I Will Not Buy Max Pass On My Next Visit

[Meldev]

Wish MP was included if you purchase your tix directly from Disney or something.
Family of 6, five days in parks $300... hard to justify... MHP at $630 is also hard to justify. I suppose DL is different because of the local population that goes - maybe DLR has far more single guests, couples that attend? More AP holders I know.

I'm debating on MP for the weekend days we're there maybe - still that's $120.
To put it in perspective for myself, I put 5 days of hoppers, plus MP, and MHP in my Disneyland cart online - I would be looking at $3K and that's without eating anything, or paying for our accommodations.

 

[disneychrista]

I see no reason to buy MaxPass. Fast Pass forces you to zig-zag around the park to make the most of it and in all honesty I am not sure that it actual saves time. And I have no need/desire for Photopass.

 

[disneychrista]

Wish MP was included if you purchase your tix directly from Disney

They would just increase the park tickets. So if a 3 day hopper is $250 now, with Max Pass they now cost $280.

 

[cmwade77]

Honestly, I have to say I was skeptical about if it would be worth it, but we added it to our passes when we renewed, which meant we got 13 months of MaxPass for essentially an extra $6 per month per pass and I have to say so far it is the best money we could have spent, it is great to get a FP for another ride while in line for the one you just used a FP for, pretty much can eliminate most of the wait times if you do it right, meaning you can do much more in less time.

Overall I have noticed that in the past couple of weeks WiFi in the parks has been improving dramatically, try still need to roll it out to all areas of the resort though, but it definitely is getting better.

I see no reason to buy MaxPass. Fast Pass forces you to zig-zag around the park to make the most of it and in all honesty I am not sure that it actual saves time. And I have no need/desire for Photopass.

MaxPass actually fixes this problem, you no longer have to run to get a FP and then go back to use a return time, you use a return time, then get another FP for the next ride. I do think they need to adjust the price point, really it should be free, but overall it is a good system that works quite well and saves a ton of time, especially compared to paper FP

They would just increase the park tickets. So if a 3 day hopper is $250 now, with Max Pass they now cost $280.

Which is probably what they should have done, I think this was Disney's way of raising ticket prices without actually raising them.

 

[mom2rtk]

They would just increase the park tickets. So if a 3 day hopper is $250 now, with Max Pass they now cost $280.

But why do that when you can just increase the ticket price anyway and still offer MaxPass for an added fee?

I still find it amusing that they called $10/day an "introductory price". I'd say they'll never get more out of it than that, except that Star Wars Land is coming. And I bet they will increase it then.

 

[Malcon10t]

But why do that when you can just increase the ticket price anyway and still offer MaxPass for an added fee?

It would overwhelm the system if everyone used it.

A lot of people are saying this is like Magic Band but with the fee. I haven't used Magic Band yet. Can you add Fastpasses to your day around the park from your phone? Can you be at Epcot and and get a FP to the Mine Train from your phone?

 

[mom2rtk]

It would overwhelm the system if everyone used it.

A lot of people are saying this is like Magic Band but with the fee. I haven't used Magic Band yet. Can you add Fastpasses to your day around the park from your phone? Can you be at Epcot and and get a FP to the Mine Train from your phone?

Oh, I'm actually hoping it fails miserably. If everyone is using it, the system is more likely to crash, and I believe FPs will disappear far faster than ever before, prompting them to keep adding FP to more rides (which I hope doesn't happen either).

With magic bands, you schedule 3 FPs in advance. Popular rides are "sold out" for FP before you ever enter the park. You can change parks (and FPs) last minute, but it's subject to availability. The really hot ticket items can actually be gone by 60 days out, so you only have a chance at them if you stay onsite and have a long trip planned (since you can reserve 60 days out for the length of your stay).

But once you use your first 3 FPs you can schedule a 4th from your phone now (previously was not the case).

Same day Mine Train is not going to be an easy get. But I believe you can schedule for another park from your phone after you use your first 3.

There are tons of other ins, outs and tricks, but that's the gist of it.

 

[cmwade77]

It would overwhelm the system if everyone used it.

A lot of people are saying this is like Magic Band but with the fee. I haven't used Magic Band yet. Can you add Fastpasses to your day around the park from your phone? Can you be at Epcot and and get a FP to the Mine Train from your phone?

