Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[pdude81]

Took a couple days but finally made it to the end.

I really don't understand why they would rename Fastpass to Lightning Lane. They had a term that people had known and used forever and easily could have had Genie+ book fastpasses instead of Lightning Lane(s?). What a dumb change IMO. The words Lightning Lane will be hard for a lot of kids to verbalize and a new guest wouldn't have a clue what they meant until they got to the park and other people were getting in that line.

 

[dreday3]

No date yet?

 

[doctornick]

FOP is not on genie+.

Yes, the truly high demand rides are going to be comparatively much more expensive to pay for and will have many fewer guests buying those LL passes. I just can’t see a lot of families buying those for everyone- it’s easier to just buy the $15 product which includes a lot of rides (if one is inclined to buy something) and then suck it up for long lines for a few rides each park.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Yes, the truly high demand rides are going to be comparatively much more expensive to pay for and will have many fewer guests buying those LL passes. I just can’t see a lot of families buying those for everyone- it’s easier to just buy the $15 product which includes a lot of rides (if one is inclined to buy something) and then suck it up for long lines for a few rides each park.

Or rope dropping them, which is an option everywhere except Rise and, initially, Rat.

 

[pdude81]

What I really like about this plan is that you are limited to 2 per day of the paid attraction fastpasses. I think that will serve to really cut back on the number of fastpasses used there since every ticket no longer gets one free tier 1 fastpass. If you want to skip the line you'll pay, but many won't and the lines will move faster on the most in-demand attractions. It also stops the pay per ride from competing totally with VIP tours or Club 33.

Now there is a possibility that G+ is super popular and could drive waits up on the tier 2 rides, making the tier 1 skip costs look better. We'll have to see how this plays out in real time. We couldn't know what percentage of fastpasses used were from local APs who might not want to spend 15 bucks per day 30 days of the year. Clearly that number was much larger out west, but likely still a factor in WDW.

 

[TimeTrip]

To me the most “stressful” part of paper FP was the running around to machines and backtracking in the park. Digital LL gets rid of those issues which is why Maxpass was popular in DLR

This. Maximizing paper FP, I remember it felt like I was criss-crossing the MK to get the good fastpasses all day long. I will be happy to not do that again

 

[LittleBuford]

The point is the CHOICE existed. It doesn't now, and WDW is forcing people to experience the park in one particular way.

The choice still exists, and the consequences are much the same as I experienced in 1991: aimlessness is less efficient than planning. Some may prefer that, and that’s their right.

 

[Todd H]

Man...Disney fans hit the 7th stage (acceptance) pretty quickly.

 

[AshaNeOmah]

I expected this offering to be a lot worse and I'm surprised by the outrage outside of a forum like this with superfans.

I like Genie+, even with the $15 charge. I purchased MaxPass every time I was in Disneyland.

I really wish they had tiered the rides for now and included one or two tier 1 rides in Genie+, see how that worked, then brought on the IAP in the months or years that followed. Removing rides like Space Mountain and Kilimanjaro Safari from the standard service really rubs me the wrong way.

 

[GimpYancIent]

I can say me, myself, I and my nuclear family plus friends, after further review of the upcoming Genie / Genie+ and the Lightning Lane, simply we will not be using it. For how we do Disney its more of an annoyance. Rather buy popcorn and Dole Whip with the money.

 

[doctornick]

lol so what's the point of genie+ then? getting a reserve time for its tough to be a bug 2 hours from now?

For DAK, the value would come from LL for Everest, Dinosaur, Kali (on hot days) and especially NRJ. granted during slower times of the year you can do these without too much wait - and likely still will - because of good capacity. But if it’s slow I wouldn’t get Genie+ on a DAK day.

 

[el_super]

The problem is that they're gonna do that anyway in the next 2-4 years. Price increases aren't going to slow down because they introduced Genie+.

Genie+ is just charging for the the icing on top of an very expensive cake you already bought.

It's not a matter of whether the price increases should slow down or not. Price increases are a function of demand.

The real question is whether the product was underpriced. At the point that everyone is saying that Fastpass didn't work, was a broken system, and was still way overtaxed, we are all admitting that there were still way too many people coming to the parks.

The easiest, most straightforward way of managing crowds at the park, would be to adjust the pricing to reduce the amount of people going. Lines get shorter (not just at attractions but EVERYWHERE) and people generally have a better experience.

To be honest, I don't think raising the admission price even $20 would help alleviate the strain on a free Fastpass solution. We are talking a dramatic price increase to achieve the same results: maybe even $50-$100 per day.

Would you be willing to pay that much in order to achieve the same results as Genie+?

 

[GimpYancIent]

Man Disney fans hit the 7th stage (acceptance) pretty quickly.

Uh NO.

 

[doctornick]

I disagree.

