It’s 60 days until our trip! You may be wondering why this is so exciting... It's because today was the day, the day we FINALLY got to pick FastPasses (officially called, FastPast+)for our upcoming trip and I was ready. Miss F and I had many many conversations leading up to this day and she was locked in, rock solid, knew completely what she wanted. Until it was time to choose. Now what?
Well, we went back to the drawing board and the Walt Disney World website. The Walt Disney World website has great images (of course) for each ride and even videos of some of them but all of their information is done in such a way as to not give away any of the magic, no first person POV ride videos here! (I'm looking at you YouTube). Another good option is the online Disney planning video, they break it down by park and cover many of the rides within each park, although they tend to focus on the newer, more exciting rides. These tools allowed us to have a discussion about the rides available for FastPasses and have some sneak peaks about each ride without too many spoilers. (This was very important to Miss F after a rough experience earlier this year). In the end, we chose some classics that she has never experienced and two of the newer, more thrilling rides.
As part of our planning she chose one park for each day we will be there. She decided that we will go to Magic Kingdom on the first day and Epcot on the second day. For our day in Magic Kingdom, she chose Peter Pan's Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and The Jungle Cruise; but that doesn't mean its all we're doing for the day, those are just the rides with pre-arranged times. She's desperate for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train... check back and see how that goes! In Epcot, she chose Spaceship Earth, Journey into the Imagination, and Frozen Ever After. I hope she's happy with her choices!
More generally, you may be wondering what a FastPass is and how it works. Well, it’s essentially ride reservations. If you are staying on property in a Disney resort hotel, you get to choose them 60 days out and everyone else gets to pick 30 days out. Using either the Disney My Experience App or the Disney My Experience website, you can choose three rides per day to FastPass. Once you have the reservation, you enter the ride through the FastPass+ line during your time slot and have a minimal wait in line. It’s like a VIP line, but free!.
Many FastPasses for popular attractions fill up quickly, and getting FastPass reservations early can literally save you hours in line, or prevent you from missing out on experiences entirely.
Some important things to know are that while you can only make three FastPass reservations per day, you can make more as soon as you have used your third pass. You can get new ones from either a physical kiosk in the park or on the app on your phone. So, if you really want to get as much riding in as possible, you can stack your initial three for the morning and be ready to make more by lunch!
Since I'm going this time with Miss F and she's only 4, ours are spread out a lot. This just gives us time to meander and allows me to take her lead without having a strict schedule to keep.
Another important note is that both Epcot and, as of June 30 (when Toy Story Land opens), Hollywood Studios have a tiered FastPass system. This means that the most popular rides are in the top tier and the other rides are in the second tier. You can only choose one top tier ride as part of your initial selection and cannot FastPass another until all three are used. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom do not have a tiered system, so all rides are equal,
Using Epcot as an example, Frozen Ever After, Test Track and Soarin' Around the World are the top tier attractions. This means that you can only initially choose one of them and two of the other, less popular attractions for your first round. Choose carefully because there are only a limited number of FastPasses available for each ride per day. So, even if you use all of them by noon it is possible that you still wouldn't be able to get passes for another of the top tier attractions.
No matter what though, you can still wait in line for any ride you choose. So don't let the stress of trying to plan and stack FastPasses ruin your fun! The magic is real and if you let it happen, you will have an AMAZING vacation!