Girls Day and the "New" Fastpass

Took my daughter today for a 1/2 day girls only trip.  I try to take each of my kids individually when we have passes at least once in the year and with currently being off of vacation for a few more days, I took advantage.  My daughter is a preschooler and is afraid of the dark.  She is also very adamant about what she likes and what she won't even try unless her daddy or grandmother are around.  That being said, we had a great time going on rides she enjoys and meeting characters when available.  So, where did we go?

We started our day on It's a Small World, one of her favorite rides.  As it was rope drop, we were the only ones on the ride.  It was nice, however, to view everything without other people around.  Then, we went over to Casey Jr.  My daughter prefers the real train that makes a loop around the park, but since that one's still closed, we took what we could get.  Afterward, we headed to Autopia and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.  Then, it was time to switch parks as there were no other activities my girl wanted to do in Disneyland.

At California Adventure, we started off on her all-time favorite ride, Monster's Inc.  That girl would ride that one over and over if I let her.  Thankfully, it was closed after we rode the first time, so we were able to move on.  We went on The Little Mermaid, then headed over to Carsland to try to meet Cruz.  Unfortunately, Cruz had to drive away right when we got to the front of the line, but we did meet McQueen, so all was not lost. 

My daughter really wanted to meet the Toy Story characters, but the line was long.  However, she was willing to go on Toy Story Midway Mania to see her favorite characters.  The standby line is usually too long to wait, especially in the sun.  But, here's where we get interesting.  Today, a "new" fastpass system rolled out.  Now, you get a reminder card of when your return time is, but you have to scan your actual ticket to go in.  It's a bit like magic bands at Disney World, but without the bands.  I would prefer the bands honestly.  It's too hard to juggle tickets while waiting in line with a preschooler.  I'm wary to think what it will be like with my family of 5.  There are perks and limits to the system, but it aims to make distribution a little more fair perhaps.  Anyway, I'm not sure if it was due to being the first day of the new system or just that no one was using FP for the day, but when we got to the line for Midway Mania, the CMs actually told us we'd be better off getting a FP.  Return times were only 10 minutes later.  The standby line?  Much longer (maybe 30-45 minutes).  So, we used the new system and enjoyed barely waiting.  Scanning the tickets is cumbersome, but I like the concept.  As I stated though, we really need the bands to make it more streamlined.  I'll leave judging the new system to someone who did more than 1 ride on it today, but I enjoyed most of the process and it seemed to work properly from a technology standpoint, so at least there's that.

Anyone have thoughts on the new system?  How about the MaxPass (for an additional fee, you can book fastpasses online--coming soon)?