Disneyland to introduce MaxPass (New Fastpass & New Fastpass Attractions) - Now with Poll

[ClaraOswald]

Your experiance with DAS is not the norm and actually has inaccuracies that are worth clearing up. You probably didn't notice things about how the DAS worked because you weren't actually the one with it. DL doesn't give DAS for mobility issues that can be solved with a wheelchair so even if people don't normally use a wheelchair or don't feel like they are hindered to the point of needing a wheelchair they suggest that they rent one if their needs are related to standing or walking so that is really weird for your friend to have gotten a DAS with only a knee brace. Also you do not provide any documentation or disclose your diagnosis's but rather explain your needs and they tell you how best to get equal acess to the parks given your needs which may be with a DAS or not. Also you do not just go up to rides and get a return time. Many rides cannot assign a return time so you have to go to one a few kiosks that may be a quite a walk from he attraction you want to ride, and get them to give you a return time but the kiosks often have lines of there own. To those that think it sounds better to lie and get a DAS for free rather than pay for Disney's latest up selling I assure you it's not. My son and I are thrilled that he is finally in a place where we don't think we will need to use the service in the future. Hip hip hooray.

Yeah...I am really hoping we won't need to use it when we go. I would much rather my son be able to tolerate lines like everyone else.

 

[gottalovepluto]

-$10/day/person is crazy for something that should be offered for free
-price not bad if you're one or two people but families get priced out fast
-wifi could be a problem. In park IT is lousy based off my DAS experience. (On more than one occasion I had a CM waving their machine all around like an antenna to get a signal and then say "got it! no one move!" to get our return times issued) Although it has been improving with each trip we take.
-this is NOT a DAS, DAS involves extra walking than a normal trip to the stands to get times and then walking back. Will people decide the programs are close enough & go back to lying en masse to get a DAS? Unfortunately it's a possibility.

(And as PP said LOTS of great DAS info on disABILITIES page. The info here is a little off.)

 

[PaintsWithAllTheColors]

Your experiance with DAS is not the norm and actually has inaccuracies that are worth clearing up. You probably didn't notice things about how the DAS worked because you weren't actually the one with it. DL doesn't give DAS for mobility issues that can be solved with a wheelchair so even if people don't normally use a wheelchair or don't feel like they are hindered to the point of needing a wheelchair they suggest that they rent one if their needs are related to standing or walking so that is really weird for your friend to have gotten a DAS with only a knee brace. Also you do not provide any documentation or disclose your diagnosis's but rather explain your needs and they tell you how best to get equal acess to the parks given your needs which may be with a DAS or not. Also you do not just go up to rides and get a return time. Many rides cannot assign a return time so you have to go to one a few kiosks that may be a quite a walk from he attraction you want to ride, and get them to give you a return time but the kiosks often have lines of there own. To those that think it sounds better to lie and get a DAS for free rather than pay for Disney's latest up selling I assure you it's not. My son and I are thrilled that he is finally in a place where we don't think we will need to use the service in the future. Hip hip hooray.

You are correct that I wasn't the one who actually used it, and I won't argue that my experience may not have been typical, this was just my experience. We all went up together and were, in fact, given an exact return time by the ride CM, both for Big Thunder Mountain and Indiana Jones. We did not go to any kiosks whatsoever. I do not support abusing the DAS system at all, and had no idea that this was unusual for her to get DAS with only a knee brace. Again, I believe you when you say this was atypical, but I have zero reason to lie about this and was just trying to offer up an experience that I had. Of course, I would recommend that anyone with more questions go to the DISabilities board and talk to others with more knowledge and insight than I. Thank you for clarifying, though, so that no one assumes my experience is the norm and tries to use it for issues that DAS wasn't designed for!

 

[mrs_z]

Sorry if I am coming in late on this...but has Maxpass been introduced yet - and will it be in April? It would cost us an extra $300 for our party of six for 5 days.

 

[Niltiac]

Sorry if I am coming in late on this...but has Maxpass been introduced yet - and will it be in April? It would cost us an extra $300 for our party of six for 5 days.

No, I don't believe anyone knows yet when it will be implemented. I'm sure there will be a flurry of discussion on this thread as soon as we know something, so check back in. My guess is that it won't be up and running yet in a April, because they haven't even announced how it will work for AP's at this point. But then again, there's nothing stopping them from announcing it one day and implementing it the next, so it's anyone's guess really.

 

[mrs_z]

Thank you! I hope they hold off. I would welcome the change if it didn't cost so much!

 

[ClaraOswald]

I will be curious to see if it starts up around the time the Matterhorn reopens.

 

[mummabear]

Gutted! Was just trying to get myself up to date on any changes before our September trip and stumbled on this.
$500 USD added no thanks.
I am really surprised by this decision, as everyone knows at WDW you don't pay for the equivalent, and you don't seem to get a lot for the $10 per person compared to the photopass deals.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I'm not at all surprised. Universal and Six Flags already charge for "front of the line" passes. Anytime I am asked about WDW by someone who hasn't been before, they are shocked that FP is free.

 

[kelmac284]

Having just come from DW in Dec I don't see why if they are going to do this they don't have magicbands. I was resistent to them too and I still don't like the idea of booking FP 60 days out and only getting 3 a day because with the tiers and the fact that we were not onsite we weren't able to do a lot of things. For example in Epcot we had to chose between Test Track, Soarin or Frozen. So that part I didn't like BUT I did like that we didn't have to worry about paper tickets and unlike DL my daughter didn't have to hold onto all our tickets and run all over to get FP. I like the idea of booking them on your phone but seems like they should then have a magicband linked to it because what if the person who MADE them isn't with someone else. For example I have teens and my mom is older and disabled so many times we make FP but then the girls end up using them as we get tired. They do have their own phones but what if they didn't? Or what if families want to split up. Or when I used to have an AP I would have to give my AP to my fp runner and then if we split up I wouldn't have it to get the discounts for food or in the shops. The idea sounds good but I think it needs to be fine tuned and paying for the PP is fine but just for the fp doesn't seem very fair.

