Should your scheduled FastPass+ experience be canceled due to weather, technical difficulties, or other issues on the day of, you should receive an email like the following:
I was surprised to see Anna and Elsa as a replacement for Festival of Fantasy, since it’s the most difficult and sought after FP+ experience. I looked into it and it turns out that the replacement options offered are set based on the canceled experience and not based on availability or time of day. So if your Festival of Fantasy FP+ is canceled, the replacement options shown will always be the same.
If your Test Track FastPass+ is canceled, these are the alternatives:
Note that it includes every FP+ attraction other than Soarin’ or IllumiNations, which are not offered as replacements for Test Track regardless of party size, time of day, or current availability.
Magic Kingdom
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – Mine Collection:
- Barnstormer
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Haunted Mansion
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Splash Mountain
- Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid
So if your Seven Dwarfs Mine Train FP+ is canceled, these are the replacements, or as Disney calls them, “Recoveries.” Note that the Mine Train is never a replacement for any attraction other than the Mine Train.
Enchanted Tales with Belle – Enchanted Collection:
- Ariel’s Grotto
- Dumbo Flying Elephant
- Enchanted Tales with Belle
- Princess Fairytale Hall Anna and Elsa
- Princess Fairytale Hall Cinderella and Rapunzel
- Town Square Mickey
- Town Square Tinker Bell
- Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid
Enchanted Tales is virtually never down.
Ariel’s Grotto, Festival of Fantasy Parade, Princess Fairytale Hall Anna and Elsa, Princess Fairytale Hall Cinderella and Rapunzel, Town Square Mickey, Town Square Tinker Bell – Character Collection:
- Ariel’s Grotto
- Dumbo Flying Elephant
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Princess Fairytale Hall Anna and Elsa
- Princess Fairytale Hall Cinderella and Rapunzel
- Town Square Mickey
- Town Square Tinker Bell
- Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid
The only difference is this one includes Peter Pan’s Flight instead of Enchanted Tales with Belle. Of these, the only one that can really be unavailable is Festival of Fantasy.
Barnstormer, Dumbo , it’s a small world, Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Peter Pan’s Flight, Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid – Classic Collection:
- Barnstormer
- Dumbo
- it’s a small world
- Mad Tea Party
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid
Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean – Quest Collection:
- Haunted Mansion
- it’s a small world
- Jungle Cruise
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Tomorrowland Speedway – Thrill Collection:
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Haunted Mansion
- Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Space Mountain
- Splash Mountain
- Tomorrowland Speedway
When Monsters Inc. asks for jokes to be texted in, you could tell them Disney groups Tomorrowland Speedway in the Thrills Collection.
Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes – Quest Collection:
- If the Electrical Parade or Wishes is scheduled at Park close and is canceled, you receive a FP+ at any Park, any attraction, next day. If it’s the first Electrical Parade or not at Park close, you’ll get:
- Haunted Mansion
- it’s a small world
- Jungle Cruise
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid
The Electrical Parade is canceled due to poor weather. Wishes may be delayed, but is very rarely canceled outright.
Any attraction running through Park close that is unavailable during that time slot:
- Any attraction, any Park, next day.
So if you have a FastPass+ for Test Track from 8pm to 9pm and it’s down, you’ll receive a credit to use an additional FastPass+ on the next day at any Park at any time.
Epcot
Captain EO, Character Spot, Journey into Imagination with Figment, Living with the Land, Maelstrom, Mission: SPACE, Seas with Nemo and Friends, Spaceship Earth, Turtle Talk with Crush – Discovery Collection:
- Captain EO
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Living with the Land
- Maelstrom
- Mission: SPACE
- Seas with Nemo and Friends
- Spaceship Earth
Interestingly, Character Spot and Turtle Talk with Crush are not replacements, even for themselves.
Soarin’ – Soarin’ Collection
- Captain EO
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Living with the Land
- Maelstrom
- Mission: SPACE
- Seas with Nemo and Friends
- Soarin’
- Spaceship Earth
You won’t get Test Track as a replacement.
