Wanna buy a Fastpass? It will cost ya $50

They've also added the no-show ADR fee. I've never been charged it, nor did we abuse the system before it was added, but for me, it does make me reluctant to book ADR's.
This was a great move in our book! It really helped with ADR availability and curbed the crazy abuse of double/triple/quadruple booking that some were doing -- along with no longer allowing overlapping ADRs.
 
We are going to do this if it is still available in May. We are staying at CSR for the first 4 days then YC CL for the last three. We upgraded from BC LV to YC CL for $88/night. That $88 pays breakfast, snacks, drinks, appetizers and dessert (if we get back for them) for 3 of us. DS21 can do some damage to that $88 before we add in DH & me. We do park hop so we can get in the extra FP and 3 FP in our morning park, come back to the YC, relax, snack then head to a 2nd park where we will be guaranteed 2 headliners plus any extra FP that we find available. At $450 that is cheaper than the VIP Day of Thrills, WAT or most other 1/2 day tours that we would do. We most likely won't get back to WDW for 2 years (DD is getting married-there goes the vacation fund!) so it will be a nice way for us to end our trip and hold us over until we can return.
 
Non-expiring tickets. Non-hopping tickets. Every ticket used to include BOTH hopping and NEVER expired! It was actually something they touted in their ads! If you've only been going to WDW for ten years, then those pre-date your visits. MYW started in 2005. That said, four day hoppers in 2004 were $192-$202. In 2005, the new 4 day non-hoppers were $185.

It depends how far back you go in visits to WDW.

They've also added the no-show ADR fee. I've never been charged it, nor did we abuse the system before it was added, but for me, it does make me reluctant to book ADR's. Especially when WDW so very often seats us very late past our ADR time. Last trip, we made it on time, despite the monorail not working 100%, and waited over an hour past our ADR. WDW doesn't hold up their end, but they want to penalize me if I don't hold up my end?

WDW also used to offer a kind of after hours event in MK for a mere $10. Three hours in the park, minimal other guests- just $10! Few folks knew about it.

Ah, but there I go again posting some history.
And WDW perks that were semi-secret.

Honestly, just as nobody knew about the $10 nights, I think many guests won't even know about this program.
To me that’s ways that WDW has increased pricing not replacing things that used to be free with extras.
 
I would do this. I would do it for my next trip but I already have tickets left over from prior trip that did not have expire dates. So I don't qualify.

We have gone on the $300 VIP tour per person. You get 10 rides thru the FP line and lunch. So basically $30 a FP. Most peeps went back to their resorts after the tour. I drug my group to a park to use our 3 FP that I got for entering a park.

So now for $50 I get 3 extra on top of my 3. And I can use them how I choose.
 


Non-expiring tickets. Non-hopping tickets. Every ticket used to include BOTH hopping and NEVER expired! It was actually something they touted in their ads! If you've only been going to WDW for ten years, then those pre-date your visits. MYW started in 2005. That said, four day hoppers in 2004 were $192-$202. In 2005, the new 4 day non-hoppers were $185.

It depends how far back you go in visits to WDW.

They've also added the no-show ADR fee. I've never been charged it, nor did we abuse the system before it was added, but for me, it does make me reluctant to book ADR's. Especially when WDW so very often seats us very late past our ADR time. Last trip, we made it on time, despite the monorail not working 100%, and waited over an hour past our ADR. WDW doesn't hold up their end, but they want to penalize me if I don't hold up my end?

WDW also used to offer a kind of after hours event in MK for a mere $10. Three hours in the park, minimal other guests- just $10! Few folks knew about it.

Ah, but there I go again posting some history.
And WDW perks that were semi-secret.

Honestly, just as nobody knew about the $10 nights, I think many guests won't even know about this program.

The only thing you mentioned that you have to pay for now that you didn’t before is hopping, and the charge for that was added at least a decade ago. They haven’t recently started charging for anything that used to be free.

I went to Disney once in the ‘90s as a child. I had to wait until after I graduated from college and had a job (and therefore $$) before I could go back.

I welcome the ADR no-show fee. It stops people from booking ADRs they won’t use and opens things up for the rest of us.
 
I just thought of another aspect of this: you can't be two places at once, and at WDW, places are FAR apart!

