Disney’s Fast Pass Plus

Guess who will be in Disney this weekend!? Me!! Guess whose family was chosen to be part of a test group for the new Fast Pass Plus? Yep, you got it…our family!! Yipee!!

I thought I would write about what I know of the process so far, with a little “before” the trip post and then follow up with an “after” post to see how the whole thing goes.

First, what is Fast Pass Plus? Most of us are aware of the Fast Pass. You take your key to the World, stick it in the Fast Pass machines located right outside of a ride, and the machine spits out a pass with a time frame on it. You come back to the ride during that time frame and get to bypass the wait. It is lovely! Usually…

Since the beginning of the FP there have been lovers and haters of the system! Disney is aware of this and has been trying to ramp up the process for a while. Hence, the Fast Pass Plus.

Last week we got this package in the mail:

I was very excited when I opened it! It said we had been chosen to be part of a test group and it explained what we needed to do to use the Fast Pass Plus. The package came with 3 cards, sort of like the Key to the World cards, and each card has our names on the back.

It works like this: we were asked to pick rides that we would like Fast Passes for. We can pick them online, before we even leave for the trip! We were allowed to pick “up to 5” rides in the Magic Kingdom and “up to 3” rides in Hollywood Studios. Not every ride is available and there are some restrictions. Then, you take the card to the park and then…well, I’m not 100% sure what happens then but I can report back after we get home!

I went into the website and it was really easy to sign in. They gave me a confirmation number in the package and I just plugged that right in to the website. You are allowed to choose the day of your trip to use the pass. We are going to be in the parks just on Thursday, Friday and Saturday so I chose to use the DHS pass on Friday since we are planning on being there most of the morning, and we are using the MK pass on Saturday night since we will be there late that night. Here is where you start when you sign on…

The parks will be listed and you can go through them one at a time. For us, we could choose 3 of the MK Fast Pass rides and then Disney assigned us the other 2. It was great though, because we chose Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Thunder Mountain while they chose Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise for us! We love both of those!

For DHS, we got to choose one of the following: Toy Story Mania, Rock n Roll, and Lights, Motor, Action. We chose Rock n Roll. Then we could choose 2 out of all the other rides, we chose Tower of Terror and Star Tours.

Here is a screen shot of our choices:

It’s so easy! Just click and done! After you pick your choices, they give you 4 different scenarios for the day of your trip labeled A through D.

You can check out the 4 choices and pick the itinerary that works best for you…see ours here..

 I think its great that you get 4 different choices because if your family is like mine, we hop-skip around a lot during our trips so these FP Plus times have to work with us. I also found that if you go back and change it around, but end up picking the same rides, the times change so that the 4 options you had the first time around may not be exactly the same. So I played around with both park choices until something fit with our schedule.

The program saves your choices, and you can go back in and change them around as much as you want. I went back in to print out our choices, because I am not sure I can remember the time windows since they aren’t printed on our cards like a normal FP. I want to have a hard copy, just in case!!

I am very excited that we have the opportunity to experience this new Fast Pass Plus for free! I’ll do a follow up next time around to report our thoughts on the system. I think it’s going to be a good thing! Cheers 🙂

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Tina works full time as a school counselor in an elementary school. She lives close to Baltimore, MD with her husband Dave and her 13 year old stepdaughter, Ashley. They also have a furry family member, a cat name Frodo, that keeps life interesting in their house! Tina began visiting Disney World as a child with her family, and now her, Dave & Ashley take a trip to the World every year. She considers herself a Disney “fanatic” and once her family is finished one trip, she is already planning their next one. Tina loves to find the best deals, even in the busy seasons (she can only go when schools are off!) and loves sharing those deals & tips with anyone and everyone! What Tina loves most is the magic of WDW, it makes her feel like a kid again. She hopes that every family has the opportunity go to the World and experience the magic for themselves because it has a way of reminding its visitors that dreams do indeed come true! Read more of Tina’s work on her blog A Not So Bland Life, where she writes about home decor, cooking, couponing, traveling, and and of course, Disney!