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NOTICE: FASTPASS+ Discontinued and Replaced
FastPass+ has been discontinued and replaced. To learn more about its replacement, Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, consult the following posts:
Original Post
In this post we discuss how to use FastPass+ successfully at Epcot in 2020, including the best rides for FastPass+ at Epcot and how Epcot FastPass+ should fit into your Walt Disney World planning. We cover what rides to pick, how to target the ones you miss, and some early tips for planning around the new Disney World Skyliner!
We suggest also reading our full Walt Disney World FastPass+ strategy for a complete understanding of the system. For our opinions on the rides, check out our Epcot rides and entertainment guide.
We also put all these thoughts and tips to work in our one-day Epcot itinerary. And you should always read our most recent Walt Disney World trip report to see the latest on how we’re using these strategies.
Important: Disney World Phased Reopening Notice
This topic is temporarily impacted by the ongoing phased reopening of Walt Disney World after its extended mid-2020 closure. We highly recommend you also visit our Walt Disney World Reopening Masterpost, where we highlight specific issues guests will face during this unique time.
FastPass+ is temporarily suspended during the initial reopening period. We don't know when or if it will return.
The Basics of Epcot FastPass+
Again, you’ll want to check out the full Walt Disney World FastPass+ strategy post to make sure you really understand FastPass+, but we want to give those of you who are just looking for the basics a quick introduction.
FastPass+ Allows You to “Skip the Lines” at Walt Disney World
With FastPass+, a person can book an hour window to come back to certain rides and skip the lines. Since waits for some rides at Epcot can get to three or more hours (even six hours on New Year's Eve), FastPass+ is an important part of planning your day at Epcot.
We’ve started putting “skip the lines” in quotes because you’ll usually still have some wait with FastPass+, it’s just much shorter than the regular wait. A long wait with FastPass+ might be a 20 minute wait for a ride that has standby waits of 100+ minutes.
You Can Book FastPass+ 30 or 60 Days In Advance
Guests at Disney hotels can book FastPass+ for their entire stay 60 days in advance of the first day of their stay. If you're not staying at a Disney hotel, you can book FastPass+ 30 days in advance. You can make bookings on the My Disney Experience app or online via the Disney website.
Advance Bookings Are Limited (And Go Fast)
When booking FastPass+ in advance, you can book three rides each day. Those three rides must be at the same park. At Epcot, you can book one Tier 1 attraction in advance and two Tier 2 attractions in advance (or three Tier 2 and no Tier 1). Tier 1 bookings often fill up 30 to 60 days in advance, though you'll see sporadic availability pop up even on the same day.
Tap / Grab / Modify Gets You The Most Out of FastPass+
Once you've used your three advance FastPass+ bookings, you can get new FastPass+ reservations throughout the day. You simply:
“Tap” your Mickey at the start of the line to use your last FastPass+
Open the My Disney Experience app on your cell phone and “Grab” a FastPass+ for the next ride you want to ride
“Modify” that FastPass+ to the best time you can find
Tap / Grab / Modify will keep you out of lines all day long.
FastPass+ During Special Events
FastPass+ is only available during regular park hours at Epcot. It is not available for special events held before or after regular park hours, like Extra Magic Hours.
Epcot FastPass Tier 1 Attractions
The 11 Epcot attractions are split into two Epcot FastPass tiers, four rides in Tier 1, seven rides in Tier 2. We'll start by discussing the Epcot FastPass Tier 1 attractions. When selecting your three advance reservations for Epcot, you can only pick one Tier 1 attraction. The four Tier 1 attractions at Epcot are:
Test Track
Frozen Ever After
Soarin’
Epcot Forever
Best Epcot Tier 1 FastPass: Frozen vs. Test Track
The choice between Frozen Ever After and Test Track for your Tier 1 FastPass+ at Epcot has been a close one for a few years. While we think Test Track is definitely the best choice for most people, there are a few necessary considerations.
Also, as covered in our Walt Disney World height requirements post, Soarin’ and Test Track both have 40” height requirements. You can read more about visiting Epcot with a toddler, if necessary.
Let’s also get out of the way that you’ll be okay with a FastPass+ for either Test Track or Frozen. But when it comes to choosing between Test Track and Frozen, there are a few questions to ask.
First, can all your kids ride Test Track? Test Track has a 40” height requirement, and if not all your kids are going to be on it, you might be better off using the single rider line or using your FastPass+ for Frozen.
Second, and very important—which entrance are you using? Guests coming via the Disney World Skyliner or from the Boardwalk area will enter the park via the World Showcase. The short of this is:
Guests coming from the World Showcase will strongly prefer a FastPass+ for Test Track and to start their morning with Frozen Ever After;
Guests coming from the main entrance will slightly prefer a FastPass+ for Test Track and to start their morning with Frozen Ever After;
Even with the Skyliner open, guests at Skyliner resorts can still bus to Epcot. We strongly encourage you to use the bus for rope drop if you don’t have a Test Track FastPass+.
So far, Skyliner crowds haven’t caused much of a problem for guests coming from the main entrance and starting at Frozen. It’s possible this will change, though, as more people become familiar with the system. We recommend checking recent Frozen Ever After wait times before your trip to see whether they’re spiking immediately to start the day.
Third, are you actually going to arrive at least 30 minutes before park open? Fifteen will probably work, but if you want to walk right onto Test Track, you’re going to need to be there early. If you can’t get there that early, then you’ll really be better off with a Test Track FastPass+.
The downside to having Test Track as your Tier 1 FastPass+ from the main entrance is you wind up having to walk all the way to Frozen in the morning and then back over to Future World. Then later in the day you’ll have to come back to Future World for your Test Track FastPass+.
