Last year, FastPass+ was temporarily suspended when Disney World reopened. At Disneyland, FastPass and MaxPass were also temporarily suspended and are still not available.
Main Street, U.S.A.
Earlier today Disney announced that FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass will be retired, and some NEW, PAID services will take their places at Disneyland and Disney World. Just how much will these pay-to-ride programs cost and what do you need to know about them? We’re breaking it all down here.
As we mentioned, today Disney announced that FastPass and FastPass+ will NOT be returning to Disney World or Disneyland. FastPass and MaxPass also will not be returning to Disneyland.
FastPass is Not Returning
In their place will be a NEW, paid system. There will actually be two separate new ways for guests to skip the standby lines and reserve what rides they want to go on, and both will require additional payment.
Disney Genie+ TLDR
As we know, Disney will be introducing Disney Genie, a free, “virtual personal assistant” as part of My Disney Experience this fall. A secondary, paid service will be called Disney Genie+. This paid service will replace FastPass and MaxPass. It will allow guests to bypass standby lines at select attractions by paying a base price: $20 per day per ticket at Disneyland Resort and $15 per day per ticket at Disney World.
Jungle Cruise FastPass Entrance
Base Price Disney Genie+ (Ride Less Popular Rides For One Base Price)
With Disney Genie+, guests will be able to to select return times (for 1 ride at a time) for as many of the included attractions as they’d like. This service can be used in all four parks with a park hopper ticket. (For those who used the old FastPass system or have experience with MaxPass in Disneyland, this will be familiar.)
Attractions in the base-priced DisneyGenie+ have not been officially announced, but we’ve heard directly from Disney via a media call that they will include attractions like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Haunted Mansion.
Disney Genie+ Popular Attraction Upcharge (Pay An A La Carte Price PER RIDE To Experience The Most Popular Attractions in Disney World)
Now, if you want to ride Disney’s most popular attractions without a wait, there will be a second paid upcharge (which is separate) that will allow guests to select return times for a maximum of two specific, more popular attractions.
I repeat: the attractions featured in these two paid options will NOT be the same. Not-so-popular rides will be included in the base price of Disney Genie+ (or you can wait in the standby line for free). Popular rides…ya gotta pay separately to ride (or stand in the standby line for free). The price for the popular ride a la carte option will vary depending on the date, attraction, and park — which means, the more in demand the ride…the more it’ll cost you to ride. Yep — your favorite Disney rides could now have SURGE PRICING. lol except we’re crying.
Splash Mountain Sign
Freaked out? Totally Confused? Us too.
Let’s break down all the info you need to know here in a step-by-step fashion:
Disney Genie
The first thing we want to briefly talk about is Disney Genie. Disney Genie itself is a FREE service that will be available as part of the My Disney Experience app in Disney World and the Disneyland App at Disneyland Resort.
©Disney
Disney Genie will help guests plan their visits based on their interests, the rides they want to go on, and more. Disney Genie will give guests a personalized itinerary and tip board based on what they want to see, show them forecasted future wait times, connect them with a virtual assistant, and help them place mobile orders, join a mobile dine walk-up waitlist for restaurants, and more.
©Disney
For example, you’ll be able to tell the Disney Genie what attractions you want to experience, etc. and it’ll create a personalized itinerary for your day, which is flexible and can be modified as your day continues.
Click here to learn more about Disney Genie.
Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lanes
What is It?
While Disney Genie itself is free, if you want to skip the standby lines and go through essentially what used to be called the “FastPass queue” then you’ll need to pay for the Disney Genie+ service.
©Disney
With Disney Genie+, you’ll be able to select the next available time to arrive at an attraction (sort-of like making a single FastPass+ selection) and use that attraction’s “Lightning Lane” (essentially the new name for FastPass+ lines).
©Disney
When your arrival time comes up, you’ll then head to the attraction, use the Lightning Lane, and skip the standby line.
How Many Selections Can You Make?
You’ll be able to make 1 of these attraction selections through Disney Genie+ at a time (sort of the way you could get one FastPass at a time way back in the day).
Galaxy’s Edge
Once tap in for your Lightning Lane selection, you can book another one. Ride that one, book another. Etc.
How Many Rides Are Included?
