Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Jeff4272]

My Genie+ (with park hopping) experience earlier this week:

Monday:

Disney Hollywood Studios (from 1-5 pm)
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad (LL2)
Slinky Dog Dash (LL1)
Toy Story Mania (LL3)
Rock n’ Rollercoaster (LL4)
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (ILL)

Epcot: (6 pm-11 pm)
Soarin’
Living with the Land
Frozen Ever After (LL5)
Spaceship Earth (extended evening hours)
Test Track (single rider and eeh)
Grand Fiesta Tour (eeh)
Remy’s Ratatouille’s Adventure (eeh)

Tuesday:

Magic Kingdom (8:30-3 pm)

Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain (LL1)
House of Presidents
Mickey Philharmagic (cancelled)
Haunted Mansion (LL2)
PeopleMover
Barnstormer
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (ILL1)
Mickey Philharmagic
Splash Mountain (was Pirates was down- LL3)

Animal Kingdom (3:30-7)

Kilimanjaro Safaris (LL5)
Expedition Everest (LL6)
Kali River Rapids
Avatar: Flight of Passage (ILL2)
Navi River Journey (LL4)

Genie+ has flaws (costs, getting up at 7 am) but the negative issues that has plagued most has not been my experience through two trips. (Dec 2021-4 days no PH and May 2022-2 days of PH).

I have waited in a long lines only twice (60 mins) for both trips. (TOT-Dec, MFSR-May)

I’ll add the caveat that the crowds were 6ish-7ish from Touring Plans for both trips.

Your experience is the very rare exception vs the norm.........a 6 level crowd calendar is the real sweet spot because if its slower, you do not need Genie+/ILL's........if it's busier, you get less than half of what you got

ETA this: In your scenario on Monday for eg., you never would have got MMRR, RNR, Frozen and either your ILL on ROTR or LL1 on SDD (because one or the other would be sold out by the time you booked the first one) so that GREATLY diminishes your Monday experience while adding that you need to be there for rope drop

I wonder how many of those you could have got done without and LL or ILL selections if you didn't buy Genie+ or any ILL's

 

[drizgirl]

Your experience is the exception vs the norm.........a 6 level crowd calendar is the real sweet spot because if its slower, you do not need Genie+/ILL's........if it's busier, you get less than half of what you got

I wonder how many of those you could have got done without and LL or ILL selections if you didnt buy GEnie+ or any ILL's

Or purchased park hoppers.

 

[Jeff4272]

Your experience is the very rare exception vs the norm.........a 6 level crowd calendar is the real sweet spot because if its slower, you do not need Genie+/ILL's........if it's busier, you get less than half of what you got

ETA this: In your scenario on Monday for eg., you never would have got MMRR, RNR, Frozen and either your ILL on ROTR or LL1 on SDD (because one or the other would be sold out by the time you booked the first one) so that GREATLY diminishes your Monday experience while adding that you need to be there for rope drop

I wonder how many of those you could have got done without and LL or ILL selections if you didn't buy Genie+ or any ILL's

And this is the real problem with Genie+ and ILL's

95% of the time It's either too busy to make the purchase worth it or it's slow enough that you dont need it/it's not worth the cost and effort

 

[floydbeatle]

As predicted reading through all the recent posts on Genie+, you are all fonts of prodigious knowledge and analysis on all things Disney and I appreciate you all because the last thing I want to do is figure this poppycock on my own Some thoughts:

1) We now all love FP+, as we pine for the good ol' days, but not for unwarranted reasons this time. I for one managed FP+ to its maximum potential and was sad to see it go, but it was not perfect so I actually was looking forward to a paid system.

2) It was a mistake to look forward to a paid system because the product is now significantly worse for all the reasons already stated. It amazes me that Disney got the uptake % all wrong when they should know that their customers always buy 99% of what they sell regardless of the perceived value. I said it then and I will say it again $15 pp/pd was not going to fix anything other then lining Disney's pockets. That is not expensive enough.

3) IMO there is definitely a middle ground between VIP and Genie+ and the masses. I don't know what the price point is but $15 pp/pd was never it. At the time they rolled it out I think I may have said it needs to be priced at launch at $50 pp/pd. Now I believe it needs to go higher.

4) No matter what anyone tells me I do not believe their capacity restrictions are significant enough to reduce any wait times. Most of us have been going to Disney for a very long time, if you just take the last 10 years, from an anecdotally perspective, the lines should be lower.

5) There was one mention of Disney reducing capacity on rides but I think that was debunked vociferously by many on this forum including @MisterPenguin. He may have already called the DHS disinformation board!

6) Contrary to popular belief Bob Chapek is not an idiot. He may be bad at his current job, but he did what he needed to do to get there and be selected. In the end he has ascended to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, is a 1 percenter, and no matter what happens most people will look at his path and think he was successful. We may not like his decisions, but I can guarantee you he is laughing all the way to the bank.

Anyway just a few thoughts!

 

[pdude81]

So now that there is going to be significantly more people logging and purchasing Genie+ between 630 and 700, I wonder if the server will get an upgrade to handle the extra traffic?

I’d love to see the historical data of when Genie+ for each day is bought, i.e. how many buy it before the day and a breakdown of purchase hours on the day.

There won't be significantly more people buying it from 6:30-7 than there were using right at 7, especially if they actually start limiting purchases in the future.

 

[nickys]

I’ve seen several reports today of people who can’t find the button to add Genie+ on the app.

They better get that glitch sorted out pdq or there will be pretty angry guests come June 8th.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I’ve seen several reports today of people who can’t find the button to add Genie+ on the app.

They better get that glitch sorted out pdq or there will be pretty angry guests come June 8th.

Probably all a part of the evil plan.

