Rumor: Paid FPs imminent

I’m not one to generally post rumors but this one is pertinent to people’s TouringPlans. Martin at wdwmagic (who has an impeccable track record at reporting rumors) has said that the FP system is going to be changing fairly dramatically. Through various hints he’s dropped, what I’ve gathered is:

  • You will get less free FP reservations per day - possibly one “premiere experience” and one “other experience”.
  • Various paid packages will exist to give you more FP reservations per day.
  • Day of FPs could possibly be limited in some way - how this affects the modify trick remains to be seen…

Not sure if anyone here (@len maybe) has heard about this through their sources… In any case, could dramatically affect touring at WDW in the future. Timeline for this is said to be later this year.

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Wouldn’t surprise me at all, given the rampant monetization of the WDW experience…

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I wonder if everyone had less FP if the lines would move faster?? Or if more people would be willing to just pay so will be a wash…

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I don’t mind additive monitization - dessert parties, EMM, etc… What I don’t like is monitization of things that used to be free: parking, FPP. If they monetized FPP beyond what they offer today, fine. But to take away current benefits, that’s what bugs me.

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If people have less FP, the standby lines get longer. Wait times are about the same. They don’t really move faster…

And at this point, I will treat it for what it is: a rumor. I’m not going to get worked up over something that may or may not happen.

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I’m a little concerned about it.

If they make it like Dl and you have to pay for every day of a stay, then those staying 2 weeks are going to be forking out a lot of money.

If on the other hand it’s like CL and you can choose what days to pay for it, that would be better.

If they offered FPs for both Star Wars rides in a day, I’d pay $100 per person for that. They could even make it double and some would still pay. I think that kind of offering will be there later this year.

They kinda tried this out last year, with the tickets that included FPs for certain rides. Not sure how it went.

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Thanks for the post. This will be interesting to follow.

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Or maybe it will just be a flat add-on, like Park Hopper…

I have mixed feelings about this. We haven’t been to Universal yet, but I love their express pass options and would gladly pay for the 1 ride version. But I’d only need it for 2 days, because we really just care about HP stuff. It also seems like a low enough number of people use it to keep the standby lines under control.
On the other hand, if everyone who is currently using FP starts paying for a version that allows them to ride everything in the park once, the standby lines would be impossible. And some of the FP lines would be bad too, because FP at least spreads people out by giving them a specific hour to ride.

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You mean a flat rate regardless of no. of days? Is that how park hooper works then?

Our U.K. tickets include everything like park hopper plus and memory maker. So we don’t see that extra charge.

Parkhopper used to be one flat rate but now I think there are 2 rates and you pay more if you have a 4 or 5 day ticket, I can’t remember exactly.

I too have heard this rumor from someone who has quite a bit of inside info. It was actually presented as “2019, the year Disney monetizes everything that can possibly be monetized”. I am definitely preparing for a change to the FPP system, and a much higher cost to reserve the best rides.

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This rumor makes me want to stop planning our next trip, and make our lifetime trip, our only trip. Although we really do want to go back. Maybe I’ll take the advice of another thread and go try new things rather than rely on what we know.

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If they do this, it could be the last straw for me. I already dislike fpp, and extremely dislike club level fpps. I hope it remains nothing more than a rumor

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it seems strange that disney would close the FPP 60 day onsite loophole issue and link FPP more closely to onsite stays and then to do away with the benefitt of the 60day window.

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I’ve seen rumors about paid FP for SEGE but that’s it. Are you you didn’t hear it’s just for GE?

That’s a really interesting point.

Curious why you dislike FPP so much. Do you think it increases stand by times? I haven’t been in decades so I’m curious.

The 60 day window is still a benefit that most visitors don’t have- when you compare it to a 30-day window, it’s still a significant advantage.