• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Privacy And Disclosure Policy
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Fandom Family

Uniting Fandoms through Life, Crafts, and Adventures

  • Home
  • Meet The Geeks
  • Geek
  • Family
  • Crafts
  • Adventures
  • Personal

How To Use MaxPass And Rider Switch Together At Disneyland

April 5, 2018 by Jessica 8 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Read about it here.

This post may contain affiliate links. Read more about it here.

On our recent trip to Disneyland, I knew that we were going to use two of Disneyland’s offerings to make it easier for our family: MaxPass and Rider Switch. But when I was doing research, I didn’t find a lot of information about how to use the two congruently in the most effective manner. Now that I’ve used both together during our two-day trip, I’m here to tell you how it works and how to get the most out of using both together.

How to use MaxPass and Rider Switch at Disneyland together #disneyland #disneylandtips #maxpass #riderswitch #disney #disneytips

What is Rider Switch?

Walt Disney wanted families to enjoy Disneyland together. But as the park has grown, and the importance of ride safety has come more to light, not everyone is able to ride the rides at Disneyland due to height restrictions that some rides have. 

One of the rides that requires Rider Swap due to heigh restrictions

Since the park still wants everyone to that can ride a ride, be able to ride, and not have to wait in the long lines twice, they have Rider Switch available. 

Rider Switch is only available on those rides that have a height restriction, so if your little one doesn’t want to ride a ride like Pirates of the Caribbean, Rider Switch isn’t available because they could still ride that ride if they wanted to. 

How Rider Switch works is you get a Rider Switch pass (which acts like a FastPass, that the family member who stays with the kids can use to ride the ride after you have gone and ridden it. 

What is MaxPass?

Via Disneyland.com

MaxPass is Disneyland’s paid FastPass service that allows you to make your FastPass selections on your phone without having to run to the ride to get your FastPass return time.

It’s different from Walt Disney World’s FastPass+ because you don’t make the selections months or days before your trip. You can only purchase MaxPass once your park ticket has been scanned at the park gate for the day. But luckily, once you’ve been scanned into one park, you can make selections for both parks! 

You can change your MaxPasses on the fly, in case you get stuck somewhere and can’t make a MaxPass time that you have scheduled. You also still have to wait to make another MaxPass selection until you’ve either ridden that ride and used up the MaxPass or a designated time. We never waited more than an hour to make another MaxPass selection. And since we could do it on our phone, I didn’t have to run to the ride I wanted to FastPass for. 

Another thing that’s great, and remember this for when I explain how to use MaxPass and Rider Switch together, is you can make the MaxPass selection for the whole group, or you can do separate selections for each party in your group! There were times my husband didn’t want to ride a ride and vice versa. 

Oh, and one more tip for MaxPass, it includes PhotoPass downloads! So at $10 a day per person, it’s kind of a steal since you can download any and all PhotoPass photos you got for the day! We definitely took advantage of that!

How to use MaxPass and Rider Switch together?

Okay, so first things first, make sure you have the Disneyland App downloaded and that all tickets are linked to your account. You can do this ahead of time, even if you haven’t gone into the parks yet. I found it best to do it ahead of time so I wasn’t scrambling to add them after getting into the account because some of those MaxPass times go fast! 

Another thing I recommend doing is adding your credit card to your account beforehand because it makes buying the MaxPass easier (and remember you DO need to buy MaxPass for all members of your party who are going to be using it). 

Now that you’ve got that taken care of, you’re in the park, and you’ve bought your MaxPasses, you’re going to make your MaxPass selections. Remember how I said you could make different selections for the members of your party? That’s what you’ll want to do! 

Another ride, Radiator Springs Racers, that has height restrictions

So assuming you’re a small party of 2 adults and a young child (or two) who have height restrictions on them for rides, you’ll want to make one MaxPass for one ride, and another MaxPass for another ride. We tried to keep our MaxPass selections near each other if the times were close, but remember you do have an hour timeframe and you’re using the FastPass line so you don’t have to feel like you’re in too much of a hurry. 

