Everything Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane - Please Read Posts 1-7

[holyrita]

Except Fastpass did the same thing, we just don't remember it. Peter Pan had a sheet by the standby line during Fastpass that told the Castmembers how many standby guests to let through compared to Fastpass. It was extremely small.

Yep, same experience of how it filtered into the line, but everyone at least got 3 choices for free.

True, but the ratio is very different now from the FastPass days. It does depends how long the line gets, but they will allow many more people in the Lightning Lane line through than they ever did for the FastPass line. I believe this is because Genie+ is a paid service and FastPass was not. Disclaimer: I'm only aware of this change for the attractions our family member has worked, can't speak for all.

 

[dmunsil]

True, but the ratio is very different now from the FastPass days. It does depends how long the line gets, but they will allow many more people in the Lightning Lane line through than they ever did for the FastPass line. I believe this is because Genie+ is a paid service and FastPass was not. Disclaimer: I'm only aware of this change for the attractions our family member has worked, can't speak for all.

I don't think that's necessarily true. The best analyses I've seen say that roughly 75% of the capacity of a ride is allocated to Lightning Lane, which is the same as it was for FastPass and FastPass+.

Keep in mind, the 75% is a rough target over time. The actual ratio varies from moment to moment depending on how many people show up in the Lightning Lane. If a ton of people show up all at once for their Lightning Lane reservation (as often happens right after a show lets out, for example), then the cast member at the merge point may basically stop the standby line for a while to clear out the Lightning Lane. This feels frustrating to the people waiting in the standby line, but one could argue that before all those people showed up the standby line was probably running quite a bit faster. A significant number of people with Lightning Lane reservations were stuck in a show.

 

[The Iron Giant]

Is it still possible to use a boarding group for GoG after the window has expired? Can we really return hours after our BG has been called?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Is it still possible to use a boarding group for GoG after the window has expired? Can we really return hours after our BG has been called?

For Guardians, yes.

For Tron, no.

 

[The Iron Giant]

For Guardians, yes.

For Tron, no.

Thank you!

 

[D C]

I don't think that's necessarily true. The best analyses I've seen say that roughly 75% of the capacity of a ride is allocated to Lightning Lane, which is the same as it was for FastPass and FastPass+.

Keep in mind, the 75% is a rough target over time. The actual ratio varies from moment to moment depending on how many people show up in the Lightning Lane. If a ton of people show up all at once for their Lightning Lane reservation (as often happens right after a show lets out, for example), then the cast member at the merge point may basically stop the standby line for a while to clear out the Lightning Lane. This feels frustrating to the people waiting in the standby line, but one could argue that before all those people showed up the standby line was probably running quite a bit faster. A significant number of people with Lightning Lane reservations were stuck in a show.

10:1 is what cast members have been telling us this week.
10 lightning lane people for every person in the "screw you" lane. It's absolutely pathetic. In practice, it seems that as long as there is anyone in the lightning lane queue at the merge point, the standby queue is held up.

Never was it this bad in the good old fast pass days

 

[pens4821]

I personally like that they let so many LL people go as compared to standby. Yeah, it sucks when you’re in the standby line, but when you’re paying to ride you shouldn’t have to wait long to ride. When FP was free all too often we had to wait in lines that I felt were too long (especially our 2019 trip when a 25/30 minutes or more was regular it seemed).

 

[DL1WDW2]

I hate the screw u lane

 

[OnThisMagicNight]

You would have to purchase the multi park genie+ option. Then you would have to go to guest services to get a refund for the one park option if you want your money back. Yes, it's ridiculous, but this is the only way to do it.

I came to this thread with the same exact question; I was hoping there would be a way to just pay the difference for the multi-park option but clearly that concept is too much for this system to handle!

 

[daneenm]

True, but the ratio is very different now from the FastPass days. It does depends how long the line gets, but they will allow many more people in the Lightning Lane line through than they ever did for the FastPass line. I believe this is because Genie+ is a paid service and FastPass was not. Disclaimer: I'm only aware of this change for the attractions our family member has worked, can't speak for all.

This was COMPLETELY our experience at Disneyland 3 weeks ago! Our observation, on average was 3 major sets of LL guests released (30-50 people) to every 1 small standby group (8-12). This is way more ‘out of whack’ than our experience even in December. Really sucks and makes G+ feel like a requirement rather than a nice to have.

