short-changing MK?

You need to be at both parks at RD, not 9:30, for this to work well.

 

[mom2rtk]

If you are visiting in June, rumor has it that Pandora might be newly open. No way to tell what that will do to crowds in the park. My guess is that it will leave all the non-Pandora stuff easier to tour without fastpass at rope drop as many will head straight to the new section. However, what will your group decide? Will they want to do the new rides? It might impact your touring plan.

 

[Uncranky Donald]

Do you have another day at MK with FP? It would be difficult to hit everything in one morning even with FP. Without it, I wouldn't even try. MK is a great park without FP because you can enjoy some of the minor attractions that others rush by. Hit a couple favorites while taking time to soak up the atmosphere.

A FP free morning from rope drop to late morning hop is 100% doable, even in June. Don't be afraid of lines with a 25-30 minute wait later in the morning. At AK, RD Safari, then use the single rider line at Everest if the wait is too long.

But can I ask why you are short-changing MK?

You need to be at both parks at RD, not 9:30, for this to work well.

Thank you all for your great responses!! I do have other days at MK with FPs intended for the big guys (SDMT, PP, SpM). And another day at AK with FPs as well. These 2 days are MK(no FPs) to Epcot and I want to save the FP for FEA on our 1st day cuz ya know, I've waited long enough & I figured the travel time there would be like their afternoon break. And the other day is AK(no FPs) to MK(EMH) with Sanaa in between. This is the day we will be switching resorts from Pop to AKKV so I figured we could visit AK while we waited for our new room. It's just been such a loooong time since I've roamed the parks w/o FPs and being honest, until my niece & nephew came along getting out of the room before 10am hadn't happened since I was like 11!! As long as we stand the chance of getting on a few 20/30min wait rides in our AM park Im VERY happy, we'll do the big guys another day

 

[Uncranky Donald]

If you are visiting in June, rumor has it that Pandora might be newly open. No way to tell what that will do to crowds in the park. My guess is that it will leave all the non-Pandora stuff easier to tour without fastpass at rope drop as many will head straight to the new section. However, what will your group decide? Will they want to do the new rides? It might impact your touring plan.

This is a great point, I keep forgetting about Pandora and its impact! As for what my friends will want, thats the big unknown. I can think and predict all I want, but until I unleash the Disney on them I won't know how they will really react to it all...they keep saying "DO it up!!" But I have a feeling once they're there they may say, "can we just like sit for a while?" in which case I'll happily lead them to CoP or one of the AK shows