Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[RSoxNo1]

I HATE the advanced booking component. If you eliminate park reservations but charge for advanced ride reservations you have done nothing but revert back to Fastpass+.

 

[RSoxNo1]

It’s almost like they should have just stuck with FP+…when it was free, I cared a lot less about such things.

Or you know... digitized the original FP, not roll it out where it didn't belong, don't allow bookings until you're in the park and not charge a premium for it.

 

[UNCgolf]

I'd want VQs to become a lottery.

The night before, let there be a one or two hour timeframe in which to enter the lottery for a VG. No need for fast fingers.

Then when the lottery is closed, 15 minutes later, guests who entered are chosen at random and giving a return boarding number for the next day.

I've been suggesting this since they first started VQs with Rise of the Resistance. It's the most equitable solution.

 

[Nunu]

I'd want VQs to become a lottery.

The night before, let there be a one or two hour timeframe in which to enter the lottery for a VG. No need for fast fingers.

Then when the lottery is closed, 15 minutes later, guests who entered are chosen at random and giving a return boarding number for the next day.

For me, not necessarily a lottery, but I'd be happy if VQs became available the night before.

 

[gerarar]

I'd want VQs to become a lottery.

The night before, let there be a one or two hour timeframe in which to enter the lottery for a VG. No need for fast fingers.

Then when the lottery is closed, 15 minutes later, guests who entered are chosen at random and giving a return boarding number for the next day.

I rather see them revert back to the original VQ system. Only one drop, can't join until you scan into the park when it opens.

As far as I remember, the VQ (ROTR at the time) never ran out in seconds. It lasted for minutes and hours in Dec. 2019 thru March 2020.

Reward the guests who get to the parks early. And in return Disney gets all the $ from the early morning Starbucks or Joffreys people won't usually get.

 

[hsisthebest]

Advanced reservations would be a plus to start convincing me to come back to WDW. It makes planning dining and park selection so much easier, especially for a biiger family (6 of us). Example: if we can get a lighthing lane for Slinky dog and MMRR, in advance, we can plan what time to arrive at the park, when to eat, and other attractions- I did do Genie+ in DL and did not really feel it was worth the money.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I don't understand. Even if they allow reservations 7 days in advance, or 1 month in advance, won't there will still be a specific date/time that the reservations will become available? Would you not still have to compete for them with potentially everyone else going to X park on Y day? It could still be better than having to do it on property, but it could very much still be fastest finger.

Unless of course they've reached the pricing level that has reduced the demand enough. Or they plan additional price hikes to Genie+.

I don’t care about playing fastest fingers at 7 am a month before my trip. I care about doing it when I am on vacation.

 

[aladdin2007]

Going to be a giant FU to all the new passholders they just attracted if the packages let you buy Genie+ in advance and book in advance, but the AP holders (even those staying on-site) cannot.

Yep! that and passholders will still have to make park reservations but no one else will... except for some freebie days thrown in off and on, total joke. I know we wont be renewing, and thats exactly what they want. They have made it loud and clear with these announcements today, complete mess.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Yep! that and passholders will still have to make park reservations but no one else will... except for some freebie days thrown in off and on, total joke. I know we wont be renewing, and thats exactly what they want. They have made it loud and clear with these announcements today, complete mess.

It’s not what they want though. They are struggling with attendance. They reopened sales and thought they would hit some target that would let them shut sales again quickly… and they didn’t.

 

[Jrb1979]

It’s not what they want though. They are struggling with attendance. They reopened sales and thought they would hit some target that would let them shut sales again quickly… and they didn’t.

That "Unprecedented demand" that they claim exists doesn't. If you go outside this board you would the demand from your causal guest isn't there.

 

[doctornick]

I don’t care about playing fastest fingers at 7 am a month before my trip. I care about doing it when I am on vacation.

This. For me it’s not even about needing to have it done ahead of time, but I don’t want to have to deal with or worry about it while on vacation. I’m fine with Uni’s Express pass as I don’t have to do anything while I’m there. I just don’t want the stress and wasted time of booking ILLs while I’m on vacation.

If I can shift that work to some time in advance, I’d be happy.

 

[Chi84]

Reward the guests who get to the parks early.

Why?

 

[doctornick]

Why?

