Premier Access Paid FastPass Pricing at Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris has debuted Disney Premier Access in its two parks, which replaces free FastPass. Given the strong rumors that a very similar system will be announced for Walt Disney World and Disneyland within the next month or so, you might want to know what pricing looks like and how the in-app purchases work.
In case you missed the announcement last month, Disneyland Paris has replaced FastPass with a hybrid system for attraction access. In addition to the paid Premier Access, there’s also the Disney Standby Pass that combines a virtual queue with a physical standby line. It allows guests to spend the first part of their wait time for select attractions outside of the queue, and then joining the line for the home stretch. In essence, Standby Pass is a mix of (same-day) FastPass+ and traditional queues.
Standby Pass is offered when Disneyland Paris is running out of physical queue space, which is more likely to happen when the priority queues are not in use or are underutilized. (That’s why there are extended queues spilling out into walkways all over Walt Disney World right now, even though physical distancing is long gone.) When available, guests can use the Disneyland Paris app to book the next available Standby Pass time slot to enter the physical queue line of an attraction, return within the allocated 30-minute time slot, present the QR code, and stand in the queue for the remainder of that time.
Even though it shouldn’t be, the change that has received more attention is Disney Premier Access, which guests can purchase via the Disneyland Paris App. This digital service allows guests to pay to skip the regular queue line for popular attractions, including Autopia, Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, Star Tours: the Adventures Continue, and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
From anywhere inside the parks, guests can use the Disneyland Paris App to purchase an assigned time slot for the aforementioned attractions. Pricing for Disney Premier Access will be per ride, and is dynamic. It depends upon the attraction and crowds on the day of visit. Think of it like Express Lanes on toll roads, Uber’s surge pricing, or to a lesser degree, Walt Disney World’s date-based ticket and hotel prices.
With Disneyland Paris debuting Disney Premier Access today (August 3, 2021), we have our first look at real time pricing…
In terms of pricing in dollars, the least expensive option is Autopia for $9.50 per guest (current standby wait of 35 minutes) and the most expensive is Peter Pan’s Flight for $18 (also a current standby wait of 35 minutes).
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast is also $18 per person, with a 30 minute wait. That’s $72 for a family of 4 to bypass a posted 30 minute wait time, with an actual wait that’s probably more like 15-20 minutes.
Color me skeptical, but I just don’t see utilization of Premier Access being very high. (In fact, this isn’t Disneyland Paris’ first rodeo with paid FastPass–not many guests bought its previous incarnations.)
I think that’s going to be the case at Disneyland Paris, and I also think it’ll be true at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, “if” (when) similar systems debut in the United States parks.
Contrary to popular perception in the reader comments to our Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World posts, none of the Disney parks are destinations for “the rich” or elites. To be sure, there’s a very small subset of wealthy guests visiting the parks. For the most part, these are one-and-done visitors doing the obligatory rite of passage vacations to appease their children.
While it might feel satisfying to vilify other guests (for some odd reason) and treat them as the “other” or enemy, visitors to Walt Disney World are overwhelmingly middle class. That is objectively true of guests at every resort tier, regardless of what anyone might like to believe. Some are saving for longer periods of time, splurging more, or going into debt to pay for their trips. Of course, outliers exist–but that does not change the core guest demographics.
This is significant because it’s easy to believe something like Premier Access will be a huge success if you’re operating under the assumption that half of all Walt Disney World guests are wealthy. Not so much once you realize that the vast majority are middle class, and things like VIP tours, Club Level, and other various upcharges are niche products. (And even those have a large “splurge factor.”)
Moreover, these various upcharge offerings are purchased by hundreds of guests per day–not used by tens of thousands of guests per day, as was the case with FastPass.
That, in turn, is important because Disney Premier Access would need to be purchased like it were a more mainstream offering in order to have a significant impact on wait times. It’s not going to have anywhere near the utilization rate of traditional FastPass. For many people, paying any amount of money to skip the line at an individual attractions is a total nonstarter.
