Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Vegas Disney Fan]

They originally said summer 2025.
All the latest reports are it will open months ahead of schedule. They are now saying early 2025.
You might see some special previews happening during the holidays this year at the rate they are going.

Disney is on the mat and Universal's foot is on their throat.

I wouldn’t go that far but it’s shocking how quickly Universal has gone from an Orlando afterthought, to worthy of adding a day to a WDW vacation, to worthy of a couple days of an Orlando vacation, to the primary reason many now go to Orlando.

I think they still have a ways to go to catch Disney but if Universal and Disney both continue on their current paths it’s possible Universal could overtake Disney as theme park king in our lifetime, something I’d have thought impossible prior to HP and their massive increase in quality ever since then.

 

[Dranth]

I wonder if they’d limit changes until you’ve tapped into the park.

It would certainly give the power users yet another advantage.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

It would certainly give the power users yet another advantage.

It could be a nice little throwback to paper FP. FP+ for the prebooking, paper FP for the in park advantage, and Genie+ for the paywall lol.

 

[IanDLBZF]

I wouldn’t go that far but it’s shocking how quickly Universal has gone from an Orlando afterthought, to worthy of adding a day to a WDW vacation, to worthy of a couple days of an Orlando vacation, to the primary reason many now go to Orlando.

I think they still have a ways to go to catch Disney but if Universal and Disney both continue on their current paths it’s possible Universal could overtake Disney as theme park king in our lifetime, something I’d have thought impossible prior to HP and their massive increase in quality ever since then.

And there’s a good chance that Disney may very well end up going out of business altogether if it continues.

 

[Disstevefan1]

They originally said summer 2025.
All the latest reports are it will open months ahead of schedule. They are now saying early 2025.
You might see some special previews happening during the holidays this year at the rate they are going.

Disney is on the mat and Universal's foot is on their throat.

 

[pdude81]

And there’s a good chance that Disney may very well end up going out of business altogether if it continues.

I'll have what he's having

 

[GoofGoof]

I wonder if they’d limit changes until you’ve tapped into the park.

Wouldn't that give onsite guests another advantage since they can enter 30 minutes before offsite guests?

The system allows you to book reservation #4 as soon as 1 of your first 3 are used. You can modify any of the first 3 as soon as they are booked as well but the tier rules apply to any advance reservations booked or modified so the question is when do the tier rules drop for modifying reservations? We know the tier rules are dropped for reservation #4 but that cannot be made until you use one of the first 3 at park open. So logically they should probably drop the tier rules for modifications as soon as the park opens but not before.

If they drop the tier rule for modification at 7am or when you tap into the park that would be a loophole many would/could exploit but then they are back to people pounding their phone at exactly 7am or even worse as soon as they enter the park. I don’t think Disney wants that, especially not at the park entrances which are chaotic already. once we find this out I think it’s probably the biggest potential way to game the system.

 

[GoofGoof]

I wouldn’t go that far but it’s shocking how quickly Universal has gone from an Orlando afterthought, to worthy of adding a day to a WDW vacation, to worthy of a couple days of an Orlando vacation, to the primary reason many now go to Orlando.

I think they still have a ways to go to catch Disney but if Universal and Disney both continue on their current paths it’s possible Universal could overtake Disney as theme park king in our lifetime, something I’d have thought impossible prior to HP and their massive increase in quality ever since then.

It’s possible….who knows

I actually don’t think Disney views Epic as a major threat right now. The opening of that park will actually drive attendance up at WDW. The majority of people visiting Orlando are not theme park fanboys with rooting interests. They go to both and some of the other stuff in the area too. Universal benefited from Star Wars opening and Disney will benefit from Epic Universe. Summer 2025 should be a great time for Orlando tourism. This year may be a bit of a dip because of that.

 

[Splash4eva]

The system allows you to book reservation #4 as soon as 1 of your first 3 are used. You can modify any of the first 3 as soon as they are booked as well but the tier rules apply to any advance reservations booked or modified so the question is when do the tier rules drop for modifying reservations? We know the tier rules are dropped for reservation #4 but that cannot be made until you use one of the first 3 at park open. So logically they should probably drop the tier rules for modifications as soon as the park opens but not before.

If they drop the tier rule for modification at 7am or when you tap into the park that would be a loophole many would/could exploit but then they are back to people pounding their phone at exactly 7am or even worse as soon as they enter the park. I don’t think Disney wants that, especially not at the park entrances which are chaotic already. once we find this out I think it’s probably the biggest potential way to game the system.

Can Disney be this dumb to allow people to switch tier 2 to tier 1?!?

 

[Saskdw]

It’s possible….who knows

I actually don’t think Disney views Epic as a major threat right now. The opening of that park will actually drive attendance up at WDW. The majority of people visiting Orlando are not theme park fanboys with rooting interests. They go to both and some of the other stuff in the area too. Universal benefited from Star Wars opening and Disney will benefit from Epic Universe. Summer 2025 should be a great time for Orlando tourism. This year may be a bit of a dip because of that.

Disney 100% views Epic as a threat. For the first time ever Universal poses a real threat.

