ORLANDO, Fla. — Leaving the Magic Kingdom on Thursday, Massachusetts residents Sarah Smith and Liz Libby weren’t happy about the news that Disney World will soon be charging guests to reserve a time on rides.
“My immediate reaction was like, ‘Oh cool, another way for the super-rich to jump the line,’” Libby said. “... It’s such a big deal to come and spend all this money, and I think without all the perks and having to pay extra, it feels like getting nickeled and dimed. It makes Disney a less attractive vacation destination.”
Along with the announcement Wednesday of Disney Genie, a free planning service launching on the resort’s app this fall, Disney revealed it was retiring its free FastPass+ and replacing it with a paid service called Lightning Lane.
Though Libby’s opinion was among the more visceral, feedback to the FastPass+ system’s replacement has been mixed among guests and industry experts alike. Some praised Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane for helping streamline park wait times, while others expressed concern over the increasing costs.
Through Disney Genie+, Lightning Lane’s base option will cost guests $15 per day. It was modeled after Disneyland’s former MaxPass system, which was popular with guests who liked its flexibility, Disney said during Disney Genie+’s announcement. Disney Genie and its paid tier were shaped with guest feedback in mind, according to the company.
With the cost of an adult single-day, one-park ticket already reaching as much as $159 during peak times, some Disney fans say they feel burnt out on paying more for experiences they used to get for less — or free.
Libby plans to visit Disney World again with her three children in February and would likely pay for Disney Genie+ to avoid the lines, she said. But the additional cost, alongside other recent cutbacks at the resort, are making her rethink future trips.
Smith, who said she is a member of many Disney fan groups, said other fans are not happy with the change and see it as the latest example of the resort reducing benefits but increasing prices.
“There’s gonna come a point where the loyal Disney fans stop coming,” Smith said.
An industry standard
Theme park industry insiders say they expected Disney World’s pivot to a paid line skipping system, which is already in place at other Orlando theme parks and established at other Disney parks worldwide.
Lightning Lane will be available in two forms through Disney Genie+. The $15 per day base price allows guests to reserve one ride reservation at a time across 40+ attractions. For an additional fee per ride, guests can reserve spots on up to two of the park’s most popular attractions, like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
While Disney has not released general price ranges yet for these “a la carte” Lightning Lane options, Len Testa, who runs the vacation planning website Touring Plans, said Disneyland Paris’ Disney Premier Access program prices may be comparable at roughly $9 to $18 per ride.
The pay-per-ride system hearkens back to Disney parks’ original model, in which guests would pay an entrance fee and receive a ticket book for ride entrance with different tiers of rides priced accordingly. That model was made obsolete by people wanting to pay one bundled price, said Dennis Speigel, who runs International Theme Park Services in Cincinnati.
Testa questions whether Lightning Lane’s pricing for individual attractions will fluctuate throughout the day during busier times. Regardless, it will be an adjustment for guests, he said.
“(Disney) ran free FastPasses for more than 20 years, so there’s an entire generation of people who have grown up with free FastPasses. Now you’re telling them to spend more money on it,” he said. “... This may be the bridge too far for Disney. We’ll see.”
Speigel praised the Disney Genie and Lightning Lane programs for their potential to maximize guests’ time in the parks.
“What they’ve done here is they’ve really raised the bar for the industry in terms of satisfying guests’ ability to participate in their selections, in their movements, through and about the park,” he said.
Disney Genie+ and the Lightning Lane system also “level the playing field” between savvy guests and more casual visitors who had to compete to reserve FastPass+ time slots weeks out from their trips, he said. With ride windows available throughout the day and Disney Genie+’s adaptation with the flow of visitors to the park, guests have more opportunities to shape their trips, Speigel said.
“Once people understand the gearing of it, get over the newness, and they see how it helps them have a better experience and flattens the waiting times and curves, I really think it’s going to be well-received,” he said.
As a Disney fan, Smith said she recognizes the potential for Disney Genie+ to help the “not hardcore fans” visiting the parks plan their trips more fairly, but it is still disappointing for those who learned to navigate the old system.
“For people who know the parks well and who were able to use the FastPass system really effectively and who know how to do Disney, I think this is a bummer,” Smith said.
Testa said he sees the new program as Disney shifting its focus on wait times from guests to revenue.
“Instead of Disney worrying about how waits in line affect guest satisfaction, they’re wondering how waits in line can make them money, specifically by having guests pay to not wait in line,” he said.
The paid reservation system is a smart revenue choice for Disney because guests will spend more money in the parks as they move more efficiently through them, Speigel said.
“People don’t mind paying for it, as long as they’re getting price value,” he said.
Guest reactions vary
Other visitors to Disney World on Thursday had differing opinions about the changes.
First-time visitors Kiseem Phillips and Monique Denton, visiting the Magic Kingdom from New York with 4-year-old son Kamari, were not using the current My Disney Experience app to plan their visit but said they would consider using Disney Genie’s free and paid features during a future trip.
“It sounds pretty cool, I mean if it reduces the wait time,” Phillips said. “It’s hot, I know the lines are probably long, so it’d be good to have a reservation and just get right on.”
Exploring the park with “an app and a map” with grandchildren Saphira and Braydan Coble, North Carolina residents Tim and Teresea Miller said they would “absolutely” use Disney Genie’s free customization features during a future trip but would be more hesitant to use Disney Genie+.
“Most of our waits have been 10, 15 minutes, so I don’t know that I’d want to pay that,” Tim Miller said.
Local passholder Karen O’Reilly said she would consider paying for Lightning Lane if she had relatives visiting or to occasionally board a hard-to-reserve ride like Rise of the Resistance but would not use it regularly.
“You pay enough for the tickets to begin with,” O’Reilly said.
