Featured Image Courtesy: The Walt Disney Company / Lucasfilm
Rise of the Resistance, at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios, is the resort’s most popular attraction. Now, with the Lightning Lane (i.e. paid FastPass) available, Disney has decided to stop reserving some spots for normal guests. What I mean by that is that WDW News Today is reporting that Disney hotel guests — who can get Lightning Lane passes before other guests — are buying up all the Rise of the Resistance spots before anyone else can. And now, Disney appears to not be reserving any Lightning Lane slots for non-hotel guests. This means that if you want to pay up for a Lightning Lane pass for Rise of the Resistance (approximately $100 for a party of five + part ticket and reservation), you’re also going to need to stay at a Walt Disney World hotel. This truly is becoming an epic nickel and dime.
However, for CEO Bob Chapek, the economics are checking out. People are buying up Lightning Lane passes for the flagship attractions like Rise of the Resistance at an incredible rate. Other paid line skips appear to not be nearly as popular. But for Flight of Passage and Rise of the Resistance, consumers have already shown an appetite for paying an extra hundred-or-so dollars to get their parties past the line. Remember, this was a free service just a few years ago for all guests. Given that Chapek has used the pandemic to monetize the service, shareholders are likely to be very happy with what amounts to a DLC model being brought into Disney World. Sources say that other paid services through Genie+ are planned in the next few years. These might include nighttime reserved viewing, best seats at shows, and more.
As long as guests continue to buy up these options, Disney is going to continue rolling out these paid perks. For now, the Disney hotels are actually a bargain before they raise the rates post-pandemic… so it’s not a bad deal to stay in a value or moderate resort. It should be expected that Disney will have a heck of a rate increase in the future, however, since inflation has pushed most hotel rates nationwide to new highs.
If you are planning to ride Rise of the Resistance with a Lightning Pass, our best suggestion at this point is to stay at a Disney hotel and begin attempting to get the pass via Genie+ at 7:00 AM on the day of your Hollywood Studios reservation.
For those not staying at a Disney hotel, or not interested in paying for a newly-named FastPass, wait times are often around 2 hours for Rise of the Resistance. It’s not a bad idea to be at Hollywood Studios before opening and head directly to Rise of the Resistance.
Fri-YAY! (Well, for everyone except Rise of the Resistance, it’s ALREADY down this morning 🙃) pic.twitter.com/AA1xYOi7DQ
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) October 22, 2021
Unfortunately, Rise of the Resistance is also an attraction with many different components, leading to its frequent downtime. Be prepared when buying a Lightning Lane pass that the ride may break, and your only resolution will be receiving a gift card for your troubles.
So let us know your thoughts on Rise of the Resistance and the new Lightning Lane procedures with Genie+ in the comments below. There are certainly big positives and big negatives, which is a sure way to bring out strong opinions!
