FastPass Plus: WDW’s game-changing advancement in RFID Technology
By Virgil Richardson, Disney Vacation Specialist with Mousekeplanner
The cast: Me (pre-Mousekeplanner!), my wife, my 11-year old son, my 8-year old daughter and my 4-year old son.
The trip: 5 nights at Port Orleans Riverside with a four-day park hopper and deluxe dining plan.
Back in December 2012 my wife and I decided to surprise our kids with a trip to Walt Disney World. Only my son had been there when he was old enough to remember it, and our youngest had never been at all. After months and months of planning—18 to be exact!—we landed on dates, a resort and dining plan. We booked in February, and needless to say the 10 months between booking and traveling went by about as quickly as frozen molasses.
As we got closer to the trip, we learned that we would be there the day New Fantasyland opened to the public! This amped us up even more. Then about two weeks before travel we got an email from Disney Destinations. The email subject was so exciting I almost didn’t open it fearing it was spam: “Be a part of an exclusive test during your upcoming Walt Disney World Trip.” Um … yes, please! Let’s be honest: if the “exclusive test” would have been for sniffing new laundry soap for the housekeepers, we would have been all about it. Am I right?
Upon further investigation, it seemed legit, which amped the excitement up about 100%:
“You have been chosen to participate in an invitation-only test that will allow you to select up to four FastPass+ experiences at Magic Kingdom® Park and up to three FastPass+ experiences at Disney’s Hollywood Studios®before you arrive.
FastPass+ enables you to select your “must-do” rides, shows, and character meet and greets in advance, so you’ll have more time to spend with your friends and family while you’re here.
Just select your test date, between 12/11/2012 and 12/15/2012, and you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite experiences with minimal wait.
Get started now!”
We Richardsons? We’re kinda a big deal.
For those unfamiliar with the Fastpass program, there is plenty of great info on wdwinfo.com about it. Fastpass Plus is the same program, only we get to pre-select “return times” for the attractions we choose before we even get to the parks. Basically, it’s like making a dining reservation for the attractions we wanted to be sure we got to. The times and attractions are pre-loaded onto the FP+ card, and when the time you’ve selected arrives, you show up at your attraction and head to the super-special FP+ entrance, at which point you head to the front of the line. You even bypass those with standard Fastpasses. It’s that simple!
On the day we arrived at WDW, I got an email from FP+ reminding me of the week’s selected itineraries. Then, each morning I got another email with the daily itinerary. So handy!
But what if you want to change an attraction? No problem! We wanted to change an attraction on Magic Kingdom day to facilitate eating lunch at the newly-opened Be Our Guest restaurant. While I sat and waited for my princesses to be made over by their fairy godmothers at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, I jumped on my iPad using the free, in-park wifi and made the change. It only took a few seconds.
All in all, the FP+ program is amazing. It allows families to spend more time “doing” and less time waiting. Considering we flew all the way to Orlando from Seattle, we really wanted to maximize our times in the parks. Between FP+, standard Fastpasses and our Advanced Dining Reservations, the longest we spent waiting to do anything was the 45 minutes it took to get on a monorail the last night we were there! Granted, the mid-December timeframe is typically below average on crowd size, we were there during the New Fantasyland grand opening AND free dining plan week! Even so, we used FP+ to plan a trip that kept us bouncing from one thing to another.
Now, with the rollout later this year of MagicBands, Disney has taken this amazing program to a whole new level of amazing. The entire time we were there, I was juggling cards like a Vegas blackjack dealer! Each member of my family had a FP+ card, our Key to the World (which functions as a room key and dining plan card), our Military Salute cards (our park hoppers), and gift cards we got from our family for the trip. We also had a PhotoPass+ card. That’s 21 different plastic cards we had to keep track of, 12 of which belonged to kids! When the MagicBands release, all of those cards with the exception of the Photopass+ will be loaded onto the single wrist band! I kept telling my wife how great it would be if there was one card to replace all the rest. Now there is!
Here are some pros and cons specifically about the FP+ program:
Pros:
Convenience of pre-selecting attractions and times on each park day.
Ease of use.
Speed- when I was a cast member, we used to “back door” VIPs and Celebrities. FP+ is every bit as fast as being back doored. At two attractions, we literally did enter through the back door.
Cons:
They actually work a bit too well. What I mean is that you skip so much of the line, you actually don’t get to experience the interactive queue areas. We missed the entire Rockin’ Roller Coaster and Little Mermaid pre-shows. I had never done either of these attractions and wish I could have seen them. Not enough to stand in line for an hour, but still … if that’s important to you, grab normal Fastpasses for the attractions you want to see.
Flexibility- we showed up at Enchanted Story Time with Belle (Magic Kingdom) and there was literally no line. But since we had chosen a FP+ for that location and the “arrival window” had already began, we were stuck using it. We essentially wasted the FP+ because you can only get a few per park per day. I’d recommend you select only the attractions you are 100% sure will be slammed, like Toy Story, Rockin’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, etc. (The waits for those were 180 minutes, 90 minutes and 30 minutes when we were there. But not for us!)
Bottom line: if you get a chance to use Fastpass Plus, jump at it! Use your Mousekeplanner to help you create an itinerary so you’ll know which parks you’ll be at each day of your stay. Then decide which attractions are “must see” for you and your family at each park. Chances are, between FP+, Fastpass and carefully selected advanced dining reservations; you’ll get most or all of your desired attractions in during your visit.
I’d love to answer any specific questions about the Fastpass+, Magic Bands, itinerary planning or any other Disney-related subjects. Let me know how I can help make your family’s trip magical! Drop me a line at virgil@mousekeplanner.com or find me at www.facebook.com/disneyvirgil.
