The Walt Disney Co. unveiled the next evolution of its ride-skipping app that will improve the guest experience in its theme parks and, subsequently, improve the company's bottom line by millions of dollars.
This fall the company will launch Disney Genie and Disney Genie+, the former free and the latter a paid add-on, that will help maximize guests' days. In a nutshell, the technology will use a guest's preferences to provide a personalized itinerary with tips and information to reduced ride wait times, entertainment and food choices, and more. Guests will be told which of their favorite rides have the shortest wait times on average to help them get the most of their day.
Here's more specifics on the priced options:
- Disney Genie+ costs $15 per ticket per day at Walt Disney World and $20 per ticket per day at Disneyland in California — that includes another new system called the Lightning Lane. The Lightning Lane appears to be the successor to the now-retired FastPass system that provided guests with a reserved, speedier access to attractions such as Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disney's Hollywood Studios and more. Guests will be able to make one ride selection at a time throughout the day. The add-on also will include special audio and photo features, said the Disney Parks Blog.
- Disney will provide another paid option for Lightning Lane access to specific high-demand individual rides such as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster at Magic Kingdom and the upcoming Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at Epcot. The option, which doesn't have a specific name, will determine price by date, attraction and park, like surge pricing, and will be announced at a later date, said Disney. Rides still will offer the traditional standby queue or the virtual queues such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
The new system will be another revenue stream for Disney as tourists will be encouraged to upgrade if they are looking to get the most of their theme park visit. Other parks such as Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld Orlando have offered paid express ride access for some time.
For example, a family of four visiting Disney will pay an additional $60 for Genie+ access — or up to $240 extra per trip if they visited each park on a four-day trip. That's on top of the other purchases such as merchandise, food and beverage, or other services. The Magic Kingdom saw 20.9 million visitors through its turnstiles in 2019, according to the most recent data from Themed Entertainment Association and Aecom's Theme Index report, so if only a tenth of attendees paid for Genie+ access, that's $31.3 million in new income for the company.
In addition, Disney said annual pass holders can pay for the service on the day of their visit, meaning pass holders — who paid upfront for regular theme park access — can contribute more to the company's same-day revenue streams.
The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek said, during the company's Aug. 12 third-quarter earning report, that Disney Genie is the MyMagic+ program on "steroids" and something that will yield good business for the company.
"Essentially, what it’s going to do is take the consumer preferences that we know from our consumers, given what we know from them, and blend that with basically industrial engineering data that we’ve got in terms of how our park is operating that day and meld those together to make suggestions on the fly that not only will lead to that improved guest experience, but at the same time lead to substantial commercial opportunities as the guest navigates their base. So, it certainly qualifies in my mind for both materiality and transformational impact on our business from a yield standpoint," he said.
The new app is a great move from a business perspective, said Duncan Dickson, a tourism industry expert and principal of local human resources consulting firm A&D Partners. He told L.A. Biz sibling publication the Orlando Business Journal that the system will maximize spreading out traffic and provide another micro-transaction revenue stream for Disney. The move will please stockholders as it further improves the park's returns, he added.
In addition, he said this may bump up spending from groups such as annual pass holders who don't spend as much at the parks in a day as they pay for access for the year upfront or in monthly installments. He agreed this now may persuade pass holders to pay a bit more on the day of their visit to ride their favorite attractions.
However, Dickson admittedly said he wasn't sure he'd use it. "I tend to be an impulsive tourist. I don't want to plan my day. When I go to the theme park ... I naturally let the day flow."
In fact, the response on social media appears to be mixed.
A social media poll from WDW News Today, a popular theme park website, showed nearly 8,000 voters were split on if they would use the Disney Genie+ or Lightning Lane services. As of 8:15 a.m. only 50.8% of voters said they'd use the service.
Comments on the poll ranged from some stating they didn't want to pay for a service that previously was free, to others saying they'd pay to not have to stand in line.