Personally, my max for the vast majority of attractions is $0. While I’m definitely unrepresentative of all guests, consider how many Annual Passholders, DVC Members, and other repeat visitors there are at Walt Disney World and (especially) Disneyland. Some regulars probably have a higher threshold than I do, but what percentage would pay $72 for their family to do the Buzz Lightyear rides? I would be absolutely shocked if it’s over 5%.
If we were to take our parents or only visited once per year, there are probably a handful of lines we’d pay to bypass–Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Slinky Dog Dash, Frozen Ever After, Splash Mountain, Radiator Springs Racers, Indiana Jones Adventure, and a couple others come to mind. The problem there is that the amount we’d be willing to pay is maybe $25 for our group, which would still put us below the minimum. For us, there are no circumstances in which we’d pay $72 (or anywhere close to it) for our group to be able to ride literally anything.
Of course, everyone is going to have their own price ceiling. Many will be higher than us–but also, many will be lower. The salient point is that any individual attraction line-skipping access is going to be bought by far fewer guests than the number that used the free FastPass+ system. As a general rule of thumb, free is more popular than not free. (Hard to believe, I know.)
In the past, Disneyland Paris also offered attraction bundles for certain types of attractions. I’m shocked they aren’t doing that again. For one thing, bundling allows pairing more popular attractions with less popular ones, which creates the illusion of greater value. There may be zero value to Premier Access at PhilharMagic, but include it in a bundle and people will nevertheless ascribe value to it. Perception is everything.
For another thing, bundling obfuscates actual per attraction costs. It makes consumers less likely to deliberate over whether the cost is “worth it” because there’s no way to assess on a line item basis. This is why all-inclusive packages are so popular (e.g. Disney Dining Plan) even in scenarios where they’re potentially worse. It’s why people drop $100 on a cable television package without second thought, but are more picky when it comes to subscribing to individual streaming services.
Beyond consumer psychology, there are a number of other logistical reasons why I’d expect Walt Disney World to embrace bundling when its version of paid FastPass debuts. I don’t know the specifics of what’s coming to Walt Disney World or Disneyland, but I strongly suspect it’ll be tweaked to the operational realities of each location. (My guess is both a bundle option and a la carte for Walt Disney World.)
Please don’t misconstrue any of this as me advocating for Disney Premier Access. I’d much rather see the return of FastPass+ or debut of something akin to MaxPass. I don’t see us ever buying Premier Access, which will put us at some degree of disadvantage under this system.
However, I also don’t think it’ll be cataclysmic or have as negative of consequences for those who don’t buy the paid FastPasses as many fans anticipate. My biggest concern is more generalized–that Premier Access is a continuation of nickel and diming practices that I abhor.
I’m actually curious and cautiously optimistic about how the Standby Pass will work in practice (I get it in theory), as this sounds like it could be a nice mix of (unpaid!) MaxPass and traditional physical queues. Such a same-day hybrid system is my personal sweet spot (YMMV), especially if lines are constantly moving and waits in the physical line are reasonable.
That’s exactly what I expect to happen due to few guests buying Disney Premier Access when a similar system comes to Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Of course, many unknowns remain that will impact this, including if on-site guests receive some degree of included access, whether there are bundles or it’s entirely a la carte, and more. It’s unlikely that Walt Disney World will use this exact system, but rather, certain elements of it. We should learn more sometime this month! (For more commentary, see the original announcement of Disney Premier Access.)
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you think Standby Pass and Disney Premier Access will be rolled out at Walt Disney World? Think it’ll be a similar system, but debut with the Disney Genie app and offer its own branding and unique wrinkles? Or, do you think this is all wrong—that FastPass+ will return unchanged later this summer or fall? Do you prefer fast-moving standby lines only, or the FastPass and standby combo? Interested in how Walt Disney World will implement the new system? 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!
