Park Hopping....which park to use fast passes.

[bjcaed]

We always Park Hop. In the past, when it was paper fast passes it was so much easier because of the flexibility. The last few visits we have rope dropped then used our FP in the later part of the morning, taken a swim break then just chosen a park for the evening. Is it a better strategy to save Park Hopper for the evening when it is going to be more crowded?? We have 9 park days.
Thanks!!

 

[goofygal531]

The most recent update of MDE lets you select a FP from another park after you use your FP for the day. I'm still trying to figure this out. From what I understand, you can only do this on the day of, not in advance. I've also read that you no longer need to make all 3 FPs at the same time, I'm still unclear on all this.

Just when I *thought* I understood FP, it all changed on me!

 

[Klayfish]

That's certainly subjective as to FP+ being easier with the old system...and a big rabbit hole to go down, so we won't.

There's no real right answer to your question. I'd actually say that evening is less crowded than mid-morning through late afternoon/early evening. I'd say peak crowds are roughly 10am to 7pm. Your strategy will depend on what you want to do.

We're not commando style touring people. We won't do 9am to 10pm in the parks. So if our plan is to be in the parks for the morning then we'll book our 3 FP+ for the morning. Then we'll roll a 4th FP+ continually until we leave. If we decide to come back later that night, we'll pick up another FP+ as available. If our plan is to be in the parks for the evening, and we decide to make a quick stop in the parks in the morning, we'll do the opposite...have FP+ at night and standby in the morning (we very rarely do this...PM park days are usually AM water park days for us).

More often than not, we book our 3 FP+ for the earliest possible times we are there. That lets us grab more and keep rolling it forward.

 

[uccats97]

I prefer to use my FP+ in the first park of the day with the possibility that I can add a 4th in the park I plan to hop to later.

 

[FSU Girl]

Will you be leaving the first park right after you're done rope dropping rides? If yes, then I suggest making your second park fast passes for the middle of the day. The earlier in the day you make them the better so you can pick up a second fast pass. Since you are going to the parks 9 days, you can switch around the parks you are going to so you can get all the hard to get fastpasses. If you plan to go to the second park later in the day I suggest making the fast passes for the first park you're in and when you finish your third fast pass make a fourth for your next park.

 

[AJT607]

I agree with the previous posters. Prescheduled FP+ in the first park of the day (aim for 10am, 11am, 12pm) will allow you the greatest variety and flexibility for the remainder of the day. You may even be able to score another FP or two at your morning park before hopping to another park in the afternoon.

One exception to this rule, in my opinion, is Epcot. Because you really only get one valuable fastpass (for either Soarin, Test Track or Frozen) - it may make more sense to use your prescheduled fastpasses at your evening park, especially if you are hopping somewhere like the Magic Kingdom. On our last visit, we were able to arrive at Epcot at rope drop and ride each of the major attractions in standby (Frozen -> Soarin -> Test Track single rider). In this scenario, I would much rather have three harder-to-get Fastpasses ready for me at Magic Kingdom later in the day.

 

[RJstanis]

I'm running with the same dilemma. HS in am and AK in the evening. Before I would do HS morning FPs and just do the 4th FP system from there, but with Pandora, I have a feeling the only way you'll get a FP for those new attractions especially in evening you'll have to have them booked ahead of time.

 

[goofygal531]

I'm running with the same dilemma. HS in am and AK in the evening. Before I would do HS morning FPs and just do the 4th FP system from there, but with Pandora, I have a feeling the only way you'll get a FP for those new attractions especially in evening you'll have to have them booked ahead of time.

I'm looking to do the same thing. From what I understand from this thread https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...al-tier-1-booking-fps-for-long-stays.3538258/
You can't obtain two tier one FP+s in one day. I hope I'm mistaken because this really stinks for AK!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I RD the first park or do AM EMH, midday break by the pool and then go to the second park with FP+ in hand. It works like a charm. Never wait more than 15-20 minutes for any ride and we ride the headliners multiple times.

 

[CAS239]

100% fast passes scheduled for the second park.

You don't need a FP before around 11am, and your choices of 4th and more FP's aren't going to be anywhere as good as if you had your 3 scheduled at your second park. This is what we do every day we park hop and it's nice.

 

[bjcaed]

That's certainly subjective as to FP+ being easier with the old system...and a big rabbit hole to go down, so we won't.

There's no real right answer to your question. I'd actually say that evening is less crowded than mid-morning through late afternoon/early evening. I'd say peak crowds are roughly 10am to 7pm. Your strategy will depend on what you want to do.

