Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[BrianLo]

Well..thought I'd try Disney one more time.....

Never never NEVER again!

I've just about had it with Disney...

Bought Genie+ as well as two paid LL - SDMT at MK and Avatar for later at AK.

Well, from 8am to 7pm we managed to get just 2 Genie+ reservations 1) Jungle Cruise at 1pm and 2) Soarin at 4pm

We booked Seven Dwarfs at 1pm for $30 for 2 of us. Got to the entrance 5 minutes early to find a massive line in the LL? I asked a team member if this was the Lightning Lane and she confirmed it was - Honestly it was ridiculous and it took us 35 minutes to get on....terrible considering we paid for the privelege.
View attachment 604850

We then used our first Genie+ for Jungle Cruise...again, we were great by a big queue, but managed to get on in 25 minutes.

We then head to Epcot where we had a 4pm Soarin Genie+ ...that queue was good, just 10 mins. We tried to do Test Track but it went down for an hour and by the time we got back When it came back the queue was FULL of thos who had cancelled Genie + reservation...so the 40 minute stated time ended up being 90 minutes.

Had a AFOP paid $28 LL for 2 of us and got to the queue on time...only to be met with a terribly slow LL queue and took us 45 minutes to get on.

So for $32 Genies and $58 LL+ ($90) we managed 4 rides. Bare in mind 2 entrance is $260

What I found most annoying was the LONG waits even though we had paid Lightning Lanes.

We have a week left on our holiday to Orlando and I can safely say, we won't be visiting another Disney Park while we are here. Its just not worth the hassle and the cost.

Was this today?! I have some complaints, but they are sort of the opposite of yours.

 

[arich35]

Well..thought I'd try Disney one more time.....

Never never NEVER again!

I've just about had it with Disney...

Bought Genie+ as well as two paid LL - SDMT at MK and Avatar for later at AK.

Well, from 8am to 7pm we managed to get just 2 Genie+ reservations 1) Jungle Cruise at 1pm and 2) Soarin at 4pm

We booked Seven Dwarfs at 1pm for $30 for 2 of us. Got to the entrance 5 minutes early to find a massive line in the LL? I asked a team member if this was the Lightning Lane and she confirmed it was - Honestly it was ridiculous and it took us 35 minutes to get on....terrible considering we paid for the privelege.
View attachment 604850

We then used our first Genie+ for Jungle Cruise...again, we were great by a big queue, but managed to get on in 25 minutes.

We then head to Epcot where we had a 4pm Soarin Genie+ ...that queue was good, just 10 mins. We tried to do Test Track but it went down for an hour and by the time we got back When it came back the queue was FULL of thos who had cancelled Genie + reservation...so the 40 minute stated time ended up being 90 minutes.

Had a AFOP paid $28 LL for 2 of us and got to the queue on time...only to be met with a terribly slow LL queue and took us 45 minutes to get on.

So for $32 Genies and $58 LL+ ($90) we managed 4 rides. Bare in mind 2 entrance is $260

What I found most annoying was the LONG waits even though we had paid Lightning Lanes.

We have a week left on our holiday to Orlando and I can safely say, we won't be visiting another Disney Park while we are here. Its just not worth the hassle and the cost.

So you bought a LL for SDMT and FoP but ended up at Epcot?

 

[wutisgood]

we dont rope drop

Nah Disney is preloading the parks more than ever this isn't a thing anymore if you want to ride anything with reasonable waits.

They've already created a class divide, like every other park in America

My local six flags season pass is like half the cost of a single day at disney and I get more rides on that cheap pass than disney. DO I care about the skip the line passes at that point? I sure care about them when paying 150 for a single day at disney and getting treated like a second class guest.

ETA: People will figure it out soon enough......when its slower, it's 100% not necessary and when it's busy, it's 100% not worth it.....

unless disney forces you to buy it through increased capacity allocation. Disney on a slow day would be crowded for other parks

So I don't think Genie fizzles. I think they would rather do an 80:20 split like the old fastpass to encourage sales than let this die.

Likely but the old system favored resort guests on that split who spent a lot of money repeatedly as on site guests. The new system with that split would still favor day guests more equally and make genie plus more of a requirement.

If FP+ was universally hated because of all of the advanced planning, Genie+ has completely swung the pendulum the other way by making things too much of a crap shoot with everything a lottery and last minute

Disney's goal is to get that entry fee locked in before people know they aren't going to be doing much. gotta reserve time to guest complaints in every trip I feel so bad for them. The amount of people that go to disney and basically do nothing is way higher than people think. It's a status symbol.

We have a week left on our holiday to Orlando and I can safely say, we won't be visiting another Disney Park while we are here. Its just not worth the hassle and the cost.

