What other Disney up charges could we see?

As the years go by, we keep seeing Disney up charges becoming more and more common. The recent announcement that Disney will start charging for overnight parking at their hotels, is just another added to a long list Disney up charges. These extra charges, unsurprisingly, did not go down well with the Disney fan community. However, this trend of Disney starting to charge for previously free or included things seems unlikely to go away. This article will look at some things Disney might be considering to start charging guests for next.

Bob Iger recently mentioned in an interview that pricing of multi-day tickets will become tiered. This means that, similar to day ticket pricing, tickets for busy periods of the year will be more expensive. Apart from this just earning Disney more money, it should also spread out the crowd levels in the parks throughout the year. However, tier pricing of day tickets seems to have very little impact on thinning out the crowds during the most popular times of the year.

Disney recently added the availability for guests staying in club level rooms at Disney hotels to pay for the opportunity to book fastpasses 90 days in advance. This is 30 days earlier than other Disney hotel guests and 60 days earlier than non Disney hotel guests. In California, Disney started the maxpass programme last summer. Guests can pay for the maxpass which gives them the option to book fastpasses on their phone. This system still works the same as the legacy fastpass system, but the advantage is that you do not have to walk to the ride to pickup a fastpass from a machine. These changes seem to be the first steps towards Disney starting to give guests the opportunity to buy fastpasses. In most theme parks around the world you can pay to skip the lines. So far, Disney have resisted charging for fastpasses. However, it would not surprise me if this changes in the near future.

At Disney World there are several restaurants that are not easy to book even 180 days in advance. Currently, guests stopping at Disney hotels can book restaurants 190 days in advance. At popular times of the year, the very popular restaurants can still fill up even 190 days in advance. Therefore, with Disney’s current attitude to paid add-ons it would not be a huge surprise if Disney offered guests a way of paying for the chance to book restaurants even further in advance.

When Star Wars land opens in 2019 on both coasts, it’s bound to be hugely popular and extremely crowded. This could give Disney the opportunity to offer a paid add on which gives guests the opportunity to visit Star Wars land at a separate time to the normal operating hours. This would basically be a way of paying for extra magic hours. I could definitely envision Disney operating a system where paying for early entry to Star Wars land is an option. If Disney were to do this I would not expect Star Wars land to be open for hotel guests during extra magic hours.

Maybe, further into the future, we could see guests being charged per step they make inside the parks or by the amount of oxygen they breathe on Disney property.  Obviously this was a joke. However, it does feel likely that more add on charges will be coming in the near future.