Test Track – Test Track Collection:
- Captain EO
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Living with the Land
- Maelstrom
- Mission: SPACE
- Seas with Nemo and Friends
- Spaceship Earth
- Test Track
You won’t get Soarin’ as a replacement.
IllumiNations:
- Any Park, any attraction, next day.
IllumiNations is virtually never canceled in its entirety.
Hollywood Studios
Great Movie Ride, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Lights Motors Action Extreme Stunt Show, Muppet Vision 3D, Star Tours – Lights Collection:
- Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
- Great Movie Ride
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
- Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show
- Muppet Vision 3D
- Star Tours
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, Disney Jr. Live on Stage, Voyage of the Little Mermaid – Camera Collection:
- Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
- Disney Jr. Live on Stage
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
- Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show
- Muppet Vision 3D
- Star Tours
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Disney Jr. Live on Stage replaces Great Movie Ride.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror – Action Collection:
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
- Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show
- Muppet Vision 3D
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Star Tours
- Tower of Terror
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid
No Toy Story Mania.
Toy Story Mania – Mania collection:
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
- Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show
- Muppet Vision 3D
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Star Tours
- Tower of Terror
- Toy Story Mania
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Here you get Toy Story, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror but no Great Movie Ride.
Fantasmic – Fantasmic Collection
- If Fantasmic is scheduled at or after Park close and is canceled, you receive a FastPass+ for any attraction, any Park, next day. If it isn’t at Park close, you receive:
- Fantasmic
- Great Movie Ride
- Muppet Vision 3D
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Star Tours
- Tower of Terror
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Animal Kingdom
Every attraction is a replacement for every other attraction, so no matter which gets canceled, your replacement options are:
- Adventurers Outpost
- Dinosaur
- Expedition Everest
- Festival of the Lion King
- Finding Nemo, the Musical
- It’s Tough to Be A Bug
- Kali River Rapids
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Primeval Whirl
That’s what you can expect to see given downtime.
Awesome post.
Thank you.
This is nice to know. Kind of stinks that if your Test Track or Soarin’ reservation gets cancelled that you can’t replace it with the other. I would think if you have a Tier 1 ride scheduled you should be able to replace it with any other ride from that same tier.
It’s a capacity game. If Test Track is down for an extended period and Soarin’ was offered as a replacement, you’d be getting thousands of people headed to Soarin’ and the attraction just can’t move through that many more people successfully.
We just had this happen this weekend when Big Thunder Mountain went down for a while. It was nice to have a “freebie” that we could use later in the day at any time.
Yeah I remember prior to FP+ deployment, there were a lot of “rumors” swirling about how downtime would be handled. Being given the opportunity to return to the attraction that was down at any time later in the day once it goes back up is nice. And you’ve got some alternatives in case the attraction doesn’t go back up or it’s inconvenient to return to later in the day.
Impressive and good to know. Although it still doesn’t answer your initial question, which seems to have inspired all this work: “Why do they include Anna and Elsa as a replacement for the FoF parade?”
Is it simply because A&E are in the parade (regardless of any considerations of FP availability or impact on standby lines)?
What do you do if you don’t have a “smart” phone and cannot receive e-mails while in the Parks??
Festival of Fantasy has a limited number of FP+ users and I would imagine dispersing a relatively few number of people over several attractions for 4+ hours doesn’t negatively affect Anna/Elsa FP+ wait times. But it might also explain why there is occasionally a long FP+ line there. And of course, whoever made the decision to include Anna/Elsa may simply not know what they’re doing.
If you don’t have a “smart” phone, you can theoretically visit the service center or kiosk to check on your FP+. But realistically you probably wouldn’t find out your attraction was unavailable until you arrived there.
Is it bad that I now want to move one of my fast passes to the end of the day hoping for a cancellation and therefore a freebie to A&E?
So Test Track is a replacement option for Test Track…Good to know!
Interesting…we were at MK on 8/31/14 and had FP+for Festival of Fantasy and didn’t receive that email to my knowledge. That said, we had already tapped our Mickey bands and “redeemed” the FP+. Even though the parade got rained out.
