New Record High Price for Genie+ at Disney World
Less than one day into his second tenure as CEO, and already Bob Iger has personally and single-handedly raised the price of Genie+ at Walt Disney World. Anyone else already missing the glory days of Bob Chapek?!?!
Bad dad joke aside, it is true that the price of the Genie+ line-skipping service has reached a new all-time high at Walt Disney World. It’s also true that this is occurring on the first day of CEO Bob Iger being back in charge of the Walt Disney Company. It’s further true that the timing of these two things are total coincidences.
The real reason for Chapek’s firing is discussed in our new post: Disney Replaces Bob Chapek with Bob Iger as CEO! The real reason for Genie+ hitting its highest price ever–and by a wide margin–is the arrival of Thanksgiving week. Historically, this is one of the busiest stretches of the holiday season and entire year at Walt Disney World.
For today and potentially the rest of this week, the price of paid FastPass has jumped to a new high of $29 per person at Walt Disney World. (The potentiality part of that is our added commentary–Walt Disney World does not publish Genie+ prices in advance, so you won’t know what it’s going to cost until logging onto My Disney Experience after midnight on the day of your visit. Awesome, right?!)
This is up considerably from the previous high water mark for the Genie+ service, which was $22 per person at Walt Disney World. It had hit that mark a number of times, starting over fall break in October and continuing on various weekends and holidays in November 2022. However, it had never gone above that amount–so today marks a $7 increase over the previous high.
For its part, Walt Disney World had previously announced that Genie+ prices would range from $15 to $22 plus tax for the rest of this month. That was simply example pricing for the month of October, and no details were provided about the minimum or maximum over the course of the year.
By my calculations, it is no longer October. Given that, I guess the company felt comfortable going above that previously published price range.
For our part, we assumed at the time that Genie+ pricing would more or less track with date-based ticket pricing. Single-day ticket prices maxed out at $154 on Saturdays last month, which were also (most of) the $22 Genie+ days. In November and December, day ticket prices max out at $159, meaning Genie+ should have cost no more than $23 on those days.
However, that was also our assumption at the time. Within only a few days, Walt Disney World deviated from this approach, charging $22 on a lower-priced single-day ticket day and $16 to $17 on higher priced ones. With the exception of weekends, it seemed sort of like Walt Disney World was testing the waters to see what consumers would pay and how prices, crowds, and other variables impacted load balancing.
The timing of this move shouldn’t be too surprising. In our most recent wait times report, we addressed how wait times have worsened. Since then, holiday crowds have started to descend upon Walt Disney World in full force. While things haven’t been too bad yet, there is still plenty of time for that to change.
The goal of all these changes is to avoid a repeat of the week before Thanksgiving last year, when Genie+ Collapsed in Crowds. Crowds absolutely exploded the Sunday before Thanksgiving, peaking on Wednesday, before subsiding on the following Sunday. Several days before Thanksgiving had 10/10 crowd levels, making that the worst week of 2021–surpassing even Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
“Unfortunately,” I won’t have a chance to witness and report on Thanksgiving crowds firsthand as we are in Kyoto right now (that was by design after the misery of doing DHS twice last year during this week!), but I’ll be back on the ground in Florida next weekend.
We’re looking forward to our favorite week of the year at Walt Disney World and doing Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, but probably not testing more Genie+ itineraries if it’s still $29 per person (before tax). Okay, maybe just one day at DHS. How can I say no to a not-so-good time?!
Last year, part of the reason why things got so bad over Thanksgiving week was because the crowds came by surprise and caught Disney off-guard to some degree. As you might recall, the Delta variant and reinstated mask rules put a damper on attendance last quarter, which was also likely exacerbated by fears of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary drawing record-setting crowds. (It did not.)
The circumstances are very different this year. Walt Disney World has restored a ton of capacity via entertainment, dining, and other offerings. Disney has gotten better at redistributing crowds, and this year has been much busier as a whole. Even if attendance and wait times end up surpassing Presidents’ Day (the current worst week for 2022), it’s not going to catch the company flat-footed. They are ready for this.
