MaxPass is a must - here's my strategy

[Maggie Gallagher]

We asked our cousins who live in California about Maxpass because we are planning on visiting and wondered if it is worth the money. They go to Disneyland all of the time. They don't bother with MP at all. They go early, rope drop, and they get everything done with short wait times. I guess they typically don't like to wait for any ride over 20 minutes. My uncle said that the only time we would need MP is on a holiday.

They told us to save our money.

 

[nkereina]

We were there last week when it was quite busy - end of promotional tickets, grad nites, and Memorial Day weekend. We also used MaxPass and were able to do all the rides we wanted (more than once) over the course of 3 and a half park days. We got to DCA 30 minutes before rope drop on our first day, but after that, we walked up to the turnstiles after they had already let people in but before the ropes dropped - so maybe 10-15 minutes before official park opening. We didn't experience any waits at the turnstiles, and the crowds were dispersed enough where it was relatively easy to get to the front of the pack.

 

[Disney Lvr of Old]

We asked our cousins who live in California about Maxpass because we are planning on visiting and wondered if it is worth the money. They go to Disneyland all of the time. They don't bother with MP at all. They go early, rope drop, and they get everything done with short wait times. I guess they typically don't like to wait for any ride over 20 minutes. My uncle said that the only time we would need MP is on a holiday.

They told us to save our money.

i think strategy may be different if they go all the time. IF you only have a few days MaxPass helps get the big attractions done without wait. The nice thing is you don't need it every day. It will save money if you choose your day or two to have MP and go commando on the rides. When we were there we spent a few days without and it was a much more relaxed touring style. Whatever you decide it will be massive fun!

 

[Cloe Colton]

So you were able to get fastpasses through maxpass once you were in the park even though the park wasn't technically open?

 

[midnight star]

So you were able to get fastpasses through maxpass once you were in the park even though the park wasn't technically open?

Yes, but the return times will be during regular park hours. For example, say you enter the gates at 7:30am, but the park opens at 8 am. You can book a fastpass, but the return time would show 8:30-9:30, or whatever time it is distributing.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Yes, but the return times will be during regular park hours. For example, say you enter the gates at 7:30am, but the park opens at 8 am. You can book a fastpass, but the return time would show 8:30-9:30, or whatever time it is distributing.

Perfect! Thanks!

 

[jennamfeo]

I love the MaxPass! Last summer we did a one day Disneyland trip (it was me, my husband, and our 6 year old daughter) and we had Park Hoppers with the MaxPass. We got there at Rope Drop and left when the parks closed. We ended up spending 13.5 hours in the parks and rode attractions 21 total times with 3 repeats of our favorites. It's worth it to me for the FP options and all the pictures.

 

[NHBelle]

Wait, how are you able to bank them up for the evening ? I guess I thought you could only get a new FastPass once you’ve used the one you have....so only one at a time. Is that not the case?

 

[pharmama]

Wait, how are you able to bank them up for the evening ? I guess I thought you could only get a new FastPass once you’ve used the one you have....so only one at a time. Is that not the case?

You can book another MP 90 minutes after your last booking. So if your MP booking is later in the day, 90 minutes after the first booking you can book another MP even though your first one hasn't come up yet. You can repeat this process every 90 minutes with the only exception being that you can't hold two MPs for the same ride at the same time. This also applies to using paper FastPass but I believe the window is 2 hours between FP pulls vs 90 minutes with MaxPass.

With MP, if you tap your upcoming MP in the app it will tell you what time you can book another MP. For paper FP the time you can pull another is printed on the FP.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Wait, how are you able to bank them up for the evening ? I guess I thought you could only get a new FastPass once you’ve used the one you have....so only one at a time. Is that not the case?

There’s info on stacking FPs in the OP here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/m...view-and-some-strategy.3726246/#post-60074882

 

[kalynn]

I'm trying to remember the attractions we saw on the first day. It went something like this:

First hour (8-9 a.m.): Arrive early and are close to the front of entrance to Tomorrowland. Ride Space Mountain with no wait, then Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, and return to Space Mountain for 2nd ride.

Next few hours: Use a combination of FastPasses and standby line to ride: Matterhorn, Big Thunder, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain (x2).

Before lunch: take train to Tomorrowland and ride Space Mountain before heading back to hotel. Total number of attractions (including train) in the morning = approximately 11 attractions.

