Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[lazyboy97o]

Everyone says no system is working yet FP worked better than this imo and i dk why everyone is soooo adament against advanced booking. What is the true harm in letting people book say a week ahead of time day by by as opposed to the entire. Same logic and theory just gives people options and some sort of plan to go around meals that are already booked….

Letting people pre-book means having to delivery on that committed capacity.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Again. Everyone keeps saying this and saying that yet come up with zero options. We are far from the average or majority of guests but as ive stated and plenty others have. FP+ worked well for us and everyone i know and others have had the same sentiment.
Can i ask you and everyone this.

Which system would you say has worked better? FP+ or Genie+. No reasons examples so on and so forth and please only respond if you have actually used Genie+. Im just curious what all these users have to say. I would also take into account people who know others who have gone what there their were.

Ill start. I do not know 1 person/family/group/local that prefer Genie over FP and it has zero to do with the money. Heck people have gone as saying they would pay double to have the old system back…

You're asking for anecdotes because you don't like the math.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

Can we all stop with the just raise the price on this or that? It’s already way to expensive. What happened to the days I remember here years and years ago of people not going to go back because day tickets were hitting 85 and 90 bucks. Now we are paying 125-150 a day in some cases and dishong out for G+ and im hearing just raise the price. Its out of hand already. Our vacations have drastically changed because of the pricing and losing some of its magic and im DVC for 20 years. I would still like to go on occasion so lets halt the “ raise the price” parade for just a little while longer.

 

[crazy4disney]

You're asking for anecdotes because you don't like the math.

Noone else has given solutions... & im curious where was all this hate before hand for FP? where was all it ruined parks... all we heard was it was inflating standby lines & yet i still dont see them reduced with genie for a system supposedly being used less & less rides per hour allocated to the system...

 

[crazy4disney]

Can we all stop with the just raise the price on this or that? It’s already way to expensive. What happened to the days I remember here years and years ago of people not going to go back because day tickets were hitting 85 and 90 bucks. Now we are paying 125-150 a day in some cases and dishong out for G+ and im hearing just raise the price. Its out of hand already. Our vacations have drastically changed because of the pricing and losing some of its magic and im DVC for 20 years. I would still like to go on occasion so lets halt the “ raise the price” parade for just a little while longer.

Listen i agree with you 100% but hot take i still dont think a Disney is you stay value is as expensive as people make it out to be when you do a per day average price for Disney only when you start comparing it to other places ..ive had this convo on other threads possibly here as well but yes i agree im not advocating for some major increase im just saying go ahead charge 25 pp per day for the old FP and call it a day....

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

A lot of people who have been and will be using Genie+ between now and the end of the year bought it months ago and probably don’t know how it’s working (or not). Even if they have read reports, they won’t have experienced it. All those people may well have complaints and their complaints will be fully legitimate even if they’ve been following along the whole time. It’s not as if Disney will allow you to cancel G+ and be refunded.

Fair point.

Just to be clear: I think I actually “like” the thing…in a bizarro world.

But fundamentally I AM part of the problem…they don’t have enough capacity for their crowds and haven’t been called out to do what they need to statistically to keep the product what it has been and needs be to keep it viable at its prices longterm.

There’s so much “why isn’t it working?!?” angst.
I don’t think most of the customer base understands it CAN’T really work at the numbers they have now 365 Days a year. “Functional” perhaps…but not really that “good”.

I just tend to pounce on the “they should just do ____” statements.
The reality is any idea now has problems…it’s where we are based on numbers.

 

[dreday3]

Everyone should just quit complaining and go for longer stays so you have more opportunities to go on all the rides with shorter waits.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Can we all stop with the just raise the price on this or that? It’s already way to expensive. What happened to the days I remember here years and years ago of people not going to go back because day tickets were hitting 85 and 90 bucks. Now we are paying 125-150 a day in some cases and dishong out for G+ and im hearing just raise the price. Its out of hand already. Our vacations have drastically changed because of the pricing and losing some of its magic and im DVC for 20 years. I would still like to go on occasion so lets halt the “ raise the price” parade for just a little while longer.

Thank you.
“Just triple the price for everything so I can have MY MAGIC for 7 days every other year”
If people want chapek gone…this is the way. Because the attendance will drop so massively that he’ll be tarred and feathered by either Wall Street or the 25,000 “necessary” job cuts in Florida.
Empty pop century and port orleans would be creepy as all get out.

Noone else has given solutions... & im curious where was all this hate before hand for FP? where was all it ruined parks... all we heard was it was inflating standby lines & yet i still dont see them reduced with genie for a system supposedly being used less & less rides per hour allocated to the system...

You have to accept the concept that there isn’t a viable “solution” based on the variables.
I’m annoying as hell…granted. But I’m also unfortunately good at predicting trends from long ago. They’re lack of builds for butts was something I raised about 15 years ago - early in Bobby’s world - on the DiS.
That…is now the problem. Unfortunate for all of us.

Fastpass - paper - would be overrun. But it was only an optional convenience feature.
So they replaced it was a straight up rationing system that they HATED and frankly wasn’t good…the cries for its return don’t have much of a sense of history.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Everyone should just quit complaining and go for longer stays so you have more opportunities to go on all the rides with shorter waits.

Thank you, Mr. Eisner

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Where rides are not as high a priority, people will be “priced out” at a number much lower than at other parks. Pricing people out of a line skip system at WDW isn’t going to drive them into the standby lines; it’s more likely to have them choosing a different vacation spot. I know you don’t want to hear it, but WDW is qualitatively different from standard theme parks.

Disney needs people in its restaurants, water parks, resorts, shopping venues, etc.
Those people still want to go on rides without a prohibitive wait but they’re not going to pay Universal type prices to do it because there just aren’t enough rides to justify the cost.

