Overwhelmed first timer

[Jules32]

I'm hoping someone can help me with Fast pass tips before me and my partner kill each other before we even get to Florida.
its our first time to Florida we have bene to DLP many times so know that fast pass system like the back of our hands but need some help and tips from you lovely people.

I've watched few vlogs , poured over the Dibb for months but now fast pass day is approaching i'm feeling a little overwhelmed with it all. Part of me keeps telling my self why are you getting so stressed but then the other part of me knows we need to plan to get the most out of our stay.

please can you help me out and give me some tips what's the best way to work it? Our kids are all into the big rides so the most popular ones which are hard to get. Am I best starting at day 14 and working back do I just grab any FOP and slinky dog that I can and then work out our itinerary from there ? how do you then work round your ADRs and wanting to be in the parks for EMH arrgghhhh my brain is frazzled

[KymmieAKiss]

Originally Posted by Jules32

I'm hoping someone can help me with Fast pass tips before me and my partner kill each other before we even get to Florida.
its our first time to Florida we have bene to DLP many times so know that fast pass system like the back of our hands but need some help and tips from you lovely people.

I've watched few vlogs , poured over the Dibb for months but now fast pass day is approaching i'm feeling a little overwhelmed with it all. Part of me keeps telling my self why are you getting so stressed but then the other part of me knows we need to plan to get the most out of our stay.

please can you help me out and give me some tips what's the best way to work it? Our kids are all into the big rides so the most popular ones which are hard to get. Am I best starting at day 14 and working back do I just grab any FOP and slinky dog that I can and then work out our itinerary from there ? how do you then work round your ADRs and wanting to be in the parks for EMH arrgghhhh my brain is frazzled

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My best advice is to plan out your holiday first.
So what day you are going to where. That way when that day comes to book your FP's you know exactly what park to pick.

Dont forget with the big rides you can only have one. Go for the most popular first.
They go live at 7am Eastern. So 12pm here. Refresh as soon as it hits 12.

Also a big tip i use is try get all your FP's for the morning. That way once you've used them all you can book more ( if available)
and also, dont waste FP's. If you are doing Rope Drop head straight to the popular rides and do them first so you dont have to use a FP.
Or rope drop one and FP the other.

For example. I rope dropped Hollywood Studios last year. Walked straight onto TOT and Rock n Roller. then had a FP for slinky.

Hope that helps

[dizzymum23]

I decide my day's based on extra magic hours, beginning of the holiday early hours and then towards end of holiday the extra late hours due to tiredness. Your right to book the popular one's first and they will more likely be available the last few days especially if you want early times and then just book the rest - I try to do most of the rides once if possible, now we've been a few times we know what we like most but as a first timer you want to try everything. good luck, planning is all part of the holiday so enjoy xx

[Thorpy]

Fastpasses are there to help, they are not appointments where you have to turn up. If you book one and don't use it then it's no big deal. Riding everything in the most efficient manner is not the only way to have a good day... worth remembering as subconsciously that's where the anxiety stems from.

I am assuming from your post that you are not yet tied to any particular place on any particular day. If you are but haven't said so, then target that park on that day. We would typically have 2 or 3 ADR's over the course of 2 weeks, and that means we get fastpasses on that day for that park, going for the hardest ones to get. (Tehy can always be changed on the day). After that we wouldn't plan to be in specific parks on specific days, but we do book fastpasses at random for all days in the hope that they might help, always going for the hardest to get ones. (remember we are quite happy if we don't utilise the fastpasses)
We often sit at at a bus stop and decide if we want to go to the park with the fastpasses booked, or go where the first bus that turns up is headed.

[Jules32]

Thanks everyone for your help, I think I have a good idea, we do have a couple of ADR's booked but nothing apart from one that I wouldn't be happy switching around so that's not too bad to factor in.
its easy to forget its not just about the rides is it there's so much more there .. I need to stop stressing ha ha

[DollyDimples]

I did our fastpasses for 12 nights on site a few weeks ago. It was our first time doing it.

Like yourself, we have been to DLP as few times and know how to maximise our fast pass use there.

We had already booked ADRs for most days (we have DDP) and had decided which days we were going to aim for early starts (and using EMHs) and which days we would plan a later start and stay for the fireworks.

On earlier start days we have generally booked fastpasses for about 10.30 onwards and tried to shuffle them to be as close to possible.

For the later days we generally have fast passes booked for after 5pm (we are planning to be in water parks first some of those days).

In terms of what fastpasses to go for we had a think about what were priority rides to do and also how we would split up the days in each park. I.e on that day we will try to do these two lands in Magic Kindgdom.

You will have done that tyoe of thing on visits to DLP, this is just the same on a bigger scale but you have more days to split it across.

