Let me just start off by saying, yes, it absolutely is. Probably. Now I’ll continue by qualifying that and explaining what the Max Pass is and why it is extremely good value.
This article is for people who are visiting Disneyland once and want to maximise what they get out of the day.
What is Disney’s Max Pass?
Before understanding the Max Pass you need to understand how Disney’s FastPass works. We’ll get there I promise.
What is Disney’s Fastpass?
Disney’s Fastpass essentially allows you to queue up for a ride without physically being in line. Sounds pretty good right? Each of the most popular rides will have a FastPass distribution station nearby where you can scan your park ticket and it will give you a window during which you can return and join the FastPass return queue, which is practically the front of the line (you might wait 10 minutes instead of over an hour). As far as I could tell they generally filled the ride 1 for 1 between the FastPass line and the standby line.
There are only a certain number of FastPasses available for each ride each day (and each time window) so they do “sell out”. To illustrate, at the start of the day, the FastPass return time will be something like 8:30-9:30am. As this time slot sells out the return time will shift to something later like 8:45-9:45 (by way of example). It’s always an hour long window, and are always given out in chronological order. The most popular rides will still sell out quickly so if you aren’t quick, you might go to the distribution spot at 10am and the return is not until 7:30pm. This can happen with the most popular rides such as Radiator Springs Racers, Space Mountain and Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout.
Ok let’s circle back.
What is Disney’s MaxPass?
The MaxPass is basically the digital version of the FastPass. With the FastPass system you must physically go to the ride location and scan your ticket and you will be given a reminder slip of your time slot. This leads to intense strategising and running through the park and back just to get your FastPass tickets.
With a MaxPass, you use the Disneyland app to book your FastPass times and can do it from anywhere in the park (or outside of the park if you’ve arrived and left for the minute). You simply go into the app to the FastPass schedule section of the app, it will show you the return times for each of the rides that offer FastPass and you can pick which one you want. This sounds like a subtle difference, but the time (and steps!) saved in your day are huge!
So while in the line for Peter Pan (which incidentally is one of the most popular rides and does not offer Fastpass) I booked our group’s fast passes for the Matterhorn. While we were back at the hotel having a rest in the afternoon, I booked a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
The other major convenience of the MaxPass is you can have one person in your group manage everyone’s Fastpasses in their app so that everyone gets the same return time slot. It’s quite versatile. You can even allow everyone in your group access to everyone’s FastPass within their apps, which will give visibility and flexibility if your group slits off through the day. It’s really easy to setup, all you do is scan each person’s ticket inside your app and you can control it. Importantly, even if you control everyone’s tickets you can book each person individually as well, giving ultimate flexibility.
Once you book a Fastpass ticket, you will be allowed to book another one in 90 minutes (or earlier if you have an earlier return window). Without MaxPass, I believe that the refresh time for a new FastPass is 2 hours. When you do the maths, and if you strategise logically, you could collect over 10 Fastpasses in one day if you start early enough and do it every 90 minutes.
Imagine if you tried to collect 10 FastPasses through the day what your day would look like. Every 2 hours you’d be running all over the park to get a new FastPass and you wouldn’t know what the return time would be for that ride. Even if you strategise your day to the second there will always be variables that you can’t control and your day can never be exactly you planned because unexpected things happen like ride closures, unexpected long queues, taking breaks, or changing your mind.
Unlimited Official Photos are Included in the MaxPass
In addition to the convenience of actually booking the tickets, you also get included with the MaxPass unlimited digital photo downloads via the PhotoPass. So any official photo taken by Disney photographers, they will give you a card with a barcode, you scan this barcode into the Disneyland app and the photo will appear within a few hours. This also applies for ride photos. I would probably never buy a photo from Disneyland but having it anyway was a fantastic bonus.
Is there WiFi at Disneyland?
It’s a good question because if you’re visiting from overseas you are probably planning to turn your data off.
The answer is yes, Disneyland does have WiFi, and the WiFi is pretty good, but with so many thousands of people using it, you can imagine it might get a little slow.
If you’re in the USA for a while, you might want to get a SIM card so you’re not reliant on finding WiFi everywhere you go. This is what I like to do when I travel. This was really convenient in Disneyland because my connection was constant and I didn’t have to keep connecting to the WiFi all day.
I got an international SIM card from Go-Sim. Because their SIM cards can be used all over the world, they are a touch on the expensive side but it did work very well I had access to both AT&T and T-Mobile networks, depending on where I was and which network was strongest. This was a huge advantage.
As an aside, because you’ll be using your phone to plan your day all day, you will definitely need some sort of portable battery pack so keep that in mind as well.
What rides have FastPass?
At Disneyland Park, according to the Disneyland website, the rides with Fastpass include:
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Haunted Mansion
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- It’s a small world
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Space Mountain
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
In addition, you can also get a FastPass for Fantasmic, the lights show over near Orleans Square, however, this one cannot be done in the app for some reason.
At Disney’s California Adventure, according to the website the rides with FastPass are:
- Goofy’s Sky School
- Grizzly River Run
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
- Incredicoaster
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Toy Story Midway Mania!
In addition, just like Fantasmic, World of Color Fastpasses can only be done at the Distribution point and not in the app via MaxPass. These usually sell out by mid-morning (at least they did when I was there).
How much is the MaxPass?
As at April 2019, the MaxPass is $15 per person per day. It’s high enough to preclude many people from adding it on, but low enough that if you’re only visiting Disneyland once it makes it totally worthwhile. At Disneyland, convenience, speed and time management are everything.
Technically, you can use someone else’s Fastpass
I had bought tickets for my family (me, wife, kid) and was travelling in a group of 15. But I was also managing a group of about 5 or 6 FastPasses like I described above. Every time I booked one for me, I booked one for all of us because we were going around together. If not all of us rode we had some leftovers and someone else could use it again. The people checking Fastpasses (usually) ensure that it is valid but never check it against whose ticket it is.
The process is this: scan ticket; green light = good, red light = bad.
This came in really handy later at night when my wife and kids had gone to bed. Because our kids are young we went back for a nap as we were staying nearby. I continued to book Fastpasses through nap time for times that I figured I’d be back in the park. And I continued to book them for the 3 of us even though all 3 of us wouldn’t be returning for all of it.
So by around 9pm Kynie and the kids were in bed but I still had their fastpasses in the app so our now much smaller group of 4 adults were still able to use them. I met up with a few others, one of whom was also 1 of 3 who came back so he was also doing the same thing. Throw in a few grandparents whose passes we were also managing and had been collecting Fastpasses for and we were unstoppable. I’ve never been on so many rides in quick succession at Disneyland as we did that night. This is why Disneyland is much better as adults.
FastPass Multiple Experience
Occasionally, you’ll hit the jackpot and a ride will break down during your allotted Fastpass window. This is excellent news because your FastPass for that ride and time will be replaced with one that can be used on any ride (that has FastPass) at any time. Combined with the above, when my wife and kids went home, there was a time when I had 6 Multipasses because it happened twice in the afternoon and they had left. I shared these among the small group of us, and my fellow parent Emil had done the same, so those few of us that were left n the last few hours of the park opening (so like 9-12pm) we rode Pirates twice, Space Mountain twice and Matterhorn once.
Sure, not everyone will have that luck, and technically I paid a lot of money for my 3 tickets to be able to have multiple FastPasses going at a time, but still, it shows what is possible. I.e. if people in your group with MaxPasses leave early, make sure you scan their ticket into your app so you can access theirs. And make sure you’re collecting FastPasses all day, even if you’re not sure you’ll use it.
Have you used the MaxPass before? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.
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