Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

The fact that people are having to set timers in their phones to get max Genie selections is sad.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Another insulting aspect of MDE/G+ is the "Chat with Us" texting service.

If you try to text them, they don't answer until like MAYBE 20-30minutes later. You just get a very insulting lip service message:

"Thank you for contacting us. due to guest's excitement and the popularity of Genie+, we are experiencing higher than normal wait times. Rest assured we will respond as soon as possible."

[It doens't matter what time you text them. Genie+ is ALWAYS very "popular" with "excited guests."]

Then if you don't see it, they log out and the system says, "You resolved this conversation at X:XXpm."

Ha!

 

[Disney4Lyfe]

After 4 days of using G+. It really is a crap system.

My phone has died the past two days from trying to refresh the dang app.

 

[Disney4Lyfe]

I’ll also add, one of the worst aspects is that it forces you to criss cross the parks. It’s EXHAUSTING.

 

[matt9112]

*exist
Also because I actually had a great experience using G+. I absolutely preferred FP+, but still had some issues with it. Some of those issues were solved by G+. I don't want to go back to FP+, I wish they would make a hybrid system between FP+ and G+ that took the best of both of them.

Reading some of the comments on here you would think G+ spawns the actual new Genie, takes $15, then smacks the S**t out of you.

People can and have had very good days using G+. I had a much better day with G+ than when there was no line skip system.

If it worked so well as you claim disney wouldn't keep adding more and more disclainers about refund ability and how it works etc.

Clearly it DOES NOT work for a large amount of people.

 

[WDWJoeG]

The fact that people are having to set timers in their phones to get max Genie selections is sad.

Exactly. How is any of this nonsense a "vacation". Disney has completely lost their way.

 

[mikejs78]

Exactly. How is any of this nonsense a "vacation". Disney has completely lost their way.

The cost issue aside., I honestly think Disney really did think they were bringing a better system to WDW, because it's like MaxPass and MaxPass was extremely popular at DLR. There are a number of factors, though, where WDW is different than DLR, so it makes a MaxPass like system impractical.

 

[James J]

I’ll also add, one of the worst aspects is that it forces you to criss cross the parks. It’s EXHAUSTING.

Wouldn't that have also happened with FP+ though? If your selections ended up being something like Space, Splash and Peter Pan in MK (in that order) then you'd be hopping back and forth between lands.

I also don't think that there's much they can really do about that due to the size of the parks, no matter the system in place.

 

[WDWFREAK53]

Do people really enjoy buying concert tickets for a huge act? Sitting at a computer/device refreshing the screen until it opens up and trying to get good seats before a sell out? That's what this has become for each park day of your trip. Then imagine going to that concert and being on your phone the entire time.

 

[Jrb1979]

I still say the biggest issue with Genie+ is they made it accessible to everyone. They had the chance to go in the express pass direction and also limit how many people can buy it. There would a lot less complaints that way. Sure some of you would be locked out but it's no different than now other then you're not out any money.

 

[Disney4Lyfe]

Wouldn't that have also happened with FP+ though? If your selections ended up being something like Space, Splash and Peter Pan in MK (in that order) then you'd be hopping back and forth between lands.

I also don't think that there's much they can really do about that due to the size of the parks, no matter the system in place.

You could simply not choose to stack your FP in a way that has to running back and forth.

With this, it’s take what you can get when you can get it. I went from Navi to Everest to Navi to Kali in that order yesterday. Exhausting. All with tight windows.

 

[TikibirdLand]

You could simply not choose to stack your FP in a way that has to running back and forth.

With this, it’s take what you can get when you can get it. I went from Navi to Everest to Navi to Kali in that order yesterday. Exhausting. All with tight windows.

AK was the worst for getting headliners in the order you wanted, even with FP+. IIRC, what you experienced is what happened with the old paper FP (of course, we didn't have Navi back then, Safari instead).

 

[Skibum1970]

AK was the worst for getting headliners in the order you wanted, even with FP+. IIRC, what you experienced is what happened with the old paper FP (of course, we didn't have Navi back then, Safari instead).

We didn't go to AK much but, as I recall, you could get FoP (if you were fast) and then the tiering forced some difficult choices. I usually used a second on Dinosaur and either Everest or Safari. It's only been a couple years and I cannot remember the details. Flight of Passage was usually a late afternoon or early evening which definitely put a pinch on plans or park hopping. Genie+ and Lightning Lane is bad enough but I also could not figure out how to use it if I park-hopped (should have researched it and I recognize that). To me, the adverse impact on wait times mixed with an app that isn't that intuitive creates a bit of a nightmare for using the system.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

I still say the biggest issue with Genie+ is they made it accessible to everyone. They had the chance to go in the express pass direction and also limit how many people can buy it. There would a lot less complaints that way. Sure some of you would be locked out but it's no different than now other then you're not out any money.

