Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
CAV said:
Aside from TSM, that was not my experience
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Same. Off the top of my head, TSMM was the main one that you absolutely had to rope drop. Soarin' would often sell out early before adding the 3rd theater. Most other attractions were often still available well into the afternoon.

I would frequently hit up MK in the evening and still be able to snag one for one of the mountains if not two of them. Of course, we're talking 2013 crowd levels, which are starting to seem quaint compared to today's crowds.
 
TikibirdLand

TikibirdLand

Well-Known Member
drizgirl said:
It was a great difference and part of what kept it in check. All options were available every day at rope drop. You could change plans last minute and still get a pass for the top rides. And the most critical piece, you could repeat rides with it.
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I tell 'ya, we had the paper FP down to a science. At rope drop, I took the three kids to one must-do ride while my wife dashed off with the ticket cards to get FPs for another. We'd swap kids later in order to snag more as our time came up. Loved the system. When FP+ came out, my DW would be on line getting the rides we wanted early. But, you're right; 2013 looked quaint in comparison to today; especially with GENIE.
 
homerdance

homerdance

Well-Known Member
We finally made it back to WDW, our first trip post G+. I can say that it is just another piece of the magic being removed from MK/WDW. It just a lot of work to get into a park and ride a ride. We spent 7 days in Orlando, 1 day with Genie+, and 2 purchases of ILL. The lines where shorter in the Lightening Lanes then with the previous iterations of FP, but it was much more difficult and confusing. Not sure who is buying G+ for any park except MK and maybe DHS, useless at AK or EPCOT.



There is only 3 words that I can think of to describe it:

Flaming Turd
 
Jeff4272

Jeff4272

Well-Known Member
homerdance said:
We finally made it back to WDW, our first trip post G+. I can say that it is just another piece of the magic being removed from MK/WDW. It just a lot of work to get into a park and ride a ride. We spent 7 days in Orlando, 1 day with Genie+, and 2 purchases of ILL. The lines where shorter in the Lightening Lanes then with the previous iterations of FP, but it was much more difficult and confusing. Not sure who is buying G+ for any park except MK and maybe DHS, useless at AK or EPCOT.



There is only 3 words that I can think of to describe it:

Flaming Turd
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i dont get the joke, but i do like the reference........

I think Flaming turd is a good but understated way of describing Genie+
 
Diamond Dot

Diamond Dot

Well-Known Member
Don't waste your money. Genie+ is Disney's biggest con trick. I did all the premium rides without paying, but, got Genie+ for my last day. Even at 2 minutes to 7am Slinky was sold out, got ToT for 11.30, doubt if I'll get much else, a complete wate of nearly $16. You can see why the got rid of FP+ for this. It's nothing to do with guest experience rather than shareholder experience

For the record, the longest of the pay extra for rides (I didn't pay)was for ROTR, getting in early was a 45 minute wait. Did the Rat with never more than a 10 minute wait. 7D was 25 minutes, despite it being posted at 60 minutes, did this at 9pm, and FoP was 30 minutes despite it also being posted as 60 minutes. DHS is a real nightmare of a park to go to.
 
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Jeff4272

Jeff4272

Well-Known Member
Diamond Dot said:
Don't waste your money. Genie+ is Disney's biggest con trick. I did all the premium rides without paying, but, got Genie+ for my last day. Even at 2 minutes to 7am Slinky was sold out, got ToT for 11.30, doubt if I'll get much else, a complete wate of nearly $16. You can see why the got rid of FP+ for this. It's nothing to do with guest experience rather than shareholder experience

For the record, the longest of the pay extra for rides (I didn't pay)was for ROTR, getting in early was a 45 minute wait. Did the Rat with never more than a 10 minute wait. 7D was 25 minutes, despite it being posted at 60 minutes, did this at 9pm, and FoP was 30 minutes despite it also being posted as 60 minutes. DHS is a real nightmare of a park to go to.
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Couldn't agree more..........Complete waste of money and the experience is stressful and exhausting on top of it actually not working

getting up at 7am, being on your phone all day while having no control over your itinerary really stinks bad

WDW has turned into an awful experience and it really bums me out b we loved it in its previous form
 
P

Purduevian

Well-Known Member
So people that really hate G+ (I fully admit it isn't perfect). If G+ did 4 things different, would you still hate the system?

