Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[MickeyLuv'r]

True - most of us plan these things out ahead of time so the actual decision making process is already done. That still doesn't change the fact that you have a list of 2-3 things to do at 7AM that cost money, even if it's budgeted. You may second guess yourself if it's worth it or maybe thing if X Y Z is a better idea in the spur of the moment.

These are normal vacation decisions, so from a 30k foot view it's not too bad. But you're (potentially) making these decisions at 7AM EVERY day. Over the aggregate of millions of guests, this has some attrition on other things around property.

Two problems with G+:

1. Discovering the price of G+ has jumped an unexpected $6 per person overnight- and continues to be the higher price all week. (especially when it jumps to a NEW highest price ever.)


2. Paying for G+, arranging one's morning to pounce at exactly 7am, then having the thing jam up. In the early days, glitch = I missed out on getting Slinky, and that just make HS lousy. I spent 5 minutes trying to get Slinky, and by then ALL the G+ times were significantly bumped out. That was infuriating. Just, already at 7am, the day was off to a crummy start.

It was additionally frustrating talking to CM's who could not give a fig.

The same thing- more or less happened again on a later trip. A freeze at 7am = missed out, and the WDW CM's attitude was again, "So what?"

Nope, no matter that you woke up at 7am, no matter that you paid all this $$$, customers have no right to actually expect to get what they paid to have.

When this happens, we should get a refund. We should get what's left of G+ options for free. Otherwise G+ has a kind of scam product element to it. We paid for something we can't get.

The unexpected price hike - announced after midnight- also had scam feel to it. We pay for all other parts of the vacation, but then at the last minute this part of the day goes up unexpectedly. ick!

 

[aladdin2007]

Two problems with G+:

1. Discovering the price of G+ has jumped an unexpected $6 per person overnight- and continues to be the higher price all week. (especially when it jumps to a NEW highest price ever.)


2. Paying for G+, arranging one's morning to pounce at exactly 7am, then having the thing jam up. In the early days, glitch = I missed out on getting Slinky, and that just make HS lousy. I spent 5 minutes trying to get Slinky, and by then ALL the G+ times were significantly bumped out. That was infuriating. Just, already at 7am, the day was off to a crummy start.

It was additionally frustrating talking to CM's who could not give a fig.

The same thing- more or less happened again on a later trip. A freeze at 7am = missed out, and the WDW CM's attitude was again, "So what?"

Nope, no matter that you woke up at 7am, no matter that you paid all this $$$, customers have no right to actually expect to get what they paid to have.

When this happens, we should get a refund. We should get what's left of G+ options for free. Otherwise G+ has a kind of scam product element to it. We paid for something we can't get.

The unexpected price hike - announced after midnight- also had scam feel to it. We pay for all other parts of the vacation, but then at the last minute this part of the day goes up unexpectedly. ick!

I agree with all the above,,,just wonder how many bank charge disputes Disney is getting against them.

 

[MrPromey]

If only Disney could expand all of their parks attraction offerings, the crazy “need” for line skipping wouldn’t be as necessary.

…but then Disney wouldn’t make money selling it so there’s no rush for them to give us more I guess

That was my lament the day this was announced.

Disney went from having an incentive to increase capacity (that barely seemed to motivate them) to having an incentive for making things worse for guests, instead.

They created the problem for both guests and them through negligence and under-spending and then found a way to profit off it, making it a problem for guests that they could sell them an inadequate solution to which has now become a relied upon revenue stream.

Why bother adding anything unless they need to bring attendance back to overflowing in order to sell more Genie+ and ILL? Doing so would cost them money and now potentially make them less if it did what we want it to do.

 

[MrPromey]

But just think of all the amazing attractions they might open 5 or 6 years from now

The Encanto splash pad will be such a hit

It was, after all, the most streamed movie on Disney+ of 2021!

... Says MrPengun* the Disney spokesperson at the opening in 2030.



*Sorry MrP. I know it was a cheap shot but I couldn't resit.

 

[MrPromey]

I hope the price does go up, enough that a bunch of people don’t buy it. Here’s why:

-Less people buying it makes it easier to get FL spots for the people who still do (win for those customers)

-Less people buying it means less people using FL, meaning more standby throughput at merges shortening the line for everyone else (win for the rest of the customers)

-Disney maintains (or possibly grows) revenue off G+ while also increasing guest satisfaction (win for them)

It’s literally win, win, win.

They'd need to push pricing crazy high - like maybe $500+ to make things work out that way for everyone which I personally would be okay with but all those people who like it now because they think this system pushes out the riff-raff they had to compete with in the old FP+ system, won't be too happy finding themselves being considered the riff-raff at that point, I don't think.

 

[MrPromey]

I may be misremembering, but I think they did have them. You could pay extra for a closer parking space (some programs, such as AAA, had it as a perk) Perhaps so many people were willing to pay it that it became the norm rather than the exception?

Please note that I'm talking about something that may have happened almost 40 years ago.

I remember the AAA Diamond Parking areas each park had. MK's was next to handicapped, AK's was directly behind handicapped, EPCOT's was off to the side facing where the GOTG vehicle assembly building is now, and Hollywood Studio, rather than having a dedicated section, had like the first 1-2 spots on each row marked with a cone and would open one of those up when you came in with the pass.

 

[MrPromey]

...

It was additionally frustrating talking to CM's who could not give a fig.

The same thing- more or less happened again on a later trip. A freeze at 7am = missed out, and the WDW CM's attitude was again, "So what?"
...

