Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[disneygeek90]

Have you ever thought that's part of Disney's plan with this system. To get people in the parks early and all day.

If people are up with their kids at 7am they’ll be lucky if they make it in the parks till dinner. People love talking about “open to close” but I suspect a very very few can do it let alone every day or most days of their trip.

Arriving in the afternoon and staying till close is the new rope drop, imo. Of course that basically eliminates Genie+

 

[dreday3]

Arriving in the afternoon and staying till close is the new rope drop, imo. Of course that basically eliminates Genie+

Except when you rope drop, go back to hotel and relax, then go to a park at night.

 

[matt9112]

Sorry, but the same that happened with paper fast pass would happen with this. People would get to park early to get the good times and try to get as many rides out of Genie + as they can. Just like how the paper fast passes used to run out - pretty early for the good rides.

Early bird gets the worm. It's just how it is. The only way to change is to go back to reservations 60 days out, which doesn't seem likely.

You need to watch the purger video....he proves paper fast pass didn't do this....lol....its scale...regular paper fp creates a small amount of inequality fastpass+ increased this margin but also led to more efficient ops...(using capacity of rides that dont really need fp) and genie totally creates have and have nots.

 

[dreday3]

You need to watch the purger video....he proves paper fast pass didn't do this....lol....its scale...regular paper fp creates a small amount of inequality fastpass+ increased this margin but also led to more efficient ops...(using capacity of rides that dont really need fp) and genie totally creates have and have nots.

No, really, I don't need to

I lived my experience with paper fast pass. They ran out early and worked best if you rope dropped.

 

[Thepuma]

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.

For me it's far more complex than FP+.....I need to try and make a strategy at 7am, while not knowing if the LL+ I want will be available in the morning...afternoon..evening...or not at all. Its a tough task as at 7am you are dealing with the unknown at park open.

FP+ was better in every single way...I cant even think of one thing that's better?

 

[Chi84]

For me it's far more complex than FP+.....I need to try and make a strategy at 7am, while not knowing if the LL+ I want will be available in the morning...afternoon..evening...or not at all. Its a tough task as at 7am you are dealing with the unknown at park open.

FP+ was better in every single way...I cant even think of one thing that's better?

Genie+ wasn’t horrible for just the two of us. But we’re going in April with our kids and their families - total of 6 adults and 3 young kids.

I’m trying to keep an open mind, but families with kids are more inclined to keep schedules. It’s going to be interesting to see how this fly by the seat of your pants system works for us.

At least we’ll have some control over scheduling the paid rides if we can get them.

 

[arich35]

Genie+ wasn’t horrible for just the two of us. But we’re going in April with our kids and their families - total of 6 adults and 3 young kids.

I’m trying to keep an open mind, but families with kids are more inclined to keep schedules. It’s going to be interesting to see how this fly by the seat of your pants system works for us.

At least we’ll have some control over scheduling the paid rides if we can get them.

My wife and I are just going, any tips?

 

[Chi84]

My wife and I are just going, any tips?

Everyone wants such different things from their vacations. We go often enough that getting on a ton of rides isn’t important, but we did want to experience the new ones. I got up early, paid for the ones I could and then took my chances with Genie+. As I said previously, I don’t care for the new system so I hope at least the people who hated FP+ are getting some benefit from it.

 

[flynnibus]

.I need to try and make a strategy at 7am, while not knowing if the LL+ I want will be available in the morning...afternoon..evening...or not at all

Why is that so difficult? You are picking one attraction. When the LL+ selection is done, you also have grace periods around your selected time. If things become a conflict, you decide which to keep.. probably the LL+

Why do you stress about something you have no control over and no way to know how it will go? You should just ignore it completely and deal with the situation you get when it actually happens.

 

[Chi84]

You should just ignore it completely and deal with the situation you get when it actually happens.

When you go to WDW, how many people are usually in your party? I think the new system is going to be much more problematic for certain groups of guests.

 

[MrPromey]

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

Yeah, this is basically a re-packaging of the "exclusive" viewing parties locations concept they throw in the parks for fireworks and parades and such:

Take something already mostly bought and paid for that was available to everyone (the reconfiguration of queues throughout the resort and the back-end system that handled management of FP+) and slap an up-charge on it.

It's a silent $15 a day price increase and in Disney's perfect world, 100% of guests would buy it, creating all the same problems FP+ did with lines and availability and people would accept it because while having it wouldn't be great, not having it would make the parks nearly impossible to visit.

People would/will do what they already do/have done when they increase a price while reducing a benefit and say "what other choice do we have?".*

We've long past the point where this company's interests are aligned with those of their guests and until some point that starts to (hopefully) hurt them, it's only going to get worse.


*there's an obvious answer here but one that nobody seems to want to seriously consider and Disney knows it.

 

[nickys]

Arriving in the afternoon and staying till close is the new rope drop, imo. Of course that basically eliminates Genie+

Not really IMO. You can get some G+ rides lined up for when you plan to arrive in the park.

 

[Thepuma]

Why is that so difficult? You are picking one attraction. When the LL+ selection is done, you also have grace periods around your selected time. If things become a conflict, you decide which to keep.. probably the LL+

Why do you stress about something you have no control over and no way to know how it will go? You should just ignore it completely and deal with the situation you get when it actually happens.

