Guide to FastPass & MaxPass at Disneyland
Disneyland and Disney California Adventure offer free FastPass and paid MaxPass ride reservation systems to skip the standby line. This guide covers the pros & cons of each, tips & tricks for choosing the best FastPasses, strategy that will save you the most time, plus whether you should spend money and upgrade to MaxPass. (Updated February 4, 2020.)
We’ll start with something of an update, as we just spent a couple weeks at Disneyland for the grand opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. While that blockbuster new attraction notably does not offer FastPass, MaxPass, or a standby line (full details in our Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Disneyland Strategy Guide), one thing it does require is being inside Disneyland before park opening.
That will likely be the case for the remainder of 2020. Consequently, there’s even more value in purchasing MaxPass than normal. You can book your first MaxPass the moment you enter Disneyland, even before official rope drop. By contrast, we would’ve had to wait another 30-45 minutes each morning to grab our first paper FastPass. We used MaxPass every single day and even with off-season crowds, absolutely loved it. MaxPass allowed us to do 3-4 extra rides per day, which was a huge advantage.
Suffice to say, we recommend MaxPass. (Important note: this recommendation and the accompanying commentary was made when the price was $15 per person per day. As we discuss in the commentary to our MaxPass Price Increase & New Ride Details, it’s a much closer call now.)
The cost is $20 per person per day (but you can save money on park tickets by purchasing Get Away Today’s tickets with MaxPass; see more in our Guide to Discount Disneyland Tickets). Plus, as noted above (and covered in more depth below), MaxPass will allow you to do several more attractions per day as compared to traditional FastPass.
We’ll underscore that point again: yes, FastPass is free at Disneyland. This is the number one question we hear from first-timers, most of whom assume there’s some sort of catch since other theme and amusement parks charge for their front-of-line service. FastPass is totally free–no catch. As noted above, MaxPass costs $20 per day, but it means less walking and doing more.
If you’re a Disneyland regular, you know the ins and outs of FastPass and MaxPass. It’s second nature. However, if you’re a first-timer, it’s not so simple. It’s also not all that intuitive, particularly since Disneyland no longer really provides information (or signage) to guests about the complimentary FastPass service, and the only MaxPass info is usually a pop-up in the Disneyland app.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s cover some of the basics. FastPass is essentially a virtual queueing system for select attractions at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Not exactly a front of the line ticket, but close. The key difference between this and a front of the line system is that you are waiting for an attraction…you’re just not physically waiting in the line.
You go to a FastPass kiosk at an attraction (let’s say Radiator Springs Racers) at 9 a.m. The current wait time is 90 minutes. The FastPass return time is 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. You obtain a FastPass reminder paper, and go have breakfast at Flo’s V8 Cafe, do some shopping, and return at 10:30 a.m., scan your park ticket to enter the FastPass return line, and wait ~10 minutes before boarding the attraction. You’ve waited over 90 minutes to ride…you just waited somewhere else.
That’s just one example with arbitrary numbers chosen. Sometimes you wait less time than the current standby wait, but more frequently, you wait longer. Since your line is virtual, you can be in more than one place at once: virtually in line at Radiator Springs Racers and physically in line at Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters.
Hopefully, that explained the basic mechanics of how FastPass works, here are some additional rules and answers to frequently asked questions:
- Unlike some front of line passes, FastPass is not unlimited. You cannot grab a second FastPass until the time on your FastPass reminder indicates one will be available.
- Normally, your next FastPass can be drawn either at the start of the return window for your first one, or 2 hours from the time you grabbed your previous FastPass, whichever is earlier. Example A: You grab FastPass #1 at 8 a.m., and your first FastPass window is 9 – 10 a.m.; you’ll usually be able to grab a second FastPass at 9 a.m. Example B: You grab FastPass #2 at 9 a.m. and your window is 2 – 3 p.m.; you’ll usually be eligible for another FastPass at 11 a.m.
- Given Examples A & B above, you should be able to see how you can sometimes hold multiple FastPasses simultaneously…but not always.
- There’s a limited supply of FastPasses, and return times are based upon demand. You will most often see return times far later in the day for attractions that are most popular/have the longest wait times. Only so many FastPasses are issued for each hour of the day, and return times are based upon demand. Radiator Springs Racers will almost always have a return time far later in the day.
- By contrast, the following attractions routinely have a return time that is shorter than the standby wait: Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
- FastPass distribution occurs in designated areas near attractions. Signs make these areas easy to find. The notable exception to this is Radiator Springs Racers, which has FastPass distribution outside of a bug’s land.
