As part of the Genie+ and Lightning Lane services, guests will soon be able to purchase access to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort.
Select attractions will be available as part of the paid Genie+ service and some will require individual payment through Lightning Lane. Rise of the Resistance will require a Lightning Lane individual purchase.
Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro revealed that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will be one of the attractions available. “Think about Rise of the Resistance. It’s a highly demanded attraction. Guests show up in the morning and they try to get into the virtual queue. We get as many people on there as we can, but inevitably someone is disappointed. Now there’s another option on top of the virtual queue so if Rise of the Resistance is the reason you’re at Disneyland or Disney’s Hollywood Studios, there will be an option for you to purchase Rise of the Resistance. So again: flexibility, optionality, better guest experience overall,” D’Amaro said in an interview for D23.
For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
The problem with his statement is that Disney controls the virtual queue. They can artificially create demand by limiting the number of spots in the virtual queue (do we know how many queue spots there are each day?). They can tinker with it to create an inflated demand. This then allows them to then charge to bypass the virtual queue.
I don’t know that this is specifically what’s happening, but it makes sense. Why else wouldn’t they build a traditional standby line?
I call it pay for play. I call it gouging your customer base. Greedy buggers
Or they could just get the ride working properly on a consistent basis so there wouldn’t be the need for a Virtual Queue.
Money grab. Backwards to E Ticket days. Sad.
“better guest experience overall”
False
That’s good. A lot of people have complained about going to Disney World several times and haven’t been able to get on Rise even once. This way, at least people can have assurance of getting on just once.
From the point of view of an international traveller with limited days on site – meaning a single day in hollywood studios – the choice of paying to secure the raid to not riding at all is easy
So, does this mean there won’t be a free option at all, no free virtual queue access? Because that seems weird to make it a paid option only ride.