Paid Fastpass Program on the Way to Disneyland Paris

by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 8, 2021

 

While FastPasses at Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California are still on hold, Disneyland Paris has announced the debut of a new “Premier Access” Fastpass program.

 

According to Disneyland Paris, “Disney Premier Access is a paid service that gives you speedy access to some of our most popular attractions thanks to a dedicated fast lane.”  The program replaces the formerly free FASTPASS program.

 

Disney Premier Access, debuting this summer, will be available for Big Thunder Mountain; Peter Pan's Flight; Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy; Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast; Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain; Star Tours: l'Aventure continue; The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror; and Autopia.

 

The limited availability option will cost between €8 to €15 (roughly $9-$18 dollars) per attraction, with the price per Guest and attraction varying according to the attraction and the day of visit.  Guests can access the program via the official Disneyland Paris app on their phones, or in person at City Hall or Studio Services, and will be able to see the attractions that are available during their visit via the app.   

 

“Once you're in the Disney Parks, choose an attraction and select the Guests that want to ride. You'll be offered a time slot, depending on availability,” instructs Disney. “After you've paid, head to the dedicated line of the attraction during your allocated time slot and present your QR codes (in the ‘My Disney Premier Access’ section of the app).”

 

Guests must be inside the park to participate in the Premier Access program, and can either purchase Premier Access through the official Disneyland Paris app, or from a Cast Member, again, at City Hall or Studio Services. Guests do not need a smart phone to participate in the program, but can work directly with Cast Members to make purchases.  Disney Premier Access is valid only on the day of purchase. There are a limited number of Disney Premier Access spots available for each time slot.

 

Guests can only buy Disney Premier Access for one attraction at a time. If they would like to buy Premier Access for another attraction, the Guest needs to make a separate purchase, select the attraction they want to ride, and if there are time slots available, complete the purchase. 

 

According to Disneyland Paris, Guests can “buy a maximum of 3 Disney Premier Access for each attraction per Guest per day, and up to 12 Disney Premier Access for one attraction and one time slot at a time, depending upon availability.”

 

In addition to the new fee-based program, Disneyland Paris is also offering a “Standby Pass,” a free option that allows guests to sign up for a virtual queue so they can experience other attractions while waiting their turn at the first attraction. It does not guarantee immediate access to the ride when your turn comes, however.  The service will be activated during certain times of the day, and will be dependent on day-to-day needs in the parks. The Disneyland Paris app also will be the vehicle to book a Standby Pass with a specific return time. 

 

In Florida, Disney World’s FastPass+ system did not return when the theme parks reopened post-COVID closures last summer. There, the program allowed guests to pre-book up to three FastPasses per day for free, and once those passes were used, guests could select additional passes, one at a time, pending ride availability. In California, both traditional and paid FASTPASS programs exist. Disneyland California’s MaxPass is a $20 a day program that mixes the ability to make Disney FASTPASS choices with unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads from the day. Both the Florida and California FastPass programs are currently suspended, however. No word yet on their return.

 

Additional information on the new Disney Premier Access program may be found on the Disneyland Paris website.

 

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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.

 

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Ticket Sale Dates Announced for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 6, 2021

 

Disney fans – at least the ones in California – start your engines!  Disney has released the dates for ticket sales for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.  Theme park ticket sales will resume on April 15 at 8 AM Pacific Time.

 

At this stage, California state guidelines still limit attendance to California residents only.  The parks are scheduled to reopen on April 30.

In addition to valid theme park admission tickets, park guests must also make mandatory theme park reservations.  Advanced online reservations will open on April 12, no earlier than 8 AM Pacific Time, for visitors with previously purchased tickets. Other guests may begin making park reservations after they purchase tickets, beginning April 15.  Guests with multi-day tickets must make a park reservation for each date of their visit.

 

Guests must also abide by mask and social distancing guidelines to enter the parks.