Once you’re done making your selections and it’s time for you to use your first MaxPass, head for the ride! You can take either the phone that has the Disneyland App with you or you can take your ticket that has the MaxPass loaded on it since the ticket is associated with you and your MaxPass is attached to that ticket, either of them works. 

You want to also bring the ticket for the other member of your party that’s staying behind since the Cast Member at the ride will load the Rider Switch ticket onto it. 

Okay, so head to the FastPass line, tickets in hand, and give the cast member at the front your ticket or phone first. Once they’ve scanned your ticket, tell them you need a Rider Switch on the other ticket and hand it to them. You should hear a nice little sound that it’s been added. 

Head through the line, ride the ride, and meet up with your party afterward! 

Give the pass back to the other member of your party. You’ll stay with the kids and they’ll go to the FastPass line and give them their ticket and the Cast Member will scan it like it’s a regular FastPass. 

Now you might be thinking, “Wait, you’re using the FastPass line, doesn’t the other person in your party already have a FastPass from using MaxPass? Thus preventing them from getting another one?”

Well, you’re right that they DO have another MaxPass waiting for them to use, but the great thing about Rider Switch passes is they don’t take up another spot for a FastPass! The Rider Switch pass just acts like a FastPass because the guest can use the FastPass line and they also have an hour time limit to use it. 

 

Once you’ve used the MaxPass and Rider Switch for that first ride, head to the second ride (if the return time is already up and available), and repeat the steps! You can also make another MaxPass selection for the ride you just went on. 

Now, it may feel like it’s playing the system using both MaxPass and Rider Switch at the same time, but honestly, I didn’t think it gave us an advantage over other guests at the park. While it’s great being able to make two different MaxPass selections at a time, it takes twice as long for both riders to ride each ride. And if you make a MaxPass selection for a ride that the whole family can ride, there’s no Rider Switch to take advantage of either. 

While we absolutely loved using both MaxPass and Rider Switch together, we did run into a couple of issues. We had one time where I heard the Rider Switch pass being added to my husband Sean’s pass, but when he went to use it, the Cast Member couldn’t see it as a selection. It was unfortunately for Indiana Jones, which the FastPass line still has a long wait, so we just did a MaxPass selection the next day for my husband. 

We also had an issue where we made MaxPass selections for Toy Story Mania, but the ride was down for some time when our MaxPasses were supposed to be used. They automatically switched the MaxPasses to be able to be used at some other select rides at any time during the day. But when I went to use my MaxPass I’d made for Soarin’, the Cast Member used up that MaxPass from Toy Story instead of the one for Soarin’ and didn’t properly add the Rider Switch for my husband to use afterward. I was admittedly a bit shaken up because she wouldn’t let me talk to her about what happened. 

Sometimes we got to ride something together.

Thankfully, we weren’t planning on going back to Toy Story Mania, so Sean used my original Soarin’ MaxPass and we went about our day. But please, if you don’t think something worked right, please calmly ask the Cast Member to check what happened and make sure it was added and used correctly! Not being able to use MaxPass and Rider Switch correctly really can add time to your day that you otherwise might not have.

Hopefully, you’re feeling less overwhelmed now that you understand how to use MaxPass and Rider Switch both together! Using both MaxPass and Rider Switch together can help your vacation go more smoothly so that all of you can have a great time while riding the rides that you want to ride (without feeling left out).

And of course, if you’re wanting to get even more out of your trip to Disneyland, I highly recommend booking through Get Away Today! Use my code TwoGeeks to get $10 off your Southern California vacation package! That would pay for one of your MaxPasses for the day!

 

Filed Under: Disney, Travel

DIY Amazonian Warrior Workout Shirt Using Cricut SportFlex Iron-On
Ultimate Marvel Movie Collection Giveaway

Comments

  1. Lindsay says

    June 18, 2018 at 11:53 am

    I haven’t had an opportunity to use maxpass yet especially because it was kind of confusing to me but after reading this I’ll have to check it out!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      June 18, 2018 at 2:27 pm

      Thanks so much! It really was my favorite thing to use while at Disneyland! One of those “gamechanger” things!

