Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[JMcMahonEsq]

This just keeps getting worse. Now you have to buy the Genie + equivalent and, on top of that, single lightning lane purchases for the top attractions?! Plus you have tier restrictions?! I guarantee you that prices will continue to soar. This type on anti guest behavior is precisely why we stopped going to WDW three years ago.

What are you talking about? You had to buy Genie+ and separately buy LL under the old system. Thats the one part that hasn't changed.

Also just curious what kind of wasted days with nothing to do does a person have to have to be posing on a fan board of a place they haven't gone to in three years?

 

[DisneyCane]

This is satirical, correct?

yes

 

[Cariad]

I’m awaiting reports of VPN success/failure in the last week of July.

If necessary, I’m driving across the border at my 7-day mark in late November. Ridiculous.

I'll be interested in that as I have a VPN that allows me to watch American TV including Disneynow.com. However, I doubt it'll be possible.

 

[nickys]

I’m awaiting reports of VPN success/failure in the last week of July.

If necessary, I’m driving across the border at my 7-day mark in late November. Ridiculous.

MDE doesn’t use IP addresses to determine location, they use GPS.

A vpn won’t allow you to book Genie+ currently so almost certainly won’t allow you to pre book MultiPass either.

 

[GoofGoof]

This just keeps getting worse. Now you have to buy the Genie + equivalent and, on top of that, single lightning lane purchases for the top attractions?! Plus you have tier restrictions?! I guarantee you that prices will continue to soar. This type on anti guest behavior is precisely why we stopped going to WDW three years ago.

You had to buy genie+ too and pay for individual lightning lanes. The major change is you can pre-book 3 genie+ reservations now (7 of 3 days in advance depending on hotel reservations and country you are in) which benefits some people and hurts others. We won’t know what the prices will be until later but I would bet the price doesn’t go down on this. I would expect demand to be similar or higher depending on time of year and availability.

 

[GigglesMcSnort]

Are other people as upset about this new system as I am? I think it stinks bad

Or is it more of, "oh well, there's nothing we can do about it and we will figure it out"

Is this an either / or type question, or can I choose multiple options?

 

[GoofGoof]

It's DEFINITELY not a "FastPass." A "FastPass" was free so there is no way that Disney would ever charge for a "FastPass." Now, you are paying for "Lighting Lane" and nothing is faster than lightning so Disney is 100% justified in charging for this completely new, innovative product.

So is the order of speed from slowest to fastest FastPass< MaxPass< Lightning Lane. That was the order of cost but does cost equal speed?

 

[flynnibus]

I think they’ll shut this loophole really quickly if it really does exist. The old fastpass system required you to use your tier 2’s before getting an additional tier 1 for a reason.

we also only have one person repeating it... from a system no one has actually used.

 

[Jrb1979]

You had to buy genie+ too and pay for individual lightning lanes. The major change is you can pre-book 3 genie+ reservations now (7 of 3 days in advance depending on hotel reservations and country you are in) which benefits some people and hurts others. We won’t know what the prices will be until later but I would bet the price doesn’t go down on this. I would expect demand to be similar or higher depending on time of year and availability.

For the planners and those who go into the parks ride their 3 rides and leave it's great. For my family it's awful, it's gone to far back to the planning process.

IMO the best option was to let the planners have their first LL booked ahead of time and kept the Genie+ rules from there. Better compromise for the planners and those that like it day of

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

I don’t have a trip in the books so I have the privilege of playing the wait and see game in hopes that this might turn out better than the most negative possible scenarios. I’m hoping LL capacity is better than we’re assuming it to be and day of availability holds better than with FP+ and Genie, after all this new system seemingly hinged on DAS changes.

I also am choosing to be optimistic that the international silliness will be worked out.

 

[GoofGoof]

For the planners and those who go into the parks ride their 3 rides and leave it's great. For my family it's awful, it's gone to far back to the planning process.

IMO the best option was to let the planners have their first LL booked ahead of time and kept the Genie+ rules from there. Better compromise for the planners and those that like it day of

They claim the change to advance reservations is based on guest feedback. Who knows if that’s really true and even if it is I’m sure 100% did not ask for it. Even if it was 60/40 that means 40% didn’t want it. Not everyone will be happy.

With FP+ Disney had people booking reservation 30-60 days out. They knew well in advance expected crowd levels. When the parks re-opened after Covid shut down they dropped FP+ but went to park reservations which gave them the same data but the reservations are gone now in a lot of cases. I do wonder if part of the switch back to ride reservations in advance is for logistics and allocation of CMs. I suppose if they did the 1 reservation instead of 3 it would achieve the same result but either way that has to have some value.

 

[Dranth]

They claim the change to advance reservations is based on guest feedback. Who knows if that’s really true and even if it is I’m sure 100% did not ask for it. Even if it was 60/40 that means 40% didn’t want it. Not everyone will be happy.

With FP+ Disney had people booking reservation 30-60 days out. They knew well in advance expected crowd levels. When the parks re-opened after Covid shut down they dropped FP+ but went to park reservations which gave them the same data but the reservations are gone now in a lot of cases. I do wonder if part of the switch back to ride reservations in advance is for logistics and allocation of CMs. I suppose if they did the 1 reservation instead of 3 it would achieve the same result but either way that has to have some value.

