So, let's assume FP+ doesn't come back in its old form

[JakeAZ]

It's fun to speculate and everyone's opinions will always differ, particularly because everyone comes from a different background with different financial situations, a different degree of love for Disney, different tipping points, etc. Disney will never make or keep everyone happy.

My thoughts:
Disney does have to do something, and now is the time to do it. Businesses nationwide are making changes, and they are using Covid as their excuse to do it. Disney isn't the only aspect of our lives that's seeing changes. They are using this time wisely, no doubt. I do think some form of paid fast pass is coming.

Crowd control is an issue in my opinion. I think it's turning away guests and leaving a bad taste in their mouth after having spent "all that money". I know it was becoming a problem for my family. On our last trip, even fast pass lines were seeing wait times upwards of 30 minutes. I would be willing to pay more to wait less. I fall into that category. But like others have said, it has to be worth it.

Maybe people don't miss FP+ right now, but I'm in the camp that when crowd/capacity levels increase, wait times will tick up and be unbearable. 20 minutes in line is one thing. 60+ minutes in line after line is not my idea of a vacation. We dish out quite a bit for our yearly Disney trips at deluxe resorts, but we'll start to choose elsewhere if crowds aren't controlled. It's not even about the money, it's just getting too busy for us. I'm willing to pay even more for a better experience the parks, and I've got to believe Disney knows this.

Will Disney eventually price out some families? Yup. Many families already are. Does Disney care? likely not. In my opinion, it makes more sense for them to cater to the guests willing to pay more. If they price out some guests, that solves some of the crowd issue and they in turn make more off the guests they keep- making more money off of fewer people while allowing them to lower operating expenses at the same time. Would it hurt them if they closed a few of the Value Resorts? My guess is no and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see them all reopen.

My guess is going foward Fast Pass will be some form of hybrid system where there is still an included "free" option but then tiers of packages available for a premium- likely tied to on-site, value-moderate-deluxe resort level, etc. Like others have said, if you're paying for a deluxe resort, you get access to a more deluxe experience in the parks, etc. I do think it will come at a premium price though (and logically so, you can't have it be too affordable or everyone will do it and then it's pointless).

I couldn’t agree with this post more! I felt like this even before Covid. If they don’t use this time to address as many shortcomings as possible, they will have missed a golden opportunity.

Time will tell.

 

[chris benton]

We were in line for the safari at AK when one of the trucks broke down... we were in the next group boarding when we were told the "ride" was closed and they gave us a multi attraction pass ( fast pass) it was really nice just walking up to most rides with out a wait.. it would be awesome if everyone received one of these that we could use during the day.
It had restrictions like you cant use it on the really popular rides 7d, add and avatar etc.

I'm not really seeing the difference between that, and buying a park ticket with the previous FP+, except with FP+, any fp able ride was included if you put in a few minutes of time on the MDE app, or at one of the fp kiosks.

 

[JakeAZ]

I'm not really seeing the difference between that, and buying a park ticket with the previous FP+, except with FP+, any fp able ride was included if you put in a few minutes of time on the MDE app, or at one of the fp kiosks.

Quite a big difference. Having to schedule the specific ride, in advance and inside a 1 hour time window vs just showing up to almost any ride you want to ride, at any time.

While I can appreciate the, often used on this site because it's full of WDW veterans, argument that they have mastered the system, so "why change it", that doesn't mean the FP+ was a good system. It just means some people, through practice, learned how make a flawed system work for them and their family. Don't get me wrong. Good on them! They took what they were given to work with and maximized its value.

Just think about the concept Disney pushed out and people just accepted. Schedule 3 rides, 60 days in advance and inside of an hour window. Also, make sure you coordinate those rides with the dining reservations you made 4 months ago haha. Also, make sure all of that is coordinated with the park hours you are not aware of, because they haven't been finalized yet. After that, maybe you can get more FP, maybe you can't. Just depends on how crowded it is, how many of the loopholes you know and how willing you are to spend quite a bit of vacation time on your phone.

