Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[JIMMYEDDIE]

That's is mind boggling to me. That so many people pay the amount they do for park tickets to ride a handful of rides a day.

Agree.....for my family of 6, park tickets at $169pp and then LL's bought at $70pp, you are looking at $1,434 per park day......thats around $7k for 5 park days during a 7 day stay


Thats an insane amount of money

 

[Saskdw]

That's is mind boggling to me. That so many people pay the amount they do for park tickets to ride a handful of rides a day.

It's all about vacation style.
We come from the crazy cold of western Canada in December for 2 weeks.
We rarely spend more than 4 hours in the park at a time. My wife can't handle much more than that.
We have had pretty good luck with the weather and enjoy resort/pool time, Disney Springs, etc.

Going to the park pin to pin trying to ride 20 rides doesn't appeal to us.

 

[GhostHost1000]

IMO they went with this system to try to get people to book resorts again.

I don't think it'll help much if any personally. It's still somewhat complicated for the average person and costs extra on top of all the others overcharges

 

[Chip Chipperson]

some of those pre booked are sold out or return times are too late

Soarin will be a long shot

In an earlier post, you were arguing using the unstated assumption that rope-droppers would get early return times for their 3 pre-selects and eat up all the inventory before people arriving later could use their 1st pick. Now you're arguing that it's not realistic to assume that someone could get 3 early return times and book a 4th in another park.

 

[GoofGoof]

Its not that, its that too much inventory is available too early

It’s basic math. If less people buy in most of the rides cannot be sold out, especially with the tiers.

In any case, I think it’s obvious you are very much against this new system. You are certainly entitled to that opinion. IMHO we need to wait a little while to see it in full action before forming an educated opinion. We can agree to disagree on that but since many people are coming here to see updates on how the system is actually working we should probably table that debate for a little while.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

Its not that, its that too much inventory is available too early

If there’s “too much” inventory released ahead of time, there’s a hard cap on what people can book before the park opens, and you cannot replicate your prior experiences from Genie+, it stands to reason that this is because Disney is attempting to disperse the desirable capacity across a larger group of guests.

I get it, without a promising picture of plentiful refresh results and drops it looks like a ‘super user’ will get less from this system. That is usually not ideal for people who frequent these kind of forums online. But if that’s the case, it means they have probably succeeded in raising the average number of attractions per guest. Someone is getting those lost LLs.

I’m not defending any of these systems, I actually hate the charging for them period, I just disagree that Disney has made a move here that isn’t backed by their own data when it comes to guest satisfaction and spending.

 

[Saskdw]

I don't think it'll help much if any personally. It's still somewhat complicated for the average person and costs extra on top of all the others overcharges

By itself it won't help much. If they make about 10 other changes it would be a good piece to the bigger puzzle.

It does give them another option for "deals" book now and get MPLL and dining "free"!!

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

That's is mind boggling to me. That so many people pay the amount they do for park tickets to ride a handful of rides a day.

For us Disney has always been about the experience more than the rides, I can think of several regional amusement parks with a better ride lineup than Disney (at a fraction of the price), but they don’t have the same atmosphere as Disney.

As APs we’ve spent many days at DL where we went on 1 or 2 rides the entire day and still had an amazing time, it’s getting harder and harder to justify those days with current prices though.

 

[Purduevian]

Thats not true.....Genie+ was in place for 2 1/2 years and had 16 modifications during that time, averaging a change once every 2 months

This is the 4th ride skip plan they've had in the last 10 years (paper FP, FP+, Genie+ and now this).......This will 100% change and not only that, I bet it changes before the holiday season

Please explain to me the 16 G+ modifications? I only know of 3. 1)Ability to modify 2) Changes to when you can book your second park 3)Splitting into park specific/park hopper options. I'm not counting anything about the way you buy G+, or the fact that some rides go on and off it.

