Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[homerdance]

They were shuffling the attraction deck right up until launch, so I would expect we will see changes as they see how demand goes.

It’s to bad that it’s ok to use the masses as beta testers.

 

[LovePop]

It’s to bad that it’s ok to use the masses as beta testers.

What's wrong with that? The test is not harmful to anyone.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Disney needs to charge more for RotR so that availability at least make it to early evening. That was the whole point of LL, to make high demand rides more available to guests all day long. Or even have a 2 tier option: in the morning, distribute cheap LL to people who get up early, but reserve some (20%) expensive ones that's available all day to guests who want to pay extra for it.

I wonder how high they can go for Rise. $25? $50? $75? Why not. Don’t ever underestimate, er, overestimate the average IQ of the theme park set.

And still see people bemoan that it’s a corporation and Disney has no money to spare.

 

[Parker in NYC]

I still say they should have gone the $300+ Daily pass for Lighting Lane. But even still, it seems them Disney fans have deep deep deep pockets.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

By "shorter" I mean shorter wait time, not necessarily the lines themselves.

I understand what you meant.

 

[RoadiJeff]

I wonder how high they can go for Rise. $25? $50? $75? Why not. Don’t ever underestimate, er, overestimate the average IQ of the theme park set.

And still see people bemoan that it’s a corporation and Disney has no money to spare.

I'd gladly pay $25 to skip the line for RotR vs standing in line for over 2.5 hours like our group did a week ago.

 

[Parker in NYC]

I'd gladly pay $25 to skip the line for RotR vs standing in line for over 2.5 hours like our group did a week ago.

Oh, absolutely. What about $50? $75? $100? Where is the cap?

 

[aaronml]

Ah yes, the valued spend $15 for ROTR but if it doesn't open you get to ride MMRR (which is not $15) or a single attraction that is part of the $15 bundle of rides available for LL.

Sorry, if you are now paying for ride A, you should get ride A or your money back.

That’s fair. I was more suggesting a compromise from Disney that would be more reasonable than what they are doing now, but within the realm of possibility given current TWDC greed.

IMHO, they should give you both a refund and a Multiple Experiences pass for the inconvenience, but sadly they will never do that.

 

[homerdance]

What's wrong with that? The test is not harmful to anyone.

Harmful? No. No one died.
But people who are on vacation/day off from work doing leisure activities having to beta test stuff is not a good thing.

This worked way better than I personally had thought it would based on some of Disney’s past IT mishaps.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

They can't make it too easy to cancel because there needs to be some disincentive to ensure that people are not making reservations that they are only partially keen to keeping/paying for. If people book reservations they don't intend to keep, Disney ends up out of money at the end of the day, and other people who may have wanted a reservation are unable to get one. It's not really much different than the dinging reservation fees they had posted previously.

I do agree that a ride breakdown is a different scenario, but I can see that they are hard to program a process around. At the time that a breakdown starts, there can be a lot of uncertainty as to whether it will take 1 hour to resolve or 10 hours to resolve. So an automatic refunding wouldn't make sense either.

IMO... The only time a "refund" button should automatically appear for you in the app is if it's down for some amount of time around the window of your return time, or if it's after a set time each night built around the closing of the park.

The sale is final... Unless the product isn't available to be produced for that party.

Then at the end of the night they bill those that used the product, and don't for those that didn't.

That addresses both of your situations, and would be reasonable, IMO.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'd gladly pay $25 to skip the line for RotR vs standing in line for over 2.5 hours like our group did a week ago.

If those were the only two options, which they're not, I simply wouldn't ride.

 

[Parker in NYC]

If those were the only two options, which they're not, I simply wouldn't ride.

Funny how folks were like “oh, It failed in Paris, we’re fine.” But at a vacation resort that will sell IKEA rooms for upwards of $1200, the target audience is quite different.

 

[RoadiJeff]

Oh, absolutely. What about $50? $75? $100? Where is the cap?

