Fast Pass Plus Strategery

I thought you would find some humor in that, Jeff.

But, all's well that ends well.

This morning the website was having a "magical day", and we snagged every Fast-Pass we wanted for all four days. Now that I've done the process, I see where your opinion comes from. The odd part was the website selecting options of times for us, then I had to go back in and individually tinker with each one until it was the time-slot we actually wanted.

Yeah, and it's not obvious that you can do that. It wasn't until I saw a cast member mess with ours at a kiosk (passholders couldn't book online at first), when I realized that what you got wasn't what you were required to take. I wonder how many people even realize that. I would suspect that's an intentional design choice, but it doesn't do a lot of good with people there showing you how to beat it.

If you do end up using a kiosk, wait until you see how you actually have to touch just under your target to get it to work.

For reference, this site tracks "hard to get" FP+ availability.

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=835236

The only reason I knew to go in and individually change the times was seeing it mentioned on some blog somewhere (in all the digging I did for tips...the name escapes me).

It gets laborious if you've selected all three attractions at once. Since the times can't overlap, you have to play with all three times simultaneously if you want them in a different order. That is, an available time slot might actually be there, but you may not be able to see it if you have another attraction selected for a time very close to what you want. I suppose in hindsight I should have simply done one attraction at a time, but that would take even more time, and we all know how precious time is when you're trying to book a date with Elsa and Anna. :)

Thanks for that link, Brian; it actually lines up with exactly what we experienced. We'll be at the Magic Kingdom on March 4th (a Wednesday), and the first Fast Pass available for meeting Elsa & Anna was 2:50 - 3:50, and looking now there are only opening for 6 and beyond.

Everything else we planned out (aside from Soarin') had every time-slot available, including the Mine Train which kinda-sorta surprised me.

Can't wait to try out a kiosk...

Was at Disney World from the 19th thru the 23rd. Found that some of the longest lines in the parks were for the FP kiosks.

Personally, I would schedule my Fast Passes for the afternoon, especially if you are the type of person who will get to the parks at opening. You can get so much done in the first 2-3 hours of park opening, that using FP during that time is almost useless, save for Seven Dwarfs, Toy Story, and Test Track/Soarin' (whichever you choose).

In June, we would use a FP for a line that only had a 5-15 minute Standby Wait. This past trip, we used the Standby Lines up until about noon, then used the FP that we had scheduled throughout the afternoons. It seemed to work for us, with minimal (given the time of year) waiting. Granted, this will limit your ability to get FP later in the day after you have used up your 3.

As of Christmas-time (Dec 22 - 28), extra FP+ could only be made from the terminals, which were usually a 20-30 minute wait. Kinda defeats the purpose.

Indeed, but most of the time the crowds aren't even remotely that awful.

OhioStater said:

It gets laborious if you've selected all three attractions at once. Since the times can't overlap, you have to play with all three times simultaneously if you want them in a different order.

I deal with that by putting all of them well "out of the way" of my eventual target times. So, if I'm looking for late morning/mid-day, I'll pick the pre-arranged schedule that has all of them late in the day. Then it's easy to which ones can slot where.

Considering we rarely go for more than four hours at a time, I've had no issue stacking three rides together. If you go to the first one late in the hour, you can get into the second right after. If you eat after that, chances are the third is ready when you're done. Substitute lunch with something like Hall of Presidents, Tiki Room, Flying Carpets, Dumbo, etc.