How Much Does Paid FastPass Cost at Disney World & Disneyland?

Previously free, FastPass is now paid at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and all of the international parks. This offers a rundown of the line-skipping costs at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, plus California, Tokyo, Paris, and the other international parks. We’ll offer quick tips for how you can minimize your wait times and save hours in line.

If you’re planning a Walt Disney World vacation for 2026, you need to know that free FastPass+ has been permanently retired and replaced by Lightning Lanes. There are currently three different tiers of Lightning Lane line-skipping products at Walt Disney World.

Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP) replaced Genie+ as the primary paid FastPass option at Walt Disney World. With the switch, there’s once again the addition of an on-site advantage, ability to make 3 selections in advance, making this almost identical to the old FastPass+ (except paid).

Additionally, there’s Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP), which is the a la carte option that used to be called Individual Lightning Lanes. That’s all bookable in advance. The reason LLMP is “almost” identical to FastPass+ is because 1-2 attractions are excluded from LLMP in each park, and those can be purchased separately via LLSP.

Finally, there’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass (LLPP), which is the top tier of line-skipping meant for the top 1-2% of guests and priced accordingly. It’s like Universal’s Express Pass. LLPP offers line-skipping access to every LLMP and LLSP attraction in each park at the guest’s leisure–no advance booking required.

There’s a lot more to know about Lightning Lane Premier Pass, Multi-Pass and Single Pass, all of which is beyond the scope of this post. If you don’t already know about these line-skipping services, we’d encourage you to read our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World instead of this post.

With all of that in mind, here are the maximum prices for Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World…

Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Peak Prices

  • Magic Kingdom: $45 per person
  • Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $39 per person
  • EPCOT: $37 per person
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $35 per person

Lightning Lane Single Pass Peak Prices

  • Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: $15
  • TRON Lightcycle Run: $23
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind: $22
  • Star Wars Rise of the Resistance: $25
  • Avatar Flight of Passage: $19

Lightning Lane Premier Pass Peak Prices

  • Magic Kingdom: $449 per person
  • Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $349 per person
  • EPCOT: $249 per person
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $199 per person

It’s the same story at Disneyland, which did away with paper FastPass and the paid digital MaxPass system in favor of Lightning Lanes. See our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Disneyland and California Adventure for everything you need to know about paid line-skipping at Disneyland Resort.

From now through early October 2026, Lightning Lane Multi-Pass ticket add-on will now cost $34 per day for pre-arrival purchases, which is up from the previous cost of $32 per day. As a reminder, Lightning Lane Multi-Pass includes PhotoPass at Disneyland, which is one reason why it costs more.

As with Walt Disney World, same-day Lightning Lane Multi-Pass purchases will be variably priced based on date and demand and now will start at $37 per day. We’ve already seen several $40 days at Disneyland. It’s only a matter of time before Disneyland breaks the $50 barrier. Perhaps as soon as the upcoming holiday weekend, but probably more likely on one of those upcoming Tier 6 days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Disneyland Paris has replaced free FastPass with paid Premier Access line-skipping.

Disney Premier Access can be purchased via the Disneyland Paris App and costs between €7 and €20 for one-time access to skip the regular queue line for popular attractions, including Autopia, Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, Star Tours: the Adventures Continue, and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

From anywhere inside the parks, guests can use the Disneyland Paris App to purchase an assigned time slot for the aforementioned attractions. Pricing for Disney Premier Access will be per ride, and is dynamic. It depends upon the attraction and crowds on the day of visit. Think of it like Express Lanes on toll roads, Uber’s surge pricing, or to a lesser degree, Walt Disney World’s date-based ticket and hotel prices.

There’s also Disney Premier Access Ultimate, which is like Lightning Lane Premier Pass at the US parks. This offers one-time access to all eligible rides, costs between €90 and €190 per person depending on the season.

Disney Premier Access is a new digital paid FastPass service that allows guests to reserve certain theme park attractions by using the app at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. With Disney Premier Access at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, guests will have the ability to select their preferred time and make reservations to experience attractions.

