How do you know if MaxPass is worth it?

[Luckymommatoo]

We are going on Thanksgiving day. DH used to be a CM, so we have been to the parks a LOT, but not so much in the past year. Trying to figure out if adding $40 to our day is a worthwhile investment. We are there more for the atmosphere (and to see F!) rather than any particular rides. But we do have two teens, so... Hmmm. Thoughts?

 

[RynB11]

We used it for the first time yesterday. I’m an AP holder and initially didn’t feel I needed it. We were always used to just using a runner. However, after my experience yesterday I absolutely see the benefit of it. Granted, we were there at the beginning of the day and were able to benefit the most from it. We hit all of the attractions we wanted to, which included RSR, HMH, BTMR, Soarin’, just to name a few. Additionally, we were able to see both the fireworks and Fantasmic. We never felt rushed and were able to enjoy the entire day and all of our favorite attractions, even on a considerably busy day. Though you could essentially do the same with a Runner, the ease and calmness of MaxPass outweighs this IMO. Since I imagine Thanksgiving is going to be even busier than it was yesterday, as long as you’re planning at being at the parks early, I’d recommend it.

 

[HydroGuy]

We are going on Thanksgiving day. DH used to be a CM, so we have been to the parks a LOT, but not so much in the past year. Trying to figure out if adding $40 to our day is a worthwhile investment. We are there more for the atmosphere (and to see F!) rather than any particular rides. But we do have two teens, so... Hmmm. Thoughts?

Each situation is different and for yours I would be on the fence too. If the teens like headliners (as most teens do) which are usually the FP rides it is probably worth it to get MP. It just depends on how many FP rides they might do. FP takes a little effort to collect and MP is SO AWESOME to just manage from your phone. No effort running around. More time keeping the group together.

 

[az4boys]

We went on a few busy days in October and loved Maxpass! I think the more crowded it is, the more "worth it" it is. On our two full days we did Disneyland through lunch, afternoon break, then evenings in DCA. We could have easily had 5 FP lined up for DCA if we wanted, despite never stepping foot into the park until evening. Stand-by for Toy Story and RSR were both over 2 hours and we hardly waited at all. My boys are all about the rides, and that makes Maxpass worth it for us.

 

[Nevada Jen]

I was hesitant as will but holy cow! Totally worth it for me. It makes rides breaking down an awesome surprise rather than a disaster to your schedule. Your fastpass just turns into an any time/ride fast pass. And when they break down close to closing you get to use it the next day! If you all really don't care about the rides, not worth it. Maybe just get it for the teens?

 

[22Tink]

I loved MaxPass! I plan to get it for all my trips now. We’re all about the rides though, so that’s why it’s worth it for me. We rode Guardians 3 times and RSR twice in 1 day! I’d never have been able to do that without MP. It was just myself and my DD so I really appreciated not having to drag her around to the FP machines. If the teens want to ride the big rides it may be worth getting it for them?

 

[Skyegirl1999]

If you have parkhoppers and want to do at least 4-5 of the "bigger" FP rides, I think it's definitely worth it.

The ability to book from anywhere (especially the other park) and 90-minute "maximum" time between bookings are both huge factors in getting multiple big rides in one day.

 

[Laundress]

We are going on Thanksgiving day. DH used to be a CM, so we have been to the parks a LOT, but not so much in the past year. Trying to figure out if adding $40 to our day is a worthwhile investment. We are there more for the atmosphere (and to see F!) rather than any particular rides. But we do have two teens, so... Hmmm. Thoughts?

Would love to hear how your experience goes. we will be there for spring break and might try it.

 

[Frozen2014]

On our (first) trip in August we did legacy FP our first day. It was our first time (did FastPass+ once at WDW) and didn't love the running around and then returning. One good example is that we wanted to ride Toy Story end of day but we were in Radiator Springs area. We had an TS booking at Goofy's Kitchen coming up. Had we been able to book on our phone, then we could have grabbed the FP, headed over (which Toy Story is the far end of the park...and for us, nothing else around it that interested us). But with paper, the time to talk over there, grab it and then wait for our return time was too tight with our dinner coming up. Our DS was upset as we had done some selections for our DD.

Next day we tried MaxPass and loved it. So convenient with not having to run around grabbing FastPass only to return. It's great too when you know you are heading over the other park (if you have park hopper) so you can book one beforehand. Also, the max wait between getting your next FastPass is 90min vs 120 min.

MaxPass really made it so we could grab FP for headliners and non-headliners for us were short lines. So overall, we had little line ups (but we came last week in August). We ended up getting it as well for days 3 and 4 of our trip.

