If you're planning a trip to Disney World or Disneyland, you may be familiar with the Fastpass system. It's a system where you can get a reservation to ride a ride at a later time, skipping the line. It's a great system, but it has its quirks and rules that limit its use. At Optimal Magic we love the Fastpass system - we have figured out how to get FAR more Fastpasses than the vast majority of Disney visitors, and get more rides on everything (both the Fastpass-enabled and non-Fastpass-enabled attractions) without the long waits.
However, things are changing at Disney - they are close to launching a new service that will likely be called Fastpass+. They are currently testing it with some visitors (see here for some details). FastPass+ will enable you to reserve a handful of FastPasses weeks before even arrive at the park! There will be limitations on numbers of FastPasses and the attractions you can reserve.
The reaction in the Disney fan community is mixed - many people don't want to spend even more time planning each day of their trip weeks in advance. And it's more choices to make, and more opportunities to make a less-than-optimal selection.
However, this will be great news for Optimal Magic customers! It's an opportunity for more Fastpasses, but you still won't have the additional stress. Because we know what lines are like at different times of day, we will help select the optimal Fastpasses and times for your situation. And surprisingly, the optimal choice will not always be the "most popular ride"
Let's give a simple example - suppose you are a family with young children, and want to ride the Fantasyland attractions, but also ride a few other "classics" like the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. And suppose your Fastpass+ options are either Splash Mountain with a 9:30am return time, or the Haunted Mansion at 1pm.
Many people would select on the Splash Mountain Fastpass+, surmising that the lines are longer at Splash Mountain, so that's a "better" Fastpass+ to get. However, that means you're heading to Splash Mountain at 9:30am. If you are interested in Fantasyland, the early morning is usually better spent on several of the Fantasyland attractions (if you head to Fantasyland in the afternoon you're going to be in monster lines). This means the Fastpass+ for Splash Mountain takes you away from the optimal plan! You are actually better off selecting the Haunted Mansion Fastpass+ during a busier time of day (and we'll use another method to get you on Splash Mountain with no wait).
Don't worry if this sounds confusing or like too much to plan - the whole point of Optimal Magic is that you don't have to do any of the planning. You can rest assured that we will put together the plan that is best for you. Fastpass+ (when fully implemented) will add advantages for Optimal Magic customers (more Fastpasses), but none of the disadvantages (more planning) because we put together the optimal plans for you!
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