That’s odd, Space mountain was not listed as a replacement for any Magic Kingdom collection. Is this an error, or a recent change? When I went back in May/June, Space Mountain was an available selection when any of the thrill rides went down.
So, if I go to MK and Wishes gets canceled at park close do I automatically get the FP for the next day or do I have to stop by guest services? What if we have already left for the day?
MrsNick-I had the same experience, redeemed the fp but then the parade was cancelled. I didn’t get the email but the CM at the parade viewing location said even if we didn’t get the email we could check with the CM at the fp kiosk to get the list of replacement attractions. But then the line at the kiosk was so long we just went to the fp entrance at jungle cruise, explained the situation and the CM let us ride, even though it turned out jungle cruise wasn’t officially on the replacement list. No idea if they are usually this flexible or if we were just lucky.
When test track was down most of the day and during my fp window I also didn’t get an email. So I headed to a kiosk to try and figure out what could be substituted. did not find the kiosk CM all that helpful but I think they were getting inundated with requests for soarin as a substitute, which they couldn’t do. There really wasn’t much else that was worth substituting.
We were at MK the first week of June and SDMT was down a lot. It was down at our FP time and we were told this and then received an email and a note on MDE however given that it was new ride we really wanted to ride it. We waited until we saw it running again and got in the FP line and it worked fine. We were given the option of using a FP the next day even at a different park.
Really good info!
So if you can’t get those elusive A&E FPs, just book FoF for a stretch when the weather looks bad and hope for the best!
I got this email at 10:10 Wednesday night, 10 minutes after MK closed.
We’re sorry, your previously confirmed FastPass+ selection for Main Street Electrical Parade from 8:40 PM to 9:00 PM on 09/03/2014 needs to be changed because the experience is temporarily unavailable.
As a replacement, you may now visit any one of our other Walt Disney World Theme Park FastPass+ experiences* any time during normal Theme Park operating hours. Valid Theme Park admission is required and your FastPass+ selection cannot be redeemed during Extra Magic Hours and expires on 09/04/2014.
There is no action needed to select the experience in advance, just arrive at the entrance to one of the FastPass+ experiences and touch your MagicBand to enter!
*Note that you may be able to still experience your selection for Main Street Electrical Parade if it becomes available again, unless you opt to visit one of the other FastPass+ experiences.
It’s useful you still ge the same attraction for the rest of the day too – 7DMT went down for a thunderstorm on 08/29 so I got a replecement FP+, but because the replacement was for the rest of the day we used it later when it reopened.
It will certainly depend on the cast member, but if what you’re looking for as a replacement isn’t alread hugely backed up or super popular, they may let you use your replacement at something that isn’t on the approved list. We were there on 8/29 and had FP+ for 7DMT, but it went down as soon as the rain started. We knew we weren’t staying late that night, so two of our party went and used it a Pirates, which is on the list. I took two of my daughter to visit Ariel, and even though she isn’t on the list (and one cast member even asked the other “can she do that” when I explained that 7DMT was down for our FP+ window), the CM let us through. Maybe we looked just soggy and pathetic enough, or maybe it was because there were no other FP+ users in that queue, btu she let us in!
Is Maelstrom still an attraction that takes Fast pass+? I will be there in November, but didn’t see it as an option when making my selections. Also, I was on at midnight, but it wouldn’t let me start making selections. Logged out and back in and then it was fine, but it was only 12:02 to probably 12:08 and Anna and Elsa was unavailable for all 4 days that I checked!!
A belated super thank you to Josh for this post!
We were at Magic Kingdom today. At around 2:45pm it started to rain. A bunch of FoF FP+s suddenly became available as presumably a lot of people were switching out. I grabbed some quickly.
As expected, about 15 minutes later the parade was announced as cancelled. I didn’t get an email but MDE showed the replacement alternatives as above.
So we used the FPs to go see Anna and Elsa… the kids were thrilled by this unexpected surprise!