Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Thepuma]

So the exact same as what I listed in my previous post minus the River Journey... Basically just about everything less than a decade old.

I have a couple of times got SDD and SDMT...but never ever FOP. But we got round that by rope dropping it on the days where extra magic hours never applied tk AK. We used to get on it withing 5 minutes.

Genie has kled rope dropping now for us (as a non resort guest) as, by the time all the resort guests have come in 30 minutes prior to opening, the queue is long.

 

[TikibirdLand]

Amen to that. Back when the abolishment of FP+ was announced and many here expressed their pleasure, I had a horrible feeling that none of us would like what Disney had in store as the replacement. I wanted so much to be wrong, but here we are, with the fans of FP+ deprived of something they enjoyed and the haters of FP+ seemingly even less satisfied than they had been before. It’s a lose-lose situation.

 

[Thepuma]

View attachment 606597

I mean..when you look at it...and how terribly bad Genie is, it's almost as if Disney are doing everything they can to make their previously happy guests totally unhappy, annoyed, frustrated and ultimately go elsewhere.

It possibly could not be any worse...you csnt believe all the top dogs at Disney got together in a room and came up with this garbage. I'm pretty sure a 5 year old could make a better system, it really is that bad.

 

[BrianLo]

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.

I think I’ve figured out one of the reasons you are struggling so much with your trip. No, you obviously WOULD NOT rope drop. You are not a resort guest and every single park is open to resort guests before you. You aren’t rope dropping anything. You are joining the back of a long line.

Stop getting into Rise or Flight of Passage first thing. Use your Genie+, enjoy some of the other popular attractions that will actually have lesser waits at that time. Get in those big attractions at some point in the afternoon when you actually have the time to do it. The waits will probably be the same, or even less.

This is a fixation error you have from the days when you were actually rope dropping. Non resort guests aren’t rope dropping. They are arriving 30 minutes late. The only time you have left is the evening.

If you also are going to book a return time you aren’t going to show up for, pick a different attraction instead.

 

[Thepuma]

I think I’ve figured out one of the reasons you are struggling so much with your trip. No, you obviously WOULD NOT rope drop. You are not a resort guest and every single park is open to resort guests before you. You aren’t rope dropping anything. You are joining the back of a long line.

Stop getting into Rise or Flight of Passage first thing. Use your Genie+, enjoy some of the other popular attractions that will actually have lesser waits at that time. Get in those big attractions at some point in the afternoon when you actually have the time to do it. The waits will probably be the same, or even less.

This is a fixation error you have from the days when you were actually rope dropping. Non resort guests aren’t rope dropping. They are arriving 30 minutes late. The only time you have left is the evening.

If you also are going to book a return time you aren’t going to show up for, pick a different attraction instead.

To be fair I have tried a variety of strategies .and Genie+ has been terrible for all the days other than 1... and that was only because we were given 2 immediate Genie+ as compensation for mix up in FOP. I totalled we managed to save 6 hours and 50 minutes compared to stand by times. Every other time (8 times) Genie was poor value...in most cases only getting us 2 rides maybe 3.

I understand your sentiment about rope dropping not being worth it as a non resort guest....but we rope dropped FOP (after resort guests) and managed to get on in 40 minutes - the wait times later in the day 11am till 5pm were around 2 hours plus...so if I had used your strategy I'd have been queuing a long time later in the day.

There's all sorts of strategies. And Genie may work for some...maybe families who are happy to go on the small rides with children like Small World, Winning Pooh, Peter Pan, swirl saucers, Goofy Barnstormer etc etc...as they will get those no problem - be we have no interest in those, so strategy is not straight forward. Mainly because you never know what time..or even IF you can get the LL you want.

With a lot of planning a bit of luck, and many changes of plans we have managed to get on everything we wanted. We wanted a 2nd go on RAT, but after our first time we were never able to get a LL+ or a Virtual Queue slot.

