What we accomplished with MaxPass 9/20/17-9/23/17... A LOT!!! And some MP tips.

[twodogs]

We just returned from our first trip using MP; posting here to show what we did and hope this helps others.

It was me, DH, DD12, and DD10. We have been to DL a few times, most recently in April, and WDW several times before and after FP+ was introduced. This was our first Halloween time!! We arrived late afternoon on Wednesday 9/20, and checked into our refurbed room at the GCH. We had 4 day PH's with MP, so we headed to CA that evening around 5:30pm. DL was closing at 6pm that night for the Halloween party, and we did not attend the party that night. We stayed until park close of CA at 8pm, then headed to the room for early bedtime since we wanted to be up for EMH at 8AM at DL the next day. We park hopped that day as you will see below. The following day, Friday 9/22, was our MHP day! We did use our regular tickets to go to the parks that day, starting at CA since it had EMH at 7AM that day. I LOVE the 7AM EMH since it is really hard for most people to get up that early, and we always get a lot done. That night was MHP. Saturday was our last park day, and DL had EMH at 7AM. We were wiped out from the party, so we just went to CA at the regular 8AM opening time, and park hopped as well.

I think you will see below how valuable MP can be if you manage it aggressively. I tried to always book a FP as soon as our window opened. You can see we got 45 different ride FPs in 3 days, if I counted correctly!! I tried to get all of them in this list, but may have missed a few since I forgot to screen shot some of them. I do STRONGLY recommend that you take a screen shot of the confirmation screen for each FP you book. This tells you when your next FP can be booked. If you forget to do this, you can find out by trying to book a FP, and you will get a "not so fast" screen that won't allow you to book a new FP but will tell you the time you can next book a FP for each person in the party.

The screen shot can also be useful if the app is down when you go to a ride. Even though you can use your physical park ticket, it is nice to have the screen shot as a back up to show the CM if there is an issue. The other time it came in handy was on Saturday night when we went to use our HMH FP. The return time was ending at 2020. We left the French Market at 2000, and it took us 20+ minutes to get to HMH FP entrance (normally this would take about 30 seconds to walk it). This was because it was wall-to-wall people in NOS area due to people standing around for Fantasmic spots, and literally CMs were screaming at people (and people were screaming at people). We didn't take one step in any direction for over 10 minutes. It was insane!! The FP return line for HMH was past the umbrella where the wheelchair entrance was (basically almost back to the ride exit for HMH!!). We made it to the first scan point for FP in the grace period of our FP (I think it was about 2030 by that time). By the time we got to the second FP scan point, our FP was "expired" because it was past the 15 minute grace period. I told the CM that we had the FP but we'd been in the FP line so long that it had expired between the scan points. She did not seem to believe me, so I showed the screen shot of the FP, showing the end time of 2020. So this could be handy!

Another thing we did, as you will see below, is sometimes I made 4 FPs for a ride that only 2 of us were going to ride (that is, I would book 4 FPs for GOTG, but DH and DD12 would ride it twice, and me and other DD10 would nto ride it at all but would meet a character or shop, since we don't like that ride). This worked to get DH and DD12 on GOTG (both versions) a total of 11 times in 3 days, all with FP! They could have made it 13, but we tired out on the last night and I cancelled those FP. When we did this, however, DH and DD12 needed to either scan the FP assigned to me and DD10 from the app (DH and I were both signed into my account on the app on each of our phones, and I made all the FP reservations), or they needed a photo of our hard tickets to scan to use "our" FPs. I recommend everyone have a photo of everyone's park tickets on their phone, as when the FP system and app went down park-wide on Saturday, and DD10 and I were trying to use DH and DD12's HMH FPs (they were in CA at the time), I had to use photos of their hard tickets to scan into the FP line for us, since I couldn't use the app to scan from their electronic FPs (and of course we didn't have their hard tickets with us since they were in CA at the time).

One more tip, which I got from someone on this board, be VERY careful when you have a multi-experience (ME) FP from a ride that went down during your FP window. If you also have other ride-specific FPs to use, make sure to scan the ride-specific FP from the APP at that ride, to avoid it accidentally using your ME FP, which it might do if you just scan your paper ticket. For example, we had a ME FP from early in the day due to CS breaking down. We saved it and used it last of the day for Soarin'. Every other FP we had that day in CA, I scanned directly from the app for that specific ride, so it would not accidentally burn our ME FP.

