John, my family uses the fast passes more than I do at EPCOT. Sometimes they will sign me up for some. A typical day for me at EPCOT is to arrive mid morning, perhaps about 9 to 10 AM, with the "Ball" just inside the gates, it will be the first ride I do, 15 to 20 minutes usually, then walk on back toward the lake and off toward the right to Living with the Land. There I will ride the boat tour through the greenhouses, then up to the Figment ride, probably has some other real name.
By this time it is lunch time, so I tend to prefer the Mexican building, great food, friendly people working there, have lunch and often do the short boat ride inside. My wife and daughters often go to the cafe at France. If my grandsons are withe me, ages 11 and 12, we will head over to the Test Track, sometimes I ride, other times I find a comfortable bench and wait for them, spending my time people watching. From there I like the Ellen Energy ride.
If we are still there at dinner time, we will have made reservations at the restaurant in Japan and soon the light show over/on the lake takes place. Most trips we will do Soarin, Finding Nemo, having free Coke products from around the world, etc. Just never had a problem keeping busy and I often like to ride the ball a second time as I am leaving the park.
Check out time at the Fort is at 11:00 AM so when we pull out of there, we often go over to EPCOT to park in the RV area and spend the afternoon there. If we are staying off property, such as at Tropical Palms Campgrounds, a nice place, we will normally drive to EPCOT and park, as it is only about a 10 minute drive from the campground. Even if we aren't going to EPCOT, we will park there and hop on the monorail or bus system to get to the park of our choice for the day.
What having a fast pass does is allow you to have "cuts" on the line at rides. Not all rides have them but they give you a window of time that they can be used and they do help, those that have the FPs, but not those waiting in line. LOL The lines for the different rides will have a time sign as to how long they are estimating the wait will be and there will be two signed lines, one regular and for for Fast Passes only. If the regular line at Soarin is say one hour, having a FP will cut your time in line to probably half or less of that time waiting.
on Edit: The one fee gets you into the park of your choice and all the rides, etc inside. Disney is doing away with most paper/plastic tickets and going to what they call a "Magic Band" which you wear on your wrist like a watch. It is your "ticket" to everything, a key to your hotel room if you are staying on property, your fast passes, etc. It is being used to track me to know when to take my photo on a ride and then automatically put the photo on my app, Mydisneyexperience. With WDWs computer system being so sophisticated, there is no telling what all they are really doing with the info the bands are collecting. LOL