Several attractions offer Premier Access, including but not limited to the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, The Happy Ride with Baymax, and Splash Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland, plus Soaring: Fantastic Flight, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey, Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival, and Toy Story Mania at Tokyo DisneySea. Each cost 2,000 yen, or approximately $15.50 per person per attraction.

There’s also Priority Pass, which is available free of charge at select attractions, and allows guests of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea the ability to enjoy a reduced wait time. Priority Pass is available for eligible experiences using the Tokyo Disney Resort App as soon as guests enter the park; it’s basically FastPass by a different name. It is not available at any rides with Premier Pass.

See our Guide to Paid Premier Access & Free Priority Pass at Tokyo Disney Resort for more info and tips.

At Shanghai Disneyland, the upgraded Disney Premier Access offers priority access to popular attractions from the designated starting time to the closing time or reserved viewing area of the entertainment venue anytime during the designated return window of your selected entertainment show.

The upgraded Disney Premier Access is available in a wider range of price options and is available on the Shanghai Disney Resort Official App. The price of Disney Premier Access varies by date, attractions and entertainment shows and is subject to availability.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, paid FastPass is available in various bundles and can be purchased with tickets or as a day-of add-on option. Choose either 8 designated attractions or 3 from a list of 5, and enjoy priority access on arrival. Get ahead of the queues with the Disney Premier Access starting from HK$159.

Premier Access at Hong Kong Disneyland gives you priority access to some of the park’s most popular attractions, including Iron Man Experience, Mickey’s PhilharMagic and Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, saving you time and allowing you to enjoy more rides during your visit.

The good news is that the more things change, the more things stay the same. The most popular and hard-to-score Lightning Lane reservations at Walt Disney World are still Slinky Dog Dash and Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run in Hollywood Studios, Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in Epcot, and Peter Pan’s Flight in Magic Kingdom.

The bad news is that a ton has changed. Jungle Cruise is now incredibly popular as a Lightning Lane reservation, and many attractions are now sold on an a la carte basis as Lightning Lane Single Pass. These include Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and TRON Lightcycle Run. Most of the FastPass advice that follows isn’t relevant to the Lightning Lane system.

Above all else, we strongly recommend buying tickets as early as possible in our Tips for Saving Money on Disney Tickets post. Many of the parks offer paid FastPass as a ticket add-on, and it’s usually a good idea to purchase that. It’s a guard against future price increases, which are common.

Our detailed guide for using FastPass at Walt Disney World has been tweaked numerous times to better help you plan as changes have been made to the line-skipping systems. In addition to recommending the attractions you should prioritize attractions, we cover a variety of different approaches (including the “refresh strategy” and Park Hopping), and other ways to save time by avoiding waiting in standby lines. (Again, Lightning Lanes have replaced FastPass queues. A lot of this works similarly, but what follows is outdated and only preserved for the sake of posterity.)

Before we get to those specific tips, a bit of background is in order. You might be wondering, just what exactly is FastPass? Well, it’s essentially ride reservations. You make a FastPass reservation, and go to the attraction at which you booked the reservation during your allotted timeframe (say, 1:20 – 2:20 pm), enter through the FastPass line, and have a minimal wait in line. It’s like a VIP line, but there is no charge to use FastPass.

FastPass+ is the second generation of FastPass at Walt Disney World, replacing paper FastPass ride reservations. The idea then was to get people out of lines and allow them to do other things while waiting for their ride reservation window. The original FastPass system had its strengths and weaknesses, and could be leveraged to allow those who did their homework a strategic advantage.

There was trepidation about FastPass+ existed when it officially launched a few years ago by those who mastered the old system, but FastPass+ has its own advantages. While FastPass+ can’t be exploited to the same degree as regular paper FastPass, guests who are “in the know” can still save a ton of time. All it takes is a little patience and spending the time to understand how FastPass+ works.

