Could you pass the FastPass (plus) please?
Ah, yesterday (actually, Monday night) was our 60 day mark. That means it's time for FP+ booking!
As exciting as Disney planning is (as Kim rolls her eyes) I found FP+ booking to be pretty boring. I've been playing with TouringPlans for the past, oh, 8 months or so. I have developed multiple iterations of each day in the effort to find the best plans for us. Come FP+ day, I was equipped with my list of three FPs for each day with my preferred times from my custom plans @ TouringPlans. My general plan is to arrive at rope drop and spend 30 minutes to an hour doing an initial wave of standby queueing, at which point I'll start in on a series of three FPs. The three "other" parks (anything that isn't MK) don't really seem to be much of an issue with FPs. There aren't many rides that seem to really need them, so I can space my FPs out across the day and I don't really need more of a strategy than that.
The only day that is going to be complicated is our big MK day, where we'll be spending over 13 hours in the park. For that day, I've been trying to come up with a creative plan to really maximize the FP+ system. I have been watching same-day FP+ availability at multiple times over the last month or so. When I have a minute at work, I'll open the Lines app and see what availability looks like. That has given me three categories: 1) always available - these rides always have FP+ available within about an hour, so I could book one and start walking to the ride, 2) available later in the day - these rides do have a chunk of FP+ available, but they're 3-4 hours in the future. These guys will be the rides to try and standby for, if possible, as they'll lock me out of any more FPs while I wait, and 3) big-time FP+ - these guys are either totally gone either before the park opens or within a few hours (A&E, Wishes) - these are the rides I booked FP+ for.
My plan is that on the big park day I will do three big FP+ first thing in the morning so we become eligible for out 4th and up. Then we'll go to a FP+ kiosk and grab a FP+ that's for the ride with the highest standby queue time and FP+ availability within an hour. In the meanwhile, we'll eat, do non-FP+ rides, and shop. Then repeat until no more FP+ are available.
Here's our FP+ lineup:
Sunday 4/12
Animal Kingdom
Kilimanjaro Safaris - 9:20
Expedition Everest - 3:05
Meet Favorite Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost - 5:00
Monday 4/13
Magic Kingdom (Wishes dessert party)
7DMT - 9:05
Peter Pan's Flight - 10:30
Enchanted Tales - 11:30
Tuesday 4/14
DHS
Toy Story - 9:25
Star Tours - 10:25
Tower of Terror - 2:25
Thursday 4/16
Epcot
Spaceship Earth - 11:30
Turtle Talk - 5:30
Illuminations - 8:30
Friday 4/17
Epcot
Test Track - 9:15
Mission Space - 11:15
Figment - 2:05
Saturday 4/18
Magic Kingdom (half-day)
Big Thunder Mountain - 11:05
Splash Mountain - 12:45
Festival of Fantasy - 02:45
Sunday 4/19
Magic Kingdom (half-day)
Haunted Mansion - 02:30
Tomorrowland Speedway - 3:30
Space Mountain - 4:30
The last thing we're waiting for is BOG to be added for lunch ADRs on the 25th! Then planning will be done
Coming up next: finalized in-park touring plans, Magicband customization, and more.