 

[chris benton]

Quite a big difference. Having to schedule the specific ride, in advance and inside a 1 hour time window vs just showing up to almost any ride you want to ride, at any time.

While I can appreciate the, often used on this site because it's full of WDW veterans, argument that they have mastered the system, so "why change it", that doesn't mean the FP+ was a good system. It just means some people, through practice, learned how make a flawed system work for them and their family. Don't get me wrong. Good on them! They took what they were given to work with and maximized its value.

Just think about the concept Disney pushed out and people just accepted. Schedule 3 rides, 60 days in advance and inside of an hour window. Also, make sure you coordinate those rides with the dining reservations you made 4 months ago haha. Also, make sure all of that is coordinated with the park hours you are not aware of, because they haven't been finalized yet. After that, maybe you can get more FP, maybe you can't. Just depends on how crowded it is, how many of the loopholes you know and how willing you are to spend quite a bit of vacation time on your phone.

I just never found any of it anywhere close to approaching difficult. For the $ paid, the research and planning needed to have a very relaxed, fun trip is always worth it, to me. I never really cared about the adr game, the reservation finders always came through. Plus, imo, the food at Wallyworld was more about damage control for the prices, than having some great meal. There are definitely some gems, tho, don't get me wrong. Looking at historical park hours is simple to figure out 60 days in advance which parks (would have) had EMH to help pick park days in order to pick with 3 FP to line up. Taking a few minutes to get same day fastpasses never seemed difficult for mastery, and I only stumbled across one loophole by accident, just because it seemed like a logical thing to try (locking in a fp for a ride that was "down" in order to get an anytime fp.)

I realize that not everyone would plan like me, and probably many ppl would think I am nuts for planning a vacation like that, or it couldn't work for them. But, given the rules of the game, I thought it was pretty easy, and didn't take too much time at all. I'm positive, on a medium crowd level day, I could just show up to a park with nothing planned, and just roll through fastpasses for what I wanted all day long. (Caveat - I wouldn't want Mine Train - ) Fastpass hunting was quick and easy, and made it far easier for us to enjoy the details of that parks more. I rarely thought we were noses in phones very much at all. Maybe I'm in the minority, but the whole fam had much more fun when we figured out how to hunt for fastpasses. We spent more time relaxing and enjoying time together. Our 9 yr old picked it up pretty quickly, and once we were all on board? FP's all day long. Only a few minutes to hunt each time.

You are 100% right tho - it could not have been good for everyone, but for the money, I thought it was pretty simple to make it work. For the money, if it didn't work for me, I wouldn't go. Kinda like now. No plan to go back "as is," because for the money, it doesn't work for me. If there's no kind of $ for skipping lines incentive or no line avoiding type system, when the parks are back to normal capacity, I'm not spending that kinda coin to wait in 30-40 minute lines all day long. Our family can do better elsewhere for our money and tastes.

I think one of the big named WDW planning books or sites has a quote along the lines of: "It doesn't matter how much info is readily available about how to plan a vacation in Wallyworld. It doesn't matter how many 'secrets' are posted. The amount of visitors that will research is very, very, small."

I am NO master of everything in WDW. I'll be the first one to tell you that. There are plenty of people that know how to use the rules in their favor than I do. I just didn't think anything was difficult or unfair. For the money being paid out, the research and planning seemed worthwhile, and actually fun, and for the most part, easy.

I am eagerly awaiting to see if they come up with anything new. There will be complaints no matter what, BUT, if the people that complain still go, and give Walt their money - that's not a complaint. That's telling Walt that everything's A-OK - well...A-OK enough for you to give them a LOT of money, anyway.

I have a theory that future repeat customer numbers will drop. I think the missing entertainment will leave a lot of first time visitors scratching their heads as to "what the big deal is." Just a theory. The side shows and entertainment were as big a draw for me as the rides that I liked.

