Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[lentesta]

I'm moderately surprised they're removing parades and character greetings from the supply. If capacity is an issue, you'd think that every little bit helps.

What other reasons might exist for this? I have a couple of ideas:

• Low G+ demand for these attractions
• The character greetings are low-capacity and G+ was driving up the standby times to unacceptable levels
• Low guest satisfaction with these as choices

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

I guess US travel agents are going to become a workaround for international guests. What a slap in the face to the international guests but also the international travel agents.

 

[Dranth]

You can get a second headliner as soon as you use any of your LL. So if you are gunning for a second T1 attraction, then book a LL for when you plan to enter the park. Assuming availability you could get your second one at 9AM which is at least 2 hours earlier than G+.

No, that works the same as G+, once you used you selection you could immediately get another. The two hour wait with G+ was so those who wanted or ended up with later times for popular rides weren't screwed the rest of the day.

 

[Splash4eva]

No, this makes it easier for them unless I am missing something.


The new system should work great for anyone who goes to the parks early because you prebook your three and as soon as you use the first one, you can get a 4th, once you use your next, get a 5th and so on.

Those of us who come later in the day will now ONLY be able to add another ride once we use our first selection. Say that is at 4:00pm, you are now dealing with a whole park full of people with 3 active constantly updating selections plus any remaining prebooks for later in the day. That means a WHOLE lot more inventory has been eaten up before you even get a second chance at a T1 ride.

Under G+ I was reserving my second headliner 2 hours after park opening and, if needed, moving times to later in the day on my selections while eating a late breakfast. There was no stress on missing anything. Frankly it was hard to miss the headliners outside of a few specific one offs (like SDD).

& honestly if you knew the drop times SDD was an easy pull

 

[DisneyHead123]

I'm moderately surprised they're removing parades and character greetings from the supply. If capacity is an issue, you'd think that every little bit helps.

What other reasons might exist for this? I have a couple of ideas:

• Low G+ demand for these attractions
• The character greetings are low-capacity and G+ was driving up the standby times to unacceptable levels
• Low guest satisfaction with these as choices

What about dining? Could they be trying to boost character dining demand?

 

[wedenterprises]

Sorry, I’m not accepting Disney Tourist Blog as a legit source for this.

Others, including this site have said otherwise.

That said it is possible it’s true. The “enchanted extras” like tours etc need either a vpn or to be booked by phone.

It would be awful if it is true.

The easy solution is to apply it as a charge to the room once you check out.

 

[JD80]

ww

they want to “move the needle” but sadly for them, the marks - sorry, customers - increasingly see through that these discounts and offers are just a shell game that shifts spending from one bucket to another.

Was talking about this elsewhere so I did some quick math. Shouldn't be too many errors.

Vacation is 6 Nights, DDP, Hoppers, LLMP every park day.

 

[flynnibus]

But a big red flag for us was booking a $15k vacation and have no guarantees we would get to ride the headliners

You would get to ride the headliners… same as you always had. It was called standing in line. This idea of ‘confidence i got what i wanted up front’ is a completely manufactured concept Disney promoted and conditioned people to believe in to make advanced FP reservations seem desirable.

 

[Disstevefan1]

They don’t *have* to do everything. I’d bet that most international guests aren’t exactly LL power users. Even back in the free fastpass days a lot of international guests had no idea that fastpass was even a thing and they just waited in standby lines. They are probably betting that their average first time international visitor won’t even notice this.

You are correct. As always, Disney will do what Disney will do and guests *have* to accept it.

In all cases someone will be unhappy.

In my opinion, international guests should have all the capabilities.

 

[UK Disney]

What a kick in the groin. Honestly that's a dealbreaker for me as I'm an international guest. We've waited so long for the pre-booking change and now we can't even use it? And of course the bury this key information.

The people who pay the most, travel the farthest, buy DVC, stay on property, can't even use this?! Why?!

We were on the fence about being done with WDW altogether on our last trip so we skipped WDW for a year and did some other Disney destinations instead, but now I'm really torn about ever going back.

