Fast Pass Follow - How it worked.

My Daughter Mallory and I took a lot of time planning our days for the Disney Trip. I went so far as to create a spreadsheet so that we could look at Dining Reservations and Extra Magic Hours to plan what parks we would visit each day then plan our FastPasses around that. Looking at the picture above, Blue is Hollywood Studios, Purple is Magic Kingdom, Green is Animal Kingdom and Yellow is Epcot. Many people who looked at our plans thought we had gone over the edge but these plans came in really handy this morning when FastPass request time came and everything fell apart. Let me tell the story.

I was up and waiting at 6am when the gates for everyone who had reservations at a Disney Resort in 60 days opened. I logged in and started looking for passes. I tried first for the Flight of Passage passes. On Monday there were none available. (yes gone already) We had a second day in, Animal Kingdom, on Thursday so I switched to Thursday and got them on Thursday. Next I tried going to our, Hollywood Studios, day to get the Slinky Dog Dash Fastpasses. There were none available. I chose Toy Story Midway Mania instead and decided I'd better try to get the Seven Dwarves Mine Train Fastpasses. I got one on the first day we wanted and was headed towards the second day in the Magic Kingdom when I noticed my phone buzzing multiple times. Glancing at it I saw a picture from work. I couldn't really make out what it was and while I was trying to figure it out I accidently backed out of the Fastpass selection screen and had to log back in. When I logged back in I forgot about the second Mine Train pass and went back to Sunday to finish selections for Animal Kingdom. The other passes we wanted were easy enough to get.
Texting with Scott about problems at the studio it became apparent I was going to need to go into the station. I told Scott I would need a few minutes to get dressed and wake someone up to move the car that was parked behind me. As I was doing this I was calling Mallory at College. I woke her up and told her I couldn't finish FastPass selection. She got logged on and asked me how far I had gotten. Honestly, by this point,  I was pretty confused. I told her I thought I got all the good ones except the Monday Flight of Passage, but I had to go.
Mallory was able to log on and with our plans, shared as a Google Sheet, finish the Fast Pass selections.

After all was said and done the only FastPass we couldn't get was Slinky Dog Dash. I'm pretty sure we could have if we would have been willing to go to Hollywood Studios with FastPasses later in the week. Our plan now is just to RopeDrop that ride and enjoy everything else.

Our planning may have seemed over the top and a little obsessive but I am glad we had it there.  Also shows that with all the planning and hope for FastPasses be ready to adjust on the fly.

Feel free to comment with any questions about how the morning worked.

Disney Fast Passes

Six years ago, in 2013, my family visited Disney World for the first time since 1998.  We were visiting Kristy's Dad for thanksgiving in Orlando and decided to buy two days worth of park tickets. We spent Thanksgiving Day at the Magic Kingdom and Black Friday at Hollywood studios. (Two of the busiest days of the year) As we wandered around the park, Mallory kept asking me why we didn't stop at one of those fast pass kiosks and get fast passes. I assumed the Disney Fast Pass worked like any other theme park and you had to pay a fee that would get you to the front of line. I kept saying, "No we're not doing that." I could not have been more wrong. Mallory still reminds me of my mistaken insistence not to use a fast pass to this day. 

Disney's FastPass+ service is complimentary to anyone with a park ticket but there are perks for guests who are staying at a Disney Resort.

Here's how it works. 

Through the MyDisneyExperience Website or on the MyDisneyExperience App you can choose up to 3 FastPasses per day. (note - all your advanced scheduled FastPasses have to be in the same park) Once you use those up you can add additional FastPasses one at a time, in any park for the rest of the day with the MyDisneyExperience App.  The FastPasses get you into a shorter line and are good for 1 hour. For example, you might book a FastPass that could be used for Haunted Mansion between 12pm and 1pm. (We found that Disney seems to add about 5 minutes of grace time. We showed up for one FP a few minutes late and decided to try to swipe our magic bands just to see.  It let us in.) 

