Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[mikejs78]

If going a busy time you really should get park reservations but that is about it.

Park reservations have been hard to get since February. I know because I've had to reschedule my trip twice and park reservations have always been a limiting factor. There is no slow/busy time anymore. DHS and MK have regularly been out of park reservations three weeks to a month in advance, so you do need to plan in adance.

 

[drizgirl]

But you do have to plan....you have to plan what park you are in every day, you said it yourself

that IS planning

Especially when you consider that your odds of adjusting those park reservations last minute are not high.

 

[mikejs78]

attraction downtime

This is a huge problem. @lentesta recently covered this in detail about the insane amount of downtime different attractions have been experiencing lately.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

But you do have to plan....you have to plan what park you are in every day, you said it yourself

that IS planning

But to a much lesser degree. Big difference with picking what Park to do on a day that is relatively easy to book on your own time vs having to decide on 3 attractions for every day of you trip and getting up at 6am 30 or 60 days out to book that. Very different level of planning

Also, you don't *have* to even make a park reservation - just checked and there is at least one park available to ticketed guests today and every day this week. So you could show up with zero plans and still do something (not guaranteed of course)

 

[drizgirl]

Attraction downtime is particularly bad in the 3 non-castle park sine they have inadequate attraction capacity on a good day.

 

[natatomic]

Relative to Universal's Express Pass, I did not love FP+. Though FP was better than the current fiasco, I would rather not plan anything. The beauty of Express Pass is I just ride what I want to ride whenever I want to ride it. One of the things I dislike about WDW is the need to be on a schedule all day. If you want any table service food at all, you pretty much have to pre-book it. That has been a dumb part of visiting WDW, because the buses and trains don't run on time, or frequently enough. To go from one end of WDW to the other via bus often takes 90 minutes. That is a huge chunk of my vacation time just to eat.

Then when we do arrive, we wait again to be seated. And we're paying over $50 for this option. If you actually factor time lost, it is probably well over $100 per person for a TS meal.

But if you don't buy the G+ upcharge, you wait 90 plus for each attraction. So that is even more crappy than not paying.

But it gets worse, because using G+ doesn't = getting on all the rides, it only = MAYBE getting on a handful of them. If I am paying to skip rides, make it simple: G+ = something like 4 passes that I can use whenever I choose.

The park restrictions are also an insult, because they aren't being used to give us easy access, they only restrict how early we can go between parks.

I personally would never pay for a universal express-like system; however, it’s a moot point because this is the very reason we don’t have Disney APs anymore and instead switched over to Universal. I also prefer Uni’s system because it has such a (relatively) low impact on the standby lines, so I don’t feel awful for not being able to afford the express pass. I also can’t afford $60 a day every Disney either, but since so many more people get genie+ than the express pass, I definitely am impacted by being one of Teh Poorz stuck on standby.

That’s also the reason I personally prefer FP+ to an express system for myself (free so I could afford it, and i always got the FPs I wanted even day of so I got to skip at least three lines). But I also know it’s incredibly unlikely to ever come back in that form, which is why I too would rather Disney just go to a system like Universal’s.

The problem is that there’s no way a system like that would work well at Disney outside of Magic Kingdom and maybe Hollywood Studios. The other parks just don’t have enough rides people want/need to skip the line for to justify the cost Disney would need to charge to make a profit while simultaneously not overselling it. It’s been stated a million times on here already, so forgive me for beating a dead horse, but until Disney flushes out their three non-MK parks with more attractions, all skip the line options are gonna crash an burn, especially if they have the nerve to charge for said broken system. At least with FP+, if it didn’t work for one’s family, one could just shrug their shoulders and say, “well, at least we’re not out any money.”

 

[bhg469]

Reduction of park hours and attraction downtime are huge factors not always considered

If a park is open 2 hours less than in the past and a ride is averaging 60mins of down time, that is 3 hours less availability for that ride than potentially in the past. Only magnified by all the people with LL for that down time now need to fit into the remaining open time further impacting standby

Plus with shorter hours it is harder to justify a mid-day break so more people physically in the park at times than in the past (assuming same total # of guests for that day)

There is no reason, aside from cost reduction, that any of the parks should be closed before 10pm, with the exception of animal kingdom. Bottom line is that there is a bean counter somewhere that figured out that the money being generated in the evening is too low to justify the costs of having cast members staffed in the parks.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Park reservations have been hard to get since February. I know because I've had to reschedule my trip twice and park reservations have always been a limiting factor. There is no slow/busy time anymore. DHS and MK have regularly been out of park reservations three weeks to a month in advance, so you do need to plan in adance.

