BREAKING: Pricey Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Disney World Announced!
Walt Disney World officially announced Lightning Lane Premier Pass, the newest and most expensive line skipping service to replace free FastPass. This post covers the launch date & price ranges for the upcharge option at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Plus, our commentary how this compares to Universal’s Express Pass, potential popularity, and more.
There’s a lot of ground to cover here, so we will very quickly recap what has happened in the last few months with Lightning Lanes. As you might recall, Walt Disney World Lightning Lane recently retired and replaced the Genie+ service with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP). Along with that, a la carte or Individual Lightning Lanes became Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP).
The big change with the switch from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass is that guests can now make ride reservations up to 21 days in advance depending upon their status, and have ability to make 3 selections in advance. With this comes the loss of stacking, a disadvantage for off-site guests, and likelihood that you’ll be scoring fewer Lightning Lanes per day. Among other things, there’s also the reality that you’re committing to buying (or not) before starting your trip and seeing/feeling crowd levels.
There’s a lot more to the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass, all of which is beyond the scope of this post. We’d encourage you to read our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for all of the foundational need-to-know info of both LLMP and LLSP. This whole system is confusing and convoluted, so you might have a question or two-dozen. That answers all of the most common ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
The important thing to know is that Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass will continue to exist. Lightning Lane Premier Pass (LLPP) is distinct from both, and will be an alternative line-skipping product offering for guests who don’t want to hassle with LLMP or LLSP. While Lightning Lane Premier Pass will feature the same ride rosters as the other Lightning Lane services, it’ll function fundamentally differently.
Here’s what Walt Disney World has officially announced about Lightning Lane Premier Pass…
In the coming weeks, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort will begin piloting another option for attraction entry that will be offered in very limited quantities: Lightning Lane Premier Pass.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass is similar to line-skipping services that have been available for purchase at other theme parks for decades, and a service like this offers a level of convenience that many Walt Disney World guests have requested.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass will include one entry to each Lightning Lane entrance in the theme park they are visiting that day, which guests can use anytime throughout the day at their convenience – without needing to book an arrival time in advance.
Some of the added perks of Lightning Lane Premier Pass include:
- All attractions from Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass.
- Guests can ride the attractions that they want–when they want.
- Lightning Lane Premier Pass will include PhotoPass photo and video downloads.
Walt Disney World will begin piloting Lightning Lane Premier Pass on October 30, 2024.
At launch, Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be available to purchase only by guests staying at Deluxe Resorts or Deluxe Villa Resorts (Disney Vacation Club Resorts). Lightning Lane Premier Pass may be purchased up to seven days in advance of their stay.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass gives Walt Disney World guests one-time entry to each available Lightning Lane entrance in a single theme park for the day. In other words, there is no Park Hopper option for LLPP at Walt Disney World.
Prices for Lightning Lane Premier Passes vary by date and theme park. Launch prices will range from $129 to $449 per person, plus tax, with the highest prices falling on a limited number of days over peak travel periods. Here are the ranges for each park:
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129 to $199 per person, plus tax
- EPCOT: $169 to $249 per person, plus tax
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 to $349 per person, plus tax
- Magic Kingdom: $329 to $449 per person, plus tax
That’s an incredibly wide range–$129 on the low end for Animal Kingdom versus $449 on the high end for Magic Kingdom. For the peak season price at Magic Kingdom, you could purchase Lightning Lane Premier Pass 3.5 times on the cheapest day at Animal Kingdom!
However, the rest of the year will see roller coaster crowds at Walt Disney World, with low lows and high highs. There’s a reason that multiple weeks from October through December make both lists on our rankings of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024 to 2026
Anyway, expect to see the $129 pricing at Animal Kingdom in early November or December, and the $449 pricing at Magic Kingdom the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. For further commentary about pricing–and the big gap between base costs for Walt Disney World and Disneyland, see our post about Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Disneyland.
Walt Disney World’s official website emphasizes that they will begin piloting the rollout of Lightning Lane Premier Pass with “very limited quantities.” Our biggest question is: just how limited is very limited?
Will Lightning Lane Premier Pass be so limited that it easily sells out every single day? Is that the reason for restricting it to only Deluxe Resort and DVC Villas? Is this going to meaningful impact Lightning Lane availability for those who want to purchase Multi-Pass or Single Pass? Will this mean more capacity is allocated away from standby lines and to Lightning Lanes?
