With all the incredible attractions in Disney World, FastPasses can be one of your best friends when you plan out your vacation. (No line for Slinky Dog Dash? Yes pls!)
Slinky Dog Dash Fastpass+ Sign
And, while we’ve already given you pro tips on the FastPass system, you’re especially going to want to remember this one if you’re heading to a hard-ticket event this year!
While Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and the Disney After Hours events are AH-MAZING for food, merchandise, entertainment, and LOTS of fun…
Villains After Hours
…they’re also a great way to ride all your favorite attractions with shorter lines! Sounds like a dream, right? (Um, wait, it gets better!)
Now, we’ve already given you the deets on how guests are able to enter the parks up to three hours before the events officially start with their event tickets. Buuut, did you know that you can also usually use your hard ticket to make FASTPASSES for those last few hours the park is open?? (Wait, whaaaat?!)
Flight Of Passage Wait Time
Yep! If you have a hard ticket to one of the after hours events in Disney World, you may also be able to use it to book FastPasses for the few hours before the park officially closes to the public!
Based on our research (using our own hard-ticket event tickets several times, and asking for confirmation from Disney World Guest Services), you can make three FastPass selections with your hard ticket through the My Disney Experience app! FastPasses can apparently be scheduled from the time you’re allowed to enter the park with your hard ticket, up until the park officially closes to the public. (Note: FastPasses cannot be scheduled during the after hours event or party. And if you already have three FastPasses booked for that day using your regular day ticket, you probably won’t be able to book any extras with your hard ticket. FPs are associated with your account, not your individual tickets in that way.)
Disney Villains After Hours
This system could be especially helpful at an Animal Kingdom After Hours event, where many of the e-ticket attractions are not included in the After Hours line-up! For example, you may be able to use your After Hours event ticket to book a FastPass on Kilimanjaro Safari before the park closes, since this attraction does not operate during After Hours. But our team didn’t test this at AK (we did test at MK), so let us know your experience if you do!
Kilimanjaro Safaris
And while we WERE able to use our hard-tickets to both make and USE FastPasses during the extra hours before Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this year, we did notice a few glitches in the system that you’ll want to watch out for.
First, it appears that guests can select any park when looking for FastPasses with their event hard tickets. That likely wouldn’t work, since your ticket will only get you into the park where the event is located. Also, FastPasses were popping up for morning timeframes. Again, since you’re supposedly not allowed into the park in the morning with an after hours or party event ticket, you’ll likely not be able to take advantage of morning FastPasses. Remember — you have to be able to both make the FastPasses AND get into the park to use them.
FastPasses with After Hours Tickets
Keep an eye out for these glitches and you should be OK to go using your event ticket to book FastPasses before the park officially closes! That said, and though Disney Guest Services did confirm that event tickets are viable for FastPass booking prior to park closure, your mileage may vary. (Be sure to let us know your experiences!)
And remember — this is REALLY IMPORTANT — the Disney system may prioritize a multi-day ticket BEFORE it uses an after hours event ticket. So, if you’re planning on using your hard-ticket event day as a resort day, and you’re not planning to use a day of your multi-day ticket to go into the parks before the event that evening, BE CAREFUL when booking FastPasses for that day and entering the park. Check with a cast member that you’re not using up a regular park ticket day when you enter the park, and instead are using your party ticket. Confusing? Yes. But something to keep in mind.
So whether you’re looking to save your energy for the evening’s activities or just to ride as many attractions as possible, this is a GREAT way to hit up those popular spots without waiting in super long lines! And, you still get an entire night of fun at the event (win-win)!
Main Street, U.S.A. After Hours
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What’s your favorite after hours event to visit in Disney World? Let us know in the comments below!
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Do you know if this is also the case for moonlight magic events? I will be going to one this year but not planning to buy a regular park ticket for that particular day. Can I use FastPass for the few hours at the beginning during normal park hours while moonlight magic registrants can also enter the park?
I have an Ak after hours party and we have a reg ticket for that day. It wouldn’t allow me to make 3 more so fast passes unless I dumped my initial 3 in a different park.
I’m actually going to AK after hours Thursday night (1/30/20), I wanted to snag a safari FP+ but safari ends before the park entry (only 2 hours early this time of year) so snagged an extra FOP because why not lol
How cool! Are you able to book the 30/60 days in advance? Or only day of?
We’ve done this a couple of times in the past with no problems. We have fast passes for Kilimanjaro Safari on the day we’re attending an after hours event at Animal Kingdom in March. So, yes, you can make fast passes 60 days ahead if staying on WDW property. Since you can enter the park a few hours before the event, you can use the fast pass system. This has worked for us so far!
I can confirm, based on attending Mickey’s No So Scary Halloween Party, I was able to book fastpass selections 30 days prior! You don’t need a physical pass to do this. However, the only thing is that I had to pick up a physical pass from guest services to enter the park since I wasn’t given a barcode or tickets on my Disney app to enter with. Really fun seeing Space Mountain before and after the Halloween transformation, and getting onto splash mountain before the sun set!
Very cool info! Thanks!
