ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jordan Poblete recently came home from a trip to Florida lighter in the pocketbook.
On top of the theme park tickets he purchased during his four-day trip at Walt Disney World, Poblete spent an additional $100 to $150 using Disney's new line skipping and enhancement service called Genie+ and Lightning Lane to go on his must-ride attractions.
"I thought it was worth it," said Poblete, a 30-year-old Irvine resident, who was able to ride several E-attractions such as Avatar Flight of Passage without waiting in line long. "It's optional. It's there to take the hassle out of vacation planning and make it easier to experience everything a Disney Park offers."
After debuting it at Walt Disney World in October, Disney is rolling out its Genie and Genie+ mobile service to the Disneyland Resort. The Genie and Genie+ is a technologically-advanced way for visitors to navigate Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
The basic free Genie service is like a daily planner that uses artificial intelligence to analyze a theme park visitor's wish list itinerary and provides recommendations to experience them throughout the day.
Meanwhile, the Genie+ service is a $20 upcharge for each ticket and includes the features of the Genie, allows visitors to skip the lines and access Disney's new Lightning Lane feature on certain rides, such as Space Mountain or the Haunted Mansion.
There is an additional a la carte fee ranging from $7 to $20, depending on the day, to hop on Disney's most popular rides such as Radiator Springs Racers, Rise of the Resistance and Web Slingers: A Spiderman Adventure.
The virtual queue remains an option for certain attractions. All attractions will have either a standby or virtual queue.
The Genie+ can work at both parks for those who have park hopper tickets. The Genie will show the first available time after 1 p.m. for attractions in the second park, since park hopping starts at that hour.
The new optional upcharge service replaces Disney's free FastPass and $20 Maxpass reservation system. FastPasses were paper tickets with printed return times and dispensed near one of Disney's signature attractions. Disney's MaxPass was a paid add-on that allowed visitors to make ride reservations anywhere in Disneyland Resort.
A Disneyland spokesman told Spectrum News the FastPass ticket dispensers have been removed.
With the retirement of its once free FastPass system, Disney joins the rest of Southern California theme parks that give visitors the option to pay to skip the lines for their signature rides and attractions.
The change is one of several sweeping moves Disney has performed during the coronavirus pandemic, where Disneyland and Disney California Adventure were closed for more than a year. More changes are in store for Disneyland Resort in the coming years.
Six Flags Magic Mountain offers the Flash Pass, which ranges from $55 to $125 a day. Universal Studios Hollywood's Express Pass with entrance into the park ranges from $189 to $279; Knott's Berry Farm offers the Fast Lane that is $99, and Legoland Carlsbad has a reserve-n-ride service.
Although some Disney fans vent that Disney's new Genie+ and Lightning Lane upcharge is a money grab, theme park experts say it's about time.
"Frankly, Disneyland was giving way too much stuff away [with free FastPasses], and people loved it because it was the best deal in town," said Robert Niles, the editor, and founder of ThemeParkInsider.com, a website dedicated to theme park news. "Everyone else in the industry was charging people that wanted to skip the lines. It was a bad deal for the company, but once the pandemic hit, it allowed them to press that reset button, and Disney took advantage of it."
Niles said people have been clamoring for changes to the FastPass system leading up to the introduction of Genie+ and Lightning Lane.
During its heyday, FastPasses were first-come, first-serve. Some days, if visitors didn't come into Disneyland early enough, they'd miss out on getting a FastPass for their favorite ride.
So in any given morning, visitors might rush to the Radiator Springs Racers FastPass dispensing booth so they can have a reserved time to come back and enjoy the ride. FastPasses for rides such as Radiator Springs would run out of tickets within an hour.
Some people abused the system and gathered several FastPasses to trade or sell.
The old FastPass system hurt the vacationers who didn't know how the free ride reservation system worked. The upcharge MaxPlus was a good alternative and very successful, Niles said.
"Disney found that people in California and elsewhere were paying for it," said Niles.
Niles said this move shouldn't alarm Disneyland visitors. This has been brewing in Disney's circle for some time now. Both Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disneyland offer a similar paid service.
Bottom line, Niles said, "They want to satisfy the people who want to pay extra while providing a better experience for those that don't."
"When you look at the price, it's still a better deal compared to other theme parks," he said.
For Poblete, who recently used the service at Walt Disney World, he enjoyed it.
Poblete said he paid to ride Avatar Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom and Mickey's Runaway Railway at Disney Hollywood Studios and a few other e-ticket rides.
Although he enjoyed using the Genie service, he said he probably won't buy it again.
"It's an interesting system," he said. "I knew what I wanted to do, so I didn't really end up using it. This is for a specific audience in mind, the vacationers who want to make sure they do everything, instead of locals who don't spend. This is what FastPass was meant to be: a priority line experience for people willing to pay for it."