While we can’t grant you patience, we will help you understand the system in this post…

Step by Step FastPass+ Booking Process

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There are two ways FastPass+ can be obtained: via the My Disney Experience app or website in advance of visits, or via in-park kiosks for guests who don’t have smart phones or who don’t purchase tickets in advance. The FastPass+ is then stored on the MagicBand or your park tickets. (Note that Magic Bands are not required to use FastPass+.)

FastPass+ can be booked for any hour window during the park’s normal operating hours. FastPass+ cannot be booked during Extra Magic Hours or hard ticket events such as Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party or Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Additionally, FastPass+ times cannot overlap.

Guests “redeem” FastPass+ by swiping the MagicBand or park ticket against an RFID “Mickey Head” reader outside FastPass+ attractions. Guests are able to book 3 FastPass+ tickets in advance of their vacation. You can be 5 minutes early or 15 minutes late to use your FastPass+ reservation and the RFID readers will allow you to enter. So really, your “hour” window is 1 hour 20 minutes long.

After these initial FastPass+ selections are redeemed, guests can book additional same-day selections, as available. This is now possible with the app in addition to the in-park kiosks.

The advance booking process for FastPass+ is relatively straightforward once you understand it, but it’s one of those things that’s much easier to understand when you can look at something to help you visualize the process, so I’m going to walk you through it and explain some additional things to know.

For this walk-through, I’m using the My Disney Experience website, but it’s virtually the same on the app. Before starting, you’ll want to download the My Disney Experience app, or sign onto your DisneyWorld.com account. While our explanation covers what you need to know, it’s easiest if you just play around with the app and see for yourself. Learn by doing.

When you purchase Walt Disney World tickets in advance and stay at a Walt Disney World resort hotel, you can make your FastPass+ selections up to 60 days prior to check-in for the entire length of your stay. These booking windows open up at 7 a.m. on the 30 or 60 day mark, so don’t wait around until 8 a.m. to do this like you would Advance Dining Reservations! Okay, now time for the steps…

The first step is being up bright and early before your booking window opens at 7 a.m. on your 30 or 60 day mark. Make sure you’re logged into My Disney Experience on your computer or phone, pull up the My Disney Experience menu, click FastPass+, and be ready to go at exactly 7 a.m. Once the clock hits 7, click the “Get Started” button on the FastPass+ page, and select the date and park you plan on attending.

Next, you make your individual selections.

This works differently for the Magic Kingdom than it does Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as Magic Kingdom does not use tiering and the other three parks do. We’ll cover this in the strategy section below.

After choosing my time, I’m given a confirmation screen…

…After hitting confirm, I receive confirmation, and am asked whether I want another FastPass+. Rinse and repeat. The system via My Disney Experience is pretty easy. (So long as the app doesn’t crash!)

When you return to the FastPass+ screen, you’ll see your reservations, have the ability to modify, etc. It’s all very intuitive. If you can use Facebook, you can use this system. Chances are that any question you have about the functionality of the site will answer themselves after playing around with it for 5 minutes.

With all of that said, don’t be afraid to ask questions below, but since the basics of booking FastPass+ are ridiculously easy to understand, I’m going to move onto strategy, which is where the fun begins…

Best FastPass+ By Park

We’ll keep it short and sweet here, in case all you care about is the best choices, and don’t want to read a long explanation as to why (that’s in the strategy below). You can also find more strategy in our Disney Attraction & Ride Guides for Walt Disney World each contain thorough recommendations concerning the best uses of FastPass+ for each park.

Here are the choices that will save you the most time in each park:

Magic Kingdom

  • Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
  • Peter Pan’s Flight
  • Splash Mountain
  • Space Mountain
  • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Epcot

  • Frozen Ever After (Tier 1)
  • Soarin’ Around the World (Tier 1)
  • Test Track (Tier 1) – single rider recommended instead
  • Spaceship Earth (Tier 2)
  • Mission: Space (Tier 2)

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

  • Avatar Flight of Passage (Tier 1)
  • Kilimanjaro Safaris
  • Expedition Everest
  • Dinosaur

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

  • Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (Tier 1)
  • Slinky Dog Dash (Tier 1)
  • Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster (Tier 2)
  • Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (Tier 2)
  • Toy Story Mania (Tier 2)

These are objectively the best choices, but they may not be the best selections for you, depending upon which attractions interest you (also note that some of the above have height restrictions, so they may not be the best options for families). The best thing you can do prior to your FastPass+ booking windows opening is looking at Walt Disney World wait times for a little while before your trip, and pinpointing the most appealing high-wait attractions to you.

