Having just done Disneyland this summer, and being an old pro at Disneyworld, I have to say I deeply regret that on my subsequent trips to Disneyworld I'll have to go back to Magicbands and Fastpass+ instead of the new MaxPass system at Disneyworld. Given the billion+ Disney spent implementing the Magicband system I suspect it's too much to hope they would ever scrap it for the much better system at Disneyland?
So by way of background, back when they just had the old Fastpass system with kiosks I was what I would describe as a power user of the system. I am a very fast walker. We would always be there at rope drop. My party typically includes myself, my kids, my wife and her parents. My wife and her parents don't like any of the rides with aggressive movement, which typically rules out whatever is most popular at the various parks (except at EPCOT). That worked great for us. I would immediately take the kids to the most popular ride while they went and got Fastpasses for another popular ride for everyone. Depending on the ride we double dip by using the Fastpasses for the kids and myself then the Fastpasses for my wife and in-laws again. Occasionally we would all use them together (Toy Story, anything at EPCOT except Mars, etc.). In the course of the day, as a power walker, I could often branch out from the group to snag future Fastpasses while they did a quick, less popular ride or got a snack or whatever. It was a finely oiled machine and we'd get on a lot more things with less wait time as a result. But it was a lot of work.
Fastpass+ mostly killed that. I was still able to occasionally borrow my wife and in-laws bands to double dip, but with the advance reservations it was much harder to get last minutes Fastpasses, particularly in the morning. Why did use the kiosks to book extra Fastpasses after our reservation one were used in the late afternoon, but that was more of a pain than the original Fastpass system since the kiosks for doing that often were not near the rides. But overall my biggest problem was having to book the Fastpasses in the first place months out. We like to check crowd projections and weather to adapt to which park we want to go to on any given day. Some parks are higher priorities than others so if there's going to be a lot of rain we used to like to change the plan on the fly the night before or even morning-of. With the advance Fastpass reservations that's impractical, unless you're content to mostly stand in regular lines.
I realize the new system is nicer for the casual Fastpass user who wants to use it sparingly to supplement what are mostly standby line waits, but that's an awful come down for those of use who really knew how to use them and were willing to put in the work.
Then we tried the MaxPass this summer at Disneyland. For those not familiar with it, Disney still has the old fashioned Fastpass system where you can use your park ticket at kiosks right next to the ride. Once you have one, you can't get another until the start time for the existing one is passed. However, they now have an opt-in $10/ticket/day option called "MaxPass." With it, yo can use an app on your phone to lock in Fastpasses from anywhere in either park in California. Unlike the Fastpass+ system, you can't reserve it in advance of physically being in one of the parks the day-of and you can only get one Fastpass at a time like the original system (though you can actually get many, but I'll explain that below). But you don't have to be near the ride to get it.
In practice, this was a GAME CHANGER and made our for best Disney experiences in years (since back when you could actually find uncrowded days). We ended up being able to use at least a dozen Fastpasses per day, far more than you could realistically use with Fastpass+ or the original at-ride kiosks. We typically only did a couple rides a day that were not Fastpasses and usually only because they were older ones at Disneyland that didn't have the option.
The process worked like this. Entered the park at rope drop and immediately went to the most popular ride to get standby when the line was still short. As soon as we were in that line, opened the app and got a Fastpass for the next thing we wanted (actually I got to where I could do this while walking to the first ride by the second day). As soon as I was in the Fastpass line for the second ride, I was already reserving the next ride. The app made it easy to see what time the Fastpasses were for and how long the standby lines were estimated to be. Further, I could divide up my party on the app so I could still take advantage of my wife and in-laws not doing any of the adventurous rides to have up to 4 different rides setup at a time between the current one I was in line for, the next for the kids and the current and next for my in-laws. And, again, it worked across both parks so by as lunch was approaching I was able to plan ahead and switch to Fastpasses for the other park for post lunch without leaving the one I was in. Worked great. Best line management experience I have ever had at Disney. The only time it didn't work well was for Soarin'. The problem was you had to very quickly make a choice between using up a Fastpass for mid-afternoon for that ride or continuing to hop straight from one to another in immediate succession for every other ride. We did the continuous hopping so by mid-afternoon all the Soarin' Fastpasses for the entire day were gone and the 2 hour standby line was the only option.
