Disney's Fastpass

I hate standing in line....and I do mean HATE! lol And there is no place that I stand in line more than Walt Disney World.

Now, let's be honest, Disney has done an amazing job of making a wait in line as painless as possible. They have things to play with, television monitors to keep your attention, and they even make the wait part of the story for the attraction in some lines. But even with all that extra "help", I still hate to wait in line.

Solution: Disney's Fastpass

Disney's Fastpass is a great way to see more attractions in less time, and spend less time waiting in line...bonus for all involved!

How does it work?

Once inside a park, when you come to a Fastpass ride, you insert each of your party's park ticket or Key to the World card into the Fastpass machine. The machine will return your park ticket/Key and it will provide you with an additional "ticket" per person that shows you the return time for that ride. Depending upon the popularity of the attraction, and the crowd level that day, this can be anything from 15 minutes to a few+ hours from that time. Note your return time, go visit other attractions at the park, and return to the Fastpass attraction at your noted time.

When you return, you will go to the Special "Fastpass Return" line, show them your Fastpass ticket and wait in a considerably shorter line for the attraction.

One important thing to remember: For the most part, you can only have one Fastpass at a time. The exception to this will be when your Fastpass return time is considerably later in the day. Then you will want to note the time that your next Fastpass is available (this will be printed on the bottom of your Fastpass ticket).

How to use it to see more attractions?

When you are planning out your day in each park, pay attention to which attractions are equipped with Disney's Fastpass system. The system can be used one of two ways: 1) get a Fastpass for one attraction, stand in line for another and then return to the 1st attraction with your Fastpass and bypass the regular line; or 2) get a Fastpass for a favorite attraction, go stand in line to ride that same attraction, then go ride it again using your Fastpass -- riding a favorite two times for one line! We only use this 2nd method in very specific cases...like Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We want to ride it more than once, but are definitely not willing to stand in the line twice.

My preferred method is to get a Fastpass for one attraction, go stand in line at the next closest attraction (geographically) and then go back to ride the Fastpass attraction. Then, repeat the same procedure at the next available Fastpass attraction...taking time to ride any other non-Fastpass attractions along the way. In some cases, the return time for your Fastpass will be late enough that you can get in a few other (non-Fastpass) attractions, shows or even grab a meal and come back to ride the Fastpass attraction afterwards. This will especially be true on the most popular attraction, and those for which you pick up a Fastpass later in the day.

Which attractions have Fastpass?

Magic Kingdom - Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Stitch's Great Escape, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and rumor has it that Mickey's new Character Greeting spot in Town Square will be a Fastpass attraction when it opens up.

Epcot - Soarin', Test Track, Mission: Space, Maelstrom, Living with the Land

Disney's Hollywood Studios - Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Star Tours

Animal Kingdom - Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, It's Tough to be a Bug, Kali River Rapids, Kilamanjaro Safaris, Primevil Whirl

You can see the geographic placement of these attractions by looking at a Park map, and you can plan out your day accordingly.

There are a limited number of Fastpass tickets handed out for each attraciton. There are a few attractions on that list that I would recommend heading to immediately upon entering the park, if you want to have any chance of getting a Fastpass for that attraction: Toy Story Midway Mania and Soarin' are the main ones, with Rock n Roller Coaster, Expedition Everest and Space Mountain being pretty high on the list of "popular" attractions for which the Fastpasses will disappear earlier rather than later.

Hopefully this will make your time at Walt Disney World include more attractions and less waiting in line!

Have a magical day!