The Answer is it depends!
Disney World’s FastPass Plus (FP+) has revolutionized the way Disney Guests experience Disney’s theme Parks.
Guests can now make reservations for attractions and experiences well in advance from the comfort of home, thus eliminating the need to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to the park for rope drop.
The timeframe when you are able to make your FP+ reservations varies based upon where you are staying. There are two different categories.
- Those staying at Disney owned resorts, the Swan and Dolphin hotels, Shades of Green, and the Disney Springs Resorts
- Those staying elsewhere such as local hotels, Passholders, and day guests
First, it is important to note that there are several very high demand attractions/experiences which for all available FP+ times are taken very soon after they become reservable.”
Among these high demand items are, Avatar Flight of Passage, Na’vi River Journey, Frozen Ever After, Toy Story Mania, Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train, Soarin’ Around the World, and big seasonal items like the Christmas Parade.
If you would like to experience one of these during your trip, it is imperative that you make your FastPass Plus reservations as early as possible.
Non Disney Resort guests often miss out on getting advance FastPasses for these items, here’s why.
More Than Two Classes of Guests
Disney Resort guests and those at the Swan and Dolphin, Shades of Green, and Disney Springs Resorts are allowed to begin making FastPass Plus reservations 60 days prior to their check in date for all of the days of their resort reservation including check in and out days, up to the number of days on their ticket (to a max of 10 days worth).
Non Disney guests have to wait until 30 days prior to their desired FastPass Plus date to make theirs and must then wait until 30 days prior to the second date they want FastPass reservations, etc. This continues for each day of their trip, making daily FastPass reservations based on a rolling 30 day window.
So, having to wait until the 30 day mark puts non Disney Resort guests at a huge disadvantage!
At first glance this creates a two tiered system, but it is more complicated than that, here’s why.
While it’s obvious that the 60 vs 30 day window splits park goers into 2 major categories, the way the 60 day window for Disney Resort guests is implemented creates many sub-groups of with in the 60 day group, based upon the length of their WDW Resort stay.
An Example
Our family decided to take a short trip to Walt Disney World over the Christmas break. We planned on a 3-night stay with 2 days in the parks.
We know we’ll be paying more for our Disney Resort and park tickets due to the Christmas blockout of the Disney Armed Forces Salute, but we accepted that we’d pay more to experience Disney World over Christmas time.
Crowds will be high, but I was counting on our 60 day FastPass Plus window to allow us to do the few things that we really wanted to do.
I made my resort reservations about 3 or 4 months out though Ears of Experience, then purchased my Regular Military Discounted Magic Your Way tickets from my Base Ticket office. I linked both in My Disney Experience account and waited until the 60 day mark to make those few coveted FastPasses.
We only wanted a few things: the Mine Train, the Christmas Parade, and perhaps the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom and Toy Story Mania at Disney Hollywood Studios (my wife hasn’t tried it yet).
You can begin making your FastPass Plus reservations at midnight eastern the morning of the 60th day before your check in day.”
On my 60th day out I had an early shift on my squadron’s operations desk so had to be up at 4 am central. I logged into My Disney Experience and was immediately disappointed! (Note: when this post was written FP+ reservations opened at 12:01 am, they now open at 7 am eastern)
No Toy Story Mania slots were available at all, no parade or fireworks either! The only Mine Train FastPass available was on Christmas after dinner time and we already had a Priority Seating for dinner at one of the Epcot Resort area restaurants that evening.
All the other items we might have been interested in like the other coasters, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Soarin’, Test Track were all booked each day until late evening. Nothing was available in the morning.
Why Was This?
It is because Disney guests are allowed to make their FastPass Plus reservations for the length of their trip (up to 10 days) on the 60th day before they check in.
My desired dates for FastPasses were 23-26 December, which I was able to start making FastPasses for on 24 October, there were people out there with 10-day windows which included my park days (24 & 25 Dec), who were able to start making FastPasses on 16 & 17 October.