 

Park Hopping will be available when the parks reopen. According to Disney, “Guests who purchase or have a Park Hopper ticket and an appropriate park reservation may visit the second park on the same day beginning at 1 PM. Please check the Park Hours calendar and the Disneyland app for the most up-to-date Park Hopper hours, as they could start earlier at a later date, depending on the day and park. Guests with Park Hopper tickets must make a park reservation for the first park they plan to visit AND enter that first park prior to visiting the other park. At this time, a park reservation is not required after the first park, however, reservation requirements are subject to change. Please note that the ability to visit the other park will be subject to that park’s capacity limitations.”

 

FASTPASS, Disney MaxPass services, Magic Morning and Extra Magic Hour offerings are suspended at the current time as Disney manages the State’s theme park/COVID reopening guidelines and attendance capacities.

 

For detailed and up-to-the-minute instructions, check the Disneyland website.

 

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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.

 

Please support the efforts of DisneyBizJournal.com to bring news, analysis and commentary on Disney to readers such as yourself. Make a contribution right here via PayPal. Thanks!

 

Disney World Gets Official Go Ahead to Open, But Disney Has Cancelled Your Dining Plans and More

by Beth Keating

News 

DisneyBizJournal.com

May 29, 2020

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings announced today (May 29) that Disney World had been granted the official go-ahead from the state to move forward with their re-opening plans. (The Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force had granted their approval on May 27, with additional approval from Mayor Demings, before sending the re-opening plans to the state for their okay.)  Guests can officially begin returning to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11^th, with Epcot and Hollywood Studios following on July 15^th.  SeaWorld was also granted approval to open June 10^th. Universal had previously been granted approval to open June 5^th. 

That’s good news, right? Well, now for the bad news.  

I’m actually afraid to post this part of the article. It seems that, right now, as soon as I write something up, Disney releases another change, and the first article is scrapped … then the second, and the third. I wrote a story last night, and by the time I woke up this morning, the details of Disney’s opening plan had changed yet again.

This particular change, though, had me hyperventilating. I awoke to discover news that my Disney dining reservations were being cancelled.  We had a trip planned for later this year, and I had gone into work late on the morning of my 180 days-out-booking-window so that I could get the reservations that we wanted. By some miracle, I had managed to get each of the reservations that were on our wish list. Some of these tables had alluded us for years, but this time, we got everything we wanted, and in the time zones we wanted. The only thing still hanging was an open spot for Space 220, on the outside shot that it might actually open sometime during our lifetime.  One could only dream.

To people who are used to making hotel reservations nearly a year ahead of time, booking dining reservations 180 days out (yes, you need to decide where to eat six months ahead of your meal!), and arranging Fast Passes 60 days out, changing things on the fly is a little disconcerting.  I will admit to being the crazy Disney mom with the spreadsheets. It doesn’t matter that I have the My Disney Experience app, I still rely on paper printouts, color coded, with confirmation numbers dutifully cataloged. Magic Kingdom is loaded on the page in red; Animal Kingdom is in green; Hollywood Studios is purple… you get the picture.  It’s obsessive, I know.

So, fast forward to today, when my dining reservations went out the window. Although the reservations were currently still showing up on the My Disney Experience app at noon, I’m sure they’re going to disappear at any moment. According to a posting on the Disney Parks website: 

As a result of limited capacity, we have made the difficult decision to cancel all existing dining reservations and experience bookings, including Disney dining plans included in packages. Unfortunately, due to capacity reductions, the following will be cancelled: 

- Dining reservations

- Offerings and experience bookings such as behind-the-scenes tours

- Disney dining plans included in packages

- All FastPass+ selections.

Along with the cancellation of special experiences and dining packages, there are also changes coming to the hours of park operations, likely due to the absence of the nighttime fireworks shows which will not be taking place, as well as the need for extra time for cleaning down the parks under the new cleanliness guidelines. Extra Magic Hours are also temporarily suspended. 

