Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[CaptainAmerica]

From a marketing standpoint, Disney would have been a lot better off heralding this as the popular DL Maxpass system comes to WDW AND it’s 5 dollars cheaper with the caveat that a handful of headliners cost extra.

I think they should have left the individual purchases off of the initial announcement entirely. Save it for Tron and Guardians. It's completely unnecessary on rides line Kilimanjaro Safari and Space Mountain.

 

[DisneyDodo]

That was the prime complaint! "I hate having to schedule my whole day."

You wouldn't have to schedule anything in advance with a time-selection option - you could always just pick the next available slot. It just gives you the option to choose a later one if the first doesn't work for you (e.g because you have a dining reservation, or your flight gets in later in the day, etc.)

FP+ essentially forced you to plan your day by releasing so many FPs (3 per guest) months in advance, initiating a mad grab to snag them as early as 60+ days out. If you didn't plan ahead, there was nothing valuable left for you. That's what bothered people.

 

[Waters Back Side]

I think something isn't clicking for you.

Why wouldn't you have a chance to get better rides later in the day?

Because they might get booked quick. Is that really hard to understand? How will they spread availability? I never said I wouldnt. I was wondering and concerned I wouldnt.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Because they might get booked quick. How will they spread availability? I never said I wouldnt. I was wondering and concerned I wouldnt.

Guests will spread the demand naturally. If I'm rope dropping the park, I'm not going to book Splash Mountain for Noon if Big Thunder is available at 9:30.

The old days where paper passes claimed all availability at certain rides within a few hours only caused problems at one or two attractions at a time. None of the Genie+ rides are that disproportionately demanded.

 

[DisneyDodo]

Guests will spread the demand naturally. If I'm rope dropping the park, I'm not going to book Splash Mountain for Noon if Big Thunder is available at 9:30.

The old days where paper passes claimed all availability at certain rides within a few hours only caused problems at one or two attractions at a time. None of the Genie+ rides are that disproportionately demanded.

It also helps that guests can see the availability for each ride on their phone from anywhere. With paper FP, guests would naturally walk up to the ride they wanted a FP for and take whatever was given to them.

 

[matt9112]

Over posting wait times is not the same thing as artificially inflating actual wait times.

Would it not sell more genie+?

 

[RSoxNo1]

So we know that Disney will have to change the queue signage from Fastpass+ to Lightning Lane. While a relatively small component of this, some of the signage isn't going to be an easy change. If they're looking for consistency, most attractions currently read "Standby Entrance" and "Fastpass+ Entrance". In many cases there is a symmetry in the existing signage that may require the entire dynamic to change. You may see "Standby Entrance" revert to "Standby" as an example.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Lots of cope going on in this thread.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I think they should have left the individual purchases off of the initial announcement entirely. Save it for Tron and Guardians. It's completely unnecessary on rides line Kilimanjaro Safari and Space Mountain.

The individual purchases on rides where it isn’t necessary IS THE WHOLE POINT. Prices for individual rides are going to increase and more and more rides will cost extra. It is absolutely inevitable.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

The individual purchases on rides where it isn’t necessary IS THE WHOLE POINT. Prices for individual rides are going to increase and more and more rides will cost extra. It is absolutely inevitable.

Nobody is going to pay a la carte for anything other than Rise, Rat, Tron, and Guardians. MAYBE during Christmas week or something like that, but absolutely not during normal times. There's not enough concentrated demand to sell the two rides per park they have now, let alone adding to the list.

 

[Casper Gutman]

You're wrong. Nobody is going to pay a la carte for anything other than Rise, Rat, Tron, and Guardians. MAYBE during Christmas week or something like that, but absolutely not during normal times. There's not enough concentrated demand to sell the two rides per park they have now, let alone adding to the list.

I have no idea how you can possibly believe this. Lines at WDW are bad across the board with very few exceptions, and people who have already sunk huge amounts into their trip will absolutely pay a little more, and a little more - and the Genie will be there constantly, framing it as necessary and pushing, pushing. And if people aren’t paying enough - well, that just tells WDW that staffing levels are too high and, oh what a surprise, lines get a little longer and slower. And here comes Genie.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I have no idea how you can possibly believe this. Lines at WDW are bad across the board with very few exceptions, and people who have already sunk huge amounts into their trip will absolutely pay a little more, and a little more - and the Genie will be there constantly, framing it as necessary and pushing, pushing. And if people aren’t paying enough - well, that just tells WDW that staffing levels are too high and, oh what a surprise, lines get a little longer and slower. And here comes Genie.

Can I ask what you do for a living? Your impression of business executives seems to be based on cartoon villainy.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I have no idea how you can possibly believe this. Lines at WDW are bad across the board with very few exceptions, and people who have already sunk huge amounts into their trip will absolutely pay a little more, and a little more - and the Genie will be there constantly, framing it as necessary and pushing, pushing. And if people aren’t paying enough - well, that just tells WDW that staffing levels are too high and, oh what a surprise, lines get a little longer and slower. And here comes Genie.

Angry face is because you're right.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Nobody is going to pay a la carte for anything other than Rise, Rat, Tron, and Guardians. MAYBE during Christmas week or something like that, but absolutely not during normal times. There's not enough concentrated demand to sell the two rides per park they have now, let alone adding to the list.

That you include a mediocre D-ticket in your list of things people will pay for sort of disproves your point.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

That you include a mediocre D-ticket in your list of things people will pay for sort of disproves your point.

As I've said elsewhere, Disney fans care more than anything about the new hotness, even if it isn't all that new or all that hot.

No, Rat isn't BETTER than Haunted Mansion, but it'll be immensely more popular for the next five years.

 

[flynnibus]

But if that is so, is there a good explanation why @lentesta's Touring Plans crew can show, with real data, that posted wait time are consistently higher than actual? I'm genuinely curious

under promise… over deliver?

no one gets made about shorter than expected waits. Wait longer than expected… different beast cones out.

there can be other manipulation motivations too which while self serving (think end of day scenarios) - that doesn’t mean they are ready to abuse customers

 

[flynnibus]

This is the part that gives me optimism about the future of TouringPlans. Disney will undoubtedly use Genie to encourage people to do what is best for Park Ops, rather than putting guest interests first. TouringPlans has no such incentive.

just one of the niches TP will continue to be able to exploit and justify themselves with. Independence.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Can I ask what you do for a living? Your impression of business executives seems to be based on cartoon villainy.

I mean, have you been following what WDW has done over just the last four months, using a pandemic as opportunity? If I had described these price hikes and cutbacks three years ago, you’d have dismissed it as cartoon villainy.

On this very forum, we constantly have people dismissing any notion of corporate morality by shouting, “But it’s a BUSINESS.”

 

[flynnibus]

The analogy I've used is that FastPass was a free public pool with 200 people in it. Genie+ is a private pool that costs $15, and it only has 20 people in it.

Yeah, you're paying for the "same" pool that used to be free, but your experience should be better if you choose to pay.

Horrible analogy- you skipped that the common man pool is no longer an option… so you aren’t just paying for exclusivity… but any participation at all

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

As I've said elsewhere, I've ridden Rise four times on two trips. It's not hard. Just keep off of the crappy free WiFi.

Wait a minute…what dates?