Lightening Lane + Breakdowns = Magic Killer

[GatorChris]

Just got back from a long trip to WDW. It was magical, of course. Had lots of fun. But...I feel like every single morning, something was in breakdown mode at every park I went to. Rides, apps, dining. It was a mess. And to be honest, if I'm paying a premium price, I should get the premium theme park experience. I expect breakdowns at Six Flags because I'm paying $60 or less to visit.

Here's where it becomes a big headache. When a ride goes down, all those LLs and ILLs that Disney OVERsold still have a right to ride. Which means the standby lines for these attractions are horrible. My first day at DHS, I had the Multipass, but couldn't get a LL for ToyStory Mania until the same time F! was running (which ticked me off enough, seeing as how I paid extra). So we walked into standby at TSM which said 35 minutes. About 30 minutes later, with the line barely moving because, again they OVERsell those LLs, they say they're running on limited capacity. Which means the LL line is piling up, which means they get all sorts of priority to get the line down. We ended up waiting 75 minutes. FOR TSM!!!! C'mon.

Our last evening at Epcot, we did the standby at Guardians. Because Test Track had been down for at least 5 hours at 5:30pm, Guardians was averaging about 80-100 minutes. When we got in line, it said 80, which I was willing to do because it's my daughter's favorite ride (not mine). The line moved fast outside (15 minutes)...and then we got inside and the ILL line became crazy. It was literally from the top of the ramp to the entrance door for 60 minutes, which is what it took for us to get from the indoor entrance to the top set of circle-back lines. At that point, my blood was starting to boil because I knew we had a much longer wait to go. It then shut down for about 5 minutes between announcements of breakdowns and going back up - enough to make the ILL line crazier. From the time we got in line until we got on the ride was 2 hours 20 minutes. I was HOT. While in line, I told my wife the next time I wanted to plan a trip to Disney, cut off my big toe with wire cutters.

Anyway, this seemed to happen nearly everyday. The first problem is they oversell LL and ILL, no doubt. The second problem is even a little hiccup in the ride makes it a nightmare. I paid the exorbitant prices to get into Epoct, but because I didn't pay even more for the LL, I get a bad experience. It's garbage, and something really has to be done. Nothing will be done because Disney is making a killing. I just wish Disney would do better. One thing Epcot could use is some more live entertainment like they used to have. World Showcase Players, Off Kilter...stuff where we can just show up and enjoy what Epcot is supposed to be.

Rant over. Maybe???

 

[HopperFan]

Just got back from a long trip to WDW. It was magical, of course. Had lots of fun. But...I feel like every single morning, something was in breakdown mode at every park I went to. Rides, apps, dining. It was a mess. And to be honest, if I'm paying a premium price, I should get the premium theme park experience. I expect breakdowns at Six Flags because I'm paying $60 or less to visit.

Here's where it becomes a big headache. When a ride goes down, all those LLs and ILLs that Disney OVERsold still have a right to ride. Which means the standby lines for these attractions are horrible. My first day at DHS, I had the Multipass, but couldn't get a LL for ToyStory Mania until the same time F! was running (which ticked me off enough, seeing as how I paid extra). So we walked into standby at TSM which said 35 minutes. About 30 minutes later, with the line barely moving because, again they OVERsell those LLs, they say they're running on limited capacity. Which means the LL line is piling up, which means they get all sorts of priority to get the line down. We ended up waiting 75 minutes. FOR TSM!!!! C'mon.

Our last evening at Epcot, we did the standby at Guardians. Because Test Track had been down for at least 5 hours at 5:30pm, Guardians was averaging about 80-100 minutes. When we got in line, it said 80, which I was willing to do because it's my daughter's favorite ride (not mine). The line moved fast outside (15 minutes)...and then we got inside and the ILL line became crazy. It was literally from the top of the ramp to the entrance door for 60 minutes, which is what it took for us to get from the indoor entrance to the top set of circle-back lines. At that point, my blood was starting to boil because I knew we had a much longer wait to go. It then shut down for about 5 minutes between announcements of breakdowns and going back up - enough to make the ILL line crazier. From the time we got in line until we got on the ride was 2 hours 20 minutes. I was HOT. While in line, I told my wife the next time I wanted to plan a trip to Disney, cut off my big toe with wire cutters.

