Paid FP options coming soon to WDW?

[sullivan.kscott]

WDW has NEVER been affordable to all. Even in the 70s/80s. I knew as a kid how lucky we were to visit 3 times!

And share a hot dog at Casey’s with my younger brother! I remember looking in to Tony’s, thinking it was so fancy, and promising myself I’d have the money to eat there one day! My parents scraped up for years to take us twice, on one day tickets, and we went to MGM one year and MK when I was younger. It certainly wasn’t easily accessible to everyone, and air travel was a luxury so we road tripped from Cincinnati. The beach was free entertainment, so that was the rest of spring break those years.
I’m so glad there’s an Olive Garden up the street. Brings back memories in between trips

 

[Shinrai]

I would pay for fast passes. I would LOVE to pay for fast passes. Disneyland started a paid FP system a couple years ago. It's cheap (relatively), works great and is completely worth it. Universal Studios and other parks have expensive express ticket options. We don't always go for them, but I like having that option available. We haven't been to WDW to experience the FP system there, but I have to say.... if they announced tomorrow that we could buy FP for our upcoming October trip, they'd get my money for it. Lol

 

[5th gate dreamers]

if disney wasnt super expensive you wouldnt have the outstanding r&d and imagineering and attention to detail that makes it so darn desirable to go to. you would have coney island. the core of what makes disney so desirable and awesome and every other good adjective comes down to money...it costs a lot of money to make a theme park as awesome as disney is. coney island is priced so "all" may come and enjoy...and no one wants to go there because its old and outdated and whatever. people go there because its cheap and "itll do". you cant have your cake and eat it too. we would love to have automatic braking and blindspot warning...we just dont want to pay for it and are ok with that. we love having the attention to detail and bleeding edge advancements at disney, and understand that that costs money that we are willing to spend. whenever people want expensive things but dont want to spend the money for them, i just feel like thats a middle schoolers attitude (not that you are being immature, its just not logical). if you dont want to spend "x" thousand dollars to go to disney, spend "x" hundred dollars and go to coney island. last thing...complaining about being priced out is just like resenting a band for gaining popularity. yeah, you saw your favorite band for a $5 cover before they made it big. be glad that they found success and gained enough popularity to now be selling out arenas with $400 tickets. disney is popular and people want to go there. there is a limited amount of disney to go around, so they maximize their profit on a desirable product/service just like you would do if your little bakery made it big and demand superceded your ability to supply. be mad that "too many" people love disney, not that disney is expensive.

 

[YesterDark]

I always say this, I'm terrified of paid fastpasses. With my family of 5, I can't imagine the additional expense of using them on a daily basis. I can't even justify paying 500-600 bucks to go to the Halloween or Christmas parties for the whole family.

 

[DisneyJade]

Edited because I hit post too soon.

On the whole, they need to distribute LESS FP+ to improve the system. Distributing less will speed up the FP+ queue and overall will help the Standby lines.

Just from I've been gathering elsewhere, I think the new FP+/Genie system will tie into your resort classification stay. Something along these lines:

1 FP/Genie Wish- Budget/Moderate
3 FP/Genie Wish -Deluxe

Then Disney can you charge higher rack rate at Deluxes without charging you specifically for FP+.

This makes a lot of sense and would solve two issues for Disney: avoid potentially negative press over FP charges and, ultimately, make even more money by raising resort prices and incentivizing guests to enter a higher category, despite increased rates. Customers will perceive an added value in the FPs *and* the resort upgrade. Disney would still have to offer some kind of FP for the non-resort guest. Maybe everyone gets 3 free, and resort guests get more, based on tier. Not sure, but interesting to think about.

In response to those who feel Disney will get terrible headlines for a paid service, I would (respectfully) disagree and point to Universal Express Pass and Disney's own MaxPass service in DL. Any blowback would be minor and would pass.

Also, this quote is gold, @CastAStone! LOL.

“There should be paid ride access at exactly the level I find affordable but someone who makes $10 a week less than me won’t because that’s how winners and losers work but if it’s more than I can afford that would be outrageous and I’ll just stop going” - this thread, mostly

 

[lovethesun12]

I always say this, I'm terrified of paid fastpasses. With my family of 5, I can't imagine the additional expense of using them on a daily basis. I can't even justify paying 500-600 bucks to go to the Halloween or Christmas parties for the whole family.