 

[dmunsil]

10:1 is what cast members have been telling us this week.
10 lightning lane people for every person in the "screw you" lane. It's absolutely pathetic. In practice, it seems that as long as there is anyone in the lightning lane queue at the merge point, the standby queue is held up.

Never was it this bad in the good old fast pass days

In general it has been in the past 3:1 most of the time, with the ability go to 10:1 or 100:1 for short periods if the Lightning Lane fills up. I think the system would fall apart if they were 10:1 all the time.

Interviews with ex-imagineers suggest that Disney has always wanted as many people as possible to use the Lightning Lane, because it's a better customer experience to not have to wait in a long line. They just can't (or couldn't) get the ratio above about 75% without things going sideways. Maybe they've figured out a way to get it to 90+%, but man, that doesn't leave much room for error.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Here now and we have experienced much of what people are talking about. We’ve been standby in the parks for 3 days. I’m pretty sure we’ll be purchasing G+ for DHS Monday and the MK Tues even though it’s a party day.

Honestly if it wasn’t for the heat I wouldn’t be so tempted but, the long waits outdoors can be tough, especially the few times the queue is in the sun. You see visible gaps in the line where people wait to move forward until they can re-enter the shade and I don’t blame them. It’s not like we’re going anywhere quickly. We’re not afraid of the sun or heat but FL in Aug is serious sun and heat which we knew when we booked this trip.

I will say G+ appears to be popular. It’s not unusual to see 50+ people in the G+ line which they process at a much faster rate then standby. We were a group of 8 today so got stopped at every merge point while a large number of LL people would go in front of us. I didn’t love it but understood as I chose not to purchase G+ today.

If we go ahead with our plan to purchase Mon and Tues I’ll see how things change. Will post here.

 

[D C]

I personally like that they let so many LL people go as compared to standby. Yeah, it sucks when you’re in the standby line, but when you’re paying to ride you shouldn’t have to wait long to ride. When FP was free all too often we had to wait in lines that I felt were too long (especially our 2019 trip when a 25/30 minutes or more was regular it seemed).

I rather dislike that a company is willing to say "screw you" to 90% to make a few bucks from the 10%

In general it has been in the past 3:1 most of the time, with the ability go to 10:1 or 100:1 for short periods if the Lightning Lane fills up. I think the system would fall apart if they were 10:1 all the time.

Interviews with ex-imagineers suggest that Disney has always wanted as many people as possible to use the Lightning Lane, because it's a better customer experience to not have to wait in a long line. They just can't (or couldn't) get the ratio above about 75% without things going sideways. Maybe they've figured out a way to get it to 90+%, but man, that doesn't leave much room for error.

A better customer experience?? That has nothing to do with it. If that was the goal (and not $$) they could get rid of the lightning lane and give a better experience to the 90% who are getting spit on for not giving the mouse a little MORE $$ after spending what's arguably too much to begin with.

 

[D C]

Here now and we have experienced much of what people are talking about. We’ve been standby in the parks for 3 days. I’m pretty sure we’ll be purchasing G+ for DHS Monday and the MK Tues even though it’s a party day.

Honestly if it wasn’t for the heat I wouldn’t be so tempted but, the long waits outdoors can be tough, especially the few times the queue is in the sun. You see visible gaps in the line where people wait to move forward until they can re-enter the shade and I don’t blame them. It’s not like we’re going anywhere quickly. We’re not afraid of the sun or heat but FL in Aug is serious sun and heat which we knew when we booked this trip.

I will say G+ appears to be popular. It’s not unusual to see 50+ people in the G+ line which they process at a much faster rate then standby. We were a group of 8 today so got stopped at every merge point while a large number of LL people would go in front of us. I didn’t love it but understood as I chose not to purchase G+ today.

If we go ahead with our plan to purchase Mon and Tues I’ll see how things change. Will post here.

Imagine if the Lightning lane was gone entirely. The standby line would move FASTER than the Lightning lane does now!!

"This line is really moving" makes for a far better experience than "stand here for a good long while as punishment for not shelling out more $"

 

[SkyGuy]

I’m traveling soon with 2 APs, 2 Florida Summer Magic, 3 regular parkhoppers, and 1 two-year-old. I was scanning the first page and noticed that the “AP challenge” post has been removed. I’m assuming that means that there is no longer an issue purchasing Genie+ for AP holders when your MDE party consists of a variety of different ticket holders. Is this correct? Thanks!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Imagine if the Lightning lane was gone entirely. The standby line would move FASTER than the Lightning lane does now!!