As previously mentioned, it’s been our understanding that there’s an internal desire within Disney to strike more of a balance between standby guests and Lightning Lane users. Policies and systems that feel fairer to the majority of guests and don’t advantage or disadvantage anyone too much. Disney has been trying to thread the needle with all of the queueing and capacity changes over the last few months.
Our strong suspicion is that Walt Disney World does not want to disturb that ‘delicate balance’ in queue capacity allocation with Lightning Lane Premier Pass. But on the other hand, the company does love money, so if LLPP is selling out daily during its ‘pilot program,’ we could see its availability being upped closer to Christmas. So the bottom line is that these are all open questions for us, and ones we’ll seek to answer during Lightning Lane Multi-Pass field testing later this year. (We won’t be testing LLPP–there’s no point and it’s beyond our budget.)
Turning to commentary, Lightning Lane Premier Pass is essentially Disney’s version of Universal’s Express Pass.
For those unfamiliar with it, Universal’s Express Pass is available as a ticket add-on or with select hotel stays. You can purchase two varieties of Express Pass, regular or unlimited. The regular version allows you to skip the line once per eligible attraction in either park. Universal Express Unlimited offers line-skipping privileges, as the name suggests, an unlimited number of times per attraction.
Unlike Lightning Lanes, guests using Express Pass at Universal are not required to make ride reservations–meaning there are no set return times. You simply go up to the attraction, scan your pass, and use your Express Pass entitlement. There’s nothing to reserve or hassle with in an app. It’s a totally “dumb” system–and I mean that in the best way possible. Express Pass involves zero technology and screen time. It’s completely hassle-free.
Universal’s Express Pass is also much more expensive when not included with a hotel stay. The out-of-pocket cost of regular Express Pass starts at $89.99 per person plus tax and can top out at $290, with the average being well north of $100. Unlimited Universal Express Pass ranges from $120 to $320, with the average near $200.
With that said, there are some critical distinctions between Universal’s Express Pass and Lightning Lane Premier Pass.
The first is that there will not be an unlimited option with Lightning Lane Premier Pass. It’s one entry per attraction, making this equivalent to the regular Express Pass. I guess in theory you might be able to purchase multiple Lightning Lane Premier Passes and fashion a DIY unlimited option, but that’d be pricey and I’m not even sure it’d work.
I suspect Walt Disney World doesn’t want to disturb the ‘delicate balance’ in queue capacity allocation by offering Lightning Lane Premier Pass at an unlimited level. Perhaps more importantly, they don’t want to cannibalize VIP tour sales or Club 33 memberships. If you want the unlimited option, there already exist ways to obtain that.
If they’re too expensive…the unlimited option actually is not aimed at you, I guess? The goal is to be slot this in between existing product offerings, not compete with them. (Unlimited Lightning Lane Premier Pass would likely cost $1,000 to $2,000 on the high end given these price points.)
The next distinction between Universal’s Express Pass and Lightning Lane Premier Pass is that there’s no “free” version of LLPP for on-site hotel guests as there is at Universal Orlando.
Unlimited Express Pass is included with stays at the Premier Hotels, which are Universal’s highest-tier resorts. Guests who stay at Royal Pacific, Hard Rock Hotel, and Portofino Bay all receive Unlimited Express Pass included with their stay at no additional charge (including check-in and checkout days).
We’ve heard from a number of readers in the last few years who have wanted Walt Disney World to adopt Universal’s Express Pass system. My response has been: be careful what you wish for. That’s in large part because the sense I’ve gotten is that most Disney fans only want the “free with on-site stays” part, and not the “$100+ for bypassing technology” part.
We’ve previously the discussed the ‘why’ of this at great length, but there are numerous reasons why Walt Disney World would not (and in fact, is not) offering “free” unlimited (or even limited) Lightning Lane Premier Pass with on-site resort stays.
For one thing, there’s the disparity in the number of on-site resort rooms. In total, there are just under 7,000 hotel rooms at Universal Orlando Resort (pre-Epic Universe). By contrast, there are approximately 40,000 rooms at Walt Disney World. Even narrowing it down to Deluxe Resorts and adjusting on a per-park basis, Walt Disney World still has nearly triple the number of eligible rooms. It’s a simple numbers game–free unlimited line-skipping for Deluxe Resorts would literally “break” the guest experience for everyone else.
But that’s not really what’s outcome determinative. Quite simply, Walt Disney World doesn’t offer free line-skipping because they don’t need to do so. The last few years should make this plain as day. Walt Disney World keeps increasing prices on Lightning Lanes, and guests keep buying.
