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Additional Disney FASTPASS Locations and New Disney MaxPass Coming to Disneyland Resort
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
Yeah... the fee is pretty ridiculous especially when you consider they are offering a far more robust system back east for free. Perhaps they're charging the fee now just to keep the load light as they work out the kinks, but if that was the case, I'd imagine they would have just done some kind of AP test group for free instead. Yikes, really not cool.
Earl Sweatpants
Well-Known Member
I realize this approach doesn't work for families and, well, older people, but I actually learned a little secret to getting on rides faster...
You don't need a fastpass at all, you just need to stay at the park until it closes. In a thirty minute span (approx 11:15-11:45pm), we were able to go on Pirates, HM, and Indy. A ridiculous timespan in which, during the day, we would have easily spent queueing up for just one of them. And when we were done, the park was quiet, peaceful, and we really enjoyed leisurely strolls everywhere, especially back down main street.
Oh...and its FREE!
You don't need a fastpass at all, you just need to stay at the park until it closes. In a thirty minute span (approx 11:15-11:45pm), we were able to go on Pirates, HM, and Indy. A ridiculous timespan in which, during the day, we would have easily spent queueing up for just one of them. And when we were done, the park was quiet, peaceful, and we really enjoyed leisurely strolls everywhere, especially back down main street.
Oh...and its FREE!
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
Also two minutes before closing, get in the longest ride line you can find.
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
I've actually done this before, on my most recent trip actually. We did Mansion, Thunder, Indy, Space, and Jungle Cruise, all in less than one hour, towards closing time.
Disneyland expands Fastpass, debuts MaxPass
Just published on MousePlanet:
Almost two decades after Disney debuted the Fastpass program, the service is about to undergo a two-phase transformation at the Disneyland Resort. The first phase is the welcome addition of two additional rides to the Fastpass system Toy Story Mania in Disney California Adventure and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in Disneyland.
With this change, the list of Fastpass attractions at each park is as follows, though some are only offered seasonally:
Disneyland
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Haunted Mansion [Holiday]
Indiana Jones Adventure
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
[Hyper] Space Mountain [Ghost Galaxy]
Splash Mountain
Star Tours The Adventures Continue
Disney California Adventure
California Screamin'
Goofy's Sky School
Grizzly River Run
Radiator Springs Racers
Soarin' Around the World
Toy Story Mania
The second phase launches later this year, and has the potential to change the way you use the Fastpass system. The new program is called Disney's MaxPass, and it bundles the existing PhotoPass product with a still-in-development digital Fastpass tool in the Disneyland mobile app.
MaxPass includes unlimited downloads of PhotoPass photos taken each day the entitlement is valid. It also allows visitors to collect and redeem FastPass tickets using the app, instead of collecting paper FastPass tickets.
Visitors can add Disney's MaxPass to their theme park tickets for $10 per ticket, per day. Users can choose to purchase the MaxPass for their entire length of stay, or for one or more days. Annual passholders will also be able to purchase MaxPass by the day, or add it to their pass for the year, though pricing has not yet been finalized.
The standard Fastpass system will still be available at no charge to visitors who do not purchase the MaxPass product.
While this is a change for Disneyland's Fastpass system, this is not the west coast implementation of Fastpass+ as some rumors have suggested, nor should you expect to be outfitted with a Magic Band anytime soon. Fastpass may be getting a shiny new digital interface, but the nuts and bolts of the program remain the same.
Unlike the Fastpass+ system at Walt Disney World, the MaxPass system does not allow users to select Fastpasses months, weeks or even days in advance. This is still a same-day program, and users must activate the entitlement on the day they visit the park.
Nor can users make Fastpass selections from home before even heading to the parks. Visitors must be inside a theme park to collect a digital Fastpass to use the same day, though MaxPass users need not walk to their selected attraction to claim a Fastpass ticket. A MaxPass user can walk onto Main Street, U.S.A. and claim a Fastpass for Splash Mountain if they want, without ever stepping foot in Critter Country. The MaxPass app also allows users to claim a Fastpass for a ride in the other theme park, so a user in Disneyland could claim a Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers before park hopping.