 

[disneygirlsng]

I just never found any of it anywhere close to approaching difficult. For the $ paid, the research and planning needed to have a very relaxed, fun trip is always worth it, to me. I never really cared about the adr game, the reservation finders always came through. Plus, imo, the food at Wallyworld was more about damage control for the prices, than having some great meal. There are definitely some gems, tho, don't get me wrong. Looking at historical park hours is simple to figure out 60 days in advance which parks (would have) had EMH to help pick park days in order to pick with 3 FP to line up. Taking a few minutes to get same day fastpasses never seemed difficult for mastery, and I only stumbled across one loophole by accident, just because it seemed like a logical thing to try (locking in a fp for a ride that was "down" in order to get an anytime fp.)

I realize that not everyone would plan like me, and probably many ppl would think I am nuts for planning a vacation like that, or it couldn't work for them. But, given the rules of the game, I thought it was pretty easy, and didn't take too much time at all. I'm positive, on a medium crowd level day, I could just show up to a park with nothing planned, and just roll through fastpasses for what I wanted all day long. (Caveat - I wouldn't want Mine Train - ) Fastpass hunting was quick and easy, and made it far easier for us to enjoy the details of that parks more. I rarely thought we were noses in phones very much at all. Maybe I'm in the minority, but the whole fam had much more fun when we figured out how to hunt for fastpasses. We spent more time relaxing and enjoying time together. Our 9 yr old picked it up pretty quickly, and once we were all on board? FP's all day long. Only a few minutes to hunt each time.

You are 100% right tho - it could not have been good for everyone, but for the money, I thought it was pretty simple to make it work. For the money, if it didn't work for me, I wouldn't go. Kinda like now. No plan to go back "as is," because for the money, it doesn't work for me. If there's no kind of $ for skipping lines incentive or no line avoiding type system, when the parks are back to normal capacity, I'm not spending that kinda coin to wait in 30-40 minute lines all day long. Our family can do better elsewhere for our money and tastes.

I think one of the big named WDW planning books or sites has a quote along the lines of: "It doesn't matter how much info is readily available about how to plan a vacation in Wallyworld. It doesn't matter how many 'secrets' are posted. The amount of visitors that will research is very, very, small."

I am NO master of everything in WDW. I'll be the first one to tell you that. There are plenty of people that know how to use the rules in their favor than I do. I just didn't think anything was difficult or unfair. For the money being paid out, the research and planning seemed worthwhile, and actually fun, and for the most part, easy.

I am eagerly awaiting to see if they come up with anything new. There will be complaints no matter what, BUT, if the people that complain still go, and give Walt their money - that's not a complaint. That's telling Walt that everything's A-OK - well...A-OK enough for you to give them a LOT of money, anyway.

I have a theory that future repeat customer numbers will drop. I think the missing entertainment will leave a lot of first time visitors scratching their heads as to "what the big deal is." Just a theory. The side shows and entertainment were as big a draw for me as the rides that I liked.

Agree, I think many people overestimate how long it took to get those FPs same day. About 95% of the time, I would have our next FP while walking through the FP line of the ride I was about to go on. Very, very far from "spending all day on the phone"

But, I also did not miss FPs on my trip in August, but that was solely because crowds were so low that every single ride was a walk on all the time. It's hard to beat walking straight on to FoP 5 times in a row in less than an hour.

 

[JakeAZ]

Agree, I think many people overestimate how long it took to get those FPs same day. About 95% of the time, I would have our next FP while walking through the FP line of the ride I was about to go on. Very, very far from "spending all day on the phone"

But, I also did not miss FPs on my trip in August, but that was solely because crowds were so low that every single ride was a walk on all the time. It's hard to beat walking straight on to FoP 5 times in a row in less than an hour.

Pre-Covid question. Not being sarcastic, I'm really curious.
If someone who had never been to WDW asked you "do I need to plan or can I just go with the flow", what would you say? Let's assume they were going during a popular time but not like Spring Break / Christmas. Just a normal time most families with small kids have to go based on school schedules.

Do you think someone going for the first time and then maybe not again for years could get half as much out of the system, on their first try?

Again, don't get me wrong. You guys mastered the game. But I also have a feeling if you missed a few headliner rides, it wasn't the end of the world. You'd hit them on the next trip.

