July 2022 Update: All that is available now is Genie Plus. Genie Plus is $20 per ticket per day and you can only use it ONE TIME PER RIDE! Also, GENIE PLUS DOES NOT WORK for:
- Rise of the Resistance (the more popular of the two Star Wars rides in Galaxy’s Edge (AKA Star Wars Land) in Disneyland.
- Radiator Springs Racers in California Adventure
- Web Slingers (the new Marvel ride in California Adventure)
- Disneyland shakes you down for $7 to $20 PER TICKET (that’s the actual price span they list) if you want to ride one of the above three rides BUT BUT BUT you can only pick two out of three for the WHOLE DAY, and it seems like it has to be two different ones, and you can’t buy a ride if you’re in a different Park from the ride at the time??? They lost me at “NOT INCLUDED” so I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the details.
So feel free to read through this fabulous old post for any nuggets that are still relevant, but understand that:
- There are currently ZERO FASTPASSES in Disneyland.
- They changed the name “Fastpass line” to “Lightning Lane” just to be annoying.
- You have to pay $20 PER TICKET for the chance to ride each ride (except the three rides you actually really need a Fastpass for) ONE TIME AND ONE TIME ONLY.
- Our advice is to skip Genie Plus, and skip it hard. Just get to the Park before rope drop, walk fast, and don’t stop to eat until 2pm.
- I can’t imagine our family paying $80 extra per day to only be able to get a Fastpass ONCE on each eligible ride. It doesn’t seem like a lot of people are buying in, even APs/Disneyland experts, so that should tell you something.
- You’re better off watching a few park strategy videos and studying a Disneyland map for a few minutes so you can plan out your day.
As for us, we’ll be starting our Disneyland day in Galaxy’s Edge to knock that out, then going back to Adventureland and working our way clockwise as usual. We might pop over to DCA for a few hours in the late evening just to get some use out of our PARK-HOPPERS-THAT-DON’T-LET-YOU-HOP-FOR-5-FULL-HOURS.
In California Adventure, we’ll be starting with Radiator Springs Racers (if it’s working) or Web Slingers if RSR is not working, then Incredicoaster/Screamin’ a few times until the line builds, Guardians/Tower of Tower, Goofy’s Sky School, and the NO PARK HOPPING UNTIL 1PM IS FREAKING ANNOYING AS WELL so we’ll be stuck in DCA for 5 hours.
2020 Update: MaxPass now costs $20 per ticket per day! This is madness!”
We used Disneyland’s MaxPass on more than 30 days the first year it came out, and we added on MaxPass to our Disneyland Annual Passes again this year. We love MaxPass. But for most people, Disneyland’s MaxPass is not worth it.
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First, most folks have never heard of Disneyland’s MaxPass, so here’s a basic outline of the system. And by “basic outline” I mean 2995 words of Upper Division Disneyland Tips.
If you know all about Fastpasses and MaxPass at Disneyland, just scroll down to ‘The 9 Disneyland Guests Who Should NOT Buy MaxPass’ to find out if MaxPass is worth it for your family.”
2020 update: MaxPass is now up to $20 per ticket per day—that’s an extra $240 for a family of four on a 3-day Disneyland vacation.
What is Disneyland’s MaxPass?
MaxPass is only available at the Disneyland Resort (not Walt Disney World).
1. What’s a Fastpass?
A Fastpass is a free virtual ticket linked to your Disneyland ticket that lets you skip one standby ride line (long) and go through the Fastpass ride line (short) for these rides:
Disneyland Rides with Fastpass:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Fantasmic! (this is a night time show)
Haunted Mansion
Indiana Jones™ Adventure
It’s a Small World
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Star Tours
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will also have Fastpass/MaxPass available.
These Disneyland Rides have Fastpass for Holiday Ride Versions:
Haunted Mansion Holiday (Halloween time through Christmas time)
“It’s a Small World” Holiday (Christmas time)
Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy (Halloween)
Disney California Adventure Rides with Fastpass
Goofy’s Sky School
Grizzly River Run
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
Radiator Springs Racers
Soarin’ Around the World
Toy Story Midway Mania!
The Incredicoaster
World of Color (this is a night time show)
This California Adventure Ride has Fastpass for Holiday Ride Version:
Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark (Halloween time)
Fastpasses are FREE! You do NOT have to buy MaxPass to get Fastpasses!
You can get a Fastpass for the rides listed above at ride-specific kiosks.
