Plan Ahead with Lightning Lane Entry at Walt Disney World Starting July 24

[aoconnor]

Say you book 3 experiences in advance and have a “throw away” tier 2 first thing in the morning. If you don’t go to the park in the morning and the arrival window for the first experience just passes, would you be able to book another tier 1 attraction day of? Or are they tracking if you’ve tapped into the park first and only additional tier 2's would show up?

 

[becauseimnew]

I'm not an expert, but I bet that

So many points I agree with.

• Genie+ was designed to get 2-3 Lightning Lane reservations per day (that’s what the copy on the Genie+ site said). Now, with this new system, they have that limit pretty much locked in. If you knew how to work the Genie+ system, you could get far more than that.
• Even as an onsite Guest, I HATE the classism that this system creates. PITA getting up at 7am? Maybe. But everyone was on a level playing field. Now, onsite Guests get some advantage but even with that, Guests with shorter stays and split stays will have less availability from which to choose. Disneyland is playing to locals, but even as a tourist, I LOVE their Genie+/Lightning Lane. You can’t book anything until you scan in at a park. Even if you don’t want to go in at rope drop, the availability lasts well into the afternoon for most rides.
• There’s a reason they’re not charging for a multiple park option anymore with this system. There’s no availability for the in-demand rides by the time you park hop. Choosing to not sell a multiple park option, to me, is evidence that the disadvantages of this system are by design and are not so much growing pains or an unintended flaw.
• I’m looking today and every last Single Pass experience is sold out for the day??? That’s crazy to me. I mean Disney is getting theirs, but nuts to people popping in for the day, right? Nuts to flexibility and spontaneity, right? For example: if the plan was Animal Kingdom in the morning, then we decide to park hop to Epcot after 1:00 (without having planned to do so), there’s no way to ride Guardians. The VQ will have already been booked up and all of the Single Passes will have been gone since even before park opening.
• It also sucks that I did enough Genie+ research to earn some sort of certification. Now, all of the information is irrelevant.

This really just feels like more Disney shrinkflation to me. They don’t charge more (yet), but they reduce the product.

Disney had to do something to get guest to stay onsite again. We were happy to pay the higher hotel rates because of the benefits justified the higher cost, but since those became non-existent we stopped staying onsite.

 

[spewey]

Something doesn’t make sense about the availability I’ve seen reported. It was estimated that DAS was using an enormous amount of LL capacity. They have drastically cut down on DAS usage, so theoretically Mulitpass should have a better availability of time slots than Genie+ did. It doesn’t, though, in fact it’s much worse from reports.

We can assume that they are going to put the same purchase limits on Multipass as they did on Genie+ (sells out when percentage of buyers hits x% of all park goers for day), which means it isn’t just the fact that it’s a shiny new thing all bloggers are buying. So maybe 1) they are lowering the limits of sales of MP temporarily/permanently 2) they are using MP as a paid way to distribute crowds throughout the day 3) they are limiting the number of LL’s to ease standby line wait times.

This isn’t even a busy time of year and the wait times being pushed out to late afternoon are worse than the abysmal times given when Genie+ launched. I’ll wait a few weeks to see how it settles before making a decision for our upcoming trips, but this seems like it solved a few issues and created a few more.

Oh man, I feel ranty. We got so much out of genie+ we thought it was a *value*. This new system seems horrendous unless you’re okay with just doing these 3 rides you pre-pick and standby the rest with maybe a random LL available in the evening here or there. So far it does not seem to allow for that land by land immediate use.

People are posting how *easy* it was to book their three and how it was great but that’s only a small piece of the puzzle - to keep up with genie+ for many it’s about getting an 7th… 8th… 12th!!

The thing that was nice about Genie+ is everything was released in chronological order. It allowed for 99% of the “tier 2’s” to be open for immediate use. And you were able to gauge the higher ticket ride sell out times by how late they were getting in the app. You could plan accordingly for the day on the day when it made sense.

Thrill data released a chart for thunder mountain the other day that showed the day before with genie+ - a nice steady even line - vs this new system, with it selling out early in the day.

As of (before 9am) this morning pirates return was 7pm!!!