If they would keep the Disneyland model I would be content. It included the fast passes and photos. You could purchase ahead with your park tickets or purchase daily after entering the park. If using the daily option you had the ability to see if fast passes were available still…
Going to the per ride pricing I would just pick and choose the rides we wanted for the day and deal with the lines. Paying close to $40 just to save 15 minutes – I don’t think so!
Hello Tom. Thank you for all your hard work with this blog! We have an adult disabled daughter and have used DAS every visit for her and the hubby and I . I seldom see this topic being discussed and just wondering how In your opinion DAS will be affected ?
I think the virtual standby queue could have some merit with the right set of parameters in place. There should be a limit of one active virtual pass per person (with potentially some slight tweaks to provide value to onsite customers.) Otherwise, it really does create a situation where the majority of the inventory is booked by a relatively small percentage of guests. Replenishing throughout the day helps that dynamic only a little. Any of the inefficiencies or inequities perceived in the FP+ would continue to exist in this system without those kinds of limits. It will simply shift who “wins” away from on-site guests to early-birds. I’m not sure how that is good for Disney.
Ultimately, my concern is the value proposition for staying on-site. We have a trip planned for late September for which I see virtually no benefit to staying on-site. The FP+ system is one I knew how to navigate to make sure my family was able to ride every ride they wanted with minimized wait times. We rarely waited more than 30-40 minutes for any attraction and we have no desire to do so. If the new system cannot provide something similar, we’re unlikely to stay on-site and, in fact,, we’ll probably stop going to WDW altogether. There need to be benefits in the system to on-site guests. That could be early access to standby slots or an additional allotment of slots (or both) as exists today with FP+.
As a Brit who usually travels to WDW once a year for a two week trip costing us as a couple with no kids around £6k, this is just so disheartening to us. We heavily utilise fastpass+ on all our trips, it’s what make it possible for us to actually ride everything a few times while we’re there and have an enjoyable time. We 100% will not be paying anymore money, it’s so expensive already. It honestly makes me wonder if the 9 hour plane ride is even going to be worth it anymore. Additional pricing like this really puts me off, just seems so, so greedy. Is this what we’re to expect from the Chapek years? Just extras costs everywhere. Although the main demographic is middle class families, they seem to be forgetting. Really hoping this won’t be the case for WDW but know I’m prob going to be very disappointed!
I am appalled. Greed will be the demise of Disney. I have seen many corporations fail over the years for this reason. It starts with very intelligent people starting a business. Then the helm is passed down as time goes on until it hits a generation of stupidity that have no idea what the founder was so successful in doing.
This twist will cause people to become throughly disgusted and find another place to spend their vacation dollars. Gouging families more, when they have already spent their hard earned dollars to get a ticket into the parks is the lowest of low. Even the biggest giant can fall.
This greed is a recipe for disaster.
If someone does suck into paying more just to experience a 15 minute ride, then they are just as guilty. If no one buys these passes, then it will go back to an enjoyable experience.
I’ve loved Disney my entire life, but this makes me think that I need to find other means of enjoyment. Shame on anyone that pays this extra fee!
Nice post. I generally agree with it.
Just a minor quibble — “Middle class” is just one of those terms that means different things to different people. Unless you’re on food stamps, or unless you own a luxury yacht, most people probably consider themselves middle class.
Reality is — Disney is a destination that definitely attracts “above average” income, at least beyond the locals. Not talking about caviar for breakfast, Rolls Royce wealth. But median family income in the US is $79,000. Unless they are local to a Disney park, an income of $79,000 would make almost any Disney vacation a definite splurge (airfare for 4, a mod level resort for a week, and week of tickets and meals.. easily looking at 10%+ of the annual income).
So at least for non-locals, I do believe WDW is a destination for middle class+. I suspect if you averaged the income for all out of town families visiting WDW, it comes out above the national median.
And while Disney is not generally considered a luxury destination, the mere existence of Victoria and Alberts, VIP tours, Club 33, and even club level rooms — Is evidence that there are a decent number of pretty affluent visitors. No, they aren’t the majority.
