fast pass during very slow times

This will be a pretty convoluted question, but lets try it.

My son will be doing the college program this fall, and we're planning a visit the last weekend in September. The touring plans crowd calendar shows 2-3 out of 10's for that time period.

we are Disney veterans so we know the ins and outs. we were planning on getting our passes tomorrow to start making fast pass reservations

Now the question...I understand that my son gets free admission to the parks for his family, but I'm concerned that we will not be able to get fast passes for things like Frozen nor TSM.


considering the low crowds, should we be concerned?

There are really no truly slow periods at Disney any more. You are planning to be there during the Epcot Food and Wine festival which brings in quite a few crowds. Very popular or new rides like Frozen and Toy Story Mania do run out of fast passes so I would definitely book the fast passes you want as soon as you are eligible for them. If you are unable to get some of the fast passes you want, don't despair - just keep trying - right up to the day you want to ride. Folks cancel passes all the time so you never know when passes will open up.

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Originally Posted by drosenbe

This will be a pretty convoluted question, but lets try it.


we are Disney veterans so we know the ins and outs. we were planning on getting our passes tomorrow to start making fast pass reservations

Now the question...I understand that my son gets free admission to the parks for his family, but I'm concerned that we will not be able to get fast passes for things like Frozen nor TSM.

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Ummm. Part of your question is confusing to me. When you say you are getting your passes tomorrow, do you mean that you are purchasing your own park admissions? If so, you will be able to make Fast Pass reservations 30 days prior to your visit.

But you also indicated that your son would have free admission for the family. Maybe not! This is entirely different. Under the new complimentary admission rules that went into effect on January 1 of this year, temporary employees (including College Program) must work a minimum of 150 hours before receiving complimentary admissions for anyone other than themselves. Typically, this means working regular hours for four to five weeks to qualify, and then waiting an additional ten days or so to receive the admissions.

Also important - the employee will receive only three complimentary admissions for the first 150 hours worked. And these will be one-day park hoppers only.

You will not be able to make Fast Pass reservations against these complimentary park hoppers until they are actually received and linked to family members through the My Disney Experience app. At that point you can make Fast Pass ressies 30 days in advance, but it doesn't sound like this is what you had in mind.

So the complimentary admission rules are now much more restrictive. The only practical way for you to book Fast Passes in advance for your upcoming fall visit is to purchase park admissions early.

Finally, if your concern is that you may have to wait until the day of your park visit to get Fast Passes for popular attractions during lower attendance days, then yes, you may have difficulty getting Fast Passes for the attractions and times that you want.

I was on line at 7am at my 60 day mark, and could only get 6pm frozen at EPCOT at our fourth day in. I keep checking and NOTHING is available for that day now...

As said before, there are not any truly "slow" times at WDW anymore.

If you don't get FP's, I'd just plan on going at rope drop and heading right to the rides you want to go on. Especially for the new Frozen ride, I would plan on being in line for that right when World Showcase opens. Also I went the other day and the line was only an hour, but it flew by because the air conditioning break was lovely and the queue area is gorgeous.

My DD is a seasonal CM and yes, they get a "gate pass" and very few comp tickets for the family. She used to get a lot more but now they're scaled down to very few, sorry I do not know exactly how many. As for the FP's on those tickets, they will be assigned to the gate pass and carry over to the family tickets. She does all the FP's on her Disney APP and we never have a problem getting FP's for the rides we want. There are no real down times anymore at the parks, but I do know that if you rope drop a park you can do pretty much whatever you want will very little wait ....