Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[SingleRider]

About a week ago I was at MK and had a Splash Mountain LL near park closing. Splash Mountain was down and the pass converted to a multiple experience pass good for any park the next day, with a host of exclusions - all paid ILLs (no surprise there) and other things like Slinky and Peter Pan, however at Epcot it also excluded Soarin and Test Track, making the pass almost worthless if you were going to Epcot the next day.

 

[nickys]

Saw another interesting one… apparently on-site guests can book from 3am… this is the only time I have seen this said..View attachment 601895

If that is the case they must be talking about the paid ILLs not Genie+. Everyone can book G+ at 7am, whether onsite or offsite.

However I don’t think the CM was correct about the 3am time either.

 

[nickys]

So 18 seconds into the G+ window, the first return time seen is 12:20pm. And 19 seconds later it's suddenly 3:35pm, when you're checking before 7:01am and the window started at 7:00am? Is demand really that insane on Nov 4th 2021, a day rated a crowd level 3 by Touring Plans, that 18 seconds in you can't get a time before noon?

I understand the probable theory that people cancel or release the time they were looking at (and it seems like G+ may save them up and release them again not immediately but in 10 min increments), but for someone refreshing every 20-30 seconds to not see a time before noon until 11 minutes in is crazy. To refresh from 7:00am until 7:20am every 20-30 seconds and only be offered 3 times in the morning seems not right to me.

When you booked FP+ you were initially only offered 3 different times, morning, early afternoon and later afternoon usually. Only when you searched further did you get a bigger choice.
Perhaps times are just randomly allocated for G+ to spread return times out.

 

[dirtnap101]

When you booked FP+ you were initially only offered 3 different times, morning, early afternoon and later afternoon usually. Only when you searched further did you get a bigger choice.
Perhaps times are just randomly allocated for G+ to spread return times out.

possible...it's weird they only seem to do it with SDD though

 

[DisneyDodo]

It's pretty simple. If you cancel your Lightning Lane reservation and the window hasn't opened it's returned to the group of available Lightning Lanes. That's my understanding of what's happening.

That does not fully explain the patterns outlined in the article. Specifically, if cancelations were the only way new reservations could show up, it’s extremely unlikely there would be 0 availability for SDD for several minutes followed by 30 minutes of consistent availability.

 

[lentesta]

That does not fully explain the patterns outlined in the article. Specifically, if cancelations were the only way new reservations could show up, it’s extremely unlikely there would be 0 availability for SDD for several minutes followed by 30 minutes of consistent availability.

My guess is that they're using a round-robin system for the return times (e.g., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., ... 7 p.m., then start over), as a crowd distribution strategy.

• It spreads visits to the attraction throughout the day, not just in the morning/early afternoon.
• It encourages guests to spend more time in the parks
  
  

 

[Touchdown]

My guess is that they're using a round-robin system for the return times (e.g., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., ... 7 p.m., then start over), as a crowd distribution strategy.

• It spreads visits to the attraction throughout the day, not just in the morning/early afternoon.
• It encourages guests to spend more time in the parks
  

If that’s true it’s a sign of how bad this product is. You are paying extra for this, Disney shouldn’t be using BS crowd management techniques on a more premium product. I can’t believe some of you pay for this.

 

[Chi84]

I can’t believe some of you pay for this.

Well, to some the alternatives of having to be at the park at rope drop, standing in long lines or missing out on the most popular rides are worse than paying for it. For us, it wasn't nearly as good as FP+ but it wasn't the end of the world either. We still got to do pretty much what we wanted the way we wanted to do it, but I didn't care for having to get up early every day to figure out what rides to schedule and having to be on the phone all day figuring out what to do next.

 

[Touchdown]

Well, to some the alternatives of having to be at the park at rope drop, standing in long lines or missing out on the most popular rides are worse than paying for it. For us, it wasn't nearly as good as FP+ but it wasn't the end of the world either. We still got to do pretty much what we wanted the way we wanted to do it, but I didn't care for having to get up early every day to figure out what rides to schedule and having to be on the phone all day figuring out what to do next.

