Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[flynnibus]

Why wouldnt they just make it the night before to appeal to a larger audience? Doesnt change how the 7am people do anything

and why not just do it a week in advance then?
or how about 6months in advance?

They are steering you to make 'near term decisions' -- Not layout pick and chose plans.

 

[Parker in NYC]

It might be personal bias here, as we are are always rope drop people but I can't image that the group of people who are vacationing at WDW who are not AWAKE at 7am(or close to it) is very large. Not up, dressed, and out the door waiting at the parks for opening...maybe. But not awake in your hotel or soon to be awake? Not saying there aren't some people who are sleeping in, but I think generally the number of people who are vacationing at WDW and are sleeping in past say 9am (if your idea of sleeping in is 8am and your complaining about losing a single hour of sleep, I can't help you) on a park day has to be pretty small relative to overall park attendance.

Judging by the appearance of most guests, I don’t think they took that much time getting ready…

 

[lazyboy97o]

I feel that the people kicking up a fuss and not wanting to pay for it are doing so more for the fear in missing out on a system probably works a lot better than Fastpass+ did.

People have a choice at the end of the day

Or maybe some realize the parks still lack capacity and it’s ridiculous to celebrate monetizing the deficit instead of actually addressing the real issue.

 

[flynnibus]

huh?
Disney is garnishing your wages?

The complaint was Disney GCs were worthless to their hypothetical person because they had to be spent at Disney.

Have you ever been in the parks and be confident that you'll never have to spend another dollar at Disney? Unless you're checking out and walking out the door - the odds are no.

 

[DCBaker]

Okay, so I am not going to go through 390 pages of rumors and arguments to locate the one nugget of wisdom I seek. Can someone tell me if staying at a Good Neighbor hotel offers me the same benefit for this Genie$ debacle as someone staying at an on-site hotel? I have seen people saying both yes and no other places so I thought I would check here.

The only benefit I can think of is the ability to book the ILL$ at 7am. Not sure what, if any, other benefits you are concerned about.

As mentioned above, Disney resort guests that can purchase the Individual Lightning Lanes at 7am are from these resorts -

"Available to Disney Resort hotel Guests and Guests of Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green".

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/genie/lightning-lane/#drawer-card-drawerRecommenderPlus

 

[Indy_UK]

Or maybe some realize the parks still lack capacity and it’s ridiculous to celebrate monetizing the deficit instead of actually addressing the real issue.

Constantly add rides and more parks isn’t guaranteed to sort the issue. It will probably bring even more people in.

Also, is Disney really going to improve capacity at their cost if they don’t need to? Course they aren’t

 

[Jeff4272]

It might be personal bias here, as we are are always rope drop people but I can't image that the group of people who are vacationing at WDW who are not AWAKE at 7am(or close to it) is very large. Not up, dressed, and out the door waiting at the parks for opening...maybe. But not awake in your hotel or soon to be awake? Not saying there aren't some people who are sleeping in, but I think generally the number of people who are vacationing at WDW and are sleeping in past say 9am (if your idea of sleeping in is 8am and your complaining about losing a single hour of sleep, I can't help you) on a park day has to be pretty small relative to overall park attendance.

I know plenty.......We close the parks and then stay up until 1am+ in the room after and never get out of bed before 9am

Ive been going to WDW since it opened and cannot count the number of times ive been so much and we have never once done rope drop...not one single time

 

[Jeff4272]

I did read it. The one who used Genie+ had a better day.

both rode the same rides in the same amount of time

spin it whatever way you want, but thats what happened

both started and ended at same time and rode same rides

 

[Jeff4272]

and why not just do it a week in advance then?
or how about 6months in advance?

They are steering you to make 'near term decisions' -- Not layout pick and chose plans.

why? makes no sense

its one reservation

its one ride

why not let people do it the day before? whats the downside?

i havent read one good reason

 

[lazyboy97o]

Constantly add rides and more parks isn’t guaranteed to sort the issue. It will probably bring even more people in.

