It’s a tough day to write about something like theme parks or entertainment. In fact, it’s been a tough week. Every day, the news has been filled with worse and worse information from Afghanistan, to the point that it fills any moral person with pure shame. It has been a week in which we’ve watched the United States act more poorly than anytime I can remember, and yet, we must continue to cover entertainment on this site because it is our job.
You’d be forgiven for missing the news about The Genie App and paid FastPasses — now called Lightning Lanes. I’ve been leaking information about this new upcharge from Disney for months, but it was only in the past few days that the company decided to go public with it. The response has been almost universally negative, but Disney was aware that would happen. After all, the new Genie+ service is essentially a watered-down version of the old paper FastPass system, but this time costing a family of four nearly $100 additional per day.
Of course, Disney is also preparing to charge guests even more if they’d like to skip the lines for the most popular attractions. That “surge charging” will be based on how in-demand the ride is for the day, but you can bet your bottom dollar it’s not going to be cheap. And so, we’re looking at a Disney World and Disneyland that can easily charge an additional $80 per ticket for individuals interested in skipping lines each day.
While Disney fans may be annoyed by these new increased costs, most are probably unaware that Disney’s plan is to ease them into even more paid services on Genie+. Just as I reported about the new passes coming for the past months, I also talked about additional add-ons that Disney isn’t discussing yet. This is the frog in the boiling pot concept. If Disney released all their coming plans for Genie+ monetization, fans would be up in arms. But by announcing just a few freebies are costing money, they’ll more easily be able to introduce new fees down the road.
So what are some of those other fees we expect to roll out with Genie+ over the next year or so?
- Paid Meet ‘n Greet Line Skips
- Premiere Viewing Areas of Nighttime Shows
- Attraction Bundle Loot Chests (i.e. Lightning Lanes for a bundle of attractions)
- Select Restaurant Line Skips
How much each of these might cost is yet to be seen. However, these are the additional paid services for Genie+ that our insiders have been discussing, and there’s no reason for Disney not to make money off of them. The only thing slowing them down is the knowledge that dumping all these services on the public at once would be a PR pain. Still, don’t be surprised to see them start showing up over the next twelve months.
7 day vacation for a family of 4:
Genie+ for 7 days = $420 (Gets you Tier 2 FastPass ride again)
Then could pay approx. $10-15 each for the EXTRA Lightning Lane FP Tier 1 rides (limited 2 per day) = $560-$840
Theoretical TOTAL: $980-$1,260 for something that used to be free.
— DSNY Newscast (@DSNYNewscast) August 21, 2021
The DLC monetization of Disney Parks has just begun. If you think Lightning Lane charges are the start and end of it, you’re in for a rude awakening.