The only way to eat in the CL is to BE in the CL lounge. If you are in the parks using FP, then you CAN'T be in the lounge at the same time. If you are in the parks using a 6FP plus the fireworks viewing, odds are strong that you will miss many of the CL food offerings, unless you want to spend your time going back and forth just to get some potato chips.

It sometimes takes an hour (or more) to get from the parks back to one's hotel via WDW transportation.


There's also the problem of ride/transportation breakdowns. The more I'm charged for a FP, the more upset I'll be if I can't get to the ride to use it.
 
The only thing you mentioned that you have to pay for now that you didn’t before is hopping, and the charge for that was added at least a decade ago. They haven’t recently started charging for anything that used to be free.

The value of a ticket drops significantly if it expires, because the risk goes up.
Maybe you've never gotten sick in the middle of a WDW week?

It is really annoying though when you try to answer someone's question, even giving details like dates, and then they come back with something kind of snarky like, "Yeah, but that wasn't recent."

I was trying to be helpful.
 


The only thing you mentioned that you have to pay for now that you didn’t before is hopping, and the charge for that was added at least a decade ago. They haven’t recently started charging for anything that used to be free.

I went to Disney once in the ‘90s as a child. I had to wait until after I graduated from college and had a job (and therefore $$) before I could go back.

I welcome the ADR no-show fee. It stops people from booking ADRs they won’t use and opens things up for the rest of us.
Fastpasses used to be available to anyone at the same time and it wasn't just three. Many good viewing areas for fireworks have been taken away for dessert parties. There are upsells during holiday parties which already cost quite a bit to attend. Also much has disappeared such as the nighttime parade, Innoventions, Wonders of Life and so on. While you can't really quantify those I still see these as makng passes less valuable.

I really, really don't care how people spend their money. They can light it on fire for all I care. I hate losing things though.
 
If this takes off the real losers will be AP holders and local residents. Unless they stay onsite of course.
 
No doubt it's coming. A price schedule for level of stay will be offered.
$50 - Club level
$65 - Delux Standard room
$75 - DVC
$85 - AP
$95 - Disney Steerage
$100 - Off property
 
No doubt it's coming. A price schedule for level of stay will be offered.
$50 - Club level
$65 - Delux Standard room
$75 - DVC
$85 - AP
$95 - Disney Steerage
$100 - Off property

Assume a family of 4 staying at All-Stars for 5 nights at $150 per night and who buys 3 days worth of passes for each family member. Total cost of room plus extra FPs is $1,890. Now assume a family of 4 staying at a CL room for 5 nights at $600 per night and who buys 3 days worth of passes for each family member. Total cost of room plus extra FPs is $3,600. If Disney's goal is to encourage booking more expensive rooms, this wouldn't do it. I suppose they could do something similar to what they do with "free" dining and only offer this at "rack rate" bookings. But even still, the gap between Steerage and first class is pretty severe.
 
My concern will be if they limit us to only 3 free fastpasses, you want more pay up.
 
Personally for me this is Disney stepping over the line. I love Disney and love the FP system but to allow guests to pay for additional FP window seems to slap all of the average people travelling to Disney in the face. $50 seems an absurd amount to pay to get onto an attraction/s faster, however people who can afford that and have that extra money available will obviously be able to take advantage of it. Others will not.
I still don't get why is it so bad to allow people to pay for what you get. It's always been that way dating back to the pay-per-ride era. I'm an "average person". We work hard to earn a vacation. I work the budget and credit card boards hard to get my flights discounted and stays cheaper. We hit up every discount we can from Magical travel companies to Gift-Carding to Ebates. We can not afford this without sacrificing something else. However we might make that extra push. Not sure yet. I've read about some people out here who have already bought this new offering, and I find I'm more jealously interested in their eagerness and enjoyment of this than bitter that they'll get something cool. For those who buy it, I'm sure it's a thrill. I'm kind of living vicariously for the moment since our trip isn't till June so we can't choose yet. :)

FWIW. At other parks you pay $50 and get crap. At Universal $50 buys you an ExP which gets you on "all rides once" via the "Wait with Everyone Else Who Got ExP Free Line" which is about the same as the regular line. At Disney if you spend $50 on this FastPass, you WILL get on their best rides, FAST. That is what is intriguing. It has real value where others have devalued their express options to junk levels.

