"Temporarily Closed"

[pokee99]

I don't agree that service industry standards are sub-par everywhere. Due to the pandemic, luxury hotels in Asia dropped prices while increasing food quality to attract locals for staycations. United Airlines started giving out sanitizing wipes and improved food offerings on their planes and lounges. Prices for such flights are also lower so you're getting more value for less money. But for every company that improved, there are many more who are doing worse. Southwest Airlines dramatically cut their snack and drink offerings. Many hotels in the US have cut housekeeping. Disney is one of the worst offenders of using COVID as an excuse to offer less while charging more.

The amount of maintenance issues at Disneyland is worse than other parks, including Disney's own parks in other countries.

I'm sure there's exceptions like United, and I certainly can't speak to service standards in other parts of the world. I live in Canada where most cities, even large ones, weren't well-served to begin with, and are now crippled. And we still have an airline canceling 25% of its flights each month, or canceling last minute due to staffing shortages. We have the added difficulty of still having very strict border rules, with vaccinations and testing still required - which have compounded the problems with everything. I'm optimistic that companies will slowly start to improve their service as they hire more staff, and trust that Disneyland will eventually be one of them.

 

[pokee99]

We are back from a Friday-Saturday trip and can confidently say the return times for G+ yesterday were way further back then what we experienced back in December before Christmas. It wasn’t entirely surprising considering it felt busier. I had to perform the refresh trick for 10-15 minutes to get return times in the next 30-60 minutes on quite a few rides, otherwise we would have been waiting 2.5-3.5 hours.

This is very, very concerning! Do you think because it was a holiday weekend? Or is this the new normal?

 

[pokee99]

Yes, this exactly. I am an international tourist and I bought Genie+ on all my park days two weeks ago. Each time I either booked a Genie+ Lightning Lane, I booked almost immediate return times. Theres a very low % of people buying Genie+ on any given day, therefore you can get almost immediate return times throughout the day and into the evening. And then when you redeem, theres very few people redeeming at your time and you can almost walk onto the rides. For me, spending $60 for 3 days Genie+ was so worth it, maximizing my time in the parks. I would look at a wait time of 30 or 40 minutes and go nope, open the App, book the Genie+ Lightning Lane, scan in and walk right to the loading area, and get loaded onto the next ride vehicle.

This is good news, but then another recent post here says that return times were up to 2.5 - 3.5 hours for G+. I wonder if more locals are starting to buy G+?

 

[BadPinkTink]

This is good news, but then another recent post here says that return times were up to 2.5 - 3.5 hours for G+. I wonder if more locals are starting to buy G+?

What you need to do is use the App and compare wait times and return times and be strategic with the use of Genie+ and booking of Lightning Lanes. Theres no point in booking a Lightning Lane at 11am with a return time of 3pm which blocks you booking a Lightning Lane at 11.05 am with a return time of 11.20am.

 

[pokee99]

What you need to do is use the App and compare wait times and return times and be strategic with the use of Genie+ and booking of Lightning Lanes. Theres no point in booking a Lightning Lane at 11am with a return time of 3pm which blocks you booking a Lightning Lane at 11.05 am with a return time of 11.20am.

Thank you! I need to read up more on G+ tricks and strategies - it's very confusing for those of us that are new to the app. I've been reading stuff here in the boards for over a month, but I think I need a visual, because we can't practice ahead of time. Does anyone know of a YouTube video or some resource that can break it down, show examples, and visually spell out strategies?

 

[MonocularVision]

I'm new to G+. I'm assuming by "refresh trick" you mean constantly refreshing until a sooner time opens up? Does that often work? I know I did this for FP+ at WDW, but I never did it for MP at DLR.

Yes! This was my method in iPhone:

1. Navigate to the Tip Board
2. Scroll to the ride I am interested in
3. Tap on it and go into the detail screen
4. Navigate back to the previous screen (Tip Board)
5. Tap near the top of the screen to scroll to the top.
6. “Pull down” to refresh
7. Check the time to see if the time is better

Repeat steps 5 through 7 to keep refreshing and checking. The app will automatically scroll down after refreshing to the ride you went into on step 3

This is very, very concerning! Do you think because it was a holiday weekend? Or is this the new normal?

I think it was, but I guess we will see in the next few weeks.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think it could be that Disneyland isn't hiring enough staff like ride operators and maintenance crew and I can tell you that if you look at DisneyCareers I can bet that there are few openings for jobs in maintenance crews and ride operators and I can tell you that once Disney gets people to fill those positions the ride breakdowns would not happen so much. I think the only possible solution to all these troubles is give people Disney gift cards as consulation prizes and offer people to go to a different ride that is working rather than having to wait in a two hour long line only to be told that the ride is having problems. I mean people come to Disneyland to ride their favorite rides and not be surprised by broken down rides. Now I understand why things are being very slow to return to Disneyland like parades shows character meet and greets and until Disneyland straightens itself out and corrects these problems they will lose money and people will simply have no desire of going at all