Lightning Lane Premier Pass is launching October 23

[Jawwdoc]

Way overpriced IMHO, how upset are those folks gonna be when some of the E-ticket rides are down when they show up to scan in for LLPP?

 

[DodgerGirl]

I heard about this as it was the top entertainment story on Youtube and my take on this is that Disneyland has made a new version of the old E-Ticket system and how they will attract visitors with this new Lightning Lane Premier Pass I'll never know? Because I find it shocking that if you use the Lightning Lane Premier Pass you can cannot ride any rides twice and if you have kids that LOVE riding rides twice it will be a surprise to you. Because it used to be that Disneyland would let people ride rides twice if they wanted to ride for a second chance. But with this Lightning Lane Premier Pass it will be impossible to do. What I think this will mean is that it will hurt Disneyland and they will lose visitors indeed. I mean who would pay $400 for this pass? This has got to be the worst mistake ever that Disneyland has ever done in history

 

[AndrewC]

I heard about this as it was the top entertainment story on Youtube and my take on this is that Disneyland has made a new version of the old E-Ticket system and how they will attract visitors with this new Lightning Lane Premier Pass I'll never know? Because I find it shocking that if you use the Lightning Lane Premier Pass you can cannot ride any rides twice and if you have kids that LOVE riding rides twice it will be a surprise to you. Because it used to be that Disneyland would let people ride rides twice if they wanted to ride for a second chance. But with this Lightning Lane Premier Pass it will be impossible to do. What I think this will mean is that it will hurt Disneyland and they will lose visitors indeed. I mean who would pay $400 for this pass? This has got to be the worst mistake ever that Disneyland has ever done in history

This is just pure extra profit for Disney. Doesn’t take away anything, but offers another method for extracting more money from customers.

 

[DodgerGirl]

What it looks like to me in my eyes it seems that Disneyland is trying to go back to the ride pricing system that they launched when they first opened in 1955 and the system was used until 1982 with this Lightning Lane Premier Pass. And Disneyland has been trying to find more ways to get more park visitors to visit the park because ever since and even before the pandemic Disneyland had always tried to experiment with ways to draw more attendance in and with this new version of Lightning Lane Disneyland will most likely be thinking that park attendance will most likely go down and once Lightning Lane Premier is launched October 23rd people will no longer go and pay the high price for this pass alone. After all look what happened when Disneyland launched the Genie+ system?

 

[AndrewC]

What it looks like to me in my eyes it seems that Disneyland is trying to go back to the ride pricing system that they launched when they first opened in 1955 and the system was used until 1982 with this Lightning Lane Premier Pass. And Disneyland has been trying to find more ways to get more park visitors to visit the park because ever since and even before the pandemic Disneyland had always tried to experiment with ways to draw more attendance in and with this new version of Lightning Lane Disneyland will most likely be thinking that park attendance will most likely go down and once Lightning Lane Premier is launched October 23rd people will no longer go and pay the high price for this pass alone. After all look what happened when Disneyland launched the Genie+ system?

This does very much feel like the “good old days” with per ride pricing, which isn’t real great. What is odd though is the limits they had with individual paid lightning lanes… I could easily see someone dropping $100 to do Rise three times in the same day or something…

The attendance thing…. Disney has actually been trying to find ways to lower park attendance. Well, maybe I should phrase that as smooth out park attendance. A couple years ago at a quarterly shareholder call they vaguely mentioned/alluded to trying to control attendance (down) by saying that they were increasing prices to help improve the customer experience when in the parks. Customer satisfaction, likely wait times, was specifically something that was becoming a huge issue (this was just post pandemic) and Disneyland didn’t really have a good solution to cutting wait times other than trying to shift attendance from school breaks, holidays, weekends, to mid-week days in months without school or public holidays. They did this by really shuffling the per day pricing and increasing prices.

I can’t see how this will lower attendance, people just won’t pay for this add on. However, this could push up average revenue if attendance is getting a little soft, but some percentage (even if it’s rather small) are big spenders that will toss $400 towards this premium product.

