Paid FastPass+ for Club Level at Disney World: Thoughts & Info
Rumors have been floating around for years that Walt Disney World would attempt to monetize FastPass+. These gained momentum last year with the successful rollout of MaxPass at Disneyland, at which point we predicted that it was only a matter of time before Walt Disney World saw some sort of hybrid free/paid FastPass+ service. Well, that time is now upon us.
Walt Disney World has confirmed that beginning January 12, 2018, guests staying in rooms at select Walt Disney World resort hotels that are eligible for Disney Signature Services (meaning Club Level, plus the Poly Bungalows, Cascade Cabins, and Swan/Dolphin Suites) and who have purchased a 3-day or longer theme park ticket or Annual Pass are able to purchase a new “theme park extra” for $50 plus tax per guest per day as part of a limited pilot program. Since Disney has yet to give this an official name, we’ll call it VIP FastPass+.
These guests will receive the following:
- Three additional FastPass+ selections per day.
- Ability to reserve these three additional FastPass+ selections in more than one theme park when a valid Park Hopper option is also purchased.
- Booking window of up to 90 days in advance for these three additional FastPass+ selections and the ability to book them at multiple top-tier attractions.
- Preferred viewing location for nighttime spectaculars, one per day, including Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth at Epcot, Fantasmic! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
All theme park Guests with valid theme park admission continue to receive up to three FastPass+ selections at a single park per day at no extra charge, as well as additional day-of in-park selections that may be reserved and redeemed one-at-a-time after those initial three selections are redeemed.
This news has been met with an extreme negative reaction by many long-time Walt Disney World fans. Most of this has been directed at FastPass+ availability, and worries that Avatar Flight of Passage, Frozen Ever After, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and other highly coveted FastPass+ attractions will now have nothing at the 60 day mark.
While we think this general sentiment is warranted, we don’t believe the specific worry about FastPass+ availability for specific attractions is. Even with a 100% adoption rate by guests staying Club Level (and there’s no way it’ll be anywhere close to that–more like 10% to 20% at best), the FastPass+ pool for each popular attraction is exponentially larger than the total pool of Club Level guests.
Daily attraction capacity (and, to the point, the percentage of that capacity allocated to FastPass+) is simply way higher than the number of eligible rooms that can purchase this upcharge. If you booked your FastPass+ early in the morning at the 60-day mark before, you should have roughly the same results now. You won’t notice a difference, but perhaps those booking at the 55-day window will notice a minor one–and even that’s a stretch.
The real problem lies in the future. This is a pilot program, and if successful it most certainly will not be confined to just a small subset of all Walt Disney World guests. The next logical step would be all Deluxe Resort and Disney Vacation Club guests.
Once rolled out to those tiers, the impact could be more pronounced. While not a clean comparison, we only need to look to MaxPass, which has negatively affected regular Disneyland guests. Not to the point that it’s blatantly noticeable, but it is apparent if you do a side-by-side comparison (which we’ve done–and that results in about 3-4 fewer FastPasses in a given day).
The reason it’s not a clean comparison is because MaxPass is $10 per day or $75 for the life of an Annual Pass, and available to everyone on a day-by-day basis. Quite simply, cost is going to be a significant barrier to entry for the VIP FastPass+ service as compared to MaxPass, since the “cheapest” per person buy in for these extra FastPasses is $150.
Still, we could see this making an Avatar Flight of Passage FastPass+ more difficult to score at some point down the road. Not enough that we have any immediate sense of fear or outrage, but enough that we have vague concerns about what else will be unveiled ahead of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Speaking even more broadly than just these VIP FastPass+, this should be concerning because it’s part of a trend in the last several years towards more and more upcharge offerings at Walt Disney World. We’ve graded some of these Walt Disney World “Enchanted Extras” in the past and discussed how many felt like they were hastily put together without regard for value.
When viewed in isolation, most of these new upcharges are ostensibly defensible. In certain situations, regular guests might have compelling rationale to use X or Y service, splurge on a dessert party, etc. The individual offering, by itself, does not detrimentally impact the overall experience of other guests to a significant degree.
However, once you step back and look at all of these recent upcharges, it’s easier to see how their aggregate effect does burden the normal park-goer’s experience. There are fewer good seating areas for parades and fireworks, less FastPass+ availability, new surcharge transportation offerings are introduced instead of fixing the broken legacy ones, etc.