Not all rides will be available through Disney Genie+. This ability to select attraction return times through Disney Genie+ will be available for more than 15 attractions at Disneyland Resort, and over 40 attractions at Disney World.
So far, Disney has indicated that some of the rides that will be available through Disney Genie+ include Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
Haunted Mansion
You’ll be able to make these selections throughout the day, subject to availability.
What Else is Included?
At Disney World, Disney Genie+ will also include Disney PhotoPass Augmented Reality lenses. At Disneyland, your purchase of Disney Genie+ will include Disney PhotoPass downloads from that day. If you buy Disney Genie+ you’ll also get access to some special audio experiences in the app that will feature Imagineers and special guests. These audio features will let you learn fun facts about the attractions and other areas of the park around you.
What’s the Cost?
And now, the most important question you might be wondering — how much will Disney Genie+ cost? At Disney World, the cost will be $15 per ticket, per day. At Disneyland, the cost will be $20 per ticket per day.
You can purchase Disney Genie+ in advance for all of the days of your trip, but can only book attractions on the day of your visit. Yep, 60 and 90 day FastPass selections are GONEZO. You can now only book attractions on the day you go to the park.
When Can You Select Your Rides?
At Walt Disney World, guests will be able to make their first Disney Genie+ ride selection at 7AM on the day of their visit. At Disneyland, guests can make their first Disney Genie+ selection once they’re in the park.
Individual Attraction Selections (For Purchase)
So we’ve discussed Disney Genie and its FREE planning services. And we’ve talked about Disney Genie+ and its FastPass/MaxPass-like service that allows you to pick return times for 1 attraction at a time and use the lightning lane to skip the standby line…for a fee.
But, Disney has also announced that Disney Genie+ will have another paid option for guests. If you want to skip the standby line at select (more popular) attractions, you’ll need to pay for Disney’s Individual Attraction Selection service. This is similar in a sense to what we’ve seen offered at Disneyland Paris, where you pay a fee to utilize what was essentially the FastPass lane, but you pay just for that individual attraction.
©Disney
What Attractions Will be Included in This Individual Purchase Option?
The attractions offered through this individual purchase option will be different than those offered through the base-price Disney Genie+.
So far, Disney has indicated that the following rides will be included in this individual attraction selection option: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom, Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure Park, Rise of the Resistance in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Web Slingers in Disney California Adventure park, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in EPCOT. Disney will release the rest of the attractions in this group later this year.
Rise of the Resistance
Note that Disney has indicated virtual queue boarding groups will continue for free to all guests for Rise of the Resistance, but if you do not get a boarding group you can try to get a spot by using the paid Individual Attractions Selection option. The same will be done with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, which will use a virtual queue free to all guests when it opens (but when Individual Attraction Purchases become available, you’ll also be able to pay to schedule a ride at this attraction).
How Many Individual Attraction Selections Can You Make Per Day?
With this individual attraction selection, guests will be able to schedule a time to ride up to 2 high-demand attractions each day and use the Lightning Lane entrance during their scheduled time to ride. These two attractions can be at different parks if you have a park hopper ticket.
What is the Price for Individual Attraction Selections?
Pricing for this Individual Attraction Purchase option will vary by date, attraction, and park. Note that you do not need to buy Disney Genie+ in order to use this Individual Attraction Selection service. So, for example, if you JUST want to ride Rise of the Resistance and you don’t care about anything else, you do NOT need to purchase Disney Genie+ to ride it. You only have to pay the individual cost of that ride.
Off they go!
When Can You Make Individual Selection Bookings?
Note that these Individual Attraction Purchases can be made on the same day of your visit and used across multiple parks.
HOTEL PERK ALERT! At Disney World, if you’re staying at a Disney owned and operated hotel, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, or the Shades of Green Hotel you’ll be able to make your first Individual Attraction Selection at 7AM. All other guests will have to make their selections when the park opens.
Cars Land
Also, keep in mind that attractions will continue to offer standby queues or virtual queue options for guests not wanting to use any of these paid options. Essentially, you can continue to visit the parks and just join the standby lines as usual. You can also use the Disney Genie planning service for FREE if you want. Disney Genie+ and/or Individual Attraction Selections are completely optional. You can do none of these, all of them, or a mix.
Disney Genie is set to debut in the fall, and it’s our understanding that these new options (Disney Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection) will also debut in the fall.
