Same day FP question

I’m planning our first trip, so pardon my somewhat basic question. I know you can get additional FPs after you use the first 3, so ideally you would want to use all 3 early in the morning. My question is, my first day we are going to MK for the afternoon after we fly in. We are supposed to land at 9am. What is a reasonable start time? I put the first FP at 3pm. I was thinking 3pm PotC, 4pm BTMR, and 7pm HM. However, if I tried to do the FPs earlier, would I be more likely to get additional same day FPs? If I did FPs at 3, 4 and 5pm, it looks like based on the charts there probably won’t be any same day availability left at that point anyway? TIA!

I personally wouldn’t even think about same day fast passes for a couple of reasons in your situation. One, you are correct that at that time of day most of the highly sought out fast passes will all be disbursed for the day anyway. Second, I see you said this will be your first afternoon of your first trip. In that case I would highly recommend just ENJOYING that first afternoon rather than worrying with extra fast passes. There is so much to see and the atmosphere is so awesome! Plan 3 good fast passes and use those, enjoy some food in the park, and just see the sights for the rest of the evening. You will have time on your other full park days to try and snag all the fast passes you can. Just enjoy the atmosphere those first few hours!

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DME, Uber or car rental? Domestic or international? It varies a lot depending on this.

Once I got to DHS at 12pm after arriving in MCO 9am, using Ubers for all transportation, with a breakfast break.

Also… number of people is a factor of SDFPP. It’s, obviously, easier to find SDFPP for 2 people than 5.

Without knowing your specific flight and transportation to WDW details I’m going to suggest 2.5 - 3 hours to get settled and into MK. If you are “focused” on dropping your bags and getting into the park.

So… depending on if you want to eat lunch before going into the parks you could be there as early as Noon. Since it’s your first time, I’m going to recommend not setting your first FPP until at least 2pm. (Your idea of 3pm is probably better.)

I say this because while I’m sure you’ll be excited to get started you don’t want to rush. Take time to really look at Main Street, get your bearing on where the lands are and just soak it in. Besides the queues taper off later in the day from 2pm - 6pm as the small children need to go back to the hotels to take naps.

Our first trip it took 4 hours from when our flight landed to get to the Park (used Magical Express) - we did have deliveries and stroller to pick up at front desk, which added some time.

I’d get first FP for 2:00 (you have until 3:00 to use it), but not worry about additional same-day FPs. If you end up being able to get some, great. If not, no biggie.

Totally understandable. Without knowing more travel specifics it’s hard to give an accurate ETA.

Thanks for all of the replies. We will be flying in domestic and was planning on using DME. I will just plan on a relaxed afternoon, so we won’t end up feeling rushed on our first day.

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I highly recommend this. Seeing the parks on TV or online don’t do it justice. While we all want to “do it all”, but it’s impossible in one trip.

Stroll around, watch street performers / meet walkabout characters and enjoy the Magic. Too many people make going to WDW an all day march from ride to ride without looking around.

Our flight should arrive around 9am to MCO if on time. I only booked our 3 with the first one starting at 1:10pm. My plan is to just use those for guaranteed rides to do and then relax and enjoy the rest of the day get our room, etc.