Jamie Biesiada
About half of Disney theme parkgoers are opting into paid, skip-the-line services. For the trade, as Martha Stewart would say, it's a good thing.
Sure, many grumble about being nickel-and-dimed for a service that used to be free, albeit slightly different, when it was offered as FastPass. Then, guests could go online before their trips and preselect periods of time to access attractions via the FastPass lane. It didn't guarantee guests wouldn't wait in a line, but it usually meant a shorter wait, often significantly shorter.
FastPass was not reintroduced when the parks reopened from their pandemic-induced closures.
Last year, Disney officially introduced Genie to guests. Genie itself is a free service that helps plan guests' days in the parks. But it has two paid options, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes (ILLs).
Genie+ enables guests to access Lightning Lanes for a number of attractions during specific time periods for $15 (Disney World) or $20 (Disneyland) per person, per day. Guests can make reservations on a rolling basis throughout the day. ILLs, on the other hand, offer an additional paid option to access some of the parks' most popular attractions. The price depends on the attraction and demand but ranges from around $10 to $20 per person.
It's not too surprising that half of guests are opting in. Len Testa, president of TouringPlans.com and the TouringPlans host agency, said consumers love skip-the-line products.
He pointed to two main reasons. First, many are willing to trade money for time.
"But the second thing is, and this is where psychology comes into play, it becomes a vicious circle," Testa said. "As soon as some people start to use Genie+ for the shorter lines, the standby lines get longer. And the only way to solve that problem is to buy Genie+ so you get access to the shorter ones."
Testa recently underwent an interesting exercise to figure out how much Disney might be making off ILLs, based on projected sales for the Tron roller coaster currently under construction at the Magic Kingdom.
He made a few fair assumptions: the Magic Kingdom's Tron would have about the same capacity as Shanghai's Tron, around 1,680 riders per hour; ILLs would cost an estimated $18 per person; and Tron would be open 11 hours per day.
If, at the low end, 20% of guests purchased ILLs for Tron, that would generate more than $2 million per month and more than $24.3 million per year. If, at the high end, 75% of guests purchased ILLs, it would generate more than $7.6 million per month and more than $91.3 million per year. If current trends continue and 50% of guests purchase ILLs, that would be $5.1 million per month and $60.9 million per year.
And that's just one attraction at one park. In Florida, there is one ILL attraction in each of Disney's four parks. In Disneyland in California, there is one ILL attraction; there are two at Disney California Adventure Park.
That's some impressive revenue, and it's already being realized. Disney's most recent financial results indicated guest spending in the parks is high.
At least some of that revenue will, in turn, be funneled into capital improvements in the parks. And new attractions almost always mean a bump in visitors. Travel advisors routinely report that new features like attractions and lands mean increased client interest and bookings.
Once again: It's a good thing.