Name changes are nothing recent within the theme park business. Sometimes a park loses the license to make use of a certain brand name. But often name changes are only one other marketing tool. Giving something a brand new name gets attention.
Disney has announced many name changes for its theme parks in recent times. With the upcoming renaming of the Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris to Disney Adventure World, Disneyland is even changing the name of a complete park. This week, Disneyland Change of name of the Disney Genie+ service to Lightning Lane Multi Pass to deal with ongoing customer confusion over the renaming of its former Fastpass service.
“Fastpass” had change into such a well-liked brand name that it became an industry-wide umbrella term for all theme park line-skipping services. But when Disney decided to charge for access to alternate lines at its hottest rides, it decided—properly—to rename those lines “Lightning Lanes.”
Fastpass was a free service. Lightning Lane just isn’t. The name change probably helped avoid much more resistance and confusion to Disney's change. But then Disney screwed up. It was tricky enough that Disney decided to sell access to some Lightning Lanes individually while bundling access to others. Calling this package “Disney Genie+” didn't make sense. The recent name – Lightning Lane Multi Pass – higher describes this service.
Disney would even have done well to alter the name of one other way people get to those alternate queues. Last month, Disneyland its system for accommodating guests with disabilities. A change was needed because Disney's old implementation of the Disability Access Service (“DAS”) led to abuse by giving registered individuals an advance reminiscent of two free entries to Lightning Lane.
But that's not the world that Disney or other major theme parks currently operate in. Some people still need a substitute for queues that remain inaccessible to them.
Disney continues to supply timed returns to guests with developmental disabilities and their companions through Lightning Lanes. However, by continuing to make use of the name “DAS” for this selection, Disney is creating frustration for guests who’ve previously used this selection and now find it isn’t any longer available to them. As with Fastpass and Lightning Lane, a change to a brand new name could have helped increase awareness of a brand new system.
More work must be done to optimize Disney's accessibility program before more fans consider it fair. Smarter use of names and types may also help Disney higher communicate these changes once they occur.
Originally published:
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