- When acquiring FastPasses, give them to one person in your party and send that person as the designated runner. They do not actually have to run to get the FastPasses, but bonus points if they do! 😉
- World of Color and Fantasmic are not connected to the FastPass system used for attractions. You can always hold these simultaneously with one another and other attractions.
- Disneyland Resort does not use FastPass+ for scheduling multiple FastPasses weeks or months in advance. Whether MaxPass or FastPass, it’s all a same-day, one-at-a-time system at Disneyland.
- There is literally no reason not to use FastPass at Disneyland. You are at a significant disadvantage if you choose not to use it.
One thing to know is that the FastPass systems in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are now connected, meaning you cannot game the system by getting one FastPass and immediately Park Hopping to get another. This is a trick that worked for a long time, but it no longer does. (If you see this still mentioned on older posts here, please let us know in the comments of those posts–we are trying to update this info site-wide.)
Another thing to know is that Disneyland’s paper FastPasses distributed at kiosks are actually just “reminder” slips. The actual FastPass is tied to your park ticket, and you will scan your ticket to redeem your FastPass, not the FastPass reminder. (If you used your phone as your ticket, that means scanning the bar code on there.)
The system seems designed so that it can eventually be utilized with MagicBands, or NFC technology like the Apple Watch, but as of right now, it’s a bit clunky with the FastPass reminder and ticket system.
FastPass Strategy
We cover this in passing in our 1-Day Disneyland Park Itinerary and 1-Day Disney California Adventure Itinerary, but figured we’d offer bullet points with FastPass priorities here for each park, as well.
These rankings are determined by a combination of when FastPass distribution normally ends for each particular attraction, plus average standby waits. Whether an attraction is currently an “instant” FastPass is also factored in…
Disneyland
- Space Mountain
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Splash Mountain (summer visits only)
- Star Tours: the Adventures Continue
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters
- Autopia
- Haunted Mansion
Disney California Adventure
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
- Incredicoaster
- Toy Story Midway Mania
- Soarin’
- Grizzly River Run (summer visits only)
- Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue
- Goofy’s Sky School
In some cases, you’re probably better off revisiting attractions near the top of the list if FastPasses are still available, rather than going directly down it. For instance, Goofy’s Sky School is a total waste of time, so I’d recommend getting a second Incredicoaster FastPass (for nighttime–it’s better then) instead of a first Goofy’s Sky School FastPass. Likewise, if Haunted Mansion has a 10 minute wait and Indiana Jones Adventure has a 60 minute wait, get a second FastPass for Indy, and do Haunted Mansion via standby. The above is just a resource, not a step by step itinerary.
Disneyland has confirmed that Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue in DCA and Autopia in Disneyland will soon be offering Disney FastPass and MaxPass. Both attractions are aimed at families with kids, which is a type of attraction underrepresented by the the ride reservation services. We expect more additions like this as Disneyland tries to make MaxPass more appealing to guests with small children.
Note that neither Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction–Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance–currently offers FastPass or MaxPass. Given that the Florida version just added FastPass, we’re guessing California’s Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run will likewise add FastPass/MaxPass before Summer 2020. Once it does, slot it into the #4 position on the Disneyland list above.
MaxPass
MaxPass is now available at Disneyland Resort. Think of this as a modified version of the My Disney Experience app from Walt Disney World, but with fewer options and a $20/person per day cost.
In addition to being able to book FastPasses via your phone, the $20/day add-on grants guests the ability to download PhotoPass photos taken by Disneyland photographers and on-ride attractions. If you’re a party that would’ve purchased PhotoPass anyway, buying MaxPass is a no-brainer.
In essence, MaxPass plays by almost all of the same rules as the legacy (paper) FastPasses at Disneyland Resort. (Well, just about.) You are paying for the convenience of not walking to a FastPass machine–along with some other advantages that might sound insignificant, but really make a huge difference.
So, why purchase MaxPass? The first and biggest reason for this is crowds. Congestion throughout the parks means a lot of extra time just getting from point to point, and being able to use MaxPass from the phone (e.g. not having to fight the crowds to grab a FastPass) definitely can be advantageous–as would being able to grab MaxPasses while waiting in line for a different attraction. Effectively, MaxPass allows you to be in two places at once.
The second reason why is because of the minimum time window for drawing your next FastPass. Remember that example above (in the bullet point section) illustrating the earliest time you can draw your next FastPass, and how it’s either the start of your next FastPass window or in 2 hours, whichever is earlier?
