Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[HauntedPirate]

That was our experience in October. We lost the flexibility of being able to vacation the way we want in exchange for a system that forced me to start my day on the phone competing with other people to go on rides at times dictated by Disney. And I had to pay for the privilege. How they've convinced people that this system "adds flexibility to your day" is beyond me.

My thinking is that the system is going to garner quite a few complaints and will be tweaked after enough people have had annoying experiences with it. Right now it's too new, and it seems many of the people defending it have not actually used it.

I think you've hit on something here. When people are "competing" with others, are they more apt to spend to avoid that competition to be able to do what they want to do? Could this Genie+ nonsense just be the first step to a more lucrative offering from $lappie and Josh, all wrapped up in pretty Disney wrapping paper proclaiming it to be "more magical"?

 

[Chi84]

I think you've hit on something here. When people are "competing" with others, are they more apt to spend to avoid that competition to be able to do what they want to do? Could this Genie+ nonsense just be the first step to a more lucrative offering from $lappie and Josh, all wrapped up in pretty Disney wrapping paper proclaiming it to be "more magical"?

Yeah, they'll allow you to pre-schedule three Genie++ selections at times of your choosing 60 days prior to your vacation for a super premium charge.

 

[Jeff4272]

As an addendum to yesterday's post, I checked earlier this morning (9:30 Eastern) and at HS, Rise and SDD were showing not available and MMRR and Millennium Falcon were already around 6 pm. FOP was sold out at AK. At Epcot, Rat was sold out, FEA was at 6:10 and TT was at 8:15.

I don't think this is the kind of flexibility people were hoping for from this system, but so far they do seem to be using and paying for it.

I just dont understand why people are going and paying for it..

The experience is nothing like it used to be, its actually awful.....expensive, stressful and exhausting.....not the way i want to vacation

 

[Jeff4272]

I arrive tomorrow and not gonna lie, this Genie business is stressing me out. Seems like I need to be up by 6:45 every day, ready to go, just to have a shot at the rides and times I want. As much as I don’t want to pay, I also don’t want to be crammed into crowded queues with a bunch strangers for hours every day

And this one of the multitude of reasons why its terrible

 

[Jeff4272]

Ok see ya

Getting fleeced and proud of it! Good job 90s

Pay more, get less, wait longer

Great Mantra!

 

[Jeff4272]

So we all get it, you hate Genie+, but do you really need to keep telling us this? Nearly every one of your post have come from this thread or other threads related to Genie+ (your last 337 posts in fact have been in this thread). You have posted nearly 500 times now in this thread alone. Maybe it's time to move on?

You know you can block people right? Maybe it's time for you to move on?

 

[soxpackersdisneyhawks]

At Epcot today. Waited 50mins for Frozen to go down. Told to leave by going forward. Ensues the chaos of ppl going backwards to leave and whatnot. No fast pass type deal given out for waiting in line and having it go down. Used the chat in the app. They told me to talk to those fancy ppl under a blue umbrella that they refer to as the experience team. That gal essentially told me to pound sand. Followed up with the genie chat and they told me thanks for the feedback. A true gem.

 

[G00fyDad]

At Epcot today. Waited 50mins for Frozen to go down. Told to leave by going forward. Ensues the chaos of ppl going backwards to leave and whatnot. No fast pass type deal given out for waiting in line and having it go down. Used the chat in the app. They told me to talk to those fancy ppl under a blue umbrella that they refer to as the experience team. That gal essentially told me to pound sand. Followed up with the genie chat and they told me thanks for the feedback. A true gem.

Why were you waiting around for it to go down?



jk

 

[Chi84]

At Epcot today. Waited 50mins for Frozen to go down. Told to leave by going forward. Ensues the chaos of ppl going backwards to leave and whatnot. No fast pass type deal given out for waiting in line and having it go down. Used the chat in the app. They told me to talk to those fancy ppl under a blue umbrella that they refer to as the experience team. That gal essentially told me to pound sand. Followed up with the genie chat and they told me thanks for the feedback. A true gem.

I would advise writing a very specific and detailed email to WDW guest relations (or better yet to the president of WDW) telling them what happened, including their team’s response, and why it was unacceptable to you.

 

[soxpackersdisneyhawks]

I would advise writing a very specific and detailed email to WDW guest relations (or better yet to the president of WDW) telling them what happened, including their team’s response, and why it was unacceptable to you.

Did that too.

