A whole lot has changed since FastPass made its debut at Walt Disney World 25 years ago. From FastPass to FastPass+ and Genie+, Disney’s engineers have developed three unique and distinct systems meant to help guests “Wait Less, Ride More”.
From the purity of “paper Fastpass” with its inherent equality, to the pre-planning and on-site-prioritizing of FastPass+, and onward to the revenue-generating Genie, we’re capturing “The Good” and “The Bad” of each. Be sure to vote in our poll on the last page to tell us which of these three systems – “flaws and all” – you’d most like to see in place at Disney Parks today.
“Paper FastPass” (1999 – 2013)
We have to remember that when FastPass was first tested in 1999, the concept was revolutionary. Disney’s FastPass allowed any guest the opportunity to gain priority boarding to major attractions, at no additional cost. Initially installed at just one or two major E-Ticket attractions at each park, FastPass soon spread to nearly all major attractions.
In practice, guests could secure a FastPass by visiting a small FastPass Distribution area (usually 4 – 6 tall kiosks) near a participating ride. A clock there would notify guests of the “return time” that that ride was currently distributing for – an hour-long window that advanced in five minute increments as FastPass capacity was booked into.
By scanning the barcode on the back of their admission media (ticket, pass, etc.), guests would receive a paper print-out either confirming their hour-long “return time” window, or notifying them that they were ineligible to join. After all, guests could carry only one FastPass reservation at a time, becoming eligible to collect another either once the “return time” window for the first had arrived, or after two hours had passed since they’d collected the first – whichever was sooner.
Behind the scenes, FastPass was what we’d now call a “virtual queue,” setting aside a portion (usually, a majority) of a ride’s hourly capacity to guests who were not physically waiting in line. In simple terms, imagine a ride could process 1,000 guests per hour. 700 of those “slots” were pre-booked by guests who would be told to return in some part of that hour. So even if only 299 people stood in front of you in the “Stand-by” queue, you were technically 1000th in line, with the “Stand-by” wait reflecting that.
The Good
FastPass was “free.” Or, as “free” as things at Disney Parks ever are. It’s probably wiser to say that FastPass was “included” in the often-exorbitant admission prices of Disney Parks. But to a guest, that’s enough, and there’s no doubt that FastPass was a point of pride for Disney and its fans; the kind of baked-in, priceless benefit that competitors couldn’t match.
FastPass was available to all, equally. When you think about it, it’s kind of wild that everyone had the same level of access to FastPass, whether they were staying on-site or off-site; Value or Deluxe; day-guest or Annual Passholder. It wasn’t “for sale” and you couldn’t buy more or better access. Obviously, there’s good and bad to that, but at it’s core, it’s a uniquely well-intentioned part of FastPass’s DNA. That also made it easier to stomach FastPass guests passing you in line for the rides you did not get a FastPass for; it meant that you’d simply prioritized a different ride and chosen to do this one Stand-by.
FastPass was real time and flexible. Whether you loved or hated it, paper FastPass was a system that worked in real time. Guests made choices as they went, collecting nearby FastPasses. (“Oh look! The wait for Indiana Jones Adventure is 40 minutes, or we can grab FastPasses and come back in an hour. Let’s grab FastPasses, do the Treehouse, get a Dole Whip, and stop by the Tiki Room, then it’ll be time to ride!”)
The Bad
FastPass was easy to manipulate. Theme park pros like us might list this under “The Good” of FastPass, because let’s be honest – we knew how to use it well. It wasn’t unusual for Disney “regulars” to get 6, 7, 8, or more priority boardings in a day while once-in-a-lifetime-ers only managed to get one or two – if they even knew it was free and available.
Technically, FastPass psychologically tricked us into thinking we waited less when we didn’t. Inherent in any line-skipping system is the notion that when some people get priority boarding, others get slowed down. So while an average guest might’ve been lucky to get 2, 3, or 4 FastPasses in a day and feel really good about that, it turned all of their other waits in the day into swampy, stagnant, “Stand-by” lines, meaning their average wait time over the day pretty much evened out.
FastPass required some effort. Surely one of the major drawbacks of paper FastPass was that return times needed to be collected from FastPass Distribution spots located at each individual ride. This task was often given to a member of the group known lovingly as “the FastPass runner” who would need to trek across the park with everyone’s admission ticket in their pocket to collect a FastPass for everyone. This “FastPass runner” needed to be one step ahead, planning out return times in real time and maximizing the payoff. (By late in its use, Disney was beginning to experiment with centralized FastPass Distribution for each land, with guests selecting which attraction in that land they wanted from a touch screen.)
The Long & Short
FastPass wasn’t perfect, but in many ways, the system feels like it still holds up! And not just because it’s nostalgic, but because fundamentally, it still feels fair, equal, and like a point of pride for Disney.
