Last month, my family and I visited Walt Disney World. We decided to visit the Animal Kingdom Theme Park, with its new Pandora World of Avatar attraction.
FastPass vs FastPass+?
Things have obviously changed since my last visit to Disney World over a decade ago. I was familiar with the FastPass system, where you go to a kiosk to print out a slip and come back during the designated time for expedited entry to an attraction. At Disney World, this is now called “FastPass+” (you can think of it as a second generation of FastPass). It’s the same system, except now you can:
- Book in advance: You can now book your FastPass+ for attractions up to 30 days (or 60 days if you are staying at a Disney on-site property) in advance.
- Book using mobile app: You can download the My Disney Experience App, link your account to the ticket, and choose up to 3 FastPass+ experiences per day at a theme park.
My Experience at Animal Kingdom
Since this was a last-minute trip (we purchased same-day Park tickets), there wasn’t much to plan ahead on the logistics side of things. We figured we would be happy if we can get just one FastPass+ on one of the headliner rides. However, when I downloaded the app, the three top attractions showed the following:
- Avatar Flight of Passage: FastPass+ no longer available.
- The Na’vi River Journey: FastPass+ no longer available.
- Kilimanjaro Safari: FastPass+ no longer available.
The standby queue wasn’t any better. Since we were visiting during the holidays, I expected a longer wait time. But, I shook my head in disbelief when I saw the wait time for Avatar Flight of Passage. It was some 240 minutes. Yes, that is a 4-hours wait time. I passed. I don’t mind waiting an hour or two for a really good ride (note: the Safari was worth the wait), but I certainly have no intention of spending half a day at a park just waiting for a 5-minutes ride. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
We ended up using our FastPass+ on a few less popular attractions. Compared to Universal Studio’s highly efficient Express Pass, the Disney’s FastPass+ almost seemed like a child’s play. I didn’t feel like I got a good Disney experience out of it. The FastPass+ is hardly a benefit if you can’t make use of it on the popular attractions.
Bottom Line
If you plan to visit the Disney Parks, don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t assume that you might be able to use FastPass+ same-day on the more popular attractions. If you have any lead time when you are planning your trip to Disney, buy your park tickets early, download the app, and reserve your FastPass+ attractions. Trust me, you’ll thank me for it later.
While Disney’s FAQ indicated that “We do not anticipate that the attraction standby queues will be any longer than they were before FastPass+ service.“, I can assure you that the FastPass+ certainly doesn’t make the queue’s wait time go any shorter.
Disney wait times are so long so often in their parks that paying the prices they charge seems like flat-out highway robbery. If they would cap attendance and allow purchase ahead of time, I’d pay even more to enter. But, with the lines being just so gosh darn awful, I have stayed away the past few years.
Don’t give them any more ideas. They increased the admission prices, just last year (I think). With taxes, you are already looking at about $500+ for a family of four…no chump change for a “day” at the park.
My daughter and myself went to the Magic Kingdom Last summer and using the fast pass ( you can use it for more than 3 rides after riding one ride, upload another) we were able to ride every ride except the mine train (not avail during time we wanted but was earlier and line was 2 hours) and the kids rides in Fantasyland. The my Disney App gives wait times and made it easy to plan our route through the park to get to the next quickest wait time while waiting on our next Fast Pass ride. Our experience at Universal was quite the opposite. Would not pay extra (0ver $200 total) for their pass and the one ride I really wanted to see and ride, the Train, could only be accessed if you had a two park pass ( $200). The rides at Universal being mostly animated/CGI was disappointing. I rank Six Flags over Georgia ( a season pass is about $75 and includes access to White Water Park, a separate park across town) a better park than Universal. We even took our three adult kids with spouses and three grandkids during school break last year and had a great experience using the Fast Pass and App to schedule rides. Sorry it did not work for your trip. Edit and just for the record all of our trips were day of purchases. We also went to Epcot several different times with no issues. The few of our group that went to The Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios also had no issues.
Thanks for sharing. You and your family did really well for FP+ for same day of purchase then! That’s great to hear.