And sorry, my question doesn't really have to do directly with your post, but I wanted to ask you as your posts are informative, but also seem to come from the "visits regularly" category.

 

[disneygirlsng]

Pre-Covid question. Not being sarcastic, I'm really curious.
If someone who had never been to WDW asked you "do I need to plan or can I just go with the flow", what would you say? Let's assume they were going during a popular time but not like Spring Break / Christmas. Just a normal time most families with small kids have to go based on schools schedules.

Do you think someone going for the first time and then maybe not again for years could get half as much out of the system, on their first try?

Again, don't get me wrong. You guys mastered the game. But I also have a feeling if you missed a few rides, it wasn't the end of the world. You'd hit them on the next trip.

For a first time trip I would say do all the planning and research you can possibly do. I do that for myself anytime I go to a place I've never been before. Especially when you're spending as much money as a WDW vacation can cost (though I understand that not every trip needs to be very expensive). I spend hours upon hours researching everything I can think of for that new location. For me, that research would lead to discovering at least some of the tips to maximize the use of FP. At the very least, understanding that you can get more after the first 3. The number of people I've heard that didn't even know FPs were free, let alone that you could get more blew my mind. That always seemed like very, very basic research to me. The down ride to anytime FP or FP drop loopholes maybe not, but general refreshing also seems very basic to me and something that should be found with even a little bit of research.

We don't skip rides when we go, we don't go that frequently. I was able to get a FP for anything I wanted so I was able to ride everything. But as someone who has been a few times, I tend to go with the flow more. I tend to be a heavy planner, so I still do a bit because I thoroughly enjoy it, but I don't find it to be needed for me anymore and I don't stress when I go off my plan.
And whenever friends would ask me for tips, I would give them all the info I knew for FPs, they were usually very thankful and never found it overwhelming.

 

[JakeAZ]

For a first time trip I would say do all the planning and research you can possibly do. I do that for myself anytime I go to a place I've never been before. Especially when you're spending as much money as a WDW vacation can cost (though I understand that not every trip needs to be very expensive). I spend hours upon hours researching everything I can think of for that new location. For me, that research would lead to discovering at least some of the tips to maximize the use of FP. At the very least, understanding that you can get more after the first 3. The number of people I've heard that didn't even know FPs were free, let alone that you could get more blew my mind. That always seemed like very, very basic research to me. The down ride to anytime FP or FP drop loopholes maybe not, but general refreshing also seems very basic to me and something that should be found with even a little bit of research.

We don't skip rides when we go, we don't go that frequently. I was able to get a FP for anything I wanted so I was able to ride everything. But as someone who has been a few times, I tend to go with the flow more. I tend to be a heavy planner, so I still do a bit because I thoroughly enjoy it, but I don't find it to be needed for me anymore and I don't stress when I go off my plan.
And whenever friends would ask me for tips, I would give them all the info I knew for FPs, they were usually very thankful and never found it overwhelming.

I would say, yes, that's a very informative way to approach that question, without overwhelming the person.

 

[hergosling]

I'm not saying the old fast pass system didn't work. I, too, knew all the tricks. Most of the people on these boards did. I planned in advance to make it work for us. I just think there were too many fast passes given out. Too many ticket sales. Crowds are the problem, not the fast passes. Could you get multiple additional ones per day? for sure. But that's precisely the problem. It made the fast pass lines longer and the standby lines even more so.
In my opinion, something is coming to make a fast pass more lucrative, to cash in on people's desire to not wait in line. Crowd control is what is needed and I think people will be willing to pay even more for a better experience in the parks. Even if it means this prices out many families.
As I said before, I think Disney is looking to get more from fewer people. I think they were getting too busy. It solves the crowd problem and decreases their operating expenses. They could increase prices by 20%, stand to lose 20% of their guests because of it, and still make the same amount of money while lowering overhead. Sometimes... more people walking through the gate does not necessarily equate to more profit.
My guess is they are doing some extensive research, and have been for quite some time. Our magic bands have given them all the answers to the test. They know just what type of guest stays where, who spends where, how much and how often.