In 2017, Disneyland launched “MaxPass” – an optional, $10 per person per day add-on that basically gave purchasing guests the opportunity to book FastPass from their phone rather than walking to Distribution spots. MaxPass didn’t necessarily give guests more access; just a more convenient way to secure FastPasses, which otherwise remained free to all. In that window when FastPass and MaxPass overlapped, we saw what – somewhere in the multiverse – is still a picture perfect combination where Disney could generate revenue while still leaving the core system accessible to all.
But back in our universe, by time MaxPass debuted, Disney World had long ago done away with paper FastPass… which brings us to our next option…
FastPass+ (2014 – 2020)
In the mid-2000s, Walt Disney World began work on one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted. No, it wasn’t a fifth gate… but it was the price of one! With their eyes set on the 21st century, Disney began an initiative called “MyMagic+” – an unimaginable technological upgrade to Walt Disney World that was meant to equip the resort with a new, foundational, 21st century infrastructure.
You have to remember that when “MyMagic+” was in development, phones still flipped open. That explains the MagicBand – an all-in-one silicone bracelet that became the physical embodiment of the MyMagic+ initiative. That MagicBand – sent “free” to any guest staying on-site at Walt Disney World – would function as a room key, park ticket, charge card, and reservation-holder in one, representing the new cohesion between Disney World’s many dissimilar systems.
By time MyMagic+ officially launched in 2014, the billion dollar investment in the digital future of Disney World took the form of “My Disney Experience” – an app and website that synced with MagicBands and shifted vacation planning to weeks and months before a trip. That included the official end of paper FastPass, and the launch of FastPass+. Now, rather than making day-of, real-time FastPass reservation, guests would book their hour-long return windows weeks before touching down in Orlando.
The Good
FastPass+ was equal, equal, equal. For better or worse, democratizing FastPass access and baking it into trip planning meant that the days of frequent fliers getting 6, 7, or 8 FastPasses in a day while casual guests got two, one, or none was over. Now, every guest got exactly three FastPass reservations. Three. (Later updates allowed guests to book additional FastPass one-at-a-time after using all three.)
FastPass+ removed the day-of-chaos. Let’s be honest. In retrospect, there was something very comforting about knowing – somewhere between 30 and 60 days out from your trip – that you had successfully booked a return time for Flight of Passage and could rest easy the night before your Animal Kingdom day knowing you’d get on. And if you didn’t get a FastPass+ reservation for it, you could check back each day – frustrating for sure, but often rewarding, “gamifying” the FastPass process in a way some people enjoyed.
FastPass+ was still free. That much is probably obvious, but it feels worth saying given… y’know… what’s to come. And in retrospect, imagine the ability to gain priority access to Flight of Passage, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and Rise of the Resistance for free! That was the reality, and having to wake up early two months before your trip to book it doesn’t feel as much like a punishment now as it did back then!
The Bad
FastPass+ artificially inflated the resort’s FastPass inventory. In a perfect world, FastPass might be available or two or three rides at each park. That way, while you’re waiting for a return time for an E-Ticket, you have lots and lots of other rides to enjoy with fast-moving lines. But in order to provide enough FastPass capacity for everyone to have three pre-booked, guaranteed slots, Disney pretty much made every conceivable attraction a FastPass+ attraction – including those that didn’t need a priority queue, or indeed, were made worse by having one.
For example, the high-capacity Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean both got FastPass+. As a result, both rides that had featured short waits and continuously-moving lines since the ’70s suddenly ballooned into hour-long waits defined by stagnant
“Stand-by” lines created like a toxic byproduct of FastPass+. Likewise, 3D films and theaters across the resort joined FastPass+. So if you weren’t “in the know,” you might use one of your three precious FastPass+ reservations on MuppetVision or the Pixar Short Film Festival, only to find that the “priority queue” deposited you in the same lobby as everyone else, not saving a single minute.
FastPass+ tiered its attractions and limited guest choices. When selecting FastPass+ reservation, guests were limited to three, of course, but of those three, only one could be from a “Tier A” attraction. Obviously, that’s fair, but for fans, it was also frustrating. At EPCOT, for example, Soarin’, Frozen Ever After, and Test Track were all “Tier A,” so if you wanted to ride all three, you would have to wait Stand-by for two of them. Period. Your other two would have to be from the over-inflated category, forcing you to opt into a FastPass for an attraction that didn’t need it like Turtle Talk, the Pixar Short Film Festival, Journey into Imagination with Figment, etc.
FastPass+ began the stratification of access. Whereas paper FastPass was available to all equally, FastPass+’s pre-booked nature lent itself to an obvious “perk” Disney could begin to offer. On-site guests were able to book FastPass+ 60 days out + the length of their stay, whereas guests without a Disney World hotel reservation had to book FastPasses for each theme park day individually 30 days prior. Obviously that’s well within Disney’s scope to do, and on-site guests would no doubt list this as “The Good” of FastPass+. But in so doing, you basically had to stay at a Disney Resort Hotel if you wanted the best chance to book FastPass access to the most in-demand rides… the first crack in what had otherwise been an uncharacteristically equal treatment.
