Paid FP options coming soon to WDW?

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Sad when you have to pay $100 plus to enter the park then have to pay to get on the rides, but that is what I see coming.

Well, you wouldn't technically be paying to get on the rides. You'd be paying for the privilege to get on the rides quicker. Many parks already charge for that privilege (Six Flags = Flash Pass, Cedar Point = Fast Lane Passes, Busch Gardens = Quick Queue, etc.). I think, if that's what's going to happen, it would be fairer (for lack of a better word) to charge the offsite friendly neighbor hotel guests a fee before they start charging onsite guests.
 
Well, you wouldn't technically be paying to get on the rides. You'd be paying for the privilege to get on the rides quicker. Many parks already charge for that privilege (Six Flags = Flash Pass, Cedar Point = Fast Lane Passes, Busch Gardens = Quick Queue, etc.). I think, if that's what's going to happen, it would be fairer (for lack of a better word) to charge the offsite friendly neighbor hotel guests a fee before they start charging onsite guests.

You have to keep in mind, none of those examples cost $5K-$8k for a vacation. Yea, Disney will do pay fp for the deluxe high premium guests that are very limited but I can't see them rolling this out across the board anytime soon. Not saying its never going happen just not anytime soon.
 
You have to keep in mind, none of those examples cost $5K-$8k for a vacation. Yea, Disney will do pay fp for the deluxe high premium guests that are very limited but I can't see them rolling this out across the board anytime soon. Not saying its never going happen just not anytime soon.

Why are you assuming everyone's vacation to Disney is going to cost $5K-$8K? I'm going for 4n/5d and it's costing me $2K (without any discounts BTW), and that's only because I'm staying at a moderate instead of value, so it could've been less. I could easily spend just as much as that if you broke it down into per day if I went to, say, Busch Gardens. Hell, I live 3 hours from Six Flags over Texas and a one day trip there easily - easily - costs me $300+ per day. So, for my vacation to Disney, it's costing me $500 per day. What I'm saying is, in the grand scheme of things, Disney isn't that much more expensive than another amusement park. The difference is you get the price tag up front. Sticker shock. And those other parks are already charging for fast passes. Do I think it's right? No. Am I excited at the thought of it? No. This whole topic, now that I think about, makes me think I'm kind of surprised they're not already doing it. I'm more upset that they're charging for parking at the resorts. There you don't have a choice. Paying for the privilege of passing long lines is your choice.
 
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Why are you assuming everyone's vacation to Disney is going to cost $5K-$8K? I'm going for 4n/5d and it's costing me $2K (without any discounts BTW), and that's only because I'm staying at a moderate instead of value, so it could've been less. I could easily spend just as much as that if you broke it down into per day if I went to, say, Busch Gardens. Hell, I live 3 hours from Six Flags over Texas and a one day trip there easily - easily - costs me $300+ per day. So, for my vacation to Disney, it's costing me $500 per day. What I'm saying is, in the grand scheme of things, Disney isn't that much more expensive than another amusement park. The difference is you get the price tag up front. Sticker shock. And those other parks are already charging for fast passes. Do I think it's right? No. Am I excited at the thought of it? No. This whole topic, now that I think about, makes me think I'm kind of surprised they're not already doing it. I'm more upset that they're charging for parking at the resorts. There you don't have a choice. Paying for the privilege of passing long lines is your choice.

I was using those numbers as examples but yes, the majority of guests visiting WDW as a family vacation is paying 5k or more, if your doing a 5 day Disney vacation for 2k then you must be in driving distance cause a family of 4 would cost $1,900 for 5 day ticket and that's absolute base 1 park only ticket. So to compare a $55 six flags ticket to Disney is completely absurd. You take that $1,900 for base tickets and add in flights, hotel, transportation and food not including spending money and your at a $5k low value Disney vacation. I've personally spent a week at six flags, week at cedar point, week at dollywood and not one of these vacations even came close to our Disney vacation and we buy base tickets and stay offsite. Yea, if you want to go premium and pay the highest price offered at six flags and book a $500 a night suite and compare that to the cheapest Disney vacation possible, you could probably get them comparable. Not sure what your point is here but mine was just saying that Disney is already one of the most if not the most expensive theme park vacation available, so yea these other theme parks can add the Express line cost and there still way cheaper than Disney and that because Disney is already so expensive, they have to be careful about adding more cost to already extremely expensive vacation. Six flags AP ticket $73 and Disney AP ticket $1,200.
 
