Just Back -- Some Comments on Tickets, MaxPass, Rider Swap, Crowds & Waits

sbakersub

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
We were in the parks May 18th through the 21st. Had a great time overall, but this was the first time with a 1½ year old and it definitely made a difference in how and what we did this trip. Since I always get so much from this board, I wanted to share a few comments in case they're helpful to someone --

Undercover Tourist – We bought the promo tickets in late December from UT (saved us about $500 overall). Printed off the paper vouchers they emailed us, then had them scanned at the gate to get our actual park tickets. Quick and easy, no problems. Had to wait to get the actual tickets, though, before entering them in the Disneyland app to assign names and purchase our MaxPass.

Ticket Barcodes – Thanks to advice from posters here, I took a picture of each ticket barcode as soon as we got in the gate the first day. I also entered them into the Disneyland app. Good thing, because on day 2 we lost one of the paper tickets. We didn’t get a replacement ticket, but the barcode picture and/or app ticket worked for gate entry and to get FPs with MaxPass.

MaxPass – We used MaxPass only 2 days out of the 4, because it was $75 per day for our full 5 tickets. On Sunday, we didn’t get to DL until 9 am (rain delay!), so were already an hour behind the early risers. We FP’d Indy, BTMR, Splash Mountain and Buzz Lightyear in the morning, then stacked Haunted Mansion and Matterhorn for the p.m. As busy as it was, by early afternoon many attractions had FP return times into the evening or were out entirely. On Monday, we were there at CA opening so we got RSR first thing, did Soarin’ as a walk-on, then FP’d TSMM, Goofy’s Sky School, Grizzly River Rapids, and GOTG later in the day. We weren’t able to stack more than a couple at a time. But as busy as it was, and with young ones in our party that limited our speed and timing, we still pulled more FPs than if we would have had to walk to get the physical FP, and we could justify a more leisurely pace our other park days. The PhotoPass pictures were a nice plus.

Rider Swap -- We had a 1½ year old so we rider-swapped the big rides. Even with FPs, the rider swap is a time suck – you have to do a full exit and enter again every time -- which was a big hit on how much we could get done in a day.

However, rider swap gives you rides for up to 2 extra riders on top of any other FPs, so other riders can benefit big time. Where we had 5 FPs total for a ride before the rider swap (and a ride-timid 6 year old) it played out like this: Grandma, Mom and 10 year old went on first ride; Mom, Dad and 10 year old went on rider-swapped passes for the second ride; Dad and 10 year old went on remaining FPs. Needless to say, the 10 year old was loving it!

Crowd Levels – As mentioned by others here before, predicted crowd levels are guesstimates at best. Touring Plans predicted levels at 3-6-4-3 for our four park days – actual levels ended up being 9-6-8-6! The 6 (Sunday the 19th) probably would have been even higher except for the morning rain.

Wait Times – Neither the Disneyland app wait times or those posted in front of an attraction are all that accurate. 10 minutes on the app for Jessie’s Critter Carousel ended up being 30 minutes in real time. It helped a little to “refresh” the app (close the app and then reopen it) to update the wait time each time we were deciding on something, but we were often stuck longer than expected. Once we committed to a standby wait of 30 minutes per the posted time just outside of Roger Rabbit, but it ended up being 45+ excruciating minutes at the end of the night – it looked like a suddenly long FP return line stalled the standby line. Obviously a lot of factors affect standby wait times so patience is a good thing.


Even with 3½ days in the parks we did NOT do World of Color, Fantasmic, or any of the shows (I'm especially sad we missed Frozen). We did catch a few of the street performances which were fun, and part of the DL parade. But balancing the big rides, the "kid" rides, character visits and photo ops etc. with back-at-the-hotel rest times really cut into the time for other things. Guess I need to plan another visit after SWGE settles down :)

Questions? I'll be happy to share if I've got an answer.
 
Last edited:
Had you used MaxPass before and if not, did you find it intuitive to use? I get the process, but trying to figure out how to time the rides we will want to do remains a mystery. For example, if I know we want to do Fantasyland in the morning and probably won't need any FastPasses, but will need them for Haunted Mansion and Pirates in the late afternoon, how do I go about making that happen?
 
Had you used MaxPass before and if not, did you find it intuitive to use? I get the process, but trying to figure out how to time the rides we will want to do remains a mystery. For example, if I know we want to do Fantasyland in the morning and probably won't need any FastPasses, but will need them for Haunted Mansion and Pirates in the late afternoon, how do I go about making that happen?
Pirates doesn’t have FP.

