Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[MickeyLuv'r]

Except buying an ILL isn't paying to ride an attraction; it's paying to skip a line. So in June, we paid $10 to skip the 1+ hour standby line for 7DMT -- so about 17 cents a minute to skip the line. And RotR was $15 to skip a 2+ hour standby line so that was about 12 cents per minute of saved time. RotR was down for several hours the day we were there and they actually ended up closing the standby line for an hour because they had about 3 hours worth of ILLs to get through so the ILL probably cost us less than 10 cents a minute.

I have to chuckle a little, I mean, did you think most forum members don't know that?

These boards have become so harsh. My goodness. In my head, I sometimes frame ILL as paying $15 to ride a 4-minute attraction, but most times, our alternative is not to waste 2hours in the queue, it is just to skip the attraction altogether.

I've been on Rise a number of times, to me, it is not worth $15. I tend to skip it. If the price has now gone even higher, then I'm even less likely to pay. Then again, the last time I did ride it, there was no wait at all.

That's another aspect to the absurdity of the ILL's. Sometimes the queue is long, but sometimes when you return to use a pass in the PM the wait is actually pretty short, and you still had to kill several hours to use the pass.

To be fair though, I do think about WDW in terms of time=$. When we visit Universal for example, we have often felt staying at the Hard Rock was well worth the money for all the time saving perks that are included.

 

[jpeden]

Just contact guest services when you come home.

They charged me for a dinner we couldn't make - I tried to cancel within the time, but it wouldn't allow online and said to call. This was during the time when phone waits were over 4 hours! I tried, kept getting busy signals and said forget it.

When I got home I emailed guest services and they refunded me the $40. (4 people0

It has been reported to get the refund you have to do it at guest services at DHS. They’re the only ones that will/can process it. Even the blue umbrella guest experience kiosks won’t do it.

That being said it appears to be back up so moot point, but it shouldn’t be this way in general.

Holy crap. A CM should *never* argue with a guest.

She was outwardly combative basically accusing me of lying about what I read. I have NEVER reported a bad cast interaction until that instance. It was awful. I’m sure it didn’t help there was a line of people asking for the same thing but it was an awful interaction.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Well looks like I’ll be waiting in line at guest relations again to get a refund on my ROTR lighting lane since it’s once again down. Can’t wait to spend 20 minutes arguing with the cast member to get the refund like last time where they refused to refund me until I asked for a manager.

I knew this was going to be a problem as soon as I heard of ILL. Disney is hoping guests will not want to wait in long lines for refunds, but for a family it’s a lot of money and you can’t just walk away.

Credits for ILLs you paid for and can’t use should be as easy to get as when they initially take your money.

 

[Chi84]

It has been reported to get the refund you have to do it at guest services at DHS. They’re the only ones that will/can process it. Even the blue umbrella guest experience kiosks won’t do it.

That being said it appears to be back up so moot point, but it shouldn’t be this way in general.



She was outwardly combative basically accusing me of lying about what I read. I have NEVER reported a bad cast interaction until that instance. It was awful. I’m sure it didn’t help there was a line of people asking for the same thing but it was an awful interaction.

It must depend on the CM. When we were here last April the ride went down and 2 of the 6 of us were not able to ride. My son-in-law explained that we had to leave to get to another park for a dinner reservation and they were going to refund us the full amount for 6 people. He didn’t take the full amount because 4 of us were able to ride.

Even though it was easy to get a refund, you shouldn’t have to stand in line to get back money you gave Disney for the sole purpose of not having to stand in line.

 

[jpeden]

It must depend on the CM. When we were here last April the ride went down and 2 of the 6 of us were not able to ride. My son-in-law explained that we had to leave to get to another park for a dinner reservation and they were going to refund us the full amount for 6 people. He didn’t take the full amount because 4 of us were able to ride.

Even though it was easy to get a refund, you shouldn’t have to stand in line to get back money you gave Disney for the sole purpose of not having to stand in line.

Exactly. Disney used to be world renowned for the guest experience and customer service. Now, it’s literally all about how much they can squeeze out of the guest even if they are in the wrong in a situation.

