MaxPass / Digital Fastpass - Discussion Thread

[DLgal]

According to the Disneyland website, you have 45 days to download them with an option to extend by 15 days. AP holders that purchase the $75 option have until the end of their pass validity dates.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/guest-services/maxpass/

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/photopass-expiration-policy/

I misunderstood "unlimited Photopass downloads for the day."

 

[theluckyrabbit]

There is a slight delay when you compare the app to the machines. Most noticeable on the popular rides, especially if the FPs are sold out at the machines. The MP via the app may still be available.

People are reporting that they are able to get MP FPs for rides with return times which are earlier than those currently posted because other MP users have canceled their FPs (which were then, presumably, put back in the pool). (For example, someone elsewhere posted that he got a GOTG MP FP for 2 pm when the regular FP return time was 6 pm because someone had canceled an earlier MP time.) I think this may be what CMs are trying to communicate, however poorly, about separate pools. Someone using a regular, free FP would have no access to these canceled FP return times. MP users do have access to them. But, I agree that CMs could express themselves much more clearly.

 

[BriannaRuth]

How were you able to book three FP's while in your room? I thought you could only hold 1 at a time? Or 1 every two hours?

From what I've seen posted (haven't experienced it myself), this has changed due to the new "instant FP" rules. The new rule seems to be that you can get another FP after 30 minutes IF your current FP return time has started. So if you pull a FP at 10 am that has a 10:30 am return time, you could pull a FP for another attraction at 10:30 from your hotel room. If that FP also had a return time of 11, you could pull your third FP at 11 am from your hotel room. Your first FP wouldn't expire until 11:30. The two hour rule would only apply if the FP you pulled at 10 had a return time of noon or later.

The only problem I see with this scenario is that the one hour return time for FPs could be problematic for pulling that many at once ... if you had an "instant" return time at 10 AM when you pulled the 10 AM FP, you'd get your 2nd at 10:30 but still have to use your first by 11, which would make holding 3 at once problematic. However, prior to a few days ago the 30 minute wait for a new FP wasn't in effect, so if the person who posted this was booking 3 FPs from their room it may have been several days ago when there was no 30 minute wait.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is what I've been reading.

 

[Stefne]

How does the photopass with maxpass work? Do we just get a card from one of the photographers and link it to our account or is there something else we need to do?

 

[BriannaRuth]

First of all, my apologies for not reading the entire thread! I tried searching and could not find the info I was looking for.

What, you didn't take the time to read through 1000+ posts?! Such a slacker ...

 

[hodad]

I just got home from an afternoon in Disneyland. A few thoughts:
1) I have a Premier and didn't have to do anything extra in to start booking Maxpasses as soon as my card was scanned.
2) My 6yo activated a 5-day PH from LMTClub, and as soon as she got her physical Disney ticket, I scanned it and added it to my app, then got Maxpass for her too.
3) Wifi sucks in the parks.
4) Hungry Bear Fantasmic dinner is totally worth it. I had the delicious salmon at 6pm, and sat right up front at 8:30 for the 9pm show.
5) My worry that no fast passes would be available once we arrived at 2pm was unwarranted.
6) My 6yo wanted to ride BTMRR for the first time ever, and after an immediate FP at Haunted Mansion, we got one for BTMRR, then another for BTMRR. That was a mistake. We should have gotten one for Splash Mountain then waited 2 hours to get BTMRR FPs, which were always available, whereas Splash went quickly. At 2pm, the FP return time was already after 5pm, for example. At 3pm it was after 9pm.
7) We got two more BTMRR fast passes, as well as one for Indiana Jones, before the night was over. As we were leaving at 10pm, I checked just to see what was available, and most things were gone, except a 10:15 at Buzz and, of course, another one at Big Thunder.

 

[Kender]

From what I've seen posted (haven't experienced it myself), this has changed due to the new "instant FP" rules. The new rule seems to be that you can get another FP after 30 minutes IF your current FP return time has started. So if you pull a FP at 10 am that has a 10:30 am return time, you could pull a FP for another attraction at 10:30 from your hotel room. If that FP also had a return time of 11, you could pull your third FP at 11 am from your hotel room. Your first FP wouldn't expire until 11:30. The two hour rule would only apply if the FP you pulled at 10 had a return time of noon or later.

The only problem I see with this scenario is that the one hour return time for FPs could be problematic for pulling that many at once ... if you had an "instant" return time at 10 AM when you pulled the 10 AM FP, you'd get your 2nd at 10:30 but still have to use your first by 11, which would make holding 3 at once problematic. However, prior to a few days ago the 30 minute wait for a new FP wasn't in effect, so if the person who posted this was booking 3 FPs from their room it may have been several days ago when there was no 30 minute wait.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is what I've been reading.

