Phone-Free Max Pass... Is it possible?

[thewelts]

Okay... Brace yourself for this.
We refuse to bring our phones into the park.

We are avid Disneyland visitors... I think this will be our 8th visit in the last 7 years.
We rent DVC points and stay at the Grand Californian
We always get a 4-day Hopper pass

Because we have the luxury of staying onsite we don't carry anything with us into the park. Seriously... NOTHING (except for a room key, park ticket, ID and credit card).

We love working the Fast Pass system and we enjoy recording lots of steps my Fitbit. Of course, I would love to try Max Pass but I want to be free from my phone.

Would it be possible to use the App and book from the hotel room?

Has anything else changed? Our last visit was in May 2016 (about a year and a half)

Thanks for your advice and tips!

 

[smartlabelprint]

No. Just use the fast pass system. You can’t rven buy maxpass without entering the park.

 

[losfp]

You won't be able to purchase OR use maxpass without scanning your ticket to enter one of the parks. So you'd have to go through security, wait in line, enter the park, immediately leave the park, go back to the GCH, book your fast passes, go back through security, wait in line again and enter the park. Not a great use of your precious morning time.

If you don't want to bring your phone, just pull paper fastpasses. The whole value in buying maxpass is to be able to book on your phone.

 

[FCDub]

Yeah, there's no way to do it without using a phone or something else you can download the app on.

 

[az4boys]

Like the others have said... you need your phone. Maybe it would be nice if Disney installed kiosks around the parks so that people without a phone or data plan could use Maxpass. I'm not sure if that would be functional though. If you don't have personal access to the app, most of the benefit is gone.

 

[bawamz]

The only value that I could see is if you were a rest at the hotel midday kind of person. You could then line up fast passes for your return to the parks in the evening while you were at your hotel. I'm not sure if you would find it worth it for the cost, though.

 

[Niltiac]

Technically you can use it from the hotel after you've been to the parks that day, but it's not like you can line up a whole day's worth at once, so you would have to go back and forth to your room every time you want a FP. At that point, your phone would be more of a distraction in the room than it would be if you carried it with you, and you will almost always be walking farther to get to the phone than it would be to get a paper FP.

You could still use it for photopass by collecting the card from the photographer and adding it to the app later, I believe (maybe someone who has tried this can verify). And you could book one or two FP if you take a break in your room at some point. But that's about it.

 

[whistlinmickey]

It’s my understanding that you have two adavantages to using MaxPass that are available even without a phone:
1. The typical wait before you can pull another FastPass is 120 minutes (2 hours). But with MaxPass it’s only 90 minutes. I haven’t actually tried this. But since MaxPass is tied to your ticket as much as to your account on the app, I don’t see why the system wouldn’t allow this to work.
2. You still can get the included PhotoPass benefit. Just link any physical PhotoPass cards to your account on the app later and you gain the privilege to access those photos. We did this at Mickey’s Halloween Party earlier this month. We even gained access to PhotoPass photos that were taken on the esplanade prior to the 4pm time when our tickets were valid for park entry. Plus we liked using the PhotoPass card instead of having to use up the phone battery.

The main logistics problem is getting MaxPass added on to your ticket in the first place. If you pre-purchase MaxPass with your tickets or Annual Passes, then you’re fine. But otherwise, you’d have to add it on to your ticket each morning, but only after your ticket has been scanned in either park.

If you do happen to try this, please report back how things went. We’d love to hear about your experience.

Have a great trip!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I understand how you want it to be a phone-free trip, but you can really find a lot of benefits to at least using it for the Disney app.
1) MaxPass is impossible without a phone.
2) Even if you don't get MP, the Disney app shows the updated wait times as well as current FP return times.

You can always bring the phone and only use it for those few minutes to book another FP. Just vow to keep it in the pocket/bag at all other times.

 

[hlbtimes2]

This does not answer the question at all.....but, I can't imagine not having my phone in the park, just for the camera! I also have teens so we split up on occasion and need to stay in contact to meet up.

