First up is the Facility Card, which is often referred to as the ‘Access Card.’ It looks like this:

Except that yours will have a picture of you in the top right corner, rather than an endless void. A Facility Card allows you to access rides without waiting in the regular queue, instead providing you with the ability to ‘reserve’ a time on a single ride (well, one at a time) equivalent to the current wait time for that ride.

How it Works

Knowing that isn’t going to be an option for you, you head over to the Premier Access line (though as we’ll see later, this isn’t always where you’ll go for each ride – but it is for Star Tours!) and talk to the Cast Member at the start of the line. You show the Cast Member your Facility Card, and they will ask you for your Reservation Card. Your Reservation Card looks like this:

Put another way, say you wanted to experience Star Tours. Well, you’d be wise, as that is a fun ride! But, standing in the queue for 45 minutes isn’t something that you’re capable of. The good news is that you’ve already secured your Facility Card, so you have options! With your Facility Card in hand, you walk up to the entrance of Star Tours, and notice that the estimated wait time (which is usually located on a digital board above the entrance itself) is 45 minutes.

Anyway, back to our example.

The Cast Member will take your Reservation Card and write all over it. Specifically, they will write down the name of the ride itself (Star Tours), the current time (say, 1400), the return time, (which would be 1445), and their signature. This is an excellent way to judge the penmanship of the various Cast Members, all of whom have better handwriting than I do. Then, you can go do something else for 45 minutes! Have a snack. Take a rest. You could even go and watch a parade or go on another ride, if the timing works out. Your time is yours until 1445. At the appointed time, you return to the Premier Access line and show the Cast Member your Facility Card and your Reservation Card. They then will cross out the entry that was just made (indicating you’ve used your reservation) and invite you to enter the Premier Access line. Then, you travel down that line until you get to go on your tour of the stars! There may be a short line to wait in at that point, but it will be far less than the 45 minutes that you would have queued without the Facility Card. After your intergalactic adventure, you can choose a new ride (or the same ride, if you want) to reserve a time for.