Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[MickeyLuv'r]

I would frontload my preselections, get through them as quickly as possible, and then immediately start securing day-of Fastpasses. It worked very well for me.

FP+ was around for a while. The later years of FP+ were different from the early years.

Early FP+ was a different beast. You could only get 3, period. There was no MDE. And CM's were strict about the 1-hour window,



The later/last dates I used FP+, I did similar to you. With a bit of refreshing, in the later days, we got just about everything.

 

[LittleBuford]

The difference is the amount of people using it each day. With FP+ most booked their FP ahead of time so didn't book extra after their first 3. Now you have a lot more booking at the same time.

Is this a known fact or something you’re just assuming? Either way, there’s nothing to stop them making the tweak I’m asking for.

 

[Jrb1979]

Is this a known fact or something you’re just assuming? Either way, there’s nothing to stop them making the tweak I’m asking for.

Its a bit of both. A good example using a hypothetical number. Say 50,000 guests use FP+ and Genie+. With FP+ most of those 50,000 booked their return times well before coming to the parks. With Genie+ you now at competing with those 50,000 all at once. It makes sense why times jump so much.

I do think they should be able to tweak it to at least hold your time for a minute til you finalize it.

 

[SamusAranX]

With how dead the parks have been lately when I go, there is no need for genie imo.

 

[mattpeto]

My guess is one day in advance.

I don’t see how this will be benefit guests if it’s one rolling day ahead. I hope they realize this.

If you have to pre-select your first Genie+/ILL at 7 pm (for example), then you’re just goofing up my nighttime fun.

Maybe you mean one day in advance of your entire vacation stay?

 

[Saskdw]

The difference is the amount of people using it each day. With FP+ most booked their FP ahead of time so didn't book extra after their first 3. Now you have a lot more booking at the same time.

Agreed. We never booked a 4th FP+ ever on any of our trips.

 

[Jrb1979]

I don’t see how this will be benefit guests if it’s one rolling day ahead. I hope they realize this.

If you have to pre-select your first Genie+/ILL at 7 pm (for example), then you’re just goofing up my nighttime fun.

Maybe you mean one day in advance of your entire vacation stay?

IMO there is no ideal time unless you go back to FP+ days and allow you to book well before your vacation.

Since they will probably keep it letting you book your first LL ahead of time I don't see how that changes much.

 

[Saskdw]

I don’t see how this will be benefit guests if it’s one rolling day ahead. I hope they realize this.

If you have to pre-select your first Genie+/ILL at 7 pm (for example), then you’re just goofing up my nighttime fun.

Maybe you mean one day in advance of your entire vacation stay?

From what I'm seeing from a lot of Disney Youtubers they are expecting some kind of pre trip selection ability for people with a Disney vacation package. Something similar to FP+.

This is the only thing that would have a significant effect on filling their resorts.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Dvc would surely have to be included if they have a resort reservation stay or that would bring mass blowback

 

[dreday3]

From what I'm seeing from a lot of Disney Youtubers they are expecting some kind of pre trip selection ability for people with a Disney vacation package. Something similar to FP+.

This is the only thing that would have a significant effect on filling their resorts.

I don't necessarily believe this, but if it is true, from a selfish (if you can be selfish when planning your own vacation ) standpoint this would suit our trips just fine.

But honestly I'd prefer to keep exactly the way it is.

 

[Jrb1979]

I don't necessarily believe this, but if it is true, from a selfish (if you can be selfish when planning your own vacation ) standpoint this would suit our trips just fine.

But honestly I'd prefer to keep exactly the way it is.

It's why I think there needs to be a middle ground. Give those who want some planning 1 a day ahead of time. Let everyone else keep it the way it is.

I would bet your average Disney guest prefers Genie+ over FP+. One of the biggest complaints many had is the amount of planning if takes to visit Disney.

 

[James Alucobond]

It's why I think there needs to be a middle ground. Give those who want some planning 1 a day ahead of time. Let everyone else keep it the way it is.

