Fast pass is back…

[kilik64]

After digesting everything (excluding the fact that this is paid vs free), I'm thinking this is a slight downgrade from FP+, mostly b/c as others have mentioned, the lack of multiple rides/day (although it's a definite upgrade vs G+)

Yea thats where I am on it. Im still more excited about it vs just having G+ again on next trip.

 

[tjkraz]

I dont get the poo pooing over the tiers? This is just like fp+ tiers were and people got additional tier 1 rides on day of all the time. And THAT was with having to use all THREE before booking a 4th. You can book a 4th, probably another tier 1, as soon as you use your first pass with this set up. I would guess that you can and should get multiple tier 1 rides per day if you work it.

That's not consistent with my recollection. At all.

The list of tiered attractions pre-covid was:

EP: Soarin, TT, Frozen, fireworks viewing
HS: Smuggler's Run, Slinky, Runaway Railway
AK: Navi, FOP

That's 9 attractions total. 8 if you eliminate the fireworks viewing. My recollection was that with FP+, you pretty much had to structure your trip to hit one of these per day. With the typical weeklong visit, you had the capacity to schedule most of these. (Back then, FOP and Navi were so popular that it was a crapshoot as to whether you could even get 1 of the 2 when visiting AK.)

Over a 7 day visit using (free) FP+, you could schedule Soarin, TT, Smuggler's Run, Slinky, RR, and one of the Pandora attractions, with the 7th day reserved for MK.

MK had no tiers. If you were lucky enough to get Mine Train, that could be added to Space/BTMR/Splash for a rather complete day. And MK was the park where it was easiest to add attractions later in the day. Yes, it's conceivable that one could ride 3 HS attractions early in the morning with FP+, and then pick up something like Space or BTMR that evening. (Again, not tiered attractions.) Adding the tiered non-MK attractions as a 4th FP+ was rarely possible.

I'll say this for the tiers under LLMP: they are a double-edged sword with some benefit. Limiting everyone to booking just 1 from that group means there will be a lot left later in the day. But that also means the advantage will remain with the early risers. No, you don't have to get up at 7am to start booking anymore. But if you want the best shot at getting a second or third tier 1, you better be in the park by 8-9am to use that first pass.

I don't see a world where people can pre-book their LLs for 6, 7 and 8pm, and still have a great selection of options after using that 6pm LL.

If these changes resulted in the same number of people buying LL each day, then theoretically those users would have a similar experience to what Genie+ is delivering today. But Disney is making these changes to increase the popularity of LL. If the number of paid users doubles, everyone gets a lesser experience. We'll see...

 

[davidhr]

One of the complaints of Genie+ was that if you purchased it and didn't enter the parks early you may have at times only got to use it once or twice. Now you are guaranteed at least three attractions no matter what time you decide to go to the parks and you get to replace selections as soon as you use them.

I believe Universal charges $90 and higher depending upon demand per person for their version. I think the selling point is going to be that less people will purchase it but those who do will get on a lot of attractions with the shorter lines. Plus Disney will more than make up the revenue because of the higher up charges.

Last December we decided to go to Universal and went for the express pass. It was like $200 or $250 per person. I was ok with it because it was super crowded and we had only one day for two parks.

I like the system, but it can get very expensive for some dates.

 

[kristenabelle]

Last December we decided to go to Universal and went for the express pass. It was like $200 or $250 per person. I was ok with it because it was super crowded and we had only one day for two parks.

I like the system, but it can get very expensive for some dates.

A great point. It's nice when it's built into the hotel cost, but buying express separately can be ridiculously expensive - especially for families. I can't imagine this would be priced the same way when the experience is totally different (booking based on availability versus walking on whenever you want, at least once or as many times as you want depending on price).

I also think baking an express-like service into hotel stays at WDW couldn't work. At least, not with the amount of attractions there are today. The number of hotel rooms at WDW is massive - even comparing WDW deluxe resorts to Uni premiere resorts. There were also strong feelings about limiting evening magic to Deluxe guests. I can only imagine an unlimited express program for Deluxe only (or pay to play at $100+pp/p day) would be worse.

 

[Bearval]

That's not consistent with my recollection. At all.

The list of tiered attractions pre-covid was:

EP: Soarin, TT, Frozen, fireworks viewing
HS: Smuggler's Run, Slinky, Runaway Railway
AK: Navi, FOP

That's 9 attractions total. 8 if you eliminate the fireworks viewing. My recollection was that with FP+, you pretty much had to structure your trip to hit one of these per day. With the typical weeklong visit, you had the capacity to schedule most of these. (Back then, FOP and Navi were so popular that it was a crapshoot as to whether you could even get 1 of the 2 when visiting AK.)

