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By Root 918 0

fact, often like to split off from the family for an hour or two and simply shop, hang out in arcades, or ride a favorite over and over. Security in Disney parks is tight, so this is an option worth considering. Just make sure to have a clearly designated meeting time and place. About splitting up, one mother of three from Ohio wrote, “Playhouse Disney is a wonderful attraction for young children, but my preteen son wasn’t that thrilled with the idea of standing in line for an hour to see the Little Einsteins. We let him shop and walk around on his own for an hour while we took the younger kids to Playhouse Disney. Normally, I would worry about letting him be on his own but at Walt Disney World we felt pretty safe about it. And he was in a much better mood after a break from his little sisters.”

Master Fastpass

Disney World’s Fastpass system is designed to reduce the time you spend waiting in line. Attractions offering Fastpass are listed in each theme-park chapter.

Insider’s Secret

Only a limited number of Disney Fastpasses are available for each attraction. At the most popular rides on crowded days, Fastpasses can run out by mid-afternoon. So if you want to guarantee you’ll get a Fastpass for Splash Mountain or Test Track, visit the kiosk as soon as possible after you enter the park.

Here’s how it works: Let’s say you enter the Animal Kingdom at 10 AM and find that a long line has already formed for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Rather than standing in line for an hour, go to the Fastpass kiosk and insert your theme-park ticket. You’ll get the theme-park ticket back, along with a small paper Fastpass that looks like a movie admission stub. The Fastpass (along with a digital clock at the kiosk) will tell you when to return. There’s usually an hour-long window of opportunity, which in this case might be between 11:30 AM and 12:30 PM.

Helpful Hint

Be aware that Disney’s Fastpass kiosks are located outside of the attraction in question which means that getting a Fastpass from, say, Soarin’, and then returning to use it two hours later can involve a lot of walking, especially in a park as huge and sprawling as Epcot. You might want to send one parent to get the Fastpasses for the whole family while the other supervises the kids in a play area or takes them on a less crowded attraction. And if you get caught in a show or restaurant and miss your Fastpass time, not to worry. Guests who show up at 4:15 with a 2:30–3:30 Fastpass will still be allowed into the line.

Go on to tour the rest of the Animal Kingdom and return to Kilimanjaro Safaris sometime within that one-hour period. Show your Fastpass to the attendant and you’ll be allowed to enter a much shorter line and proceed directly to the boarding area. The waits with Fastpass average 10 to 15 minutes, a vast improvement over the 90-minute waits that big attractions can post on crowded days.

Helpful Hint

Four family members will need four Disney Fastpasses, but that doesn’t mean you all have to line up at the kiosk. Let one person be in charge of holding on to all the tickets and all the Fastpasses. (Maybe in a little ziplock bag?) That way you won’t find that Tyler has somehow managed to lose his Fastpass just as you’re set to board Test Track.

Insider’s Secret

Fastpass is so popular that Disney is always looking for ways to expand the system and you never know when they’ll be offering some new perk. Check the information flyers you get with your park maps for any new information about the Fastpass program. Disney has already experimented with giving out bonus Fastpasses, wherein a second Fastpass for a different attraction is automatically distributed when you get your first Fastpass of the day. There’s also talk that Disney hotel guests may be able to order Fastpasses before they even get to the park through an in-room ordering system. At the very least they may be shortly creating kiosk locations distributing multiple Fastpasses to help cut down on walking.

When You Don’t Need Fastpass

As great as Fastpasses are, you don’t always need one.