Wait times with no Genie+ or LL

[SweetPeasMom2]

It seems to me if so many are doing Genie + and/or LL, that the wait times for the standby lines would be better, no?

 

[annacali]

No. The lightening lanes bring the standby lanes to a near standstill for rides with a merge point. The standby riders get held at the merge point and the lightening lane riders get to go.

 

[LSUmiss]

Exactly. It’s like it was with fast pass plus. Everything this summer when it was crowded was 45-60 min. Now major rides are up to 2-3 hours again.

 

[gharter]

There is an interesting video on the history of FP and FP+. In general, it makes the standby line go much slower, as everyone knows from past experience.
However, now that its a money maker, it clearly is not going anywhere.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

depends on how many guests buy Genie Plus, because they are paying to cut the line, which means those in the standby line have to wait while Genie guests go first. It looks like the charge for Genie is not making a big difference in number of users from free FastPass, so expect longer standby lines at least until WDW decides they aren't charging enough for Genie+

 

[Tilnar]

No. The lightening lanes bring the standby lanes to a near standstill for rides with a merge point. The standby riders get held at the merge point and the lightening lane riders get to go.

Experienced this during Jersey week -- got in line for Peter Pan with a 40 minute wait -- took 85 to get on the ride. It's brutal.

 

[SweetPeasMom2]

Ah. Well that bites.

 

[DisneyMama811]

thanks for asking this, I came here to post this exact question, I was wondering if even in "off season" the lines are still bad if you don't buy lightning lane or genie

 

[DisneyByMarriage]

We just left yesterday and did three park hopper days (Monday, Weds., Fri.) of Thanksgiving week. It was crowded. We did NOT buy G+ as my kids don’t like thrill rides. We rope dropped to park close each of the three days and even did all 4 parks Black Friday. We literally only did Epcot to go to the ILL$ we purchased for Remy. The lines that were the worst for Genie plus/ILL holding things up were Jungle Cruise, MMRR, Alien Swirling Saucer, and maybe Buzz. For the first ones, all the rides had a breakdown and when it’s fixed, they let everyone in for the backlog of LL users. I counted 25 people from MMRR being let in at a time, whereas for Slinky it looked to be sending them to only rows 9/10 of every car unless the party was larger. I would ONLY buy it in the future if the parks weren’t going to be busy, because by 9 am all the return times were late in the day anyway.

 

[DisneyByMarriage]

Duplicate

 

[DisneyMama811]

We just left yesterday and did three park hopper days (Monday, Weds., Fri.) of Thanksgiving week. It was crowded. We did NOT buy G+ as my kids don’t like thrill rides. We rope dropped to park close each of the three days and even did all 4 parks Black Friday. We literally only did Epcot to go to the ILL$ we purchased for Remy. The lines that were the worst for Genie plus/ILL holding things up were Jungle Cruise, MMRR, Alien Swirling Saucer, and maybe Buzz. For the first ones, all the rides had a breakdown and when it’s fixed, they let everyone in for the backlog of LL users. I counted 25 people from MMRR being let in at a time, whereas for Slinky it looked to be sending them to only rows 9/10 of every car unless the party was larger. I would ONLY buy it in the future if the parks weren’t going to be busy, because by 9 am all the return times were late in the day anyway.

what does ILL stand for? I know the LL part is lightning lane but can't figure out what the I is supposed to be?

 

[Selket]

what does ILL stand for? I know the LL part is lightning lane but can't figure out what the I is supposed to be?

Individual I think - the ones you pay money for that are not included in Genie+ I could be wrong...

 

[ngl]

We were there from Sun-Fri of this past week (Thanksgiving week). We live about 1.5 hrs away, AP and DVC so we go often and like to stay a few days. Our kids are tweens so do like the thrill rides. This was our first use of Genie+. Definitely like FP better but immaterial at this point I guess! We used Genie+ each day and did some ILL purchases. (We were fortunate to get virtual queue for Ratatouille so that at least helped!) Of course this was a holiday week so not sure how representative it is but here are our findings: the first rides to go for Genie+ seemed to be Jungle Cruise for MK, Slinky Dog for HS, Test Track for EPCOT, and not much for AK!!! For ILL purchases they went fast for all available in each park with the exception of Everest that seemed to be available until later in the day. However, there were so few rides that had standby wait times under 45 min. (ROTR got to 4 hrs one day!!!) We have never been a rope drop family (except when we are visiting DL and DCA when we are still on East Coast time!) so for us, the later times for Genie+ worked. I just was not fond of only having one pick. I did take advantage of picking what we wanted and if it was later, waiting the 2 hrs after park open to get another. Then we would pick the lowest wait time or something like Hall of Presidents or a show to fill that time in-between our picks. What I disliked the most was having to wake up by 6:50am each day for the picks. During non-vacation time I am an early riser but like to at least sleep in a few days on vacation past 7! Also, I did not like the fact that changing a Genie+ pick is not easy. You have to cancel one you have and go back to the main screen to pick a new one and by the time you get back it may be gone. I would say that if you don't want to do Genie+ then do one ILL purchase if you can. At least then you can bypass one line. However, standby lines are just as long if not longer as they have been.

 

[popy]

Why in the world can anybody in there right mind, pay all that money, to stand still in lines for any longer Than 5 minutes, those who do are Disney suckers. Give them what they want, do go.