HM is one that could be available pretty “immediately” on a slower day or you could need to book it at 1:00 for a 3:30 return time. You can’t really know until you’re there. You just keep an eye on the return times (much easier to do in the park when they’re all on one screen vs from home where you have to click each ride individually).
 
Had you used MaxPass before and if not, did you find it intuitive to use? I get the process, but trying to figure out how to time the rides we will want to do remains a mystery. For example, if I know we want to do Fantasyland in the morning and probably won't need any FastPasses, but will need them for Haunted Mansion and Pirates in the late afternoon, how do I go about making that happen?

This was the first time I used MaxPass. It is pretty intuitive to use, but the timing IS a whole other thing. it's not like a dining reservation where you can pick the time upfront -- you have to open up the app and see what's available and what time it is available for. I would think if you're doing Fantasyland in the morning you will need to watch for FPs starting mid-morning to see what the available time is then, and keep checking to see if they come up at a time you want in later afternoon. On Sunday the 19th, which was pretty busy but not insane crowds, at 3:45 pm we got Haunted Mansion at 5:55-6:55 pm.

But also complicating this is that if you get FPs for all your party at one time, you can't get another one for them for at least 90 minutes (unless you have one earlier than that that you use to free up your allowance). So even if two rides had both been available at mid-afternoon for the times I wanted later, I couldn't have used MaxPass to get them both at once.

EDITED to reflect the fact that Pirates doesn't have FP. THAT explains why one was never available to us LOL.
 


Pirates doesn’t have FP.

HM is one that could be available pretty “immediately” on a slower day or you could need to book it at 1:00 for a 3:30 return time. You can’t really know until you’re there. You just keep an eye on the return times (much easier to do in the park when they’re all on one screen vs from home where you have to click each ride individually).
I remembered about Pirates after I wrote that. Big Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion is what I actually meant. I'm just going to have to watch it and figure it out I think. We're becoming more and more confident that this will only be Part I of trips in two succeeding years, so I'm sure I'll be better at it the second go!
 
I remembered about Pirates after I wrote that. Big Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion is what I actually meant. I'm just going to have to watch it and figure it out I think. We're becoming more and more confident that this will only be Part I of trips in two succeeding years, so I'm sure I'll be better at it the second go!
It’s really easy to get BTMRR FP. I never ride standby.
 
The new set up for rider swap is horrible. We don’t even bother using it. We let one ride one FP and then the next, sometimes. Sometime we can’t even use the 2nd one.
 


The new set up for rider swap is horrible. We don’t even bother using it. We let one ride one FP and then the next, sometimes. Sometime we can’t even use the 2nd one.
What would be your strategy for Indy? That is the one and only ride DH and I want to go on that our son is not tall enough for. My plan was to have one parent go on Indy very first thing while the other takes him to Tarzan treehouse, and then the second parent go while the first parent takes him to Tiki room. Will the standby line be too long for the second parent, and in that case, would it be better to Fastpass+child swap?
 
What would be your strategy for Indy? That is the one and only ride DH and I want to go on that our son is not tall enough for. My plan was to have one parent go on Indy very first thing while the other takes him to Tarzan treehouse, and then the second parent go while the first parent takes him to Tiki room. Will the standby line be too long for the second parent, and in that case, would it be better to Fastpass+child swap?
You can child swap without FP, for what that’s worth.

Remind me how many days you’re going?
 
This was the first time I used MaxPass. It is pretty intuitive to use, but the timing IS a whole other thing. it's not like a dining reservation where you can pick the time upfront -- you have to open up the app and see what's available and what time it is available for. I would think if you're doing Fantasyland in the morning you will need to watch for FPs starting mid-morning to see what the available time is then, and keep checking to see if they come up at a time you want in later afternoon. On Sunday the 19th, which was pretty busy but not insane crowds, at 3:45 pm we got Haunted Mansion at 5:55-6:55 pm.

But also complicating this is that if you get FPs for all your party at one time, you can't get another one for them for at least 90 minutes (unless you have one earlier than that that you use to free up your allowance). So even if two rides had both been available at mid-afternoon for the times I wanted later, I couldn't have used MaxPass to get them both at once.

EDITED to reflect the fact that Pirates doesn't have FP. THAT explains why one was never available to us LOL.

I thought 90min was the max not the min wait to get another FP?
 
You can child swap without FP, for what that’s worth.

