Disneyadore
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,927
Just came across this rumor.
What do you think about this? Would you like it?
Paid Fast Passes?
A couple of rumors have cropped up online that Disney is looking for a paid version of Fast Pass for 2009. No details are yet known, and I have heard nothing directly myself. But if this turns out to be true, I'll greet the news with happiness. Just how much happiness is a question of how the program is tweaked.
If they stop all free Fast Passes entirely and only allow FP for the guests staying at Disney hotels, that will certainly drive attendance at the hotels, but at the expense of annoying the locals pretty significantly, and 2009 does not look like a year when one wants to annoy the visitors who would otherwise come every week (when no one else does!)
At the other end of the spectrum is that they continue the FP program as it currently stands, but also sell a version of the Dream FastPass--one admission to each "big" ride per park, per day. Universal does it, and SeaWorld just started doing it too (for about $30/day). Yet I think that course of action would be missing a golden opportunity to reform the FP program from the ground up. You can't flood the system with thousands MORE front of the line tickets while leaving everything else the same--it would paralyze the standby lines like never before.
No, what I'd rather see is the installment of the paid FastPasses at the same time that you crimp the supply of free FastPasses, without cutting the supply off entirely. What if every ticket got a single free FastPass per day, and if you wanted more, you could buy the paid version? That would satisfy the locals, and likely placate the visitors who want to watch every nickel, while at the same time creating enough capacity for those with deeper pockets (or who feel more desperately that they must ride every last thing on this vacation).
You could even fold in the above scenario with a hotel benefit variation: stay at a Disney hotel and receive a Dream Fast Pass. Or, stay off property and just get one free FP per day. Or, as a third alternative, augment your single free FP with a paid version for the day. Even if all three of those existed at the same time, the numbers of folks moving through the "Return" lines would probably be about the same as we see now. Not a bad solution to the Fast Pass problems we've seen over the past years. I hope they do it!
What do you think about this? Would you like it?
Paid Fast Passes?
A couple of rumors have cropped up online that Disney is looking for a paid version of Fast Pass for 2009. No details are yet known, and I have heard nothing directly myself. But if this turns out to be true, I'll greet the news with happiness. Just how much happiness is a question of how the program is tweaked.
If they stop all free Fast Passes entirely and only allow FP for the guests staying at Disney hotels, that will certainly drive attendance at the hotels, but at the expense of annoying the locals pretty significantly, and 2009 does not look like a year when one wants to annoy the visitors who would otherwise come every week (when no one else does!)
At the other end of the spectrum is that they continue the FP program as it currently stands, but also sell a version of the Dream FastPass--one admission to each "big" ride per park, per day. Universal does it, and SeaWorld just started doing it too (for about $30/day). Yet I think that course of action would be missing a golden opportunity to reform the FP program from the ground up. You can't flood the system with thousands MORE front of the line tickets while leaving everything else the same--it would paralyze the standby lines like never before.
No, what I'd rather see is the installment of the paid FastPasses at the same time that you crimp the supply of free FastPasses, without cutting the supply off entirely. What if every ticket got a single free FastPass per day, and if you wanted more, you could buy the paid version? That would satisfy the locals, and likely placate the visitors who want to watch every nickel, while at the same time creating enough capacity for those with deeper pockets (or who feel more desperately that they must ride every last thing on this vacation).
You could even fold in the above scenario with a hotel benefit variation: stay at a Disney hotel and receive a Dream Fast Pass. Or, stay off property and just get one free FP per day. Or, as a third alternative, augment your single free FP with a paid version for the day. Even if all three of those existed at the same time, the numbers of folks moving through the "Return" lines would probably be about the same as we see now. Not a bad solution to the Fast Pass problems we've seen over the past years. I hope they do it!
)