To be sure, not all of these new services Walt Disney World has introduced are bad or blatant cash grabs. To the contrary, we are fans of things like Minnie Vans (even though the service isn’t for everyone), and find some Enchanted Extras to be all upside (things such as Behind the Scenes tours, certain culinary experiences, etc) that don’t at all detract from others’ experiences.
Beyond that, there’s the simple fact that Disney is investing billions of dollars into Walt Disney World right now, and the amount of money being dumped into the parks between now and 2021 is fairly unprecedented. If a few minimally-intrusive upcharges aimed at affluent guests are what it takes to help fund (obviously this is an oversimplification of the process, but you get the idea) new stuff for all, that’s fine.
For me, the problem lies in the upcharge offerings that have the potential to significantly impede or dilute “standard” theme park admission, or stratify the theme park experience to an unsavory degree.
Unfortunately, I fear that’s what will ultimately happen with off-site guests and locals. We’ve said it before, but we’ll reiterate: Walt Disney World is a hotel business that happens to also operate theme parks. This might seem counter-intuitive since most fans view the four theme parks as the heart and soul of Walt Disney World, but the more lucrative portion of the business is the hotels and the guest spending those hotel stays drive.
Walt Disney World has made a concerted effort to get more people to stay on-site, and that has largely been successful. Hotel occupancy has crept up over the last several years to the point where many seasons are close to full occupancy.
This is why we’ve seen Walt Disney World on-site perks extended to the Disney Springs Resort Area, and we’d expect Disney to find new ways of nudging guests even more towards Disney-owned and affiliated hotels. Increasing per guest spending is one of the next logical steps, and is accomplished via similar initiatives. Expect to see more like VIP FastPass+ as we draw closer to the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Not all at once, as the aggregate impact of that is more likely to be met with outrage, but little by little.
Of course, this prediction is made in a vacuum without regard for greater economic conditions. We already discussed this at length on Page 2 of our “Should You Visit in 2018 or Wait?” post, but Walt Disney World is benefitting right now from a strong economy and high consumer confidence, both of which are drivers of travel spending.
Add a hot property like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to the mix, and the sky is the limit on what upcharges are introduced, and even how base pricing creeps up. Remove that hot economy (as could very likely occur before the end of 2019), and the equation changes considerably. The good news is that we don’t think these upcharges and price increases are sustained indefinitely. They very well might be sustainable through the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but at some point, a course correction is due–perhaps one is already overdue. The bad news is that we’ve been wrong with these predictions in the past.
Ultimately, this is a long and rambling way of saying that you shouldn’t necessarily be outraged by this specific upcharge offering, but you should be concerned about what it represents, and the overarching trend. That is, unless you’re super-duper wealthy; in which case, Walt Disney World will welcome you with open arms and make your experience as stress-free and frictionless as possible!
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
Do you agree or disagree with our take on VIP FastPass+ being sold to Club Level guests at Walt Disney World? Do you think this pilot program will be expanded and, if so, what do you think of the long term ramifications? Are you concerned about pricing trends once Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens? Any thoughts or predictions of your own to add? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I’m in two minds about this.
On one level, it’s sad that something that has been a level playing field (and unique in the theme park industry in being so) is now another way for those who pay more to have a better experience.
On the other hand, I routinely purchase two admisssion tickets for myself for Tokyo Disneyland. I won’t pretend there’s a way to justify it morally (although that presupposes it’s immoral in the first place), but I justify it financially on the ground that I only get a few days there per year, despite it being the best Disney resort in the universe.
So ultimately I can’t criticise this without feeling like a massive hypocrite, even though it rubs me up the wrong way (I think).
This could have the same issue as the people that book last min! We stopped going since we travel with not much notice maybe 2-3 days ahead of leaving. If you are staying off site and only have 30 day window and this is expanded to even luxury hotels or dvc its game over for off site visitors! They will get Zero good passes! Think people will get seriously ticked when paying top dollar for tickets and then have to wait 2hrs to ride any top rides. I want the old tickets back! Should be first come first serve! Or scrap it all and let everyone wait in the same line!
I am afraid it’s going to get very expensive on top of high priced tickets with yearly ticket increases! Thanks Iger! Squeeze guest for every dollar till they have none left!