It's difficult because if I can't get a LL+ for a ride then I will have to rope drop. But I cannot find out if I can get one till the park opens...hours AFTER the Genie + pick.

Scenario - we are wanting a LL+ for a ride (we can't book till 9am) at 7am we have to pick Genie+...we pick one at near park open, say maybe 9.30am.....all honky dory...THEN at park open (during the stampede at the gate) I am on the phone trying to get the LL+...to find they have sold out to resort guests. We then have to make a decision - do our booked Genie plus OR rope drop the ride we couldn't get a LL+ for before the queue trebles in size later.

Obviously you would rope drop, so we queue for that ride and during the queue we have passed our Genie+ booking time....so...at 10.30am we are stuck with having to book a different G+...but obviously now, the return times are afternoon (as everyone booked theirs at 7am) - so not being able to book another Genie till that has been used...meaning Genie probably would only get you 2 rides that day.

Surely you can understand that the above is a problem?

If you don't know at park open what LL+ you can get, how can you book a relevant G+ reservation around it?

Let's be honest...there are 2 types of park goers...those that just turn up and see hownit goes (those will generally be left in long queues all day and not get on much) or those that want to plan and maximise their day.

Our best day using Genie was Wednesday at HS/AK....we added up all the wait times we had saved by getting straight on with LL+ and Genie, and it came to over 7 hours!!! - we did get a bit lucky that day as the previous day we went on FOP and they messed up the numbers going in so we had to come through the ride seat areas and be put on another POD...they gave us both 2 immediate LL to use within 2 days for the inconvenience.

 

[Thepuma]

Yeah, this is basically a re-packaging of the "exclusive" viewing parties concept they throw in the parks for fireworks and parades and such.

Take something already mostly bought and paid for that was available to everyone (the reconfiguration of queues throughout the resort and the back-end system that handled management of FP+) and slap an up-charge on it.

It's a silent $15 a day price increase and in Disney's perfect world, 100% of guests would buy it, creating all the same problems FP+ did with lines and availability and people would accept it because while having it wouldn't be great, not having it would make the parks nearly impossible to visit.

People would/will do what they already do/have done when they increase a price while reducing a benefit and say "what other choice do we have?".*

We've long past the point where this company's interests are aligned with those of their guests and until some point that starts to (hopefully) hurt them, it's only going to get worse.


*there's an obvious answer here but one that nobody seems to want to seriously consider and Disney knows it.

What I cannot get my head around is that with Genie+ there is so little choice...or should I say, long wait times. Because when you think about it, you can now only have 1 choice at a time, rather than 3 on the old system...even if 100% of guests paid for Genie+ (which they dont, far from it) then the system should be 2/3 more freed up than before.....but its almost exactly the same return slot times for G+ than there was for FP+......so something don't add up here.

 

[Thepuma]

Not really IMO. You can get some G+ rides lined up for when you plan to arrive in the park.

I thought you could only have 1 G+ at a time?

 

[Patcheslee]

Did you really tell me not to be hostile after calling my post stupid? Surely you can't be this oblivious.

You should try reading what people write instead of mindlessly railing against anything that doesn't match your specific opinion.

I noted why I don't think getting up at 7am is the end of the world when on vacation, and specifically noted there is no perfect time. If there's a perfect solution that pleases everyone, by all means, be sure to share with Disney.

I also noted that rolling releases of Genie+ would be a good compromise to accommodate people who don't wake up early, and not have the scenario where the best selections are gone right away. Again, might want to read everything people write before going off the rails.

Maybe people preselect their first choice/2nd choice and at 7am Genie+ automatically gives a time for first if not available 2nd choice? Sort of how Southwest does early check-in for boarding groups.
I wouldn't personally trust it for SDD without seeing what results people get vs waking early. Other rides I'd have better confidence though.

 

[nickys]

I thought you could only have 1 G+ at a time?

Once you book one, you can book the next one
Either
- when you tap in
Or
- after 2 hrs if the return time is after that (clock starts at park open).

Eg
7am - book 1st ride for 11:30
11am . book 2nd ride

And if you book for a park you don’t have a reservation for it will give you return times after 2pm. So you could hold at least 2, possibly 3 before you arrive.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

You guys are all forgetting something...

WDW is a vacation destination. V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.

A vacation shouldn't have to involve strategic planning, getting up early, staring at your phone all day, or any of the other hassles that Disney thinks are helping them avoid adding capacity.

They're tricking you all into thinking that theme parks can't function without a line-skip system. They absolutely can and should.

 

[lazyboy97o]

They're tricking you all into thinking that theme parks can't function without a line-skip system. They absolutely can and should.

You can’t say that! It’s a personal attack!

 

[ImperfectPixie]

You can’t say that! It’s a personal attack!

You know how much planning went into our honeymoon in 2000?

I made some dining reservations...something like 3 or 4. For an 11-day trip.

That's literally it. We didn't set any alarms. We didn't have an itinerary. We got up each morning and said "what do we want to do today?", made a choice, and did that.

ETA: Yes, it was at WDW. Hubby has always said it's the best vacation he's ever had in his life.