Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

pdude81

Well-Known Member
Another thing to point out. If you're staying at an on site hotel, you can try to address your issues there and not wait in the big lines at the park on a tough day. I've had Guest Relations at the hotel front desk help me book ILL when the app wasn't functioning and to help with refunds or adjustments on occasion.
 

Preemiemama

New Member
This was the response from Guest Services...

Thank you for your e-mail to the Walt Disney World® Resort.

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and are sorry for the disappointments you mentioned in your e-mail regarding your experience with the Genie+ system. It is our goal to create magical memories and exceed the expectations of our Guests during each and every interaction that you have with us. Please be assured that we have shared your comments with our leadership team, along with the appropriate management, as feedback such as yours is taken very seriously.

Once again, thank you for contacting us. We sincerely hope that we will have an opportunity to entertain you soon.
We have complained by email after a few trips. Something like Genie+/ILL not working we probably would have addressed in person; however, we have complained about different experiences after the fact as well. One example was an oversold Villains After Hours event. We have received a similar email, and then usually a more personal follow up and/or phone call. Sometimes it can take a week or two to get that, though. While I won't say you will definitely get a follow-up, I would not completely discount the possibility until a few weeks have passed.
 

Purduevian

Well-Known Member
Reading people's issues with G+ is frustrating, but my number 1 tip with G+, ILL, Dinning, VQ, ect.

SCREEN SHOT EVERYTHING. Guest services has always helped me if I had proof that either something wasn't working, or something disappeared.
Even a screenshot with a broken G+ with the time in the corner is worth something.
 

Eric Graham

Well-Known Member
The recent posts about having to get refunds for ILL have me back to thinking of a better solution. I still like an idea I proposed back with ILL first came out. Treat it like the Express Toll Lanes we have in Atlanta. If you want to skip the traffic, the toll to use the express lane is posted. Higher traffic = higher toll so in theory the express lanes do not get too congested.

Here's how my idea would work at WDW: you would walk up to the LL entry and see the posted wait time for standby, compared to the wait time and cost to use the LL. Choose then and there to pay and get in the shorter line or pay nothing and wait in standby. This would be available at any attraction that today has LL or ILL. To keep it simple, the price would be a constant, but there would be a cap on how many could purchase the LL express lane in a 15 (or 30?) minute window so that the wait time remains short. There would be no option to purchase in advance - only pay to enter at the time of purchase. And, no Genie+ option for LL and no free fastpass.
Do you mean the lanes in Atlanta that are usually closed???
 

dmw

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Do you mean the lanes in Atlanta that are usually closed???
not sure I know what you mean... I don't think I've ever seen the lanes closed except for the brief time period when the single direction lanes have to shut down to change directions from the morning rush to the evening rush.
 

Eric Graham

Well-Known Member
not sure I know what you mean... I don't think I've ever seen the lanes closed except for the brief time period when the single direction lanes have to shut down to change directions from the morning rush to the evening rush.
Sorry. Maybe I'm not sure how those lanes work. We don't travel through that area very much. BTW, do you like racing? One of my neighbors where I grew up invented the hans device if you're familiar with it.
 

dmw

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Sorry. Maybe I'm not sure how those lanes work. We don't travel through that area very much. BTW, do you like racing? One of my neighbors where I grew up invented the hans device if you're familiar with it.
On some of the interstates there is a dedicated toll lane in both the north and southbound sides (I-85 northeast of I-285 as one example). So, those lanes are rarely closed, unless there is construction or an accident.
On other interstates, there is a single toll lane that is reversible. It flows one direction for the morning rush, and the opposite direction for the evening rush. I-75/I-575 northwest of I-285 is an example). If you are traveling the opposite direction of the flow of the toll lane, then the signs will say closed.

Yes, I enjoy racing - mostly NASCAR, but I also enjoy watching F1 on occasion. My profile pic is from a Richard Petty Driving experience at the NASCAR track that used to be at the edge of the MK parking lots. It was very cool to drive the car so fast around a professional track! The hans device is an amazing safety invention. Very cool to know the person who invented it!
 

Eric Graham

Well-Known Member
On some of the interstates there is a dedicated toll lane in both the north and southbound sides (I-85 northeast of I-285 as one example). So, those lanes are rarely closed, unless there is construction or an accident.
On other interstates, there is a single toll lane that is reversible. It flows one direction for the morning rush, and the opposite direction for the evening rush. I-75/I-575 northwest of I-285 is an example). If you are traveling the opposite direction of the flow of the toll lane, then the signs will say closed.

Yes, I enjoy racing - mostly NASCAR, but I also enjoy watching F1 on occasion. My profile pic is from a Richard Petty Driving experience at the NASCAR track that used to be at the edge of the MK parking lots. It was very cool to drive the car so fast around a professional track! The hans device is an amazing safety invention. Very cool to know the person who invented it!
One of our other neighbors raced miniature (I think they were Porsches) about waist high at Road Atlanta. He had an orange arrow going down the middle. He said it was it tell him which way to drive the car. He did it as a hobby. One of his other cars he had crashed into a wall. And another neighbor where I grew up designs cars.
 

