Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[nickys]

Going back to this, I reached out to Mammoth club/Molly to point out that there was an error in her video. Their/her response was quite interesting as it isn't quite as simple as overlapping just unlocks after using one:

"As an update, Molly is in the park currently and tried again to see if she could get two rides to overlap. The only way possible is if the NEXT AVAILABLE time for the attraction you’re booking overlaps with a current attraction. Example: She booked Star Tours at 645, and the next available Muppet Vision 3D was also 645, so she was able to book that as well. However she also still has Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway booked at 730, and NEITHER Star Tours nor Muppet Vision was able to be booked within the 7pm hour (despite having full availability). We tested this multiple times, with multiple rides, and found the same results over and over. So as previously stated, overlapping is definitely an exception, not a rule.

So while we’re happy to discover there is this unique exception to the rule, tapping into your first attraction doesn’t unlock the ability to overlap in most cases. (Except this exception. Isn’t this fun

)"

TLDR: Attractions can only overlap if you are booking the next available time.

I’ll agree to disagree then.

 

[doctornick]

Yeah, it was discussed a bit earlier in the thread. The stacking strategy is officially dead. You can still book 3 reservations in the evening but only 1 tier 1 and you can’t get #4 until you use 1 of the first 3. The new system definitely favors those who are actually in the parks which I assume is by design. They want us in the parks spending money.

That's a good point though that the way this system discourages the late arriving/evening stacking option is very likely by design (as opposed to an unintended flaw in the system). Disney prefers to have people in the parks longer being more likely to buy food and drinks, etc as opposed to catering to the "quick strike" folks only coming for a few hours.

 

[GoofGoof]

That's a good point though that the way this system discourages the late arriving/evening stacking option is very likely by design (as opposed to an unintended flaw in the system). Disney prefers to have people in the parks longer being more likely to buy food and drinks, etc as opposed to catering to the "quick strike" folks only coming for a few hours.

It does seem that way. The day of drops also favor someone who arrives by noonish or earlier. It does not appear there are large drops in the evening. So while you don’t have to get there at rope drop and use your first reservation right at 9am to take advantage of an 11am drop you do have to be there before 11am and use at least 1 reservation. With Genie+ you could take advantage of the 11am drop by booking reservation #2 at 11am with the 2 hour rule even if you were not in the park. So while optimal use of this system does not require a literal rope drop (arriving before park open and waiting in the mob to rush in) it is to your advantage to arrive within a few hours of open unless you are satisfied with the 3 reservations you booked and aren’t concerned with getting any more. Win for the morning people and I guess a win for Starbucks which is needed for the rest of us

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

I think the system rewarding actual in park users is a good thing. Using Genie+ while not in the park was a much more pleasant experience in my opinion than using it while on the go in the park. That’s backwards to how a line skip system should be working, again in my opinion.

I think it’s a good thing that actual use unlocks more LLs, not just the passage of time. In park users should IMO be prioritized. I imagine that’s where the bulk of the Genie+ complaints came from, frustrated in park guests who couldn’t get what they wanted out of the system.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

It does seem that way. The day of drops also favor someone who arrives by noonish or earlier. It does not appear there are large drops in the evening. So while you don’t have to get there at rope drop and use your first reservation right at 9am to take advantage of an 11am drop you do have to be there before 11am and use at least 1 reservation. With Genie+ you could take advantage of the 11am drop by booking reservation #2 at 11am with the 2 hour rule even if you were not in the park. So while optimal use of this system does not require a literal rope drop (arriving before park open and waiting in the mob to rush in) it is to your advantage to arrive within a few hours of open unless you are satisfied with the 3 reservations you booked and aren’t concerned with getting any more. Win for the morning people and I guess a win for Starbucks which is needed for the rest of us

Right but at 11am that is still just your 2nd LL under G+ vs having 3 to start with LLMP, so you wouldn't be "even" until 1pm.