      Reply
  2. Max says

    November 20, 2018 at 11:15 pm

    Thanks for the info! I’m wondering does the waiting party have to hang around the ride while the other party rides or they can just come back within the hour to use the rider switch?

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      November 27, 2018 at 7:59 pm

      They don’t have to wait around. They could even go on another ride if they had the time! My husband grabbed some breakfast while I was on a ride.

      Reply
  3. Mkm says

    June 27, 2019 at 4:46 pm

    Hiiii

    I just got back from a 5 day Disneyland and Disney California Adventure trip… I have two small kids (2 and 7) my 7 year old has a fear of fast rides…. I did not get the park hopper and I did not get maxpass ecxpet for when in the park and for one day only for one member…. I’ll tell you why…

    I knew I can’t do park hopping with my kids…. And fastpass if free in the park… So me and my husband both get fast passes in the morning for the most crowded rides…. And in the meantime we play the kiddie rides that don’t take fast passes… And while in line I book the 2ms fast pass for each of us when the time window opens… Then snack time as we alternate riding….. I only get rider switch when my husband can’t meet the time on his fast pass or wanted to ride later in the day after his fast pass expires…..

    The reason I got max pass for only me was so that we can have a (PHOTODAY) where we ran around to the photographers and linked all our pictures to my max pass for the day (so for only 15 dollars I got loads of pictures as opposed to 15 dollars per picture without max pass)

    One thing I noticed…. When I got the maxpass for only me… The cast meme er never asks to see who’s maxpass it is…. So technically my husband can log into the Disney app and use my max pass and they don’t check

    I got rider switch for my kids on all rides… They didn’t walk up to ride entrance with me and no one asked me if they are too short to ride (my 7 yr old is tall enough but doesn’t want to ride)

    These are the points I wanted to share about my trip… Hope it helps someone who was lost like I was

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      November 4, 2019 at 10:50 am

      I’m so sorry for my late reply! I have been recovering from the birth of my second daughter! Those are great pointers and you’re so right about them not asking about whose maxpass it was as that was our experience too! We wanted to be able to make both our fastpasses on the app, which is why we got it for both of us. But I do let people know it’s worth it even just for one person to get photopass included!

      Reply
  4. Whitney Russell says

    February 6, 2020 at 12:37 pm

    The whole concept of the rider switch is absolutely amazing! I just don’t like that the Maxpasses are so expensive!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 13, 2020 at 3:47 pm

      I don’t like it either! I even saw they raised the prices as well for Maxpass with their recent price increase! D: Not very happy about that!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

twomarriedgeeks

Hi I'm Jessica! I'm a mother, wife, gamer, cosplayer, and all around fangirl. I love being a Geek Mom because I get to share many worlds with my daughter. Check out my about page to learn more about us!

Keep up with the geeks!

Check out these great partners!

