Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[disneygeek90]

RotR is down, now we start to find out what they do you the ILL people . Really need another acronym View attachment 594454

As of about an hour ago, the site that shall not be named reported skipping the preshows was happening. That was bad enough when you were entering standby or BG's for free. Even more inexcusable on the first day that they're charging some $10/pp.

 

[hopemax]

All of the current wait times in HS are lower than the return times for Genie+..........


Not much of a value here other than SDD

If you book a time 2 hours away, you are betting that the line will be longer than you want to wait *then*. Not what it is at booking time. At booking time you may be on the other side of the park, or in a different park entirely. A 5 minute wait at Everest, to use an example from earlier, does you no good if you are in Pandora. You book the time further out so that by the time you finish Pandora and head that direction for your noon window, you won’t have to wait in a 45 minute line when you get there at 12:30.

 

[Jeff4272]

If WDW did "drops" of Genie+ availability throughout the day i think it would function much more efficiently

But ideally, they should let you pick your return times for Genie+ and that would solve all of it

 

[Waters Back Side]

Unless you want to stack for later and ride standby early. I'm waiting to see if these are exclusive windows like FP or if you could have a 2pm and a 2:30. Even if I was able to pick up a 2p, 3p, 4p, etc. that could be a preferred option for some.

This is my intention. Grab SDD first. Then Smugglers 2nd. Theu will probably be for later in the day and much later in the day. I checked at 11am and SDD was available for 7:10pm. I would not have thought twice and booked it. Then I'd find something I can do standby for at park arrival at noon and book Smugglers at 1pm for sometime later in the day. Now I have teo SDD and Smugglers and I'll ride standby until its time for the earliest of the two or when I can book again in 120 minutes. Not to mention sometime during the day I will have MMRR booked via ILL.

 

[dothebrdwalk]

As of about an hour ago, the site that shall not be named reported skipping the preshows was happening. That was bad enough when you were entering standby or BG's for free. Even more inexcusable on the first day that they're charging some $10/pp.

At what point is it ok to demand your money back? Like yes you got on the "ride" but you missed half of the experience....

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Blaze's popularity baffles me. It has locations all over the country, although I guess it's mostly in big cities so people from smaller areas don't have regular access to it. Regardless, it's mediocre pizza -- not bad, but certainly nothing special. Pizza Ponte is dramatically better QS pizza at Disney Springs, and there are multiple QS places there that have better food overall.

To be fair, there's one like 2 minutes from me, so it's certainly not a novelty for me. I also haven't been there in years because I can get much better pizza from other places nearby.

The DDP really screwed up Disney's food quality, but I don't expect to see that change.

I gave Blaze as an example mostly because it is an example of fast casual dining that would be known among people who post here. Near me there are plenty of fast casual places, but most are only local.

One of the best serves salads. Traditional QS salads are boring or worse, but the place near me sources all produce locally, rotating seasonal produce options, and all the produce is just excellent! At WDW, if you want something like quality tomatoes, you likely have to go to a signature dining place, where you're going to pay out the nose, and it takes 2 hours to eat. The thought of paying WDW prices for a mediocre salad is now somewhat unappealing to me.

I used to eat more TS at WDW, and food was part of the fun of visiting. but the prices are now so crazy, and ADR's are such a hassle. I'm perfectly capable of figuring out how to use DDP, Genie+, FP+, ADR's; I just find it annoying that I can't simply eat what I want when I'm hungry, like I do in the real world.

I worry that Genie+ will just be more of the same from WDW: something more complicated/less enjoyable than it should be.

(It is a step in the right direction that WDW has added/brought back walk-up availability at TS.)

 

[rmclain73]

Found this tip on another thread. I tried it and it worked for me as well. I kept seeing only 2:25pm time open, but after doing this "trick" a few times I was given a 1:10pm.

"I found a pseudo way to refresh!!! For a given attraction...

Say Rockin Roller Coaster at HS. At the moment 11:49am, it had the LL availability at 2:15pm. This is further out than I want. I clicked the "Book Experience" button, but instead of booking it, I backed out of that screen by hitting the little "x" in top left corner. When the previous screen came back with all the LL attractions and times, RnRC had bumped down to a 12:15pm availability! So you can bounce back and forth by clicking the "Book Experience" button, then back back out and see if the time changed to a better option. It could go longer or shorter, but it does appear to be working like refresh did. It appears to adjust the return window based on guests cancelling and windows opening up.

Once you find a time that you like, THEN book it. You can't refresh then after you actually booked it, but instead you refreshed before you booked it.