But the family that pays $4,000 for a 8 VIP tour likely won’t hesitate to pay $72 to skip a 30 minute line.
While I understand your distaste for nickel and diming, I do think this system *could* potentially work better than FP+. For all the reasons you state, adoption rate will be low. *Most* families won’t pay $72 to skip a single line. With lower adoption, standby lines should move faster, benefiting all guests.
Meanwhile, every guest, based on their budget, can decide whether the price of line skipping it “worth” it. Yes, someone with greater wealth will essentially have greater flexibility and options than someone with lesser wealth, but that’s true in almost all aspects of life. Just as someone on a tight budget needs to decide whether to splurge and visit WDW at all, or whether to splurge and stay at a nicer resort, they can also decide whether to splurge and cut some lines. And yes, for someone with greater wealth, they can more easily afford the cost, but even wealthier people don’t typically throw away money.
I don’t disagree that the average Walt Disney World visitor is above median, or even upper middle class.
With that said, if we’re going off census numbers and commonly-accepted definitions, middle class (as a measure of household income) is most commonly quantified as the range encompassing two-thirds of median salary to 200% of it. So a ballpark of $50,000 to $150,000.
I’d be very surprised if 75% or more of Walt Disney World visitors don’t fall into that range.
Right now stan-by passes in disneyland paris are only available for Crush Coaster and they are distributed at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. You can still ropedrop the ride when the park opens and no stand-by pass is required. And i think the queue is accessible again without the SB pass starting one our before park closing time. Right now SB passes finish minutes (at max) after the slot open, but it’s because they’re available on Crush only and so everyone book them. When more attractions will be available, it will be possible to queue in the virtual line for one of them at a time, so people will have to choose and not everyone will book crush. In the end i don’t see this system as bad as a lot of people are predicting, especially considering, as Tom says, that the impact of paid fast passes will be maybe 1% of the one free fastpasses had. I loved free fastpasses and used them a lot, but maybe constantly moving lines and wait times always lower than 30-40 minutes is better, in the end.
Thanks for sharing this!
Excellent commentary. I already know that I woudn’t pay to skip the line for an individual attraction (unless it was a nominal amount and in a very specific situation). I’m with you in that few others would, either, so this shouldn’t impact my experience much vs. universal standby. However, even still, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth – knowing that it is something that is out there, and may be “in your face” every time you look at the app. I’ll use it to teach my kids a lesson in being smart with their money … but that’s not something that should even be entering my mind when on a fun family vacation!
“However, even still, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth — knowing that it is something that is out there, and may be “in your face” every time you look at the app.”
100% agree. There have been a few things over the years that Disney has done that have minimal impact on my personal experience, but have left a bad taste in my mouth because of their precedent or just the optics of it. (And how they must view guests to do some of these things.)
In my experience at DLP, fastpass was never was it was at WDW. The FP line cut into the standby line at earlier points so that you still had to wait in a bit of the line to get on the ride and, when I went in 2019, there was no CM facilitating the merging of the standby and the FP line, so the standby line was basically boxing out/not merging with the FP line creating a huge back up in the FP line! I would never pay for the FP experience offered at DLP (or anywhere but that’s not the point here), it was so stressful and really didn’t offer much benefit.
While I won’t be buying fast passes for my entire family of six, I can see myself buying fast passes for my two teenagers to ride the occasional roller coaster with a posted two hour wait. It would make them feel VIP and keep the little kids from having to wait all day for them to get done.
My main concern is still what will happen if virtual queue slots get snatched up fairly early on rides like Flight of Passage. If WDW exactly replicated the DLP model, I could see that and a few super popular others becoming RotR 2.0 because they’ll almost certainly fill up the physical queue space with so few people buying fast pass and be forced to switch to the virtual queue, which will then fill up within minutes. It’d be a bit more spread out since there’d be multiple rides people would be swiping for, but I could still see a situation where by 8:30 on an 8 am AK park open, virtual queue slots are gone and the only way to access FoP is to pay for the fast pass. Right now people can rope drop and then jump in line one minute before park close to ride it twice in one day for free.
