Fastpass is such a vital part of Disneyland trips now with higher and higher crowds each year. If you think you can just go stand in line and not worry about it you’re really costing yourself some valuable time. If you know how Fastpass works already, great! Keep using it and use all that extra time to experience more! If you’ve never used it or don’t have a good grasp on it, read on!
A Fastpass holds your place in line while you go do other things until your return time at which point you skip the main long line and zip to the front of the attraction in another line. Let’s say the main line for Indiana Jones is 60 minutes long; that’s 40 minutes longer then you’re willing to wait. So you go get a Fastpass near the ride entrance. Your Fastpass tells you to return between 11:30am – 12:30pm. You look at your watch and it’s 10:30am. You have 1 hour to kill before you can return to the ride. So you head off and ride Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. Before you know it it’s 11:30am and Indiana is calling your name! Head back and enter through the marked Fastpass line. Before you know it you’re on the ride and hangin with Indy! Woohoo!
In the hour that you were gone riding 2 other attractions other people stood in the Indy line just for that one ride. Let’s say overall it took them 1 hour to do that one ride. We’ll in 1 hour and 20 minutes you did 3. Now if they go off and do the 2 other attractions you did in the mean time and it takes them 1 hour they’ve now spent 2 hours doing 3 attractions that took you only 1 hour and 20 minutes. You saved 40 minutes! Way to go!
A few things to remember about Fastpass:
1. EVERY valid ticket comes with Fastpass service for FREE. It’s not a service you have to buy or purchase separately. Don’t get scammed by someone selling Fastpass service.
2. Not all attractions offer it. It’s mainly used for the bigger rides, however, there are exceptions like Goofy’s Sky School and Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters.
3. You can only have 1 Fastpass at a time unless you’ve gotten one for Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters. In this case you can carry 2 at a time, one for this attraction and any other Fastpass attraction. Note that shows like World of Color and Frozen DO NOT count against your Fastpasses. Check your current Fastpass to see when another one will be come available.
4. Waiting in line is for line waiters. You can get soooo much more done by using your Fastpass service. If you have questions about it ask a Cast Member.
