Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Geez…no mention of Forbidden Journey? It’s only one of the best rides on the planet.

It's awful. If I was ranking every ride I've ever been on, it would be near the bottom.

Not a fan of the Kuka, huh?

I think it’s very polarizing…some love it and some can’t stand it.

I like it…but it’s actually too long. It can become too much on the head.
Something you’ll find me accusing no Disney ride built in the last 20 years of being.

 

[UNCgolf]

Not a fan of the Kuka, huh?

I think it’s very polarizing…some love it and some can’t stand it.

I like it…but it’s actually too long. It can become too much on the head.
Something you’ll find me accusing no Disney ride built in the last 20 years of being.

Yeah, the ride system was terrible. I had to sit down and do nothing for almost an hour after exiting because it gave me horrendous motion sickness. My GF did not get sick, but her neck actually hurt for the next couple of days because it jerks you around so much.

Putting that aside, though, the biggest problem was that the majority of the ride is a worse version of Flight of Passage. I'm not the biggest fan of FoP, but at least you have really gorgeous scenery to look at -- Forbidden Journey is mostly watching a movie of zooming around on a broomstick through a place we've already seen on film for hours and hours. It wasn't anything new. The parts where you get away from a screen were better, but they still weren't anything special for the most part (I did like the dragon).

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yeah, the ride system was terrible. I had to sit down and do nothing for almost an hour after exiting because it gave me horrendous motion sickness. My GF did not get sick, but her neck actually hurt for the next couple of days because it jerks you around so much.

Putting that aside, though, the biggest problem was that the majority of the ride is a worse version of Flight of Passage. I'm not the biggest fan of FoP, but at least you have really gorgeous scenery to look at -- Forbidden Journey is mostly watching a movie of zooming around on a broomstick through a place we've already seen on film for hours and hours. It wasn't anything new. The parts where you get away from a screen were better, but they still weren't anything special for the most part.

At least it’s a good movie series…

have you ridden rise of the boredom yet?

 

[FoodRockz]

The Hulk and Rip are two I have no desire to ride! I'm not really a coaster fan -- they need elaborate theming to interest me.

Mummy is very good. I love Jurassic Park River Adventure (probably my favorite ride at Universal), and E.T. is a great classic dark ride. Spiderman is excellent for what it is. Screens just don't do much for me, but it's probably as good as a heavily screen reliant ride can be. The other log flume and the rapids ride are probably fun, but they both looked like they get you soaked and it wasn't really a weather day for that when we were there. That's kind of it for rides I either really enjoyed or looked fun to me; almost everything else was either a meh or I just had no interest in riding.

Didn't ride Gringott's, but it doesn't look great to me and most comments about it are ambivalent. Hagrid's wasn't open yet when I was there, but it also doesn't look like something that would really impress me.

I don't enjoy Hulk or Rip, but LOVE Velocicoaster and Hagrid. You really should try them out before dismissing them.

Sorry for getting the thread more off topic!

 

[UNCgolf]

At least it’s a good movie series…

have you ridden rise of the boredom yet?

Nope. It was open last time I was at WDW, but it was still using the method where you actually had to go line up outside DHS for a chance at a boarding group. I didn't even attempt to ride because no ride is worth that hassle to me. If it had been the more recent do it from your hotel room version, I'd have at least tried for one.

I did ride Smuggler's Run, which was really bad. It would be better as a Millennium Falcon walkthrough.

 

[UNCgolf]

I don't enjoy Hulk or Rip, but LOVE Velocicoaster and Hagrid. You really should try them out before dismissing them.

Sorry for getting the thread more off topic!

I plan to give Hagrid's a shot at some point, but I can already tell I won't be riding Velocicoaster. I'm acrophobic, which made giant outdoor coasters troublesome even when I was younger, but now I tend to get bad motion sickness on high intensity ones. Since I was never much of a coaster fan to begin with, even as a kid -- they just didn't really entertain me -- it's not worth it.

I'm just not a roller coaster guy, which is probably why Disney's parks are the only ones that have ever done much for me. I generally prefer the attraction lineup at Universal 25 years ago to the current lineup -- the old Kong ride and Earthquake were much better than the current Kong ride and Fast and Furious (which I think replaced Earthquake). Diagon Alley as a whole area is amazing and a worthwhile replacement for Jaws, but on an individual attraction level I'd much rather have Jaws then Gringott's, not to mention something like Transformers.