Eric Graham

Well-Known Member
On some of the interstates there is a dedicated toll lane in both the north and southbound sides (I-85 northeast of I-285 as one example). So, those lanes are rarely closed, unless there is construction or an accident.
On other interstates, there is a single toll lane that is reversible. It flows one direction for the morning rush, and the opposite direction for the evening rush. I-75/I-575 northwest of I-285 is an example). If you are traveling the opposite direction of the flow of the toll lane, then the signs will say closed.

Yes, I enjoy racing - mostly NASCAR, but I also enjoy watching F1 on occasion. My profile pic is from a Richard Petty Driving experience at the NASCAR track that used to be at the edge of the MK parking lots. It was very cool to drive the car so fast around a professional track! The hans device is an amazing safety invention. Very cool to know the person who invented it!
When I was at Disney recently, I struck up a conversation with someone who had a Lamborghini hat on. Turned out, he builds cars for Lamborghini. So I relayed my story about the Hans device and Earnhardt. My neighbor had asked Earnhardt to wear the device. He refused to wear it. The Lamborghini guy agreed that it probably would've saved his life.
 

Purduevian

Well-Known Member
They will release it once they can inch the average price to about $35 on any given day, so then it’s not so much of a shock when they say, now for $50 a day, here is our new pile of garbage
I'm not going to lie... I would probably pay ~$50 per person at magic kingdom or hopper for the current form of G+. I tend to go to Disney for a maximum of 4 days. My upcoming trip is just 2 park days for which I'm paying $163.32 per day (base) or $208.58 per day (if we upgrade to a hopper) per person, just to get in the gate.

I'm also a power user of G+ and have yet to get any less than 7 LLs in a day.
 

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
sorry for the thread bump... but here we are at Nov. 1st...and they hinted at some changes coming to G+ for 2024 (possibly some type of early booking again?).

Anyone heard of anything newsworthy on this or coming soon... or are they still trying to figure out what, when, and how much more they can make off of it
 

TheMaxRebo

Well-Known Member
I have not - but we are close to being 60 days out from when that would go into effect so if people would be able to book anything that early, it certainly should be soon that we would hear

(Not saying it would be that early, just that is what ADRs are, ... this could only be 7 days or day before or something, we don't know)
 

Chip Chipperson

Well-Known Member
sorry for the thread bump... but here we are at Nov. 1st...and they hinted at some changes coming to G+ for 2024 (possibly some type of early booking again?).

Anyone heard of anything newsworthy on this or coming soon... or are they still trying to figure out what, when, and how much more they can make off of it

It would certainly be nice to know. They've announced other changes like the elimination of park reservations and removing park hopping restrictions, so what's the holdup here? People with 2024 vacations planned should have an idea of what G+ is going to look like for their trips. I feel like Disney certainly had an idea in mind for what it will look like, otherwise why bother announcing that a change is coming?
 

Chip Chipperson

Well-Known Member
To calm the masses and deflect attention. They can change their minds or plans at anytime. Maybe they scrap it altogether. Who knows.

True, but if that turns out to be the case then it could backfire on them. It's one thing to announce a new ride or theater and cancel it before construction begins. Nobody booked a 2021 vacation because Disney announced a Mary Poppins ride for some undetermined future date. But announcing that G+ will be updated to allow pre-planning was clearly done in direct response to guest feedback and may have actually gotten people to book a 2024 trip because they said the chance would be able to make these pre-selections in 2024. After 6 months they should really have been able to tell us what those changes are and when in 2024 they'll be taking effect.
 

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
True, but if that turns out to be the case then it could backfire on them. It's one thing to announce a new ride or theater and cancel it before construction begins. Nobody booked a 2021 vacation because Disney announced a Mary Poppins ride for some undetermined future date. But announcing that G+ will be updated to allow pre-planning was clearly done in direct response to guest feedback and may have actually gotten people to book a 2024 trip because they said the chance would be able to make these pre-selections in 2024. After 6 months they should really have been able to tell us what those changes are and when in 2024 they'll be taking effect.
depending on the changes it could also positively impact bookings for next year....
 

Purduevian

Well-Known Member
They will have a fine balance for pre-booking vs no loosing out on sales for the G+ update. If they allow too many rides to get booked up, they will loose out on many people that discover G+ on day one of a trip, while all the good rides are booked up for the rest of their trip.

My guess would be something like onsite guests will be able to prebook 1 g+ and 1 ILL each day of their trip 14 days out (for length of stay). Offsite guests will be stuck with day of availability.
 

MissingDisney

Well-Known Member
True, but if that turns out to be the case then it could backfire on them
But thinking along the same lines, so can committing to a date and then not being able to follow through with it. That has actually happened over and over and over again. When Disney says summer, it could mean the end of April or it could mean The end of September. They stay vague on purpose.

Saying something as general as guests will be able to reschedule in some capacity in the future, could literally mean you get to select one or two attractions that morning at 7 AM. Technically, that is pre-scheduling. There was no mention of being able to do it weeks/months in advance from what I recall but I could be totally wrong.
 

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