One Day Park Hopping w/o MaxPass?

[spiderann]

Hi all! I will be taking a group of teenagers to DL the first week in April. (DH and I plus 9 high school seniors.) The kids only want to do one day at DL and I am toying with paying the extra for the park hoppers. I have been to both DL and CA once before so I understand that the kids may not be interested all the cute fun rides at DL like I am. I know there's good rides and food at both parks so I think it'd be better for the kids to have options.

My main questions are, since our group of 11 is most likely NOT going to stay together in one huge group that day, is it doable to park hop w/o MaxPass? Or will the lines be too long if they were to hop? Last time I went with a group of teenagers we did one whole day at DL and one day at CA. The CA day half the group got bored in the afternoon and went back to the hotel for a couple hours. (They clearly didn't appreciate all that CA had to offer like Animation Academy!) I'm a bit of a DL newbie, but I personally could spend all day in just one of the parks just for the atmosphere.

 

[katyringo]

Hi all! I will be taking a group of teenagers to DL the first week in April. (DH and I plus 9 high school seniors.) The kids only want to do one day at DL and I am toying with paying the extra for the park hoppers. I have been to both DL and CA once before so I understand that the kids may not be interested all the cute fun rides at DL like I am. I know there's good rides and food at both parks so I think it'd be better for the kids to have options.

My main questions are, since our group of 11 is most likely NOT going to stay together in one huge group that day, is it doable to park hop w/o MaxPass? Or will the lines be too long if they were to hop? Last time I went with a group of teenagers we did one whole day at DL and one day at CA. The CA day half the group got bored in the afternoon and went back to the hotel for a couple hours. (They clearly didn't appreciate all that CA had to offer like Animation Academy!) I'm a bit of a DL newbie, but I personally could spend all day in just one of the parks just for the atmosphere.

I think it’s possible as long as everyone has realistic expectations that getting everything done won’t happen. Check out Disneyland daily’s one day plan. Remember you can still use fastpasses- you just have to pull the paper ones. Those are free and done use maxpass. I’m sure someone in the group of young ones will be a runner.

You will have to be a bit more strategic. The fastpasses in DCA (cars ride) run our first. Especially the paper ones.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Is the fact that you won’t all be staying together the reason you don’t want to get MaxPass? If so, everyone could manage their own MaxPass on their own phones. Or small groups could link together in the app. I mean if you’re going to splurge on the parkhopers, MaxPass is the most valuable when you can park hop so I wouldn’t skip it, especially for teens who will likely want to ride all the thrill rides in both parks.

 

[spiderann]

Is the fact that you won’t all be staying together the reason you don’t want to get MaxPass? If so, everyone could manage their own MaxPass on their own phones. Or small groups could link together in the app. I mean if you’re going to splurge on the parkhopers, MaxPass is the most valuable when you can park hop so I wouldn’t skip it, especially for teens who will likely want to ride all the thrill rides in both parks.

Mostly yes for the group probably not staying together. But just slightly also to save on cost.(yes I know in the grand scheme of things another $15 a person isn’t that big a deal.) I’m just not super famialiar with maxpass. Is it just like Fastpass+ at WDW (ofwhich I am super familiar)? I suppose there is a thread on here somewhere about it. I’ll have to look that up.

 

[spiderann]

Is the fact that you won’t all be staying together the reason you don’t want to get MaxPass? If so, everyone could manage their own MaxPass on their own phones. Or small groups could link together in the app. I mean if you’re going to splurge on the parkhopers, MaxPass is the most valuable when you can park hop so I wouldn’t skip it, especially for teens who will likely want to ride all the thrill rides in both parks.

Also, if we were to pay for maxpass, how would you recommend it working for groups of people? I know at WDW you have the mydisneyexperience app and you can link between people that way. And I’m very familiar with that process. But When I buy the DL tickets, how does it work on the app? Do you link each ticket to each group’s “leader” phone app after the fact?

 

[WillowRain]

I would go with the MaxPass if you are only park hopping for 1 day. There is just no other way to do some of the bigger rides. Radiator springs racers passes usually sell out by mid afternoon, and the line will be 90-120 mins. I would have one of the teens (if they are all staying together) have the app on their phone too, and show them how to work it.

Much like MDE, you can be linked to your party. You can create a FP group with whoever you want in it. So if you and husband want to ride something, even though everyone elses tickets are connected to you, they do not have to make a FP for the same ride. So if you are the "leader" you can make FP for whatever they want! You can make a new one every 90 mins, or right after you ride. Example, we got Thunder Mountain MP for 10:00 at 9:50. So as soon as we came off the ride, I could make a new one. If we got a Space Mountain MP for 2 at 10 am, we could get another at 11:30. It's seriously SO helpful when you only have a day or 2. We are usually able to ride Thunder and Indy 3 times a day, that's also ride swapping because of my son. So the girls get to go 6 times!

