Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Chip Chipperson]

I watched a Tracker video yesterday where Tim was at MK recently attempting to use G+. He arrived sometime around 11 AM and the options were already slim for anything not later in the day. Tried for a 2 PM LL for the Mickey meet & greet only for it to switch to 5:30 when he clicked on it. He ended up getting a Journey of the Little Mermaid LL for 12:40 and that was all he got before leaving because his remaining options were later in the day and he had to leave before those times. Not that he never criticizes anything in his videos, but his criticism is usually more diplomatic. His review of G+ was, "It's terrible." Granted, some of his issues were his fault (not picking anything before arriving at the park and not being able to stay past the start of dinner), but there shouldn't be so few options available at 11, even if people are stacking - particularly at the park with the most LL options. And if average guests run into the same problems he did then they're going to hate it even more since the average guest isn't there making money off the content they film in the parks (and are likely paying for multiple people as opposed to Tim just paying for himself).

 

[pdude81]

I watched a Tracker video yesterday where Tim was at MK recently attempting to use G+. He arrived sometime around 11 AM and the options were already slim for anything not later in the day. Tried for a 2 PM LL for the Mickey meet & greet only for it to switch to 5:30 when he clicked on it. He ended up getting a Journey of the Little Mermaid LL for 12:40 and that was all he got before leaving because his remaining options were later in the day and he had to leave before those times. Not that he never criticizes anything in his videos, but his criticism is usually more diplomatic. His review of G+ was, "It's terrible." Granted, some of his issues were his fault (not picking anything before arriving at the park and not being able to stay past the start of dinner), but there shouldn't be so few options available at 11, even if people are stacking - particularly at the park with the most LL options. And if average guests run into the same problems he did then they're going to hate it even more since the average guest isn't there making money off the content they film in the parks (and are likely paying for multiple people as opposed to Tim just paying for himself).

Exactly. Nobody should start booking at 11am for Genie plus, regardless of when you should arrive. And if you're leaving early with nothing in the bank, it's a complete waste, even at MK. But I suspect more people will watch the video if you say it sucked, so here we are.

 

[WDWFREAK53]

Exactly. Nobody should start booking at 11am for Genie plus, regardless of when you should arrive. And if you're leaving early with nothing in the bank, it's a complete waste, even at MK. But I suspect more people will watch the video if you say it sucked, so here we are.

You know that. I know that. Most of the people on these forums know that. The problem here lies in the fact that the majority of park goers don't know that. Paying for a service and then feeling defeated when nothing is available is not something you want your average guests to be experiencing. I still encounter people that have done their homework and missed the step about needing a park reservation. (They assume that buying park tickets is the same as the reservation because, let's face it...when you buy a ticket to the park you'd think you'd be all set to enter the park).

Disney has created this complicated system that does nothing but hinder the guest's experience. Nothing has improved...or even stayed the SAME!

 

[Purduevian]

I don’t think they could make it more expensive than a park ticket.

I disagree...
Universal tickets for this Saturday: 1 Park $139. Park to Park $194
Universal express pass for this Saturday: 1 Park (1 ride each): $179, 1 Park Unlimited:$209. Park to Park (1 ride each) $190. Park to Park Unlimited $219

 

[Jrb1979]

I don’t think they could make it more expensive than a park ticket.

I take you don't visit other parks much. Pretty much all other parks the skip the line pass costs more then a park ticket.

 

[Purduevian]

I disagree...
Universal tickets for this Saturday: 1 Park $139. Park to Park $194
Universal express pass for this Saturday: 1 Park (1 ride each): $179, 1 Park Unlimited:$209. Park to Park (1 ride each) $190. Park to Park Unlimited $219

Ill do one better with Cedar Point (I know not a great comparison)
Ticket for opening Saturday I can get in for $50. Fastlane (unlimited skip on all by the top 4 rides) $109. Fastlane Plus (Unlimited for all rides) $139.

 

[ctrlaltdel]

Ill do one better with Cedar Point (I know not a great comparison)
Ticket for opening Saturday I can get in for $50. Fastlane (unlimited skip on all by the top 4 rides) $109. Fastlane Plus (Unlimited for all rides) $139.

I do prefer the all-inclusive nature of those passes. Fastlane Plus is extremely expensive compared to a standard ticket but I felt I got my money's worth when I went a few summers ago on a busy Saturday at CP. Genie+ is much more of a half measure and it's clearly difficult to use, which makes it difficult to determine it's value to the average guest who isn't aware of the intricacies and rules to maximize it's value. That being said, I don't even want to fathom what a WDW equivalent to Express/Fastlane would cost.

 

[mysto]

Problem with that is that there's no where for those people to go.

They can use the one bench.

 

[UNCgolf]

Exactly. Nobody should start booking at 11am for Genie plus, regardless of when you should arrive. And if you're leaving early with nothing in the bank, it's a complete waste, even at MK. But I suspect more people will watch the video if you say it sucked, so here we are.

Allowing (requiring?) people to start booking at 7 AM/before they even get to the park is one of the (many) major issues with Genie+, though, so I don't think it's wrong or misleading to point out that it doesn't work well if you don't.

 

[nickys]

Haven't really thought the logistics of it out but what if you had only standby but once the standby line reaches 45 minutes, it goes to a virtual queue with a 15 minute return time to enter the holding pen that gets added onto the standby. So standby would continue to move, but 15 minute blocks of people would get added to the end of the standby. If you choose to push off the return window, you can do it one time if available or cancel the return window.