I wasn’t getting first crack at the FastPasses on my 60 day mark; there had actually been people making their FastPasses for my dates for up to 9 days before I could!
(Those checking in on 15 December could make FP+ through the December 24th on 16 October)
I do have to note that this would not have been as an issue during lower attendance time periods. Christmas is one of the two highest attendance periods!
Multiple Levels of Priority
So rather than the two different priorities for WDW guests using FastPass Plus (the 60 and the 30 dayers), we find that there are actually 10 sub-classes within the 60 day group with the advantage going to those staying longer.
So back to my original question.
FastPass Plus – Does It Really Work For Highly Desired Attractions?
The Answer is it depends on first, your resort choice, 30 vs 60 day reservations and then within the 60 day group, how long your stay is.
As I mentioned for mid to lower attendance you shouldn’t experience too much trouble, but if you plan on going during a busy time (Christmas week, Spring Break) like we did, you could be out of luck on shorter stays.
See my post on Walt Disney World’s FastPass Plus – Creating a Classed Theme Park Society
Disney Tickets and Technology Links
Tickets
Disney's Armed Forces Salute Tickets The biggest military discount available on tickets
- Disney Armed Forces Salute FAQ The questions that I get most often
Regular Disney Military Discount Tickets The permanent Disney Military Discount
Disney Military Tickets – Your Start to Finish Guide
What’s the Right Military Discounted Disney Ticket for Me?
11 Differences Between Disney Armed Forces Salute and Disney Regular Military Discounted Tickets
WDW's Park Hopper Plus Option Information
Technology
Disney Technology Overview Page
Memory Maker and PhotoPass+ Military Discounts
Linking Disney Military Tickets
Disney FuelRod Stations are Available at Disney Parks for Recharging Your Devices
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Planning a Disney Trip? Want to get the best military discounts that are available? Feeling a little confused? See Our Great Disney Discount and Planning Info:
- Disney Veteran & Military Discount Eligibility Guide
- The Military Family’s Walt Disney World Comprehensive Vacation Planning and Preparation Guide
- Military Disney Tips Disney Packing Checklist
- Disney Military Tickets – Your Start to Finish Guide
- Resorts/Hotel Overview Page
- Dining Overview Page
- Transportation Overview Page
- Technology Overview Page
- Shades of Green, WDW’s Military Only Resort
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I have yet to use this new system and I am completely intimidated by the whole thing. Aside from that I think the system really puts active military at a disadvantage because at least for me it’s difficult to plan anything ahead of time. Best case scenario we know within 30 days if leave is approved. At that point all the good attractions are booked.
Very good point about leave approvals Michelle!
I know this post was from a while ago…but our Disney hotel (Port Orleans) has a 5 day cancelation policy. We can cancel any time up to 5 days before our arrival without losing any money. And Military Salute tix are good til 10/15. Although our plans are always a bit up in the air, these factors allow us to go ahead and make plans sooner than later. It’s much easier to cancel everything if you end up not being able to go, but it will be harder to pull things together if you wait til the last minute. You can even register your tickets online and make fast passes, but that doesn’t bind you to those dates. Your tickets are only active once you get to the parks, activate them, and use them for entry. So if anything comes up, you can cancel everything and start over. As long as you get our trip in sometime before the tickets expire, you’re good! It’s kind of risk free, which is so nice with our unpredictable lifestyle 🙂
Thanks Karin, great comments!
IMHO FP+ is a giant step backwards for those who must wait for the 30 day mark to book. It also creates the need for a very expensive pre-trip ticket purchase., which is difficult for many of our military families . We have booked 2 rooms @ SOG for April 2015, and we have family members who will purchse the military salute tickets when they arrive a Shades.
I am very concerned that they will be locked out of any headliner attractions during their entire stay. That said, FP+ puts us at a serious disadvantage right out of the gate. I intend to have everyone in our party do rope drop for all of the major attractions; as I see it, there is no other solution.