I did the same thing this year when attending MNSSHP. I booked my first FP FOR 3:20-4:20, got into the park exactly at 4:00 and high tallied it over to the ride. Then I had another FP from 4:20 to 5:20 and a last one from 5:20 to 6:20. There were not FP times available for anything past 6:20. I was able to ride Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Haunted Mansion before 5:30. Then I had a ADR for 5:30. Was out by 6:15 and was able to get in line for my first party snack. It was amazing! Ride a bunch of ride with no line from 7-9 and then saw the parade, the spelltacular, and fireworks. Basically got in a full days worth on a hard ticket.
Hubby and I are going to Villains After Hours in February and I accidentally found this little perk. We have some great FPs set up! We scheduled our first FP at 6:30PM, even though we can’t get into the park until 7PM… this way we were able to get three booked by the 9PM event start time.
Cyndi, looks like 30/60!
K, good to know!
don’t get so excited about this as fast passes for all the good rides are sold out by that time
Laura, we haven’t tested this theory, but give it a try and let us know!
I’m a passholder with a hard ticket for AK after hours in March.
I have FP at HS earlier in the day. I just tried and the app will not let me get FP for AK.
Not sure if this was stated before, but for those who are curious about when you CAN’T book FastPass+ even though you have a hard ticketed event:
I’m traveling to WDW in late February. But the first three days of our trip we will be at Universal and we’re staying on-site at Universal. We bought tickets for MK After Hours on Friday 2/28 BUT we don’t check into our Disney hotel until 02/29. I’m assuming this is why we can’t book FastPass+ for the after-hours event. Hopefully, that makes sense! 🙂
I check ALL time hoping we can eventually make FastPass selections, but no changes so far!
Yes, this works. Used this process for MNSSHP last August.
Oh my goodness, this worked!
Thank-you DFB!!
We are doing the MK After Hours on Feb 17th, and had no idea about this!
Also got Slinky Dog FP for the first time this morning….couldn’t believe my eyes when the times came up on the screen.
It’s a good day!!
I did this using the Halloween party tickets. We are allowed to go into the park three hours before the Halloween party officially starts, so that’s exactly three fastpasses to get.
I use fastpasses with my after hour event tickets all the time! I’ve done this for Hollywood studios, Animal Kingdom and I’m about to head back to Villains at Magic Kingdom with my three fastpasses already lined up. And yes, I was able to do the Safari at Animal Kingdom using a fastpass before the park closed.
If the park is closing at 9, but you can only get in at 7, try to book at fastpass from 6:15 – 7:15, 7:15 – 8:15 and then 8:15 – 9 pm so you can still utilize all 3. You can’t get in until 7 pm, or slightly before depending on the cast members allowance to let the line go early, but you’ll have that 15 minute cushion to make your first fastpass!
Even better—if you are a DVC member, you are then allowed into the park 5 hours before the park closes! This leaves even more time to be able to get those rides in during the allotted time.
I’m new to this. We are going to the Villians AD in February. I can get into the park 3 hours before? How do I make FP things?
Can you do this if you are not planning to buy tickets to the park at all, only the after hours event? We are going on a Disney Cruise and then headed to the resorts at WDW for 2 days. We only plan on enjoying the resorts and Disney Springs and the Boardwalk, not buying any park tickets. Can we buy an After hours ticket only and still use the 3 Fast Passes during the 3 hrs you are allowed into the park?
We used our hard ticket for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas to make fast passes for Snow White, Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain. It was great!
Snow, we think so, yes!
Anne, you make FastPass in your My Disney Experience app or online.
We did this a few years ago at the Halloween party at MK. We only went to the Halloween party and were able to enter at 4 and book fast passes to use, no problem.
We have villain after hours tickets for march. we are not staying on property. I think our tickets are linked to MDE. So I should be able to make fastpasses 30 days prior? also, does the dvc thing apply that we can get in 5 hours before park closing for this event?
Melanie, you should be able to get in 5 hours early with DVC, and it sounds like you should be able to get FP at 30 days out.
DVC members can get in 5 hrs early for an AH event? Can someone please confirm? My AH starts at 10p and everything I’m reading says I can enter at 7p.
Ev, that is our understanding, yes.
Yes – AK will allow you to book FP for when you can enter if you have not booked for a different park and are only there for the Event. We have done this multiple times with the AK event. That way we can do the attractions that won’t be open when the park closes to the GP.
I’m a DVC member and was able to make FastPasses from 2 pm until 7 pm when we attended MVMCP in November. I was told by Disney that DVC cannot emter early and that we were not able to make FP with the Villians After Hours though. Have any DVC members run into this issue?
We’re at MK right now on a Villains AH ticket, and we did make FP reservations in advance for the time from 7 pm to start of AH, and were denied . So YMMV
We will be attending MNSSHP the first night of a 6 night stay. I know it mentioned above to be sure the system does not process a park day ticket when scheduling fast passes for our hard ticket night. Has anyone had a problem with that so far?
So if we have MNSSHP night one of a 5 day vacation and a 4-day Parkhopper, we can but 5 days of FP (party +4 days with parkhopper tickets)? How will MDE know which FP go with which ticket?
Sara, since you’ll book FastPasses by day/date, you should be all set. You’ll just be sure to pick times on the night of the Party that will work with the timing of entering at 4PM.
Can’t wait to try it out! Our 60 day window is a month away. Fingers crossed parks are open!