©Disney
Check out the video below to see more information about Disney Genie, Genie+, and more.
Learn all about Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selections here.
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Disney is JUST a GREDY corporation Walt would be DYING if he wasnt already Frozen
they are grabbing cash from people hand over fist
Will the disability access pass be affected by these changes?
Wow! These Disney people must stay up all night to dream up these ideas to squeeze more money out of their guests! This is a disgrace…I sure won’t be paying for Fast Passes! AFter all the rich people pay for them, the standby lines will be minimal!
By $15 per ticket, do you mean per ride or a one day charge of $15 per ticket?
Good job on this. But a question – how will this affect Annual Passholders? I think the implication is that we would not be able to access anything until we entered the theme parks for that day.
Considering they throttle AP attendance first, I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if they put another hurdle in front of us. But we all agreed when we signed the contract that Disney gets to set the rules.
Good job this time, DFB – especially your editorial choice not to put a picture every other sentence. Paragraphs – what a concept, right?
This makes me so sad. Pricing people who can barely afford to take their kids to Disney right out of the equation 🙁
Very clever on Disney’s part. Not only do they make more money, but they can use Genie to crowd balance the parks by making attraction and dining recommendations. One thing I do like is making “reservations” the day of, instead of 60 days out with FastPass. That never made sense to me. They mentioned perks for Annual Pass holders, but nothing on DVC.
This is terrible news. 🙁 We knew it was coming, but still… Just awful.
I do not like this added the structure. The daily tickets are already very expensive. Now they’re tacking even more fees on top of that! Visiting Disney World is moving further and further down my list of wants.
Well, being rich is really tough on families and so I can see why they wouldn’t want the additional burden of waiting in line with ordinary folks. I never thought I would say this but looks like our 30th anniverary trip in January will be our last. Very, very un-Waltish.
Any word on how this will apply to passholders?
You keep referring to the stand by line is still free. IT IS NOT FREE. You pay for it with the park ticket fee or annual pass, etc. I guess you may refer to it as a perk. Well what happens when WDW takes that perk away? Like so many other perks. Now the park fee or pass would only get you into the park and then apparently WDW would be charging to ride each and every ride. I believe that just might happen.
Disney, you don’t think you are charging enough already. You have already raised food prices which were out of sight to begin with, and now you are going to charge for fastpass too. I hope people will soon realize that you are just out for the bucks and stop going to the parks. How do you think a family of 4 is going to afford this??? Greed, just plain greed. My husband and I hold annual passes but I think we will soon think about cancelling them and find new ways to spend out money
Disney is making it extremely difficult to go. This may have ended our Disney relationship, it has simply gotten too expensive, too complicated and they literally sucked the life out of the parks. So long Disney.
LOL here we go again $$$$.
DISNEY HAS BECOME THE BIGGEST JOKE !
THEY JUST KEEP TAKING AND TAKING.
THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH IS NOW THE MOST EXPENSIVE.
Disney you are the worst.
Another example of Disney Parks trying to Nickel and Dime their guest and catering to the wealthy. I can accept the sperate cost for the head of the line option like Universal does. But the added up charges and the surge pricing is just greed and an insult to paying guest. At Universal it is a one time cost and you don’t need to go into the app and select the rides. You just to any ride, anytime and use the Xpress entrance.
Is it just me, because it seems the when new CEO Bob Chepek took over Disney has gotten real greedy and could care less about their long time loyal guest? Disney has always been greedy, but now it is getting out of hand for the common working class family. Under his watch, they got rid of the annual passes at DL and replaced with a lesser value passes tat offer more unless you but theta tier pass. Under his watch, the holiday events are an additional pay to go event that infringes on the regular park hours giving guest no going to an event less time at the park but still having to pay full price. Under his watch, they now cater to the wealthy will special hours and exclusive deals. As well as many other disappoints under his watch. Yes, maybe some of it has to do with the Pandemic, but it seems that the many recent Disney disappointments and disregard to the working class family’s loyalty has been under his watch. Rob Iger was a corporate business man, but as he grew Disney, he at least it seemed like he cared about the visitors, guest and fans and always took them into consideration.
So much for our annual Disney vacations. You do not stand in any lines at Disney World for free. You pay over $100 per person to stand in those lines. Over the nickel and dime price gouging. The camel’s back just broke.
