Fastpass return or replacement?

[Mac30188]

For a lot of these reasons, I think a potential paid FP system at WDW will be SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than the Disneyland Paris version. If people think their prices are high, I think we could see some cardiac events when Disney debuts a WDW price list. They are going to price it so that the decision that people will weigh up will be between paid FP's and doing VIP services.

Possible, but I think one item that will help keep price low are the queues. They want FP to be reasonably well utilized. If 90% of the riders come from Standby, then the line will be winding out into walkways while the nicely themed, shaded FP queue takes up a ton of space and stays pretty much empty. The cost of both time and money to re-engineer the queues would be painful. I am guessing they will pick a price point that tends to mimic the current system with similar proportion of FP riders to non-FP riders. I do expect some will be complimentary to some subset of users and therefore that will allow them to charge more for others.

If everyone gets 1 free and those onsite gets at least 2 free. Deluxe guests getting 3 free, then I expect the cost to be very, very high for "extras". If there are no free fast passes, I expect the price point to be substantially lower.

 

[cdurham1]

Possible, but I think one item that will help keep price low are the queues. They want FP to be reasonably well utilized. If 90% of the riders come from Standby, then the line will be winding out into walkways while the nicely themed, shaded FP queue takes up a ton of space and stays pretty much empty. The cost of both time and money to re-engineer the queues would be painful. I am guessing they will pick a price point that tends to mimic the current system with similar proportion of FP riders to non-FP riders. I do expect some will be complimentary to some subset of users and therefore that will allow them to charge more for others.

If everyone gets 1 free and those onsite gets at least 2 free. Deluxe guests getting 3 free, then I expect the cost to be very, very high for "extras". If there are no free fast passes, I expect the price point to be substantially lower.

Yeah, the queues are a horrible guest experience right now. We are about to leave today after our 8 day trip (6 Disney, 2 Universal) and the structure of the queues is just a nightmare. Having these ridiculous lines snake out into the open sun with no theming- they might as well take the Disney signs down and put up "Six Flags Plus" ones. It was the least magical experience of the trip.

You may be right about them prioritizing this line balance even over the optimal price point for profits. The intangible loss in guest experience from these lines may outweigh the short term profit, even in Chapek's Disney.

 

[ChipnDale79]

So for about $113/day/person, I can get a fastpass for every ride that is offered? Given that I can choose individual selections, it will come out to less than that, most likely. Idk, I think a lot more people will take advantage of this than we might think.

I just finished up day 8 our trip. In this heat, I would have been pushing the "buy" button more than a few times for my family of 3. In fact, I was contemplating how I could get some friends/family to go in together and do VIP services for a couple of days next trip. So, these a la carte prices sound reasonable to me.

these things are easy if you're just paying for one person, but if you're taking a family to disney, they arent easy anymore.

From everything i'm seeing and hearing, families, are no longer Disney's target audience.

Bob Chapek's Disney....

 

[DefnotDLav]

If they do follow the Universal model or something like it, I hope they keep the part that FP would be included with deluxe resorts!

There's just too many WDW deluxe rooms compared to Uni to pull that off.

Perhaps one free FP, or a discount of some sort.

Unless the night time Deluxe only hours are the only thing they are going to get....

 

[Disneylover99]

There's just too many WDW deluxe rooms compared to Uni to pull that off.

Perhaps one free FP, or a discount of some sort.

Unless the night time Deluxe only hours are the only thing they are going to get....

In comparison, WDW has roughly 4x as many deluxe rooms that the 3 express hotels At Universal have, but WDW has 2 extra parks.

They definitely can’t offer free unlimited fp’s like they do at Universal, but I think they could comfortably offer 3 free fp’s per day at deluxe resorts.

 

[philbrody]

No inside info but reading all the other information here is what I infer. FP is done as we know it and in it's place will be a new front of line access system. Instead of paying on a per ride level you would buy tickets analogous to what amounts to be the old A-E ticket system. $10-$15 for a ticket and each ride will require a specific number of tickets for front of the line access based on ride and time of day. For example Muppets might be 1 ticket but Slinky Dog would be 4 tickets. Stay on-site and you get a tiered number of tickets per day (2/4/6? based on resort category) and everything else is pay for more tickets. The lowest tier, and perhaps even given to annual pass members with a park reservation, would not be enough to get on a E-ticket ride necessitating an upcharge.