- Each kiosk is near its ride. (Fastpass stations for some rides are in a different location; just ask a Cast Member if you can’t find it.)
- There is not a “central” Fastpass station where you can choose which Fastpass you want.
- Therefore, you must be inside Disneyland to get a Fastpass for a Disneyland ride, or inside California Adventure to get a Fastpass for a California Adventure ride.
A Fastpass is only good for the one hour return time window printed on your ticket. If you arrive at a ride line late, you will be turned away.
- At a Fastpass kiosk, you do not have control over the return time. The return time is posted so you can decide whether that return time works for you before you scan your ticket.
2. What’s a MaxPass?
MaxPass lets you book Fastpasses through the Disneyland app.
- You also get free Photopass downloads from Photopass photographers and ride photos with MaxPass, but we don’t consider this a huge perk since all Photopass photographers are happy to take your family photos with your phone, and you get free downloads of Photopass sessions at the two Disney Visa exclusive Meet & Greet locations.
Related: Disneyland Freebies! How To Unlock Free Disney PhotoPass Downloads!
MaxPass costs $15 per ticket per day.
With MaxPass, you can control Fastpasses for your entire party on one phone, or you can split your party up however you like.
- To make sure everyone gets the same ride return time, it’s best to control all Fastpasses through one phone.
With MaxPass, you can book a Fastpass in both Disneyland and California Adventure once you enter one of the Parks.
- If you have a One Park Per Day ticket, obviously you won’t be able to book Fastpasses for the Park you’re not in.
- You won’t be able to book Fastpasses from the Park you’re not in until that Park opens. For example, if you enter Disneyland at 8 a.m. and California Adventure opens at 10 a.m., you can book California Adventure Fastpasses after 10 a.m.
- Once you enter a Park for the first time that day, you can book Fastpasses from anywhere. For example, you can book Fastpasses from your hotel room when you take an afternoon break from the Parks.
You can control the return time of your Fastpasses to some extent with MaxPass.
- This is because you can see the return time for each ride before you book your Fastpass.
- If you don’t like the return time for the ride you want, you can refresh the page a few times to see if a better return time pops up, or you can check back as many times as you like.
- This is a huge benefit for MaxPass over regular Fastpasses from the kiosks, since different return times will pop up as you refresh/check—sometimes even on Fastpasses that have run out for the day if people cancel their MaxPass Fastpasses.
Disneyland’s MaxPass in a Nutshell:
- MaxPass costs $20 per ticket per day.
- MaxPass allows you to book Fastpasses from both Parks through the Disneyland app.
Our family’s experience is that MaxPass is almost too good.
With MaxPass, we can go from ride to ride without stopping, breezing through the Fastpass line and then on to the next Fastpass line.
On one MaxPass day, we visited Disneyland on a very busy day and arrived at 11 a.m. (That is a terrible time to arrive! Most popular rides already had an hour wait.) We went on 16 rides and attractions that day, and 12 of those were Fastpass rides—and we were only at Disneyland for 9 hours. There is no way we could have done so much without MaxPass!
We can go so quickly through the big rides using MaxPass that we’ve found ourselves skipping a family favorite that doesn’t offer a Fastpass (like Pirates of the Caribbean) when the line doesn’t look like a walk-on. We don’t take a lot of time to smell the roses, but we do ride a crazy number of rides thanks to MaxPass!
Since we’ve watched Disneyland crowds swell to overflowing over the last decade, it’s fun to be able to get on ride after ride after ride like we did in the old days before Cars Land opened and it got busy all the time. But those roses—we do like to stop and smell them when we’re not hightailing it to Space Mountain first thing in the morning. Using MaxPass gets us on more rides, but we get less of the full Disneyland experience.
Here are the 9 types of people who probably shouldn’t buy Disneyland’s MaxPass:
Is Disneyland’s MaxPass Worth It?
We love MaxPass, but you definitely DO NOT have to buy MaxPass to have a magical Disneyland vacation!
The 9 Disneyland Guests Who Should NOT Buy MaxPass:
1. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you don’t understand Disneyland’s Fastpass system.
Planning your Disneyland day around rides, attractions, shows, parades, and meals is hard enough without learning the ins and outs of the Disneyland Fastpass system. If you can’t wrap your head around Fastpass, know that Fastpasses are not required for a magical day at Disneyland.
To get the most out of any Disneyland day, read these 3 essential Disneyland tips to help you get on more rides!
2. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you have never been to Disneyland.