I watched the information video with the panelist chat and it was disheartening to see all of them seemingly quite happy that Disney is finding yet another way to separate guests from a LOT of money with Genie+ and EXTRA Genie+. Seriously, not one, but two price tiers?
I am sure that many, many people including myself will be saddened by this news. It’s always sad to say bye bye to a free service. And I can totally understand the flood of annoyed Disney guests who will be undoubtably complaining about Disney’s choice to charge for this once free service to a paid one. But the point I would like to make is that I am not surprised, after all Universal and Seaworld have both charged for their similar service for years and years and people have been willing to pay for it. If us the guests weren’t so willing to pay they wouldn’t offer it would they.
This is absurd! More money on top of the cost of park tickets?
Never going yo be worth while.
After making and completing your first lightening lane selection there will be no availability at another selection. They will all be unavailable. Atleast with Fast pass you could have made three selections. Before you try to get more in the middle of the day and there were none left. But at least we were not forced to pay extra. This makes me furious. I cannot see how it can possibly work well and I cannot see how the average family can afford the extra cost on top of the cost of the ticket
so if i want to ride remy, i may not be able to, like rise of the resistance. i pay for a ticket into the park but unless i participate and/or am successful with the virtual line, i may not get to ride remy depending on my success and participation. there will be no stand by. and the LL is pay to play and even if you pay, you may not necessarily even get it because of the demand for LL for it on any given day. In addition, everything is time frames, you have to be available in a select time frame for it. So if I have an ADR for that time frame, I have to start to change that too. etc.
So if i buy disney genie +….. do i have to buy a pass to rise of the resistance or is that included in the $15 at disney world?
Disney has gone off the deep end. This is way beyond nickel and dimming. Walt Disney must be rolling over in his grave. He would be shocked at the Disney company’s fleecing of their customers.
Way too complicated and I dont want to spend my vacation on the phone. Thats ok plenty of other places are way simpler and way less expensive . Bye WDW it was fun while it lasted. A vacation should b fun not totally stressful !!!
I have very fond memories of Disney World and visiting with our family. Before covid we used to go once every year or two. However, I’ve questioned many of their recent decisions and this one has pushed me over the edge to not go back. It seems you get less and less service for more and more money and it’s gotten to the point that I’m not willing to pay.
I don’t know how much you relay back to Disney, but all of this stuff is just killing my desire to want to go. We usually save, and therefore sacrifice other things, to go to disney with our 3 kids. All these mandates and new upcharges is zapping the magic. It doesn’t feel worth it right now. We were last there is sept 2020 and it just wasn’t the same. I know they’re in a terrible spot, but it just makes me sad!
This makes me sad.
Disney management has found yet another way to rip off their guests.
Ok so let me get this straight, they are taking away magical express, cutting back the amount of time for early magical hours, allowing extra hours at night but only for deluxe resorts and now getting rid of the 3 fast pass rides per day you got for staying on site.
Now we have to pay each day to be able to use fast pass (which was Free) with no guarantee of how many we might be able to get per day.
They also are charging another fee for the most popular rides that even if we bought Genie+ are not included. So for those rides we have an option to wait for who knows how many hours and we all know how long the wait can be for Flight Of Passage, Mine Train , Rise Resistance or pay money so we don’t waste half a day in line.
So if this is the case maybe they should lower the admission ticket cost since all that gets you is entrance into the park to walk around and purchase food and merchandise and maybe get on a couple of rides depending on the crowd size for the day. They might as well go back to the days of the ticket book where you purchased the rides you want to go on since that is what is happening now.
This really stinks
P.s. on the positive if you book a stay at the Star Wars hotel you don’t have to pay extra to go on the Falcon and Resistance ride since it is already included in the $5000 hotel stay..
In a nutshell – this sucks!
Mr. Chapek appears to be the stockholders Genie, they should have left him in the bottle.
I beleive that Disney has learnt they can cash in on extras as “we” have shown in the past that if we can get more by paying more we will pay for it. Unfortunately my pocket book can not stretch to accommodate the extra money for a delux hotel to get that benefit of extra hours at the park.
This system is totally absurd.
I do not like to use my phone in the parks any more than necessary.
People with vision issues may have great difficulty dealing with Genie on their phones. They may have to bring an iPad or similar device into the parks to operate Genie.