It has some similarities and differences, at WDW, you get three FPs to start with and once you use the last one you can get another from the app from anywhere within the park, so that is similar.

Really everyone using MaxPass wouldn't overwhelm the system, as everyone can still use regular FP which are all part of the system, but MaxPass does get the added advantage of being able to pickup FPs that other guests have cancelled.

Oh, I'm actually hoping it fails miserably. If everyone is using it, the system is more likely to crash, and I believe FPs will disappear far faster than ever before, prompting them to keep adding FP to more rides (which I hope doesn't happen either).

It is definitely not going to fail, it works amazingly well and FPs aren't disappearing at a faster rate because they seem to have found ways to make the queues more efficient with the new system. Really most FP return times (Except Guardians, RSR, Star Tours and Space Mountain) are almost always available with immediate return times or at least return times that are sooner (usually less than half) than the length of the Standby lines, including Splash Mountain and Grizzly on very hot days, yesterday the latest return time I saw for either of them all day was about 30 minutes later.

I do think that we will and should see FP added to more attractions that need it and can handle it, for example I could see adding it to Peter Pan if they rework the ride a bit, with just a little reworking of the queues they could add it to Storybook Land Canal Boats and Casey Jr Circus Train and Alice in Wonderland could benefit from FP as well, what you don't want is it added back into Pirates, it made the capacity drop dramatically, although with how they are doing FP now it might not be the same issue now, it could also work at Jungle Cruise. I could also see them bringing it back to it's a small world holiday, maybe even making this one only available with MaxPass so they don't have to setup machines to distribute them as that was the biggest issue they had there with FPs. I could see it returning to Autopia as well. They could even start adding certain character locations to FP, such as Mickey's house, Princess Fantasy Fair, both of which are setup in such a way that they could handle FPs.

Really the new setup is massively improving capacity and reducing how crowded everything feels and is even reducing the length of standby lines, so really it is good for everyone and I would expect it to be expanded where possible.

A side effect of MaxPass is that it is also reducing issues for those with a DAS, as the waits when you return are shorter and if they have MaxPass as well they can utilize a combination of the two to reduce the number of times they have to go to kiosks to get return times, thus minimizing a lot of the extra distance they were having to do. So really overall the system has already been a massive success.

And this is coming from an annual Passholders that absolutely wanted to hate it, in the end I have found out how much more enjoyable it makes the parks and I am very glad that we decided to spend the extra $6 per month on each of our passes to get it, for us it was money that was very well spent. And yes, I do wish they would simply include it, but there is another thing that no one really mentions that adds to the value of MaxPass, those with MaxPass can access FPs that others have cancelled, which means that someone may be pulling a paper FP for an hour from now, but with MaxPass, you might score one that is available immediately. This does add some extra value to getting MaxPass.

 

[mom2rtk]

It has some similarities and differences, at WDW, you get three FPs to start with and once you use the last one you can get another from the app from anywhere within the park, so that is similar.

Really everyone using MaxPass wouldn't overwhelm the system, as everyone can still use regular FP which are all part of the system, but MaxPass does get the added advantage of being able to pickup FPs that other guests have cancelled.

It is definitely not going to fail, it works amazingly well and FPs aren't disappearing at a faster rate because they seem to have found ways to make the queues more efficient with the new system. Really most FP return times (Except Guardians, RSR, Star Tours and Space Mountain) are almost always available with immediate return times or at least return times that are sooner (usually less than half) than the length of the Standby lines, including Splash Mountain and Grizzly on very hot days, yesterday the latest return time I saw for either of them all day was about 30 minutes later.

I do think that we will and should see FP added to more attractions that need it and can handle it, for example I could see adding it to Peter Pan if they rework the ride a bit, with just a little reworking of the queues they could add it to Storybook Land Canal Boats and Casey Jr Circus Train and Alice in Wonderland could benefit from FP as well, what you don't want is it added back into Pirates, it made the capacity drop dramatically, although with how they are doing FP now it might not be the same issue now, it could also work at Jungle Cruise. I could also see them bringing it back to it's a small world holiday, maybe even making this one only available with MaxPass so they don't have to setup machines to distribute them as that was the biggest issue they had there with FPs. I could see it returning to Autopia as well. They could even start adding certain character locations to FP, such as Mickey's house, Princess Fantasy Fair, both of which are setup in such a way that they could handle FPs.

