Disney4Lyfe
Well-Known Member
In fairness. The entire resort is up at 6:45. Rope drop has lost all utility, the app crashes half the time at 7:01. And unless you’re very quick, all the prime times are gone in the first 30 seconds.
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Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
No... you can always book one 120 minutes after your last one/park open... so yes you can always get 3 decent ones on every day even at dhs... 8am,10am, noon...
Disney4Lyfe
Well-Known Member
Pure. Utter. Nonsense.
This is only true if you’re willing to have a G+ at 10a and 8p.
You even said that with a straight face. Bravo! It conveniently ignores reality, where the experience of thousands of people is to the contrary, but let’s not have that get in the way of a good shill statement.
DisneyCane
Well-Known Member
If they wanted to monetize line skip, what they should have made Genie+ (and what I think they should turn it into) was dynamically priced, a la carte for every ride charged as you tap in like an express lane toll road.
Basically, you would arrive ta the attraction entrance. If there is capacity in the LL queue, a price is shown on a sign. The price goes up as the number of people in the LL increases. LL should be given a low percentage of ride capacity but a high enough base price so this system can bring in as much or more revenue as the current Genie+/ILL combination.
When the LL capacity gets close to capacity, the price should get ridiculous so it never actually sells out and somebody who REALLY wants to skip the line at that moment can pay something crazy like $40 per person.
This way, there is no planning involved, you always get what you pay for and limiting LL to 10%-15% of attraction capacity would minimize the negative effect on the line that is included with admission. It would also make the system very simple and easy to understand. You arrive at RotR. The standby line is 90 minutes. There is a sign that you can enter the LL for $20 per person and reduce the wait to 20 minutes. You tap in, get a green light if your payment goes through and save 70 minutes for $20 per person.
The cost would be a formula that takes into account the standby wait and current LL real time capacity used.
Basically, you would arrive ta the attraction entrance. If there is capacity in the LL queue, a price is shown on a sign. The price goes up as the number of people in the LL increases. LL should be given a low percentage of ride capacity but a high enough base price so this system can bring in as much or more revenue as the current Genie+/ILL combination.
When the LL capacity gets close to capacity, the price should get ridiculous so it never actually sells out and somebody who REALLY wants to skip the line at that moment can pay something crazy like $40 per person.
This way, there is no planning involved, you always get what you pay for and limiting LL to 10%-15% of attraction capacity would minimize the negative effect on the line that is included with admission. It would also make the system very simple and easy to understand. You arrive at RotR. The standby line is 90 minutes. There is a sign that you can enter the LL for $20 per person and reduce the wait to 20 minutes. You tap in, get a green light if your payment goes through and save 70 minutes for $20 per person.
The cost would be a formula that takes into account the standby wait and current LL real time capacity used.
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Purduevian
Well-Known Member
I challenge you to find me 1 park on any day of the year where all "good" rides are sold out 4 hours and 15 minutes after park open (when you should have gotten your 3rd G+). I've been using thrilldata.com which tracks G+ availability, but I'm sure there are other websites that also track this.
Is everyone getting 3? Absolutely not. Because the system is confusing and not helpful to people that learn about it after getting to the park and seeing everyone walk by them.
Once again I am simply arguing that with a little bit of knowledge, you are guaranteed 3 good G+ selections. These times might not fit your specific touring plan, might conflict with a dinner reservation and might eat into your morning/afternoon pool time... but they can be made any day of the year if you want it. I am NOT arguing that everyone does this. I am also NOT arguing that the system is better than FP+.
ChrisM
Well-Known Member
Yep. You nailed it.
I suspect this is eventually where they will end up. The current iteration is just the first step to conditioning guests such that this end state system will seem like an improvement over the unsatisfactory system G+ currently is.
ChrisM
Well-Known Member
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
Theres no chance you get 3 good Genie(-) selections at HS, Epcot and AK......Its just not possible
This is a completely ridiculous statement
Monkee Girl
Well-Known Member
This is exactly why I went in 2019. It was the first time I skipped a family Disney trip in 14 years. I am pretty go with the flow. That FP+ was fine for my cousins. They'd book my ride and I'd either join them or not but I never played a part in planning my rides 3 months in advance. Restaurants I understood; you'd do that with any other restaurant in the country. Even though I would prefer having some kind of walk in option available...not the point. The point is, the scheduling of the trip just kept getting worse and worse. and the complaints in my family kept getting more annoying. 'This changed!' 'That's not the same!' ' Disney lost it's magic!' the worse being the addition of the charging of parking at (specifically) the Delux resort. My aunt and I drove so the idea that we were already spending $6-700 a night at the Polynesian and now we had to pay for parking was just the last straw. A silly last straw, I know, but it was just added to the pile. So I finally said to myself 'If it's not fun anymore; why go? Why not go somewhere you haven't been before and somewhere that is not so stress inducing?' So I decided to go to Hawaii. I hula dance so it was a great opportunity for me to actually go and experience the birthplace of hula. It wasn't the faux Hawaii that Disney offered (The Polynesian is what got my started with hula dancing so I definitely don't knock it) and It's just a different and relaxing place. I even rode their The Bus system all over the island, lol Now I am ready to try Maui.
