Hi! I’be been reading a lot prior to our 60 day FP reservation day, which is coming this weekend.
I see that getting a FoP FP is easier the later in your trip that you reserve it. Day 6 of my trip is a Park Hopper Day and I’m aiming for a FoP FP for our group that day, which works well. However, the night before we’ll have had a late night due to MVMCP and on Day 6, the plan is to sleep in, head to Epcot mid afternoon to get some character meets that we will miss due to timing on our previous Epcot day (short trip), and THEN go to AK after that for a few rides (short trip), and THEN go to MK for an evening EMH for resort guests.
So, I want to try to do FP for FoP around 5pm, since that works well with our schedule even if we are running a bit behind. However - my question - we can’t reserve FP in more than one park at a time, right? So, since FoP at 5pm is my primary FP goal for the day, I cannot use or schedule any FP before FoP unless they are also in AK, correct?
But if I only schedule a FP for FoP at 5pm in advance, there probably won’t be much same-day FP availability at MK after that right? We’re really only going to AK on this day for FoP, and maybe a snack & letting the kids run around the Boneyard. The wait times for the only other ride we’d do - EE - are low and don’t look like we’d need a FP, plus EE is not a must-do that day if we are crunched for time.
If I am understanding everything correctly, it looks like my hope for FoP FP on this day might mean that we forfeit the other two advance FP because lots of MK rides run out of same-day FP prior to 5pm on the day of, per this chart:
You are correct that you can only reserve a FP for one park, however, I think you will find a good variety of same-day fastpasses at MK. You may not get 7 Dwarves or a few other really popular rides, but there will still be a good selection.
So, with a 5:00 FoP, then EE and then transportation to MK and getting through security and down Main Street you’re looking at being past the hub at MK by around 7:00-8:00 at the earliest. If the park closes at 9:00 (to non-park guests) then the last FP window would start before 8 so I don’t know that you’d even be able to get 2 FPs, but I’m not sure you’d need them. Crowds will start to thin as the evening shows approach, so you could do some rides with typically shorter lines and then just do the bigger ones once the evenings shows start.
Yes, I’m giving us an hour to get from AK to MK, so I estimated arrival at MK around 8pm. If I don’t want to forfeit the other 2 FPs, I think my main option is to cut time out of Epcot earlier in the day, or cut time away from sleeping in. Then I could add that time into the AK and arrive there earlier, making some space for a ride that we could get a FP for.
It’s hard to know how tired we’ll be by this point in our trip though, and knowing we’ll be up really late the night before doesn’t make me optimistic. I think I’m good with only having one FP this day since it’s an “important” one, but now to justify it to the rest of my group!
Well, what time did you plan on getting to Epcot? If you’re really just going to meet a few characters then it seems like that would be the best place to wing it.Is there a particular reason you wanted to do Epcot first, and then FoP? FWIW, I was logged in right at 7:00 on the dot yesterday, and for day 6 of our trip there were only a handful of times available for FoP. Since your whole day before 7-8 is kind of loose, it may be that your best plan is to see what FoP you get, and then make your plans around that.
To my way of thinking, ideally you get FoP sometime between 12 and 1 so you go and do that first (and get it scanned earlier), then hit Epcot from 4-6 and then make the quick hop over to MK. With that then you have more options for getting FPs at another park, regardless of when you’ll get there.
We were looking at Epcot on this day from 1-3pm (and travel to AK from 3ish-4ish). According to the brief TP I put together for this time frame at Epcot, we’d have time for Soarin & Test Track (without FP), in addition to meeting Daisy at the Epcot entrance, and she only meets until 4pm. I have one nephew who is crazy for Daisy, and on our prior Epcot day, with a PPO ADR and then a WS tour that’s heavy on characters, we would not have gotten to her that day. We also will likely miss Mary Poppins in the UK on our previous Epcot day since she only meets until about 2pm. So the character schedule ends early which is why I thought Epcot should be first in the plan this day.
I agree with you that the timing of FoP will really write the plan for the day, although on our only other AK day, we’re doing early AM rather than staying a bit into the evening, so the 5pm hoped-for FoP FP is a preference in order to see Pandora more in evening hours.
Epcot, then AK, then MK is sort of our best-case scenario for this day, but I do think that the 5 of us adults in our party agree that the FoP FP is the primary goal (sorry, kids!), so if we can only get that earlier in the day, then it may end up as AK, Epcot, MK. We adults might be walking around like tired zombies but at least the kiddos could be pushed in a stroller! LOL!
Then I wouldn’t look at it as wasted FPs… if you can accomplish everything you want to get done with just the one FP then the others just tools you didn’t need that day. Also, if you’re planning to arrive at AK by 4:00 then I’d get the FP as close to 4:00 as you can. There’s just no reason to push it later… even if you stay at Epcot another 30 minutes and don’t actually arrive until 4:30 then any FP that starts after 3:25 would be fine.
I’m thinking if you expect to be tired that day, I would question trying to hop 3 parks. That’s in the vicinity of 3 hours in transport time, plus going through security 3 times. You might make better use of your time and enjoy it more if you focused on 1-2 parks.
What you say makes sense but I don’t think will fit into our plan. This particular day is our last full day & night in the parks, so we have designated it as the day to finish anything we’ve missed or ride something again that we really want to, which means park hopping. If MK did not have the EMH at night on this night, we would probably keep it to 2 parks, Epcot & AK, which I agree is more reasonable than park-hopping to 3 parks. However, since we’ll be sleeping in & getting a late start on this day, then it makes sense for us to try to take advantage of the EMH at MK at night, when perhaps we won’t be ready to go to bed yet. Of course - come the ACTUAL day of our trip, things may change! Thankfully the rest of my group tends to be willing to accept some “go go go” in our schedule so it won’t be just me making the decision. Thanks for your input!