Really the new setup is massively improving capacity and reducing how crowded everything feels and is even reducing the length of standby lines, so really it is good for everyone and I would expect it to be expanded where possible.

A side effect of MaxPass is that it is also reducing issues for those with a DAS, as the waits when you return are shorter and if they have MaxPass as well they can utilize a combination of the two to reduce the number of times they have to go to kiosks to get return times, thus minimizing a lot of the extra distance they were having to do. So really overall the system has already been a massive success.

And this is coming from an annual Passholders that absolutely wanted to hate it, in the end I have found out how much more enjoyable it makes the parks and I am very glad that we decided to spend the extra $6 per month on each of our passes to get it, for us it was money that was very well spent. And yes, I do wish they would simply include it, but there is another thing that no one really mentions that adds to the value of MaxPass, those with MaxPass can access FPs that others have cancelled, which means that someone may be pulling a paper FP for an hour from now, but with MaxPass, you might score one that is available immediately. This does add some extra value to getting MaxPass.

I really doubt that enough people are actually using MP yet for us to say whether it will have any serious effect on availability. I can see a lot of APs waiting to add it with their next renewal, so usage will build as the next year goes by.

As for adding it to more attractions, all I can say is be careful what you wish for.

 

[cmwade77]

I really doubt that enough people are actually using MP yet for us to say whether it will have any serious effect on availability. I can see a lot of APs waiting to add it with their next renewal, so usage will build as the next year goes by.

As for adding it to more attractions, all I can say is be careful what you wish for.

Why? FP makes it much easier, especially with the new setup, there really isn't a reason to use the standby queues at all anymore, especially if you have MaxPass as there is no more zigzagging back and forth through the parks to get FPs.

Really, there is nothing wrong with adding more FP attractions, I know some people don't like FP for whatever reason, but overall it makes the parks much more enjoyable and gives more time to enjoy the atmosphere as well instead of standing in a line somewhere.

As for availability, I don't see how it can affect availability when it is the same as a paper FP, there are X number available per hour, they get taken, the system moves on to the next time slot. The numbers don't change, all that changes is how people are getting the FPs, yes there will be a few more pulled, but they have accounted for that in how they have improved the handling of FP and Standby queues. Time will tell, but I think Disney has a hit on their hands.

 

[mom2rtk]

Why? FP makes it much easier, especially with the new setup, there really isn't a reason to use the standby queues at all anymore, especially if you have MaxPass as there is no more zigzagging back and forth through the parks to get FPs.

Really, there is nothing wrong with adding more FP attractions, I know some people don't like FP for whatever reason, but overall it makes the parks much more enjoyable and gives more time to enjoy the atmosphere as well instead of standing in a line somewhere.

I don't believe FP will remain "instant" over time. I think it's like that right now to entice people to try the new system. We need to wait a year and see what it's like with more APs on board.

And any time you add FP to an attraction, the standby line slows down. So once the FPs are gone, you're stuck in the new and improved slower than ever standby line.

 

[cmwade77]

I don't believe FP will remain "instant" over time. I think it's like that right now to entice people to try the new system. We need to wait a year and see what it's like with more APs on board.

And any time you add FP to an attraction, the standby line slows down. So once the FPs are gone, you're stuck in the new and improved slower than ever standby line.

Really yesterday the only two attractions that ran out of FPs were Guardians and RSR. I think Space and Star Tours may have around 9:30 to 10:00 at night as well, but that's it, even some attractions had FP availability after the standby line was closed for the evening.

As for the instant FPs, that has been that way for a while now, ever since they brought he scanners on full time and it has worked very well, if things change, so be it, but I don't think they will. Additionally those with MaxPass will continue to get access to cancelled FPs, so I think you will continue to see immediate availability, especially if you have MaxPass.

But again MaxPass really isn't going to affect availability, what will affect it is how many people choose to get FP vs Standby and honestly, even the standby lines have been shorter since the FP switched to the scanned tickets. For example, the longest I saw the wait time for Peter Pan yesterday was 30 minutes, Guardians was 45 minutes at the longest I saw, RSR did get up to 60 minutes and all of this was a Saturday in July, usually this time of year Peter Pan would be at least 60 minutes, Guardians had been up to 3 hours before MaxPass went live and RSR would normally be two hours, so really it seems to have brought down Standby times as well and you might ask why, well the simple answer is things are handled more efficiently thanks mostly to guests being able to cancel FPs and CMs being able to account for that when handling the Standby lines.