There are ways that the current Multi-Pass system is arguably inferior to free FastPass, but I’m nevertheless completely confident it’ll sell out at record high prices the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. Disney has absolutely no incentive to give away for free what guests will spend money–and a lot of it!–to purchase.
Frankly, neither does Universal Orlando! We’ve openly speculated for years that the only reason Universal still offers Unlimited Express Pass is due to a contractual agreement with Loews, which was necessary to get the hotelier on board.
I’ve finally received confirmation that this is, in fact, true. Universal isn’t including Express Pass with hotel stays because it makes any business sense or they’re generous–it’s due to Loews getting a sweetheart deal back in the 1990s when the theme park landscape was radically different.
This is also why Helios Grand Hotel–Universal’s new flagship resort overlooking Epic Universe–won’t offer Unlimited Express Pass at all to hotel guests. It’s also why the existing hotels won’t add Unlimited Express Pass for Epic Universe. The Loews contract is frozen in time, and subsequent hotels and parks are not subject to it.
The next distinction is cost. Regular Express Pass at Universal Orlando has a starting price that’s lower than the Animal Kingdom starting price, and a ceiling that’s over $150 less than the peak Magic Kingdom price.
This is another reason we’ve warned to ‘be careful what you wish for’ with this Express Pass competitor–because it would almost certainly cost significantly more than Universal’s counterpart. As should be clear by now from the endless parade of price increases, Walt Disney World has pricing power. Its demographics are also different than Universal.
Fans frequently blame one another for tolerating paying more and getting less at Walt Disney World, which is misplaced ire. This is actually attributable to first-timers and rite-of-passage tourists.
For the most part, it is not Annual Passholders or DVC members who are “causing” price increases or product offerings like this. C’mon, you really think the people who will wait in line 30 minutes for a “free” magnet or soda are the problem?! As the company itself has made clear, we are the “unfavorables” precisely because we spend less! Those are Disney’s words, not mine!!!
Free-spending first-timers pull out all of the stops for fear of missing out. They have FOMO or FUD and want to make sure their kids’ milestone vacation is as magical as the commercials. This demo almost certainly visits Walt Disney World at disproportionate levels as compared to Universal. I would be willing to bet that per guest spending is considerably higher at Disney than Universal.
The bottom line is that neither of these businesses set their price points as a courtesy to guests. They both charge what the market will bear. As we’ve also been saying for a while, enjoy this while it lasts, Universal diehards–your on-site hotels likely won’t be this underpriced for much longer! Universal didn’t spend billions on Epic Universe for local Annual Passholders–they got a taste of Disney’s demos with Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and want another bite of that with Nintendo!
The prices for Lightning Lane Premier Pass also shouldn’t be a surprise because we’ve (sort of) already been down this road before. Walt Disney World did something similar under the old FastPass+ system, allowing Club Level guests to purchase a ‘theme park extra’ package that primarily consisted of 3 extra FastPass+ selections for $50 per person, per day. That started in 2018 and ran through the closure of the parks in 2020. I thought that was crazy at the time–an insane cost for a system that could easily be ‘gamed’ with just a little effort.
I was wrong. (Well, not entirely–it was crazy to buy something you could get for free with a modicum of effort.) Club Level guests loved it–the bonus FastPass+ were insanely popular. Just ask a travel agent. Many had clients who otherwise would not have booked Club Level in the first place do so just to have access to the bonus FastPass+ selections. Meaning that their actual cost wasn’t $50 per person, per day–it was that plus the nightly upgrade to Club Level over cheaper accommodations they would’ve booked in the alternative!
If we’ve learned anything since ~2018-2020, it’s that there’s an insatiable market for exclusive Disney offerings. If such a “perk” on top of a freebie was $50 then, it could easily be triple or more that price now. Whatever you think is the “worth it” price for such a line-skipping product, the actual cost could almost certainly be higher. If you’re even thinking about value-for-money, you probably aren’t the demo for Lightning Lane Premier Pass!
This analysis of Lightning Lane Premier Pass all might sound overly blunt or cold and calculated. And I suppose it is.
But the reality is that I’m not saying this condescendingly as I laugh maniacally at the unwashed masses who cannot afford Lightning Lane Premier Pass. I’m not the target audience for LLPP, either! Heck, I’m not even the target audience for Lightning Lane Single Pass. (Fun fact: to this day, I have still never purchased an Individual Lightning Lane, Single Pass, or equivalent. And not just the Walt Disney World parks–any of them. It’s not that I can’t afford the $15-20 or whatever; it’s that I can’t justify it. I’d rather beat the system than be part of that particular “problem.”)