Anyway, this seemed to happen nearly everyday. The first problem is they oversell LL and ILL, no doubt. The second problem is even a little hiccup in the ride makes it a nightmare. I paid the exorbitant prices to get into Epoct, but because I didn't pay even more for the LL, I get a bad experience. It's garbage, and something really has to be done. Nothing will be done because Disney is making a killing. I just wish Disney would do better. One thing Epcot could use is some more live entertainment like they used to have. World Showcase Players, Off Kilter...stuff where we can just show up and enjoy what Epcot is supposed to be.

Rant over. Maybe???

What would cutting off your big toe do for you? Just curious.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Standby = longer waits. LLMP and LLSP = shorter waits. It's a decision each person makes depending on how they wish to tour the parks.

I have chosen not to purchase LLMP for our upcoming trip and have never purchased LLSP. I made this decision and know that it will = longer waits.

For each person who complains about attractions going down, there is another person complaining that XXX is being refurbished during their trip. Disney can't win.

Going to Disney = lines. Always has, always will and it's a choice I choose to make by choosing to visit Disney.

I appreciate your need to vent but also want those who may be new to the boards to know it's a common occurrence for there to be lines and for attractions to break down.

Were some of your waits awful? 100%!! Hope you also had some surprises in the other direction too that waits were over estimated and you rode sooner than anticipated.

 

[BrianL]

The system works pretty well, but ride breakdowns do cause problems. I mean, stuff happens, but then the LL line does pile up, and that spells disaster for standby. On my last trip, we had purchased Guardians, and it was down all morning and fo rmost of the day. We were planning to hop to HS after lunch, so I hit up a Guest Services umbrella, and they were very happy when I asked to switch it to two days later when we were coming back to Epcot. I am sure they had met lots of angry people already who wanted to try to get in on the same day, so we alleviated that a bit.

Maintenance has been an issue for a while, but it doesn't help when a lot of these newer, fancier, high-tech rides seem to be super sensitive to the smallest disruption. They go down all the time! I feel like the older, stalwart rides hardly ever do.

 

[reddog21]

Here's where it becomes a big headache. When a ride goes down, all those LLs and ILLs that Disney OVERsold still have a right to ride. Which means the standby lines for these attractions are horrible. My first day at DHS, I had the Multipass, but couldn't get a LL for ToyStory Mania until the same time F! was running (which ticked me off enough, seeing as how I paid extra). So we walked into standby at TSM which said 35 minutes. About 30 minutes later, with the line barely moving because, again they OVERsell those LLs, they say they're running on limited capacity. Which means the LL line is piling up, which means they get all sorts of priority to get the line down. We ended up waiting 75 minutes. FOR TSM!!!! C'mon.

You lost me on the overselling part—how so? When a ride goes down, all those Lightning Lane reservations get converted into a special Lightning Lane pass that lets you ride any attraction at any time. As a result, the next most popular attraction often gets flooded with Lightning Lane users. This has been happening even before the current Lightning Lane system was introduced.

I will agree that rides seem to be going down more often then I can remember.

 

[Smugpugmug]

A lot of maintenance staff were let go or left willingly during Covid - this applies to both WDW and Disneyland. This has greatly contributed to increased ride breakdowns in both resorts. I haven't been to Disneyland recently (will be there next month) but at WDW the ride breakdowns are getting comical at this point.

 

[BrianL]

A lot of maintenance staff were let go or left willingly during Covid - this applies to both WDW and Disneyland. This has greatly contributed to increased ride breakdowns in both resorts. I haven't been to Disneyland recently (will be there next month) but at WDW the ride breakdowns are getting comical at this point.

This is definitely the real problem!

 

[OhDannyBoy]

If you are going to get mad about lines or paying a premium for shorter lines, then Disney is a bad choice for vacation.

Rides are mechanical devices. These things run 12ish hours a day 365 days a year. They are going to break down. Unfortunately they seem to do so when it is inconvenient to us.

 

[GatorChris]

If you are going to get mad about lines or paying a premium for shorter lines, then Disney is a bad choice for vacation.

Rides are mechanical devices. These things run 12ish hours a day 365 days a year. They are going to break down. Unfortunately they seem to do so when it is inconvenient to us.

