Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

J

JMcMahonEsq

Well-Known Member
Trauma said:
So I’m at studios right now.

Tower is half running.

Rnrc is down.

Rise is down.

I’ve been in the “lightning lane” for tower for 40 minutes now.

I hope everyone here demands their money back.
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What does rides being down have to do with the Genie system?

It sucks to be visiting the parks and have rides being down. But it has nothing to do with line skipping software.
 
T

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Trauma said:
So I’m at studios right now.

Tower is half running.

Rnrc is down.

Rise is down.

I’ve been in the “lightning lane” for tower for 40 minutes now.

I hope everyone here demands their money back.
Click to expand...
This is why I will never go this week. I can’t imagine the crowds.

And your not moving because Tower is 101.
 
Chi84

Chi84

Premium Member
tnccopeland said:
It does when you have paid for the line skip software...
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That's so true. People were much more forgiving of glitches that interfered with a FP+ on the theory that it was free and you get what you pay for. I hope people are demanding their money back now that it's a paid system. I know that would not be successful because there's no guarantee rides won't break down, but if Disney is giving us headaches by charging us, the least we can do is pay them back in kind.
 
J

jpinkc

Well-Known Member
Chi84 said:
That's so true. People were much more forgiving of glitches that interfered with a FP+ on the theory that it was free and you get what you pay for. I hope people are demanding their money back now that it's a paid system. I know that would not be successful because there's no guarantee rides won't break down, but if Disney is giving us headaches by charging us, the least we can do is pay them back in kind.
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Our experience was Tuff Luck on a missed Dining reservation because we could only get RoTR ILL. There attitude was sorry nothing we can do so cancel your Dining Res. It really showed how much Disney experience has dropped. In the before times that kind of attitude from a CM would not have happened they would have found us a resolution. Never had that kind of a response ever from a CM at Disney like we did over Thanksgiving.
 
matt9112

matt9112

Well-Known Member
JMcMahonEsq said:
What does rides being down have to do with the Genie system?

It sucks to be visiting the parks and have rides being down. But it has nothing to do with line skipping software.
Click to expand...

Has to do with overall operations and maintenance of the parks....fundamental core principles in running a theme park.

Is it genie+s fault? No. Should that level of stuff ever be broken at once? Also no.
 
T

Trauma

Well-Known Member
Touchdown said:
This is why I will never go this week. I can’t imagine the crowds.

And your not moving because Tower is 101.
Click to expand...
The crowds wouldn’t be so bad you just can’t have 4 headliners down at the same time.

It was enjoyable yesterday at MK got on everything we wanted to.

The Studios have just fallen apart today and it’s annoying when you can’t hop until 2 pm to a park with working rides.
 
J

JMcMahonEsq

Well-Known Member
anchorman314 said:
If they had just left FP+ the way it was and started charging for it, I would've been annoyed, but likely just shrugged and handed over my money. Our vacation is scheduled for May. If they change G+ to allow for some sort of time selection, I'd probably buy it for MK and HS. I'm still waiting to see how the current G+ experience plays out over the next few months, but the system as it stands now just doesn't sound worth it to us, and we probably won't purchase it.
Click to expand...

The more I think about Genie+ and FP+, I start to think there is a fundamental misunderstanding on what both systems do, or at least how they are/were primarily used.

FP+ was not at its heart a line skipping tool. Even if it was marketed as one, it was more primarily a trip planning tool. It allowed you to select times for specific rides in advance of your trip, for the entirety of your trip. The key feature wasn't skipping whatever line was on 7DMT on that day, it was making sure, 60 days out, that you had secured a spot on 7DMT, without the standby line. It's a distinction with I think a meaningful difference. The point of FP was more to plan out an overall trip, in advance, trying to secure certain specific ride experiences, while planning out an overall attack on the parks. This included coordination with dinner reservations, park hopping, ect. It wasn't however specifically tailored for line skipping in and of itself. The 60-day period for booking FP+ meant by its very nature you weren't making decisions based upon actual line wait times. Further, the FP process was free to all guests of the park. Sure on site guests got a preference so much as they could make their selections earlier, but everyone had the ability, at no cost, to use the FP system. So in reality you weren't really skipping lines, as much as you were deciding what line you wanted to get into. You were also realistically locking out day guests or late bookers from the FP+ experience for the major rides. Those selections were almost uniformly gone prior to park opening day of. Meaning once again you weren't really focusing on skipping lines that day, but on itinerary planning prior to the trip starting. Now I actually am firmly in the camp of liking to plan out my trips 180/60 days out. But that doesn't mean i don't like Genie+ for what is, or said another way, think the system doesn't work because it wasn't designed to do what I want it to.

Genie+ at its heart is NOT a day/trip planning tool. It is much closer to a true line skipping software. First, there is an additional cost, both for the LL and Genie+ itself, which limits the user base to a subset of less than total guest attendees for the day. Second, your selections are based much more on the status of lines at that given point in time, and not simply what you want to ride in the future. It is not primarily focused on making sure that you can get on the exact ride that you want, rather it is focused more on the park as a whole, and allowing you to skip the stand by lines that exist at that time. While not allowing you the certainty that you will be able to ride the exact ride you want, without a wait (excluding LL of course) it is likely ensuring you will get to ride more rides overall without waiting in a line for any significant period of time. My two trip experiences with Genie++ and LL have been that whatever ride I selected using this feature was always a walk on. From FoP, and Rat, to Spaceship earth. In the FP model, if you had a FP for 7DMT, you were still likely going to wait in some line, although reduced from the normal Standby one.

