Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[JD80]

It absolutely was. Maybe "pick of the litter" is embellishing it, sure. But the goal was for guests to use it at any time and find desirable attractions. This is why purchase limits were explicitly left out.

The system was designed for you to skip some lines not any line you want whenever you want.

 

[crazy4disney]

It absolutely was. "Pick of the litter" is embellishing it, sure. But the goal was for guests to use it at any time and find desirable attractions. This is why purchase limits were explicitly left out.

i would LOVE to know who thought this was even possible honestly.. hence why i DONT buy the excuses/explanations being said here.... a company who sells $10 cupcakes thought noone was going to purchase genie+ when they embedded in our brains that Disney is about skip the line systems... when these systems are pretty much universally charged for at every other theme park... heck they charged for parking yet lots are still packed.... come on....

 

[Disney Glimpses]

i would LOVE to know who thought this was even possible honestly.. hence why i DONT buy the excuses/explanations being said here.... a company who sells $10 cupcakes thought noone was going to purchase genie+ when they embedded in our brains that Disney is about skip the line systems... when these systems are pretty much universally charged for at every other theme park... heck they charged for parking yet lots are still packed.... come on....

They clearly didn't imagine a scenario where adding a fee would increase demand and not reduce it (over free FP+). Crazy.

 

[Jrb1979]

i would LOVE to know who thought this was even possible honestly.. hence why i DONT buy the excuses/explanations being said here.... a company who sells $10 cupcakes thought noone was going to purchase genie+ when they embedded in our brains that Disney is about skip the line systems... when these systems are pretty much universally charged for at every other theme park... heck they charged for parking yet lots are still packed.... come on....

I have said for awhile they have lost touch on how to run parks. As far as skip the line systems, they only seem to have looked at the money side of it but completely forgot the part of how it works at other parks.

IMO it comes back to their love of controlling when and where guests go.

@disneyglimpses maybe you can answer that? Why do they obsess with guest control?

 

[Disney Glimpses]

@disneyglimpses maybe you can answer that? Why do they obsess with guest control?

It's always about maximizing profit. Doing their best to fill every resort room, every table at every restaurant, every cash register throughout property, every queue for every attraction. There are just so many people.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Disney's crowds tend to plateau during an economic downturn and go up when the economy grows. And the only reason it plateaus during downturn (01, 08) is because of the plethora of discounts they offer during these times. Right now we're probably at the peak of worst case scenario with some signs that things are improving (from a crowd standpoint as the economy moves downward and inflation upward). Last fall was probably the worst time in the resort's history to introduce something like Genie+.

 

[Jrb1979]

It's always about maximizing profit. Doing their best to fill every resort room, every table at every restaurant, every cash register throughout property, every queue for every attraction. There are just so many people.

Due to that thinking it has caused problems in areas where there shouldn't be. I can understand using to fill rooms, tables at restaurants and with lack of staff having reservations for now. To use to direct guests around the park for attractions is too far IMO. I get it they are the most attended park in the US but Universal isn't that far behind in terms of attendance and they don't obsess that much in directing guests around their parks.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Due to that thinking it has caused problems in areas where there shouldn't be. I can understand using to fill rooms, tables at restaurants and with lack of staff having reservations for now. To use to direct guests around the park for attractions is too far IMO. I get it they are the most attended park in the US but Universal isn't that far behind in terms of attendance and they don't obsess that much in directing guests around their parks.

Eh, they see about half the guests that MK alone does each year. I personally think Disney's crowds have simply grown beyond a reasonable threshold and they are holding back on raising prices due to the pending/current economic downturn.

 

[pdude81]

They clearly didn't imagine a scenario where adding a fee would increase demand and not reduce it (over free FP+). Crazy.

I don't think we can really say that it increased demand over FP+. Nearly all on site users and quite a bit of the rest set up FP+ before or at least during their trip. I would say that they reduced the number of passes relative to the number of people willing to pay the going rate for those passes, however.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

I don't think we can really say that it increased demand over FP+. Nearly all on site users and quite a bit of the rest set up FP+ before or at least during their trip. I would say that they reduced the number of passes relative to the number of people willing to pay the going rate for those passes, however.

Yeah, good point. But LL queues have been pretty long too. Longer than they were with FP+. It almost even feels like they increased the number of passes. Nothing makes sense.

 

[crazy4disney]

They clearly didn't imagine a scenario where adding a fee would increase demand and not reduce it (over free FP+). Crazy.

They clearly didn't imagine a scenario where adding a fee would increase demand and not reduce it (over free FP+). Crazy.

i still dont agree w the "increased demand' scenario again we will never know but i would like to see how many FP rides are used daily vs how many genie rides are used daily etc & again the fact that you cant pre book times and spread them out thruout the day to me cant be ignored.... as ive suggested before... simply go back to FP charge for it make it pre booking prior to your trip a week a month whatever for resort guests 1st and see what happens... you truly may NOT have to reinvent the wheel here... oh and another good idea... start building some more rides bc Tron isnt solving anything when it opens

 

[Disney Glimpses]

i still dont agree w the "increased demand' scenario again we will never know but i would like to see how many FP rides are used daily vs how many genie rides are used daily etc & again the fact that you cant pre book times and spread them out thruout the day to me cant be ignored.... as ive suggested before... simply go back to FP charge for it make it pre booking prior to your trip a week a month whatever for resort guests 1st and see what happens... you truly may NOT have to reinvent the wheel here... oh and another good idea... start building some more rides bc Tron isnt solving anything when it opens

Yeah, we'll never really know for sure. I think it's likely for the poor ratings is that resort guests (most likely to purchase and complain) are now competing with everyone else when before they weren't. Though while I've said many times here that I didn't feel FP+ had good availability same day for headliners, I do think FP+ had much better availability for everything else.