 

[Ayla]

It has been reported to get the refund you have to do it at guest services at DHS. They’re the only ones that will/can process it. Even the blue umbrella guest experience kiosks won’t do it.

That being said it appears to be back up so moot point, but it shouldn’t be this way in general.



She was outwardly combative basically accusing me of lying about what I read. I have NEVER reported a bad cast interaction until that instance. It was awful. I’m sure it didn’t help there was a line of people asking for the same thing but it was an awful interaction.

I'm glad you reported her. I hope she was reprimanded.

 

[DisneyfanMA]

If the charge for ILL just goes to a CC on file and you don't want to deal with rude CM's,long lines ala Chapek's MO, consider calling your CC to dispute the charge. They're pretty good about removing it for you if you don't abuse it and are a good customer.

 

[allgiggles]

I have to chuckle a little, I mean, did you think most forum members don't know that?

These boards have become so harsh. My goodness. In my head, I sometimes frame ILL as paying $15 to ride a 4-minute attraction, but most times, our alternative is not to waste 2hours in the queue, it is just to skip the attraction altogether.

I've been on Rise a number of times, to me, it is not worth $15. I tend to skip it. If the price has now gone even higher, then I'm even less likely to pay. Then again, the last time I did ride it, there was no wait at all.

That's another aspect to the absurdity of the ILL's. Sometimes the queue is long, but sometimes when you return to use a pass in the PM the wait is actually pretty short, and you still had to kill several hours to use the pass.

To be fair though, I do think about WDW in terms of time=$. When we visit Universal for example, we have often felt staying at the Hard Rock was well worth the money for all the time saving perks that are included.

I do think most people here understand they're paying to skip the line as opposed to paying to ride a ride. However, the poster I was responding to was commenting on how much it costs per minute to ride the ILL attractions based on the price of the ILL. So I guess not everybody sees it as paying to skip a line. I wasn't trying to come across as harsh. Just trying to offer a different way for the poster (and some newbies who might be reading these boards to prepare for an upcoming trip) to look at it.

I agree, time is money which is why our family felt Genie+ and ILL was worth every penny and we won't hesitate to buy them again. I also realize that we are fortunate to be in a position to be able to afford these things.

 

[matt9112]

Just a quick G+ report from yesterday with a price of $22. I was able to book the following yesterday

Frozen x2 (went down both times got ME LLs) Soarin, Navi, KS, FotLK, MMRR, RnRC, TOT. Total of 9 or $2.44 per line skip per person. Other than FotLK, and 1 ME(used it 1 SSE, 1 on Frozen) all lines skips were over 45mins standby.

Overall great day/use. Only waited standby for Rat(rope drop), figment, Nemo, Guardians VQ, gran Fiesta, everest SR x2

We will see how today goes as we are not planning to leave MK and leave around 5 for the beach. $18 day. We don't plan to get there until 1030 but already have a noon Peter pan booked

It’s a great service when money isn’t a factor. I have a feeling the price ceiling is only going to get higher.

 

[crazy4disney]

It must depend on the CM. When we were here last April the ride went down and 2 of the 6 of us were not able to ride. My son-in-law explained that we had to leave to get to another park for a dinner reservation and they were going to refund us the full amount for 6 people. He didn’t take the full amount because 4 of us were able to ride.

Even though it was easy to get a refund, you shouldn’t have to stand in line to get back money you gave Disney for the sole purpose of not having to stand in line.

Honestly may or may not be relevant but to me its ALWAYS up to the CM ive had issues or requests where some days they have no problem doing and other days sorry cant help you. One example that sticks out was when Rise opened up i was there. It was the 2nd day the Friday i lucked out w a VQ BG as we all know the ride was a nitemare with all the breakdowns. We had a decently early boarding group as well but also tickets for MVMCP. Our group wasnt close to being called. I simply explained my situation to one of the CM and she literally did soMething to my app told me go ahead walk to the entrance and enjoy the ride & thengo have fun at the party. I remember around 730pm getting an alert that my BG was called while at the party lol.

 

[TQQQ]

It’s a great service when money isn’t a factor. I have a feeling the price ceiling is only going to get higher.

It’s far from a “great” service.