When we had a rough idea of what we want to try to do each day we then looked at what was likely to have the longest queue or if there was a particular time of day we wanted to do a ride/show.

For example we have kilamanjaro safari booked for an early morning slot one day and a dusk slot another day.

We are going to Toy Story EMM so will ride SD a few times then but I was also keen to do it when it is dark so we also have it booked for the evening another day.

We also found touring plans quite useful in helping us see what we were likely to be able to do each day within the rough timescale we think we will be in the park. We have no intention of actually following the plans to the letter on the day but we are intending to use the trick of modifying or securing our next fastpass as soon as we have joined a ride queue and see how we get on.

I have been able to tweek our fastpasses since I booked them. Probably took an hour or so after I had gone through the whole list to go back and make adjustments to minimide the time between them or to move it further out from an ADR time as I needed.

I should also say that me and DH had a few crossed words when we were planning what to book too, so it's not just you! I think because it is our first trip and there is so much unknown it is really hard.

[Guest]

Before I book my fast passes, I will know which park I plan to be in on which day and will have chosen what three FP to go for. I have this in a spreadsheet along with any ADRs that I would have booked at 180 days.

I have just read a thread in which someone suggested booking backwards but I don’t really understand why that would be beneficial.

I would look to book the popular rides first, on whatever days I have them planned for, I would include in this Slinky Dog, FoP, 7DMT, Frozen and Peter Pan. If I can’t get any of these on the day I had picked them then I would look on another day and juggle my plans around. I would say, the only time I have not been able to get a fast pass on the day I wanted was this year with Slinkydog and I had to swap days over.

Once those FP are in place, I book everything else in date order.

[fizzypop]

Originally Posted by Claudette

Before I book my fast passes, I will know which park I plan to be in on which day and will have chosen what three FP to go for. I have this in a spreadsheet along with any ADRs that I would have booked at 180 days.

I have just read a thread in which someone suggested booking backwards but I don’t really understand why that would be beneficial.

I would look to book the popular rides first, on whatever days I have them planned for, I would include in this Slinky Dog, FoP, 7DMT, Frozen and Peter Pan. If I can’t get any of these on the day I had picked them then I would look on another day and juggle my plans around. I would say, the only time I have not been able to get a fast pass on the day I wanted was this year with Slinkydog and I had to swap days over.

Once those FP are in place, I book everything else in date order.

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The reason to book them backwards ie, last day first, is to make sure you get the headliners. My fastpass day is tomorrow and I can see on touring plans that there are already no fastpasses left for slinky dog on my first day. But if I look at my last day of my onsite stay, I can see there is quite a good selection of times.

I will book my last day first and work backwards to ensure I get headliners at the times I want them. If I start at the beginning of my stay, there is a chance that the headliners I want at the times I want them could be gone so we won’t get to ride them at all.

Hope that makes sense.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by fizzypop

The reason to book them backwards ie, last day first, is to make sure you get the headliners. My fastpass day is tomorrow and I can see on touring plans that there are already no fastpasses left for slinky dog on my first day. But if I look at my last day of my onsite stay, I can see there is quite a good selection of times.

I will book my last day first and work backwards to ensure I get headliners at the times I want them. If I start at the beginning of my stay, there is a chance that the headliners I want at the times I want them could be gone so we won’t get to ride them at all.

Hope that makes sense.

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Well I said I would book my headliners first. It is why I would work backwards that I am struggling with and no, unfortunately I am none the wiser but it is no issue, I am happy with my technique.

[Thorpy]

Claudette, working backwards comes down to the number of people that have any given day available to them.
I'll try and explain, with the fear that it's one of those things that once you've got it is dead simple, but is hard to put into words succinctly, and the more words get used the more confusing it gets. It really needs a picture and a slidey thing !

Lets imagine today is the day my fastpass window opens, so I go on holiday exactly 60 days from now for 2 weeks. Everybody that is staying onsite that night, the entirety of onsite guests have access to and might want a fastpass for Slinky Dog. Now think about 62 days from now. Those that had day 60 or 61 as their last night will have gone home, so they are not trying to get fastpasses , those that check in 61 or 62 days from now are not yet quite at their 60 day mark, so can't yet book fastpasses. So some of the people that will stay onsite that night don't have access to the day 62 fastpasses today, like I do. I am competing with less people for that days fastpasses. 70 nights from now lots of people will have finished their holidays between day 60 and 70, and the many people that will replace them are not yet in their booking window. So I am competing with a lot less for those fastpasses. The longer your holiday the fewer people are chasing the fastpasses on the later days.
Hence there is a point in sorting the later days first. That said it is natural to sort the start first and work forwards, and if you get the biggies in the early days you are sorted anyway.
We had it with Flight of passage when it first opened. It was only in the second week that we could get a fastpass.