Look, I would love nothing more than for Lightning Lane Premier Pass to crash and burn. For Walt Disney World to finally push prices too high, and hit the ceiling. For this to end up being more trouble than it was worth for the company, and to learn a lesson as a result. Every time something pushes the envelope on prices, a part of me is hoping it’ll fail and we’ll see a reversal in these trends. I could go on and on, but you already know what I mean–I’d like for Disney to be humbled when it comes to pricing.
I completely “get” why there’s so much schadenfreude around Walt Disney World announcements like this. Given the guest unfriendly decisions, price increases and cost-cutting, it makes sense. But I also try to be level-headed and not pretend that what I want to happen is what I think actually will happen.
In this case, I have little doubt that Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be a huge success. I think it’s more likely that the service sells out with regularity, has even higher prices in 2025, or is further restricted (maybe to only Club Level guests?) than that it crashes and burns. I’d like to be wrong. Not because this particular product bothers me that much, but because I hate the general trajectory of things, and the way Walt Disney World is leaning more and more into creating an in-park class system. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be wrong.
The bottom line is that there’s a huge market for a ‘hassle free’ Express Pass-esque alternative to Lightning Lane Multi Pass. The guests willing to purchase this will probably pay more than you think it’s worth because they’re probably not approaching it from a value-for-money perspective.
This is precisely why I’m not doing that analysis, either. I had two paragraphs about why this is a complete waste of money at Animal Kingdom when it costs $129 (and it is!) but decided to trash that since this post is already a novella and the target audience simply won’t care. That isn’t their calculus. I guess we shall see, though. Even if it’s not for me and I will never buy this, I’m curious to see how it plays out, the fan reaction (backlash?), and so forth!
The only other bad news–aside from, you know, this announcement as a whole–is that now I need to redo all of my Lightning Lane Multi-Pass field testing and strategy guides to account for how Lightning Lane Premier Pass alters the line-skipping capacity allocation. The good news is that few things bring me greater joy than “beating the system,” so expect to see plenty of that over the next few months and throughout 2025. Stay tuned!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Lightning Lane Premier Pass? Thoughts on Walt Disney World’s “answer” to Universal’s Express Pass? Predictions as to how successful this line-skipping service will be? Under what, if any, scenarios would you buy Lightning Lane Premier Pass? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I have sticker shock. It’s one thing spending an extra $30 per day for the multi pass. $400 per day!!! And you can only ride 1 time. I just can’t imagine spending this. I guess if money is no object….
I think this new premier pass is designed to fill the niche occupied by the unofficial tour guides and Disney Nannies that are very popular and market themselves as taking the hassle out of a Disney trip but are less pricey than a vip tour. I presume Disney looked at their websites and figured out a way to grab that market for itself.
I admit I have purchased an ILL, though it was for BatB in Tokyo. While I hate the class system Disney has developed, I’m actually kinda happy for the insanely high price point along with the requirement to stay at a deluxe hotel. Hopefully that means adoption is very low and it doesn’t impact me in the standby line. Systems like Cedar Fair’s express pass, which is much cheaper and can be used multiple times per ride, has a much greater impact on the regular guest
For anyone thinking, “3,000 words just wasn’t enough, I want even MORE analysis!!!” the commentary in the DLR version of this post is totally different: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/new-400-lightning-lane-coming-to-disneyland/
Scroll down to the last few paragraphs in particular, which focus on the question: “is this worth it?” but from Disney’s perspective. Not to get all clickbaity, but THE ANSWER MIGHT SURPRISE YOU! 😉
Tom, I’ve always loved this blog because of your emphasis on being able to save money *and* time with a minimal amount of sensible planning. You’ve actively made my family’s vacations better over the years with your forthright approach to Disney vacations. On essentially every Disney trip we take (typically twice a year) I make a joke about bumping into you in line and getting you to sign my daughter’s autograph book.
All that to say: Give us the Animal Kingdom paragraphs, Tom. Give into the dark side.
Haha–thanks for the kind words.
All I’ll say at this point is that the phrase “more brains than money” and “knuckleheads” was used. In addition to being pointless, it felt a bit too meanspirited.
