Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Jrb1979]

Dropping in a bunch of flat rides, even if built by Zamperla, isn’t building a themed experience. It’s a carnival experience.

Then I guess Disney will never have much more capacity with that kind of thinking.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Then I guess Disney will never have much more capacity with that kind of thinking.

Fantasyland… dark… rides…

 

[Jrb1979]

Fantasyland… dark… rides…

Yeah cause we need more dark rides.

People complain about Universal using screens a lot, same can be said for Disney in regards to dark rides. Not every ride needs to be in a building.

 

[pdude81]

Yeah cause we need more dark rides.

People complain about Universal using screens a lot, same can be said for Disney in regards to dark rides. Not every ride needs to be in a building.

In central Florida most should be

 

[ImperfectPixie]

In central Florida most should be

Not only that, but the quality, length, and variety of their indoor rides is what sets Disney apart from their competitors.

 

[Jeff4272]

Let’s face it the Walt Disney world company has changed.

They are more interested in profits than customer experience at this time.

Getting rid of ME, free parking, free magic bands, free FP, less park hours, more up sell events, more expensive after hours (who would pay to go to that Christmas party?) less mousekeeping (don’t kid yourself that’s never coming back)

And they can do all of this because of the demand has never been higher.

I don’t like it so we will adjust accordingly

but that choice is everyone’s to make on their own.

just kind of stinks because we love going but this will be our last trip unless things change.

 

[Jrb1979]

In central Florida most should be

SeaWorld and Busch Gardens would disagree with that.

Not only that, but the quality, length, and variety of their indoor rides is what sets Disney apart from their competitors.

I would say the way things are right now Disney is no better then their competitors.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

There is a ton of flat rides that can be put in that don't cost a fortune. I look at the rides that DCA in Pixar Pier when they first opened. They weren't highly themed but they did the trick.

What trick? DCA was a ghost town for most of it's first decade, the flat rides in Paradise Pier didn't solve anything except for keeping people in the park slightly longer before leaving halfway through the day.

 

[bubbles1812]

But FP etc. fix nothing. They break things in a different way.

And lots of non-headliners would absolutely help the load on RotR. That’s how DL works. A Pixar-based Fantasyland, replete with multiple cheap dark rides, would be a boon at MGM.

Define cheap here. Dark rides aren’t gonna cost as much at ROTR but let’s not pretend it wouldn’t likely still be a billion dollar expense to add *multiple* ‘cheap’ dark rides to DHS.

Disney Imagineering isn’t exactly known for their cost effective enterprise and building materials have only gotten more expensive in the last few years.

The axed a freakin’ carousel due to expense, and you want to tell me Chapek gonna get on it to green light dark rides I guarantee would be more expensive to build? I just don’t see it happening, especially since people keep coming. There hasn’t been an attendance drop off.

The company is focused elsewhere right now on fixing the things not making them a profit.

 

[Jrb1979]

What trick? DCA was a ghost town for most of it's first decade, the flat rides in Paradise Pier didn't solve anything except for keeping people in the park slightly longer before leaving halfway through the day.

My point was adding those type of rides to the parks now would help with capacity issues. They need more rides desperately, and since they don't want to spend a lot of money right now, adding in those type of rides would help with capacity.

 

[Jrb1979]

Define cheap here. Dark rides aren’t gonna cost as much at ROTR but let’s not pretend it wouldn’t likely still be a billion dollar expense to add *multiple* ‘cheap’ dark rides to DHS.

Disney Imagineering isn’t exactly known for their cost effective enterprise and building materials have only gotten more expensive in the last few years.

The axed a freakin’ carousel due to expense, and you want to tell me Chapek gonna get in it to green light dark rides I guarantee would be more expensive to build? I just don’t see it happening. The company is focused elsewhere right now on fixing the things not making them a profit.

That's why I fell anyone that asks that Disney isn't worth it. Go to Universal, Busch Gardens or SeaWorld. Parks that respect their guests

 

[RoadiJeff]

At MCO leaving after 4 day trip and I have to save it was the most stressful and exhausting trip we’ve ever done. Genie+ is a complete disaster and waste of money. Up early every day and didn’t get the rides we wanted even at 7:00:01 with 3 of us on MDE. Zero incentive to stay on property. Their big pitch is resort guests get to book ILL at 7am before non resort guests and we tried 3 days in a row at 7:00:01 and got nothing for ROTR on 2 tries and FOP on the other try. Got 2 rides with genie+ and waited in 60-220 (FOP) minute lines. Why did I pay more and get less with this system? I thought if I paid and stayed in a deluxe resort I would get an advantage and it was complete opposite. My kids were exhausted getting up so early and we were all stressed about not getting our preferred rides.

we will not be back System blows.

they need an “any ride, any time” pass system for me to return. Will never do that again.

When the booking window is filled within a few seconds instead of a few minutes there are several techniques to help with getting something. The first and IMHO the most important one is having a watch that is synced to the atomic clock signal. You can then refresh the MDE page 0.25 seconds before the magic hour and tap-tap-tap-tap as quick as you can on the new box that appears. The time that shows on most smart phones can be a few seconds slow and that makes a HUGE difference when every millisecond counts.

I know that doesn't help you now but when RotR was doing virtual boarding passes I used some millisecond shortcuts as I practiced back home and usually was able to get through the system 3x down to where it told me that I did not have a ticket for that day before it said all boarding groups had been taken 8-10 seconds into the hour.

