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  1. #1
    wendibird22's Avatar
    wendibird22 is offline Red Diamond level (10,000+ posts)
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    Default Fastpass+ question: on property vs off property

    We are going to Disney at Christmas...also known as the single busiest time at the parks. We've done it before so we know that and go in with low expectations. That said, when we went 3yr ago at that time they still had regular fastpass where you sprinted to fastpass machines and printed out your tix and then could get more frequently throughout the day. We picked parks to attend on the days they DIDN"T have extra magic hours and went at rope drop and really were able to ride everything we wanted to. They switched to the new online reservation system and tier system a month after we visited. We don't stay on property because ILs live 15min from the parks and we stay with them. BUT we are open to considering a short stay on property if the 60 day FP+ reservation window over the 30 day window of off property people will make much of a difference. We googled and can't seem to find an answer about whether at peak times the on property people fill up all the FP+ spots. If we stay off property and have to wait until 30days out to reserve our FP's will we be completely closed out?

    We plan to be in Orland for 7 days and think we'll do 1 day at each park plus one day at Harry Potter World at Universal. Just trying to think out the best strategy given the fact that the parks will be at capacity when we are there (Xmas Eve through NYE).
    Mom to two amazing DDs ('07 & '09) and a fur baby.

    Gluten free since Nov '11 after non-celiac gluten sensitive diagnosis. Have had great improvement or total elimination of: migraines, bloating/distention, heartburn, cystic acne, canker sores, bleeding gums, eczema on elbows, dry skin and scalp, muscle cramps, PMS, hair loss, heart palpitations, fatigue. I'm amazed.

  2. #2
    jgenie is offline Red Diamond level (10,000+ posts)
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    It depends which rides you most want. The new rides - Avatar and maybe Toy Story Land rides will be very hard to get even with a 60 day window. They wouldn’t be impossible just may not be at the time you would prefer. I would think a 30 day window would mean you will only get the super popular rides if there is a cancellation.

  3. #3
    BDKmom is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    We stayed off property two years ago (first or second week of April) and could not get much at 30 days out. My kids were 4 and 6 at the time, so we were good with what we could get--Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story Mania, both late in the day, and princess meet and greets. I think we also got Jungle Cruise at MK and the safari at AK, although that one was later in the day. We could not get the Seven Dwarfs roller coaster at MK and it doesn't seem like there was much available overall.

    Of course this was before several of the rides that are now most popular even opened. I don't think you would be able to get any of those at 30 days out, unless you luck upon a cancellation, but even those would likely get snatched up quickly.

    Also, you didn't mention if you want any dining reservations, but those were pretty limited at 30 days also, even for non character places. We got something for all the meals we wanted, but they were at really non-peak eating times.
    DS - Feb 2010
    DD - May 2012

  4. #4
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    You should be able to get some fast passes, but not the super popular ones and not necessarily when you want them. We stayed off site over spring break not too long after the Frozen ride opened. And we could not get pastpasses for that ride. And for the mine train ride, we could only get 2, not 4. We went to Epcot right at rope drop and ran to Frozen (with a million other people). We waited about 30 min (otherwise it was 90+ min all day).


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    DD (3/06)
    DS1 (7/09)
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  5. #5
    KrisM is offline Clean Sweep forum moderator
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    My friend is going the same week we are. We are on and they are off site. We are there in a couple weeks (June). I booked at 60 days and got everything, except day 1 of Flight of Passage. She booked at 30 days and could not get Flight of Passage or Mine Train.

    Since we each booked, I was able to grab a Flight of Passage for that first day. And just this weekend, she got Mine Train.

    I'd assume those 2 and probably Toy Story will be near impossible at 30 days, but you might get a cancellation if you keep trying.

    We went 4 years ago just after they started using the FP+ and never used paper. Make sure you're up on it now, as it changed since we were there last - you can add more FP during the day now from the app.
    Kris

  6. #6
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    We just got back from our 6-day trip spanning the busy Memorial Day weekend, staying offsite, and I was able to get pretty good fast passes at (30) days out. Biggest hassle was getting up each specific morning (T-30 days out) at 545am CST to log on in time to book those passes. Christmas time may be an entirely different animal though - the crowds! No clue on the 60 day process as the last time I stayed on-site was like 16 years ago.