I didn’t pay for the express pass at universal but I indirectly paid for it by staying at the on-site hotel. I also went through the same consideration. The only reason I needed a 2 parks ticket was because I (only) wanted to ride the train too.
I paid for it. FWIW, the train ride wasn’t the most interesting HP ride to me (more CGI). Fortunately, there were a few attractions at Island of Adventures that made the entry fee worthwhile (for example, the nighttime lights show at hogwarts castle).
People start getting FP 60 days out if you are at the resorts and 30 days otherwise so you are competing with a ton of other people who made their reservations early. Were you hoping that they would hold some back for day of? Sometimes there are some that drop throughout the day.
FOP is usually not available at even 60 days out. However, you can refresh and you will usually find some availability for safaris. River journey is very doable at rope drop(as is FOP) if you get there early enough. You need to refresh over and over again and you can get availability.
FOP is really the headliner for the Animal Kingdom and is just really hard for anyone to get a FP.
I also chime in and say that FP is free at Disney and the equivalent at Universal costs something. I don’t like that because you are pricing people out of a good vacation experience.
Was FP available for Everest, Kali or Dinosaur.
Since you compare FastPass with the option at Universal, I think that it’s worth mentioning that Universal charges an insane amount of money for theirs. I think for my wife and I in 2017 it was just below $200. Each. I certainly have gripes about the Disney system, but at least they don’t get you twice, and their system allows most people to reserve a few rides that really matter for free.
The Express Pass is yield pricing. If you wait to buy it/buy it during the holidays then it’s more expensive. With that said in May 2017, I bought them for my SO and I and we paid about $60 each.
Ours was in August. Also, part of the cost was the 2 park option, which you only fork out extra for because you want to ride the Hogwarts Express. When you make Disney’s prices look good, you have a problem.
What would Walt Disney think if he was still alive….so many people cannot even consider going based on all the money involved.
Frankly, I think Walt Disney himself may think “wow, I didn’t think I’d build such a successful empire.” He once had to declare bankruptcy if I remembered it right from my visit to the Walt Disney museum eons ago in California. He probably would be surprised that some of the early animation flops (with financial losses) are considered animation classics…
That is a bummer, but also not entirely a surprise, no? Zero planning / day of trip on a holiday weekend… fastpast has been great in my experience… allowed me to hit all of the top rides stress free over the course of a day (once only) and spend the rest of the time enjoying the park (and spending more money on food/drink to Disney’s delight) instead of chasing short lines.
That’s an incredibly fair point, Mark. When the FastPass works, it works really well (and it sounds like you planned your trips well!) When it doesn’t, you get a similar experience as mine.
To be fair, I’m no stranger to Disney parks. I love Disney and I’m actually a huge fan, and this would be my second visit to the Animal Kingdom. I am also usually a bit of a planner so this was one of those spontaneous trips. I think that just because you buy a ticket the day of doesn’t mean you should get shut out of all FastPass+ opportunities (especially if you were checking for them at 10AM at the park). As a parallel, what if you decide to book a week ahead and all the FastPass+ opportunities were all taken by those who booked 60 days ahead?
You’re absolutely right perhaps that it shouldn’t be a surprise (though admittedly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 4 hour wait time ever, at any parks). I guess let this be a lesson, especially for those planning a same-day trip.
Thanks for reading and for your comment!
I was at Animal Kingdom this past week on Thursday. My daughter works for Disney so we got fast passes same day or the day before. It really matters when you go because mid week, mid January, it was quite pleasant and uncrowded. We even got a same day 4th fast pass in Epcot because it wasn’t crowded.
I QUIT going to Disney LONG LONG ago; it got too costly and the lines got too ridiculous.
I haven’t ruled out Disney completely yet, but you are right that it is too costly. And I think that really plays into my disappointment. For the price of admission, I should have been able to check out at least one of the 2 Avatar headliner rides without having to wait 4 hours for it.
I didn’t end up going on either Avatar ride, which was ironic because that was the reason we chose the Animal Kingdom. To disney’s credit, however, they put together a surprisingly beautiful River of Lights show.