Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

pdude81

Well-Known Member
You are eligible on check-in and check-out day. As long as your reservation is linked you’ll be fine.

I very much doubt you need to have done online check-in but I’m guessing most people do that anyway.

Good luck! Oh, and enjoy your trip.
Thanks. Got what seemed like good times for 7dmt and pp but they shifted 3 hours. Oddly my email confirmation shows the earlier time. I believe this is an issue with server time and they are booking rides in Pacific time but scheduling them in Eastern. Very odd
 

nickys

Premium Member
And now they're showing earlier times again. Completely confused. Will see what it looks like on cell service at landing
Sounds like this is just to do with the time difference and how the time was being displayed. Maybe a cell service provider issue even. 3 hours is way too specific to be an MDE adjustment IMO.
 

pdude81

Well-Known Member
Sounds like this is just to do with the time difference and how the time was being displayed. Maybe a cell service provider issue even. 3 hours is way too specific to be an MDE adjustment IMO.
It was as if made was having trouble understanding the phone time. WiFi on flight has been terrible but Pacific time always. Ride times went up by 3 hours at first but eventually readjusted.
 

dmw

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I had a thought about Genie+ LL not having enough attractions, and how ILL might change in the future. What if the current ILL attractions are all added to Genie+ LL and ILL becomes a separate purchase option for a time-specific LL? Essentially an upcharge to pick a specific return time vs accept whatever time Genie+ gives you.

Disclaimer: I really despise the paid Genie+ and ILL program as is, and would love to have FP+ back in its original offering. I'm just thinking how Genie+ might evolve over time.
 

Jeff4272

Well-Known Member
I had a thought about Genie+ LL not having enough attractions, and how ILL might change in the future. What if the current ILL attractions are all added to Genie+ LL and ILL becomes a separate purchase option for a time-specific LL? Essentially an upcharge to pick a specific return time vs accept whatever time Genie+ gives you.

Disclaimer: I really despise the paid Genie+ and ILL program as is, and would love to have FP+ back in its original offering. I'm just thinking how Genie+ might evolve over time.
Not a bad thought. And I despise it also.

The fact is, something needs to be done b it’s terrible.
 

natatomic

Well-Known Member
Never once did i have a problem getting a FP+ at 60 days out.......Not even close....

Not only that, but I could pick any time i wanted at any park i wanted, there were literally hundreds of times slots available for all the top rides..........
As a local, I was a last minute trip kind of visitor. I either booked our FPs day of in the morning, or MAYBE the night before. Granted, I was only booking for 2-3 people at a time. Regardless, I had almost no trouble getting FPs we wanted (2 exceptions come to mind - FOP and SDD - but they weren’t high on my priority list, and I still managed to get them once in a blue moon day of or day before). It often required lots of refreshing, but I was at home sitting on my butt. It’s a lot less annoying of a task at home than at the park.

So people not being able to book their wanted FPs 60 days in advance? I can’t say I buy that.
 

dmw

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
As a local, I was a last minute trip kind of visitor. I either booked our FPs day of in the morning, or MAYBE the night before. Granted, I was only booking for 2-3 people at a time. Regardless, I had almost no trouble getting FPs we wanted (2 exceptions come to mind - FOP and SDD - but they weren’t high on my priority list, and I still managed to get them once in a blue moon day of or day before). It often required lots of refreshing, but I was at home sitting on my butt. It’s a lot less annoying of a task at home than at the park.

So people not being able to book their wanted FPs 60 days in advance? I can’t say I buy that.
I can attest to the fact that I was not always able to book the FP I wanted 60 days in advance, for the day and time I wanted. And, this was just for my wife and I, the year we got an annual pass. That lesson was learned for our first trip. With that experience, plus having read many reports and strategies, and armed with the knowledge of what rides were on our must do list, for subsequent trips I tried to create a plan that had the most difficult-to-get FPs not on Day 1. That was not always easy to do based on crowd calendars. I also learned the best days to arrive and depart (we always stayed on site) to help with the planning. I still did not always get the time I had hoped to get from my daily plans, but usually it was close enough that there was not much juggling of the plan needed. Essentially, I learned how best to use the system. But, it took a LOT of planning.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
I can attest to the fact that I was not always able to book the FP I wanted 60 days in advance, for the day and time I wanted. And, this was just for my wife and I, the year we got an annual pass. That lesson was learned for our first trip. With that experience, plus having read many reports and strategies, and armed with the knowledge of what rides were on our must do list, for subsequent trips I tried to create a plan that had the most difficult-to-get FPs not on Day 1. That was not always easy to do based on crowd calendars. I also learned the best days to arrive and depart (we always stayed on site) to help with the planning. I still did not always get the time I had hoped to get from my daily plans, but usually it was close enough that there was not much juggling of the plan needed. Essentially, I learned how best to use the system. But, it took a LOT of planning.
At least you got the rides you wanted, if not at the exact time and day you preferred. Have you experienced Genie+ in conjunction with the park reservation system? You have little or no control over times except for the paid ILLs (if you can get them) - if you want a specific time compatible with the rest of your plans or with park hopping, you need to start working on it before 7 am each day of your trip and keep refreshing. Even then, you may get a time outside of the window you thought you were reserving. And if you don't get your favorite ride or it goes down on the day of your park reservation, given what we're seeing on the park reservation calendar, you may not get to change your reservation to try another day. Oh yeah, and unlike FP+ you get to pay for it.
 