Well, with MaxPass, the draw window is reduced to 90 minutes. On a busier day, this shorter window can be huge–especially when a lot of attractions are using the 2-hour rule for paper FastPasses. Over the course of an entire day in the park, the advantage of not having to walk to get another FastPass coupled with the condensed draw window of 90 minutes can amount to an extra 3-5 FastPasses. That’s a pretty pronounced advantage over the legacy FastPass system.
Additionally, if you enter the parks prior to official rope drop time, you can immediately start booking MaxPass, whereas you cannot go to the physical locations where FastPasses are distributed until official park opening time. Since the turnstiles always open around 30 minutes before official park opening time, this means you can begin booking MaxPass that much earlier. This is a nice and valuable head start, especially for popular attractions like Radiator Springs Racers.
Another huge advantage is being able to snag MaxPasses that are no longer available as FastPass. When other guests cancel their MaxPasses (which happens a lot), that inventory goes back into the system. For example, on this evening at 8:05 p.m., I scored two FastPasses for Radiator Springs Racers, which had been ‘sold out’ of paper FastPass since about noon! By refreshing the Disneyland app, you can continue to acquire hard-to-get FastPasses via MaxPass until late into the evening.
Then there are the other advantages of MaxPass. While it is same-day only and requires that you enter the park to use the service (meaning no making MaxPass reservations when you wake up late in your hotel, or while stuck in traffic on the 5), it does not use a geofence.
This means that once you’ve used your ticket to enter either Disneyland or Disney California Adventure for the day, you can make MaxPass reservations for either park. In other words, if you decide to take a midday break and go to your hotel for a nap, you can make MaxPass reservations as soon as you wake up.
If you decide to head to Trader Sam’s, you can still make MaxPass reservations. If you’re in line for the Matterhorn, you can make a MaxPass reservation for Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! On our recent 2-week trip for the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in Galaxy’s Edge, we’d frequently rope drop Disneyland and then head to Laguna Beach or Los Angeles from around noon until 7 p.m. During that time, we continued to acquire FastPasses via the app, and used our stockpile when we returned at night.
When it first came out, MaxPass is something we did not recommend, as it didn’t appear to offer much advantage to us initially. Due to adjustments made to MaxPass and also seeing it in action on more crowded days, that’s no longer our assessment.
Now, I couldn’t imagine going back to the paper FastPass system. MaxPass is a revelation, and far better than the FastPass+ system at Walt Disney World. Suffice to say, I recommend MaxPass if you are visiting Disneyland as a tourist and can justify the cost. This is especially true during the busier days in the parks, as the value/utility of MaxPass most definitely increases as the parks get more crowded.
Getting a few extra attractions in per day, saving on the walking, and having PhotoPass included makes it worth the $20/person cost, in my estimation. You’re at a definite disadvantage if you don’t purchase it, and buying it definitely gives you a leg up on most other guests visiting Disneyland.
If you would pay a couple of dollars extra (per attraction) to experience a few more headliners per day, MaxPass will probably be worth it to you. While the cost of this will add up quickly, so will those extra attractions. I’d still be surprised to see the MaxPass service catch-on with locals, but if you’re an out-of-towner, it should be on your radar, especially if you have more of a ‘time is money’ perspective.
Overall, the FastPass system at Disneyland is wonderful, and incredibly easy to use once you get the hang of it. There are some features of MaxPass that are incredibly nice and convenient, and the time you’ll save justifies the $20/person/day cost. Once the attractions in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge start offering FastPass and MaxPass that will be even more true!
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
Do you have any additional tips or strategy for using FastPass at Disneyland? Have you tried out the MaxPass system yet? Think being able to do a few extra attractions, not walk as much, and have included PhotoPass is worth the extra $20 per day? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Share any questions, tips, or additional thoughts you have in the comments!
The MaxPass is a must for Annual Pass holders, especially if doing a monthly payment plan. The linked MaxPass to your Annual Pass is $100. If you do your math, you basically get a good use of it by the 6th visit per year. And really… $15 is less than a lunch meal. Think about it.
Vet of WDW.
Going to Disneyland next trip.
Prices out trip and gets sticker shock.
WAY WAY cheaper for a Lux level vacation vs WDW.
I will pay the $15 and feel I got a great deal doing it. lol.
