by walt disney co. (DIS) – Get a free report has to balance quite a bit when it comes to its theme parks. First, it must provide an experience good enough to make park visitors want to come back, while also telling their friends about their positive experience.
Second, the company must maximize sales. That’s not always about charging the most for park tickets (although the company has been working on that). Disney wants the most money it can get, but it’s content that pushes some of that revenue out of the base ticket price and into expensive add-ons.
For example, after-hours events have been a huge source of revenue for the company. These include paying a separate fee to enter one of the company’s Disney World or Disneyland theme parks for a limited-ticket event that usually starts at 6 p.m. These events, which are generally holiday-themed, offer shorter wait times for rides, special snacks, and some added character appearances.
Disney also improved its bottom line by doing away with the free FastPass+ system and replacing it with Genie+, a paid product. Basically, you pay $15-$22 per guest, per day for access to a system that works much like FastPass+ did. You can choose a time to ride most of the rides (one at a time) and by purchasing Genie+ you can add “Lightning Lane” purchases, which cost more but give you quick access to the most popular rides.
More or less you pay extra – and then you pay even more – if you want to have a good experience at Disney World or Disneyland. It’s a de facto backdoor price increase for anyone hoping to ride a lot of rides during their visit to Disney.
Now the company has quietly changed the rules for this popular-because-you-need-it-cost-extra Genie+ service, and the change could be bad news for your vacation.
Disneyland is making a Genie+ change
Genie+ has become an essential purchase for anyone visiting Disney’s theme parks across the US and want to spend the day exploring rides and meeting characters. You can choose not to have it and just wait in line, but your park experience will almost certainly be worse without it.
Currently, you cannot pre-purchase Genie+. It will become available for purchase at midnight on the day of your visit. Before, there was no reason to literally stay up late and buy it, but that may have just changed.
Journalist Scott Gustin, reporting from Disney, noted that the company had quietly changed some language about Genie+, mainly in the fine print on its website. It added a pretty sensible disclaimer.
“Please note that there may be days when Disney Genie+ sales are discontinued on the day based on demand for the service.”
Previously, Disney allowed pre-purchase of Genie+. That ended in June. The company previously included language stating that Genie+ was subject to “limited availability and cannot be guaranteed”.
The new language suggests the company could achieve those capabilities at Disneyland and wants to be more explicit about sharing that you could be left out.
Genie+ boasts a Disney problem
The problem with selling special access is that at some point, if enough people have it, it’s no longer special. Genie+, like FastPass+, can only handle a limited number of people before more people wait in the “special” queue than the regular queue.
That sometimes happened in the FastPass+ on less popular attractions. You may have a FastPass, but there were few people in the regular queue, so there was no need. But you had to use it because if you didn’t, you’d be less likely to get another FastPass for another ride choice.
By recently raising the price of Genie+ and making it variable (probably based on expected demand), Disney is able to maximize revenue while keeping the experience good. Some people will pay just about any price for special access, so Disney could potentially make more money selling Genie+ to them at higher prices.
That’s actually a similar model to how Disney prices tickets for its parks and how its after-hours events work.
