Disney’s Fastpass system allows guests to wait for an attraction ride without physically waiting in queue for that attraction. Disney hoped it would encourage guests to spend more time in stores and restaurants where Disney makes money instead of waiting for a ride. The jury is out if there was ever any real benefit like that. But guests loved the convenience of knowing they could get on one or more of their favorite attractions without waiting. That was something Disney could use to fill hotel rooms and fill the parks and they have.
While Disneyland was the first theme park to implement the Fastpass system back in 1999, it has actually not changed the system much since the original days. Attractions have been added and removed and small details (like bonus fastpass) were experimented with. But while Walt Disney World switched to the paperless Fastpass+ system years ago, Disneyland still requires those little strips of paper… until now.
The park just announced Disney MaxPass, a new feature of the Disneyland App that will allow guests to book fastpasses from the App. At this point there is no advanced booking, like they have in Orlando, but you will get unlimited downloads of Photopass images. The cost for this is just $10 a day right now. Annual Passholders can also purchase the upgrade.
Disney buried this major news in a post about adding Fastpass to Toy Story Mania at DCA and The Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland. Both attractions that guests have been asking for Fastpass, but it just never made sense due to the capacity of the attractions.
The current Fastpass system is not going away. You can still get a paper fastpass the old fashioned way by heading to each kiosk as your availability opens up. But those will the MaxPass app will have the advantage of being able to make their next Fastpass while in the queue for their current one. Used wisely, that might add up to 2 or 3 more Fastpass a day than you get by walking.
Personally, while the Fastpass+ system works well for me as an Orlando local, I’m not a fan of the system for the insane standby waits it creates and the bad taste it leaves in the mouths of guests who don’t know how to maximize their use of the system.
Disneyland guests, what do you think? Is this a service you would use? Should it mobile booking be free to everyone?
Is it $10 per person or $10 per party? That could make a big difference – when I travel with my brother’s family, we’d be looking at $70/day if it’s per person!
$10 per person. Disney confirmed on The Disney Parks Blog. (View that post, and go to the earliest comments….before the Disney staffer stopped answering questions due to the sheer volume of negative comments.) Bad, bad idea….
Disneyland Tram announcers encourage you to download the Disneyland App for all the wonderful things you can do on it. That’s great!! But now you want to charge $10 per person to use it to reserve FP?? I understand that both coasts need to come up with ways to pay for SWL but this is just a little ridiculous. If you want to get away from the paper FP, then you need to make it free for everyone to use. The only positive thing I see with this is, depending on how many people are in your group and how many days you’ll be at the park(s) $10 per person for professional pictures from the PhotoPass staff is a steal.
HOLY $h!t! They better not start charging for FP! Universal does this (at least in Orlando) and I was so pissed when we went there. I really wish FP would go away all together, as it has only caused standby lines to be ridiculous. People grab FP they don’t use, then no one can get them, and you’re waiting in line for Space Mountain for 2 hours. If no one got FP and it was just first come first serve, the lines would spread out more around all the parks. Instead, you’ve got folks trying to cheat the system. But back to the paying…NO, NO, NO NO NONONONONONOOOOOO! Walt would be furious…this is not an affordable family trip anymore, it’s a downright money grab.
I don’t get how the liens would shorten with out fast pass. I get that very few times people grab passes and don’t use them but for big rides that normally doesn’t happen, just a lot of people want to go on those rides… I would think the stand by lines would just end up longer…. but I do get what you’re saying I just don’t quite understand why it would make the lines shorter…
It allows people to make accurate decisions based on the true length of the line. When you join the stand-by line the wait may say 60 minutes, but if the fastpass queue gets long, those people will go first making your wait longer, even though the number of people in front of you in queue hasn’t changed. Before Fastpass everyone was in the same boat. If there were 199 people in front of you, you knew you would be the 200th. Now you could be the 180th or perhaps even the 300th.
I’ve loved using fast passes but I don’t have a smart phone so I won’t be able to use the new system. Otherwise I think it’s a fair price if it includes the free photos.
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