Genie and Lightning Lane take six videos to explain

BrettV:

I miss most as a local is being able to hit a park at a true rope drop on mornings without EMH

BrettV:
The cost is trivial compared to the overall cost of a Walt Disney World experience

I suspect both of these are aligning in the same direction which is to discourage local AP's from grabbing ride capacity. Most of the moves they've made seem to be along the lines of "people who are once every few years or once in a lifetime will not notice the difference, but AP's will not be able to sustainably access the perks."

Finding Nemo: The Big Blue and Beyond

I had to look at the app. I figure FN was Finding Nemo. I just didn't know that was the name of the show.

ApolloAndy:

I suspect both of these are aligning in the same direction which is to discourage local AP's from grabbing ride capacity. Most of the moves they've made seem to be along the lines of "people who are once every few years or once in a lifetime will not notice the difference, but AP's will not be able to sustainably access the perks."

I agree, and I can't fault them for that. That said, when February rolls around, I'm out.*

* - the plan had actually been to not renew this past February, but an announced opening date for Guardians suckered me in. Knowing my luck, Tron will open in March 2023.

I literally just snorted coffee as I read that. Thank you for the best laugh I've had in a while

I don't know if this part of any of those videos, but a random rule change happened last night without any fanfare. Previously if you were park hopping and you wanted to find a a LL for your afternoon park, it would automatically offer you return times after 2pm, no matter when you were booking. Now you will have to wait until return times naturally reach beyond 2pm.

I know this is a super niche thing that 98% of people didn't know about and 99% of people don't care about, but it is indicative of how hard the system is to understand and keep track of.

I think I realized one of the problems when talking to Diana today about friends' recent experience here. Some of it is the naming. Genie+ gets you into attractions via the Lightning Lane entrance, unless you need to buy Lightning Lane, but only for certain attractions. And Genie+ only means you get to participate in what used to be Fastpass, meaning availability is what it is.

Check my math, is that right? Having no interest in buying it, I'm not even sure myself. Assuming though that premium queue ratios are similar to Fastpass, you now have a tiered system based on what you're willing to pay. We can assume that the amount of actual time people spend in line is the same, but the second tier, which might have been lower per cap spenders, now don't even have the opportunity to spend because they're in line more. Still, it's pretty obvious that the net spending per guest on average is much higher, so I guess they win.

All of that is correct. I will add that on certain attractions the ratio of Genie+ to standby seems more heavily weighted than FastPass to standby used to be. On many attractions the merge points are well hidden so it's tough to gauge but some are very visible.