I would say where we will really see how well it has improved things (or not as the case may be) is the last two weeks of August when the lower level Passholders start coming back since they won't be blocked out, but as of now I think the new system has reduced wait times for everyone and that isn't a bad thing at all.

 

[mom2rtk]

Really yesterday the only two attractions that ran out of FPs were Guardians and RSR. I think Space and Star Tours may have around 9:30 to 10:00 at night as well, but that's it, even some attractions had FP availability after the standby line was closed for the evening.

As for the instant FPs, that has been that way for a while now, ever since they brought he scanners on full time and it has worked very well, if things change, so be it, but I don't think they will. Additionally those with MaxPass will continue to get access to cancelled FPs, so I think you will continue to see immediate availability, especially if you have MaxPass.

But again MaxPass really isn't going to affect availability, what will affect it is how many people choose to get FP vs Standby and honestly, even the standby lines have been shorter since the FP switched to the scanned tickets. For example, the longest I saw the wait time for Peter Pan yesterday was 30 minutes, Guardians was 45 minutes at the longest I saw, RSR did get up to 60 minutes and all of this was a Saturday in July, usually this time of year Peter Pan would be at least 60 minutes, Guardians had been up to 3 hours before MaxPass went live and RSR would normally be two hours, so really it seems to have brought down Standby times as well and you might ask why, well the simple answer is things are handled more efficiently thanks mostly to guests being able to cancel FPs and CMs being able to account for that when handling the Standby lines.

I would say where we will really see how well it has improved things (or not as the case may be) is the last two weeks of August when the lower level Passholders start coming back since they won't be blocked out, but as of now I think the new system has reduced wait times for everyone and that isn't a bad thing at all.

You don't have to convince me how great it was. If it stays like that I'll gladly admit I was wrong and love the new system.

I just think there's a fraction of the numbers using the new system now who will be using in in, say, a year. And when more people have the paid system, they will place more demands on the system. I think people who pay for a system use it a lot more, so I do think it will affect availability. But you don't have to agree. Glad you loved it and had a great trip.

I'm not sure the last 2 weeks in August will really tell us much though. Those are the lower level APs and I'm not sure they'll be quite as willing to drop $75/pass after paying less for the AP in the first place.

 

[cmwade77]

You don't have to convince me how great it was. If it stays like that I'll gladly admit I was wrong and love the new system.

I just think there's a fraction of the numbers using the new system now who will be using in in, say, a year. And when more people have the paid system, they will place more demands on the system. I think people who pay for a system use it a lot more, so I do think it will affect availability. But you don't have to agree. Glad you loved it and had a great trip.

I'm not sure the last 2 weeks in August will really tell us much though. Those are the lower level APs and I'm not sure they'll be quite as willing to drop $75/pass after paying less for the AP in the first place.

Many of them will drop $10 for day to test it given how crowded those two weeks get, especially knowing that if they like it they can go to the ticket booth that day and pay the extra $65 to add it to their pass, there are even reports that APs may be able to combine each day they have bought it and apply it towards the $75 upgrade, so once they have bought it for 7 days they may choose to add it if that proves to be the case.

For us, our passes expired two days before MaxPass came out and I called and asked and they extended our renewal offer by a week so we could renew with MaxPass rolled into our monthly payments. So that worked well, we got 13 months for $75 dollars and got $50 off the pass for renewing. It didn't change our expiration date of course, other than the extra month, but still worked out nice for us. But I can see how some would purchase just a day and test the waters first, especially on the really busy weeks that those are.

Overall, I think you will be wrong and hope you will be wrong because right now everything is working so we'll, I mean we have gone the last two Saturdays in a row and can't believe how empty the parks seemed and he short all of the wait times were, especially for July and when Fantasmic! Just reopened after being down for a year and a half. Yes that draws a certain number of people out of the parks, but not until the evening. Really yesterday the longest wait times were for the trains and that's just because they reopened yesterday and they had some hiccups where they were only able to run two trains at a time a lot of the day. And even that, on Main Street had to wait for more than two trains (we got in the fourth one to come in), the other stations got on by the third train to come in. For a Saturday in July even that is amazing, especially when you consider they were down for so long.