 

[mattpeto]

Your experience is the very rare exception vs the norm.........a 6 level crowd calendar is the real sweet spot because if its slower, you do not need Genie+/ILL's........if it's busier, you get less than half of what you got

ETA this: In your scenario on Monday for eg., you never would have got MMRR, RNR, Frozen and either your ILL on ROTR or LL1 on SDD (because one or the other would be sold out by the time you booked the first one) so that GREATLY diminishes your Monday experience while adding that you need to be there for rope drop

I wonder how many of those you could have got done without and LL or ILL selections if you didn't buy Genie+ or any ILL's

DHS is the big problem with Genie+. We experienced a "9" day at DHS (12/18) in December FWIW and DHS was a 7 on 5/16/22. Both trips were flawless with Genie+.

We didn't get to DHS until 1 pm on Monday so not following.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

No worries. The McDonalds next to the All Stars is open early. Grab your Egg McMuffin and Coffee in the Drive-Thru and you're all set!

When I said it was a problem, I wasn't really talking about me personally. If onsite hotel customers can't get breakfast at an onsite WDW hotel, that is a problem for WDW, and shows how poorly thought out the G+ decisions are.

Everyone buying G+ every morning is just asking for the G+ system to overload even more often than it is already locking up.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

And now the whole thing is built upon the naivete of wealthy international guests flooding WDW to make sure they get their child the Disney vacation they missed during the pandemic. Once that influx passes, this thing will drive negative perception way up.

It's going to take a while to flush out pent up demand. Also, not that Disney isn't always a popular thing to do, right now it seems to be the trendy thing to do. I do think they're in for a rude awakening (which they desperately need).

 

[crazy4disney]

It's going to take a while to flush out pent up demand. Also, not that Disney isn't always a popular thing to do, right now it seems to be the trendy thing to do. I do think they're in for a rude awakening (which they desperately need).

i cant recall if i asked you or not and if i did did you answer,.,,, but is an old version of FP+ a possibility as a "replacement" for genie+... Also other than what you mentioned can I/We expect a change if a trip is planned forend of August ? Thanks in advance

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

There's also another interesting dynamic: people are much more likely to heavily use a product/service that they paid for vs. one that is included for free. So while only 1/3 people who had access to FP+ are using Genie+, that 1/3 is using it quite heavily (and again with reasonably high expectations).

I think that is incorrect. It isn't free vs. not free. It is more that parkgoers have short attention spans.

FP+ had 2 parts:
a.) 3 pre-booked passes.
b.) booking additional passes later.

Many guests simply forgot about part b.) for a variety of reasons. Even many forum members here didn't make use of booking additional passes.

Often, if you want the public to do something....you have to repeat it 50 times before they listen, and even that isn't enough.

The long gap between booking the initial 3FP and booking FP #4 = many people forgot part b.)

But G+ is booked one pass at a time in the park. Park goers don't have that 3-pass association, nor do they have a 30+ day time gap.

Also, you didn't need to carry a cell phone in the parks to book FP #1-3. Booking FP#4= phone. Now though, booking more than 1 G+ = having a phone in the park.

 

[pdude81]

Also, you didn't need to carry a cell phone in the parks to book FP #1-3. Booking FP#4= phone. Now though, booking more than 1 G+ = having a phone in the park.

Keep in mind that mobile ordering is almost necessary to eat these days, so you're kind of stuck anyway. And the odds of nobody in your party having a phone in the park even in FP days was low.

You're right though that the base product advertises getting new ones throughout the day rather than getting 3. Some people never even knew you could get more back in the day.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

FP+ had 2 parts:
a.) 3 pre-booked passes.
b.) booking additional passes later.

You're referring to resort guests with planned vacations. I'm talking about people who showed up late in the game or were simply unaware of the booking windows. Big difference when you just find out about FP+ when you arrive to the park and find no availability vs. paying for it at the park and finding no availability.

And if you think that is uncommon, it's not. Tens of thousands of people still show up to the parks every day without a Park Pass despite it being plastered on every app and web page out there. Most people are informed with a fraction of the information we know.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

i cant recall if i asked you or not and if i did did you answer,.,,, but is an old version of FP+ a possibility as a "replacement" for genie+... Also other than what you mentioned can I/We expect a change if a trip is planned forend of August ? Thanks in advance

Rolling back to the old product isn't going to happen. More substantial changes will come next year but they are still very much figuring out what that looks like. Ideally, it would give resort guests a much bigger advantage.

 

[crazy4disney]

Rolling back to the old product isn't going to happen. More substantial changes will come next year but they are still very much figuring out what that looks like. Ideally, it would give resort guests a much bigger advantage.

Thanks for clarifying.... so basically the summer may be similar to what i saw during my 1st experience lol

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Thanks for clarifying.... so basically the summer may be similar to what i saw during my 1st experience lol

Depends when your first experience was. Early on, not as many people purchased Genie+ so it wasn't too bad. This summer should be much better as they'll be capping purchases. But I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[crazy4disney]

Depends when your first experience was. Early on, not as many people purchased Genie+ so it wasn't too bad. This summer should be much better as they'll be capping purchases. But I'll believe it when I see it.

I was there Friday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday after.... other than the MK every other park was a nightmare lol... it was a refresh game all day long on my phone & learned the hard way about trying to cxl and rebook a ride that was available & also thinking i booked 1 time to find out i am booked for much later....

 

[Patcheslee]

Probably all a part of the evil plan.

The limited availability (button) has began lol

 

[Jrb1979]

Rolling back to the old product isn't going to happen. More substantial changes will come next year but they are still very much figuring out what that looks like. Ideally, it would give resort guests a much bigger advantage.

I hope giving resort guests a bigger advantage is allowing booking LL before park open and everyone else once park opens. I don't want to back to the days of advanced booking.