 

[spiderann]

Much like MDE, you can be linked to your party. You can create a FP group with whoever you want in it. So if you and husband want to ride something, even though everyone elses tickets are connected to you, they do not have to make a FP for the same ride. So if you are the "leader" you can make FP for whatever they want! You can make a new one every 90 mins, or right after you ride. Example, we got Thunder Mountain MP for 10:00 at 9:50. So as soon as we came off the ride, I could make a new one. If we got a Space Mountain MP for 2 at 10 am, we could get another at 11:30. It's seriously SO helpful when you only have a day or 2. We are usually able to ride Thunder and Indy 3 times a day, that's also ride swapping because of my son. So the girls get to go 6 times!

you all have been so helpful! and WillowRain that's awesome your kids get to ride so many times!!

maxpass is clearly the way to go for a one day hopper. but just so i'm understanding, if our group splits into 2 groups, for example, one leader in each group would have the disneyland app on their phone, would scan/input the ticket numbers of their group members, and then handle with their maxpasses from there? or could/should both group leaders have everyone's ticket numbers in their apps, and then when making maxpass selections select only the people they want to have on their maxpasses with them? do the names of each person appear in the app for their tickets?

i guess i'm just a little unclear how it works with DL tickets v. WDW tickets (where you buy them online and they are linked to your my disney experience under your account and you book FP+ in advance of your trip.)

 

[WillowRain]

you all have been so helpful! and WillowRain that's awesome your kids get to ride so many times!!

maxpass is clearly the way to go for a one day hopper. but just so i'm understanding, if our group splits into 2 groups, for example, one leader in each group would have the disneyland app on their phone, would scan/input the ticket numbers of their group members, and then handle with their maxpasses from there? or could/should both group leaders have everyone's ticket numbers in their apps, and then when making maxpass selections select only the people they want to have on their maxpasses with them? do the names of each person appear in the app for their tickets?

i guess i'm just a little unclear how it works with DL tickets v. WDW tickets (where you buy them online and they are linked to your my disney experience under your account and you book FP+ in advance of your trip.)

You can pre-purchase your tickets AND MaxPass through the Disneyland site or app!!! Then you are good to start getting passes the second you scan in. Who needs a picture in front of the Main Street station, right? Make MAXPASSES! So say you buy them all, they will be linked in your app. I am not for certain how the friends and family part works because I just always handle my whole family, my husband does not have the app. So, someone else may need to just log in under you on their phone to have access to the tickets. Otherwise everyone might need their own log in and buy their own ticket, and they will not be linked up.

 

[WillowRain]

I looked in my Disneyland app, and I show my friends and family from MDE. Soooo, my guess is they will all be able to see plans, and should be able to see all tickets for making passes. But hopefully someone else can weigh in on that.

 

[spiderann]

You can pre-purchase your tickets AND MaxPass through the Disneyland site or app!!! Then you are good to start getting passes the second you scan in. Who needs a picture in front of the Main Street station, right? Make MAXPASSES! So say you buy them all, they will be linked in your app. I am not for certain how the friends and family part works because I just always handle my whole family, my husband does not have the app. So, someone else may need to just log in under you on their phone to have access to the tickets. Otherwise everyone might need their own log in and buy their own ticket, and they will not be linked up.

yeah that's the part that confuses me. i'm so used to how WDW does their tickets and such that i want to make sure i do this all right!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Hi all! I will be taking a group of teenagers to DL the first week in April. (DH and I plus 9 high school seniors.) The kids only want to do one day at DL and I am toying with paying the extra for the park hoppers. I have been to both DL and CA once before so I understand that the kids may not be interested all the cute fun rides at DL like I am. I know there's good rides and food at both parks so I think it'd be better for the kids to have options.

My main questions are, since our group of 11 is most likely NOT going to stay together in one huge group that day, is it doable to park hop w/o MaxPass? Or will the lines be too long if they were to hop? Last time I went with a group of teenagers we did one whole day at DL and one day at CA. The CA day half the group got bored in the afternoon and went back to the hotel for a couple hours. (They clearly didn't appreciate all that CA had to offer like Animation Academy!) I'm a bit of a DL newbie, but I personally could spend all day in just one of the parks just for the atmosphere.

Definitely. And leaving the kids the option of hoping between parks should keep them fairly busy for a day- especially if they don’t have MP & have to wait through each line