As a big genie+ user this is insane to me!!! I have never seen things like 7DMT sell out until later in the day - and now it can days in advance!!

Personally, I would much rather be up at 7 and have everything released in order than be on my phone constantly checking for refreshes and jumping to all ends of the park based on what I can get on now! Sure, you were on your phone with genie+ but it really was just to book your next ride, not hoping for something to come up for something like pirates. It was quick and simple! With Genie+ (minus the “tier 1’s) you could go land by land! And get on everything! The tier 1’s did sell out earlier, but there was at least still the option to get them day of, and we always *easily* got another tier 1 as a second or even third pick. This is so all over the place, and I don’t think it’s just because it’s new, I think it’s the way the system is designed.

Personally I feel deflated. Our first trip with genie+ we had this feeling of getting that disney magic back. I think it was getting on so many rides so smoothly. It was such a fun day! The year after - the same thing!! It was a joy!! We couldn’t believe how well genie+ worked!

I’m looking forward to our trip less and less. I wish I waited to buy non refundable things. Or waited to tell the kids we are going. Travel insurance won’t cover I hate the new lightening lane and don’t want to do this lol. MK was always the first park but now I’m thinking it should be later to get that 7 “+” window. Otherwise youre up against way more people and the availability will stink! Unfortunately we already booked a split stay and will be at the MK hotel first.

This is going to be hard for those genie+ users like myself who knew how to work the system and haven’t waited in a standby line for years now

I mean why couldn’t we all just have sucked it up a little and gotten up at 7, booked a ride, and gone back to sleep for a bit?!

The single LLs selling out so early is very confusing.

I so agree about Genie+. Easily my favorite of the seemingly endless "express" systems Disney has implemented over the years. People complained constantly, of course, as that's what people do, but to me it was the sweet spot of plan ahead+spontaneity.

About LLMPs - it is beginning to occur to me ... maybe there isn't something missing about capacity. Maybe this IS the plan. Limit their numbers to make each LL basically no wait at all, thereby delivering value for the rides you DO get to select. But also meaning you probably won't get many (or any) more LLs for popular rides.

But if that's the case, people don't know it yet, and are buying hoping to use it throughout the day, which hasn't been the case (yet). So to me this means:

- Disney adjusts and raises capacity; waits in each LL goes up a bit
- Capacity remains the same; word gets out, people adjust their strategies, knowing options after the first three are limited; sales go down somewhat, making day-of more flexible, making the purchase of course then more attractive, etc. Swings back and forth until it finds a landing spot
- Capacity remains the same; people buy it anyway and it simply becomes a "pay for three in advance LLs" option and not much else.

 

[Eastern]

It also sucks that I did enough Genie+ research to earn some sort of certification. Now, all of the information is irrelevant.

OTOH I am like a blank slate since I never used G+. Happy I preserved some of my brain cells for later use in my old age.

I'm going to wait a month to let everything settle down before I start trying to learn anything about this in case I want to try it. The scroll speed of this thread can be overwhelming.

 

[Dave006]

Say you book 3 experiences in advance and have a “throw away” tier 2 first thing in the morning. If you don’t go to the park in the morning and the arrival window for the first experience just passes, would you be able to book another tier 1 attraction day of? Or are they tracking if you’ve tapped into the park first and only additional tier 2's would show up?

There have been a couple of reports that you can't just wait for your first experience to expire and then replace it with anything. It becomes a Ghost (you can't modify or replace it).

So far it looks like you have to tap into the park First to start the LLMP process.

Dave

 

[andrewilley]

Why are the LLSP selling out so quickly when just a few days ago they would be available almost all day?

Probably because people have now had several days to book slots for each day, and the longer the system operates the more pre-booking for each upcoming day will already have occurred. We probably won't know for sure how much pre-bookings will affect daily availability for several weeks - at least until we're past the 7-days plus 14-days period from when the system first went live.

Andre

 

[Dave006]

I'm going to wait a month to let everything settle down before I start trying to learn anything about this in case I want to try it.

Yes if you are not planing a trip soon I think you have the right idea. @scrappinginontario has indicated there will be a Pinned Topic for LLMP / LLSP just like the one Pinned for Genie+.

