Here’s a quick strategy to beat the system if you want to get the best bang for your buck with FastPass+. I call it the “Tap and Change” strategy.

Can you only have 3 Fast Passes a day?

The answer is NO!!!!!

Here’s how to beat the FastPass+ system:

Some bloggers call this the “Tap,Grab, Modify” strategy, it’s all relatively the same, but I’m going to try and keep it as short and sweet for you as possible. If you’re a Disney newbie and just want to know how to book your FastPass+, check out this blog post. Want to know how to change your FP+? This is the article you need. Looking for the different FP+ tiers in the park? It’s all wrapped up for you right here.

I’m going to use the example of the time we visited Magic Kingdom.  We had booked our 3 allotted FastPass+ for the day 60 days in advance: 

So, first I’d recommend getting to the park for opening time, and riding as many rides as you can in the morning.  Aim for the headliners: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, or Peter Pan. Those are the rides that generally have very long lines as the day goes on.  If you can hit those, then you can use your FastPass+ as the lines get longer during the day. 

We did as many awesome rides as we could first thing in the morning, and then hit Haunted Mansion for about 10:40am. We tapped into Haunted Mansion at 10:40, and immediately I tried to “Tap and Change”. 

Here’s how it works: 

1. As soon as you tap in to the ride with your Magic Band or ticket, open up your My Disney Experience App.  

2. Click the three bars on the bottom right, and select “My Plans”. You’ll see your two remaining FastPass+ reservations. 

3. Immediately open the next ride, and hit “CHANGE” on the time. Select your party, and then move your FastPass time forward. 

Remember, we tapped into Haunted Mansion at 10:40, so I knew we’d be out of the Haunted Mansion ride within 15 minutes, so I chose the closest time available, which was 10:55.  Well, that’s basically right after we were done with Haunted Mansion! I hit “save changes” and I already moved my second FastPass+ up by 25 minutes. 

After we exited Haunted Mansion, it was time for our Jungle Cruise FastPass+ reservation, just like I suspected. Remember, this was my second reservation of the day.  So, we headed over to the Jungle Cruise, and tapped into the Jungle Cruise at 11:05am. Our original FastPass+ reservation was for 11:20, so I’m already ahead of the game.  As soon as I tapped in, I immediately looked to see if I could “tap and change” the Pirates of the Caribbean Fast Pass.

The Pirates of the Caribbean was originally at 12:20pm, and the time was 11:05am.  When I looked, there was a FastPass+ available at 11:15am, so I grabbed that one!  I fast forwarded all the waiting around of the morning, and modified the system to our advantage.

As we headed to Pirates at 11:20, as soon as we clicked in with our Magic Bands, I pulled up the My Disney Experience app, and looked for our 4th FastPass+ of the day! Mad Tea Party was available at 11:45, so I grabbed that one. 

As soon as I was done with Pirates, I headed straight to Mad Tea Party, tapped in, open the app, grabbed another one. 

And that my friends, is how you beat the system! 

We originally started with FastPass+ reservations at 10:20, 11:20, and 12:20, meaning we had until 1:20pm to use the last pass.  Instead, we were done with all 3 Fast Passes in 90 minutes, and that freed us up to book Fast Passes one by one for the rest of the day! 

Please note:  Tap and Change doesn’t always work. It’s usually a bust during holidays, or at peak crowd level times.  I’ve had great success on moderate level crowd days, but when crowds are at their thickest, it rarely works.  I’m talking days like the weekend after Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, the middle of Spring Break type days. Other than that, it should be smooth sailing. Good luck using the Tap and Change strategy!