Focus on what is most important to you and your group. If you all have different favorite attractions, write down everyone’s favorites and determine which are likeliest to have the longest lines. Do any of these attractions offer Single Rider lines? Is that an option for your group if they do?
Single Rider Lines
For example, at Hollywood Studios, we love Toy Story Mania, the Tower of Terror AND Rock-n-Roller Coaster. Disney puts all three of those attractions into one tier, because, shock of shocks, those are a LOT of people’s favorite attractions. By utilizing Extra Magic Hours and making sure we are at the park before it opens, the odds are fairly good that we will be able to ride all three of these attractions before the lines start to get long, and that, by far, is the best strategy.
But if for some reason, we can’t do all three pretty early and avoid the lines, the first one we will drop initially and ride later is Rock-n-Roller Coaster, because it has a single rider line. Traditionally, most people like to ride with the rest of their group, so if a group has an uneven number, you might end up with an empty seat. Disney will almost NEVER waste an empty seat, so they pull from the “Single Rider” line to fill that seat. What that means to you: If you are willing to ride the attraction sitting next to someone you don’t know while your loved one(s) sit next to someone else, you can shave LOTS of time off your wait times. There are a lot of groups of 3 and 5, so there is a high demand for single riders to fill in those groups. The longest we’ve ever waited in the single rider line was twenty minutes, and that was on a CRAZY busy day with one of the longest regular standby lines we’ve seen—almost 3 hours! You still enter the line together, you wait in line together, you just split up right before your ride vehicles are loaded. Most of the time, Frank and I end up in the same car, just different rows. Every once in a while, you may end up riding a couple of minutes apart and one of you will have to wait at the other end for a minute or two but if you’re open to it, it’s a GREAT way to avoid the line, ride the attraction you like quickly and move on about your day. Currently, Disney offers three attractions with single rider lines: Test Track at Epcot; Rock-n-Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios; and Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom.
Character Greetings
When most people think about Fast Passes, they tend to think primarily about rides. Sometimes, they’ll consider shows. But one other type of attraction that can be reserved via FPP is CHARACTER GREETINGS. If this is something that is important to you, you may want to consider using FPP to schedule some of these during your trip. The most popular characters (especially the Frozen princesses, Anna and Elsa) often have CRAZY long lines, full of lots of small and frequently tired and impatient children. Some kids are scared of the characters, even the princesses, so you may want to consider that before using up a FPP reservation if your child hasn’t even met a character before. Character greetings are something we enjoy, but they aren’t super important to us, unless we are traveling with more of our family. One of my favorite Photopass pictures from the wedding trip is with most of my family and Sorcerer Mickey.
Note: We did not book FPP for this greeting. Mickey was there, the line wasn’t long, I browbeat everyone into going over there 😊. So, we tend NOT to use FPP for Character Greetings, just hopping into lines if they are short and we have time. BUT, I know for many people, getting that picture with Snow White or Goofy will MAKE their trip. If that’s you, consider booking a FPP reservation.
Bottom Line
I look at FPP as a bonus—a way to get extra rides on a favorite, or a way to combat long lines later in the day after everyone else has shown up, or as a way to ride something we like that normally has long lines in a park we won’t get to until later in the day.
Identify your top priority attractions. Determine if they are Tier 1 attractions (at Epcot, Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios). Think about where in the park your top priority attractions are located. Think about where you have scheduled meal reservations (or, if you don’t have meal reservations, think about approximately when you think you might want to take a meal break and, potentially, where.) Think about WHEN you will be at the parks, and whether you’ll be able to take advantage of lighter, early morning crowds.
Finally, think about which attractions may be the hardest FPPs to get. Right now, the highest demand FPPs are Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain, all at Magic Kingdom. Frozen Ever After, Soarin’, Test Track and Illuminations at Epcot. Toy Story Mania and Rock-n-Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. At Animal Kingdom, the “hot” attractions are Avatar Flight of Passage, Na’vi River Journey and the Rivers of Light nighttime show.