Having said that, you do mention that you are there for the atmostphere so if you don't plan on riding many rides, then perhaps its not worth it. It really depends on how many headliners you plan on riding. You could try it for one day and see how you feel.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We don't know how it will go over a heavy holiday- how fast MPs will run out and/or if the system will crash (in which case you wave goodbye to your $40 as it's strictly non-refundable). That said: If the teens really want to hit Guardians, if HMH & IASM holiday are important parts of the park atmosphere for you spend the $40. If you all can pass all those, imho you are truely just there for the atmosphere & should skip it.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I was hesitant as will but holy cow! Totally worth it for me. It makes rides breaking down an awesome surprise rather than a disaster to your schedule. Your fastpass just turns into an any time/ride fast pass. And when they break down close to closing you get to use it the next day! If you all really don't care about the rides, not worth it. Maybe just get it for the teens?

FWIW: MP doesn't matter for that. We didn't have MP when Indy broke, just paper FPs that day, were told by CMs we could comeback anytime that day. I looked at the app & my Indy was showing as well as an Anytime pass. We used it in Matterhorn & I think they both disappeared after.

 

[tlcdoula]

We used it on our last trip, and I found it very useful, especially being able to change some of the fast passes if someone decided they didn't want to ride a certain ride etc. We had 3 families with us and sometimes we all didn't want to do the same ride so I would switch the few and get them a different fast pass. Worked well for that and saved my poor feet from running around getting fast passes

We used it 3 out of the 5 days and enjoyed it while we used it.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

It was just the two of us on a medium crowd day in October and it worked brilliantly for us. We'd FP our next headliners from the FP line of the ride prior while in DL and then pulled RSR while finishing up our final ride in DL. Stopped for lunch in DL, the 1.5 hr before being able to select another FP elapsed so we pulled a Toy Story FP as well as RSR before even heading over to DCA.

Rope drop + Max Pass + Hoppers is a strong strategy if you are ride driven and on limited time like we were.

Honestly the photos where a bonus, but the knowledge that we were pretty much walking on to everything we wanted to ride was helpful in a full but still relaxed day. I don't think we waited more than 20 mins in a FP line and that was RSR mid afternoon.

 

[Luckymommatoo]

Okay, you guys have totally convinced us to give it a whirl! Now to figure out how/if it can be linked to CM parkhopper passes... (if anyone has done this, I'd love tips!)

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

As long as your tickets (CM or otherwise) are in your app, i don't see why it wouldnt link easily. I brought our MP on the day we entered the parks (standing in the FP line for Space actually, due to a tech hitch with my phone I had to pull a legacy FP for the first ride!) and from memory it automatically linked to the tickets once you selected who in your party you wanted MP for.

 

[mmlover74]

We will be there thanksgiving day as well. See you there and thanks to all of you for the MP advice.

 

[Kiotzu]

100% I say yes, I was there on Friday and we hit 15 rides thanks to Max Pass over both parks including Radiator Springs, Space Mountain and HM. I did this with my CM passes. Once you scan the print off at the gate you will get a ticket for the day and once you do you can scan it into the app!

 

[lcp9]

ugh I hate to say it but for us it's basically like they raised the ticket prices. There's no way we could go back and not do it. I do not think that people using paper fast passes are even in the ballpark of being able to accomplish what Maxpass can do. We were just continually going from ride to ride until our 3rd day we were looking at available fastpasses and none of them even appealed to us because we had been on everything so many times. I know you said you're there for the atmosphere, but it's so much less stressful to basically be able to plan from your phone and having all available fastpass times right there, instead of looking at individual ride returns on the app (if they're even accurate) and chasing down paper. If you use it right, it's just SO much more efficient.

 

[V.I.N.CENT.]

Our last trip was our first time using MP. We typically spend 5 to 7 days in the park when we go (this is usually where my co-workers mouths drop open when I say this) and at the end of prior trips, we would comment about what days were "good" days in the park based largely on crowds and wait times for rides. With MP we did not notice a difference. MP may have backfired a bit for Disney on our trip, we actually left a day early because we were all burnt out

 

[aliceindisneyland]

We have used MaxPass for 10 days now and it's a little too good. I only counted rides on one day because we got there late and left early (11:30-8:30) on a medium-busy day and we rode 16 rides; 12 were FastPass rides. We can go so quickly through the big rides now that we're skipping a lot of favorites like Pirates when it doesn't look like a walk-on. We don't take a lot of time to smell the roses. But we ride a crazy number of rides! Now that we've got the hang of MaxPass, we'll slow down the FP bookings on the next trip and take time to enjoy Christmas at Disneyland!