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Disneyland Paris: General Discussion

Benjsh said:
They don't have as much wiggle room when it comes to WDW. It's already over 100 dollars on the gate entrance fee for Magic Kingdom. Asking people to then fork out for Fast Pass too wont go down well and you need Fast Pass in WDW like no other place in the world.
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Disneyland Paris isn't much cheaper. One day undated tickets are £90 which is comparable to the $119ish for the WDW parks. Although Paris seems to be more often £62 a day if you are choosing specific days, but at WDW most people buy 5+ days of tickets which also brings the price down a long way. All the three western Disney parks are fairly comparable in price really with California being most expensive.

I would actually think that California would have the worst reaction to any removal as they are still operating the original style FP with a small option to pay to book on the app (instead of going to the ride entrance).
Whereas at WDW they already have FP+ where you had to book 60 (for on site guests) or 30 (for everyone else) days in advance, so they had moved to a different system where on site guests had a big advantage. Given therefore many WDW guests got used to paying more to stay on site and for additional early entry or late night parties etc its probably easier to sell it to the vacation guests.
Disneyland has a lot more locals and passholders.
 
In fairness, making FP paid might have benefits for the main queue. As much as I did enjoy FP+ on my last visit to WDW (it’s a nice way to give everyone the same opportunity for queue jumping), I did notice it had quite an impact on the main queue; a fair proportion of guests being admitted onto rides were FP+ guests.

As such, if the pass becomes paid, then its impact on the main queue will be reduced. Admittedly, I may have been slightly less conscious of things like Fastrack in 2016 than I am now, but on my last Universal Orlando visit, I don’t remember Universal Express (which is paid) having much of an impact on the main queue at all; if it did impact the main queue, the impact seemed very negligible. I cite Universal as an example because they are quite arguably Disney’s main rival.
 
AstroDan said:
Money grab. Dire news for your average guest.

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Matt N said:
In fairness, making FP paid might have benefits for the main queue. As much as I did enjoy FP+ on my last visit to WDW (it’s a nice way to give everyone the same opportunity for queue jumping), I did notice it had quite an impact on the main queue; a fair proportion of guests being admitted onto rides were FP+ guests.

As such, if the pass becomes paid, then its impact on the main queue will be reduced. Admittedly, I may have been slightly less conscious of things like Fastrack in 2016 than I am now, but on my last Universal Orlando visit, I don’t remember Universal Express (which is paid) having much of an impact on the main queue at all; if it did impact the main queue, the impact seemed very negligible. I cite Universal as an example because they are quite arguably Disney’s main rival.
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I agree with both of these to an extent.

Disneyworld (I'm less sure on Paris) allocate around 80% of the queue to FastPass+. Those who don't get a FastPass are waiting in a long slow moving line for the headline attractions. reports are that for the last year without FastPass the lines at WDW have generally been very fast moving, non-stop in many cases.

So yes charging for queue jump (as most major parks do) is a money grab, if it results in less than half the guests buying it, the standby queue should move at a much quicker rate meaning the average time waited might not be that bad for most guests, particularly on high capacity attractions (which is most of the Disney headliners). Although it may mean low capacity stuff could almost be fastpass only if they oversell passes I guess, but then on other attractions if the standby is moving well most people won't buy them.
 
Horrible decision, it has the potential to outprice your average guest from making the most of their already expensive tickets. The only way they could partially salvage this is if they price high & allocate low which remains to be seen.
 
evilcod said:
Horrible decision, it has the potential to outprice your average guest from making the most of their already expensive tickets. The only way they could partially salvage this is if they price high & allocate low which remains to be seen.
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queue jump passes should be priced so they are too expensive for the average guest, that way there isn't many users and main queue can move quickly. If they are priced low and sold to everyone then as you say it just adds to the ticket price.
Free fastpass at Disney was usually 80% FP and 20% standby. I think paid for FP should be priced so that it operates more like 40% FP and 60% standby, therefore the main queues will move quicker, but have more people in them.
 
Yep, it largely depends on how many they sell. With FP/FP+ many main queues at a number of Disney parks are just miserable as they hardly move - the difference after ride close when it goes to 100% main is staggering, a far bigger difference than at the Merlin parks. If they manage to sell as many as they're issuing for free then it'll just be the worst of both worlds.
 
Been a member of a Disney Forum there been up roar from Disney hotel guests just getting 30 mins extra morning hours in the parks. So there’s talk of tier systems at all Disney hotels where if you stay in
Deluxe hotels extra evening hours& 3 FP.
Moderate hotels extra Morning hours & 3 FP
Value hotels extra Morning hours& 1 FP
That is per day staying onsite.
 