Going back to Disney in January for a short trip (dance competition) I thought it was even worse than when I left in 2019. Reserving parks? Not getting to hop until 2pm? Genie+...na....If I go again, it's for business and just being there for support. I didn't even buy any souvenirs. I just don't want to support them right now. It's a shame how much it had changed if a few short years. But....that's me. I'm all old and crotchey now...Disney 'Isn't for me' anymore and that's fine. Is what it is.
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
*There's
Naplesgolfer
Well-Known Member
Wow, you showed him!
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
I have fun poking at Jeff a little bit. Him and I have gone back and forth a few times in this thread. I respect his position that he hates the new system, but I respectfully disagree with some of the statements he makes. It's all in good fun and the sake of discussion. The meat of my post was the issue him (or anyone else) the challenge that I quoted from myself to find a day in which all the good attractions are sold out for the day on G+ after 4 hours and 15 minutes of park opening.Wow, you showed him!
Good rides are hard to define, so people can disagree with me if they want... but my personal list would be:
MK: JC, Pirates, Thunder, Splash, HM, Pan, and Space
EPCOT: Soarin, Land, SSE, Mission Space, TT, Frozen
DHS: SDD, MMRR, MFSR, RnRC, SDD, ToT, TSM
AK: Everest, Dinosaur, Safaris, FotLK, Navi
EDIT: Also I have terrible grammar/ spelling so I really don't care. Just having a quick poke.
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ChrisM
Well-Known Member
As an aside to the bickering...
Extremely small sample size (as it was only two days), but I was very surprised at how short the LL waits were once entering the queues.
FoP, RotR, SDD, and MFSR were effectively walk-ons.
KS was less than a 2 minute wait.
TSMM was < 5 minutes.
Star Tours was the longest - maybe 10 minutes, but I think they had just gone down to half capacity when we used it.
Muppets and Tough To Be A Bug were both "instant book and use" and we walked into the next shows - doubt either were necessary to get into the next show.
If this is (even somewhat) the norm, it would seem Disney is throttling back LL availability so as to ensure as little of a wait as possible. I could see that definitely being a preferred strategy for ILL attractions but was genuinely surprised to see it with the most in-demand G+ attractions (like SDD).
Curious to see if Disney might start increasing the pool of LL slots over time - or maybe my experience was an anomaly.
Extremely small sample size (as it was only two days), but I was very surprised at how short the LL waits were once entering the queues.
FoP, RotR, SDD, and MFSR were effectively walk-ons.
KS was less than a 2 minute wait.
TSMM was < 5 minutes.
Star Tours was the longest - maybe 10 minutes, but I think they had just gone down to half capacity when we used it.
Muppets and Tough To Be A Bug were both "instant book and use" and we walked into the next shows - doubt either were necessary to get into the next show.
If this is (even somewhat) the norm, it would seem Disney is throttling back LL availability so as to ensure as little of a wait as possible. I could see that definitely being a preferred strategy for ILL attractions but was genuinely surprised to see it with the most in-demand G+ attractions (like SDD).
Curious to see if Disney might start increasing the pool of LL slots over time - or maybe my experience was an anomaly.
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
Theirs
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
I like the digs every now and then......I mentioned in an earlier post, it gets the conversations going and to be honest, i actually agree with SOME things you say
The problem is, theres so many hoops to jump thru to even try and get 3 good Genie (-) selections that its not worth it.......
on the busy days, I honestly dont think theres any chance to get 3 (except for MK)
I just really despise Genie (-) (i know not saying anything new) because it ruined WDW for us and we loved it there
Naplesgolfer
Well-Known Member
In theory the waits should be similar to Fatpass+. I assume the pool for ILL and LL in total to be the same as Fastpass.
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
There was a little. At least towards the end of FP+.
Early FP+ was 3FP, and that was it. There was also almost no opportunity to modify passes in the early days. If you wanted to modify a pass, you had to stand in a 30minute in-park kiosk line, and accept the crummy leftover passes. So if you wanted to modify a Mountain pass, you probably wait 30min to get nothing more exciting than like a Dumbo FP+. In other words, a net loss, since the Dumbo queue is usually under 30min long. If you didn't book online in advance, you were mostly shut out. in the early days, just knowing to book Fast Passes was an insider secret. The kiosk lines were LONG!
Over time though...it became easier to modify Fast Passes, and that changed the options of how they could be used, if someone was willing to gamble. One of the later tricks was to not book 3 advance passes. Park goers pre-booked+ use 1 pass (maybe 2), then as soon as they'd used it, they were able to book their next pass. In so doing, they were able to have more than 1 pass per hour.