This is why I think if paid FP+ comes to WDW, it isn't going to look the way it does at Universal, or even the other WDW resorts. From what I've read here and in other places, a lot of their revenue comes from people purchasing packages for longer stays (universal/disneyland offer 1-5 day tickets vs 1-10 at WDW). I've also read that it wouldn't make sense for them to offer it free for hotel guests based on the vast number of hotels in comparison.

Personally I think it would be a smack in the face to customers who go all out, spending 10k on a lengthy vacation to have to tack on another 2-4k to vacation in a similar way with their family.

My thoughts are if they do decide to go with paid FP+, it will look different than it does at other resorts. Possibilities are tying it to a ticket with a flat rate like park hopper/maxpass, some free passes for hotel guests, virtual queues, who knows? I just don't think it's going to be an all or nothing thing.

 

[pigletgirl]

This is why I think if paid FP+ comes to WDW, it isn't going to look the way it does at Universal, or even the other WDW resorts. From what I've read here and in other places, a lot of their revenue comes from people purchasing packages for longer stays (universal/disneyland offer 1-5 day tickets vs 1-10 at WDW). I've also read that it wouldn't make sense for them to offer it free for hotel guests based on the vast number of hotels in comparison.

Personally I think it would be a smack in the face to customers who go all out, spending 10k on a lengthy vacation to have to tack on another 2-4k to vacation in a similar way with their family.

My thoughts are if they do decide to go with paid FP+, it will look different than it does at other resorts. Possibilities are tying it to a ticket with a flat rate like park hopper/maxpass, some free passes for hotel guests, virtual queues, who knows? I just don't think it's going to be an all or nothing thing.

If someone takes a 10k vacation to Disney, then what is an additional $1500 for FP's? If people want the "full experience", they will pay! Disney knows this and they make bank off of that. I don't think it should be limited to certain resorts though.

 

[evlaina]

If someone takes a 10k vacation to Disney, then what is an additional $1500 for FP's? If people want the "full experience", they will pay! Disney knows this and they make bank off of that. I don't think it should be limited to certain resorts though.

I don't agree with that. With the exception of our upcoming adult-only trip, we've spent over 10k each time but I would be annoyed with an additional $1500 in Fastpass fees and I wouldn't pay them. IMO that's too much to skip the lines (and if you have long FP lines people would really complain if they spent that much more). A couple hundred bucks sure.

 

[Eric Smith]

If someone takes a 10k vacation to Disney, then what is an additional $1500 for FP's? If people want the "full experience", they will pay! Disney knows this and they make bank off of that. I don't think it should be limited to certain resorts though.

I don't think that you're correct on your numbers. I think people would notice an extra $1.5k spent on a vacation for fast passes. I think there is a happy medium here with pricing similar to MaxPass out in Disneyland but I don't think Disney would be able to get away with charging as much as Universal does for their Express pass

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Our Disney trips tend to be expensive because we have become a small handful of deluxe resorts or bust in recent years. All it really means is we’re way more choosy with our other spending categories. We splurge on resort and dining, but you will almost never find us at a hard ticket event (we’ve done one, I think), heck no to dessert parties and the like, we don’t buy a ton of merch, and we would very likely not spend thousands on top of tickets just for fast passes.

 

[pigletgirl]

I don't think that you're correct on your numbers. I think people would notice an extra $1.5k spent on a vacation for fast passes. I think there is a happy medium here with pricing similar to MaxPass out in Disneyland but I don't think Disney would be able to get away with charging as much as Universal does for their Express pass

If it was based on time of year, etc (maybe $150/day during peak season and someone goes for 10 days, lets say over Christmas week during a non pandemic year...) I don't think that would be outside the realm of possibility. I would never pay that, but I'm sure someone would.

 

[SaintsManiac]

If it was based on time of year, etc (maybe $150/day during peak season and someone goes for 10 days, lets say over Christmas week during a non pandemic year...) I don't think that would be outside the realm of possibility. I would never pay that, but I'm sure someone would.

Yes they will pay, especially if they wrap it into the cost of a package.

 

[YesterDark]

If someone takes a 10k vacation to Disney, then what is an additional $1500 for FP's? If people want the "full experience", they will pay! Disney knows this and they make bank off of that. I don't think it should be limited to certain resorts though.

No way. That's basically a 15% tax on your vacation.

 

[YesterDark]

If it was based on time of year, etc (maybe $150/day during peak season and someone goes for 10 days, lets say over Christmas week during a non pandemic year...) I don't think that would be outside the realm of possibility. I would never pay that, but I'm sure someone would.