 

[Niltiac]

I like the idea of booking them on your phone but seems like they should then have a magicband linked to it because what if the person who MADE them isn't with someone else.

I could be wrong but my understanding is that the FP will be linked to both the phone and the ticket itself. So if the group splits up eveyone just has to carry their own ticket and the barcode will be scanned at the FP queue. I don't remember if this was confirmed or just speculation though.

 

[10SE]

Having just come from DW in Dec I don't see why if they are going to do this they don't have magicbands. I was resistent to them too and I still don't like the idea of booking FP 60 days out and only getting 3 a day because with the tiers and the fact that we were not onsite we weren't able to do a lot of things. For example in Epcot we had to chose between Test Track, Soarin or Frozen. So that part I didn't like BUT I did like that we didn't have to worry about paper tickets and unlike DL my daughter didn't have to hold onto all our tickets and run all over to get FP. I like the idea of booking them on your phone but seems like they should then have a magicband linked to it because what if the person who MADE them isn't with someone else. For example I have teens and my mom is older and disabled so many times we make FP but then the girls end up using them as we get tired. They do have their own phones but what if they didn't? Or what if families want to split up. Or when I used to have an AP I would have to give my AP to my fp runner and then if we split up I wouldn't have it to get the discounts for food or in the shops. The idea sounds good but I think it needs to be fine tuned and paying for the PP is fine but just for the fp doesn't seem very fair.

Seems to me that the easy solution would be to scan the ticket/AP at the FP return area rather than having to show your phone or paper FP. I think that would solve a lot of problems for families. So you could book the FP for your entire family/group one phone, but then everyone could just use their own ticket to get on the ride. That would fix the problem of families splitting up or kids without phones.

 

[kelmac284]

That makes sense. I just hope whatever they do it goes smoothly

 

[toonaspie]

I will be shocked if they don't make this a free perk for Disneyland hotel guests. Even at Disney World, the hotel guests can access FPs two months ahead of schedule without paying extra for it.

 

[Disney Rose]

One of the things I loved about Disney is that FastPass was free. We have MaxPass in one of our theme parks here in Australia and I used to look at the advertising for it and say, 'see - there's one of the differences between our parks and Disney - Disney give you FastPass for free, here they want you to pay for it' and I'd shake my head at the audacity. I know fast pass is still free, but I really associate MaxPass with a cheeky way to make you pay for Fast Pass perks and with 'lesser' theme parks.

So I'm sad to see MaxPass come to Disneyland.

 

[agamble]

One of the things I loved about Disney is that FastPass was free. We have MaxPass in one of our theme parks here in Australia and I used to look at the advertising for it and say, 'see - there's one of the differences between our parks and Disney - Disney give you FastPass for free, here they want you to pay for it' and I'd shake my head at the audacity. I know fast pass is still free, but I really associate MaxPass with a cheeky way to make you pay for Fast Pass perks and with 'lesser' theme parks.

So I'm sad to see MaxPass come to Disneyland.

Even still. The other parks charge as much for their Front Line access passes as they do for admission. Disney is only asking for $10 a day to make it digital as a convenience. It's still a better deal than those other parks, and at least it's free for everyone to continue pulling paper passes.

 

[WonkaKid]

I don't like the idea of being asked to pay for something that is currently free. My big fear is that at some point the decision will be made to do away with the paper FPs entirely and we'll all be forced to pay an additional $10 per day. Yes -- they say now that paper FPs will continue to be available. But I foresee a DL exec with their bones to make will insist that FPs become pay-only. Not looking forward to that day. I wonder if squeezing folks for more money will have the unintended consequence of annual pass purchases declining. In short, I like the way the parks are now. Erin Glover: please protect that or at least convey the sentiment.

 

[mummabear]

I don't like the idea of being asked to pay for something that is currently free. My big fear is that at some point the decision will be made to do away with the paper FPs entirely and will all be forced to pay an additional $10 per day. Yes -- they say now that paper FPs will continue to be available. But I foresee a DL exec with their bones to make will insist that FPs become pay-only. Not looking forward to that day. I wonder if squeezing folks for more money will have the unintended consequence of annual pass purchases declining. In short, I like the way the parks are now. Erin Glover: please protect that or at least convey the sentiment.

Either that or paper fastpasses will just be pointless because you can pull so few.
For us US became that way after their FOL was introduced, waits were too long without a FOL pass to make it worth going to the park without one, but the cost of the ticket and pass just wasn't good value for us.

 

[Kindermouse]

Either that or paper fastpasses will just be pointless because you can pull so few.
For us US became that way after their FOL was introduced, waits were too long without a FOL pass to make it worth going to the park without one, but the cost of the ticket and pass just wasn't good value for us.

This is my thinking as well. What is the point of being able to use paper FP for free if you can't actually get any. It will make FP a pay only service. What a sad sad day when FP for all who bought admission dies.

I don't like the idea of Disneyland, Walts park, turning into the Spirit Airlines of theme parks.

 

[mom2rtk]

Either that or paper fastpasses will just be pointless because you can pull so few.
For us US became that way after their FOL was introduced, waits were too long without a FOL pass to make it worth going to the park without one, but the cost of the ticket and pass just wasn't good value for us.

Which is why how they handle this with APs will be such a critical piece. If it's rolled into the price of an AP and all of a sudden a huge percentage of guests in the parks are using MaxPass, it really does have the potential to drain the system too quickly each day.