 

[LittleBuford]

With FP+, you could plan out your trip 30, maybe 60, days in advance -or any other day before your trip- so when you got to the parks it was just, arrive, enjoy.

I too loved the ability to preplan with FP+, but most here seemed to dislike what they saw as the resultant lack of spontaneity. For them, at least, I should think the new system is an improvement, or would be if not for the cost entailed.

 

[Nunu]

I too loved the ability to preplan with FP+, but most here seemed to dislike what they saw as the resultant lack of spontaneity. For them, at least, I should think the new system is an improvement, or would be if not for the cost entailed.

Wouldn't say I 'loved' it, but certainly preferred it, even if it meant waking up very early one day (I live outside the US), to make our FP+ selections. I saw it as a time investment of sorts. Knowing that we would be able to ride 3 favorite attractions in each park, in a timely manner, was worth the 'hassle' for us.

We also chose our FP+'s return times in a way that we always had room for spontaneity, too. Oh, and there wasn't a $15p/p fee attached to it, either.

 

[LittleBuford]

Wouldn't say I 'loved' it, but certainly preferred it, even if it meant waking up very early one day (I live outside the US), to make our FP+ selections. I saw it as a time investment of sorts. Knowing that we would be able to ride 3 favorite attractions in each park, in a timely manner, was worth the 'hassle' for us.

We also chose our FP+'s return times in a way that we always had room for spontaneity, too. Oh, and there wasn't a $15p/p fee attached to it, either.

It was a preferable system in my eyes also. I shall miss it.

 

[Indy_UK]

Yep. Now that DLR increased their prices, there is no doubt WDW isn't far behind.

UK 7/14 Ultimate tickets are rumoured to be moving to date based surging next week so yeah, price changes are probably coming to WDW too

 

[Richie248]

This may have been answered but....if I pay for an Individual Lightening Lane pass am I still able to hold a Genie+ Lightening Lane pass or does the paid LL count toward my once every 2 hours/after clicking-in allotment...????

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

UK 7/14 Ultimate tickets are rumoured to be moving to date based surging next week so yeah, price changes are probably coming to WDW too

You are literally the last people on earth they don’t do the flex on…

“it was a sweet dream…while it lasted”

 

[matt9112]

This is exactly right!

People talk about how staying on-site is a no-brainer for their family of four because of what a deal the "free" pass is while failing to realize that Universal themselves sets the price of that ticket add-on and intentionally prices everything to make the resorts a “value” in that sense.

They could do away with the non-resort option entirely which would, one would guess, make the resort option even more valuable since it would truly be exclusive but without the high individual ticket price, there would be no anchor for anyone to attach a financial value to the offer and therefor, make it seem like a potentially less valuable benifit to staying on-site.

Its an important element of prospective though that the deluxe resorts at uni are what half of the cost of disneys deluxe?

 

[DCBaker]

This may have been answered but....if I pay for an Individual Lightening Lane pass am I still able to hold a Genie+ Lightening Lane pass or does the paid LL count toward my once every 2 hours/after clicking-in allotment...????

Yes, you can have both.

 

[wdwmagic]

This may have been answered but....if I pay for an Individual Lightening Lane pass am I still able to hold a Genie+ Lightening Lane pass or does the paid LL count toward my once every 2 hours/after clicking-in allotment...????

Lots of useful info at https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/disn...ey-genie-genieplus-and-lightning-lane-faq.htm

 

[Jeff4272]

I hate paying for it but I’m also surprised they sisn

This is where it feels like an absolute steal. We stayed at the Royal Pacific, which was a very nice hotel, and paid less than half of what we'd have to pay to stay at a Disney deluxe -- and that included the Unlimited Express Pass.

I don't enjoy Universal nearly as much as WDW because I don't really like most of their rides, but I don't think Disney offers anything that's even remotely comparable to Universal's Deluxe rooms in overall value.

I agree with you 100%. We used to go and stay at Disney and visit universal. We also like Disney better but the universal hotels are just as nice or nicer and at half the cost and there’s no longer any on site benefits to staying at Disney.