Remind me how many days you’re going?
We're going for four days. Currently, they are loosely divided into (1) Fantasyland & ToonTown, with Haunted Mansion and BTMRR thrown in; (2) Star Wars Day (SWGE and Star Tours); (3) DCA Day; and (4) The rest of DL. Indiana Jones would be on Day 4. Would it be wise to grab an early FP for Indiana Jones as soon as we scan in, then do Jungle Cruise as a family before using FP/child swap on Indy?

ETA: These are not full days. We will be there well before rope drop, but kiddo (and, if we're honest, DH) needs at least a 2 hour midday break. We also have to leave the park by 7:30 each night, or our child turns into Jack Jack fighting the racoon if he doesn't get enough sleep.
 
You can child swap without FP, for what that’s worth.

Remind me how many days you’re going?
Also, not on topic, but I've noticed under everyone's avatar, it says either "Mousketeer" or "DISveteran". Except yours says 1st Pickle of the Day"! How did you get that title?!
 
I thought 90min was the max not the min wait to get another FP?

90mins is the max but at the end of the day when all FP are more than 90mins out it then becomes the min wait. Also even though the "min" wait is listed as 30mins that only applies to stacking, if you use the FP you can get a new one immediately.
 
What would be your strategy for Indy? That is the one and only ride DH and I want to go on that our son is not tall enough for. My plan was to have one parent go on Indy very first thing while the other takes him to Tarzan treehouse, and then the second parent go while the first parent takes him to Tiki room. Will the standby line be too long for the second parent, and in that case, would it be better to Fastpass+child swap?
When DD was too short for Indy, DH and I were advised that using the single-rider line (she's our only child, so it was just the two of us who wanted to ride) was the best way to go. And that worked well for us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EmJ
90mins is the max but at the end of the day when all FP are more than 90mins out it then becomes the min wait. Also even though the "min" wait is listed as 30mins that only applies to stacking, if you use the FP you can get a new one immediately.

Ah ok. I really need to learn all the ins and outs by Sept haha. Im assuming that when you select a FP with MP that it shows return time for the ride as well as wait time for next FP?
 
Ah ok. I really need to learn all the ins and outs by Sept haha. Im assuming that when you select a FP with MP that it shows return time for the ride as well as wait time for next FP?
Yeah. There’s an example in the second post here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/m...view-and-some-strategy.3726246/#post-60074882

Also, not on topic, but I've noticed under everyone's avatar, it says either "Mousketeer" or "DISveteran". Except yours says 1st Pickle of the Day"! How did you get that title?!
If you go to your personal details under your name at the top, you can add a custom title.
 
Thanks! I completely missed that when I first went through that post. So much to take in being new to this. Thanks for putting that together. It has been very helpful
Oh yeah, it’s an information overload for sure. Having an idea of what you’re doing before you hit the parks is helpful, but it doesn’t really “click” until you’re there IMO.

We just did DL Paris for the first time in April, so I know how daunting researching a new park can be!
 
Oh yeah, it’s an information overload for sure. Having an idea of what you’re doing before you hit the parks is helpful, but it doesn’t really “click” until you’re there IMO.

We just did DL Paris for the first time in April, so I know how daunting researching a new park can be!

It's such a weird feeling because I have WDW down pat at this point so you would think it wouldn't be *that*much different but it really is. I keep thinking im forgetting to do something but there isn't anything to really do until I get there lol
 
Ok, this might sound crazy. But as far as learning the timing of when to pull fps, and how soon they run out, and balancing all that- I play Fantasy Disneyland Day sometimes. I'll have an idea of what area of the parks I want to be in that day, what I want to do. Then at park opening (consider any time change), I go into the app and "book" a fp and get in a line. Really, I'm just checking what time the next fp is available and how long the standby wait is for my first ride. I make note of these. Then, when it would be time to do another ride, or book another fp, I get back on the app and check the times. Doing this, you get a feel for what times you'll be able to get which fast passes, and which rides you should do at different times of day.
I leave chunks of time open for meals, meeting characters, etc. I work in the schedule of any shows/parades I want to see.
When I'm planning a trip, I try to play FDL (fantasy Disneyland) for the same day, and the right park, or area of the park, that I'll be in during my trip. Otherwise, mm or emh will skew the numbers.
I expect SWGE to change up all sorts of the numbers that I'm used to seeing. Different times of the year will change the flow if things, too. So, the most accurate numbers you'll get will be the few weeks right before your trip.
But it's fun to do anytime you'd rather be in Disneyland. :)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top