Genie+ is not the same product as FastPass+, it's better. It's better because fewer people are using it.

To keep your analogy going, you have to pay $20 extra for the food, but it's not the same hot dog you used to get. It's a sausage and peppers with a beer.

Unfortunately it’s worse because you cannot schedule/plan in advance. (Others might argue, but value is subjective)

 

[aliceismad]

Took a couple days but finally made it to the end.

I really don't understand why they would rename Fastpass to Lightning Lane. They had a term that people had known and used forever and easily could have had Genie+ book fastpasses instead of Lightning Lane(s?). What a dumb change IMO. The words Lightning Lane will be hard for a lot of kids to verbalize and a new guest wouldn't have a clue what they meant until they got to the park and other people were getting in that line.

I think they had to change the name just so people didn't think it behaved the way the old FP system did.

All of the media I've seen about this is negative. All of it. It's interesting to watch.

The easiest, most straightforward way of managing crowds at the park, would be to adjust the pricing to reduce the amount of people going. Lines get shorter (not just at attractions but EVERYWHERE) and people generally have a better experience.

To be honest, I don't think raising the admission price even $20 would help alleviate the strain on a free Fastpass solution. We are talking a dramatic price increase to achieve the same results: maybe even $50-$100 per day.

I agree that I don't think $20 hike to ticket prices would be much of a deterrent. I don't think Genie+ will end up being much of a deterrent either, honestly.

 

[Homer fan]

Without magic bands, how will we scan in out Lightning Lane pass? Phone?

 

[AshaNeOmah]

It's not a matter of whether the price increases should slow down or not. Price increases are a function of demand.

The real question is whether the product was underpriced. At the point that everyone is saying that Fastpass didn't work, was a broken system, and was still way overtaxed, we are all admitting that there were still way too many people coming to the parks.

The easiest, most straightforward way of managing crowds at the park, would be to adjust the pricing to reduce the amount of people going. Lines get shorter (not just at attractions but EVERYWHERE) and people generally have a better experience.

To be honest, I don't think raising the admission price even $20 would help alleviate the strain on a free Fastpass solution. We are talking a dramatic price increase to achieve the same results: maybe even $50-$100 per day.

Would you be willing to pay that much in order to achieve the same results as Genie+?

There's the obvious fix of building more rides in the three of four parks have way too few attractions to offer any of these systems effectively. Even Genie+ is going to have the same problem at those three parks.

I don't go without buying a 7-10 day ticket or an AP, so my cost has always been considerably less per day. I'm honestly not sure what price would 'price me out'.

Any of the band-aid solutions aren't going to provide customer satisfaction with so few attractions in the 'other three' parks, so the argument that this is 'better than FP+' is almost a straw man.

 

[GimpYancIent]

It's not a matter of whether the price increases should slow down or not. Price increases are a function of demand.

The real question is whether the product was underpriced. At the point that everyone is saying that Fastpass didn't work, was a broken system, and was still way overtaxed, we are all admitting that there were still way too many people coming to the parks.

The easiest, most straightforward way of managing crowds at the park, would be to adjust the pricing to reduce the amount of people going. Lines get shorter (not just at attractions but EVERYWHERE) and people generally have a better experience.

To be honest, I don't think raising the admission price even $20 would help alleviate the strain on a free Fastpass solution. We are talking a dramatic price increase to achieve the same results: maybe even $50-$100 per day.

Would you be willing to pay that much in order to achieve the same results as Genie+?

Nah, the real question is whether the product is over priced and the potential customers are now realizing it? Yeah, how will demand work then?

 

[pdude81]

I like Genie+, even with the $15 charge. I purchased MaxPass every time I was in Disneyland.

I really wish they had tiered the rides for now and included one or two tier 1 rides in Genie+, see how that worked, then brought on the IAP in the months or years that followed. Removing rides like Space Mountain and Kilimanjaro Safari from the standard service really rubs me the wrong way.

I can see a possibility of the Safari being put in Genie+ and replaced with something like Everest, but honestly what are the two things a regular person would want to make sure they did in a day at DAK? To me the Safari is a must do unless the line is crushing. And honestly most people are not going to pay for it since you can get on relatively easy if you're willing to wait. The other reason I think this might not be in the Genie+ program is that they sometimes have to "close" the attraction (in app only) when there is an animal blocking the path for several minutes and they can send out more trucks. Having to reroute the much larger number of Genie+ people who chose Safari could be a logistical nightmare.

I think the way to do it here is to start out making the big rides pay only and then they could allow some exceptions if demand is soft. I agree on Space Mountain but I assume that will be a placeholder for Tron, just keeping a large number from buying 2 7DMT skips and destroying the line for anybody who didn't pony up the dough.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Without magic bands, how will we scan in out Lightning Lane pass? Phone?

Or room key. Or park ticket.