Disneyland Front of the Line Access

[tiffjoy]

Disneyland Paris offers a VIP Fastpass if you book one of the suites at four of the on-site hotels or if you book the "Castle Club" level in the Disneyland Hotel there. As best I could find out, that's about 165 rooms out of their entire hotel inventory. The VIP pass is good for unlimited FP access to the 10 attractions there that offer FP (BTMRR, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Buzz, Rock n' Roller Coaster, Ratatouille, Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril roller coaster, and the Flying Carpets over Agrabah).

We're going to Disneyland Paris in January of next year and were able to book a Golden Forest Suite at their Sequoia Lodge hotel (which includes room, buffet breakfast, 3 days of park tickets, VIP fastpass, all-day access to a special lounge with free non-alcoholic drinks, and afternoon snacks) for the same price as it would cost for tickets alone for 3 days at Disneyland/California Adventure, which is just crazy to me. I know it's a much smaller, less popular park, but my kids are going to go bananas over being able to ride their favorites over and over again.

Did you book through the US site? I know there are different deals depending on which site you use (UK, France, etc). We are going summer 2019, and this seems like a really cool idea to look into.

 

[mel2014]

Did you book through the US site? I know there are different deals depending on which site you use (UK, France, etc). We are going summer 2019, and this seems like a really cool idea to look into.

We ended up booking through the Belgian site for a 40% off and under 12s free deal. I watched for a month before booking and the U.S. site was always way more expensive than any of the other sites, with the UK site coming in as 2nd most expensive. The Belgian, German and French sites seem to get the best offers. If we had shifted our itinerary a few days later (after the Christmas/New Year rush) it would have been even less expensive. I would just advise booking fairly early, as they don't have very many suites.

Just looking randomly for next March, you could stay in a Golden Forest Suite for 4 nights, with 5 days of park tickets, for two adults and two under 12s for $1370 (which, coincidentally, almost exactly what 5-day park hoppers in California would cost). Obviously summer would be more expensive, but they run specials throughout the year.

 

[Sun_soakin]

In 2008, Year of a Million Dreams, Dream Fastpasses had tabs on them for each ride in DL, handed out at randomly chosen locations. That was pretty much a chance happening, though-- we once saw them being handed out at the end of Tarzan's Treehouse, but by the time we walked through to the end of the line, the "Dream Team" was gone. People were selling them on Ebay, though.

I remember that! We “won” them twice that year!

 

[LTiffany]

One of my childhood memories is riding fantasyland rides over and over again at night with hardly any wait, even Peter Pan. Now, I think PP regularly has a 40 minute wait all the way to closing time. I'm realizing that what makes Disneyland special will be different for my kids, but I'm hoping they will still have special memories from our trips.

In 1998 we rode Space Mountain 6 times back to back at night, two of the times, we didn't even have to get off because there was nobody waiting to board. We then went and did Splash Mountain three times in a row and then ran back to our room because we were freezing. It is one of my oldest daughter's fondest Disney memories.

 

[ElizabethB]

Thanks for the feedback. I couldn't quite remember how it worked. As a poster noted, one booked the hotel package through AAA and then pulled all the fast passes first thing in the morning. Anyway, we were a group of 8 at Disneyland in 2004 or so. I thought about booking the AAA hotel package for the fast pass special, but felt I couldn't justify the cost since we already had hotels further down the coast as we were mostly doing beach-type stuff. It was over Thanksgiving weekend, but I realized pretty quickly I should have booked the package. I recall that the day after Thanksgiving, we got on one (yes, one) ride the entire day.

I appreciate those who jumped in with the further details about its being a AAA package with the ability to pull fast passes for every fast-pass ride for everyone in your party first thing in the morning and use them throughout the day and evening. Yep. That was it.

We're going to be in So. Cal at Christmas this year, so I thought about giving this a try as there is no way I would go to Disneyland over Christmas without some kind of way to get on the rides. I didn't expect anything like that still was offered, but thought I'd check. Without some kind of fast pass arrangement like that, I cannot imagine bothering with a visit to Disneyland over the holidays.

Thanks again.

 

[az4boys]

Thanks for the feedback. I couldn't quite remember how it worked. As a poster noted, one booked the hotel package through AAA and then pulled all the fast passes first thing in the morning. Anyway, we were a group of 8 at Disneyland in 2004 or so. I thought about booking the AAA hotel package for the fast pass special, but felt I couldn't justify the cost since we already had hotels further down the coast as we were mostly doing beach-type stuff. It was over Thanksgiving weekend, but I realized pretty quickly I should have booked the package. I recall that the day after Thanksgiving, we got on one (yes, one) ride the entire day.

I appreciate those who jumped in with the further details about its being a AAA package with the ability to pull fast passes for every fast-pass ride for everyone in your party first thing in the morning and use them throughout the day and evening. Yep. That was it.

We're going to be in So. Cal at Christmas this year, so I thought about giving this a try as there is no way I would go to Disneyland over Christmas without some kind of way to get on the rides. I didn't expect anything like that still was offered, but thought I'd check. Without some kind of fast pass arrangement like that, I cannot imagine bothering with a visit to Disneyland over the holidays.

