The Disney Parks revolutionized the theme park industry when they originally introduced the Disney Fastpass system in late 1999. The idea behind the Fastpass program is to save guests time in line and allow them to reserve a time to come back to a select attraction and experience little to no wait at all through entering in a special Fastpass entrance! This was huge for the Disney Company and many visitors enjoyed the luxury and convenience of utilizing the Fastpass system!
The original Fastpass system worked that once park guests entered a Disney Park for the day they could then go to the attraction they wished to get a Fastpass for and insert their park admission ticket into that attraction’s Fastpass kiosk. Then your Fastpass ticket would print out. With this original system, the Fastpass times were given out on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis. Guests would insert their ticket and hope that the time that printed worked for them.
Like everything Disney does they are always evolving and making changes to enhance their guest’s vacations. In that spirit Fastpass+ was born. In 2013 Disney World made the exciting announcement that the popular Fastpass system would be receiving a major facelift! The Disney Fastpass system became Fastpass+. With the original system guests got Fastpass times at random on the day of their visit. Now with the Fastpass+ system guests are able to pre-plan their Fastpasses ahead of time up to 60 days in advance when they have a Disney hotel reservation! Guests make Fastpass+ selections through their My Disney Experience account. Guests can access their account both online and even on-the-go, on their device through the My Disney Experience app! The Fastpass+ Program and My Disney Experience are completely free and complimentary to all Disney guests. Guests can reserve up to 3 Fastpass+ selections per each day of their trip and once all 3 have been used in the parks guests can even select 3 additional Fastpass+ reservations for the same day! To do this, guests can utilize the app or walk up to convenient kiosks locations within the park. It is safe to say that Fastpass+ once again became groundbreaking for the theme park industry!
Our biggest advice to anyone heading to the Walt Disney World Resort is to take advantage of the Fastpass+ system. When utilized and planned out, you can see and do so much more during your vacation! Certain Fastpasses for popular rides fill up quickly. When you book your vacation with our Kingdom Magic Vacations team, our travel planners can assist you with setting up your Fastpass+ selections. This gives you a better chance of guaranteeing that you and your family get Fastpasses for all your desired rides and attractions!
Now that we have covered some background on the Disney Fastpass system now we can talk about some exciting news involving Fastpass+!
Disney is launching a limited time pilot program to test run a new service. The program launched on January 12th and allows guests who are eligible for Disney Signature Services to purchase theme park extras. One of these extras being additional Fastpasses!
This add-on for Theme Park Extra’s is $50 a day (plus tax) per person in the traveling party per day. In order to be eligible for this pilot program guests must have purchased a theme park ticket for a minimum of three days or obtain an annual pass.
Let’s take a look at what we currently know will be included in the purchase of these theme park extras:
More Fastpass+ Selections!
- Three additional FastPass+selections per day added onto the three you already get standard when using My Disney Experience.
Make Fastpasses in Multiple Parks on the Same Day!
- The ability to reserve these three additional FastPass+selections in more than one theme park when a valid Park Hopper option is also purchased with the ticket. In the standard system guests are required to make all their Fastpass+ reservations for the day in the same park. When this extra is purchased guest will now be able to reserve Fastpasses in multiple parks!
Book Fastpasses 90 days in Advance!
- Guests will get a Fastpass+ booking window of up to 90 days in advance for these three additional FastPass+selections! Normally Disney resort guests only get to make Fastpasses 60 Days out and off-site hotel guests can only book 30 days out. With this extra you will be guaranteed to be among the very first with access to your selections a full 90 days in advance!
Get Multiple top-tier Attractions.
- Another extra is the ability to book these additional Fastpass+ selections for multiple top-tier attractions. With the standard Fastpass+ system your selections are tiered to give all guests a fair chance to experience some of the bigger attractions. For example, at Epcot, Soarin’, Test Track and Frozen Ever After are the Three most popular rides and all in the top tier. Guests would normally only be able to select one of these top tier attractions and then have to pick their other 2 Fastpasses from the remaining lower tiers. With the purchase of this theme park extra you would be able to have ultimate flexibility and choose multiple top-tier Fastpasses!
Preferred Viewing Areas for Nighttime Shows.
- Fastpass extras are not the only bonus that this theme park extra gives you. Guests who purchase the add-on will also enjoy preferred viewing areas for nighttime shows, one per day, including Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth at Epcot, Fantasmic! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios,and Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. An advanced reservation is required and availability can become limited for these preferred sections. Be sure to plan in advance when using this service so you get the best experience.
We are excited for this pilot program and can’t wait to see how it will enhance guests future park visit!