And if Disney does decide to sell very expensive passes to people, those people may well decide to pound the rides more than they would otherwise just to get their money’s worth. How is that going to help anything?

To add…
There is also a significant difference in variation/clientele compared to universal that would make such a system hard.
Universal has more standard, extreme rides on express pass that some customers aren’t touching…even the ones That get it “free”….
Disney has really nothing of the sort. Maybe 5 ish sorta in that range property wide.
I bet a larger percentage of a larger crowd in Disney parks each day would want a boujie line skip add on than people would pay for/use as much across the board at a UOR park.

 

[dreday3]

Thank you, Mr. Eisner

I'm always happy to offer my wisdom when it helps others in need.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Those people have their own ideas of which of Disney’s products are worth buying and criticize people who don’t agree. It’s just background noise.

You want to know why?

…oh, nevermind

 

[drizgirl]

Where rides are not as high a priority, people will be “priced out” at a number much lower than at other parks. Pricing people out of a line skip system at WDW isn’t going to drive them into the standby lines; it’s more likely to have them choosing a different vacation spot. I know you don’t want to hear it, but WDW is qualitatively different from standard theme parks.

Disney needs people in its restaurants, water parks, resorts, shopping venues, etc.
Those people still want to go on rides without a prohibitive wait but they’re not going to pay Universal type prices to do it because there just aren’t enough rides to justify the cost.

And if Disney does decide to sell very expensive passes to people, those people may well decide to pound the rides more than they would otherwise just to get their money’s worth. How is that going to help anything?

I skipped Universal for 15 years because of their pricey line skip program. Wasn’t going to pay that price and wasn’t going as a second class visitor without it. Could absolutely see people doing the same with Disney if they do the same.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I skipped Universal for 15 years because of their pricey line skip program. Wasn’t going to pay that price and wasn’t going as a second class visitor without it. Could absolutely see people doing the same with Disney if the do the same.

Disney’s line skipping system was and is quite expensive. FastPass, FastPass+ and Genie+ are not line skipping systems. They are virtual queue systems. That is a very important distinction. How they work is different and more importantly, how they impact overall operations is different.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Disney’s line skipping system was and is quite expensive. FastPass, FastPass+ and Genie+ are not line skipping systems. They are virtual queue systems. That is a very important distinction. How they work is different and more importantly, how they impact overall operations is different.

 

[Rickcat96]

Disney is not interested in fixing wait times, then Bob would lose his demand is more than supply argument on justifying pricing power.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Disney is not interested in fixing wait times, then Bob would lose his demand is more than supply argument on justifying pricing power.

There’s is also that

 

[crazy4disney]

Thank you.
“Just triple the price for everything so I can have MY MAGIC for 7 days every other year”
If people want chapek gone…this is the way. Because the attendance will drop so massively that he’ll be tarred and feathered by either Wall Street or the 25,000 “necessary” job cuts in Florida.
Empty pop century and port orleans would be creepy as all get out.

You have to accept the concept that there isn’t a viable “solution” based on the variables.
I’m annoying as hell…granted. But I’m also unfortunately good at predicting trends from long ago. They’re lack of builds for butts was something I raised about 15 years ago - early in Bobby’s world - on the DiS.
That…is now the problem. Unfortunate for all of us.

Fastpass - paper - would be overrun. But it was only an optional convenience feature.
So they replaced it was a straight up rationing system that they HATED and frankly wasn’t good…the cries for its return don’t have much of a sense of history.

Listen ive been on these board for over 2 decades and literally never commented until this & Splash tbh.. but in my circle and a couple groups chats im in i have been saying this from here to eternity.. screaming it. I 100% agree with you that eventually capacity & lack of rides were gonna bite them in the a$$ & we have finally seen that happen... & what is next? as you say Wall St may start getting annoyed at #s but i will say this from working here for 20+ years they are gonna care about revenue and profits agreed attendance numbers dropping will be a factor but they can easily spin generating the same or more net revenue as a positive not a negative. they have a ton of land and open spaces yet refuse to use it.. these overlays are ridiculous. Dont get me wrong change is good when needed but some of these decisions lately are just blatantly bad and so obvious better options could and should have been made...

 

[Casper Gutman]

I skipped Universal for 15 years because of their pricey line skip program. Wasn’t going to pay that price and wasn’t going as a second class visitor without it. Could absolutely see people doing the same with Disney if the do the same.

You almost never need a line-skip program at Universal. The lines move fast and they have adequate capacity to handle their crowds - and they increase capacity very aggressively, trying to add at least one attraction a year (and, of course, an entire new theme park and resort area in the future). Additionally, unlimited line skipping is free if you stay at one of their top hotels, and those hotels are EXTREMELY reasonably priced compared to WDW - their top line resort, with great theming and service, is comparable in price to Port Orleans (which is such a glaring indictment of Disney's absurd pricing). Overall, Universal absolutely doesn't do the "second-class tourist" thing nearly as much as Disney - in fact they really don't do it at all. Staying at Universal actually highlights just how unusual and insulting Disney's "first/ second/ third class tourist" thing is.

Basically, there are reasons not to visit Universal, but the line-skipping situation absolutely isn't one.

 

[crazy4disney]

Says the guy who just recently purchased Genie+...

ill fully admit i am part of this problem again... but i wish i had the guts to cancel bc honestly as ive stated my daughter truly doesnt want to go and take some time off from there.. i am not thrilled at what Disney has become but this late in the game and 8k in gift cards just isnt worth the aggravation to deal with lol... i know it sounds crazy but its true.. i will say this tho... i can easily see myself heading to Uni & SW And BG this trip and not care about the pre purchase of Genie+