We are going to flip our stays now. we will now stay at hard rock, get unlimited express pass for free and just visit Disney 2-3 days per trip. It’s cheaper and you get a way better experience in a nicer hotel for less money.

express pass is awesome. I don’t have to wake up at 7am, constantly be checking my phone, worry about missing my favorite rides, not worry about going to the water park in the morning and going to the parks in the afternoon and not getting on rides.

it’s a far superior product.

 

[Lirael]

I too loved the ability to preplan with FP+, but most here seemed to dislike what they saw as the resultant lack of spontaneity. For them, at least, I should think the new system is an improvement, or would be if not for the cost entailed.

I understand not wanting to plan out in advance. But at the same time I can't imagine paying and not caring about whatever you get.

Like, if I'm being spontaneous in a free fast line offering, comes the day and I find out none of the rides I'm into are available for fast line, and all I can score is, say, the Dumbo ride and I don't even have kids... I'd shrug and go oh well, and accept. But I wouldn't be okay with the same situation if I'd just paid 20 or more for that.

I understand someone who likes spontaneity paying up the Universal fast line passes. Are they very expensive? Absolutely, but they deliver that spontaneous fast line offering. You buy it, you walk onto whatever you like at any time. Meanwhile the Disney offering doesn't give you that reassurance. Not spontaneous friendly at all, for me.

 

[Jeff4272]

I understand not wanting to plan out in advance. But at the same time I can't imagine paying and not caring about whatever you get.

Like, if I'm being spontaneous in a free fast line offering, comes the day and I find out none of the rides I'm into are available for fast line, and all I can score is, say, the Dumbo ride and I don't even have kids... I'd shrug and go oh well, and accept. But I wouldn't be okay with the same situation if I'd just paid 20 or more for that.

I understand someone who likes spontaneity paying up the Universal fast line passes. Are they very expensive? Absolutely, but they deliver that spontaneous fast line offering. You buy it, you walk onto whatever you like at any time. Meanwhile the Disney offering doesn't give you that reassurance. Not spontaneous friendly at all, for me.

Thats the problem with Genie+ and I think people are already figuring it out to a certain degree but it will be well know by Jan 1st

When its slow, you dont need it

When its busy, its not worth it because you wont be able to get the rides you want

Genie+ and ILL$ are poorly thought out and expensive

 

[mergatroid]

UK 7/14 Ultimate tickets are rumoured to be moving to date based surging next week so yeah, price changes are probably coming to WDW too

Just had our 14 day ticket extended to 31st December 2022 at no extra cost

 

[Chip Chipperson]

I too loved the ability to preplan with FP+, but most here seemed to dislike what they saw as the resultant lack of spontaneity. For them, at least, I should think the new system is an improvement, or would be if not for the cost entailed.

I certainly preferred the FP+ system. At least then I could know that a day in MK wouldn't be spent criss-crossing the park multiple times to ride everything I want because I'd be able to schedule them in advance in a way that made our loop around the park make sense. Now? Maybe I'll still be able to do that while in the park, but it seems less likely - not to mention $15/person more than the $0 paid for FP+. I'm still in "wait and see" mode with how G+ will pan out, but it seems like the 1 park with enough rides to justify (for lack of a better word) the cost is also the one that could see guests paying for a more tiring experience. The value of G+ in every other park seems to hinge on whether or not you're going to be park-hopping later in the day and there is still some decent LL availability in that 2nd park.

I guess I should say 1 good thing about G+ so as not to hurt its feelings. I assumed that it would require waking up and being on my phone every morning at 7 AM sharp to get a good ride, but that seems to only really be the case with SDD so far (although that may change during the holiday weeks coming up).

Of course, the rush for SDD LL selections wouldn't be quite so bad if they hadn't insisted on having 2 ILL attractions in every park regardless of how many attractions those parks actually have. If they had made RotR the only ILL selection in DHS then MMRR would take at least some of the burden off of SDD when people booked their first selection at 7 AM - and might have even made the company more money in the long run by making G+ seem like a better value (and thus selling more of them) and also allowing them to consider charging a few dollars more for the Rise ILLs to make up for the lost MMRR ILL revenue. Has MMRR sold out all of its ILLs on any date so far? It seems like it hasn't, although I admittedly haven't followed that closely. So they'd lose the MMRR revenue but gain maybe $5 per Rise ILL and it will still sell out at that price, and they'd also sell more of the $15 G+ service to DHS visitors.