MaxPass requires that you check your phone multiple times a day. While that may seem normal to you, at Disneyland you will want to look up all the time, particularly on your first visit to Disneyland! You don’t want to miss any of the delightful Disneyland details and you definitely want to be present for your family’s Disneyland vacation.
Folks who are used to the detailed planning needed for a Walt Disney World vacation tend to over-plan a Disneyland vacation. At Disneyland, you can just show up and have a Disney-perfect day, no planning needed. Even on the busiest Disneyland days, there are tons of things to do that have no line at all!
3. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you have small kids.
MaxPass is for Fastpasses. Until your kiddos are over 40″ tall, the only Fastpass attractions they can ride are:
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Toy Story Midway Mania
- Haunted Mansion (which doesn’t usually need a Fastpass except at Halloween/Christmas)
- Small World
The Buzz Lightyear ride line moves quickly, so it’s rarely necessary to use a Fastpass.
More Fastpass rides open up when kids hit 40″ and 42″ thresholds, but they can’t ride Indiana Jones Adventure until they’re 46″ tall and the Incredicoaster until they hit 48″.
These height restrictions are strictly enforced if you’re a girl, and more loosely enforced if you’re a boy. We determined this with our not-quite-scientific count of boys vs. girls selected to be measured at the Indiana Jones ride entrance while my too-short daughter and I sat outside Indy dozens of times waiting for my son to get off the ride. An awful lot of short boys breezed through the line entrance while nearly every girl under 5′ tall got stopped for a height check.
Note that Cast Members do not care if you have a doctor’s note stating your kid is 46″ tall in bare feet. The measuring sticks are not accurate, but they are the final word: if your kid’s head doesn’t hit the stick, she doesn’t ride.
We see kids crying after being turned away from rides every day at Disneyland—rejection at Radiator Springs Racers or Star Tours tie for Biggest Disappointment. Don’t get your kids excited about riding a particular ride unless they measure at least 3″ taller at home than the height requirement.
For MaxPass, you don’t want to spend $20 per ticket per day if you can’t make good use of the Fastpasses! If some of your kids are tall enough to go on most Fastpass rides and you don’t mind splitting your party up while the big kids go on big rides, buy MaxPasses for one adult and the tall kids.
4. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you don’t have a Park Hopper ticket.
The beauty of MaxPass is booking Fastpasses for either Park from either Park! If you are using a One Park Per Day Disneyland ticket, MaxPass doesn’t offer as great a benefit, but you still have to pay the same $20 per ticket per day.
Remember you can get Fastpasses at the Fastpass stations for free! If you’re only visiting one Park for the day, it’s really not a bad walk to go get a Fastpass each time you are eligible to get another one, even if you have to walk from one end of the Park to the other end. (Your Fastpass receipt will tell you when you can get your next Fastpass.)
5. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you can be at an 8 a.m. Rope Drop on a Sunday morning.
“Rope Drop”: Cast Members literally hold a rope to keep the crowds back until the Park officially opens. Being “at Rope Drop” means you are inside Disneyland or California Adventure before the Cast Members “drop” that rope to let people get on rides.
Over the years, as Disneyland has gotten busier and busier, one prime time has stayed miraculously empty: early Sunday mornings! No matter what time of year, as long as the Park opens at 8 a.m., we can do an entire Park on Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon without using any Fastpasses at all!
This only happens regularly on Sunday mornings. Our best guess as to why is a combination of Southern California Select Annual Passes being blocked out on Sundays, people unwilling to get out of bed to hit the Parks early Sunday morning after staying at Disneyland late on Saturday night, and divine intervention.
6. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you are on a tight budget.
This might be the biggest reason not to buy MaxPass! Disneyland just raised ticket prices again, and while we still think Disneyland offers the best cost-per-hour of almost any family vacation day, 60 extra bucks a day for a family of 4 is a high price to pay for something you can get for free.
Again, you can still get Fastpasses for free from the Fastpass stations! While we worry that Disneyland will eventually force all guests to pay for Fastpasses, so far that hasn’t happened. So take advantage of the current free Fastpass system, and skip the MaxPass add-on if you’re on a budget.
You can choose to add MaxPass for a single day, even if you’re visiting multiple days. That is an option, but beware: you might love the ease of MaxPass (and honestly, you will ride more rides with MaxPass), and feel like you “have to” add it on for the rest of your trip.
