Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

Waters Back Side

Well-Known Member
I doubt it will work that way. Otherwise people will be able to have multiple rides at a time booked. I'm not so sure you will see times that late in the day at 8am.

With MaxPass you can carry 2 rides at once if the first (or next) one you book is only available later in day not by choice. So I think having 2 booked at once makes sense. I can see them not allowing for more after though.
 
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flutas

Well-Known Member
With MaxPass you can carry 2 rides at once if the first (or next) one you book is only available later in day not by choice. So I think having 2 booked at once makes sense. I can see them not allowing for more after though.

Unless that is a recent change, MaxPass had theoretically no limit on number of passes held at once.

I've had multiple instances of holding 3+ at the same time.
 

Waters Back Side

Well-Known Member
Unless that is a recent change, MaxPass had theoretically no limit on number of passes held at once.

I've had multiple instances of holding 3+ at the same time.

Thats cool! So you can hold more then 2. Thats based on the assumption that you choose rides you want that are only available later in the day. Like Big Thunder at 6 PM, Splash at 7PM etc. And all while every 90 minutes selecting a ride you want and the next available time. Id like that if true.
 

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
Thats cool! So you can hold more then 2. Thats based on the assumption that you choose rides you want that are only available later in the day. Like Big Thunder at 6 PM, Splash at 7PM etc. And all while every 90 minutes selecting a ride you want and the next available time. Id like that if true.
I'm wondering how often that will happen. I'm betting most people will choose whatever is available to them at that time. If that happens then times for late in the day wouldn't be available til mid afternoon. I doubt many are going to want to pick something hours later and then wait 90 mins to 2 hours to get their next one.
 

LovePop

Well-Known Member
The more I think about it, Genie+ will work out great for our family. We are planning to go during moderate crowd times of the year, so that the parks are not too crowded, but not too empty either. Being that Genie+ doesn't have a free version (unlike Maxpass), it means about half the people will not get it. That means there will always be passes available, and we can get passes all day. As to the paid fastpass rides, we don't like those anyway so they don't affect us. Genie+ costs $60 per day per family. Our park ticket is $300 per day (for 10 days). That's effectively a 20% ticket price increase compared to the days of the free fastpass.

Some people won't get Genie+ because they can't afford it. Others won't get it just out of principle (spite). Still others will skip WDW altogether out of anger towards the fastpass situation. All three situations will work towards our benefit by reducing the demand for fastpasses or simply reducing overall attendance.

If we were like most families who enjoy the popular rides, we would need about $40 per day per person for the 2 paid fastpasses (assuming $20 each). Together with Genie+ at $15, that's $55 per day per person, or $220 for our family of 4 per day, or $2200 for our 10 day ticket, which normally costs about $3000. That's effectively a 73% increase in ticket prices.
 

Waters Back Side

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering how often that will happen. I'm betting most people will choose whatever is available to them at that time. If that happens then times for late in the day wouldn't be available til mid afternoon. I doubt many are going to want to pick something hours later and then wait 90 mins to 2 hours to get their next one.

It's a scenario I can actually see happen more often when its crowded and a couple of the better rides you want are not available until several hours later if at all.
 

TheDuke

Well-Known Member
This just feels like a racket, like they're trying to deliberately jack the wait times up and then charge you money to skip them. It's 100% about money, not improving the experience.

The parks have just been so much smoother with FP gone, most rides top out at just 45 minutes aside from some of the very biggest ones. Even with FP+ you got some longer lines but you could skip a few a day for free. If they were going to do it they should have charged more to keep the number of people using it down. I'm thinking all the tourists and single day locals will get it and jack even the mid tier rides lines up over an hour. And then they might all be sold out by the middle of the day leaving you with just a bunch of long lines. They want you to pay more and get less.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
Because I like to arrive at the park at 11 or later. If MMRR at 7am only has 9 or 930 available and I choose to wait to see of there are any later on and lose out it would be a downer. I'm hoping I can wait until later in the AM to choose a ride for a time that works for when I plan to arrive at the park and does not conflict with other plans or they keep several slots spread throughout the day.

How dare you be an individual thinker???? Not getting up at 7, gasp! You don't know you are not allowed to go to the parks at 11 or later now. (sarcastic, LOL)
 

rkleinlein

Well-Known Member
I figured rather than post a long explanation of my feelings about it, it's just easier to post the link to the video explaining why this could be really good, or really not.

I thought this was an interesting analysis. I had no idea that such a ridiculously high percentage of ride capacity had been given over to fastpass and that that's why, if his analysis is correct, standby lines for everything are so absurdly long. And why this is not a problem with Universal's express pass.

He seems to pin the success of the new system on not many people purchasing it, as at Universal, but at only $15 per person, it seems likely that very many people, maybe most, will purchase it. In which case it will be as frustrating as fastpass.

It seems like lightning lane is similar to Disneyland's max pass. What's different (beside the fact that lightning lane sounds inane and max pass less so)?
 
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Vegas Disney Fan

Well-Known Member
What's different (beside the fact that lightning lane sounds inane and max pass less so)?

The big difference is it’s a daily price instead of a yearly price.

I’m hoping this turns into a money loser and they bring maxpass back. I paid about $100 a year for MP so I’d have to use genie+ 5 times a year for them to break even, I don’t see that happening.
 