$25 would probably be my limit. That's roughly what I paid for a $170 all-day Express Pass at Universal when I divided the total cost by the number of times I used it on 7 rides last week. There were people over there who were paying even more for the Unlimited Express Pass which lets someone use it multiple times on the same ride. I'm sure Disney is aware of their price structure.

 

[UNCgolf]

You must have missed this...



It seems they kept the reservation open until the end of park hours in case the ride came back up.

If the ride doesn't come back up, you get an alternate goodie (e.g., a LL for MMRR).

If you go to CS, they'll refund you in the form of a Disney Gift Card, which, I agree, is absolutely worthless if one plans on never spending anything at Disney ever again, whether for food, merchandise, or future tickets, for the rest of one's life.

The refund gift card needs to be the #1 option, or at least should be available without having to wait in line at GS. Offering a different ride than the one you paid for isn't very good customer service, especially since Disney itself doesn't even charge the same price for those rides.

 

[Chi84]

They should grant you an anytime experience to any attraction at any park for equal or lesser value - so if you, say, had dinner reservations at Epcot you could decide to do Rat instead, even though it's not equivalent. But that's your choice to accept or not. Otherwise, refund.

But yes, if Rise comes back and you don't use your anytime experience for something, you're out of luck.

I'm not sure there have been enough reports to conclude anything yet. The only one I've seen was the account where Rise was down, the window was extended and people were told no refunds, then the person who posted got a refund in the form of a gift card.

If this happened to me there's no way I would take time out of my day to stand in a line at guest services for a refund. Go home, right a concise and unemotional email to Disney explaining what happened and ask what can be done to resolve the issue now that you're no longer there. If you really feel strongly about it, you can dispute the charge with your credit card company. I haven't had many issues with Disney, but the few I did have were resolved to my satisfaction and then some.

Not giving refunds based on a change of mind by the customer makes sense; not refunding park tickets when rides are down because of rain makes sense because there is so much else to do. But this is a purchase transaction where the sole thing being purchased (a ride at a stated time) is not being delivered through no fault of the customer. I'm sure all the necessary disclaimers are in place, but this isn't primarily a legal issue. It's a publicity issue and operational headache that Disney doesn't need or want. There should be an option for a refund if the ride is down and a guest is unwilling to return during the extended window or to accept an alternative ride.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I'm starting to be concerned that some of you only go to Disney solo, because the amount that could end up being refunded is always spoken as just one person. And you know what? I probably wouldn't make a big deal over $7 to $15 - if it's just me.

But once you start talking about a family of 4 where you're now talking up to $60 (and higher for larger groups), on a vacation where I've already laid out a couple grand, and the company is charging me for access to something that used to be complimentary, yes - I might not be satisfied with the solution of "Here's a card so you can just give us that money again." At that point, I might not be in the mood to give you any more money than I already have.

But if you're fine with "I didn't get the service I paid for, but they gave me store credit so I can get a couple of ice cream bars or pay for half of my quick service meal", hey, you do you.

Seems an easy concept to me.

 

[DCBaker]

Good visual on stacking Genie+ LL -

 

[drizgirl]

The lines will move faster, but there's no reason to believe they will be shorter. Not everyone will pay for Genie+, but the people who don't pay will just end up in the standby lines.

And lots of people who used Genie+ will also still ride by standby.

 

[Parker in NYC]

$25 would probably be my limit. That's roughly what I paid for a $170 all-day Express Pass at Universal when I divided the total cost by the number of times I used it on 7 rides last week. There were people over there who were paying even more for the Unlimited Express Pass which lets someone use it multiple times on the same ride. I'm sure Disney is aware of their price structure.

Of course they’re aware. Let’s see if you will pay more than $25 for Rise, alone. I’m predicting at least $45 l or more by this time next year. That can be calendared.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

The refund gift card needs to be the #1 option, or at least should be available without having to wait in line at GS. Offering a different ride than the one you paid for isn't very good customer service, especially since Disney itself doesn't even charge the same price for those rides.

If I pay to take a Lamborghini around a track and it's broken down for the day, I'm not gonna be pleased if they try to stick me in a souped up Honda.