When Walt originally dreamed of a place where all families could spend time together in a place free from the worries of the world, he tried to include all families, no matter what their financial means. This new ride skipping system is just another example of Disney’s attempt to put profits over families and create a class system designed for the richest of the rich. Disney, please turn the ship around before it is too late and return to Walt’s original dream. Your successful run may not end this year, next year, or in my lifetime, but if you keep going down the path you are currently on, it will end and I don’t want that to happen.
Well-written article. We are looking forward to future articles where you continue to share with us how to beat the system. We can always count on you! Lol!
We take long trips and always stay deluxe. We very reluctantly just added multi-pass to 6 out of 10 park hopper tickets. I guess we could afford this new Premier Pass but no. Enough is enough. Unless this next trip is wondrously wonderful, I think I’m just done with Disney World.
A WDW vacation is somewhat like living in Manhattan. A lot more pleasant when you’re wealthy enough to afford the good options. All it takes is money.
” I need to redo all of my Lightning Lane Multi-Pass field testing and strategy guides” Alas, that has always been true from the initial introduction of Fast Pass. The good ole’ days of rushing to Space Mountain, printing out the fast pass card and then rushing over to Splash Mountain! BTW: LLPP is the first true paid line skipping service. What has been referred to as line skipping up until now was more like paid reservations. For a fee, you could reserve a return time. Now with LLPP you can skip the line for a fee.
This was an exceptionally well-written, well-structured post. But ultimately, the new product itself is really just, “Plaid Lite.” Few people will purchase at these price points, and they don’t get unlimited rides, so it probably won’t actually change the experience for the rest of us very much.
But stuff like this is just a reminder that the Magic Kingdom of 20 years ago – when, even in the summer, if you got up for the front of rope drop, you could ride Space Mountain twice, then go across and ride Big Thunder twice without getting off, then walk on Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Splash Mountain, then do some fun ‘anytime’ rides – is never coming back. My kids have now done every ride at WDW, but they never got the “Disney experience” that I had wanted them to have, and it’s just impossible given the crowds and the corporate strategy.
P.S. I am starting to regret purchasing park hoppers – I’ve probably only been with this functionality (back when it was included and since it got broken out as an option), but even if it’s irrational, it feels too complicated trying to figure out line-mediating options (e.g., LLMP or the new premier) when potentially being in multiple parks a day and with ADRs. I’m starting to feel like I should have just saved the money from the hoppers and redirected to doing longer, single-park days, potentially with line-mediating options purchased!
I’m wondering how this will work with Park Hopping??? If you go to AK in the am and purchase LLPP for AK, will you have to purchase another LLPP for the park you are hopping to, or it work like LLMP where if you purchase it for one park you can you can use it at the other parks you hop to? If you don’ have to buy LLPP for each park you visit each day, won’t most people start out at the “cheaper” park and then hop to MK to save money?
With the Premier Pass if you park hop you have to buy a separate Premier Pass for each park you visit in one day. One Premier Pass for a day at MK cannot be used at a different park, if you park hop. If you want to park hop and have Premier Pass privileges for two or three or four different parks in one day you would have to buy a separate Premier Pass for each park you hop to. It’s explained in Tom’s article.
Walt Disney World doesn’t offer free line-skipping because they don’t need to do so
I’m not sure this alone explains it. Universal has offered Universal Express since I-don’t-even-know-when (2000?!) and Disney didn’t.
I don’t think 2000s-era Disney management were idiots, and rather they took a view on what builds loyalty long-term. I bet today’s management does view the past management as idiots for “leaving money on the table”, though.
I’d still love your thoughts on whether this would have happened anyway without Covid. The closure provided the opportunity for a ‘reset’ with minimal media anger, whereas an overnight switch would have been unbelievably controversial.
It’s really hard to say. There had been rumors of “paid FastPass” since the dawn of FastPass+ at Walt Disney World. They dabbled in it (FP+ for Club Level), but seemed to get cold feet about pulling the trigger–except at Disneyland, where MaxPass could slot in alongside FastPass (paper), resulting in minimal outrage.
The COVID closure plus the financial hit from that plus the losses from streaming made it an easy decision. Chapek gets a lot of hate–including here–but he played the cards he was dealt, and he had a terrible hand.
Now they have a good hand (or at least a better one), and continue to play the same cards.
Thanks as always for the news and analysis.
This will be popular. I have less animus or concern about the people who will purchase this (I will not be one of them) – I feel no animosity towards people who will wait two hours plus hard-ticket event fare to get a picture with Jack Skellington. You do you.