Dining reservations, when they do reopen, will shift to a 60-day booking window to allow guests to make reservations closer to their actual arrival dates, and guests can expect that dining and tour experiences will operate under more limited attendance numbers. New ticket sales are also on pause. These changes are all being made to prepare for a new Park Reservation System that will have guests making reservations ahead of arrival for specific entry to the parks under reduced attendance limitations. Existing ticketholders and APs will be given priority in rebooking before the window opens to new ticket holders. According to Disney, guests who booked Resort hotel reservations with a Free Dining Package for dates between May 28, 2020 and September 26, 2021, will receive an automatic cancellation of their Disney dining plan and are invited to rebook their vacation for a later date with a 35% room discount. New bookings at Resort hotels are also paused while those with existing reservations are doing the rebooking dance. And, as most people are already aware, masks, temperature checks, and distance markers on the ground are already part of the Disney experience. 

While these cancellations are enormously disappointing (we’ve tried to get some of those dining reservations over the course of multiple trips without success, and now they are gone again), I have confidence that Disney will figure out a way to make this right for guests. COVID-19 sent a huge whammy in their direction, too, and they are reacting to moment-by-moment changes just as we all are in our everyday lives.  Information is bound to change yet again as Disney prepares this new Parks Reservation System to come online. Some guests and Annual Pass Holders are already getting emails about procedures to change their reservations. And, of course, this is all contingent on whether or not the country experiences a rebound of COVID-19 cases, which could bring things back to a standstill.

Here are my apologies in advance, but by the time you read this, the information may already be obsolete.  I’ll just leave you with two links at which Disney has been posting their updates.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/experience-updates/

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/travel-information/

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See related...

“Disney Announces Reopening Dates for Walt Disney World”

“News on Theme Park Reopening Plans – Universal Orlando’s Big Step”

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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.

7 Reasons Why Hollywood Studios DOES NOT Rank At the Top of the Walt Disney World Parks

by Beth Keating

Review/Commentary

DisneyBizJournal.com

September 28, 2019

Disney’s Hollywood Studios as the best of the four theme parks in Walt Disney World?  Ummm, no. Contrary to what was posted earlier this week by the chief prognosticator of this website (see “7 Reasons Hollywood Studios Ranks Best Among Walt Disney World Parks” by Ray Keating), Disney’s Hollywood Studios doesn’t take the top spot.  Galaxy’s Edge may be the hot new commodity drawing visitors to the park (although most days, a visit to Andy’s backyard in Toy Story Land is still king, with longer wait times for Slinky Dog than a visit to outer space), but there’s more to the Studios than the citizens of Batuu. 

Here are a few reasons that make Hollywood Studios a lower priority in my book.

1) Thrill Ride Heaven. Unless you’re a thrill-ride seeker, Hollywood Studios offers few rides for those not looking to spill their lunch.  As a motion-sickness prone guest, I’m not going anywhere near Tower of Terror or Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was a one-and-done for me, and I got tricked onto Star Tours twice by a youngling who wouldn’t ride without me.  (I don’t blame him – Rex was a terrible pilot.) My son is an upper-teen now and doesn’t need my chaperone skills. So, Bon Voyage C-3PO - Watch out for the storm troopers, and have a nice flight. Even Slinky Dog makes my stomach bounce, and Alien Swirling Saucers makes my head spin.  That leaves me with Toy Story Midway Mania. Which I adore.  And rode four times last trip.  By myself. While they were riding the big thrillers.

2) Too much sitting. See item #1.  If you aren’t doing the thrill rides, the rest of the park is just too much sitting. Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and Muppet Vision 3-D are all fabulous shows, and I would miss them terribly if they were gone, but it is a lot of time spent sitting in a theater in one day. On the last trip, I saw For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along three times in one day because it was inside and air-conditioned while I was waiting for the rest of the thrill-ride seekers to use their FastPasses. (I also thought it was a funny show, and slightly different each time, so I didn’t mind too much.) Plus, it fit the schedule.