I love the place, but the people that run it are completely clueless. They don't care about their guests at all.

Same here, the first week would be a write off with everyone taking the best rides.

 

[Dranth]

& honestly if you knew the drop times SDD was an easy pull

Yep, that or just grab it first. In the 3 years of G+ I never once missed a headliner at HS or MK unless I wanted to and using it at AK was not even remotely needed. EPCOT wasn't a great value either but it could be useful on occasion.

 

[JD80]

No, that works the same as G+, once you used you selection you could immediately get another. The two hour wait with G+ was so those who wanted or ended up with later times for popular rides weren't screwed the rest of the day.

Well no. There was a pretty decent chance that your first LL selection (SDD, Space, Jungle Cruise etc.) was later than the 9-10am hours. So you had to wait to use it and roll the dice on your second selection or the 11am window opened for you to snag your next headliner which wasn't guaranteed to be early enough still in the day.

This new system allows you to pick Tier 2 attractions that should almost have availability for the first our of park open to give you a shot at getting another headliner with your first rebook of the day.

 

[Saskdw]

What a kick in the groin. Honestly that's a dealbreaker for me as I'm an international guest customer. We've waited so long for the pre-booking change and now we can't even use it? And of course the bury this key information.

The people who pay the most, travel the farthest, buy DVC, stay on property, can't even use this?! Why?!

We were on the fence about being done with WDW altogether on our last trip so we skipped WDW for a year and did some other Disney destinations instead, but now I'm really torn about ever going back.

I love the place, but the people that run it are completely clueless. They don't care about their guests at all.

We spent 14 days and Universal each of the last 2 Decembers.

This was the change we were looking for Disney to make to even consider returning and now they've rendered it useless.

 

[wedenterprises]

I'm moderately surprised they're removing parades and character greetings from the supply. If capacity is an issue, you'd think that every little bit helps.

What other reasons might exist for this? I have a couple of ideas:

• Low G+ demand for these attractions
• The character greetings are low-capacity and G+ was driving up the standby times to unacceptable levels
• Low guest satisfaction with these as choices

This is so typical of WDW to announce something huge on a random Tuesday, immediately bury it with other announcements and leave it up to the customers to figure out all the small print and changes that go along with it.

I'm seriously so done with WDW. I'm fuming lol. Next trip will be a Vero Beach/ Hilton Head DVC trip.

 

[wedenterprises]

Same here, the first week would be a right off with everyone taking the best rides.

Exactly, and have fun arriving at MCO at night then immediately rushing to your phone to plan an entire trips worth of tier 2 duds.

 

[Vacationeer]

So… If I add an international guest to my MDE in the US, can I buy and book for them?

 

[Saskdw]

You would get to ride the headliners… same as you always had. It was called standing in line. This idea of ‘confidence i got what i wanted up front’ is a completely manufactured concept Disney promoted and conditioned people to believe in to make advanced FP reservations seem desirable.

No interest in standing in line. I'll spend my money elsewhere if I have to stand in line for 2 hours to ride something.

 

[wedenterprises]

We spent 14 days and Universal each of the last 2 Decembers.

This was the change we were looking for Disney to make to even consider returning and now they've rendered it useless.

It's not even shocking. We should only ever expect the dumbest from Disney.

 

[Saskdw]

You are correct. As always, Disney will do what Disney will do and guests *have* to accept it.

In all cases someone will be unhappy.

In my opinion, international guests should have all the capabilities.

We don't have to accept anything. That's why we stopped spending our money a WDW in 2016 and haven't been back.

 

[nickys]

I guess US travel agents are going to become a workaround for international guests. What a slap in the face to the international guests but also the international travel agents.

US travel agents can’t book the UK tickets and packages though.

So you’d be paying much more for the tickets. Added to which would the TAs be willing to book the LLs for their clients?

One idea I had, other than a vpn, was to link as friends& family to someone in the US and get them to book. But I wonder if the UK tickets would be recognised?