FastPass+ Strategy

If should come as no surprise that not all FastPass+ attractions are created equally. Some are really difficult to score, and others are seemingly always available (think of them as the “participant award” FastPass+). Let’s start with the difficult ones.

Currently, the most coveted FastPass+ is for Avatar Flight of Passage in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Along with Na’vi River Journey, these are the two new attractions in the Pandora – World of Avatar land.

For these two attractions, Animal Kingdom has gone to a quasi-tiered approach. In this context, you cannot hold FastPasses for both Pandora attractions simultaneously. While both attractions are sure to have long waits, the more popular FastPass+ is Avatar Flight of Passage.

Since this is the E-Ticket thrill ride (whereas Na’vi River Journey is a slow-moving boat ride), it’s likely going to have longer wait times. As such, we recommend trying to score a FastPass+ for Avatar Flight of Passage and doing Na’vi River Journey via the standby line. You can read more about strategy for this new land in our Ultimate Guide to Pandora – World of Avatar.

Many days, FastPass+ for Avatar Flight of Passage will be “sold out” 60 or more days in advance. This is possible because hotel guests have 60 days from the date of check-in. So, if you’re taking a 10-day on-site Walt Disney World vacation, you effectively have a 70-day window for that last day of the trip.

This makes booking FastPass+ for the later days of any long trip easier than the early days. Because of this, always book FastPass+ in order of difficulty. Meaning, if you’re going to Animal Kingdom on day 3 of your trip, start by booking your Avatar Flight of Passage FastPass+ before booking days 1 and 2. It is the most difficult FastPass+ to book, so that means booking your Animal Kingdom day first.

If you want Frozen Ever After, you’ll need to be up bright and early, because Frozen Ever After is still among the most difficult FastPass+ reservations to score in all of Walt Disney World. Standby waits still regularly exceed 60 minutes, and can hit 90-120 minutes on busy days.

A big part of this is because Frozen Ever After is a low-capacity boat ride and demand for it remains high since it’s a family-friendly attraction featuring a movie that is still popular. This is all a recipe for wait times that tend to eclipse an hour, you will want to be up bright and early when your window opens in order to book a Frozen Ever After FastPass+.

The same is true with Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway or Slinky Dog Dash at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Even now that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is open, these are the best options at DHS. Long term, it’s difficult to say which will emerge as the victor, but for now, we’re recommending Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway or Slinky Dog Dash as tied for the #2 FastPass+ in all of Walt Disney World.

If you can’t get either of these, Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run is an okay alternative. It has very long lines early in the day, but these fad as the day goes on, and the ride often has a short wait in the evening hours. In fact, there’s more fall off in wait times at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at night than any other park, so it’s not the end of the world if you can’t get your most-coveted FastPass+ at DHS.

FastPass+ Last Minute Refresh Strategy

One final tip for these super-popular FastPass+ attractions: if there’s something that’s an absolute must-do for you, refresh the app regularly, particularly on the day of your visit.

This is done by simply selecting a time for FastPasses in a particular park, quickly scanning what’s available, and if there’s nothing to your liking, selecting another time. The key part of this is toggling between different times–it doesn’t matter what times you choose, as My Disney Experience will show anything that becomes available for previously sold-out attractions.

It can take 10-15 minutes of refreshing (we recommend doing this while you’re standing in line for something else), but you can often score same-day FastPasses for headliner attractions simply with a bit of diligence and persistence in the app.

People cancel FastPass+ reservations all the time, and if you are diligent, getting a Frozen Ever After FastPass+ is possible (particularly for parties of 1-2). We’ve gotten lucky with same-day FastPass+ for Frozen Ever After, Slinky Dog Dash, Avatar Flight of Passage, and numerous other attractions.

