Since its inception the concept of FastPass has resulted in sometimes heated discussions among fans and regular guests whether it created a two class society among guests or was unfari to guests who were not aware of the FastPass system or did not know how to “trick” it to their advantage. Afterall the FastPass system allows guests to obtain one free FastPass at a time for one FastPass enabled attraction such as Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight etc. which then reserves their spot in the line for that attraction, so that they can return at the designated time and bypass the regular line to enter the attraction after a short, roughly 10 minute, wait in a designated FastPass line. With the time passing these discussion died down – but they are sure to be revived now that the Disneyland Resort Paris has started offering an upcharge Premium FastPass for a test phase.
As confirmed by posts in the official twitter account of the Disneyland Resort Paris office from the Netherlands the Premium FastPass is on sale for 80.00 EUR per person per day at the Guest Service desk of the Disneyland Hotel (the PREMIUM FastPass is available to all guests and NOT restricted to guests of the Disneyland Hotel). The offer is tested from July 18 till August 4, 2009 and experience during this test period will be used to determine whether to continue the offer.
The PREMIUM FastPass is valid in both theme parks of the resort on the date it is iussed as of 10.30 am till the FastPass entrances of the attractions are closed. It can be used for one person only but at all times (so no need to obtain a FastPass ticket in advance and wait for the designated right time to arrive – instead guests with the PREMIUM FastPass just enter through the FastPass entracne whenever they want to) and as often as the guest wants.
It should be noted that not only the price of EUR 80.00 is supposed to function as a limitation. The resort also added a hard rule of selling a maximum 160 PREMIUM FastPass per day – once these are sold they are gone. This is supposed to prevent the FastPass lines from getting overwhelmed by PREMIUM FastPass holders and thus getting too long, negatively impacting the function of the system. To avoid any misconception: the free FastPass system for all guests is continuing to oeprate without any changes, so the PREMIUM FastPass is an “add on” only.
While guests staying in the Castle Club at the Disneyland Hotel, the suits in any Disney Hotel as well as guests of the VIP tours in the parks already received preferred treatment (of various levels) in the FastPass system the PREMIUM FastPass now being tested is the first time that anyone can actualy buy a premium / preferred treatment in the system. While this is sure to result in extra income at no or very limited cost it surely brings back the central question of fan discussions regarding whether there it is part of the concept and ideas of the Disney theme parks that guests shold be treated equal – and whether offering an upcharge service to set guests apart from other guests is harming such concept… Surely it will be interesting to see whether the resort will be able to find buyers for the PREMIUM FastPasses at the selected price and whether the offer is here to stay – or not – also considering the current economic climate and the tendency of guests to try to limit spending on vacations as well.
On a side note: apparently the Hong Kong Disneyland Park is currently testing a similar upcharge add-on for the FastPass system as reported on the Mousekingdom Blog…
[...] revenue to the park with the new obtainable VIP passes (in some form tested both in Hong Kong and Paris).Whatever you think about the system, today it is almost impossible to think about the park without [...]