Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Jrb1979]

But would that really be a better system for the majority of guests? Personally i don't think i have a dog in this fight. We are fortunate enough that we would not ever be priced out of the express pass market. If they had it, we would buy it really without looking at cost because we enjoy not waiting in lines.

But I also recognize that isn't everyone. Isn't it a better system that people who can't afford that extreme extra cost for purchasing a single item that lets you skip everything, can still target certain rides/days that are most important to them, and get those at a cost they can afford? I mean if you are a mountain person, isn't it better to offer something that they can selectively try to target those rides, and those alone b/c they don't care about little mermaid?

I am the exact opposite. Flight of Pandora is about the extent of my thrill riding, and when forced/guilted by my mom or wife, i will go on 7d. But i am not doing Tron, or Everest, or even Slinky, ect. But if the single EP is the only option, I am buying it so i don't wait in line at haunted mansion or Jungle cruise, while anyone who would have wanted to skip one of the other rides is locked out from the opportunity.

In theory having it available is the right idea. Problem is they don't have enough capacity for it to work. You're seeing it with every version of this system. Many attractions are sold out and very quickly.

The other benefits to limiting how many people buy it are that those who do buy wouldn't have to worry about availability as it would be wide open all day. Two is standby wouldn't be slowed down as much as less people would be in the LL queue

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

In theory having it available is the right idea. Problem is they don't have enough capacity for it to work. You're seeing it with every version of this system. Many attractions are sold out and very quickly.

The other benefits to limiting how many people buy it are that those who do buy wouldn't have to worry about availability as it would be wide open all day. Two is standby wouldn't be slowed down as much as less people would be in the LL queue

This frustrates me beyond words, had they just built rides rather than spending billions on mymagic and line schemes we’d all be better off.

Disney needs more capacity, instead we got schemes to monetize their lack of capacity.

 

[Laketravis]

You need to consider the source...

Consider that the original source was Josh as reported here:

Disney Caught Inflating Walt Disney World Wait Times Up To 300% To Sell Lightning Lane

A Walt Disney World guest claims that the Walt Disney Company is inflating wait times for its rides up to 300%.

thatparkplace.com

Regardless, my comment was tongue in cheek

 

[RKpb]

Seems like Disney might be going in a downward spiral? Attendance is down, wait times inflated, and so the cost is going up to maintain profits. Not a good situation to be in since Disney is mainly a theme park entertainment company.

 

[KDM31091]

Seems like Disney might be going in a downward spiral? Attendance is down, wait times inflated, and so the cost is going up to maintain profits. Not a good situation to be in since Disney is mainly a theme park entertainment company.

Unfortunately, it is not a great time to be a Disney parks fan, IMO. 95% of my visits as a local are spent enjoying the classic attractions that made Disney, Disney. It's not anything new is inherently bad, but the choices they've made lately almost across the board have been mind bogglingly bad. They don't seem to understand what got them to their level of success and are resting on reputation and nostalgia while continuing to hike prices up and up. Projects that were hyped and hyped like Epcot and Tiana were very under delivered. This is why I have not much faith in Tropical Americas or Cars or Villains being executed well.

As far as lines go, they created this problem. There's not enough capacity. They inflate the wait times to make LL seem like a better deal and rope people into spending money. It's anecdotal but almost in every single case that I've experienced, the standby wait is significantly shorter than the posted time. The past two Sundays I've enjoyed the party mornings at MK and went to SDMT first thing. Both weeks, it said ~45 or 50 mins wait and I was on the ride in 25 mins or less. So spending the money on an ILL would have been silly. This has happened many other times on other attractions, too.

I get inflating it a bit so that people don't run to guest relations and complain that their wait was 5 mins longer than intended, but this inflation is purely to sell LL and basically, rip people off. Which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Yes you're a business, but that doesn't mean you need to rip off customers with LL when you're already charging $150 a head just to get in.