This is also a strong approach for your fourth, fifth, sixth (and so on) FastPasses of the day after you’ve used your initial allotment of FastPass+ selections. Even on busy days, you can often keep scoring tough-to-acquire FastPass+ reservations for popular attractions with long lines.

The one caveat here that’s worth reiterating is that this approach works best for smaller parties with more flexible plans. If you’re a party of 6-8 or you can only do a particular attraction at a certain time, you’re probably going to be out of luck.

FastPasses to Avoid

At the other end of the spectrum from highly coveted FastPass+ like Frozen Ever After, Avatar Flight of Passage, and Slinky Dog Dash are the “Participant FastPass+”, Walt Disney World added FastPass+ to many attractions that never had (and never needed) FastPass to make sure there was sufficient capacity in the system so that each guest can book 3 per day without all popular attractions “selling out” of FastPass+ in advance, causing guests to become irritated.

This means that some attractions offering FastPass+ are essentially red herrings, offering FastPass+ not because they will save you time, but so people have something to book in advance if other attractions are sold out. These are typically for shows, for which FastPass+ is almost never necessary.

The idea behind this is that guest satisfaction will be higher if people are able to book FastPass+ (even if those selections save them no time) than they would be if all FastPass+ during their trip are “sold out.” Guests with FastPass+ may get better seats at these shows, but there’s no guarantee of that.

To reiterate: FastPass+ for a show is almost always a waste of a FastPass selection. Don’t do it. These selections are only offered so people don’t feel discouraged when the good FastPass+ options aren’t available. Think of them as the “Participant Award” of Walt Disney World touring.

FastPass+ Timing

We recommend making FastPass+ selections starting about an hour after park opening. Ideally, make your first 3 FastPass+ selections between 10 am and 1 pm, if not slightly earlier. This is because midday is when the wait times are the longest, the weather is the hottest, and you’re going to want to spend the least time waiting in line.

The first advantage to this is that it gives you roughly an hour from rope drop until 10 a.m. to do attractions via the standby line before the crowds really hit, and lines start getting longer. If you’re redeeming FastPass+ first thing in the morning, you aren’t taking advantage of these short standby waits.

Conversely, if you book FastPass+ too late in the day, your options are limited once you redeem your FastPasses and can start making additional selections. Instead, you want to find the right balance between early and not too early, and I think that is around 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Since many guests have no clue what FastPass+ even is until they show up at the park that day (I’d say this describes most guests), you essentially are in a “race” with other guests to use your FastPass+ and start making additional selections before other guests select remaining “good” FastPass+ run out for the day. Think of it as the Hunger Games, except with Disney rides.

In the Magic Kingdom, it is worth noting that many of the attractions that will have high wait times later in the day are located nearby one another, have short ride durations, and can be quickly knocked-out with minimal wait first thing in the morning. So, if park opening is at 9 am, you might be best served by racing to Peter Pan’s Flight, then Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid, and ‘it’s a small world’ first thing. After Fantasyland lines start getting bad, use your FastPass+ for the “Magic Kingdom Mountain Range” after 10 a.m.

This is especially important in the Magic Kingdom, where there are 15+ attractions for which FastPass+ is useful to help avoid waits. For this reason, an ideal strategy in the Magic Kingdom is spending the first hour or so of the day doing popular, short attractions via standby, then using FastPass+ for different attractions, then getting and redeeming more FastPass+ as soon as possible.

Continue that strategy for as long as you’re able, and then do unpopular attractions and/or redeeming additional FastPass+ in the middle of the day. Finally, at the end of the night, you’ll be using standby again at as the crowds and wait times die down. (We always jump into line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 1 minute before the park closes!)

FastPass+ Park Hopper Strategy

An alternate strategy to this if you’re going to be Park Hopping is to not book any FastPass+ for the first park you’re visiting (you can only book FastPass+ for one park per day), staying there until standby lines build, and then hopping to a different park where you have FastPass+ scheduled once things start getting busy.