If you think about it, each lightning lane premium sold acts like four people buying standard lower tier (cheaper) park tickets. I doubt it increases wait time by the same amount as four additional people though. Sell 2,500 of these passes a day and you collect the same revenue as 10,000 additional park tickets sold…

You also don’t need additional staff since it’s not a guided tour.

You don’t sell additional food or merchandise, and honestly you might actually sell less merchandise if some people sacrifice that to afford this premium pass… but food and merchandise is what the SoCal annual pass is for.

 

[DodgerGirl]

This does very much feel like the “good old days” with per ride pricing, which isn’t real great. What is odd though is the limits they had with individual paid lightning lanes… I could easily see someone dropping $100 to do Rise three times in the same day or something…

The attendance thing…. Disney has actually been trying to find ways to lower park attendance. Well, maybe I should phrase that as smooth out park attendance. A couple years ago at a quarterly shareholder call they vaguely mentioned/alluded to trying to control attendance (down) by saying that they were increasing prices to help improve the customer experience when in the parks. Customer satisfaction, likely wait times, was specifically something that was becoming a huge issue (this was just post pandemic) and Disneyland didn’t really have a good solution to cutting wait times other than trying to shift attendance from school breaks, holidays, weekends, to mid-week days in months without school or public holidays. They did this by really shuffling the per day pricing and increasing prices.

I can’t see how this will lower attendance, people just won’t pay for this add on. However, this could push up average revenue if attendance is getting a little soft, but some percentage (even if it’s rather small) are big spenders that will toss $400 towards this premium product.

If you think about it, each lightning lane premium sold acts like four people buying standard lower tier (cheaper) park tickets. I doubt it increases wait time by the same amount as four additional people though. Sell 2,500 of these passes a day and you collect the same revenue as 10,000 additional park tickets sold…

You also don’t need additional staff since it’s not a guided tour.

You don’t sell additional food or merchandise, and honestly you might actually sell less merchandise if some people sacrifice that to afford this premium pass… but food and merchandise is what the SoCal annual pass is for.

Good answer AndrewC you must think like I think when it comes to good ideas
Dodger

 

[Einstein509]

“I always believed that Disney was a brand that needs to be accessible. And I think that in our zeal to grow profits, we may have been a little bit too aggressive about some of our pricing. And I think there is a way to continue to grow our business but be smarter about how we price so that we maintain that brand value of accessibility.” - Iger

And this is why I have the pic on my profile that I do. Say one thing, but do the complete opposite. Disney has completely priced out certain economic groups or at least made the product less appealing having to pay more to have an enjoyable time on vacation.

 

[TheBang]

Well, now we know why they finally patched the MEP acceleration bug a few months ago. This is basically that, plus ILL.

 

[Aspencreek]

Well, now we know why they finally patched the MEP acceleration bug a few months ago. This is basically that, plus ILL.

So the MEP acceleration bug (hack) no longer works? Haven't paid attention to that one for a while hadn't heard that it might be "fixed" now.

 

[ter-moo]

I can't believe this is the same park as just 10 years ago where you could with no advance planning; fly into California and check into a hotel, purchase your ticket at the gate the day of, enter through Disneyland and get FastPasses for rides every 2-hours, see Mickey and the Magical Map in the Fantasyland theater (or Frozen at the Hyperion), watch a parade during off-season, then go and stake out a spot for Fantasmic right at the front railing.....all for FREE once you paid for your $92/per day ticket. It's not the same park anymore.

THIS. I truly miss those days of just dropping in and enjoying the park as an escape. Now it feels more like a microcosm of greed and crowds and feeling left out if you haven't planned every single minute ahead of time. I believe that Walt would want everyone to have a level playing field, not this caste system that a Disney vacation has become.

 

[TheBang]

So the MEP acceleration bug (hack) no longer works? Haven't paid attention to that one for a while hadn't heard that it might be "fixed" now.

Yeah, it was fixed on the same day as when the Genie+ to LLMP rebrand rolled out. Now, in retrospect, it looks like they deliberately did it because they knew LLPP was imminent. They didn't want people getting for $70 ($30 Genie+, $25+$15 ILL, plus the time to fish an MEP) what they could charge $400 for.

