Will you pay for the new Paid Fastpass Service?

Disney has just announced that the FastPass systems at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World will be replaced with a paid system.

Coming this fall to Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort, Disney Genie is a complimentary and convenient new digital service designed to create the best Disney day for our Guests. We’ve been listening to Guest feedback – they want planning to be easier, they want more flexibility and they want better tools to help you make the most of your visit – and that’s exactly what Disney Genie is here to do. We’ve made significant investments in this cool new technology, which guides Guests through our theme parks with tips that can help them reduce time in lines, discover magic around every corner and take the guesswork out of “what’s next.” 

Built right into the My Disney Experience and Disneyland apps, Disney Genie service will maximize your park time for our Guests, so they can have more fun. It includes a personalized itinerary feature that will quickly and seamlessly map out an entire day. From specific attractions, foodie experiences and entertainment, to general interests like Disney princesses, villains, Pixar, Star Wars, thrill rides and more – Guests just tell Disney Genie what they want to do and it will do the planning for them.

Here are a few more features:

• Get Itinerary Updates from Morning to Night: Disney Genie will continue to update the Guest’s itinerary throughout your day, so they can be more spontaneous and go with the flow.
• Find Favorites at a Glance: Guests can create their very own personal tip board to instantly see their favorites. It will display current AND forecasted future wait times, helping Guests predict when they might experience quicker entry to attractions.
• Enjoy More Flexibility and Fun: Disney Genie brings existing planning features together in one place. Guests can join a virtual queue at certain attractions, make dining and experience reservations, mobile order food at many locations, get help from a virtual assistant and more.

For even more convenience and flexibility, there are two other options for enjoying our theme parks, through a queue we are introducing called the Lightning Lane entrance that also saves Guests time in line: 

• Disney Genie+ service (available for purchase): For the price of $15 per ticket per day at Walt Disney World Resort and $20 per ticket per day at Disneyland Resort, Guests can choose the next available time to arrive at a variety of attractions and experiences using the Lightning Lane entrance. Guests can make one selection at a time, throughout the day – from classics like Haunted Mansion to thrill rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and newer favorites like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (attractions subject to limited availability). This convenient option is the next evolution of the fan-favorite Disney MaxPass service from Disneyland Resort. Disney Genie+ will also include Disney parks-themed audio experiences and photo features to capture your memories – augmented reality lenses for those visiting Walt Disney World Resort and unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads from your day if you are visiting Disneyland Resort.
• Individual attraction selections (available for purchase):Guests can schedule a time to arrive at up to two highly demanded attractions each day using the Lightning Lane entrance – like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom Park and Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure Park (subject to limited availability; attractions not included with Disney Genie+). Pricing will vary by date, attraction and park.  

Lightning Lane selections will be made on the same day of the Guest’s visit and can be used across multiple theme parks, great for those who love the Park Hopper option. Attractions continue to offer a traditional standby queue, or a virtual queue at certain attractions like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – to maximize flexibility.

While the FASTPASS, FastPass+ and Disney MaxPass services will be retired, the Disney Genie service provides new flexible options. Guests can choose from all of our new options, a mix of them or none at all, and continue to have a great experience no matter how Guests decide to plan their best Disney day.

Here’s a refresher about the new Disney Genie service. When it launches, guests will have three options to access their favorite rides and attractions. The first one is the regular stand-by line as well as the virtual queues that are currently available for Rise of the Resistance in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Stand-by and virtual queues will still be included in park admission.

Related: 5 Exciting Disney Updates You Won’t Want to Miss

The second option guests will have is to upgrade their park ticket to include Genie+. Genie+ is $15 per ticket per day at Walt Disney World and $20 per ticket per day at Disneyland. The upgrade allows guests to “choose the next available time to arrive at a variety of attractions and experiences using the Lightning Lane entrance”. Most attractions – like Haunted Mansion – will have Lightning Lane access through Genie+ but there are a few that will require a different upgrade in order to gain front-of-the-line access.

Some highly demanded attractions will require an individual Lightning Lane purchase if you want to skip the long lines. These can be purchased at any time during your day as long as there is availability. The cost will vary “by date, attraction, and park”. Three attractions have been confirmed as requiring the individual Lightning Lane purchase.

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios 
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom
• Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure

Disney Parks, Experiences and Products chairman Josh D’Amaro said Rise of the Resistance will have the Lightning Lane access on top of the virtual queue already in place. Could that mean that other attractions utilizing virtual queues will also be included in the individual Lightning Lane access? Those rides would include WEB Slingers: a Spider-Man Adventure in Disney California Adventure and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in Epcot. 

Related: Celebrate The Disney Princesses At Disney Parks & Resorts Starting Next Week!

What do you think about the new Lightning Lane service? Would you pay extra to get to the front of the line?

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