Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[ImperfectPixie]

I have to agree in some ways this whole setup with Genie makes me feel like we need to be Park Commandos race to get up by 7AM, race to rope drop and go like mad til close. Thats not a vacation thats a Work Week

Chapek and the BoD want it to feel like that...they don't want you relaxed and strolling around just enjoying being at the parks...they need you to spend, spend, spend.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Chapek and the BoD want it to feel like that...they don't want you relaxed and strolling around just enjoying being at the parks...they need you to spend, spend, spend.

When they bother to go to a park they don’t experience it as a regular guest. This sounds like it could be good if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t know the business and doesn’t patronize the business.

 

[MrHappy]

Welp, nice job losing my $10,000 every year.
I finally have the chance to explore the real world with my family.

 

[Sandurz]

I have to agree in some ways this whole setup with Genie makes me feel like we need to be Park Commandos race to get up by 7AM, race to rope drop and go like mad til close. Thats not a vacation thats a Work Week

what part makes you think that? Genuinely don’t know what youre talking about

 

[DisneyJayL]

There really isn’t a “leadership” in Orlando…or even Anaheim…

it’s in lower manhattan, Beijing and Sacramento …these days

Unfortunately you’re right.

 

[LittleBuford]

What? No! That discussion you're seeing is human interaction, which is one of the main things you want out of a visit. It's also improvisation, adaptability, and figuring out what you FEEL like doing.

Honestly, what you said is nuts. You seem to think the point of a theme park visit is to march from ride to ride on a preprogrammed path like mindless automata, your only goal to maximize the number of attractions you see. That vision of the guest experience, held by execs, is precisely why WDW has declined so sharply over the last decade.

Having visited as a child with clueless parents in 1991 and wasted hours and hours in long queues, I beg to differ. A trip to Disney (and pretty much anywhere) is so much more rewarding and enjoyable when you have some sense of what you’re doing.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

When they bother to go to a park they don’t experience it as a regular guest. This sounds like it could be good if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t know the business and doesn’t patronize the business.

To quote National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...

Sometimes things look good on paper, but lose their luster when you see how it affects real folks.

ETA: I really think a requirement for being an executive involved in running the parks should be experiencing them as a regular guest at regular intervals. No VIP tours, no club level, not even a deluxe resort.

 

[UNCgolf]

Having visited as a child with clueless parents in 1991 and wasted hours and hours in long queues, I beg to differ. A trip to Disney (and pretty much anywhere) is so much more rewarding and enjoyable when you have some sense of what you’re doing.

I don't think that's what he meant, or at least that's not how I read it.

I think he was talking about feeling like you need to have everything scheduled regimentally in advance, where you are going to ride this ride at 9:30, then walk here to do this at 10:00, then head here for a snack at 10:30, then over to this ride at 11, and so on to maximize your experience and not miss anything, as opposed to just picking and choosing what you want to do as the day goes on.

I think you still need to have some knowledge for the latter scenario to not end up wasting time/missing things you would have wanted to do.

 

[doctornick]

There are a lot of people who don't care about rope drop. I don't think I've ever been up at 7 AM at WDW, at least as an adult.

You're only behind the eight ball if you want to ride most or all of the attractions, which is also something a lot of people don't care about. There are only certain attractions that matter to me.

With people only able to book one at 7 AM it probably won't be an issue, but it's still an annoyance, especially since there's no reason for Disney to set it at that time. It would be different if there was some clear operational reason where they had no other choice.

Well sure. But if a person “doesn’t care about riding most or all of the attractions” then I’m not sure why this 7am window would matter. Standby is still there if you don’t buy these passes or they sell out early.

anyway, they have to set it for some set time. 7 AM seems like a defensible choice and IIRC was when the FP+ window would open for 60 days out so it’s consistent. And obviously it’s been used as the boarding group opening time as well

 

[LittleBuford]

I don't think that's what he meant, or at least that's not how I read it.

Perhaps not, but I took him at his word when he said that he welcomed the sort of aimlessness described by @CaptainAmerica.

 

[wutisgood]

So sometime in the fall means October 1sr for implementing this along with the new ride opening?

 

[doctornick]

Agreed, though the ride's high capacity (2200 THRC vs 800/850 for PPF/Pooh) is largely responsible for the super-low wait times.

