Fast pass+ and park hopping

Walt Disney World
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Hello, first time posting here. My family and I are DL Pros but are hitting WDW for the first time this Christmas! I’ve read the book, booked our room and ADR’s and am now in the process of playing around with TP’s and deciding what FP’s to try for in October. (at my 60 days) We like to get in the park at RD then break in the afternoon and back for evening hours in a different park. The youngest in our group is 15 but we like to stroll and just enjoy being in the park as opposed to running from ride to ride. So my big question for all you WDW pros is which park would you try to get the 3 FP+ reservations for, the one we will visit in the am or the evening? I know we are going the busiest week of the year (dec 23-31 then to Universal until the 3rd) so wondering if there won’t be much chance of getting any day of FP’s anyway.

Thanks for any tips!

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You’re going peak of peak season. I’d think your best chance of doing anything on standby will be as early in the morning as possible, so I’d personally aim for using the FP+ selections in the second park.

Try running some sample plans through the TP software, though, and see what it comes up with using the FP+ selections one way or the other.

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We fell upon the same pattern: 2 different parks w/ a break in between also. I suggest you make seperate touring plans for each park within each day: look
at the wait times and focus your FPPs in whichever park will save you the most time. Use titles like ‘Date Park am’ to help you easily sort through them in Lines later.

Look at the crowd cal to help you figure out which parks you will go to on which days. Assuming Rivers of Light is happening when you arrive, you will need a minimum of 4 nights: one for each park/show. I also like to rope drop each park at least once.

Keep EMH in mind as a great perk. EMH am is always ideal and pm works for shows, generally just extending the day, attractions that rarely have waits, and e-tickets in the last hour or so.

Keep in mind that it may behoove you to only choose one or two (instead of two or three) FPP’s in the early morning as it may give you a better, earlier shot at other FPP’s. See the (dated) graphic here: http://blog.touringplans.com/2015/05/06/fastpass-plus-availability/

The above may be especially effective in a tiered park where you’d want to get more of the top tier but are only initially allowed one choice in that tier (eg Soarin vs Frozen in Epcot, or Toy vs Rockin in HS).

Always, always arrive 45min-1hr before opening and focus the first hour or so on attractions with the longest waits that you could not get an FPP for…this is especially key if you are hoping to a park in the afternoon that has your preselected FPP’s. For example, if I rope drop the DAK, I can get most everything done quickly without FPP…so those preselected FPPs would generally go to the afternoon park.

It would often be the case that the park that you hop to would get your preselected FPPs but not always: if you start at EP and want Frozen AND Soarin, you’d be forced to FPP one and rope drop the other as I’d guess that day of fast passes for these- especially Frozen- could be impossible/hard. I don’t think it’s possible to do both of these with minimal wait without rope drop. (Note the link above is not that new…I wish @len and gang would update it as it is very useful and- especially now w/ the changes- very relevant; but, all you really need to know is obvious: the most popular attractions sell out of FPP as early as noon). In this case and after I have my Soarin or Frozen FPP, I’d look at my morning and afternoon plans for long waits while considering which of them could still be available day of…prioritizing the FPP’s that will ‘sell out’ first.

If you want to get into the weeds even more,check this out: http://blog.touringplans.com/2016/05/04/walt-disney-world-fastpass-strategy-update/

PS. I hope DLR doesn’t go this route. :slight_smile:

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Thanks! Great tips, yes we plan to take advantage of almost every second of EMH we can! So based on your tips I’m thinking it will depend on what parks we do each day as to which one to schedule the FP+'s for. With it being the busiest week will we have any chance of getting any day of FP’s at all? We do have a Fantasmic dinner res and an 8;00 Spice Road to maybe catch Illuminations. I’m also checking every morning for the fireworks dessert parties to open up for that week. I have been doing what you advised and making separate TP’s for each park each day. It’s so much more work than DLR for sure! We have been joking that planning this vacation has become a part time job LOL I think i just have to get over the idea that not using all the FP+ each day is a waste? We are also really focussing on things that we don’t have in DLR first then doing our faves if we have time or happen upon a short wait.

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Yes. You can get day of FPP on level 10 days. See the chart for an idea. Just go to the crowd level column for the day/s in question.

It’s all about spending less time in line and more time enjoying attractions w/ family and fiends. To that end, using some FPP’s will actually cost you time and there are situations when getting to the day of FPP’s quicker can be beneficial, etc. Don’t think there is a one size fits all answer. But, making those TP’s will- if anything- help with your decision making.

I wonder what you’ll think of WDW. It seems people gravitate to their ‘home’ resort. We loved DLR! Wonderful resort. Your Pirates, RSR, and Diamond Celebration shows in particular are amazing.

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Thanks, that article was a big help too. I will just be happy to be there and don’t really mind lines so much, but my husband hates waiting in line so I thought I would try out the TP way!

I’m excited to see all the differences between the parks, I’m DLR will always win because it’s only 5 hours away though :wink:

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This is so good to read. I’m doing exactly this kind of split day… It has been hard for me to find info and see if others do it also. Great tips :slight_smile: thank you for the detail.

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