Disneyland introducing MaxPass - Paid Fastpasses

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/01/additional-disney-fastpass-locations-and-new-disney-maxpass-coming-to-disneyland-resort/

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Very interesting.

I'm not sure how that's going to work at Disneyland, unless they finally break down and provide a Wi-Fi system for their guests.  Based on the comments, it's already not being very well received there.

The big question for WDW guests is if Disneyland is going to charge for enhanced FastPass access, can that concept be far behind for WDW?

I always figured that was the ultimate goal behind the whole MDE program.  There are many, many ways for them to monetize it.

TCD

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

According to information the owner of our agency received.  it will only be in effect once you are in the park vs. ahead of time like FP+. Also the same rules will still apply with the time windows for the fastpasses. So it is only saving you the walk to the kiosk for each one. And it is per ticket so if you are in a party everyone will have to have one. 

[keith_h 420]

In a way it reminds me of how the NC DMV worked for many years with registration renewals. You had to pay extra for the convenience of mailing in your payment but you saved couple of bucks for waiting in line at a DMV office.

[Travisma 1,317]

21 minutes ago, keith_h said:

In a way it reminds me of how the NC DMV worked for many years with registration renewals. You had to pay extra for the convenience of mailing in your payment but you saved couple of bucks for waiting in line at a DMV office.

Just like ATMs!

I remember when they first came out.  There were no fees and they encouraged you to use them because it reduced the amount of tellers they needed.

As soon as they realized how popular they were becoming and people were hooked, they tacked on the usage fees.

So some bean counter at Disney will use that scenario and bring it up at a board meeting that they have a veritable cash cow with MBs and FP usage and they need to recoup their operating expenses.

The first baggie is free....

 

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The TCD Gang gave MaxPass a whirl while we were at Disneyland last week.

Since we would only have four days in the parks, including our arrival and departure dates, I thought it would be worth it to make sure that we were able to ride everything that we wanted.

I ended up paying for it for three out of the four days.

It was especially helpful on the Friday, September 15, which was the first operating day for the Haunted Mansion Holiday, Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, and Guardians of the Galaxy- Monsters After Dark.  Since no one can book FP's on MaxPass until they are in the park, it levels the playing field, and gives a great advantage to those who rope drop.  We were able to get Fastpasses for all of the headliners, and never had to wait in any lines. 

We learned some good tricks, like booking FP's for rides that historically shut down a lot.  If the ride shut down during the return window, the system issues a replacement FP that is good for any attraction for the remainder of the day.  We got a couple of those every day, which were very useful.  It was also great for booking popular FP's at one park when we were still in the other park.

Another perk of MaxPass is that it allows users to pull a new FP after 90 minutes (or sooner) instead of the two hours that paper FP users have to wait.

By exploiting the system, we would often have as many as four valid FP's available to use at the same time.

A negative is that there are some major rides that are not on the system (Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, and the rest of the Fantasyland attractions).

It's expensive, but worth it for short trips.  Very smart on Disney's part, and I would not be surprised to see some version of this being offered at WDW.

TCD

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

We learned some good tricks, like booking FP's for rides that historically shut down a lot.  If the ride shut down during the return window, the system issues a replacement FP that is good for any attraction for the remainder of the day.  We got a couple of those every day, which were very useful.  It was also great for booking popular FP's at one park when we were still in the other park.

That's a great one!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

9 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

That's a great one!

In case anyone reads this and wants to try it, we had the most success with booking FP's for the Indiana Jones attraction.  Apparently, that is the one attraction that they have the most problems with.  The app lets you book FP's even if the attraction was down, and sometimes with a return time of less than an hour out.  Those ended up being almost a sure bet to get issued an "anything" FP.

TCD

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Nice tip.

 

[ependydad...Doug 176]

We also bought the Max Pass for a few of the days we were there. It comes with PhotoPass access for the day which we enjoyed- especially because Grandma and Grandpa joined us for a day at the park. It was nice to get some cute photos with them and the kids.

The double-booking thing was helpful. We didn't think to try and book passes for rides that commonly break down-- though, given what we saw during our 5 park days, that seemed like an awful lot of things! One caveat- they aren't always "anything" passes- California Screamin' went down (for the day) on us and the fast pass was NOT good for Radiator Springs or Guardians of the Galaxy (especially the Monster after dark version). My 2 crying children (poor kids- we literally kept delaying the ride and my son was only big enough when wearing his sneakers vs. his slip on flatter shoes) and requesting to speak to a supervisor got them to acquiesce and offer a Radiator Springs FP; still no GOG.