We're not commando style touring people. We won't do 9am to 10pm in the parks. So if our plan is to be in the parks for the morning then we'll book our 3 FP+ for the morning. Then we'll roll a 4th FP+ continually until we leave. If we decide to come back later that night, we'll pick up another FP+ as available. If our plan is to be in the parks for the evening, and we decide to make a quick stop in the parks in the morning, we'll do the opposite...have FP+ at night and standby in the morning (we very rarely do this...PM park days are usually AM water park days for us).

More often than not, we book our 3 FP+ for the earliest possible times we are there. That lets us grab more and keep rolling it forward.

That totally makes sense. Maybe we will vary how we do them with plenty of days. We like our resort and pool time too!!

 

[CAS239]

We rope drop (or close to rope drop) the first park. Ride everything standby up until about 11am or noon whenever crowds start piling in. Then we leave and drive back to the hotel to eat, shower, nap, etc.. when we're ready to go to another park we usually head to the second park around 3 or 4pm. Then we have fast passes set up say 5pm, 6pm, 7pm when crowds are big and lines are long for all the good rides.

Does it limit you in being able to grab 4th, 5th FP, yea....but I'd much rather have 3 fast passes set up for when it's busy and others are trying to get a 4th FP for the rides I have...vs just burning my 3 passes early in the day when the standby lines aren't long. Odds of getting a 4th FP for a headliner are pretty slim. It certainly can happen, but it's slim. You'll generally be getting extra fast passes for rides like It's a small world, figment, etc

 

[Klayfish]

We rope drop (or close to rope drop) the first park. Ride everything standby up until about 11am or noon whenever crowds start piling in. Then we leave and drive back to the hotel to eat, shower, nap, etc.. when we're ready to go to another park we usually head to the second park around 3 or 4pm. Then we have fast passes set up say 5pm, 6pm, 7pm when crowds are big and lines are long for all the good rides.

Does it limit you in being able to grab 4th, 5th FP, yea....but I'd much rather have 3 fast passes set up for when it's busy and others are trying to get a 4th FP for the rides I have...vs just burning my 3 passes early in the day when the standby lines aren't long. Odds of getting a 4th FP for a headliner are pretty slim. It certainly can happen, but it's slim. You'll generally be getting extra fast passes for rides like It's a small world, figment, etc

But does that really work for headliner rides? We don't rope drop in the sense of showing up 45 minutes before the park opens, but we'll show up either right at park open or within 10 minutes of same. We can get on things like TSMM, RnR (though not always in the mood for it that early), Soarin' up until 11am. But rides like 7DMT, TT (we don't want to do single rider), FEA, even Soarin, PP, Splash and Space Mountain, all get really long lines before 11am. If park is open at 9am, our typical experience is that many of those rides have 40 minute waits by 10am if not sooner. How do you get around that?

 

[ChasingLeslie]

I prefer to use my FP+ in the first park of the day with the possibility that I can add a 4th in the park I plan to hop to later.

I do this too. I plan early FPs for headliners at park one, and start searching for FP#4 for park two as soon as we're ready to leave park one.

I'd much rather have 3 fast passes set up for when it's busy and others are trying to get a 4th FP for the rides I have...vs just burning my 3 passes early in the day when the standby lines aren't long. Odds of getting a 4th FP for a headliner are pretty slim. It certainly can happen, but it's slim. You'll generally be getting extra fast passes for rides like It's a small world, figment, etc

Obviously it'll depend on crowds and luck, but we usually hop in the late afternoon or after dinner and are often still able to get FPs like Test Track, TSMM, RnRC. Things like MK headliners (7DMT, PP, and the mountains) and FEA aren't likely to come up but, for us, we hop more in the second half of our trip so we've already done all/most of those rides.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

But does that really work for headliner rides? We don't rope drop in the sense of showing up 45 minutes before the park opens, but we'll show up either right at park open or within 10 minutes of same. We can get on things like TSMM, RnR (though not always in the mood for it that early), Soarin' up until 11am. But rides like 7DMT, TT (we don't want to do single rider), FEA, even Soarin, PP, Splash and Space Mountain, all get really long lines before 11am. If park is open at 9am, our typical experience is that many of those rides have 40 minute waits by 10am if not sooner. How do you get around that?

Since we go for about 7-10 days we don't feel the need to ride all of the same rides each time we hit any one park. So say on day 1 we hit MK for RD. We will do PP, SM, BTMRR, Space and a few other little rides thrown in. Leave by 11ish, go for a midday break at the pool. Then we will hit Epcot with FP+ at Soarin and two other rides. Another day we will flip it and RD Epcot and hit the headliners and then FP+ 7DMT, Splash and whatever else. We do this multiple times with all of the parks. We also go at the end of August when crowds are lower so we have done Splash at 11 am with a 20 minute or less wait.

