Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Jeff4272]

Don’t be a tightwad, dude…let your wallet back up your bluster

I bought enough points to stay in the 3 BR Grand Villa at BLT to buy the 3 extra FP+ selections with no tiers and it was awesome...........you didnt even need 6 FP+ selections in AK and Epcot

We got to sleep in and go to pool every day and get on every single ride while not arriving to the parks until 3pm and staying until closing

 

[crazy4disney]

It was possible before…it’s almost guaranteed now. Crowds were heavy for the times and there were spots all over the place. All ranges food. Characters are in short supply more because there are only 4 as it stands.

I agree and understand that but how is garden grille booked completely i have an 11 day trip and i cant get a ressie for day 5 or 8... i was literally online at 6am today to book on way to work. i even checked as a joke other days and literally booked completely. H&V on day 9 nothing for breakfast before 835am same w my other HS days.... !st night i can see having an issue w MK places but basically nothing was open either but CRT was at 440 so grabbed that so timebeing.

 

[Jeff4272]

You didn’t watch it…because it shows how the numbers were affected and even compared it to an actual day that they presented as a “model” up front.

Is your other hobby peeing into the prevailing winds?

I did watch it............you obviously dont get it

This worked perfectly for hotel guests and pretty well for others.........

I never waited in line when i went

and like i said, this is the best option available so it does work.......if only by default b Genie+ doesnt work

 

[Jeff4272]

I agree and understand that but how is garden grille booked completely i have an 11 day trip and i cant get a ressie for day 5 or 8... i was literally online at 6am today to book on way to work. i even checked as a joke other days and literally booked completely. H&V on day 9 nothing for breakfast before 835am same w my other HS days.... !st night i can see having an issue w MK places but basically nothing was open either but CRT was at 440 so grabbed that so timebeing.

I have friends there right now and got them BOG, Oga's and Cal Grille ressies the last 2 days for the 27th, 29th and 30th............

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

There's a huge difference to planning a couple of meals and every single ride months in advance. We made exactly 1 dining reservation over 6 park days. Tried for 2, but I forgot at the 60 day mark and then it was gone.

FP+ was nowhere near planning every ride though… people act like it took hours of planning, we’d talk about the 3 rides we wanted per park and we’d book them at whatever time they were available, not exactly rocket science.

At MK we knew it would be Seven Dwarfs, Space or Big Thunder, and Pirates or Haunted. We’d take 5 minutes ahead of time to make a list and on FP day I’d take 5 minutes per park seeing what was available and booking it… I always found it easy.

We struggle much more getting the restaurants we want at a reasonable time than we ever did getting FPs. I don’t think it took any secrets or insider knowledge to use FP, just a reminder on the phone so you didn’t miss your window.

Getting a park reservation at DL now is infinitely harder than getting FP reservations was at WDW.

 

[GhostHost1000]

If you're going to book 2 ADR every day, then yeah, you're basically locking everything in anyway. I don't think that's the norm for most people though. I don't think 0 for the entire trip is the norm either. I would bet it's someplace in the middle.



The left hand is definitely not talking to the right hand across many aspects of changes going on and the operations around them.

People don't like planning everything months in advance. Eliminate pre reserve FP+ based on that. Then add back in Park Reservation completely negating the change. Worse, make it harder to use and more restrictive too.

Give resort guests an extra half hour early entry. This will incentivize everyone into the parks at rope drop, which should help with at least 1 ride being near impossible to get a LL for. Forget to tell bus operations they need to run more busses earlier in the morning making it near impossible to actually take advantage of those extra early hours. So, now you're up to get the early entry AND the LL at 7:00 too, but you're sitting at a bus stop cursing out that it's not there.

The subtle and not so subtle nudges they're giving guests for how they would like people to use the park are bad enough. That they aren't following through and making those work better is what creates the bigger annoyance.

Speaking of early entry. Here is me lined up for a bus to AK a few weeks ago so imagine this along with 7am genie+ fiasco while on a bus

 

[Jeff4272]

FP+ was nowhere near planning every ride though… people act like it took hours of planning, we’d talk about the 3 rides we wanted per park and we’d book them at whatever time they were available, not exactly rocket science.

At MK we knew it would be Seven Dwarfs, Space or Big Thunder, and Pirates or Haunted. We’d take 5 minutes ahead of time to make a list and on FP day I’d take 5 minutes per park seeing what was available and booking it… I always found it easy.