But on these boards, there are a lot of people who insist that the parks need more D-ticket people eaters that won't attract too many additional guests, and then they turn around and bash UTS for being sub-par.

Yep. All of the WDW parks and especially MK need a bunch of rides like Mermaid.

 

[flynnibus]

I don't know about you all... but I've mastered the ability to wake up, do something on my phone, then go back to bed. All this hubbabaloo about 7am I find so amusing. You're talking like 3mins of time... and only if you are chasing the early morning time-windows most likely.

It's gonna take less time then getting up to pee.

 

[JAB]

When they bother to go to a park they don’t experience it as a regular guest. This sounds like it could be good if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t know the business and doesn’t patronize the business.

Yep. Eisner would often go into the parks undercover and experience them like a guest would.

 

[DisneyDodo]

It is subpar, though. The combination of the high quality facade and elaborate queue gives expectations of an E ticket, and it's certainly not that.

However, even if that were not an issue, the ride has numerous areas that just look cheap. The Under the Sea scene has obviously plastic fish glued to sticks and on the walls, as one example. There are things that look like they were designed to be part of the set for a community drama production. Almost everything about the ride seems poorly designed/thought out. It either needed to be on a smaller scale overall or they needed to step up the overall effects. PPF is a more impressive ride despite being 50 years older.

They need more rides designed like Na'vi River Journey, not Little Mermaid. Not because NRJ a perfect ride (it has numerous flaws), but because it has wonderful detailing and never looks cheap -- it's actually transportive. Scatter 4 or 5 more rides designed like it (with the attention for detail and elaborate setting, not the lack of story etc.) around the parks and you're getting somewhere.

UTS eats a lot more people than NRJ. But anyway, NRJ takes just as much flack on these boards as UTS: "it's not long enough," "it needs more animatronics," etc. Those changes would certainly enhance the ride, but they also cost more money, plus they would draw a lot more guests to the park.

Your critiques of UTS reinforce my point, not refute it. The fact that the queue is so elaborate is a positive, not a negative. I agree that the effects aren't very high-tech, but improving those concerns would make it an "E." I'm not sure that PPF is really any more impressive - it benefits from nostalgia, and its low capacity inflates its wait times, but I wouldn't say its clearly better. My point is not that the ride is so great, it's that not ever ride has to be the best of the best. Right now, the parks are lacking a lot more in quantity (i.e. capacity) than they are in quality.

 

[ChrisFL]

I wonder if Little Mermaid also suffers from how far back it is behind the rest of Fantasyland...it doesn't have much "walk up and decide to go on" appeal as attractions more in the main walkways.

Also, regarding Genie overall...to me it's another attempt for Disney to algorithm their way out of their capacity and crowding issues...like playing tetris with too many pieces coming down at once, they aren't all going to nicely fit in the right places no matter how many times you juggle the pieces.

 

[flynnibus]

So sometime in the fall means October 1sr for implementing this along with the new ride opening?

I figure in the new fiscal year so right at the start of October.. my guess

 

[MrPromey]

It is subpar, though. The combination of the high quality facade and elaborate queue gives expectations of an E ticket, and it's certainly not that.

However, even if that were not an issue, the ride has numerous areas that just look cheap. The Under the Sea scene has obviously plastic fish glued to sticks and on the walls, as one example. There are things that look like they were designed to be part of the set for a community drama production. Almost everything about the ride seems poorly designed/thought out. It either needed to be on a smaller scale overall or they needed to step up the overall effects. PPF is a more impressive ride despite being 50 years older.

They need more rides designed like Na'vi River Journey, not Little Mermaid. Not because NRJ a perfect ride (it has numerous flaws), but because it has wonderful detailing and never looks cheap -- it's actually transportive. Scatter 4 or 5 more rides designed like it (with the attention for detail and elaborate setting, not the lack of story etc.) around the parks and you're getting somewhere.

I just deleted my own post saying the same basic things you did regarding Little Mermaid because you said it better!

 

[doctornick]

They should let you book it well in advance of your trip, to take some stress out of your morning. Maybe 60 days or so.

It would certainly make me more inclined to buy the new product if I could schedule in advance and not have to use precious time on my vacation doing so.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm gonna sell a service... where I get up at 7am and book people's MDE app for them.

The catch is... you gotta book me 60days in advance