Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[MisterPenguin]

Will be interesting to see how this plays out -

If this be true, then this makes no difference if your first LL is scheduled for park opening.

Example:​

​

Park opens at 9:00a. At 7:00a, you grab a BTMR LL at 9:00a. When 9:00a comes around, your LL is due, freeing you up to grab a new LL as you head toward BTMR.​

If this be true, then it does indeed make a difference if your first LL is later in the day.

Example:​

​

Park opens at 9:00a. At 7:00a, you grab a BTMR LL at Noon. When 9:00a comes around, *then* the timer starts, and you can't make a new LL until 11:00a.​

 

[brettf22]

yes, because july is the dead of tourist season and all…. Spin all you want…. Hours were cut down… never mind the reduction in EMH

gone are the days of worries over the park not having enough downtime due to excessive late hours and early opening. And it’s not due to reduced forecasts…

I’m not trying to spin anything. I’m telling you facts. If you’re referring to post Covid…. Then yes. Hours have been cut for many reasons. But if you’re talking about pre Covid, not so much.

I've always wondered if hours have been cut over the past decade or so. The only historical park times I could find were on Touring Plans. So, picking 2011 and 2019 (to make the times all pre-COVID) I scraped the MK opening and closing times off of the Touring Plans daily crowd pages for every day in 2011 and 2019, and calculated the total hours MK was open in each year.

In 2011, MK was open for a total of 4940 hours

In 2019, MK was open for a total of 4651 hours.

So, a reduction of 289 hours, or -5.8%.

Some assumptions and caveats:
- I'm assuming Touring Plans' hours are correct. @lentesta, can you confirm you track actual hours in your historical data?
- These hours only include regular park hours. No parties, after hour events, nor Early Magic Hours.
- This does not address capacity increase/decreases. Without accurate hourly capacities (about which there is much disagreement), this figure is harder to calculate.

And while I'm no @ParentsOf4, this wouldn't be complete without a chart.

 

[mightynine]

If this be true, then this makes no difference if your first LL is scheduled for park opening.

Example:​

​

Park opens at 9:00a. At 7:00a, you grab a BTMR LL at 9:00a. When 9:00a comes around, your LL is due, freeing you up to grab a new LL as you head toward BTMR.​

If this be true, then it does indeed make a difference if your first LL is later in the day.

Example:​

​

Park opens at 9:00a. At 7:00a, you grab a BTMR LL at Noon. When 9:00a comes around, *then* the timer starts, and you can't make a new LL until 11:00a.​

Which makes sense, if you look at Genie+ as basically the old paper FP system- you couldn't get one until the park opened back then either.

 

[flynnibus]

I’m not trying to spin anything. I’m telling you facts. If you’re referring to post Covid…. Then yes. Hours have been cut for many reasons. But if you’re talking about pre Covid, not so much.

I'm not talking post Covid.. as I already said

Still no denying the reduced hours before pandemic and not just on party dates. The trend is real y0

And yes hours have been cut.. it's been illustrated countless times. Spin away.. fact is Magic Kingdom was closing at 9 and 10pm during normal tourist seasons when just a short period before it would run to at least 11. And again, this is all before taking into account how EMH were eliminated for guests.

I don't know how many times people need to keep posting calendars from prior years to defeat these stupid denials.

 

[dreday3]

I feel bad for CMs and guest relations soon with all of this

the fact that it is even more complicated than before is mind boggling and many will be frustrated

What is complicated? IT issues aside which obviously would muck things up....

Open the app, go to Genie +, select all your group from friends/family, pick the lightning lane ride you want from the times given to you, wait 120 minutes (or check in ride - TBD) rinse and repeat. Or open the app, buy the ride you want out of what is available and schedule your own time.

 

[Jrb1979]

What is complicated? IT issues aside which obviously would muck things up....

Open the app, go to Genie +, select all your group from friends/family, pick the lightning lane ride you want from the times given to you, wait 120 minutes (or check in ride - TBD) rinse and repeat. Or open the app, buy the ride you want out of what is available and schedule your own time.

Exactly. It's no different then whey you refreshed for FP+

 

[flynnibus]

Will be interesting to see how this plays out -

Hrmm... sounds really familiar...

i bet time before the park’s scheduled time won’t count for th cool down timer

 

[flynnibus]

So... why are they making people get up at 7am to book this? Why not just allow you to make your first LL at park opening?

