Hope you all had a great long holiday weekend! I spent an amazing weekend at Disneyland to celebrate my son's 4th birthday. I've been to Disneyland a handful of times over the past fews years and I have to admit that this trip was by far our favorite thanks to the Disney MaxPass (and the fact that my son could finally go on most of the rides 😀).
If you don't know what the MaxPass is, it's basically like a FastPass but you can reserve ride times from your mobile phone using the Disneyland app rather than having to go to each FastPass ride to print a ticket. It costs $10 per day per person. We visited Disneyland Park one day and California Adventure the next day. We bought MaxPasses for both parks and it saved so much time on some of the most popular rides. We were able to ride Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Radiator Springs, etc. without having to wait long. It was so worth it!
This was our first time purchasing the MaxPass so as a first time user, here are some of my tips and tricks if you are planning a visit to Disneyland anytime soon and are thinking about purchasing MaxPasses:
- If you purchase your tickets ahead of time online on Disney's website, you have the option of upgrading to the Disney MaxPass which I recommend doing. If you purchase your tickets from anywhere else but Disney's website, you'll have to purchase your MaxPasses from the Disneyland app as soon as you enter the park. You won't be able to purchase them ahead of time if you don't purchase them from Disney's website. Another important thing to note if you purchase tickets online on Disney's website is that it can take up to 24 hours to receive your tickets so make sure you don't wait until the last minute to purchase them.
- Make sure that you choose FastPasses for the most popular rides first as those tend to go pretty quickly. For example, we got into California Adventure Park at 10:45AM and the next FastPass for Radiator Springs was at 8:05PM.
- As soon as you check into a ride, you can make your next FastPass selection. If there's a long wait time between rides, you will be able to make your next selection after 90 minutes from your last selection.
- Order your food through the Disneyland app. This was so convenient! You literally order the food from your phone at participating restaurants and it's pretty much ready when you get there. We usually ordered our food about 15 minutes before we got to the restaurant and it was always ready when we got there. They will send a notification once your order is ready (be sure to turn your notifications on).
- Another cool feature that you get with the MaxPass is PhotoPass. PhotoPass allows you to download all of the pictures that PhotoPass Photographers take of you as well as all ride photos (if the ride has a camera). We got a lot of really great pictures from the PhotoPass Photographers.
- Check the ride wait times on the Disneyland app. This will help you plan out your day and figure out which rides to go on first depending on the wait time. We tried to go on all the rides that had the shortest wait times first.
- Dining with the characters is a must! I made reservations for Storytellers Cafe at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel and it was so worth it. We got to see Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale. They came to each table multiple times and always interacted with the kids. This is a great way to get pictures with the characters without having to wait in line. Oh and the food was delicious!
- Bring plenty of water! We bought Hydro Flasks before the trip and it seriously saved us. Bottled water is a bit pricey in the park so we were glad we had our water bottles and didn't have to buy any water there.
As I mentioned earlier this was a super fun trip and I think it was really due to having the MaxPasses and the Disneyland app. It saved us so much time overall and we were able to truly maximize and enjoy our time at both parks. Hope these tips and tricks help!
Lots of Love,
Marcia