It's true that it's life but it's still aggravating in this case. Disney used to provide many things as part of admission that they now want extra money for.

Aggravating? I just could not call this or the option to take large sums of money from those that choose to spend it aggravating. I get it that we're advocating for the little guy... but isn't that what the little guy wants when it comes to equality, tax reform, etc? To know that those who have more are paying more? This is REALLY EXPENSIVE. If Disney makes $150/pp on this from those who can, that's great. It means Disney is more effectively tapping people who make a lot more than me. Good on them.

I still maintain that you could send me to Disney World tomorrow -- No FastPasses, no ADRs, no "extras" purchased. And my kids and I would have a BLAST.

I welcome the ADR no-show fee. It stops people from booking ADRs they won’t use and opens things up for the rest of us.
No kidding! If people used to book every restaurant to have their choice of where to go in a day, I am glad that practice is stopped.
 
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I still don't get why is it so bad to allow people to pay for what you get. It's always been that way dating back to the pay-per-ride era Walt created. I'm an "average person". We work hard to earn a vacation. I work the budget and credit card boards hard to get my flights discounted and stays cheaper. We hit up every discount we can from Magical travel companies to Gift-Carding to Ebates. We can not afford this without sacrificing something else. However we might make that extra push. Not sure yet. I've read about some people out here who have already bought this new offering, and I find I'm more jealously interested in their eagerness and enjoyment of this than bitter that they'll get something cool. For those who buy it, I'm sure it's a thrill. I'm kind of living vicariously for the moment since our trip isn't till June so we can't choose yet. :)

FWIW. At other parks you pay $50 and get crap. At Universal $50 buys you an ExP which gets you on "all rides once" via the "Wait with Everyone Else Who Got ExP Free Line" which is about the same as the regular line. At Disney if you spend $50 on this FastPass, you WILL get on their best rides, FAST. That is what is intriguing. It has real value where others have devalued their express options to junk levels.

Im sorry but honestly you're wrong in your last paragraph. I love this "new" idea from Disney mainly because it comes closer to Universal and what they've done there. We've been huge fans of EP at U and it has been one of the main reasons we've switched more of our time there and away from Disney. I don't know about your experiences but we've now done Universal numerous times in the past 2 years and each and every time we've used express pass which has worked better than Fp+ in that we've had virtually no waiting using EP and we've had unlimited use simply by staying deluxe on property. (and yes as one of the off property options you can buy either unlimited or 1 ride on each ride ...which is around $39 to $79 for all the rides in the park) On one trip some of the main attractions had an hour long wait and ep was less than 10 minutes. We've waited longer(much longer) in Fp+ lines. So unless you were at U on Xmas day or similar I don't understand your comparison.
 
I'm not terribly concerned that Disney will expand the pool of guests eligible to purchase FP+. There simply isn't enough ride capacity of the top tier rides. However, I could see them adjusting the FP booking window. For example, Deluxe Resort guests can reserve at 80 days, Moderate at 65 days, Value at 50 days, offsite at 30 days. While we've stayed at all three levels, we primarily stay at Values because we're at the parks from open to close. I'd hate to see something like that implemented!
 
Im sorry but honestly you're wrong in your last paragraph. I love this "new" idea from Disney mainly because it comes closer to Universal and what they've done there. We've been huge fans of EP at U and it has been one of the main reasons we've switched more of our time there and away from Disney. I don't know about your experiences but we've now done Universal numerous times in the past 2 years and each and every time we've used express pass which has worked better than Fp+ in that we've had virtually no waiting using EP and we've had unlimited use simply by staying deluxe on property. (and yes as one of the off property options you can buy either unlimited or 1 ride on each ride ...which is around $39 to $79 for all the rides in the park) On one trip some of the main attractions had an hour long wait and ep was less than 10 minutes. We've waited longer(much longer) in Fp+ lines. So unless you were at U on Xmas day or similar I don't understand your comparison.

I'm sure the Express Pass is nice, but, aside from weekends and holidays, it's hardly necessary. We never get the Express Pass and seldom wait long for anything at Universal. On our last trip, we were there on a Thursday and Friday and breezed into most rides, either using the single rider or just regular standby, with 5-10 min. wait times. On Saturday, the wait times did baloon, I suppose because of local AP holders. So I don't think we'll be doing weekends there again.