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
The big difference is it’s a daily price instead of a yearly price.

I’m hoping this turns into a money loser and they bring maxpass back. I paid about $100 a year for MP so I’d have to use genie+ 5 times a year for them to break even, I don’t see that happening.
I don't know if money loser is the correct analogy I think more that it will not be a money maker. Rumor is the parks were projected to be at somewhere in the low 90's% of capacity at the current time but are actually in the low 60's% of capacity. The commentary of some of the posters seems to corroborate the rumor by reporting that they are experiencing low turn outs of guests at the parks so if there are low or no lines what is the need for a lightning lane?
 

DisneyDodo

Well-Known Member
I figured rather than post a long explanation of my feelings about it, it's just easier to post the link to the video explaining why this could be really good, or really not.

If Disney only allocates 10-15% of ride capacity to LL, it would probably destroy all the value of G+ (unless very few guests subscribe). Subscribers would end up with 2 or 3 LPs throughout the day and the standby lines would be much shorter anyway, so it wouldn’t save you that much time. That can be viewed as a positive or negative depending on your angle (you can get almost as much done as before without paying, but even if you’re willing to pay, you can’t do all that much more)
 

dmw

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
If Disney only allocates 10-15% of ride capacity to LL, it would probably destroy all the value of G+ (unless very few guests subscribe). Subscribers would end up with 2 or 3 LPs throughout the day and the standby lines would be much shorter anyway, so it wouldn’t save you that much time. That can be viewed as a positive or negative depending on your angle (you can get almost as much done as before without paying, but even if you’re willing to pay, you can’t do all that much more)
@lentesta Will you be coming up with new touring plans that offer both a G+ and non-G+ alternative? It would be interesting to compare the strategies of using vs not using G+.
 

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
It's a scenario I can actually see happen more often when its crowded and a couple of the better rides you want are not available until several hours later if at all.

Your answer to one question you had is that according to Disney food blog you can only make your 2nd ride only after you use your first one. I don't think you will be able to hold more then 1 ever.
 

dovetail65

Well-Known Member
A part of me thinks that some of why Disney is doing away with the courtesy magic bands is that they got all the data they were after with those.

Depending on how sophisticated their analytic research has been, there is a lot they could have potentially learned from having nearly all resort and AP guests walk through the parks with tracking bracelets on for half a decade.

Obviously, not all guests behave the same way and now, assuming they collected it, they know how typical ap holders behave in the park for the day vs. a resort guest. They potentially know how people likely not there with children behave vs. people with kids. Depending on just how good they've kept track, they know how guests who are annual/every-other-year vs. likely first timers behave, too - I'm sure within a pretty good margin of error.

They potentially have the ability to sort and slice data in a lot of ways that tells them a lot about their customers they didn't previously know.

If they've captured all that info, they may be comfortable with limited ability to track a party with just one person's phone now, and perhaps not worry about such info.

The question really comes down to how well they captured data and sorted it by individuals or groups.

In my line of work, I have a lot of visibility for how this is done with a network of internet ads or unrelated mobile apps to build and hone very detailed consumer profiles for the purpose of marketing. Most people would be shocked to know that many retail locations can track the ad they sent you right through to your visit to their store - even without some sort of special coupon or other voluntary thing that would help identify you. Stores like Target even track your travel through some sections in some locations without alerting you. The use of beacons has really been a game-changer and that's effectively what the relationship with Magic bands and the parks was for Disney.

I just wonder how smart Disney was about their access into our days at the parks. We never saw the promise of them rolling out live entertainment spontaneously to deal with a sudden crowd or really, any of the other things they said would be possible other than your name shoehorned into a few experiences that half the time didn't seem to work, so it's hard to say but if I had to guess, they were probably a lot more concerned with the data they were collecting for their own long-term purposes than they were for improving the guest experience so I'd imagine they grabbed and held onto a lot.

I'm sure a lot of this has informed how the app will work, though, and I doubt, as you said, they'd be dumb enough to send a few thousand people to a single attraction with low wait times because they know just as well as us (better, I'm sure) what happens when that's done and assuming they are tracking APs differently and possibly known repeat guests differently, that could be factored into the suggestions they offer - if they're smart about it, that is.

We like to think they're constantly doing dumb stuff and don't know how to do anything. I think they cheap out on things they're doing to stay in a budget and then deal with the consequences which probably results in a lot of that web page "food" for Stich but I don't think they're dumb about it.

Greedy and sometimes cheap, yes but dumb, no.

I think a lot of the time they know exactly what they're doing - it's just not what we as guests want them to be doing.

To that end, I don't think long-term guest loyalty is anything anyone in TDO or Burbank is losing sleep over although their successors some day might.
I believe it's more a cost thing because Disney is getting that exact same data with people's cell phone usage now anyhow. I do not think it's because they do not need data.

As time goes on companies want more real time data. I believe Disney gets the same, probabaly far more data tht they want when we use our phones, especially when we have the app on and most do, than they once did using bracelets. Phones today easily give Disney access to more data in 2021 than bracelets did even a few years ago. I will go as far as say Disney is pushing us towards phones in a great part because they want more data.

Now with phones Disney gets more data plus they save money by not giving bands free. Its a twofer for the most part.
 

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