Hey Tom,
It was AWESOME seeing you IRL and shaking your hand today at the festival of arts (I await to see your review as I found many neg/pos things about it). A cast member this trip told me that when they opened the Polynesian bungalows a businessman rented out most if not all of them for a week and caused a negative impact on other guests wanting to stay there so learning from this once the galaxy’s edge resort opens there will be a 3-4 night cap on stays. This struck me as feat but also that Disney as a whole has crossed a threshold. This resort is said to be immersive and to tell a story in its own right leading me to believe that Disney has turned the hotel into the theme park and amenities are now the premium. This sounds like the culmination of what you speak of above and at the end of the day I believe that no matter whether it is fast pass VIP or club levels or lounges…Disney has and always will be a premium business and where they find the most success is driving a frenzy among the guests seeking this next “exclusivity”. Whether its a priveledge, or a piece of merch or an event or club, Disney is successful in driving guests to seek out that next hidden door or “secret/not secret” privilege.
This doesn’t bother me personally unless Fastpasses for the classics like Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates or Haunted Mansion run out on the 60 day mark when I go to book the fastpasses. Then I will have my torch and pitchfork ready haha. I roll my eyes anytime they add these upcharge add-ons because its been common lately. The only time I would spend that kind of money is if its during peak time, my trip is short and I would not being go back to WDW for a long time. Hopefully, I am never in that circumstance.
I think it is about crowd control, increasing prices is the quickest way to deal with it. I can see how annual pass holders are upset, but as someone who goes to a Disney Park once a year I am OK with it. I would pay a bit more to have a better experience. It is tough, Disneyland was our family trip every year in the late 90s/early 2000s and things were still decent, now I skip too many things because I dont want to deal with the crowd or wait over an hour.
The mileage you are going to get out of this upcharge will depend considerably on when you are there. At peak times (e.g. Christmas, President’s day) when it is impossible to get a “bonus” fastpass after your third, this could be invaluable. On a quiet day, I can easily get (at least) six good fastpasses just from booking the first three back-to-back in the morning and then booking my bonus ones immediately after checking in at the attractions’ fastpass queues.
The other reason I might pay for this is that if you are staying for a short trip (e.g., long weekend) and using park hopper, the one-park-a-day system for booking fastpass can be very limiting since you don’t have four days and therefore can’t book FP at all four parks. This devastated my kids recently when we park-hopped from Epcot to HS and weren’t able to get a bonus fastpass for either Toy Story or Star Tours. This would also be helpful for spending a day in one park and hopping to another for an evening show Fastpass at Illuminations, River of Light, or Fantasmic. The total aggregate cost is lower on short trips too.
We have been pass holders since 2001, but have decided that we will not be renewing our passes for 2018. We have made this decision based mainly on the points discussed in this article.
Maybe they will close each park for one day of the week to regular guests and just admit VIPs.
VIP bathrooms sound like a good idea.
VIP lounges where they have cameras showing hot, sweaty people in the lines they get to bypass.
Maybe they can close of some walkways to anyone but VIPs.
What about a new land that is for VIPs only
There are some ideas for you Disney.
I still love the parks, and I am actually still optimistic. I just hope this doesn’t get out of control.
They already do that during the holiday nighttime shows when everyone is made to leave the park except those that purchased the extra ticket, or they already allow people in 2 hours early for those that buy the early morning magic ticket……
This is nothing new and Disney has been doing this for some time now. There a business and look for ways to make money which I don’t fault them for
Kind of off topic, but has anyone heard anything about a VIP monorail program? When we were at WDW in December, we noticed that the front two cars of every resort monorail were empty. At first we thought they were closed for a safety reason, and we joked with other people in line that the empty cars were reserved for “special guests”. We then asked one of the attendants why the cars were empty and he confirmed that they were “reserved for VIPs”. It was especially annoying during the busiest times (like before MVMCP) with the line extending into the hotel lobby at GF and Poly.
Possibly for Highway in the Sky Dine Around dinner guests, who use the monorail for a progressive dinner.
I think you’re right. I just read review that says they use the front cars for the guests and the times they list for the dinner line up with the times we usually use the monorail. I never knew this existed…seems like it would be fun. Thanks for your reply.
We are a family that loves Disney in general, but we don’t go very often (first and only family trip to WDW: 2013 for 4 days; first and last family trip to DLR: 2016 for 4 days). I’ve been trying to figure out about going back to WDW in a few years, but it seems like the magical trips of my youth are mythical these days. Does Tokyo have add-ons like these? I know they won’t have Star Wars, but I’m beginning to wonder if it might make more financial sense to go to Japan rather than Florida in a few years (if I think the little one could handle a 13 hour flight).