This strategy works really well for doing a second park in the late-afternoon after some other park in the morning. Now that Disney’s Hollywood Studios has changed its FastPass+ tiers, we’d strongly recommend not using this strategy to hop to DHS. You’ll be at a huge disadvantage if you do, as you can only hold a FastPass for one of its headliners, and you won’t be able to do Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at all.

I know this is a lot to digest about line-skipping and the costs at each Disney theme park, especially considering how intuitive and easy to use the system really is, so I’m going to cut this paid FastPass guide off here. Like so many things related to Walt Disney World, it’s intimidating at first, with a lot of superficial complexity. However, also like a lot of Walt Disney World trip planning, it’s surprisingly simple to understand. There are some complexities that do make it difficult to master, and I think I’ve covered most of those.

If you have specific questions or are interested in park-by-park guides for FastPass+, please feel free to ask, and I’ll do my best to answer in the comments below. Also, keep in mind that, although much of the dust has settled, the Lightning Lane paid FastPass system is still very much in flux. I’ll do my best to keep this guide updated, but some things may change…please let me know if you notice any outdated info!

If you need help booking your Walt Disney World vacation and would like the assistance from a professional, click here to get a quote from a recommended, no-fee Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. They get their commission from Disney, so there is no charge to you for them to book your trip, help you plan, and even book your FastPass+ ride reservations for you!

If you are planning a first trip to Walt Disney World or your first trip since all of this My Disney Experience stuff launched, make sure to check out our Disney Tips & Tricks page for a lot of helpful tips to outsmart the masses. Also check out our dining reviews to find the best restaurants and our trip planning posts to figure out what to pack, where to buy Walt Disney World tickets to save money, which discounts to look for, and all the other ins and outs of a trip to Walt Disney World, all of which are covered extensively in our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide.

Your Thoughts

Have you used paid FastPass at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or beyond? What did you think? Was it worth the money? Which Lightning Lanes did you find the most difficult to score? How much did you spend in total to buy line-skipping access? Have you had luck securing ride reservations for popular attractions? Any tips of your own to add? Any questions you have about paid FastPass that this guide didn’t answer? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

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533 Comments

  1. Hi Tom,
    I love your articles. Have you heard any rumors about eliminating the “tiering” of Fast Pass+? Wondering what kind of feedback Disney has been getting. The tiering, especially in EPCOT, makes me not want to spend a whole day there since we can’t do the attractions we really want. Thanks!

  2. We have two AK days in mid-June. My plan is for those to be our sleep in days, so I have nothing booked before noon, and probably won’t rope drop. One day I have a regular safari FP and one I have a nighttime safari. I have Kali both days and EE both days. I’m wondering if I should drop either the daytime safari or the EE safari in favor of a Jungle Book FP. We do ride EE single rider repeatedly, so I suppose I would drop that, but having a nighttime FP both days will block out getting any 4th FP. Maybe I should snag the JB now, and if reports come out later that FP is not necessary, change it back to EE?

  3. Hello,
    When you download the “My Disney Experience app” or create an account online do you input each traveler’s information? For example, do I create an account for my 4 and 2 year old? Basically, how do I book fast passes for them? Is booking a Fast Pass associated with each person having an account?

    1. With children you will need to create accounts for them that are managed by you. We are planning a trip with my wife’s family this summer, my wife made our girls’ (ages 5,3,1) accounts which she manages. We added all of her siblings and parents that are all adults into our “family and friends” and they added our daughters to theirs. This allows anyone to be able to add people in the party to reservations for Hotel/food, plans for events and entertainment, or FastPass+ reservations.

  4. Hi & Thank You Tom!
    Great primer, only one thing…to save you effort/time, can you please provide a link which will, as cleanly, describe how to book * in advance* when not staying on WDW campus?

    We want to educate ourselves as much as possible as this is our first trip.

    What are start date & time requirements when not staying on Disney’s campus?

