Rumor New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Unless they replace the DAS slots in LL with Genie+/ILL. Then the standby line will move at the same speed but have a few more people in it.

No, because unless total park volume increases then people that would otherwise be in standby are now in LL. You have to look at this in terms of overall capacity and not the length of the lines.

 

[DisneyHead123]

I mean in fairness would you be shocked if after the dust clears and the pre books go away Disney does not start offering some premier version of Genie or charge more for the added feature with no other option?

Yeah, I don’t see this as some kind of conspiracy theory or something. I thought the insiders here said specifically that Disney couldn’t believe how much DAS was cutting into their Genie lines, motivating them to make some changes. Presumably to sell more Genie+, and to allow for the rollout of pre selections.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Yeah, I don’t see this as some kind of conspiracy theory or something. I thought the insiders here said specifically that Disney couldn’t believe how much DAS was cutting into their Genie lines, motivating them to make some changes. Presumably to sell more Genie+, and to allow for the rollout of pre selections.

On @lentesta 's podcast, he explained that its possible that only 1 in 5 guests are G+ in LL. If Disney could change that to 2 in 5, they are doubling their $$. We're talking serious cash here.

 

[Tha Realest]

On @lentesta 's podcast, he explained that its possible that only 1 in 5 guests are G+ in LL. If Disney, could change that to 2 in 5, they are doubling their $$. We're talking serious cash here.

This will be interesting going forward. Clearly the DAS volume was messing up operations, and likely guest satisfaction. Is the DAS reconfiguration a way to stop the bleeding in this regard? Were G+ users unhappy with the product due to the waits? Were overall guests unhappy due to the waits?

The variable pricing of G+ makes the supply/demand issue somewhat fluid, but it’s not a service that generally sells out. As I mentioned earlier, if the DAS reconfiguring makes the overall posted wait times lower, and the standby experience less unpleasant, does that make G+ more attractive or desirable?

Now, I could see them juicing G+ benefits (advance bookings, less down time between next redemption), or lowering the price to get more to purchase.

 

[RamblinWreck]

This will be interesting going forward. Clearly the DAS volume was messing up operations, and likely guest satisfaction. Is the DAS reconfiguration a way to stop the bleeding in this regard? Were G+ users unhappy with the product due to the waits? Were overall guests unhappy due to the waits?

The variable pricing of G+ makes the supply/demand issue somewhat fluid, but it’s not a service that generally sells out. As I mentioned earlier, if the DAS reconfiguring makes the overall posted wait times lower, and the standby experience less unpleasant, does that make G+ more attractive or desirable?

Now, I could see them juicing G+ benefits (advance bookings, less down time between next redemption), or lowering the price to get more to purchase.

I’ve never been to Disneyland so I don’t pay too much attention to it, but it sounds like DAS abuse was causing more problems over there than in Florida.

I’ve seen videos of terribly backed up LL’s over there, and read about people who had paid for Genie+ showing up for their lightning lane and having a cast member say “trust me, the standby line will be shorter”.

That’s obviously going to cause problems from both guest satisfaction perspective and an operational perspective.

I’m not sure how a LL can be so backed up that standby is shorter though. Don’t they typically shift to 100% LL in a situation like that?

 

[lentesta]

The variable pricing of G+ makes the supply/demand issue somewhat fluid, but it’s not a service that generally sells out. As I mentioned earlier, if the DAS reconfiguring makes the overall posted wait times lower, and the standby experience less unpleasant, does that make G+ more attractive or desirable?

Now, I could see them juicing G+ benefits (advance bookings, less down time between next redemption), or lowering the price to get more to purchase.

Yeah, these will be the interesting things.

We've got decent counts of pre-May 20 standby and LL usage and actual waits. We're going to need to do another round after May 20 to see the difference.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Yeah, these will be the interesting things.

We've got decent counts of pre-May 20 standby and LL usage and actual waits. We're going to need to do another round after May 20 to see the difference.

Looking forward to the data. We know Disney will make more money selling Genie+ but your data will tell us how the wait times change, hopefully for the better.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

“trust me, the standby line will be shorter”.

This shouldn’t ever be the case. They are supposed to adjust the ratios in real time.

 

[Ayla]

I’ve never been to Disneyland so I don’t pay too much attention to it, but it sounds like DAS abuse was causing more problems over there than in Florida.

I’ve seen videos of terribly backed up LL’s over there, and read about people who had paid for Genie+ showing up for their lightning lane and having a cast member say “trust me, the standby line will be shorter”.

That’s obviously going to cause problems from both guest satisfaction perspective and an operational perspective.

I’m not sure how a LL can be so backed up that standby is shorter though. Don’t they typically shift to 100% LL in a situation like that?

Since LL is afforded the vast majority of line capacity, a stand by line will never be shorter than the LL line, time-wise.

 

[Disstevefan1]

This shouldn’t ever be the case. They are supposed to adjust the ratios in real time.

Agreed, shorter standbys are bad for Genie+ sales. As you say, they make adjustments in real times to make sure standby lines remain long.

