What is Disney FastPass Plus? 

Disney is synonymous with queues.  It’s part of the experience and Disney has invested a lot of time and effort into making the queuing experience interactive.  On average you will be looking at a 30 minute wait. For some of the more popular rides, you can wait anywhere up to 2 hours.  In order to beat the queue, Disney introduced Disney FastPass Plus.  So what exactly is Disney FastPass Plus, how does it work and is it worth it?

What is Disney FastPass Plus

Disney FastPass Plus gives you the option to select a ride at a certain time of the day in order to beat the queue.  FastPass has been around for many years. It has grown from an experience where you book whilst in the park to being able to plan in advance.  You will need to download the MyDisney Experience App and have purchased your tickets.  If your staying at a Disney Hotel then you can book 60 days in advance. If you are staying at a non Disney Hotel then you can book 30 days in advance.

How Does it Work

As mentioned above you can book in advance. You can select a Disney FastPass Plus for three rides at a park on a given day.  Your selection is made based on time and you book in hour time slots.  Your time slots cannot overlap.  Once you have used your three Fast Passes, you can book more either in the Park or via the App.  The more popular rides run out in advance but you will find some availability on the day.

When your allotted time arrives, head to the FastPass entrance. You will then join a smaller queue or hop straight onto the ride.  It is worth booking Fast Passes for the following attractions: character experiences (Magic Kingdom); two Pandora rides (Animal Kingdom),  Frozen Ride (Epcot) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs train (Magic Kingdom), Peter Pan (Magic Kingdom); Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom).

Is it Worth It

We’ve used Disney FastPass Plus  over the years at all the Disney Parks but this is the first time we’ve booked pre visit.  The big question for us was did this enhance or hinder the way we like to holiday. Typically I am a big fan of researching our holiday destination, finding 101 things to do and then seeing how it all pans out.  This means I’m not a big fan of having an ternary.  Visiting Was Disney World does require a certain level of pre-planning if you want to enjoy the Disney experiences.

For our latest visit we decided to select a park each day and book three Fast Passes. If we decided not to go to the Park then we would release them.  We also backed them up e.g. morning visit or afternoon visit to give us more flexibility.

So how did we find it?  We found our behaviour in the park changed.  In the past we’ve been happy to stand in a line but this time around if the queue was over 30 mins then we didn’t want to wait.  We would look to see if a FastPass was available on another day and would book accordingly.  I don’t know if this was because we were spoilt by the FastPass experience or whether it was because our three year old just did not enjoy spending too long in a queue whereas our 8 year old has always been happy to queue.

Overall, regardless of our experience FastPass is still a great way to ensure that you get to do all the rides that you want and I would recommend booking in advance.