We struggle much more getting the restaurants we want at a reasonable time than we ever did getting FPs. I don’t think it took any secrets or insider knowledge to use FP, just a reminder on the phone so you didn’t miss your window.

Getting a park reservation at DL now is infinitely harder than getting FP reservations was at WDW.

100% agree........It would take me maybe 10 minutes to book my 3 FP+ per park for my entire trip and it was awesome knowing that was all done so we could then just go and enjoy ourselves and not have to wake up every morning and pray our fingers were fast enough

 

[crazy4disney]

They just don’t have enough space, seats or employees to handle a 2019 level crowd comfortably. Didn’t I just see someone begging for 3 precooked rides and then launchbay?

So clicking the mouse like a hard-o 2 months…In advance is yielding such great things, huh?

What was the other comment “it was fine until this “ride all day” stuff”…

Like an amusement park? One that went to “ride all day” tickets in the 1980’s?

Sometimes I wish the dog would actually catch his tail…and choke on it.

I just dont understand how they CANT get people to work and open up these places which im assuming are money making machines!.... overpay people if need be to get them to work and open places to eat so you make X instead of Y and give everyone a better experience.... lock in a salary/pay wage for ay 12 months and tell people we will revisit and possibly lower wages... i dk the exact details but everyone has their price to work... the country is borderline heading into a recession yet people dont want to work? i just cant grasp that concept at all... especially a job at a restaurant where not only are you getting wages but tips as well... cash at times as well

 

[crazy4disney]

100% agree........It would take me maybe 10 minutes to book my 3 FP+ per park for my entire trip and it was awesome knowing that was all done so we could then just go and enjoy ourselves and not have to wake up every morning and pray our fingers were fast enough

Exactly i did all the work for 3-4 people each trip & like you said was far from time consuming for my entire trip but it was simple and easy and far from a genius to figure out and you knew what you were locked into before heading down there vs this disaster of genie

 

[Jeff4272]

Speaking of early entry. Here is me lined up for a bus to AK a few weeks ago so imagine this along with 7am genie+ fiasco while on a bus
View attachment 648935

Thats awful.........waiting for a bus..........having to buy Genie+ and then hoping your fingers are quick enough so you dont have to wait 110 mins at FOP at 7:15 am......

Thanks but no thanks

 

[crazy4disney]

I have friends there right now and got them BOG, Oga's and Cal Grille ressies the last 2 days for the 27th, 29th and 30th............

I think it was more character issues tbh bc i did see some BOG and Cali Grille open... when checking this morning my daughter still enjoys character meals altho Ohana no longer is & CP isnt either... just convenient in the parks to eat there & also with a car driving to hotel in morning to eat there is so much easier to eat on a monorail line... thanks for the heads up tho

 

[Jeff4272]

I think it was more character issues tbh bc i did see some BOG and Cali Grille open... when checking this morning my daughter still enjoys character meals altho Ohana no longer is & CP isnt either... just convenient in the parks to eat there & also with a car driving to hotel in morning to eat there is so much easier to eat on a monorail line... thanks for the heads up tho

PM me and i'll help you get some ressies if you want

 

[mmascari]

I bought enough points to stay in the 3 BR Grand Villa at BLT to buy the 3 extra FP+ selections with no tiers and it was awesome...........you didnt even need 6 FP+ selections in AK and Epcot

We got to sleep in and go to pool every day and get on every single ride while not arriving to the parks until 3pm and staying until closing

That VIP tour. You can still do ALL of that, and it'll be even better. They just raised the price on you is all.

That you don't like the massive price increase is a different topic. I know I wouldn't pay for a VIP tour. But then, I'm forced into dealing with how they want me to visit the parks more than how I might prefer to visit the parks.

 

[Jeff4272]

That VIP tour. You can still do ALL of that, and it'll be even better. They just raised the price on you is all.

That you don't like the massive price increase is a different topic. I know I wouldn't pay for a VIP tour. But then, I'm forced into dealing with how they want me to visit the parks more than how I might prefer to visit the parks.

the point is, its only 1 day..........what do i do my 6 other park days?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I will still argue MORE people used FP+ than are using Genie and yet this was NEVER an issue & when i say more i also mean more rides were Booked w FP than are being booked w Genie.... I truly wish someone on the inside could provide this info because again i cant grasp how FP altho not perfect was a superior product than genie is which is absolutely abysmal. Crazy part is this system/cash flow is generating basically enough money annually to build new rides annually with little to No impact and only generate more cash and also gives them an incentive to build quickly & there is NO way they would ever get to a point where the parks are built sufficient enough where people opt out of paying for a skip the line system thats how underbuilt the parks are right now....

