Sheriff Woody wants you to know that you can’t believe everything that you hear… I’m a member of several Walt Disney World related groups on Facebook. One thing that I have seen mentioned several times the past few days is a rumor that once FastPass+ returns, you will have to pay for it. One person even said that it will cost up to $300 a day, per ticket! Please, don’t believe any of these rumors. There is no indication that we will have to pay for FastPass+ once the service returns.
Part of the justification for these rumors is that people think you need to pay for FastPass at Disneyland. That is not the case. Disneyland isn’t using FastPass right now either, but before the shutdown they had a service called Disney MaxPass. With MaxPass, you paid for the ability to make FastPass reservations from the Disneyland App. It was convenient. If you didn’t want to pay for MaxPass, you could still use the FastPass system. You just needed to make a reservation at the kiosk near a ride’s entrance. That was still free to all guests. MaxPass also was affordable. It cost an extra $15 per person a day, and that included all of your PhotoPass pictures. It was quite a bargain, and I hope that it’s back by the time I return to Disneyland.
Even before the shutdown there were rumors that a paid version of FastPass+ was on the way. According to allegations, for an additional fee you would have been able to make more reservations each day, and make them more than 60 days in advance. There was never any real evidence to show that those rumors were about to become fact. I heard that maybe there was a survey that some guests received, but those surveys don’t mean anything. I’ve received surveys with all kinds of crazy options that I know would never happen.
Other area theme parks do charge for their front of the line services. At Universal Orlando Resort you can add Express Pass. This can add $100 or more to your ticket, depending on the option you choose. At SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa it’s Quick Queue, which is quite a bit cheaper but is still an additional cost.
Once again I want to remind you, make sure that your source is official before trusting the information. Even speaking to a Cast Member doesn’t make it official, they sometimes know less than we do! We don’t even know for sure if FastPass+ will return (I think it will) and people are already threatening to cancel their vacations because they read something that was meant to get website views. I try not to add anything that anyone could consider clickbait, and I try to link to my sources. If I hear anything official about FastPass+, you know that I’ll add the information right away.