Over a 7 day visit using (free) FP+, you could schedule Soarin, TT, Smuggler's Run, Slinky, RR, and one of the Pandora attractions, with the 7th day reserved for MK.

MK had no tiers. If you were lucky enough to get Mine Train, that could be added to Space/BTMR/Splash for a rather complete day. And MK was the park where it was easiest to add attractions later in the day. Yes, it's conceivable that one could ride 3 HS attractions early in the morning with FP+, and then pick up something like Space or BTMR that evening. (Again, not tiered attractions.) Adding the tiered non-MK attractions as a 4th FP+ was rarely possible.

I'll say this for the tiers under LLMP: they are a double-edged sword with some benefit. Limiting everyone to booking just 1 from that group means there will be a lot left later in the day. But that also means the advantage will remain with the early risers. No, you don't have to get up at 7am to start booking anymore. But if you want the best shot at getting a second or third tier 1, you better be in the park by 8-9am to use that first pass.

I don't see a world where people can pre-book their LLs for 6, 7 and 8pm, and still have a great selection of options after using that 6pm LL.

If these changes resulted in the same number of people buying LL each day, then theoretically those users would have a similar experience to what Genie+ is delivering today. But Disney is making these changes to increase the popularity of LL. If the number of paid users doubles, everyone gets a lesser experience. We'll see...

I think you you got most of it right except near the end, it should state' the number of users will pay double"............

 

[miksicnarf]

Is this just for the Land vs. the World?

It's just for Disney World. At Disneyland, the name is changing but it will still function the same as Genie+.

 

[muppets3d]

I figured that once they locked down on DAS, the Genie+ overhaul wasn't far behind. Expect regular price hikes on it until it's near the price of Universal's product.

 

[Smugpugmug]

A great point. It's nice when it's built into the hotel cost, but buying express separately can be ridiculously expensive - especially for families. I can't imagine this would be priced the same way when the experience is totally different (booking based on availability versus walking on whenever you want, at least once or as many times as you want depending on price).

I also think baking an express-like service into hotel stays at WDW couldn't work. At least, not with the amount of attractions there are today. The number of hotel rooms at WDW is massive - even comparing WDW deluxe resorts to Uni premiere resorts. There were also strong feelings about limiting evening magic to Deluxe guests. I can only imagine an unlimited express program for Deluxe only (or pay to play at $100+pp/p day) would be worse.

I remember before I had an AP that included Express after 4, I paid $80 for the one time use Express but I bought it really far in advance. I thought that price was fair as I was able to do both parks in 1 day.

Agreed that giving Disney's service to the deluxe resorts wouldn't work. The only way I could see it work is if they gave the MK version to the monorail resorts and no one else but that's opening another can of worms that I don't think Disney wants to even consider.

 

[kristenabelle]

I remember before I had an AP that included Express after 4, I paid $80 for the one time use Express but I bought it really far in advance. I thought that price was fair as I was able to do both parks in 1 day.

Agreed that giving Disney's service to the deluxe resorts wouldn't work. The only way I could see it work is if they gave the MK version to the monorail resorts and no one else but that's opening another can of worms that I don't think Disney wants to even consider.

Totally!

$80 is an awesome deal for both parks! For a weekday in April I wanna say I paid $179 (ouch but it helped), and for a night of HHN express about $90?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Totally!

$80 is an awesome deal for both parks! For a weekday in April I wanna say I paid $179 (ouch but it helped), and for a night of HHN express about $90?

It was for a weekday in early May in 2022. I also bought it from Undercovertourist rather than through Universal themselves. I have no clue how much the one time pass for 2 parks cost now but back then I thought it was 100% worth it.

I paid like, $160 for HHN Express for a saturday in September. I actually chose to skip HHN this year due to the price. I could afford it theoretically but I don't want to spend that money for 1 night.

As for Disney's pass (as I don't want to go off topic), I'd probably pay for it for MK but definitely not for Epcot and AK. Probably wouldn't for HS either as I found by going in the evening, you can get a lot done without paying for Genie+. On my most recent trip I did ToT standby and while it said 45 minutes, it actually took 12 to get to the preshow.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Last December we decided to go to Universal and went for the express pass. It was like $200 or $250 per person. I was ok with it because it was super crowded and we had only one day for two parks.

I like the system, but it can get very expensive for some dates.