----

Return in the evening: Memory is a bit hazy but we did something like this: Space Mountain, Teacups, Matterhorn (much better at night than daytime), Small World, Pirates (x2) and Indiana Jones (x2). Evening = approx 8 attractions.

Total attractions = 19

We did not watch the fireworks and only caught glimpses of the 6:00 evening parade.

 

[smartlabelprint]

OP we use the same strategy. I love relaxing by the pool and saving up maxpasses!

 

[twodogs]

We asked our cousins who live in California about Maxpass because we are planning on visiting and wondered if it is worth the money. They go to Disneyland all of the time. They don't bother with MP at all. They go early, rope drop, and they get everything done with short wait times. I guess they typically don't like to wait for any ride over 20 minutes. My uncle said that the only time we would need MP is on a holiday.

They told us to save our money.

I suggest you don’t buy MP before you go, see how you do on the first day, and then decide about adding MP day by day. I would never go without MP, but that is just me and my family’s style. We take 2-3 day trips only, so we need to maximize ride density. We are rope droppers, and we stay on site so we always do EMH/MM also. However, even with all of that, we would not get nearly as many rides without MP. With limited mornings (2-3, depending on the length of trip), we would have a really hard time doing the headliners more than once per day because the waits just jump way up very early in the day (if we limited ourselves to going on rides with only 20 minutes or less of standby wait, as your cousins suggested). We could pull paper FPs like we used to, but that just puts thousands of extra steps on the FP runner, separates our family while the runner goes for the FPs, and wastes time. If you are doing a longer trip, you can ride everything in the mornings no problem. But your afternoons are not going to be 20 minute or less lines for just about anything if you don’t have MP or paper FPs.

Right now is not a great time to look at wait times due to the oddity that is the opening weekend of SWGE, but there is a FP return time tracker on this Board (can’t recall who it is) that has tracked a lot about FP returns and wait times at various times of day for various rides. That might be helpful for you to look at. It will show that not much is going to be under 20 minutes after about 11 am most days.

 

[Summer2018]

I suggest you don’t buy MP before you go, see how you do on the first day, and then decide about adding MP day by day. I would never go without MP, but that is just me and my family’s style. We take 2-3 day trips only, so we need to maximize ride density. We are rope droppers, and we stay on site so we always do EMH/MM also. However, even with all of that, we would not get nearly as many rides without MP. With limited mornings (2-3, depending on the length of trip), we would have a really hard time doing the headliners more than once per day because the waits just jump way up very early in the day (if we limited ourselves to going on rides with only 20 minutes or less of standby wait, as your cousins suggested). We could pull paper FPs like we used to, but that just puts thousands of extra steps on the FP runner, separates our family while the runner goes for the FPs, and wastes time. If you are doing a longer trip, you can ride everything in the mornings no problem. But your afternoons are not going to be 20 minute or less lines for just about anything if you don’t have MP or paper FPs.

Right now is not a great time to look at wait times due to the oddity that is the opening weekend of SWGE, but there is a FP return time tracker on this Board (can’t recall who it is) that has tracked a lot about FP returns and wait times at various times of day for various rides. That might be helpful for you to look at. It will show that not much is going to be under 20 minutes after about 11 am most days.

If it is indeed the afternoons that the wait times go up, that makes sense why we were able to ride everything without Maxpass or Fastpasses for that matter. We didn't need to get even one paper Fastpass. We only went in the mornings. We were back at the Disneyland Hotel by lunchtime every day to enjoy the pool or explore Huntington Beach and Seal Beach.

For those that like to go in the afternoons, it sounds like Maxpass is a must, especially with Star Wars.

 

[caribbeandream]

Throughout the day (lunch, nap, swim, shopping, downtime, dinner), I continued to accumulate FastPasses. You can get a FastPass every 90 minutes throughout the day. We had accumulated 4 or 5 FPs for our evening return to the park.

Do I understand correctly that once you have scanned your ticket you can still make reservations even if you leave the park itself for naps/meals?

 

[VandVsmama]

Isn't Max Pass great? I love it. It's totally worth the $$ spent on it. We've used it before with similar results!

 

[Winnowill]

Do I understand correctly that once you have scanned your ticket you can still make reservations even if you leave the park itself for naps/meals?

Yes, that is correct. It's fantastic.