Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Thepuma]

Just to clarify, you don’t need to stay on property to try for a boarding group. I got group 31 for Rat yesterday (Saturday). About 30-35 minutes for queue + ride.

I tried twice at the earliest time and all I was getting a 360 minutes estimated turnaround...I mean...I don't know where I will be in 6 hours time...most likely in another park.

 

[Thepuma]

Yesh...some people were friends with the monster. Hell i benefited immensely from using FP+ as an AP holder i got pretty decent eoth it. But i still wont defend it.

FP+ was a million times better than Genie...I have no idea why any sane person would prefer Genie over FP+...unless they enjoy paying lots more money for a much inferior product.

 

[Thepuma]

Can someone clarify something...im from the UK so don't really understand school holidays etc....but we booked a 2 week holiday the 2 weeks AFTER thanksgiving...I can figure out how the park if full of tens of thousands of children when they should be at school?

Or am I missing something?

I do expect 'some' children as they will pat the fine for taking holidays in term time, but the packs are literally full of young children ?

Waited 30 minutes for Jurrasic Park River Adventure...ive never ever waited more than 5 minutes for that ride.

Can someone enlighten me.

Cheers

 

[Thepuma]

I'm also a little confused as to why practically nobody is wearing a mask inside the queues?, seeing as we are in the thick of a worldwide pandemic and a new more deadlier strain...im ot sure if it's arrogance or ignorance? Most likely both.

Has the Coronavirus magically disappeared?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Can someone clarify something...im from the UK so don't really understand school holidays etc....but we booked a 2 week holiday the 2 weeks AFTER thanksgiving...I can figure out how the park if full of tens of thousands of children when they should be at school?

Or am I.kissing something.

I do expect 'some' children as they will pat the fine for taking holidays in term time, but the packs are literally full of young children ?

Can someone enlighten me.

Cheers

Pay the fine? There generally are no fines for taking kids out of school in the US. Significant absences could be reported to the relevant department of children services for investigation but in general there’s not much that stops parents from taking kids out of school.

There are also thousands of school districts in the US each of which is generally able to set its own calendar and policies. Florida alone has 74 school districts and that isn’t counting private schools or homeschooling.

 

[Chi84]

FP+ was a million times better than Genie...I have no idea why any sane person would prefer Genie over FP+...unless they enjoy paying lots more money for a much inferior product.

I don't think most of the people who disliked FP+ prefer Genie+. I get the feeling from reading through these threads that they wanted either an all-standby system, MaxPass as it exists at DL, or an unlimited express pass like the kind you can get at Universal if you pay a significant sum or stay at one of their deluxe resorts. The problem is that WDW was never going to institute one of these as a replacement for FP+. So Disney did what a lot of people here predicted - instituted an inferior, paid system.

As far as children, there really isn't a time you won't see thousands of them at WDW; people will take their kids out of school for visits. With regard to masks, I believe only 6 of the 50 states mandate them and Florida isn't one of them. WDW is going above and beyond by requiring masks indoors, but if people aren't wearing them where they live, they get used to doing without them and don't seem particularly uncomfortable about it.

 

[disneygeek90]

I tried twice at the earliest time and all I was getting a 360 minutes estimated turnaround...I mean...I don't know where I will be in 6 hours time...most likely in another park.

It seems like it always says 360. Once the park actually opens the time adjusts accordingly. There's 3 hours after the boarding group time before park opens that I think is part of the 360.

 

[mightynine]

I tried twice at the earliest time and all I was getting a 360 minutes estimated turnaround...I mean...I don't know where I will be in 6 hours time...most likely in another park.

I'm pretty sure that's it's guess as to your overall wait time from 7am. I noticed mine dropped as my group number got closer.

Considering the process as it currently stands, there's no reason to join the VQ if you don't have a park reservation for Epcot for that day anyway.

 

[Thepuma]

Everyone in this post be like...its just like fastpass+
Totally ignores how fastpass+ ALSO was horrid.

Difference? Free suck vs paid suck.

Tough concept for some in here.

FP+ was amazing for us..enable us to plan our day..meant we could organise everything and it was free...hassle free and freed up time. Genie is just a shambles, expensive and worse in every way to FP+

 

[Thepuma]

It seems like it always says 360. Once the park actually opens the time adjusts accordingly. There's 3 hours after the boarding group time before park opens that I think is part of the 360.

So....we book and it says 360mins...so plan the day accordingly...and then they can change it to 30 minutes?

What a brilliant system lol

 

[Thepuma]

I'm pretty sure that's it's guess as to your overall wait time from 7am. I noticed mine dropped as my group number got closer.

Considering the process as it currently stands, there's no reason to join the VQ if you don't have a park reservation for Epcot for that day anyway.

Because of the shambles of VQ..and not knowing when we can get on..we paid for LL+....I guess that's what Disney want....more money money money.

