Disneyland Resort Jason's Thoughts & Observations

Disneyland MaxPass – Information & 1st Impressions

August 15, 2017 Jason @disneygeek.com

On July 19, 2017 the Disneyland Resort launched MaxPass. This service bundles Disney PhotoPass Digital Downloads and Digital FastPass. MaxPass is included with Signature Plus and Premier Annual Passes. Introductory Pricing is $10 per day per person for all other tickets/passes. Or Annual Passholders can add MaxPass for $75 for the entire year. For current information, restrictions, to purchase, etc.. visit the official Disneyland MaxPass Page

1st Impressions:

I used the MaxPass option on a couple of recent visits to the Disneyland Resort to see how it works, since it is included with my Annual Pass there is no new cost for me. The digital PhotoPass component is the same as it has been. You can view photos taken by PhotoPass Photographers or the on-ride systems through the app or website and download high resolution of them. As far as I could tell nothing changed with this. The new addition with MaxPass is digital FastPass. With this you can book your FastPasses through the App, view your existing FastPasses and redeem your FastPasses through the App.

On a recent visit we had a party of 5 and a mix of Annual Passes and a couple one day tickets that had the option. Overall I thought the service worked very smoothly and as designed, especially for a brand new offering. We encountered no technical issues beyond the normal loss of cell signal issues at Disneyland. The Disneyland App, FastPass scanners, and other components of the system all worked as expected and we encountered no challenges. I was surprised at how easy and forgiving the process was to create a FastPass group. We did it while walking up Main Street. So we were moving and scanning and had no issues at all. The reservation process was straight forward. Since the “rules” and process mirror the traditional paper system there were no challenges from anyone in our group in using it. I also liked having the FastPasses all available on one device. The process to pick up FastPasses was much easier since you did not have to track down everyone’s ticket then return it to them. Also one person can scan everyone’s FastPass upon return. This scanning process was quick, but you do have to scroll through each FastPass on the screen. Once I learned I can just hold the phone under the scanner and swipe and as quickly as I was swiping it was scanning it went smooth and substantially quicker than having each person do their own.

Is it worth it? That is a hard question to answer and the most frequently asked. I think it really depends on how you tour the parks, the crowds the day you visit, your expectations, and your budget. On a normal visit for me I do not visit many attractions. I would find it hard pressed to say the add on price makes sense.. but I do find myself glancing at the return times and every now and then booking one if I know I am heading that direction. Where as with traditional FastPass I would have to make two trips to the area I can now do it in one, so it saves some steps. So it is likely over the course of a year I will probably visit more attractions than I normally would.

The day I had a larger group with me and they wanted to experience several attractions we found this was a great tool and saved a lot of walking, especially with park hopping. Since you could book for either park there was no need say to walk out to Paradise Pier to pick up a Toy Story FastPass if you are currently at Disneyland. You could book it and for us by the time we walked there it was time to ride. Also that day we wanted to visit many attractions so this helped us to achieve that.

One point to consider is the ages of your party and what attractions they may want to visit in a given day. Most FastPass attractions at the Disneyland Resort are E-Tickets with height restrictions. It is not like the FastPass+ options at Walt Disney World with a large number and mix of attractions. If you remove the attractions with a height restriction you are down to a small number.

On the budget side if you are there for a single day during peak season you are rapidly approaching a $200 ticket. Single day tickets during peak time are $124. For a Park Hopper add on $50. Then $10 for your MaxPass and you are at $184 per person over 10 years old. Interesting perspective – when I bought my first annual pass in 1994 I paid less than that for the entire year.

In conclusion if you are trying to maximize your attractions and the FastPass attractions are the ones you want to visit and have the budget the system will save you steps and some time.

Does anyone have any questions? I am more than happy to answer.. add a comment below, drop me an email, or send a Tweet my way.

How to use it:

You will need the Official Disneyland App installed on your phone to take advantage of MaxPass. I am going to focus on how to deal with the new digital FastPasses and not go into Photopass in the description below. Note the Disneyland Resort Theme Parks have Free Wi-Fi but only in limited areas. To book a FastPass you go to the app and then click on Get FastPass (see 1st image below). Then you can select the members of your party to include in the request (center image below) and then you move on to choose the park you wish to book a FastPass in.

You are then presented with a list of attractions, their current standby wait times and the available FastPass return window(see 1st image below). Select the attraction you wish to reserve by clicking on the time. You will be prompted with a confirmation screen (image 2 below). Once you click confirm you receive the third screen below.

You can view details of your FastPass by returning to the app and viewing your plans (left screen below). You can then click on one and have the option to cancel it if needed (right screen below):

When it is time to use your FastPass you open the app, go to your plans and then click on the redeem FastPass link (left hand image below). The app will also alert you and if you click the alert you go to the redeem screen right away. You then receive the screen on the right which has a barcode to scan at the attraction entrance. If you had more than one person in your group you can swipe through them to scan all from one phone. (Hint: You can hold the phone in place and swipe. The scanners were quicker this way to get through them all).