Disneyland resort in tokyo or california should still be an ok experience. Tokyo being best since they don't rip people off just because they can and don't cheap out on staffing to inflate wait times. I have a friend spending an absolute stupid amount of money on orlando when he could have flown everyone to tokyo for not much more.

 

[Thepuma]

that is even worse - the root problem is you can’t overcommit the capacity you have. Creating more sales opportunities just creates more pressure to commit more and more.

You have to reduce capacity.....but not in this way. Its overly complicated and unnecessarily frustrating to use.

Let's go back to FP+ ( a MUCH MUCH better system) but instead of charging $130 a day to get into the park, increase it to $250.

The thing is Disney want it both ends...they want the high capacity AND rip everyone off with silly Genie+ and LL+ ....THAT is the problem...not capacity, its Disney wanting more and more money while providing a much much inferior product becasue they refuse to do something that reduces capacity.

 

[Thepuma]

So you bought a LL for SDMT and FoP but ended up at Epcot?

Nope...we started at MK...I booked SDMT for 1pm. I then wanted Jungle Cruise so I got in early before it sold out...that G+ was for 12.30....once we had done on jungle cruise there was pretty much no G+ left for anything decent for 6 hours, so I tried to salvage the day by seeing what I could get at Epcot...I got Soarin for 4pm....and seeing as test track was down at that point I decided to (again) salvage the day hy booking a FOP LL+ for 6.30. Otherwise the day would have been a total wash out.

I resent paying G+ and definitely LL+ , but once I have paid $33 for me and the gf for SDMT, I don't expect to be waiting 35 minutes. Similarly when I paid $30 for FOP I don't expect expect be waiting 45 minutes. Its totally unacceptable.

If Disney are going to keep this totally flawed and complicated system and Rob people of money, then at least provide a decent service for those being fleeced.

 

[Thepuma]

Nah Disney is preloading the parks more than ever this isn't a thing anymore if you want to ride anything with reasonable waits.

My local six flags season pass is like half the cost of a single day at disney and I get more rides on that cheap pass than disney. DO I care about the skip the line passes at that point? I sure care about them when paying 150 for a single day at disney and getting treated like a second class guest.

unless disney forces you to buy it through increased capacity allocation. Disney on a slow day would be crowded for other parks

Likely but the old system favored resort guests on that split who spent a lot of money repeatedly as on site guests. The new system with that split would still favor day guests more equally and make genie plus more of a requirement.

Disney's goal is to get that entry fee locked in before people know they aren't going to be doing much. gotta reserve time to guest complaints in every trip I feel so bad for them. The amount of people that go to disney and basically do nothing is way higher than people think. It's a status symbol.

Disneyland resort in tokyo or california should still be an ok experience. Tokyo being best since they don't rip people off just because they can and don't cheap out on staffing to inflate wait times. I have a friend spending an absolute stupid amount of money on orlando when he could have flown everyone to tokyo for not much more.

I'm doing Tokyo next year in the hope it's a better and more enjoyable experience than Orlando.

 

[dirtnap101]

Nope...we started at MK...I booked SDMT for 1pm. I then wanted Jungle Cruise so I got in early before it sold out...that G+ was for 12.30....once we had done on jungle cruise there was pretty much no G+ left for anything decent for 6 hours, so I tried to salvage the day by seeing what I could get at Epcot...I got Soarin for 4pm....and seeing as test track was down at that point I decided to (again) salvage the day hy booking a FOP LL+ for 6.30. Otherwise the day would have been a total wash out.

I resent paying G+ and definitely LL+ , but once I have paid $33 for me and the gf for SDMT, I don't expect to be waiting 35 minutes. Similarly when I paid $30 for FOP I don't expect expect be waiting 45 minutes. Its totally unacceptable.

If Disney are going to keep this totally flawed and complicated system and Rob people of money, then at least provide a decent service for those being fleeced.

What date was this? Was it yesterday December 3rd? Just trying to figure out what the crowd level was when this all happened to you.

 

[disneygeek90]

Nope...we started at MK...I booked SDMT for 1pm. I then wanted Jungle Cruise so I got in early before it sold out...that G+ was for 12.30....once we had done on jungle cruise there was pretty much no G+ left for anything decent for 6 hours, so I tried to salvage the day by seeing what I could get at Epcot...I got Soarin for 4pm....and seeing as test track was down at that point I decided to (again) salvage the day hy booking a FOP LL+ for 6.30. Otherwise the day would have been a total wash out.

I resent paying G+ and definitely LL+ , but once I have paid $33 for me and the gf for SDMT, I don't expect to be waiting 35 minutes. Similarly when I paid $30 for FOP I don't expect expect be waiting 45 minutes. Its totally unacceptable.

