Help a 1st timer organize her FPs

I made a little spreadsheet to have sitting next to me while I’m booking Fast Passes at 6 AM. I’ve never booked FPs before so I’m trying to anticipate the information I will need to make them and make decisions if what I want isn’t available. I also put them in the order I will book them. Is there anything else you would include? Anything you would change? I would imagine it’s easier to do all 3 for 1 park together before moving on to another park, (which is why I put all of AK before HS, even though SDD is harder than Safari and Dinosaur), or is that wrong?

PS- ignore the Allstate logo on my paper & I spelled Kilimanjaro wrong and who knows what else.:yum:

Disney FP.pdf (322.6 KB)

FWIW, I usually do FPP on my computer but have my app ready too b/c you never know if there will be problems with one or the other. I had 3 browser windows open and at the ready, logged in. At 7 am EST, I refreshed all 3, chose my 2 dates for AK and 1 date for HS and made SDD first and then FOP. After that, I got my 7D for my first MK day and then leisurely started at the beginning of my trip and worked my way through each day as everything else is plentiful at 60+ out in my experience. Aside from a couple where I couldn’t get abutting FPP (e.g., I had our first FPP from 930-1030, and then couldn’t get the next one until 1040 instead of 1030), I had no problems. Good luck!

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So you’re saying you had 3 web browsers open, logged in to all 3, and made a different FP selection on each? You log in early and then Refresh all 3 at 7 AM EST (using standard refresh button) and then select?

I would jump from park to park and do the toughest ones first. It’s not hard to jump from park to park instead of doing all 3 for one park together. I definitely would not book Navi, Safari and Dinosaur before booking SDD.

Given the days you are visiting each park, my suggestion would be to book in this order:

FOP
SDD
Navi
Safari
Test Track
Big Thunder Mountain
Fill in the rest …

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Okay, I was curious about that. I watched a video of someone booking FPs and it seemed like once you pick a date, it’s easier to keep selecting for that same date and park rather than starting on a new day and new park… I will change my order.

Yes, I had all three ready, first refresh browser 1, make FPP selection, when I confirm, I refresh on browser 2, make that FPP selection, and then onto browser 3. It kept me from having to go back through and select different dates. Not sure if it’s necessary but it is such a sigh of relief when you get the hard to get FPP and then its just fun to work out the plan.

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It’s definitely easier to do them one day at a time. I agree that you should get FOP, Navi and then SDD but then you can just fill in from the beginning I would think since you don’t want 7DMT and day 1 is Epcot.

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I was nervous about this issue before I booked FP the first time, but it was much easier to bounce around from date to date then I expected. Probably a toss up between which to book first between a 2 pm FOP at 60+2 and a 10 am SDD at 60+4, but I would lean toward to FOP first.

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Early Morning Magic is taking a lot of pressure off of MK fast passes!

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so you had for example chrome, ie and firefox and were signed on to mde in each? is that what you mean?

Is there a reason you aren’t trying for any at 9? If you are planning to be there that early especially for magic kingdom to do 9, 10, 11 then can get more same day for. Magic kingdom is the park we utalized that the most. You can Rd then use your first Fp at like 9:50. But only if you will be there that early.

Other suggestions is to put the date next to the time to make it even easier to make sure you pick right date when I booking them.

You may want to have a backup FP plan for FOP, Navi, and SDD. With the times you are booking I wouldn’t think there would be availability issues, but just in case have an idea of what you will pick instead.

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No, I just mean different windows/tabs whatever you call them in same browser–sorry for my nontechnical technical advice :blush: . Although when I did ADRs, MDE wouldn’t cooperate and I had to switch btw Edge and Chrome.

Great question. Before doing my Touring Plans, I assumed I would do 9, 10, 11. But then once I started my TPs it seemed like I wouldn’t be using them to almost 10 anyway. Like you said, I could show up at 9:50 for a 9-10 FP, but I get worried if I get behind schedule (I’m picturing me dragging my 4 year old behind me…) I’ll miss it. I’ll look at everything again and make sure. Animal Kingdom Day is a day we’re sleeping a little later, arrive to the park around 10. One Magic Kingdom Day is EMM so didn’t do a FP til 10. Hollywood Studios we plan to Rope Drop (9 am) TSM, then Alien Swirling, then look for characters if there’s time before 10 AM SDD.

Gotcha…you could always do 9:30 or so then you have til 10:30 if you are running behind. My kids were early risers so mornings were easy. It was harder getting us to last til 3 for my sdd FP.

Good call.

I did not book any 9 am FPs for that reason. I was with my 13 month old and 3.5 y/o so I was pretty sure we would fall behind schedule (which we did … potty breaks, snack breaks). I booked my first FP for 9:30 am and thought that worked well. We hit some attractions from 9 am to about 10:15 am while the part was less crowded and then headed to our first FP.

I made a spreadsheet similar to yours with a list and preferred times but I also used this worksheet (attached) while I was making my FPs. I used pencil to write each FP so I could easily move things around in the moment. I definitely had to do some shifting here and there so this made it easy to see what time slots I had available.

I agree with the others that say make the high demand FPP first. Last year, I had to swap my park days around because I couldn’t get a FOP FP until my last evening.
Fast Pass Worksheet.pdf (65.4 KB)

I love that!

One thing I noticed is that if there was something I needed to get to at a certain time, say a TS reservation, it was better to start with my latest FPP reservation and work earlier. For instance, instead of booking my 10:00, then my 11:00, then my 12:00, go backwards. Because if there wasn’t an 10, but a 10:20, then I had to look for 11:20 (but maybe there was only an 11:40), then I had to look for a 12:40 but maybe only a 12:55 was available (instead of 12:00 and I’m almost an hour later than I planned on). Basically, it limited my available times and ultimately pushed the time I wanted to spend on FPP (either to get to a reservation or to start looking for my 4th FPP) further and further back. So, I took the ones I could and then went back and modified them to get them earlier. Had I started and worked backwards, it would have worked better…

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