Walt Disney World Tech News & Discussion- Magic Bands, Genie+, and more

[krazyhorrorkid]

I haven’t read anything about pricing.
Are we expecting this to pretty much match Genie’s per day price?

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

I don't hate this, especially when I always stay on-site for the Disney portions of my Orlando trips. One Lightning Lane at a time was better for more leisurely planned days and easier than Fastpass+ to refresh/find cancellations, but planning three reservations at once in anticipation for late morning/early afternoon crowds was always more strategic to maximize rides per day on the old system.

 

[Tobias]

As a local, this may be what tips the scale for me from Pro-VL to Anti-VL…

What is VL

@OrlandoGuy can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they're talking about Virtual Queue, but refers to it as Virtual Line. And their stance makes sense when you look at it like this...

VQ is pretty much a random raffle, even if you do land a boarding group, you never know exactly when your group will be called, and you certainly won't know the estimated time you'll be waiting in the actual line for the ride. I've never been a fan of that aspect as I've got dining plans and whatnot, there's always a chance that's just not gonna' work with my plans.

Now add in multi pass where one can have three fastpasses along with their dining plans, the randomness of VQ sticks out all the worse and just doesn't work when Disney wants everyone back to planning things out in advance.

As for the whole multi pass thingamabobber, I'm not opposed to it. But I really would LOVE for them to let you get a pass/lightning lane for any attraction more than once. (Disneyland's Maxpass was the gold standard for me.) There are attractions I'd prefer to go on multiple times, let alone ones which were purposely designed to be re-ridable. And no amount of suggesting is gonna' make me get a fastpass for an attraction I don't wanna' go on.

 

[boomerthom]

So now resort guests will suck up all the LLs for the biggest attractions just like with FP+

Sick

 

[UNIrd]

Not these groups again! I am triggered. Shows how top heavy these parks can be. You really don't need an LL for anything in EPCOT outside that first Tier.

No tiers at DAK is interesting and a welcome change as before you had to choose between Navi River & Flight of Passage.

 

[Mad Dog]

It will be interesting to watch how the stand by line actual times are after this happens. I'll definitely be monitoring it on Touring Plans. Stand by line times have been pretty decent since they started the purge of fake/fraudulent disability guests that learned their craft from social media influencers.....From what I see, and if the historical stand by actuals hold up, Epcot has very little value. The tier two attractions have short lines often at various points of the typical day, except for holiday periods. Better to 8:30 AM rope drop Rat & Frozen and save your money. Even tier one Soarin has low line times, except for a couple of hours, each day. ...AK, under this single tier system, could be good value. DHS has good value since it has a couple of high grade attractions (Tower of Terror and Midway Media) in tier two. MK is a toss up depending on the crowd level. If you rope drop the extra early half hour, you can do many of the top attractions by 11:30 AM. If MK lines stay like they've been the past couple weeks, though that's improbable, you don't need LL at all.

 

[TheGentTrent]

It will be interesting to watch how the stand by line actual times are after this happens. I'll definitely be monitoring it on Touring Plans. Stand by line times have been pretty decent since they started the purge of fake/fraudulent disability guests that learned their craft from social media influencers.....From what I see, and if the historical stand by actuals hold up, Epcot has very little value. The tier two attractions have short lines often at various points of the typical day, except for holiday periods. Better to 8:30 AM rope drop Rat & Frozen and save your money. Even tier one Soarin has low line times, except for a couple of hours, each day. ...AK, under this single tier system, could be good value. DHS has good value since it has a couple of high grade attractions (Tower of Terror and Midway Media) in tier two. MK is a toss up depending on the crowd level. If you rope drop the extra early half hour, you can do many of the top attractions by 11:30 AM. If MK lines stay like they've been the past couple weeks, though that's improbable, you don't need LL at all.

I would expect higher waits at Epcot with Test Track under the knife and Guardians still using the Virtual QueueTM.

 

[Nick]

I would expect higher waits at Epcot with Test Track under the knife and Guardians still using the Virtual QueueTM.

I’m REALLY hoping once TT reopens GotG comes off VQ. It will have been three years. It’s time.

 

[HandsomePete]

I imagine because everyone knew Fast Pass was free they don't want to bring back the name and people think it is free again.

Just call it Fastpass Plus+… the second plus is for paid.

 

[IzzyB]

So now resort guests will suck up all the LLs for the biggest attractions just like with FP+

Sick

I actually never really had issues getting FP for rides even as a local. People cancel all the time. In line when board I would check for cancellations and very rarely did we not get to ride the ride we wanted to ride that day.

