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This may not be breaking news to everyone, but I thought I should post the information in case you haven’t seen it elsewhere on the old interweb.
In November 2013 Walt Disney World began moving away from using the Key to the World plastic swipe card at its resorts. The first resorts to move to Magic Band ONLY were the Pop Century and All Star Resorts. WDW is now moving toward fully eliminating the Key to the World, which will mean that resort guests will not be able to gather paper or “Legacy” Fastpasses unless they purchased their park tickets from an outside company. If your tickets are part of your Walt Disney World resort stay, you won’t be able to use paper Fastpass beginning with the dates below.
If a guest requests the Key to the World card in lieu of the Magic Band, they will be given an RFID capable card that will NOT function in any Fastpass machine. Old ROOM ONLY Key to the World cards and current Annual Passes will continue to work in the paper Fastpass machines until the machines are eliminated. I’ve heard that the goal is to fully eliminate the paper machines by Spring Break 2014. Executive are hoping for a complete rollout by March 2014.
Here’s the rollout dates for ‘MagicBand-only’ at Walt Disney World resorts:
January 6 – Art of Animation Resort
January 7 – Port Orleans Resort
January 8 – Caribbean Beach Resort and Coronado Springs Resort
January 9 – Old Key West Resort and Saratoga Spring Resort & Spa
January 10 – Wilderness Lodge
January 13 – Yacht & Beach Club Resorts
January 14 – Animal Kingdom Lodge
January 15 – BoardWalk Inn
January 16 – Contemporary Resort
January 17 – Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and Polynesian Resort
January 20 – Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
Here’s a breakdown of the current state of Fastpass in Walt Disney World
Animal Kingdom: Fastpass+ ONLY with no Tiers. No paper Fastpass for any guests. Guests staying offsite must make Fastpass+ reservations at kiosk locations within the park.
EPCOT: Fastpass+ with Tiers and paper Fastpass machines. Tiers limit you to one headliner and two less popular attractions.
Hollywood Studios: Fastpass+ with Tiers and paper Fastpass machines. Tiers limit you to one headliner and two less popular attractions.
Magic Kingdom: Fastpass+ with any 3 attraction choices and paper Fastpass machines. Magic Words with Mickey, Dumbo and the Barnstormer are still not connected to the paper Fastpass system, so they are basically FREE Fastpasses.
If you have any questions about Fastpass and Fastpass+ feel free to leave them in the comments section.
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Langley
Wednesday 15th of January 2014
Kenny, first of all, your site has been invaluable in planning our trip (we leave Friday - yay!). Thank you for the obvious hard work you put into it! Second, I'd really like your advice. We're taking our twin girls (almost 4 years old) on their first Disney trip - the rest of the crowd has been at least a few times before. So, this trip is really geared toward our two little ones, and they are super princess-y.:) We'll have one day each in Epcot, AK & HS and two days in MK. Here are our current Fastpass+ reservations:
Epcot: Soarin' The Seas with Nemo & Friends Turtle Talk with Crush AK: Kilimanjaro Safaris Meet Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost Finding Nemo - the Musical MK: Enchanted Tales with Belle Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid Meet Rapunzel HS: Toy Story Midway Mania Disney Jr - Live on Stage Voyage of the Little Mermaid MK: Meet Cinderella Dumbo (have thought abt changing to Meet Ariel, but still have nightmares abt waiting 2 hours to ride this ride previously) Magic Carpets of Aladdin (have thought about changing to Peter Pan)
What suggestions or changes would you make?
Thanks to you, we know about Anna & Elsa in Norway ("Do You Want to Build a Snowman" is heard around our house all day), we will stake out Characterpalooza in HS and we will track down Dino Dance Party in AK - all things that will make this trip extra magical for our girls. Thank you for what you do!!
kennythepirate
Wednesday 15th of January 2014
Epcot: Your tier two usage would be better for Spaceship Earth because it can have a line at times. Seas rarely has any lines. Could also use the other FP+ for Living with the Land so you can go back to back with Soarin.
AK: Finding Nemo is okay if you don't plan to ride Everest, Kali or Dinosaur.
MK: I would switcht he Under the Sea (ride earlier in day) for meet Ariel. Dumbo never has 2 hour waits these days with the double dumbos. If you go to Peter Pan at opening you'd be fine.
Don't forget the Incredibles Dance Party and Frontierland Hoedown and look for Epcot training meets
Carlitos
Wednesday 15th of January 2014
The fast pass system on the iPhone is down all morning thus far
Brian
Monday 13th of January 2014
I thought about that....thanks. I can make FP+ selections 60 days out, right? Can I make them at 12:00 AM on that day, or do I have to wait until a certain time?
kennythepirate
Tuesday 14th of January 2014
I think they begin at 6:00am, but you'll get whatever you want at any time at the 60 day mark. I can usually find what i want the day before or day of a visit
Brian
Monday 13th of January 2014
I read this somewhere today and wanted to run it by you. On FP+, you can not select the same ride twice in one day...I get that. Let's take Soarin for example. If it is the first of my three selections, and I ride it, will I then be able to change one of my remaining two selections to Soarin if I wanted to ride it again? If there were remaining FP's that is.
kennythepirate
Monday 13th of January 2014
No because epcot is tiered with only one tier one fp+ allowed
Jeff
Friday 10th of January 2014
How do the disconnected FP work in conjunction with the FastPass+ Magic Band senario. Or will that do away with the "disconnected" feature?
kennythepirate
Friday 10th of January 2014
It will all go away on January 14. All paper FP will be eliminated.