- Today, let's talk about the new lightning lane. So, let's count up on this episode for 18 of "Never to Be Prepped Together." (upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to you, I'm Deborah Preptaker, Retox Strategy and Ideas to people playing their Disney World Trips. I am your host Shannon Albert from wdwprepschool.com. Thank you for being here for episode 4.18. So, this is a standalone episode where you just get to pick a topic and talk about it in between the time that we have trip reports available to publish. And when I saw this on the schedule, it was pretty obvious that the thing that we needed to talk about was the new lightning lane system, we will get to that in just a minute. As always, a reminder to follow on social media. And if you do want to be a trip report guest, the only way to do that is to submit a Speakpipe voicemail, using the information that is linked in the show notes or description of every single episode. And if your podcast app doesn't have show notes, you can always go to the website because there are show notes or descriptions of every episode there with the Speakpipe information. And when you do submit through Speakpipe, you just need to give the basics of your trip, including the dates and who's going and some of the details. And then if it fits within our schedule, a member of my team will reach out to get it scheduled so we can get your pre-trip and post-trip recorded. We do have some very interesting fun ones coming up, but those people are still in the middle of their trips or about to go on their trips. So, we are going to do this episode. In the meantime, I also did want to mention that I have some of my own trips coming up. And so we'll have an end of July one and we will be at D20 through Expo just like a week or a week and a half later. And then we'll be at Disney World for the Start Food and Wine Festival, which this year is the end of August. So we'll have trip reports, we'll have my own trips, we'll have some of these stand-aloons mixed in as usual. I think that's all for housekeeping. Let's talk about the new lightning lane pass system. Let's start with the basics of the new system, which I think a lot of you probably already know since the announcement came out a few weeks ago, but in case you don't, the Gini+ system will now be called lightning lane multi-pass and although the name changes are very frustrating because they seem to do them so often, this actually makes a lot of sense because it is multiple lightning lanes that you can book. The individual lightning lane system will now be called the lightning lane single pass, which also makes sense because you can book a single pass. And it is a system that allows you to book before your trip, which is very similar to the old fast pass plus system, which allowed pre-booking. It's really kind of a combination of Gini+ and fast pass plus. And since we've been around a long time and got good at both, we're excited about this system because it kind of pulls from some of our favorite things from the fast pass plus system. So those are the basics in terms of just like the names that are changing. And by the way, while we're talking about names, the Disneyland version of this will stay exactly the same. It'll just have a name change, but will still function just like the Gini+ system. And before the Gini+ system existed, Disneyland, they had max pass plus and it functions so similarly. And that seems to work much, much better at Disneyland than Disney World. So I think that Disney probably needs to give up on the idea that they're gonna have the same system in both places because they're just different theme parks and they require a different kind of system. So those are kind of the naming changes. One part of this that is going to be very different is the pre-booking process because as you all know, Gini+ was a daily thing that you had to get during your trip. But this one has a pre-booking process that will allow onsite guests to pre-book seven days beforehand and offsite people that have date-based tickets can do it three days beforehand. The opening for those is at 7 a.m. Eastern time and you have to use the app. So for almost everything that we do or for a lot of things that we do, there is a choice to use a browser or an app. And sometimes the browser is better at things. Sometimes the app is better at things. But in this case, they are telling us that we can only use the app for purchasing it. I find that a little bit difficult when you're trying to book so many things in one transaction, sometimes I like to use the desktop for that sort of thing. But because it is app only, international guests must be in the US in order to do it because the app does not function outside of the United States. I think there's some taxing reasons for this or whatever. But it's definitely a bummer for the international guests. I know there has been some online discussions about maybe Canada will be able to do it. And then there's other information that says Canada won't. So we won't probably know until July 24th when the system begins exactly how it's going to work. But in general, international guests will need to be in the US to book it using the app. When you do go on the app to pre-book, you are able to buy it for any or all days of your trip. You don't have to, let's say you have a seven day trip, you don't have to get this new system for the whole thing. You could literally say, I've got one day where I'm interested in getting Lightning Multipass or you could say, I only want to get Lightning Lane single passes. You don't have to buy the Multipass in order to get the single pass. And you can kind of pick and choose the way that you want. If you are purchasing the Multipass system, you will be able to select three Lightning lanes in one park for each day of your trip. So if you are park hopping, you will have to pick which park you want to buy the Lightning lanes for. You won't be able to do it in multiple parks for that. If you're going to purchase the single passes, you can do up to two per day and they can be in any park. So you don't have to be bound to the same park that you picked for your Multipasses and your two single passes can be in completely different parks if you want. There will be ride tiers in place during this pre-booking process and this will be for all parks except for Animal Kingdom. This is going to limit you to getting one tier one attraction and then two tier two attractions. This was also a facet of the Fast Bus Plus system that we learned to work around. However, the tiers will not be in effect once you're in the parks. It only applies to this pre-booking process. You will be able to modify your Lightning lanes in the app after