I think/hope Genie will be dead within 2 years, and heads will roll.
So… after a family of 4 pays upwards of $2,000 for hotel and tickets, they’ll have to pay $60/ticket per attraction or wait in standby lines??? Tell me you don’t want my business without telling me you don’t want my business. Walt’s dream was an affordable family vacation. Not likely anymore!
So, if I’m understanding correctly, Disney is hitting people up for an additional $15 per person per day for what was essentially FP+.
Chapek is appealing to shareholders right now far more than the guests who feed the machine.
Family of 4 -2 adults and 2 kids
Tickets park hopper
$2,000
Hotel 5 nights
Port Orleans
$1,500
Transfers Mears
$118
Genie plus $240 extra
Estimated $10 per lightning lane for 2 rides per day for 4 $320
This does not include any food- souvenirs etc.
If you use this AWESOME new paid service, your ticket prices are now almost $2,600 for 4 people for 4 days.
THIS IS NUTS! I love Disney and have a trip planned for next July and I’m considering skipping the parks and just hanging at my outrageously priced resort!
I guess as long as people are willing to pay these ridiculous prices, they will keep jacking them up. I guess it’s better to have 10 people willing to pay $100 than 100 people paying $10. Perhaps when they can’t sell vacation clubs and hotels are sitting half empty, things will change.
Greed will DESTROY Disney. Walt is turning over in his grave. The PAID FOR LIGHTENING LANE was for years called the FREE FAST PASS LANE. The benefits of Genie Plus are not worth the additional cost. I came to Disney from out of state over 35 times. My last visit was just that, MY LAST VISIT TO DISNEY. Never Again. I am also selling my Disney stock because you may think this is a good financial move but it is not. The RICH WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD DISNEY BUT THE CROWDS IN THE PARKS, are middle class. BAD MOVE DISNEY .
Disney will have killed the golden goose! The genie and per ride charges On top of the already ridiculously expensive annual passport will make a Disney vacation not worth the cost. It’s time to cell the time share.
How much money grubbing can they be? Magic is officially gone for me, I’m taking my money to the Universal Parks where I can at least get a free express pass if I stay at a hotel that still costs less than Disney’s comparable ones. This is ridiculous! If we as fans don’t do something about it they’ll continue to take advantage.
Horrible how everything is now tied to your phone! When you just want to leave it in your resort room and enjoy what used to be known as a relaxing vacation.
I think this next trip will be our last. It was cheaper to spend a week in Iceland with tours.
AJ, Sarah and everyone at DFB, thank you for this info – but I do not like it.
I received the email about this today, and my first park pass is 10/17.
Do I dare assume this will be available by then?
Disney is out of their minds WE WILL NOT PAY THAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How m the world do they expect people to pay that we have been thru enough and now they want to do this r they trying to make this a rich persons place to go to there r more us than them and Disney is knocking all the people that want to go there and enjoy it out from going there the greed never stops and universal is loving what Disney is doing cause they know a lot of people will start going there they have only their selves to blame we r totally disgusted with Disney
Very disappointed in Disney. Just another money grab. The ability to just go with the flow is completely gone and now it cost you more money. Are they trying to go out of business?
For those without a smart phone that would like to purchase Genie+ and/or the individual attraction lightning lane passes, will Disney provide a way to accommodate those attraction reservations like they did with the physical fastpass+ stations throughout the park?
Hi,
I was wondering if you want to use Genie+, do you have to buy it for all the days you have a ticket for, or can you only buy it for a few days and attach it to certain days. For instance if you have a ten day park ticket but you only want to utilize Genie+ on the days you go to MK and HS, can you do that?
Thanks
Life long Disney fan, have hidden Mickeys in my tattoos. With this news I am done, WDW has always been expensive, but now its ridiculous.
Walt always said never replace something unless the thing you are replacing it with is as good as or better then the original, this is neither. People who knew how to use fastpass + could ride 12 rides a day easily, now you will be lucky to ride 5 to 7. Disney has officially lost all my business, we will not pay more for less of an experience . This is a very sad day for me and my family.
This is totally ridiculous.. If you have to pay for each ride then they need to lower the cost of park tickets,,Disney is going to price themself out of Business…
If I am traveling with a large group can I add friends to my app and make genie + reservations for them all?