SO here is the list of what we did. I used screen shots and photos on my phone to get all of the times listed here. FP bookings are marked RED. We did not pull any paper FPs except for WOC (disconnected from other FPs, not available to get via MP). While we were there, I felt MP was completely worth it (especially since I always buy PP anyway, so the incremental cost of MP with included PP was pretty small). After looking at all we did in the list below (and I know I'm leaving off a few FPs we did and many standbys, but this is the best I've got!), it was ABSOLUTELY worth it!!!


Wednesday 9/20

Arrived in DCA 1726

Booked FP for CS at 1726, return time 1735

CS with FP at 1735 (DH and DD12)

CS with FP at 1750 (DH and DD12)

No other FP available in CA that night

Dinner at Cozy Cones (very long lines)

Pumpkin Spice Churro!


Thursday 9/21, MM/EMH at DL (8AM MM opening time, 9AM regular opening and CA opening)

Arrived DL at 0730

Gates opened and we scanned through at 0750

Booked FP for HMH at 0750, return time 0930

SM standby twice (0813, 0832)

Buzz standby twice

ST standby once

Booked FP for GOTG at 0922, return time 1020

HMH with FP at 0930

Hopped to CA (DH and DD12)

CS twice standby (DH and DD12)

Booked FP for RSR at 1034, return time 1515

Met Jack and Sally at DL at 1050 (me and DD10)

Met Tiana at DL at 1107 (me and DD10)

GOTG at 1043 with FP (DH and DD12)

GOTG at 1106 with FP (DH and DD12)

Booked FP for Buzz at 1205, return time 1230

Booked FP for HMH at 1235, return time 1235

HMH with FP at 1235

Booked FP for TSSM at 1241, return time 1440

Buzz with FP at 1315

Met Boba Fett at Launch Bay at 1354

Met Darth Vader at Launch Bay 1402

Booked FP for Buzz at 1413, return time 1435

Met Chewbacca at Launch Bay 1420

Buzz with FP 1438

Cancelled FP for TSMM sometime in here

Booked FP for GOTG Monsters After Dark at 1450, return time 1815 (earliest return time this day was 1800)

Buzz with FP at 1548

Hopped to CA

RSR with FP at 1623

Booked HMH FP at 1625, return time 2125

Flick’s Flyers Standby at 1700

CHURRO

Met Vampire Mater at 1720

Met Pluto at Airplane at 1737

Met Donald Duck Devil costume at 1756 on Buena Vista Street

Booked FP for BTMRR at 1800, return time 1930

Met Goofy (mummy costume) at 1813 on Buena Vista Street

Met Daisy Sorcerer costume at 1835 on Buena Vista Street

GOTG Monsters After Dark with FP at 1837 (DH and DD12)

GOTG Monsters After Dark with FP at 1904 (DH and DD12)

BTMRR with FP at 1930 (me and DD10)

BTMRR with FP at 1945 (me and DD10)

Booked HMH FP at 1950, return time 2045

HMH with FP at 2045

Cancelled FP for HMH with return time of 2125 (pixie dust people since we were able to move time up)




Friday 9/22, EMH at CA (7AM EMH opening time, 8AM regular opening); Halloween Party this night!!

Arrived at CA at 0645

Booked FP for RSR at 0703, return time 0800

TSMM standby 0710

TSMM standby 0720 (allowed to stay in ride vehicle for next ride!!)

TSMM standby 0725

RSR standby 0750

RSR standby 0802

Booked FP for Soarin’ at 0807, return time 0915

RSR with FP at 0816

CS standby at 0835 (DH and DD12)

CS standby at 0844 (DH and DD12)

CS standby at 0901 (DH and DD12)

Soarin’ with FP at 0915

Booked FP for TSMM at 0917, return time 0925

TSMM with FP at 0925

Booked GOTG FP at 0936, return time 1355

Churro and Mickey Ice Cream Bar break!

Park Hopped to DL at 1040

Met Queen of Hearts at Fire Station at 1048

Met Cruella de Ville at Town Square at 1100

Met Jafar at Town Square at 1106

Booked FP for Buzz at 1109, return time 1115

Buzz with FP 1120

Booked FP for BTMRR at 1142, return time 1150

BTMRR with FP at 1155

Pool Break at GCH after stopping for Oogie Boogie Rice Crispie Treat and Poison Apple Cake pop!