    Also, as we are not staying on campus, once our group has completed our first three choices, can we use the My Disney Exp app to make additional selections or need we use the kiosks AND how does information get transferred over to our spiffy magic bands ( can we expect a time lag of the additional FP choices, or no!?

    Love and greatly appreciate the blog and your feedback Tom!
    Cheers!

    1. If you’re not staying at a Disney resort, you get to book FastPass+ 30 days in advance of your trip. People staying at a Disney resort get to book 60 days from their check in date.

  5. Once again, Tom, thank you for keeping us updated as Disney makes changes to the system! Your posts are absolutely an invaluable resource for planning!

    I have to admit that I’m a little confused over the changes to FastPass+ regarding the new option to book one, two OR three FP+ per day of your trip at the 30- or 60-day window prior to arrival (as opposed to the old rules of booking and using three before being able to snag more FP+ at a kiosk in park). For example, does this mean that if I only book one Tier 1 attraction and one Tier 2 attraction at Epcot, am I then allowed to book another Tier 1 attraction AFTER my two original FP+ have been used (that is, if there are any more Tier 1 FP+ available at that point)? Or will the system make me book the technical “third” FP+ and only allow me to get a Tier 2 FP+? I’ve been searching Disney and other blogs for this information but am having a hard time finding an exact answer.

    Thanks in advance for any insight! 🙂

  6. I think my app was broken. After we redeemed our FP+, I tried to book additional attractions. ..and the app told me I exhausted my FP+s for the day.

    So I just ended up rearranging my Tier I reservations to earlier in the day and cancelling the Tier II reservations if we didnt need them and booked available passes that way.

  7. Anyone have any success getting FP+s for Frozen or Jungle Book last weekend in June? It seemed as though everything was sold out by 7:01 Eastern.

    1. I was able to book Frozen Ever After around 8 am on the 21st for Thursday, June 30. I just checked and there are still a few times available for that day.

  8. How do you know that Frozen Ever After Fastpass reservations will start at 4am Pacific on May 21? I can’t find that info anywhere. (It’s 11:45pm Pacific on May 20, and nothing is there yet.)

  9. I’m kinda confused. If I only book Soarin for my FP+, and don’t choose any tier two FP+’s, will I be able to select another tier one FP+ after I ride Soarin, or will tier one not open up until I use two tier twos?

    1. This is a moot point: there almost certainly won’t be any Tier 1 options left on the day-of after you ride Soarin.

  10. Hey Tom first time commenter here, though been reading for a few months now. Amazing write up as usual but just wanted to add something. I went to Disney in mid to late January this year with a friend and Festival of the Lion King was swamped. The line was all the way out to the bridge and they had to start slowly taking families in one at a time for standing room only at the very back. We arrived around 25 minutes before show time and were in the standing room. There were dozens and dozens of families after us in line and they all ended up having to wait for the next show which was an hour later and they filled up a majority of the que. I’m returning to Disney this Friday and this time made sure to get a fast pass for the show so we don’t risk not seeing it/waiting over an hour to see it. I plan to get a dinning package at Tusker house to get reserved seating for the jungle book show. I never would’ve guessed I’d ever need a fast pass for that show, I was with a friend who was currently working for the Disney college program and she asked around with cast members and informed me they had no idea what triggered it but animal kingdom was way above average attendance for that day. It was Presidents’ Day weekend but not Presidents’ Day, though we only noticed the larger than normal crowd at animal kingdom during the trip.

    1. Yes, just make sure you’re all linked on My Disney Experience and then have one person make the FP+ for the entire group. It’s something a travel agent can do if you’re using one.

  11. Just discovered this site and love it.

    Question about early Fast Pass reservations. If I bought a 7 day Water Parks and more ticket and we were going to be at Disney from October 8th-October 14th, could I get my first Fast Pass reservation on Oct 1st and then make Fast Pass reservations for the other 6 days of the ticket for October 8th-14th (these would still be within 14 days of the first day use of the ticket)? This would allow me to make reservations on September 1st instead of waiting until September 8th. In essence, allowing me to make reservation 37-44 days in advance.