But in order to use this successfully you need to be up at 7am anyways, that’s only 45 min after I get up for a 8:30 resort ERT opening.

 

[Chi84]

But in order to use this successfully you need to be up at 7am anyways, that’s only 45 min after I get up for a 8:30 resort ERT opening.

It's true that you have to get up at 7, but you don't have to have everyone up, fed and ready to go at an hour early enough to drive to the parks by the time they open. There's a big difference.

We generally get up around 8 and either have breakfast in the room (if we're doing DVC) or go to the food court and get to the parks around 10 or so. I got up at 7 to buy Rise and Remy for later in the day, then got a G+ for SDD or Soarin' for a time close to when we would be in the park. Then 2 hours after park open (for HS), we scheduled another G+.

Whenever I post something like this, a number of posters seem compelled to tell me that we are wasting our time and money by choosing to vacation in the wrong way and suggest going to the beach or some other such nonsense. That's fine, but there are a whole lot of people who choose to vacation the way we do, and we are the ones who most likely to purchase skip the line options. I preferred FP+ because it was free and provided more of a guarantee that we would get what we wanted, but that's gone and it's not coming back.

 

[G00fyDad]

We have always gotten up at 6 a.m. and out of the resort room (headed for the park with a 9 a.m. opening) at 7:30 a.m. Religiously. That's just the way we do it. And we hit the park for rope drop and we stay all day until the park closes. I think anybody who doesn't do it that way is missing out and I don't understand why they want to get to the park later in the afternoon or even just before noon. But that doesn't make their touring plan wrong. It just makes it different. I will be up in plenty of time to make my 7 a.m. G$ and ILL bookings.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Haunted Mansion lightning lane.

 

[Chi84]

I think anybody who doesn't do it that way is missing out and I don't understand why they want to get to the park later in the afternoon or even just before noon. But that doesn't make their touring plan wrong. It just makes it different.

You may be making some assumptions that aren't accurate. We visit often, so there isn't much chance of us "missing out" by taking our time - at least there wasn't with FP+ because we had the luxury of scheduling our rides whenever we wanted them. Sometimes we spend the early part of the day at a water park (or resort pool) and go to a theme park in the late afternoon and evening. We have just as full a day as those who spend their entire day in a theme park - we just spend our time differently in a way that we enjoy more than spending every waking hour in one of the theme parks.

 

[dreday3]

You may be making some assumptions that aren't accurate. We visit often, so there isn't much chance of us "missing out" by taking our time - at least there wasn't with FP+ because we had the luxury of scheduling our rides whenever we wanted them. Sometimes we spend the early part of the day at a water park (or resort pool) and go to a theme park in the late afternoon and evening. We have just as full a day as those who spend their entire day in a theme park - we just spend our time differently in a way that we enjoy more than spending every waking hour in one of the theme parks.

Agree don't need to rope drop to have a great park experience.
Heck this past trip on arrival day we got to Epcot around 5, Rat was purchased for 7pm earlier in the day and we did every single ride except Test Track and Frozen! And we could have done Test Track but wanted to beat the rush home.

 

[Patcheslee]

Haunted Mansion lightning lane. View attachment 602105

How do they make sure people get tapped in in time? And how does that effect when someone can pick their next return time?

 

[Hakunamatata]

How do they make sure people get tapped in in time? And how does that effect when someone can pick their next return time?

Dont know. Havent used it.

 

[dirtnap101]

5:17pm on a busy Sunday and the only G+ attraction that still has LL return times is Tea Cups

 

[mikejs78]

5:17pm on a busy Sunday and the only G+ attraction that still has LL return times is Tea Cups

That's really poor form

 

[Patcheslee]

5:17pm on a busy Sunday and the only G+ attraction that still has LL return times is Tea Cups

AK and HS isn't much better. Then when you take into account the once per day, so people may have already used LL on the ones still available.

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

5:17pm on a busy Sunday and the only G+ attraction that still has LL return times is Tea Cups

I had to check because of how ridiculous that sounded, but sure enough.

Property wide it's not much better. MV3D at DHS and then Epcot with it's regular pool of Pixar Film Fest, Figment, Land, Mission Space, Nemo, SE and Turtle Talk.