 

[Disstevefan1]

To be fair I have tried a variety of strategies .and Genie+ has been terrible for all the days other than 1... and that was only because we were given 2 immediate Genie+ as compensation for mix up in FOP. I totalled we managed to save 6 hours and 50 minutes compared to stand by times. Every other time (8 times) Genie was poor value...in most cases only getting us 2 rides maybe 3.

I understand your sentiment about rope dropping not being worth it as a non resort guest....but we rope dropped FOP (after resort guests) and managed to get on in 40 minutes - the wait times later in the day 11am till 5pm were around 2 hours plus...so if I had used your strategy I'd have been queuing a long time later in the day.

There's all sorts of strategies. And Genie may work for some...maybe families who are happy to go on the small rides with children like Small World, Winning Pooh, Peter Pan, swirl saucers, Goofy Barnstormer etc etc...as they will get those no problem - be we have no interest in those, so strategy is not straight forward. Mainly because you never know what time..or even IF you can get the LL you want.

With a lot of planning a bit of luck, and many changes of plans we have managed to get on everything we wanted. We wanted a 2nd go on RAT, but after our first time we were never able to get a LL+ or a Virtual Queue slot.

I think this tells it all. For all guests, both on and off properly, regardless of what system is in place, rope drop still gives you the best chance of getting on an attraction.

There should be no surprise here, this was always the case historically.

And here’s the thing; what has made this work and will continue to make it work is the majority of guests do not show up for rope drop. The majority (rightly so) do not want to do this when on vacation because it’s a vacation; if I wanted to get up that early to get someplace on time I would skip vacation and keep working.

Vacation should not be work.

 

[Thepuma]

I think this tells it all. For all guests, both on and off properly, regardless of what system is in place, rope drop still gives you the best chance of getting on an attraction.

There should be no surprise here, this was always the case historically.

And here’s the thing; what has made this work and will continue to make it work is the majority of guests do not show up for rope drop. The majority (rightly so) do not want to do this when on vacation because it’s a vacation; if I wanted to get up that early to get someplace on time I would skip vacation and keep working.

Vacation should not be work.

Yep...FP+ meant it was a real vacation...book the 3 a month in advance then relax and only worry about the next fastpass when id used all 3.

This time, it hasn't felt like a vacation. It was hard work...only hard work because we wanted to get on everything we wanted to because it would be our last time in Orlando.

If you didn't mind missing out on a lot of the bigger rider or don't mind waiting 2 hours plus then yeah, Genie would be fine.

But THIS version of Genie + should be free becasue it's totally worse in every way conpanered to the previous free system.

It's like buying a multipack of 6 chips year after year...and then they say they are price increasing by 40 % but getting on 3 bags.

I have no idea what percentage of users are happy with this new system...but I'd hazard a guess it's a very small number.

 

[MrPromey]

I have a couple of times got SDD and SDMT...but never ever FOP. But we got round that by rope dropping it on the days where extra magic hours never applied tk AK. We used to get on it withing 5 minutes.

Genie has kled rope dropping now for us (as a non resort guest) as, by the time all the resort guests have come in 30 minutes prior to opening, the queue is long.

Good point on rope drop but for the purpose of this discussion, I wasn't really referring to other tactics but FP+, itself.

Rope drop is the only way we ever did FOP but we still ended up with two hour+ wait due to members of our party not being able to run like everyone else to get there. :/

 

[matt9112]

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.

ok pal.

 

[MrPromey]

I mean..when you look at it...and how terribly bad Genie is, it's almost as if Disney are doing everything they can to make their previously happy guests totally unhappy, annoyed, frustrated and ultimately go elsewhere.

It possibly could not be any worse...you csnt believe all the top dogs at Disney got together in a room and came up with this garbage. I'm pretty sure a 5 year old could make a better system, it really is that bad.

As a semi-local, I had mostly negative experiences with FP+ when it came to doing the most popular attractions but I can certainly understand why resort guests booking more than 60 days out loved it.