 

[Lashed34]

As for having a level playing field for Fast Pass, I don't feel there is one, depending on where you stay depends on how soon you can book your Fast Pass options. When I can in 2019 (from the UK) I could only book 30 days prior to travel as opposed to other guests who could book 60 days ahead etc - so the playing field was definitely not even.The Express Pass system works brilliantly at Universal. We stayed in a Deluxe and we flew through the park and attractions, it was wonderful. If you want a level playing field at Disney you need to go back to the old Fast Pass, you turn up in the park, go to a ride, get a ticket for a time to come back and go from there, it was easy, simply and worked. If they decide to charge for Fast Pass I'd be happy to pay a flat fee for a day, but not per ride. I feel that a per ride basis would just encourage longer wait times on the newest/most popular rides which wouldn't help anyone. The crowds need addressing and charging more isn't going to work, people save for their trips, they'll just save a bit longer. What Disney really need to do is address the situation face on - they need more attractions and a 5th gate to spread the crowds, it's the only way now to control it.

 

[Orsino]

They are going to price it so that the decision that people will weigh up will be between paid FP's and doing VIP services

I think your pointing out VIP tour prices are on the nose with respect to these fastpass prices.

Let's look at VIP tours in a conservative cost example: I think prices go up to 750 per hour, but I'll use 500 in this example. Also you can have up to 10 guests on a VIP tour so that's 50 bucks per person per hour.
So the question is, how many rides can someone do with FP in one hour? Back in the day with paper fastpass that didn't go into effect until one hour after opening, the best I have done is 5 rides on Standby during that glorious opening hour (Space, Pooh, Snow, Peter, Haunted). So the absolute rock bottom price I can see for paid fastpass would be 10 dollars per ride.
However, I don't think VIP tours manage 5 rides per hour and 500/hour was arbitrarily low on my estimates and I assumed a full tour of 10 people. Compared to the cost of VIP tours, 15 dollar or 20 dollar fastpasses are not as ridiculous as they first seem.

For those who don't have 8 friends with them at WDW, paid fastpass would be a superior alternative to VIP tours, even at 15 bucks a pop. YIKES!

 

[cdurham1]

As for having a level playing field for Fast Pass, I don't feel there is one, depending on where you stay depends on how soon you can book your Fast Pass options. When I can in 2019 (from the UK) I could only book 30 days prior to travel as opposed to other guests who could book 60 days ahead etc - so the playing field was definitely not even.The Express Pass system works brilliantly at Universal. We stayed in a Deluxe and we flew through the park and attractions, it was wonderful. If you want a level playing field at Disney you need to go back to the old Fast Pass, you turn up in the park, go to a ride, get a ticket for a time to come back and go from there, it was easy, simply and worked. If they decide to charge for Fast Pass I'd be happy to pay a flat fee for a day, but not per ride. I feel that a per ride basis would just encourage longer wait times on the newest/most popular rides which wouldn't help anyone. The crowds need addressing and charging more isn't going to work, people save for their trips, they'll just save a bit longer. What Disney really need to do is address the situation face on - they need more attractions and a 5th gate to spread the crowds, it's the only way now to control it.

I agree with you about a 5th qate. I am sure they constantly have the analysts researching it. They could charge more per ticket for all of the parks if they have a 5th gate. The great thing for Disney is that people can't be in more than one place at one time. Essentially, you would pay more for your Magic Kingdom day, pay more for your EPCOT day, etc. bc of the perceived value of having access to the 5th gate.

I bet the analysts are worried about the risk that current crowds/demand is due to pent up demand and may subside. Obviously, a 5th gate decision would be the biggest financial decision for Disney in a long time. My guess is that it will take a couple of years of surging demand for them to even commit to it. That being said, I bet Imagineering has attraction plans they would love to stick somewhere like a 5th gate.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

So….Scott Gustin (a very reputable reporter on all things Disney) just posted this on Twitter:

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

They definitely can’t offer free unlimited fp’s like they do at Universal, but I think they could comfortably offer 3 free fp’s per day at deluxe resorts.