Now, there isn't tiering with G+, so if you only want tier 1 rides and we're planning to not arrive until after 1pm, then yeah, G+ is better. But that is a minority of guests but for those, this is a downgrade

 

[GoofGoof]

Right but at 11am that is still just your 2nd LL under G+ vs having 3 to start with LLMP, so you wouldn't be "even" until 1pm.

Now, there isn't tiering with G+, so if you only want tier 1 rides and we're planning to not arrive until after 1pm, then yeah, G+ is better. But that is a minority of guests but for those, this is a downgrade

Yeah for sure. For a user arriving before 11am you can now have your 3 advance reservations and with a little luck when booking (plus the modify function) end up having used 3 with 3 additional reservations in hand before 11am when Genie+ would have allowed a user outside the parks to book #2. So the benefit of being in the parks using the system are huge comparatively.

The vast majority of complaints I have seen here and other places are from super users who are mostly concerned with tier 1 rides and a large number from people who wanted to stack for the evening. I agree that that is a minority of users but that seems to be where the negativity is focused.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I was able to do my lightning lanes this morning so I wanted to share my experience. I am checking in to CBR next Saturday 8/17 with my daughter. We have 4 park days, a Typhoon Lagoon & Disney Springs day, and a party day, planning to enter MK at 4pm.

I did not purchase anything for our AK day. We are planning to go to FoP at early entry and I’m confident standby will be fine for everything else.

For our Epcot day, I only purchased single pass for Guardians. I am also hoping to get the VQ so we can ride twice. There were plenty of times available and I got exactly what I wanted.
We are entering from the International Gateway for early entry and heading to Remy first. The only possible long wait I am anticipating is Frozen but I couldn’t justify purchasing multi pass for that. Since the queue is indoors, we will just suck it up and wait.

My first purchase this morning was our MK day. I purchased both multi pass and single pass for Tron. I was able to get what I wanted but it took a lot of fiddle faddling to get the times I wanted. I initially accepted the times that were offered as I didn’t want to lose my selections and then modified for several minutes after completing all my other purchases. My only complaint is that it chooses the order for the initial bookings. I wish you could choose how you wanted them lined up for the day. More on this in a bit.
We are planning to start at Space Mountain at early entry. Early entry is at 7:30. After some fiddling, here is what I ended up with:
8:05 Buzz
8:45 Tron
9:50 Tiana
11:10 Haunted Mansion

Buzz is essentially a throw away. Yes we want to ride, yes I realize I won’t need a LL this early. Once we tap in, I’m hoping it’s early enough in the day to get a decent time for Jungle Cruise or Big Thunder.
Pan is closed for refurb on this day.

For my second booking, I went to our DHS day. This is where things got dicey. We are planning to do Rise at early entry then I wanted to go to Toy Story Land and knock out all 3 things there. I chose Slinky, Mania and ToT. It gave me automatic times in the order of Slinky, Tower, Mania. I should have modified right then but was afraid I’d lose the selections so I accepted. After, it wouldn’t let me modify Mania to an earlier time because it overlapped with Tower. I had to first push Tower out to the afternoon, then modify Mania, then go back and push Tower closer to the morning. It was risky but thankfully it worked out. My final times are:
Slinky 9:25
Mania 10:30
Tower 11:10

I am definitely going to fiddle with the first two and see if I can get them even closer to the 9am opening.

So overall, I’m happy. My advice is to attempt to modify as much as you can in the initial 5 minutes. I accepted what was given and modified after which was risky.

Sorry this is long but I hope it’s helpful as people navigate the new system

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Oh I also want to add, for our MK day, I did not purchase Mine Train. MK closes at 6pm this day for a party so I am hoping to jump in line around 5:30ish. If for some reason this doesn’t work out, we will ride during the Halloween party we are attending on another day. In case anyone is interested

 

[bwr827]

Oh I also want to add, for our MK day, I did not purchase Mine Train. MK closes at 6pm this day for a party so I am hoping to jump in line around 5:30ish. If for some reason this doesn’t work out, we will ride during the Halloween party we are attending on another day. In case anyone is interested

Absolutely interested.