Now that you’ve prioritized, you’re ready to book your Fast Pass Plus reservations!
A few things to keep in mind:
- You can only book up to three FPP reservations in any given day, and those must all be in the same park.
- Three parks (Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios) use a tiered system, grouping the most popular attractions together, and limiting you to choosing just one of those for your initial three FPP reservations. Be aware of which attractions are in those limited tiers and prioritize which ones are most important to your group.
- Once you’ve used all three of your initial FPP reservations each day (or cancelled any unused ones), you will be able to book one additional FPP reservation using the app on your phone or one of the kiosks in the park itself. Once you’ve used that one, you’ll have the option to book another one and so on.
- Based on that, you may NOT want to choose an evening attraction or FPP time slot late in the day as one of your first three FPP reservations. If for example you select Epcot Illuminations viewing as one of your FPP for a particular day, you will max out at three…you will never be able to book any additional FPP after you use your first three because you won’t be using the third one until the park is technically closed for the day.
- Disney will not let you overlap FPP reservations, even if the attractions are right next to each other. So, if you have one FPP at 10:45 am, you can’t book another one for 11:30 am.
- If you are visiting the Magic Kingdom on a day with a special ticketed evening event, FPP windows will end early. For example, on days when there is a Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween Party, or a Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the park closes at 7 pm to non-Party guests. The system stops issuing FPP reservations at 5:30 pm, and you won’t be able to book any FPP for later than that. (Note these parties are special ticketed events that require a separate purchase. I’ll be talking more about these parties in a separate post.)
- If your group is good about getting up and getting going in the morning, do not waste FPP by booking them in the first hour of the day…there usually aren’t long lines until after 10 or 11 am, so why burn a fast pass when you don’t need it? Use it later when it can really save you from waiting in line.
- Similarly, if you know your group is NOT good about getting up and getting going, don’t waste FPP by booking them too early…if you aren’t likely to arrive in the park until noon, don’t book FPP’s at 10 and 11…you won’t use them and they’ll be wasted. Take your family’s touring style into account when you are planning.
- Manage your expectations. Waiting in line for attractions is part of the overall theme park experience. You WILL be waiting in some lines, no matter how carefully you plan and no matter how early you get up. FPP are limited, and there are a LOT more attractions you’ll want to ride than you’ll be able to book FPP for. Know that you absolutely will be waiting in lines and while I like to plan as much as I can to minimize lines, it’s impossible to avoid them completely without avoiding most attractions altogether. (Unless you live in Orlando and can go whenever you want. Then obviously, if there’s a line, you can leave and ride another day. I am so jealous of those people!)
Even when you have a FPP, you may not “walk right on”. Generally speaking, with FPP, you’ll usually wait 10 -15 minutes max, but sometimes things happen that can make that wait longer. In extremely busy periods when the regular line has waits of 2 plus hours, you may end up waiting as long as 30 minutes in the Fast Pass return line.
There are lots of ways to help the time pass quickly while you wait in line—In a few days, I’ll be putting up a separate post on some of the things we try to keep from getting too bored in line.
Finally, remember that there are FOUR parks at Walt Disney World, filled with a TON of attractions, shows, characters, dining experiences, shops and magical experiences. There are two water parks. There are several golf courses. There are lots of water craft and activities you can try. You will NOT be able to do everything. You may not even be able to do everything you really, really want to do. Focus on the few MOST IMPORTANT attractions or events, and fill in the rest of your time with what you can fit. Don’t make yourself crazy. It’s all wonderful, and if you relax and accept that you can only do so much (and gee, you’ll just have to plan another trip to do the rest!😉)
As long as you make sure to hit the most important stuff (for you and your group–everyone is different, and what’s most important to us, may NOT be important for you) you will have a wonderful magical time.
Happy Dreaming!
Brooke