Many vacationers worry that they will get shut out of the best FastPass+ attractions when staying outside of the Walt Disney World resort. While it is true that those staying “on property” have the first opportunity, FastPass+ availability does fluctuate on a daily basis.
We recently began booking for a family of four staying off-site at the end of April. At the thirty day mark for each park day, we began looking to fulfill their requests. Most rides have plenty of availability thirty days out… even rides that eventually will have long lines like Peter Pan, Alien Swirling Saucers and Na’vi River Journey. There are a few others, however, that are extremely tough to find: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Avatar Flight of Passage and Slinky Dog Dash. Our client wanted each of these tougher rides, but there was no availability (even for one person) at the thirty day mark.
Our client wanted the following:
- Avatar Flight of Passage for 1 after noon on 4/29
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for 4 after noon on 4/30
- Slinky Dog Dash for 1 before 1pm on 5/1
Many park planners might stop here and tell their client that they were unable to find the requested FastPass+. Our Planning Service, however, searches day and night for changing FastPass+ availability.
Eight days after our initial search, we booked Mine Train for 4 at 4:25pm. The next evening we got a hit for Slinky Dog Dash for 1 at 12:10pm that lined up nicely with the rest of the party riding Swirling Saucers at 11:25am. A full two weeks after our initial search, our services booked the final request: Flight of Passage for 1 at 3:55pm.
But our searching doesn’t end until we fully optimize our clients schedule. We continue to look for better ride times and were able to book a better Mine Train option of 3:45pm (40 minutes earlier) that perfectly aligned with a 2:35 Peter Pan FastPass+.