 

[Cwoolboy]

Disney needs to just get rid of paid FastPass PERIOD! Free FastPass was one of the things that set WDW apart form the competitors back in the 90s. The only reason I got to do as much as I did my last trip was due to my DAS. Just scrap everything that requires guests to be on their phones in the parks 24/7, and bring back the good ol' days.

Old man rant over

 

[TheGentTrent]

Just some quick observations from my experience on Day 1 of the new plan:

• App did not crash at 7 AM thankfully. I was worried that there was going to be a massive glut of users all at once.
• Did not have any issue getting any reservations over the next three days. Even got Tiana for tomorrow! I suspect this will be a very different story next week as more resort guests begin taking advantage of their early access.
• Book three attractions at a time a la Fastpass+, but unlike that one, you can start making new reservations as soon as you cash in on your first. Still one use per ride per day.

Overall, not the disastrous rollout I initially feared, but suspect I got very lucky to be the guinea pig. Not excited to do this again later this year.

 

[Tobias]

My trip is next week, so I was able to try things out with booking a week in advance. And for what it's worth, it went very smoothly for me! No tech issues, started right at 7am and easily purchased the multi passes and single passes day by day.

It was very seamless, and I appreciated you're able to select your times and such before you buy, so you know what you're getting from the outright. It also showed my dining reservations to easily book around them.

I also recently modified some times today, and that was super quick and easy as well.

Now as for getting the popular choices, I had a pretty good selection of times for the big ones. Got plenty of passes for Tron since I've never been on it, several for Cosmic Rewind. Got one for Ratatouille Saturday, and I got one for Slinky Dog Dash on the 19th (Monday) super easy as well, and that was the last day I booked!

The only one I wasn't able to get was Tiana's for Friday, it just wasn't available. (Granted, that's a MNSSHP night, so they might not have as many passes for it.) Now this is where being able to check/select your times before buying came in handy, for I was able check a few other days like Sunday and they did have times available for that. Ultimately, I didn't end up buying a multipass for that day since my Sunday is already busy with things I don't want to move and/or cancel, but being able to check in advance if it's available or not is pretty great!

All in all, no complaints from me when it comes to the booking process for this. I'm very intrigued to see how stand-by waits will be in the parks, and how good same day booking options will be once I've used my first.

Right now, this is looking to be more of an upgrade for me over Genie+, especially when I look at the Thursday I arrive. I've got a single pass for both Cosmic Rewind and Tron, and that wouldn't be possible with Genie+ since I'd still be on an airplane during the 7am drop.

 

[tyro]

Well this is insane and honestly the final nail in the coffin for me (even if it really won’t effect lines of a normal day guest) I really don’t think I will ever being going back to WDW besides an occasional after hours party for MK or DHS.

Even comparing this to universal, for around the same price, you get unlimited ride access in express but here you only get one per ride, so even if I had the money to spend on it it would not be a good value.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

I assume the 429$ option is for all the parks spread out between multiple days?

If not, holy price gouge Batman!

 

[Hannah L]

Well this is insane and honestly the final nail in the coffin for me (even if it really won’t effect lines of a normal day guest) I really don’t think I will ever being going back to WDW besides an occasional after hours party for MK or DHS.

Even comparing this to universal, for around the same price, you get unlimited ride access in express but here you only get one per ride, so even if I had the money to spend on it it would not be a good value.

Interesting that this is only available for deluxe hotel guests to purchase, but Universal offers free express pass as deluxe hotel perk

 

[Parkscope Joe]

$129-$199 for five rides, soon to be four. What a joke.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Pricing comparison.

While I was expecting a "Disney tax" when comparing to UOR, I wasn't expecting $450 high for MK or DAK priced as high as $200.

I can somewhat justify the pricing for DHS (with how unreliable the park's attractions can be), but still rough.

Not sure who in their right mind will purchase this for DAK. Just get an ILL for FoP and everything else has reasonable waits throughout the day.

 

[DeadSexeh]

Well this is insane and honestly the final nail in the coffin for me (even if it really won’t effect lines of a normal day guest) I really don’t think I will ever being going back to WDW besides an occasional after hours party for MK or DHS.

Even comparing this to universal, for around the same price, you get unlimited ride access in express but here you only get one per ride, so even if I had the money to spend on it it would not be a good value.

This is exactly what I want the service to be. Get rid of the cheap price point and move to this model only. The current system ruins the standby line due to lightning lane taking up majority of the rides capacity. Make the product super expensive and drop Lightning Lane to ~10% or less of the rides capacity and I will be happy and excited to come back. If there is one thing that ruins a Disney vacation is standing in a line that moves slowly with kids.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Don't mind this new pricing model... if they can cut the Multi-Pass/Individual options.