Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

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wutisgood

Well-Known Member
mikejs78 said:
Leaving aside everything in else in your post, this comment is just flat out wrong. TouringPlans (whose founder is very transparent and is a member of these forums) is not affiliated with Disney in any way, and for you to make that assertion is slanderous to them. Frankly it damages the credibility of the rest of your argument because it's an outright lie.

It's also not true that They use Disney's actual wait time. Disney doesn't publish an actual wait time.They use their posted wait times as part of their analysis, but the actual wait time data is built up from their own ML models.

If you're going to make such an accusation, please provide the evidence that you have that supports your claim before badmouthing a company for no legitimate purpose.
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Touring plans actually used their data to measure the fact that Disney was cheaping out and intentionally increasing wait times with cut staffing.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Guest services can be as professional and apologetic, even obsequious, as possible. Disney is betting that a lot of folks won’t even make the effort to seek them out. When it’s been a long day, you have tired kids, a pressing dining reservation, or just really soar feet, traipsing to guest services, waiting in a long line, and explaining your situation becomes a lot less appealing. Is it worth $15? $45? Remember, you might miss that Ohana reservation you booked months and months ago - and you have no guarantee of receiving anything other then feigned polite regret.

A lot of folks won’t bother, and Disney knows that. The more barriers they can impose between you and a refund, the better. A refund button in the ap? Too easy. Every inconvenience is more profit.

And this isn’t guest services’ fault. If the folks designing this didn’t consider this eventuality, they’re fools. They aren’t. It’s intentional.
 
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Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Another thing - if Kylo is in B-mode, I want a couple bucks back. If I’m now paying for a specific ride, I better get that ride, every bit of it. They should receive absolutely no leeway from guests. Linking a specific price to a ride cuts both ways.

But this is a resort that decided not to run parking lot trams for months and months and guest service isn’t flooded with complaints. The pixie-dust shield is neigh impenetrable.
 
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wutisgood

Well-Known Member
Casper Gutman said:
Guest services can be as professional and apologetic, even obsequious, as possible. Disney is betting that a lot of folks won’t even make the effort to seek them out. When it’s been a long day, you have tired kids, a pressing dining reservation, or just really tired feet, traipsing to guest services, waiting in a long line, and explaining your situation becomes a lot less appealing. Is it worth $15? $45? Remember, you might miss that Ohana reservation you booked months and months ago - and you have no guarantee of receiving anything other then feigned polite regret.

A lot of folks won’t bother, and Disney knows that. The more barriers they can impose between you and a refund, the better. A refund button in the ap? Too easy. Every inconvenience is more profit.

And this isn’t guest services’ fault. If the folks designing this didn’t consider this eventuality, they’re fools. They aren’t. It’s intentional.
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When your product is double or more than competitors and your clients who often spend the most per day are one time consumers I actually think they do bother. If I spent on one of the most expensive tickets in the industry to get into hollywood studios and then bought lightning lane for the star wars ride and still didn't get in, I would take no less than a free hopper and lightning lane for everyone in the party.
 
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wutisgood

Well-Known Member
Overall this system seems to be on average as good or worse than the free fastpass because the popular rides can screw you on late returns and limit the usability. For park hopping staring at magic kingdom it seems to be better. On the whole this really exposes the fact that disney needs more capacity.
 
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FantasiaMickey2000

Well-Known Member
So I didn’t pay for anything yesterday at Animal Kingdom and I have no regrets. I did pay for Genie+ today at MK and HS and also have no regrets. Mind you, I am paying for just myself and modified my spending habits a little bit to allocate money to Genie+ instead of dining but I think it saved me quite a bit of time today for the $15. I think there are so many factors into your personal situation, there is no one size fits all answer on if it’s worth it. I’m sure things will evolve as this progresses too such as everyone spamming slinky at 7 AM and Disney increasing LL capacity.
 
mightynine

mightynine

Well-Known Member
wutisgood said:
When your product is double or more than competitors and your clients who often spend the most per day are one time consumers I actually think they do bother. If I spent on one of the most expensive tickets in the industry to get into hollywood studios and then bought lightning lane for the star wars ride and still didn't get in, I would take no less than a free hopper and lightning lane for everyone in the party.
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Fun fact: it wasn’t planned, but I ended up at Studios the day ROTR opened. Through some constant refreshing, I ended up with a boarding group that was a crazy high number I didn’t expect to make and didn’t.

Didn’t go to Guest Services to complain, figured it was a long shot to even get on the ride, especially since boarding groups had technically run out before I got in.