Actual plans and experiences are far preferable to the pointless bickering about FastPass+ and Genie+.

 

[GoofGoof]

Absolutely interested.

Actual plans and experiences are far preferable to the pointless bickering about FastPass+ and Genie+.

Agreed, but full disclosure…….I am also at least slightly interested in the pointless bickering as well

 

[bwr827]

Agreed, but full disclosure…….I am also at least slightly interested in the pointless bickering as well

Just re-read this thread - 1,300+ pages saying all the bickery you could want.

 

[GoofGoof]

Just re-read this thread - 1,300+ pages saying all the bickery you could want.

Haha yeah for sure. I’m probably responsible for about 100 of those pages

I am booking my reservations tomorrow so my main interest here is to see how things are working and look for tips and tricks. I am a Disney parks fan first, but I also find the business aspect of the Disney parks fascinating. Even though some of the griping gets repetitive I do find it interesting what others think of the new product, pros and cons.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

Agreed, but full disclosure…….I am also at least slightly interested in the pointless bickering as well

Hah. Guilty

 

[Supertech65]

Seeing reports of guests having issues using disney gift cards for mp/sp. One person I was talking to said he had put enough money on his gift card to cover his seven day tickets. By the time he went to purchase his fifth day, gift card services shut the gc down for fraud (multiple errors when try to pay) He said he was on the phone with them trying to get it sorted for over an hour with them stating that it would take 48 hours to unlock the card. He did state he fought to get immediate access to his money but was wondering if anybody else was having this sort of issue. I was planning on using strictly a gift card since credit cards have been having issues, now it looks like this seems to be a problem too.

 

[C33Mom]

Yeah, it was discussed a bit earlier in the thread. The stacking strategy is officially dead. You can still book 3 reservations in the evening but only 1 tier 1 and you can’t get #4 until you use 1 of the first 3. The new system definitely favors those who are actually in the parks which I assume is by design. They want us in the parks spending money.

I am here now. Speaking as someone who spends a lot of money in the parks, eats almost exclusively table service (also buys overpriced snacks throughout the day), and stays deluxe— I’m just going to come less. It’s still exhausting to wake at 7 for VQ, and then we have to get to the park early (especially for families used to Pacific time) if we want more than 1-2 quality LLs at most parks. This product is almost certainly better if you don’t mind starting your day at 6:55AM— but I wonder how many Disney families can and will set money on fire each day on LLMP (and other Disney upcharges) actually want to do it. We’ll still come but when we do we won’t book TS before dinner time (it messed up our morning LLMP options by blocking an hour) and we won’t book many enchanting extras, because we have to get to the parks early.

That's a good point though that the way this system discourages the late arriving/evening stacking option is very likely by design (as opposed to an unintended flaw in the system). Disney prefers to have people in the parks longer being more likely to buy food and drinks, etc as opposed to catering to the "quick strike" folks only coming for a few hours.

As noted above, why does Disney want us in the parks longer using more capacity? My guess is that many on site hotel guests spend plenty of money around the resort. Doesn’t this incentive system just make lines longer per paying guest?

It does seem that way. The day of drops also favor someone who arrives by noonish or earlier. It does not appear there are large drops in the evening. So while you don’t have to get there at rope drop and use your first reservation right at 9am to take advantage of an 11am drop you do have to be there before 11am and use at least 1 reservation. With Genie+ you could take advantage of the 11am drop by booking reservation #2 at 11am with the 2 hour rule even if you were not in the park. …Win for the morning people and I guess a win for Starbucks which is needed for the rest of us

I generally agree with this, but I would say pickings are slim by noon. You can find good LLs later than noon if you’re aggressively hunting for them, willing to criss cross parks, and park hop, but it’s not great general availability for actual Tier 1s by noon… in my experience, the most of the afternoon “drops” are either paltry or just a cancellation. Even quickly trying to book for 4 people was often met with an error (the system doesn’t even tell you that the space is gone, you just get an error message leading to wasting time retrying).

