The Disney World resort in Florida welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each and every year, regularly filling its capacity. With such a high volume of visitors, the last thing that the Disney resorts want is for you to spend your time at the park queueing, so they have introduced the Fast Pass so that visitors can get a jump on some of the queues. In peak season, many of the rides at Disney World can have queues of up to 3 hours, so this was something which the owners wanted to do something about. Each person, whether you get your tickets online before you go, online, or if you decide to pay on the door, will receive 3 Fast Passes which they can use on various rides. Let’s have a look at what the Fast Pass gets you, and how best to use them.

What Does It Get You

Each Fast Pass can be used to gain you privileged access to a ride or attraction which you have selected. You will have a time slot to arrive at the ride, and then you will be able to take the shortcut queue to avoid racking up hours waiting in line.

How Do I Use Them?

To use the Fast Pass you will need to download the Disney World Florida phone application. From the app, you can select which rides you want fast access to, and at what time you wish to use your Fast Pass. It should be noted that time slots can fill up quickly, and that there are a limited number of Fast Pass options for each ride. If you don’t have a mobile then you could use a physical booth within the park, but this will set you back significantly from those who have booked up via the app.

Strategy

You need to be strategic when selecting how you will use your Fast Passes, as you may find that the time slots and rides which you wanted are no longer available.  Fast Passes cannot be used ahead of time, so as soon as the park opens you need to be ready on your mobile. With this in mind, it makes sense to pick which rides you will benefit most through the use of your Fast Pass, i.e. the rides that have the biggest queues.

Recommendations

The first time I went to Disney World in Florida, I didn’t get the most out of my Fast Passes because I didn’t do the necessary research, two of them I ended up using on rides which wouldn’t have cost me any more time than if I waited in the standard queue. Safe to say that when I returned, I was more than prepared. To give you a general idea of where to use your passes, here are the rides which see the heaviest volume of queues across the 4 parks.

Magic Kingdom

• Seven Dwarves Mine Train
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid

Animal Kingdom

• Flight of Passage
• Na’vi River Journey

Epcot

• Frozen Ever After
• Soarin’
• Test Track
• Illuminations

Hollywood Studios

• Alien Swirling Saucers
• Slinky Dog Dash
• Toy Story Mania

If you have been looking at experiencing any of the rides listed above, these should be the first places where you use your Fast Passes as I can assure you that they will require a wait time of at least 2 hours if not.