Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[allgiggles]

I agree it's not difficult. IMO the issue is that many are trying to make it work like FP+. It becomes harder to use if you are constantly modifying your return times and trying to stack for later in the day.

I agree -- it's not difficult. Before we went last June I thought I would hate Genie+. We were FP+ power users and I was sure there was no way we were going to be able to match that success with G+(spoiler alert -- we surpassed our success). I spent weeks preparing by watching videos and reading blogs/message boards. After actually using G+, I felt like all the prep work I did was comparable to spending hours working with a calculus tutor to prepare for what turned out to be a basic math test. And I wasn't on my phone constantly like so many people claim to be. I will say that we were usually pretty content with the times we could get and I wasn't constantly trying to modify (but we were there before the "modify" option existed so we would have had to take our chances and cancel a reservation to hopefully get the new time.) We just scheduled a ride and then went to a show or attraction (or two or three) with a short wait time. And I also agree that it seems like a lot of people look at it as the new FP and try to use it the same way. I forgot everything we did with FP in the past and looked at G+ as a whole new system. I think that helped tremendously.

 

[Chi84]

You spent $800 on Genie+ during one vacation?

I totally understand we have no choice now, but wow!

We need a new thread “What was your Genie+ costs”. It would be interesting to see.

Yes. It was my husband, me, our son and daughter-in-law and their baby. We bought Genie+ for 4 adults for 6 park days, which cost $536.76 with tax. We bought ILLs for Tron and Guardians two days each for 3 or 4 adults (I usually babysat lol) and FOP on one day. The ILLs came to $284.39. So around $820 that we wouldn’t have spent previously.

My son handled Genie+, loved the stacking, didn’t mind being on the phone and much preferred Genie+ because we got more rides. My husband (a/k/a the bank) much preferred FP +. In the end, to be honest, we were able to make Genie+ work for us but at a significant cost.

 

[JD80]

You spent $800 on Genie+ during one vacation?

I totally understand we have no choice now, but wow!

We need a new thread “What was your Genie+ costs”. It would be interesting to see.

I'd like to know what time of year that was and for how many people and which ILLs you bought.

edit: oh look the answer posted at the same time my question was right above my post!

 

[Chi84]

I'd like to know what time of year that was and for how many people and which ILLs you bought.

edit: oh look the answer posted at the same time my question was right above my post!

We returned yesterday, so our park days were May 3 through 8. I can PM you an even more specific breakdown if you like but it’s kind of boring for everyone else lol.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

You spent $800 on Genie+ during one vacation?

I totally understand we have no choice now, but wow!

We need a new thread “What was your Genie+ costs”. It would be interesting to see.

That’s not even that bad. I spent of $1,200 with tax for 8 days over Christmas (and you absolutely need it over Christmas). That was just Genie, not ILL$, family of four.

 

[GhostHost1000]

My guess is one day in advance.

If they do that then they fix one problem and create another which is typical Disney

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

If they do that then they fix one problem and create another

Having to be on your phone at 7 pm every day to pick the first ride is superior than 7 am every day.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Agreed. I just don't see how they can go back to pre-booking more than 1 or more then a day or two ahead of time. It would severely alter being able to price Genie+ daily like they do.

What if Disney resort reservation guests got to buy G+ and book 1 attraction 30 days in advance at a set price

Everyone else or those who don’t pre-purchase buys the day of in its current setup with variable pricing

The 7am window still hits however with VQ and ILLs so I’m curious how they plan to change all of this to keep from 7am scrambles the day of…or will some of that remain for all

 

[GhostHost1000]

Having to be on your phone at 7 pm every day to pick the first ride is superior than 7 am every day.

I don’t agree with that at all. It depends on your vacation plans. What if I’m there for a week and I’m on an attraction at 7pm the day before where I can’t use my phone, I’m now at a disadvantage not being able to select what I want immediately as everyone else

 

[James Alucobond]

Having to be on your phone at 7 pm every day to pick the first ride is superior than 7 am every day.

Not when you're in the midst of actively doing things on your vacation. Frankly, there's no perfect time to schedule these things when you're doing it on a day-by-day basis, but in the morning while in your hotel room with a stable connection is preferable to when you're passing by the Ursula animatronic with spotty service.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Not when you're in the midst of actively doing things on your vacation. Frankly, there's no perfect time to schedule these things when you're doing it on a day-by-day basis, but in the morning while in your hotel room with a stable connection is preferable to when you're passing by the Ursula animatronic with spotty service.