Your FastPass reservations are assigned to the RFID chip in your Magicband, if you have one, or your, credit card style, theme park ticket. You simply hold those up to the Mickey FastPass entrance and as long as it turns green you get the shorter line. Remember FastPass doesn't mean, no wait, it means substantially shorter wait. 

If you have park tickets and link those tickets to your MyDisneyExperience account you can book FastPasses 30 days in advance of your trip. 

If you are staying on Disney Property you can book FastPasses sixty days ahead of your trip and you get to book for your whole trip on the first day they are available. For example our next trip begins on June 9 so we can book FastPasses on April 9 but on April 9 I can book all our FastPasses not just 60 days out but the 9th, 10th, 11th 12th 13th 14th and 15th. So really I get to book FastPasses 66 days ahead. 

Fast Pass selection opens for the day at 7am Orlando time so I will be at the computer 6am Central time trying to get FastPasses as fast as possible. This is why there almost has to be some planning for your trip to Disney World. You've already made dining reservations at the 180 day mark, now you are trying to get FastPasses. By this point you should have a good idea what park or parks you're going to be in each day. 

There are a few strategies I have seen in scheduling FastPasses. 

1. Schedule FastPasses Early in the day. When you do it this way you can use them up early and try to get more. As soon as you swipe your Magicband for that final FastPass you can be on your MyDisneyExperience App looking for more. You do not have to wait until you are finished with the ride you can be looking while you are in line. This is what we did last time were were at Disney and Mallory was our FastPass Wizard. She found so many good extra ones for us.
2. Go to the parks early (rope drop) and since the crowds are smaller you can get on a few rides quickly without FastPasses then Use your FastPasses later in the day when things are crowded and lines are longer. We plan to try this a little on our next trip. 
3. I've also heard that, since you cannot book two FastPasses within the same hour that once you check into your first FastPass ride you could try to change one of your later FastPasses to be within the hour of the ride you are in line for. This would allow you to push FastPasses closer together but I haven't been able to confirm this. 

Finally, My Fast Pass Suggestions for each Park

I am a roller coaster guy so my Fast Pass choices in the Magic Kingdom are always going to lean to the mountains: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and now the little mountain that the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is inside.  You only get three Fast Passes though so how do you do all of them. We found on Thanksgiving that if you are at the park for Rope drop and head straight back to Big Thunder Mountain you can get on fairly quickly. Save your FastPasses for the others. I would suggest making that Splash Mountain Fast Pass later in the day so you don't have to walk around wet all day. 

If you don't want to Fast Pass all the Roller Coasters other choices in the Magic Kingdom include: 

• Peter Pan, the line here is always long, 
• Haunted Mansion, It's a classic and again the line is long, 
• Jungle cruise, this is a favorite and the line can be intense. 

Do Not Fast Pass: 

• It's a Small world 
• Pirates of the Caribbean 

You can find time during the day with shorter lines for both of these rides. Plus most of Pirates line is inside, spend some time in the AC. 

Epcot is a little different story. Like Hollywood studios and Animal Kingdom Epcots FastPasses are tiered. You get to choose one FastPass from Tier 1 and two from Tier 2 

Tier 1 Attractions include 

• Frozen Ever After
• Test Track
• Soarin' 
• Illuminations Reflections of Earth, nighttime show and fireworks. 
• Epcot Character Greeting

Everything else at Epcot is a Tier 2 Attraction. Honestly We had trouble finding Tier 2 attractions we were interested in at Epcot. Nemo would be fun with kids. Journey into imagination isn't nearly as good as it originally was.  Mission space was not open when we went a few years ago so that holds promise if you like thrill rides. 

My Favorite of the Tier 1 rides is Soarin. We waited in line for Test Track and it wasn't too long and fairly fun. If you have a little one though you'd better get that Frozen Ever After Fast Pass. 