Lunch at Whitewater Snacks at GCH

Booked FP for HMH at 1231, return time 1445

Booked FP for SM, GG at 1405, return time 1545

Return to DL (me and DD10)

Return to DCA (DH and DD12)

HMH with FP at 1455 (me and DD10)

GOTG with FP 1455 (DH and DD12)

GOTG with FP 1520 (DH and DD12)

HMH with FP at 1535 (me and DD10)

Booked FP for BTMRR at 1543, return time 1550

BTMRR with FP at 1550 (me and DD10)

BTMRR with FP at 1615 (me and DD10)

Booked FP for BTMRR at 1638, return time 1640

BTMRR with FP at 1642

Booked FP for Indy at 1642, return time 1730

Halloween Party wrist band pick up (long line)

Cancelled Indy FP since we were still in wrist band line

Booked FP for Indy at 1742, return time 1815

Indy with FP at 1815

Booked FP for Buzz at 1817, return time 1825

Cancelled FP for Buzz

Halloween Party starts 1900! No more FP for the night!

Met Aladdin 1914

Met Anna and Elsa 1931

Dinner at Pizza Port

IASW standby 2034

Parade 2040

Fireworks 2136

Met Chewbacca during Treat Trail at Launch Bay 2217


Saturday 9/23, MM at DL (7AM EMH/MM opening time, 8AM regular opening and CA opening):

Skipped DL MM as too tired from Halloween Party!

Arrived at CA at 0810

Booked FP for TSMM at 0814, return time 0835

TSMM with FP at 0835

Booked FP for TSMM at 0839, return time 0845

TSMM with FP at 0850

Booked FP for RSR at 0854, return time 1050

Jumpin Jellyfish standby 3 times starting at 0916

Booked GOTG FP at 1024, return time 1115

RSR with FP at 1100

Cozy Cones!

Booked FP for TSMM at 1119, return time 1225

GOTG with FP at 1136 (DH and DD12)

GOTG with FP at 1158 (DH and DD12)

Booked FP for GOTG at 1200, return time 1410 (for DH and DD12)

Carousel at 1221 (me and DD10)

Booked TSMM FP at 1249, return time 1310 (for me and DD10)

TSMM with FP at 1255 (me and DD10)

Booked CS FP at 1334, return time 1425

CS down, became ME FP

Pool Break GCH

Booked HMH FP at 1411, return time 2020

GOTG with FP at 1436 (DH and DD12)

Entire FP system goes down around 1500, paper FP out for rest of night

Booked BTMRR FP at 1557, return time 1655

BTMRR with FP at 1655 (me and DD10)

Booked GOTG MaD FP at 1657, return time 1755 (DH and DD12)

Booked Buzz FP at 1658, return time 1725 (me and DD10)

GOTG Monsters after Dark with FP at 1826 (DH and DD12)

Buzz with FP at 1837

Booked BTMRR FP at 1838, return time 1840

BTMRR with FP at 1840 (me and DD10)

BTMRR with FP at 1855 (me and DD10)

DH and DD12 park hop back to DL

Booked BTMRR FP at 1859, return time 1900

BTMRR with FP at 1903

Dinner at French Market

Booked GOTG MaD FP at 1910, return time 1950

Booked Buzz FP at 1959, return 2005

Cancelled Buzz FP (unable to get there due to crowds in NOS with Fantasmic and HMH)

Cancelled GOTG MaD FP (unable to get there due to crowds in NOS with Fantasmic and HMH)

Booked GOTG MaD FP at 1950, return 2100

HMH with FP at 2020

Cancelled GOTG MaD FP (not able to get out of NOS after riding HMH)

Hopped to CA

Soarin’ with ME FP from earlier in the day

Dropped into bed!!!

 

[pennym]

You eat a lot of churros! What was the pumpkin spice one like? I'm keen to try one, where do you get them? And can you use maxpass to scan a fp if you are offline do you know?

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Holy cow, I'm exhausted just looking at that list, but it's awesome that you were able to utilize Maxpass so well! Used efficiently, it's an excellent tool to get a lot accomplished, as you've shown.

