If there’s one thing you can count on at Disneyland, it’s that whenever a change happens at the park, a certain section of fans will have strong feelings about it. Sometimes those changes are objectively for the better, like to make rides more inclusive or remove ties to problematic movies in Disney’s vault. And sometimes those changes fundamentally alter the park experience in ways that many people find hard to justify.
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Right now, a large segment of Disney fans are having a difficult time understanding the company’s choice to implement Genie+, a new, paid system that replaces the previously free FastPass+ system at Walt Disney World, and both the free physical Fast Pass tickets and the MaxPass at Disneyland.
“Disney making fast pass a paid system is making me rly sad but i guess that’s life,” tweeted @realvibekill.
“Absolutely gutted that Walt Disney World are doing away with fast passes and started a pay to play Genie+,” @spainwithlauren tweeted. “Disney holidays are already expensive enough without squeezing even more out of people.”
Under this new system, Walt Disney World guests can pay $15 per day and Disneyland guests can pay $20 per day for access to a “Lightning Lane,” replacing what used to be a Fast Pass line. Those fees add up: for a family of four, it would cost $80. However, that flat fee only includes some of the park rides and attractions. Many of the more in-demand rides, like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, will have an additional, as-yet-undisclosed per ride fee.
This new system comes in a year when Disney CEO Bob Chapek has laid out what he calls a “more aggressive” financial strategy that also includes the first-ever paid ride upgrade, an toy that enhances rider score on Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure in Disney California Adventure’s new Avengers Campus.
A YouTube video from the Disney Parks channel released on August 18 explaining this new Genie…