Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[DisneyDodo]

There's just weird stuff they did with the design of that one. The exterior in Florida screams e-ticket, even though it isn't - they set expectations much better in California. There are also lost of weird choices inside with scene layout, exposed ceilings, with themed stuff above you, encouraging people to look upwards without even bothering to add a droped ceiling...

Personally, my biggest gripe is that in the scene with Ursula, one of that parks most advanced animatronics, they spin you around her in a tiny room and have your omnimover vehicle pointed away well before you're even out of the room, instead of maximizing your time with that character when they could have turned you around after you were in the tunnel.

If they'd have taken the budget they blew on that unecessary exterior and spent it on the inside to just improve some of the nagging things, I think a lot of people would be way happier with this one.

Just saw this, but much of my response to the other post applies to yours as well:

Your critiques of UTS reinforce my point, not refute it. The fact that the queue is so elaborate is a positive, not a negative. I agree that the effects aren't very high-tech, but improving those concerns would make it an "E." I'm not sure that PPF is really any more impressive - it benefits from nostalgia, and its low capacity inflates its wait times, but I wouldn't say its clearly better. My point is not that the ride is so great, it's that not ever ride has to be the best of the best. Right now, the parks are lacking a lot more in quantity (i.e. capacity) than they are in quality.

I'm not debating the validity of your criticism with the ride, but if you want C & D tickets in the parks, you can't hold them to an E-ticket standard.

 

[MrPromey]

I dont know I was pretty let down by NRJ, after doing FOP. The Shaman is an amazing animatronic but the rest was pretty cheesy. I do agree it is better than Little Mermaid. But 20,000 Leagues beats both over the head with a CLUB!!!

I'd have liked NRJ a whole lot more if I hadn't had to wait 90 minutes to ride it.

For that reason, I've ridden it once and only once since it always seems to have a 70+ minute wait.

For a 30 minute or less wait, I think it would be a great ride. For the E-ticket lines it's had since opening, not so much.

 

[tallica]

Welp, nice job losing my $10,000 every year.
I finally have the chance to explore the real world with my family.

It is sad, Disney is becoming more like the the real world. Rude people, pay more for less, and quality of service is eroding. Really miss the old Disney. Where once you passed through the turnstile everyone was basically equal.

 

[wutisgood]

I figure in the new fiscal year so right at the start of October.. my guess

In that case if I do go in September I will have to use a disney day while the experience Is still good.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I'm not debating the validity of your criticism with the ride, but if you want C & D tickets in the parks, you can't hold them to an E-ticket standard.

You can when they have the size and cost of one.

 

[MrPromey]

Just saw this, but much of my response to the other post applies to yours as well:

I'm not debating the validity of your criticism with the ride, but if you want C & D tickets in the parks, you can't hold them to an E-ticket standard.

I wouldn't say I'm holding it to an e-ticket standard. I'm just saying that they gave it an e-ticket exterior and queue that are fancier and more elaborate than the actual attraction inside and that's a major problem.

Imagine if, after approaching the exterior of the Haunted Mansion and going through the queue, the stretching room, and getting loaded onto your doom-buggy, you got a Mermaid Level attraction.

Wouldn't that be a letdown?

And that said, a lot of what I think they should have done better on the inside could have been with minimal cost. A drop-ceiling to hide building support beams and the catwalk would surely have been cheaper than the rockwork and elaborate water features you have to wak through in the unneeded path before you reach the start of the line.

If they didn't want to do that, better thought out lighting that didn't expose that area would have been enough.

Dumb stuff like when the omnimover turnsaway from Ursula too soon, would have cost them absolutely nothing.

I don't think these kinds of things being different would push this to e-ticket status but an exterior that didn't promise an e-ticket, and a lower tier attraction that looked like they'd learned something from decades of doing this kind of stuff would have all made the overall experience better, I think.

And for the interior stuff, some of these things could still be fixed.

 

[UNCgolf]

UTS eats a lot more people than NRJ. But anyway, NRJ takes just as much flack on these boards as UTS: "it's not long enough," "it needs more animatronics," etc. Those changes would certainly enhance the ride, but they also cost more money, plus they would draw a lot more guests to the park.

