Walt Disney World - FastPass

Ian Myers on 29 July 2014
Walt Disney World – May 2014 - FastPass+

This trip was just a short 9 day holiday, flights with Virgin Atlantic and staying off-site at the Lake Buena Vista Resort and Spa. A nice condo hotel within a 5 minute drive of Walt Disney World. A great pirate themed swimming pool which the kids loved!

With time being of a premium we decided just to do the Disney parks and leave the rest of Orlando and Florida alone. I wouldn’t advise a 9 day trip here if it is your 1st time but if you know what you want to do then it is a breeze. The only downside is the jetlag and the unpredictable weather that central Florida has. May isn’t meant to be that hot!!

Although I’m a fairly regular traveller to Orlando and the Disney parks, this trip was a big learning curve for us as Disney have completely changed the way that their FastPass system works.

For those who haven’t been for a few years you’ll remember that you could walk up to an attraction enter your park admission ticket into a booth and get a Fastpass ticket to return at a later time and have a minimal queue. Now Disney have introduced the FastPass+ where you can decide which attraction you would like to do at what time and what day up to 60 days before (30 days if you are not staying in a resort hotel). To do this you can log in to the Disney website or use the MyDisneyExperience app on your smartphone or tablet up to either 30 or 60 days out and pre book your time slots up to 3 per day. After your last one has expired you can get more if they are available.

Now your park ticket is also your Fastpass+ ticket and your Photopass+ (more on that another time!) If you are staying at Disney resort hotel then you get given a wristband at check in which has all of the above and a charge card and your room key!

At 1st we thought that this was going to be a bit restrictive having to plan which park we go to on which day before we even leave home. Then we had a second think, we always like to have an idea of where we are going as some parks are busier than other on certain days.

After the 1st few days of looking at the app on our phones (Disney now being fully kitted out with Wifi!) we got used to the new system and the majority of times it all worked smoothly.

If anyone would has any queries on any of the above or on Orlando itself then I would be happy to talk them through the options.