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I was using those numbers as examples but yes, the majority of guests visiting WDW as a family vacation is paying 5k or more, if your doing a 5 day Disney vacation for 2k then you must be in driving distance cause a family of 4 would cost $1,900 for 5 day ticket and that's absolute base 1 park only ticket. So to compare a $55 six flags ticket to Disney is completely absurd. You take that $1,900 for base tickets and add in flights, hotel, transportation and food not including spending money and your at a $5k low value Disney vacation. I've personally spent a week at six flags, week at cedar point, week at dollywood and not one of these vacations even came close to our Disney vacation and we buy base tickets and stay offsite. Yea, if you want to go premium and pay the highest price offered at six flags and book a $500 a night suite and compare that to the cheapest Disney vacation possible, you could probably get them comparable. Not sure what your point is here but mine was just saying that Disney is already one of the most if not the most expensive theme park vacation available, so yea these other theme parks can add the Express line cost and there still way cheaper than Disney and that because Disney is already so expensive, they have to be careful about adding more cost to already extremely expensive vacation. Six flags AP ticket $73 and Disney AP ticket $1,200.

Maybe you haven't noticed, but Disney is adding cost at every turn, and not being careful about it in the least. I disagree with your comparison numbers, but I'm not going to argue about it anymore, either. Is Disney more expensive than Six Flags or Cedar Point? Yes. Should it be? IMO, yes. Are people starting to change their vacations because of the cost? All reports point to yes.

Look, all I'm saying is, yes, there's a base cost to any Disney vacation. After that, it's as expensive as you want to make it. In other words, you make choices. Paying for a fast pass, if it comes to that, would be a choice, not a requirement. Like I said, I'm more worked up about having to pay to park at the resorts than I am about the possibility of having to pay for fast passes. But that's just me. I'm surprised they're not charging for fast passes already, honestly, especially for the "neighbor friendly" hotels. At least free fast passes would be another "perk" they could offer to those staying on site. But, if I were a betting man (which I am), I'd be willing to bet charging for fast passes in some form or fashion is coming.
 
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Well, you wouldn't technically be paying to get on the rides. You'd be paying for the privilege to get on the rides quicker. Many parks already charge for that privilege (Six Flags = Flash Pass, Cedar Point = Fast Lane Passes, Busch Gardens = Quick Queue, etc.). I think, if that's what's going to happen, it would be fairer (for lack of a better word) to charge the offsite friendly neighbor hotel guests a fee before they start charging onsite guests.
True. I know. But in way I wonder if at some point, if you didn't pay for a fast pass, would you actually have enough time in the day to wait for all the headliners?
 
There are so many folks out there who just get one FP after another right now. If WDW went to a paid system with a restricted number of FPs, (as some people have suggested) that would be a really shock to the system of people who use them all day, every day. It would be interesting to see how people adapt to that sort of change if it were to happen.
 


There are so many folks out there who just get one FP after another right now. If WDW went to a paid system with a restricted number of FPs, (as some people have suggested) that would be a really shock to the system of people who use them all day, every day. It would be interesting to see how people adapt to that sort of change if it were to happen.

Yes, exactly. Part of the value of a Disney ticket is the fastpass, this is part of why there so much more expensive then other parks. This is built into Disney ticket as it makes things equal for all that purchase. U can buy a UO ticket buy 2 day base get 2 day free, that's a 4 day base ticket for $235 which is half the cost of Disney but if you add in the Express pass, depending on the date it could cost $70 - $140 a day. Disney has already considered the cost of having an Express line and decided to make it part of all their tickets across the board and so the cost is already built into their tickets, only difference is nobody has the option to opt out. So for Disney to just up and add pay per fp would devalue their tickets even further and I can't see them doing this. At least without changing their entire system and making fastpass a separate system and remove the fp from their tickets and then dropping the price of their tickets with no fp options and then selling fp separate, similar to UO. Disney is not currently giving away free fp, that cost is part of the ticket and one reason their tickets are as high as they are.
 
The fact that they have the Maxpass for online fastpasses at DL tells me they probably regret not charging when they went online at WDW. Started at $10 per day, now $15. Used it on 2 trips, loved it. Nice it’s same day only. $15 is reasonable.
 
Started at $10 per day, now $15. Used it on 2 trips, loved it. Nice it’s same day only. $15 is reasonable.
That's reasonable for DL, I think. But people stay much longer at DW, esp. those coming from another country. 2-3 weeks is not unheard of, with tickets of 10 days (US) or more (outside US) and that would be much more expensive to add to their trip. I wonder if Disney would continue to give travelers from other countries different deals than US residents?
 
Yes, exactly. Part of the value of a Disney ticket is the fastpass, this is part of why there so much more expensive then other parks. This is built into Disney ticket as it makes things equal for all that purchase. U can buy a UO ticket buy 2 day base get 2 day free, that's a 4 day base ticket for $235 which is half the cost of Disney but if you add in the Express pass, depending on the date it could cost $70 - $140 a day. Disney has already considered the cost of having an Express line and decided to make it part of all their tickets across the board and so the cost is already built into their tickets, only difference is nobody has the option to opt out. So for Disney to just up and add pay per fp would devalue their tickets even further and I can't see them doing this. At least without changing their entire system and making fastpass a separate system and remove the fp from their tickets and then dropping the price of their tickets with no fp options and then selling fp separate, similar to UO. Disney is not currently giving away free fp, that cost is part of the ticket and one reason their tickets are as high as they are.
Interesting point. I never looked at fastpass being part of the cost of the ticket because it’s not unlimited nor is it guaranteed for the rides you wanna use it for. At Universal I get my Express pass and know I can use it whenever I want at any ride that offers it. At Disney I’ve had to try and plan those Fastpasses 60 days in advance only for that planning to go out the window if the ride goes down or if my kid gets crabby. Not something I would wanna pay for as part of the cost of my ticket.
 
