Do You Have Reservations?

OK, you now have the essentials for your trip set up.  What’s next?

Reservations

One of the best aspects of the FastPass+ program is the ability to set up reservations for restaurants and other entertainment options within Disney World Parks and Resorts.  From Cinderella’s Royal Table to being a guest in Beast’s Castle at Be Our Guest in Magic Kingdom you are able to reserve a table as soon as you register your Magic Bands.

If you plan on trying to get reservations at Be Our Guest, make sure to start trying as soon as you can.  Be Our Guest is the most in-demand reservation throughout the parks, you may have trouble securing a reservation as far as SIX MONTHS out from your planned trip. If you are not able to get reservations on your first attempt, I suggest that you keep on trying.  It took us about a week after we first tried to be able to secure them.  The reason is that people constantly change their plans and may cancel a time slot that was previously booked.

Start and Itinerary

This can be done before or after you have chosen your FastPass selections.  I like to setup an itinerary before I setup my FastPasses.

If you go to the My Disney Experience website, you are able to see the what the hours and Extra Magic Hours will be for each individual park during your stay.  This is why I like to figure out which parks are open when before I start picking my FastPasses.

I like to choose which park I am going to be on based on what park has late Extra Magic Hours on that day.  For those that do not know what Extra Magic Hours are, well, they are blocks of time in which only those that are staying at one of the Disney World Resorts are allowed to be in the parks and MagicBands are required to go on any of the attractions in the park.  Generally, Extra Magic Hours are either 8am-9am or as early as 9pm to (I have seen) as late as 3am.

Fast Passes

The next step would be to get Fast Passes for the most popular rides.  To do this, you must link your tickets to your Magic Bands.  If you purchased your park tickets through Disney, they should automatically be linked to your Magic Bands.  If you purchased your tickets from a third-party vendor (such as Undercover Tourist.) you will need to link them to your Magic Bands
through the My Disney website (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/). FastPasses can be made 30 days in advance of your trip.  But… If you are staying at a Disney World Resort, you can start to make your selections a full 60 days ahead of time.

For your FastPass selections, I recommend that the following rides should be chosen first:

• Seven Dwarfs Minecoaster
• Space Mountain
• Big Thunder Mountain
• Splash Mountain
• Soarin
• Test Track
• Aerosmith’s Rockin Rollercoaster
• Tower of Terror
• Toy Story Mania
• Frozen Ever After
• Character “Meet and Greets” (Depending on the age of your party)

These are my suggestions of the rides that generally have the longest wait times.  Look at the ride selection and there may be other selections that may be more important for the members of your trip.

When selecting Fast Passes, you are allowed to select 3 rides per park, per day.  Once you have used the three selections, you may make up to three more selections, based on what what is available. There are only a certain amount of FastPasses allotted for each ride per day, once they are all selected, they will not be available (This is also for when you are booking them 60 days out.).  Unfortunately for those with Park Hoppers, selecting Fast Passes in multiple parks is not currently available.

This is the fun part of planning for your trip.  You can actually start to see your vacation coming together and you can almost taste the Mickey Ice Cream Bar or hear Sonny Eclipse’s bad jokes at Cosmic Ray’s.

Our next Blog will give you hints and tips on packing and what you will need to pack when visiting any of the parks in the Orlando, Florida area.