What’ll be interesting to see is whether consumers are ready to fork over $29 per person–or nearly $31 after tax–for the Genie+ service, which was free only a few short (but sweet) years ago. In the grand scheme of a multi-thousand dollar Walt Disney World vacation, that’s not a large amount, but it’s a huge percentage jump for the cost of the service, and all at once.
I’m honestly surprised that Walt Disney World is being this bold. I figured that they wouldn’t break the $25 barrier until sometime in 2023, and probably would’ve bet against the service hitting $30 next year at all. As one reader pointed out in response to my commentary about the introduction of date-based pricing, that puts Genie+ above $100 per day for a family of four (Walt Disney World’s core demographic). That’s exceeding a significant psychological barrier, and may actually result in reducing sales of the service.
Speaking of which, since I can accept (potentially) being wrong, my previous position was that, unlike the elimination of the Genie+ ticket add-on, the price increase would not do much to reduce demand for the paid FastPass service. I’m going to rehash this below not because I think it’s still true, but because I wonder whether it is.
An animating assumption of my argument was that Walt Disney World would gradually increase Genie+ prices rather than abruptly increasing them. Apparently, I was wrong about that–as a $7 jump overnight qualifies as significant. Maybe not in the grand scheme of what a trip costs, but potentially enough to cause enough guests to balk at the price. Again, this is a significant amount in percentage terms–and it definitely adds up if you’re visiting Walt Disney World this week and were planning on buying Genie+ every single day for every person in your party.
As we’ve discussed at length in Disney Doesn’t Want Lower Crowds and then again a bit in the commentary to the most recent price increase post, the common viewpoint is that price increases are actually good because they decrease attendance and help cut crowds is erroneous. This is a go-to line when raising ticket prices, and one that has been mindlessly parrotted by a certain subset of Walt Disney World fans.
We have rejected this perspective time and time again. For one thing, there is ample evidence to the contrary, as attendance has increased by millions of guests per year in the pre-closure decade. For another, if Disney wants to reduce crowds, there are ways to accomplish that–building more attractions or not taking 84 years to open a cloned roller coaster in an otherwise empty warehouse. In reality, Disney has little desire to reduce attendance–they want to “optimize” wait times, staffing, and pricing.
When it comes to paid FastPass, there’s a variation of the above argument. This is more or less that Genie+ would be better if prices were higher since Express Pass works well at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. That service costs significantly more but is included for free with stays at Universal’s three top-tier hotels. (See Universal’s Express Pass v. Lightning Lanes & Genie+ at Walt Disney World for more comprehensive thoughts, and why Universal’s “dumb” system is superior.)
For some Walt Disney World fans, the idea of Express Pass checks all of the right boxes. Exclusive but included with select on-site resorts, frictionless, and tech-free. To be sure, Express Pass is better than Genie+ from a usability perspective. We aren’t doubting or debating that. We’ve used Unlimited Express Pass extensively, and it’s far better overall. No question whatsoever. However, date-based pricing for Genie+ with the current cost range is not a move in that direction.
Whether it be for park tickets, resorts, or the Genie+ service, date-based pricing is an effective way for the company to accomplish its desired optimizations at Walt Disney World. There are certain times of year that experience higher demand for a number of reasons–school schedules, seasonal events, weather, etc.
Charging incrementally higher prices for these times of year allows Walt Disney World to capitalize on and profit from that inherently higher demand. That’s the goal–not redistributing attendance or whatever the talking point might be. There’s a reason spring break, summer vacation, and fall/winter holidays continue to see heavier attendance than any other time of year and have not leveled off with random dates in mid-January, early May, late August, etc. Increasing prices on that quasi-captive audience is simply savvy business or opportunism, depending upon your perspective.
My previous assumption was that the same scenario would play out with date-based pricing for the Genie+ service. The more expensive dates wouldn’t have a better guest experience–if anything, they’d be worse. Demand for Lightning Lanes will be higher because crowds are higher, and the Genie+ date-based surcharge over the low or regular seasons will be relatively insignificant.