If they don't build a lot more rides soon, then raising the price substantially is the best option.

 

[Purduevian]

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.

Again looking at Easter Saturday which I assume is worst case scenario for how crowded it can get:
SDD sold out at 7:15am
MFSR sold out at 10:25am
ToT sold out faster than MFSR at 10am
MMRR sold out at noon
RNRC sold out at 12:25pm
You also left of TSM which sold out at 12:55pm

Park opened at 8am that day. So for LL1 you had all options possible, although i admit SDD is kinda wild right at 7am
2 hours after park open (10am), everything except SDD and possible TOT was still there
4 hours after park open (12pm), SDD, TOT, MFSR and possibly MMRR were sold out. Leaving you with RNRC or TSM

Even eliminating TSM, RNRC was possible for everyone as a 3rd G+ selection

Source

 

[UNCgolf]

Again looking at Easter Saturday which I assume is worst case scenario for how crowded it can get:
SDD sold out at 7:15am
MFSR sold out at 10:25am
ToT sold out faster than MFSR at 10am
MMRR sold out at noon
RNRC sold out at 12:25pm
You also left of TSM which sold out at 12:55pm

Park opened at 8am that day. So for LL1 you had all options possible, although i admit SDD is kinda wild right at 7am
2 hours after park open (10am), everything except SDD and possible TOT was still there
4 hours after park open (12pm), SDD, TOT, MFSR and possibly MMRR were sold out. Leaving you with RNRC or TSM

Even eliminating TSM, RNRC was possible for everyone as a 3rd G+ selection

Source

Part of the problem is that not everyone wants to ride every attraction. I wouldn't ride RNRC as a walk-on, so having it available as a Genie+ selection is worthless to me. I'd use a Genie+ for MFSR and TSM if I didn't have any other options, but I don't actually care about riding either because I don't think they're any good, so they're not a benefit either.

That's where the lack of attractions hurts even more, and the inability to re-ride (which would be hard to do anyways considering how fast everything sells out, but still) is also an issue.

 

[Patcheslee]

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.

My family is almost chronically not in a rush to get to the parks for RD. It became my habit to book the tier 2/lowest priority of the 3 for our first. At least that way if they didn't get moving I knew the major rides wouldn't be missed and we still unlocked being able to book another tier 1 early.

Part of the problem is that not everyone wants to ride every attraction. I wouldn't ride RNRC as a walk-on, so having it available as a Genie+ selection is worthless to me. I'd use a Genie+ for MFSR and TSM if I didn't have any other options, but I don't actually care about riding either because I don't think they're any good, so they're not a benefit either.

That's where the lack of attractions hurts even more, and the inability to re-ride (which would be hard to do anyways considering how fast everything sells out, but still) is also an issue.

Besides keep an eye on the weather compared to immediate availability for possible ride closures. There isn't much around the no rerides. But the place most with most ride closures for weather is MK.

 

[Jeff4272]

Wouldn't that have also happened with FP+ though? If your selections ended up being something like Space, Splash and Peter Pan in MK (in that order) then you'd be hopping back and forth between lands.

I also don't think that there's much they can really do about that due to the size of the parks, no matter the system in place.

No because you could pick your return time........We would book Pirates FP+ for 2-3pm then do other rides in that area and work our way from left to right in the park so our next FP+ would be 4-5 for Peter Pan and then eat dinner and do Space mtn 7-8

 

[Disney4Lyfe]

Again looking at Easter Saturday which I assume is worst case scenario for how crowded it can get:
SDD sold out at 7:15am
MFSR sold out at 10:25am
ToT sold out faster than MFSR at 10am
MMRR sold out at noon
RNRC sold out at 12:25pm
You also left of TSM which sold out at 12:55pm

Park opened at 8am that day. So for LL1 you had all options possible, although i admit SDD is kinda wild right at 7am
2 hours after park open (10am), everything except SDD and possible TOT was still there
4 hours after park open (12pm), SDD, TOT, MFSR and possibly MMRR were sold out. Leaving you with RNRC or TSM

Even eliminating TSM, RNRC was possible for everyone as a 3rd G+ selection

Source

Yes. If you’re in the park from 8a-9p

 

[Purduevian]

Yes. If you’re in the park from 8a-9p

Ok let me re-do that if you want to go at lets say after 2pm to DHS.
8am book a 2:20PMMFSR

10am book a 3:45pm MMRR

12pm book a 8:30pm RnRC

2pm as you are entering the park. Book a 3:20 meet Olaf

Walk in, head straight to SWGE. Hour and a half later, meet Olaf, then head to MMRR. Enjoy your evening and round it out at night with a 8:30pm RnRC

Just be smart about what you book, none of these times appeared to be outliers btw (drops/cancelations that would need a refresh)
Source for times