Where the real problem arises, is for us annual pass holders who can only book 30 days out. It’s already impossible to get any slots , with those being taken up by the 60 day out hotel guests and now 90 special pay for play. I am buying 6 annual passes a year right now for myself and grandkids. I habe supported Walt Disney world for 31 yrs since I’ve moved to Florida, about a 1/3 Of that time having annual passes. I wrote to guest relations as soon as this news broke. I am not a happy passholder at the time.
Even if the usage rate is small, it still has an effect. We took a long-weekend trip in October and could not get a FP+ for Flight of Passage even at the 60 (or 63) day mark.
Even if only 100 people use this VIP FP+ to book FoP at the 90-day mark, that is 100 more “regular” people who won’t be able to ride that attraction without a multi-hour wait. That is a negative impact on their vacation, and even thought he number of people is small it’s still disappointing for them.
Disney has always been my “happy place”. It was the place I’d go to unwind, to just relax. I thought that would always be the case. It had been for decades. But this trend to do new things to cater to just the wealthy is seriously off-putting.
It’s getting to the point where I no longer see Disney the same way I used to. Can the wealthy afford to pay hundreds or thousands more for these “perks”? Yes. They’re wealthy. But can average families who used to go to Disney and feel the “magic” afford all of this to make their visits “special”? No. It’s too much.
If they don’t start reversing the trends of the past several years, the blatant money grabbing and sucking up to mostly the rich may eventually change folks perception of the Disney parks. It could eventually become more of a destination for the wealthy than a family destination. If that’s their goal, then kudos to them, I guess.
I remember long ago in some MAGICal realm when a certain Spirit would refer to WDW as a hotel, timeshare and real estate company that runs theme parks as ancillary businesses and how he would receive such pushback from the blind, rabid fans of anything Disney. Times do change, my friend.
I don’t really have much to add to what you said (and was well said) above. On its own, this is a tiny move and one that won’t really (or shouldn’t) most Guests. But where do you draw the line after a decade of cupcake parties, special parade and pyro viewing areas and uncharge events? Overall, they do harm the product and the value proposition for ALL visitors.
Oh, and one thing, no way is this the biggest outlay of funds on theme park projects at WDW. Just look at what EPCOT Center cost. Or look at say 1989 when they added Disney-MGM Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, Pleasure Island and finished CBR, while getting close to opening the EPCOT resort area as well as Dixie Landings and Port Orleans. Disney may spend like someone who never had had to balance a budget, but unless you are including Reedy Creek road projects, which are infrastructure anyway, than I can point to multiple points where significant money was being spent. Let’s not give them too much credit for building a Star Wars land that not all of us are foaming over with TWO whole attractions in it!
$1500 room rates,$ 150 extra hours, $50 for three rides, $100 steak dinners..Way to go Disney! How about a special entrance to each attraction for a price or select dates the parks are only open for the money wasting fools.
It’s getting a bit extreme, isn’t it? Pretty soon they’ll have separate walkways for the chosen few who can afford to walk on clean sidewalks built upon the sweaty tears of all of those families trudging across the parks in a hot sweltering day, and waiting on those 2 hour lines…
Ok, I’m exaggerating, but seriously it’s getting a bit too obvious as to who exactly they’re really catering to, and it’s not the families who you’d think are their bread and butter.
Hmmm…only time will tell if we take advantage of this offer. But limited time+park hopping Fastpasses+no tiers+reserved Happily Ever After viewing= 😀
But yes, it is part of a larger trend to squeeze out as much money per guest as possible. Do I fall pray? Yes, because they are charging money to solve annoying problems of a WDW vacation. I’d rather spend a little money than want to rip my hair out just trying to watch fireworks.
As a Florida resident AP holder, my fear is that the recent addition of the Disney Springs hotels and upgrades for extra FP+, those of us scheduling FP+ at 30 days will rarely see any of the very popular rides like Flight of Passage. °o°
I very much agree! Passholders spend a lot of money at Disney and should be given the 60 day fast pass booking window also. We are eating and shopping there at least 2-3 times per month but still haven’t been able to ride some of the new rides.
True, lost in this upcharge is the fact that the 60 day window for Fastpass+ has been extended to previously ineligible resorts (though it wasn’t until recently that I learned from a co-worker that Shades of Green guests only had a 30 day Fastpass+ window), making Fastpass+ reservations that little bit much harder to do. If it ever reaches the point where I can’t book a ride 60 days out, it’s bye bye to staying on site.
Hey Tom,
Great Blog and here’s to your continued success!