We were there Saturday with visitors and we got a ton done with Maxpass (even though we stopped booking things at 3 when it went down - we had several ME passes from ride breakdowns by then, so we just used those for the other things they wanted to do).

 

[twodogs]

You eat a lot of churros! What was the pumpkin spice one like? I'm keen to try one, where do you get them? And can you use maxpass to scan a fp if you are offline do you know?

We do love the Churro! The Pumpkin Spice one was only available at Cozy Cones in CA that I saw. The other stands had orange/purple/green sprinkles on them, but they were the regular flavor. I really like Pumpkin in just about anything, and while I liked the Pumpkin Spice Churro, it was not so phenomenal that I was willing to wait in that long line for it again. For the rest of the trip, I just had the regular flavor and was very happy! My daughters love Churros too, so we shared!

I don't think you can get to the screen with the actual FPs on it if you are offline. However, you can just scan in your physical ticket. The only downside to that is if you have a ME FP on your ticket/account and it tries to use that when you don't want to. If you are online anytime during the FP's window, you can display the FP for each person digitally on your phone, and take a screen shot of each person's FP. Then if you are offline at the time you are actually scanning into the FP line at the ride, you can use your screen shot of the ride-specific FP to scan in. The only bummer I found was you can't see the actual digital FP in the app for each person until the window for the FP opens (you can see the "reservation" for the FP anytime in the app, but the actual digital FP for each person with the bar code that you use to scan into the FP line won't show up until that FP's window opens).

The Wifi was non-existent in the parks for us (worked in our room at GCH and at the pool there). I turned the WiFi off on my phone in the parks because it was draining my battery as it was searching for WiFi and only finding it every once in a while for a few seconds.

 

[twodogs]

Holy cow, I'm exhausted just looking at that list, but it's awesome that you were able to utilize Maxpass so well! Used efficiently, it's an excellent tool to get a lot accomplished, as you've shown.

We were there Saturday with visitors and we got a ton done with Maxpass (even though we stopped booking things at 3 when it went down - we had several ME passes from ride breakdowns by then, so we just used those for the other things they wanted to do).

I was exhausted reliving what we did too!! Sometimes we were split up 2 and 2, so we didn't all 4 do everything on the list, but it was still a lot. We don't get to go too often, so we make the most of it! We did a lot more rides with less walking with MP, and it was nice to be able to book the next FP while in line for a ride or character.

I'm glad you had a great time on Saturday! It was pretty nuts to us at the end of the night, and I have never felt trapped like I did between French Market and HMH that night. I don't know if we've just never been over that way during Fantasmic to notice this, or if this type of crowded chaos was unusual? I expect that during a free concert in Times Square, but I didn't expect total grid lock at DL. If there had been some type of emergency, people would have been trampled for sure. CMs were up on the planters yelling and it was actually scary at some points. I was glad I didn't have a stroller or ECV because that made it even worse. I will not do that again! Only reason we didn't turn around and walk out of NOS with the only direction of people that were moving was that HMH is my daughter's favorite ride.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I was exhausted reliving what we did too!! Sometimes we were split up 2 and 2, so we didn't all 4 do everything on the list, but it was still a lot. We don't get to go too often, so we make the most of it! We did a lot more rides with less walking with MP, and it was nice to be able to book the next FP while in line for a ride or character.

I'm glad you had a great time on Saturday! It was pretty nuts to us at the end of the night, and I have never felt trapped like I did between French Market and HMH that night. I don't know if we've just never been over that way during Fantasmic to notice this, or if this type of crowded chaos was unusual? I expect that during a free concert in Times Square, but I didn't expect total grid lock at DL. If there had been some type of emergency, people would have been trampled for sure. CMs were up on the planters yelling and it was actually scary at some points. I was glad I didn't have a stroller or ECV because that made it even worse. I will not do that again! Only reason we didn't turn around and walk out of NOS with the only direction of people that were moving was that HMH is my daughter's favorite ride.

That section of the park is a gridlocked nightmare since Fantasmic! came back, but the popularity of HMH has pushed it over an edge from what I've heard. I actually told our visitors that we would need to avoid that whole section of the park from 6pm on (they didn't want to do Fantasmic!), so we didn't even see the chaos - we had drinks at Carthay lounge, then went over and did Storybook Land during the fireworks and Small World right after, and that part of the park was pretty dead. We hit Alice on our way out and called it a night.