 

[pdude81]

Yeah, good point. But LL queues have been pretty long too. Longer than they were with FP+. It almost even feels like they increased the number of passes. Nothing makes sense.

I'm wondering if they didn't just lower the merge ratio back to be closer to FP time instead of the higher merge they started out with. Now this is assuming regular operation and not just after a ride opened back up. As you know that becomes a huge cluster for all involved. My experience with the queues for Genie has been generally pretty good other than say 9:50 on a holiday week.

 

[Jrb1979]

i still dont agree w the "increased demand' scenario again we will never know but i would like to see how many FP rides are used daily vs how many genie rides are used daily etc & again the fact that you cant pre book times and spread them out thruout the day to me cant be ignored.... as ive suggested before... simply go back to FP charge for it make it pre booking prior to your trip a week a month whatever for resort guests 1st and see what happens... you truly may NOT have to reinvent the wheel here... oh and another good idea... start building some more rides bc Tron isnt solving anything when it opens

I would be ok with going back to FP but with some changes. One being instead of being able to book 3 per day make it 1. That way it balances it out for everyone else. The other one is to limit stacking to 2 at a time.

 

[Jeff4272]

The parks re-opened on July 11th 2020. 709 days ago. The covid vaccines have been widely available since summer of 2021 about a year ago. Flights were back to 75-80% of 2019 levels back in July of 2021 (Source). I'm amazed people are still considering the travel "revenge travel" or covid travel. I think the parks/resorts are just flat out crowded because people are back to regular travel plans. WDW was always crowded back in 2019. I just don't think the lack of Magic express, magic bands, evening extra magic hours, ect are stopping many people from going back to regular vacations.

At least for me I got my revenge travel back in 2021... Spending quite a bit extra on vacations and experiences that year. Now in summer of 2022, I am still traveling, but it is pretty similar to what I was doing pre-pandemic.


Not sure if these are considered park perks... but I always felt like some of the park perks for deluxe guests were

• Monorail/friendship boat transportation is nicer than bus transportation
• I always felt like busses showed up more frequently at the nicer resorts
• Never having to share a bus with another resort

I realize these aren't inside the park, but it closely relates your experience going to and from the parks and resorts.

I just disagree with you on the travel....

and those arent perks, that a complete joke and you should be embarrassed to even bring that up

Boy do they have you hook, line and sinker

 

[Jeff4272]

You call it a band-aid because you don't like it but the things you describe are completely by design. Everything you described is built into the supply/demand equation here. If they offered the freedom you seek, demand would sky rocket.

The product was designed to be simple. For guests to open the app in the morning, reserve a ride, close it, ride that ride and rinse and repeat throughout the day. It was not designed to allow guests to schedule their entire itinerary of rides as you did with FP+. They don't want guests on their phone all day mixing and matching reservations. And that's exactly what has happened. Reducing the number of people using it solves all of that.

And to be honest, almost all of the issues you face are due to too many people using it. For example, you want the ability to reserve rides around dining reservations. If less people used it, you wouldn't have to even think about this. Just open the app during your dinner and book something for when it finishes. That's how it was supposed to work until everyone and their cousin bought it.

Then it's just poorly designed and guest satisfaction shows that

Good luck to them, they ruined the place

 

[crazy4disney]

I would be ok with going back to FP but with some changes. One being instead of being able to book 3 per day make it 1. That way it balances it out for everyone else. The other one is to limit stacking to 2 at a time.

okay i could live with that and then maybe book a 3rd after using your 1st? honestly i dont understand the whole stacking unless you are not a day person and basically going at night & isnt stacking simply what FP was lol... again you were simply able to book 3 attractions 1 after the other and in theory rides all 3 within an hour or so... book 9-10,10-11,11-12 and depending on luck etc possibly even sooner. and again this really was not difficult to achieve either way using all 3 FP's before 1130... ps im fully aware you can have overlapping genie reservations....

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Then it's just poorly designed and guest satisfaction shows that

Good luck to them, they ruined the place

For sure.

 

[Jeff4272]

Let me explain this better. Scheduling your attractions under the intended operating procedure is simply not necessary. For example, you may want to select 5pm for your POTC reservation. My point is, if the system were operating as intended, you could just open the app up at 4pm and get a 5pm. That's the freedom it was supposed to offer. The planning is literally what they wanted to remove from the experience.

You shouldn't even have to think about reservations, there should just be availability all day long that you would be comfortable knowing that you didn't have to race to get a 5pm - but simply that it would be there whenever it came time.

Why should they eliminate the planning?

You already have to plan out the whazoo....I need hotel ressie, flights, park pass ressie, dining ressie

Thats not getting rid of pre planning

This is one thing that makes NO SENSE at all...........

Everyone that goes to a WDW park has to plan a boatload, hotel guests, off site guests, AP holders, etc........

Why wouldnt you want ur top ride selections planned too? you know what park ur in, you know what time you will be there, you know what time ur eating, why not book 3 rides around that info and then you have the rest of the day to do the other things?

I dont get it

 

[crazy4disney]

Why should they eliminate the planning?

You already have to plan out the whazoo....I need hotel ressie, flights, park pass ressie, dining ressie


Thats not getting rid of pre planning

they wanted to charge for FP.... okay disney did you truly think changing the name was going to fool us?!?! oh and in doing so you made the system awful... as ive stated countless times if there was anything this company could have gotten away with charging for FP was it!