We Purchased Multi-Pass and it Didn’t Go As Planned
When Disney launched its new Multi-Pass and Single-Pass system back in July, I studied several YouTube videos and blog posts about the best ways to maximize the system for our upcoming trip in October. Since we were only spending one day at the parks, I knew we needed to have all of our attractions planned out ahead of time, ensuring that everybody could enjoy the rides they wanted. I wanted Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Dad wanted Tron Lightcycle Run, and DS wanted Rise of the Resistance. All of these attractions would be fairly easy to obtain since they were all Single-Pass options and weren’t as in demand as the popular Multi-Pass attractions, so I wasn’t stressed when planning for our seven-day reservation window to open (we were resort guests).
But then my DD picked the one ride that would throw a wrench into our entire schedule—Slinky Dog Dash. She had loved that ride on our last trip two years prior and was excited to ride it again. It was the ONLY ride she would talk about in the weeks leading up to our trip. What seemed like a simple request quickly turned into a scheduling nightmare, as Slinky Dog Dash is currently the most coveted and difficult attraction to secure on Multi-Pass. As a people-pleasing mother who strives to satisfy my children’s every request, I braced myself for a stressful Multi-Pass selection day.
Seven days prior to our check-in day, I woke up thirty minutes before the 7 AM EST window opened. I had my family’s list of top priorities ready and prepared my fingers for a lightning-fast selection process on my phone. I watched the world clock countdown: 6:59:57… 6:59:58… 6:59:59… 7:00:00… GO TIME. To my excitement, Slinky Dog Dash was available! I quickly clicked on it and picked two random tier-two selections to go with it so that I wouldn’t risk losing it. As I hit ‘continue,’ my heart sank. Slinky Dog Dash was no longer available. In a matter of seconds, all passes for that day were already claimed. I felt frustrated and heartbroken. I could already hear my DD's disappointment when she found out that we probably wouldn’t be able to ride it (because we all know waiting in standby is not an option).
Forced to go with Plan B, I ended up with Alien Swirling Saucers from 12:30-1:30 PM, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway from 1:30-2:30 PM, and Toy Story Mania from 6:50-7:50 PM. I also secured Tron from 5:45-6:45 PM and Guardians from 7:30-8:30 PM. I didn’t get a Single-Pass for Rise because all of the available time slots conflicted with our other passes, and I didn’t feel like spending another $50 for just Dad and DS to ride it. Moreover, I wasn’t happy with these time slots. Our plan was to park hop to all four parks in one day, and I didn’t like that our first pass wasn’t until 12:30, leaving us a short window to get from Tron to Guardians before needing to make our way back to Hollywood Studios for Toy Story Mania. So, I sat for another hour trying to modify the times.
While I still didn’t get my ideal schedule, I managed to make it more conducive to what we wanted to do. I got Frozen Ever After from 9:05-9:20 AM (our burner attraction just to open up our first new Multi-Pass slot), Mickey & Minnie’s from 10:10-11:10 AM, Guardians from 1:55-2:55 PM, Tron from 5:45-6:45 PM, and Toy Story Mania from 6:50-7:50 PM. This way, we’d do early entry at Animal Kingdom (DS wanted to see Pandora and ride Na'vi River Journey), head to Hollywood Studios at 9 AM for the rest of the morning, go next door to EPCOT mid-afternoon for Guardians, spend the evening at Magic Kingdom, and then finish the night back at Hollywood Studios with the 9:30 PM showing of Fantasmic.
Throughout the week leading up to our check-in day, I kept checking back to see if I could continue modifying our Multi-Pass selections. I noticed that between six and four days out, there was more availability than there was seven days out (once the three-day-out window started, though, the majority of passes were gone). I was even able to switch Mickey & Minnie’s for Slinky Dog Dash. Yes, that’s right—even though it was sold out seven days out, it became available again four to five days out with several time slots open. So, I secured our final Multi-Pass schedule: Tower of Terror at 9:00-10:00 AM, Alien Swirling Saucers at 10:10-11:10 AM, Slinky Dog Dash at 11:35-12:35 PM, Guardians at 1:55-2:55 PM, and Tron at 5:45-6:45 PM. I was finally satisfied and felt that Multi-Pass was worth it.
Fast forward to the morning of our park day when we’re heading into Hollywood Studios to use our first pass. I knew that my DS and DD weren’t going to ride Tower of Terror so the plan was for myself and Dad to take turns riding it, but to save time Dad waited with the kids and I was the only one to ride it. As soon as I tapped in at the second touchpoint, I selected a new Multi-Pass selection for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at 3:05-4:05 PM. Now, I knew that this time slot wasn’t going to work because we’d be at EPCOT, so I kept refreshing on our way to Alien Swirling Saucers to hopefully get an earlier time (spoiler alert: I never saw an earlier time pop up).
This is when everything took a turn. My DD, who had only been talking about how much she wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash, decided at this moment that she no longer wanted to ride it. Not only that, but she also refused to ride Alien Swirling Saucers and said that she didn’t want to do Mickey & Minnie’s either. I couldn’t help but laugh. All of the stress and preparation trying to secure a Multi-Pass for Slinky Dog Dash and working our entire day around our three initial selections at Hollywood Studios, had been for nothing. Sitting on the ground outside of the Toy Story Land bathrooms, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, gave her a hug, and said that it was okay if she didn’t want to ride. So Dad and DS rode Alien Swirling Saucers while DD and I went to the Disney Junior Play and Dance.
Even though I knew we weren’t going to ride Slinky Dog (DS doesn’t like roller coasters and Dad and I didn’t care to take turns riding by ourselves), I still kept the passes because I knew if I modified them to a different attraction, Slinky Dog would never become available again if DD changed her mind later on. Turns out, Slinky Dog went down during our return time so we were granted redemption passes to use at select attractions. Dad and DS did Smugglers Run while DD and I did the Frozen Sing Along and met characters.
After that, I secured a few Multi-Pass experiences at Magic Kingdom including Tomorrowland Speedway, Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and Dumbo. Then we just called it a day on Multi-Pass. So in total, for a family of four we spent $104 to skip the line at only seven attractions. We purchased Multi-Pass because we planned to do several rides at each park, but didn’t anticipate that DD would change her mind and not want to ride the attractions we planned for. In my opinion, it wasn’t worth it to get Multi-Pass, especially since most of the less popular rides we went on didn’t have long enough stand-bys to justify skipping the lines.
Final Thoughts on Multi-Pass:
Limited availability seven days out, but had more availability six to four days out, and then nearly no availability three days out.
Don’t like that you’re stuck with your starter park when preselecting and can’t modify which park you want to start at (i.e. If we had known that DD wasn’t going to ride Slinky Dog Dash, we would’ve prioritized rides at Magic Kingdom first rather than Hollywood Studios).
Isn’t ideal if trying to park hop to more than two parks since time slots were limited on the day of park visit.
Not worth the price if riding less popular/filler attractions with low standby times rather than E-ticket rides with higher wait times.
