Planning a trip to Disney World and want to get the most out of the experience? Smartly using the advanced ride and attraction reservation options that come with your park tickets is key. Put these 4 Big Tips to Rock Fastpass+ at Disney World to work for you.
1. Get your Fastpass + reservations as soon as they become available. If you are booked to stay at a Disney World Property, you will be able to schedule your initial 3 Fastpass + spots 60 days in advance. If you are staying elsewhere or are an annual pass holder, you can make those reservations 30 days in advance. In order to select your Fastpasses, you will need to have a Disney Account. It is easy to set up and link with park admission tickets.
The quicker you hop on booking your Fastpass + reservations, the better the selection of time slot options. As we experienced during the busy season, certain headliner attractions will run out of Fastpass + times just among those staying at Disney properties. We stayed at a Hilton hotel during our recent visit and found that the Fastpass + slots for several headline rides were already all taken when we hopped on our Disney Account at 30 days out.
*For our trip last week, I found TouringPlans.com invaluable for determining which Fastpass + reservations to make. I have used this system all 3 times my family and I have gone to Disney World with fantastic results. We have been spared countless hours of wait times and have had really pleasant park experiences. I highly recommend the less than $15 subscription to this online service. Worth every dollar and then some.
2. Know the rules of Fastpass+ before making your reservation selections.
- You may initially only hold 3 Fastpass + slots per person.
- After ALL 3 selections have been used or cleared from system, then you may schedule one additional Fastpass + at a time.
- No, not everyone in your group has to reserve the same Fastpass + selections.
- If you have a park hopper that you plan to use during a day, the first 3 Fastpass + selections must be made in the same park. Once used or cleared, the one-by-one Fastpass + selections that follow can be for the park that you are hopping to or the park that you are currently in.
- Your Fastpass + selections are matched to your ticket, so do not try swapping them with other people in the park or even in your party. It will not work.
- You have a hour window to use a Fastpass+. For example, a Fastpass+ on Space Mountain that starts at 9:30 a.m. is good until 10:30 a.m. If you miss your time slot by more than a couple of minutes, you will be out of luck and have to try and secure another Fastpass+ reservation.
- You can use Fastpass + selections on a variety of rides, shows, and character visits. Epcot and Hollywood Studios have grouped so that you can only hold one at a time from select headliner attractions. For example, we learned that in Epcot, you cannot hold a Fastpass+ slot at Test Track at the same time as Soarin’.
3. Before you head to the Disney Parks, make sure that you have downloaded the My Disney Experience Mobile App. This app will allow you to adjust your Fastpass + reservations or add new reservations from your phone. In my opinion, having this option is much better than having to hunt down the Fastpass + kiosks and stand in line to use them. And yes, lines do develop during peak season at least.
Also, with the My Disney Experience app, you can check wait times throughout the parks, link up your Disney dining and other reservations and see menus, and much more.
4. Arrive at the Disney theme parks early in the mornings.
Even with 3 Fastpass + selections per person, it is very unlikely that you will be able to cover all the popular rides and attractions that you want to to experience. And in the case of Epcot and Hollywood Studios, as mentioned above, you can’t hold Fastpass+ spots for several of the big headline rides at the same time.
So be at the parks when they open. You will be able to ride a headliner or two quickly via the standby option.
On our recent trip, this worked especially well for The Magic Kingdom. We were able to ride Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin twice and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train within the first 35 minutes that the park was open using the standby lines.
The tips above have been designed to help you get the most out of your Disney World trip. For more travel helps:
One Day Hop from Disney World to Wizarding World of Harry Potter?
5 Tips for Beating the Heat at At the Amusement Park
I’d love to go to Disney world, I haven’t been since I was a kid. Growing up we always went to the beach or the mountains as both of my parents had full time jobs. I’d love to go now and enjoy everything.
Great tips! I didn’t know that there’s a Disney experience app – so helpful. We’ll be taking my son at some point so I’m saving this for later 🙂
Thanks for sharing on Let’s Get Real Friday
These are great tips…the fast pass is the greatest invention ever! When we moved to Florida, we bought annual passes and swore by the fast passes! This will be super helpful to anyone planning a Disney trip. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Share The Wealth Sunday!
I agree that having Fastpasses available with Disney tickets is so great.
Great tips! We are frequent Disney travelers; our last trip was when they were testing out fastpass+ with travel agents and select families so we know nothing about it. Though I must admit that we travel in such an off peak season/time that we have yet to use the old fastpass system.
Fastpass+ system easier to use than I thought it would be. Definitely see how in off season might not need to use.