Waiting in lines is Disney. I get it. Waiting for 40 -60 beyond the already large wait times? That's bad. If it happens once ok. If it happens twice, I'm getting upset. But it was daily. Rockin Rollercoaster was down for two hours on our first day at DHS - on the second day, we hit it for early morning and it broke down again as we were just past the limo scene. Took 30+ minutes to get it back up. I'm sure that made it crazy for the rest of the morning.

If it were Six Flags, I'm annoyed but expect it. But at Disney prices just to get in, either maintain the rides better or cut back on the LL to reduce the inevitable logjam when they break down. I'd imagine their guest satisfaction surveys are in the toilet with stuff like that. But again, we keep paying to go, so...that's on me.

 

[raidermatt]

Just got back from a long trip to WDW. It was magical, of course. Had lots of fun. But...I feel like every single morning, something was in breakdown mode at every park I went to. Rides, apps, dining. It was a mess. And to be honest, if I'm paying a premium price, I should get the premium theme park experience. I expect breakdowns at Six Flags because I'm paying $60 or less to visit.

Here's where it becomes a big headache. When a ride goes down, all those LLs and ILLs that Disney OVERsold still have a right to ride. Which means the standby lines for these attractions are horrible. My first day at DHS, I had the Multipass, but couldn't get a LL for ToyStory Mania until the same time F! was running (which ticked me off enough, seeing as how I paid extra). So we walked into standby at TSM which said 35 minutes. About 30 minutes later, with the line barely moving because, again they OVERsell those LLs, they say they're running on limited capacity. Which means the LL line is piling up, which means they get all sorts of priority to get the line down. We ended up waiting 75 minutes. FOR TSM!!!! C'mon.

Our last evening at Epcot, we did the standby at Guardians. Because Test Track had been down for at least 5 hours at 5:30pm, Guardians was averaging about 80-100 minutes. When we got in line, it said 80, which I was willing to do because it's my daughter's favorite ride (not mine). The line moved fast outside (15 minutes)...and then we got inside and the ILL line became crazy. It was literally from the top of the ramp to the entrance door for 60 minutes, which is what it took for us to get from the indoor entrance to the top set of circle-back lines. At that point, my blood was starting to boil because I knew we had a much longer wait to go. It then shut down for about 5 minutes between announcements of breakdowns and going back up - enough to make the ILL line crazier. From the time we got in line until we got on the ride was 2 hours 20 minutes. I was HOT. While in line, I told my wife the next time I wanted to plan a trip to Disney, cut off my big toe with wire cutters.

Anyway, this seemed to happen nearly everyday. The first problem is they oversell LL and ILL, no doubt. The second problem is even a little hiccup in the ride makes it a nightmare. I paid the exorbitant prices to get into Epoct, but because I didn't pay even more for the LL, I get a bad experience. It's garbage, and something really has to be done. Nothing will be done because Disney is making a killing. I just wish Disney would do better. One thing Epcot could use is some more live entertainment like they used to have. World Showcase Players, Off Kilter...stuff where we can just show up and enjoy what Epcot is supposed to be.

Rant over. Maybe???

Unfortunately you will not get a lot of agreement in a forum like this. But what you describe is a very real problem and the average park goer is most definitely frustrated by these situations. It's just fan groups are not populated by average park goers. Instead its mostly people whose very identity is dependent on their fandom. So they see this as an attack. Consciously on what they are a fan of, and subconsciously on their very identity.

Rest assured many do agree with you. They just aren't active participants in online forums and social media fan groups.

 

[mistysue]

We were in that Guardians line too, that SUCKED. Just like you, it said 80 minutes when we entered the line and it was a solid 2 1/2 hours before we got on. 70 minutes is one heck of a miscalculation, and it was all from LL being so backed up. I hadn't seen it down earlier in the day or I would have known better.

What got to me more than the miscalculation was the number of people who a solid 60+ minutes into our waiting were going through the line to "meet up with their party". From 60-90 minutes someone was joining every few minutes. I know they hadn't left because they hadn't pushed through to get out. I guess joke is on them because they still waited over an hour anyway. One guy came in about 90 minutes into our wait, walked most of the way up that huge ramp, then stopped between two parties and got on his phone. I watched both parties assume he was with the other. Sure, only one guy, but line cutting was seriously out of hand. I know some of these people may have been return to queue for a disability, but not all of them - there were full families pushing through after one person held all of their spots way too often last week.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Just got back from a long trip to WDW. It was magical, of course. Had lots of fun. But...I feel like every single morning, something was in breakdown mode at every park I went to. Rides, apps, dining. It was a mess. And to be honest, if I'm paying a premium price, I should get the premium theme park experience. I expect breakdowns at Six Flags because I'm paying $60 or less to visit.