Regardless of how they obtain their Fastpass, users are still subject to the same policies. Tickets are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis. Users can generally not obtain another Fastpass until two hours after they obtain the first Fastpass, or at the end of the return window of the first Fastpass, whichever comes first.
When it comes time to ride, MaxPass users will likely scan a barcode displayed from the screen of their app at a new portal installed at the Fastpass return gate. Paper Fastpass ticket holders will scan the barcode on their ticket to access the return queue. Disney has been testing these portals at various times for well over a year, and recent building permits issued indicate that installation is ready to proceed.
There are still so many details we don't know about MaxPass, and Disney acknowledges the product is still under development. We don't know if entertainment Fastpass like World of Color or Fantasmic can be collected using the app. We don't know if parents can claim and redeem Fastpass tickets for their children using one mobile device, or if one member of a party can manage Fastpass tickets for the entire party. We don't know if the app will allow you to cancel a previously-collected Fastpass if you change your mind, possibly freeing you up to collect another Fastpass more quickly.
The $10 per ticket, per day price point for day guests is intriguing, if only because that is $29 less than the cost of the Disney PhotoPass+ One Day product currently offered. Setting aside for the moment any discussion of the Fastpass element, it's cheaper to add MaxPass onto one member of the party just to receive the PhotoPass benefit.
As for the Fastpass benefit, it's really hard to say right now if that alone is worth the added cost. Signature and Premier passholders who already receive PhotoPass downloads as part of the price of their annual pass will especially want to look at the final pricing for passholders, and decide of the Fastpass benefit alone is worth the add-on cost.
MousePlanet will continue to follow this new product as Disney provides more details about the MaxPass.
Just published on MousePlanet:
Almost two decades after Disney debuted the Fastpass program, the service is about to undergo a two-phase transformation at the Disneyland Resort. The first phase is the welcome addition of two additional rides to the Fastpass system Toy Story Mania in Disney California Adventure and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in Disneyland.
With this change, the list of Fastpass attractions at each park is as follows, though some are only offered seasonally:
Disneyland
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Haunted Mansion [Holiday]
Indiana Jones Adventure
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
[Hyper] Space Mountain [Ghost Galaxy]
Splash Mountain
Star Tours The Adventures Continue
Disney California Adventure
California Screamin'
Goofy's Sky School
Grizzly River Run
Radiator Springs Racers
Soarin' Around the World
Toy Story Mania
The second phase launches later this year, and has the potential to change the way you use the Fastpass system. The new program is called Disney's MaxPass, and it bundles the existing PhotoPass product with a still-in-development digital Fastpass tool in the Disneyland mobile app.
MaxPass includes unlimited downloads of PhotoPass photos taken each day the entitlement is valid. It also allows visitors to collect and redeem FastPass tickets using the app, instead of collecting paper FastPass tickets.
Visitors can add Disney's MaxPass to their theme park tickets for $10 per ticket, per day. Users can choose to purchase the MaxPass for their entire length of stay, or for one or more days. Annual passholders will also be able to purchase MaxPass by the day, or add it to their pass for the year, though pricing has not yet been finalized.
The standard Fastpass system will still be available at no charge to visitors who do not purchase the MaxPass product.
While this is a change for Disneyland's Fastpass system, this is not the west coast implementation of Fastpass+ as some rumors have suggested, nor should you expect to be outfitted with a Magic Band anytime soon. Fastpass may be getting a shiny new digital interface, but the nuts and bolts of the program remain the same.
Unlike the Fastpass+ system at Walt Disney World, the MaxPass system does not allow users to select Fastpasses months, weeks or even days in advance. This is still a same-day program, and users must activate the entitlement on the day they visit the park.
Nor can users make Fastpass selections from home before even heading to the parks. Visitors must be inside a theme park to collect a digital Fastpass to use the same day, though MaxPass users need not walk to their selected attraction to claim a Fastpass ticket. A MaxPass user can walk onto Main Street, U.S.A. and claim a Fastpass for Splash Mountain if they want, without ever stepping foot in Critter Country. The MaxPass app also allows users to claim a Fastpass for a ride in the other theme park, so a user in Disneyland could claim a Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers before park hopping.
