Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Patcheslee]

Nope, haven't heard anything about this either way. 8/7 is when their slow season is forecast to begin. Seems like a fruitless/temporary effort as crowds will ramp back up quite quickly. It's possible they keep it one per park though, that wouldn't surprise me.

I wonder if they are comparing when each park had 2 ILL vs only 1. Now the only way to utilize 2 ILLs is to have a hopper ticket i.e. does the upgrade to hopper result in more income vs 2 ILLs without a hopper.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

I wonder if they are comparing when each park had 2 ILL vs only 1. Now the only way to utilize 2 ILLs is to have a hopper ticket i.e. does the upgrade to hopper result in more income vs 2 ILLs without a hopper.

Interesting point but I'd be surprised if ILL restrictions are driving hopper sales. I do know that their main focus is stress on Genie+. If they don't feel like Genie+ can handle 4 less attractions, it'll probably stay.

 

[Patcheslee]

I think it would have to be limited to deluxe resort guests only as a perk. Even then I'm not sure it would work, although the fact they are spread out through 4 different parks would help.

If I had to guess they would have to limit it to even more to Club Level deluxe and non studio DVC guests only.

 

[G00fyDad]

I get it... you don't like G+. Neither do I. But my friend has no reason to have lied about her experience last week. So, while Disney may be getting negative feedback from some guests, they are also getting positive feedback, even if you don't want to believe it.

He doesn't like G+??? When did that happen?

To be fair, the system does suck but there are plenty of people that go, use it, and have a good experience. Hopefully my family will be one of those groups in October but I am not banking on it. However, we are going to go and make the best of the time we have there.

 

[crazy4disney]

Nope, haven't heard anything about this either way. 8/7 is when their slow season is forecast to begin. Seems like a fruitless/temporary effort as crowds will ramp back up quite quickly. It's possible they keep it one per park though, that wouldn't surprise me.

Thanks as always… was hoping with an added attraction for a “slower” time may have helped w the Genie disaster lol.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

If I had to guess they would have to limit it to even more to Club Level deluxe and non studio DVC guests only.

I don't see them adding this just as a full perk for onsite guests, even if just limited to Deluxe.

I could see it being included in some packages as a marketing tool - similar to free dining in the past .... So limited dates, limited availability, needs full rack rate room, etc

 

[Jeff4272]

I get it... you don't like G+. Neither do I. But my friend has no reason to have lied about her experience last week. So, while Disney may be getting negative feedback from some guests, they are also getting positive feedback, even if you don't want to believe it.

Fine but the person who sits right next to me at work went last Monday 6/6, stayed at SSR (dvc memeber) for 4 nights and then VGF for 3 nights. She went to Epcot Monday 6/6 and only got 2 genie selections (also got BG for GoG) but was able to ride during extra hours



She also went to Epcot on Thursday 6/9 and had less luck than Monday.

She did say that the BGs were easy to get for GoG and got the 1pm on Thursday


Maybe your friend was taking about deluxe hours on Monday night because last week was a zoo and I highly doubt they got those selections during any day last week

 

[GhostHost1000]

"The Guardians of the Galaxy ride was awesome. We had no problem joining the virtual queue at 7:00 am on the day we were going to epcot. We had paid the $15 for the new Genie Plus option and it worked really well for our group. We were able to get passes for the Remy ride, Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space, and Spaceship Earth. We paid for the Lightning Lane pass for 7D at Magic Kingdom ($12/person) and had the Genie plus option also. Throughout the day, we were able to get 6 genie passes (or whatever you call them!)"

Just another data point for consideration in the discussion...

That works for some who stay in the parks all day from rope drop until lights out

 

[matt9112]

If they built more attractions to handle the crowds most wouldn’t need to

I agree and I’m told by all you experts on here that that will never happen.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I agree and I’m told by all you experts on here that that will never happen.

Based on their track record, not a chance at least to balance crowds comfortably.

One issue is they like to replace attractions rather than build new ones and expand. That doesn’t fully help the crowd management. They need more people eater attractions and that doesn’t always mean major ones, any will help

 

[Shellyl64]

I get it... you don't like G+. Neither do I. But my friend has no reason to have lied about her experience last week. So, while Disney may be getting negative feedback from some guests, they are also getting positive feedback, even if you don't want to believe it.