If Disney are going to keep this totally flawed and complicated system and Rob people of money, then at least provide a decent service for those being fleeced.

What was the posted wait time of SDMT? The LL wait should be relative to the wait of the standby. I know it feels like it should be nearly immediate now that we’re paying, but it’s not unusual to have 20+ minute waits in some express lines at Universal either.

 

[Thepuma]

What date was this? Was it yesterday December 3rd? Just trying to figure out what the crowd level was when this all happened to you.

It was yesterday yeah.

I suppose we had a set plan for MK as we had been there a few days before. We wanted JCruise and SDMT..so we had to do whatever we could to get those...JC I could only get for 12.30 I think so it meant I couldn't book another G+ till after that time, which meant pretty much every decent G+ was returned time of 6pm or later or was out. It was at that point I decided to salvage the day by getting Soaring at Epcot and waited in the queue for Test Track.....as I could see (at midday) what was unfolding ahead of us, I booked a LL+ for FOP to at least make our day worthwhile...so yeah, we had to do 3 parks and pay for everything just to make the day worthwhile.

While I do resent paying for LL+ I do it to avoid a wasted day. But as I said before, once I've paid the money (on top of the entrance money) I expect to get on the ride in 10 minutes max...not 30 minutes SDMT and 45 FOP.

 

[Jrb1979]

It was yesterday yeah.

I suppose we had a set plan for MK as we had been there a few days before. We wanted JCruise and SDMT..so we had to do whatever we could to get those...JC I could only get for 12.30 I think so it meant I couldn't book another G+ till after that time, which meant pretty much every decent G+ was returned time of 6pm or later or was out. It was at that point I decided to salvage the day by getting Soaring at Epcot and waited in the queue for Test Track.....as I could see (at midday) what was unfolding ahead of us, I booked a LL+ for FOP to at least make our day worthwhile...so yeah, we had to do 3 parks and pay for everything just to make the day worthwhile.

While I do resent paying for LL+ I do it to avoid a wasted day. But as I said before, once I've paid the money (on top of the entrance money) I expect to get on the ride in 10 minutes max...not 30 minutes SDMT and 45 FOP.

It stories like that is why I continue to say letting everyone have access to it creates this problem. They either need to up the price by a lot or limit how many is available to buy.

 

[arich35]

It was yesterday yeah.

I suppose we had a set plan for MK as we had been there a few days before. We wanted JCruise and SDMT..so we had to do whatever we could to get those...JC I could only get for 12.30 I think so it meant I couldn't book another G+ till after that time, which meant pretty much every decent G+ was returned time of 6pm or later or was out. It was at that point I decided to salvage the day by getting Soaring at Epcot and waited in the queue for Test Track.....as I could see (at midday) what was unfolding ahead of us, I booked a LL+ for FOP to at least make our day worthwhile...so yeah, we had to do 3 parks and pay for everything just to make the day worthwhile.

While I do resent paying for LL+ I do it to avoid a wasted day. But as I said before, once I've paid the money (on top of the entrance money) I expect to get on the ride in 10 minutes max...not 30 minutes SDMT and 45 FOP.

You could have done it two hours after opening which I think would have been 11 AM.

 

[Thepuma]

You could have done it two hours after opening which I think would have been 11 AM.

Not Jungle Cruise...I was logged on waiting for the ticker to hit 8am and the earliest Jungle Cruise was 12.30.

It was the only thing in the park we hadn't done before so it was a must do, regardless of return time. After that ot was It's a Small world and rubbish like that before 6pm...hence why I had to make a decision to salvage the day and get Soarin and pay for FOP on the evening.

 

[Patcheslee]

Not Jungle Cruise...I was logged on waiting for the ticker to hit 8am and the earliest Jungle Cruise was 12.30.

It was the only thing in the park we hadn't done before so it was a must do, regardless of return time. After that ot was It's a Small world and rubbish like that before 6pm...hence why I had to make a decision to salvage the day and get Soarin and pay for FOP on the evening.

Why did you wait for 8am?

 

[arich35]

Not Jungle Cruise...I was logged on waiting for the ticker to hit 8am and the earliest Jungle Cruise was 12.30.

It was the only thing in the park we hadn't done before so it was a must do, regardless of return time. After that ot was It's a Small world and rubbish like that before 6pm...hence why I had to make a decision to salvage the day and get Soarin and pay for FOP on the evening.

Right at 7 AM you can book your first Genie+ selection, then after 2 hours of the park being open OR scanning into your first Genie+ ride you can select another one.

 

[BrianLo]

Not Jungle Cruise...I was logged on waiting for the ticker to hit 8am and the earliest Jungle Cruise was 12.30.