Dave

 

[Tom_E_D]

Did your daughter try to modify the time for GoTG? Right now GoTG is sold out for Monday, July 9th.

Dave

July 9 was a Tuesday two and a half weeks ago. August 9 isn't a Monday either. September 9 is a Monday, but I don't think anyone can book that day yet. What day is Guardians sold out for?

 

[Disneydawg74]

July 9 was a Tuesday two and a half weeks ago. August 9 isn't a Monday either. September 9 is a Monday, but I don't think anyone can book that day yet. What day is Guardians sold out for?

July 29 is a Monday. I think that’s the date being referred to.

 

[accm]

July 9 was a Tuesday two and a half weeks ago. August 9 isn't a Monday either. September 9 is a Monday, but I don't think anyone can book that day yet. What day is Guardians sold out for?

I think they meant July 29th, which is showing guardians as sold out

 

[Tom_E_D]

July 29 is a Monday. I think that’s the date being referred to.

I think they meant July 29th, which is showing guardians as sold out

I suspect you are right, but since I can't see whether Guardians is sold out on Monday, I thought it better to ask for a correction.

 

[VAtink]

I suspect you are right, but since I can't see whether Guardians is sold out on Monday, I thought it better to ask for a correction.

I'm seeing it as sold out on Monday, as well as Rise, Tron, and 7DMT. The only LLSP I see available for Monday is FoP.

 

[Dave006]

July 9 was a Tuesday two and a half weeks ago. August 9 isn't a Monday either. September 9 is a Monday, but I don't think anyone can book that day yet. What day is Guardians sold out for?

@Disneydawg74 is correct my post simply dropped the 2 in 29th. Please feel free to apply some logic to my posts since LLMP was not available on July 9th...

Dave

 

[aoconnor]

There have been a couple of reports that you can't just wait for your first experience to expire and then replace it with anything. It becomes a Ghost (you can't modify or replace it).

So far it looks like you have to tap into the park First to start the LLMP process.

Dave

Really... interesting. So If your first window expires and you haven't tapped in, you can't even make another tier 2?! You're just stuck with two reservations for the day until you get to the park?

 

[Tom_E_D]

I'm seeing it as sold out on Monday, as well as Rise, Tron, and 7DMT. The only LLSP I see available for Monday is FoP.

Interesting. Over the past month of Genie+/ILL, Avatar FoP had by far the earliest sell-out time. Now it is the last one available?!

 

[Tom_E_D]

@Disneydawg74 is correct my post simply dropped the 2 in 29th. Please feel free to apply some logic to my posts since LLMP was not available on July 9th...

Dave

I knew it was a typo. I wanted you to correct the typo before it caused further confusion.

Edit: And I wasn't going to assume what the typo was since I couldn't confirm the rest of the information. I don't have a ticket in my account and can't see what is sold out days in advance.
Second edit: I guess you can see if LLSPs are available before the app checks to see if you have a ticket. My mistake.

 

[meremac]

This is probably going to be an unpopular viewpoint, but here goes. With every new system, there are going to be positives and negatives. We saw this with Genie+, FastPass+, FastPass...all the way back to paper FastPasses. Some people are going to like certain things that the person next to them dislikes. No one system can please everyone, and no one system is going to check off every box on an individual's wishlist. As always, we will eventually get used to this. And then it will change again, and the cycle will repeat itself lol. But for right now, this is the system we have. So like every time, my plan is to focus on getting used to it and figuring out how to use it to its full potential!

 

[Dave006]

I suspect you are right, but since I can't see whether Guardians is sold out on Monday, I thought it better to ask for a correction.

Why can't you see all the days in July and August through the 16th?

Dave

 

[VAtink]

Interesting. Over the past month of Genie+/ILL, Avatar FoP had by far the earliest sell-out time. Now it is the last one available?!

Yeah, it's kind of wild. Even next Wednesday I'm seeing 7DMT, and Rise as sold out already. Yikes!

 

[AntsGirl]

At 11:40 am Jungle Cruise, Thunder mountain and Tianas (of course) all gone.

Tier 2 Haunted Mansion, Pirates and Space all bring back late evening times. Very disappointed so far