Guess what? Now the park is doing just that.
Here's the scoop, direct from Shanghai, courtesy Adriel Tjokrosaputro.
To combat the ongoing scalping activities, #ShanghaiDisneyland has introduced... PREMIER ACCESS! @screamscape @tdrexplorer @ThemePark pic.twitter.com/iIsOUgOjB7
— Adriel Tjokrosaputro (@adrieltjokro) March 24, 2017
"Disney Premier Access" allows you a one-time Fastpass queue entry to each of seven top rides in the park, anytime you wish to visit during the day of your access. The cost for one Fastpass entry is RMB 120 (US$17.41) or RMB 150 ($21.77) on "peak" days, when park admission tickets cost more, too. But the cost for the set — all seven — is RMB 480 or 600 (US$69.71-87.14), which works out to about $10-12.50 per Fastpass, a price that I suspect many America visitors might pay.
[*Note: An earlier version of this story missed that the set price in the photo was the one for all seven Fastpass entries.]
Disney is providing a park-approved way for people to pay for extra access to attractions, without having to go through middlemen. Shanghai Disneyland is drawing about a million visitors a month, putting it behind the Magic Kingdom-style parks in Orlando, Anaheim, and Tokyo for annual attendance but ahead of Paris and well ahead of Hong Kong. Yet Shanghai Disneyland has fewer attractions than the Disney parks that attract more visitors, which means longer lines in Shanghai.
According to Adriel's earlier report, scalpers were charging around RMB 100 for a pair of Fastpasses, which means that Disney's charging more for its version, so we'll see if this has the presumably desired effect of drying up demand for middleman Fastpass sales.
This isn't the first time that Disney has sold preferred line access, of course. VIP Tours at its other parks around the world often provide that perk, and hard-ticket events such as the recent "Early Morning Magic" at the Walt Disney World Resort also provide much shorter waits than during regular operation. But those "line skips," if you will, come packaged with other perks and services. This is the first time I can recall that Disney has put a direct price on using the Fastpass return lines... and nothing else. (Disneyland's upcoming MaxPass charges for using the park's app to manage your Fastpasses — a benefit that Walt Disney World visitors get for no extra charge — but it does not allow you to hold more than the one Fastpass you can by using the traditional paper system.)
Paid line-skipping is standard practice at other companies' parks, of course, with Universal, Cedar Fair, and Six Flags parks all selling various passes and systems to allow you to spend less time in line.
Will Disney bring its Disney Premier Access to its US theme parks? Or is this a unique solution to a particular problem in Shanghai? Make your prediction in the comments.
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It's like like Universal's AWESOME 'Front of Line' premium ticket!!!
or
The premium room rate UO charges for the 'Express Unlimited' pass!!!
Disney could probably increase their park revenue 10+% if they had the brains to develop a decent pay-to-ride system. They're LONG overdue on this.
The fastpass system has always been broken. It's always created artificially increased standby wait times as it makes it more difficult to board guests. Would be best to create a system where only onsite hotel guests can purchase fastpass tickets.
So is the set UNLIMITED rides ? or just ONE fast pass per ride ? Once only for the set would be a waste of money.
It's a shame that Americans will also continue to pay the price for Iger's foolish investments in NextGen/MyMagic/MagicBands, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Paris.
Why does Disney even need a CEO? How hard is it to raise prices every year while cutting costs to the bone? A monkey could do that.
The most skillful thing Iger ever did was trick George Lucas into giving up the Star Wars franchise for peanuts. How many more suckers are out there? Iger will soon find out.
The fastpass system doesn't even work that well out there. The fastpasses we acquired put us in a 2 hour wait for Indiana Jones as opposed to the 4 hour standby wait time. There isn't anything fast about it.
Weather report said rain all day so we brought rain suits and changed into them inside the airport terminal, our checked bag did not need to be retrieved, and our carry on suitcase we stored in an airport locker. Then we took a taxi to SDL, and even though I had a print out of the park name in Chinese and picture of Princess castle driver had a little hard time finding where to drop us off. Driver turned around meter so we couldn't see fare and cheated us.
Upon arrival on weekday walked to security and got through no problem, then waited for park opening. Even with the rain a lot of persons waiting to get in most with no rain gear or just an umbrella. Lady in line started screaming at her baby in a stroller. Presented passport at entrance turnstile to retrieve tickets purchased online. Persons entering ahead of us sprinted full speed off into the park.
In the park went to Pirates and rode twice within 15 minutes, they use lots of big IMAX type screens which are not as impressive as real animatronics. Next Seven Dwarves single rider wife and I both in around 15 minutes, it is outdoors and rain hits the face, in single line they pair up with another rider I had Chinese young lady close next to me.
With daughter went on Winnie Pooh and Peter Pan, Pan was better the ride is up in the air. Got Mickey Pizza for lunch, cold and rain and wind started getting to wife also jet lag catching up to us so decided to let go of our plan to reach downtown Shanghai and instead just finish SDL and go back to airport. Many of the persons at start of day without rain gear seemed to have left the park.
Disney app showing ride wait times didn't work for most of the day on Samsung phone with USA simcard and ATT International data plan, and many internet websites such as Facebook we could not access anytime while in China. We went counterclockwise around park and didn't waste time and energy crossing large park to get fastpasses or for other reasons. Didn't have any pushing or line cutting, didn't see any kids peeing in public or trash on ground, maybe because park lightly attended.
Went to Stars Wars Launch Bay, that was warm and out of rain. Darth Vader was mean to kids including my baby daughter, he put his fist in her face and next group of kids he just stormed out of the room and they stood there bewildered and disappointed.
Tron may be the best roller coaster in the world and best ride at any theme park. Sit on like a motorcycle and it accelerates really fast. No wait and there is a single-use two hour locker for no charge to keep your stuff in while on the ride. Jet lag really kicking in got disoriented during ride so couldn’t do it a second time.
On way out of park walked through Princess Castle noticed persons climbing stairs that wind upwards from the inside, wind blowing through castle too tired and cold to attempt climb. Took taxi back to airport and retrieved luggage from locker. On way to airport noticed lots of very tall apartment buildings looked like stereotype communist terrible place to live.
We weren’t interested in Soaring, and wished we could have seen some shows and viewed the outdoor sights, but on the plus side we did most of the best rides in a short period of time.
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