Our first FastPass+ Experience at Disney

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Being Disney annual passholders in 2013, we waited anxiously all year for our chance to test the new Magic Bands. Despite multiple trips and stays at various resorts over the year, we never were “chosen” to participate in the test. This weekend, however, we did get to try out a (somewhat limited) version of the FastPass+ reservation system as part of our staying at the Dolphin hotel … at least, we thought we were going to get to try it out.

The Swan & Dolphin is actually a Sheraton hotel on Disney property. You get some of benefits of staying at a Disney resort (like use of the transportation system, extra Magic Hours), but not all (like charging privileges on your room key). The separation of Sheraton and Disney became more apparent when we tried to use the FastPass+ system. The hotel had specific kiosks we had to go to at each of the parks to make our FastPass+ selections. On Saturday, we went to Hollywood Studios and found the location. The representative checked our room keys, then scanned our annual passholder tickets, frowned, scanned them again, frowned again. But without really missing a beat, she said something wasn’t working properly but they’d take care of us by giving us 9 (three for each of us) pre-printed FastPass tickets that were good for any time we wanted (very similar to the FassPass Exchange card we had once back in 2010):

That was even better than having to schedule times, so we thanked the rep and used those FastPasses for Toy Story Mania, the Rockin’ Roller Coaster, and Star Tours on our own schedule. Not a bad experience so far.

Later, we bussed over to the Magic Kingdom and again headed for the special Swan & Dolphin FastPass+ kiosk. And again, the same thing happened … our tickets couldn’t be read so we couldn’t schedule the rides we wanted. This time the rep was more of a supervisory level so he took some photos of the back of our passholder cards and said he would e-mail them “to IT” and have the problem looked at. Then, he gave us 9 of the generic, good-any-time FastPass tickets instead. Score again! We used the FastPasses for Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and, to be a little different, Peter Pan’s Flight (which we hadn’t been on in years).

On Sunday, we went to Epcot and repeated the process, hopeful (at this point) that our tickets wouldn’t work and we’d get the super FastPasses again. Indeed, our tickets did not work again, but this time, the FastPasses had ride restrictions on them! No Test Track, no Soarin’, none of the really popular attactions. It was really only good for the Maelstrom in the Norway pavilion and, I think, Mission: Space. This was a little disappointing but although we couldn’t actually schedule anything we were still able to use the normal FastPass system.

So, we didn’t get to experience FastPass+ really at all. The overall concept seems good: you get to pick the rides you want at the times you want (given availability) rather than whatever the FastPass return time is when you get to the ride itself. This saves you from having to walk all over the park to get FastPasses and let you plan your day a little better. The downside to this is that those are the only FastPasses you can get for the day. You get 3 FastPass+ selections and that’s it … you can’t get any regular FastPasses from the machines at the attraction entrances (that was another benefit to our tickets not working and getting the generic tickets … we could still use our annual passes to get more FastPasses if we wanted to). If we had had the Magic Bands, the FastPass+ information would be stored on the bracelet and then you’d just tap your band on the sensor at the ride entrance to “use” your FastPass (we obviously saw this a lot as we were riding the attractions and it seemed to work, albeit a bit slowly).

As 2013 comes to a close, we’re going to let our passes expire (it’s time to take a break). It’ll be interesting to see how smooth everything is running the next time we visit the Magic Kingdom. We’re also looking forward to riding the new Snow White coaster at some point as well. It’s been fun watching it take shape in the middle of the New FantasyLand as the months have gone by.

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