Let me start by saying that I am a Disney fan.
I love the movies, TV shows, merchandise, music, and of course, the Disney Parks. Up until the pandemic, my family used to go every other year. That’s how much we enjoyed our trips to Walt Disney World. To us, they were stress-free, fun, and magical.
And while we still have a trip planned for next year…I am slightly less excited about it now, as it just got a lot more expensive, and to me more frustrating.
Yesterday, they announced that there is a new replacement to Fastpass. Well, 2 replacements actually. The first is that for $15 per person per day, you can use Disney Genie+ service, which means you can make one selection at a time, starting at 7am that day.
I admit I like that you don’t have to decide what rides you want to go on and at what time weeks before your trip. So that part is nice.
But this $15 is just for “some” rides. Rides like the Haunted Mansion. What about the very popular rides? Rides like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train? Those you can pay for by the ride. I don’t even want to know how much that will cost, but in Disneyland Paris it’s 8 – 15 Euros per ride. I couldn’t imagine paying that much to go on one ride…and that’s AFTER paying the (not exactly inexpensive) cost to get into the park in the first place!
At the beginning of the month, they announced the paid option to replace the free Magical Express service that would take you from the airport to the Disney hotels and back. For a family of 3, that’s an extra $91.
And now…even if we just got the Genie+ with “some” rides, that’s an extra $315 for a family of 3 who is going to the parks for 7 days.
Disney World was already a very expensive trip. Adding an extra $406 with no extra benefits (All of my previous trips I had Magical Express and Fastpasses for free) makes me really sad.
Come up with amazing new things that will make my vacation even better than before, and I’ll be happy to be paying more. But to give me the same benefits (or less really, as before I could have 3 Fastpasses at once, and now I’ll be paying $15 a day for one at a time) and it just isn’t the same.
Like I said above…we love Disney World, and I’m sure we’ll still continue to visit.
But by adding that kind of cost, I have a feeling instead of going every other year, it’ll probably every 3 years or so.
It’s sad, because it was always such an amazing and magical trip for us. But for me, it’s getting to be more than I’m willing to pay for.