It was the only thing in the park we hadn't done before so it was a must do, regardless of return time. After that ot was It's a Small world and rubbish like that before 6pm...hence why I had to make a decision to salvage the day and get Soarin and pay for FOP on the evening.

I was also in MK yesterday, which is why I also asked. You didn’t realize you could have booked extra LL… you did NOT have to wait until your Jungle Cruise return. This mistake made a huge difference.

I didn’t show up to the park until after 1PM because I needed a swab for return travel and spent the morning in Disney Springs.

I booked Jungle cruise yesterday after I slept in until 8:15 (purposefully as I wasn’t looking for morning returns) and it was for 3:40. I booked Peter Pan at 11, Splash I booked at 1 (was about 75 minutes out), once I rode Splash I found a Small world with a quick turnaround. Then I somehow found a 20 minute turnaround for Big Thunder (this was lucky) and I was able to ride that essentially after getting off Small World. After triggering the second gate I booked Haunted Mansion for the evening because I had a Garden Grill reservation. Only then did I use the Jungle Cruise. I also booked Buzz and Pirates, which I didn’t end up using.

Some other attractions sprinkled along the way… despite this I have some complaints about this day, I found MK slow and my SDMT LL+ reservation in the evening was a waste of money. Promptly got off and got back on again as the attraction was a walk on.

But this sounds like the total opposite of what happened for you.

 

[mightynine]

I’ve been in the parks since Tuesday. Granted it’s just me, but I haven’t purchased G+ and I’ve done the majority of headliners in each park - some twice, including Runaway Railway and Rise, Soarin I did three times, and the only time I felt ILL was for Rat when I missed the morning queue and wanted to make sure I got that one.

I think the only ones I didn’t do was Toy Story Land, and of that, the only one I really missed out was Toy Story Mania.

Using the early resort half-hour and doing mop-ups in the final hours plus single rider line has been a big help.

In case this helps anyone, especially solo travelers in typically slow times, on whether you need it.

 

[nickys]

It was yesterday yeah.

I suppose we had a set plan for MK as we had been there a few days before. We wanted JCruise and SDMT..so we had to do whatever we could to get those...JC I could only get for 12.30 I think so it meant I couldn't book another G+ till after that time, which meant pretty much every decent G+ was returned time of 6pm or later or was out. It was at that point I decided to salvage the day by getting Soaring at Epcot and waited in the queue for Test Track.....as I could see (at midday) what was unfolding ahead of us, I booked a LL+ for FOP to at least make our day worthwhile...so yeah, we had to do 3 parks and pay for everything just to make the day worthwhile.

While I do resent paying for LL+ I do it to avoid a wasted day. But as I said before, once I've paid the money (on top of the entrance money) I expect to get on the ride in 10 minutes max...not 30 minutes SDMT and 45 FOP.

When did you book the G+ for Jungle Cruise? You can book another either when you tap in to your G+ ride or 2 hrs after you last booked one (albeit the clock starts at park opening). So if you booked JC before or at park opening you could have booked another at 11.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Sitting in the can across from English Pavillion now waiting for my Rat LL at 6:40. I ended up getting down to Fla a day earlier than expected so did an impromptu day at Epcot. Started booking my genie during drive down from Savannah this morning and it really couldn’t have been easier. Managed to do it in car on 95 at 10am. Got Rat for 6:40 and got test track for 7:30. At 12 booked living with land genie + for 2:15. Got to park at 2:30 and managed to do living with land, spaceship earth, Nemo, soaring, all with genie plus, no lines at all. Waiting 20min for 3 caber, and then ate and drank around world killing time for Rat. For a spur of the moment trip, and from someone who loved FP+ ability to plan everything out 60 days in advance, this has been smooth as silk for a last minute no plan park day

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Sitting in the can across from English Pavillion now waiting for my Rat LL at 6:40. I ended up getting down to Fla a day earlier than expected so did an impromptu day at Epcot. Started booking my genie during drive down from Savannah this morning and it really couldn’t have been easier. Managed to do it in car on 95 at 10am. Got Rat for 6:40 and got test track for 7:30. At 12 booked living with land genie + for 2:15. Got to park at 2:30 and managed to do living with land, spaceship earth, Nemo, soaring, all with genie plus, no lines at all. Waiting 20min for 3 caber, and then ate and drank around world killing time for Rat. For a spur of the moment trip, and from someone who loved FP+ ability to plan everything out 60 days in advance, this has been smooth as silk for a last minute no plan park day

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

$11 dollars is a bargain for LL for Rat. For basic at cost of an order of ravioli at Tuscany cart, I am skipping easily a 40min wait, and that was assuming I won lottery for a boarding group, which I didn’t as I am not on property this trip