Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[flynnibus]

And I don’t think you did have to know if you’d be park hopping or not. We never know on each day whether we will or not unless there is a particular reason, such as an evening ADR at a park where we don’t start out at.

‘unless there was a particular reason…’ like trying to use the advanced bookings we are talking about?

I mean…. in the grand scheme you’ve already paid a significant upcharge to have park hopping for that day. I get people see this as ‘yet another decision point’… but i think the real world instances of will be minor.

On almost every day, someone in our family will decide to either return to the room or strike out on their own for the afternoon, sometimes involving hopping. We often make spur of the moment decisions “why don’t we go to ____” during the day or at dinner. It’s rare that everyone does the same thing.

But you don’t get a discount on their park hopper cost if you ultimately didn’t use it either

 

[Chi84]

The problem with FP+ was a crowd and capacity problem, not a customer problem. The people who knew how to use it mostly loved it.

I know it keeps being said, but that video explains why it had to die when it did. Of course, more capacity could have fixed the problem, but there's not a problem more capacity couldn't fix.

I know the problems with it and why it had to end. I’m not even asking for it to be brought back. My comment was directed to people who keep denying the actual experiences of the people who loved it.

 

[flynnibus]

The people who didn't like FP+ tend to exaggerate the amount of planning it involved and the lack of flexibility. The point is that people who did like it were fine with doing it in advance and that it worked well for them.

I can't adequately explain how much more we loved it than having to pay a great deal of money ($800 this last trip) to make decisions "day of."

Yeah but the whole ‘cost’ argument is really separate anyway from advanced vs day of. It’s a difference in the end products they offer… but then its a discussion about ‘which product do i like’… not ‘if i like advanced booking’

Here people were talking about decision making… not best products

 

[dreday3]

I bet at some point they add a park hopper option to buy Genie Plus as an add-on. You won't be able to book yet, but you'll have it.
Then they lock you into a price.

Although I suppose with dynamic pricing, maybe not.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

So the 3 ride lament is continuing again today?

My tiered dream at mgm

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The problem with FP+ was a crowd and capacity problem, not a customer problem. The people who knew how to use it mostly loved it.

I know it keeps being said, but that video explains why it had to die when it did. Of course, more capacity could have fixed the problem, but there's not a problem more capacity couldn't fix.

Thanks for watching the video…cuz it’s really not THAT hard to understand if you believe the history and design of fast pass. Because it’s 100% true. Period

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The problem with prebooks…that even the BOBs wouldn’t sell…is it’s inefficient on multiple layers at an amusement park and had people and management grumpy.

Even the people that loved it…spent less time in the park and spent less.

“Grumpy” except for old dvc like me. Who didn’t want that much out of a day

 

[GhostHost1000]

The problem with prebooks…that even the BOBs wouldn’t sell…is it’s inefficient on multiple layers at an amusement park and had people and management grumpy.

Even the people that loved it…spent less time in the park and spent less.

“Grumpy” except for old dvc like me. Who didn’t want that much out of a day

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

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I agree the prices play into a factor but do you think thats the ultimate reason? Or is it the fact this “vacation” has become somewhat of a complicated one with the average guest (i personally dont think so but plenty i know who go feel that way) add in a stale product shortened hours grumpier cast hotels which are less than desirable the list goes on. Ive learned people dont mind paying as long as the product is worth it

I’m sure…like a good soup…it’s a mix off all of it

 

[Chip Chipperson]

The grievance was you had to know by 7am if you would be using advanced bookings and park hopping for the day. And I pointed out you used to have to make those same choices months in advance….

Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

I actually think this does kinda make sense, although I’m surprised they haven’t raised the price of the multipark version higher than Magic Kingdom? Same as charging more for park hopper? Certainly don’t think cheaper version for the quieter parks is a bad thing but then again our family...

forums.wdwmagic.com

It's not the same, though. In the past, your 3 pre-selected FP+ had to be in 1 park, so you could always wait and add the hopper option later if you were on the fence. You didn't HAVE to know with 100% certainty that you were going to hop and if you did hop you didn't pay extra for FP+ in the 2nd park. You also weren't paying extra for FP+, so if you decided not to hop then you hadn't lost anything.