Your critiques of UTS reinforce my point, not refute it. The fact that the queue is so elaborate is a positive, not a negative. I agree that the effects aren't very high-tech, but improving those concerns would make it an "E." I'm not sure that PPF is really any more impressive - it benefits from nostalgia, and its low capacity inflates its wait times, but I wouldn't say its clearly better. My point is not that the ride is so great, it's that not ever ride has to be the best of the best. Right now, the parks are lacking a lot more in quantity (i.e. capacity) than they are in quality.

Not having obviously cheap effects scattered around wouldn't make it an E. It would make it a Disney level attraction throughout. Right now, it has places that look like they were put together for a couple hundred bucks by a community theater (as I already said). It's absurd how cheap some of it looks -- the Under the Sea scene is a major offender here, and it's supposed to be the main showcase.

And yes, NRJ takes a ton of flack on these boards, but the "it's not long enough" and "needs more animatronics" would go towards making it a D or an E. It's a completely different kind of complaint. TLM is a failure in set design and other foundational parts of a ride; NRJ is not.

I honestly believe that if NRJ and TLM were both walk-ons, and guests went into them blind (and didn't have an inherent bias toward the Little Mermaid IP, of course), the vast majority would think NRJ was a better ride. TLM is almost always a walk-on, so it's easy for people to overlook how truly awful it is in places (it's one of Disney's biggest design failures ever). NRJ is the opposite -- people are expecting a D or E due to the wait times.

I'm also not sure Little Mermaid does eat more people than NRJ -- theoretically it should because I think the hourly capacity is 300-400 more, but since it's almost always a walk-on (or at least it has been when I was there) and NRJ stays busy, NRJ may actually serve more guests on a daily basis. Regardless, my point was about the quality of the attraction, not the overall capacity. If the capacity is high but no one rides it because it's bad, having a high capacity isn't very helpful.

This is now waaaay off topic, though, so I'll leave this discussion alone now.

 

[draybook]

I have enjoyed most of the vloggers takes on the subject, especially Brayden and Tom Corless(sp?). My question is, how does everyone feel about Josh D'Amaro now? Is he just playing the role or is he a sellout now?

 

[Patcheslee]

Chapek and the BoD want it to feel like that...they don't want you relaxed and strolling around just enjoying being at the parks...they need you to spend, spend, spend.

When I'm up early the last thing I want to do is be up and spend more money. Then if I'm tired I'll spend less time in the park when I do get there.
Maybe that's part of the reason there are so many magical meltdowns in the park. Not everyone enjoys doing it, but for the cost they pay, drag themselves out of bed anyway.

 

[WDWTrojan]

I have enjoyed most of the vloggers takes on the subject, especially Brayden and Tom Corless(sp?). My question is, how does everyone feel about Josh D'Amaro now? Is he just playing the role or is he a sellout now?

Paid FP was always coming. Disney was the last hold out. What people got was far better and more egalitarian than they could have gone.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Perhaps not, but I took him at his word when he said that he welcomed the sort of aimlessness described by @CaptainAmerica.

Deciding what you want to do next instead of being on a schedule like it’s a work day is not aimlessness.

Your family in ‘91 could have planned - there were plenty of guides available. They chose not to. That’s the point - in ‘91 you could plan or not. I know people who did both. Today, you are very heavily penalized by Disney themselves if you want any degree of spontaneity. Why should other people be forced to experience the park the way you want to?

 

[aaronml]

So OLC (Tokyo) has 4 day tickets for $240 (both parks) with the old fast pass system.

It's hard to believe that you pay twice the price for less of an experience in the country that those parks were founded in. It's an embarrassment honestly, how can a foreign country do Disney better than you?

TDR got rid of FP also. They have Standby Pass, as well as a separate lottery system I believe for certain attractions. I read a while back that they are looking at paid FP offerings also.

 

[IMDREW]

Im sorry, this probably has been talked about somewhere in the last 107 pages, but Im a little late to the party and 107 pages is a lot to go through!

Can anyone tell me if the paid LL for say Rise or Flight of Passage could be bought separate without Genie+? Or do you first need to buy the Genie+ in order to get acces to the paid LL rides? :/

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

This makes me wonder how this will effect Single Rider lines as Rat has this. Plus groups will Weasle their way just to jump into the ride quicker and not utilizing the LL system..