Here's where it becomes a big headache. When a ride goes down, all those LLs and ILLs that Disney OVERsold still have a right to ride. Which means the standby lines for these attractions are horrible. My first day at DHS, I had the Multipass, but couldn't get a LL for ToyStory Mania until the same time F! was running (which ticked me off enough, seeing as how I paid extra). So we walked into standby at TSM which said 35 minutes. About 30 minutes later, with the line barely moving because, again they OVERsell those LLs, they say they're running on limited capacity. Which means the LL line is piling up, which means they get all sorts of priority to get the line down. We ended up waiting 75 minutes. FOR TSM!!!! C'mon.

Our last evening at Epcot, we did the standby at Guardians. Because Test Track had been down for at least 5 hours at 5:30pm, Guardians was averaging about 80-100 minutes. When we got in line, it said 80, which I was willing to do because it's my daughter's favorite ride (not mine). The line moved fast outside (15 minutes)...and then we got inside and the ILL line became crazy. It was literally from the top of the ramp to the entrance door for 60 minutes, which is what it took for us to get from the indoor entrance to the top set of circle-back lines. At that point, my blood was starting to boil because I knew we had a much longer wait to go. It then shut down for about 5 minutes between announcements of breakdowns and going back up - enough to make the ILL line crazier. From the time we got in line until we got on the ride was 2 hours 20 minutes. I was HOT. While in line, I told my wife the next time I wanted to plan a trip to Disney, cut off my big toe with wire cutters.

Anyway, this seemed to happen nearly everyday. The first problem is they oversell LL and ILL, no doubt. The second problem is even a little hiccup in the ride makes it a nightmare. I paid the exorbitant prices to get into Epoct, but because I didn't pay even more for the LL, I get a bad experience. It's garbage, and something really has to be done. Nothing will be done because Disney is making a killing. I just wish Disney would do better. One thing Epcot could use is some more live entertainment like they used to have. World Showcase Players, Off Kilter...stuff where we can just show up and enjoy what Epcot is supposed to be.

Rant over. Maybe???

This may not help, but next time watch for the additional lightening lane drop times. You probably could have moved that Toy Story time up several hours with very little effort.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We were in that Guardians line too, that SUCKED. Just like you, it said 80 minutes when we entered the line and it was a solid 2 1/2 hours before we got on. 70 minutes is one heck of a miscalculation, and it was all from LL being so backed up. I hadn't seen it down earlier in the day or I would have known better.

What got to me more than the miscalculation was the number of people who a solid 60+ minutes into our waiting were going through the line to "meet up with their party". From 60-90 minutes someone was joining every few minutes. I know they hadn't left because they hadn't pushed through to get out. I guess joke is on them because they still waited over an hour anyway. One guy came in about 90 minutes into our wait, walked most of the way up that huge ramp, then stopped between two parties and got on his phone. I watched both parties assume he was with the other. Sure, only one guy, but line cutting was seriously out of hand. I know some of these people may have been return to queue for a disability, but not all of them - there were full families pushing through after one person held all of their spots way too often last week.

Wow, we rode Guardians 3 times last week. Posted wait times were 85, 65 and 55 with actual waits of 45, 40 and 30.

We would have been disappointed too if the waits had been underestimated.

 

[mistysue]

Wow, we rode Guardians 3 times last week. Posted wait times were 85, 65 and 55 with actual waits of 45, 40 and 30.

We would have been disappointed too if the waits had been underestimated.

I wish I had tried when you did! We have never had anything that bad before, and sadly it was our only Guardians ride for the week which was disappointing.

Random other thing because I saw you mention it - we only did 4 days of LL, but with the exception of Saturday (8/9) we had total crap luck adjusting our times. I've been totally spoiled with being able to do that so easily on previous trips that it totally caught us off guard.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I wish I had tried when you did! We have never had anything that bad before, and sadly it was our only Guardians ride for the week which was disappointing.