The vast majority of complaints I have seen here and other places are from super users who are mostly concerned with tier 1 rides and a large number from people who wanted to stack for the evening. I agree that that is a minority of users but that seems to be where the negativity is focused.

Guilty as charged. If you’re a rope dropper or don’t need to sleep past 7AM, this system is probably an improvement for you. Maybe it’s good for families taking a once in a lifetime trip, planning to spend 13 hours a day in the parks, as opposed to regulars who want a relaxing family vacation. My main objection is that they overhauled DAS (I accept it’s Disney’s prerogative to give less pixie dust for physical handicaps) at the same time they changed G+ to LLMP in a way that makes it much less useful for those whose health prevents them from being in the parks for more than a few hours at a time).

 

[Thepuma]

My 8-year-old daughter understood Genie+ after watching a couple of YouTube videos.

Keeping up with the changes is annoying, though.

I bet she didn't understand the intricacies of it though, like the 2 hour window, when it applies and how it applies.

 

[TCarbone]

I'm having a problem modifying multi-passes for an upcoming trip. I booked them yesterday as my 7-day resort guest window opened.

This morning, I can see slightly earlier availability for a ride. The problem I am having is as follows:

* Ride is the first one booked for 9:35am.
* In trying to modify, I can see "Earliest Time Available" is 9:30am.
* I click on "Change to This Time."
* The new plan summary places the ride at 1:50pm.
* I then click on "Modify Time."
* The earlies time clickable is 10:35am (coincidence or not that the original window closed at 10:35am)
* I click the back arrow and confirm I want to go back.
* It still shows "Earliest Time Available" as 9:30am.

I know it's only 5 minutes, but I'm seeing this behavior on other days when I want to shift rides. It's almost like the system doesn't know it is replacing the original window and won't let it overlap with it.

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'm having a problem modifying multi-passes for an upcoming trip. I booked them yesterday as my 7-day resort guest window opened.

This morning, I can see slightly earlier availability for a ride. The problem I am having is as follows:

* Ride is the first one booked for 9:35am.
* In trying to modify, I can see "Earliest Time Available" is 9:30am.
* I click on "Change to This Time."
* The new plan summary places the ride at 1:50pm.
* I then click on "Modify Time."
* The earlies time clickable is 10:35am (coincidence or not that the original window closed at 10:35am)
* I click the back arrow and confirm I want to go back.
* It still shows "Earliest Time Available" as 9:30am.

I know it's only 5 minutes, but I'm seeing this behavior on other days when I want to shift rides. It's almost like the system doesn't know it is replacing the original window and won't let it overlap with it.

Has anyone else had this problem?

This usually means you have two windows that overlap. Sometimes it lets you overlap, sometimes it doesn't. Nobody seems to understand the rules of why.

This includes dining reservations.

 

[TCarbone]

This usually means you have two windows that overlap. Sometimes it lets you overlap, sometimes it doesn't. Nobody seems to understand the rules of why.

This includes dining reservations.

I have nothing prior to it, including dining.

I agree it appears to be an overlap issue... it seems though it is not wanting the modified time to overlap with the original time.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I have nothing prior to it, including dining.

I agree it appears to be an overlap issue... it seems though it is not wanting the modified time to overlap with the original time.

This is happening to me too. I booked yesterday and was trying to just slightly move a few times up by less than hour. Checking all day, the first screen would say something like Earliest Time Available 9:35 then when I clicked it, all the return times would be 2pm or later. I just assumed it was an overlap issue with current plans. I’m guessing if I canceled everything, which obviously I’m not going to do, then that earlier time would pop up. At this point I’m going to wait until the day of and fiddle faddle then. The good news is that with this system, that’s only a week away, not two months