Planning a Disney World Trip - How to Use Fastpass+

   After my first post with tips and ideas for Disney World, I had some interest shown in hearing more about planning a Disney trip. I know that if you haven't ever been to Disney, or haven't been in a long time, it can probably seem pretty overwhelming. There are a lot of details to consider! So over the next couple of posts, I'll be covering some of the important aspects of planning, including Fastpasses, character meet and greets, and overviews of the parks and rides. There are a lot of posts out there in the blogosphere about these subjects, so in mine I will be specifically focusing once again on tackling Disney with little ones. I will also mostly be basing my information off of my experiences going in the off-season (see my other Disney World post for more info about ideal times to visit), so if you're planning a trip during a busier season any wait times mentioned will most definitely be longer.

    Which Parks to Visit and for How Many Days

    There are four different parks in Disney World, not counting water parks.

    Magic Kingdom is the most well-known, and certainly a must-do, especially with young children. This is the home of Cinderella's castle, and all of the most classic rides, plus a parade, a live show, and fireworks. My family has made a tradition for many visits of starting and ending the trip with a day in Magic Kingdom. Though two days in the park are not necessary, there is certainly a lot to do and see in MK, and there are many rides that children will enjoy riding more than once if they have a chance.

    Epcot is my other favorite park, and another park that can be hard to really fully enjoy in just one day. The first half of the park, called FutureWorld, is mostly geared toward adults and older children, but does have some character meet and greets and a couple of rides that younger kids can enjoy. The back of the park, World Showcase, has very few rides, but plenty of opportunities to meet characters. The adults will enjoy meandering through the various countries, shopping and sampling local cuisine, and the younger kids can color and collect stamps at each country's “Kidcot” stop.

    Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM) only has a few rides, and only one of those (at least until Toy Story Land opens in June 2018) is little kid-friendly. But there are plenty of character meet and greets, and a lot of fun live shows that kids will love. If you're a Star Wars fan, Hollywood Studios is a must, even now before all of the new Star Wars attractions open. There's also a whole section devoted to Disney Junior, if your kids are fans of the channel.

    Animal Kingdom is the one park that I know little about. I have visited it briefly on two occasions, but have never spent a whole day there. A large portion of the park is set up similar to a zoo. There are a handful of rides, all but a few of which are for older kids and adults. They do have a couple of great live shows that younger kids will enjoy, as well as some characters that you won't find in any other park.

    How Fastpass+ Works

    For those of you who are unfamiliar with Fastpasses, they are special tickets that allow you to skip the normal, “stand-by” line for certain attractions and cut way down on your wait time. There is no extra cost for these tickets, but there are a limited number of them available per day per attraction. Even though it can seem like a bit of a pain to deal with booking Fastpasses and having to choose way ahead of time what attractions you'll want to do and when, it is definitely worth it to not have to wait in super long lines for the most popular attractions.

    The new Fastpass system is called Fastpass+, and there are some important differences between the old system and the new. You will still arrive at the ride to use your Fastpass during a specific, hour long window of time, and you will still enter the ride by a special queue marked “Fastpass Entrance”. Now, however, instead of getting all of your Fastpasses at the entrance to the ride on the day you arrive at the park, you will need to book them ahead of time online or on the Disney World app. You CAN still get Fastpasses in the park at a few designated kiosks, or book them the day of on the app, but your options will be very limited. The most popular rides will likely be completely gone.

    If you're staying at a Disney resort, you will be able to book your Fastpasses 60 days ahead of your trip, for the entire length of your stay. This means, for example, if your first day is February 1^st and your hotel or campground reservation goes through the 7^th, you can book all of your Fastpasses for your entire trip on December 3^rd. If nothing has changed since I last heard, that booking time starts at midnight.
    If you're staying off-property, you will be able to book your Fastpasses 30 days ahead of each day you will be in the park. So, for example, if your first day in the park is February 1^st, you can book your Fastpasses for that day on January 2^nd. If you then take a day off before your second day in the park on February 3^rd, you can book Fastpasses for that second day on January 4^th, and so on. The booking time opens at 7 am eastern time.

    Another difference in the new system is that you can now only book 3 Fastpasses per day to start with. Once you are in the park and use those 3, you can check at a kiosk or on the app and see if there is anything else available for that day, and you can book one more at a time for the rest of the day. Because of this, the earlier in the day you can book your initial 3 Fastpasses the better, but of course you have to keep in mind what time you'll be able to get to the park. We were usually doing good to get there between 11 and 12 (being in a different time zone didn't help!), so all of our Fastpasses were for somewhere between 12 and 4.

    How to Book Fastpass+

    The process for booking is relatively simple, and similar for the website vs. the app from what I can tell. You'll need to have your tickets linked to your account before you start, so make sure that you have entered all of that information.

    Just before the booking time begins, log in to your account and select all of the members of your party for which you will be booking Fastpasses. When midnight or 7 am hits, click to the next page and choose your date, then which park you will be visiting. You will then see a list of attractions, and at the top of the page will be the option for “morning”, “afternoon”, “evening”, or more specific times of day. I recommend choosing one of these first three to narrow down your options before scrolling down to the attraction you're looking for.

    Some of these go very fast, so you'll need to move as quickly as possible. I will talk in my next post about which attractions you should try to grab first, and which passes in general are most worth having. If you do miss out on a specific Fastpass that you're wanting, I would definitely recommend continuing to check back even up to the day of your visit, because sometimes people cancel and they become available again. (And if you change your plans for any reason, don't forget to cancel your Fastpasses and make someone else's day!)

    After you've booked all three Fastpasses as quickly as you can, you can go back and try to change your times if you're not happy with them. There may or may not still be other times available, depending on the popularity of the attraction. On the app, go to “My Plans”, find the Fastpass that you want to change, and click “Modify”. It will ask you which members of your party you are making changes for. Then you will be able to see what times are still available, if any. Choose one that's better for your schedule, then click “Confirm”.

    In my next post, I'll be covering ALL the attractions and character meet and greets, and talking about which have Fastpasses and which ones are most worth trying to get. You won't want to miss it, so stay tuned!

    Please like and share, and comment if you enjoyed this post or have any questions about anything Disney World related!

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