He might be aghast at the way it’s being done though. Let’s not assume he would be 100% on board.
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True - it’s possible Walt would hate the current direction - I’m just pointing out one can argue this is just an extension of Walt’s E-Ticket concept. In some ways we’ve gone back to the beginning. Is that a trip Walt would have made again? Who knows?
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Here’s a quick google search result:
The Orlando theme park always used some type of package option. During the early years, we’d purchase park admission. Tickets were $3.50 for adults and $1 for children.
Since that only covered the entrance fee, we also bought a book of tickets for the various rides. The best rides were classified as E rides, priced at ninety cents per ride. The least popular rides, the A rides, were ten cents per ride.
Excerpted from: Disney Pricing Strategy
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I can’t argue with any of your points at all. I like to try and find the positives to changes, but I can’t actually see any with this system.
I can’t get my head around how BG attractions will work with the addition of LL$.
Say 10k people ride RotR each day. Currently they can all only ride if they get a BG. Let’s say there’s 100 BG in the day to make the math(s) simple.
Now they introduce LL$. An earlier example mooted that maybe 2k of the ride capacity is reallocated to LL$. So now, will people only be given boarding groups up to #80 instead of #100?
They said something along the lines of ‘now if you can’t get a boarding group you can pay for one’. So let’s say you’ve tried for a BG and success - you get BG79 and that’s great that you don’t have to pay for one. Then the ride is down for an hour or more. They HAVE to let the LL$ people on because they’ve paid for it, don’t they? So all the people with later BG don’t get to ride because people have paid for it??
I get that, currently, if you have a late BG there’s always a chance you won’t ride, but it seems now that there’s even less chance, even if you do get BG, that you can’t ride.
I haven’t actually had the chance to try RotR personally, so maybe I’m missing something.
Can you hold both? So if someone has decided that they’ll pay if they don’t get a BG, then get BG79/80 from my above example, which are maybe at risk, then would they still be able to pay for one?
This is how things will look like one year from now. Every system can be used and abused and people in this forum excel at it. Once Genie+ comes out, all kinds of different strategies will be devised to use it in your favor. I’m confident because the average Liner knows more about how WDW than even the above average CM.
Stories about how people were able to amass 5, 6, or 7+ “genie” passes will be common. Even an informal market for “releasing” passes for someone else to use will take place in the Lines app. Drop times will be tracked and forecasted. Touring plans will adjust to ride the LL+ headliners with the least possible wait without having to pay. Strategies about which “genie” passes to select first will be quantified and optimized. You will realize that getting that “first” pass at 7am is not such a big deal and adds to the excitement that you clamor similar to training for BGs just for the sport of it.
In the end, you will all decide that Genie+ and paid LL were no such a bad thing because you would have drained every drop of optimal value out of it…and in the end you will do exactly what Disney wanted you to do right from the beginning because if there is one company on earth that understands price elasticity it is Disney.
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There are definitely positives…at least for the people willing to pay.
My wife and I were discussing this…that is, what if ROTR goes down before all the LL people get on? My thought is that you won’t ACTUALLY be charged until it is confirmed you ride…but then, how do they do that? Just because you tap in at the entrance doesn’t mean you actually make it on the ride. Seems like a bit of a potential mess, because now they have to determine who gets either refunded or not charged versus those who just can’t ride and perhaps offer some kind of free LL access to something else. I’m not sure how this kind of thing is handled today. I kind of thought it was handled only if guests press for it in some fashion. But maybe they are more proactive about it?
My guess (and that’s all it is at this point) would be they would allocate whatever % of paid passengers to each boarding group. So 20% of boarding group 10 would be saved for LL$ and 80% would go to the lucky BG lottery winners.
The real questions are what is that % of LL$ riders really going to be?
But frankly it would be a lot less attractive to buy a BG if you know it is always a high numbered one. It will also be interesting if I see my BG # prior to committing to a LL$ purchase. But you’re right they would definitely have to refund LL$ purchasers if they have a breakdown and don’t get called so they can’t really allocate them last in the day.
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I am just going to say that I don’t like the tone of this post. That’s all. It feels … icky.
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I have my doubts, because I have despised the FP and FP+ systems from the start. I use them, but my hatred for them has never ended, and I get myself riled up when I allow myself to think about it. But I use them, because Disney has set things up so that if you don’t, you are penalized.
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Interestingly, I was thinking about this yesterday.
There might be times you would want an early one. There might be times you’d want a late one. Will you be able to select your return time on the paid ones? Has that been made clear yet? Because if you get a late one by paying but need an early one that would suck; and if they get more strict about return times (and it feels like they would have to) but an early one did not work for your plans, that would suck equally. The caveat being that late ones would also have the added burden of maybe not getting called (and then what)
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Yah - if they want to maximize the market, they should let a purchaser pick which BG they want from the available ones. Some days I might be willing to pay for a 6PM ride where I could hop over to HS. If it is first come, first served and you have to accept an 11AM BG that may cost them a purchase. Or force someone to continually check back until the time slot they want is open, and if they forget it is one less purchase. And of course could I ride that 11AM LL$ BG I paid for at 3PM if I wanted to? Or am I out of luck?
My assumption is they will charge you if your BG got called that day. If they never call your paid BG, they can’t charge you for that & may owe you some compensation to keep you happy since they ruined your plans - although they will likely let that be a complaint driven compensation.
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When you think on it, even the ADR Window creates an artificial on-site benefit. Pre-lockdown, there was no reason you couldn’t make your dining reservation when you made your hotel or bought your tickets. I added the pre-lockdown caveat because back in the good-old-days, they knew that 95% of the restaurants open would still be open in a year, and in more-or-less the same format.
I’m not even convinced of that though 
If they sell out of lightening lane slots every day I don’t see how there still won’t be a wait. Less of course, but I can’t imagine anything would be a walk on - not at that price point anyway 
Is this supposed to be a bad thing??
I think the Disney name is just too successful to fail and they can get away with whatever they want. Their name brand puts them in position to be able to play chicken with the public.
“What are you gonna do about it, not come to WDW, or go to UOR instead? Ha, I dare you.”
They know they win that, and enough will always come, and they’re even figuring out how to get exactly the type of guest they want to come. Until many thousands or millions are willing to stand up on principle and give Disney a middle finger and not show up, this will be what it will be. Disney’s place in our culture would have to change.
This has always been the case, even with FastPass. The FP/LL just bypasses MOST of the queue…but there is still some waiting, based on where the “mixing point” is.
For example, on Space Mountain, the mixing point is just as you enter the big room where you ultimately board the trains. But there is still quite a bit of wait once you arrive in that room.
So, the real advantage is the total standby wait MINUS the time from the mixing point. If standby is 30 minutes, but the wait from the mixing point is 10 minutes, then you are really saving 20 minutes, not 30.
This actually reminds me of a point I forgot to make in my original post.
As we all know, Disney artificially inflates the posted standby wait times for various reasons, including the psychological factor where you don’t end up waiting as much as it said, as well as a way to attempt to redirect people to not get in line and ride something else.
But, with the paid options in place, the accuracy of the standby wait times either must be accurate (meaning, not inflated), or else they are selling a product based on misrepresentation. Even if the ACTUAL wait time is 30 minutes, if they keep posting the wait time is an hour, it will convince more people to buy something that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
I see it as another way Disney can be selling a product completely disingenuously.
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Chapek does look like Dr. Evil too. 
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Indeed he does.