3) Timing. See item #2. If I am relegated primarily to stage shows, it makes my day a lot tougher to schedule, since I am now on Disney’s clock, rather than mine. Many of the shows operate according to precise schedules, and you can’t just wander up to a turnstile when you darn well please.  I actually left the park at one point on a particularly hot day to go throw in a load of laundry back at the resort, and met up with the family later.  How weird was that?

4) Stupid Tier System.  Hollywood Studios’ new Tier System, which took effect the same day Galaxy’s Edge opened on August 29th, makes it hard to get FastPasses for the big attractions.  All of the rides except Star Tours are now Tier 1 (meaning that you effectively only get one Tier 1 per day, since you can only choose one of the rides from Tier 1 as one of your day’s three FastPass selections).  Sure, you can squander FastPasses on shows that you don’t really need FastPasses for anyway because they hold large capacity crowds, just so you can get to that sweet spot where you can get a fourth FastPass after you’ve used the first three, but by then there are no FastPass slots open for the big attractions. Maybe by some stroke of luck someone gave up their FastPass, and you refreshed your My Disney Experience App several dozen times, did the hokey pokey and turned yourself around while facing southeast on the third Tuesday of the month, and were granted an extra FastPass by the FastPass gods, who just happened to be in a giving mood.  Maybe then you had FastPasses for Tower of Terror and Slinky Dog on the same day.  Consider yourself fortunate. If not, well, at least the queue lines are well-themed and interesting. We had to spread it out over several days.  Hurray for Park Hopper!

5) Closed Attractions.  While Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is an exciting new venue (it should really have been made into a fifth gate!) and totally immersive and stunningly designed, I still miss the attractions that have left our planet. Catastrophe Canyon was so much fun, and I inexplicably miss both the Hunchback of Notre Dame stage show and Bear in the Big Blue House (those were the days with my sweet little toddlers!)  The falling confetti and streamers from Hunchback’s Feast of Fools scene was a thrill, and I even have a few pieces of the streamers in my scrapbook. And while the Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt show was ungodly hot all the time, it really fit with the theme of seeing inside the movie-making magic. Right now, the Chinese Theater also stands silent.  I miss The Great Movie Ride immensely.  It was one of my favorite attractions of all time. No doubt I will love Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway when it eventually opens, but right now, there’s a big ole hole in the center of the park. They tried to hide it behind a Star Wars stage, but it didn’t work.  Oh, I did try to watch the Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away live action stage show several times, but never made it all the way through. Standing directly in the mid-day sun while the Star Wars characters paraded out on stage with some movie clips and a few fireworks effects behind them didn’t make up for the loss of John Wayne and the Yellow Brick Road.

6) Magic of the Movies Process.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love the immersive quality of Batuu (especially at night, when it becomes particularly captivating), and was even willing to rope drop at 5:45 in the morning to be there before the larger crowds. But I miss the days of Disney-MGM Studios, when we got to see the water effects tank, the costume departments, and the movie props on the Backlot Tour. I even miss walking past the working artists on the tours, seeing them sketching upcoming movie scenes. Visiting Batuu may make you feel like you are a character in the movie, but the old backstage tours were an interesting look at how the movies were actually made.

7) Osborn Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.  Don’t. Get. Me. Started.  This is one of the things that I truly miss about this park. It is one of the most magical memories I have of the holidays at Disney. Oh, the amazing feeling of watching my then-four-year-old absolutely dazzled by the lights, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.  I have the 3-D glasses tucked away that turned the streetlights into Christmas angels. As much as I liked Cars, Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy just doesn’t have the same pizzazz as the millions of dancing lights and all the hot chocolate you could drink. 

So, what would I rank as #1? Interesting question.  Let me think about that for a while.  I’ll get back to you tomorrow. Right now, I’ve got a debate to finish.

Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.

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