Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[LittleBuford]

Sorry my use of the term "single rider" was probably confusing there.

But precisely what @Fido Chuckwagon said - It's a lot easier to find 3 single person FP+ reservations for pirates (8:00-9:00, 8:15-9:15, 7:45-8:45) and simply go during 8:15 and 8:45 than find a reservation with all 3 at once. This also applies to Genie+ by the way.

Thanks—I should have been able to work out what you meant.

 

[Jeff4272]

The percentage of a ride’s capacity available for Fastpass+ was higher than the percentage of a ride’s capacity for Genie+.

Also, there has been more attraction downtime since the inception of Genie+ relative to attraction downtime for Fastpass+.

Standby Lines are longer now than they were with fastpass.

 

[drew81]

Genie+……

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

That’s simply not true. Everyone had fastpass. Only 1/3 of guests get genie. Your statement is completely inaccurate

Standby Lines are longer now than they were with fastpass.

It sounds actually like you agree with him - that more Fastpasses were alotted to any given attraction per day, and distributed amongst everyone, than Genie+ spots are alotted amongst a smaller group.

Although this doesn't have to be true - just because Fastpass was accessible to everyone doesn't mean that there were automatically more fastpass slots for an attraction than there are for Genie+, and vice versa.

It's about how much they are (or aren't) limiting the capacity of the feature, not how many people happen to have access to it.

 

[homerdance]

I didn't love FP+, but only having to get up at 7 AM once for the whole trip was 10000x better than having to get up at 7 AM every single day of the trip. Plus, with FP+, I was basically guaranteed to get on the rides I wanted and that's definitely not the case with Genie+.

I understand how Genie+ is better for some people than FP+, but it's also significantly worse for some people.

This. I hate this aspect of it.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Got it. Agreed they are shifting the problem but there is a huge difference in someone paying $500-600 for their family to use Genie+ for the week (or even $75 for the day) and having a poor experience vs. the family not having access at all. Neither are ideal but the the former scenario is significantly worse.

I agree with you…make no mistake.

I’m an old vet of the “guest service circus”

Maybe for the combo of both: Tiers and a common mentality that you may just get 1 high demand choice that day, enough people willing to accept not getting their first choice because it wasn’t booked 62+ days out.

Most of the WDW fan community that loved FP+ were able to work the system, that’s why they loved and miss it. That’s probably different from average visitors.

Now with Genie+ everybody is trying harder and expecting to be able to optimize it because they paid for it.

Excellent take.

 

[M:SpilotISTC12]

Just make it $300 a day per person. That way they get their money from rich guests. Most people won’t buy it since it’s too expensive and everyone else goes standby. No giving it to deluxe resort guests either. Disney gets their money and we get a standby line that moves without at 6am wake up call. Boom problem solved.

 

[homerdance]

The opposite. They knew how well MaxPass work at Disneyland and figured it would work just as well at Walt Disney World. Different animal altogether. They knew expectations would be high - their own expectations were high.

Did they not do the math on how much capacity was taken out with the ILL purchases. Did they not look at a map to realize that the two parks at DL are walking distance and have the same numbers of rides (ish) as exists in the entirety of WDW?

This just baffles me that no one said hey, this won’t work.

 

[Touchdown]

You want to limit it, do so, and make it more like Maxpass. You can’t purchase Genie+ until you are in the parks, as all resort guests get in early they get first dibs.

 

[FeelsSoGoodToBeBad]

Did they not do the math on how much capacity was taken out with the ILL purchases. Did they not look at a map to realize that the two parks at DL are walking distance and have the same numbers of rides (ish) as exists in the entirety of WDW?

This just baffles me that no one said hey, this won’t work.

I seem to recall reading at one point that for some reason a massive amount of what would have been very usable data from FP+ was either lost or not collected at all. Perhaps this was part of the reason they couldn't project as accurately as we would have expected?

I have to believe that some of the execs in charge of these decisions thought that a larger portion of the guests are so strapped for cash and unwilling to dole out more money that they genuinely thought $15/pp/pd was going to be more of a deal breaker. As has been said many times before, a family taking that once-in-a-lifetime trip is already spending a good chunk of change, no matter where they stay. Add in YOLO and the desire to take every opportunity to make said trip the absolute best they can for their families and it shouldn't be so surprising that the uptake was as great as it ended up being.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

It will be a net positive or a wash at worse. Any revenue over said inventory limit is being used for recovery which is factored into the overall net profit numbers at the parks.

Okay so real talk . . . how do I get Disney to spend money to recover me as a guest?

Asking for a friend . . .

 

[homerdance]

No, but I'm not sure it matters with how poor GSAT is with Genie+. It is really, really bad.

This is probably the most disappointing aspect of current management. They care more about reducing portion sizes to increase profits than about guest experiences.

 

[kalel8145]

I seem to recall reading at one point that for some reason a massive amount of what would have been very usable data from FP+ was either lost

 

[CaptinEO]

No, selling essentially unlimited anytime fastpasses (even if you limit it to once per ride) would absolutely destroy their capacity in a way that a limited reservation system (genie+) does not. People have been proposing an express pass type system for disney for years and there is a reason they haven’t done it.

Correct, you limit the amount of Express Pass sales each day, Universal does this too (at least here in Hollywood). I'm not saying selling as much express passes as they can, any good program needs its limits.

 

[CaptinEO]

Okay so real talk . . . how do I get Disney to spend money to recover me as a guest?

Asking for a friend . . .

They'd be smart to treat some over spending fans like Vegas does to its big gamblers, comping them stays or something to entice you to spend more.

 

[FeelsSoGoodToBeBad]

They'd be smart to treat some over spending fans like Vegas does to its big gamblers, comping them stays or something to entice you to spend more.

Only way I see TWDC tempting me back into their murky depths after this trip is if they offer me an amazing deal on a cruise. (Are you listening, Bob?)

 

[Jrb1979]

Correct, you limit the amount of Express Pass sales each day, Universal does this too (at least here in Hollywood). I'm not saying selling as much express passes as they can, any good program needs its limits.

It's how every other park does it with their skip the line system. Disney's biggest problem is they trained people to believe they need FP to enjoy the parks.

 

[CaptinEO]

It's how every other park does it with their skip the line system. Disney's biggest problem is they trained people to believe they need FP to enjoy the parks.

It works for every other park and it'll work for Disney. With a high price people will understand its a big upcharge and not a must do, unlike the 15 dollar genie add on.

 

[kalel8145]

It's how every other park does it with their skip the line system. Disney's biggest problem is they trained people to believe they need FP to enjoy the parks.

Very much this.

 

[UNCgolf]

It's how every other park does it with their skip the line system. Disney's biggest problem is they trained people to believe they need FP to enjoy the parks.

I don't think it's that they trained people to think they need FP -- it's that they quit building attractions while attendance skyrocketed and made it so visiting was not enjoyable without it. They've been trying to play catchup for a decade, but they're still well behind.