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Disneyland fans have said annual passes are the most desired thing missing from the 2021 Disneyland experience, but fast passes are right behind. Still, no one knows when they’ll return to Disneyland. A perk that was available before the pandemic and did not return when Disneyland reopened in April, fast passes have allowed park patrons to bypass long lines for certain rides by giving them a ride. return window and access to a shorter line.
But if the news coming out of Disneyland Paris this week is any indication, the return of Fast Passes to Disneyland could also mean another substantial implementation of additional costs for the park experience.
On July 6, Disneyland Paris announced a paid Fast Pass system called “Premier Access”. Under this new system, guests will be able to purchase Fast Pass queues individually, per trip. Depending on the route for which you buy Premier Access, this access can cost between 8 and 15 euros per trip depending on the occupancy of the park on that day.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to provide customers with a range of options to optimize their trip planning, customers can choose to purchase Disney Premier Access on the Disneyland Paris app when it launches this summer,” said said a press release from Disneyland Paris. “This optional digital service allows customers to take advantage of the ability to skip the regular line at some of our most popular attractions.”
This is a revolutionary and exceptionally expensive new Fast Pass system. If that works, it could mean that things are also about to get even more expensive at Disneyland in Anaheim.
Since the reopening of Disneyland, the Disney company has not shied away from its aggressive financial strategy, which consisted of charging top-notch prices for limited experiences and implementing unprecedented ways of charging money. to customers, like an all-time $ 60 upgrade to the new Spider-Man ride in the recently opened Avengers Campus attraction in Disney California Adventure. It is certainly not impossible that Disneyland in Anaheim will follow the lead of its Parisian counterpart and implement a per-trip system.
Before Disneyland closed in March 2020, the park was offering a MaxPass ticket upgrade. For $ 20 per ticket per day, people could pre-book their Fast Passes through the Disneyland app, rather than walking to each ride, inserting their park tickets into the Fast Pass machine, and getting the return time available at that time. Even with the upgrade, however, there were limits on the availability and number of passes you could use per day.
Premier Access may resolve this issue. Paid upgrades to Disneyland Paris are available on Autopia, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Peter Pan’s Flight, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Guests can only hold one Premier Access pass at a time, but the new system could alleviate the problem of only having to choose a few routes for expedited access. Theoretically, if you’re willing to pay individually to skip each row, you should be able to do it as many times per day as you want.
With prices ranging from $ 9 to $ 18 per Premier Access pass, you could easily spend hundreds of extra dollars per person per day in the park if you were inclined to improve your waiting experience. For visitors who are only at Disneyland Paris for one day – admission can be as high as $ 140.41 for a one-day Park Hopper ticket – the extra cost may be worth doing as many rides as possible.
“Disney has had a financially tough year due to the pandemic,” Carly Terzigni wrote for Disney fan blog AllEars.net, “but tackling the cost of a popular service that was previously included in your admission could being a new pain point for many guests.
With the exception of MaxPass, Fast Passes have been free since their launch in 1999. Disneyland Paris still offers free “Standby Passes”, which will apparently work like old Fast Passes – they are free and “can be activated. during certain periods of the day, subject to availability and according to daily needs in the parks, ”according to the same press release from Disneyland Paris. The difference is that the Standby Pass will only be available when waiting times exceed certain levels for certain trips. There is no way to book them in advance if the pass is not currently being used for this experience.
“We are always looking for ways to improve the customer experience,” said Juliette Bron, vice president of digital and data at Disneyland Paris, in the statement. “The return of the Standby Pass, the introduction of Disney Premier Access and every new digital enhancement in our parks and hotels is part of our commitment to provide innovative products and services that take current feedback into account and not only respond to but exceed the expectations of our guests. Customers increasingly expect seamless experiences, and with the evolution of technology, we have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to meet their expectations.
An expectation that has proven to be true for a visit to Disney this year: Costs are rising, and even with the discounted ticket for California residents recently announced by Disneyland, a day in a park is getting harder and harder to figure out. pay.
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