Dan"

 

[JAB]

A question about stacking LL that I don't recall being discussed yet...

Given the following hypothetical situation...

9am: Book LL for 11:30am
11am: Book 2nd LL for 2pm

When you tap into LL #1 @ 11:30, can you immediately book another LL, or because you still have LL #2, do you have to wait until 1pm to book another LL?

If you're allowed to book immediately, then would you be able to book another at 1:30pm, stacking 3 LLs?

 

[LovePop]

If they're going to release inventory throughout the day

That means people need to be glued to the phone even more than expected, to see if new inventory is open.

 

[Magic Feather]

Honestly, all things considered, so far this has been a super smooth rollout. I can't find any issues beyond the principle/premise of the services.

 

[GhostHost1000]

A question about stacking LL that I don't recall being discussed yet...

Given the following hypothetical situation...

9am: Book LL for 11:30am
11am: Book 2nd LL for 2pm

When you tap into LL #1 @ 11:30, can you immediately book another LL, or because you still have LL #2, do you have to wait until 1pm to book another LL?

If you're allowed to book immediately, then would you be able to book another at 1pm, stacking 3 LLs?

Good question and that is just confusing. They need a countdown counter or something in the app for people to know when they do can what

 

[Patcheslee]

This person is saying time slots can be rescheduled if something is available, if so may explain the availabile times jumping around.
Need more people to report though.

 

[Waters Back Side]

Soarin is available right now if I just opened Genie + from my room for 12:30. Id book it and head to Epcot and ride it within my window. At time of redemption I immediately will take Test Track without caring about the time (as long as I do not have a reservation to a restaurant, if I do I'll wait until the time changes for availability for TT. Now I have ridden priority 1 and have priority 2 booked. I'll gladly wait the two hours and do LWTL stand by and whatever else.

 

[LovePop]

I would rather wait in line than "do shopping".

In that case, you don't need to waste money or phone time to bother with Genie+

 

[MisterPenguin]

LOL........Mr. Penguin, where are you?

Great job WDW!

who the heck would pay for this?

I go back to my earlier post:

Buy the one top IAS ride in each park and then standby everything else........


Not worth the $ in any way shape or form


Now lets hear the angry guys come at me again

Again, you just don't understand or don't want to.

The ILL in this instance at this time doesn't seem like a great bargain... so... Don't buy it? Is that too hard to understand?

Meanwhile the line for MMRR is 60 minutes . It is not likely to go down. You can pay $8 to skip that line and ride it at some time after 3:40 PM today (and in the meantime, you can get on some other ride or grab a bite to eat). That's $8 to skip an hour wait in line.

For some people it would be worth it. For others, it won't. You buy it if it works for you. You don't buy it if it doesn't work for you.

Again, is that really that hard to understand?

I'm not angry that you don't like it. I'm angry you pester us with hyperbolic and unfounded scenarios based on your angry outbursts.

 

[rmclain73]

In that case, you don't need to waste money or phone time to bother with Genie+

BINGO!

 

[fgmnt]

After being in the parks this weekend, the number one observation I have is that Disney needs this to have at least half the adoption of FP+ for the parks as built to work. All of the queue lines in the parks have been constructed, or redesigned if an older attraction, to have a significant number of people go through both the standby and timed return lines. The ROTR standby queue is probably perfectly designed to handle a 2 hour standby line if you have the normal distribution of fast passes, but instead a 2 hour standby only line for the attraction seeps into the rarely used standby queue for MuppetVision up into the backstage (!). Standby only for a 90 minute FOP stretches out into the bridge to Harambe Village. I can go on, but it makes sense, right? Not like we are social distancing in these queues, either.

Most guests get in the lines based on the posted number they see, if that! Maybe they will always get in the standby line for an attraction no matter what. The perception of queue length is foreign to most people who visit the parks.

It's been very clear in the brief respite from Ted return queuing that lines move more while standby times are flat, meaning more people are in the lines. As we all know, Disney does not want us in lines unless we are in one to give them more money, and they have built their parks this way. They need Genie+ to work so the parks themselves work.

 

[wdwmagic]

 

[Patcheslee]

Also with Rise being down, ILL users are being given any anytime pass. Wonder if they will open to LL first or both at the same time.

 

[LovePop]

I would guess, most people are in a standby for another attraction. Some might use the time to grab lunch.

Outside of a few locations, there's no real point to shop since the same merchandise is mostly available everywhere, including at hotels.

I don't mean you have to shop. I mention shopping because it is usually done in an AC environment, which is more comfortable than standing around in Stand By. We never shop; we eat or get in another attraction with little wait.