How to Spend Your Time - The Easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit 2015 - page 96

considerations also taken into account. For example, the queue for Tomorrowland Speed-
way at Magic Kingdom is outdoors and exhaust from the cars permeates through the entire
area. Speedway is prioritized over several other attractions because it will not only save 20
or more minutes in line, but also bypass much of the stench.
Because FastPass+ experiences can be booked in advance, the new program adds cer-
tainty to your schedules and also makes arriving late at a theme park much easier than with
the legacy FASTPASS system. Prior to FastPass+, Toy Story Mania legacy FASTPASSes
would typically be gone before 11am, with return times well into the evening by 9:45am
most days. This meant guests needed to arrive early to secure FASTPASSes with an un-
known return time, or find themselves in a 75+ minute standby line at some point later in
the day. Now you can leave home knowing you have Toy Story Mania booked in the after-
noon, and no longer need to arrive at the park early to assure you can enjoy it.
Unfortunately, Disney has instituted a tiering system at Epcot and Hollywood Studios,
which means guests at those parks can initially reserve only one high priority attraction in
advance. At Epcot, guests choose between Soarin' and Test Track, among two other lesser
choices. At Hollywood Studios, the major decision is between Toy Story Mania and Rock
'n' Roller Coaster, where guests can only initially choose one. Riding both Soarin' and Test
Track in one day is easy if you head to one right at park open and then use FastPass+ for
the other later in the day. But riding both over the course of one day with a late arrival will
be more difficult since both attractions ordinarily see 60-100 minute waits over the course
of the day. It's possible that these attractions will be available to book as a fourth FastPass+
selection at a kiosk in the afternoon, but it's unlikely on busier days and return times will
be severely limited.
Choosing the Best FastPass+ Time Slots
When considering when to schedule your FastPass+ experiences, there are two main
schools of thought. The first is to schedule FastPass+ beginning right at park opening, with
the goal of scheduling a 4th FastPass+ at the in-park kiosks as early as possible. To book
a 4th FastPass+, you must use the initial three or the window on the third must pass. So if
you book Space Mountain for 9-10am, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin for 10-11am,
and Peter Pan's Flight for 11am-12pm, you would be eligible to schedule a 4th FastPass+
immediately after you use the 3rd or any time after 12pm should you not use the Peter Pan
FastPass+.
The benefit here is that each additional FastPass+ selection is based on availability, and
availability is better earlier in the day when fewer people have had the opportunity to select
additional FastPass+. The downside is that on busier days, there may be very little availab-
ility for the priority attractions even at 11am, particularly at Epcot and Hollywood Studios
where there are only two or three attractions most people are interested in booking.
Another downside is that using FastPass+ earlier in the day when standby waits are
shorter will save less time than using the same FastPass+ later. For example, a Space Moun-
tain FastPass+ used at 9:30am might save 15 minutes in line. A Space Mountain FastPass+
used at 12:30pm might save 60 or more minutes in line because afternoon crowds are so
much heavier.