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!
Oof. We took our 4 year old twins in early June this year and learned that their max threshold for waiting in a line is….10 minutes Mayyyyybe 15 if it’s the only 15 minute wait of the day. Fastpass was great for us because we don’t generally ride more than 6 rides or so a day (we go back to the room for naps, and keep to their early bedtime), and could allocate our fastpasses so we never needed to wait longer than 10 minutes for our non fastpass rides (think Philharmagic, Nemo, etc)
We decided we wouldn’t go back until fastpass was reinstated, but at these prices that’s going to be a hard sell. It’s hard enough to have your 4 year old tell you that they didn’t like half the rides because they were too scary, but to know that you’d spent $60 for that ride specifically would be a lot to stomach
No. Just no.
At DW right now & majority of ride lines (including non-headliners) at MK exceed 1 hr despite what’s posted on MDE. While we love WDW, These lines have made it a less than magical experience. Was even wondering if Disney was trying to create a “need” for people to pay per ride but it’s just not worth it on top of prices for park, food, & staying on property. Sadly, at this point I think we will just spend our next vacation elsewhere.
I’m 70 now. I’ve been going since there were paper tickets. But really trying to get every last nickel. I mean why do they continue down this track. Some would say people continue to pay it. I think it’s more a case of corporate greed. For me I’m looking harder at universal as a destination. Going other places. It just doesn’t seem to hold as much Magic anymore. When value hotels were opened it was so average families could stay at Disney. Just doesn’t seem the case anymore as prices continue to rise. Getting lees for more is now the Disney Corporate moto.
Just came back from four days at The Disneyland Resort. All lines were very long, and wait times given were accurate. I am way too used to FastPass and MaxPass to have a good park experience that includes waiting on 40 to 120 minute lines for almost every attraction in the park. It was hot, and waiting in line sucked hard.
But am also not going to pay $18 in addition to my park ticket in order to go on Peter Pan one time.
This is all pissing me off.
I have taken our family to Disney for 20 years and if they implement this I am done. This is the most ridiculous and appalling thing to charge this much per ride! They are trillion dollar company and this is what they do to their guest. Very sad
This is like charging double! You get charged to get in the park to go on the rides and then charged again to ride the ride a little quicker. Fastpass worked fine before–if it ain’t broke-don’t fix it and bring back the FastPass!!!
If Disney charged 1 price to skip the lines, like Universal has an Express Pass, that would be fine and a lot of us would buy into that…we really would. I mean we spend thousands of dollars to go – my family not only goes to Disney but we also go to Universal, Seaworld, Discovery Cove and the Gulf coast since we go about every 2 years & we are coming from Wisconsin so we go ALL out. However, no way would I pay per ride. By the end of the day, you’re paying 3x’s the cost of your ticket. I don’t care about prices going up or the cost of food/souvenirs/parking but don’t nickel & dime us on every freakin’ ride. Seriously.
I have zero issues with this model, but the price point is simply too high.
I love Walt Disney World, but if they implemented a system similar to the one in Paris for me it would be for me the final straw. I estimated it would cost for our family of six it would cost an additional $1800 to $2500 per trip. That is addition to our already spending approximately $10,000 on tickets, souvenirs, and food. We are DVC members so our room costs us at present about $1500 per year.
Universal Studios is looking better and better all the time. Actually they have much better rides.
I’m so over Chapek. I go every year and I LOVE it but it’s to the point where I don’t want to go anymore bc I feel taken advantage of. Going for the 50th in October and can’t say for sure I’ll be back after that.
This pricing is crazy…I think I’m what could be considered their target audience – I stay on the monorail loop, I pay for dessert parties so I don’t have to wait hours to see the fireworks, paid for Minnie Vans when that was a thing…I am willing to pay for convenience…but this is too much, I wouldn’t pay for this $80 for our family to go on buzz or any of the rides. I would pay the $20 per person for Max pass which also includes photos. I know people are touting universal paid express plan as a good but usually people don’t stay all week at universal – if they charge $80-$100 for it per person per day – for my upcoming trip, it would be $2000-$2400 added to my cost for my family of four- umm no thank you.
In principle I understand the appeal of cutting queues at 30 minutes. That’s a duration that demonstrates some commitment (and is also the extent of the highly themed queue areas before things peter out), while also allowing the excess beyond that to be outside the attraction queue.
I’m not sure it makes things fairer though – there will always remain an informational advantage to those prepared to spend time researching. My guess is that a good 25% of guests won’t even know this is a thing until they’re deep inside the parks, at which point the best slots will be taken.
I’m pretty much done with Disney after a 42 year streak of coming every year at least once. I loved it but the feeling is starting to die down. I don’t want to be nickel and dimed to death when I’m already paying a lot of money to come into the park. It’s really just sad and I hope a lot of people agree and cut down or just stop going altogether. They would take a kidney to spend a day if they could get away with it so don’t let them.
@drew — Good breakdown, but the Christmas party isn’t a straight comparison: As you said, you’re paying largely for ambience, special fireworks, etc. And typically, waits aren’t non-existent at the Christmas parties (or former Halloween parties).
Boo Bash and After Hours events — You are primarily paying for low waits. There are no special fireworks. No significant special parades or entertainment. You get a cavalcade, you get the fire breathing dragon, you get some free popcorn and soda. But it’s 90% about short lines.
Now, keeping it simple… down to the individual, instead of the family.
$130-$170 for a “3 hour bundle of short lines”
or… $15-$20 per ride.
I’m not sure which most people would prefer. Not even sure which I’d prefer, but I lean to the ala carte.
With the Boo Bash… not only am I spending $10-$20 per attraction, I’m also sacrificing sleep to do it, being out at midnight.
