Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

SirWillow

Well-Known Member
is this your channel?
Sorry for the late reply. Yes, it is. :)

One other thing I'm seeing stated quite a bit that I don't believe is accurate is the impression that there will be unlimited numbers of passes available through Genie+ and that's simply not true. While they may make it available, they absolutely will have limits on how many "lightning lanes" are available on each ride. If 20k people buy Genie+, not all 20k can get a pass for Peter Pan and completely take over it's line. There will be limits as to how many passes are available for each attraction.

Just like the original fastpass only had so many passes available for certain rides, and yes, even fastpass+ only had so many (though a ridiculously high percentage of a rides overall capacity) and Maxpass as well only had so many for each attraction at certain times, this will as well.

The big question- and the one that will determine whether this is a good thing or a horrible thing- is how much capacity for each attraction are they doing to devote to it? Will it be a modest amount, say 20% or numbers closer to what the original fastpass and MaxPass did? Or will it be the screwed up numbers that destroyed stand by lines like Fastpass+ did? That's something that none of us know and Disney hasn't given any information about yet. And until they do, we really don't know how well this work or not.

Oh, one other side note: I do find it interesting how upset people are over the fact that Disney is now going to charge an additional fee for something that every other park and chain has had additional charges for years now. Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Busch, Herchend, and Universal ALL charge for theirs. None of them offer it for free. I'm not sure why we would expect the most popular and crowded parks in the world to be any different.

I'm all about hating on their penny pinching, cutting services to squeeze every cent out of the guest trends as well. But this may be the one exception that really might not be that. We're going to really have to wait and see. And if it screws up the lines as bad as they have been, I'll be the first one up to say how bad it is. But I'm also going to wait and see if it might be an improvement over what it used to be.
 

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
I agree completely. This has gotten way too complicated. It's a Frankenstein's monster mashup of fastpass, maxpass, lotteries, congestion pricing, and old fashioned pay per ride tickets. And everything is subject a confusing array of rules, timetables, limits and exceptions, some of which overlap, none of which are the same across the board for all attractions and all guests. Lightning Lane, virtual queues, boarding groups, tiers, Fastpass, Fastpass plus, Max Pass, Disney Genie, Disney Genie plus. . . am I forgetting anything?

Why not keep things simple? Why not just go back to paper (or digital) fastpasses distributed at the ride entrance? Even with an up charge. What are the reasons not to do that? Or a Universal style express pass?
Now that you've listed all that, it makes me wonder why we still can't save gift cards to the app. Is it that complicated?
 

matt9112

Well-Known Member
This would just mean accelerating the problematic vicious cycle in which Disney is already stuck. Marquee attractions induce too much demand leading to more crowding. The parks need smaller scale attractions that can provide breathing room for the people already in the parks.

Yes.....this 100% been saying this for years. There marketing doesn't help they hype the crap out of anything.
 

matt9112

Well-Known Member
Then ... what do you consider a non-marquee attraction in EPCOT aside from Tres Caballeros, Imagination (mostly due to neglect), and the various theaters? I'd wager practically every attraction there would cost as much or more for the Imagineering of today.

Nemo.....granted that was a reskin. Epcot is unique because its so gutted and incomplete. Frozen used to be secondary but now is a marquee with horrible capacity. Smart moves smart moves.....
 

ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
Sorry for the late reply. Yes, it is. :)

One other thing I'm seeing stated quite a bit that I don't believe is accurate is the impression that there will be unlimited numbers of passes available through Genie+ and that's simply not true. While they may make it available, they absolutely will have limits on how many "lightning lanes" are available on each ride. If 20k people buy Genie+, not all 20k can get a pass for Peter Pan and completely take over it's line. There will be limits as to how many passes are available for each attraction.

Just like the original fastpass only had so many passes available for certain rides, and yes, even fastpass+ only had so many (though a ridiculously high percentage of a rides overall capacity) and Maxpass as well only had so many for each attraction at certain times, this will as well.

The big question- and the one that will determine whether this is a good thing or a horrible thing- is how much capacity for each attraction are they doing to devote to it? Will it be a modest amount, say 20% or numbers closer to what the original fastpass and MaxPass did? Or will it be the screwed up numbers that destroyed stand by lines like Fastpass+ did? That's something that none of us know and Disney hasn't given any information about yet. And until they do, we really don't know how well this work or not.

Oh, one other side note: I do find it interesting how upset people are over the fact that Disney is now going to charge an additional fee for something that every other park and chain has had additional charges for years now. Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Busch, Herchend, and Universal ALL charge for theirs. None of them offer it for free. I'm not sure why we would expect the most popular and crowded parks in the world to be any different.

I'm all about hating on their penny pinching, cutting services to squeeze every cent out of the guest trends as well. But this may be the one exception that really might not be that. We're going to really have to wait and see. And if it screws up the lines as bad as they have been, I'll be the first one up to say how bad it is. But I'm also going to wait and see if it might be an improvement over what it used to be.
One thing to keep in mind...other theme parks - Universal Included - aren't anywhere as expensive as WDW.

I have zero faith that they won't try to use this to meet revenue targets and won't care one iota if it makes the experience worse.
 

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
It not being very good doesn’t change that it is huge, cost hundreds of millions of dollars, is anchoring a small land expansion and is intended to drive visitation to Epcot.
Kind of a weird criterion as basically anything will drive visitation to the parks with inferior ride counts. You'd have to make something truly abysmal to not attract more people to EPCOT with it.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Kind of a weird criterion as basically anything will drive visitation to the parks with inferior ride counts. You'd have to make something truly abysmal to not attract more people to EPCOT with it.
Again, that’s the problem. Disney can’t build anything for a reasonable cost so they don’t build smaller attractions that won’t drive additional visitation. The parks are now so lacking in capacity that even something small ends up inducing too much demand.
 

SirWillow

Well-Known Member
One thing to keep in mind...other theme parks - Universal Included - aren't anywhere as expensive as WDW.

I have zero faith that they won't try to use this to meet revenue targets and won't care one iota if it makes the experience worse.

Universal starts at $110 per day for one park. They are pretty close to Disney's price.

And Disney is so expensive for one simple reason- there's so much demand to go and the parks are so crowded. It's called the law of supply and demand- when there is a lot of demand prices go up. They also have the largest parks that can hold more people.

Disney's Genie+ is also far and away the cheapest of any "skip the line" program at any park, with even the cheapest Six Flags flash pass starting out at $45/ day/ person. I know they aren't the same thing, but when you consider the crowds, the demand, and the broken system this has been long overdue from Disney.

Like I said when it releases if they break it I'll be the first to slam it. But the biggest gripe I see right now is "it's not free" and I don't see why it should be when it isn't anywhere else.
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
I don’t have a problem with Genie+, I do have a problem with LL additional rides. I would have much preferred the old Maxpass model or a two tiered price with the marquee new rides left out of the lower price. I don’t like paying a per price cost to ride.

I also despise the lottery standby pass. It takes away two ways to ride a big ride with minimal wait (rope drop/park close) and makes for a stressful morning.
 

pdude81

Well-Known Member
Universal starts at $110 per day for one park. They are pretty close to Disney's price.

And Disney is so expensive for one simple reason- there's so much demand to go and the parks are so crowded. It's called the law of supply and demand- when there is a lot of demand prices go up. They also have the largest parks that can hold more people.

Disney's Genie+ is also far and away the cheapest of any "skip the line" program at any park, with even the cheapest Six Flags flash pass starting out at $45/ day/ person. I know they aren't the same thing, but when you consider the crowds, the demand, and the broken system this has been long overdue from Disney.

Like I said when it releases if they break it I'll be the first to slam it. But the biggest gripe I see right now is "it's not free" and I don't see why it should be when it isn't anywhere else.
One day one park isn't how people typically visit WDW though. And they just raised AP prices at least 20% just after the increase in line skip pricing. Fastpass used to be billed as part of your tickets, so that's a price increase in itself. I agree that increasing one thing or the other wouldnt' be a huge deal, but both in concert is a lot of money. And this is before the almost certain increase in regular tickets that will follow.
 

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