Mine points are not based on personal preference, they are based on facts

Fact is, this system hurts more people than it helps and thats not debatable

Please show a source for this "Fact", otherwise it is an opinion/assumption/theory. I have an opposing theory that the average Joe will actually be better off in this system.

What are you modifying? Everything sold out on Day -2.

Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not... I know the system isn't mature yet, but in just 5 refreshes lets see what I can pull in MK ~1:30pm:
Attempt 1: 6:35PM pirates
Attempt 2: Nothing Great
Attempt 3: Nothing Great
Attempt 4: 3:20Pm Pirates
Attempt 5: 9:15 BTMRR (was sold out)

The later in the day, the more modifying it takes, but inventory is constantly changing.

 

[RSoxNo1]

So what are we seeing for inventory day of, 3 days out, etc. Has anyone determined when the additional dumps of inventory are taking place? There were definitely some day of Fastpass+ drops that were scheduled.

Edit: It seems that same day availability is absolute garbage. Today is a 6 out of 10 on the Touringplans crowd calendar, and very few E-tickets have availability. The exception seems to be Soarin' which saw a capacity increase as a result of Fastpass+ and is a Tier 1 attraction with better Tier 1 options.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Please explain to me the 16 G+ modifications? I only know of 3. 1)Ability to modify 2) Changes to when you can book your second park 3)Splitting into park specific/park hopper options. I'm not counting anything about the way you buy G+, or the fact that some rides go on and off it.


Please show a source for this "Fact", otherwise it is an opinion/assumption/theory. I have an opposing theory that the average Joe will actually be better off in this system.


Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not... I know the system isn't mature yet, but in just 5 refreshes lets see what I can pull in MK ~1:30pm:
Attempt 1: 6:35PM pirates
Attempt 2: Nothing Great
Attempt 3: Nothing Great
Attempt 4: 3:20Pm Pirates
Attempt 5: 9:15 BTMRR (was sold out)

The later in the day, the more modifying it takes, but inventory is constantly changing.

thats how I remember the old FP+ system... if you keep refreshing/modifying you can eventually find what you want.... however with this new system allowing everyone to hold 3 at all times (booking another as soon as you use 1 rather than book another after you use 3) it may show less availability

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

you cannot replicate your prior experiences from Genie+, it stands to reason that this is because Disney is attempting to disperse the desirable capacity across a larger group of guests.

I get it, without a promising picture of plentiful refresh results and drops it looks like a ‘super user’ will get less from this system. That is usually not ideal for people who frequent these kind of forums online. But if that’s the case, it means they have probably succeeded in raising the average number of attractions per guest. Someone is getting those lost LLs.

100% this, it’s a simple math equation, if the capacity vs number sold averages 3 rides per person then for every guest getting 5 rides a day some other guest was getting 1, and likely showing up upset at guest services asking for a refund.

For every super user who managed 7 or 8 rides with G+ there was 3 or 4 regular users who only managed 1. A 4/1 unhappy/happy ratio is a recipe for disaster.

 

[GhostHost1000]

100% this, it’s a simple math equation, if the capacity vs number sold averages 3 rides per person then for every guest getting 5 rides a day some other guest was getting 1, and likely showing up upset at guest services asking for a refund.

For every super user who managed 7 or 8 rides with G+ there was 3 or 4 regular users who only managed 1. A 4/1 unhappy/happy ratio is a recipe for disaster.

being a paid system now, there are alot more unhappy people than there were when FP+ was free.

Exhibit A...all the blue guest relations tents throughout the parks now

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

Please explain to me the 16 G+ modifications? I only know of 3. 1)Ability to modify 2) Changes to when you can book your second park 3)Splitting into park specific/park hopper options. I'm not counting anything about the way you buy G+, or the fact that some rides go on and off it.

Like you touched on, the modifications were largely about how G+ was purchased, the actual system functionality was largely unchanged save for the addition of the modification feature. I’m not even sure I would count the park hopping changes, as those were largely tied to the wider park hopping rules and as far as I remember didn’t change much about how Genie worked.

