Tomorrow morning, 6 am Central Time…our Fast Pass Plus reservation window opens. For those of you that AREN’T familiar with Fast Pass Plus, it’s a tool that Disney implemented a few years ago that rewards those of us who (neurotic, anal, a little crazy, planning nerds) like to plan ahead. Fast Pass Plus lets you schedule time to ride up to three attractions per day in advance…When you use it, you SIGNIFICANTLY reduce your wait times on those pre-planned attractions. There are (of course) some limitations…
- Your Fast Pass Plus reservation window opens 60 days before the first day of your trip, if you have Disney hotel reservations (and these MUST be linked to your My Disney Experience account). If you’re not staying on Disney property, you have a 30-day window for Fast Pass Plus reservations.
- Fast Pass Plus does not really allow for park hopping in your planning. All three preplanned attractions in a particular day MUST be in the same park.
- Fast Pass Plus uses a tiered system to prevent you from using all three Fast Pass Plus reservations on the most in-demand attractions…or on the same attraction.
Now, I know that many of you will read this and think “are you crazy??? You expect me to know WHAT ride I will want to ride WHEN on my VACATION?????” And my answer to you is simply, “Yes. I am crazy.” Reality. BUT I also will say…it only takes a little planning, but it will have a BIG impact on the success and joy in your vacation. Because trust me, if you can reduce your time standing in line, you WILL have more fun. You’ll be able to do more, see more and most importantly, SIT DOWN AND REST MORE. Just kidding. Well, maybe not. But you will free up some time to give you more time, period. And you can use that however you want. Highly recommended: Naps on the monorail. But I digress…
And the bottom line: You can change your mind. You can decide not to use your advance FPP reservations. You can choose to make the FPP reservations as a “break in case of emergency” back up plan and go merrily about your laid back, no planning involved vacation. But I STRONGLY suggest you take 20 minutes and go ahead and book them. JUST IN CASE. No one will ever know, I promise. 😉
A couple of things that work in our favor: When you schedule a time for your Fast Pass Plus (FPP), you are actually scheduling a one-hour window. If your planned ride time for Toy Story Mania is, for example, 11:00, you can go to the attraction any time between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm and ride the attraction with either no wait, or a very short wait. **Note: Rumor has it that most cast members working the FPP entry points will give you a 10-15 minute grace period if you’re late for your window BUT keep in mind…they don’t have to. So, I try very hard to never need that grace period. I don’t want to risk wasting my FPP. Once you have used your three booked in advance FPP, you can use the My Disney Experience app on your phone to book additional FPP reservations, one at a time, or you can use kiosks in various locations around the park. I’m excited to see how this has improved over the last couple of years…Last time I was in the parks, the app didn’t work very well and I got REALLY frustrated. But I’ve been hearing good things so I’m optimistic.
The other thing that is helpful is that you can set up everyone in your family or traveling group as a “FPP group” so you can book all your FPP together. In the very early days of FPP, this was a real challenge. You’d book one set for one person and then have to go back and try and book the same ones for the next person…it was super challenging. Fortunately, they fixed that, and booking in groups works really well now.
If you are someone that is really good about being at the park early for rope drop and/or extra magic hours, you generally can ride the most popular attractions first thing without needing to use up your FPP. That’s the strategy I use…I plan on early entry and try to ride the most popular and in demand attractions first, and book our FPP reservations for a little bit later in the day, after the crowds have started to pick up and the lines are getting longer. If the wait would be 10-15 minutes without a FPP, why use up a FPP? I’d rather ride without a FPP when the lines are short and take advantage of FPP when the lines are longer. Of course, that doesn’t always work perfectly, but again, I have to emphasize getting up early and getting to the park of your choice BEFORE it opens is KEY to doing everything you want to do without feeling rushed or waiting in super long lines.
Tonight, to prepare for tomorrow morning’s FPP reservation session, I reviewed my tentative plans for our trip. I reviewed scheduled meals, and which park I planned to visit when. I reviewed park hours and Extra Magic Hours schedules. I made little quick sheets to have with me in the morning. I reviewed the current tier structure for each park, and I have a pretty good plan of which attractions I’m going to try and book first.
Because our trip this year rolls into Thanksgiving week, which is a peak period for Walt Disney World, I suspect I will not be able to get all the FPP that I’m hoping for…but I will give it my best shot! Hopefully between Extra Magic Hours and always being early for open, we will be able to hit those really important attractions…
I already have two breakfasts that I will be cancelling because Disney has added Extra Magic Hours those mornings in the parks we were planning to visit. Both breakfasts were planned to help us get into the park early and be fed and already inside when the park actually opened. BUT now that EMH has been added, I don’t want to sacrifice that extra hour sitting down at breakfast. A big bummer because the Tusker House breakfast at Animal Kingdom is one of my favorites, but it can’t be helped. {sigh}
I’ll update you tomorrow on how my FPP reservations go.
Have a great night everyone!
Happy Dreaming!
Brooke