It’s my understanding that in the international parks, Standby Passes are replenished periodically throughout the day. That’s the guest-friendly approach that would avoid the problem you describe.
However, that’s nothing to say Disney wouldn’t drop them all at once first thing in the morning if the company felt it would increase sales of Premier Pass.
As a former AP family who utilized fast passes like stock trading I don’t see that our family would ever pay for a FP on a single ride. We have been to Universal a few times and haven’t paid for the express pass on any of those trips. Maybe it is just us but we don’t see the value in paying for that, especially at Disney where it was free and we utilized the heck out of it!
Loved Fast Pass, but I will not pay to shorten a line. We are already paying just to enter the park. Then Disney expects you to pay more to get on a ride. Reminds me of when WDW first opened, and you had to buy tickets (A, B, C, D, and E) to get on the rides. Soon people won’t be able to afford to go to Disney.
I, for one, can’t wait to take all of my children and their mothers to Disney World and drop $250 on MuppetVision FastPasses, as I am very wealthy. Why would I do this? For the same reason my fellow billionaires donate 0.0001% of their wealth to charity and everyone is like “wow that’s a lot of money”: to flaunt my riches.
Jokes aside, I almost want to stand outside Buzz Lightyear and get a good full look at anyone who enters the FastPass queue. I want to know who would drop that much coin for no reason but wouldn’t just get a VIP tour instead. I want to ask them, “Why are you?”
Anyway, Prem-yay Access (that’s French for “FastPass”) is sure to be a rousing success at WDW and DLR, we can all agree.
Tom,
I am with you completely. As a DVC member and Annual Passholder we are in DW more than most. There is no way I would ever pay $72, $52, or even $32 for my family on any ride. The amount of money we spend to get into the parks is considerable. Then to add to that amount just to bypass a wait time – just seems to steep. That’s a quick service meal, snacks, etc. Rope drop it will be for sure. Very disappointing if this transpires in DW.
If something like this is truly coming to Walt Disney World, don’t you think WDW would have updated its language about benefits of an onsite stay on the official website? This page now reflects changes like Extended Evening Hours and Early Theme Park Entry, but still says “As a result of Covid-19 impact on operations, FastPass+ service is suspended for the time being.” It goes on to say “When FastPass+ is available, here’s how to reserve and redeem access…” (when!) It even goes on to describe the 60 day benefit that resort guests get. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic (as someone vehemently opposed to any kind of paid system for a variety of reasons), but I would think that they would have at least eliminated some of this language months ago if they were planning to completely overhaul the system. That page has been updated throughout the pandemic, yet the FP+ blurb remains static.
Counterpoint: every blog that scrapes the WDW site for changes would pick up the removal of that verbiage, resulting in a slow trickle of fan outraging leading up to the announcement itself, plus more when the official announcement is made.
There are a lot of rumors circulating right now, but absolutely none involve FastPass+ returning as before. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen–insiders have been wrong before–but I think it’s highly unlikely.
I have no way to predict what Disney will do, but for your question of preferring a moving standby line to FP or some other, I definitely prefer a (short) moving standby line if possible. For something like WDW’s Peter Pan, I think the standby line is as good as the ride. And for other rides like Everest, Flight of Passage, Frozen, ToT and others the standby line definitely adds to the attraction – just not enough to way 60+ minutes in it. I detest the idea of the paid fastpass (more nickel and diming, more (obvious) segregation of have’s vs. have-not’s), but the concept of the StandBy queue could work for me.
I’m so glad I can finally pay my way in front of all the filthy casuals. This will make my trip so much more enjoyable.
I’m curious if this will effect the disability passes??? We used one last trip for our son on some of the longer waits. I pay so much already, I can’t fork out an additional $70+ to ride something once.
I liked the MaxPass System at Disneyland. This per rider, per ride pricing seems steep.