Fastpass times too close?

[Princess Minnie of Disney]

So my family and I have been to Disney World many times, but this summer we are taking our first trip with the Fastpass+ system. We have started planning our trip and passes and I worry our times are too close to each other and we won't be able to just wander around the parks like we used to. We do have the Park Hopper option and planed our fastpasses for our morning park.
Here is an example of one day of our fastpasses:
Epcot
1. Character Spot (10:00)
2. Mission Space (10:30)
3. Frozen Ever After (11:30)
What do you all think? Too close? Will we still have time to other things? Thanks!

 

[Mr & Mrs DD]

Well, you do have an hour to use your fast passes. So if you are at the Character spot at 10:00, you have until 11:30 to use your mission space fast pass and until 12:30 to use Frozen ever after. You would really need to be on time for the character spot. You won't have a lot of time in between fast passes do to other things.

 

[mrsR123]

Have you already booked these? Usually the system will not allow to windows to overlap. Considering how large Epcot is, I would want my FPs spaced further apart. YMMV.

 

[CAS239]

Well being that you want a Character Spot FP at 10am, the earliest you could schedule Mission Space would be 11am

 

[Princess Minnie of Disney]

We haven't booked them yet, our window is mid-May. So we should try to space them out more?

 

[hiroMYhero]

So my family and I have been to Disney World many times, but this summer we are taking our first trip with the Fastpass+ system. We have started planning our trip and passes and I worry our times are too close to each other and we won't be able to just wander around the parks like we used to. We do have the Park Hopper option and planed our fastpasses for our morning park.
Here is an example of one day of our fastpasses:
Epcot
1. Character Spot (10:00)
2. Mission Space (10:30)
3. Frozen Ever After (11:30)
What do you all think? Too close? Will we still have time to other things? Thanks!

If you book Character Spot at 10:00, Mission Space will be at 11:00, and Frozen at 12:00.

The system is based on 1 hour return windows.

 

[Mr & Mrs DD]

If you want to do more things in between, you will need to space them out. As the previous posts states, the system will not let you book passes less than an hour apart.

 

[Princess Minnie of Disney]

Thank you for that insight, I had no idea they didn't allow for overlapping windows but it make sense! Yea, we are probably going back to the drawing board and spacing them out more!

 

[adisneyaunt]

I made a mistake when I first started using the system myself. I wanted some ride, don't even recall which but... the ride was Not available till early evening.
I had NO idea I could not get another fastpass Until all 3 were used! ( had 2 in the morning and that far off third one)
And I did not take the time to delete that late one, or try and switch the time etc. .. so we skipped out on quite a few because of lines...

so lesson learned... know the ins/outs of FP, and use that phone app which is really easy to switch it up!
Enjoy ur visit!

 

[Amelia :)]

At Epcot you should be aiming to get a good fourth FP, so yes I would book them early-ish and close together, then after you have used them keep refreshing your app to see if you can get something good.

 

[Hootch]

There is a sticky at the top of the board that has a great primer on FP;

https://www.disboards.com/threads/fastpass-frequently-asked-questions.3491680/

it covers requirements, FP priorities, etc.

I did our FPs this morning. It took me an hour compared to 15 minutes two years ago. The biggest issue was shifting FP times because the times we wanted were not available. We got everything on our list reasonably close to what we planned with some change in the order of the attractions. That also included different attractions for different people in our party.

Now if I can get a Spaceship Earth FP an hour earlier, I will be very close.

 

[fla4fun]

We haven't booked them yet, our window is mid-May. So we should try to space them out more?

It depends. If you are planning to try and book additional FP+ after your first 3 are used, then you want to book them as close to the beginning of the day as possible, so you will finish with them as quickly as possible. After going to your first FP attraction, start checking MDE to see if you can move your next one up. For example, if you have a 9AM Character Spot, go there right away. Then afterward, check to see if there is a 9:30 FP opening for whatever you have scheduled for 10am. Once you have used a FP, the system does allow you to move the others to an earlier time (so long as there is availability).

However, I take a little bit different route. I book two FP in Future World, then allow a few hours and book a Frozen FP in the afternoon. If I want to do Soarin or Test Track, I do those standby as soon as I get to the park, working them in around the other two FP I've already booked. Then I enjoy WS at my leisure, maybe stopping for a nice lunch, and hit Frozen as I'm coming around toward FW again. That way I don't feel like I'm backtracking so much.

It just depends on how you like to tour, and whether you plan to book more than 3 FP+ for the day.

 

[soniam]

You can also plan to do an FP+ at the end of its window and do the next one at the beginning of the window. We often do this. However, like others have said, you can only book each FP+ 1 hour or more apart. It will not let you book them closer together in time.

 

[barbliny]

I tend to book my FP+ back to back - particularly in parks with tiered rides, since I want to be able to try to book 4th, 5th, etc.

You actually have almost a 2 hour window between FP+ (to be more specific, between one set of 2).

If you book:
Test Track from 10 - 11
Nemo 11-12
Imagination 12 - 1

You can get to Test Track at 9:55 (can enter 5 minutes early) and enter Nemo at 12 (I think there is actually a window of time that is allowed for being late, I never push it though). So, you have 2 hours minus the ride time of Test Track to explore before you go into Nemo.

You now have 1 hour minus ride time of Nemo to enter Imagination.

 

[ArielSRL]

Also just an FYI...you might want to look up Mission Space bc it is going down for refurbishment this summer. I'm not sure on the end date, however.

 

[Princess Minnie of Disney]

Thanks all for the great advice! I have a question if we were to do our fastpasses quick, are there chances of getting a good fourth one in a park with tiers? I'm banking on that not being likely and that its not worth it to shoot for a 4th fastpass.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Personally I think the 4th fast passes are usually bad. We tend to do ours 2,3, and 4 or even later if we are taking a break midday. We do lots standby early. MK is the only park with decent 4th fast passes in our experience.

 

[barbliny]

Thanks all for the great advice! I have a question if we were to do our fastpasses quick, are there chances of getting a good fourth one in a park with tiers? I'm banking on that not being likely and that its not worth it to shoot for a 4th fastpass.

4th and beyond are a bonus - I wouldn't make plans that include them

If good means only Test Track, then the probability of snagging that as a 4th is lower, but you can get lucky if someone cancels. If good means Soarin', that might be possible particularly since capacity is up with the added theater. If good means Crush, much higher probability.

How long you are staying in the park and how flexible you are will also play into your chances. If you're in Future World and your plan is to go wander the Showcase for a few hours, you open up more possible slots that fit into your plan. Similarly if you plan on taking a break and coming back to Epcot at night. If your plan was to leave the park at 2:00 and not come back - then your chances are much lower.

To me, the worth of the 4th FP is if there are waits on almost everything, and a slot is open for a ride I want to ride - then it's "good".

4th FP does work better in MK, simply because of the number of rides and the fact that it is not tiered.
Epcot is the easiest park to waste time in because of the flexibility of the World Showcase while you are waiting for a 4th FP to Soarin' that you were able to snag at dinner time.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Personally I think the 4th fast passes are usually bad. We tend to do ours 2,3, and 4 or even later if we are taking a break midday. We do lots standby early. MK is the only park with decent 4th fast passes in our experience.

I agree! We found out the hard way, even during off peak times, that we can't plan ahead for a FP say for RNR at HS and think we'll be able to choose TSM as a SDFP. If we want to ride both of those, we're going to be waiting standby for one of them.

 

[soniam]

Yah, MK is the only one usually worth 4th FP+, and it isn't going to be Seven Dwarves or probably Peter Pan. It could be Space Mountain or Big Thunder though.