As DVC member and Huge Disney fan from childhood to College Program days this is right up my alley! I have contemplated paying for VIP Tours but I feel my methods work just as well compared to the Cost of VIP. This service would be something I would use in a heartbeat! Growing up with and working at Disney World I used to think the tiny legacy park out west would be a Let down! I bring Disneyland up cause after one visit I fell in love! It would be off topic to get into all reasons but my admiration only increased with the invention of FastPass+! The legacy Ticket System allowed a Park Camando like me to strategize a lot more then FP+. Now yes it’s great to know exactly what time to return to plan the day but the 3 FP I get is pritty much eat unless I feel the need to FP Buzz Lightyear saving myself 15 min at 8pm. With this system it would be a no brainer to buy for a Epcot/MGM day because of not only the 6 FP but the ability to reserve multiple parks! $50 pp to have a FP for Test Track/ Sorin/ Frozen then the Friendship boats to MGM with a RR/Tower/TS midway 3 pack sounds great! If it’s not festival time bang 2 Parks knocked out giving me 2 full days in MK, 1 day AK with a 4 day hopper! I would not buy it the other 3 days but depending on your plans it could really help! I just returned from WDW last month taking my wife’s best friend and her 3 kids for the first time. I’m heading to Disneyland in May and can’t wait to try out this MaxPass! We will be in parks Thursday to Saturday and I know MaxPass will come in handy on that weekend day! I understand the frustration from any fan that doesn’t want their experience to decline I’m just saying I will use add ons like these when they create a smoother day!
It’s not just $50/person/day, it’s $50/person/day on top of an already exorbitant amount of money to stay Club Level at select resorts. I mean- amen if you have those funds, but you can plan a pretty decent day without that kind of money, just go in the off season and plan well.
Rugs- It seems you won’t have the option to buy it only one day, it’s an all or nothing for length of stay. So $50/person/day for at least three days ($150). So for a family of 4, on a 4 day ticket, this adds $800 to your costs
This is not an all or nothing option, it is however a 3 day minimum so matter how many park days you have it only has to be a 3 day purchase
$50/day/guest? That’s insane. Disneyland is only $10/day/guest. And it included photopass. This is the most overpriced thing at Disney World I have ever seen.
You can’t compare the 10 at Disneyland and the 50 at WDW. The 50 at WDW is doubling the amount of advance fastpasses and giving the opportunity to do so earlier than anyone else. That is a big deal. The maxpass system at Disneyland doesn’t guarantee any fastpasses. Show up later int the day with maxpass and you may not get much of what you want. We went to DCA with maxpass during Thanksgiving and the time windows on getting another fastpass was very long. The addition of more fastpasses for those staying at Club level during very busy times would be extremely valuable. I don’t like it though as I can’t really afford value resort prices for most nights I plan to visit.
I can’t imagine that many families will go for this. For my family of 5, we would be paying $250 per day for 3 extra fastpasses per person, but we are already able to go through the fastpass lines extra times by strategically using the rider switch policy. Also, I don’t think I would want my park days any more scheduled than they already are. Last year we went to Universal instead of WDW, and we all really enjoyed the freedom of a schedule-free day in the parks, choosing attractions on a whim and eating when and where we wanted to in the moment. While I still love WDW and the fastpass+ system in general, I think having 3 extra scheduled rides would take some of the fun out of the day.
Agreed. I think the 10-20% adoption rate among Club Level guests is generous. I’d say 5% is more reasonable.
In order for this to work, you have to book 61+ days in advance, meaning you also could booked at the 60-day mark. In that scenario, there aren’t really 9 or more (3 per day, times 3 days–at least) attractions beyond the normal FastPass+ allotment where this would even be necessary. One in Pandora, a few in Magic Kingdom, and two in Epcot.
More likely, I think the guests who purchase this will be wealthy visitors buying because they like the idea of more and all things VIP, but without much knowledge of how to use it–and perhaps not even booking their FastPass+ allotments until inside of 60 days, anyway.
I have an upcoming Club Level (first ever and just because I got a significant discount) stay in April and am very interested in this new program. I’m not well off but with 3 young kids this might actually make sense to make a purchase like this.
We were already booking happily ever after desert party, Star Wars desert party, and looking into FEA party because it would be virtually impossible to get my kids on all 3 rides: test track, soarin, and frozen. So for the amount of money I was going to spend on these desert parties I can buy this package and get way more out of it in my opinion….
Disney has always catered to every family and their needs. Nothing changes for the families who continue to book their vacation packages and just like before there are extras for those who find value In them and are willing to pay for it