 

[JakeAZ]

I'm not saying the old fast pass system didn't work. I, too, knew all the tricks. Most of the people on these boards did. I planned in advance to make it work for us. I just think there were too many fast passes given out. Too many ticket sales. Crowds are the problem, not the fast passes. Could you get multiple additional ones per day? for sure. But that's precisely the problem. It made the fast pass lines longer and the standby lines even more so.
In my opinion, something is coming to make a fast pass more lucrative, to cash in on people's desire to not wait in line. Crowd control is what is needed and I think people will be willing to pay even more for a better experience in the parks. Even if it means this prices out many families.
As I said before, I think Disney is looking to get more from fewer people. I think they were getting too busy. It solves the crowd problem and decreases their operating expenses. They could increase prices by 20%, stand to lose 20% of their guests because of it, and still make the same amount of money while lowering overhead. Sometimes... more people walking through the gate does not necessarily equate to more profit.
My guess is they are doing some extensive research, and have been for quite some time. Our magic bands have given them all the answers to the test. They know just what type of guest stays where, who spends where, how much and how often.

Just seeing those pics of HS studios at rope drop when ROTR launched or Main Street for the fireworks shows gave me claustrophobia!

 

[hergosling]

Just seeing those pics of HS studios at rope drop when ROTR launched or Main Street for the fireworks shows gave me claustrophobia!

Completely agree!!

 

[Grasshopper2016]

As I said before, I think Disney is looking to get more from fewer people. I think they were getting too busy. It solves the crowd problem and decreases their operating expenses. They could increase prices by 20%, stand to lose 20% of their guests because of it, and still make the same amount of money while lowering overhead.

That makes great sense to me. I think Disney should do this. But I wonder whether that is (or was, pre-Covid) really their strategy. If so, why keep building more and more resorts on site? Why keep advertising so aggressively? Unfortunately, it seems like Disney's strategy was: sell as many tickets as possible; raise prices as much as you can get away with; cut back on entertainment and customer service as much as you can get away with; operate rides at reduced capacity even when the lines are long, just to save a buck; and overall, just try to increase revenues and decrease expenses as much as possible. If and when the customers actually stop coming, then reconsider. But until then, squeeze out every possible dollar.

I don't think that that was a wise long-term strategy. Alienating your long-term, reliable customers, and at the same time providing an overpriced, underwhelming experience to your first-time customers is no way to build long term brand loyalty. Disney has built up a massive amount of goodwill over the decades. I feel like it has been foolishly squandering it in a short-sighted way. Penny wise, pound foolish.

All bets are off now thanks to Covid. But I very much hope that this crisis provides an opportunity to reset, and develop better priorities for moving forward once the parks get back on their feet.

 

[tink2424]

I agree with this. Also, I don't mind if whatever they offer is available to everyone. I just firmly feel there needs to be a benefit to those who choose to pay more to stay on-site and it needs to be tiered. Like another posted earlier said, "If I stay at a value property, I expect value benefits. If I stay at a deluxe, I expect deluxe benefits."

I agree they should have better on-site perks and I would be fine with them being tiered. Disney has to do something to lure people back to their hotels when this is all over or they won't have the same occupancy as before.

 

[tink2424]

Here's why it won't work.

Disney charges $600+ per hour for a human FP (with 8, I think, hour minimums). $4800 (plus tip) for one day and that's only 8 hours. No way they are going to give a family of 4 full day's access because they paid $700 for their hotel room.

This really isn't a good argument. Universal is in the same boat with man hours and are able to make it work. There is a way to make this work at Disney but it is a lot more complicated and probably not worth the effort. However it could work. It is just 1. very unlikely, 2. complicated to implement & 3. much easier to just monetize and make a buck off of fastpasses.

 

[JakeAZ]

This really isn't a good argument. Universal is in the same boat with man hours and are able to make it work. There is a way to make this work at Disney but it is a lot more complicated and probably not worth the effort. However it could work. It is just 1. very unlikely, 2. complicated to implement & 3. much easier to just monetize and make a buck off of fastpasses.

