FastPasses are a nice way to avoid waiting in long lines for some of your favorite rides. However, it can be a little confusing for those that have never been to Disney World. Here’s a crash course in the FastPass system.
The FastPass system is something Disney set up years ago. They used to have a paper system where you went to a kiosk, put your ticket in, and it would spit out a FastPass ticket with a return time on it. Now they’ve changed it to where people staying on property can make 3 FastPass selections 60 days out and those that aren’t staying on property can make 3 FastPass selections 30 days out.
The new system can be a source of stress for some people, especially those that have never been to Disney World. If you want to get a FastPass for a popular ride, your best bet is to get up early and be ready to make selections at 7 a.m. at your 60 day mark. These are the instances when a travel agent comes in handy, so you don’t have to worry about being up that early.
Something else to keep in mind is that certain rides are in the same tiered group. The reason for this is the popularity of some of the rides. For instance, when looking for FastPasses in Epcot you can’t choose Frozen Ever After, Soarin’, and Test Track as your three FastPasses, because they are all in the same tier group. So you can choose one of those rides and then pick two rides from the other tiered group.
When choosing FastPasses you will have to make the initial three selections in the same park. So you can’t choose two in Magic Kingdom and one in Epcot. Once you use your FastPasses you can make additional FastPass selections (one at a time) at other parks.
Another helpful tip is to try to group the FastPasses in some sort of order, so you are not zig zagging all over the park. Try to make they either in the same area or in order of how you would be walking around the park.
If you are spending the entire day in a park, and can get there when the park opens, I would make the FastPasses for later in the morning and into the afternoon. Lines tend to be shorter right when the parks open, so you can get on a bunch of rides in the first hour or two.
Make sure to have the My Disney Experience app on your phone, because you can make additional FastPass choices from your phone. The app will also let you view your current FastPasses, so it’s easy to keep track of where you need to be next.
For the full FastPass list, with the tiered grouping, visit the FastPass Guide under the Planning Guides section.
What’s your favorite ride to FastPass?
Thanks for reading!
*Liz*
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Liz
I love all things Disney, but my main love is for Disney World and I'm always planning for the next trip. Before becoming a Disney blogger, I was a radio DJ, so I guess I'm just continuing in the communication industry, just in a different form. I love talking Disney and I could talk about Disney all day. That's why I started blogging and created the Facebook group. The Disney community is full of friendly, helpful, and happy people...and I love being a part of it! If there is any Disney subject you would like to see covered just let me know! Need help planning your Disney vacation. Feel free to contact myself or Melissa at Never Stop Dreaming Travel Co. We love helping people plan their trips! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! Don't forget to check out our Countdown to Disney app! Feel free to email me with suggestions of things you would like to see in the app :-)
I read this, and was confused. I thought they had changed this. If they haven’t, I hope they do. I was one person who found that this to be incredibly stressing. We set up everyday of our vacation to try to use the system, but by day three we had scrapped the whole thing and just resigned ourselves to waiting in line. We weren’t able to get times we wanted or needed. It would be better if the fast passes could be made one at a time like the paper ones. A lot of the time we weren’t interested in anything other than tier one rides. It really damped down our enthusiasm . That is just my two cents worth. Love Disney, but wish they would fix this, or go back to the paper fastpasses. We really liked those.
I miss the paper FastPasses too, Randi. I think it was easier.