Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[nickys]

I think they're trying to thread the needle here:

1. Don't give up the G+/ILL revenue at their current level
2. Figure out how to improve satisfaction

A couple of things seem fairly straighforward:

• Allow guests to sign up for G+ the day before using it, instead of staying up until midnight.
  
  
• Make the "time to obtain" for G+ and ILL different, so you don't have to do two things at 7 a.m. This is so blindingly obvious that I don't understand why it hasn't been done.
  
  
• Guarantee that the G+ return time you're offered is the one you get. No more of this "Show 10 a.m. availabilty" and then "Come back at 6 p.m." when you actually complete the purchase.
  
  I think this one is more difficult because of the way they implemented G+ purchases. Using a shopping cart model instead of the old FP+ system (or, you know, what every concert ticket vendor does) is just baffling. It's such bad user expereince that I don't know how it got through QA.

You think there was a QA process???

 

[crazy4disney]

For starters they don't want it to.

who are they? Disney?

 

[crazy4disney]

I believe it would be so the majority those who already have G+ don’t have the terms of it changed.

People who already have tickets with G+ for 2023 will probably be able to get it refunded.

I cant see anyone having an issue with a better product & if so like you said ... issue a full refund

 

[Jrb1979]

I cant see anyone having an issue with a better product & if so like you said ... issue a full refund

It also gives them time to fix it.

 

[pdude81]

who is they? Disney?

Yes, Disney. Genie is designed for day-of flexibility and to bring in money for this technical add-on that needed a dedicated revenue stream. Even if they reverted to something like FP+, that forces them to deal with your scheduling at 60 days again, plus requested refunds if people didn't use tickets on a particular day or park if things change.

I'm in the camp that thinks there would be just as many complaints if people were paying for FP+ with the way the parks are staffed/run currently. You'd still have people get two line skips and then ask for a refund because there was a lightning storm and they couldn't use their Splash Mountain FP before dinner. Because (I believe) the flexible assignment of passes is better for the company, they'll stick to that argument and try to make it more valuable to those who use it. And possibly more expensive

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Materially changing the actual product now would mean they have to notify all who have pre-purchased it and offer a refund; this is not something they plan to do. From what I understand, they are adding the ability to cancel your pre-purchased Genie+ add-on though. And for Guests who complain after the fact, refunds are being issued. No one is being held out to dry here. It takes some work, but Disney is making it right each time.

I would consider all usages of Genie+ present through December to be a beta experience, so to speak. Come early next year, things will change significantly at WDW from both a Genie+ and Park Pass standpoint.

They will have a continuity issue as Genie+ at Disneyland appears to work quite well; unclear how they plan to offer two different versions of the same product that share the same name.

 

[dmw]

• Guarantee that the G+ return time you're offered is the one you get. No more of this "Show 10 a.m. availabilty" and then "Come back at 6 p.m." when you actually complete the purchase.
  
  I think this one is more difficult because of the way they implemented G+ purchases. Using a shopping cart model instead of the old FP+ system (or, you know, what every concert ticket vendor does) is just baffling. It's such bad user expereince that I don't know how it got through QA.

If the use case/story is written this way, it would pass QA tests. Usability should be part of the feature design phase from which use cases and user stories are written and should have input from QA at that time. Getting usability feedback after the code is written and in testing is too late (and just bad software coding practices).

 

[Disney Glimpses]

If they actually do cap sales, I think that's a big fix.

Correct. They can set it to whatever threshold they want. And as I said, they only need to get through the next 6-7 months.

 

[nickys]

I cant see anyone having an issue with a better product & if so like you said ... issue a full refund

I meant more that it could be changed such that a single price per day is not applicable.

One of the “original“ ideas was along the lines of the DLP old fastpass system - packages of rides for a price. There could be tiered access, whether by rides, resorts etc.

 

[mikejs78]

I meant more that it could be changed such that a single price per day is not applicable.

One of the “original“ ideas was along the lines of the DLP old fastpass system - packages of rides for a price. There could be tiered access, whether by rides, resorts etc.

I still don't think they'll ever go that route at WDW...

 

[nickys]

They will have a continuity issue as Genie+ at Disneyland appears to work quite well; unclear how they plan to offer two different versions of the same product that share the same name.

I could be wrong but I thought I remember someone saying that it’s not working as well as they would like even at DL.

But that’s a good point. They could of course revert to MaxPass at DL I guess.

 

[nickys]

I still don't think they'll ever go that route at WDW...

Which route are you referring to? I mentioned three different possibilities in the one post.

 

[Jrb1979]

Materially changing the actual product now would mean they have to notify all who have pre-purchased it and offer a refund; this is not something they plan to do. From what I understand, they are adding the ability to cancel your pre-purchased Genie+ add-on though. And for Guests who complain after the fact, refunds are being issued. No one is being held out to dry here. It takes some work, but Disney is making it right each time.

I would consider all usages of Genie+ present through December to be a beta experience, so to speak. Come early next year, things will change significantly at WDW from both a Genie+ and Park Pass standpoint.

They will have a continuity issue as Genie+ at Disneyland appears to work quite well; unclear how they plan to offer two different versions of the same product that share the same name.

It works at Disneyland not just cause of the amount of attractions but also a lot of people don't buy it. Capping sales should go a long way to making it work. My only hope out of all of this is Disney realizes that no matter the system it can't be accessible to everyone.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Disney's (Chapek) ego is going to be an issue here, FYI. It's possible that if Chapek is replaced in Feburary, we could see Genie+ completely evaporate into the abyss with an "internal source" blaming Chapek "despite resistance."

 

[DisneyfanMA]

this forced my hand and I booked TODAY (Nov trip) so I could bundle in Genie +. So glad my wife heard from a coworker about the June 8 change. I at least feel good that I now have my park tickets, reservations, and Genie + secured.

I do think Disney absolutely needs to CAP Genie +. If its not capped then what is the point? It's just a money grab at that point. Not sure how I feel about removing it from ticket purchase bundling, but I happy I was able to sneak in now before the change.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Not sure how I feel about removing it from ticket purchase bundling, but I should be able to sneak in now before the change.

They feel it will have a significant impact.

 

[nickys]

They feel it will have a significant impact.

But having given people three weeks to add it on to their tickets, is it really going to have the impact they hope?

I know they made it as difficult as possible to add it on, but anyone who was on the fence about it probably added it anyway.

It’ll be interesting to watch how things go.

 

[DisneyfanMA]

They feel it will have a significant impact.

ie: if it is removed from pre-visit purchase and bundling, less people will know/book it on the day of their park visit? I could still see it easily selling out day of, but I assume this means a cap is going to be enforced which is a no brainer. I wonder though how greedy Disney will be with the cap.

Does anyone know if Universal caps the express passes sold?

 

[Jrb1979]

ie: if it is removed from bundling, less people will know/book it? I could still see it easily selling out day of, but I assume this means a cap is going to be enforced which is a no brainer. I wonder though how greedy Disney will be with the cap.

Does anyone know if Universal caps the express passes sold?

They do cap express pass. It rarely sells out due to the price.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

But having given people three weeks to add it on to their tickets, is it really going to have the impact they hope?

Better late than never. The three week delay isn't desired; it's how long it takes for their software engineering team to remove it from all ticketing platforms. No, something like this shouldn't take three weeks. This is a quick insight into how disorganized and poorly constructed their software is.