FastPass+ was easy to get “wrong”. Whereas decisions about paper FastPass were made in real time, comparing real wait times and making decisions based on the moment, FastPass+ basically left newcomers or first-timers to either delve into online guides or just make random decisions without knowing, for example, that if you waste your one “Tier A” FastPass on Alien Swirling Saucers, you’ll spend the rest of your day regretting it.
FastPass+ left no room for spontaneity. By far the biggest complaint about FastPass+ (and indeed, much of the MyMagic+ era) was that basically, it cut any joyful spontaneity or flexibility from Disney World. In the old days, you might’ve gotten a five day ticket and a seven night hotel and just seen where you wanted to go each day. But with FastPass+, you needed to know in April that you would be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios riding Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster between 1:05 PM and 2:05 PM on June 7th. Likewise, Annual Passholders essentially got the Fastpass+ equivalent of scraps for their spur-of-the-moment drop-ins to the parks.
The Long & Short
With FastPass+, Disney was clearly trying to utilize the suite of new technologies available to it. Shifting everything to an app in 2012 was bold (and in retrospect, it’s funny that they also needed “My Disney Experience” computer terminals in each park for the sizable chunk of guests who didn’t have a smartphone available in their party). By shifting planning to weeks before a visit, FastPass+ did do some good in simplifying a trip itself; but the cost was that guests felt they’d lost spontaneity and choice.
They got it back alright… but at a price… literally…
Disney Genie+ with Lightning Lane (2021 – Today)
Even if FastPass had become FastPass+ and shifted to pre-visit planning and prioritization of on-site guests, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that FastPass would last forever. Sure, international Disney Parks had toyed with various paid-for priority-boarding systems, and you could certainly argue that Disneyland’s MaxPass had showed how Disney could charge for more convenient access to booking even as the foundational system itself remained free and available to all… but thanks to its culturally-engrained, no-cost, good-will popularity, the end of FastPass would happen when pigs fly.
Then, in 2020, they flew. The COVID-19 pandemic saw every Disney Park on Earth shutter as countries tried to mitigate the spread of a novel infectious virus. Each re-opened in alignment with national and local guidelines, but with severely reduced capacity and physical distancing requirements, none offered FastPass. Instead, all guests waited “Stand-by” (or just, y’know, in a line), convincing even FastPass’s most ardent defenders that, yeah, maybe having just one line and no priority boarding would actually be pretty nice.
But it was short-lived. Disney had been talking about a service called “Disney Genie” for years, promising that it would intelligently assemble trips, alert you to open reservations, and offer recommendations. But post-pandemic, the service had been commandeered by the appetizing opportunity to finally turn Disney’s priority boarding into a revenue generator. The rules and bylaws directing the add-on, upcharge “Disney Genie+” have changed a thousand times since the “service” launched in October 2021, but there are a few standards.
In general and at Walt Disney World, Genie+ is a ticket add-on whose price fluctuates based on “demand” (whatever that means) and must be purchased each day individually. Once you’ve bought into the system, you can then select one-at-a-time return times for that day, but from your phone.
The Good
Genie+ returns spontaneity… kind of. Disney’s marketing for Genie+ initially focused on the idea that the system was really in response to fans missing the spontaneity that FastPass+ lacked. It’s true that Genie+ returns priority boarding reservations and ride selections to day-of and rolling return times (like paper FastPass) booked through the My Disney Experience app (like FastPass+ / MaxPass)… And to its credit, that is a nice thing that does allow guests some flexibility. (Unfortunately, the Park Reservation system means you have to have pre-selected which park you’re going to be in anyway, so it ultimately doesn’t help much in that regard.)
Genie+ removes the ride tiers of FastPass+, restoring an upper hand to fans. Again, this is a good thing and a bad thing, but from the perspective of the audience reading this article, its definitely a plus that Genie+ no longer has “tiers” restricting you to just one of the park’s “big” rides. You can, in theory, ride Test Track, Frozen Ever After, and Soarin’ with Lightning Lanes if you can expertly book and balance throughout the day. The only limitations are that (unlike FastPass) you can only use each ride’s Lightning Lane once per day and some rides are not included at all (see below).
Genie+ makes a whooooole lot of money. For those who follow corporate Disney chatter, it’s no secret that – like every other entertainment company on Earth – Disney is struggling to figure out how to make its streaming service, Disney+, reliably profitable. (Streaming services require continuous, never-ending content generation. New shows and moves must continuously be shoveled into the furnace. Like, forever.) Disney Parks are picking up the slack. As anyone who’s seen guests waiting in line for a popcorn bucket will tell you, the Disney Parks practically print money. But post-Genie+, Disney Parks have reported record profit and record per capita spending. That would be a very hard spigot for CEO Bob Iger to turn off when the eyes of Wall Street are on Disney.