Regardless of how they obtain their Fastpass, users are still subject to the same policies. Tickets are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis. Users can generally not obtain another Fastpass until two hours after they obtain the first Fastpass, or at the end of the return window of the first Fastpass, whichever comes first.
When it comes time to ride, MaxPass users will likely scan a barcode displayed from the screen of their app at a new portal installed at the Fastpass return gate. Paper Fastpass ticket holders will scan the barcode on their ticket to access the return queue. Disney has been testing these portals at various times for well over a year, and recent building permits issued indicate that installation is ready to proceed.
There are still so many details we don't know about MaxPass, and Disney acknowledges the product is still under development. We don't know if entertainment Fastpass like World of Color or Fantasmic can be collected using the app. We don't know if parents can claim and redeem Fastpass tickets for their children using one mobile device, or if one member of a party can manage Fastpass tickets for the entire party. We don't know if the app will allow you to cancel a previously-collected Fastpass if you change your mind, possibly freeing you up to collect another Fastpass more quickly.
The $10 per ticket, per day price point for day guests is intriguing, if only because that is $29 less than the cost of the Disney PhotoPass+ One Day product currently offered. Setting aside for the moment any discussion of the Fastpass element, it's cheaper to add MaxPass onto one member of the party just to receive the PhotoPass benefit.
As for the Fastpass benefit, it's really hard to say right now if that alone is worth the added cost. Signature and Premier passholders who already receive PhotoPass downloads as part of the price of their annual pass will especially want to look at the final pricing for passholders, and decide of the Fastpass benefit alone is worth the add-on cost.
MousePlanet will continue to follow this new product as Disney provides more details about the MaxPass.
Keys_of_Hearts
Member
Great... now its gonna be even harder to get fastpasses for Racers. If there gonna go digital they should just limit this to the park you are in. Once you park hop, then you should be allowed to get fastpasses in the other park.
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
Yeah -- but isn't this only for on-ride photos? You're limited to just four rides with that -- Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, RSR, and California Screamin' if that's the case.
Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
I think this would be for any pictures taken in park by the photographers too.
Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
I'm bummed. I don't want to pay $10 a day x 4 people x 4 days to get digital fastpasses! I wanted this for free. Booooooooooooooo! $40 a day isn't worth it to me even with photopass, because I never get that to begin with.
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
D
Deleted member 107043
I haven't had a chance to fully digest, but at first glance from a consumer perspective this looks absurd and something I would be hesitant to engage in. At best this appears to be half baked. I was hoping for a fully integrated system like WDW has.
In Disney's defense, prior to the opening of EPCOT, when POP was first introduced at WDW the MK offered both POP and ticket books, which were eventually phased out by the time EPCOT Center opened. So maybe they're implementing a similar strategy.
In Disney's defense, prior to the opening of EPCOT, when POP was first introduced at WDW the MK offered both POP and ticket books, which were eventually phased out by the time EPCOT Center opened. So maybe they're implementing a similar strategy.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
I think we all should have seen this coming. I believed what I had heard, which was that you would have to be in the same park as the attraction you are booking a FP for. But if you think about it, that would have created some pretty odd traffic flow and congestion at the entrances of both parks with folks just trying to step in really quick to book a FP and go back to the other park.
Last edited:
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Haha. If you still have to wait 2 hours between FPs per park then they shouldn't really run out any faster than with the current paper system right? Maybe marginally faster because it obviously takes less time to book one digitally then walk over to a machine. If they do all run out early, I'm screwed. I never get to the parks before 1pm.
D
Deleted member 107043
I can't get past the up charge.
Customer convenience isn't the only thing at work here. Behind the scenes there's personal data that Disney will likely be tracking, which guests will essentially be paying Disney to access. Not to mention that Disney will have who knows what kind of permissions on your phone via the app. I'm certainly not suggesting anything nefarious here, but all things considered this service doesn't feel like it's worth the additional cost on top of the hundreds of dollars required for a family just to enter the park for a day.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
I certainly wasn't happy to hear the news. I'm still not sure how they are going to price this for APs. I don't think that has been determined. I think it's a good deal for the type of the day where your taking some family from out of town and you want to maximize your day. But for my usual 6-7 hour trips I don't think I need this service. I think for tourists who come from out of town it could also help them get the most bang for their buck.