To add insult to injury I heard that SOG was emailing people with November, 2014 reservations to tell them the resort was overbooked, and they must stay at a non- Disney hotel!!! So now I am concerned that this could happen to us come April. Not sure what is going on, but this is an unacceptable situation. I am hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst case senario. Not exactly a good way to begin a vacation.
Hi JoAnn,
Great comments, FP+ has certainly created a much more intense version of the haves and have-nots at WDW.
I don’t know if there is a right answer to fix it. WDW has so much money invested in this project to drop it. The real purpose is to deal with over crowding…
They should have spent the money on a new separate theme park and then build no more resorts!
Oh, and that is correct about Shades sending their guests off to a non Disney resort. IDK what’s up or if it will continue, but unacceptable!!!
If they need to send their guests anywhere it should be to a Disney Deluxe (that’s what they are supposed to be right?) at the Shades price.
We are heading to Disney in April (mid level crowds expected) and I was completely new to the FP+ system. I had no idea about the 60 day window and actually didn’t make our reservations until we were 40 days out. I got all the FP+ I wanted at the times I was looking for, in additional to great dining spots. No problems at all! I was initially intimidated, as we are not “planners”, but I kind of think this is going to be the best trip! It’s organized but not to the detail, so theres still room for spontaneity..
If we were going over any holiday or even in the summer, honestly, I would just take what I could get in the parks during the day and focus on having most of my fun after hours when certain parks are open late. That gets harder with kids, of course, but the crowds are just insane around that time of year. I remember my husband and I spent Thanksgiving Day at Hollywood Studios one year and there was hardly room to walk. We find it the least stressful to get up and enjoy what we can, take a long mid-day break (with a nap), and then play at night when most people are heading home.
As an AGR soldier, there is no base travel agency within 4 hours of our home. With the new FP system, am I correct in believing that we must purchase our tickets – and have them in hand- before being able to register them on the mydisneyexperience site for the FPs (on the correct day)? If so, will the base travel agency mail tickets or does it require an in-person purchase? If in- person, do all the future guests have to be present? Thanks for your input!
Hi Juke,
Yes you do need them in hand. See this post for your situation: http://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/disney-military-discounts/buy-military-discounted-disney-tickets-by-phone/
Dear Sir: We encountered a couple of problems last November with our visit to DW. First, we had made reservations in the park some time earlier as we had done in the past, and, as in the past, called to take advantage of the military discount as soon as the new “Disney fiscal year” occurred. Unfortunately, I failed to call on the first day of the new “season” and found that there were no longer any discount rooms available. This quite surprised me as we had had no trouble of this sort in the past.
The second item concerns the Salute “ticket” itself. Since this in not really a park ticket but merely a voucher for same, it is not possible to use the new call ahead and get your fastpass system. Thus by the time we arrived at the park there was little available to us. The fastpasses we were able to obtain pretty much tie you to a certain park on a certain day and at a specific time. Not always something that will work with whatever plans you may have had. The Magic Bands seem to be fine, we had no problems with them. Thanks for listening.
Richard Welch
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the comments.
For future reference You can use the ticket vouchers to link to your My Disney Experience account and make your FastPass Plus reservations (online). There is no way to make your FastPass Plus reservations on the phone.
Since you said there were no resort discounts available I assume you were trying to go in October or early November when there was a big availability issue with the military discount. Even those who called on 20 July 2014 when the new salute was announced had trouble.
In our recent trip to Disney I was a little disappointed with fast pass availability. I much preferred their old method. But rides like toy story mania, the mine ride and Anna and Elsa meet and greet (which was awesome) were impossible to get fast passes so if you hit them first thing when the park opens stand by lines are reasonable.
Hi Katie,
Yes that is a big problem. You mentioned all the ones that get used up first, sometimes around 60 days out!
I couldn’t book our FP+ until 6 am (Eastern) on the 60 day mark this trip. In 2014 it was 12 am, but apparently it’s been changed now.
Hi Kathy,
Since then they have switched to 7 am eastern for the reservation start time.