The system was functionally similar from birth to death. I’m guessing LLMP will be too. They’ll probably add more options to book, tweak inventory levels, increase the price (sigh), maybe tweaks to the interface, and things of that nature, but I’m guessing that the bones of the system - so prebooking, hold 3 at once, on-site advantage, etc - will remain the same.

 

[GoofGoof]

being a paid system now, there are alot more unhappy people than there were when FP+ was free.

Exhibit A...all the blue guest relations tents throughout the parks now

This makes perfect sense. What will be interesting to see is how this new system compares to Genie+ over time since they are both paid systems. Genie+ was wildly unpopular when it first came out and I feel like maybe as they tweaked the system and guests got comfortable with the functionality and the way it worked it got less unpopular. We will likely see the same with this system as they work out the kinks.

 

[Purduevian]

thats how I remember the old FP+ system... if you keep refreshing/modifying you can eventually find what you want.... however with this new system allowing everyone to hold 3 at all times (booking another as soon as you use 1 rather than book another after you use 3) it may show less availability

If you think about it, the availability just shifted up.

How many LLs does the average user have booked	When did this happen on G+	When does this happen now?
0	6:59am	21 days out
1	7:00am	Never
2	~2hours after park open	Never
3	~4 hours after park open	Park Open
4	~6 hours after park open	~2-3 hours after park open? (users have only used 1 LL)
5	~8 hours after park open	~3-4 hours after park open? (users have used 2 LLs)
6	Probably never actually happened where they average guest was on their 6th LL	4-5 hours after park open? (users have used 3 LLs)

 

[Kingoglow]

should say and BENEFITS few

You are trying to imply that you are in some sort of majority, when it reality, it is not that certain.

Sure, only a small portion of guests rope drop (As it is a resort only perk, that only some will use) but I don't think that a majority of day guests are arriving to MK after 12:00. Most daily guests will arrive within an hour of official park open with few trickling in after that. Local AP holders have their own touring agenda, but if a family bought Disney tickets, they are going to use those tickets most of the day.

 

[Saskdw]

100% this, it’s a simple math equation, if the capacity vs number sold averages 3 rides per person then for every guest getting 5 rides a day some other guest was getting 1, and likely showing up upset at guest services asking for a refund.

For every super user who managed 7 or 8 rides with G+ there was 3 or 4 regular users who only managed 1. A 4/1 unhappy/happy ratio is a recipe for disaster.

With this new system though you don't have to pay until you have selected your first 3 rides. So if you don't like what you see you don't buy it.

The unhappiness will come from potentially waiting in long lines all day. But as I stated earlier I have very little sympathy for those not staying at a Disney resort. It's always been my opinion those guests should have huge advantages.

 

[GhostHost1000]

This makes perfect sense. What will be interesting to see is how this new system compares to Genie+ over time since they are both paid systems. Genie+ was wildly unpopular when it first came out and I feel like maybe as they tweaked the system and guests got comfortable with the functionality and the way it worked it got less unpopular. We will likely see the same with this system as they work out the kinks.

I didn't like the 7am scramble the morning of, but the modify feature they later added imo was a huge improvement...allowing me to pretty much find what I wanted whenever I wanted if you tried hard enough. If they would have just changed it to 1 prebook each day of your trip I would have been ok with that. No system is ever going to work well with some many rules and so few selections to choose from

 

[GhostHost1000]

With this new system though you don't have to pay until you have selected your first 3 rides. So if you don't like what you see you don't buy it.

The unhappiness will come from potentially waiting in long lines all day. But as I stated earlier I have very little sympathy for those not staying at a Disney resort. It's always been my opinion those guests should have huge advantages.

they absolutely should have huge advantages... what I'm not sure about though is where the line is because resorts are so overpriced now. Will some guests who normally stay offsite just decide not to come now thinking they won't be able to do as much with the new system