Disneyland recently has a big FastPass shake up (like Taylor Swift cutting off all her hair, and deciding to ditch country music kind of shake up). For years, Disneyland has been the same old, paper FastPass, whoever has the fastest runners, early bird gets the worm mentality. Now, MaxPass has been introduced, and it’s here to ruin all your preconceived notions about FastPasses at Disneyland. First of all, this is the first time that Disneyland has done a ‘pay-per-FastPass-system’. Fastpasses have always been free. Secondly, this is the first time that Disney has had the option of booking Fastpasses on an app. So are you ready to go back to school? It’s time for a crash course.
What is MaxPass?
MaxPass is an optional add on, for $10 a person, a day. It gives people the ability to book FastPasses on their phone, and have photopass pictures on their phone. MaxPass is available through the Disneyland app you download to your phone – think of it like MyDisneyExperience, but a skinny, small version. If you’re an AP, you can add MaxPass to your AP for the year for $75. You can purchase MaxPass through the app, or when you purchase your tickets.
How do I use it?
You will reserve all your FastPasses through the app – but it still works much like the current FastPass system works at Disneyland. You can only reserve one FastPass at a time, and once that FastPass is over, you will be able to reserve another one. The main difference, is that there isn’t as much walking around the parks (this doesn’t particularly affect us, since we don’t mind walking around the park, and Disneyland is much smaller at WDW). But if you have a parkhopper, and want to select a FastPass for Disneyland, while you’re in California Adventure, this might be a selling point for you. Another advantage to MaxPass is you can cancel your FastPasses, and change your mind. As an indecisive person, this is great.
Is it worth it?
If you have a one day park hopper ticket to the parks, and that’s it – then YES. It will help you accomplish multiple things in the parks, and save you a lot of time. It’s also not a bad value if you’re an AP. But if you have more than one day, then it’s probably not worth the money, and you’re just paying to not walk. Save your money, and buy yourself a few extra Dole Whips, and a bag full of Mickey beignets.
At the end of the day, no matter what you decide to do with MaxPass, it’s at least good to have the information. Being informed about the parks is kind of like wanting to know about celebrity gossip. None of us want to do anything with the information we have about Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, but that doesn’t mean we don’t think it’s useful information to have. But, I digress – enjoy your FastPasses, and enjoy Disney’s first park.