We were there last week and used Genie+ for the 5 days we went to the parks. We rode almost everything at all 4 parks. Now we did do the early morning half hour for deluxe guests and didn’t have to pay for the ILL’s because of that. It was a challenge to get on everything with the Genie+ but we managed. I felt like we were constantly on our phones in order to do that. If we did not have the Genie+ most waits would have been at least 45 minutes. I don’t actually like it but it was better than the standby lines.

 

[DisneyfanMA]

I've seen a lot of blogs acting like stacking is a hack, loophole or trick. Seems like common sense and designed to be used that way.

 

[DisneyHead123]

That is a truly dystopian vacation. I'm one of those that disliked the 60 day planning. At least in the context of planning everything.

I am actually a fan of pre planning, but yeah, there’s definitely a Twilight Zone episode in there somewhere. (Cut to zombie eyed tourists intoning “He didn’t have a reservation… he didn’t have a reservation…”)

For better or for worse, though, I think ride ressies will become a thing. Everything else has become increasingly “preorder” necessary. Guests complain about planning but complain much more when they can’t manage the day they wanted to have. Disney management most certainly would benefit from being able to micromanage guest behavior even more, in order to know what level of staff they should be paying that day. When the incentives are aligned that way? To me that’s the way things will trend (Again, however, the one caveat to that may be several years of financial downturn. That would be a wild card depending on how it impacted travel.)

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I agree but they also need to increase the price. It shouldn’t be something most people use.

Everyone will say, Fastpass used to be free, but now it costs $500 a day."

I'm not confident that will improve WDW's PR problem.

 

[Jrb1979]

Everyone will say, Fastpass used to be free, but now it costs $500 a day."

I'm not confident that will improve WDW's PR problem.

At this point there isn't much they can do that will make everyone happy. It's not going back to being free. Here's a thought, instead of raising the price a lot why not cap sales instead.

 

[matt9112]

Everyone will say, Fastpass used to be free, but now it costs $500 a day."

I'm not confident that will improve WDW's PR problem.

But the system would work….There’s too much demand on the current system. When it’s free it’s easy to say hey it’s a busy day. When it costs money but you still get denied? That’s infuriating I imagine. There walking a line that doesn’t exactly work. There monetizing a system that is meant to be free…..either make it an elite product OR move it back to free land. Even if they changed it back to fp+ but charged they would run into the same outcome. Plus with how FP+ was set up way in advance a paid version would be sold out months in advance.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

At this point there isn't much they can do that will make everyone happy. It's not going back to being free. Here's a thought, instead of raising the price a lot why not cap sales instead.

There definitely needs to be a cap, but that would likely come with a price increase so they get same (or more) total $

But personally I would rather pay $40 for a system that work d really well and was easy vs $15 for a challenging system that takes a ton of effort to maximize

(Though my concern is it isn't $40, but $100 and then tough to justify for my family of 5)

 

[Jrb1979]

There definitely needs to be a cap, but that would likely come with a price increase so they get same (or more) total $

But personally I would rather pay $40 for a system that work d really well and was easy vs $15 for a challenging system that takes a ton of effort to maximize

(Though my concern is it isn't $40, but $100 and then tough to justify for my family of 5)

One thing I will add is many say adding more capacity would fix Genie+. I do agree they need more attractions but adding more won't fix Genie+. It would still need to be capped. There is a reason every other park limits their skip the line system.

 

[G00fyDad]

Everyone will say, Fastpass used to be free, but now it costs $500 a day."

I'm not confident that will improve WDW's PR problem.

I'm not confidant that they care to improve their PR problem. It's not like profits are down or anything.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

im sure people do it but i can see spending thousands for literally 2 extra hours can be justified as a sole reason... but im not one to judge or question how other people spend their money God Bless... i just can see how it makes sense

Huh? I just priced Coronado vs. Swan for mid-August. Coronado water view costs more than the Swan pre-paid rate. The Swan AAA prepaid rate is even lower. There's also a refundable AAA package that costs $3 less than Coronado rack rate and includes a $50 hotel credit.

The Dolphin is usually less than the Swan, but is full for the dates I checked. The Disney plus offer is approximately $400 lower, but that is also not available for the dates I checked.

While S/D/SR are not official WDW hotels, they are included in the extra hours, and the location is closer to Epcot/HS than Coronado.

(Though perhaps we should keep this quiet....)