Animal Kingdom is also Tiered but the Tier is a little simpler: Pandora is Tier 1, Everything else is Tier 2 

Pandora's Rides include Flight of Passage and the Navi River Journey. In My Opinion. Flight of Passage is the best and most immersive ride I have ever been on but don't waste a fast pass on the Navi River Journey. 

In the rest of Animal Kingdom, if you are a coaster fan, you have to Fast Pass Expedition Everest. If you've never been on the Safari at Animal Kingdom, Fast Pass Kilimanjaro Safari, the wait can get a little long. Dinosaur is a fun ride but not sure it's worth the FastPass. 

Here is my suggestion for a Fast Pass strategy in Animal Kingdom. 

Be there extra early so that you are up near the front at Rope Drop. (There will actually be Disney Cast Members with a rope that will lead you back) At rope Drop head straight to Flight of Passage. If you get there early enough you can be on and off flight of passage by 9:30 if the park is open at 9. You might even be able to get to another ride or two before it gets too busy. Fast Pass Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest and Flight of Passage. (you'll want to ride it again) Wait in line for Dinosaur and Festival of the Lion King. 

I saved Hollywood Studios for last because in the Fall, all this will change. Right now all three of the Toy Story Land Rides are Tier 1 

• Slinky Dog Dash
• Space Ranger Spin
• Midway Mania

Feel like out of the three you have to Fast Pass Slinky Dog, if you like coasters. It's a family coaster and not a real thrill ride but just to experience it. Midway Mania is a lot of fun and was really hard to get a FastPass for before everything else opened. 

Among the Tier 2 Fast Pass Choices. 

• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (I love this ride) 
• Rockin' Roller Coaster (The only Disney Coaster with loops) 
• Star Tours (Star Wars themed Ride) 

and shows 

• Beauty and Beast 
• Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
• Frozen Sing along

On August 29th Star Wars Galaxy's Edge will open in Disney world. In addition to that Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railway will open. This is predicted to make Hollywood studios the busiest place in Orlando and throw Fast Pass choices into complete Disarray. My guess is that All of the newest Rides: Millennium Falcon, Smugglers Run - Rise of the Resistance and Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railway will be added to the Tier one list. Meaning you'll have 6 Tier one rides and only one FastPass for them. Maybe they'll move the Toy Story stuff to Tier 2, hoping to move some of the crowds out of Galaxies Edge. 

For now my plan for Hollywood studios. 

• Rope Drop to Rockin Roller Coaster
• Fastpass Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Fastpass SlinkyDog Dash
• Fastpass Beauty and the Beast (because the family loves it) 

I hope these thoughts and explanations about Fast Passes help you out. If you have any questions feel free to comment. 

As I type this it is almost April 5th. There are 4 more days until I have my chance to get FastPasses for our trip. I'll let you know how it goes after I finish. 

Disney Go

I just realized in talking about planning your Disney Trip, I never  covered investigating and picking out your Hotel. Disney has made this experience so easy and, in my opinion, fun. When thinking about a trip I've found everyone in my family checking out the Disney Go Website. At this site you can enter the dates of your trip, compare resorts, check out descriptions and pictures of resorts. Add theme Park Tickets, meal plans and other upgrades. to see what the total price of your trip would be. Then you can make your reservations directly from the website. Call a travel agent with the details you've picked out or call Disney. 

Let's run  through how it works.

The First thing you will do on the opening page, (above) is choose the dates, number in your party and type of resort you might be look at. Deluxe Resorts are the most expensive, Biggest Rooms, Biggest Beds and Close to the parks. They will have transportation that stops closest to the entrance and the best restaurants. Moderate Resorts are Nice but usually very expansive with a lot of rooms and many buildings. Room size is about that of a regular hotel room with Queen Beds. They normally have nice restaurants, plenty of amenities and nice pools. The Size of the resort usually means multiple bus stops for Disney Transportation but some will have other transportation options, boats and soon skyliner available. Value Resorts are the cheapest, rooms are smallest and most have Full size beds rather than Queens. (the Pop Century was just remodeled. Rooms have a queen size bed and a queen size murphy bed that can be pulled down from the wall). The bus stops for these resorts will be farthest from the resort entrance and several of these resorts share busses (Again the Pop Century is different, it is so big that it doesn't share it's bus with any other resort) Pools here are nice and large but no water slides or other theming you might find in other resorts. The Value resorts are some of the most "Disney" themed resorts.

