Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[RememberWhen]

This ^^^^

All of the Touring Plans analysis since the introduction of the G+ has shown that it saves you more time than getting one for any other ride. That then becomes self-fulfilling.

Heh. I'm pretty sure that fewer than 5% of park guests know about TP or the Unofficial Guide.

My guess - and it's a guess - is that the ride isn't running at pre-pandemic capacity. I'll see if I can get some counts this week.

Ok. Potential (maybe best saved for April Fools?) social experiment:
Suggest that the most time saved is for some other ride. Maybe Teacups. And see if that starts getting more Genie+ reservations.
Could see how many people really are watching and planning with TP. And how much power you have over us them.

 

[nickys]

Ok. Potential (maybe best saved for April Fools?) social experiment:
Suggest that the most time saved is for some other ride. Maybe Teacups. And see if that starts getting more Genie+ reservations.
Could see how many people really are watching and planning with TP. And how much power you have over us them.

Thing is though even if they did that and put a spoof blog out about it, the algorithms for the personalised touring plans would still use the real data. And that would very quickly show that the blog was wrong.

It might work for those that only watch the “How to” G+ videos but not for anyone using the touring plans themselves.

 

[CastAStone]

Ok. Potential (maybe best saved for April Fools?) social experiment:
Suggest that the most time saved is for some other ride. Maybe Teacups. And see if that starts getting more Genie+ reservations.
Could see how many people really are watching and planning with TP. And how much power you have over us them.

I think the problem is less what TP says on their site and more the 1 billion free planning sites who mostly just rip off whatever Touring Plans says provide analysis based on “conventional wisdom”.

 

[Purduevian]

I think the problem is less what TP says on their site and more the 1 billion free planning sites who mostly just rip off whatever Touring Plans says provide analysis based on “conventional wisdom”.

Not to take away from TP (they do so much great analytics). However, anyone that takes 10 minutes to study the app can tell you the top G+ priorities in MK.

Looking at the app right now
Jingle Cruise is sold out along with Meet Cinderella, Meet Mickey, and Meet Tiana. Pretty easy to see the JC is the first ride to sell out and thus the top priority. Just because 2 sites reach the same conclusion does NOT mean they are ripping off each other.

 

[nickys]

Not to take away from TP (they do so much great analytics). However, anyone that takes 10 minutes to study the app can tell you the top G+ priorities in MK.

Looking at the app right now
Jingle Cruise is sold out along with Meet Cinderella, Meet Mickey, and Meet Tiana. Pretty easy to see the JC is the first ride to sell out and thus the top priority. Just because 2 sites reach the same conclusion does NOT mean they are ripping off each other.

In that particular case it’s true that the app is useful in showing “the top priority”.

But what does that actually mean? It depends on what people are trying to achieve, surely? The first ride to sell out might not always be the ride that you can save most time on by getting G+ For some people, saving the most time might be their top priority. For others it might be that they want to knock out several rides in quick succession using G+ For another group it will be to book their favourite ride so they can do it 2-3 times, using stand-by first and then using G+

 

[marni1971]

We sailed through on this last trip with a G+ for JC and while heading to the boat one guy was about to be kicked out of the park if he got much more out of control. He was punching the posts and theme items in the queue screaming that he had been waiting for nearly 45 minutes and he's tired of lazy ***holes like me walking past him to get on the ride.

Imagine the abuse the cast at merge gets on a regular basis. It is becoming has become a serious problem.

 

[Touchdown]

That’s because merge on JC is atrocious. If standby is lucky, it’s one party per boat annd everyone else is LL/DAS. The ride never gets to optimal levels because of handicap loads backing up boats.

 

[lazyboy97o]

We sailed through on this last trip with a G+ for JC and while heading to the boat one guy was about to be kicked out of the park if he got much more out of control. He was punching the posts and theme items in the queue screaming that he had been waiting for nearly 45 minutes and he's tired of lazy ***holes like me walking past him to get on the ride.

Altercations between guests resulted in queues being designed to physically separate the lines at the merge point.

 

[Purduevian]

In that particular case it’s true that the app is useful in showing “the top priority”.

But what does that actually mean? It depends on what people are trying to achieve, surely? The first ride to sell out might not always be the ride that you can save most time on by getting G+ For some people, saving the most time might be their top priority. For others it might be that they want to knock out several rides in quick succession using G+ For another group it will be to book their favourite ride so they can do it 2-3 times, using stand-by first and then using G+

I was just responding to the idea that other sites must be ripping off/stealing from TP because they both say JC is a top priority in MK. TP does A LOT more than just tell you to get a JC LL, but to say another site is ripping them off by saying the same thing is kind of ridiculous to me.