WDW likes money. VIP tours bring in a ton of money, with almost no overhead. Giving everyone who stays in a Deluxe hotel a benefit that is superior to the VIP program will destroy the VIP income stream.

WDW is always trying to find the tipping point. If they could fill the parks everyday with tickets that cost $1000, they would. Would they care about all the people that were priced out? Nope.

 

[tink2424]

WDW likes money. VIP tours bring in a ton of money, with almost no overhead. Giving everyone who stays in a Deluxe hotel a benefit that is superior to the VIP program will destroy the VIP income stream.

WDW is always trying to find the tipping point. If they could fill the parks everyday with tickets that cost $1000, they would. Would they care about all the people that were priced out? Nope.

Universal also has a VIP program so it could still be done. But again I think they will & should just do something new & different.

 

[JakeAZ]

But again I think they will & should just do something new & different.

Agree.

Universal's system is a true front of the line type program. Maybe Disney will upgrade their VIP tour program to something like that. Who knows.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Quite a big difference. Having to schedule the specific ride, in advance and inside a 1 hour time window vs just showing up to almost any ride you want to ride, at any time.

While I can appreciate the, often used on this site because it's full of WDW veterans, argument that they have mastered the system, so "why change it", that doesn't mean the FP+ was a good system. It just means some people, through practice, learned how make a flawed system work for them and their family. Don't get me wrong. Good on them! They took what they were given to work with and maximized its value.

Just think about the concept Disney pushed out and people just accepted. Schedule 3 rides, 60 days in advance and inside of an hour window. Also, make sure you coordinate those rides with the dining reservations you made 4 months ago haha. Also, make sure all of that is coordinated with the park hours you are not aware of, because they haven't been finalized yet. After that, maybe you can get more FP, maybe you can't. Just depends on how crowded it is, how many of the loopholes you know and how willing you are to spend quite a bit of vacation time on your phone.

I so agree.. I think back to my first couple of trips.. I had no idea where these rides were located and my first trip I would be crossing back and forth across the park.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

Spur-of-the-moment, good-for-the-next-hour fastpasses offered for sale on the Genie app to everyone, on a ride-by-ride basis, based on current waits and demand. Price will vary by ride and demand. Might be $5 for Small World on an uncrowded day (where the standby line is 20 minutes); might be $50 for FOP when the standby line is 120 minutes. Will often not be available at all.

With apologies for quoting my own prediction, the more I think about this, the more I think it will be included in whatever new program gets instituted. It's just plain free money, from Disney's point of view. The key is to set the amount just high enough that it won't meaningfully affect the wait in either the fastpass line or the stand-by line. (If too many people take advantage of it, the fastpass line will swell, which, in turn, will slow the standby line as well.)

Imagine a hot afternoon in a very crowded Animal Kingdom. The posted wait for FOP is 140 minutes. The Genie app offers the opportunity to skip the line and jump right into the fastpass line for, say, $75 per person. Obviously, most of us couldn't afford that, and couldn't justify spending $300 for less than 5 minutes of family entertainment even if we could afford it. But that's the point, Disney doesn't want everyone to jump at the offer. That would be a disaster. Disney just wants a handful of people to do it.

I can imagine lots of families that would.

For instance, the very wealthy family who are already dropping well over $10,000 on their club level vacation with signature dining galore. At that point, what's another $300? If you make $2 million a year, it really is just a rounding error.

Or imagine any number of situations involving families that could afford this, though it would be a pretty big hit. Before heading to Disney, most of them would likely scoff at the idea of doing this. But when the moment presents itself . . .