I just checked and every park except MK is available for today for ticketed guests and everyday for the rest of June has at least some availability, a few days have all parks still available

Looking at July, other than July 4th (only MK is full) the entire month is green so all parks available, and that is just a few weeks out

So it is a limiting factor to some extent but if open to what park you do definitely way more flexibility than booking ADRs or FP+ months in advance

 

[crazy4disney]

FP+ did work well for resort guests. I agree they need more attractions in each park. As has been mentioned Disney knows Genie+ isn't working. I know it has lots of issues but the main reason it doesn't work is too many people have it. They also know your average guest didn't like the amount of planning required. They went too far the other way. I'm hoping when they do fix Genie+ there is a middle ground.

yet is was easier to get a FP for FoP than it was fo CRT to eat at yet nothing has been done there lol....

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I just wonder/what price point a true Express pass would have to be at to really work at WDW. At Universal it ranges from $100-300/day on top of your ticket. It would have to be at least that, probably starting at $200, to work

And at some point you may conflict with VIP tours


I wonder if something more like what they are doing in Paris where you can buy individual ride line skips or the bundle (I think of like 12) would be better

I think it isn't so much what price point as much as WDW needs to first fix standby times. Attractions should not have 2 hour wait times, except very rarely like opening week of a new attraction. Long waits = frustration.

Alas, there is a solution in the works, it just isn't coming from Disney. A significant portion of parkgoers will happily abandon Disney's mess once they have a brand new park to explore. Pay hundreds for the G+ mess, or pay a similar amount to visit a new park? Huh!

Though that is assuming Universal doesn't make a mess of it. Universal botched the opening of Volcano Bay, so there's no guarantee things will go smoothly, but Disney is doing a great job of helping Universal these days.

 

[Casper Gutman]

On the issue of resort “perks”…

Resort guest “perks” must not interfere with the experience of non-resort guests as they do now. Everyone in the park gates has spent a similar, high price to be there - the non-resort guest has probably spent more. The experience of the park must be as comparable as possible. The non-resort guest must not be blocked out of the newest attractions or have to spend half their day refreshing their phone in a desperate bid for cast-off resort guest reservations.

For two decades I made multiple visits to WDW resorts each year. The “perk” was staying at a WDW resort - the theming, the transportation system, the chance to stay inside “the bubble.” When those perks deteriorated and when the price climbed higher then they were worth, I stopped staying at WDW resorts completely.

 

[bhg469]

I think it isn't so much what price point as much as WDW needs to first fix standby times. Attractions should not have 2 hour wait times, except very rarely like opening week of a new attraction. Long waits = frustration.

Alas, there is a solution in the works, it just isn't coming from Disney. A significant portion of parkgoers will happily abandon Disney's mess once they have a brand new park to explore. Pay hundreds for the G+ mess, or pay a similar amount to visit a new park? Huh!

Though that is assuming Universal doesn't make a mess of it. Universal botched the opening of Volcano Bay, so there's no guarantee things will go smoothly, but Disney is doing a great job of helping Universal these days.

I work right next door to Epic Universe. I cannot wait for it to be open and switch my passes from Disney to Universal.

 

[crazy4disney]

I still have not heard ONE reason not to WANT to pre book........

Doesnt even need to be a good reason, just one reason

totally agree especially now that park reservations are going nowhere ... why would you NOT want to be able to pre book rides at your OWN leisure from the comfort of your own home as opposed to waking up and trying to do it with 10's of thousands of people at once on vacation... people act like ALL vacations require NO planning... that is simply NOT the case ... some places for sure others definitely not and Disney is one of those places where planning is needed and honestly i still think the dining 180 days out (granted its 60 now) was the biggest of all issues but my window opens up in 2 weeks and they still have yet to post hours... im hopeful they will have some but doubt it..... yet somehow booking 3 rides at your convenience was an issue for some?!? I still dont buy that excuse.. they wanted to charge which is their right but they should have just kept the system in place and go from there instead of this disaster called Genie+

 

[Chi84]

But to a much lesser degree. Big difference with picking what Park to do on a day that is relatively easy to book on your own time vs having to decide on 3 attractions for every day of you trip and getting up at 6am 30 or 60 days out to book that. Very different level of planning