You could also use your 1st pass, then refresh to see about moving your 2nd and 3rd passes to earlier times. A crapshoot, but some folks said it worked for them.
So there were a few people discovered as FP+ evolved.
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
No, day of. In MK, there is decent pool of pass options, in HS and Epcot (at present), not so much.
A Muppets pass is literally useless. With no pass at all- even in the middle of the day during spring break you WILL get into the next show. If you use a G+ pass, you do not get any better seating or anything at all. You wind up in the same general admission pool as everyone else.
Up until the very recent announcement, character greet passes were also completely useless. Even on busy weeks, character lines were almost nothing, in large part because there weren't any traditional character greets. Visitors were only able to smile and wave from a distance, so the greets took far less time than pre-pandemic.
So HS ride options are: Slinky- gone in seconds, MF:SR - gone quickly, Ailen Swirling saucers, MMRR, Muppets, RNRC, Star Tours - nearly useless, TSM!, ToT - gone quickly. If you don't get one of the primo passes at 7am, there isn't much to get. Tier 2 is: Aliens, MMRR, and RNRC.
As I type at 2pm, the only G+ passes in HS- at all- are Frozen sing along (useless), Muppets (useless), and Star Tours (20min standby, so nearly useless). EVERYTHING else is gone for the day. I doubt Star Tours even has a 20min wait.
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Epcot is also in the same range, the only worthwhile G+ passes are FEA, and Test Track. (And of those two, Test Track is only minimally useful because it has single rider. SR is almost always much faster than using a G+ pass.) Soarin' is worth riding, but a G+ pass is useless, because the G+ wait and the standby wait are nearly identical.
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AK currently has: EE, Safari, Dino (nearly useless), Kali (out for day), and Na'vi (out for day). The shows are great, but passes for them are pretty much useless- same as Muppets. Of the G+ offered, only 3-4 are worthwhile: EE, Safari, Kali, and Na'vi. EE is only minimally useful though because it has single rider, and that is almost always just as quick. IMO, Na'vi is kinda lame; I'll happily skip it if I have to wait more than 5minutes. Kali is okay on a hot day. (Oh, and during a storm, EE, Kali, and the safari all stop running, so AK has a problem in the summer months.)
So part of the problem is that the parks all need more worthwhile passes to get. HS is especially not well set up for G+. By the time you become eligible to choose your 3rd G+ pass, the options are pretty much gone unless it is a slow day or you plan to hop.
Currently, one of the better strategies is to hop to MK at 2pm if you want to be able to use more G+ passes/day.
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
You list SDD twice for HS. i mention that not to pick on your grammar, but that = a list of 5. not 6. Of those 5, 2 are gone is less than 10 seconds.
If you don't get one of them, That only leaves 3 passes: MMRR, MFSR, RnRC, and ToT.
With ToT only operating in a limited fashion, it currently sells out pretty quickly.
I got screwed because the system locked up on me at 7am. I logged in at the exact correct time. we had 3 phones going, with one set to show official NIST time.
I got 1.) MF:SR, and 2.) TSM. By the time I was eligible for pass #3, Aliens was my only real-ish option. I think Aliens standby was posted at 35min when I used the pass, so it did save some time. MMRR and ToT were already long gone for the day. I could have gotten a late PM RnRC, but I had already ridden it standby (SR).
The second phone was used to get Rise. We were initially offered what appeared to be 11am, but when we clicked to buy the available times suddenly became 3:30pm and later. You have like 1minute to click BUY! or lose the option entirely, so we did.
I did actually get a few teasers after that, at 7:04am it momentarily LOOKED like a Slinky pass was available, but as soon as I clicked on it (instantly), it disappeared. The grey "Not Currently Offered" box popped up instead. That's frustrating; it feels like getting the middle finger from G+.
On top of that, I talked to a cast member at the hotel, but she wasn't able to do anything. It was just a waste of time. I mean, that was just past 7am, and the park opened at 7:30am. So any attempt to do anything, just = more losing out.
I didn't even try AK, because I saw in advance that the park opened for Early Entry at 7am. more or less, you were either getting G+, or EE, but not both. And that's GETTING TO THE PARK for 7am.
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A much better use of G+ was at MK. We went to Universal most of the day, but I booked PM G+ for MK.
One other difference I notice was that with FP+, it was easy to memorize your 3 FP times. With G+, you have to keep track of both your pass times, and the time you can book your next pass. Since it is all same day, and return windows are random, that's just not as easy to memorize. you're in the parks, trying to get to attractions, and the passes are not evenly spaced.
We used multiple alarms to keep track of the times, and that helped. As soon as I got a G+ pass, I set a timer.
Oh, there was also one time I THOUGHT i had book a G+, but then it disappeared. I'm not sure, what happened, maybe my connection glitched? Luckily, I noticed within a short time and was able to book something else. But I absolutely recommend making sure the system actually shows you as having all your G+.