Fastpass Strategies :)

[NASCARVW]

I was just wondering what other peoples strategies are to make the best use of the FASTPASS system. I really don't have a plan, I just kinda go and get one if I happen to go by the popular ones in hopes of skipping a longer line later.
Anybody elses ideas are greatly APPRECIATED!
:)

[buzznwoodysmom]

Here are a few things we do. These don't work all the time. When we arrive at MGM we go straight and get fastpasses for RNRC then get in the stand by line for ToT. After riding ToT we try to get fastpasses for ToT, sometimes we can, sometimes we can't. Then it is usualy time for our fastpass on RNRC. If all works out well we get to ride both of these within the first hour that the park is open and then have fastpasses for ToT later in the day.

At MK we normally will get a fast pass for BTMRR and get in the standby line for Splash Mountain. Or if the lines aren't too bad we will grab a fastpass for BTMRR and then get in the standby line. When we get off it is usually our fastpass time so we get to ride BTMRR twice in a row, only having to wait in the longer line once. My kids love to ride this one twice in a row so we do this for them.

At Epcot we head straight to Soarin and ride in the standby line. We grab fastpasses on our way out for a ride later in the day.

Anytime lines are long and it is a ride my children love we will grab fastpasses either before we enter the standby line or on our way off the ride that way they can ride thier favoirtes twice without having to wait long both times.

[MOJoe]

The Fastpass system is designed to help people experience their favorite attractions. So getting one just because you are in the area, is not the most effective use of you time. Most people use the system to do several things. Such as;

Ride twice - by getting a Fastpass, then getting in the regular line, saving the pass for later.

Have lunch - get your Fastpass, go eat, and return for your ride.

2 for 1 - get a Fastpass for one headliner, get in line for another, then use the Fastpass. This one works great for Space Mountain and Buzz at MK, and Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster at The Studios

Ride till you :sick: - say you are the only one in your party that likes Rockin Roller Coaster. Gather up everyone's ticket, get X number of Fastpasses, and while everyone else watches Beauty and the Beast, you can rock out to Aerosmith until you're so dizzy the cast members give you a field sobriety test.

I'm sure there are many other variations, but these are some of my favorites. If you think about it, you are sure to come up with a great plan of your own! :mickey:

[jrpersinger]

2 for 1 - get a Fastpass for one headliner, get in line for another, then use the Fastpass. This one works great for Space Mountain and Buzz at MK, and Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster at The Studios.

This is what we do. And it really saves us alot of time. At MK - FP Big Thunder Mountain and ride Splash Mountain. FP Space Mountain and ride Buzz/Astro Orbitor/Indy Speedway. At Epcot FP Soarin and ride Mission Space or Test Track. At MGM FP RockNRoller Coaster and ride Tower of Terror. At AK, FP Expedtion Everest and ride the Safari.

However, to make this work you have to watch the wait times. Sometimes we found it was better to do it in reverse. Or in the case of Soarin one time, we rode a ton of stuff and still had to wait on our time at Soarin! And then, sometimes we found rides when we went to FP them (i.e. Mission Space) had no wait time at all when we had previously seen wait times of over a hour.


Ride till you :sick: - say you are the only one in your party that likes Rockin Roller Coaster. Gather up everyone's ticket, get X number of Fastpasses, and while everyone else watches Beauty and the Beast, you can rock out to Aerosmith until you're so dizzy the cast members give you a field sobriety test.

DH says he is going to do this with Mission Space. I can see me pushing him in the stroller now instead of the kids! LOL

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

:mickey: Yeah, ideas vary but I find it best to Fastpass the newer and most popular-These are the ones we had trouble getting on until using this strategy/At Animal Kingdom the safari and Mt. Everest/upon arrival fast pass one and get in the line for the other/ At MGM-Rocking Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror/fast pass one get in line for the other/Epcot-fast pass Soarin and Honey I Shrunk the audience get in line for one fast pass the other/Magic-Space Mountain, Peter Pan's adventure and Buzz Lightyear-fast pass space mountain and then go ride Buzz Lightyear/When that's done go straight to Peter Pan and if you need to go ahead and grab a fastpass then.....

