Is Disney's Fastpass free with your admission ticket?

or is it just for hotel guests

and when is the best time to get a fastpass for a ride?

Fastpasses are free to anyone who has a ticket. You need your ticket inorder to use fastpasses. Place your admission ticket into the slot of the fastpass kiosks and it will spit out a piece of paper with a time slot for your return to go on that particular ride. Once you come back, during your ride time, you and your party will automatically go through the fastpass line where a castmember will take your fastpass paper from you. The wait is usually around 5-15 minutes depending on the ride and how crowded it is. We love using fastpasses, it really helps with crowd control. Have fun.

If it's like it was the last time I went, the fastpasses are for anybody that wants them, and yes, they are free. They are only available for attractions that tend to have long (very long) wait times. You go to the fastpass thing and get a fastpass that tells you when to return to that attraction and you get priority when you get there. It's similar to "take a number." Basically you save a spot in line without actually being in line. You are free to go do other things in the meantime.

fast passes are FREE as long as you paid your way into any of the 4 amusement parks

Correct, Fastpasses are free. You just put your ticket in the machine to get a Fastpass. You will have to put in everybody's ticket in your party individually and get a Fastpass for each person. When your Fastpass prints, it will show you when you need to return to ride. It will also show you when you can get another Fastpass; you can't go from ride to ride and get a bunch at once. There is a time limit in between passes, but this varies depending on crowds.

Yes, it's include in your admission ticket.

Fastpass is free if you have admission ticket, whether you stay on property there or not. If you are unable to get fast passes for some reason try going on rides and attractions when there is a parade going on or fireworks going on-while everyone is watching parade or fireworks you can usually go on the rides with shorter wait times.

Free with your admission ticket.

Fastpass rides:

Magic Kingdom:
Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Peter Pan's Flight, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, "Mickey's PhilharMagic;" Stitch's Great Escape!

Epcot:
Test Track, "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience," Living With The Land, Maelstrom, Mission: SPACE, Soarin'

Disney-MGM Studios:
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, The Twilight Zone鈩?Tower of Terror, Star Tours, "Voyage of the Little Mermaid," "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!"

Disney's Animal Kingdom:
DINOSAUR, Kali River Rapids, Kilimanjaro Safaris, "It's Tough to be a Bug," Primeval Whirl, Expedition Everest

How Effective is Fast Pass?

Very.

Let's say a ride has a capacity of 1000 guests per hour and the park is open "9 to 9". During these 12 hours approximately 12000 guests can ride and that is it. Before Fast Pass, if the average wait was one hour then people that day spent 12000 hours altogether waiting in line for that ride. That was easy to compute. By the way 12000 hours is about 16-1/2 months or almost 1-1/2 years. And it was repeated the next day and the next.

Now suppose that three Fast Pass riders were admitted for every one regular (standby) rider. This means that of the 12000 riders that day, 9000 of them had Fast Passes. Let's say that Fast Pass forced the regular riders to wait on average 1-1/2 hours each instead of 1 hour while Fast Pass riders didn't wait at all. So we have 9000 people who did not spend any time waiting and 3000 riders who waited an average of 1-1/2 hours each for a total wait of 4500 hours. That is about six months of waiting compared with 16 months without Fast Pass. Thus Fast Pass saved ten months of standing in line!

Someone on "The Dis" (disboards.com) suggested that instead of three Fast Pass riders for every one regular rider it should be the other way around, one Fast Pass rider for every three regular riders. That would mean that the 1000 guests-per-hour ride would have only 250 Fast Passes per hour, or 3000 passes issued between the (hypothetical example of) 9 AM opening and 9 PM closing (or earlier if the machines ran out sooner). The 3000 Fast Pass riders would suffer no wait while the 9000 regular riders wait the same way as before Fast Pass was invented, which was one hour. (Remember that at 1000 riders per hour only 12000 lucky souls get to ride at all that day.) The total time spent in line is 9000 hours or slightly over one year. This is twice as much waiting compared with three Fast Pass riders for every one regular rider.

OK, OK, Fast Pass riders really didn't escape waiting. After all they had to spend some time fetching the Fast Pass from the machines, and also the Fast Pass line sometimes backs up. Let's say that on average, each Fast Pass rider invested 15 minutes including the time waiting to ride. So 9000 people with Fast Passes (3 to 1 ratio) cumulatively consumed 2250 hours while the 3000 people without Fast Passes cumulatively waited 4500 hours for a total of 6750 hours or about nine months. Still a daily savings of seven months off of the 16 months of waiting before Fast Pass was invented.

I doubt if a 40:1 let alone a 100:1 ratio of Fast Pass guests to regular guests was sustained for any prolonged period other than following an unexpected ride shutdown. If such an event lasted for an hour and the ride could handle 2000 guests per hour, someone standing at the end of a regular line no more than the length of two city buses (or two Disney buses) would suffer more than an hour's wait.

The fastpass is available to anyone who has a valid ticket to the park. You don't have to be a resort guest to get a fast pass, however if you are visiting Disney the best way (and in many cases the most economical way) to visit Disney is to be a resort guest. You get so many perks it is silly, plus you are able to take advantage of the Disney Dining plan, a huge money saver! So to answer your question, no you don't have to be a resort guest, but why wouldn't you want to be?

YES! They are free with admission to any of the 4 Theme Parks. Just go up to the FASTPASS kiosk and slide your ticket in, and that's all! They're a lifesaver on busy days.