FastPass at the Disneyland Resort can be a love/hate relationship with guests. If you have one, you love it. If you didn’t make it to Radiator Springs Racers by 9:30 a.m. to pick yours up, you hate it.

The Anaheim parks are introducing a variation on a FastPass concept utilized in Orlando, and they are calling it Disney MaxPass.

Here’s the official description, from Disney Parks Blog:

Later this year, we will launch Disney MaxPass, which will allow guests to maximize their experience by providing unlimited downloads of their high-resolution PhotoPass images and by enabling the convenience of mobile booking and redemption of Disney FastPass return times – all by using the Disneyland App. Disney MaxPass will be available for an introductory price of $10 a day. Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders also will have the opportunity to purchase Disney MaxPass on a daily or yearly basis.

Guests will continue to have the option of Disney FastPass service at no cost by obtaining FastPasses at attraction FastPass kiosks, just as they do today.

FastPass exposes the biggest weak spot at the California parks, namely the overcrowding. There’s hardly a day when the walkways aren’t packed. While this concept can get some visitors on more rides per day, it also gets people on and off the rides faster, and this means walkways become even more packed where long queues would otherwise soak up riders, allowing for some relief.

MaxPass doesn’t necessarily help or hinder this flow, but that’s not the intent. It’s a step in the Orlando direction by allowing guests to be more in control of their own destinies during their stay, and that’s a good thing. Paying the daily fee to obtain a MaxPass for the Racers might be worth it for a family that travels across the country to guarantee a ride without sacrificing a chunk of their day by waiting in a stand-by queue for hours.

It will be interesting to see how popular this new feature will be, and if it takes off, it could change the dynamics big-time for the average person’s trip to the parks. We shall see!

by JERHOW

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