[IloveJack]

We never get in the FP line for something without getting another FP. It's not much of a strategy, but we burn part of the next FP time while we ride.

[Disney-lovin' Dutchman]

At MK, I go at park opening, I get Fastpasses for Peter Pan's Flight, do the rides in Fantasyland, as soon as I can get another FastPass I get one for either Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain and stand in line at the other.
I then go and ride Peter Pan when it's time, do the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean...then it's time for either Splash Mountain or Big Thunder mountain and I go do the rest of the park..:D

At Epcot I would get a FP for Soarin', head over to Seas with Nemo and Friends (I love this pavillion!!This is my new favorite pavillion because Wonders of Life is closed) and if I have some time to spare, go ride Living with the Land. Then it's time for Soarin'. After that, I go to Test Track, get a FP, go on Mission Space, see Universe of Energy. Then I go ride Test Track with my FP and then do World Showcase (maybe getting a FP for Maelstrom)

At Disney Hollywood Studios, I would get a FP for Rock'nRollercoaster, stand in line at Tower of Terror, do the Great Movie Ride, return for RnRC, get a Fastpass for Star Tours, do Muppetvision 3d and the Backlot Tour, do Star Tours with the FP and go do the rest of the park.

At Animal Kingdom I would get FP for Expedition Everest,stand in line for Expedition Everest, walk around the tree of Life, see ITTBAB, do Expedition Everest with my FP, see the Nemo musical and leave :D...am not a big fan of AK

Phew...well that's it basically..this is the strategy I will use in 2 weeks!

[pook@wdw]

AAAHHH!!!...FastPass! What a wonderful invention!:cloud9: If used properly, a most excellent time WILL be had by all!! At MK, we FP either Splash or Thunder (depending on line) and then ride the same attraction in the regular line or single-rider line. Then move on to the other and do the same thing. Then we FP Peter Pan, and move over to Tomorowland, FP SM, and ride it (depending on wait time, hit Buzz, and others, then move back to Fantasyland to finish up!
At Epcot, we FP Soarin, ride it, and then move over to MS and TT, and FP one or the other (depending on wait time) will ride those as well.
At DS, I FP RRC for everyone in my party while they ride TOT (I do not ride TOT), and then I ride single on RRC.
At AK, we go directly to EE, FP it , and ride it also. And move on to Bug's Life FP it (if necessary), and move on.
If all the stars are aligned right, and w/a little :pixie: you too can enjoy multiple rides on multlple attractions.
(PS: don't forget the rider switch policy):thumbsup:

[RocknRoller94]

Well, when we get to the parks early in the morning, we usually get Fastpasses first off (Especially if we are in Epcot, as Test Track passes tend to "dissapear"). Then, when we have our passes, we hit everything else, until the Fastpasses are good for use.:mickey:

[poeticeclipse]

I usually use the Unofficial Guides touring plans and go by their Fastpass strategy.

My big thing when I go to AK is seeing people go get a FP when they could be in one of the first cars of the day. DON'T use the FP right away. RIDE IT if you get into the park within the first 15-30 minutes of opening. If you can walk up to the Stand-By line for EE within the first 30 minutes of you being there.. RIDE IT. It will not be that long. They have strategies to make you think it's longer than it is. If you get there late... just grab a FP and head for KS.

[NASCARVW]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
WOW, it never ceases to amaze me how much I learn through this SITE!
:thumbsup:

[DizneyRox]

My big thing when I go to AK is seeing people go get a FP when they could be in one of the first cars of the day. DON'T use the FP right away. RIDE IT if you get into the park within the first 15-30 minutes of opening.
Actually, there is a reason for this.

1. Enter park at 9am.
2. Grab a FP for EE at 9:10 with a return time of 9:30am
3. Ride EE standby at 9:15
4. Re-ride EE in the fast pass line at 9:30
5. You can grab another FP immediately after EE
6. Or if you want to wait until 9:35, you can get another FP that will tick away while you are riding EE the second time.

Taking full advantage of FP is physically demanding and involves a lot of walking. The idea is to NOT use your "old" FP until you have obtained a new one. Or, grab another FP as soon as you can based on the time shown on your "old" one. Unless you want to ride the same ride all day, you need to walk to another attraction to get a new FP, which is not what a lot of people do.