Thanks again.

While the AAA packages sound awesome, you can get a lot done with Maxpass if you know how to use it well.

 

[ElizabethB]

az4boys — Thanks very much for your suggestion. I’ve read a little something about Maxpass but don’t understand it yet. I’ll check that out further. My concern is over Christmas holidays it is likely that fast passes for most rides will be gone for the day before we even ride our first ride, meaning an ability to get later fast passes from anywhere in the parks will be useless.

I live in the east and go to WDW so I’m more familiar with the fast pass process there and fast passes are gone 30 days before arrival. I gather there is no advance booking of fast passes at Disneyland? Clearly, I’m a neophyte re the California parks. I’ll do a little more checking. Regardless, I will not ever get into a situation again with 8 people getting on one ride between 10 am and 11 pm! I’d rather go to Universal or Knott’s and buy FOTL.

But I’ll explore Maxpass further before I decide. Many thanks!

 

[MacMama0930]

az4boys — Thanks very much for your suggestion. I’ve read a little something about Maxpass but don’t understand it yet. I’ll check that out further. My concern is over Christmas holidays it is likely that fast passes for most rides will be gone for the day before we even ride our first ride, meaning an ability to get later fast passes from anywhere in the parks will be useless.

I live in the east and go to WDW so I’m more familiar with the fast pass process there and fast passes are gone 30 days before arrival. I gather there is no advance booking of fast passes at Disneyland? Clearly, I’m a neophyte re the California parks. I’ll do a little more checking. Regardless, I will not ever get into a situation again with 8 people getting on one ride between 10 am and 11 pm! I’d rather go to Universal or Knott’s and buy FOTL.

But I’ll explore Maxpass further before I decide. Many thanks!

Max Pass is thebomb.com find a YouTube video and watch how it works. I think even during the busiest days, maybe even especially during the Christmas madness, Max Pass has immense value. Unlike WDW, DL has narrow walk ways that get painfully gridlocked. Max Pass helps eliminate a significant amount of walking, allowing you to minimize the times you need to walk through those areas (ie, walking through Tomorrowland to grab SM FP and then having to return there once your window opens up. Max Pass allows you to pull that FP from anywhere). I’ve been there during crazy busy times, although admittedly not at Christmas yet! But FPs for even thee most desirable rides didn’t run out until late/mid morning. This was actually nice since those ones had return times for the evening after our break. Plus, a lot of rides have FP well into the nighttime, BTRRM, CA Screaming, etc.

 

[az4boys]

az4boys — Thanks very much for your suggestion. I’ve read a little something about Maxpass but don’t understand it yet. I’ll check that out further. My concern is over Christmas holidays it is likely that fast passes for most rides will be gone for the day before we even ride our first ride, meaning an ability to get later fast passes from anywhere in the parks will be useless.

I live in the east and go to WDW so I’m more familiar with the fast pass process there and fast passes are gone 30 days before arrival. I gather there is no advance booking of fast passes at Disneyland? Clearly, I’m a neophyte re the California parks. I’ll do a little more checking. Regardless, I will not ever get into a situation again with 8 people getting on one ride between 10 am and 11 pm! I’d rather go to Universal or Knott’s and buy FOTL.

But I’ll explore Maxpass further before I decide. Many thanks!

Fast passes are not distributed in advance with Maxpass. You have to physically enter the park for the day in order for Maxpass to work. The key is to get there early and start booking fast passes right away, then keep booking as you are able. If you get to the parks late in the day, you will be more limited on what FP are still available. Between FP rides: mix in non-FP rides, rides with low waits, food, and other activities. We actually had to slow down on how fast we booked new fast passes because we couldn't ride the rides that fast.

 

[mom2rtk]

az4boys — Thanks very much for your suggestion. I’ve read a little something about Maxpass but don’t understand it yet. I’ll check that out further. My concern is over Christmas holidays it is likely that fast passes for most rides will be gone for the day before we even ride our first ride, meaning an ability to get later fast passes from anywhere in the parks will be useless.

I live in the east and go to WDW so I’m more familiar with the fast pass process there and fast passes are gone 30 days before arrival. I gather there is no advance booking of fast passes at Disneyland? Clearly, I’m a neophyte re the California parks. I’ll do a little more checking. Regardless, I will not ever get into a situation again with 8 people getting on one ride between 10 am and 11 pm! I’d rather go to Universal or Knott’s and buy FOTL.

But I’ll explore Maxpass further before I decide. Many thanks!

The MaxPass system has not been tested under the demands of peak attendance like Christmas week yet. Even though you can't book in advance, some rides will go quickly just like they did under traditional fastpass. I believe I read early on that Disney puts a disclaimer on the site saying to check availability before you purchase for the day, which leads me to believe they won't care if you pay for it and things run out too fast.

At least with MaxPass you'll be able to pull a second set of FPs faster (90 minutes after your last one) than the people without MaxPass can (2 hours after your last one). That varies of course if you redeem your prior FP.