 

[GhostHost1000]

It's not the same, though. In the past, your 3 pre-selected FP+ had to be in 1 park, so you could always wait and add the hopper option later if you were on the fence. You didn't HAVE to know with 100% certainty that you were going to hop and if you did hop you didn't pay extra for FP+ in the 2nd park. You also weren't paying extra for FP+, so if you decided not to hop then you hadn't lost anything.

And what happens when someone pays extra for G+ hopping that morning and the weather keeps them from it. Oh well Disney gets their piece of the pie

 

[Jrb1979]

And what happens when someone pays extra for G+ hopping that morning and the weather keeps them from it. Oh well Disney gets their piece of the pie

You have to go to guest services and get a refund.

 

[Chi84]

This latest tweak seems to contemplate a lot of trips to guest services.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You have to go to guest services and get a refund.

This latest tweak seems to contemplate a lot of trips to guest services.

Who have been very standoffish in recent years

 

[GhostHost1000]

You have to go to guest services and get a refund.

More blue tent booths!!! And we thought there were a lot of dvc kiosks lol

 

[nickys]

I mean…. in the grand scheme you’ve already paid a significant upcharge to have park hopping for that day.

In our case we don’t. It isn’t even the default option, there isn’t another option other than buying tickets from the US - and your base tickets cost more than our park hoppers.

But I do wonder what proportion of US guests who do buy park hoppers use them every day? I bet many don’t.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Who have been very standoffish in recent years

Also, "I don't want to go to the park because it's raining, but to get a refund for that reason I have to go to the park and stand on line in the rain," isn't a great solution - assuming they'd even give you the refund

 

[flynnibus]

It's not the same, though. In the past, your 3 pre-selected FP+ had to be in 1 park, so you could always wait and add the hopper option later if you were on the fence.

Let’s be real tho… we are talking about people taking vacations at wdw. Adding park hopper is not a day by day decision… you do it once per multi day trips.

This is splitting hairs over a hypothetical…. Not really what people are doing each day.

People add park hopping to multi day tickets once. Someone doing a one day ticket.. is far less likely to make a mid day decision to pay the huge ph add-on.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Let’s be real tho… we are talking about people taking vacations at wdw. Adding park hopper is not a day by day decision… you do it once per multi day trips.

This is splitting hairs over a hypothetical…. Not really what people are doing each day.

People add park hopping to multi day tickets once. Someone doing a one day ticket.. is far less likely to make a mid day decision to pay the huge ph add-on.

Right, but if someone has a 7-day ticket with a hopper, they're not necessarily hopping all 7 days so there's going to be times where they decide mid-day whether or not it's a hopper day. Not everyone has an in-park TS dinner every day of their trip so it's not as simple as "You already decided to hop or not hop when you booked dining." The weather, crowd levels, wait times at their potential 2nd park, etc. can all play a role. Adding another expense to hopping on top of the hopper add-on is a bad move when they're already having to lure guests with heavy discounts on rooms, selling APs (which still haven't sold out) after such a long layoff, etc. are all indicators that they're aware of the problem. Now they're trying to disguise a cost increase both for their most popular park AND the 40% or so of guests who hop by acting like it's some great new level of flexibility and customization.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Right, but if someone has a 7-day ticket with a hopper, they're not necessarily hopping all 7 days so there's going to be times where they decide mid-day whether or not it's a hopper day. Not everyone has an in-park TS dinner every day of their trip so it's not as simple as "You already decided to hop or not hop when you booked dining." The weather, crowd levels, wait times at their potential 2nd park, etc. can all play a role. Adding another expense to hopping on top of the hopper add-on is a bad move when they're already having to lure guests with heavy discounts on rooms, selling APs (which still haven't sold out) after such a long layoff, etc. are all indicators that they're aware of the problem. Now they're trying to disguise a cost increase both for their most popular park AND the 40% or so of guests who hop by acting like it's some great new level of flexibility and customization.

If someone has a 7 day park hopper now it’s like $700…or not much less than than a premium annual pass circa 2016…


…what was I saying again?…

…oh right…we were trying to figure out why attendance is tanking and people are grumpy and it’s starting to go mainstream?

…right…beats me…I got nothing on that