Epcot Fastpass Tier 2 Attractions
Epcot has seven Tier 2 attractions. When making your advance reservations, you can reserve two of these (or three if you don't reserve a Tier 1 attraction). The seven attractions are:
Mission: SPACE
Spaceship Earth
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Living with the Land (recommended May 26 onward)
Pixar Short Film Festival
Journey Into Imagination With Figment
Turtle Talk with Crush
There's little to discuss here — Mission: SPACE and Spaceship Earth are the best rides to FastPass at Epcot with your Tier 2 slots.
Those rides are really the only two of the seven that get meaningful lines and for which you might (might) struggle to find a same-day FastPass. There's no reason to overthink this…well, there wasn’t at least…
Spaceship Earth is expected to enter a lengthy refurbishment at some time in 2020 or 2021. During that time, we recommend Living With the Land for your second Tier 2 FastPass+.
If you can book Frozen or Test Track about an hour after park open and book two of these afterwards, you're in a great position.
While the Epcot character spot used to be a part of FastPass+, it has been removed as part of the park’s ongoing construction. There are still plenty of opportunities to meet characters at Epcot, though, including a Mickey Meet & Greet.
Epcot Fastpass+ After Your First Three Reservations
While we always recommend using Disney's official, free My Disney Experience app to snag Fastpass+ reservations, the physical kiosks are located at:
At the character spot on the way to Future World West (the side with Soarin') (expected to undergo construction soon)
Next to Test Track
At the “back” (International Gateway) entrance to the park between the France and U.K. pavilions
We suggest checking the Walt Disney World website to confirm kiosk locations in case they change.
If you managed to put Frozen first, once you use it you can probably modify your second two reservations to speed up your day. This is especially true if you get off Frozen and the waits for Mission: SPACE and Spaceship Earth are short, as will often be the case. Epcot is a pretty easy park to cover.
If you want to avoid any lines, you can usually grab Epcot Fastpass Tier 2 reservations pretty easily throughout the day. Instead, we suggest walking around the World Showcase (or waiting in short lines) and checking the My Disney Experience app for bonus Epcot Fastpass Tier 1 reservations.
Epcot's World Showcase
Speaking of Epcot's World Showcase, what do you need to know about fitting it into your day? First of all, World Showcase usually opens a few hours after the park opens (hours vary by day). This means that you'll have time in the morning to knock out your rides before heading to World Showcase.
The only two attractions in the World Showcase with FastPass+ are the night time show, Epcot Forever, and Frozen Ever After.
There are 11 countries in the World Showcase. You can easily spend 30 minutes at each just meandering through. If you stop for snacks or drinks at each, you could spend an hour at each easily. We advocate for no less than five hours in the World Showcase.
If you're a first time Epcot visitor, we suggest prioritizing the main three Epcot FastPass Tier 1 attractions and Spaceship Earth, followed by the World Showcase, followed by the other attractions. This doesn't mean you have to do those four attractions before visiting the World Showcase, just that you should have a plan for visiting them before you embark on the a trip around the world.
Rope Drop at Epcot
We have a separate post covering Rope Drop at Epcot, but there are a few things worth highlighting here.
First, Epcot has two entrances. It’s important to understand that your rope drop experience can vary greatly depending on if you’re entering from the World Showcase instead of the main entrance.
Second, rope drop is mostly just about starting with either Frozen Ever After or Test Track—whichever you don’t have a FastPass+ for. Epcot is the least stressful of the four parks, but the Test Track line can get pretty long pretty quickly.
How To Fit Epcot In Your Walt Disney World Trip
Since you can only schedule advance FastPass+ reservations for one park on a day, you may wind up on a shorter trip needing to pick what parks to skip FastPass+ at (at least until you're at the park and can grab whatever FastPass+ slots are available). This is really only a problem for trips of fewer than five days. Anything five days or more and you want to give each park at least one day of advance FastPass+ slots.
If you won’t be in the parks for one day at each park, we have posts on two-day Disney World trips and three-day Disney World trips that discuss how you might efficiently divide your days (and FastPass+ reservations) across multiple parks.
This analysis is partly subjective, too. If riding Frozen is more important than anything else you'll do at Walt Disney World, prioritize Epcot as high as you'd like. (And if that’s the case, check out all the other Frozen things to do at Disney World.)
Through 2020, it will be best to prioritize all three other parks over Epcot. This means Epcot shouldn't get a FastPass+ day unless you have at least four days at the parks.
We’ll have to see exactly how the new Ratatouille attraction, coming summer 2020 shapes up, but we don’t expect it to shake the ground so much that you’d want to prioritize Epcot over the much bigger recent additions at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom (Pandora is still seeing huge demand after years of being open).
Finally, you can check out our post on Disney World crowd calendars, but we expect 2020 to be relatively mild at Epcot, even with the improvement coming to the park (including a Ratatouille ride in summer 2020).
Epcot 2020 Events
While not strictly relevant to your Epcot FastPass+ selection, you should know when Epcot will be having events that will draw higher crowds (you should always confirm these dates with the Disney website before planning around them):
January 17, 2020 through February 24, 2020 - Festival of the Arts
March 4, 2020 through June 1, 2020 - Flower and Garden Festival
(2019 Dates) August 29 to November 23 - Food & Wine Festival
(2019 Dates) November 29 to December 30 - International Festival of Holidays
Generally, you don't need a full strategy for FastPass+ planning around these events. Most festival goers aren’t too concerned with rides, and few are going to get there before 11AM. Your afternoon, however will see a bit longer lines once the festival crowds pick up. On a personal level, it’s up to you how much time you want to spend at a given festival versus ride hopping.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And at 180 days out it's time to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World FastPass+ strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom FastPass, Epcot FastPass, Animal Kingdom FastPass, and Hollywood Studios FastPass.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.