 

[Thepuma]

I don't think most of the people who disliked FP+ prefer Genie+. I get the feeling from reading through these threads that they wanted either an all-standby system, MaxPass as it exists at DL, or an unlimited express pass like the kind you can get at Universal if you pay a significant sum or stay at one of their deluxe resorts. The problem is that WDW was never going to institute one of these as a replacement for FP+. So Disney did what a lot of people here predicted - instituted an inferior, paid system.

As far as children, there really isn't a time you won't see thousands of them at WDW; people will take their kids out of school for visits. With regard to masks, I believe only 6 of the 50 states mandate them and Florida isn't one of them. WDW is going above and beyond by requiring masks indoors, but if people aren't wearing them where they live, they get used to doing without them and don't seem particularly uncomfortable about it.

I do agree, Disney is making an effort with masks ..but Universal, there's probably 1% of people wearing them.

It's not even about mandating, it's about common sense when there's a pandemic on our hands.

As I say its either arrogance or ignorance...and as I said, likely both.

 

[Thepuma]

Can I ask..is today a public holiday? We came last Monday and it was almost walk on for every ride at Universal...today, its absolutely packed...we are leaving after 3 hours as its unbearable

 

[G00fyDad]

Can I ask..is today a public holiday? We came last Monday and it was almost walk on for every ride at Universal...today, its absolutely packed...we are leaving after 3 hours as its unbearable

The only thing I can think of is that last Monday was the first Monday after Thanksgiving and this week there may be more families heading to WDW instead of heading home after the holiday. Maybe?

 

[disneygeek90]

So....we book and it says 360mins...so plan the day accordingly...and then they can change it to 30 minutes?

What a brilliant system lol

You already did plan your day by having an Epcot reservation. You can't park hop until 2... thats 420 minutes after 7am. What else are you trying to plan? It is flexible around dining reservations and even the one hour return time is not that rigid.

 

[hopemax]

Can I ask..is today a public holiday? We came last Monday and it was almost walk on for every ride at Universal...today, its absolutely packed...we are leaving after 3 hours as its unbearable

There is an annual very large youth American Football league (Pop Warner) and Cheer & Dance competition that visits this week in December. Their national championship runs Dec 4 - Dec 11th. In previous years, they were based at WDW. During pandemic, they switched over to Universal.

 

[Thepuma]

A good number of posters loved FP+ because it worked great for them. Your post totally ignores that but it’s true just the same.

Id go as far to say id actually pay $15 for FP+ and be happy with that but paying more for much much less is taking the mick

 

[Thepuma]

You already did plan your day by having an Epcot reservation. You can't park hop until 2... thats 420 minutes after 7am. What else are you trying to plan? It is flexible around dining reservations and even the one hour return time is not that rigid.

Not sure what you find acceptable about paying $15 each to basically get 2 or 3 rides out of it a day...and that's with staying in that park all day...with the old system I'd have used all 3 of my FP up by midday and start using them individually after that.

 

[Jeff4272]

If your on your phone all day using Genie plus your doing it wrong. It’s a one time log in at 7am or park opening for your LL buys. That’s it for that portion of genie.
Then you make your first genie plus selection. It’s not that hard. Honestly if you find that stressful I don’t know how you cross the street. I also have no idea why your “waking your whole family up at 6:50 every day”. I mean can you not be trusted to operate a phone by yourself? Do you need someone to hold your hand when you click select? It only takes 1 person per party to make LL or genie selections. There’s no reason to wake everyone up.

Honestly If you couldn’t manage such a simple click and confirm interface on your own, and find it “too stressful” it’s probably good your done with Disney as you would likely be run over by a scooter while trying to gather your whole party around your phone to make a genie selection in park.

Ummmmm......You obviously dont know how it works and i would even doubt you've used it

1) we had to have 3 of us on exactly at 7am because ILL and the top Genie+ and ILL's were selling out in under 30 seconds........On our 2 HS days you could not get a Genie+ selection for SDD AND ROTR or vice versa..........the other were gone before you finished with your first...the third person had to book the 2nd ILL

2) at 11am, only thing left was TSMM.......People would occasionally drop Tot/RnR/MFSR and you would have to randomly refresh every second to see if you could get one of them

3) return times overlapped with park hopping and/or dining reservations so our 7am SDD selection window was 6:30 first night when we had Topolinios reservation and the second time its was 5:30 when were supposed to be in Epcot and had Via Napoli reservation and Remy BG

When its slow, you dont need Genie+/ILL and when its busy, it's 1,000,000% not worth it

I think its a valid argument that Genie+ makes your experience worse than having to wait in lines because of all of the demands it has to even try to make it work

 

[wutisgood]

Does anyone know what rat wait times are like at the evening extra hours? Trying to guage if lightning lane isn't needed in that case.