    Thanks for any insights.

    1. If you’re staying on-site, it’s 60 days in advance of the reservation. If you are off-site, it’s 30 days in advance of the date (day by day).

  12. Hello Tom, I love your articles … my favorite part is how you always have live links to other articles, which I constantly click and research. That feature is extremely helpful – thank you! A friend of ours returned a few weeks ago and said Magic Kingdom has now tiered the Fast Pass+. Is this true? Separately, I wish WDW would consider allowing 1 new Fast Pass+ reservation after 1 Fast Pass+ has been used, so there are always 3 in possession, instead of waiting until all 3 expire and get stuck with basically ‘nothing good.’ I honestly prefer the old system where we could decide that day and what park to visit and what ride. The new system is way beyond micro-managing. Sigh.

  13. I have a question. My husband and I have a trip planned in early September of this year. We won two days worth of park hopper passes for the parks in a silent auction. We also purchased three additional days worth of tickets on Magic Bands. Is this going to be a problem when trying to book FastPasses? Will I need to know which days we will be using the hard tickets (that look like credit cards) versus which days we will use our Magic Bands? Also, will the My Disney Experience automatically sort this out for me? Thanks in advance for your help!

  14. Best thing I’ve read about FastPass+, and I’ve been looking for a while. Thank you for explaining the logic and the insider tips. SO helpful and educational. This is my first time going to Disney World and I finally feel like I know what I’m doing when it comes to planning my day at Disney World. Thank you so much!

  15. I have a question, If I’m taking my daughter to meet Ana and Elsa, should I book a fastpass+ for me and my husband or just for her?

    1. Well, it depends on her age. If she’s too young to be a ticketed guest (under age 3) then she can get in on your FP+. Over age 3 then yes, all of you.

  16. I am going to have to re-read this 3 times. But so far it’s been very helpful in trying to understand this fp+ equation … sigh…

    1. Yeah, it can be overwhelming at first, but once you get the details and process down, it’s really not that complicated. Good luck!

  17. We’re staying on-site in August (I know, it’ll be crazy); coming from the UK. Is FP+ available at midnight Eastern (i.e. 5am the next morning here), or midnight UK time? I’m assuming the former, as otherwise we get a 5-hour head start? (Hope this isn’t too confusing! Just trying to figure out what time I have to stay up / get up for)

    1. Pete – I am 99% sure it is 5am – we’re also going in August form the UK…..will be worth the earlier start to secure those attractions 🙂

    2. Heads up – the booking times have just changed – for the UK it is now midday (which is 7am Orlando time

    3. Thanks Marc – I preferred the 5am start personally, but this just means I’ll spend my lunch on the site…I must admit, as much as FP+ is great (especially with a 9-year old who won’t want to stand in 90-minute queues for a 2 minute ride), it really is a lot of work to plan each day! Still I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end!

    4. In the UK you’ll be able to book mid-day, I’m in Hawaii and will need to be up at 1am. Fist time Disney World trip for us, we consider California to be our home park, and I’m finding this all to be a tad bit overwhelming (I’m use to planning but this a whole new level) don’t know where I’d be without this blog. MAHALO TOM!

    5. Yes, it’s definitely a lot of work…although without this blog, it would all be a mystery and I would be the one turning up at WDW saying “what’s Fastpass? Should I have known about this earlier?!”

  18. Hi Tom! Great blog, TONS of useful information for a virtual Disney newbie like me! (Last visit was sometime in the 1990s so everything has changed).

    Question: we will be planning to buy a 5 day ticket in order to spend 2 days at MK and one day at the other parks, but wondering how to coordinate the FP+ with the Extra Magic Hours for each park, since we won’t have Park Hoppers? In other words, are the Extra Magic Hours the same every week (which park is open early or late, and when)? We’d ideally like to book our FP+ at the park open the longest since that’s the day we’ll choose to visit. Will we know the schedule 60 days out so we can maximize our experience each day?

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