Maybe the family has heard about how great this ride is, but they weren't able to get fastpasses. Or maybe they fastpassed it once, and loved it so much that the kids are dying to do it again. It's hot. The kids are melting down. The line is interminable. Mommy realizes how happy it would make the kids to tell them they get to skip this line. Plus, that would then free up two hours to go on other rides. "Hey, we're only here once (or once a year, or whatever), let's just throw caution to the wind. When you think about the other rides that we will get in, that we otherwise wouldn't have because we would have been waiting in the FOP line, it's actually kind of worth it!" Or maybe Daddy has had it up to here with the heat and the crowds and the rides, and the last thing he wants to do is to stand there dealing with whining kids for two plus hours. He knows that, with one click of the thumb, he can be sipping rum in the air conditioning in Nomad Lounge in just a few minutes. Et cetera.

People are wiling to spend crazy amounts of money at Disney, even if they are otherwise frugal in their real lives. Just look at the restaurant and merchandise prices! Especially at the spur of the moment. Especially when the alternative is a long and tedious line.

If a few dozen people are pulling the trigger every hour---multiplied by all of the rides in all of the parks, with price points for each ride dynamically adjusting to entice just the right number of guests, no more, no less---that's hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into the Disney coffers every day. At no extra cost to Disney. Indeed, it frees up these high rollers to go spend even more money in restaurants, bars, and stores.

 

[JakeAZ]

With apologies for quoting my own prediction, the more I think about this, the more I think it will be included in whatever new program gets instituted. It's just plain free money, from Disney's point of view. The key is to set the amount just high enough that it won't meaningfully affect the wait in either the fastpass line or the stand-by line. (If too many people take advantage of it, the fastpass line will swell, which, in turn, will slow the standby line as well.)

Imagine a hot afternoon in a very crowded Animal Kingdom. The posted wait for FOP is 140 minutes. The Genie app offers the opportunity to skip the line and jump right into the fastpass line for, say, $75 per person. Obviously, most of us couldn't afford that, and couldn't justify spending $300 for less than 5 minutes of family entertainment even if we could afford it. But that's the point, Disney doesn't want everyone to jump at the offer. That would be a disaster. Disney just wants a handful of people to do it.

I can imagine lots of families that would.

For instance, the very wealthy family who are already dropping well over $10,000 on their club level vacation with signature dining galore. At that point, what's another $300? If you make $2 million a year, it really is just a rounding error.

Or imagine any number of situations involving families that could afford this, though it would be a pretty big hit. Before heading to Disney, most of them would likely scoff at the idea of doing this. But when the moment presents itself . . .

Maybe the family has heard about how great this ride is, but they weren't able to get fastpasses. Or maybe they fastpassed it once, and loved it so much that the kids are dying to do it again. It's hot. The kids are melting down. The line is interminable. Mommy realizes how happy it would make the kids to tell them they get to skip this line. Plus, that would then free up two hours to go on other rides. "Hey, we're only here once (or once a year, or whatever), let's just throw caution to the wind. When you think about the other rides that we will get in, that we otherwise wouldn't have because we would have been waiting in the FOP line, it's actually kind of worth it!" Or maybe Daddy has had it up to here with the heat and the crowds and the rides, and the last thing he wants to do is to stand there dealing with whining kids for two plus hours. He knows that, with one click of the thumb, he can be sipping rum in the air conditioning in Nomad Lounge in just a few minutes. Et cetera.

People are wiling to spend crazy amounts of money at Disney, even if they are otherwise frugal in their real lives. Just look at the restaurant and merchandise prices! Especially at the spur of the moment. Especially when the alternative is a long and tedious line.

If a few dozen people are pulling the trigger every hour---multiplied by all of the rides in all of the parks, with price points for each ride dynamically adjusting to entice just the right number of guests, no more, no less---that's hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into the Disney coffers every day. At no extra cost to Disney. Indeed, it frees up these high rollers to go spend even more money in restaurants, bars, and stores.

You may be right, but I'm dreading this, if this is the way they go. Playing on emotions and / or the current situation will leave a terrible taste in people's mouths once the dust settles and they add up what they ultimately spent. Also, what's to prevent Disney from artificially slowing down the lines? Less CM working the ride? Not running at full capacity? Talk about a "mouse trap".

I really hope they are very up front about whatever program they come up with and let people choose an option that will work before they get in the parks and are willing to take out a second mortgage if it will just stop their kids from whining!