LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
What is the evidence for this?
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Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
I always got 100% of what i wanted with FP+.....and thats dozens of trips
el_super
Well-Known Member
It's not just that. You're paying double for the park experience of 20+ years ago. Short lines for rides, walk up availability for food, no congested walkways or lines for the bathrooms. You don't have to worry about Genie+ or Fastpass or any line skipping service. For a lot of us, it's like going back in time.
It also proves that the parks are terribly under priced at current.
Waters Back Side
Well-Known Member
There is a lot of truth to this. I am one of them. I was adamant I did not want to pay for FP in any form before it became reality Especially as a resort guest. Then I quickly realized when I voiced this to my wife and kids they did not care and said we will make it work. They just love being there. So, on a busy New Years week ill be spending money to skip lines. I do not like it but ill do it.
I cannot help but to feel that some (including you) had issues because you expected failure of the system and went in hating it. I will simply (but not ideally) wake up at 7 AM. I wont stop at 7:10. Im not gonna stop at 7:15 AM and say this system is terrible. I have nothing to lose because I cannot pick again until 11 am (unless I some how got an early return time) so I will refresh continuously and eventually successfully book SDD. The entire week you were there I had checked the top board between and 7:40 AM and saw availability sporadically. Then I will buy Rise and MMRR. The people who had issues probably set themselves up for failure. I already have my top choices selected to appear at the top of the tip board (just SDD and Rise) so I do not have to scroll down at 7 AM on the 28th. I am very confident, that on the busiest week of the year I will get all 3 of those rides (both ILL's and SDD) despite having to pay money for them that i never used to have to do or wake up early to book them. Even if I end up getting SDD, TSM and Alien Saucers and nothing else with Genie +, I agree I did not get my moneys worth as I did not get more then when FP+ was free. However, people on here have been saying they got nothing...literally not a single ride. To me that implies, they gave up before they even made the effort. Heck, at 8 AM Rise and ToT were still available for quite a while Thanksgiving week. So even if you had to "settle" for that, at least its "something".
It just seems to me that if you go into the trip expecting the Genie + to not work out for you, then it wont. It is possible that things could go south and the Genie + errors out or returns a different available time once booked, or etc, but ill be the judge of that myself in terms of my own experience with it. I can tell you one thig though If I go into the trip assuming I will not get the rides I want, then I will not. For me itll be just like WDW itself..what you make of it.
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el_super
Well-Known Member
Math.
Chi84
Premium Member
Are you talking about just a few of the busiest weeks of the year? I used FP+ every year of its existence (often twice a year) and was able to get every FP I wanted. We even did a few quick turnaround trips (October and November) and I was able to get FOP just a few weeks before the trip, along with everything else we wanted to ride. I think there was one time we weren't able to get SDD.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
Without data to back up your claim, it's nothing more than a personal opinion.
It goes till 1 am. 5 hours of exclusive ride time+ 1 hour of “early entry” during normal hours.
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
I wanted Genie+/ILL to work more than anyone.......I used to book club level just so i could buy 3 more FP+ selections so the price was worth it to me........Genie+ isn't that...........
Genie+/ILL flat out doesnt work
First off, theres no way you will be able to book a Genie+ AND an ILL selection the same morning alone if you want SDD and/or ROTR..........We booked SDD, got 6:00pm return time (despite when i had it booked it said 11am) and we couldnt use it because we had dining reservations at Topolinos for 5:45pm...............by the time i tried to buy ILL for ROTR it was completely sold out (I would estimate 30 seconds max)...........by 11am, the only decent ride left was TSMM (no ToT, RnR, MFSR)
My second day at HS we had 3 of us on separate MDE apps that had the reservations linked...I tried for ROTR, got the dreaded email code required error and got shut out.......My wife tried SDD and wasnt fast enough and that was gone in 20 seconds..........my son was able to buy MMRR........for a second day, by 11am, the only decent ride left was TSMM (no ToT, RnR, MFSR)
Rise was NOT available any day at 8am Thanksgiving week....I was there, i tried getting it 2x and we couldnt and they were gone by 7:00:20...........ToT was available at 8am, but was gone by 11am
So no offense but what you are implying just simply isn't true......we wanted it to work, it just doesnt work
we were not trying to catabolize our last minute trip that cost me $10k, thats simply not true
ETA: This doesn't even include all the other problems we encountered.......Waking up so early every morning, not "holding" your originally selected return times, making you cancel and replace as opposed to update if you want to change a ride (caused us to lose a booked Genie+ selection that we would have kept), overlapping w park hopping plans was another problem, having to constantly refresh to book a later return time when we were park hopping, being on my phone all day long....and oh yeah, the EXORBATANT cost
It really is an awful system in almost ever way, shape or form imaginable and i honestly cant find one thing i would keep if i were designing it
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el_super
Well-Known Member
Yeah, but were you one of the people utilizing one of those online calculators to figure out the exact moment you had to wake up early in order to book them all in advance? If you were, and you knew what you were doing, you had no problems with FP+.