They never were making anyone do it. It's people obsessing to figure out how to squeeze as much as they can from the system and believing that if they don't book at the first possible opportunity everything will be gone. Which people like me have been saying wasn't likely to be the case. Disney is incentized to keep availability open.. that means putting up usage limits. Which we keep seeing come into focus time and time again.

This isn't a race to consume - this is Disney stretching out the capacity.

 

[Waters Back Side]

Why though? I wouldn't. If my options at DHS were
SDD at 7pm
TOT at 12
RNRC at 11
SWGE at 11
TSMM, Alien, and ST and anything else before 11

I would be grabbing SDD at 7pm and be able to pick my next selection at 11am just like all the other good options. It's my only chance to skip the SDD line and I would think at 11am I would still have a shot at one of the other good rides. (assuming a 9am opening)

Agreed. On my Epcot day, I'll book my Soarin LL when I wake up. Between 7 and 9 am I'll book it. And potentially closer to 9am I'll book it because that will make it later in the day preferably. If I get it for 3pm I'll book it. Then wben I arrive at the park at 10 or 11 AM I have that one booked and I'll look for another. And believe it or not, (at least my strategy) I'll look for Test Track and jump on booking that. Even if that's at 4 pm or later. Now I have 2 rides booked for after 3pm. And now wait for 1pm to see if Spaceship Earth is available within the next couple of hours. If not I'll go on some of rhe rides that require no/minimal waits or we will do other things in the park or walk around the showcase.

This clarified rule about stacking is not the same as having to being in the park. It seems to be the 2nd one starts the 120 once the park opens.

 

[mikejs78]

or check in ride - TBD

That's confirmed.

 

[homerdance]

I feel bad for CMs and guest relations soon with all of this

the fact that it is even more complicated than before is mind boggling and many will be frustrated

It’s amazing how complicated they have made this new system.

 

[peter11435]

That is an interesting justification for the elimination of PM EMH.

I wasn’t referring to PM EMH at all

 

[peter11435]

I'm not talking post Covid.. as I already said


And yes hours have been cut.. it's been illustrated countless times. Spin away.. fact is Magic Kingdom was closing at 9 and 10pm during normal tourist seasons when just a short period before it would run to at least 11. And again, this is all before taking into account how EMH were eliminated for guests.

I don't know how many times people need to keep posting calendars from prior years to defeat these stupid denials.

Look at hours from the 90’s and see what time the park was slowing on non peak nights

but regardless even more recently, the reason the hours shifted to 9-10 instead of 11 was attendance based. . Park hours are always based on forecasted park attendance.

 

[Patcheslee]

Exactly. It's no different then whey you refreshed for FP+

FP+ could be modified and we had 30 to 60 days to modify to our plans.

 

[mightynine]

So... why are they making people get up at 7am to book this? Why not just allow you to make your first LL at park opening?

To pitch it as a "benefit" of staying on-site?

 

[Purduevian]

To pitch it as a "benefit" of staying on-site?

You don't need to be on site to book Genie+ at 7am (just IAS)

 

[mightynine]

You don't need to be on site to book Genie+ at 7am (just IAS)

Whoops, though the 7am thing was just for ILL and everybody got in the Genie+ pool at park open. Don't know how I could mix up such a simple process!

 

[wedenterprises]

The one thing that has started to bother me more as I look at this from a marketing perspective, is Disney's need to name this Genie. That stinks of a project name or working title to pass it up the ladder.

They're naming the product based on the technology of it, rather than the guest experience of it. To me Genie means I get 3 free wishes, but that's not what this is.

I would prefer something along the lines of:

My Disney Experience Day Planner (roll the free part of Genie into the overall app)
Lightning Lane day pass
Lightning lanes
E-tickets
E-ticket entrances

But "lightning" and "E" is much less marketable than a blue genie. Disney just can't help themselves.

 

[dreday3]

Okay, maybe I'm in for a rude awakening next week when we get there, but I am a baffled at why everyone thinks this is so complicated. You don't like it - sure. But complicated? I think some of you are trying very hard to make it seem complicated...

Guess I'll find out.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Okay, maybe I'm in for a rude awakening next week when we get there, but I am a baffled at why everyone thinks this is so complicated. You don't like it - sure. But complicated? I think some of you are trying very hard to make it seem complicated...

Guess I'll find out.

It's change - people panic at change and their brain freezes and makes it be complicated.

It's not much different than paper FP was years ago (pre-2014), just now it is paid, electronic, and has an extra component for the more popular attractions.