Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[flynnibus]

That's exactly how the people who hated FP+ made it sound when you had to get up early - once, and not in the midst of your vacation - to make your choices. People always make the things they don't want to do sound like a death march.

So address the people making that claim? I didn't

Besides, your comparison to FP+ booking d-day isn't good anyways.
1) The size of the task is not the same (You are only booking 1 reservation vs your whole vacation)
2) The task is less complex because you are only booking your first one or two events, in a single park. Not trying to manage multiple events and time interlocks
3) The time you had to get up was based WDW time, not your local time.. so for different timezones that's a big deal. For Genie, you are already on WDW timezone.

Literally, we are talking about picking one Genie reservations for your party for a few hours from now.. vs booking 3 FPs for every day of your trip and interleaving that with all your park plans, availability, and dining.

 

[DisneyDodo]

Rolling availability would go a long way to fixing the current issues. I don’t think paper FastPasses typically ran out as quickly as the new selections and passes do.

Rolling availability may help even the playing field for late-risers, but it's ultimately not helping the average guest. What matters is not what time of day the passes sell out, but rather how many you're able to secure before they do. Ultimately, the average G+ user will end up with the same number of LLs regardless of what time of day they are made available.

 

[UNCgolf]

Rolling availability may help even the playing field for late-risers, but it's ultimately not helping the average guest. What matters is not what time of day the passes sell out, but rather how many you're able to secure before they do. Ultimately, the average G+ user will end up with the same number of LLs regardless of what time of day they are made available.

This is why it would be much better if the parks were still open late, because the people showing up to rope drop at 8 (or early entry at 7:30) likely wouldn't be staying in the parks until 11 or 12 (or even later some nights), meaning they wouldn't book rides with return times that late and leaving more availability for other guests.

 

[Chi84]

Literally, we are talking about picking one Genie reservations for your party for a few hours from now.. vs booking 3 FPs for every day of your trip and interleaving that with all your park plans, availability, and dining.

Right, that's the part a lot of people preferred to the current system. It wasn't that hard - certainly not a death march.

 

[DisneyDodo]

This is why it would be much better if the parks were still open late, because the people showing up to rope drop at 8 (or early entry at 7:30) likely wouldn't be staying in the parks until 11 or 12 (or even later some nights), meaning they wouldn't book rides with return times that late and leaving more availability for other guests.

Right, increasing park hours is basically the easiest way to actually increase daily ride capacity, which of course translates to more LL capacity too. It's bad enough that they won't go the hard route of building more and higher-capacity attractions to compensate for higher crowds, but it's even more egregious that park hours have also actually trended downward.

 

[networkpro]

"Americans spend an average of 7 hours and 18 minutes in bed each night. They go to bed at 11:39 p.m., wake up at 7:09 a.m., spend 23.95 minutes snoring, have an average sleep quality of 74.2 percent, and rate their wake-up mood at 57 on a scale of 100"

https://www.sleepcycle.com/sleep-sc...out-americas-healthiest-happiest-best-rested/

Looks like on average, most people are NOT awake at either midnight or 7am lol

City folk. I'm at paid work at 6am, up earlier with livestock.

 

[Touchdown]

I love going to DL in the summer, (7am EE) 8-12 every day. If I stay at Grand I can do EE, and head back to my room around 2, shower nap, early dinner at 5pm and back to the parks until close.

 

[MrPromey]

This is why it would be much better if the parks were still open late, because the people showing up to rope drop at 8 (or early entry at 7:30) likely wouldn't be staying in the parks until 11 or 12 (or even later some nights), meaning they wouldn't book rides with return times that late and leaving more availability for other guests.

Well, better for the guests.

... but more costly for Disney.

We know who they're squarely looking out for these days and it ain't us.

 

[lazyboy97o]

your analogy is stupid.....so you think there are more people awake at 7am then there are at midnight?

Still, waking up like you're going to work or going to school when being an early riser isn't your thing doesn't sound like the kind of thing a normal person would want to do on vacation to me, even if it's just to navigate a phone and then pass back out.

Construction work at the Disney hotels that will disturb guests is generally allowed to start at 9:00 AM because a large portion of guests are no longer at the hotel.

 

[Jrb1979]

This is why it would be much better if the parks were still open late, because the people showing up to rope drop at 8 (or early entry at 7:30) likely wouldn't be staying in the parks until 11 or 12 (or even later some nights), meaning they wouldn't book rides with return times that late and leaving more availability for other guests.

The parks will rarely be open late for regular guests anymore. At MK you have party nights and the other parks stay open for Deluxe guests.

What I am amazed by is those who pay all that money for park tickets but waltz in half way through the day. What a waste of money.