Also, you don't *have* to even make a park reservation - just checked and there is at least one park available to ticketed guests today and every day this week. So you could show up with zero plans and still do something (not guaranteed of course)

On most of those days MK and HS are not available. "At least one park being available" (usually Epcot, and sometimes AK) is not the same as having the flexibility to pick your park the way you did under the old system. Disney is using the park reservation system to force its guests to go where Disney wants, not where the guests want to go. They are sacrificing customer satisfaction for their own convenience. I'm hoping that this is still in large part due to labor shortages attributable to COVID, but if it's not, it's inexcusable.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I think it isn't so much what price point as much as WDW needs to first fix standby times. Attractions should not have 2 hour wait times, except very rarely like opening week of a new attraction. Long waits = frustration.

Alas, there is a solution in the works, it just isn't coming from Disney. A significant portion of parkgoers will happily abandon Disney's mess once they have a brand new park to explore. Pay hundreds for the G+ mess, or pay a similar amount to visit a new park? Huh!

Though that is assuming Universal doesn't make a mess of it. Universal botched the opening of Volcano Bay, so there's no guarantee things will go smoothly, but Disney is doing a great job of helping Universal these days.

What I still think hurts is there isn't enough "other" things to do - so you get on that 60min line for ToT as nothing else to do except wait somewhere, might as well be on a line

They still are missing entertainment (especially streetmosphere) still missing a lot of the character meets, etc and like I said before, many rides don't need LL - IF HM and SSE and Pirates, were just continually loading from standby the lines would go faster and let people only use LL for the rides that really need it

 

[mmascari]

Also, you don't *have* to even make a park reservation - just checked and there is at least one park available to ticketed guests today and every day this week. So you could show up with zero plans and still do something (not guaranteed of course)

Assuming you want to go to EPCOT for 3 of those days.

Does EPCOT ever run out of park passes?

 

[solidyne]

Give me one good reason...actually, give me one reason, doesnt even have to be good......keep in mind that its knowing paid FP, park pass and advanced dining are here to stay

In the scenario you describe (Genie+, Park Pass, and ADR, i.e., the current scenario) there is no mechanism for "pre-booking rides." Before 7:00 am, that is. So your question doesn't make sense. Unless, that is, you are really asking one of the two following questions. (I will answer each.)

#1 "Given the current scenario, why wouldn't you want to use Genie+ ("pre-planning rides at 7:00")?"

Answers: Don't want to spend the money. Don't want to look at phone all day. Don't mind standby lines.

#2 "Isn't it better to be able to "pre-plan" your rides days in advance than to do so at midnight and then at 7:00 am?"

If this is your question, then I think most people agree with you and you can stop shouting.

It occurs to me that there is a third thing you may be trying to get at. Maybe this is your question: "If Genie+ were to be replaced by a new system, would you rather it be a pre-planning system or something like Express Pass (no pre-planning)?"

I guess my problem here is that you are not articulating the question clearly enough. Give it another try.

 

[bhg469]

Assuming you want to go to EPCOT for 3 of those days.

Does EPCOT ever run out of park passes?

Not often but it does happen. You can bet its on a night when we would like to go after work.

 

[mmascari]

I'm hoping that this is still in large part due to labor shortages attributable to COVID, but if it's not, it's inexcusable.

It's inexcusable either way.

The labor shortage issue is of their own making.

 

[dreday3]

I don't think everyone is ever going to agree on what works best for who because we all have such vastly different planning styles.

Do I like Genie +? Not particularly. I don't know the answer, but if I could pay individually and be assured a ride and a time I want, I'd be okay with that!

But anyways, for families and larger groups, I think Genie and the park reservation system is MUCH harder on them than it is on us - a couple with no kids.
We go for 9 nights with hoppers, are pretty flexible on rides (been enough, know we'll come back) and are those "weirdos" who actually enjoy just being in the park, soaking up the ambience. I'm up early, every day, so 7 am isn't a big thing for me. Our hopping usually winds up being Epcot or DHS since we stay in Epcot resort area so the after 2 thing is fine. For us, it's all not too bad. Ideal? No, but we can roll with it.

The idea that if we want to switch to a park morning of that's sold out is annoying, but if you have the hopper, there's a work around. We can book Epcot (always available), walk over, check in and then hop to the park we really wanted. After 2 of course.

I do agree, it's more restrictive in the sense there's extra steps now (like what I described just above)