Genie+ is “relatively” low-cost… When Genie+ launched in 2021, it cost a flat $15 per person per day. Now, that price is demand-based and has reached a ceiling of $35 per person per day (so far). That’s relatively low cost compared to other parks’ line-skipping system. Don’t get us wrong, even $20 per person per day adds up on a typical family’s multi-day visit. Disney enthusiasts are certainly right when they say that Universal’s line-skipping system starts at $100 (and goes as high as $380) per person per day… but of course…
The Bad
… but Genie+’s low cost comes with a service to match. Comparing Universal Express to Disney’s Genie+ is really comparing “apples to aspargus.” Genie+ just unlocks a system with the same or more limitations than paper FastPass had: one-at-a-time selections, hour-long return windows, and only once per ride, all in a competitive, app-based environment that includes all-day phone use. Disney even edited its own Genie+ web pages a few months into the system’s use to add fine print that “on average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using the Lightning Lane entrance if the first selection is made early in the day” – fewer than the free FastPass+ guaranteed!
Genie+ requires 6:55 AM wake-ups every day of your vacation. Seriously. Your first Genie+ selection becomes available each day at 7:00:00AM. Sleeping in even a minute or two can mean missing the most “in-demand” Lightning Lane at the park you’re visiting, meaning that your $15 – $35 per person has immediately lost a good portion of its value. The “FastPass runner” of old has evolved into the “Genie+ waker-upper,” setting 6:55 AM alarms every day to buy Genie+ for everyone and get positioned to refresh and join the hottest available E-Ticket immediately. And we say “available E-Ticket” because…
Genie+ does not include the most popular ride(s) at each park. Almost unthinkably, buying Genie+ doesn’t give you the opportunity to book priority access to the hottest attraction at the park. For those rides, you’ll need to buy an Individual Lightning Lane costing somewhere between $9 and $25 per person for a single access to the old FastPass queue. In other words, if you want Genie+ for most Lightning Lanes, plus Individual Lightning Lane access for the park’s most popular ride, you might expect to spend around $45 per person, per day. (Confusingly, “ILLs” are also governed by a different set of rules, including when you can buy them and how many per day.)
It’s just different when people are paying to skip you. There’s really no other way to put it. When you waited “Stand-by” in the FastPass days and saw returning FastPass guests merge in front of you, you knew – even subconsciously – that you A) had the choice to get a FastPass to this ride but decided to prioritize another, and B) had your own priority boarding experiences for the day. Being passed by people who paid just sets a very different tone, and establishes a stratification of guests that FastPass didn’t. Which means…
Genie+ tells guests to pay to recreate the formerly-free experience they expect. At Universal, a $140 per person Express Pass ain’t cheap, but it will provide you with a premium experience and a luxury day. At Disney Parks, buying Genie+ basically just provides you with the experience that used to be free. That means that if you choose not to buy Genie+, you get an actively bad experience, worse than what used to be. It’s gross, obviously, that Disney’s already-steep admission prices require a daily, extra-cost add-on just to get the “status quo” experience. So much so that we genuinely can’t imagine why Disney didn’t just raise ticket prices by $15 post-pandemic and keep the beloved, well-regarded FastPass “free” with admission!
The Long & Short
Genie+ pretty much obliterates decades of good will from Disney guests. FastPass and FastPass+ may not have been perfect, but so far, fans, loyalists, and tourists alike seem to agree that Genie+ is… awful. Bad. Evil. And you can imagine why that’s a difficult thing to Disney to tackle. After all, guests say they hate it; but man do they buy it. Record profits don’t lie, and neither do the number of guests who flock to Genie+ each morning, buying the service and launching into a day of app-based micro-transactions as Mobile Orders, Individual Lightning Lanes, and other add-ons fill Disney’s coffers with tens of thousands of dollars per second.
And of course, the old adage was, “If you don’t like it, vote with your wallet.” But as we’ve mentioned, not buying Genie+ is subjecting yourself to an intentionally less-than experience, spending the whole day watching as guests pay to skip you. It’s… not good.
Or so we think. But now that we’ve reviewed Disney World’s three eras of line-skipping, we have to ask you… Which system do you think is the best? We’re talking “flaws and all.” Take the good and the bad of each and tell us, which is the optimal priority boarding experience for Disney Parks and which would you like to see in the parks today?
Which of these systems do you think should become the permanent priority boarding process at Disney Parks?
A) Paper FastPass
B) FastPass+
C) Genie+ / Lightning Lanes
D) Stand-by only!
Let us know your thoughts by voting in our poll below or by leaving us a comment here or on our Facebook page.
