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.)
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 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!
Here are some ideas to avoid lines that are cheaper than paying a la carte.
Bring someone who will stand in line for you.
Invest in a wheelchair or an amigo. This is not the friend you brought to stand in line for you.
Buy an official Park outfit on ebay from a former employee. Carry a clipboard with you if you enter through the employee parking lot.
This next one’s a two person operation. After a few minutes on line ask people around you if they smell smoke. A friend who is a little bit ahead of you starts yelling “Fire!”. As guests rush past you to the exits make your way up to the dwarfs mine train.
Just walk past people in line apologizing profusely as you go by telling them you have a sick family member up ahead waiting for you.
Hand out religious pamphlets on line and ask if they have a personal relationship with God. They will gladly let you move ahead of them.
Do not shower for several weeks before your visit. If this doesn’t get you to the front of the line at Splash Mountain nothing will.
Where’s the Magic? If you calculate a7 day admission for a family of four plus paying for popular rides, the 7 days will need to be cut in half. Frankly, I have avoided going to Universal while staying in WDW due to the cost of the dual admission ticket alone, without considering paying extra to get to the head of the line. If this FP pay program is implemented, I will definitely make a trip to Universal. I am a DVC and Annual Passholder and travel to WDW twice per year. I will have to reconsider my WDW trips as they are getting costly-no Magical Express, increased price for the AP and now paying for Fast Pass.
Wdw is sounding like less of a dream and more of a nightmare. Have a family trip planned for February, but it’s looking more like tentative plans. The greed is absurd. There is so much less for more and the magic just isn’t there anymore.
This seems to me to be Walt Disney Elitism at its best. Or the Haves vs the Have Nots. If you can pay even more money than you already paid to get in the park you can buy you way ahead of all the less fortunate folks who either cannot afford to or for a moral reason refuse to pay an ungodly amount so they can skip the lines. I am not a fan of the fast pass system either, at least not the way is has been done in recent years, I liked the old paper passes, there were days at the end of the day if the kids were too tired and we weren’t going to use a fast pass we had I would give it a random stranger, you can’t do that these days. I don’t like the more recent fast pass system because you have to decide to far in advance what park you are going to be in on what day. I truthfully think the lottery system they use for the virtual cues at Galaxy’s Edge are a scam and not considerate of others; for example if a family of 6 is trying to go and enters the lottery twice a day for a week they may very well not get any, but then you have those who get in multiple times in the same week. Disney World should have a system in place that says if you ride the ride once that week you have to wait for the next week to try again. Since everything is based off magic bands it would be harder for people to cheat the system. On our most recent 5 day trip to Disney World we went to Holly Studios 3 different days trying to get into the virtual cue for one ride. We woke up three mornings at the butt crack of dawn to try the disappointing lottery of tears 3 mornings to fail every single time. Then to try for the 2nd lottery you have to be in the park, so you are unable to enjoy another park until you know the results of the lottery of disappointment, finally on the 3rd day we got in… or so we thought, then we find out we are only in the standby virtual cue and may or may not get to ride, the day before the ride had quit running at noon. I wanted to cry, it was so pathetic. Nothing against Hollywood Studios, but there isn’t enough there to entertain me for 3 days straight, especially since they have had to close things like Indiana Jones, Fantasmic, Parades, and Fireworks Show. We did eventually get on the ride, but 2 members of our party decided a 3rd day in Hollywood wasn’t worth it and left. One more thing sit down dining reservations were impossible to get, even on the first day they were supposed to be available. So my rant went off on a side tangent, but if you give a mouse a cookie, well hopefully you read that book and know what I am talking about.
Having paid for additional FP back a few years ago when that was an option. If I recall, it was $50/day for 3 additional FP. Which meant each person in our party had 6 FP for that day. I can’t imagine that we would do this. As you mentioned, a package or bundle is psychologically more appealing and when we purchased the FP it was in addition to the 3 FP that we were already allotted for “free”.
Any word on what California Grill has in mind for the 50th Anniversary CelebratIon?
The Disneyland MaxPass has been the best “bang for the buck” that I’ve experienced in the last 10 years. At first the $15-20 per person/per day seemed steep, but we were riding AT LEAST twice as many rides as we were beforehand. Paying per person/per ride would easily add up to more than the maxpass in a day. Can only wait and see at this point â€â™‚ï¸
It’s disgusting how they have drained the parks of their magic for a dollar time and time again. I remember way back in 2015 when for the start of summer during memorial day weekend they had a 24 hour day at magic kingdom for no additional charge beyond valid admission. Now they charge you for a few hours and act like they are doing you a convenience.
It’s very sad. I certainly won’t pay it and I hope no one does. We all love disney but there comes a time when enough is enough. I feel they’re just getting greedier and greedier. It would be one thing to have to pay a bit more but not for every popular attraction. Very disheartening.
It’s just makes me sad. We save to go to WDW and we just want to chill and enjoy when we go. Do not need added stress to our vacation by having to purchase time slots for additional fees! The fast pass system was enough stress. At least that didn’t cost extra. I truly hope WDW does not do this.
There is no way we could ever afford a private VIP tour, but we could definitely afford to splurge with this on every ride we wanted to do at each park without breaking the bank–and I’m sure we are not alone. I mean, look at how many people are willing to pay $200 pp for the Boo Bash after hours event–that’s 11 rides at the 15 euro price point and I doubt people can knock out that much at Boo Bash, especially with little kids who won’t make it the full 3 hours. I think you are wayyy underestimating how well utilized this would be at disney world.
“I think you are wayyy underestimating how well utilized this would be at disney world.”
Maybe I am. I also think Boo Bash is another example of a bundle (of sorts) that conceals a line item price that many of the same people who bought event tickets would not pay.