But then … everyone moves a day ahead because of the potential lost opportunity. You can’t just say, “Well, open it earlier and people can still interact with it later” when you’re talking about something with limited access. Everyone who is in the know will attempt to make reservations as early as possible.

 

[Jrb1979]

But then … everyone moves a day ahead because of the potential lost opportunity. You can’t just say, “Well, open it earlier and people can still interact with it later” when you’re talking about something with limited access. Everyone who is in the know will attempt to make reservations as early as possible.

If that happens then there will be next to no availability day of. IMO just leave it as is.

 

[James Alucobond]

Right, I’m just saying that whatever time you make the earliest time will become the time. People aren’t going to treat it casually.

 

[HoustonHorn]

Agreed. We never booked a 4th FP+ ever on any of our trips.

May I ask why not? Did you not know you were able to, or did you just not think about it?

We would have 3 in the first 3 hours, try to hit #2 at the end of the 2nd hour and #3 right after, then after tapping into 3, start finding new ones. Getting 7-10 in a day wasn't uncommon. I did not realize that was not the norm.

 

[Saskdw]

May I ask why not? Did you not know you were able to, or did you just not think about it?

We would have 3 in the first 3 hours, try to hit #2 at the end of the 2nd hour and #3 right after, then after tapping into 3, start finding new ones. Getting 7-10 in a day wasn't uncommon. I did not realize that was not the norm.

At this point we aren't park Commandos anymore. My wife can only handle so much time in the park and we sleep in on vacation.

Our typical day was to roll into the park arriving late morning or in the afternoon. Use our 3 FP+'s, possibly ride 1 or 2 more rides if there isn't a wait. Eat something, shop, wander around and leave. Rarely in the park for more than 4-5 hours at one time.

We go for a full 2 weeks with 10 day park tickets. So we take things at a relaxed pace. This is why the current G+ is a no go for us.

We went to Universal last year and will be going there again this year. We stay premium resort there that gives us the unlimited express pass. Nice leasurely, relaxing time. We won't be back to WDW unless they fix G+ to our liking.

 

[LittleBuford]

Agreed. We never booked a 4th FP+ ever on any of our trips.

Nonetheless, many did make use of day-of FastPasses—the available options would change with every refresh, and newly dropped inventory for popular rides would run out in seconds. Yet somehow the app managed to reserve your selected time so that you didn’t end up with something different from what you clicked on.

 

[Ayla]

May I ask why not? Did you not know you were able to, or did you just not think about it?

We would have 3 in the first 3 hours, try to hit #2 at the end of the 2nd hour and #3 right after, then after tapping into 3, start finding new ones. Getting 7-10 in a day wasn't uncommon. I did not realize that was not the norm.

Same.

 

[Purduevian]

May I ask why not? Did you not know you were able to, or did you just not think about it?

We would have 3 in the first 3 hours, try to hit #2 at the end of the 2nd hour and #3 right after, then after tapping into 3, start finding new ones. Getting 7-10 in a day wasn't uncommon. I did not realize that was not the norm.

I did it the same way. I think for "power users" like us the switch from FP+ to G+ really didn't affect us too much. If G+ had 3 differences I would value it the same as FP+
1) Allow re-rides
2)Booking window doesn't open until park open
3)All rides on G+, no ILL

I've used G+ 3 times at WDW and 2 times at DLR. It did take a small learning curve the very first time I tried it (don't rope drop pirates right before a space mountain LL). However, after that my day went exactly how a FP+ day usually went for me.

However, I also recognize that you and I are in the minority... I had a 20 minute conversation with a co-worker about G+ before his vacation and he couldn't stop thanking me once he got home. A good system shouldn't need a 20 minute explanation filled with tips/tricks/"hacks" to become useful.

One final note on the standby only crowd... I went in early October 2021 right before the launch of G+... it was by far my most disappointing trip, everything had a long line and I physically couldn't ride everything I usually would.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

3)All rides on G+, no ILL

This is the continued biggest part of the current system. Genie+ does not have enough capacity, especially in the non-MK parks. They could easily help this problem by just putting the ILL$ rides into the genie+ bucket.