There's not much "magical" about having to get your wallet out every time you want to go on a ride without waiting.

Disneyland Paris ought to focus on building a new damn ride (it's been 7 years across both parks and 15 in the main park since a new attraction "proper", right?) rather than this diseased foetus of a decision.

Dreadful!
 
AstroDan said:
The problem is, the more paid fastpass rolls out, the harder it is for your Eftelings and Europa-Parks to avoid it.

Urgh.

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Those two are far from the only parks on Earth that lack a paid Fastrack option. Doesn’t Paultons not have one?

Also, I don’t think paid Fastrack is necessarily always a negative thing. Sometimes, a Fastrack system can have little to no impact on the main queue; I know I’ve already talked about it, but I seem to remember Universal Orlando’s Express system having a very negligible impact on the main queues, if any at all.
 
Once you start charging for queue jumping, there's no going back. Now DLP have gone full throttle with it, I expect many others to follow. It's a sad state of affairs. I miss the days when you could go to a park, pay one clear price and all get into the same queue.

I don't buy the argument that it'll shorten the wait times for the standby queues by that much either. Disney have spent decades pick pocketing guests as soon as they enter their premesis and I don't think this will be any different. They'll likely oversell them making their parks more miserable for everyone.
 
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The fast pass system was introduced as Disney management knew if guests were just stood in a queue for 2-3 hours they were not spending money in the restaurants or shops. Guests pay over £100 each at Alton Towers for park entry, parking and fast track tickets so if they will to pay €90 a ticket they will pay to jump the queues on the busiest rides.
 
Matt N said:
Also, I don’t think paid Fastrack is necessarily always a negative thing. Sometimes, a Fastrack system can have little to no impact on the main queue; I know I’ve already talked about it, but I seem to remember Universal Orlando’s Express system having a very negligible impact on the main queues, if any at all.
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Its dirty business practice that keeps the suits happy, no one else.
If other companies see this working and generates profit, they'll be swayed.
There's no going back.
 
It is called hard capitalism!
Matt N said:
Those two are far from the only parks on Earth that lack a paid Fastrack option. Doesn’t Paultons not have one?

Also, I don’t think paid Fastrack is necessarily always a negative thing. Sometimes, a Fastrack system can have little to no impact on the main queue; I know I’ve already talked about it, but I seem to remember Universal Orlando’s Express system having a very negligible impact on the main queues, if any at all.
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Any form of paid queuejumping means the basic punter waits longer, even at Universal, unless the park is very quiet, when it just isn't needed.
They just hide it better, you can only put so many punters through a ride, if some pay to wait less, the others wait more.
 
As a huge Disney fan it pains me to say it but I hope this system backfires massively and costs them money by turning people away.

The vision of Walt is well and truly gone now. What very little in terms of magic they had left is definitely slipping away. The line between a customer and guest has become way too blurry.

A real shame what's happening to the world. We are destroying everything precious we have through corporate greed. I'm sure the Exec team at Disney are already paid very handsomely and among the top 1% of earners but it's never enough for them is it? Rich people always want more and more.

Be nice if the GP and Disney fans just refused to pay it however I think we all know that won't happen. Always idiots who try and put on a brave face and pretend it's a good thing when they know deep down it isn't.
 
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Universal is an interesting example as I've seen Fastpass at its best and absolute worse.

On a normal day it was fairly good because it was expensive enough that there were only ever a few people in the Fastpass queue at a time.

But I also visited Halloween Horror Nights, for which Fastpass is practically a requirement. With Fastpass we still had to queue 30 minutes to an hour for each maze. Without it you'd be lucky to only get in a few mazes all night.
 
Tim said:
But I also visited Halloween Horror Nights, for which Fastpass is practically a requirement. With Fastpass we still had to queue 30 minutes to an hour for each maze. Without it you'd be lucky to only get in a few mazes all night.
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I think its been said that Thorpe Park fright nights are similar where fasttrack is almost a requirement for the mazes. At least Alton Towers just charges for mazes, so everyone pays extra and they don't pretend there is a free option.
 
jon81uk said:
I think its been said that Thorpe Park fright nights are similar where fasttrack is almost a requirement for the mazes. At least Alton Towers just charges for mazes, so everyone pays extra and they don't pretend there is a free option.
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From my one proper experience of Fright Nights that's absolutely true. Same problem.

At least with pay extra mazes you know what to expect going in. If you pay for Fastpass it implys you'll get in quickly, not just join another sightly shorter queue.
 
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