I will sadly miss this system at Disneyworld. It would be amazing if they found a way to integrate something similar into the Fastpass+ system as an add-on options.
So by way of background, back when they just had the old Fastpass system with kiosks I was what I would describe as a power user of the system. I am a very fast walker. We would always be there at rope drop. My party typically includes myself, my kids, my wife and her parents. My wife and her parents don't like any of the rides with aggressive movement, which typically rules out whatever is most popular at the various parks (except at EPCOT). That worked great for us. I would immediately take the kids to the most popular ride while they went and got Fastpasses for another popular ride for everyone. Depending on the ride we double dip by using the Fastpasses for the kids and myself then the Fastpasses for my wife and in-laws again. Occasionally we would all use them together (Toy Story, anything at EPCOT except Mars, etc.). In the course of the day, as a power walker, I could often branch out from the group to snag future Fastpasses while they did a quick, less popular ride or got a snack or whatever. It was a finely oiled machine and we'd get on a lot more things with less wait time as a result. But it was a lot of work.
Fastpass+ mostly killed that. I was still able to occasionally borrow my wife and in-laws bands to double dip, but with the advance reservations it was much harder to get last minutes Fastpasses, particularly in the morning. Why did use the kiosks to book extra Fastpasses after our reservation one were used in the late afternoon, but that was more of a pain than the original Fastpass system since the kiosks for doing that often were not near the rides. But overall my biggest problem was having to book the Fastpasses in the first place months out. We like to check crowd projections and weather to adapt to which park we want to go to on any given day. Some parks are higher priorities than others so if there's going to be a lot of rain we used to like to change the plan on the fly the night before or even morning-of. With the advance Fastpass reservations that's impractical, unless you're content to mostly stand in regular lines.
I realize the new system is nicer for the casual Fastpass user who wants to use it sparingly to supplement what are mostly standby line waits, but that's an awful come down for those of use who really knew how to use them and were willing to put in the work.
Then we tried the MaxPass this summer at Disneyland. For those not familiar with it, Disney still has the old fashioned Fastpass system where you can use your park ticket at kiosks right next to the ride. Once you have one, you can't get another until the start time for the existing one is passed. However, they now have an opt-in $10/ticket/day option called "MaxPass." With it, yo can use an app on your phone to lock in Fastpasses from anywhere in either park in California. Unlike the Fastpass+ system, you can't reserve it in advance of physically being in one of the parks the day-of and you can only get one Fastpass at a time like the original system (though you can actually get many, but I'll explain that below). But you don't have to be near the ride to get it.
In practice, this was a GAME CHANGER and made our for best Disney experiences in years (since back when you could actually find uncrowded days). We ended up being able to use at least a dozen Fastpasses per day, far more than you could realistically use with Fastpass+ or the original at-ride kiosks. We typically only did a couple rides a day that were not Fastpasses and usually only because they were older ones at Disneyland that didn't have the option.
The process worked like this. Entered the park at rope drop and immediately went to the most popular ride to get standby when the line was still short. As soon as we were in that line, opened the app and got a Fastpass for the next thing we wanted (actually I got to where I could do this while walking to the first ride by the second day). As soon as I was in the Fastpass line for the second ride, I was already reserving the next ride. The app made it easy to see what time the Fastpasses were for and how long the standby lines were estimated to be. Further, I could divide up my party on the app so I could still take advantage of my wife and in-laws not doing any of the adventurous rides to have up to 4 different rides setup at a time between the current one I was in line for, the next for the kids and the current and next for my in-laws. And, again, it worked across both parks so by as lunch was approaching I was able to plan ahead and switch to Fastpasses for the other park for post lunch without leaving the one I was in. Worked great. Best line management experience I have ever had at Disney. The only time it didn't work well was for Soarin'. The problem was you had to very quickly make a choice between using up a Fastpass for mid-afternoon for that ride or continuing to hop straight from one to another in immediate succession for every other ride. We did the continuous hopping so by mid-afternoon all the Soarin' Fastpasses for the entire day were gone and the 2 hour standby line was the only option.
I will sadly miss this system at Disneyworld. It would be amazing if they found a way to integrate something similar into the Fastpass+ system as an add-on options.
