Unlike most of the parks where you get a fast lane ticket one time and that applies to all rides, Fastpass+ for Disney works differently. In Disney World when you go any park any ride you see two lanes
- Standard lane showing the standard wait time for the ride
- Fastpass+ lane which you can only go into if you have booked it earlier.
And you have to book it for every park every ride separately. The system allows guests to make advance reservations to skip the regular lines at three rides or attractions of their choice inside one park for every day of their visit.
Yes, it sounds complicated but it’s not. Let’s See How
How Can You Advance Book your FastPass+?
First of all, the guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel can make FastPass+ reservations up to 60 days in advance of check-in for their entire length of stay (up to 10 days), while guests staying offsite can make reservations up to 30 days in advance of each day of their theme park visit.
So, as I mentioned before it’s important to make your day wise plan and the hop to booking your Fastpass+ for different top attractions.
Your Fastpass+ Strategy:
Do high priority rides in the morning:
The important thing here is to use your fast passes even if you think that parks might be empty or have a low wait time. Parks are never empty.
The priority should be riding the highest priority attractions with lowest wait time in the morning as the wait times in the morning are low and save the FastPass+ until late morning and early afternoon when crowds are at their peak. In case you arrive before park opening, you’ll be in prime position to ride most of the major attractions before lunchtime and maybe have used one of your FastPasses.
What if you finish my 3 passes of a day?
As mentioned before you can book 3 passes for a day. Once you’ve used your three pre-booked selections, you have the option to obtain a fourth FastPass+ reservation from the in-park kiosks.
We highly recommend taking advantage of this for rides that see medium waits (most of the high-wait rides will not have available fastpass+ at times )
Who should make all the reservations?
Make sure when you are making Fastpass+ reservations all of your party members are connected as friends and family, and your tickets are linked in My Disney Experience. The important thing is that all adults can make or change reservations however the best thing is that one person makes reservations for the whole group as a lead.
Choose your FastPass+ selections wisely
You want to make sure you use your FastPass+ selections on your favorite rides and the most popular attractions with the longest wait times. To help you out, I have made a list of priority attractions by the park. However, the full planning of each park will be covered in the upcoming blogs.
Top 3 FastPass+ Priorities by Park
Magic Kingdom Park
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Space Mountain
- Splash Mountain
Epcot
- Frozen Ever After
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Test Track
- Mission Space
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Slinky Dog Dash
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Fantasmic Show and Fireworks
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- Avatar Flight of Passage
- Na’vi River Journey
- Expedition Everest
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
Which rides are Important to YOU and YOUR FAMILY!
If you’re traveling with young children who aren’t 40 inches tall (as it’s the height required for many attractions) then character experiences might be your priority or some of the family-friendly Disney classics that don’t necessarily have the highest wait times. Maybe it’s the roller coasters. It’s really up to you. Decide what works best for your family and book it accordingly.
Use FastPass+ kiosk for booking in two parks if you plan to park hop.
The app only allows you to make reservations in one park per day. But in case you plan to hop parks you can use the FastPass+ kiosk in every park to do it and see them on spot available rides for Fastpass+. You never know you can get lucky. We got our 2 rides like this at the last minute.
Now go ahead and book your Fastpass+ in the Disney My Experience App. If you still have questions you can ask or look at this how-to video.
