3. Walt Disney World’s Genie+
Walt Disney World was the first resort to debut FastPass when, in 1999, the free priority-boarding virtual queue system was tested at the then-new Animal Kingdom’s Kilimanjaro Safaris. It was also the first to get rid of it.
As part of a vast reimagining of technology’s role in planning a trip to Walt Disney World, the resort launched FastPass+ in 2013. Factoring virtual queue reservations into the larger hub of vacation planning, FastPass+ allowed guests to make selections up to 60 days in advance of a visit, with perks for on-site guests and tiered choices... but of course, it was still "free" (read: included with park admission).
As with a whole lot of other guest perks, that disappeared when the parks reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a year, the parks simply operated with no priority boarding queues, returning to the days of one, fast-moving line. But in October 2021 – just after the resort’s 50th Anniversary celebration launched, a whole new (and rather complex) suite of line-skipping options were introduced… and unsurprisingly, none of them were included with park admission.
Across the resort, FastPass queues were relabeled “Lightning Lanes.” But how you get into them isn’t so straightforward. Most attractions’ Lightning Lanes can be accessed by buying Disney Genie+, a ticket-add on that costs $15 per person, per day.
Clearly built on the bones of FastPass+, Genie+ Lightning Lanes are booked virtually via the Disney World app, but day-of and one-at-a-time with rolling availability windows like legacy, paper FastPass. (In Disney World’s typical, exhaustingly procedural complexity, the first Lightning Lanes must be booked at 7 AM, and if you miss that first minute, you’re likely to miss out on expedited access to each park’s most in-demand ride.)
But that’s not all! Each park's most popular ride (and sometimes rides) has a Lightning Lane that cannot be booked through the runic processes of Genie+. Instead, skipping the Stand-by line at the most in-demand ride(s) requires the completely separate purchase of Individual Lightning Lane access.
In short, most rides can be booked one-at-a-time while-supplies-last with rolling return windows after the daily $15 purchase of Genie+, but some rides require one-off, a la carte, demand-based pricing purchases of single-time return-window entry that every other resort would call "Premier Access." Individual Lightning Lanes can theoretically vary in price from $7 to $18 per person depending on the ride and the day... and of course, it has its own layers of rules – like on-site guests getting first dibs at 7 AM while all others have to wait until park opening, by which time "ILL" rides may have completely sold out of priority boarding slots.
So yes, Disney essentially managed to sell guests the formerly-free FastPass attractions twice, separating it into two distinct products. If you want to access both the Genie+ Lightning Lanes and a single Individual Lightning Lane at a park, expect to pay $33 per person.
That’s still a far-cry from the $100 “Premier Access” bundles other resorts sell, but there is a difference: Genie+ doesn’t guarantee you priority access to anything, and certainly not “anytime” access! Instead, buying into the system merely gives you the opportunity to book a return time, subject to availability. (Disney itself advises that “on average,” Walt Disney World guests who purchase Genie+ can access “two or three” Lightning Lanes, if their first selection is made immediately at 7 AM.)
There’s no question that Genie+ is a very different system than Premier Access… Its lower entry cost makes it more accessible (and easier to apply to multi-day visits). Separating out each park’s most popular ride as an a la carte “Individual Lightning Lane” at least theoretically raises it to a higher tier of priority access, reducing demand (and yes, earning Disney more free money). But the system’s ridiculously convoluted rules, reliance on technology, and lack of guaranteed access hasn’t made many fans…
4. Disneyland’s Genie+
Unlike Disney World, Disneyland never made the switch from legacy, day-of, paper FastPass to digital, pre-booked FastPass+. That makes sense since pre-booking ride access a month or two in advance wouldn’t jive with Disneyland’s lower-key, locals-focused audience versus Disney World’s master-planned, week-long, walled garden vibe.
However, in 2017, Disneyland did launch MaxPass. “MaxPass” wasn’t so much a new system as a new, convenient way of accessing FastPass. For $10 per person per day, guests essentially paid for the convenience of being able to snag FastPass return times via the Disneyland mobile app instead of having to walk all the way to a ride's distribution kiosk to scan a ticket and get a paper print-out. (The $10 upcharge also gave guests access to their PhotoPass downloads for the day, and let guests book their next ride after 90 minutes instead of 2 hours.)
Of course, the price for MaxPass was elevated to $15 per person per day after just a few months, but largely, it seemed worth it given the “plussed” access – a true service of convenience. And so, it seemed that free FastPass and optional MaxPass add-on would coexist, happily ever after.
Of course, the chance to start from scratch post-COVID was too good to be true for Disney executives. In late 2021, Disneyland’s own Disney Genie+ service launched, as did Individual Lightning Lanes (for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Radiator Springs Racers, and Web-Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure).
In classic Californian fashion, Genie+ at Disneyland cost slightly more than at Disney World ($20 per day). But given that Disneyland’s two parks have more rides than all four of Disney World’s and it still includes PhotoPass like MaxPass did, you do get more for the price. Disneyland’s “rules” are also slightly altered, so guests must enter the park before making their first selections – for most of us, preferable to 7AM wakeups. Given that (and how closely it sticks to MaxPass precedent), Genie+ has been better received at Disneyland, but it’s still not exactly a beloved fan-favorite.
Meanwhile, back overseas...
Comments
It’s irrelevant what you call them, this is simplyDisney trying to get yet more and more money from its guests. As if the tickets weren’t expensive enough, these systems are divisive and unfair. How can a family who have scrimped and saved to take the kids to Disney then afford to shell out yet more on these access passes? The Fastpass system was fair and equitable and worked extremely well. It just didn’t make Disney any extra cash.