We didn't worry about a 4th FP since our last trip you couldn't do it through your phone. The lines at the kiosks were LONG and we thought it was silly to wait in one line to avoid another line. It worked for us.

 

[CAS239]

But does that really work for headliner rides? We don't rope drop in the sense of showing up 45 minutes before the park opens, but we'll show up either right at park open or within 10 minutes of same. We can get on things like TSMM, RnR (though not always in the mood for it that early), Soarin' up until 11am. But rides like 7DMT, TT (we don't want to do single rider), FEA, even Soarin, PP, Splash and Space Mountain, all get really long lines before 11am. If park is open at 9am, our typical experience is that many of those rides have 40 minute waits by 10am if not sooner. How do you get around that?

We set it up to where we'll avoid EMH (We stay offsite) and go to a first park where we don't need fast passes, mainly HS and AK. Rope drop those and do what we can, then have FP set up in say Epcot or MK. That way we can do Toy Story, ToT, Great Movie Ride, Dinosaur, Safari in the morning, then have FP's for rides like 7dmt, Big Thunder, TT, etc in the afternoon when their lines are long.

We're AP's though so we hit the park about once every month or so for a couple days, so we really don't try to fit all the headliners in at rope drop. Like we don't rush to FEA, then try to hit Soarin & TT after. We'll do one, then just see how the lines look but being that we'll be back in a month it doesn't bother us if we can't ride right then because we just can next time.

 

[tlmadden73]

Depends on the parks I think and when you want to hop over.

I did EMH at DHS and so I opted not to get Fast Passes there. (even without EMH I probably would have not gotten them). W did Star Tours and TSMM in the first hour and spent the rest of the morning watching shows or doing the Launch Bay and meeting characters. (Touring with preschoolers, so wasn't going on the only other "big" rides at DHS).

We did Fast Passes for the afternoon at MK and did the Express Bus to ensure we got to the park in time for our first "window" (and right near the rides) in short order. (that was worth every penny spent). I made our First FP for Buzz and being dropped right off in Tomorrowland there was no worries about the lack of flexibility in getting to that ride in time.

I had FP for MK rides for the hours of 1:00 .. 2:00 and then 3:00 . .that gave us plenty of time to hit those rides .. and even hit rides in between or just relax and grab a snack. We still had options for a 4th FP .. and was able to still hit a few more rides/shows and have a dinner and do brief shopping before going back to DHS (where the car was).

So for me .. I would do the Fast Passes in the second park in the lunch to dinner hours ... since the afternoons are the most crowded times and the early morning hours have the least lines (where sometimes a fast pass is "wasted" since the line is so short).

 

[Brazen Wench]

The main problem with the new system is you are not allowed to add a new FP until you finish the original first 3 fast passes. This really screws with the hopping that you can do . So you pretty much have to pick a park to start at for example Epcot and get FP for Soarin', Test Track, and Frozen. Then quickly hop on the monorail and look for 3 more fast passes at the Magic Kingdom since that would really be the quickest option. Grab the 3 you can there and then attempt to move on from there if you want to try to hop somewhere else if you even have time. If is extremely difficult with the new system.

 

[davkata]

I RD the first park or do AM EMH, midday break by the pool and then go to the second park with FP+ in hand. It works like a charm. Never wait more than 15-20 minutes for any ride and we ride the headliners multiple times.

I was going to say exactly this! Has worked for us the last 3 trips, planning same strategy for our upcoming trip.

 

[uccats97]

The main problem with the new system is you are not allowed to add a new FP until you finish the original first 3 fast passes. This really screws with the hopping that you can do . So you pretty much have to pick a park to start at for example Epcot and get FP for Soarin', Test Track, and Frozen. Then quickly hop on the monorail and look for 3 more fast passes at the Magic Kingdom since that would really be the quickest option. Grab the 3 you can there and then attempt to move on from there if you want to try to hop somewhere else if you even have time. If is extremely difficult with the new system.

Unfortunately, FP+ doesn't work that way...

Soarin', Test Track and Frozen are all tier 1 choices. You can only choose one experience from tier 1.

After your initial 3 FP+ are used, you can only add one FP+ at a time. You can't add 3 more at once when you've already used your 3 initial choices.

You can add a 4th FP+ as soon as you scan your MagicBand and redeem the 3rd. You can do this using the MDE app and the 4th FP+ can be for an attraction in any park that still has FP+ availability. No need to wait until you hop to the next park to secure additional FP+.

Hope this helps clarify things a bit.