Updated February 2020 to reflect price increase, new FP rides, and add a section on Maxpass "value" at the bottom.
First, an overview that assumes you are familiar with the overall FP concept:
- Fastpasses obtained from machines or via Maxpass work in fundamentally the same way. What's different? Maxpass will cost you $20 per ticket, per day (price increased on 2/11/20). Machine-based Fastpass is free. Maxpass means you can book with the app. No Maxpass means you need to physically go to the machine and insert your ticket/AP to load the FP. Either way, you can view and cancel your FPs using the app.
- You don't book any FPs until you are in the park at Disneyland (unlike WDW). Once your ticket is scanned into either park, you are eligible to pull your first FP (from either park). As soon as you're eligible, you'll book your next one. Rinse and repeat all day. (Note that you can only book FPs on tickets that have been used to enter a park.)
- When are you eligible to book that next FP? In general, it's as soon as a FP window opens (note: NOT when you use the FP! If the window opens at 9:20, you can book at 9:20 whether you've used it or not). There's also a 90 minute "maximum" wait for Maxpass (2 hours without Maxpass) and a 30 minute "minimum" wait (unless you use the FP first). For more detailed information, see this thread: https://www.disboards.com/threads/the-answer-to-when-can-i-pull-my-next-fp.3634984/
- There is no rule about how many FPs you can have at once, or how many you can have in a day. A lot of people think you have to use one to get another one, or that you always have to wait 90 minutes/2 hours... these things are not true.
- When selecting a FP, you cannot pick a preferred time. The FP return times start in the morning (at or just after park opening: see below), and then they march forward. What you see is what you get.
Some random information about FP/Maxpass:
- At this time, you can book FPs during EMH/MM (at least on the app with Maxpass - I am not sure if the machines are open). The return times start at park opening for any ride that was open for EMH/MM, or 30 minutes after park opening for rides that weren't open. (So, if DL opens at 8 with a 7 EMH/MM, you'll see 8:00 return times for the Fantasyland/Tomorrowland rides, and 8:30 ones for the rest of the park).
- You can scan in approximately 5 minutes earlier and 15 minutes later than the times listed on your FP (so, a 9:20-10:20 FP is actually good from 9:15-10:35).
- People booking with Maxpass can book other people's cancelled FPs. You have to snap these up quickly! If you've been checking and Toy Story's been 8:00-9:00, 8:05-9:05, 8:10-9:10 and suddenly it's 2:00-3:00 - that's a cancellation! Grab it!
- If you’re using Maxpass, once you’ve scanned in for the day, you can book FPs from anywhere - your hotel, your home, anywhere! This means you can easily take a mid-day break while still acquiring FPs, stacking them up for the time when you plan to return to the parks.
- As of summer 2019, you can book Fantasmic! and/or World of Color FPs via Maxpass. These are disconnected from ride FPs and do not affect the time when you can pull your next ride FP. (Also note that these show FPs run out MUCH sooner than they did previously; grab them early.)
Ride popularity: Here is where my data comes in. As mentioned above, all FP return times start at or just after park opening and march forward. They march forward at VERY different (but rather predictable) rates. Here are my groups of FP popularity.
**2/11/20 Autopia and Monster's Inc. have been added today, and Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run is "coming soon," so I am tracking those and will add them soon.
Group One: Radiator Springs Racers
Radiator Springs Racers is unequivocally the most popular FP at the Disneyland Resort. It runs out far before any other FP (this doesn't necessarily mean you should book it first: see below for thoughts on that). In 2019 (other than during low-crowd June), it's common for RSR to run out by noon, frequently even earlier. One thing to note about RSR is that due to its popularity "in the dark," you'll often notice it stall a bit, then disappear quickly once "after dark" times hit.
Group Two: Space Mountain, Toy Story: Midway Mania
These will run out. On crowded days, they'll run out by early afternoon.
Group Three: Guardians of the Galaxy, Indiana Jones, Matterhorn, Soarin', **Splash during daytime hours when hot, Haunted Mansion Holiday (but only Holiday)
These will likely run out, or at least will have really late return times by mid-afternoon.
Group Four: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, **Grizzly River Rapids for afternoon times when HOT, Incredicoaster, *It's a Small World Holiday, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, Star Tours (Star Tours is more of a Group 3.5.)
