Disneyland Paris Just Reset Theme Parks to 1955. What Does This Mean?
The rumors are true – at least at one park.
Disneyland Paris has (mostly) eliminated free FastPass. Partially, this change reflects a matter of semantics.
However, the park has also chosen a paid FastPass system. And it’s complicated.
Naturally, everyone wonders whether Disneyland and Walt Disney World will follow suit. So, we have plenty to unpack here.
Yes, Disneyland Paris just reset theme parks to 1955. What does this mean?
The Earliest Days at Disneyland
Before we talk about Disneyland Paris, we should take notice of our theme park history. Few remember this aspect now, but Disneyland and Walt Disney World were both initially pay-to-play.
When the Happiest Place on Earth opened in 1955, guests paid a dollar for the privilege of entering the park, while children cost 50 cents each.
So, adults paid the equivalent of $10.04 in 2021 pricing for themselves and $5.02 for their kids. What did they get for their money? They could walk the campus, and that was about it.
Seriously, all Disney rides came at a cost. All 35 opening day attractions required extra payment to experience. Adults paid $0.25-$0.35 on average, while children’s tickets were $0.10-$0.25.
Walt Disney empowered guests with the decision about how much they wanted to pay for a park visit.
The legendary Disney term of E-ticket stems from the 1959 expansion that added the monorail, Submarine Voyage, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds.
Building an entire artificial mountain cost Disney a lot of money. Walt Disney passed along that expense to consumers by selling the new rides as the ones that charged the most. They were the “E” tickets.
When you hear the term E-ticket attraction, the connotation is that it’s the best possible ride experience, one worthy of extra money.
The Origins of Modern Theme Park Pricing
Disney kept that terminology long after it phased out pay-to-play ticket pricing. Over the years, park officials appreciated that crowds took up too much space if they weren’t paying for rides.
Ergo, at the start of the 1980s, both Disneyland and Walt Disney World changed their practices. When the latter park opened in 1971, it employed the same pay-to-play strategy.
However, the impending arrival of EPCOT Center changed Disney’s philosophy. The multi-ride ticket packages proved so popular that the company recognized a stronger business model.
In 1982, Disney modified its admission ticket policy, eliminating pay-to-play. Instead, guests paid a single admission cost. In return, they claimed the run of the theme park.
You could ride whatever you wanted at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, or EPCOT Center as the primary benefit of an admission ticket.
This strategy aided Disney’s accounting, as they could identify revenue based on admission tickets sold. Until then, they had to calculate average guest ride usage and other factors.
In other words, the new system proved cleaner. Of course, financial experts always prefer simplified structures. Let’s keep that in mind as we talk about the blockbuster announcement from France.
Disneyland Paris Travels Back in Time with Its Pricing
As MickeyBlog’s John Bishop detailed yesterday, Disneyland Paris has fundamentally changed its FastPass system.
In truth, the old FastPass system is apparently gone “forever,” although that could prove inaccurate if the new system fails.
What is the new system? Well, Disney can call it whatever park officials want, but it’s really just a 2021 version of pay-to-play. Also, I would argue it’s not a good implementation of one.
Disneyland Paris has killed FastPass in favor of Disney Premier Access, which is paid FastPass by a more branded name.
Clearly, the Disney empire plans to teach guests that they’ll pay more for anything that includes the word “Premier” in it, including movie titles on Disney+ and now some park FastPasses.
Under this new system, guests will always have the right to enter the shorter FastPass line, although it’s now Disney Premier Access.
You’ll do so at a cost…and not at an insignificant amount. Prices start at eight Euros, the equivalent of $9.46 as I type this.
Importantly, that’s $9.46 per person per ride. So, for a family of four, entering the Disney Premier Access line for any attraction costs at least $38.
Also, that’s the low end of pricing. More expensive attractions will cost 15 Euros, the equivalent of $17.73 in American dollars. For a family of four, that’s nearly $71 for a ride.
Now, kids will probably get discounts, and some other factors will come into play. I fully expect that this is a trial run rather than a practice that American theme parks will adopt immediately.
I know that rumor sites are aglow with comments to the contrary, but I don’t buy that…for now.
Why Is Disney Doing This?
Let’s gameplay this situation from Disney’s perspective. Demand at the parks had reached an all-time high before the pandemic.
Now that the worst has subsided, parks have demonstrated similar demand. So, while the situation in Disneyland Paris isn’t quite the same, it’s obviously in good enough shape that Disney can try this.
What’s the potential benefit? I mean, it’s money. Duh!
Disneyland Paris averaged roughly 26,700 daily guests during 2019. They paid about $105 each for admission. That’s a little over $2.8 million in daily revenue from admission.
Let’s assume that the average guest chooses to buy Disney Premier Access three times per day. That number may seem high, but please remember that some guests will blow the curve here.
At three per day with an average price of $13.60, Disney has earned an additional $40.80 per guest. That’s a profit of nearly $1.1 million per day.
If these numbers prove accurate, Disney just increased park admission revenue by almost 40 percent. So, you can understand the appeal.
What Does the New Disneyland Paris Strategy Mean?
However, this new practice is really an experiment, something that Disney has tried before at Disneyland Paris. That’s why I’m not with the rumormongers swearing this will happen here soon.
Do you remember the Super and Ultimate FastPass packs at Disneyland Paris? You could book three to nine FastPasses for a set fee. I swear this was a thing.
Disney’s Paris parks tried these in 2018 to mediocre results. If they’d worked well, Disney would have duplicated the packs everywhere.
Instead, Disneyland Paris has thrown that strategy out and is trying something new.
Still, even if Disney doesn’t do this at Disneyland or Walt Disney World, I dislike the idea. Some families on tight budgets will save money by having their children ride by themselves.
At Disney theme parks, families should experience theme park attractions together.
Yes, Disneyland and Walt Disney World both worked this way in the early days, but the world has changed since then.
Asking someone to pay per attraction feels like a step back to the dark ages of theme park attendance. Nobody wants that.