    Example Day 1 Magic Kingdom
    Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Speedway - all before noon, and there were multiple good options. I had to toggle a bit before the options started fading away about an hour after the booking window first opened. I got a 7DMT FP but it was like for 8pm and while we planned to break midday and return in the evening, it wasn’t worth it to us to lock up all the extra FP (4th,5th, etc) just to ride 7DMT at night.

    So strategy then became to get a BOG early morning breakfast reservation (which we did using the Touring Plans free restaurant reservation finder tool) and used that to get into the park early and ride 7DMT early. (Didn’t care about BOG breakfast honestly, we ordered one adult meat and cheese plate and the complimentary pastries between 3 of us and shared it. Totally worth the effort, and Beast’s castle was kinda cool too.)

    All of the FP we got ended up being before noon except for Frozen which was at 2:30pm. And we made a last minute decision to forego a MK day (dumping all my hard earned FP for Space Mountain, Speedway again, Little Mermaid along with another BOG early ressie to ride 7DMT again) and go to HS instead and I got FP for Toy Story Mania on the shuttle bus over, like within 45 minutes of booking it. Someone must have cancelled.

    The My Disney Experience app is really neat, and easy to use when it wasn’t totally being glitchy - and within that 30-day booking window, whenever I had a couple idle minutes, I’d log on to see how I could tweak FP plans or replace for better ones. The early in the day FP booking plus some diligent honing of Touring Plans (before and during our trip) allowed us to see and experience a lot. But I know not every family enjoys rigid touring plans when on vacation - we need the direction, otherwise we wander lol. Now DH just says, refresh that plan please ... where does the (Lines) app say to go next? The MDE and Lines app are your tools, that and a a backup portable charger for your phone as you will be using the battery heavily.
    DS 2014

  7. #7
    bnme is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    I think if you book a room for even a day you can book fast passes for the number of days you have tickets for. But I am not positive. The weird thing is, there used to be a pinned thread about it on disboards (like as recent as 2 weeks ago because I am researching for our August trip) but I can’t find it now. May be worth looking into. Based on what I’ve been reading, you will need 60 day window for the most popular rides, but I think it tends to be alarmist.

  8. #8
    KrisM is offline Clean Sweep forum moderator
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    Quote Originally Posted by bnme View Post
    I think if you book a room for even a day you can book fast passes for the number of days you have tickets for. But I am not positive. The weird thing is, there used to be a pinned thread about it on disboards (like as recent as 2 weeks ago because I am researching for our August trip) but I can’t find it now. May be worth looking into. Based on what I’ve been reading, you will need 60 day window for the most popular rides, but I think it tends to be alarmist.
    You can book for check-in through check-out days. Then you can book at a rolling 60 days. So if you do 1 night, you can book for day 1 and 2 when 60 days before day 1. You can then book day 3 60 days before day 3, and so on.
    Kris

  9. #9
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    We just stayed off property at wyndom bonnet creek last week and I was worried about this same issue. The crowd levels were between 7-9 the whole week so it was crowded. We had a large group- 10 people and I was able to get everything we wanted for everyone- EXCEPT- The new avatar flights of passage.

    This was our first time to stay off property and it honestly was just fine. I planned our days using the touringplan service and it wasn’t that different than when we stayed on property.

  10. #10
    wendibird22's Avatar
    wendibird22 is offline Red Diamond level (10,000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by KrisM View Post
    You can book for check-in through check-out days. Then you can book at a rolling 60 days. So if you do 1 night, you can book for day 1 and 2 when 60 days before day 1. You can then book day 3 60 days before day 3, and so on.
    Just wanted to circle back on this. We are staying on property for just 1 night so we end up with day of check in and day of check out at the 60-day FP booking. The rest of the days are at 30 days out...not 60 day rolling basis. So we ended up booking another night a few days later (beach day in between) to get the other two parks at 60 days.

    At 60 days out for Xmas holiday week we got most of what we wanted. We could not get Avatar or Slinky Dog. I'm guessing because we did MK and EP at the start of the trip and then HS and AK at the end of the trip, that those who did a full 5-7 days on property beginning at Xmas, had an earlier 60-day window than us and snatched those up. We'll keep checking back but overall are relatively satisfied with what we got.
    Mom to two amazing DDs ('07 & '09) and a fur baby.

    Gluten free since Nov '11 after non-celiac gluten sensitive diagnosis. Have had great improvement or total elimination of: migraines, bloating/distention, heartburn, cystic acne, canker sores, bleeding gums, eczema on elbows, dry skin and scalp, muscle cramps, PMS, hair loss, heart palpitations, fatigue. I'm amazed.

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