 

[gerarar]

At Epcot today. Waited 50mins for Frozen to go down. Told to leave by going forward. Ensues the chaos of ppl going backwards to leave and whatnot. No fast pass type deal given out for waiting in line and having it go down. Used the chat in the app. They told me to talk to those fancy ppl under a blue umbrella that they refer to as the experience team. That gal essentially told me to pound sand. Followed up with the genie chat and they told me thanks for the feedback. A true gem.

Similar thing happened to me and my party the day before this past Christmas. We already waited about 25 mins in Frozen (50 forcasted) and then the ride went down. They told us to exit by going backwards. Obviously no recovery passes or anything for us standby-ers.

This was already around past 6pm, so we decided to see American Aventure and get dinner so we can camp out a spot early for Harmonius. FEA ended up being the only ride/attraction we didn't get to do at Epcot bc of that. Still haven't gotten a chance to ride it ever since it got rethemed lol. My little cousin is a big Elsa fan, so would've been perfect. But alas, at least there was the Frozen show in HS.

 

[dovetail65]

You know you can block people right? Maybe it's time for you to move on?

No one should be told to stop posting as long as they stay within the rules, anyone can skip a post or a not read a thread.

Why were you waiting around for it to go down?



jk

He waited 50 minutes and the ride went down as in broke down.

 

[DonniePeverley]

My friends used this system these past few days. They absolutely hated it. Left a bad taste in their mouth, ruined the experience, and worst of all they said it made everything more complicated and stressful.

If Disney want more money (it's a business after all) then just raise the bloody ticket prices, not this nonsense.

 

[drizgirl]

If Disney want more money (it's a business after all) then just raise the bloody ticket prices, not this nonsense.

Give 'em a moment. I'm sure they'll do that too.

 

[DonniePeverley]

So who at Disney decided came up with this ?

No doubt their was a power point presentation how to extract more money from guests, but it seems they didn't factor in the 'satisfaction factor' to the process. You can extract monies from consumers without it being stressful and ruining the experience.

So come on who ultimately carries the can for this nonsense?

 

[JoeCamel]

So who at Disney decided came up with this ?

No doubt their was a power point presentation how to extract more money from guests, but it seems they didn't factor in the 'satisfaction factor' to the process. You can extract monies from consumers without it being stressful and ruining the experience.

So come on who ultimately carries the can for this nonsense?

Disney (TDO) has cared little about guest sat for a long time. If the did they would put hard caps on attendence, open new attractions and keep prices in check.

 

[crazy4disney]

I just dont understand why they had to try and re-invent the wheel here. They could have easily kept FP and just charged for it and say left out 1 ride per park and charge separately for it. Its not like they care about negative PR anymore as we have seen with how this company has taken away so many things recently with complete disregard for the guests. And honestly they probably could have made more money doing it that way. Everyone knew FP and were somewhat familiar with it. So my guess is the buy rate would be higher than the initial 30% they have reported. Curious what those numbers are like now and if they will be revealed during the next earnings coming up shortly.

 

[G00fyDad]

He waited 50 minutes and the ride went down as in broke down.

Holy crap! You know that the jk at the end was short for just kidding right?? Wow. My post was a joke. I think everyone else got it.

 

[dovetail65]

Holy crap! You know that the jk at the end was short for just kidding right?? Wow. My post was a joke. I think everyone else got it.

Nah I didn't' understand that, but lets be real, I am not 18, heck I am not 50. For all I know jk were your initials and did think that. So no I did not get it at all and you could of said it in a nicer way. It's hard enough to know all the WDW abbreviations, now I need know slang abbreviations for every word or word combination in the English language, I never saw jk meaning just kidding.

jk Just kidding, hmm no idea at all and Feeling my age!

So were you were making fun of the person because they thought standing in line for 50 minutes was a huge deal and thought they deserved something? I am confused, it's happening more and more(me being confused). No biggie, I am aging.

I remind my kids all the time(one's 38) that texting and posts do NOT relay the same knowledge a conversation does and I am sure if we were talking I would of understood your statement by your voice inflection alone. I guess I need google a list of text shortcut words or something.

If I said something and then said "just kidding" afterword mom would say I was being Passive Aggressive and saying "just kidding" is Passive Aggressive, so Holy Crap to You! jk

 

[dreday3]

I'm looking at everything available right now. There is a lot at all the parks, but later time slots are starting to show up for some rides.

Basically, Genie + is going to work for people who get up at 7 to book ILLs and their first Genie +, and then get to the parks at open to get in as many Genie + rides as they can.
Unfortunately if you are not even starting to book until 10am or later, it's just not going to work for you.

I'm not saying this is good, but if you are going to use Genie +, best plan to be up and booking at 7am.