From the reports, if you use the the instant FP before the 30 minute window is up, you can pull another. Only has to have the first scan too. Don't need to wait until the second scan point. I've seen proof from other users in these threads that show people who pulled three within 30 minutes despite the new rule in effect.

And the person who booked from their room did it recently after the 30 minute (if you haven't used the pass yet) went into effect. It couldn't have been days ago anyways since MP just went publicly live yesterday.

 

[Robinjay]

Anyone know if the wi-fi is working well in the parks or does one have to use their data to use max pass?

It pretty much sucks. When I could get wifi, the app would not work, so I would have to turn off the wifi in order to use max pass. It was more of a pain to try to use wifi and I ended up using data mostly. Wifi did seem a bit better in DCA than DL.

 

[Robinjay]

From the reports, if you use the the instant FP before the 30 minute window is up, you can pull another. Only has to have the first scan too. Don't need to wait until the second scan point. I've seen proof from other users in these threads that show people who pulled three within 30 minutes despite the new rule in effect.

And the person who booked from their room did it recently after the 30 minute (if you haven't used the pass yet) went into effect. It couldn't have been days ago anyways since MP just went publicly live yesterday.

We did this today. Our 10:30 fastpass for Splash opened (after quite a few rides in DCA). We got a HM FP at 10:30 and it was scanned just after 10:30. After first scan got one for BTMRR for 10:35 and finished ride. Rode BTMRR and after first scan got one for HM, after first scan, got one for Star Tours, all before we rode Splash. The instant FPs say they have a time that you have to wait until your next fastpass window, but it seems void as soon as you scan at the first station (and not all rides have two stations).

Also, a Castmembers told us they will let Fastpasses in 5 minutes early. I never knew that. We tried it at some point and it worked. Even with the scans. Wow, lean something new every day!

We were also able to still book Fastpasses once we got home tonight.

 

[my*gracie*girl]

We ended the day with a love/hate relationship. Loved not having to hike across the park to grab a fp, hike to another area and hike back to use the fp. Hated the connection issues. We have verizon and usually have some dead zones in the park, but today was horrible! We were unable to use maxpass from about 11:30-3:30 and that was super frustrating. We were able to use our paper tickets to redeem the fp that was on there already, but couldn't consistently load or book anymore during that time. And we tried. Repeatedly. They helpfully told us to try deleting and reloading the app which took FOREVER. The app logged us out over and over....and then it deleted ALL MY PHOTOPASS PHOTOS from the previous days. Gone. I kept thinking they would reappear, but at about 7:30pm, I went into the photo shop on Main St and was told it was a glitch. That it was the 2nd day and it had some bugs. And that basically my photos were probably gone. But, a very kind CM did not give up. I was able to find a pic I had taken of the PP guy taking a pic of some other family members on our first day and she was able to find my pictures with that information. She was also able to find our dining package photos using the date/time and then I could look on the screen and identify the ones that were mine. She loaded them onto a pp card and I will be using that card and then linking it to my app from now on. Lesson learned!

Another drawback is not knowing what time your fp is scheduled for if you lose connection. By the end of the day, I was screenshotting the times when we booked them because I could not keep track and couldn't count on the app loading for me to double check.

Overall though, I think the system has advantages. If you have spotty service in the park, it may prove frustrating for you. I loved being able to book my guardians fp within steps of the gate. I would probably schedule our morning a bit differently next time, but we did everything we wanted to do and then some. I don't see us doing that everyday of a trip because of the expense, but it was a great way to maximize our time and I do believe 'worth' $10 extra.

A couple things I have seen asked that maybe have been answered:
1. We did book fp for the other park without having entered the other park yet
2. We were able to have our tickets loaded on two different phones running different accounts. There was some speculation from CMs that doing so might have been causing our app issues, but the majority of the day we had no issues so I don't fully believe this was it. One CM said we would need to be logged into the same account on each phone, but it let us scan our tickets into each phone/account and let each of us manage the FPs.
3. There was a 30 minute minimum window for booking another fp if the fp booked was 'instant'.
4. We could use our paper tickets instead of the app.
5. We were on data all day. Never were able to connect to wifi.

Will be interesting to see how this evolves.

 

[mom2rtk]

This is correct. It is the same time. No separate pools. This was confirmed in two of the testing vloggers videos I watched. It was just speculation from a CM that there would be two pools. We know how well informed CM are...

I have to think that someone who pays extra for MP then finds out 1) the pool has been depleted for the day for the ride they want (but not the regular pool) is going to be very unhappy or 2) the person who pays extra for MP finds out their FP pool disappears before the regular pool is going to be very unhappy.