$20 per person per day adds up fast, and MaxPass is non-refundable, even if the Wi-Fi doesn’t work, even if you don’t get to ride as many rides as you had hoped for, even if your kids get turned away from Fastpass rides because they’re short.
If you worry at all that MaxPass might not be worth it, do not buy more than one day of MaxPass at a time (that is, don’t order your Disneyland tickets with the MaxPass add-on, because you will be charged for each day of your tickets).
Read my book Disneyland on a Budget: How Our Family Spends 30 Days a Year at Disneyland Without Breaking the Bank to learn how to build your vacation fund from $0 to Disney!
7. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you can’t (or don’t want to) walk 10–17 miles per day.
With MaxPass, you can get on one Fastpass ride after another, for the entire day. It’s like driving in the FastTrack lane in Orange County traffic: you pay a toll to keep moving while the “suckers” screech to a halt.
We walk 10–17 miles a day at Disneyland. We don’t walk any more with MaxPass than we did when we used the regular Fastpass system, but we do walk a lot.
If you’re not willing or able to walk a lot, MaxPass might not be worth it, because you won’t want to book as many Fastpasses as possible with MaxPass. More Fastpasses = more walking to rides.
Also, you won’t get as many breaks (for shows, meals, & parades) if you take full advantage of MaxPass because you have to arrive at each ride within the return time window. (You only have a grace period of 5 minutes before the return time and 15 minutes after the return time.)
8. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you aren’t visiting Disneyland for the E Ticket rides.
For our family, Disneyland is all about the rides. Even though we’ve been on every ride hundreds of times, we still like to ride as many E Ticket rides as possible. That means multiple rides each day on Space Mountain, Incredicoaster, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
MaxPass is great for people who want to ride all of the E Ticket rides!
It’s not great for people who prefer the original Fantasy Land rides, rides without Fastpass (like Pirates of the Caribbean), want to watch shows and parades, or want to relax and take in every Disneyland detail.
Some people like to sit down for leisurely meals at table service restaurants. These are almost always Walt Disney World veterans who don’t realize that at Disneyland, it’s not about the food.
MaxPass isn’t great if you’re pregnant or have a health issue that prevents your riding the E Ticket rides.
9. Disneyland’s MaxPass isn’t worth it if you’re an Annual Passholder.
This may surprise you, since our family did buy the MaxPass add-on for $100 per person for our Annual Passes. Our family spends at least 30 days a year at Disneyland, so the MaxPass add-on works out to $13 a day (or less if we go more). That’s $13 for our entire family per day, or $3.33 per person per day. 2020 Update: Annual Pass MaxPass add-on is now $125 per pass.
I decided that was a reasonable bet to make: I bet $400 that we’ll love MaxPass against rumors about Disneyland making everyone pay for Fastpasses. I figure the price for MaxPass will only go up so it’s best to get in on the ground floor.
Most Disneyland Annual Passholders can walk into Disneyland on any given day and judge within 90 seconds which rides they can walk onto immediately, which ride they should grab a Fastpass for, and how to stay one step ahead of the crowds throughout the day.
Annual Passholders are the people who will get the maximum benefit from MaxPass, but Annual Passholders can get along just fine without it.
For any single Annual Passholder, add MaxPass to your AP if you go to Disneyland for the rides, not just to hang out.
For Annual Passholder families, do the math:
- Add up the days you’ll visit Disneyland before your pass expires.
- Multiply $100 times number of people in your family.
- Divide that dollar amount by number of days.
- That’s how much MaxPass will cost your entire AP family per day.
If you have questions about Disneyland’s MaxPass, email me here!“
More Disneyland tips on All Day Mom:
Read the book: Disneyland on a Budget: How Our Family Spends 30 Days a Year at Disneyland Without Breaking the Bank!
(You can read it free with Amazon Prime/Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited!)
Click the pic for the $200 bonus offer with Chase Disney Visa—only available with referral for the No Annual Fee Disney Visa! updated 4/8/20 kh
Get a $200 cash back bonus when you open a Disney Visa with my referral (the regular bonus is only $100!) updated 7/7/22 ch
Best Western Stovall’s Inn Review: Is it Really Close to Disneyland?
Ramada Plaza Anaheim Review: Disneyland Hotel within Walking Distance?
Free printable vacation checklist for moms!
45 things Mom has to do before vacation: 2 week vacation packing checklist!
Disneyland on a Budget $5 Challenge: What Can You Get for $5 at Disneyland?
Disneyland Freebies! How To Unlock Free Disney PhotoPass Downloads!