"This line is really moving" makes for a far better experience than "stand here for a good long while as punishment for not shelling out more $"

Except that didn’t seem to happen. There were 18 months of no G+, no LL and no FP
and people were crying out for Disney to bring back FP.

To me it seems all being standby would make sense but for whatever reason it just didn’t seem to happen that way. There are many experiences in this thread.

Honestly don’t know what the answer is except selling less LL and I can’t see them doing that even though I wish they would.

Until then, begrudgingly going to be purchasing LL for probably 2 days and seeing how that works.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I’m traveling soon with 2 APs, 2 Florida Summer Magic, 3 regular parkhoppers, and 1 two-year-old. I was scanning the first page and noticed that the “AP challenge” post has been removed. I’m assuming that means that there is no longer an issue purchasing Genie+ for AP holders when your MDE party consists of a variety of different ticket holders. Is this correct? Thanks!

Yes. It is no longer an issue so that post has been removed.

 

[Dori's Twin]

Trying to do the following and getting different feedback.

First Day: EPCOT reservation (only walking through with goal to ride GoG and anything else with short stand by time)
Plan to arrive in MK by 5pm to try to get a VQ for TRON.

STRATEGY: (All LL for MK will be for 6:00 - 10:00pm)
7am $LL GoG for after 4:00pm
$ILL TRON for after 6pm
LL Haunted Mansion for MK
11:00 LL Space MTN
1:00 LL Peter Pan or other
3:00. LL Thunder MTN

Can someone please confirm this information:
I called tech support two times today and got two different answers whether you can pick a time for $ILL's and whether you can modify a $ILL time. This is key to our success.

I was told by CM that the $ILL has a feature which allows you to select a convenient time preference lets say for us 4:00pm for GoG. The AP will try to find something in that time frame and if a workable time presents we purchase. After I purchase I can't modify the time by virtue of it being an ILL. Right?
One phone call said you can't modify $ILL time and another said you could. I don't think you can modify based on posts here on the forum. I may have misunderstood.

 

[champagne&disney]

Trying to do the following and getting different feedback.

First Day: EPCOT reservation (only walking through with goal to ride GoG and anything else with short stand by time)
Plan to arrive in MK by 5pm to try to get a VQ for TRON.

STRATEGY: (All LL for MK will be for 6:00 - 10:00pm)
7am $LL GoG for after 4:00pm
$ILL TRON for after 6pm
LL Haunted Mansion for MK
11:00 LL Space MTN
1:00 LL Peter Pan or other
3:00. LL Thunder MTN

Can someone please confirm this information:
I called tech support two times today and got two different answers whether you can pick a time for $ILL's and whether you can modify a $ILL time. This is key to our success.

I was told by CM that the $ILL has a feature which allows you to select a convenient time preference lets say for us 4:00pm for GoG. The AP will try to find something in that time frame and if a workable time presents we purchase. After I purchase I can't modify the time by virtue of it being an ILL. Right?
One phone call said you can't modify $ILL time and another said you could. I don't think you can modify based on posts here on the forum. I may have misunderstood.
View attachment 788778

You can select your time with a screen like that but Individual Lightning Lane times are not modifiable. You are stuck with what you buy initially.

 

[champagne&disney]

Trying to do the following and getting different feedback.

First Day: EPCOT reservation (only walking through with goal to ride GoG and anything else with short stand by time)
Plan to arrive in MK by 5pm to try to get a VQ for TRON.

STRATEGY: (All LL for MK will be for 6:00 - 10:00pm)
7am $LL GoG for after 4:00pm
$ILL TRON for after 6pm
LL Haunted Mansion for MK
11:00 LL Space MTN
1:00 LL Peter Pan or other
3:00. LL Thunder MTN

Can someone please confirm this information:
I called tech support two times today and got two different answers whether you can pick a time for $ILL's and whether you can modify a $ILL time. This is key to our success.

I was told by CM that the $ILL has a feature which allows you to select a convenient time preference lets say for us 4:00pm for GoG. The AP will try to find something in that time frame and if a workable time presents we purchase. After I purchase I can't modify the time by virtue of it being an ILL. Right?
One phone call said you can't modify $ILL time and another said you could. I don't think you can modify based on posts here on the forum. I may have misunderstood.
View attachment 788778

I would also be flexible in your goals for MK G+ rides. You can't select the time later in the day to align with your goals until the earlier times are already gone. These are some of the most popular rides for G+ at MK so the times may not align with your 4-hour window or they may be sold out by the time you have another selection window.

Good luck!