you have purchased. So for instance, let's say you change your plan so you want to move things around, you'll be able to do that. Or let's say when you go online initially to book your Lightning lanes, the times that you get aren't ideal. So you want to come back and keep checking to modify to better times. That is still going to be a possibility. For those of you who are traveling at the beginning of when the system launches in late July, the system will not be working until July 24th. So for instance, we are going to be arriving on July 28th and we are not going to be able to book it until July 24th. And with all the Disney tech issues, there's no way they could have both systems operating at the same time. So we're going to have to just have the Gini Plus system through July 23rd and then the new system starting July 24th. I know that Disney sent out emails to people saying that, "Hey, your trip starts July 24th, so you'll be able to book July 17th." That was in error. That is an automated email that they will be able to use, starting in August, but for people that are traveling at the beginning, the system won't be accessible until July 24th. So that's sort of the pre-booking process. Now, once you get to the parks, as soon as you tap in to a lightning lane that you had already selected, you will be able to book another one immediately. All of that two-hour rule stuff that was so confusing about Gini Plus, I think maybe the most confusing part of the whole thing, that is not an effect anymore. It's much simpler. You tap in, you book another one. You tap in, you book another one. So the maximum you could hold at any time is three. As I said, the tiers, the ride tiers, do not apply once you're in the parks. So let's use an example of Epcot, which has, I'm saying these off the top of my head, so hopefully it's correct. But tier one is Remy's Frozen and Soren. So let's say that you have a Remy's lightning lane booked beforehand and as soon as you tap in to any of the lightning lanes that you pre-booked, you can select a tier one attraction right away. So let's say I'm gonna tap in to Spaceship Birth and then immediately try to find one for Frozen Ever After. So even though it is considered a tier one during the pre-booking process, it doesn't matter once you're in the parks. So then at this point in our fictional situation that I have just created, we will have a Remy's lightning lane that we pre-booked, which is a tier one attraction, but we will also have a Frozen After that we just booked after tapping in to Spaceship Earth. And that's totally fine because the tiers do not apply. We do believe that same day availability will be released. This has been a big concern, a lot of people, because they say if onsite guests book all of the lightning lane seven days out, then what is there for offsite guests or same day guests? And in our experience with FastPass Plus, they release things in batches. So I think that makes total sense and I think that that's what they will be doing in this case as well. So let's say they release a third of their lightning lane inventory at the seven day mark and a third at the three day mark and a third for same day. These are totally made up numbers, but the point is same day availability will be released. We don't know how quickly that will fill up or sell out or anything like that. That's something we're going to be checking very closely when the new system launches, but I don't want you to be worried that everything's gonna be gone because I just don't believe that is the case. Another thing to consider once you're in the parks is the strategies of turning versus stacking. These terms have gotten really popular with G&E Plus because they were different ways to go about it. A lot of people loved stacking so that they would have a lot of lightning lanes that were at the same time or almost the same time. And so they could show up to a park and have a whole bunch of them already booked. And in order to do that, these people would be at the two hour mark just getting another lightning lane, another lightning lane. And eventually you would have a bunch for later in the day. We don't think it'll be quite as easy, but I'm only saying that because it's a maximum of three with this new system, whereas there wasn't a maximum before, but you'll still be able to stack because let's say you want to hop to a park and have some things lined up or you want to wake up late 'cause you're not a rope dropper, you'll still have three things that can be pre-selected from the multi-pass system as well as two from the single-pass system. So that's up to five theoretically that you could have stacked. However, turning, we think will work better because as soon as you tap in, you can book another one, people that are rope droppers will definitely benefit from this. You know, the earlier you start using them, the more you can get throughout the day, that has always been the case and will continue to be the case. - We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is working to responsibly meet rising energy demand. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's energy and progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. - Now, I know a lot of people, especially those who learned how to tour using G&E Plus, have been a little skeptical of the new system. We are not in that boat. This is the fourth fast pass-like system that we have used because we've been planning trip for 20 years. So back in, you know, the olden days, it was paper fast pass. And then there was a lot of grumbling when fast pass plus started because that was very different than the paper system. But I thought that worked really well and I think a lot of people adapted to that. Then we had G&E Plus, and now we're going to have this one. So we are optimistic because we think it really pulls together some of our favorite elements of the previous systems. Some of the pros that we think of this new system is that you only have to get up to book once. And that is a very far superior experience because getting up every day during your trip and not knowing what you were going to be able to book for that day is just too stressful. And in particular, you have people with small children, it's a lot to manage who's logging on, who's doing what. I know personally for me, when I was going on a trip that was ride focused and touring focused, I would just wake up at five every day without an alarm because I was so stressed about, you know, what am I going to book and am I going to get it? And this is my job. And I've been on every ride a million times. Like the stakes are kind of low for me. So imagine if it's your first trip or, you know, your once every, you know, several