These are not as popular as the rides above, but if it's crowded, these will be gone (or really late) at some point.
Group Five: Buzz Lightyear, Goofy's Sky School, **Grizzly River Rapids when not hot or for nighttime, Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World, **Splash Mountain when it's not hot or for nighttime
These are often available "immediately" or fairly soon, even into the evening (of course, not if it's a highly crowded day, but more often than you might expect).
*It's a Small World
Holiday becomes a Group 2 as soon as it hits nighttime hours because everyone wants to ride when it's dark.
**Grizzly and Splash behave VERY differently in hot weather than cold weather. Also, even in heat, they don't get snapped up for the morning or evening; it's the afternoon times that fly.
Keep in mind: This is generalized data, so if a ride has a breakdown during the day, has recently come back from a refurb or is scheduled to go down for one, is running at partial capacity, etc., things can change a lot. For instance, in 2018, they ran Star Tours at half capacity for much of the year, and it behaved like the rides in Group 2 for that entire time.
Strategy:
For maximum FP efficiency, you want to minimize the time you wait between pulling FPs. Ideally, you want as few "90 minutes holds" as possible.
Overall strategy obviously varies a lot depending what your priorities are, whether your group is single-rider eligible, etc. Also, if you're taking a hotel break or something and you want to come back to a bunch of "stacked" evening FPs, your planning will look different.
Here's what I do on an average day with Maxpass:
**Note: If you are in the parks early enough to grab a RSR FP that will not cause you to wait 60+ minutes to grab your next FP, I would absolutely book that first. I am usually not in that early, even if I rope drop, so that's why you see me grab it later.
1. First thing, I book a lot of Group 2 and 3 stuff. This is stuff that will cause 90 minute gaps if I book them later in the day, but in the morning, the return times will be much closer. So, if I enter the park at 8:05 and I see an 8:45 Space Mountain FP, I'm grabbing that. I'm also NOT wasting time on Group 4/5 stuff (unless it's so close and I'm nearby enough that I can book it, scan in, and book a new one immediately - I do this all the time for Buzz).
2. By mid-morning, I'm keeping an eye on RSR to make sure it's not disappearing. Once I see it getting too late for comfort, I make RSR my first "90 minute wait" FP of the day.
3. After my 90-minute RSR wait is up, I go back to any Group 2 and 3 stuff that I want. I fill in 4 and 5 stuff later when other stuff has run out or gotten too late for us.
"Stacking" FPs:
When people reference "stacking" FPs, they're talking about booking FPs so that you have a bunch ready to use at one time. This is especially nice if you're taking an afternoon break and want to have a bunch of FPs ready when you come back (just keep booking a new one every 90 minutes). Some examples of how this can work:
Example A - stacking for the evening:
Mid-morning, you book RSR for a 7:00-8:00pm return time. Throughout the day, you keep an eye on other DCA rides and book them when they get to evening returns - say, grab GOTG with a 6:30-7:30 return time, and later grab Incredicoaster with 7:15-8:15. Now, when you come back to DCA, all three of those are waiting for you.
Example B - stacking by location:
First thing in the morning, you book Space Mountain with an 8:45-9:45am return time. At 8:45, you book Star Tours with a 9:15-10:15 return time. At 9:15, you book Buzz Lightyear with a 9:20-10:20 return time. Now, head to Tomorrowland and ride all three. (Note: In this case, I'd actually ride Buzz first so you can grab your next FP immediately - keep in mind that your Space FP will scan until 10am, giving you plenty of time to hit Buzz on your way there.)
Managing FPs on your phone(s) with Maxpass:
- As far as purchasing Maxpass goes, you can buy it with your ticket purchase for your entire trip, or if it's not purchased then, you can purchase after you scan in day-by-day (this will go fastest if you have all tickets and a credit card linked to your account before park entry, and make sure you know your CVV). Adding daily gives you flexibility in case you decide you don't need/want to pay for it every single day.
- Each time you book a FP, you select a "FP party" from the tickets loaded into your app. You can book different things for different people (for instance, say you're a family of four: you can pick two people and book GOTG for them, and then pick the other two and book Toy Story for them).
- You can scan tickets into multiple phones and manage FPs from multiple phones. Your ticket does not care how many phones/accounts it is linked to.
