Rise And Shine...It's Another Magical Day In WDW...

Honestly the FP+ system has not changed our touring style. While we did make FP+ selections for 5 of our 7 days that does not mean we will stick to those plans. We usually have no idea till we wake up and eat breakfast as to which park we plan to go to for the day. Before FP+ we rarely used FPs and I do not think we ever used more than 2 in a day. All that said, I do really love the new system. It is nice to know we can now get a FP+ for rides like Soarin and TSM without being part of the morning stampede to the old FP machines.

The positive is if they have successfully rolled out the new system that would allow hopping they would have also likely rolled out the additional FP+ option so I don't plan on using either option in my daily touring decision. I do plan which park I'll end the day in so I can book my ADR. I plan my current FP+ around the reservations we have.

Okay, thanks King for starting this thread as I have questions/comments

1) TA is telling me that we can get extra FP after we exhaust the ones we book but we have to go to a kiosk and see what is still available after 1PM. Slower months, more options, but it's one at a time. AND if you have a FP for a closing show, your options are limited to the original three.

2) Is there still a "window of time" that must be maintained between FP? For example we eat at 50's PT at 4:30, so done by 5:30ish and first FP at 5:45, sooooo how close can we book a second one without missing?

For example: we are looking at ToyStory 5:45, Tot at 6:15, and StarWars at 7. In Sept, knowing there are less people and shorter lines, is that too close? We also plan to do Muppets and Great Movie Ride and the park closes at 8 that night.

How tight do you plan your FP?

oldtink, on our recent trip I had FP+ windows that began five minutes after the previous window ended. So, I had:

Splash Mountain 4:20-5:20
Under the Sea 5:25-6:25
Enchanted Tales w/Belle 6:30-7:30

That may be as close as you'll be able to get - no new windows opening while another is still open, which is what you're trying to achieve.

Now, King Fergus, I am mostly trying to plan FP+ so I can use them early and then get more. But there are exceptions. At this point (over six months out) I plan on starting one morning at Animal Kingdom for a ride or two just so it's easy to return to AKL for lunch at Sanaa. Then on to DHS, and that is where we'll have our FP+ reservations because Toy Story Mania is way more important to me and Tower of Terror is way more important to hubby than anything at AK - except Expedition Everest for hubby, but he can get through that in the single rider line without much of a wait. Bottom line, when planning FP+ I will ask myself two questions: 1, which park has the rides that are most important to me? And then 2, how can I get my FP+ reservations done as early as possible so I can get more? With question 1 taking precedence over question 2.

Edited to add: And everything will be subject to change if crowd estimates change closer to our arrival, or if we discover we don't need a FP+ we've already booked.

We are loving FP+ and the ability to schedule ahead of time. The availability of getting top tier attractions at the last minute or on the fly may be somewhat more limited, especially during busy times, once park hopping is introduced and the revolving FP begins. I would expect to see both of those changes before your trip.

At the moment, it is very easy to get a time that you want at the 60-day, the 30-day, even the 10-day mark. It's not like an ADR for a very popular restaurant that can only seat 50-100 people at a time for an experience that may last 45 minute to an hour and may only operate for 5 hours. That would mean that maybe only 500 people could be accommodated per day.

A ride like Soarin' for example, seats 87 people per ride at 5 minutes per ride x 2 theaters for an hourly capacity of a little over 1700 people. Running for 12 hours, more than 20,000 people can ride in a given day. On most days, the supply of advanced FP+ reservations by far exceeds the demand, so there is little difficulty in getting a FP for any time you want at the moment.

Take your best guess at what park you will want that day and make your FP reservations. If you change your mind up to day before or even the day of, you will likely be able to switch. You may not get your absolute ideal time, but you'll get close enough. Just like an ADR, people are constantly adjusting their plans. BOG is still consistently booked for dinner at 180 days, but during our December trip, we saw a same-day ADR available. The same thing happens with FP. If the time you want isn't available, check back later.

A note on the times. Disney seems to be initially only opening up the FP options that start on the hour. So when you first log-in, 9-10, 10-11, 11-12, etc. are the only times available. They seem to open up the next set of times, 9:05-10:05 for example, after the top of the hour times are gone. This is just an observation based on what I've seen on our first two FP+ trips.

Each FP+ has a 1 hour window. You cannot have FP+ windows that overlap. (So if you have a FP+ at 11:00am for Ride A, You cannot schedule a FP+ for Ride B until at least 12:00pm) There is also a 5 or 10 minute grace period - we've shown up a little early a couple of times and have been scanned on thru.

I know my priorities are different since we just run over for the day, but so far we have not had any problems getting the rides and times we want with FP+. I might have to accept their time to begin with, but I have been able to go back and then adjust to the time frames I wanted without exception (at least so far).

We usually only plan about a week in advance. Our general scheme is to figure out which park we plan on doing, show up at rope drop to avoid long Standby lines for a couple of hours, and schedule FP+ for rides beginning about 11:00am or so. We're out by 2:00pm and on to lunch outside the park.

A smart phone also makes everything so much easier. We've modified our plans on the fly almost every time we've been there with FP+. I am really digging the new program!

