Afternoon friends! I wanted to elaborate more on my #magictipmonday post, so I thought, why not use my blog?! Today’s topic is: What do you mean there are no more fastpasses?!

For those who are Walt Disney World veterans, booking fastpasses is old hat. If you are staying at a Walt Disney World resort, you can book your fastpasses 60 days in advance of the start date of your trip. You can book 3 fastpasses for each day of your trip, as long as the 3 fastpasses for the day are in the same park. Usually, I encourage the guests I work with to get up early and start booking their fastpasses right at 7:00am 60 days before their trip to ensure that they get the ones that they want. However, sometimes guests do not want to get up early, they can’t because of an obligation, or they book a last minute trip within the booking window, meaning some of the “good” fastpasses will be gone. So then what happens if you can’t get the fastpasses that you want?

1. Go in with a plan! Even before I book my fastpasses, I will make a list of my must-haves. Some of the must-haves on my lists are: Flight of Passage (Animal Kingdom); Soarin’ Around the World (Epcot); Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Magic Kingdom); and Slinky Dog Dash (Hollywood Studios). Realistically, these fastpasses, and a few more like Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom) and Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster (Hollywood Studios), are must-haves on a lot of people’s lists. However, you can at least try to get a few of your must-haves and prioritize them, even if some aren’t available.
2. Make a back-up list! Some of my back-ups when my must-haves aren’t available are: Na’vi River Journey (Animal Kingdom); Frozen Ever After (Epcot); Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom); and Star Tours (Hollywood Studios). Having back-ups in place can ensure that you have a fastpass secured for that day that you can always change later if the fastpass you want pops up. Plus, the back-up fastpasses are still excellent rides!
3. Keep checking! For my trip coming up in May, I ended up booking my trip a couple of days after the 60 day mark had passed, which meant that fastpasses for Flight of Passage were non-existent, and so I booked a fastpass for Na’vi River Journey. However, I kept checking every day or every couple of days to see if a fastpass would show up for me to switch to Flight of Passage, and new fastpasses for Flight of passage showed up a couple of days ago! Although this is not guaranteed to happen every time you are looking to switch a fastpass from a back-up to a must-have, people are cancelling their Walt Disney World trips all of the time for a variety of reasons, and so you may see the fastpass you want pop up, especially when you get into the weeks/week/days leading up to your vacation.

There are definitely different strategies that you can use to secure your fastpasses, such as checking the day of to see if any pop up, but since I am a planner, I find these three tips to work out the best for me.

I hope you enjoyed this #magictipmonday, and here’s to living our best and most delicious lives!

~ Meagan

Meagan has been living with many food allergies and sensitivities since she was 19 years old. She is currently a Personal Vacation Advisor for Magical Vacation Planner, specializing in helping her guests book trips to Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort. Meagan enjoys researching fitness and nutrition and has taken a special interest in finding allergy friendly options at Walt Disney World.

Interested in having Meagan help you plan your next trip? Send her an email at m.slone@magicalvacationplanner.com or get a free quote at https://magicalvacationplanner.com/staff/meagan-slone/!