 

[FCDub]

It’s my understanding that you have two adavantages to using MaxPass that are available even without a phone:
1. The typical wait before you can pull another FastPass is 120 minutes (2 hours). But with MaxPass it’s only 90 minutes. I haven’t actually tried this. But since MaxPass is tied to your ticket as much as to your account on the app, I don’t see why the system wouldn’t allow this to work.
2. You still can get the included PhotoPass benefit. Just link any physical PhotoPass cards to your account on the app later and you gain the privilege to access those photos. We did this at Mickey’s Halloween Party earlier this month. We even gained access to PhotoPass photos that were taken on the esplanade prior to the 4pm time when our tickets were valid for park entry. Plus we liked using the PhotoPass card instead of having to use up the phone battery.

The main logistics problem is getting MaxPass added on to your ticket in the first place. If you pre-purchase MaxPass with your tickets or Annual Passes, then you’re fine. But otherwise, you’d have to add it on to your ticket each morning, but only after your ticket has been scanned in either park.

If you do happen to try this, please report back how things went. We’d love to hear about your experience.

Have a great trip!

I hadn't thought about the 90-minute window vs. the 120-minute window. That's a good reason to have it. It's hard: I don't know if that would be worth it for me, personally, if I weren't bringing a phone and utilizing it to its max potential.

 

[FCDub]

OP, could you put your phone in a locker?

 

[StormyCA]

Nope. No way. You have to activate MP in the parks. And you can only book one MP at a time.

That being said, you could bring your phones in, activate, link them all up, then store all but one in a locker (or return them to the hotel room, but that's too time consuming). Just carry the one phone that the tickets are all linked to and use that for MP.

 

[Elima2015]

How do you check wait times, fast pass return times, dining menus, character locations, take pictures. I'm getting panicky at the thought of not having my phone and I don't even have a current trip planned. I'd bring one phone, which can handle MaxPass for your entire party. The logistics of MaxPass without a phone don't work out.

 

[Sachin]

Had a similar question. Is there any way to use photopass or Maxpass without a smartphone for the sole purpose of photos? We are a group of Monks visiting for 1 day from a gift and do not have smartphones. The $10 Maxpass for the photo benefit is worth it, just not sure if there is any way we could make use of it. Not worried about the fastpasses

 

[Geemo]

Had a similar question. Is there any way to use photopass or Maxpass without a smartphone for the sole purpose of photos? We are a group of Monks visiting for 1 day from a gift and do not have smartphones. The $10 Maxpass for the photo benefit is worth it, just not sure if there is any way we could make use of it. Not worried about the fastpasses

A new member


I have MP on my annual pass and used it on our last trip mainly for photos. I was the only one of the group with MP.
When my group split up and Disney Photographers took pictures of the others they were give a PhotoPass Card.
As for ride photos, they wrote down the number or snapped a pic on their phone.

At the end of the day, I login on my laptop to my Disney account and in the photo section I was able to link ride photos and Photographer photos to my account.

Not sure if it's the same for a general day ticket though?????
It seems like it should work for any Disney account...
Here's the page I would go to https://disneyland.disney.go.com/photopass/
At the top on the right there is an option to "link photos"

Geemo

 

[Sachin]

A new member


I have MP on my annual pass and used it on our last trip mainly for photos. I was the only one of the group with MP.
When my group split up and Disney Photographers took pictures of the others they were give a PhotoPass Card.
As for ride photos, they wrote down the number or snapped a pic on their phone.

At the end of the day, I login on my laptop to my Disney account and in the photo section I was able to link ride photos and Photographer photos to my account.

Not sure if it's the same for a general day ticket though?????
It seems like it should work for any Disney account...
Here's the page I would go to https://disneyland.disney.go.com/photopass/
At the top on the right there is an option to "link photos"

Geemo

Thank you Geemo. Still not able to find out much info. Seems that you cannot add Maxpass after your visit and you can only add it once you are in the park from the app. Have also read that the 1 day $39 photopass is also not available. Perhaps we might just be out of luck for getting the photos unless we borrow someone's smartphone.

 

[Geemo]

Thank you Geemo. Still not able to find out much info. Seems that you cannot add Maxpass after your visit and you can only add it once you are in the park from the app. Have also read that the 1 day $39 photopass is also not available. Perhaps we might just be out of luck for getting the photos unless we borrow someone's smartphone.

Another option might be to go to City Hall right after you enter the park and see if there is something they could do for you....