 

[ditzee]

I mean in fairness would you be shocked if after the dust clears and the pre books go away Disney does not start offering some premier version of Genie or charge more for the added feature with no other option?

No one should be shocked if this happens. Several yrs ago, there was outrage when it was suggested that Disney might link FPs to resort level stays. Then, it was worse when someone suggested Disney would charge for something like FP - I mean people lost the plot.

In reality, I wish they'd just rip off the bandaid and have per park charges for like you posted a premier Genie - they'll probably call it Mickey's Wizarding World Pass.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Since LL is afforded the vast majority of line capacity, a stand by line will never be shorter than the LL line, time-wise.

I am of the mindset that if you remove however many DAS users from LL, you will be able to add an equal amount of G+ drops back into G+ bucket. This will 1. Keep SB lines equally long (or longer to make G+ more attractive). 2. Make G+ a better product. Instead of saying expect 2 or 3. You can now expect 3 or 4.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Unless they replace the DAS slots in LL with Genie+/ILL. Then the standby line will move at the same speed but have a few more people in it.

It's a bit more complicated than this due to balking point. If I understand correctly, LL inventory may not change much at all after the DAS changes which means that the standby queues should generally move faster and standby waits should be more evenly distributed across attractions. In all, the less people in the LL (second) queue, the better for everyone.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

I am of the mindset that if you remove however many DAS users from LL, you will be able to add an equal amount of G+ drops back into G+ bucket. This will 1. Keep SB lines equally long (or longer to make G+ more attractive). 2. Make G+ a better product. Instead of saying expect 2 or 3. You can now expect 3 or 4.

I think they'd better be careful about adding too many G+ slots back. If they make it equal to the number of DAS spots removed then they'll end up with the same complaint from G+ users - the LL line is too long.

 

[Dranth]

I am of the mindset that if you remove however many DAS users from LL, you will be able to add an equal amount of G+ drops back into G+ bucket. This will 1. Keep SB lines equally long (or longer to make G+ more attractive). 2. Make G+ a better product. Instead of saying expect 2 or 3. You can now expect 3 or 4.

They may be able to add up to an equal amount but hopefully they don't.

If they do it right, they can increase their G+ money while reducing the overall number of people using the LL. That will force more into standby but it will also reduce the standby to LL ratio speeding up standby and making it less stop and start. LL waits should also see a drop.

If they go that route my only question is if the increased number of people in standby will offset the faster moving line so we end up with the same wait time overall? If so, at least the line moves more often so I would still call that a win for standby.

 

[Drdcm]

I believe it is. We’re talking about some stuff now.

Something to consider would be to see what the rate is during an after hours or party event. Even though the wait times are much lower, DAS is heavily used and you could weed out genie+ easily since it wouldn’t be available. Might give you more data points with the caveat that crowds are lower, so the real daytime usage is probably higher.

 

[seabreezept813]

Something to consider would be to see what the rate is during an after hours or party event. Even though the wait times are much lower, DAS is heavily used and you could weed out genie+ easily since it wouldn’t be available. Might give you more data points with the caveat that crowds are lower, so the real daytime usage is probably higher.

Serious question.. is DAS needed at party events? Aren’t the lines supposed to be pretty short?

 

[el_super]

No, because unless total park volume increases then people that would otherwise be in standby are now in LL. You have to look at this in terms of overall capacity and not the length of the lines.

Why wouldn't the newly freed up LL slots just get eaten up by the remaining DAS users? If Standby waits actually decrease, the advantage that the super commando DAS users have would also increase.

 

[natatomic]

Serious question.. is DAS needed at party events? Aren’t the lines supposed to be pretty short?

I can’t speak for everyone, but I had a friend visit a few times who used a DAS pass. My husband works during the day, so it would usually just be me managing our 2-3 kids by myself (youngest is currently 20 months, so still of carrying age) when I’d go to the parks with my friend. When we’d go through the LL via her DAS - even on rides that didn’t have long lines, like Nemo, Mermaid, etc. - I often thought, “Man, just the shorter distance walk is nice.”

I can see this being enough of a benefit for those who need it (as well as abusers) for them to use it regardless of how long the waits are.

 

[RamblinWreck]

They may be able to add up to an equal amount but hopefully they don't.

If they do it right, they can increase their G+ money while reducing the overall number of people using the LL. That will force more into standby but it will also reduce the standby to LL ratio speeding up standby and making it less stop and start. LL waits should also see a drop.

If they go that route my only question is if the increased number of people in standby will offset the faster moving line so we end up with the same wait time overall? If so, at least the line moves more often so I would still call that a win for standby.

If park capacity remains the same, it's impossible for standby wait times to remain the same unless guest behavior changes drastically.

Everyone who uses lightning lanes, whether it's through DAS, G+, or ILL's, is occupying more queues than they would without those features. Standby times are perfectly correlated with LL usage. DAS users just tend to occupy way more spots in queues during the day than any of those other guests.