Wow, stick to a terribly big week at the theme park news. Put simply, your way of visiting Disney Parks is about to change forever, and before that, you need to study. It’s best not to be late for class so you’re about to learn, so let’s get into this week’s most recent:
FASTPASS IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE LIGHTNING STREET
This week we have absolutely important news, as Disney World and Disneyland are abandoning their old practices of FastPass, FastPass + and Maxpass in favor of a new set of software and premium purchase options with Disney Genie, Disney Genie + and Lightning Lane.
Before entering the emem, depths that are the new way of life of visitors to the park, we first offer a collective exhalation for the institutional knowledge accumulated among fans who lived their lives according to Disney World benchmarks: 180 days to eat, 60 for FastPass + reservations for hotel guests and 30 for normal folk: now they are all kaput. The FastPass program did not return when the parks did, and all the wake-up, strategy, and wake-up calls from the west coast at four in the morning to book a FastPass + to travel to Avatar: Flight of Passage are definitely gone, being replaced by a tri -More approach to the theme park in the queue.
I’ll be real with you – there’s a lot to take advantage of here, so let’s do it step by step:
Disney Genie:
This new program will exist in Disney theme park apps and will allow all Disneyland and Walt Disney World guests to receive personalized itineraries in real time based on what they like to do for the parks. It’s free, available to everyone, and frankly sounds pretty fun, especially for Disney World, where planning a vacation in advance can be heavy, so we’re curious about what the functionality will be like when it launches this fall.
Disney Genie +:
This little plus sign does a lot of work here, as it is a completely different offer. Not to be confused with the free Disney Genie service, Genie + is a premium paid product that mimics the previous Fastpass system on both sides, for a price.
If you want to “skip the line” with a quick entry into the attractions, this will be the way forward. Previously, all Disney World guests could pre-select three daily experiences with FastPass + and all Disneyland guests could take FastPasses out of the ticket booths. Now, this capability is reserved exclusively for those who choose to purchase Genie + and are managed digitally, within the Disney Genie custom itinerary platform.
For $ 20 per day per person at Disneyland (which provides faster access to more than 15 attractions) and $ 15 per person per day at Disney World (which provides faster access to more than 40 attractions), buyers of Genie + can book “return times” at 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 weird Snapchat-style AR filters at Disney World).
Individual attraction selections:
This is where things get interesting. For select and on-demand attractions at Disney World and Disneyland, guests can purchase an individual a la carte ticket to enter the “lightning lane” (formerly known as FastPass queues) and make their way to the most popular attractions.
Let me give you an example of how this changes things. Want to ride the train of my seven dwarfs to Magic Kingdom without waiting in a long line? Beforehand, you should wake up 60 days before your arrival to get a desired return time. You can now purchase your ticket, day or boarding pass as long as the waits are low, according to Disney Genie’s complementary itineraries. (Which they should be, as it’s likely that the entire FastPass + queue isn’t packed as before).
This, I know, I know, raises the bar in a whole new way with the attractions that use the 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 premieres on October 1, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. These trips have no waiting lines, so what if you didn’t get a boarding group? Don’t get into it. Introducing a payment option can help solve those dreaded park days for infrequent guests arriving at the last and largest and quickly discover that there is simply no way to wait in line.
If you’re wondering “why on Earth did Disney introduce this complicated system,” well, it’s a mouthful at first reading, but it makes sense. Disney parks were always headed for layers of payment options or, as fans call it, “FastPass Payment.” Guests can still access all the trips for free, but if you want a simpler trip, easier access or just to ensure you get the hottest trip? Well, you will have to earn a nominal sum.
That said, this system favors Disney’s adult over families, who will likely spend between $ 80 and $ 100 a 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 discounts for several days in a row.
I am surprised, however, that it is not offered as an advantage to staying on the Walt Disney World property. Maybe they wanted to launch Disney Genie without the load of tens of thousands of guaranteed Genie + users filling the Lightning Lane queues, but it indicates a certain kind of devaluation of Disney-owned hotel reservations that I still can’t wrap my head around , as other basic offerings, such as Extra Magic Hours, have also pivoted.
Yes, Disney World guests will now have a half-hour early entry to the four parks every day of the year, but it seems that the benefits of hotels on the property have been reduced, especially with the obtuse decision to cut the service. Disney Magical Express bus transportation. in 2022. (I think it’s a choice that will be extremely foolish, given the increased difficulty in car rental and the diminished availability of car-sharing since that early 2021 announcement).
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why customers feel they pay so much more for things that were previously free. Do you want “magic hours” at night? They are now exclusive to luxury guests, the most expensive level. Need to move your family from Orlando International Airport to Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort? You can still board a bus from the plane to the park, but it will pass by Mears, the private transportation company previously hired by Disney. It will cost you: $ 16 for adults and $ 13.50 for children on round trips, not a small sum when hotel rates have not been lowered and Disney previously paid the bill. Add the elimination of perks, such as luggage that is handed out in the hotel room and complimentary magic bands, and confuse a bit of confusion with this total holiday fidelity accumulated over the years. With so many cheaper hotels along the road, and the ability to buy your way on equivalent trips between Disney and, for example, Marriott hotels, saving a slight edge on those selective one-off individual attractions, it devalues unequivocally permanence an option that … just doesn’t add up to me.
Still, I think this shift to Disney Genie + and on-demand shopping options was the right choice for future parks. Without delving into the statistical analysis of it all, all guests who have access to FastPass usually last long waits. By limiting the number of guests receiving a quick entry, waiting lines can, hypothetically, move faster, especially when the software built into the app leads you to locations that currently have shorter lines.
The FastPass system broke down, no doubt. Will this tiered approach fix it? To do this, we will have to wait until it starts later this fall.
Confused about how this will affect your trip? I’ve created a number of guides, storytellers, and videos to tell you more, but stay tuned as well as Disney Genie premieres later this year.
LINKS! LINKS! LINKS!