Disney World Fastpass Scheduling Review - Disney World Planning

Good Morning!

Our Magic Bands arrived! Unfortunately, these stick-on covers didn't stay on long, but we thought they were super cool looking anyways (:

Yes, I am still here! I have been so busy the last few weeks that I haven't had a chance to post, but I am back this week to bring you some planning tips I discovered through my experiences in planning our upcoming Disney World vacation using My Disney Experience! (ONLY 7 DAYS - not that I'm counting or anything...) 
This is the first time my family has been in about 10 years, so we're basically newbies at this point!

All righty, so the last few things we did for planning included picking out our Magic Band colors (which showed up at our house two weeks ago!!!), and scheduling all of our FastPasses! We were so excited to get our Magic Band box, which included our two personalized Magic Bands, cute luggage tags, and a Magical Extras card with a bunch of coupons to get some fun things like free mini golfing games, one-day entry to ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, discounts at restaurants, etc. We had bought some Magic Band covers from a really good vendor, but unfortunately, the adhesive froze in transit so they didn't stick well. The vendor was really easy to work with, and they quickly offered replacements, but unfortunately those didn't work either. They sent us a refund, and though our stick-on covers won't work out, we were still really pleased with the customer service. :)


I really haven't loved the new animation style of the recent Mickey Mouse cartoons, but these luggage tags actually turned out really cute!!

Now, a quick tip for the FastPass+ system: it doesn't say it explicitly anywhere, (unless I am just blind), but you can't start scheduling at midnight on your assigned day. It actually starts at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time. I, not knowing this, stayed up until midnight, and was very confused when I was still denied access. I searched around the site until I finally found the time that the help center opened up, put two and two together, and realized that it actually started at 7. Fast-forward to 5:00 a.m. my time, I was able to hop on the site and finally start reserving FastPasses!!!

I will say - do your research first before your scheduled day. I spent a lot of time beforehand looking around on various planning websites to see what the most popular FastPasses are (the ones that go the quickest), so I had an idea of what would be worth it to grab, and what I would need to get first. I also did a lot of reading about the tier system in place at Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, which I am really glad I did because I was able to change around some of our plans ahead of time without having to stop during scheduling to re-configure everything. (FastPass+ scheduling is tiered for all parks except for Magic Kingdom, meaning you can only get one FastPass for the most popular rides a day, and then you pick your other two FastPasses for less popular rides. This makes it so more people can get at least one of the popular FastPasses at the parks!) Two sites that I found very helpful in my searches were Undercover Tourist and Touring Plans. Once I got my three rides per day scheduled out, the process was extremely easy!

We did run into a snag a few minutes in, when I realized that we didn't have all of the tickets linked that I thought we had. We have three families going with us, and at 5:00 in the morning, not many of them were awake! So I did the best I could, and grabbed as many tickets as I could for the time being, hoping for close FastPass times for the rest of the group later in the day. As soon as we got those other tickets linked, I was able to hop on and grab the rest of them! One thing I LOVE about the My Disney Experience app is that I am totally able to schedule and change FastPasses right there from my phone. This meant that throughout the day while I was out and about I was able to get on and check to see if anyone was putting back the FastPass times I wanted for the rest of the group. This made things super easy, and we were able to get everyone FastPasses within 5 minutes of us. 


Scheduling FastPasses on the phones is so simple, and made it easy to keep an eye on FastPass times while on the go!

Now, of course, not everything was seamless - there was a glitch on the app that wouldn't let me pull up all of the my scheduled FastPasses, meaning I had to constantly refresh the page, and it gave me several heart attacks thinking that the FastPasses had all been deleted. I also don't like that when I go into the app, it only gives me three times for FastPasses right up front, but when you click on "view more times" it doesn't give you those three times anymore. I also had to refresh the page to see extra times pop up, so it took several tries to get all of the options right in front of me on the app. Online, the FastPass system has an easier interface, but the pro of the app is that it is so much more convenient because you can update it on the go. 

I will say right now, I LOVE the My Disney Experience for Disney World. I love that it keeps all of my reservations, hotel information, friends and family, and FastPasses in one place. It has made the planning for this vacation go SO smooth! Not only does it keep me organized, but it keeps me on top of things by notifying me of upcoming To-Do's, keeping a trip countdown, etc. It made it easy to quickly hop on last minute and get the whole group's wristbands nicknamed and colors picked - and I was actually really grateful that it still let us get on and customize the bands a few days late for a couple of people in our party so that we could get everything just perfect! For someone new to the whole Disney World thing, it is very user friendly.


I love that the app keeps everything together in one schedule, it makes it so easy to keep track of everything!

The last thing we had to do was link our flights to the Magical Express that will bus us from the airport to the hotels! One thing that was kind of a bummer is that they only take and deliver your luggage to your room during the day if you arrive between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. We arrive at the airport at 4:30 in the morning, so we just missed the cut-off! We were also able to pre-check in to our hotel rooms, and get our bands linked to our credit cards, rooms, tickets, etc. We are so excited to get packed and take off! (If you are looking for tips on what to pack for Disney - you can read our last blog post from a few weeks back here!)

What do you think of Disney World's "My Disney Experience"? Have any additional pointers you'd like to share? Leave us a comment below!

As always, if you have any tips, tricks or questions you would like to submit to our blog feel free to send us an email at enchantedpumpkinblog@gmail.com! And don't forget to follow us by hitting "Subscribe" at the top of the page!

-Lindsay Prout


 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --


If you are interested in buying a copy of my Disneyland Guide, feel free to contact me at any time at enchantedpumpkinblog@gmail.com. I sell my guide for a one time fee of $10*, or you can request a personalized one for $15 that I will customize entirely to your family’s needs! 

*Any updated guides will be sent to you absolutely free of charge after your first purchase.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Traveling with Young Children? No Problem!

Genie+ & Lightning Lane

Disney on a Rainy Day