 

[LittleBuford]

Deciding what you want to do next instead of being on a schedule like it’s a work day is not aimlessness.

The situation described was frustrating and unproductive for all concerned. I can’t imagine that anyone would enjoy a family squabble in the middle of a theme park.

Your family in ‘91 could have planned - there were plenty of guides available. They chose not to. That’s the point - in ‘91 you could plan or not. I know people who did both. Today, you are very heavily penalized by Disney themselves if you want any degree of spontaneity. Why should other people be forced to experience the park the way you want to?

You missed my point: we were penalised because of my parents’ lack of planning. I know many here insist that spontaneity reigned supreme in the past, but anyone visiting during busy times really needed to plan to make the most of their holiday—yes, even back in 1991.

 

[Chi84]

We always had great trips using FP+ and I'm sorry to see it discontinued. Knowing we could get the rides we wanted at the times we wanted gave us the freedom to enjoy ourselves without worrying that we would miss our favorites or have to waste a ton of time standing in line. But this new system is supposed to be a lot like MaxPass, and that system had many fans, so I'm keeping an open mind. Hopefully, we'll be able to get some experience in using it this fall before our family trip in May.

 

[Karakasa]

Seems like the monkey paw curled on my desire to see ticket books again, but in a worse way than I thought possible up until this week. At least it's not as bad as I thought it'd be in the past week or so, but maintaining the current price and tacking on 15-20 dollars and even more on top of that?! Sheesh. I can only hope less people use this than used Fastpass+ or else it'll really become a "necessity" when visiting, not an actual "add-on".

Im sorry, this probably has been talked about somewhere in the last 107 pages, but Im a little late to the party and 107 pages is a lot to go through!

Can anyone tell me if the paid LL for say Rise or Flight of Passage could be bought separate without Genie+? Or do you first need to buy the Genie+ in order to get acces to the paid LL rides? :/

You won't need Genie+ for the highest-tier rides, so to speak. We don't exactly know what all those rides are. I personally suspect it'll end up being one per park- FoP, Rise, GotG, and Tron. But I wouldn't be shocked if it got extended to other attractions or the former fireworks FP viewing areas for MK and Epcot.... All other rides and attractions that utilize a FP-esque system will be included with Genie+, though.

 

[Casper Gutman]

The situation described was frustrating and unproductive for all concerned. I can’t imagine that anyone would enjoy a family squabble in the middle of a theme park.


You missed my point: we were penalised because of my parents’ lack of planning. I know many here insist that spontaneity reigned supreme in the past, but anyone visiting during busy times really needed to plan to make the most of their holiday—yes, even back in 1991.

You're missing my point. You're trying to universalize your experience. Your '91 trip gave you a preference for planning, or maybe it was already present. Fine. But other people could have gone on that trip and enjoyed it, or at least enjoyed it more then one that required more planning. Spontaneity reigned IF you wanted it to. You could also plan, if that was your preference. The point is the CHOICE existed. It doesn't now, and WDW is forcing people to experience the park in one particular way. Even if that way is the way you'd prefer, I hope you can see why forcing that on everyone is worse then giving people an option.

 

[seascape]

I will start by saying I completely understand charging $15.00 a day for offsite guests to use Genie+. However, passholders should be allowed to buy an annual use package and onsite guests should get Genie+ for free for the days they are onsite. The paid lightning lane use should be a charge or allow users to use points from their soom to be announced rewards program. If and only if they provide added services and benefits to their loyal and adoring fans will this change be the game changer they want and bring in the additional profits they desire.

 

[KrzyKtty]

Being completely honest, I'm kind of surprised that so many people are shocked and surprised about the paid fastpass change. I mean it's pretty much been a known thing in these boards for months. Those in the know have been telling us this is coming. Anybody reading those threads and still believing otherwise we're just in denial.

The fact that Disney was one of the only theme parks in the entire world that had a line skipping system you didn't have to pay for rent it was on borrowed time. All theme parks nickle and dime you...

It seems a lot of people were somehow expecting "better" from Disney. Like they are supposed to be altruistic and do things for the enjoyment of people rather than their bottom line. They are a publicly treated company. At the end of the day they're going to do things for their profits. It might not always be nice, And quite honestly it might be a shortsighted, but it's what is going to happen.