You omitted one of the hidden benefits of Maxpass- a feature we came to call the “god pass.” If you’re holding a pass for a ride that goes down, the system will convert it into a nifty universal pass with a balloon-photo. I think it was called a “multi-experience pass” (MEP). I never quite figured out how it determined what type of MEP it would give us, but sometimes the MEP was for a specific couple rides in one park, sometimes good for any ride, any park. By the end of our Aug 2018 trip, I had figured out a nice trick: As the day wore on and big rides had passed the end-of-day limit on FPs AND we had a virtual stack queued up on our app (waiting for those windows to start), I’d just start pulling passes for rides that we didn’t care about riding BUT had been experiencing mechanical difficulties earlier in the day (just peruse the ride status every so often while in lines to see who keeps going down). These rides were often in low demand so the window would reset often and I’d just pull another. Rinse, repeat. Eventually, the ride would go down and we’d get bequeathed a MEP and use it on something big. This strategy yielded us an extra couple rides each day on things like RSR and Big Thunder.
So you can buy the max pass per day? We have a large family so we would need to buy 7 passes per day. If we can buy it day by day depending on the crowds it would save us a lot of money. We’ve been to DL quite a few times and never done the photo pass, but if it’s included in the max pass it might be worth it…Just trying to decide if it’s really necessary.
Do the paper fastpasses seem to be gone faster with the introduction of maxpass? I have plenty of runners with 5 kids, but it would be nice to stay together and not have to split up to get fastpasses.
I highly recommend MaxPass – you will see how worth it is when your wait time for most rides is reduced from hours to minutes. You buy MaxPass through the app as you enter the park for that day only. The App works well and is easy to use. You can set up your group within the app. One person can book all fastpasses for the group or individual fastpasses if required. And you get all your photo’s delivered straight to your phone. You won’t regret it – totally worth the extra $$. Take an external charger for your phone though as the app will drain your phone battery before the end of the day.
How many FastPasses are you given? Do you get more if you get MasterPass?
So I read through all of this article and many of the comments, and I am still a little confused. We are doing a family trip, and there will be 12 in our group. So my understanding is we would have to pay $15 ea per day ($225 each day). Can one person make the fastness selections for the entire group? Can multiple adults be able to do the same?, or just one designated individual?
We will be going during Halloween time and play on being in the park for 3 days, plus hoping to acquire tickets for Mickey’s not so spooky event. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated
That’s not true. You can buy one Maxpass per day and add all seven tickets into the Maxpass app to reserve your rides
No. You have to pay for a max pass for each person if you want to use it to reserve fast passes. If you just want the photos, one is fine. You can put multiple tickets in each account.
For example, we’re a party of four. I have a DisneyParks app and so does my husband. We scanned all our tickets into both apps (it takes a few minutes, but it’s worth it). When we were all together, one of us would hop on and reserve FPs for the party. If we decided to split for rides, we could manually select which two people to add FPs for attractions. So my husband and oldest would get FPs for Guardians, and my daughter and I would do Matterhorn or whatever.
After the first time or two you use it, it’s super easy. And TOTALLY worth the cost. We managed to ride 22 rides in one day. Granted not all of those were FP rides, but many were.
I will be a first time user of max pass, I am wondering how do I get it. Get away today doesn’t let you pay for it when you book with them. 1st timer please tell me what to do when I get to park. Thanks Rick
Having only been to Disney World and being used to magic bands and fastpasses there, I’m a little intimidated now. I am used to using the magic band and using the disney app to schedule our fastpasses.
I know Tom has just not gotten around to updating the site, but for readers coming to this page, the price of MaxPass is now $15/day.
Thank you for the article. I may have missed something regarding the FastPass/ MaxPass. The article describes that it is $10/day/person. How does it work regarding multiple people in your group? Do you reserve a certain number of spots in line? We are heading to DL/DCA next week. It will be the first time for our 3 kids. I’d like it to be as smooth as possible. Thanks
One person buys the MaxPass on his phone for the group. When you choose a fastpass, the app prompts you to choose which people in your group will be getting the fastpass for that ride. It’s intuitive.
If I have my ticket scanned to my phone’s Disneyland app, and my daughter has hers scanned as well, do we each need to get our own Max Pass simultaneously? Or can one of us make a Max Pass reservation simultaneously for both of us? Thanks for any help!
Bill, I don’t know for sure, as I’ve never navigated the MaxPass like that. That said, I strongly suspect that if you and your daughter have created separate MaxPasses on your separate phones, you’d likewise need to reserve your FastPasses separately. And, if that’s right, and if you want to ride on the same rides at about the same time, you’d want to request your FastPasses (separately…) at about the same time, as well, because there are only a limited number of FastPasses available for any particular window of time. So, if you don’t reserve your FastPasses at about the same time, you run the risk that you won’t get FastPasses for the same window of time.
How is the Fast Pass paper reminder tied to your park ticket? If one person serves as a “runner” and to get Fast Passes for a party of six, does the runner need to have the park tickets for all the members in the party? Thanks!