It can be crazy during peak times for sure. But the non-unlimited express pass is pretty fairly priced most of the year IMO. And the unlimited as part of the hotels is great, especially if you have a party of 4 in one room. For the cost of 1 hotel night, you can get Unlimited 2 Park express passes for 4 people for 2 days (check in and check out). That comes out to around Genie+ prices.

And EP is a complete game changer for the Theme Park experience IMO. I would pay a crazy amount to have it at WDW, but I don't see how it could ever work.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

I did well with paper FP, I loved the free FP+ system and I learned to love G+ so I can roll with any system they throw at us. I just hope they don't go crazy with the price because I don't think this new system is worth much more than what they were already charging. I will say I did great with G+ getting way more value out of it the last few years but there's also something very soothing about pre=planning again. But really I just want to be able to pay an exorbitant amount of money not to wait at all or have to pre plan at all! I'm not willing to pay the VIP price that's for sure but c'mon Disney...give me an option in between free and VIP tour.

 

[Sandisw]

If the International Guest issue is indeed correct, this is really really disappointing. We used to be able to use FP+ with no issue just like everyone else. We can make dining reservations 60 days out like everyone else, but now the new LL system has a limitations!? What an utterly stupid decision. I can only hope this will be resolved quickly and that Disney realizes their mistake. I am sure they don't want the perception that international members/guests are being treated like second class members/guests.

I would definitely would reach out to them with concerns.

 

[Sandisw]

Is this just for the Land vs. the World?

The changes will only apply to WDW, but the MDE names will be updated for the DL app. But no function changes for those visiting DL.

 

[Sandisw]

Definitely a major upgrade. I also saw on a Twitter Q&A (Scott Gustin, I believe) that during the checkout process your selected times will be held, so hopefully no more selecting a time then having it jump 6 hours when you get to the checkout screen, like with G+ (but with Disney IT, who knows..)

You will definitely know what you are getting before confirming thr purchase which is going To br a nice feature that didn’t exist with GP+.

I am looking forward to trying in July 24th when I am there….of course, am expecting first day issues, so going in with that mindset…may or may not do it for the 25th since we leave that day and my friend currently isn’t planning a third park day.

 

[JackosinDIS]

If the International Guest issue is indeed correct, this is really really disappointing. We used to be able to use FP+ with no issue just like everyone else. We can make dining reservations 60 days out like everyone else, but now the new LL system has a limitations!? What an utterly stupid decision. I can only hope this will be resolved quickly and that Disney realizes their mistake. I am sure they don't want the perception that international members/guests are being treated like second class members/guests.

Unfortunately it appears it is correct. International guests will not be able to utilise the service until in the US.

There will be work-arounds such as using a spoof GPS location, but why on earth should we have to do that in order to use the multi pass system!! Absolute madness from Disney!

I’m sure there will be massive push back but suspect they won’t do anything about it.

 

[WxKristin]

For the international community, I've seen it suggested that you could call Walt Disney World and have a Cast Member make your selections 7 days out from your stay (in addition to trying VPN or GPS spoofing to get MDE to work). It's a very 1990s way of doing things, but one that could get Disney's attention due to the additional cast member labor cost involved.

 

[Sandisw]

For the international community, I've seen it suggested that you could call Walt Disney World and have a Cast Member make your selections 7 days out from your stay (in addition to trying VPN or GPS spoofing to get MDE to work). It's a very 1990s way of doing things, but one that could get Disney's attention due to the additional cast member labor cost involved.

Where did you see this? I can say that as of today, guests will not be able to call to purchase.

One will need to do it in the app, and all guests must be in the US to do so…once here, then the advanced planning beyond initial day for the rest of the trip can occur.

 

[CarolynFH]

I’ve read that the international issue might be due to the EU internet privacy laws. WDW’s system isn’t in compliance, so they have to block EU residents, and for whatever reason (could be technical, I have no idea) they’ve ended up blocking all international guests.

 

[JackosinDIS]

For the international community, I've seen it suggested that you could call Walt Disney World and have a Cast Member make your selections 7 days out from your stay (in addition to trying VPN or GPS spoofing to get MDE to work). It's a very 1990s way of doing things, but one that could get Disney's attention due to the additional cast member labor cost involved.

It would be nice, but there’s no way they would be able to cope with literally 1000’s from the UK and other countries all calling at 7am (not that they’re open then!)

For what it’s worth, the GPS spoofing apps work (on my Android device at least). So there should be a work-around as you can make MDE think you are already in the US. I have just tested and it enables me to purchase Genie+ today, which you can’t normally do in the UK.

There are more complicated work-arounds for IPhones but I’m too dim to understand them.

Either way, what pile of ****