Right. The guests who get to the parks early already are rewarded just due to normal crowd dynamics, why double down on that? Furthermore pushing more people to earlier arrivals makes the advantage of showing up early even less.

 

[dreday3]

If we are handing out rewards, then let's reward onsite resort guests with dibs.

I don't know dibs on what, but just more dibs.

 

[James Alucobond]

Right. The guests who get to the parks early already are rewarded just due to normal crowd dynamics, why double down on that? Furthermore pushing more people to earlier arrivals makes the advantage of showing up early even less.

I also have to imagine that guest satisfaction craters if you show up early in person to roll the dice and then fail, compared to rolling over in bed, giving it a shot, and then re-burying your face in the pillow if you lose.

 

[UNCgolf]

Furthermore pushing more people to earlier arrivals makes the advantage of showing up early even less.

Yep -- if it becomes a situation where you basically have to be there at park opening to be able to ride the major attractions, it'll make everything much worse both for people who currently like being there at rope drop and for people who don't.

 

[Krandor]

I rather see them revert back to the original VQ system. Only one drop, can't join until you scan into the park when it opens.

As far as I remember, the VQ (ROTR at the time) never ran out in seconds. It lasted for minutes and hours in Dec. 2019 thru March 2020.

Reward the guests who get to the parks early. And in return Disney gets all the $ from the early morning Starbucks or Joffreys people won't usually get.

The VQ for ROTR did sell out in seconds a lot of the time during that timeframe. However there is an advantage that if you are dedicated and want to ride enough to get there that early you get an advantage but it also was chaos. My first trip with ROTR was Jan 2020 and I went over 3 days in a row first thing in the morning to get a ROTR VQ (and got it all days but was right there at the start time to hit the button). If it wasn't an early group I'd then hop to another park and keep and eye on groups. I do miss those days of being able to hop at any time.
I was dedicated and wanted to get ROTR several times and was able to. I was at a skyliner resort but still drove over to HS to make sure I was there in early enough.

 

[mikejs78]

The VQ for ROTR did sell out in seconds a lot of the time during that timeframe. However there is an advantage that if you are dedicated and want to ride enough to get there that early you get an advantage but it also was chaos. My first trip with ROTR was Jan 2020 and I went over 3 days in a row first thing in the morning to get a ROTR VQ (and got it all days but was right there at the start time to hit the button). If it wasn't an early group I'd then hop to another park and keep and eye on groups. I do miss those days of being able to hop at any time.
I was dedicated and wanted to get ROTR several times and was able to. I was at a skyliner resort but still drove over to HS to make sure I was there in early enough.

The advantage to the current way, especially without park reservations in 2024, is that if you don't get a VQ, you can decide to go to another park and try again the next day of your trip.

 

[Krandor]

The advantage to the current way, especially without park reservations in 2024, is that if you don't get a VQ, you can decide to go to another park and try again the next day of your trip.

Which is why what they do with hopping when reservations go away will be interesting to see details on. Even in 2020 I could go to HS at opening, try for ROTR and if I didn't get it then hop to another park immediately.

So yeah an important point is that when you had to be in the park to get to get a VQ you also had the ability to hop at any time.

 

[gerarar]

The VQ for ROTR did sell out in seconds a lot of the time during that timeframe. However there is an advantage that if you are dedicated and want to ride enough to get there that early you get an advantage but it also was chaos. My first trip with ROTR was Jan 2020 and I went over 3 days in a row first thing in the morning to get a ROTR VQ (and got it all days but was right there at the start time to hit the button). If it wasn't an early group I'd then hop to another park and keep and eye on groups. I do miss those days of being able to hop at any time.
I was dedicated and wanted to get ROTR several times and was able to. I was at a skyliner resort but still drove over to HS to make sure I was there in early enough.

I may have to dig deeper, but I skimmed the first couple weeks of the when the ride originally opened. Regular BGs would run out in about 45 mins, with backup BGs lasting for another hour or two. I was there Christmas week and BGs for sure lasted for around an hour. I was late one day and got there an hour after opening and got a backup BG. It was never called (short by 2 BGs), but the Guest Service CMs were kind enough to give me a free fastpass to FoP and Mine Train the next day after expressing my distraught.

This was also the time when Disney went above and beyond and gave guests a free 1 day park hoppers ticket if their regular BG wasn't called. Good times lol.