Yes, you give all park tickets to the runner.
Goofy’s sky school a total waste of time?! How dare you! Sure it’s no incredicoaster, but that feeling you’re going to fall out at every turn is exhilarating.
We visited DL + DCA in October 2017. Having been used to FP+ at WDW, we opted for the maxpass as the thought of “running” brought back terrible memories of the sprint to Toy Story Mania fastpasses back in the day. Maybe it was because it was relatively new at the time, but it.was.amazing! I’d request a new MaxPass after scanning in on each ride, and we’d bypass waits of 30 minutes – an hour. We rode Toy Story 5 times in a row with no wait! When does that ever happen? The only one that required a wait was Racers. My husband was just giggling the whole time because it felt like we were gaming the system but it was that rare case when it was a win for Disney (more $, happy guests) and a huge win for us. Which of course means it won’t stay that way for long – either they’ll charge more or too many people will start using it, or both.
As a long time Disneyland goer, I have my way of doing now things. Being tied to my phone and technology is irksome to me. My family and I were there for one day last week and decided to use MaxPass. I had a lot of trouble even purchasing the passes because the system kept having issues. I sent my family off to Monsters Inc (we started our day in DCA) while I waited for Guest Services to help me. Once GS helped, we were off and running. We rode EVERY major attraction in both parks (incredicoaster twice) in our one day. This was with shorter hours 9 am -11 pm. MaxPass won me over! Especially with the photo downloads (one download is around $15).
I will say that the Disney resort WiFi is glitchy. It seemed like I was not connected every time I needed to pull up our passes. In these instances, my husband turned his personal hot spot on. Overall, we were happy with MaxPass- even my husband admitted it was a good buy and he’s always grumbling at the price of everything!
One tip I will offer…take a screenshot of the fast pass confirmation. My sister got fastapsses for toy story and when she went to use them, it had disappeared. Since the system is new and glitchy, sometimes the cast members are helpful and sometimes they are not. Having a screen shot of a confirmation would help.
Is there any advantage to paying for the MaxPass when you buy your Disneyland tickets or before you enter the parks?
(We’ll be visiting in six weeks. I see that I can buy a MaxPass upgrade for each ticket if I were to buy tickets through Disney’s website — but that that apparently is not an option through any third-party vendor’s site. So, before I buy the tickets, I’m wondering if I’d gain anything if I were to upgrade when I buy the tickets. )
It’s really easy to buy it each day as you enter into the park, so if you’re saving money getting tickets through a third party vendor, I’d do that. Since you can’t actually get fastpasses until you’re in the park, there’s no difference in when you get the maxpass.
Wouldn’t the maxi pass be worth it just for the photos alone? Don’t know how much each photo costs, but surely you would spend more than $10 on photos each day?
“Yes I would spend more than $10 on photos…. And don’t call me ‘Shirley.'”
Keep in mind, that is $10 per person per day. We are planning a family trip of 10 people for 5 days in the parks. $500 is not an inconsequential amount.
It’s worth it though. Try it out on the first day, if you don’t think it’s worth it, then don’t get it for the rest of the days. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed with MaxPass.
Man, what the hell does $10 matter? That’s a churro and a bottled water. Spending $10 to speed up any ride wait is a no brainer. If the cost bothers you, you probably shouldn’t be at Disney in the first place.
Thank you for this information! Very helpful. We are huge Disney fans, but because we live in Hawaii we don’t go more than once a year. Previously, I was the fastpass runner for our family, but now have mobility issues due to MS. Sending my husband would drive me bonkers-guaranteed I would think the poor guy was taking way too long-and our kids are still a bit too young to be runners. This is a great solution!
We just returned from CA and did Disneyland for just one day (have been there once before so familiar with both parks). I have to say that we loved MaxPass. We got to do all our favorite rides (Soaring, the Racers, ToyStory, Haunted Mansion and BuzzLightyear) multiple times all b/c of MaxPass. This was really important since we only had one day. On the day we went CA Adventure had magic hours. They let regular folks in at 7:30 (instead of the 8am regular opening time) and once you are through the gates you can immediately book your first MaxPass. I of course booked the Racers and though that part of the part didn’t rope drop until 8am we were able to just walk on Soaring with no wait by 7:45. By the time we were done our FassPAss for the racers was open and once we cleared that FastPass entry then we booked ToyStory and so it went the rest of the day. We did a lot of park hopping which is very doable in CA. If you are on the fence about this don’t be. Book it and download the app before you get to the park and you will be off to the races!
liz hill , can you help me to plan our one day disneyland california trip ? that will be really a great help