Lightening lane

[marinejjh]

We are currently at the Disney World. A few of the rides we used lightening lane passes on were the same length lines as the regular line. I think for future trips we won't pay the extra fees to use them. It definitely wasn't worth the cost.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Was your wait as long as those in the standby line? I can't believe they would make guests who have paid for LL wait as long as standby guests?

Normally if the LL line has a lot of guests in it, CMs will load more LL guests and less standby guests.

 

[marinejjh]

But, was your wait as long as those in the standby line? I can't believe they would make guests who have paid for LL wait as long as standby guests?

Yes , same time as the stand by line.

 

[scrappinginontario]

How often did this happen? This is the first time this has been reported.

Normally when the LL line has a lot of guests in it, CMs will load more LL guests to the attraction than standby guests.

We'll see if others share the same experience but I would wait to see what others report. Are you still there now? If so, I would find a guest entering the standby line at the same time you're entering the LL and then see when each of you boards the ride.

I find it challenging to believe the Disney will do this as it will stop people from buying LLMP (as it's done to you) and they would lose this revenue. I'm sure they don't want to do that.

 

[croschek05]

Was just at the magic kingdom few days ago. Got lightning lane and paid for 7 dwarves and Tron. I didn't wait for anything all day.

 

[lentesta]

How often did this happen? This is the first time this has been reported.

Normally when the LL line has a lot of guests in it, CMs will load more LL guests to the attraction than standby guests.

We'll see if others share the same experience but I would wait to see what others report. Are you still there now? If so, I would find a guest entering the standby line at the same time you're entering the LL and then see when each of you boards the ride.

I would also love to hear more about this.

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

What attractions?
Were you using it for shows?
Under what circumstances?
Did the ride go down after you entered the queue?

 

[toesmom]

We are currently at the Disney World. A few of the rides we used lightening lane passes on were the same length lines as the regular line. I think for future trips we won't pay the extra fees to use them. It definitely wasn't worth the cost.

This was not our experience. We always had shorter waits using lightning lanes.

 

[gottalovepluto]

A few of the rides we used lightening lane passes on were the same length lines as the regular line. I think for future trips we won't pay the extra fees to use them. It definitely wasn't worth the cost.

You should be more specific as to what you rode and when if your intention with your post is to help others. Otherwise it just looks like a vent post stemming from user error (did you just get low level LLs?) or unrealistic expectations (did you think every LL would avoid lines, even at rides that normally have limited/no waits?).

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We are currently at the Disney World. A few of the rides we used lightening lane passes on were the same length lines as the regular line. I think for future trips we won't pay the extra fees to use them. It definitely wasn't worth the cost.

The key phrase here is “A few of the rides”.

This would likely be true if you were in Epcot and hit Nemo, Figment and Living with the Land in succession.

Other than that, Lightening Lanes are very helpful this time of year and are well worth the cost. We used about 35 sets of these for a family of 8 just two weeks ago and saved anywhere from a half hour to an hour each time.

 

[ComeToSocialize]

While it has been acknowledged on various videos and I believe here that LL lines are getting longer as they seem to be reducing the standard LL to standby ratio a bit, it should not ever actually be shorter than the standby line for anything other than a near walk-on, or even close. I can't recall ever waiting more than 20 min in a lightning lane line and in those cases the standby would've been 2+ hours (the LL backups happen when other rides go down)

 

[Dave006]

While it has been acknowledged on various videos and I believe here that LL lines are getting longer as they seem to be reducing the standard LL to standby ratio

No the issue is that more guests are learning to work the system. After 1 year they have learned that by front loading they return time to the front of the return window, they can get another LL selection quicker. It is the age old slinky effect in action in the return time queue.

Last year they tended to spread out their actual entry into the LL queue for an attraction. The same behavior also happened with other offering all the way back to the original FastPass paper tickets. Unfortunately it is a learned behavior.

Dave

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

No the issue is that more guests are learning to work the system. After 1 year they have learned that by front loading they return time to the front of the return window, they can get another LL selection quicker. It is the age old slinky effect in action in the return time queue.

Last year they tended to spread out their actual entry into the LL queue for an attraction. The same behavior also happened with other offering all the way back to the original FastPass paper tickets. Unfortunately it is a learned behavior.

Dave

But if return times are available every five minutes, does front loading really add to the wait times? It seems like it would still be evenly spread out.

 

[ComeToSocialize]

No the issue is that more guests are learning to work the system. After 1 year they have learned that by front loading they return time to the front of the return window, they can get another LL selection quicker. It is the age old slinky effect in action in the return time queue.

Last year they tended to spread out their actual entry into the LL queue for an attraction. The same behavior also happened with other offering all the way back to the original FastPass paper tickets. Unfortunately it is a learned behavior.

Dave

While I agree that what you're describing is probably happening, I don't see how that would lengthen LL wait times. It would reduce same day availability for sure. It might marginally affect LL line length in the first 90 minutes of park opening maybe, but as others noted because the return windows are all spaced out in 5 min increments, it should balance out over course of day.

Only way for LL line length to increase is increasing number of LL slots available (doesn't seem to be happening) or they adjusting the ratio a bit.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Only way for LL line length to increase is increasing number of LL slots available (doesn't seem to be happening) or they adjusting the ratio a bit.

They do increase Lightening Lane availability throughout the day with regularly scheduled additional release times.

This can be a game in itself trying to snag those as they become available. A couple of weeks ago, it was very easy to get LLMPs for the ‘sold out’ attractions, often with only a 20-25 minute wait for the return window.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I'm hoping once OP has completed their trip, they will have an opportunity to come back and share more about the specifics to their situations.

I would agree that if OP is using LL for things like Figment or similar attractions, it would not really save time but if they found this to be happening at other more popular attractions, I would be interested in hearing more details.

 

[mistysue]

I'm curious where/when this happened to you. We were there last week and this was definitely not our experience. Even riding things like Nemo/Figment/Living with the land we saw the wait for standby be longer.

Then again, this was also the first time we've experienced the Grand Fiesta tour have a line way out into the pavillion. Things can randomly be crazy. That one's a family favorite so we commonly ride it 5-6 times/trip... meaning that's a first out of hundreds of rides.