Tips about FastPass+

If you have been unable to get a FastPass+ for any ride prior to arrival, keep checking throughout the day. We managed to get the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for late evening at around 7:30 p.m. on the same day. People change/cancel plans throughout the day. And if you change yours, don't forget to cancel your FastPass+ reservations and make someone else's day! - Pauline
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I took a snapshot of my FastPass times and made them my screensaver on my iWatch. This way you don't have to check your phone all the time -- just glance at your screensaver. It is quick and easy -- just lift your wrist! - Linda L.
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In response to a tip a few weeks ago, I just wanted to throw in an additional tip. If you receive a FastPass+ recovery because of an attraction downtime, you must be very careful with any other FastPasses you have in that park! For example, a Frozen "recovery" FastPass would be good at any other FP attraction in the park. For example, if you also had a FastPass for Spaceship Earth at 2 p.m. and tried to use it by checking in at 1:59, your Frozen recovery FP would be used, not your Spaceship Earth FP. Make sure if you have any recovery FP you are waiting to use that you check in for your other FP a few minutes AFTER the windows open. - Amanda
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My wife and I had FastPass+ for Frozen at Epcot recently. Unfortunately, Elsa was acting up and froze the ride and kept it from running most of the day. Fortunately, I checked my email on my phone in the middle of the afternoon and saw an email from Walt Disney World informing me that I could use the Fastpass+ at either Frozen, if it was working at some point the rest of the day, or I could use it on any other FastPass+ ride in the park. No changes to the Fastpass was required. Just show up at a ride sometime and use it. Almost seemed too easy to be true, but we went over to Soarin' and sure enough it worked when we matched our Mickey on the bands to the Mickey at the Fastpass+ entrance! Definitely pays to check your emails during the day if your Fastpass+ attraction is down. - Mark Harder

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is actually normal procedure -- if an attraction that you have a FastPass+ for is down during your assigned time, you will be notified by email as to what your alternatives are. As Mark notes, it pays to check your email and/or your My Disney Experience account if you're carrying a smart phone with you!
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Make sure your kids are tall enough to ride the rides you're getting FastPasses for. I've seen a lot of people get really upset about this. They'll have FastPasses to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, only to get to the FastPass gate and be told their kids are too short to ride. FastPasses make wait times shorter, they do not make kids taller! And remember, close enough is NOT good enough when it comes to height restrictions at Disney. - Cast Member Jane
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When you are in the parks waiting on FastPass+, keep an eye on your smart/cell phone email. During the Memorial Day weekend at Animal Kingdom, I got an email on my iPhone informing me of a "Change to my upcoming Disney Fastpass+ experience". It told me my scheduled Dinosaur Fastpass+ wasn't available because the ride was "temporarily unavailable". But I was informed a new FastPass+, good anytime during normal theme park hours, had been added to my wristband and could be used at any of the premium experiences at Animal Kingdom. This let me chose any time and any ride from the following: Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur, It's Tough to be a Bug!, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Finding Nemo, or Kali River Rapids. It worked. I was able to walk right into the FastPass+ line at Kilimanjaro Safaris, even though I had already ridden Safari two hours earlier. Two Safaris before lunch is quite the treat! Bob Jackson