I’d do a $40 all you can eat dessert buffet because the idea sounds awesome, but I would not buy 10 individual desserts at $4 each.
As described I don’t see premier access having much affect on my WDW visits if it is implemented…I do think virtual standby could be a significant improvement if implemented correctly. It. will be interesting to see if premier access is somewhat successful, it could supersede standard access for limited times …for instances a new ride is premier access only for the first month- a pay to ride standard that would be very different. In fact it sounds like dynamic pricing could allow lower prices that would keep the new ride busy even on lower demand days…the bigger question might be how much this might upset customers – the principle of it more than the dollars. Once again it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
Somethings gotta give and if I have to buy FP on top of parkhopper it will mean staying off property for my fam of 5 which really sucks. I think paid FP is a horrible move. The old FP system was great.
my husband and I have discussed this, its only the two of us and there is no way we’d pay another 8 to 15 dollars a ride , its bad enough we have had company 3 times this year and we couldnt ger reservations either for them or ourselves at t he same park on the same day. We are getting company at the end of september, told them if they can buy tickets and get passes on the same days , we will go , I am not going to go through that hastle again
PLEASE — PLEASE Somehow have these Comments shown to the DISNEY TOP
EXECUTIVES !! Like I said before, – I feel So Sorry for Walt Disney being So tired of turning over and over in his Grave with the things they are doing with All these NEGATIVE Changes making it HARDER and HARDER for Average Families to go to Disney World anymore !! Especially when you have a big Family OR even a small one ! When you have to pay for EACH person for a FAST-PASS, Besides the Higher + Higher prices they are making for Each person for a PARK TICKET !! It is just OUTRAGEROUS ! Parking cost at their hotels, No more Magical BUS, Pay for MAGIC BANDS, and the LIST goes ON andd ON
I don’t have the same prediction as Tom does here, but I defer to his experience and analysis.
I’m consistently surprised what people will spend at Disney, and predict that premier access “bundles” will be very popular (ie sell out often enough that travelers learn to buy this option when planning their vacation).
My naive question – why not just severely hike up the ticket price? To be clear, I don’t want higher prices or pay-for fast passes, but I appreciate that something has to give. With (much) higher ticket prices, WDW would have less extreme crowds, with an overall more magical experience that doesn’t feel nickel and dime. Isn’t that why we are willing to pay the $110+/day currently? I don’t understand why Disney would mess with its customer-service reputation with a series of a la carte pricing.
My view as someone from the uk that has been lucky enough to have visited WDW over 30 times in the past 25 years is that the introduction of these charges is a step to far for me and reduces the draw of “the magic” to a level that I feel that I no longer want to visit WDW – something that I thought I would never ever say. It is expensive enough as it is to visit WDW but to have to pay for rides at the price levels being mentioned is at a level that I don’t feel can be justified. Also if the “paid for rides” are taken up in any numbers it just makes it even harder to try and get the remaining rides available. WDW has never been cheap but for those that appreciate “the magic” that you get from visiting the parks made it worth the sacrifices. The introduction of any “pay for rides” wipes out a lot of “the magic” to a level that makes me feel I will not be making any future visits to WDW. Will be so very very sad if Disney do decide to introduce these charges
We’re relatively wealthy these days (I’d say upper middle class), and could probably afford this. Yet I still don’t think we’d ever pay for it. A Disney vacation is already super expensive if you stay on property before you even get to these extra charges. If nothing else, knowing Disney well, and knowing how far a good touring plan and rope drop goes to getting a lot of attractions done with very little wait… I just don’t see much value here. It would have to be at least half the price for us to consider it.
At most I could see myself using this for the odd headliner attraction we didn’t quite get done (for whatever reason) at the very end of a trip. I guess it’s nice to have this option. But as far as approaches to replacing Fastpass go, I could think of like five different options I would have preferred to this one (the original system, a system like Universal’s, providing benefits to resort guests, something like MaxPass, etc. etc.) So I hope the WDW version is different. I’m not convinced this system will benefit guests OR Disney very much.
It would be interesting to know how much a one-day ticket to Disneyland Paris cost compared to Disney World and/or Disneyland CA. If it’s comparable or lower, then that’s a steep price that isn’t worth it. But if Paris is exponentially higher in cost (for everything), then it would probably be safe to assume that it wouldn’t be that high in Florida.
I’m not sure I’ve done the math correctly, but it looks like single-day tickets to DLP cost HALF of that of those at WDW. (Is that right, or am I not comparing apples-to-apples?) If so, there’s no way that they use this system as is (TWICE these prices?), and I definitely don’t see them dropping entrance ticket prices and reverting to a paid A/B/C/D/E-Fastpass ticket system for attractions.
I guess that means I’m bound to be wrong!
All of the international parks have significantly cheaper tickets than WDW or DLR. I’m not sure about half price, but that sounds about right.
Once inside, prices for everything else at DLP are pretty consistent with WDW. Food might even be slightly more expensive (or perhaps that’s just my perception given conversion rates when we’ve visited).
I am getting so disheartened and disillusioned with the extent of upcharging Disney is doing while blatantly reducing the experience. We had a trip booked last year ..cancelled because of COVID…hoped to go this year but no. My son is graduating high school next year but unless Florida gets its act together COVID may still be a significant factor next year as well. This will in all likelihood be our last trip and I was hoping to experience the magic one last time. There has not been one announcement or change that I can think of that is positive. No more FP…no more extra magic hours for us poor folk..no more magical express…now paying to get on rides after you have paid to get in to the park…I almost don’t want to go back as I am afraid that it will ruin the memories of the wonderful trips we have already had and being disappointed thinking of how Disney “used to be”. Very sad indeed….