The Problem With Disney's Lightning Lane System & How To Fix It

[@JP-1990]

One of the great things about having competition in your market is that you don't have to pay people to find what your problems are and how to solve them. Your competition will be more than happy to do that for you.

[@siopulutua]

Premier pass user here. It was definitely very much worth the cost. My wife and I rode on everything and we basically just eased our way through the day. But I can understand the cost not meeting many people’s budgets. What I find stupid imo is how you’re required to stay at a premium Disney resort. Why can’t it be available for people who value the premier pass? Perhaps it’s supposed to be very limited that’s why?

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

It's probably more about getting people into the hotels than selling the pass itself. The fact the numbers are limited, and even people in the hotels might not be able to buy the pass is also a joke.

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

One major flaw I can see is you only buy the pass 7 days before your hotel stay? Considering most vacations are planned months in advance it seems like you have no idea how much the pass might cost on your visit till your almost there already, and if all the passes are gone you might very well have a Luxury Disney resort vacation and not be able to even buy said passes if you wanted to. Never mind if you planned for say $200 per person and find out the price jumped to $400. I also don't think you could even cancel your vacation 7 days out without suffering massive penalties either.

[@AndrewBouma]

Like the fluctuating ticket and hotel prices they have a price calendar that goes out months to a year in advance.

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

@@AndrewBouma That helps the price issue some what, if they are accurate. Not sure if Disney in the habit or raising prices last minute or not. The other issue though is availability. Such a service would have to be restricted. To many people with the Premium pass would cause massive issues with lines, meaning less passes will be available than bookings in the Luxury Hotels. If you can only get the pass 7 days before your stay, you will have no idea if a pass will be available when you book your trip.

[@Neemo2314]

Great job man always fun watching your videos

[@jaeda4632]

Chips and salsa analogy was perfect

[@capthemagic]

Thank you! I enjoy a good analogy lol

[@ducktails1695]

Leave it to Disney to make it even more expensive to go and also more confusing for guests. It’s also a complete ripoff as all it does it place you into a line that someone paid $20 to get into. They also oversell these lightning lane passes which overfills this line which also in turn murders the standby queue. This is why people think WDW is busier than precovid. It’s a fake sense of crowding. The upper management of Disney Parks needs to be replaced. They’ve completely lost touch with the everyday family. It’s no wonder why their attendance is declining and I think it will continue to do so, even if Epic Universe didn’t exist.

[@leahdani4416]

But also universal have a premier pass for passholder that gives you fast pass after 4. Disney have never given this to passholders

[@ducktails1695]

Because Disney doesn’t care at all about AP’s. They’re do the bare minimum at best. They forget it’s AP’s that keep the parks going during times when it’s not a busy time of year. It’s like AP’s are just a pain in their butt and wish they didn’t exist.

[@MissMyMusicAddiction]

the premium experience: * is less sensitive to price, which gives them more wiggle-room to jack the price, which should also allow them to increase revenue from the service * could be more helpful to stock price as it is a luxury experience, and for whatever reason, that seems to draw more attention. * gives them more wiggle room to include with a vacation package at the deluxe hotels (similar to throwing in the dining plan)

[@faithdarkness9079]

I have not been to DW but I have been to DL. I don't live in CA anymore. So me and my family (4) have to fly out, get a hotel room, I rent a car while there, plus the tickets. I just can't see adding in up to 400.00 per person even as a one time splurge. Maybe 100.00 - 200.00 and only getting it maybe on the last day there to get to ride the bigger rides when we want to. I have paid for genie + and the times can go out for rides out to an hour or two at 8am. It makes it annoying, as I don't really want to come back to ride something, I want to ride it when I am there. And if I book it for 10am at 8. Well then I can't use it again while at DL at least. But it does help when things are not being pushed out.

[@twister27]

I honestly think that they are going through these different “ideas” because they didn’t want to seem like they were copying Universal’s model off the jump. So now they have to go thru these “trial and error” phases of this system to then be like “oh this works better”

[@capthemagic]

It’s like copying someone’s homework but just doing it over a period of time lol

[@roytimberlake]

Without the old das pass i could never have attended disney. So that was last ever opportunity. The local park is still free

[@AndrewBouma]

What if they do the premier pass and then do the multi-pass for free for certain hotel guests as a perk to entice guests to stay at hotels.

[@capthemagic]

Personally I feel like doing an express pass style system as the only system would work best and then you could include it in deluxe hotel stays… like what universal does lol

[@charlesbarnes8977]

There is one flaw that a lot of people are not thinking about when doing the Uni/Dis comparison. When comparing them apples to apples, express passes are included when staying at the premier hotels. Which is a requirement at Disney to even purchase these passes. It's just simply not worth the cost and Universal has them beat on the value of their premier hotels.

[@MarshalMarrs-eu9yh]

If I were to became the ceo of Disney, the priorities I would be making as CEO is to permashelve all of the sequels, remakes and the Star Wars/Marvel content slop and prioritize actual original content and adaptations just like what Disney used to do, actually market the foreign media for real this time (that includes all the original anime Disney has or is ignoring so that anime fans will be happy) and start making media content geared towards adults.

[@jacobwerman1008]

You'd go bankrupt real quick. The two highest grossing movies of the year are from disney. One of which was a marvel movie (which is also the highest grossing rated r movie ever).