Like JC is NOT a top priority for me because I like other rides in MK more and I'm able to have a better day by leaving it out of my plans unless I get lucky.

 

[arich35]

Many have been asking me, here are the drop times. Make sure you are quite quick (and have a reservation available).

Magic Kingdom
Attractions: Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Times: 10:47 AM, 1:17 PM, 3:47 PM

EPCOT
Attractions: Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, Test Track, Frozen Ever After
Times: 12:47 PM, 2:47 PM, 4:47 PM, 6:47 PM

Hollywood Studios
Attractions: Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog Dash, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Times: 10:47 AM, 1:17 PM, 3:47 PM

Animal Kingdom
Attractions: Kali River Rapids, Expedition Everest
Times: 10:17 AM, 12:47 PM, 3:17 PM

Is this still accurate?
We are park hopping to Epcot next Friday and wanting to book either Remy or Frozen in the morning and hopefully get the other by refreshing later in the afternoon after using some LL at MK

 

[DCLcruiser]

I just got back from 3 days in the parks (11/29 DHS, 11/30 EPCOT and 12/1 MK). We bought Genie+ for all days, at $15/pp.

Overall, Genie+ was fine. It worked as intended. We were able to LL nearly every ride, unless the line was super short or we were in between pick windows. We didn't need an ILL, chose not to ride Seven Dwarfs for the umpteenth time, but it was readily available. I did not care about drop times in the end, bc we were able to get a LL when we wanted it.

Crowds were fine. MK worse than others, but we never felt uncomfortable and the waits were low.

DHS - Rope drop Rise, 7AM LL MMRR, etc, etc. (SDD LL was available early, but chose not to ride)
EPCOT - 7AM VQ for Guardians, 7AM LL Frozen, LL Rat, etc, etc.
MK - 7AM LL Jingle Cruise, LL Peter Pan, etc etc etc.

Dislikes
- Buying G+ each day is annoying.
- Wasn't 100% clear that once a ride broke and we got an Alternate Experience LL, we didn't need to select the ride, just tap in. After doing it once it was obvious going forward. Also, Test Track broke late, so we were able to use the Alt in MK the next day.
- Old FP style next available made G+ useless at times, bc nearly every LL was available NOW, but we wanted it for hours from now (example, Living with the Land, we wanted when it was dark for the Christmas lights).
- Not being able to select a new ride w/o cancelling is annoying, but we rarely adjusted our schedule.

I would buy it again.

 

[Mousebucks6]

I just got back from 3 days in the parks (11/29 DHS, 11/30 EPCOT and 12/1 MK). We bought Genie+ for all days, at $15/pp.

Overall, Genie+ was fine. It worked as intended. We were able to LL nearly every ride, unless the line was super short or we were in between pick windows. We didn't need an ILL, chose not to ride Seven Dwarfs for the umpteenth time, but it was readily available. I did not care about drop times in the end, bc we were able to get a LL when we wanted it.

Crowds were fine. MK worse than others, but we never felt uncomfortable and the waits were low.

DHS - Rope drop Rise, 7AM LL MMRR, etc, etc. (SDD LL was available early, but chose not to ride)
EPCOT - 7AM VQ for Guardians, 7AM LL Frozen, LL Rat, etc, etc.
MK - 7AM LL Jingle Cruise, LL Peter Pan, etc etc etc.

Dislikes
- Buying G+ each day is annoying.
- Wasn't 100% clear that once a ride broke and we got an Alternate Experience LL, we didn't need to select the ride, just tap in. After doing it once it was obvious going forward. Also, Test Track broke late, so we were able to use the Alt in MK the next day.
- Old FP style next available made G+ useless at times, bc nearly every LL was available NOW, but we wanted it for hours from now (example, Living with the Land, we wanted when it was dark for the Christmas lights).
- Not being able to select a new ride w/o cancelling is annoying, but we rarely adjusted our schedule.

I would buy it again.

If you don't mind my asking, what was the party size? Every time we have been since Genie, it's been party of 6 or 7 and that's where it has gotten complicated. It's a pain breaking into 3 and 4 to try and get the times a little earlier.

 

[DCLcruiser]

If you don't mind my asking, what was the party size? Every time we have been since Genie, it's been party of 6 or 7 and that's where it has gotten complicated. It's a pain breaking into 3 and 4 to try and get the times a little earlier.

2.