Given that literally every single ticket used to include 3 free fp’s plus extras throughout the day of, yeah, I’d say this is a safe statement. Whether they will or not…

 

[Lewisc]

In comparison, WDW has roughly 4x as many deluxe rooms that the 3 express hotels At Universal have, but WDW has 2 extra parks.

They definitely can’t offer free unlimited fp’s like they do at Universal, but I think they could comfortably offer 3 free fp’s per day at deluxe resorts.

Disney is giving guests staying at deluxe resorts a few hours a week extra hours. I'd be surprised if those guests will also be getting 3 FPs a day.

 

[Marionnette]

Disney is giving guests staying at deluxe resorts a few hours a week extra hours. I'd be surprised if those guests will also be getting 3 FPs a day.

But those are only at 2 parks so far; MK and Epcot. And if they don't offer *free* FPs as a part of a Deluxe Resort stay, it would be strange for them to be offered to anyone at all.

 

[cakebaker]

Disney is giving guests staying at deluxe resorts a few hours a week extra hours. I'd be surprised if those guests will also be getting 3 FPs a day.

No one may get free FP's, but I'm positive they won't offer it to lower level resorts rather than deluxe. The whole point of giving Deluxe's that perk was to increase bookings. If they offered free FP's to values and not deluxe, that wouldn't exactly send people rushing to book high priced resorts. Disney's goal isn't to distribute perks fairly, it's to increase the bookings at their Deluxe resorts- the last ones to fill.

 

[WonderfulLife]

Interesting points about VIP tours and fastpass pricing but just think.....what has disney raised pricing on.....just about everything.....don't kid yourself if they do something like the above comments VIP tours pricing will also be raised.

 

[WaitingForMyPrince]

Interesting points about VIP tours and fastpass pricing but just think.....what has disney raised pricing on.....just about everything.....don't kid yourself if they do something like the above comments VIP tours pricing will also be raised.

They actually have already increased. VIP tours on October 1st are $850 an hour. I was a bit shocked since the website still provides a range of $425-750 but was told that they just haven't updated the page yet.

 

[anomamatt]

They actually have already increased. VIP tours on October 1st are $850 an hour. I was a bit shocked since the website still provides a range of $425-750 but was told that they just haven't updated the page yet.

The page was updated a couple days ago.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/private-vip-tours/

 

[cakebaker]

They actually have already increased. VIP tours on October 1st are $850 an hour. I was a bit shocked since the website still provides a range of $425-750 but was told that they just haven't updated the page yet.

Disney can see the increased demand for VIP tours so not surprised at all they would raise the prices. They'd be crazy not to. I'm glad I have absolutely no interest in booking a VIP tour- even at half that price. It's just not how we want to experience the parks so I don't have to decide if I want to pay those prices or not.

 

[Lewisc]

No one may get free FP's, but I'm positive they won't offer it to lower level resorts rather than deluxe. The whole point of giving Deluxe's that perk was to increase bookings. If they offered free FP's to values and not deluxe, that wouldn't exactly send people rushing to book high priced resorts. Disney's goal isn't to distribute perks fairly, it's to increase the bookings at their Deluxe resorts- the last ones to fill.

My post was in response to the poster who thought free FP might only be given guests staying at a deluxe resort. I was specualting no resort guests would be getting free FP, the extra hours for deluxe guests would the replacement.

Disney has been increasing the deluxe room rates while reducing the number of rooms. Parts of AKL, WL, POLY and GF have been converted to DVC. A huge section of CBR was converted to DVC.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Disney can see the increased demand for VIP tours so not surprised at all they would raise the prices. They'd be crazy not to. I'm glad I have absolutely no interest in booking a VIP tour- even at half that price. It's just not how we want to experience the parks so I don't have to decide if I want to pay those prices or not.

Have you been on your trip yet? if so, how was it?