Worse wait times creates a higher incentive for bypassing lines, meaning higher uptake of Genie+ even when it costs more. Keep in mind, those visiting during these peak weeks are already paying more for their vacations. The difference between $16 and $24 (after tax) is relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and won’t cause many guests to balk at pricing. What’s another “few dollars” on top of a multi-thousand dollar trip if it’ll offer a competitive advantage?!
However, I’m honestly not sure if this analysis holds up when the price goes from $16 to $29. That’s a much bigger difference, and more guests will take note of it.
Then again, maybe it will–and Disney has a solid basis for increasing the price of Genie+ to ~$31 after tax for the week of Thanksgiving. (There’s also reality that there are still a lot of tickets with the Genie+ add-on in circulation, as Walt Disney World provided advance notice of that change and we know many readers stocked up on tickets at the time–a very smart move in retrospect!)
We’ve seen this play out for years with date-based pricing on everything else. Not only that, but Individual Lightning Lanes already have a rudimentary form of date-based pricing, and that form of line-skipping is more “popular” when it’s more expensive. Again, the rationale is simple–people are willing to pay more to skip lines when they’re worse.
This isn’t necessarily to argue against Walt Disney World moving to date-based pricing for the Genie+ service or charging whatever the market will bear (in this case, over $30!). It’s simply to refute the misconception that Disney is doing guests a favor with price increases by (supposedly) reducing demand, crowds, or whatever.
That probably would be true if the cost jumped from $16 to $80 per day, but that’s not the case here. Instead, it seems that Walt Disney World is trying to walk a tightrope by incrementally increasing prices in an effort to keep demand relatively inelastic.
Ultimately, there’s probably no good quick fix to this issue for Walt Disney World. It will be interesting to see whether this massive overnight price increase meaningfully dampens demand, but it’s also entirely possible that we won’t see the true impact of market-pricing for Genie+ until 2023 since a sizable chunk of current Walt Disney World visitors have the Genie+ ticket add-on, and are thus insulated from the price increases, anyway.
As for how to handle load balancing and demand for the paid FastPass service, the immediate alternative that I could get behind is simply capping Genie+ at a reasonable level and letting it sell out at the current price on peak season days. However, as the backlash to eliminating the ticket add-on demonstrated, many people would not be on board with that.
Another option would be a price jump so large that utilization of Lightning Lanes dropped dramatically, thereby improving the standby experience. Maybe the move to ~$31 after tax will be sufficient to accomplish that, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
It’s also hard to fault Walt Disney World for not leaving money on the table. While we hate all of the price increases of the last 2-3 years and believe there will be negative long-term ramifications, it’s also patently obvious that Disney has pricing power and no shortage of demand right now.
Long-term, the solution to all of this is building more attractions. Queueing is a zero-sum game. No approach to lines–not all standby, not paper FastPass, FastPass+ or Genie–changes capacity. The only meaningful way to alter the equation is by actually increasing capacity.
That’s done by adding entertainment, attractions, or extending operating hours. Everything else is a matter of rearranging the deck chairs, and having different guests or demographics come out ahead or behind. In this case, the “winners” (air quotes) are those willing and able to spend more during the busiest times of the year at Walt Disney World.
If you have questions about the basics of using–or not using–the paid FastPass service, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info. 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.
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 of the price jump to $29 before tax for Genie+ at Walt Disney World during the week of Thanksgiving? Disappointed that it’s happening, or do you see the upside from a lowered demand perspective? Thoughts on our perspective that demand for Genie+ will continue to be highest on the busiest/most expensive days? Any other considerations we failed to take into account or details we missed/got wrong? Will you purchase Genie+ or is $30+ after tax per day too expensive for you? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? 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!
One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned is how this may impact future trips isn’t just the unknown cost on a daily basis, but the fact that you don’t know/can’t plan for Disney making significant price changes during your trip that will cause you to alter plans. For some people (like me), this unknown variable is a reason I will likely stay away from Disney world for at least the near future. I spend a lot of time planning Disney trips, and while there are always variables (crowds, weather, etc), Disney deciding to change pricing without warning should not be one of them.