Or even better prior to your vacation.

If they are doing away with park reservations, having people prebook attractions early again could help knowing whos going where…however with a paid version not everyone will buy it so

 

[Disstevefan1]

That’s not even that bad. I spent of $1,200 with tax for 8 days over Christmas (and you absolutely need it over Christmas). That was just Genie, not ILL$, family of four.

WOW! YOU ARE A GOOD SANTA

 

[James Alucobond]

Or even better prior to your vacation.

If they are doing away with park reservations, having people prebook attractions early again could help knowing whos going where…however with a paid version not everyone will buy it so

I still don't like booking in advance regardless. I tolerated it before because it was free, but I always found FastPass+ miserable because it didn't represent how I wanted to think about my vacation. Thinking about dining in advance is fine to me because it comes at natural inflection points during the day (e.g. "after this I'll hop", or "I'll take a break at the resort next", or "I'll get a late start at AK because I want breakfast"), but rides are far more spur-of-the-moment to me based on day-of knowledge of wait times, how I want to navigate the park, and how well I managed on prior days.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I still don't like booking in advance regardless. I tolerated it before because it was free, but I always found FastPass+ miserable because it didn't represent how I wanted to think about my vacation. Thinking about dining in advance is fine to me because it comes at natural inflection points during the day (e.g. "after this I'll hop", or "I'll take a break at the resort next", or "I'll get a late start at AK because I want breakfast"), but rides are far more spur-of-the-moment to me based on day-of knowledge of wait times, how I want to navigate the park, and how well I managed on prior days.

A counter to that however would be that Fp+ and prebooking allowed people to better plan their park day and locations when and where whereas G+ spur of the moment may have you zig-zagging all over the park to do what you want when you can

Unfortunately there’s not gonna be a perfect solution and most of us will hate whatever they come up with because at the end of the day, they just need more attractions

 

[Jrb1979]

What if Disney resort reservation guests got to buy G+ and book 1 attraction 30 days in advance at a set price

Everyone else or those who don’t pre-purchase buys the day of in its current setup with variable pricing

The 7am window still hits however with VQ and ILLs so I’m curious how they plan to change all of this to keep from 7am scrambles the day of…or will some of that remain for all

If they do go the that route might as well make Genie+ a set price daily. If they let people pre-book that far in advance it would be hard to have Genie+ fluctuate in price.

I think the best compromise is 10pm the night before.

 

[JD80]

The valuable lesson here is that people do Disney Vacations differently from each other and place value on things differently. And that's ok.

 

[doctornick]

Or even better prior to your vacation.

This. The only way to make it not "interfere with the vacation" is to have an ability to book the ride prior to the vacation. That would mean at least one week if not maybe a month or more prior to the date.

I don't see how shifting the ability to book to the day before really is fundamentally different or an "improvement". Some people would prefer it, others would be more annoyed compared to 7am day of.

 

[JD80]

If they do go the that route might as well make Genie+ a set price daily. If they let people pre-book that far in advance it would be hard to have Genie+ fluctuate in price.

I think the best compromise is 10pm the night before.

Oh please god no. 10pm when I'm doing any of the following: want to go to sleep. Wrestling putting the kids to sleep. Waiting on line at some bar somewhere to get a drink and relax after a busy day.

I very much dislike the Project Management on the fly with G+ let alone having to think about it the night before.

Edit to add: Either make it sometime (days/weeks/months) prior to checking in or keep it the way it is.

 

[GhostHost1000]

If they do go the that route might as well make Genie+ a set price daily. If they let people pre-book that far in advance it would be hard to have Genie+ fluctuate in price.

I think the best compromise is 10pm the night before.

10pm won’t work either. Some may still be in parks, watching night shows, at an after hours event, or driving/riding back from a night show

 

[allgiggles]

You spent $800 on Genie+ during one vacation?

I totally understand we have no choice now, but wow!

We need a new thread “What was your Genie+ costs”. It would be interesting to see.

I'll add my data:

June 19-27 (8 park days...left at 6:00 a.m. on 6/27)
4 adults
We pre-purchased Genie+ prior to arrival and it was $15/day
We purchased 7 ILLs per person during the week. Prices varied between $10-17
Total cost was around $880 for everything.

Totally worth it to us. We did everything we wanted to do (and did many things twice by taking advantage of EE rope drop as well as hitting rides during fireworks and close to park closing time) and had way more relaxation time than we've had during previous trips. We know it will cost us more the next time we go, but we will still purchase it most -- if not all -- days.