years trip, there's a lot of pressure. So I just really like that you only have to do it once and you know what you're going to have before you even get to the theme parks. Another pro of the system that we love is being able to pick your times for your lightning lanes. This is a far superior thing. It was one of our favorite things about individual lightning lanes because they allowed you to pick your times. You know, if you have dining reservations or sleep schedules to work around or whatever, it's so nice to know what time you're going to be able to do it and not just cross your fingers the morning of your trip and hope that you don't get something too early or too late in the day. Another thing that we like about the new system is that you will know your total costs before your trip. So, you know, the way Gini Plus's work, you wake up that day to buy Gini Plus and you have no idea how much it's going to cost because of dynamic pricing. Now, the pricing will continue to be dynamic based on how crowded, you know, the parks are going to be or whatever, but you'll know it before your trip even begins and won't have to be surprised every day. Another pro is we like that churning is still going to be a very effective strategy and that it's going to make it much easier to really maximize your multi-pass purchase. A couple of cons. I mentioned international guests not being able to book until they get in the United States. I think that's by far the biggest con of the whole thing and I hope that they find a solution to that 'cause I don't think that is acceptable the way it works now. And I think a con for a lot of people is going to be the maximum of three lighting lanes that you can hold at one time for people who want to stack. Some people got really good at stacking so many lighting lanes that the three for them could be a con. We have had some frequently asked questions come up in the last few weeks. One is how much will the new system cost? A lot of people are, Disney hasn't said first of all, let me just put that out there. We believe it'll be similar to Gini Plus. I don't know that it will be, you know, much different than that. I think a lot of people think that when new things are announced they're going to be more expensive. I am not sure the market can bear much more expense than what Gini Plus has been, particularly during busy times of year. But we will see, we just don't expect it to be a whole lot different than Gini Plus. Another question we've gotten a lot is, are there still going to be virtual queues? Yes, I am not sure where the information got out there that virtual queues are going away. They have nothing to do with this. At the virtual queues while we're on the topic are really just a sort of less chaotic way to do standby lines. Disney just doesn't want to have people, you know, waiting in lines for five hours or spilling out of the queue. So they do virtual queues until they can be assured that the standby lines will be more reasonable. And that's still going to be true. Virtual queues are still going to be an alternative to standby lines for newer attractions. Another FAQ that we've gotten is, will the characters have lightning lanes? Now, the tiered attraction list that was released did not include any of the character meet and greets. We believe, and we will find out on July 24th, that the characters will have lightning lanes. We think that it was just an oversight on Disney's part. The reason we believe this is so many of the character, meets for instance, Prince's Fairtail Hall, they were built with lightning lanes in mind. Like it doesn't make sense that they would take those away. So we do firmly believe that it was an oversight and that those will be eventually back on the list of attractions and included in the tiers. We have a list of questions going that we still want to know more about. So I thought that I would just read them out in case these are things you're wondering, because these are things we're going to be trying to learn as soon as the system launches very, very soon. One of them is, when you're doing the pre-selections, do you have to make three? What if you only make two? Another question is, do you have to use all three before you can get a lightning lane for a different park? For people booking split stays, is that two different booking dates like it is with dining? Or will you be able to do it all at once? For international guests, can somebody in the U.S. like a travel agent or just a friend that was in the U.S. Book for an international guest? Can lightning lane times overlap? So with the FastPass Plus system, lightning lane times, or FastPass Plus times, as they were called then, they could not overlap. So you could have a fast pass from four to five, five to six, six to seven, but with lightning lanes, they could overlap. We are not sure if this new system will allow overlapping or not. Another question on our list is, can you separate your party into two different parks and still pay in the same transaction? So one of the facets of the pre-booking process is that everything can be purchased sort of like add into your cart at once. So you could say, okay, for three days of the trip, I want multi-pass, I also want some single passes thrown in here and you can book them, pay for them everything all in one transaction. But if you're separating your party into different parks and different people, we're not sure if that's gonna be one transaction or not. What is that maximum party size that you can book? Because genie plus had maximums, we're not sure if the same maximums are gonna be in place for this. And then lastly, we want to test the order of what you can select when. For example, can you go through the new system when you're pre-booking and do all your tier ones first and then do your lightning lane single passes and then go back and fill in the less competitive multi-pass lightning lane selections or do you have to go day by day? These are things that we will learn when the system launches. So there will be a lot to learn on July 24th. We will be there July 28th to begin testing the new system. And I will be doing updates throughout our trip to share how it goes for us. But I wanted to at least talk about what we know so far so that we can get the basics out of the way and then start getting into some of these questions that I just listed out to see how it works in practice. I think that'll wrap up this episode of W.R. Prep to Go for more information. Please check the show notes in your podcast app or head to the website, wdwprepschool.com. Click on podcasts at the top, scroll down to episode 418. Until next time, I will see you on the site. 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