I would call it an expensive, inefficient, unintelligent, annoying, time consuming, stressful, expensive, dumb, expensive, stupid technology that doesn’t work as well as its predecessor

 

[lazyboy97o]

I do think most people here understand they're paying to skip the line as opposed to paying to ride a ride. However, the poster I was responding to was commenting on how much it costs per minute to ride the ILL attractions based on the price of the ILL. So I guess not everybody sees it as paying to skip a line. I wasn't trying to come across as harsh. Just trying to offer a different way for the poster (and some newbies who might be reading these boards to prepare for an upcoming trip) to look at it.

I agree, time is money which is why our family felt Genie+ and ILL was worth every penny and we won't hesitate to buy them again. I also realize that we are fortunate to be in a position to be able to afford these things.

You’re not paying to skip the line, you’re paying for a virtual queue. It may not seem like an important distinction in the moment, but it’s key to understanding why things work certain ways and the larger way the system operates.

 

[crazy4disney]

You’re not paying to skip the line, you’re paying for a virtual queue. It may not seem like an important distinction in the moment, but it’s key to understanding why things work certain ways and the larger way the system operates.

This has been my “argument” regarding the current version of DAS and how on busy days and seasons can be basically rendered “useless” an exaggeration of course but if you are in a park that has literally 100 minute waits on almost all attractions worthy if riding how many things can you truly do especially those who are truly limited. Again yes it “helps” bc those who use it need it (majority do yes agreed there def is some sort of abuse) but to hear people who have never used it say its exponentially makes someones trip better again to me is an over the top statement.

 

[Purduevian]

Just a quick G+ report from yesterday with a price of $22. I was able to book the following yesterday

Frozen x2 (went down both times got ME LLs) Soarin, Navi, KS, FotLK, MMRR, RnRC, TOT. Total of 9 or $2.44 per line skip per person. Other than FotLK, and 1 ME(used it 1 SSE, 1 on Frozen) all lines skips were over 45mins standby.

Overall great day/use. Only waited standby for Rat(rope drop), figment, Nemo, Guardians VQ, gran Fiesta, everest SR x2

We will see how today goes as we are not planning to leave MK and leave around 5 for the beach. $18 day. We don't plan to get there until 1030 but already have a noon Peter pan booked

Yesterday's update G+ was $18. Was only in the parks from 10:30 till 5ish. I got LL for Pan, Pooh, HM, Space, Buzz, Pirates, and Indy. $2.57 per skip. Also most lines were more like 30 minutes to skip so not as much time saved.
Standby on philharmonic, people mover, and FOF

 

[G00fyDad]

On the trip we just got back from we purchased Genie+ for every member of our party and I had to purchase it per day for my brother since he wasn't in on the original package booking. I think the longest we had to wait in any line was 10 minutes. We did every single ride we wanted to do. We didn't do things like Philarmagic, the Liberty River Boat, or the Swiss Family Treehouse. But we did every single other thing.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I would call it an expensive, inefficient, unintelligent, annoying, time consuming, stressful, expensive, dumb, expensive, stupid technology that doesn’t work as well as its predecessor

How many times have you used it? Because judging from previous posts you've made, I'm going to guess the answer is zero.

 

[TQQQ]

How many times have you used it? Because judging from previous posts you've made, I'm going to guess the answer is zero.

Ive used it as much as you, plus one more.....so if you are 25, i've used it 26

 

[TQQQ]

On the trip we just got back from we purchased Genie+ for every member of our party and I had to purchase it per day for my brother since he wasn't in on the original package booking. I think the longest we had to wait in any line was 10 minutes. We did every single ride we wanted to do. We didn't do things like Philarmagic, the Liberty River Boat, or the Swiss Family Treehouse. But we did every single other thing.

What week was that? What parks? Wonder what rides you got at HS and what time you stated.........Seems more like a Blue Lobster to me

 

[Joel]

How many times have you used it? Because judging from previous posts you've made, I'm going to guess the answer is zero.

Perhaps you're right, but that description leads me to believe he has used it before.

 

[TQQQ]

Perhaps you're right, but that description leads me to believe he has used it before.

I have too. Just ask captain America. I’ve used it more than him