 

[arich35]

If you don't mind my asking, what was the party size? Every time we have been since Genie, it's been party of 6 or 7 and that's where it has gotten complicated. It's a pain breaking into 3 and 4 to try and get the times a little earlier.

I thought the group doesn't matter on the times? When I have been practicing it lets me select the time and then makes me select the party (if they had a ticket)

 

[Mousebucks6]

I thought the group doesn't matter on the times? When I have been practicing it lets me select the time and then makes me select the party (if they had a ticket)

The size only matters in that earlier times seem to be available for smaller parties. Maybe it's just been hard luck of the draw for us, but nearby times have been hard to find with the larger party. Really looking forward to being a party of 2 someday...

 

[arich35]

The size only matters in that earlier times seem to be available for smaller parties. Maybe it's just been hard luck of the draw for us, but nearby times have been hard to find with the larger party. Really looking forward to being a party of 2 someday...

Interesting. Going to have 11 of us this Friday so I am a little worried how it is going to work

 

[Mousebucks6]

Interesting. Going to have 11 of us this Friday so I am a little worried how it is going to work

Hopefully you hit that little calm before the holiday, and it all works for you.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Interesting. Going to have 11 of us this Friday so I am a little worried how it is going to work

We did a group of 10 over 4th of July weekend and it worked out fine. Especially if you are keeping the group together.

Our only difficulty was when there were rides that certain people didn't want to go on (say Rockin Roller Coaster for example) and trying to coordinate so that the 6 people going on that ride, and the 4 people who weren't matched pretty close in time so that we could all come together as group of 10 for the next Genie+ 2 hours from that booking.

 

[DCBaker]

"The Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE: DIS) Disney Genie and Genie+ technologies which are used in theme parks, including Walt Disney World in Orlando, are the focal point of a lawsuit filed by a California-based theme park tech firm.

Glendale, California-based Agile Journeys LLC filed a lawsuit Dec. 2 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Fort Myers Division.

The suit alleges patent infringement of one of Agile Journeys' patents in relation to Disney's digital personalized itinerary tech, Disney Genie and Disney Genie+. The latter is a paid version released in 2021 that provides add-ons such as ride time reservations.

Agile Journeys alleges Disney infringes on Agile Journeys' patent published in 2002, dubbed "Method and Apparatus for Providing Visitors with a Personalized Itinerary and Managed Access to Attractions," which describes a personalized itinerary system for attraction visitors. The lawsuit alleges Agile Journeys has been damaged by Disney.

"Disney has infringed and continues to infringe (literally and/or under the doctrine of equivalents), directly, indirectly, and/or through subsidiaries, agents, representatives or intermediaries, one or more claims of the [patent] by making, using, testing, supplying, causing to be supplied, selling and/or offering for sale in the United States the Disney Genie system, including the Disney Genie App," alleges the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also alleges Disney was aware of the existence of Agile Journeys' technology dating back to 2002. It alleges Agile's patent co-inventor William Gibbens Redmann was in contact with Disney representatives regarding the technology. The patent's other co-inventor is Michael Anthony Eaton.

The lawsuit contains alleged emails between Redmann and Disney representatives regarding having a discussion over the technology.

The lawsuit also alleges that Disney attempted to patent its own system multiple times, which the lawsuit alleges included applications that were "rejected" or where Agile's patent was cited when being reviewed.

"Notwithstanding Disney’s knowledge of [Agile's patent], Disney has knowingly or with reckless disregard willfully infringed the [patent]. Disney has acted despite an objectively high likelihood that its actions constituted infringement of the [patent]. The objective risk that Disney infringed the [patent] was known or so obvious that it should have been known to Disney," alleged the lawsuit.
Steven Gautier Koeppel, attorney at Ft. Myers-based Yeslow & Koeppel PA, represents Agile Journeys LLC, according to the documents. Disney did not have an attorney listed in the documents as of Dec. 5.

The lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks:

▪A judgment that Disney infringed on one more more claims of the patent
▪A judgement and order requiring Disney to pay Agile Journeys "enhanced damages" for the infringement
▪A judgement and order requiring Disney to pay Agile Journeys royalties going forward

Neither Disney, Redmann, Eaton or Koeppel could be reached for comment."

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2022/12/05/florida-california-disney-theme-park-lawsuit.html

 

[DCLcruiser]

Oh yea, one more dislike. Probably my biggest issue with G+ (which overall I liked)... On "My Day," they kept inserting suggestions which would break up my schedule view.

I would have to scroll down to see what I was doing next. They would stick one or two advertisements of rides I didn't want in the way. I started removing them but it wouldn't really fix the issue.