Again, I'm sure the ExP is a nice perk, but I definitely prefer the free (so far) FP system.
 
Aggravating? I just could not call this or the option to take large sums of money from those that choose to spend it aggravating. I get it that we're advocating for the little guy... but isn't that what the little guy wants when it comes to equality, tax reform, etc? To know that those who have more are paying more? This is REALLY EXPENSIVE. If Disney makes $150/pp on this from those who can, that's great. It means Disney is more effectively tapping people who make a lot more than me. Good on them.

I just hope a lot of those extra profits get plowed back into the parks, because many of these perks for richer guests encroach on the vacations of the less wealthy guests. Numerous examples have been mentioned in this thread, e.g. the best fireworks viewing spots no longer being available unless you pay extra $$ for "dessert parties."

 
I've read about some people out here who have already bought this new offering, and I find I'm more jealously interested in their eagerness and enjoyment of this than bitter that they'll get something cool.
I'm right there with you. I can pretend that this is an inequity unbefitting of Disney, but if I am being honest, if the cost of a CL room and this add-on were immaterial to my budget, i'd be on it like white on rice.

but isn't that what the little guy wants when it comes to equality, tax reform, etc? To know that those who have more are paying more? This is REALLY EXPENSIVE.
Again, I agree. Once upon a time there was hand wringing that someday Deluxe folks would get extra FPs gratis. Now that extras are being offered at a high price, people are still complaining. Be thankful that they have to pay.

Consider the following:
I am going to WDW for vacation. At the airport I pass by the Airline Club that is open only to members who pay a lot for the privilege. I cannot go in. I board my plane. I walk through and past the first class seats that are there for people who paid far more than me for their ticket. They get a meal and drinks. I get pretzels. I get to my hotel. The person in front of me gets an upgrade to a suite because he spends far more each year with this hotel chain than I do. The person behind me will stay in a room that allows access to the Club Lounge with free breakfast and afternoon cocktails. I pay less for my room and get no such perks.

Everywhere I turn as I travel, I see people who pay more get more. I don't know why I would choose to pick my battle with $17 Fast Passes. The option is available to me should I choose to pay, same as that first class seat on the plane. What would irk me is if Disney offered this perk to a subset of guests who were in some class that I could not join no matter how hard I tried. If it were only offered to brown eyed people, I'd go nuts because I could never qualify. But as it is, this pilot program is no different than American Airlines having planes with first class seats that I have never purchased. I've never written a letter of complaint to the CEO over that inequity.
 
I'm right there with you. I can pretend that this is an inequity unbefitting of Disney, but if I am being honest, if the cost of a CL room and this add-on were immaterial to my budget, i'd be on it like white on rice.


Again, I agree. Once upon a time there was hand wringing that someday Deluxe folks would get extra FPs gratis. Now that extras are being offered at a high price, people are still complaining. Be thankful that they have to pay.

Consider the following:
I am going to WDW for vacation. At the airport I pass by the Airline Club that is open only to members who pay a lot for the privilege. I cannot go in. I board my plane. I walk through and past the first class seats that are there for people who paid far more than me for their ticket. They get a meal and drinks. I get pretzels. I get to my hotel. The person in front of me gets an upgrade to a suite because he spends far more each year with this hotel chain than I do. The person behind me will stay in a room that allows access to the Club Lounge with free breakfast and afternoon cocktails. I pay less for my room and get no such perks.

Everywhere I turn as I travel, I see people who pay more get more. I don't know why I would choose to pick my battle with $17 Fast Passes. The option is available to me should I choose to pay, same as that first class seat on the plane. What would irk me is if Disney offered this perk to a subset of guests who were in some class that I could not join no matter how hard I tried. If it were only offered to brown eyed people, I'd go nuts because I could never qualify. But as it is, this pilot program is no different than American Airlines having planes with first class seats that I have never purchased. I've never written a letter of complaint to the CEO over that inequity.
This is true. WDW could have offered these perks for free to those who book CL. I think it’ll decrease on the number who utilize it since you have to pay extra.
 

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