I was using those numbers as examples but yes, the majority of guests visiting WDW as a family vacation is paying 5k or more, if your doing a 5 day Disney vacation for 2k then you must be in driving distance cause a family of 4 would cost $1,900 for 5 day ticket and that's absolute base 1 park only ticket. So to compare a $55 six flags ticket to Disney is completely absurd. You take that $1,900 for base tickets and add in flights, hotel, transportation and food not including spending money and your at a $5k low value Disney vacation. I've personally spent a week at six flags, week at cedar point, week at dollywood and not one of these vacations even came close to our Disney vacation and we buy base tickets and stay offsite. Yea, if you want to go premium and pay the highest price offered at six flags and book a $500 a night suite and compare that to the cheapest Disney vacation possible, you could probably get them comparable. Not sure what your point is here but mine was just saying that Disney is already one of the most if not the most expensive theme park vacation available, so yea these other theme parks can add the Express line cost and there still way cheaper than Disney and that because Disney is already so expensive, they have to be careful about adding more cost to already extremely expensive vacation. Six flags AP ticket $73 and Disney AP ticket $1,200.

$2000 for a 4 night stay at Disney is probably a price for a couple.
  • Hotel: $1000 ($250ish a night at a moderate)
  • Tickets: $300 per person ($100ish per day for 3 days? You don't go to the parks on "travel" days.)
For two people, that's $1600, for three it's $1900, for four that's $2200. Maybe you eat as cheap as possible? I dunno.

But yeah Disney is typically a $6k trip for my family of 5 for a week.
 
I haven’t seen it mentioned that Disney World has many more Deluxe hotel rooms that Universal. Even Universal has limited their unlimited pass to their 3 deluxe hotels. Even with 4 parks versus 2, the number of deluxe rooms per park is higher and would eat up a lot of the FP capacity.
 
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I guess the biggest perk now would be transportation.

I think the early morning EMH hours they have now should stay in place if they are going to charge for FP. That would be a decent perk for those staying on site. I enjoyed them and from the numbers in the parks, so did many others. Seeing the Chinese theatre without the stage in front of it was a brilliant perk for hitting DHS before 7am.
 
There are so many folks out there who just get one FP after another right now. If WDW went to a paid system with a restricted number of FPs, (as some people have suggested) that would be a really shock to the system of people who use them all day, every day. It would be interesting to see how people adapt to that sort of change if it were to happen.

Indeed. I would seriously consider ending our Disney trips if the system changed too much. I could live with a nominal fee, but if the cost got out of hand, or if the system changed to where I couldn't grab FPs at will, it may be the end of our Disney days. I really dont think this is going to happen or if it did the price would be such that many such as myself would just eat it and move on. In a small way a benefit could be obtained by charging for FPs as there would be much fewer people using FPs on a daily basis. My real fear, and what would stop or greatly reduce our park visits, would be limiting the number per day.
 
I think when FP+ was introduced, that upset a lot of people who liked the older paper ticket FP system. People thought the FP+ system was too restrictive. However, being able to reserve FPs 60 days in advance was definitely a perk of the new system. If they do start to charge for FPs, they need to add some other sort of value like they did when they upgraded the original FP system. Also, the trial run of buying extra FPs for club level guests is certainly proof that charging for FPs is where this is all headed.
 
$2000 for a 4 night stay at Disney is probably a price for a couple.
  • Hotel: $1000 ($250ish a night at a moderate)
  • Tickets: $300 per person ($100ish per day for 3 days? You don't go to the parks on "travel" days.)
For two people, that's $1600, for three it's $1900, for four that's $2200. Maybe you eat as cheap as possible? I dunno.

But yeah Disney is typically a $6k trip for my family of 5 for a week.

Exactly. We have AP and our upcoming trip (family of 4) staying at YC room only is $6700+ for 8 nights not counting the CL FP+ we purchased or food.
 
Exactly. We have AP and our upcoming trip (family of 4) staying at YC room only is $6700+ for 8 nights not counting the CL FP+ we purchased or food.

That's why I stay at Pop. We paid $1130 for eight nights in September.


I'm sorry. People who pay that kind of money (A) are nuts and (B) have no right to complain about the price of things at Disney. You simply don't have to spend that kind of money on a Disney vacation, period.
 
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