 

[Pluto468]

Edit: I can't believe this is the same park as just 10 years ago where you could with no advance planning; fly into California and check into a hotel, purchase your ticket at the gate the day of, enter through Disneyland and get FastPasses for rides every 2-hours, see Mickey and the Magical Map in the Fantasyland theater (or Frozen at the Hyperion), watch a parade during off-season, then go and stake out a spot for Fantasmic right at the front railing.....all for FREE once you paid for your $92/per day ticket. It's not the same park anymore.

I totally agree with you on this and I really miss those days!

I know I'm dating myself but the first time I went tickets were $30 a day. Went on tons of rides with no planning at all. Just popped over, had a great time and loved it so much I saved up $95 to buy Socal yearly passes. I would go weekly except during blackout dates.

Disney of course needs to raise prices over a few decades, but I feel like I'm getting priced out which is sad because I really love Disneyland. It's my favorite vacation spot and I'd go a few times a year if I could afford it.

With Genie+, LL, the reservation system, meal packages to get good seats for shows etc it's just not as simple as it used to be. In some ways I miss that even more than the lower prices. The reservation system drives me crazy. It would be one thing if it actually helped with crowds, but it's a hassle to use AND the crowds are huge.

 

[AustinTink]

Just wondering how a person would feel paying the extra $$$ and then half of the rides are down most of the day as was the case with TSM, Indy and Rise when we were there last weekend.

That said, for a family like ours that only goes once a year and only for a few days, I might consider it for one of those days.

We purchased LL and ILL’s this trip. Our return times were all over the map and not stacked well due to a variety of reasons and we had to beg to be let on a couple of rides when we returned past our return window. One of those was because of a dining reservation overlap, which I thought was ok. We even ended up not using a purchased ILL for Rise because it was down. I know we can get reimbursed but I didn’t do it because we were running to the next line.

I guess my point is when your time is very limited, being able to bob and weave when attractions are down and not being stuck with the standard 2-hour LL booking, and being able to ride at any time is attractive to me. Could I convince my husband? Not likely. Lol.

 

[DizMe]

Will this new $400 goodie, in combination with the already present LL/ILL option, further increase wait times for regular standby people?

 

[JerrodDragon89]

Will this new $400 goodie, in combination with the already present LL/ILL option, further increase wait times for regular standby people?

We will see

Freshbaked, said mostly not. This will be pretty limited and these people spending 400 bucks are using the same LL Q as if they got a LL and if they are spending 400 bucks then they were most likely the same people getting LL in the first place

We could see after a ride opening it affecting normal guests more but you assume this will be very limited by both its price and the fact Disney is saying so

Now in a year, who knows they could open it up to more and more people.

 

[KimberMama]

I know I never considered DAS as an option before my last trip in May. It was only after seeing IBS discussed on a DAS thread that I went "What?, I can get DAS? Why didn't I think of that before?"

Yes just the stress of being away from home can be a trigger. Unfortunately, even with taking my normal medication and adding Imodium into the mix there are issues.

Nevermind the stress of the traffic to get to Disneyland! Imodium isn’t an option for UC, unfortunately.

I’m still considering doing the LL Premier for one day of our trip if it’s available when I check the app. Not having to worry about the times will be very nice if I’m having a bad morning, since times fill up fast.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

Unless its a REAL busy day and your trying to leave before noon then....no idea how times would be filled until the afternoon.

Space, Indy and Kinda Mickey have these issues but Big Thunder, Pirates/HM, Small World, Buzz, autopia and so on normally you can get until later...or at least when I've gone.

My advice to those int he morning book a LL for Indy or Space and keep pushing it out for an afternoon time and at 10 AM use it for Roger Rabbit then Mickey and after that get another pass for something longer out like Matterhorn or SM/Indy and get lunch, see some shows and get on some lower line attractions.

The 400 dollar pass will only be needed on extreme days...or the very rich. Also in the afternoon if your bored and can drop 400 bucks, why not just drop 25-30 bucks for Star Wars ROTR as your waiting for your other LL to be ready to ride?