[@capthemagic]

@jacobwerman1008 They need fresh content and ideas. I think the best thing for Marvel and Star Wars is for it to take a break and then relaunch later. If there are good creatives you can make original content that audiences will enjoy. There definately needs to be more balance vs just digging endlessly into IPs they acquired IMO

[@MarshalMarrs-eu9yh]

@ or maybe tone down with the sequels, remakes and marvel/Star Wars content slop so that the company doesn’t go bankrupt.

[@MarshalMarrs-eu9yh]

@ Pixar also should take a big break with sequels.

[@MarshalMarrs-eu9yh]

@ and also also Disney should start making media for adult audiences.

[@cathinieto39]

They are flooding the express line with way too many options. Get rid of the cheaper options and just go with the expensive one.

[@capthemagic]

Agreed

[@t_cheating8239]

What I think is that to do this, they need to do it like universal. The price tag for this is too expensive.

[@cubist12]

If you look at the entire history of Disney Parks, in particular, you start to see a trend. They have a history of kind of resting on their laurels and not changing until they absolutely, positively, have to. It's because the Disney IP has been so powerful that they could basically just rake in the profits and not have to spend a ton on R & D, development, new parks, new attractions, etc. Change has been very slow, especially compared to their competition down the road. This is just another example of it. Even though the quality of the park experience has been going down for at least a decade now, and the prices have been increasing as well, Disney hasn't been feeling the pain. Why? Because there are so many people in the world where either: A. Disney World was a once-in-a-lifetime goal, B. Disney World was a very long standing family tradition, or C. Disney World was a part of their identity. They could depend on the constant revenue of these people and, for a while, it didn't matter that they started scrimping on things and taking away services, it didn't matter that they were EXTREMELY slow in adding new attractions, and it didn't matter that - in some parks - they tended to kill two or more attractions in exchange for one. They were still raking in the dough. The fact that they slow-rolling the Premier Pass and daring to put is ASIDE of the other LL options shows that they are very much still in the 'how much money can we make before the consumer just completely boycotts our brand' mode. They see the complaints, they see the decrease in attendance, but they still think they can get away with it. We'll see. I think Mickey Views is spot on. You absolutely need to get the focus back on improving the park experience for ALL attendees and making people want to come back again and again. The biggest way to do that in a theme park is to decrease wait times, by far. It makes everyone happier, even Grandma and Grandpa who are just waiting outside the ride for everyone else to be done.

[@FortMiseryGaming]

Funny braden actually made a non biased video hes normally anti universal and super pro disney.

[@capthemagic]

I’ve seen a few videos here and there from him but given his channel is “Mickey Views” it’s not too surprising lol

[@debbiegherrity5280]

Boy you sound so much like Dave Mars from hgtv

[@capthemagic]

Not sure who that is so not sure whether that’s a compliment or an insult 🤣

[@steverasmussen8997]

The best way to let Disney know how we feel is to boycott them. When they start loosing money they mite change there way (mite)

[@365ral]

He's wrong. Guests don't have extra hundreds to "treat themselves," nor do they want to spend it, especially not on a service that used to be free (and only ended out of greed.) There's no pricing away the demand for free line-skipping. Until we get Fast Passes back, we'll only see lower attendance, more hostility, and more people misusing DAS like a Fast Pass.

[@capthemagic]

I think his point was someone might treat themselves here and there

[@365ral]

@@capthemagic Not in this economy. At least 45% of families with young children go into debt for Disney trip these days.

[@capthemagic]

I'm aware, did a video on that very subject... there will always be people that can afford luxury items in any economy. I'm not defending what Disney is doing but there is always going to be a segment that can afford things like that or in his scenario they save up for a special trip type of scenario

[@GodsServant543]

Disney is paying the greatness penalty. I get it many are still entitled because of the old free fast pass. It’s gone. They have options that people don’t have to buy. Cheaper and more expensive options. I genuinely have never heard anyone complain except Disney nostalgic people. People go to universal and they pay or they don’t. People go to Disney and they pay or they don’t. Only those use to it being free make these bad faith arguments

[@ducktails1695]

I guess people are choosing not to pay it because WDW's attendance is declining every single month. Must be only nostalgic people go..... You're totally ignoring the bigger issue.

[@krs12]

We are done with Disney. For week lobg vacations Universal has them beat, and its cheaper to buy a Six Flags pass good at EVERY park than it is to do a day at Disneyland/DCA.

[@adamashby9171]

Get rid of it, or charge 1000 a day

[@Dave711701]

Simple, get rid of it and operate the rides the way they used to and how they were designed to function. When Disney used to operate the rides in the past (before fast pass/lightning lane) it was fair for everyone and you would get on the rides in a reasonable amount of time. Disney has created an insidious pay to play class system.

[@GodsServant543]

The argument that it slows down the regular standby wait is objectively wrong. It’s purely complaint about paying for something that was free. Entitlement. If 200 people are in line, somebody is going to wait long regardless. It’s simply not liking people getting in line in front of you because you’ve been waiting. I like disneys lightning lane over universals express pass. I get a few rides with little to no wait, and I wait in a few other lines. I can use it at both parks more than three times, and it usually costs me around $30 per person when we go. I’ve yet to hear a single legitimate argument against this system, outside of “it used to be free” in which that’s only relevant to those who have went. The premium lightning lane is only going to be people who would’ve brought regular anyway! This won’t add more people!

[@capthemagic]

You can enjoy the system but it undoubtedly slows down the standby line… how would it not when there is a line of people cutting off that line? In terms of entitlement, I suppose someone does feel entitled to get to ride rides when they spend $199 for a park ticket