I think the problem you ran into was that while this was a unique and frustrating experience for you, the three people in front of you and the next thirty behind you were basically angry and chewing into them about the same thing... as were a buttload of people the day before and as far as they could tell, would be until that cast member finds better employment.

It seems in the last several years, their ability to "make things right" with guests has diminished greatly and there has been an apparent push against, even just doing something as simple and basic as providing a refund for services not rendered* so for a lot of them, I think they've grown apathetic because it's hard to pretend like you care when management doesn't, reducing your job to little more than a human punching bag since you know there is nothing you can do to make the guest happy, anyway.

I've worked my fair share of customer service positions over the years and I know exactly how draining pretending like you're really fighting for them - having fake conversations on a phone, leaving for a minute pretending to go talk to someone, etc. so that it appears you're doing everything in your power to help them to diffuse the situation so they don't think you're just refusing to help them when you know at the very start of the conversation that you're not allowed to help them or not allowed to give them complete solutions. It's exhausting and I can't imagine working an 8-12 hour shift that is mostly that kind of thing non-stop.

*and I don't consider a refund for services not rendered making things right, especially when you have to go through the guest relations line to get to that point - I consider it literally just not stealing from your customers, which apparently, management was good with doing.

 

[Jrb1979]

I think the problem you ran into was that while this was a unique and frustrating experience for you, the three people in front of you and the next thirty behind you were basically angry and chewing into them about the same thing... as were a buttload of people the day before and as far as they could tell, would be until that cast member finds better employment.

It seems in the last several years, their ability to "make things right" with guests has diminished greatly and there has been an apparent push against, even just doing something as simple and basic as providing a refund for services not rendered* so for a lot of them, I think they've grown apathetic because it's hard to pretend like you care when management doesn't, reducing your job little more than a human punching bag since you know there is nothing you can do to make the guest happy, anyway.

*and I don't consider a refund for services not rendered making things right, especially when you have to go through the guest relations line to get to that point - I consider it literally just not stealing from your customers, which apparently, management was good with doing.

It also cause they don't have free FP to give guests anymore

 

[MrPromey]

It also cause they don't have free FP to give guests anymore

That would be part of the "making things right" - basically the "I'm sorry for your trouble and having to wait 30 minutes in line to speak to me with your family all standing out front and then another 15 while I click on my keyboard doing god-knows-what before fixing the original problem. Please accept this (thing that costs Disney nothing or near-nothing) along with my apology for your inconvenience."

You know that legendary customer service they used to provide?

The last few times I went to guest relations, I felt like I was street fighting at the return counter of my local Best Buy.

 

[SpectroMagician]

We chose to cancel our 2024 trip because we are so fed up with the nickel and diming. The value of stating on property is totally gone now with no magical express and early fast pass window for hotel guests. Now it is better to just stay off property and instead spend the money you will save to skip the lines. Disney has lost its magic and the value for the money.

 

[GhostHost1000]

We chose to cancel our 2024 trip because we are so fed up with the nickel and diming. The value of stating on property is totally gone now with no magical express and early fast pass window for hotel guests. Now it is better to just stay off property and instead spend the money you will save to skip the lines. Disney has lost its magic and the value for the money.

You still have the ILL and early entry you’d miss out on staying off property but I get how you’re feeling

 

[lentesta]

Related: It looks like Disney IT is putting in place measures to cut off third-party access to booking VQs and G+.

A side result is that standby wait times are now broken in MDE in production.

 

[mysto]

I guess that's one way to handle the 7am rush, hire a webbot booking service. Disney must be seeing spike in traffic and decided "high frequency trading" is part of it. The war between humans and machines continues.

"kill all humans" -- Bender

 

[jpeden]

Related: It looks like Disney IT is putting in place measures to cut off third-party access to booking VQs and G+.

A side result is that standby wait times are now broken in MDE in production.

Wait…this is a thing?

 

[the_rich]

Wait…this is a thing?

Yea its called standby skipper. You pay a daily or weekly fee and they make bookings based on your preferences. Then you get notifications when something is booked. Ive never used it but it was getting popular.

Eta: $25 a day or $45 a week

 

[pdude81]

Wait…this is a thing?

Yes, I have seen ads for G+ and and ILL booking services. You have to share your login with the app and have the matrix book for you.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wait…this is a thing?

yeah, I know of at least one (assume not ok to share names on here) and the person behind it sent out a message saying it might not work for much longer due to Disney implementing this change

 

[jpeden]

Yea its called standby skipper. You pay a daily or weekly fee and they make bookings based on your preferences. Then you get notifications when something is booked. Ive never used it but it was getting popular.

I wonder if this will drive the user count even lower. People having to do it themselves will not bother with it maybe?

Disney should take note that if your product is so complicated to people they are paying a third party to manage it for them, it’s probably too complicated.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I wonder if this will drive the user count even lower. People having to do it themselves will not bother with it maybe?

Disney should take note that if your product is so complicated to people they are paying a third party to manage it for them, it’s probably too complicated.

The one I knew of is something you put on your phone and you use that to get the LL or VQ ... so you still have to do it yourself it was just set up to go in right at the instance you push it and basically right at 7am so everyone using it always got BG1 for Tron or whatever - but you had to do it yourself but also was no fee for it

 

[the_rich]

I wonder if this will drive the user count even lower. People having to do it themselves will not bother with it maybe?

Disney should take note that if your product is so complicated to people they are paying a third party to manage it for them, it’s probably too complicated.

It really isn't to make it less complicated. It was to get bookings without having to search yourself. You still needed to confirm bookings and know how to use genie+. Honestly I always thought it was a waste of money.