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Disney Fast Pass Tips

 

As you all may know, we are kind of obsessed with Disney World. I grew up going to Disney World with my family. My parents took me and my sister when I was one and she was eight. I took my first steps in Disney World. So, I think I was groomed from birth to love the magic that you feel when you are at Disney. Every year, sometimes multiple times a year, we would go to Disney. Sometimes I would go with my grandparents in their motor home with my cousins. Other times, I would go with school, or with my niece’s cheerleading group. When my husband and I got married, he had never been to Disney. So to say that was on the top of my list for when we started a family is an understatement!

We took Jackson for the first time when he was 3 almost 4! We decided to set small expectations. One park, one day and whatever happened, happened. We picked Magic Kingdom, which is the park that I would tell anyone to go to if you could only visit one. Jackson loved it, and even took a 2 hour nap in his stroller giving Mike and I time to enjoy a Mickey Ice Cream and watch the 2 pm parade in peace. We went again that summer for one day to Magic Kingdom to see how Jackson would do, and he LOVED it! So, I knew it was time to get him and Mike hooked! I planned a week vacation for Jackson’s 5th birthday with my parents and from there we spiraled. Let’s just say, 6 months later we had Annual passes and would go on an additional 4 trips in 6 months. We love Disney and if you are planning a trip, I would love to share some of my tips with you about Fast Passes.

Congratulations, you are booked for a Disney trip, now what? EEK! You are about to have to plan your days months out, including dining. How are you supposed to know what you want to eat 180 days from now. That’s right, you can AND should book your dining reservations 180 days out from your trip. But I will save that for another blog for y’all. So much Disney, so little time. I am going to focus on Fast Passes and how you can use them to make your trip more enjoyable for everyone.

First, you should download an app called My Disney Experience. You can upload your itinerary, dining reservations and fast passes to this app. You will also find a map with current wait times for attractions by park in the app. If you are staying at a Disney Resort, you are able to book your fast passes 60 days from the day that you check in on the app or on the website. At 7am EST 60 days before your check in, you will get up and makes fast passes for all of the days of your visit. If you are staying off site, the downfall with fast passes is you can’t book them until 30 days out and you have to book them day by day. Womp womp! We have stayed on site and off, so there are definitely pros to both. This is one of the cons!

What are Fast Passes? These are literally space savers in line to let you jump to the front of a line. Every guest is allowed to reserve 3 Fast Passes per day at a Disney Park in advance. Each fast pass has an hour window. So when  you are ready to ride the ride, you walk up within that hour and swipe your magic band or park ticket card and go right through the fast lane. You can only reserve fast passes at one park each day. So you can not reserve one at Magic Kingdom and two at Epcot. But fast passes are a great way to plan  your day to make the most out of your park experience.

So you are up with your coffee 60 days prior to your check in date. You get on the site, but what fast passes should you get?! These are the ones that take priority per park for me, mainly because wait times will be the longest at these attractions without a fast pass:

Magic Kingdom

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Splash Mountain

Peter Pan

Hollywood Studios

(Ok, this is the first park where you will see a tiered system with Fast Passes! Disney made it to where you can only pick ONE fast pass from a Tier ONE group and TWO fast passes from a Tier TWO group)

Slinky Dog (Tier 1)

Tower of Terror (Tier 2)

Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular (Tier 2)

Animal Kingdom

(Tiered Fast Pass System)

Flight of Passage (Tier 1)

FLIGHT OF PASSAGE IS BY FAR THE BEST RIDE IN DISNEY RIGHT NOW!!! DO NOT MISS IT

Everest (Tier 2)

Kilimanjaro Safari Ride (Tier 2)

Epcot

(Tiered Fast Pass System)

Frozen Ever After Ride (Tier 1)

Journey into Imagination with Figment (Tier 2)

Turtle Talk with Crush (Tier 2)

 

When booking your fast passes, I try and book them earlier in the day and have them back to back. For example, at Magic Kingdom I will try and have my fast passes between 9:45-10:45, 10:50-11:50 and 12:30-1:30 so that we can each lunch between Fast Pass #2 and Fast Pass #3. When we get to the park at opening, we go straight to the ride that we couldn’t get a fast pass for and ride as much as we can before heading to our first Fast Pass at 10:30! REMEMBER your fast pass is good for an hour. So if we ride our fast pass at 10:30, we can head to our second fast pass at 10:50 and then lunch before our third fast pass at 12:30!

You have utilized your fast passes, now what? This where the fun begins y’all! You are allowed THREE fasts passes per day, per guest. However, after you have used your third fast pass, you are allowed to book one fast pass at a time for the remainder of the day. So as soon as you use that third fast pass at 12:30, hop on that app that I told you about and find another fast pass. I usually find something that is at 1pm. Then after you use that fast pass, you can pick another, and this goes on and on y’all!

Disney takes a lot of planning, but if you have the tools to help you keep everything running smooth, you will have the best trip! I hope you have found these fast pass tips helpful!! And be on the lookout for more Disney tips and hacks!

 

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