 

[KimberMama]

That is atrocious. I expect some level of corporate greed from the company now, but this is too much. I mentioned before our last trip that I would love for there to be an unlimited option, but when I said that I was thinking it would be something like $100/day not $400...and for only one ride each!

Somehow this feels more outrageous than paying $950/night for a room at the Grand Californian for 5-nights like we did a few years ago.

We're definitely taking a break from the parks.

Edit: I can't believe this is the same park as just 10 years ago where you could with no advance planning; fly into California and check into a hotel, purchase your ticket at the gate the day of, enter through Disneyland and get FastPasses for rides every 2-hours, see Mickey and the Magical Map in the Fantasyland theater (or Frozen at the Hyperion), watch a parade during off-season, then go and stake out a spot for Fantasmic right at the front railing.....all for FREE once you paid for your $92/per day ticket. It's not the same park anymore.

I can’t believe it’s the same park either, and not only for reasons you mentioned, although those are pretty significant. I see stressed out cast members all the time now, along with plenty who just seem to not care anymore. I’ve politely asked a cast member how they are only to hear, “I’m off in an hour and I can’t wait”. Food quality has decreased while prices have outpaced inflation. I never saw dirty restrooms at Disneyland until 2021.

We didn’t renew our Sig+ passes after 2018, expecting GE to make the parks super busy (plus our kids had graduated from high school in 2017 and 2018 and were starting to have less availability). Since C19 our experiences at the parks have been far less than what they were before, which is why we haven’t gotten Magic Keys. At this point we celebrate my oldest’s birthday in the park because it’s tradition, and last year DH and did a multi-day trip during the holiday season which we thought we might make a regular thing (it’s booked). But everything costs extra. Last year we did a parade package at Plaza Inn to get a standing area for the parade (won’t do that again) and we did WoC dessert party (I enjoyed being able to sit because of my disabilities, but DH didn’t think it was worth the price). Fantasmic! was still down, so we didn’t pay extra for it, but we did do that once back when we had passes (we had annual passes 1995 - 2018).

My kids have some amazing Disney memories. Cookie decorating on Main Street. Interacting with characters without having to stand in long lines (seriously, Pluto probably spent 10 minutes just with my kids in Toontown on a slow day). Being chosen for the Jedi Academy (after many times having not been chosen) without signing up in the morning ahead of time. Photos with Minnie in Amelia Earnhardt costume just a few weeks after DCA opened and people were upset about the lack of characters (we didn’t care). Getting to play the piano at Coke Corner at the invitation of the pianist. Dancing around with the Country Bears while Billy Hill and the Hillbillies played holiday music. Seeing several musicals at the Hyperion (Blast, Aladdin, Frozen). And many more memories I’m sure I just can’t remember right now. It wasn’t scheduled and it didn’t cost extra.

Unfortunately for Disney, this new LL Premier pass isn’t going to address some of the biggest issues guests have.

 

[lilsonicfan]

That said, for a family like ours that only goes once a year and only for a few days, I might consider it for one of those days.

This is very funny to me. We went in 2022, early 2024 and are on track to go again in early 2025 - each time for 4 days - and my perspective is, why spend $400 per person per day when we might just go again in another year or two HAHA!

 

[twodogs]

We will see

Freshbaked, said mostly not. This will be pretty limited and these people spending 400 bucks are using the same LL Q as if they got a LL and if they are spending 400 bucks then they were most likely the same people getting LL in the first place

We could see after a ride opening it affecting normal guests more but you assume this will be very limited by both its price and the fact Disney is saying so

Now in a year, who knows they could open it up to more and more people.

I agree that the folks buying LLPP would have already been in the LL with G+ if LLPP wasn’t a thing. So it should not really increase the number of total people in the LL on a given ride on a given day. It may redistribute them, however, since the LLPP folks aren’t limited to a one hour window. So it could cause some theoretical jam ups in the LL, I guess. I think most of us won’t really notice because they will just be in the LL, along with all the other G+ people. To me, this minimally impacts the other guests, but definitely impacts the bottom line for Disney (which is in some ways refreshing since most of their recent moves have negatively impacted guests while also increasing their bottom line). Now when they use LLPP as a reason to increase the price of LLMP…