Once you've put in all your information and clicked Find Resorts another screen will open with all the resort choices for you.

Notice that near the top of this screen you can filter your results. Any of these filters you change will change the results you've received so if you'd rather check out different resorts before moving forward just change the resort category. Initially you will see results listing the per night cost of the resort. We'll change that on the next screen. When you see a resort you think might work for you click the forward arrow for that resort.

Once you move forward here the only rooms that will show up on your offers are those that are available during your dates. Here I always switch to package view. With the package view you will see the full price for your stay. At this point it is the price for the room for the dates you have chosen. For the trip we are working through it is a 6 night (Saturday to Saturday) Stay. On this screen you can look at a picture gallery of the resort you have selected and look at more resort and room details. You can also select to change, if you don't like the room choices or what you are seeing and it will take you back to a place where you can resubmit your resort choices. Notice the bottom of the screen has some other suggestions based on what you are currently looking at. If you like one of these rooms click on select.

Once you select your room you are taken to a screen to add your park tickets. Disney will always default to a ticket package that equals the number of days of your stay. For example, with this package the website defaulted to a 7 day base park ticket, 1 park per day. I never stick with that choice and  here is why. We know that we will not arrive at Disney until late after noon or early evening on that first day. Why waste a park ticket on a half or a quarter of a day. We can get dinner, explore the resort, do Disney Springs when we arrive. We'll try to rest up for the rest of the week. Also Check out time is 11am so we know that we won't be in the parks on our final day there. Our 7 day default pass becomes a 5 day pass in order to not waste park admission on days we won't go. There are two things you can add at the bottom of the page. 

The Park Hopper option allows you to visit multiple parks per day. I highly suggest this option. being able to bounce back and forth between parks makes things so much better than being stuck in one park each day. 

The Park Hopper plus option allows you to jump back and forth between parks and do the water parks. I've never been to a Disney Water Park. I figure that there are Water Parks I can go to at home I want to enjoy everything else Disney has to offer. If you or the family loves water parks though, this may be a great option. Your subtotal in the Top Right Corner of the page will change with any choices you make. When you finish picking your Park tickets, Click Continue. 

Food decision time now. Do you want to add a Dining plan? The Disney Dining Plan is Disney's way of trying to make your resort stay more all inclusive. A lot of people will ask, Is it worth it? I don't believe it really saves you any money but it may save you some stress and hassle. Instead of pulling out a credit card or cash for each meal your swipe your Disney Magic Band. I did a post here on the Dining plan, what it includes and what to expect. My family has done the Quick service plan because it is the least expensive and I didn't want to be tied to finding a table service reservation at least once a day. Once you choose what you want to do with the Dining plan click continue again. 

And there it is: For 2 adults at a value resort, Saturday to Saturday mid June. 5 Day park hopper passes and a quick service dining plan you have a price. There are some things you could add here. The Memory Maker allows you to purchase, in advance, all ride pictures and any pictures you have taken by Disney Photographers in the park. We'll talk about that in a later post. You could let Disney help you find a flight and add the complimentary ground transportation from the airport. You could also go back and start over with different dates and/or resorts to see how the pricing changes. Disney also offers a "comparison" tool here. The comparison tool will save up to 3 vacation offers and list them side by side so you can compare. 

Kristy and I have never actually purchased the trip here but you could click check out and reserve with Disney. You could save your details and call Disney. We have a friend who is a travel agent and have done all of our research with Disney's tools then called April and asked her to make the reservations for us. 

Hope that helps and if you have any questions please feel free to comment.