It's hard to get too mad at that given the pricing of FL APs vs. length of stay passes and when having all year access but it was frustrating when going with a young child and sometimes an elderly person, to be basically closed out of most of the in-the-last-decade stuff due to having no real workable strategy to get on these things - both young kids and older folks can only be encouraged so much to get moving early in the morning and only move so fast at rope drop.

In my situation, I saw FP+ as mostly making lines longer for my party but again, I see where it benefited many others. That said, I see this as a huge step down for everyone.

It's not even particularly good for people willing to pay the maximum to use both G+ and LL.

 

[Chi84]

As a semi-local, I had mostly negative experiences with FP+ when it came to doing the most popular attractions but I can certainly understand why resort guests booking more than 60 days out loved it.

It's hard to get too mad at that given the pricing of FL APs vs. length of stay passes and when having all year access but it was frustrating when going with a young child and sometimes an elderly person, to be basically closed out of most of the in-the-last-decade stuff due to having no real workable strategy to get on these things - both young kids and older folks can only be encouraged so much to get moving early in the morning and only move so fast at rope drop.

In my situation, I saw FP+ as mostly making lines longer for my party but again, I see where it benefited many others. That said, I see this as a huge step down for everyone.

It's not even particularly good for people willing to pay the maximum to use both G+ and LL.

It's refreshing to see someone who can think outside of their own experience. It's a little sad seeing posters label others as lazy without any clue as to the circumstances they face. When I once pointed out that my mom was older and couldn't stand in long lines all day, someone said "so what I'm hearing is that she won't let the rest of you stand in line." Like we were going to park her under a tree somewhere and go on the rides without her. That was many years ago, and we thought of legacy Fastpass as a godsend when it was instituted.

I've been flexible enough to work with Disney's systems throughout the years, but FP+ was the clear winner. It was so good for us and the way we vacation that I suspected it wouldn't last, and it didn't. I'm actually okay with trying a new system - even a paid one - if it benefits the people who had to suffer through years of a system that didn't work well for them. But as you point out, Genie+ and LL don't seem to work well for anyone.

 

[matt9112]

I think we are saying the same thing............

Paper FP was broken, thats why they changed it to FP+, which i loved

I agree 100% that they should just go back to FP+ and charge for it

Would need to charge way more than they do for genie. I think true paid fp+

(Old system exactly but paid) think about it you have the 60 window so your charging for a service two months in advance. I think you could ask 100+ easy. Maybe limit it to resort guests but than offer a day of version for everyone else at the same price or slightly higher. BUT (it would theoretically be a worse value due to lack of the best rides having been booked already) so it would be tiered similar to universals hotel based express vs non resort express. Everything else stays the same. You could also sell the ILL lanes 60 days out but they would need to priced high as thats a huge premium to have locked in 60 days out. Could still save some ILL for day of always too though.

 

[dreday3]

ok pal.

Really, I'm not your girl for this deep-dive historical fast-pass discussion. Many more posters way more interested than I am.

Enjoy your trip planning!

 

[Thepuma]

Good point on rope drop but for the purpose of this discussion, I wasn't really referring to other tactics but FP+, itself.

Rope drop is the only way we ever did FOP but we still ended up with two hour+ wait due to members of our party not being able to run like everyone else to get there. :/

I know....it used to be a damn stampede once that rope got dropped. In some ways it's worse now...not only is there a non resort guest stampede, there is a stampede full of people looking at their phones trying to get LL+...at the SAME TIME the park opens...its carnage..and a serious accident waiting to happen.

 

[matt9112]

Really, I'm not your girl for this deep-dive historical fast-pass discussion. Many more posters way more interested than I am.

Enjoy your trip planning!

Im not planning anything? Im legitimately not going back to WDW until things change. Had an AP for 4 years or so but not anymore.

 

[MrPromey]

Im not planning anything? Im legitimately not going back to WDW until things change. Had an AP for 4 years or so but not anymore.

