Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Chi84]

It’s more like $125-150…and you then have to fall in line and pay $60+ (for 4) a day in line surcharges.

Yes…that’s where we are.

If that's the case, we'll probably move on. It's been a great run with WDW but things change and there's no use stressing about it.

I'm an optimist so I'll probably stick around a little longer to see if things change enough to make it fun for us again. But there's no way we'll pay that much for a vacation and come back dissatisfied.

 

[Jenny72]

What if you got a certain number of attractions and then that was it. Like, you'd book two or three attractions for the day, but you could never add more. That way there would at least be less burden on the system and there would be somewhat less pressure to game it to get as many attractions as possible. And you wouldn't have to sit on your phone all day. In fact, you could feasibly manage without a phone if you were able to make the reservations the day before.

Of course I understand that people would still want the E-ticket rides (which not everyone can have) and that would be stressful. Maybe you could do tiers where you only get one headliner ride. I'm just trying to think outside of the tired "they need to limit sales" idea here. Instead of limiting the number of people who get to ride whatever they want all day, where everyone else is a loser, you limit the number of things that everyone can ride all day. A different way to manage the lack of capacity, horizontal rather than vertical as it were.

I'm also leaving out the issue of cost. I'd prefer it be free to maintain the character of Disney as a friendly and different park, and also to cut down on complaints when people can't get whatever specific ride they want. But presumably there could be a (fairly low) charge.

 

[LittleBuford]

What if you got a certain number of attractions and then that was it. Like, you'd book two or three attractions for the day, but you could never add more. That way there would at least be less burden on the system and there would be somewhat less pressure to game it to get as many attractions as possible. And you wouldn't have to sit on your phone all day. In fact, you could feasibly manage without a phone if you were able to make the reservations the day before.

Of course I understand that people would still want the E-ticket rides (which not everyone can have) and that would be stressful. Maybe you could do tiers where you only get one headliner ride. I'm just trying to think outside of the tired "they need to limit sales" idea here. Instead of limiting the number of people who get to ride whatever they want all day, where everyone else is a loser, you limit the number of things that everyone can ride all day. A different way to manage the lack of capacity, horizontal rather than vertical as it were.

I'm also leaving out the issue of cost. I'd prefer it be free to maintain the character of Disney as a friendly and different park, and also to cut down on complaints when people can't get whatever specific ride they want. But presumably there could be a (fairly low) charge.

It seems that FP+ already did this to some extent, since many people seem to have been unaware that you could get additional FastPasses after your original daily preselections, while many others knew you could but didn’t bother doing so.

 

[mikejs78]

What if you got a certain number of attractions and then that was it. Like, you'd book two or three attractions for the day, but you could never add more. That way there would at least be less burden on the system and there would be somewhat less pressure to game it to get as many attractions as possible. And you wouldn't have to sit on your phone all day. In fact, you could feasibly manage without a phone if you were able to make the reservations the day before.

Of course I understand that people would still want the E-ticket rides (which not everyone can have) and that would be stressful. Maybe you could do tiers where you only get one headliner ride. I'm just trying to think outside of the tired "they need to limit sales" idea here. Instead of limiting the number of people who get to ride whatever they want all day, where everyone else is a loser, you limit the number of things that everyone can ride all day. A different way to manage the lack of capacity, horizontal rather than vertical as it were.

I'm also leaving out the issue of cost. I'd prefer it be free to maintain the character of Disney as a friendly and different park, and also to cut down on complaints when people can't get whatever specific ride they want. But presumably there could be a (fairly low) charge.

Early FastPass+ was like this - 3 and done. Resulted in massive complaints, so they changed it to allow 4 and beyond.

 

[matt9112]

It’s a recurrent theme of this thread: people who give money to Disney criticising people for giving money to Disney.

I haven’t been since 2019 I can tell you there the devil.

 

[LittleBuford]

I haven’t been since 2019 I can tell you there the devil.

How often you go seems not to matter to the people in question. Some of them visit quite regularly yet still think it’s OK to berate those of us who they deem are misspending our Disney dollars.

 

[LittleBuford]

Early FastPass+ was like this - 3 and done. Resulted in massive complaints, so they changed it to allow 4 and beyond.

I didn’t know this!

 

[GhostHost1000]

Quick band-aid fixes for G+:

Raise price to $25-$30

Can purchase when making a hotel reservation or park reservation

30 day advance booking of 1 attraction per day (can be for all or for resort guests only)

Remove ILL and include those in G+ LL selections (I know this will never happen but the more attractions to select from the better the system will become)

Virtual queue existing ILL attractions for morning of bookings

Ability to select and modify times

 

[lazyboy97o]

Quick band-aid fixes for G+:

Raise price to $25-$30

Can purchase when making a hotel reservation or park reservation

30 day advance booking of 1 attraction per day (can be for all or for resort guests only)

Remove ILL and include those in G+ LL selections (I know this will never happen but the more attractions to select from the better the system will become)

Virtual queue existing ILL attractions for morning of bookings

Ability to select and modify times

Advance bookings aren’t a solution if you can’t deliver on them and have to cancel.