Time will tell if this continues, but if it does, Disney may have solved a problem that has been plauging then for a while now, crowds we're getting out of control and they needed to do something to fix the problem. Yes, they need to build more attractions and they are, but that takes time and they needed a more immediate fix and hopefully that is what they have found. And I admit I could be wrong, but I have been a Passholders since 1995 and have seen a lot of changes and have seen how well and how poor they have done, and based on what I have seen in the past, this is on track to be a huge success for them and greatly.improve the guest experience. Again, I could be wrong, but I am about 75% sure that I am not.

 

[bdiddy]

We loved Max Pass but we were only there 2 days and who knows when we'll be back so $80 for 2 days for the 4 of us for all of our pictures and the convenience was worth it. We never got wi-fi to work at all but we have a great cell plan (DH works for AT&T) so we weren't worried about data but I can definitely see that being an issue for others. But it was SO easy to use and I swear that it felt like we were constantly pulling fast passes. So many had immediate return times. We had a bunch of rides go down we had fast passes for that turned into the 'multiple experience" fast passes and we had 5 of those by the time nighttime rolled around. We were able to go on all of our favorites at least twice some three times. I felt like it really maximized our time in the parks which was great because we only had 2 days, 1 day in each park. So we didn't spend any time running back and forth. We just moved from area to area and by snagging the fast passes on the app so quickly we were able to get a lot done. So for us and it being a short trip and only 4 of us, it was definitely worth it - especially since I would have bought the photopass anyway. I don't usually get it all the time at WDW anymore since we've been so many times but really wanted it here since it was our first time.

 

[chickapin parterre]

a guest at my birthday party last night used the pass and found it to be the best way to visit the parks last week, did not run into problems till around 2, then it was time to eat anyhow, at one time they were holding two FP at the same time.

 

[Frozen2014]

I see no reason to buy MaxPass. Fast Pass forces you to zig-zag around the park to make the most of it and in all honesty I am not sure that it actual saves time. And I have no need/desire for Photopass.

IT's funny as since this is our first time (and only time) to Disneyland, the Photopass is what makes MaxPass attractive. Without it, I'm thinking we can just walk to the rides to grab FP, but add in the PhotoPass cost, then maybe it's worth it..at least on our busy park day. At the moment though, not planning on getting it (and will be carrying a camera and our phones) but we'll see.

 

[disneychrista]

Photopass is what makes MaxPass attractive.

If I had little ones I am sure it would be more attractive to me. But my trips these days are solo trips and I am not big into the character meets.

 

[twodogs]

We will be there 3 days (family of 4). Kids are 9 and 12 and one is a good FP runner. We do EMH to park close, with a swim break at our onsite hotel (GCH this time but DLH when we went in April). We exercise and are pretty fit, kids play sports etc. By the end of day 3, feet were screaming from running back and forth all day to pull FPs and ride rides. Legs were very tired and our younger child was dragging a bit. And walking to parks in AM, back to resort for break, back to parks and back to resort, makes one tired! We always buy Photopass.

The math for us is adding MP is $10/day/person x 3 days= $120. One week Photopass is $78. So the increase to book FP online and not kill our feet costs us $42 total (or $10.50 per person for the entire trip). That is SO worth it to me. For a longer trip, larger family, people without young kids, or people who don't normally do PP, I can see the value not being there.

I hope they come up with a group rate, that offers a discount for multiple people in a "party" buying multiple days. Or maybe a discount if you stay onsite. I don't really like prebooking like FP+ at WDW, so that would not be a perk to me of staying onsite. I like leaving it fair game for all visitors on the day-of.

 

[chickapin parterre]

your observation about longer trips is probably right on. The person sharing the trip last night was only in each park one day, the bought single day tickets, but purchased the pass.....and boy did they gain the advantage...I could not believe it....I am an old man with a very old phone, I don't take photos, don't get store discounts on my phone and never run out of battery....but what they were sharing last night has pretty much convinced me that I need to get a smart phone if I want a level playing field to visit disneyland