- I do not recommend trying to coordinate FPs by having each person book his/her own - because of cancellations, you can end up with different times. Load them all together and book a whole group at once.
How to "redeem" FPs (whether you used Maxpass to book them or not):
You scan your park ticket/AP, either your physical one or the version that shows up under "my tickets" in the app (the app will also pop up a FP code for each person during the FP return window). I always scan our physical APs instead of the app version; I find it much faster. You can have one person scan for your whole group, or you can have each person scan for him/herself.
Other Maxpass FAQs:
- Can I check for cancelled FPs without being eligible to book a new one yet? Technically yes (as of summer 2019), but it won't do you much good. You can't "modify" current FPs, so if you spot a cancellation and click it, it will just "Not so fast!" message you because you are still blocked out... you could theoretically cancel the existing FP that's blocking you, but chances are very good that the cancellation will be long gone by then.
- How do I "refresh" to check for cancellations? You have to keep going back and selecting the park over and over again.
- Can I pull FPs from machines if I bought Maxpass? Yes, so if you bought Maxpass for one person for the photopass benefits, that person can ignore that they have it otherwise and just pull from the machines with the rest of your group. Just be careful not to check their FP for the time your next FP is available, since theirs will list 90 minutes away instead of two hours.
Is Maxpass "worth it"?/Do I need Maxpass?/Should we buy Maxpass?/etc.:
This is highly subjective and depends GREATLY on your group and priorities. Because the regular machine-based FP system is still in play, Maxpass is definitely not "necessary," although it is mighty nice and there are plenty of people who "won't go without it." Some things to take into consideration:
- How important are the FP rides to you? Not all rides have FP! If you're not big into thrill rides, you may only want to ride a few of the FP rides, especially at DCA... so check the list of rides and see how they appeal to you.
- What's your touring style? If rides are very important to you and/or you love to commando-style tour, Maxpass has more value. Also, if it's important to you to minimize walking, Maxpass is huge for that, vs. if you have an experienced "FP runner" who doesn't mind all of the extra steps. Is your party single-rider eligible? If so, maybe you can hit more rides that way, rather than springing for Maxpass. Lots to consider here.
- How big is your party? At $20 per person, it adds up for larger parties in particular.
- How many days do you have? If you have 4-5 days, you can certainly "do it all" without Maxpass, but if you only have 1-2 days and you're trying to accomplish as much as possible, Maxpass can really help. On the flip side, if you have 4-5 days and want to take it easy on your feet and will take long hotel breaks each day, Maxpass may really appeal to you since you can "stack" FPs for the evening and walk a lot less.
- How crowded are your days? If your goal is to ride as much as possible, Maxpass will help on crowded days, particularly since you can pick up cancelled FPs. It's also harder to navigate the parks to get to FP machines easily on crowded days, so you may appreciate that convenience more.
- Do you have parkhoppers? There is a lot of potential value to Maxpass if you're a frequent hopper - booking RSR while standing in line for IASW is hard to beat, for instance. Single-park days may not have as much value to you (especially at DCA, with only 8 FP rides).
- Will you be happy with just 1-2 days of Maxpass on a longer trip? Maybe you can pick some "ride-heavy" days to add MP, and then have other days where you focus more on shows or characters. Keep in mind that adding day-by-day can be a great, flexible option (unless you get burned with a Maxpass price increase in the meantime... so far they increased from $10 to $15 in January 2019 and from $15 to $20 in February 2020).
- Overall, you have to look at your particular situation and consider your budget and what will bring you the most joy/have the best value for your money.
The sort of advice I give my friends:
You're a party of 3 with only two park days, parkhoppers, and you love thrill rides? Get Maxpass! You're a party of 7 with four days, no hoppers, and a lot of little kids who don't want to ride the big rides? Ehhh... maybe try it for one of your DL days and see if it's valuable to you.
You're trying to come for the smallest amount of money possible and have a happy FP "runner"? Don't sweat it; you'll have a great time without Maxpass! You have some mobility challenges and don't mind spending money for convenience? Spring for Maxpass!
I'm sure things will change or I missed something obvious and I'll have to edit this, but there's some information for now! I'll try to post a few useful pictures and link some other helpful threads in the comments.