EDITOR'S NOTE: If a ride goes down and you are given the opportunity to use a FP+ for another attraction you cannot go back later in the day to the original ride if it comes back up and use a FP. Once you accept the new one and use it you are out of luck with the original. Be sure you aren't too quick to do something else if the down attractions is something you really want to do. Most attractions are not down the entire day, but it is a wait and see "game".
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Here is a tip I discovered for remembering your time for FastPass+. My family and I have annual passes with MagicBands and go about every two weeks. (How lucky are we?!) Before we get to the parks I go to the MDE app under my plans and screen shot all the times on my iPhone (other smart devices do this, too), then save it as my lock-screen wallpaper. This way I only have to make the backlight turn on, like checking the time, and there are all our plans/times. Saves a lot of time rather than opening the app. Hope this helps someone! - Krystal Lane
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I realized last week at the parks, as soon as you tap your MagicBand for your third FastPass of the day, that FastPass is considered used and you are eligible for another right away! You don't have to wait until you get off the ride to choose your next FP+. So if there is a short FastPass line for that third ride, take a minute and check what's available for your next FP+ on My Disney Experience. By the time you finish with attraction #3, you can go right to your next FP attraction, and so on, and so on... We rode so many rides this way! - Cynthia
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Hope this helps someone else from getting frustrated. We were ready to book our FastPass+ 60 days out. We logged in to My Disney Experience at midnight on the day we were able to select our FastPass+. The system was locked and would not allow us to make any selections. We spent almost an hour searching for why we could not access the system and finally stumbled upon a possible reason. The FastPass+ system will not let you make selections until all the parks are closed. The Magic Kingdom was open until 1 a.m. that day (morning). So we waited a few minutes until after 1 a.m. and then the FastPass+ system unlocked and we were able to start making our selections for the days of our stay. - Linda V.
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I have teens/20-somethings (and my husband and my mom) who travel with me to Walt Disney World each year. Invariably we split up to do different rides or even different parks. I am the one who makes all the FastPass+ and dining reservations. Each morning I text everyone their FastPass+ times and any dining reservations we have. Not everyone wants to download the app, or has a phone that can get apps, so this makes our trips so much easier! - Beth S.
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We are going to Disney World and have two rooms, with two room reservations. We recently changed children from one room to another and discovered that when you change a person in a room it deletes any FastPass+ they may have scheduled. We lost our Mine Train FastPasses for the two children. When I called Disney they said they couldn't help me, but if I needed to make a change again to make sure that the cast member making the change knew about any FastPasses so we wouldn't lose them. (We didn't lose any of our dinner reservations.) = Susan Brown
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We watched the AllEarsNet TV episode about FastPass+ with interest, having used it for the first time in August. One thing worth mentioning is that we booked our FastPass+ 60 days ahead as we were staying on property. Our parents, however, who live locally and so were not staying on property, were meeting us there and could only book 30 days in advance, even though our tickets were all linked. This meant that they couldn't necessarily get the same times as us for various attractions. For example, there were no reservations left for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train by the time they could book. Apart from this, other readers/viewers may not know that families can link their tickets like this, and that generally this was really useful. - Louise & Jason Herrick from England
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If any last-minute changes occur to your traveling party, be sure to print out a paper copy of all of your FastPass+ reservations. Prior to a recent trip, I had to cancel one member of our party. Upon arrival we learned that they mistakenly removed my mother, not my father, from the reservation. Though a cast member at our hotel was able to add my mother's name and remove my father's name, in doing so, it left her with no FastPass+ reservations. Despite the fact that I made each FastPass+ reservation in advance and was actually heading down with one fewer person in my party, due to an error on Disney's part, my mother could not participate in any of the FastPass reservations. I tried on several separate occasions at Guest Relations, but was told that they were "non-transferable." It was our most un-Disney guest service experience in our many years of travel, especially because the mistake was theirs. - Amanda T.
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After securing your Fastpasses on My Disney Experience, take a photo of the confirmation screen to carry with you. One morning I was able to change my Fastpass to the Anna and Elsa meet-and-greet, but for some reason it didn't transfer to my MagicBand. Fortunately I had taken a picture of my confirmation so the FP was honored. Sure did beat waiting 90 minutes! - Mishawna
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This is both a tip and Magical Moment. While waiting for the Main Street Electrical Parade to begin the other night, I noticed I had lost my cell phone. While trying to decide what to do about it, I saw a cast member slowly walking by, scanning the crowd. We thought he was looking for folks who had sneaked in to the FastPass+ reserved section without FastPass+ (they ask these folks to leave). When he stopped in front of my son-in-law and two grandsons, no one was more surprised than we were to hear him say, "Did you lose a cell phone?" He said they had found it at the Fast Pass+ entrance for the parade and since my screensaver was a photo of my son-in-law and grandsons he was looking for us before turning it in to lost and found. He figured we were somewhere in the crowd. This is why we love Disney! So my tip is: Keep a photo of your family as your screensaver! - Sherri Prykryl
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