That’s pretty much the system they have in Paris. Or had - I don’t know if virtual standby is still in use.

They chose not to implement it at WDW.

 

[pdude81]

Allowing (requiring?) people to start booking at 7 AM/before they even get to the park is one of the (many) major issues with Genie+, though, so I don't think it's wrong or misleading to point out that it doesn't work well if you don't.

This is true. But you could also wait to book your Fastpass+ selections until you got into the park. You'd be even more disappointed with what was left then.

 

[dmw]

We're going to Dollywood in two weeks and it will be interesting to compare the usage of their TimeSaver to our Disney experiences with paper FP, and FP+, and also the reports of using Genie (-).

 

[UNCgolf]

This is true. But you could also wait to book your Fastpass+ selections until you got into the park. You'd be even more disappointed with what was left then.

Sure, but no one had to pay extra for FP+. I think that's the big difference.

 

[nickys]

Saw this on my Twitter today.



Do you think this has a chance to come to WDW but at a much higher price then $100 US

It seems like this is just re-introducing one of the old-style DLP fastpass options.

They had one that got you about 6 “family” rides, one that got you about 6 “thrill” rides and one that got you all the FP rides.

This seems to be just the same thing as far as I can see.

 

[DCLcruiser]

So, I've been catching up on this thread and there's a lot of negativity, but I just looked at the app and there's a lot of G+ available, 30min-few hours from now, and the standby times aren't horrible. I realize the major ILL are gone, but that's typical.

Am I missing something? This seems like all of the old strategies w/ a rope-drop will work.

 

[Purduevian]

Another thought on pricing for the skip each line. They used to offer Club level guests the ability to by an extra 3 FP+ per day for $50 per person per day. So each FP was worth ~$17.
MK decent FP options: JC, Pirates, Splash, Thunder, HM, Pan, Small World, Pooh, 7D, Mermaid, Space, Buzz. Total of 12. So that would equal $204
EPCOT: Guardians, MS, TT, SSE, Soarin, RAT, and Frozen. Maybe 1 extra point for the Land+Seas+Figment. Total of 8. So that would equal $136
DHS: ToT, RnRC, MMRR, TSMM, SDD, MFSR, RotR. 1 point for Alien+ST, 1 point for all shows. Total of 9. That would equal $153
AK: Navi, FOP, Kilimanjaro, Everest, Dino. +1 for Kali+shows. Total of 6. Total of $102

So I would guess a 1 time entrance to each LL at the park: MK ~$175, All other parks $125

 

[kong1802]

Another thought on pricing for the skip each line. They used to offer Club level guests the ability to by an extra 3 FP+ per day for $50 per person per day. So each FP was worth ~$17.
MK decent FP options: JC, Pirates, Splash, Thunder, HM, Pan, Small World, Pooh, 7D, Mermaid, Space, Buzz. Total of 12. So that would equal $204
EPCOT: Guardians, MS, TT, SSE, Soarin, RAT, and Frozen. Maybe 1 extra point for the Land+Seas+Figment. Total of 8. So that would equal $136
DHS: ToT, RnRC, MMRR, TSMM, SDD, MFSR, RotR. 1 point for Alien+ST, 1 point for all shows. Total of 9. That would equal $153
AK: Navi, FOP, Kilimanjaro, Everest, Dino. +1 for Kali+shows. Total of 6. Total of $102

So I would guess a 1 time entrance to each LL at the park: MK ~$175, All other parks $125

However, did those people get a "discount" because they were already paying club prices on their rooms?

 

[Jeff4272]

Another thought on pricing for the skip each line. They used to offer Club level guests the ability to by an extra 3 FP+ per day for $50 per person per day. So each FP was worth ~$17.
MK decent FP options: JC, Pirates, Splash, Thunder, HM, Pan, Small World, Pooh, 7D, Mermaid, Space, Buzz. Total of 12. So that would equal $204
EPCOT: Guardians, MS, TT, SSE, Soarin, RAT, and Frozen. Maybe 1 extra point for the Land+Seas+Figment. Total of 8. So that would equal $136
DHS: ToT, RnRC, MMRR, TSMM, SDD, MFSR, RotR. 1 point for Alien+ST, 1 point for all shows. Total of 9. That would equal $153
AK: Navi, FOP, Kilimanjaro, Everest, Dino. +1 for Kali+shows. Total of 6. Total of $102

So I would guess a 1 time entrance to each LL at the park: MK ~$175, All other parks $125

hard to imagine dynamic pricing for different parks but i do appreciate the analysis and think there is something to that

 

[Jeff4272]

However, did those people get a "discount" because they were already paying club prices on their rooms?

No.....Club level and 3br Grand villas were the only people eligible..........it was $50 pp, per day with a 3 day minimum and you got 3 additional FP with no Tiers, so you got 6 FP+ per park

we did it and it was awesome.........we would go for 8 days, do every park twice and get the 6 FP+ for each park once...........Cost me an extra $1k for my family of 5 and made our vacation awesome

second time we went to parks kids didnt "need" to go those rides again unless the line was short

 

[kong1802]

No.....Club level and 3br Grand villas were the only people eligible..........it was $50 pp, per day with a 3 day minimum and you got 3 additional FP with no Tiers, so you got 6 FP+ per park

I'm saying that their $50 pp per day with 3 day minimum was kind of a "discounted" price already since these people were already staying club. If they rolled this out to a lowly day tripper, no way they are getting 12 short rides at $17 a pop.

Just my guess anyway.