Also, is Disney really going to improve capacity at their cost if they don’t need to? Course they aren’t

It depends on what you add. More capacity means room for more people spending money. The return on Galaxy’s Edge is limited by the lack of capacity at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

So it genuinely comes as a surprise to you that people on vacation like to sleep in? That that’s one of the main attractions of a vacation for many people? Or that, setting that aside, perhaps people don’t like to be rigidly scheduled on vacation and have their sleeptimes as well as eating habits and daily activities dictated by the company to which they’re paying thousands and thousands of dollars? The company that’s supposed to be serving them, not vice versa?

This seems to be a major point of confusion, actually: WDW is supposed to be serving the guests. The guest is not supposed to be serving Disney.

Leaving aside Disney serving the quests thing (which given that over the past decade or so attendance has done nothing but increase, which would seem to be the only indicator you need that they are serving the guests) yes I am genuinely shocked and can not understand anyone who like or want to sleep in on vacation at WDW.

While I think for the most part I am getting value for what I am paying for at WDW, by no means do I think its cheap. Its expensive to take a family of 4 to WDW. Why in gods green earth am I spending all the money to go to WDW to....sleep in? I have a bed at home. If my idea of a vacation is to relax and sleep in, I can do it there and pay nothing. Or I can choose any number of other destinations that are cheaper than WDW, or that are geared more towards a restful relaxing vacation. To me it would be like the equivalent of spending a premium to stay at a luxurious beach resort....but then not wanting to go into the water. Its the same reason I don't get people who talk about "resort days" or who are so concerned about how the pool is. The pool????? Again I have a pool at home, or our town pool, or any other number of places that if I want to go swimming, I can go to that are cheaper than WDW.

But hey listen, to each their own. If you want to waste (in my opinion) your time and money sleeping in late while at WDW, that's your right. But don't complain when WDW gives people the option of utilizing a system, and gives everyone that option, and some people decide to wake up early to maximize the efficiency of the system, and you decide not to.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

why? makes no sense

its one reservation

its one ride

why not let people do it the day before? whats the downside?

i havent read one good reason

Any time your setting an arbitrary deadline on something, someone is going to complain. Some people (I am one of them) loved the 60 day fast pass window. I loved the planning ahead, refining your schedule to maximum efficiency. I would rather have that than a day before selection or day of. But some people are different, some will like the spur of the moment day of aspect of LL and Genie++ and not having to plan out everything 60 days ahead (although with having to make park reservations now, I think a little of that flexibility is lost).

So your never going to please everyone. Why the day before and not 2 days before, or the day you start your trip being able to select all your LL? Its pretty arbitrary. Now as to a good reason why you choose the day of? One if makes everyone equal. People who have longer vacation windows aren't favored over people taking shorter trips like in the FP days. Also, if the idea is that the pricing for LL is supposed to be dynamic, based upon park attendance and standby wait times, you need to have the booking be done day of, as you won't know those things on the day before.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Why wouldnt they just make it the night before to appeal to a larger audience?

Because it's first-come, first-served.

The night owls aren't the people who will even WANT a 9am return time. The people who want a 9am return time are the people who are already awake at 7 anyways.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

both rode the same rides in the same amount of time

spin it whatever way you want, but thats what happened

both started and ended at same time and rode same rides

Are you allowed to add outside links here? I will be honest I tried googling for the article quick and couldn't find it.

 

[Jeff4272]

Leaving aside Disney serving the quests thing (which given that over the past decade or so attendance has done nothing but increase, which would seem to be the only indicator you need that they are serving the guests) yes I am genuinely shocked and can not understand anyone who like or want to sleep in on vacation at WDW.

While I think for the most part I am getting value for what I am paying for at WDW, by no means do I think its cheap. Its expensive to take a family of 4 to WDW. Why in gods green earth am I spending all the money to go to WDW to....sleep in? I have a bed at home. If my idea of a vacation is to relax and sleep in, I can do it there and pay nothing. Or I can choose any number of other destinations that are cheaper than WDW, or that are geared more towards a restful relaxing vacation. To me it would be like the equivalent of spending a premium to stay at a luxurious beach resort....but then not wanting to go into the water. Its the same reason I don't get people who talk about "resort days" or who are so concerned about how the pool is. The pool????? Again I have a pool at home, or our town pool, or any other number of places that if I want to go swimming, I can go to that are cheaper than WDW.