Reservation and virtual queue systems require lots of additional instantaneous capacity to actually function. People need someplace to “not” wait in a queue. Walt Disney World still has not returned to pre-pandemic levels of operations on a number of fronts that contribute to this necessary capacity.

Agreed nothing is perfect and no system with suit millionsof people but is that really the goal? If so may as well throw towel in bc thats impossible….

You can create situations that are advantageous to many. It’s the zero-sum schemes that create problems.

So FP overall worked well for everyone for most part except people who decided to show up last minute… again. You can say that about plenty of other things. Try getting into anice restaurant in the city last minute they either laugh at you or say okay maybe 2 hour wait to sit… so again FP in theory worked.

No, it did not. It just didn’t. Even in theory it was known that FastPass+ was going to be a problem.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

100% agree........It would take me maybe 10 minutes to book my 3 FP+ per park for my entire trip and it was awesome knowing that was all done so we could then just go and enjoy ourselves and not have to wake up every morning and pray our fingers were fast enough

Makes me wonder if the FP problem for a lot of people was that they were over planning and wanted specific times. If you “need” Big Thunder at 2pm because that’s when you have it planned it’s going to be very hard to get, if you just need Big Thunder OR Space anytime between 9am and 9pm it’s much easier.

We take the same flexible approach with ADRs, if you need BOG at 6pm sharp for dinner it’s going to be nearly impossible to get but if you just want to go to BOG and are willing to go anytime between noon and 8pm your chances of getting it are pretty good.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I just dont understand how they CANT get people to work and open up these places which im assuming are money making machines!.... overpay people if need be to get them to work and open places to eat so you make X instead of Y and give everyone a better experience.... lock in a salary/pay wage for ay 12 months and tell people we will revisit and possibly lower wages... i dk the exact details but everyone has their price to work... the country is borderline heading into a recession yet people dont want to work? i just cant grasp that concept at all... especially a job at a restaurant where not only are you getting wages but tips as well... cash at times as well

Quite simple: they laid everyone off and they aren’t paying enough to lure people in during this bizarre post-Covid world.

Labor costs are unacceptable to stock traders and the corporate public companies…

…don’t look now.

To be clear: Iger let average daily travel exceed flexible capacity/comfort long before the plague. They just made another bonehead move there

 

[Jeff4272]

Makes me wonder if the FP problem for a lot of people was that they were over planning and wanted specific times. If you “need” Big Thunder at 2pm because that’s when you have it planned it’s going to be very hard to get, if you just need Big Thunder OR Space anytime between 9am and 9pm it’s much easier.

We take the same flexible approach with ADRs, if you need BOG at 6pm sharp for dinner it’s going to be nearly impossible to get but if you just want to go to BOG and are willing to go anytime between noon and 8pm your chances of getting it are pretty good.

Not in my experience.......I never once had an issue getting the exact time of FP+ selection at 60 days....not once ever

 

[crazy4disney]

Reservation and virtual queue systems require lots of additional instantaneous capacity to actually function. People need someplace to “not” wait in a queue. Walt Disney World still has not returned to pre-pandemic levels of operations on a number of fronts that contribute to this necessary capacity.

You can create situations that are advantageous to many. It’s the zero-sum schemes that create problems.

No, it did not. It just didn’t. Even in theory it was known that FastPass+ was going to be a problem.

Altho i disagree that FP as you say didnt work... rolling out a system in the middle of capacity issues and a pandemic etc probably was not the best move either. end of days years of neglect not adding capacity has finally caught up to them but again these issues did NOT exist when FP was around hence why i find it hard to say FP didnt work

 

[crazy4disney]

Quite simple: they laid everyone off and they aren’t paying enough to lure people in during this bizarre post-Covid world.

Labor costs are unacceptable to stock traders and the corporate public companies…

…don’t look now.

To be clear: Iger let average daily travel exceed flexible capacity/comfort long before the plague. They just made another bonehead move there

Hence why i suggested to overpay for say a year to bring people back in net net its a win all around for everyone. Oh trust me i agree as i said years of neglect finally caught up with them... overlays vs additions dont work