 

[dreday3]

The parks will rarely be open late for regular guests anymore. At MK you have party nights and the other parks stay open for Deluxe guests.

What I am amazed by is those who pay all that money for park tickets but waltz in half way through the day. What a waste of money.

It's not a waste if you are there for a longer trip. 9 days - there is no need for us to ever be in a park open to close. That's why hoppers are great.

 

[James Alucobond]

Right, that's the part a lot of people preferred to the current system. It wasn't that hard - certainly not a death march.

That's also part of the thing a lot of people hated about the previous system. As @flynnibus said, you had to basically be prepared with your entire itinerary, wake up at a potentially awkward time based on your timezone, make all of your plans at once with no ability to take weather or other conditions that would require powers of prognostication into account, and still potentially be out of luck due to others being able to book things before you based on different lengths of stay.

 

[Chi84]

What I am amazed by is those who pay all that money for park tickets but waltz in half way through the day. What a waste of money.

We do that every trip but have never wasted our money.

 

[Virtual Toad]

It's not a waste if you are there for a longer trip. 9 days - there is no need for us to ever be in a park open to close. That's why hoppers are great.

Exactly why FP+ worked so well for us. Instead of wearing ourselves out trying to do everything in a single day at the MK, we “fast pass plussed” the headliners over three days with all return times in the evening. Leaving us free earlier in the day to do other parks, or the pool, or (gasp) even sleep in a bit. We wouldn’t even arrive at the MK until at least 5 or 6pm and we enjoyed several shorter but far more pleasant evenings. Plus Disney got more of our money because we would stay more days than if we tried to pack everything in to a shorter trip.

Even without FP+, back in the day, it was also very easy to get a full 9-hour day in the park by arriving at 3p and staying until closing at midnight. Crowds were more manageable most nights, the park was way more magical, and the weather far more pleasant. Many nights also had two nighttime parades and a fireworks show, which were excellent opportunities to snag rides without long lines.

I agree with other posters that shorter park hours are good for controlling labor costs but a nightmare for guests. It exacerbates the capacity problem and creates artificial scarcity because the same number of people are trying to get on the same number of rides with far fewer available hours.

 

[dirtnap101]

The well-known Disney park slogan.

Oh wait, they don't promote the parks that way?

It seems not . They seem to do this...just for you!

 

[Chi84]

That's also part of the thing a lot of people hated about the previous system. As @flynnibus said, you had to basically be prepared with your entire itinerary, wake up at a potentially awkward time based on your timezone, make all of your plans at once with no ability to take weather or other conditions that would require powers of prognostication into account, and still potentially be out of luck due to others being able to book things before you based on different lengths of stay.

That's was really never a difficult thing to do (for me); FP+ worked great for my family and the way we vacation. But I was never so arrogant as to think what was right for me was right for everyone. People here had me convinced that FP+ was not a good system for a lot of people so I figured it was only fair for Disney to accommodate them.

Then we went to WDW in late October and I got a firsthand look at the new system. I suppose some people must like it, but you wouldn't know it from social media. We made it work okay for us, although nowhere near as well as FP+. In other words, we didn't like it but it wasn't a dealbreaker. The dealbreaker for me - the thing that would have us not return - would be an all-standby system of the type we experienced for several years before any kind of Fastpass. Having to choose between skipping rides we liked and waiting in long lines throughout the day is something we would not do.

 

[James Alucobond]

I suppose some people must like it, but you wouldn't know it from social media. We made it work okay for us, although nowhere near as well as FP+. In other words, we didn't like it but it wasn't a dealbreaker.

To be fair, you wouldn't know people liked anything if you just went by social media.

 

[dirtnap101]

We look at it the way we did back in the paper fastpass days.

Either you make the choice to get up and rope-drop (run for fast passes) or you sleep in and just be happy with what's left. We would do both on those trips and be happy with both choices.

I have to say in October it didn't seem to be the issue it is now? We didn't even buy ILLs for everyday and had a lot of choices for Genie no matter what time we woke up. I guess it's gotten worse.

I would be happy with allowing resort guests to have the option to purchase (because that's how it is now) their ILLs in advance - maybe 30 days. Less pressure while on the actual vacation. Yes, I'm favoring resort guests.

I think it's bigger crowds and increased % of guests being aware of Genie+ and buying it

 

[JoeCamel]

I think it's bigger crowds and increased % of guests being aware of Genie+ and buying it

That is Disney's doing, they push it like it is a must have and people are buying. Wait until they really use it.....

 

[UNCgolf]

Construction work at the Disney hotels that will disturb guests is generally allowed to start at 9:00 AM because a large portion of guests are no longer at the hotel.

That's interesting -- where are they all going? It's obvious that most guests don't rope drop, so are they just on their way to the parks and arriving sometime between 9-10?