With the ala carte option… I can ride in the middle of the day for $18. Any time I want, not restricting to a 3 hour window late at night.
And if only 4-5 premier Magic Kingdom attractions will matter to me, then it’s going to be cheaper for me to buy 4-5 premiere passes than it would be buy a ticket to Boo Bash.
If I can do all 3 mountains, plus Mine Train, plus Pirates, all with almost no wait… for $90, at my convenience, maybe that’s better than spending $130 to $170 for boo bash.
There are plenty of people who see Boo Bash as a ripoff, who have no interest in tickets. But there are also many who see it as a “good value.” I’ll just point out that if you believe Boo Bash is a good value, then you’d likely find premier access to offer a similar good value.
@Adam, I find your points very interesting.
I had thought about the After Hours event pricing as well, but approached it a little differently than you. In my opinion, the After Hours pricing is more of a bundle vs. the a la carte pricing that is very difficult to stomach. I’ll use a guesstimate of the Christmas After Hours event because that’s the one I had done the mental math for…
If that event costs a family of four roughly $650, but gets them into the park for 6 hours (2 hours pre-event and 4 hours for the event) that is costing my family under two dollars a minute for a (presumably) good park experience. As the consumer, my thought process didn’t go right to how many attractions I’d get to do…more that I’d get this “bundled” experience including short waits and nice park ambiance (fireworks, uncrowded walkways, my kids skipping around, etc.) While it’s expensive, I can kind of justify it because it becomes a whole experience.
On the other hand, if I spend $72 dollars for a 5 minute ride, I would think of it as spending over $14 per minute for my family to enjoy something I should have access to anyways (yes I’m ignoring the opportunity cost of bypassing the line). The a la carte pricing would get me hyper focused on the quality and duration of the attraction. Frankly, I don’t think the attractions hold up well under that kind of scrutiny (I say that as a pretty big fan).
My logic is probably flawed (it works in my head :-)), but I think the wheels really fall off the value proposition bus when Disney takes such a reductionist approach to their product.
This will definitely come to WDW. Right now I feel very negative about this money grab. Getting to the age where I don’t WANT to pay for quicker ride access, been to WDW so many times that the “bloom is off the rose” regardless of how many “new” rides open up and already on the road to no longer visiting due to the “parking” fee imposed a few years ago, a definite foreshadowing of this latest scheme.
Once people SERIOUSLY compare cost to enjoyment I think you’ll see a drop off in repeat visitors. It’s getting to the point where if visitors are more worried about what they’re spending WHILE ACTUALLY vacationing in WDW then it no longer becomes a satisfying “vacation experience.”
I fear our visit scheduled for the end of November may be our last. Staying in “the bubble “ provides fewer and fewer perks…
I believe the number one factor in whatever they roll out has to be the ability to pre select and guarantee your attraction choices for resort guests. The BEST part of FP+ was knowing I was going to ride my favorite rides in advance with little to no wait time. I would never book a hotel room knowing there’s a chance its too busy and i couldn’t ride FOP, SDMT, Space Mtn, Test Track, TOT, etc. unless I wanted 2 hours. People that do not go early run the risk of those paid rides running out, especially on busy days. Lets face it, if there was a 2 hour wait for FOP and you could pay $20 to skip it, I think ALOT more people would choose to pay for that 1 ride when it’s the only headliner in AK if that was all they would be paying for.
I am a DVC member and go 1-2x per year and know most (if not all) the ins and outs of WDW. My brother on the other hand is not. He just spent the last week there, leaving today, with his family of 5 (staying at newly renovated Poly rooms) and he grew up going to WDW so he has experience in the parks and resorts (we went an estimated 5-6x as kids). He was extremely frustrated at the boarding group process for ROTR as well as no ability to book FP+ for the rides they wanted to go on because the lines were so long. They were so frustrated that their last 2 days of their stay they went and paid for Universal tickets with Express Pass and had their Disney tickets go unused. That’s a shame and a waste of money. They will never go back to WDW which is unfortunate.
I think WDW is at risk of alienating their resort guests and while the pent up demand and 50th Anniversary may carry them short term, I have a feeling this will have a longer term affect on resort guests, bookings and overall sentiment towards their nickel and diming that you refer to in your article
TBH I’d rather save up more for the whole trip and stay longer/add park days to fit in lines…to my vacation then spend extra money on individual rides. Yes it would cost me more but I’d get more bang for my buck
Obviously, these are educated guesses. You are probably correct — That 75% of guests fall in the $50,000 – $150,000 income level. But that’s probably weighted more towards the $150k side.
Again, I’m not counting “locals” or anyone within a 2 hour drive. If you don’t have to fly or stay overnight, then most people can afford a 1-day ticket. (though even that may be a splurge for some).
So, assuming it’s correct that 75% of out-of-town guests are in that $50k-$150k range… Among the remaining 25%, I’d guess that $150k+ outnumbers those that are below $50k.
I wouldn’t be surprised if 10-20%+ of daily out-of-town visiting families are $200k+ — that’s still thousands of daily guests who can “afford” to spend $72 to skip a line.
An interesting comparison is something like Boo Bash — At about $170 per ticket, a family of 4 is spending $680 — Primarily to have 3 hours of short lines.
So, if they use Boo Bash to do 9-10 attractions that usually have significant lines, they are paying $68-$76 per attraction for Boo Bash.
In other words, I can see the audience willing to spend on premier access being pretty similar to the audience that is willing to buy a Boo Bash ticket on top of a regular ticket. Willing to spend $17 to skip 1 line? Well, for $170 flat rate, you can have 3 hours of short lines! (while many Boo Bash guests may be solely purchasing the Boo Bash ticket, many are AP holders or out-of-town extended visitors who will also have regular tickets).