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HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
I think that's nostalgia goggles to be honest. I know a few people who went in May/June of last year, before the Delta wave when everyone thought things were opening up again and it was starting to get crowded. This was no line skip of any kind, and multiple people told me that it was miserable not to be able to have a few times per day that they could skip a line.
Not really, based on personal experience. Lines moved constantly and what Disney said was an 90 minute line was usually 1/2 to 2/3 of that. It’s amazing how your mindset changes when you aren’t standing in one spot for 5 minutes at a time.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
I think that's nostalgia goggles to be honest. I know a few people who went in May/June of last year, before the Delta wave when everyone thought things were opening up again and it was starting to get crowded. This was no line skip of any kind, and multiple people told me that it was miserable not to be able to have a few times per day that they could skip a line.
This is absolutely true, based on my personal experience of going in May 2021. We stood in a couple of very long, miserably hot lines and then just skipped a lot of the more popular attractions. Others may have experienced it differently - people are different, with different circumstances, physical limitations and tolerances.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
You know what was even less stressful? No FastPass! No planning required, no tickets, no apps!

Just get in any line you want, whenever you want, and every line moves.

Ahhhhhh, such better times....
No. If people, on average, have a queue tolerance of 60 minutes for Splash Mountain, they're going to fill the Splash Mountain queue until it's 60 minutes. It doesn't matter if the people in front of them are FastPass+, Genie+, or 100% standby.

It's not a math problem, it's a psychology problem.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
It's really a capacity problem. As in Disney needs a lot more of it. However, even if they started today I take a number of years before they get enough capacity to handle the demand, thus line skip systems are necessary.
Attendance is not static. New rides don't just provide places for existing guests to disperse, they also attract new guests. Adding 5% capacity but attracting 6% more guests makes things more crowded, not less.
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
Attendance is not static. New rides don't just provide places for existing guests to disperse, they also attract new guests. Adding 5% capacity but attracting 6% more guests makes things more crowded, not less.
To an extent but you could add decent omnimover dark rides that can eat people but not really be so spectacular that trips are planned because of them. I'm thinking things like Nemo which is just an OK ride but not a complete waste of time to ride. Problem is that Nemo was a retheme so it didn't add capacity to Epcot.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member
Attendance is not static. New rides don't just provide places for existing guests to disperse, they also attract new guests. Adding 5% capacity but attracting 6% more guests makes things more crowded, not less.
It depends what they are. A headliner like Tron or Guardians will definitely attract people. Add a few C tickets, especially high capacity ones, and that would make a world of difference.
 

Po'Rich

Well-Known Member
This is absolutely true, based on my personal experience of going in May 2021. We stood in a couple of very long, miserably hot lines and then just skipped a lot of the more popular attractions. Others may have experienced it differently - people are different, with different circumstances, physical limitations and tolerances.
I completely agree. My DW and I went last August and tried to rope drop some of the more popular rides (like Avatar). We were completely miserable and discovered we are just too old (and out-of-shape) for that sort of running. With Fastpass, we could pre-reserve some times for rides. It was nice going to WDW with some idea of what we were going to be able to do. If we lucked into more, then that was gravy.

For our next trip, I've purchased Genie+ (just to try it out), but we're going not knowing if it will really help or just be a waste of money. Plus, I'm not really looking forward to how chained to my phone I'm going to have to be this trip.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
To an extent but you could add decent omnimover dark rides that can eat people but not really be so spectacular that trips are planned because of them. I'm thinking things like Nemo which is just an OK ride but not a complete waste of time to ride. Problem is that Nemo was a retheme so it didn't add capacity to Epcot.
That was the plan with Mine Train, but even mediocre Mine Train grew attendance.
 

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