But hey listen, to each their own. If you want to waste (in my opinion) your time and money sleeping in late while at WDW, that's your right. But don't complain when WDW gives people the option of utilizing a system, and gives everyone that option, and some people decide to wake up early to maximize the efficiency of the system, and you decide not to.

Best time at the parks is at night.......Blows my mind that people go to bed at 9pm when that's just when the real best part of WDW is starting.........

I get 3-4 more hours at night

Now does that make sense to you?

 

[Jeff4272]

Because it's first-come, first-served.

The night owls aren't the people who will even WANT a 9am return time. The people who want a 9am return time are the people who are already awake at 7 anyways.

Not necessarily true

 

[UNCgolf]

It might be personal bias here, as we are are always rope drop people but I can't image that the group of people who are vacationing at WDW who are not AWAKE at 7am(or close to it) is very large. Not up, dressed, and out the door waiting at the parks for opening...maybe. But not awake in your hotel or soon to be awake? Not saying there aren't some people who are sleeping in, but I think generally the number of people who are vacationing at WDW and are sleeping in past say 9am (if your idea of sleeping in is 8am and your complaining about losing a single hour of sleep, I can't help you) on a park day has to be pretty small relative to overall park attendance.

I agree that there aren't very many people sleeping past 9 AM, but I think the percentage of guests who would normally sleep past 7 AM is pretty high.

The vast majority of guests don't rope drop, so I don't think it's strange to think most are not awake at 7 AM. If you were already up at 7 AM there'd be little reason not to rope drop.

This isn't an argument against the 7 AM timing, by the way -- I don't really care about that.

 

[wdwmagic]

I agree that there aren't very many people sleeping past 9 AM, but I think the portion of guests who would normally sleep past 7 AM is pretty high.

The vast majority of guests don't rope drop, so I don't think it's strange to think most are not awake at 7 AM. If you were already up at 7 AM there'd be little reason to not rope drop.

Realistically it isn't a 7am wake up, for a lot of people it is going to need to be before then to get the phone off the charger, get the app in place, talk to the family about what they want to do - so it will be more like a 6:45am.

 

[flynnibus]

yes I am genuinely shocked and can not understand anyone who like or want to sleep in on vacation at WDW.

Simple example... when we used to be in the parks till 1am or later... I would have no interest in trying to hit an 8am opening. Also in summer months when it's so hot in the day, we preferred to stay out late and enjoy the evenings more than we did the daytime. If we only have 14hrs or so of energy per day in us... that meant we would start our days later, rather than earlier.

Simply put... I was trading evening hours for day hours and I didn't want to punish/push myself to force an early start still. Of course our schedule would be based on what our intended activities are.. but I'm not going to workcamp anyone in my family on the mindset of "we spent a lot of money, we gotta get the most out of it!" -- It's a vacation. If I'm not able to relax and need to squeeze every ounce out of it to feel I got my money's worth... It's not relaxing and it's not going to be a refreshing vacation. And I'll rethink my investment next time.

This is a great example of why we loved the cruises so much more than our WDW stays in the last decade... on the ships you're encouraged to relax and let them do the work for you... not trying to squeeze every minute out of my day to justify the cost instead of just being on vacation.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Best time at the parks is at night.......Blows my mind that people go to bed at 9pm when that's just when the real best part of WDW is starting.........

I get 3-4 more hours at night

Now does that make sense to you?

Not really. First I don't know many nights when the parks are open 3-4 hours AFTER 9pm, unless your talking about special ticketed events. Second, we close down the parks (I agree I don't see why people would leave the park 3-4 hours earlier than close. The same wasted money for sleeping in applies equally to leaving early) so we are getting both the the benefits of the rope drop, AND the benefits of the later hours of the park. Even if the park's best time is at night, you are still "throwing away" the time for rope drop if you are sleeping in. Your still using potential time at the parks which you paid dear for....to sleep in and do nothing.

Third, even assuming for the sake of argument that the parks were all open until 12-1AM, being that WDW's prime demographic involves families with young kids, most of them are not keeping their kids out that late. Doesn't mean their aren't some that do, or some adult only groups visiting WDW, but they don't matter in the broad scheme of things, as you don't design park features for the minority of your guests.