And if they ran 2 separate pools, they run the risk that some go unused in one or the other pool on a given day. It seems arbitrary to have some set aside for each.

I think I saw a disclaimer from Disney somewhere saying to check FP return times before purchasing MaxPass to make sure FPs were still available. If they were pulling from 2 pools, how could you know if the MaxPass pool had any left if you hadn't bought it yet.

It has to be from the same pool.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

...It has to be from the same pool.

In quantity, most likely. But, as was proven yesterday, MP users have access to FPs that regular FP users cannot access. When MP users cancel and return FPs, they go back into circulation (or the "pool," as CMs have been calling it -- they need to come up with a better term). Other MP users can then grab the earlier, returned FPs, but regular FP users cannot access the earlier times. So the number of FPs per day total won't change (X amount for both groups, per day, total), but MP does have access to a select "pool" of returned FPs. In my example given earlier, someone was able to use MP to get a FP for GOTG at 2 pm, when the posted FP return time was 6 pm, because someone else had canceled the earlier MP FP, which went back into the pool for someone else to grab. This is the "separate pool" which regular FP users can't access. It doesn't affect the overall total number of FPs for the day. It just means that MP users have the chance, not the guarantee, of earlier return times if they become available through other MP users' cancellations.

 

[mom2rtk]

In quantity, most likely. But, as was proven yesterday, MP users have access to FPs that regular FP users cannot access. When MP users cancel and return FPs, they go back into circulation (or the "pool," as CMs have been calling it -- they need to come up with a better term). Other MP users can then grab the earlier, returned FPs, but regular FP users cannot access the earlier times. So the number of FPs per day total won't change (X amount for both groups, per day, total), but MP does have access to a select "pool" of returned FPs. In my example given earlier, someone was able to use MP to get a FP for GOTG at 2 pm, when the posted FP return time was 6 pm, because someone else had canceled the earlier MP FP, which went back into the pool for someone else to grab. This is the "separate pool" which regular FP users can't access. It doesn't affect the overall total number of FPs for the day. It just means that MP users have the chance, not the guarantee, of earlier return times if they become available through other MP users' cancellations.

That makes sense. They must not have a means of returning those to the general pool. Glad they aren't being wasted!

 

[crickee]

There will be four of us at DL next month. Myself, DD and DS have smartphones bit DH does not. We I be able to get fastpasses through Maxpass for him with my phone?

 

[Davin_Felth]

You can manage the fastpasses for a whole group using one phone. Just scan all of the tickets into the app on that phone.

 

[Jperiod]

We were also able to still book Fastpasses once we got home tonight.

Now THIS could be really problematic. I could see goofy people booking as they leave and taking up FPs they're never gonna use just because they can. I'm seriously trying to decide if the $75 is worth it when our passes expire in 5 months. We probably only have 10-12 visits left and we usually go during off season. We'd probably ride more though with MP because we don't like extra walking just for a FP.

 

[Linkura]

Now THIS could be really problematic. I could see goofy people booking as they leave and taking up FPs they're never gonna use just because they can.

I doubt it. Maybe a few jerks, but not enough to cause a substantial problem.

 

[22Tink]

Now THIS could be really problematic. I could see goofy people booking as they leave and taking up FPs they're never gonna use just because they can. I'm seriously trying to decide if the $75 is worth it when our passes expire in 5 months. We probably only have 10-12 visits left and we usually go during off season. We'd probably ride more though with MP because we don't like extra walking just for a FP.

I agree. Hopefully they come up with a way to prevent this from happening. Maybe they'll have to start scanning tickets as people leave the parks so the system knows they've left and deactivates MP till the ticket is scanned back in. That may be a logistical nightmare to implement though.

 

[Davin_Felth]

I agree. Hopefully they come up with a way to prevent this from happening. Maybe they'll have to start scanning tickets as people leave the parks so the system knows they've left and deactivates MP till the ticket is scanned back in. That may be a logistical nightmare to implement though.

Problem is, one of the selling points is that you can get fast passes for one park while you're in the other.

 

[22Tink]

Problem is, one of the selling points is that you can get fast passes for one park while you're in the other.

True, but if you're scanned into a park, your ticket would still have MP activated to book as usual. I'm thinking that it would only deactivate when you're scanned out of either park. Like I said, probably a logistical nightmare, but I'm not sure what else they could do aside from GPS which others have stated is pretty easy to cheat as well. I guess time will tell if this will even be an issue worth dealing with, and it very well may not be. Either way, I'm pretty excited to give it a try next month!