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Phew, buckle up for a breathtaking week in theme park news. Simply put, the way you visit Disney Parks is about to change forever, and you have some education to do before that. Better not to be late to class for what you’re about to learn, so let’s tackle the last one of this week:
FASTPASS IS DEAD, LONG LIFE ON LIGHTNING LANE
We have absolutely major news this week as Disney World and Disneyland abandon their old practices of FastPass, FastPass + and Maxpass in favor of a new suite of software and premium shopping options with Disney Genie, Disney Genie + and Lightning Lane.
Before entering the, hum, from the depths that are the new way of life for park visitors, first offer a collective expiration for the institutional knowledge accumulated among fans who have lived their lives by Disney World benchmarks – 180 days for meals, 60 for FastPass + bookings for hotel guests and 30 for normal people – all of whom are now kaput. The FastPass program didn’t return when the parks did, and all the conspiracy, strategy, and 4 a.m. wake-up calls to book a FastPass + to ride on Avatar: Flight of Passage is gone. good, replaced by a tri-level approach sorting of the theme parks queue.
I’ll be real to you – there’s a lot to figure out here, so let’s take it step by step:
Disney genius:
This new program will exist in Disney theme park apps and will allow all Disneyland and Walt Disney World guests to receive real-time personalized itineraries based on what they like to do in the parks. It’s free, accessible to everyone, and frankly it looks pretty cool, especially for Disney World, where planning a vacation so far in advance could be tedious, so we’re curious what the ride will look like. feature when it launches this fall.
Disney Genie +:
This little plus sign does a lot of work here, as it’s an entirely different offering. Not to be confused with Disney’s free Genie service, Genie + is a premium paid product that mimics the old Fastpass system on both coasts, for a price.
If you want to ‘skip the line’ with fast track entry into the rides, this will be the way to go. Previously, all Disney World guests could pre-select three experiences per day with FastPass +, and all Disneyland guests could redeem FastPass at ticket kiosks. Now, this capability is exclusively reserved for those who choose to purchase Genie +, and it’s managed digitally, within Disney Genie’s personalized itinerary platform.
For $ 20 per day per person at Disneyland (which gives faster access to over 15 attractions) and $ 15 per person per day to Disney World (which gives faster access to over 40 attractions), Genie + buyers can book “return times” on previous FastPass activated attractions like Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. (The cost of Genie + includes PhotoPass photos at Disneyland and some slightly weird Snapchat-style AR filters at Disney World.)
Individual attraction selections:
Here’s where things get interesting. For some high-demand attractions at Disney World and Disneyland, customers can purchase individual a la carte admission to enter the “Lightning Lane” – formerly known as FastPass queues – and make their way to the rides the most popular.
Let me give you an example of how this changes things. Want to get on the Seven Dwarfs mining train in Magic Kingdom without queuing? Before, you had to get up 60 days before you arrived to get a coveted return time. Now, you can either purchase your ticket, the same day, or jump into the queue whenever expectations are low, depending on Disney Genie’s add-on routes. (Which they should be, because the entire FastPass + queue isn’t likely to be crowded like it used to be.)
It – I know, I know – makes things better in a whole new way with rides that use Virtual Queue, the ‘boarding pass’ system for Disney’s newest and most popular attractions, including Star wars: Rise of the Resistance, Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure and, when it opens on October 1, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. These rides don’t have waiting lines, so what if you didn’t have a boarding group? You don’t get along. Introducing a pay-per-view option can help solve those dreaded park days for infrequent guests who have come for the newer and better ones, and quickly find out that there is simply no way to queue.
If you’re wondering “why the hell did Disney introduce this convoluted system,” well, that’s a mouthful on first read, but it makes sense. Disney Parks have always moved towards a stratum of paid options or, as fans call it, “Paid FastPass”. Customers are still allowed free access on every ride, but what if you want a smoother trip, easier access, or just guarantee that you’ll make the hottest ride? Well, you’re going to have to shell out a nominal sum.
That being said, this system favors the individual Disney adult over families, who are likely to pay anywhere from $ 80 to $ 100 per day to “skip the line” in a way that was previously free. After all, Disney Genie + can be purchased for a single day, but if you want to add it in advance, it will be for the duration of your trip, with no discount for multiple consecutive days.
I remain surprised, however, that this is not offered as a benefit of staying on Walt Disney World property. Maybe they wanted to launch Disney Genie without the burden of tens of thousands of guaranteed Genie + users filling the lines at Lightning Lane, but it signals some type of devaluation of Disney-owned hotel bookings that I still can’t figure it out. , as other core offerings, like Extra Magic Hours, also pivoted.
Yes, Disney World guests will now get half-hour early entry to all four parks any day of the year, but on-site hotel perks have apparently been wiped out, especially with the obtuse decision to cut Disney’s Magical Express bus transportation service in 2022. (I think this is a choice that will prove to be extremely foolish, given the increased difficulty of renting cars and the decreasing availability of carpooling since this announcement beginning of 2021.)
When you factor this in, it’s easy to see why customers feel like they’re paying a lot more for things that were once free. Do you want “magic hours?” They are now exclusive to guests of Deluxe hotels, the most expensive level. Need to take your family from Orlando International Airport to Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort? You can still take a bus from the plane to the park, but it will be through Mears, the private transportation company previously contracted by Disney. It’ll set you back $ 16 for adults and $ 13.50 for kids for one-way trips, a significant sum when hotel rates haven’t come down and Disney has already footed the bill. Add in the removal of perks like luggage delivery to your hotel room and free Magic Bands, and they come a little closer to that all-inclusive vacation loyalty you’ve built up over the years. With so many cheaper hotels down the road – and the ability to buy your way for equivalent rides between Disney hotels and, say, Marriott hotels, with the exception of a slight edge over those top picks. ‘individual attractions – it unequivocally devalues staying on the property, a choice that doesn’t quite suit me.
Still, I think this move to Disney Genie + and the a la carte options was the right choice for parks in the future. Without going too deep into the statistical analysis of it all, all guests with access to FastPass have often increased standby wait times. By limiting the number of guests who receive fast-track entry, waiting lines can hypothetically move faster, especially when the in-app software pushes you to locations that currently have shorter lines.
The FastPass system was broken, without a doubt. Will this tiered approach solve the problem? For that, we’ll have to wait until it starts later this fall.
Not sure how this will affect your trip? I’ve created a series of guides, explanations, and videos to help explain more, but stay tuned for more as Disney Genie debuts later this year.
CONNECTIONS! CONNECTIONS! CONNECTIONS!
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