Cricut is Easy as 123

USFamilyGuide.com

fandomfamilylife

Jessica Dalton
Excuse my tired eyes but I just read goodnight moo Excuse my tired eyes but I just read goodnight moon in Korean for the first time! Did I understand it all? Not so much but it helps I know the English one by heart. 😹 it also took so long Marvel was really yawning at the end. I never thought I’d be learning Korean but I’m so glad I am! I love the language and the challenge it presents! And doing it with my kids is even better! I’m glad I found @talkboxmom to help us in this endeavor. Check out the link in my bio so you can learn a language with your family too! 
#talkboxmom #talkboxkorean #learnkorean #korean #koreanlanguage #hangul #goodnightmoon #geekfamily #geekmom #learnaforeignlanguage
The weather is finally warming up so that means bi The weather is finally warming up so that means bike rides with my @_sixthreezero_ EvryJourney ❤️ I love how beautiful this bike is and comfortable! Though a #sixthreezeroelectric would be nice for longer rides 😹
This cute girl coloring some Valentines! I love th This cute girl coloring some Valentines! I love these printable ones we got from @talkboxmom as she can color and learn more phrases. We love learning Korean and being able to combine it with holidays makes it even better. Check out the link in my bio to see what languages you can learn through TalkBox.mom. 
#talkboxmom #talkboxmomkorean #valentines #korean #learnkorean #hangul #learnhangul
To help with our Korean learning, I like to find s To help with our Korean learning, I like to find shows with the Korean dub! Of course Pinkfong is on the list. It helps to hear some words and phrases we’ve learned from @talkboxmom in different places. (Plus if they’re going to be watching tv having it educational like this is a bonus!) if you want to learn a language with your family in an engaging way, where you’ll actually talk and use it since day one, check out the link in my bio for TalkBox.Mom! #learnkorean #pinkfong #foreignlanguage #speakkoreanlikekorean #speakkorean #learnforeignlanguages #talkboxmom #talkboxmomkorean
We went to the @icecastles_ today in Midway, or as We went to the @icecastles_ today in Midway, or as we called it, Ahtohallan. It was beautiful! Only problem was @msmarcelinecinderella was done about 5 minutes in. She does not like the cold. @msmarveljessica loved it. They really are like mini Anna and Elsa! 
#frozen #frozen2 #ahtohallan #icecastles #icecastle #icecastlesutah #annaandelsa #kidcosplay #getoututah #familytime #geekfamily #geekfamilylife #geekmom #disneymom
As the year is coming to an end, I wanted to highl As the year is coming to an end, I wanted to highlight something I’m very proud of. 

You see, I used to be an avid reader. I read ALL the time. Like the kid who would stay up way past her bedtime and being a book wherever I went sort of thing. 

One of the realizations for me that I was suffering from anxiety and depression was that I barely read anymore. Like I could count on one hand usually how many books I’d read in a year. And this devastated me because it was and is something I love. 

This year, like others, I made the goal to read more. Didn’t matter what kinds of books or if it was fanfiction. I knew I just needed to read. I got a kindle paperwhite and that plus my AirPods that I got (I count listening as reading because sometimes that’s all I can do), and my meds, helped me to do more. 

When I got this notebook a few months ago, I listed what I’d read and the sight of it makes me so happy to look at. They’re not in chronological order but for next year I will do it that way. 

A lot of these books too have been advanced readers copies! And that’s been really fun to read and review those and I’ll continue to do so. 

#amreading #bookstagram #writersofinstagram #bookgoals #booklists #booklist #kindle #kindlepaperwhite #fightdepression #fightanxiety #advancedreader #bookreviews
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
My (sometimes) angel practicing her Korean. I trie My (sometimes) angel practicing her Korean. I tried speaking to her in French but she was stubborn and wanted to speak what she wanted to speak 😹 I can’t complain though because the fact she’s learning an Uber complicated language like Korean makes me proud! And we couldn’t do it without @talkboxmom Check them out with the link in my bio! 
#ambassador #learnkorean #learnaforeignlanguage #speakkorean #speakingforeignlanguage #talkboxmom #talkboxmomkorean #talkboxmomfrench
Ten years ago today I married my best friend. I kn Ten years ago today I married my best friend. I know that’s cliche to say but he is my person. He is my positive when I can only think of the negatives in my life. He makes me laugh (and I thankfully make him laugh too!) and I love the family we have created. Even though times are tough and we’ve been hit by many imperial cruisers in our life, we make it through. 
#tenyearanniversary #weddinganniversary #sealedforeternity #geekcouple #geekparents #marriedfortenyears #tenyears #anniversary
Today was my birthday. 33! Sadly I did not get to Today was my birthday. 33! Sadly I did not get to fulfill my dream of going to Club 33 for my birthday but I did order cheesecake from @juniorscheesecake through @goldbelly and it was divine! My brother @barney_bro is in the pic with me because his birthday is 2 days after mine. For basically our whole lives we’ve always celebrated together and I am so glad we did it (safely) this year too! He’s the best birthday buddy ❤️ 
#happybirthday #birthdaybuddies #siblings #brotherandsister
Follow on Instagram
  • Meet The Geeks
  • Blog
  • Privacy And Disclosure Policy
  • Contact

Keep up to date with the Geeks

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 · Hello Sweets by Hello You Designs

Copyright © 2021 · Hello Sweets Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy