Lightning Lane Premier Pass

[JD80]

Nearly every attraction has long range readers scanning every guest with magic bands and Bluetooth enabled phones at various points throughout the queues. If you’re wearing a magic band they know what time you entered the queue and what time you boarded/left the attraction.

Just thing how many errors this could involve and you'd probably need people to actively filter out a lot of erroneous data just to get an estimated wait time that they probably have other ways of doing it anyway.

 

[Ayla]

Nearly every attraction has long range readers scanning every guest with magic bands and Bluetooth enabled phones at various points throughout the queues. If you’re wearing a magic band they know what time you entered the queue and what time you boarded/left the attraction.

Agreed. Magic Bands weren't thought up to make a guest's experience better. They are 100% about collecting data.

 

[monothingie]

RFID chips, especially cheap ones, are very inaccurate. You could potentially pick up chips from people leaving the attractions or being on the attractions. Or reading twice.

The RFID that Disney uses is not cheap.

If they can do an excellent job of accurately associating your in-ride photo on a moving ride vehicle with your MDR account. Differentiating guest movement in a standby line is not a problem.

 

[larryz]

Agreed. Magic Bands weren't thought up to make a guest's experience better. They are 100% about collecting data.

...and getting rid of expensive to maintain FastPass printers.

 

[peter11435]

Just thing how many errors this could involve and you'd probably need people to actively filter out a lot of erroneous data just to get an estimated wait time that they probably have other ways of doing it anyway.

I’m not guessing. What I described is exactly the system they use to gather data on how long guests are waiting for attractions. The system is smart enough to filter out erroneous data and benefits from being able to look at a huge sample size of data.

 

[JD80]

The RFID that Disney uses is not cheap.

If they can do an excellent job of accurately associating your in-ride photo on a moving ride vehicle with your MDR account. Differentiating guest movement in a standby line is not a problem.

This is incorrect.

 

[JD80]

I’m not guessing. What I described is exactly the system they use to gather data on how long guests are waiting for attractions. The system is smart enough to filter out erroneous data and benefits from being able to look at a huge sample size of data.

I don't doubt they can track people, I just doubt the accuracy of that data from a large data set.

 

[peter11435]

I don't doubt they can track people, I just doubt the accuracy of that data from a large data set.

The data is very accurate.

 

[Purduevian]

Disney almost certainly knows the actual wait times of rides and chooses to show a different wait time on the app/boards.

If anyone thinks that Disney doesn't have a pretty accurate count of the amount of people in standby line and LL line, the current throughput of the ride, and the expected number of arriving LL guests, they are kidding themselves.

Disney put a wearable tracker on a huge percentage of the guests. Those without a wearable tracker can be tracked via their phones if bluetooth is enabled through the app. If they can figure out I'm in car 3 (not car 1 or 2) on RNRC going 60mph. I'm pretty sure they can tell when I entered the line.

 

[JD80]

Then why aren't wait times updated more often and with more accuracy? EVEN considering they are adding buffer to the wait time for psychological reasons.

 

[Laketravis]

Then why aren't wait times updated more often and with more accuracy? EVEN considering they are adding buffer to the wait time for psychological reasons.

Because that could impact LL sales?

 

[Disstevefan1]

Then why aren't wait times updated more often and with more accuracy? EVEN considering they are adding buffer to the wait time for psychological reasons.

 

[JD80]

Because that could impact LL sales?

I don't think so. Now I'm curious how many LLMP/SP are sold prior to checkin and how many day of before park open and how many are after park open.

 

[Purduevian]

Then why aren't wait times updated more often and with more accuracy? EVEN considering they are adding buffer to the wait time for psychological reasons.

No insider information, but I worked on a similar guest facing value at a different company where we deliberately "lied" to our customers about a value. So, I have some theories:
For why it doesn't update more often

1. people don't want to get in line, just to see the wait time drop 2 mins after they got in line
2. people don't want to see a 20 min line, run from the other side of the park just to see it at 30
3. Any of the physical signs remaining, no need to wear out the components faster than needed
4. If you already have a built-in buffer and the actual predicted time is still less than it, what change it?

For why it isn't more accurate

1. Guests feel like they "win" when actual time is less than posted
2. Increased LLSP/LLMP sales
3. Steers guests to less popular rides to better utilize park ride capacity
4. Can steer guests away from area if lines in one area of the park looks crowded
5. Get people to balk at rides at the end of the night to close them down earlier.

I'm sure others can think of more reasons, but these are just some of them.

 

[peter11435]

Then why aren't wait times updated more often and with more accuracy? EVEN considering they are adding buffer to the wait time for psychological reasons.

For a variety of reasons the data is not directly used to automatically update wait times in real time. It’s used to accurately document how long guests waited. But wait time postings are done and updated manually by real people within the operations. The data is used to validate their accuracy after the fact.

 

[lewisc]

No insider information, but I worked on a similar guest facing value at a different company where we deliberately "lied" to our customers about a value. So, I have some theories:
For why it doesn't update more often

1. people don't want to get in line, just to see the wait time drop 2 mins after they got in line
2. people don't want to see a 20 min line, run from the other side of the park just to see it at 30
3. Any of the physical signs remaining, no need to wear out the components faster than needed
4. If you already have a built-in buffer and the actual predicted time is still less than it, what change it?

For why it isn't more accurate

1. Guests feel like they "win" when actual time is less than posted
2. Increased LLSP/LLMP sales
3. Steers guests to less popular rides to better utilize park ride capacity
4. Can steer guests away from area if lines in one area of the park looks crowded
5. Get people to balk at rides at the end of the night to close them down earlier.

I'm sure others can think of more reasons, but these are just some of them.

I agree with all of the above.

Theme parks have been estimating wait time based on where the line ends for years. Historic numbers are adjusted to account for the number of guests who will be skipping the line.


I've had good luck asking a CM. They'll look at the line, or ask me where the line ends. The CM lets me know if the posted time looks off.
Years ago I walked by FoP and asked about waiting. The CM suggested getting in line about 10 minutes before park close and anticipate a 20-30 minute wait. On the money

 

[DCBaker]

Here is the Premier Pass pricing for today and the most expensive dates on the calendar so far, November 4 and 16:

 

[John park hopper]

Wow so for the wife and I over a grand a day for MK -----thanks but no thanks

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I can’t see this in the app, do you need to have a deluxe resort booked?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

The only new build is really Villains land

Is it really a new build if they’re eliminating riverboat & TSI for two new attractions? It’s more capacity replacement, not expansion.