I feel bad for the CMs tasked with crowd control when the park has those kinds of conditions. It can absolutely feel scary when you're trapped in a crush of people like that!

 

[katyringo]

So I'm a newbie about to take our first trip. I'm confused. I thought you could only have one FP at a time? For example it says you had a return time for RAditor springs @ 1050 but was able to book another FP at 1024. So I don't think I understand how it works quite yet. Help me max pass master?

 

[Skyegirl1999]

So I'm a newbie about to take our first trip. I'm confused. I thought you could only have one FP at a time? For example it says you had a return time for RAditor springs @ 1050 but was able to book another FP at 1024. So I don't think I understand how it works quite yet. Help me max pass master?

It doesn't matter how many you have at once; the key is understanding how frequently you can pull them. See here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/the-answer-to-when-can-i-pull-my-next-fp.3634984/#post-58218674

 

[twodogs]

It doesn't matter how many you have at once; the key is understanding how frequently you can pull them. See here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/the-answer-to-when-can-i-pull-my-next-fp.3634984/#post-58218674

Thanks for the great link! Very nice explanation!

 

[katyringo]

It doesn't matter how many you have at once; the key is understanding how frequently you can pull them. See here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/the-answer-to-when-can-i-pull-my-next-fp.3634984/#post-58218674

Okay I deff understand a bit better. So does the app let you have more then one booked at a time and it just matters when you use them?

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Okay I deff understand a bit better. So does the app let you have more then one booked at a time and it just matters when you use them?

Yes. For instance, on Saturday we booked RSR with a return time of 2:30-3:30, then 90 minutes later got GOTG for 2:35-3:35 (this must have been someone else's cancellation), and then 90 minutes later booked CS with a return of 2:20-3:20. So, we had three FP that all overlapped.

 

[katyringo]

I get it. You were able to book more because the return time was 90 minutes away.. so basically you could stack them like that because they were all past the maximum time?

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I get it. You were able to book more because the return time was 90 minutes away.. so basically you could stack them like that because they were all past the maximum time?

Yes, but you can also have one that is open from 10:45-11:45, pull another one right at 10:45 with a close return time, then another one 30 minutes later at 11:15, and then you'd have three at that point, too. It just never matters how many you have.

We usually try to pull a few with close return times right away in the morning, keeping an eye on the ones that "sell out," and then we switch to pulling those and waiting the 90 minutes.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[katyringo]

Yes, but you can also have one that is open from 10:45-11:45, pull another one right at 10:45 with a close return time, then another one 30 minutes later at 11:15, and then you'd have three at that point, too. It just never matters how many you have.

We usually try to pull a few with close return times right away in the morning, keeping an eye on the ones that "sell out," and then we switch to pulling those and waiting the 90 minutes.

Hope that makes sense.

Yes it does. Thanks so much for
Taking the time to help this newbie out

 

[tlcdoula]

Thank you for taking the time to type this all out.... It is amazing how much you guys got done with max pass. We are a month out and I am working on our park plans for the days we are there.. this will definitely help. My feet are sore reading your list

 

[twodogs]

My feet still hurt!! But worth it!

 

[jenbright]

Can you pull FP for DL and CA as the same time? I was looking at the section below that you posted from Thurs. and it looks like you pulled RSR and then 5 minutes later pulled HMH.

Booked FP for RSR at 1034, return time 1515
Met Jack and Sally at DL at 1050 (me and DD10)
Met Tiana at DL at 1107 (me and DD10)
GOTG at 1043 with FP (DH and DD12)
GOTG at 1106 with FP (DH and DD12)
Booked FP for HMH at 1035, return time 1230

 

[FCDub]

Yes, as long as you meet the window requirements.

 

[jenbright]

I didn't realize that! Yay more ways to get FP!!! Thanks FC Dub

 

[PHXscuba]

Thanks for the list of what you accomplished, and especially the reminder to be well clear of the NOS area by 7:00 or so. I recall it being bad before Fantasmic in August, but you are right that it will be so much worse with the HMH overlay.

My teens know about GotG but I am surprising them that the Monsters After Dark overlay exists. Gotta have a few tricks up my sleeves!

PHXscuba