You have to schedule your FP+ selections an hour apart based on start time so that none of your windows overlap, as CCP said. The biggest piece of advice I've heard with the FP+ system as it is currently is to make your FP+ reservations in the afternoon/early evening when the parks are the busiest, hit rope drop in the morning and hit all the big attractions you didn't FP+ before the parks get busy. Now that they are switching to being able to add more FP+ once you use up your initial 3, I will probably still stick with the rope drop plan, but move the reservations up to late morning so that I can use my 4th, 5th, etc. in the afternoon/evening. I agree with CCP, though. You have to prioritize what's important to you. Am I going to risk not getting a FP+ for TSM just so that I can get a couple more FP+ reservations in? No way!

Thanks everyone for all that info..Very useful to know...

I used FP+ in February and I loved it. I only used the old FP system once so I wasn't attached to it and I loved having the ability to schedule the three attractions that I knew were can't miss without having to rush to get the paper FP (Peter Pan, Soarin', Toy Story, etc). Having it on the band was also a big plus because it was one less thing to keep track of. I was also able to get them all scheduled back to back which worked well (2:00-3:00, 3:00-4:00, etc). I will say the only thing I don't like is the tiering. Having one child that loves Soarin' and another that loves Test Track causes some minor issues.

Our problem is the first nite that is at DS and dinner is scheduled at 4:30. We won't be done in 30 minutes and so I don's want to waste 30 minutes....the park closes at 7:30, so we were trying to get three FP at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 or 15 minutes earlier for each....

It's Disney...it's suppose to just work!

And what do you want those FP's for? You can't really pick the time for your fastpasses like that.

We have been picking the options then adjusting the time to get them the way we want them. It has worked so far. One thing I learned when we were there in March was that once you used all your fast passes we couldn't book any more even in the same park. Reading from up above, it looks like you can get one at a time after 1 PM. We weren't allowed to do that in March.

You are still not allowed more than 3 FP+ in a day, at least not as of our last visit, April 12 & 13. On April 2, 2014, Tom Skaggs announced on Disney park blogs that they were "working on" adding additional FP+ selections, once you've used your first 3. He also said they were "working on" adding park hopping to FP+ but no dates were given in the article. However, I read the comments section and one woman asked him when we could anticipate these two changes and Tom Skaggs responded that they are "working on it" and he expects both to be available later this spring. Still no hard dates given though.

We are going to WDW next weekend, so DH and I are going to check on the status then.

Hope by October the FP+ will include hopping....Also add Ons...

Can you schedule a FP+ at around the same time as an ADR? Because to do what you want to do, you might want to try for Toy Story 4:50-5:50, TOT from 5:55-6:55, and Star Tours from 7-8. But you may have to work really hard to get those exact times (like scheduling them and then changing the time). I'm thinking with that you can get everything done, but it may depend on how fast you walk. And as long as you actually get out of the restaurant on time.

Also I'm not betting on hopping/getting more than 3 until there's official word, and also reviews of how that works so I can plan that. Right now I have my park days planned out, and my FP+ fall in line pretty easily. I'm planning on rope dropping or at least getting there early-ish to do most things, and doing FP's for later in the day. The only thing befuddling me is EPCOT where I don't want to be halfway around WS only to have to go back to FW to do FP's. I'll just have to see what times I get and work around it. But like Tuesday I'll be doing MNSSHP, but I'll be in HS in the morning so I'll do my FP's there. I'm very... uh, obsessive about having a plan for things so I'm absolutely fine planning my day out like this.

That is the problem! This is all new since our last trip. I don't know HOW it all works and I am the one who is suppose to MAKE it all work. All I understand is that you log in on the "magic FP window opening day" and select the ride and a hour block for your FP. Isn't that it? If not, I would be happy for clarification.

Anyone have a FP+ for dummies? Pictures would be welcome.

Mark, our TA is saying that by Sept they expect the crowd levels to be low enough that there will possibly be extra fast passes that can be nabbed, but not to always count on it. Again, this is just prelim for that. Are you saying I just can't schedule FP closer than an hour each? If so that is what i was trying to find out and that answered it.

Okay, one more. If Fantasmic is 8PM are there still rides going on or is the park done too?

I believe as long as you are in line before the clock says 8:00, they will let you ride.

Yes Tink , none of the times can over lap. Here is just a sample of fastpasses I pick to show you.
Remember, this is just a sample and this was done on my iPad using the MDE app. If you go through the website, you can choose to prioritize your choices.

Here is what the web site looks like when you choose FP's.

Thank you Mr. Hub this really helps. I was a little worried about how to get me Fast passes when July rolls around. Looks fairly easy for someone who is computer challenged.

Video coming soon!

Oh, thank you for that! I was wondering how it would work! I think I can relax a bit now about making our Fast Pass+ plans when our time rolls around now that I know what to expect.

Once you've made your initial FP+ reservations, as shown by mrhub above in such wonderful detail, you can go back into the system and attempt to adjust the times to maybe (maybe!) get them a little closer together. No guarantees. Your family might have to accept the fact that you cannot cram three FP+ reservations in between the end of a 4:30 ADR and a 7:30 park closing.

Thanks for the pictures Mr Hub! Super helpful as I had no idea what I would be getting myself into when the time comes! Can't wait for the video!

Thank you Mark, I do appreciate all the graphics. I don't see where any of the FP are overlapping in time, but that is the same as before so I can work with that. I also like a previous suggestion about trying to set first FP to overlap with dinner, so if ADR is 4:30, the start the FP (if I can at 5:00-6:00 or as close to that as possible. I think....