FASTPASS

FASTPASS is Walt Disney World’s way of letting you avoid some of the long lines that can become so prevalent at the most popular attractions during the busier times of the year. The FASTPASS system is actually quite simple, even though it probably sounds confusing at first.

Each theme park has selected attractions that use FASTPASS. Near the entrance to the attraction you will find a row of machines somewhat resembling a small ATM machine. In order to obtain a FASTPASS, you will need to insert you park admission ticket into the slot. When you do this, the machine will give you a FASTPASS for that attraction. The FASTPASS will be for a designated one-hour period later. Early in the morning, the FASTPASS may just be for one hour later. Later in the morning, it might be for many hours later. When you return to the attraction during the designated time, you will be allowed to enter the FASTPASS line, which essentially send you to the front of the line.

Here is an example of how FASTPASS can be truly useful:

A group of six enter the Magic Kingdom at opening in July. They want to ride both Space Mountain and Splash Mountain quickly. But the two attractions are at opposite sides of the park. One member of the group heads to Splash Mountain with all six tickets. That person gets FASTPASS tickets for all six members. The FASTPASS tickets are for a time period between one and two hours later. The rest of the group headed to Space Mountain and got in line. The one who went o Splash Mountain then heads back to Space Mountain and joins the group in line. They then ride Space Mountain and head across to Splash Mountain, where they proceed to the front of the line and ride it with minimal wait. Instead of waiting for 90 minutes between the two rides, they waited for about 30 minutes.

An important note is that you may not obtain a new FASTPASS on a certain ticket until the window on the existing FASTPASS has begun. For example, if you have a FASTPASS for Test Track at Epcot that tells you to come back between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., then you cannot obtain a FASTPASS for Mission:Space until at least 1:00 p.m.