Determining your FastPass+ selections can be the difference between enjoying your Walt Disney World vacation and being miserable while waiting in line far too long. Make no mistake, waiting in line is the worst part of any theme park experience, and that goes double for Walt Disney World, which claims four of the top eight theme parks with regards to attendance.
In order to have a great vacation, you must plan your FastPass+ rides correctly. Let this guide aid you in reducing your wait time as much as possible. The sole ground rule is that only rides and greetings are included. Illuminations, Fantasmic and Wishes are not listed, because their utility varies dramatically depending upon your tourist behavior.
The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
This ride has only been in operation since Memorial Day of 2014, which means that a lot of Disney fans have yet to take a journey through the famously recreated mines from the story of Snow White. While the ride is not exactly an action roller coaster, something I noted in a previous article, it is still wildly popular.
Realistically, over half of the people who attend Magic Kingdom during a given trip are likely to ride The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at some point during their vacation. In order to beat them to the punch, you MUST get a FastPass+. After all, the ride has been open for over six months now yet it still claims wait times in excess of an hour, and 90 minutes is not outside the realm of possibility during the busiest times of the year at Magic Kingdom. You are going to want to ride The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, as it has been the focus of Disney’s theme park marketing campaign over the last year. Just be smart about it by gaining a FastPass selection.
Peter Pan’s Flight
One of the key aspects of FastPass+ planning is anticipating the behavior of other people. Independent of your level of passion toward Peter Pan’s Flight, the mathematics of it are simple. The ride lasts approximately two minutes while the wait time approaches an hour. Part of the explanation is that Peter Pan’s Flight is located at Magic Kingdom. Even among the various theme parks at Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom is the alpha in the eyes of most tourists.
Peter Pan’s Flight is a popular ride at THE most popular theme park in the world. If you have any interest in riding it, you may walk away feeling disappointed if you experience an hour of build-up for a two-minute ride. By employing a FastPass+ selection, you reduce the wait time to 10 minutes or less, which is much more acceptable for such a short (but liberating) ride.
Meet Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall
I don’t want to reveal any shocking information here, but Frozen is somewhat popular. Generally speaking, it has approximately the same popularity as Peyton Manning, the Rolling Stones, and the collective works of Dr. Seuss. Combined. Frozen has achieved a level that may not have been seen from a Disney animated film since Beauty and the Beast.
Frozen the movie has earned more than a billion in revenue from box office sales alone. By the time girls become weary of Frozen merchandise (current ETA: 2074), its toy income will have dwarfed its box office earnings. To wit, Frozen merchandising revenue in 2014 alone is projected to approach or possibly even match its current box office of $1.28 billion.
Ignore all of the money aspects for a moment and consider the underlying issue for you as a theme park tourist. All of those people spending $25 a pop on Anna and Elsa toys will want to introduce their children to the characters while visiting Magic Kingdom, just like you. And you would have to be some sort of Superman/ninja/vampire hybrid to fight off that kind of crowd on your own.
The Anna and Elsa greeting is probably the most difficult FastPass+ selection to attain. Do everything in your power to be ready at the first moment of your first day of FastPass+ availability to acquire this one. If you are even an hour late, you could be out of luck. And standing in line for this greeting could cost you several hours out of your day at Magic Kingdom.
Soarin’
A brutal decision is required at EPCOT. A person must choose between Test Track and Soarin’, both of which are wonderful rides. Given how few major rides are available at EPCOT, having to pick one is extremely difficult. Realistically, you will wind up riding both if you plan to spend the body of a day at EPCOT.
Given this thought process, the choice comes down to adding a FastPass+ selection for the one with the longest wait time. Historically, that is Soarin’, which has such a desperate need for traffic reduction that a third theater is being built. Until the new area is ready for public consumption, Soarin’ has a brutally long wait that sometimes approaches (and even exceeds) two hours. Any time the ride requires less than an hour wait during a busy period is notable.
Since Test Track provides a single rider line to reduce traffic, its wait time is rarely as lengthy. The best strategy to employ would be to make a FastPass+ selection for Soarin’ then perform a rope drop sprint to Test Track.
Toy Story Midway Mania
The average wait time for this ride is almost always north of an hour. The only recent instance when it was not that long occurred when the ride provided no wait time options. It is kind of scary that Toy Story Midway Mania is so popular that requiring a FastPass+ selection is justifiable to Disney. While that experiment has ended, the prevailing wisdom remains.
Toy Story Midway Mania requires a brutal amount of waiting if you stand in line for the ride. Even as Hollywood Studios has shuttered over 20% of its rides in anticipation of expansion, crowds have remained static in terms of attendance. The same number of people plus fewer ride options means heightened traffic for the rest of them. Yes, Toy Story Midway Mania is literally more popular than ever right now. If you have any inclination to ride it, you simply must make a FastPass+ selection.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
The final selection at Magic Kingdom depends upon your interests during your visit. You will note that no Animal Kingdom FastPass+ selection is listed. This is because the wait times are rarely extreme for any of the various options. Kilimanjaro Safaris, Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest are worthy considerations if you are spending a day there, but none of them is really needed based upon wait time. Similarly, the structure of tiers for FastPass+ eliminates the best additional options at Hollywood Studios, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Since EPCOT’s tier system has already been discussed, that leaves Magic Kingdom as the option once again.
This choice is reasonably reduced to the two remaining attractions with the longest wait times. Those are Enchanted Tales with Belle and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The presumption is that you have already selected a FastPass+ for a princess greeting. While Enchanted Tales offers an engaging story time component, it would mean a lot of princesses in a given day. After you are done with Anna and Elsa, a legendary roller coaster is a nice change of pace.
While Space Mountain is tempting, its wait times are surprisingly tolerable for the most part. The wait time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is rarely under 30 minutes, and an hour is not unusual. You can free up a lot of time simply by selecting this FastPass+. Best of all, with these six selections lined up prior to your trip, you should be able to ride everything you want without a lot of aimless moments wasted standing in line.
