I do not think everyone should be on an equal footing as for reservations. Those staying on property and paying more should receive more. Those staying offsite and paying less should not be given everything offered to those who pay The Walt Disney Company extra. Universal does that with express pass to those paying more to stay in their deluxed resorts. Disney should give Genie+ free to all those staying in their deluxed resorts and at a discount for those staying at a moderate or value, with a greater discount for moderate. Maybe charge $5.00 for those at a moderate and $10.00 at a value and $15.00 for everone else. Additionally maybe give a $2.00 discount per day for AP holders. Plus give 3 advanced selections for attractions for those in deluxed resorts, 2 for moderates and values and one additional for every AP holder. There should also be an advantage for ADR's. Say 90 days for deluxed, 80 days for moderates, 70 days for value and 60 days for AP holders and DVC members. Everyone else should be 30 days. Again, take care of customers who pay the most.I have a trip coming up at the end of the month and I’ve been testing out Genie the past few mornings. I will be there for a week but only plan to purchase Genie on my MK and DHS days. It is so frustrating that you can’t pick your time for your first LLI have a rough plan of what I want to do each day, and in what order, but it will mess everything up if the very first LL I want is at a time that doesn’t go with that plan. And it’s also super annoying that the times bounce all around. I’ll see a time and think ok, that’s close to what I want. I’ll refresh and the time will jump to hours away. Refresh and it jumps to hours in the other direction. Jeez Louise just let me pick my time!
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Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Chi84
Premium Member
I would definitely take that bet. Genie+ is pretty new and I don't keep up with which posters have had a chance to "experience" it yet. Have you used it?
We still had to schedule ADRs for the restaurants we wanted, block out times for shows, fireworks, etc. and work around the ILLs we bought; Genie+ just made it a lot more difficult to integrate the rides we wanted into the rest of our day because we had no idea what would be available and with what return times. We have no problem buying an expensive, unlimited skip the line system at a place like Six Flags, where there is nothing to do but go on one ride after the other. WDW is different. There aren't enough rides in the parks (except maybe for MK) - and there are too many other things to do like the ones I mentioned above - to entice people to spend big bucks on a skip the line system that in my experience was anything but flexible.
I agree there won't be free FP anymore, but I wouldn't bet against an expensive "upgrade" of some sort allowing people to schedule some rides in advance. There's already some of that feature built into the ILLs.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Since there are a limited number of ILLs I can see they get gobbled up fast by the folks already paying big bucks to stay onsite.
Who knows, maybe "in response to guest demand" they will increase the number of ILLs they sell.
It's ironic that for something that was completely free, we are now complaining that they will not sell us a place in line.
I hate that resort guests get all the ILLs. I live 2 miles away, so if I wanted an ILL, I either just don’t ever get one, or I shell out hundreds of dollars to sleep in a bed that I don’t need since I live nearby. That is a SUPER expensive way to skip the line.
Even with FP+, I was never bitter about resort guests getting to book 60 days in advance compared to my 7 (this was back when I was a CM). I still could book almost anything I wanted, even day of (although, yes, it might have taken quite a bit of refreshing for certain rides). So resort guests still had an advantage but I wasn’t entirely out of luck. This system really screws locals and CMs.
Even with FP+, I was never bitter about resort guests getting to book 60 days in advance compared to my 7 (this was back when I was a CM). I still could book almost anything I wanted, even day of (although, yes, it might have taken quite a bit of refreshing for certain rides). So resort guests still had an advantage but I wasn’t entirely out of luck. This system really screws locals and CMs.
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
Hate to say it... but there is a less supply than the current demand.
There are 2 ways to solve this from Disney's perspective. Change the ILL to standby ratio to increase the supply. Or raise the price to meet demand.
Personally, I'm shocked they capped RotR at $15. Clearly there is more demand than that.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
While it may screw locals most are AP holders. They have said before they aren't the biggest fans of those people.
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
$10k vacation? Its way more now
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
I did and I wont be back.......I joked with my 13, 15 and 16 year olds the day after christmas and told them we were going back and they all said they didnt want to go
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
I hate it and not because of the money........I stayed at club level and 3br in order to be able to buy the 3 additional FP's when that was available. Its not the money, its everything else
Genie+ is awful
I mean, I’m personally on team “Revert back to FP+” although I know better than to expect that to ever happen. So given your two options, I prefer they just raise the price to UOR prices - make it SO expensive that the number of people in the lightning lane doesn’t really affect the standby line.
Not that Disney is ever gonna listen to little old me. I know they hate passholders. And I know they really don’t care about taking care of their CMs anymore either.
So we didn’t renew our Disney APs last year. We opted to go for Universal instead.
GhostHost1000
Premium Member
Two things they could do is let you book an attraction per hour instead of every 2 and book your first prior to your vacation instead of at 7am the day of.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
If let everyone book 1 before their vacation it would eat up a lot of availability each day. The point of Genie+ is that no one has an advantage. It's a level playing field.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
The availability is awful but can be fixed by making the LL the dominant queue. Outside of that the system isn't that bad.
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
Its not that bad? Its god awful.........This is the worst line skip system in the US, maybe the world
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
I think if you scrimp on things, you can do a WDW vacation for $10k
Chi84
Premium Member
I can say from experience that it works much better in theory than in practice - at least in my case.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
I know you don't like the 7am wakeup call everyday. If they added more availability would it be better for you? We know advanced booking is not likely coming back.
dovetail65
Well-Known Member
Well10K for the extras.I think if you scrimp on things, you can do a WDW vacation for $10k
8 people just for Wild Trek Africa cost near 1800 with tax. Add up 3(or was it 4)character meals that trip for 8 people each meal and several other tours and bam 10K was gone. Heck, I have a friend that did a Custom VIP tour and it was near 7 thousands just for that. tour.
That being said my wife and I have gone to WDW for a week 3k and a that time it included a car rental. So to those that say it cant be done , it can.
It was like 1200.00 or a two 7 day pass, 250.00 for the car(try and get that now!) and 85.00 a night for a one bedroom condo. We ate at the condo and shopped at Walmart about 300 for food that week.
So people even now can go to WDW on a budget. Betting a good shopper even now can do Disney for a couple at 2500.00, especially if the just do one day per park
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
The total cost of a WDW vacation for a family of 8, even if you try to scrimp, must be astronomical!
dovetail65
Well-Known Member
Yeah tell me about! Our love of WDW and the cost of the onsite hotels is what led us to purchase a manufactured home near Ak.