Random other thing because I saw you mention it - we only did 4 days of LL, but with the exception of Saturday (8/9) we had total crap luck adjusting our times. I've been totally spoiled with being able to do that so easily on previous trips that it totally caught us off guard.

Guardians is best during the last hour or so of the day after the majority of the crowd has headed to the back of the park. By then, line stacking and inflated wait times are in progress. Posted waits have been just about double the actual waits lately.

Randomly refreshing for lightening lanes doesn’t work very well at all anymore. What you need to look for is the scheduled times for additional releases. I was skeptical at first but learned very quickly that those do work well, you just have to be quick as they do go fast.

We could regularly grab headline attractions with only a 25-30 minute wait time for the return window.

 

[GatorChris]

We were in that Guardians line too, that SUCKED. Just like you, it said 80 minutes when we entered the line and it was a solid 2 1/2 hours before we got on. 70 minutes is one heck of a miscalculation, and it was all from LL being so backed up. I hadn't seen it down earlier in the day or I would have known better.

What got to me more than the miscalculation was the number of people who a solid 60+ minutes into our waiting were going through the line to "meet up with their party". From 60-90 minutes someone was joining every few minutes. I know they hadn't left because they hadn't pushed through to get out. I guess joke is on them because they still waited over an hour anyway. One guy came in about 90 minutes into our wait, walked most of the way up that huge ramp, then stopped between two parties and got on his phone. I watched both parties assume he was with the other. Sure, only one guy, but line cutting was seriously out of hand. I know some of these people may have been return to queue for a disability, but not all of them - there were full families pushing through after one person held all of their spots way too often last week.

Misery loves company. Feels good to have verification.

That was just the worst. And all the people “joining their party”…that was crazy.

Would I have been out of line to tell the CM to the first video room, “You know, this side paid to get into Epcot today, too”??? My kids were the only ones keeping me from saying something I’d regret later.

 

[GatorChris]

Unfortunately you will not get a lot of agreement in a forum like this. But what you describe is a very real problem and the average park goer is most definitely frustrated by these situations. It's just fan groups are not populated by average park goers. Instead its mostly people whose very identity is dependent on their fandom. So they see this as an attack. Consciously on what they are a fan of, and subconsciously on their very identity.

Rest assured many do agree with you. They just aren't active participants in online forums and social media fan groups.

Bro, great take. I definitely used to be a part of the fan group. “Don’t touch Disney!” They could do no wrong.

But after two visits to Universal in 2020 and 2021, my eyes were opened to some pretty amazing things. Even my trip to Universal Hollywood last summer was fantastic compared to my recent Disneyland trips. Disney could take some pointers.

 

[Miffy]

What I don't understand is when rides are down at ETPE or RD. Can WDW really not afford to have staff on hand an hour or two before opening to make sure that rides are all functional?

I had a day at MK in May that went like this:

There 15 minutes before ETPE. At the time, you weren't let in to MK until pretty much exactly the ETPE time.

Went straight to Pooh. Short line. But they're not letting anyone in to the ride. OK. We'll wait. Better than waiting 45 minutes later in the day. Waiting waiting waiting. Watching 7DMT running. No luck on Pooh. Still waiting. People leave line. Finally, giving up.

By then it's RD. Let's go to HM. Which is not working.

Time for my TBA LL. Guess what? Not working. Now I can't even try for another LL since I haven't used the first one.

Yes, eventually, all 3 rides were up and running, but the ETPE and even RD were a total waste of time. And frustrating.

Sure, things break down. It's the nature of everything. But it seems like they could do a much better job of having everything operational when the parks open.

 

[reddog21]

Bro, great take. I definitely used to be a part of the fan group. “Don’t touch Disney!” They could do no wrong.

But after two visits to Universal in 2020 and 2021, my eyes were opened to some pretty amazing things. Even my trip to Universal Hollywood last summer was fantastic compared to my recent Disneyland trips. Disney could take some pointers.

You could say the same thing about people on this board bashing Disney for no reason.

As someone who vacation's at Universal just as much as Disney, they have there fare share of problems and are definitely not exempt from criticism.

 

[Minnie1222]

But after two visits to Universal in 2020 and 2021, my eyes were opened to some pretty amazing things. Even my trip to Universal Hollywood last summer was fantastic compared to my recent Disneyland trips. Disney could take some pointers.

There are pros and cons at both parks.