Why You Should Make Those FastPass+ Choices at Walt Disney World ASAP

By Nick 

Last week, Barbie and I took a short vacation to the lovely state of New Hampshire to visit her equally lovely Aunt and Uncle.

In the back of my mind, somewhere, I knew that my window for FastPass+ selections for our October trip to Walt Disney World was coming up.

Our plans are:
October 11th, go to Epcot for a few hours to hit some Food and Wine booths and ride a couple rides. Relax at the pool.
October 12-16, 4 night Cruise on the Disney Dream
October 16th, back to WDW, spend the evening at Epcot
October 17th, Magic Kingdom, fly home

I had already gotten an email notification on August 11th telling me that my FastPass+ window was now open for October 11th.
I made my 3 selections for Epcot at that time, and made a mental note to be prepared on August 17th to make 3 selections for the Magic Kingdom.

What I should have done is set a notification on my phone reminding me the window for the second portion of our stay was coming up. Maybe put a note in my wallet. Asked Barbie to remind me. Something.

The morning of August 17th came, and I was preoccupied with a wonderful farewell breakfast made by the in-laws, packing and getting mentally prepared for the 7-8 hour drive home, and since I had not set a reminder of any kind, well, I didn't check my emails until we arrived home later that evening.

My 3 choices were to be the newest and most popular attractions : Meeting Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall,  special Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade viewing, and the
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

Yep. By the time I went to make my selections, all 3 attractions/experiences I wanted to choose were gone, with this message appearing "FastPass+ Distribution Has Ended for Selected Day."

All is not lost, we will just get to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop and head right for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and we'll hopefully get a good spot for the parade. Meeting Anna and Elsa will likely have to wait for a future visit.

So, this is a cautionary tale. As soon as your window for FastPass+ selections opens, be ready with your selections and pounce!

Frozen Meet & Greet

by Gaylin

The new FastPass+ system is a wonderful thing . . . if you use it wisely. While some of the choices I made ahead of time were not the best, I definitely did one thing very right.
I scheduled a FastPass+ time to do a meet & greet with Anna and Elsa from Frozen.

They are the 'hot' commodity in meet ups right now at the Magic Kingdom, with the new Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland being their home.

My FP+ meet up time was 1:25 to 2:25 p.m.
After having lunch, I headed over to the hall to see what all the fuss was about, when I got there I was shocked to see this sign:

Yes, you are reading this correctly, without a FP+ you would be waiting for 5, count 'em, 5 hours!!!! Even with the FP+ the line was not moving quickly, I did wait about 25 minutes in a fairly plain hallway to see the sisters.

I did like this lighting fixture, who wouldn't want a crown in their hall!

The hallway may have been a bit plain but the air conditioning was greatly appreciated. I have no idea where the stand-by queue was, the FP+ and stand-by lines are completely separate.

And finally, the sisters. I have to say that Anna and Elsa were the most entertaining meet up I have ever had.
There were a couple families ahead of me and the sisters got even a very shy little girl to interact with them. They chatted and were very engaged. Elsa swirled her dress train quite dramatically for every photo. I was impressed before I even got to greet them. They were very friendly with me, I managed to not be a tongue-tied goof and had a lot of fun with them. Too bad that while I was in the 25 minute line-up, I didn't take time to powder my nose . . . you can tell from the shine, I had on my sunscreen!

After meeting the sisters, I met up with Aurora. It is obvious that she is outshone by the Frozen girls but she chatted with me and I told her I wore my pink shirt just to match her dress (I was fibbing but that's okay). She was quite gracious, I did enjoy this meet up.

Would I wait 5 hours to do it again, nope.
Is it worth the FP+? Absolutely!