[Updated with additional details and confirmations from Disney.]
Six months after announcing a major change was planned for Disney's Fastpass system, the Disneyland Resort is prepared to debut MaxPass next Wednesday, July 19. MaxPass is a new upcharge service that bundles the existing PhotoPass product with a new digital Fastpass tool in the Disneyland smartphone application.
MaxPass includes unlimited downloads of PhotoPass photos taken on each day that the entitlement is valid. It also allows visitors to collect and redeem Fastpass tickets remotely using the app, instead of collecting paper Fastpass tickets from a physical kiosk in the parks.
Visitors can add Disney's MaxPass to their theme park tickets for $10 per ticket, per day. Users can choose to purchase the MaxPass for their entire length of stay, or for one or more days. Annual passholders will also be able to add MaxPass by the day, or to their existing pass for $75, valid through the end of the current pass expiration. Signature Plus and Premier passholders, who already receive free PhotoPass photos, will now also receive Disney MaxPass at no additional charge. Signature passholders, who also currently receive free PhotoPass downloads, do not receive MaxPass for free, and must pay the $75 fee to add the service to their AP.
For new or recently renewed passholders, MaxPass adds $6.25 to the monthly cost of a 12-month pass. Passholders due to renew in the next few months might be better served to wait until they renew their pass to add MaxPass, and thus get the most use out of their $75 fee.
The standard Fastpass system will still be available at no charge to visitors who do not purchase the MaxPass product. Fastpass tickets for World of Color or Fantasmic are not available via MaxPass, and must be collected in person as always.
Unlike the Fastpass+ system at Walt Disney World, the MaxPass system does not allow users to select Fastpasses months, weeks, or even days in advance. This is still a same-day program, and users must activate the entitlement on the day they visit the park.
Visitors also cannot make Fastpass selections from home before even heading to the parks. They must be inside a theme park to collect a digital Fastpass to use the same day, although MaxPass users need not physically go to their selected attraction to claim a Fastpass ticket. A MaxPass user can walk onto Main Street, U.S.A. and claim a Fastpass for Splash Mountain if they want, without ever stepping foot in Critter Country. The MaxPass app also allows users to claim a Fastpass for a ride in the other theme park, so a user in Disneyland could claim a Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers without first entering Disney California Adventure park.
Regardless of how they obtain their Fastpass, users are still subject to the same policies. Tickets are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis. Users cannot generally obtain another Fastpass until two hours after they obtain the first Fastpass, or at the end of the return window of the first Fastpass, whichever comes first.
When it comes time to ride, MaxPass users will likely scan a barcode displayed from the app screen on their mobile devile at a new portal installed at the Fastpass return gate. Fastpass ticket holders will continue to scan the barcode on their ticket to access the return queue.
The app will allow you to cancel a previously collected Fastpass if you change your mind, possibly freeing you up to collect another Fastpass more quickly. Disney has said that parents will be able to claim and redeem Fastpass tickets for their children using one mobile device, and that one member of a party can manage Fastpass tickets for the entire party using the mobile app, provided each member of a party purchases the MaxPass entitlement.
As we previously wrote, the $10 per ticket, per day price point for day guests is intriguing, if only because that is $29 less than the cost of the Disney PhotoPass+ One Day product currently offered. Setting aside for the moment any discussion of the Fastpass element, it's cheaper to add MaxPass onto one member of the party just to receive the PhotoPass benefit.
Earlier this year, Disney add Fastpass service to the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Toy Story Midway Mania. The list of Fastpass attractions at each park is as follows, although some are only offered seasonally:
Disneyland
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Haunted Mansion [Holiday]
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
- [Hyper] Space Mountain [Ghost Galaxy]
- Splash Mountain
- Star Tours The Adventures Continue
Disney California Adventure
- California Screamin'
- Goofy's Sky School
- Grizzly River Run
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Soarin' Around the World
- Toy Story Mania