If you showed up to book reservations a few days after the availability opened, would it have been so easy to book the most in demand rides?
Disney has the data and Disney decided the same thing. That's why Genie+ exists.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
This sort of negates the entire rest of your post.
Chi84
Premium Member
Well, I don't proclaim to be a genius, but I didn't need an online calculator to figure out 60 days before my trip. I did wake up early once, as opposed to my recent trip with Genie+ where I woke up early every day not knowing if I'd be able to get what I want at a convenient time.
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
this 1,000,000% x 100
Chip Chipperson
Well-Known Member
Correct. When I was there on 12/5, they started checking for wristbands at ride entrances at 8 PM. The snacks didn't start until 9, but only DAH guests could get on line starting at 8, so that's really the beginning of the event benefits (aside from mybe 7DMT, which might still have a 60-minute wait at 8:00 but that hour gap allows for a bit if a cool-down period so the DAH guests aren't losing time due to day guests rushing to get 1 last ride in).
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
I'm just catching up, but when was your G+ trip, and were you successful getting what you wanted despite the uncertainty?
I don't like the angle that @Jeff4272 is taking by comparing Thanksgiving G+/ILL to "normal time" FP+. Thanksgiving FP+ sucked too.
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
Im not comparing it to Thanksgiving FP+......But if i was, i would still be correct.......we went plenty of times during busy weeks and never once did i not get a FP+ selection i wanted as a resort guest.........NEVER
and it doesn't matter what you compare it to, it simply does not work
Waters Back Side
Well-Known Member
I meant to say RNRC. You are correct Rise was NOT available at 8 AM at any time during the week. That was a typo on my part. However, It was absolutely available up until 7:25 sporadically. I saw it pop up a couple of times. As long as you are within the window of 7AM - 7:25 AM latest and you KEEP TRYING, you will see availability for both. How long did you and your family "try"? Im waking up at 6:40 AM, leaving the hotel room for the food court, sitting there with coffee and will refresh like no tomorrow starting at 6:58 AM. Ill focus on SDD first.....Im not saying it will be easy or it will show availability consistently (it does show not currently available for a majority of time between 7:03 and 7:30) but ill get it. All while ill keep an eye on Rise right below it on the top of the tip board. It is possible I might book Rise first and then focus on SDD after a few minutes. But in that 25 minute window if you keep trying, I saw availability past 7:02 AM for both. If I am wrong you will know because I will tell everyone on here my experience as many others have.
And I have screenshots of ToT and Rock N Roller coaster available at 11AM on Thanksgiving week (sometimes one and not the other) but they were for 7 PM or later....in which case, yeah it would not have worked for us because we have reservations at 7:20 PM.
DisneyCane
Well-Known Member
Unless they put in a lot more desirable attraction capacity, limit daily attendance to levels that the current capacity can handle and/or significantly increase the admission prices to cut demand, Genie+ or any other line skip system will not make WDW a relaxing and enjoyable trip like it used to be.
The way things stand, I will avoid any day with crowd levels above 5 or 6 on the touring plans scale. There are probably too few of these going forward for renewing my AP to be worth it. It was worth the cost in 2020 and significant parts of 2021 when COVID was keeping the crowds very low. I'm not paying $5+ per ride to have a reasonable wait time on top of my pass cost.
The way things stand, I will avoid any day with crowd levels above 5 or 6 on the touring plans scale. There are probably too few of these going forward for renewing my AP to be worth it. It was worth the cost in 2020 and significant parts of 2021 when COVID was keeping the crowds very low. I'm not paying $5+ per ride to have a reasonable wait time on top of my pass cost.
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
Seems like a lot of work to do every day for a vacation would you agree? especially when i have to wake my teenager and tween kids up at 6:40am every day of vacation?
The system is completely broken and i honestly dont think its fixable
We had all the 'hacks' and tips down, including the 2 event hack that they corrected the day we got there
el_super
Well-Known Member
Yeah but that was the point. They're leveling the playing field by taking the advantage away from people who knew to book things far in advance. That means some people won't be able to get the same experience, be able to book the same things as they did before, but that doesn't really mean the system isn't working as intended.