It seems that Disney will only want the rich to enjoy their parks. Many families these days are struggling with just the basics. Treating the average family to a Disney vacation is now becoming out of reach for most. If this is Disney’s plan to reduce crowds by pricing most out being able to come then they are successful. In a few years it will hurt them though as those who can afford these prices will have come and gone.
All I ask is that the Stand-By wait times be somewhat accurate. When my sister was visiting in early November, we took her to Epcot. Soarin’ stand-by clock said 35 minutes. 94 minutes later, we got on the ride. My sister was literally ready to pass out from so much standing and had to sit down on the floor in the last waiting area. I was livid. If it had just been my husband and I, we would have left after 45 or 50 minutes but this was my sister’s only chance to ride Soarin’ and it couldn’t be THAT much longer until we get on, right? All the guests pay to get in and we have the right to a somewhat accurate stand-by line clock.
This
If genie is so intuitive, why can’t they get this right? In line for a 30 minute posted wait time and it was 90 minutes plus. That did me in and soured my outlook on their reporting times.
Glad to hear that you and Sara are back in Kyoto after a long hiatus from Japan. We just got back after visiting both Tokyo Disney and Tokyo DisneySea for the first time. Ticket prices were $60 per day with no Genie+ or Lightning Lane surcharges. USD was very strong making food and merchandise purchases very reasonable. What a bargain and unforgettable time. The Cast Members were so cheerful and enthusiastic to help make our visit so special. Brought us back to Walt’s original vision for his parks. Thanks for your previous blogs that encouraged us to make this trip. Memories of a lifetime.
I am a Disney fan, having gone many times with my family of 4. My most recent visit was Halloween week, I traveled with a friend. Even though I was only paying for myself (and not my entire family), I couldn’t bring myself to pay for the Genie fees for the rides. I won’t support this Disney decision by giving them money for it. Instead I used Tom’s ride strategies – rope drop popular rides and attending MK on the day of a Halloween party. I also found posted ride wait times to be about greatly exaggerated – the posted time for Ride of Resistance was 120 minutes, it took us 30 minutes. I’m shocked to read the Genie price keeps going up – I simply won’t pay money for the rides when I am paying so much to get into the parks.
Respectfully, I don’t think Iger had anything to do with the Genie+ price jump. This was already in place to happen under Chapek-there have been many updates to this fact. I’m sure Iger has not had the opportunity to put anything in place since he replaced Chapek over the last 24 hours. Let’s give Iger an opportunity to actually sit back in the seat before we accuse him or begin jumping on him for unfavorable measures. Let’s wait to see how he manages so we can correctly accuse and blame him. IJS
He was clearly joking. But sometimes humor is lost in text!
That being said…all long time DTB readers know “Chapek” and “glory days” will never go together! 🙂
So many people complain how Universal Express Pass is so much better even though it costs a ton more. Well, be careful what you wish for.
Does this still count as Chapek’s fault? Might need a new scapegoat.
I was surprised you didn’t compare the $79.99 cost of Universal’s Express service to the cost of Genie+. While $22 to $29 is a big jump, it’s still left than half the cost what one would pay at the only other competitor’s park.
I think if Genie+ is going to work ultimately it needs to be expensive enough to dissuade more than half of park visitors from buying it. Either that, or only sell a fixed number of upgrades per day.
Actually, during holidays, UEP is a lot more than $79… But it also provides a lot more than Genie+. UEP turns almost every ride at Universal into walk-on, or nearly walk-on. No pre-scheduling required. No 2-hour window between pass uses.
On a “per ride” basis, UEP may be much cheaper than Genie+.
That’s laughable. Universal Express saves you about 50% of the wait time, so to say it allows walk-on rides over the holidays is absurd.
I’ve used UEP during Holidays (July 4th and President’s day)… no ride was more than a 5-10 minute wait. Turning everything into a virtual walk-on.