They also claimed that removing the prebooking when switching to G+ was because of guest feedback.

Either they are just responding to whoever is yelling the most at any time or the push back to no planning with G+ was worse than the push back with planning for FP+.

My guess is G+ being a paid service made many mad and unwilling to overlook its flaws vs. a free system like FP+. I certainly don't blame anyone for feeling that way but going forward, it will be interesting to see if people really like a FP+ like system now that they are paying for it. I suspect that whole being free thing is what made most users able to look past its glaring issues.

 

[Jrb1979]

They claim the change to advance reservations is based on guest feedback. Who knows if that’s really true and even if it is I’m sure 100% did not ask for it. Even if it was 60/40 that means 40% didn’t want it. Not everyone will be happy.

With FP+ Disney had people booking reservation 30-60 days out. They knew well in advance expected crowd levels. When the parks re-opened after Covid shut down they dropped FP+ but went to park reservations which gave them the same data but the reservations are gone now in a lot of cases. I do wonder if part of the switch back to ride reservations in advance is for logistics and allocation of CMs. I suppose if they did the 1 reservation instead of 3 it would achieve the same result but either way that has to have some value.

I think that's part of it. I really believe a big part of it is trying to fill hotels rooms they are struggling to fill.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

I think that's part of it. I really believe a big part of it is trying to fill hotels rooms they are struggling to fill.

Modern Disney’s strategy to fill rooms would be offering guests the privilege to pay more and thinking that’ll do the trick

 

[KatiebugFan]

OK...this is a SMALL STEP in the right direction, but there is still room for improvement that will make Disney and guests happy!
First, Disney should make the LLMP a price that is permanent. even at $25/person per day they are still making money. Secondly, they need to figure out a way to make it like FP and have to go to the attraction and get a paper ticket with a return window...this will eliminate the guests using their phones all day on vacation!
IDEA: LLMP is purchased in advanced and you add the 3 selections at the time of advanced purchase. Then, when you use your first LLMP selection, you go to the attraction and pick up a FP return time and go from there. This way there is no being on your cell phones all day long ONLY IF YOU NEED TO MODIFY something! Thirdly, LLMP should only be $25-$30 due to the fact you will be paying extra for SLLP!
I just wished they would post the prices now, so people can plan and see how much EXTRA money they will be spending! The GENIE+/LLMP is the reason why we are not planning a DAY in the parks! We will be going to the MNSSHP instead...more bang for your buck!

This complaint about being on your phone the whole day with G+ is so overblown. Last time I had G+ I spent 9 hours in the part and the amount of time that I was using G+ was only about 30 minutes, definitely not the whole day.

 

[JAB]

This complaint about being on your phone the whole day with G+ is so overblown. Last time I had G+ I spent 9 hours in the part and the amount of time that I was using G+ was only about 30 minutes, definitely not the whole day.

I'm with you on that. Our last trip we did rope drop to close most days, and between G+ and mobile order I was on my phone less than 15 minutes total for each day. A couple of minutes at 7 AM, and then for a minute or two once every two hours (if that). For a 9 AM - 9 PM park day, that's 98% of my time that I wasn't on my phone, so I certainly wasn't on my phone "all day."

I think some people just refuse to "look at screens" even if it's actually faster and more convenient. During our last trip I overheard a woman trying to get her husband to use mobile order for lunch and he adamantly refused. When she tried to explain why it was faster, he just cut her off and said, "I don't want to mess around with all that. I just want to go there and order my food."

I certainly prefer taking a couple of minutes on my phone to order my food and pick it up with no wait vs. standing in the long order lines that we saw every time we picked up a mobile order, and I definitely prefer taking a minute or less to grab a LL from my phone wherever I am vs taking 15-20 minutes to walk to the other side of the park to grab a paper Fastpass.

On the flip side, though, it only works so well for those of us who use it because there are so many people who stubbornly refuse to, so... uh... yeah! No screens!!

 

[Cariad]

They claim the change to advance reservations is based on guest feedback. Who knows if that’s really true and even if it is I’m sure 100% did not ask for it. Even if it was 60/40 that means 40% didn’t want it. Not everyone will be happy.

With FP+ Disney had people booking reservation 30-60 days out. They knew well in advance expected crowd levels. When the parks re-opened after Covid shut down they dropped FP+ but went to park reservations which gave them the same data but the reservations are gone now in a lot of cases. I do wonder if part of the switch back to ride reservations in advance is for logistics and allocation of CMs. I suppose if they did the 1 reservation instead of 3 it would achieve the same result but either way that has to have some value.

I never believe any company that claims they do anything based on customer feedback.
One example; Splash Mountain.

 

[wdwmagic]

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada​

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Brian]

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada​

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada

www.wdwmagic.com

I heard they threatened to cut off their maple syrup exports so the White House made a couple calls and the rest was history.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada​

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Be Available for Purchase By Guests In Canada

www.wdwmagic.com

Happy Canada Day long weekend everyone!

(Canada Day is July 1)