Your A #1 Top Disney World Tip

So, reviving this thread from nearly five years ago, and we've never been so pardon if I ask dumb questions.

We're planning on taking our 7-year-old in February or March, and we'll want to do the Fast Pass thing. My question about that is, does one pass count for all three of us, or do we each need a pass for each ride?

 

My wife handled it so take this as a grain of salt but I believe we all had our individual fast pass, we just had them all for the same ride at the same time.

Be judicious about your pass and use it for the more popular rides. Our first day had fast passes for rides with only a 10-15 minute wait. (Our travel agent initially set it up).

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you need Fast Passes for everyone, but they just have a machine that dispenses them for the same times and you tell it how many you need. Definitely a time-saver, but you have to plan better than if you're just be-bopping around the park.

 

It's all on a MagicBand or card now. No more paper FastPasses. You get three per person day to use at one park, and you can set those up in advance on the web or through an iOS/Android app. After you use the three, you can get one at a time by using kiosks set up throughout the parks.

 

So funny...

I started this thread... We went that year and had fun...

And we've been back every year since !

That infant is now doing math and reeling off dinosaur facts, and the 4 year old is 9 and almost thinking she's too cool for me.

And we're going back again this year !

I can tell you just about everything you'd want to know about the parks...

My best advice is to use the FP on Toy Story at the Hollywood park. Enjoy the crap out of the coolest ride ever.

 

At Hollywood Park probably would fastpass twilight zone ride and/or star wars ride. At Animal Kingdom would maybe use 2 of the fast passes on the Everest ride.

 

Toy Story is FastPass must at Hollywood Park. In fact, we went at part opening, headed straight to Toy Story with the rest of the crowd and the wait time shot immediately to 30 minutes. We then went back later in the morning during our FastPass time.

When we went two years ago, we hit all four parks on our final day (with a 4-year-old and 6-year-old). We started the day with three straight rides on Tower of Terror before heading over to Chef Mickey for breakfast.

 

Yeah, we sprint to the popular rides as soon as the EMH open for the day and save the fast passes for other things.

 

If you stay on property at Disney, generally one of the parks will open an hour early for people staying at Disney. I'd hit the most popular rides you want to see then.

No. 1 tip is don't go anywhere near Disney around Christmas. It's way too crowded.

No. 2 tip is not to race around and see everything. Slow down and enjoy and don't beat yourself up at the parks.

No. 3 tip if you are not sure if you need a stroller for a youngster, get one. They are good for carrying your stuff and sleepy kids.

No. 4 tip, don't be afraid to ask for help from a "cast member." Every employee is empowered to help guests. Sometimes they might even let you in the Fast Pass line if you are nice enough ("We have dinner reservations in 30 minutes and we promised our kids they could go on this ride beforehand. The wait time is 45 minutes. Can you help?)

If you want to see certain things, there are tricks (such as go counterclockwise when you go in instead of clockwise and start at the back). I have a friend who covers theme parks for the Orlando paper. He took my kids to Universal Studios one day and they rode everything they wanted in about 3 1/2 hours.

 

Just to get this straight: The Fast Pass is free, correct?

 

At Disney it's free (for now) and you get up to 3 selections per park per ticket. You can do them in advance or with an app or use a kiosk at the ride. Sometimes they run out fairly early.

Universal has a thing where you can pay extra to go in the quick line. And the busier it is, the more it costs extra.

The single rider line is also a good way to cut wait time, but it isn't really an option if you have young kids.

 

Fast pass is free and everyone can use it. Get the app and/or check it out months in advance of your trip, or as early as possible. Try to map out your plan for a day — which parks, arrival time, etc. — and then schedule the fast passes. The mobile app works pretty well and can easily be adjusted days before or while there. But if you wait too long, you won't be able to schedule the rides you want when you want. You can connect the fast passes/accounts, so you can schedule them all for each of you at once, and we did that on the website probably two months before our trips. Once you use all three fast passes, while at the parks, there are kiosks where you can keep getting one more. If early enough in the day and you're well organized and planned, you could continue to ride fast past after fast pass and save some time. There will be exceptions to this for the super popular rides. There are a couple great sites out there that show you projected park crowds and advice on which rides to use the fast passes for, I'd strongly suggest doing a little research at those. We've been twice now, with a 5 year old two years ago and now 7 year old a month ago, and spent four full days there each time. We've gotten the park hopper passes, but found staying at one park all day is the best for us. We've spent two days at MK, one at HP and then hit AK the first time and Epcot this year. Wait times for the prime rides — Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, 7 Dwarfs, Buzz at MK, Toy Story, Star Wars at HP; Soarin' at Epcot can be 90-120 minutes, so fast pass is well worth the effort to figure out.

Best advice I'm now 0-for-2 on, is make dining reservations ahead of time. Months in advance, or you may get shut out. You'll always be able to find fast-casual places to eat, which aren't bad, but if you want a sit-down place, you need to book those months in advance or continue trying while at the park. And that can be nice after a long day of lines and standing, We opted against the dining passes — I think the money is about the same either way — and we liked the freedom, but the dining option isn't bad from what I could see.

Other best advice is if times aren't set in stone, check out those sites (undercovertourist is one I think?) and plan your trips during less crowded times. It will still be crowded, but maybe not crazy?

I'm not a Disney kind of guy, but as you can tell, I've gotten into it a little and we went back a second time 18 months after the first trip. Plan accordingly, relax and have fun. The first day both trips were our worst, but once we got settled into a routine, figured out the app and fast pass, it was fun.

Oh, MK is the only park that doesn't sell alcohol.