It’s a completely different product than Genie+
I don’t think you can complete discount basic supply and demand. Of course there is going to be a price level for Genie+ where demand is decreased. Adding new attractions is not the end all be all solution to crowd levels. Adding new attractions also brings new crowds. They also have been opening attractions at a pretty good clip over the past 5 years. I do think pricing influences guest behavior more than you think it does. I think variable pricing for park tickets has been successful in spreading crowds throughout the year. As people often say now, there is no slow time at Disney. Which was the whole point of the variable pricing. I do think variable pricing will have an impact on demand. I believe that they would have just made a large price increase across the board instead of date based if they weren’t trying to impact demand. Ideally they want to make the same amount of people using it while still making the same amount of revenue. I just don’t think you can discount the ability of price to influence guest behavior.
However you don’t know the price of genie + and ILL’s until you are already in the park. So it doesn’t affect attendance demand at that point. Only useage of the add ons.
i caught your 84 years titanic reference, tom. i use that gif on most posts regarding the reopening of the railroad
“Long-term, the solution to all of this is building more attractions.”
Agreed. While the $1 billion Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is nice to walk around, once you are done with its 2 (two!) rides and visit Oga’s (if you can get in), there’s nothing else to do. I can only look at an “immersive experience” so long.
“As one reader pointed out in response to my commentary about the introduction of date-based pricing, that puts Genie+ above $100 per day for a family of four (Walt Disney World’s core demographic). That’s exceeding a significant psychological barrier, and may actually result in reducing sales of the service.”
Yeah.. that was me. And now the test — At $120 for a family of 4, I can see it no longer being an automatic add every day of a trip, like it may have been for the same family at $60. Double the price, and over $100. And especially, if it’s really only giving 1-2 additional E-ticket rides, I could see a lot of families saying it’s just not worth it.
WDW is not a $10,000 vacation for every family.
For those on a budget, staying value or off-property, not splurging on park hopper.. budgeting $4,000ish for 6 night trip… If you added $120 per day for 6 days… That increases the price by $720…. a trip going from $4,000 to $4,720 is not a negligible difference.
Plenty of families will just moan and continue to add Genie+ reflexively. But this price may get a consequential number of families to think twice.
This is why I love reading your analysis: “Long-term, the solution to all of this is building more attractions. Queueing is a zero-sum game. No approach to lines – not all standby, not paper FastPass, FastPass+ or Genie – changes capacity. The only meaningful way to alter the equation is by actually increasing capacity.
That’s done by adding entertainment, attractions, or extending operating hours. Everything else is a matter of rearranging the deck chairs….” Spot on.
Exactly! Either that or raise prices so much that way fewer families can afford it.
The problem is Disney lost billions on their streaming service and it’s pretty clear they are backing way off on adding any future capacity. The whole Bob Iger replacement was supposedly predicated on disappointing earnings despite huge price increases, which is a strong signal the board does not want any spending increases with a possible recessional coming on.
Why the same content provided through traditional cable was more profitable than streaming is another topic.
How about Disney stop paying exorbitant executive and board salaries and invest that money into the parks and more entertainment and rides? Think of the nearly $1 billion Disney has paid iger and chapek in the last 4 years…would that money have been better spent on the brand itself than executive and stockholder wealth? Fastpass, Genie+ and so on wouldn’t even be an issue and money wouldn’t have been wasted on iger’s and chapek’s salaries.
I won’t be buying Genie+ for my family. I had already made a decision that generally speaking I wouldn’t buy it. I caved yesterday since only two of us were purchasing and we were in Magic Kingdom where it theoretically might have made sense. Then I was reminded why I stopped buying it after buying it one single time before. It’s a terrible system (more about that below).
Respectfully, I disagree with the philosophy of what’s a few dollars more over the entire cost of the vacation. It’s about the value received. I personally don’t find Genie+ to be a good value. It’s gambling. Gambling is almost never a good value, and the House almost always wins, not the gambler.