Had one for literally decades and am currently in the same boat.

 

[Villains0501]

Currently wrapping up a weeklong stay at WDW. To our surprise, Genie+ was not the major hindrance we thought it would be.

We had mentally prepped ourselves for early morning rope dropping and long waits. I brought along a paperback, small fan, and headphones for catching up on my Audible book while in what I believe would be long line after long line.

But with consistent rope dropping, staying onsite at a Disney Springs-adjacent hotel to get that 30 minute morning advantage (we were priced out of Disney’s hotels years ago), and an easy going attitude (i.e. “We’re not going to see and do everything this trip, and that’s fine - we’ll be back.”), we were able to have a great time and accomplish most of what we set out to do - without Genie+ or LL.

We didn’t make it on Rise (which is fine with me, as I’m more of an OT fan) or Space Mountain (which feels unsafe to us), but we did hit Rat, Slinky, FOP, Seven Dwarfs, and pretty much every other major headliner. So I’m happy to say that it was still possible for us to have a satisfying trip, despite my initial reservations about this new system breaking the parks.

However, if this were our first trip, if we’d been a larger party, or if we were certain we would not be visiting WDW again for a long while and we wanted to see everything in each park, I imagine the current system would be a necessity. Fortunately, we didn’t feel that way, but the few folks we spoke to who had been using the Genie+ system were not fans.

 

[Jeff4272]

Had one for literally decades and am currently in the same boat.

We live in Mass and go at least once a year (this year 2x, April and thanksgiving week) have been more times than I can count and the last trip was so bad even my kids didn’t enjoy it.

we will not be back unless it changes and that bums me out b we love it there

not being able to plan in advance and having to wake up early every day not knowing what we would be able to get on was the difference. If I’m paying well over $10k to fly down, on site hotel room, park tickets, dining, etc and we have no way of knowing what we can or can’t get on unless we wait 2+ hours? No thanks.

bye bye WDW…….we will do a few days at universal in a sponsoring hotel for a fraction of the cost and not have to worry about any of that crap.

 

[CAV]

We live in Mass and go at least once a year (this year 2x, April and thanksgiving week) have been more times than I can count and the last trip was so bad even my kids didn’t enjoy it.

we will not be back unless it changes and that bums me out b we love it there

not being able to plan in advance and having to wake up early every day not knowing what we would be able to get on was the difference. If I’m paying well over $10k to fly down, on site hotel room, park tickets, dining, etc and we have no way of knowing what we can or can’t get on unless we wait 2+ hours? No thanks.

bye bye WDW…….we will do a few days at universal in a sponsoring hotel for a fraction of the cost and not have to worry about any of that crap.

But, but, but...Bob like it so you should, too. <sarcasm off>

 

[James Alucobond]

We live in Mass and go at least once a year (this year 2x, April and thanksgiving week) have been more times than I can count and the last trip was so bad even my kids didn’t enjoy it.

we will not be back unless it changes and that bums me out b we love it there

not being able to plan in advance and having to wake up early every day not knowing what we would be able to get on was the difference. If I’m paying well over $10k to fly down, on site hotel room, park tickets, dining, etc and we have no way of knowing what we can or can’t get on unless we wait 2+ hours? No thanks.

bye bye WDW…….we will do a few days at universal in a sponsoring hotel for a fraction of the cost and not have to worry about any of that crap.

I can agree with the idea of being annoyed that you don't have some of the experiences locked in ahead of time, and it certainly was nice on the occasion that you could snag, say, Flight of Passage and know that it was one major experience checked off your list and more or less guaranteed barring unforeseen attraction downtime.

However, I think the ability to lock things in was already eroding even with FP+. You could only pick one "good" attraction for the day ahead of time, with the other two required to be in the lower tier of attractions that you don't have to wait very long for in the first place. Additionally, boarding groups were becoming a thing either way and are a large part of what I feel fuels frustration.