This doesn’t address all of the still missing capacity in the parks that limits how many people you can have in a virtual queue system.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

But for so many that are locked into not being able to choose a 2nd ride until say 11am at HS when they booked say SDD after that time now what? Again. I dk how it is now but dam good luck finding another solid attraction you can now ride within another 2 hour window.

Studios was tiered and you weren’t getting more than 1 anyway.

So if you want to go on that horrible Star Wars ride…then you sacrifice 3 others that would be booked anyway.

So you then spend the next 5 hours going on the junk with a “fastpass” and staring at your phone looking for someone to cancel RNRC by chance?

The net “gain/loss” between the two systems is HIGHLY overstated

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Quick band-aid fixes for G+:

Raise price to $25-$30

Can purchase when making a hotel reservation or park reservation

30 day advance booking of 1 attraction per day (can be for all or for resort guests only)

Remove ILL and include those in G+ LL selections (I know this will never happen but the more attractions to select from the better the system will become)

Virtual queue existing ILL attractions for morning of bookings

Ability to select and modify times

You “raise” it to $30 and it just becomes more of a “standard” buy…which collapses again Because of capacity. And around we go

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Early FastPass+ was like this - 3 and done. Resulted in massive complaints, so they changed it to allow 4 and beyond.

Past 3 was functionally useless…it was scraps or refreshing your phone constantly on long shot cancellations. Worked some on less crowded days…but it was less crowded so DUH.

This is what I mean by “backup quarterback”

Always the most popular guy on the team

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

How often you go seems not to matter to the people in question. Some of them visit quite regularly yet still think it’s OK to berate those of us who they deem are misspending our Disney dollars.

Ahhh…the victim routine hasn’t shown up for…dare I say?…days?!?!

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

If that's the case, we'll probably move on. It's been a great run with WDW but things change and there's no use stressing about it.

I'm an optimist so I'll probably stick around a little longer to see if things change enough to make it fun for us again. But there's no way we'll pay that much for a vacation and come back dissatisfied.

I’m not trying to discourage you. But I just saw it, know the operational limitations and the pressure for profit…

It’s not gonna be abandoned or changed to a Significant level.

They just don’t have the raw number capacity anymore…and they will not actively shrink their crowds - bluster and misdirection aside. It’s numbers and everyone’s hero Bob let it fail.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It’s a recurrent theme of this thread: people who give money to Disney criticising people for giving money to Disney.

1. My purchases affect yours
2. Your purchases affect mine
3. If either of us are dumb about it…we both can be taken advantage of.

You know where I learned this?

 

[LittleBuford]

Ahhh…the victim routine hasn’t shown up for…dare I say?…days?!?!

I don't feel victimised, merely amused.

 

[Jrb1979]

I’m not trying to discourage you. But I just saw it, know the operational limitations and the pressure for profit…

It’s not gonna be abandoned or changed to a Significant level.

They just don’t have the raw number capacity anymore…and they will not actively shrink their crowds - bluster and misdirection aside. It’s numbers and everyone’s hero Bob let it fail.

Basically the guests just have to accept it. They aren't adding enough capacity anytime soon to fix it and they refuse to limit availability. Basically they don't care.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I don't feel victimised, merely amused.

You seem to often feel “persecuting” a lot based on what you want to spend. Don’t feel bad…you’re far from alone.

The logical disconnect there is believing you are an “individual” in a place where all the pricing is done for bulk/masse. It’s “Borganomics”

You’re only an “individual” to your bank/credit card company.

No foul.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Basically the guests just have to accept it. They aren't adding enough capacity anytime soon to fix it and they refuse to limit availability. Basically they don't care.

100%

That is the reality. And here’s where the “choices” have lead us here:
Capacity was a huge problem under fastpass+ too. It was obvious and daily.
Genie didn’t “start the fire”

But everyone paid more and more…for food…for Halloween parties…for rooms…for tickets…for timeshares…for “after hours” at 7 pm to GET AWAY from the crowds …

Our wallets made them “correct”…and they kept feeding us down the same road. Here’s where we are now.

 

[LittleBuford]

1. My purchases affect yours
2. Your purchases affect mine
3. If either of us are dumb about it…we both can be taken advantage of.

You know where I leaned this?

The difference between us is that I don't care how you spend your money at Disney. It's entirely up to you. The whole thing is a completely discretionary and frivolous matter anyway. We're not talking about tax dollars, or charity, or anything else that affects the running of society.

Moreover, I'm still not sure what you're criticising me for exactly. According to you, my enjoyment of FP+ and readiness to rope-drop were to the detriment of my fellow guests. Yet your decisions, which include actually purchasing Genie+ (something I've yet to do), are somehow sensible and selfless.

It's just a lot of hot air at this point.