Later that night, I got a notification on MDE that, since I didn’t get on ROTR, they had added a 1-day park hopper that expires in 2099 and a Fastpass that could be used for ROTR the next day for myself and the other member of my party. Which we used the next day on ROTR, of course.

That’s some customer service, and the reason why I’ll praise Disney when it’s deserved and call them out when they fall short.

Also a good example of how the app can be used to facilitate something like that on the fly, without a need for the guest to actually go to guest services.
 
hopemax

hopemax

Well-Known Member
So I was curious as to what a company like Instacart does because, especially now, an item may be out of stock. It looks like customers can designate acceptable replacements in advance and during the shopping period a customer can approve the replacement or they can request a refund.

There is no reason this couldn't be part of the purchase process. “If the attraction is unavailable during your return window, would you prefer an anytime pass for this attraction? Or a refund? Anytime passes not redeemed by the end of day will be automatically refunded. Selecting refund voids option to experience the attraction via LL if it returns to service, and may be unavailable for repurchase.”

Yes, it means more development and IT support. If you are a premier organization that should be an acceptable cost of doing business in a mobile, convenience economy like we have now. Failure to adequately plan for outages, or planning on just keeping the money are not the signatures of premier organizations. Businesses have been on a steep learning curve of what people expect out of their mobile apps. No way to refund when your purchase is unavailable without seeking out a human at the end of a potential line of close contact with other humans...what world has Disney been living in the last 18 months, they didn't think of this? That's where people are now.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Casper Gutman said:
Another thing - if Kylo is in B-mode, I want a couple bucks back. If I’m now paying for a specific ride, I better get that ride, every bit of it. They should receive absolutely no leeway from guests. Linking a specific price to a ride cuts both ways.
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People were already going and paying for a theme park just to experience certain rides... the idea that paying for a line-skip somehow sets some new expectation of show standards is some serious diamond forming clenching.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
hopemax said:
So I was curious as to what a company like Instacart does because, especially now, an item may be out of stock. It looks like customers can designate acceptable replacements in advance and during the shopping period a customer can approve the replacement or they can request a refund.

There is no reason this couldn't be part of the purchase process. “If the attraction is unavailable during your return window, would you prefer an anytime pass for this attraction? Or a refund? Anytime passes not redeemed by the end of day will be automatically refunded. Selecting refund voids option to experience the attraction via LL if it returns to service, and may be unavailable for repurchase.”

Yes, it means more development and IT support. If you are a premier organization that should be an acceptable cost of doing business in a mobile, convenience economy like we have now. Failure to adequately plan for outages, or planning on just keeping the money are not the signatures of premier organizations. Businesses have been on a steep learning curve of what people expect out of their mobile apps. No way to refund when your purchase is unavailable without seeking out a human at the end of a potential line of close contact with other humans...what world has Disney been living in the last 18 months, they didn't think of this? That's where people are now.
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That was a really long winded way to say "I also want a refund option"

Disney already does the alternative path...
 
W

wutisgood

Well-Known Member
mightynine said:
Fun fact: it wasn’t planned, but I ended up at Studios the day ROTR opened. Through some constant refreshing, I ended up with a boarding group that was a crazy high number I didn’t expect to make and didn’t.

Didn’t go to Guest Services to complain, figured it was a long shot to even get on the ride, especially since boarding groups had technically run out before I got in.

Later that night, I got a notification on MDE that, since I didn’t get on ROTR, they had added a 1-day park hopper that expires in 2099 and a Fastpass that could be used for ROTR the next day for myself and the other member of my party. Which we used the next day on ROTR, of course.

That’s some customer service, and the reason why I’ll praise Disney when it’s deserved and call them out when they fall short.

Also a good example of how the app can be used to facilitate something like that on the fly, without a need for the guest to actually go to guest services.
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I actually had a similar experience. on day 3 of the ride being opened. I was there on a work trip. I did get to ride and get a hopper on the account which was adequate. Disney has at least on limited days been ok.
 
Buried20KLeague

Buried20KLeague

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
People were already going and paying for a theme park just to experience certain rides... the idea that paying for a line-skip somehow sets some new expectation of show standards is some serious diamond forming clenching.
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so if I pay for a combo meal at chick fil a with large fries and drink, and I get a regular fry…. That’s cool, right? I shouldn’t care.
 
Buried20KLeague

Buried20KLeague

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
That was a really long winded way to say "I also want a refund option"

Disney already does the alternative path...
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not up front as an option. And that’s embarrassing. And I have no idea if what someone posted earlier is true or not…. But if you are somehow involved in the program, your opinion is worthless here.

If not…. It’s curious someone else would have said it and you didn’t refute it.
 

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