Best Strategy for FOP?

Walt Disney World
#1

We visited WDW in November on an adult Disney vacation and were able to get a FastPass for FOP because we stayed at a Disney Resort. Loved it and can’t wait for grandkids to go on this attraction.

We are returning 2 weeks after Easter with our grandkids. We will not be staying at a Disney property - so I’m pretty sure that it will be impossible to get a FastPass in the 30 day window.

Does anyone have a suggestion for minimizing line wait time for FOP? I would guess one suggestion is not to go on a day in which there are early morning hours at AK.

#2

The best strategy is to show up at about 7:30 for a 9:00 opening. They will start walking the crowd in about 8:15, you will be towards the front and off around 9:00.

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#3

Look for a video at touring plans YouTube channel. It is pretty accurate and recent. We did that on december 8th and worked very well.

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#4

I think this is the video @Fablemos is referring to:

Riding Flight of Passage with No Wait

Also don’t give up on finding FP+. We got one less than 60 days out.

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#5

Going for a long weekend first week of March and staying on property. Logged on at 7:02 AM on 12/31/17 at 60 days and FOP FP’s were all gone. Really? I couldn’t believe this! I called and cast member said there was no glitch in the system! We didn’t have this kind of trouble last summer getting an FOP FP!

#6

I went over Labor Day weekend and there were no FPs. It is common for the most popular fast passes to only be available around day 64. I expect with the addition of the seven DS resorts that may change to day 65 or more?

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#7

Can anyone get in before day 60? I thought that was the earliest? Or are you saying that people who started their vacations the week before and had an earlier 60 day window took all of the FP’s for the later part of their week?

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#8

Yes. Anyone on property - not sure when the DS hotels can start.

People whose vacations start even a day before yours have access to FP+ for their stay (up to whatever the limit is). Just like ADRs at 180 + 10. And yes, they probably went for the harder to get ones towards the end of their stay.

But keep checking (just not this exact moment because MDE is glitching and not showing anything) - things might pop up!

#9

The DS resorts are supposed to start after a January 10th. As @lizzieanne771 said people booking the 4th or 5th day of their vacations will be booking into your window before your dates open.

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#10

Has anyone here made a dummy hotel reservation 14 days before their actual res, so they actually are booking at 74 days? I’ve heard about this practice, but wasn’t sure if any Liners had done it successfully.

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#11

The guys on Backside of Magic podcast have talked about using that technique successfully.

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#12

Lol, I erased that part of my answer. Is the key having the two overlap?

#13

Yes, @JJT - that’s where I first heard it.

@PrincipalTinker - I think the idea is to book the dummy res no earlier than 14 days before the last real day that you want to book FP’s for. You’ll have a slight edge over the 60 day folks and then cancel that reservation after you book your FP’s but before the 30 day cancellation window.

Would love to know if anyone here has done it successfully.

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#14

Yes I did. I didn’t overlap my dates, but did them back to back. When my real dates covered the time period I dropped the unnecessary reservation. Because my initial booking was a package, I had to put all new tickets into the fake reservation as well, and paid a new deposit which was refunded promptly. It was quite easy to do.

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#15

Thank you all! I will use the early to the park arrival strategy. That should work just fine for us.

#16

Sorry for reviving an older post but just hoping to get some more information on this. I did watch the entire video but some things are still a little unclear to me, mostly because I’m unfamiliar with the park layout. I’m definitely anticipating not being able to get any FPP’s for FoP since I’ll be staying off-site, so we’re planning to RD AK for FoP. But I haven’t been to Disney World in a solid 10 years and my girlfriend is a first-timer.

I saw a little map of AK and it seems like there is an entire maze of paths in front of the Pandora attractions and I’m afraid I’ll get lost and completely mess up any advantage I may have gotten by being there at RD. Are there any things I should keep in mind when using the RD strategy in order to get on FoP with the shortest possible wait? Keep to a certain part of the paths leading upto the attraction? Any tips on how to make sure I won’t get lost and squander any advantage I may have by getting up so early? Or do you think it’s very hard to mess it up (even though it’ll be so hectic and/or crowded) because directions are being made very clear?

Just kind of nervous since there seems to be so much to do about FoP and I don’t want to miss out on it but neither do I want to wait 3 hours in line for it. So I’ll have to make this RD succeed in order to achieve both.

#17

If you’re rope dropping, the CMs will walk everyone in groups to the end of the line for FoP. So no chance to get lost. Just follow them and you’ll be fine.

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#18

As @Nick said, you’ll be in a mass of people, so you’ll just have to go with the flow. I detailed our experience back in August of last year if you’d like to see some examples of what it looks like.

FWIW: Since it was such a new thing for everyone I included a map of our timing for others’ reference, but as it appears our day was an especially long slog into the ride, so current waits if you are at front of pack should be shorter.

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#19

The video that @Brian posted was for a non-morning EMH day. For those of us visiting in the next 2 months, that is not going to be an option since EVERYDAY is a morning EMH day. For those of us not staying on property, that strategy won’t work.

As of now, the best options are to RD on morning EMH if staying on property, securing a FP at least 60+3 days out, doing a mid-afternoon ride when some of the crowds have left (but still be prepared for 90-120 minute waits at that time), or get in line 10 minutes before park closing when lines are at their shortest (and hope there isn’t a ride breakdown at that time).

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