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FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass were virtual queue systems created by the
Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
to speed up customer access to certain attractions and amenities at the Disney resorts and theme parks. First introduced in late 1999 as a
virtual queue Virtual queue is a concept used in inbound call centers. Call centers use an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) to distribute incoming calls to specific resources (agents) in the center. ACDs hold queued calls in First In, First Out order until agen ...
, the systems all allowed guests to avoid long lines at the attractions on which the system was installed, freeing them to partake in other attractions during their wait. There was generally no extra fee for the service. The original FastPass system was still featured except
Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...
, which used FastPass+, along with both
Shanghai Disneyland Shanghai Disneyland (; Pinyin: ''Shànghǎi díshìní lèyuán'') is a theme park located in Chuansha New Town, Pudong, Shanghai, China, that is part of the Shanghai Disney Resort. The park is operated by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products ...
and
Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
, which replaced the FastPass system with a pay-for-use system called Disney Premier Access. The system continued to use a virtual queue where guests are given a paper ticket with a designated time, instructing them when they would arrive at the head of the queue. However, each park had slight variations on the FastPass concept. On August 18, 2021, it was announced that the FastPass, FastPass+ and MaxPass would officially be retired in favor of the new Disney Genie service in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, which includes a premium Genie+ option for parkgoers to use the "Lightning Lane".


Disneyland

Disneyland Resort The Disneyland Resort, commonly known as Disneyland, is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division and is home to two theme parks (Di ...
featured the original FastPass system alongside MaxPass. Disney's FastPass service was available at no additional charge to all park guests, while MaxPass cost a day.


MaxPass

On August 30, 2007, the
Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
filed a patent for using
SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
as a way to get and use FastPasses in the park. The patent indicated that guests staying at Disney hotels would be allowed to make early reservations for attractions using their in-room television. Originally, all the FastPass tickets were free as long as the guests purchased their park tickets. However, on January 11, 2017, Disney announced Disney's MaxPass for the
Disneyland Resort The Disneyland Resort, commonly known as Disneyland, is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division and is home to two theme parks (Di ...
. The new system worked in conjunction with the original FastPass system. It was Disney's first premium virtual queue system, costing /day or $75/year upon launch in 2017. On January 6, 2018, Disney increased the price to /day, and /year. It is included with select Disneyland Annual Passports. The system allowed users to receive a FastPass return time on their smartphone through the Disneyland mobile app when they were inside the parks. Guests who bought the MaxPass system were also able to download their PhotoPass pictures for free. Also, in March 2017, Shanghai Disneyland introduced Disney Premier Access, a similar system to Disney's MaxPass.


FastPass promotions

Throughout the annual Disney Soundsational Summer promotions of 2011–2012, guests staying at any of the three hotels of the Disneyland Resort received two complimentary FastPasses per person. These passes allowed guests to enter the FastPass line of any FastPass attraction (plus The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure, which does not otherwise offer FastPass) at any time they chose, similar to the Dream FastPass.


Disney FastPass+

FastPass+ allowed guests to reserve and plan a visit in advance to parks at
Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...
. Reservations were available for select attractions, Character Greetings, entertainment, and viewing areas for parades and fireworks. The system allowed guests to make reservations up to 60 days in advance, and change at any time. FastPass+ was a reservation and scheduling system, unlike the old paper FastPass system, which was a virtual queuing concept. Additionally, guests were encouraged to reserve FastPass+ sections with their group and were allowed to change the group's FastPass+ reservation. Guests that stayed at an onsite Disney resort could make reservations up to 60 days in advance while all other guests could schedule reservations up to 30 days in advance, assuming tickets were linked to their account. Annual Passholders could hold FastPass+ reservations for up to 7 different days in the 30-day window. If a Passholder stayed at a Disney resort onsite, they also had 60 days to make reservations for the entire length of the stay. Guests could make three reservations in advance for each day, and all three were required to be at the same theme park.
Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is a zoological theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division, it is the l ...
,
Epcot Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unreal ...
, and
Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by Ma ...
separated the attractions available for reservation into two tiers. Guests were restricted in the combination of attractions they were able to reserve in these parks to ensure better reservation availability for others at the parks' most popular attractions. Guests had the option to make a further reservation via an in-park kiosk or the My Disney Experience app after they had used their initial three selections subject to availability. They had the option to continue to make further reservations after using each reservation, until all reservation slots had been allocated for the day. Disney FastPass+ was not operational at Disney World since the parks reopened in July 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. This was cited as due to the need to create proper social distancing. The system was permanently discontinued and replaced in October 2021.


Other parks

Shanghai Disneyland Shanghai Disneyland (; Pinyin: ''Shànghǎi díshìní lèyuán'') is a theme park located in Chuansha New Town, Pudong, Shanghai, China, that is part of the Shanghai Disney Resort. The park is operated by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products ...
is moving towards a digital style much like the one used in California. Under the name "Premier Access", the system is believed to be a response to ticket scalping of the physical paper tickets.
Tokyo Disneyland (local nickname ''TDL'') is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be ...
offers the ability to receive a FastPass on mobile phones at no extra charge as an alternative to the more traditional paper FastPass system. During the Disney Soundsational Summer promotions of 2011–2012 at
Disneyland Resort Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
, guests who stayed in the Disneyland Hotel or in club-level accommodations of hotels received an untimed single-use FastPass voucher for each day of their stays, usable any time except between 13:00 and 16:00. Guests in Castle Club accommodations at the Disneyland Hotel or suites in any hotel instead received a VIP FastPass, which could be used repeatedly for the full length of stay with no time restrictions. In each case, the FastPass was usable only on rides with FastPass facilities. This offer was retained until 2020, at which point it was retired.
Hong Kong Disneyland Hong Kong Disneyland () (local nickname ''HKDL''; also known as HK Disneyland) is a theme park located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and it is owned and managed by Hong Ko ...
additionally offers a service called Disney Priority Special and Priority Special+.


See also

*
Disney PhotoPass Disney PhotoPass is a professional photography service offered at Disney theme parks, water parks, and resorts. Photographers are positioned at locations in the theme parks, dining events at the resorts, and at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at D ...
*
E ticket An E ticket (officially an E coupon) was a type of admission ticket used at the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom theme parks before 1982, where it admitted the bearer to the newest, most advanced, or popular rides and attractions. It is now common ...
* Fast Lane, a virtual queue system for the Cedar Fair parks *
Universal Express Pass Universal Express Pass is a priority status boarding system used at various Universal Parks & Resorts: Universal Orlando (which encompasses Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure), Universal Studios Japan, Universal Stud ...
, a virtual queue system for the Universal parks *
Flash Pass Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any amu ...
, a virtual queue system for the Six Flags parks *
MyMagic+ MyMagic+ is a suite of technologies first implemented at the Walt Disney World Resort that enable a number of services and enhancements to guests of the resort. Influenced by wearable computing and the concept of the Internet of Things, the s ...
, the overall system that FastPass+ is a part of


Notes


References


Further reading

* * * – Patent for the Fastpass system * {{Shanghai Disney Resort Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Fastpass FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass were virtual queue systems created by the Walt Disney Company to speed up customer access to certain attractions and amenities at the Disney resorts and theme parks. First introduced in late 1999 as a virtual ...
Payment systems Queue management