Genie+ does a couple things different than FP and I believe intentionally so. First, it monetarizes the system, something that FP did not, unless you were dealing with club level extra FP purchases. It also makes it more usable for the entirety of its customer base. While giving some preference to on site guests with the 7AM window, it is not as big a preference as the 60 day window of FP. It is giving people a more dynamic selection process, based upon actual daily ride times. It is also I believe allowing more beneficial use to a larger segment of the guest population. As Jeff has mentioned in a number of posts, he loved being able to lock up 3 highly sought after FP's in advance (and to be honest so did I.) Under Genie plus you can't do that as well, however a broader segment of the guest list is likely to get at least 1 or 2 highly sought after rides for line skip. Again, not as beneficial for people who want to plan out their trips in advance, but benefiting more people overall if maybe not to as big an extent as it did the fewer guests under FP. So it is functioning to help more people skip lines, just maybe not being able to skip all the lines they would want, in the order they want.
 
M

mellyf

Active Member
JMcMahonEsq said:
The more I think about Genie+ and FP+, I start to think there is a fundamental misunderstanding on what both systems do, or at least how they are/were primarily used.

FP+ was not at its heart a line skipping tool. Even if it was marketed as one, it was more primarily a trip planning tool. It allowed you to select times for specific rides in advance of your trip, for the entirety of your trip. The key feature wasn't skipping whatever line was on 7DMT on that day, it was making sure, 60 days out, that you had secured a spot on 7DMT, without the standby line. It's a distinction with I think a meaningful difference. The point of FP was more to plan out an overall trip, in advance, trying to secure certain specific ride experiences, while planning out an overall attack on the parks. This included coordination with dinner reservations, park hopping, ect. It wasn't however specifically tailored for line skipping in and of itself. The 60-day period for booking FP+ meant by its very nature you weren't making decisions based upon actual line wait times. Further, the FP process was free to all guests of the park. Sure on site guests got a preference so much as they could make their selections earlier, but everyone had the ability, at no cost, to use the FP system. So in reality you weren't really skipping lines, as much as you were deciding what line you wanted to get into. You were also realistically locking out day guests or late bookers from the FP+ experience for the major rides. Those selections were almost uniformly gone prior to park opening day of. Meaning once again you weren't really focusing on skipping lines that day, but on itinerary planning prior to the trip starting. Now I actually am firmly in the camp of liking to plan out my trips 180/60 days out. But that doesn't mean i don't like Genie+ for what is, or said another way, think the system doesn't work because it wasn't designed to do what I want it to.

Genie+ at its heart is NOT a day/trip planning tool. It is much closer to a true line skipping software. First, there is an additional cost, both for the LL and Genie+ itself, which limits the user base to a subset of less than total guest attendees for the day. Second, your selections are based much more on the status of lines at that given point in time, and not simply what you want to ride in the future. It is not primarily focused on making sure that you can get on the exact ride that you want, rather it is focused more on the park as a whole, and allowing you to skip the stand by lines that exist at that time. While not allowing you the certainty that you will be able to ride the exact ride you want, without a wait (excluding LL of course) it is likely ensuring you will get to ride more rides overall without waiting in a line for any significant period of time. My two trip experiences with Genie++ and LL have been that whatever ride I selected using this feature was always a walk on. From FoP, and Rat, to Spaceship earth. In the FP model, if you had a FP for 7DMT, you were still likely going to wait in some line, although reduced from the normal Standby one.

Genie+ does a couple things different than FP and I believe intentionally so. First, it monetarizes the system, something that FP did not, unless you were dealing with club level extra FP purchases. It also makes it more usable for the entirety of its customer base. While giving some preference to on site guests with the 7AM window, it is not as big a preference as the 60 day window of FP. It is giving people a more dynamic selection process, based upon actual daily ride times. It is also I believe allowing more beneficial use to a larger segment of the guest population. As Jeff has mentioned in a number of posts, he loved being able to lock up 3 highly sought after FP's in advance (and to be honest so did I.) Under Genie plus you can't do that as well, however a broader segment of the guest list is likely to get at least 1 or 2 highly sought after rides for line skip. Again, not as beneficial for people who want to plan out their trips in advance, but benefiting more people overall if maybe not to as big an extent as it did the fewer guests under FP. So it is functioning to help more people skip lines, just maybe not being able to skip all the lines they would want, in the order they want.
Click to expand...

No, it was primarily a ride-rationing tool because Disney does not have enough capacity.
 
Jrb1979

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
If only there was some way a park could better mitigate sudden losses of capacity.
Click to expand...

Casper Gutman said:
It’s almost like they are overtaxing the rides due to absurdly inadequate capacity.
Click to expand...
When is that capacity getting fixed???? Probably never in our lifetime. Disney's best bets are either to raise the LL to Standby ratio or go the Universal route. Get rid of return times and price it so most don't use it.
 

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