I did. I didn’t like being locked in. I’m better on the fly.
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I see that as part of the experience, though. Thinking about the trip and planning for months ahead of time extends the fun! Otherwise, how would I justify spending so much for a week or two of entertainment? Same reason I will not book pre-planned tours other places, at least not in the US. I would consider it for foreign destinations, though.
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I don’t even like the reservation system. Being locked into certain parks on certain days is a negative for me. I liked it when we could makes changes based on the forecast. But WDW has reasons for wanting us locked into plans.
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I just hate that every trip, it is different (we go every 3 years). I have to relearn the new system every time. (Ok, part of me loves a new challenge 
)
Whatever they end up doing, I need them to figure it out soon. If we do end up going on our August trip, I don’t want them changing things last minute right before we go…they wouldn’t do that, right? Oh wait…
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I don’t like the idea of the reservation system either. I see why they wanted to do it right now, but I hope that isn’t something that sticks around too long.
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Your husband and I can be friends. If I don’t eat there at least twice on a Disney trip I consider the trip a failure. Corn Dog Nuggets are life!
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Any thoughts on the new rumor about a paid “Lightening Pass” that is essentially the same as USO’s EP?
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Very informative video
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You beat me to it! I was just watching this on Reddit. I like the points he’s bring up.
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$300 per adult, per day.
Wow.
I need a new genie, this one is busted.
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That pricing is just…insane
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He’s regurgitating what’s been discussed for 2 years and speculating on it. The figures he used are plucked from nowhere.
I still expect three “tiers” of Fastpasses, including a small pot of free ones. With “bundles” of like rides. But just one FP per ride, no unlimited re-rides of Space or MMRR etc.
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And APs w/ EP-like passes similar to what USO has now.
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How would this “lightning pass” work with APs? I am skeptical of the whole thing. Maybe partially because I really hope it’s not true. At $300pp per day, especially if PH is limited to after 2pm, might as well just get a group of friends and do a VIP tour. I know there’s the whole “super high demand” aspect, but that IMO is fairly temporary. People canceled or postponed trips from the last year, have DVC points to use, have airline credits or unused tickets/days, a fairly recent stimulus payment, a high desire to do some “post-ish pandemic” travel and leisure, etc. That stuff won’t last and without some value-added, interest will wane after this year I am betting.
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I personally hope they make the cost ridiculous if they do it. HersheyPark did unlimited FastTrack in their park for around $100 and it completely ruined it for the average guest. The lines for the coasters are insane unless you get to them before 11:30. If Disney does the same, I hope they make it expensive so the standby lines actually move. There is no way my family of 5 is paying $100 or more per person per day for a Lightning FastPass.
And I agree. Interest will die down after a year or so. We are only going later this year to use our tickets from May 2020. If I could have gotten my money back for those tickets, we would have done a different vacation this year. We aren’t planning on going back after that for quite some time. There are other places we want to explore.
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I think it depends on how you vacation. If you are the type that wants to get it all done in a short period of time the paid pass is going to be appealing. I mean if I can get what I want done in 5 days instead of 10 the extra cost of the pass could be less than the extra hotel costs would have been for the longer stay, especially if staying in a Deluxe or Villa.
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But… at UOR you get “free” Express Passes if you stay at one of the three of the upper tier resorts. When we did our visit we targeted it for two park days with one night at their resort…that gave us Express Passes for both park days (check in day through check out).
As a family that doesn’t generally stay at Deluxe resorts at WDW (two special trips at WL and one night post cruise at BC), I wouldn’t be comfortable w/ a similarly tiered system. …mostly because a higher tier resort at UOR is significantly (by orders of magnitude) less expensive than a Deluxe resort at WDW.
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No matter what they do someone will be unhappy.
The new system will be designed to make Disney as much money as possible. It seems likely the new system will include a paid option (or a few tiered options) and more virtual queues to try to get people into stores to spend more. I could see lower capacity in the parks being the norm to reduce staffing costs while increasing the per guest revenues from the paid fastpass/virtual queue system.
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I would buy the rip-off lightning pass. I have been going to a Disney resort (Orlando, Paris) on the average of once every five years. Getting the parks done in fewer days would be a priority since it would mean paying for fewer hotel nights (and overpriced food). Then I could travel home or do other, non-Disney things on my vacation.
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Sounds awful and expensive, which probably means it’s a near certainty to happen.
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