When Fastpass was “free” you were already paying for it. It was just bundled in to the existing ticket price. To me, this is similar to Disney World resorts charging for parking or discontinuing Magical Express. It’s a de facto price increase with a poorer experience.
It feels very similar to airline revenue maximization. Airlines are well known for creating an experience that is so uncomfortable that you will spend extra so you don’t have to suffer (at least according to Oscar Munoz) . Considering customer sentiment about airlines, I don’t think that is a good strategy for a hospitality experience.
The whole thing feels similar to the way ULCC airlines carriers make money. A premium vacation experience should not feel like that! But at least on an airline, if I pay for bags or a better seat, that is what I get. If I buy a ticket to go to Orlando, the airline takes me to Orlando or I get a refund.
With Genie+ you have no idea what you may or may not get. if I want to play the lottery I can buy a Powerball ticket. I’m not interested in gambling my family’s vacation experience or the entire cost of the vacation on the Genie+ lottery with no price transparency (no idea what it costs until day of).
They’re damaging the brand to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars and no one is holding them accountable. With “them” being c-level execs and the board. They’re nothing but corporate raiders ruining Disney.
If I understand correct, then if I booked early then the price for the tickets will be honored? We booked our January trip in August, so other than genie+ price increases, we should be ok?
We just got back from a lengthy stay at Pop (shout out to the room redesigns, we were very impressed with the practical improvements). Since we had 7 park days and a Christmas party, our plan was 1 genie+ day at MK, DHS, & Epcot. We also bought ILL’s for Flight of Passage, Rise, and Guardians. It was a little painful when prices ranged between $14-$16 per guest, but the Saturday/Sunday (11/12-11/13) bumps to $22 for genie plus stung my family of 3. Still, with all the money you invest, saving 2+ hours of waiting for Ratatouille on a busy Food and Wine Saturday at Epcot is worth the $66. I would hate it but probably still buy at the new higher price if I know it’s going to be a crowded park day, hoping (as you’ve said here) that there will be more value in the service if less people fork over that kind of cash.
I do wonder if the popularity of the Halloween and Christmas parties has to do with the reduced wait times in the Magic Kingdom. We went to the Thursday 11/10 Christmas party and walked on several rides and had minimal waits for others in between catching the parade and eating cookies… but I wonder if attendance was down because of the storm that morning. Oh well, I’ve never had so much hot chocolate in my life. Just wish WDW let us buy some Christmas party merch or maybe given us dream lights and snoap. Oh well, rest of it was great.
How did you get the screen shot if the price? It used to show up for me, but no longer. I haven’t read the post yet, but just seeing that price makes me second guess purchasing. We have 3 kids 6 and under so genie+ makes a lot of sense at MK during the busy season. But paying$30 is a tough pill to swallow. But I guess that’s what they are going for. Families like us no longer purchasing.
Adding attractions is a significant capital expense and multi-year planning period. Simply extending the park hours would help quite a bit with only added staffing costs. That seems like a sensible short-term approach; while the other 3 parks are similar, MK has far shorter hours than it historically has.
For me, it’s not the price. You have to spend the $$ to find out that you cannot even book your desired attraction. The system is complicated, confusing, user-unfriendly and just does not work.
Actually it does work – you just have to follow Tom’s advice.
I agree – it’s complicated, confusing and expensive. Hard pass for me.
As a software engineer I have to agree the app is poorly designed and buggy. That being said, I was in Orlando visiting relatives for a few days in early November and only had time to go to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. Once we got some help on the phone to fix a bug on the back end, actually using the Genie+ service made for the best experience we’ve ever had at either park.
First, just the regular Genie listings of events and rides was a big help. I’m not that familiar with Hollywood Studios, and this trip we got to see rides/shows I didn’t know existed.
Despite the two hour lag on Genie+ reservations we were there at the parks all day, so that is a lot of two hour periods. EPCOT was slammed, apparently because of the musical act– the space around ampitheater was so crowded you could barely walk down the street. But despite that we were able to get six reservations for everything we wanted to ride, with very short waits, leaving more time to enjoy the rest of the park.