1)First G+ selection can be made once in the park (giving resort guests 30 minute jump if they are in the park)
2)Allowing you to select a time
3)Allow you to modify a reservation, not just cancel and rebook
4)If it was free (not going to happen, but lets take money out of it)
 
Patcheslee

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
Purduevian said:
So people that really hate G+ (I fully admit it isn't perfect). If G+ did 4 things different, would you still hate the system?

1)First G+ selection can be made once in the park (giving resort guests 30 minute jump if they are in the park)
2)Allowing you to select a time
3)Allow you to modify a reservation, not just cancel and rebook
4)If it was free (not going to happen, but lets take money out of it)
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I'm not a rope dropper so that alone would still be negative to me. It's what influenced our decision between WDW and DL for our first trip in 2017. MaxPass vs FP+.
 
DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
I can understand why the Genie+ format works in DL, most guests are local and go often. They just show up and see what’s available. But at WDW, the majority of guests are there specifically for a several day vacation. The two things that annoys me the most are choosing at 7am and not being able to select a time. When you have to book dining, tours, etc months in advance, it’s impossible to just wing it when you get to the parks. I personally like to have my day planned out, at least a rough draft, so not choosing return times, and knowing you might not even get a LL for your desired rides, are the two big drawbacks for me.
 
matt9112

matt9112

Well-Known Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
I can understand why the Genie+ format works in DL, most guests are local and go often. They just show up and see what’s available. But at WDW, the majority of guests are there specifically for a several day vacation. The two things that annoys me the most are choosing at 7am and not being able to select a time. When you have to book dining, tours, etc months in advance, it’s impossible to just wing it when you get to the parks. I personally like to have my day planned out, at least a rough draft, so not choosing return times, and knowing you might not even get a LL for your desired rides, are the two big drawbacks for me.
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Don't forget having more rides than WDW but in two parks....(not sure if recent expansion has changed this)

Aka alot more availability. Than you just have the attendance diffrence. (Might not be in play right now due to covid) but we know WDW has to accommodate alot more guests on average.
 
Jeff4272

Jeff4272

Well-Known Member
Purduevian said:
So people that really hate G+ (I fully admit it isn't perfect). If G+ did 4 things different, would you still hate the system?

1)First G+ selection can be made once in the park (giving resort guests 30 minute jump if they are in the park)
2)Allowing you to select a time
3)Allow you to modify a reservation, not just cancel and rebook
4)If it was free (not going to happen, but lets take money out of it)
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1) No....We travel over 1500 miles for our vacations and do not go to the parks in the mornings, usually from 3pm- midnight/closing..........paying all that money for a hotel and not knowing if you could get on the headliners without waiting 120+ minutes if a no for us......FP+ guaranteed us 3 rides at the hours we chose, no matter when we went in the park and we would build our other itinerary around that (dining, waiting in lines, shows, etc)

2) waking up at 7am is a no go for us.....so if you could pick return time in advance, then yes

3) they need to fix this regardless

4) never going to happen


Being on your phone all day is awful too
 
C

crazy4disney

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Purduevian said:
So people that really hate G+ (I fully admit it isn't perfect). If G+ did 4 things different, would you still hate the system?

1)First G+ selection can be made once in the park (giving resort guests 30 minute jump if they are in the park)
2)Allowing you to select a time
3)Allow you to modify a reservation, not just cancel and rebook
4)If it was free (not going to happen, but lets take money out of it)
Click to expand...

For starters the modify function would be excellent. As a resort guest "perk" you can book 1 ride at 7am (or even sooner) & then another once the park opens up whether or not you have used the initial one and be allowed to book yet another one when you use one or 2 hour window is up. Ability to choose a time as well would be yet another great feature. Imo the easiest solution was simply to charge for FP+ and keep everything else the same because without new rides/attractions/entertainment/longer hours etc capacity will always be an issue and no system will make that any better.
 

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