You're going to see people staying in Universal's fantastic resorts which put Disney's to shame and spending a week there. Possibly sliding over to Disney for a Christmas party or do one park.
The roles are going to reverse from what it used to be.

Epic will be state of the art. It looks amazing. Technology will be amazing. Submersion amazing.

And they are already planning the expansion and it hasn't opened yet. This park will be better than anything Disney has.

The entire Disney management team should be fired immediately if they don't view Epic as a threat!!

OK, rant over!

 

[GoofGoof]

Can Disney be this dumb to allow people to switch tier 2 to tier 1?!?

You will be able to do it at some point it’s just the “when” that is unknown.

 

[GoofGoof]

Disney 100% views Epic as a threat. For the first time ever Universal poses a real threat.

You're going to see people staying in Universal's fantastic resorts which put Disney's to shame and spending a week there. Possibly sliding over to Disney for a Christmas party or do one park.
The roles are going to reverse from what it used to be.

Epic will be state of the art. It looks amazing. Technology will be amazing. Submersion amazing.

And they are already planning the expansion and it hasn't opened yet. This park will be better than anything Disney has.

The entire Disney management team should be fired immediately if they don't view Epic as a threat!!

OK, rant over!

Who knows. It’s probably too off topic here to debate.

 

[Disney Dead Head]

Why not give onsite included with a hotel stay - Make folks want to upgrade their hotel and stop the nickel and diming.
Deluxe, and DVC get 6 LL 2-1s and 4-2s
Moderates get 4 LL 1 - 1 and 3 - 2s
Values and good neighbor hotels get 3LL 1- 1 and 2 -2s

Offsite hotels get the same as values with add purchase LL

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

Why not give onsite included with a hotel stay - Make folks want to upgrade their hotel and stop the nickel and diming.
Deluxe, and DVC get 6 LL 2-1s and 4-2s
Moderates get 4 LL 1 - 1 and 3 - 2s
Values and good neighbor hotels get 3LL 1- 1 and 2 -2s

Offsite hotels get the same as values with add purchase LL

Same answer as always I’d imagine, they don’t have enough capacity.

 

[Cariad]

Disney 100% views Epic as a threat. For the first time ever Universal poses a real threat.

You're going to see people staying in Universal's fantastic resorts which put Disney's to shame and spending a week there. Possibly sliding over to Disney for a Christmas party or do one park.
The roles are going to reverse from what it used to be.

Epic will be state of the art. It looks amazing. Technology will be amazing. Submersion amazing.

And they are already planning the expansion and it hasn't opened yet. This park will be better than anything Disney has.

The entire Disney management team should be fired immediately if they don't view Epic as a threat!!

OK, rant over!

For the first time I'm considering doing the first two or three days at Universal staying at a Universal hotel and cutting the time at Disney including nights at the resort.

 

[Dranth]

Disney 100% views Epic as a threat. For the first time ever Universal poses a real threat.

You're going to see people staying in Universal's fantastic resorts which put Disney's to shame and spending a week there. Possibly sliding over to Disney for a Christmas party or do one park.
The roles are going to reverse from what it used to be.

Epic will be state of the art. It looks amazing. Technology will be amazing. Submersion amazing.

And they are already planning the expansion and it hasn't opened yet. This park will be better than anything Disney has.

The entire Disney management team should be fired immediately if they don't view Epic as a threat!!

OK, rant over!

Look, I know some people really like Uni but even with Epic it is not a full week visit for most people. EU will help but USF needs a ton of work, IoA could use a little and most people skip water parks. Two days is about the max we can do before we are ready to leave.

Once EU opens we will go down for a day and hit that. We are debating on an extra day for IoA but that is it.

 

[IanDLBZF]

Look, I know some people really like Uni but even with Epic it is not a full week visit for most people. EU will help but USF needs a ton of work, IoA could use a little and most people skip water parks. Two days is about the max we can do before we are ready to leave.

Once EU opens we will go down for a day and hit that. We are debating on an extra day for IoA but that is it.

And probably much less with park-to-park.

 

[bwr827]

For the first time I'm considering doing the first two or three days at Universal staying at a Universal hotel and cutting the time at Disney including nights at the resort.

Our next trip is already balanced 3 nights at Disney, 4 at Universal, with 3 park days each.

The hotels at Universal are approx 40% cheaper and just as nice or nicer, depending on what aspects are important to you.

Eg walkability is big for my family. We love rope dropping and at many Universal hotels you don’t need to wait for a bus or skyliner — you can just walk 10-20 minutes at whatever ungodly hour you like.

 

[Saskdw]

Look, I know some people really like Uni but even with Epic it is not a full week visit for most people. EU will help but USF needs a ton of work, IoA could use a little and most people skip water parks. Two days is about the max we can do before we are ready to leave.

Once EU opens we will go down for a day and hit that. We are debating on an extra day for IoA but that is it.

I guess it depends on your vacation style.
To me Epic is a 4 day park on its own to really enjoy all it has to offer.

The park commandos who power through the rides and don't take time to enjoy the atmosphere wouldn't spend more than a week at WDW either.

 

[Winter]

Can we please just have the system that universal has lol.