These prices underscore to me what a great value Genie+ was – as a power user, I was essentially getting the premier pass for $40.
Is this the death knell for normal LLMP? If Disney can extract more revenue from limited Lightning Lane slots and further improve the balance for standby line users, why sell the “cheap” version?
Right? As mentioned below, I never even got to be a power user of Genie+ (went once while it was active), but I still now realize how superior it was for my profile. One of those “you don’t know what you had until it’s gone” situations!
LLMP isn’t going anywhere. This simply will not scale like that. There’s enough of an audience for this to sell well…for what it is. Just like VIP tours do well for what they are. But neither are anything close to mass market products.
They’ll increase prices to the extent they can with LLMP, sure, but having both is the ‘optimal’ approach for the company to maximize sales and revenue.
Glad to hear regular LLMP is expected to stick around. A side-by-side comparison of LLMP to LLPP showcases to me that LLMP is still a monster value by Disney standards: figure the premier pass gives you the ability to ride about 6-8? (plus or minus) “worth it” attractions with no stress or My Disney Experience hassle. I’m hoping I can get about 3 “worth it” attractions from LLMP, at a fraction of the price.
This kind of bums me out, but I have zero doubt it will be a runaway success – at least in terms of selling out and generating cash. Just yesterday evening I was trying to plan around what I expect to be the LLMP/LLSP possibilities for my upcoming early-December trip. This will be my third trip as an adult, but the first that I’ve actually planned reasonably in advance (i.e., several months ahead). With that window has come availability, so I’ve already scheduled a fair number of ADRs and even a few extras (Glimmering Greenhouses!). I was just feeling last night that I wish Genie+ were still around – I didn’t have any mastery of it, but trying to plan with the new system is really not fun. Having to study strategy (which day(s) of trip to book and in what order, which parks, what the availability is likely to be, what we might feel like doing, etc.) is actually time-consuming and I feel more pressure to have it be worthwhile, in a value sense. And now I wonder how those lines will be impacted by the new offering. But I totally see how there is a market for the new product. There are a lot of non-local people shorter on time than money and, for a shorter trip, I’m not sure you can really rely on standby to get to even one’s favorite subset of attractions. TL;DR I now wish nothing had changed and it was still Genie+….and I continue to think that I’d trade all the new attractions of the past few decades for WDW in an earlier era!
Thanks for your honest thoughts, as always Tom. This hurts me deep in my core, as an autistic guest whose special interest was at one time the disney parks and resorts. Wrote for 3 different outlets, went to WDW about every 6-8 weeks from DC. I’m lucky I could do that then and enjoy my time.
They keep preaching inclusion, but they don’t want it. It’s nothing more than lip service paid to us by a pretty boy in a suit with an affable demeanor. It’s bull. I’m multiply disabled bc I also have MS and a host of illness stuff… the changes they made to DAS are unconscionable. I don’t qualify because I “understand what it means to be in line” and I won’t be disruptive to other guests (usually). But I always say that flexibility is inclusive- THIS flexibility is what DAS using guests need. To be able to walk up and ride, once per ride.
I was mad enough about them being strict on TRON return times as my party finds it difficult to access TRON when it was in boarding groups. ☹️
We had DAS before the change because my husband has low vision and in the winding, dark long lines he is essentially blind. I use a scooter for mobility issues and have a difficult time helping him. We have literally brought the lines to a dead stop and have had to be “rescued” by cast members. But he doesn’t qualify anymore so fun, fun times lie ahead for our next trip.
If you are a Disney World regular, this doesn’t matter. Good strategy: getting up early, staying late, knowing how the crowds pulse through the park can get you on most rides at Disney, even in short trip. This is for the crazy rich and the once in a lifetime visit people who don’t want to learn how Disney World works. They are paying with money instead of time. Which is fine. If you read this blog, you are in the top 1% of Disney World nerd/visitors. You definitely don’t need this product and it doesn’t impact you in any way.
This almost certainly won’t affect my own family’s trips, it just kind of bums me out from a moral perspective?
Disney can make more money off of me or more money off of the rich. I am ok with them squeezing more out of the rich given the alternatives.
We’re at MK 12/30, which is the perfect and only reason to ever give this a whirl, but the 7-day purchase window gives me pause. I’d hate for it to sell out in seconds and be left with crumbs buying regular LL when forced to pivot.
Would love to see those two scrapped paragraphs you mentioned!