 

[hopemax]

Disney prides itself at letting the show determine the experience, but they don’t have that luxury anymore. They need to identify their highest capacity and *reliable* ride systems and design an experience around the ride system. The only problem is that we may end up with another Mermaid due to other underlying issues. Ideally, an experience tied to a not-top tier IP, preferably a brand new parks one. You want people to want to ride because they hear the ride is good for something they didn’t expect. But not so popular that your kid will throw a tantrum is they don’t ride.

In these respects Ratatouille is a good representative of this idea. High capacity, proven reliability at DLP and people already expect things to settle down fairly quickly in interest level once the newness wears off. They just need at least 3 of these, with a variety in ride systems, in each park.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

SeaWorld and Busch Gardens would disagree with that.


I would say the way things are right now Disney is no better then their competitors.

Yeah...I'm beside myself that leadership seems so oblivious to what made the parks/resorts so successful.

 

[Jrb1979]

Yeah...I'm beside myself that leadership seems so oblivious to what made the parks/resorts so successful.

I'm not so sure that they are oblivious. I think it's more that their focus is on Disney+ instead. Since the parks are taking in the money right now due to people making up cancelled trips, they aren't worried about them right now.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I'm not so sure that they are oblivious. I think it's more that their focus is on Disney+ instead. Since the parks are taking in the money right now due to people making up cancelled trips, they aren't worried about them right now.

I'm not talking about "right now" though...they've been making bad choices with the parks/resorts for years.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Define cheap here. Dark rides aren’t gonna cost as much at ROTR but let’s not pretend it wouldn’t likely still be a billion dollar expense to add *multiple* ‘cheap’ dark rides to DHS.

Disney Imagineering isn’t exactly known for their cost effective enterprise and building materials have only gotten more expensive in the last few years.

The axed a freakin’ carousel due to expense, and you want to tell me Chapek gonna get on it to green light dark rides I guarantee would be more expensive to build? I just don’t see it happening, especially since people keep coming. There hasn’t been an attendance drop off.

The company is focused elsewhere right now on fixing the things not making them a profit.

Again with the idea that since a problem exists there should be no effort made to fix it. There is no reason $1 billion couldn’t buy 20 good attractions.

And which is? You previously claimed the reservations schemes were how they were fixing things but now you say they aren’t trying to fix anything. The Company trying to fix things is also part of the problem as these issues and their solutions are being driven by people with no experience or interest in theme parks.

My point was adding those type of rides to the parks now would help with capacity issues. They need more rides desperately, and since they don't want to spend a lot of money right now, adding in those type of rides would help with capacity.

Flat rides tend to have rather lousy capacity and they tend to be variations on a theme. Trying to add that much capacity means you will start to be repetitive. Part of what makes their all-in cost so low is that they get dropped in on concrete pads, not exactly conducive to a themed environment. They can also cause circulation problems when placed poorly, see Magic Carpets of Aladdin in Adventureland.

 

[Jeff4272]

When the booking window is filled within a few seconds instead of a few minutes there are several techniques to help with getting something. The first and IMHO the most important one is having a watch that is synced to the atomic clock signal. You can then refresh the MDE page 0.25 seconds before the magic hour and tap-tap-tap-tap as quick as you can on the new box that appears. The time that shows on most smart phones can be a few seconds slow and that makes a HUGE difference when every millisecond counts.

I know that doesn't help you now but when RotR was doing virtual boarding passes I used some millisecond shortcuts as I practiced back home and usually was able to get through the system 3x down to where it told me that I did not have a ticket for that day before it said all boarding groups had been taken 8-10 seconds into the hour.

I never had a problem getting a BG. Was 6 for 6 including twice at 1pm. This had to do with Disney technology being terrible

 

[Casper Gutman]

Define cheap here. Dark rides aren’t gonna cost as much at ROTR but let’s not pretend it wouldn’t likely still be a billion dollar expense to add *multiple* ‘cheap’ dark rides to DHS.

Disney Imagineering isn’t exactly known for their cost effective enterprise and building materials have only gotten more expensive in the last few years.

The axed a freakin’ carousel due to expense, and you want to tell me Chapek gonna get on it to green light dark rides I guarantee would be more expensive to build? I just don’t see it happening, especially since people keep coming. There hasn’t been an attendance drop off.

The company is focused elsewhere right now on fixing the things not making them a profit.

That's the problem, of course. Both Chapek and Iger see the parks as a side-business at best, a cash register at worst. They want to be movie execs, not theme park execs. For a portion of the $33 BILLION Disney just announced they would spend on streaming content in 2022 alone, WDW could be actually and truly fixed. But the Bobs can't accept that theme parks, along with animation, are the core of their brand and always will be. Those ain't sexy businesses on Wall Street.

 

[lazyboy97o]

That's the problem, of course. Both Chapek and Iger see the parks as a side-business at best, a cash register at worst. They want to be movie execs, not theme park execs. For a portion of the $33 BILLION Disney just announced they would spend on streaming content in 2022 alone, WDW could be actually and truly fixed. But the Bobs can't accept that theme parks, along with animation, are the core of their brand and always will be. Those ain't sexy businesses on Wall Street.

They don’t want to be theme park executives but they also think anyone from that business is too stupid to be trusted running it and that the bumbling idiots need their guidance. Disney is a business that in 2006 ordered a business unit to never try and repeat a recent big success.