I always go during very busy times of the year and I'm never at a shortage of rides to go on. I don't mind hucking from KS to Dinosaur and back to get a FP. In general though, most of the FP attractions aren't really that far away from each other. At least not the ones worth getting.

You really need to know the parks too, in order to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, you need to plan.

[JWB3]

One more thought: If it doesn't matter if your party is split up, I've seen the single rider lines at Test Track and RNRC move even faster than the FastPass lines.

[brdavis]

1. Enter park at 9am.
2. Grab a FP for EE at 9:10 with a return time of 9:30am
3. Ride EE standby at 9:15
4. Re-ride EE in the fast pass line at 9:30
5. You can grab another FP immediately after EE
6. Or if you want to wait until 9:35, you can get another FP that will tick away while you are riding EE the second time.

Interesting. almost exactly what we end up doing at AK as well. The only exception to that would be that we often like to hit KS early, when the animals are more active, so it ends up an "either/or" sort of thing. The best way we've done it is get an early (before opening) seating at Breakfastosaurus, and then you end up 2/3rds of the way to EE when the park opens. But that option I think is no longer available.


Taking full advantage of FP is physically demanding and involves a lot of walking.
Agreed. I always have a small mesh-fronted zipper pouch with all the FP & tickets, so our strategy is almost always "send Dad running across the park to get these FPs, and meet him later at <insert destination here>". It actually works very well... again, if you know the parks. And I prefer running across the park repeatedly to standing in line anyway.

As to which strategy... well, I admit I've used other ticket holders FP to stage the occasional "ride glut" at MS mostly. But that was because my DS wanted to ride it again & again. Five times in a row, run-off-run-on (OK, more like "stagger off..").

As a related strategy, we usually set up for the MK parades in the far back. While the bulk of the visitors stand in line along a parade route, the rest of us have a ride glut on BTMRR (or SM if warm). One night during the parade the CM stopped asking us to get off, & just started running the trains through the station with no unloading... Likewise, if you can stagger your meal schedule very early, you miss the crowds for lunch, and while everybody is standing in line to order food at noon, you're sitting pretty on the E ticket attractions.

--
Brian Davis

[Samtastic]

And I prefer running across the park repeatedly to standing in line anyway.

As to which strategy... well, I admit I've used other ticket holders FP to stage the occasional "ride glut" at MS mostly. But that was because my DS wanted to ride it again & again. Five times in a row, run-off-run-on (OK, more like "stagger off..").

--
Brian Davis

I agree. I'd so much rather be running back and forth than waiting! (Plus burn off thoses cal from all the :beer:.

When I go in early Jan, we've never found more than a 10 min wait for MS:intense. It seems everyone wants to ride the less intense and us crazys who like to :ack:, can ride it over and over.

[DizneyRox]

Interesting. almost exactly what we end up doing at AK as well. The only exception to that would be that we often like to hit KS early, when the animals are more active, so it ends up an "either/or" sort of thing. The best way we've done it is get an early (before opening) seating at Breakfastosaurus, and then you end up 2/3rds of the way to EE when the park opens. But that option I think is no longer available.
The strategy works for whatever ride(s) you want. I've done this for KS as well. Rode KS 7 times one day, and without FastPass it woudln't have happened.

MK is probably the easiest to pull off this stunt as the FP attractions are relatively close, not like going from KS to Dinosaur at AK.

[wedway76]

When the parks are REALLY crowded, and the FastPass Return times are LONG, keep in mind that you can get a 2nd FastPass if two hours has passed since you got your first one, even if you haven’t reached your original FastPass Return time.

In other words… If you get a FP for Space Mountain at exactly 9:00 AM and the return time is 12:00, you can get a FastPass for Buzz at 11:00 AM even though you haven’t reached your Return time for SM. Then you can get another FP at 1:00 PM (and not a minute before) for something else.

Another thing that we do, and others may have mentioned this, is if we have a FP for 12:45… At 12:45 we are at another FP kiosk and not on the ride line. We get our next FP FIRST, and then proceed to the ride of our original FP. This way riding the original ride whittles away at the 2nd FP wait time, and later in the day, it may the difference between getting a FP for that day or having them close the kiosk on you.