If anything, it'll be added to the cost of the ticket like a hopper. Then you'll get package deals etc.

 

[Shinrai]

If it was based on time of year, etc (maybe $150/day during peak season and someone goes for 10 days, lets say over Christmas week during a non pandemic year...) I don't think that would be outside the realm of possibility. I would never pay that, but I'm sure someone would.

Yeah, I think if you're comparing to something like Universal that's realistic, honestly, but it only adds up to that if you buy one for each park day. There are three of us, and express passes at Universal will cost around $100 each, so that adds $300 to any day we buy them. But, we also won't buy them for each day we go, and only if it's a busy day. To me, the math for that takes into account whether an Express pass will mean we can cut a park day entirely (one day instead of two, or two days instead of three, etc.). If it does, then it balances out in terms of ticket cost, food cost, and cost of lodging.

The Maxpass at Disneyland is $20/person per day. I honestly feel like that is a more realistic comparison for the WDW parks than the Universal express pass. With that, you reserve fast passes throughout the day, and we never had trouble getting fast passes for everything we wanted to ride, even multiple times.

 

[Brianstl]

If Disney rolls out something like Universal’s Express pass it will be several times more expensive than Universal’s per day cost.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

If Disney introduces a "fastpass for the day" option, like Universal's Express Pass, a few thoughts on what it might look like.

(1) Disney cannot sell too many of them. If it does, then that would overwhelm the fastpass lines, leading to long waits even with a fastpass. If that happens, (A) the people who paid for the day pass will justifiably complain that they didn't get what they paid for; (B) everyone else with regular fastpasses will complain that they still had enormous waits; and (C) the standby lines will come to almost a complete halt, causing wait times to balloon, and leading almost all guests to feel angry and cheated.

(2) Disney will make use of its extensive datasets and computer modeling to figure out how many of these day passes it can sell without leading to the problems just identified. (Trial and error may cause Disney to raise or lower that number over time.) It will aim to sell that many each and every day. But it will also cap sales at that number. Perhaps first-come-first-served, perhaps giving club level guests, or all on-site guests, the first crack at buying them.

(3) Disney will seek to find the maximum price that it can charge for these day passes while still maintaining enough demand to reach its target number of passes sold for each day. (Again, trial and error may cause Disney to raise or lower prices over time.)

(4) Some have suggested that Disney might not want to charge too much for fear of the public relations and guest relations headaches that would cause. I disagree. Disney already charges prices that are brutal for working class families ($25 for a Manhattan!). And it already offers things like VIP tours and Club 33 and that are designed to maximize revenue without worrying about appearances. For better or for worse, Disney has shown us in recent years that its goal is to maximize revenue. Period. (There are those of us who think that recent price hikes and service cuts are undermining that goal in the long run, but Disney seemingly does not agree.)

(5) The price will likely vary. On less crowded days, it will be significantly cheaper than on more crowded days.

(6) The prices will be very high. If I had to guess, I would say something around $200 per person per day on the least crowded days (the days where the regular ticket prices are cheapest), going up to maybe $300 per person per day on regular days, and as much as $500 per person per day (or more!) on the most crowded days.

 

[BostonEd]

WDW has NEVER been affordable to all. Even in the 70s/80s. I knew as a kid how lucky we were to visit 3 times!

Of course to some extent, this is true. But the fact is, WDW prices have FAR outpaced inflation. So you can objectively say that a WDW vacation is more expensive than it used to be.

 

[Hieraxx]

THere's been a lot of prior discussion on FP vs MaxPass vs up-ticking the base rate for the parks...etc....

however , the day I see 200 per day , per person - for FP ? no thank you.WDW ticketed FP system was fine, runner-aside,
maxPass captures that same Day-of ability, with the huge advantage of the App.

No smart phone ? Designated FP locations

Anyway- I think folks are overstating a huge FP price up tick, given I'm sure disney factors in these $ to distribute(hide) the $ load.
Yes , the entire cost of an on-site disney vacation needs to be considered, but for now, I'd love to see some day-of trials akin to
Disneyland paris (v-queue standby) , FP via app , etc

I hate....180 day FP planning (just IMO)

I would pay for maxPass-like functionality ,depending...on the price (duh)

 

[DougEMG]

If paid FP come and I'm stuck in long standby lines, then bye bye to my DVC and hello to spending my entire vacation onsite at Universal.