Is this true re: Lighting Lane ratio's?

[KRBarnard]

I have just read an article which I shall link below, that sets out the ratio of Lightning Lane riders to Standby Lane riders. It sounds alarming. Do you think this is credible information? Does anyone know how this ratio compares to the old Fastpass Lanes for comparison?

I have copied the information and provided the link.

Disney World Allocates Up to 93% Of Ride Capacity to Lightning Lane

With the reintroduction of a skip-the-line offering, many guests are wondering how many guests are allowed to go through the Lightning Lane versus a traditional standby queue. It’s no secret that a skip-the-line pass will slow down the traditional standby queue, so just how much does Lightning Lane affect standby? We’ll dive in.

Any attraction that has a Lightning Lane queue will have a “ratio” that Cast Members will need to maintain between the number of standby guests let into the attraction and the amount of Lightning Lane guests. There are three phases for each attraction that depend on the amount of Lightning Lane demand.

Phase One
Phase one is considered the normal operating phase for an attraction. This phase is enacted when there is normal to light demand for the attraction. Normal operating procedure calls for a 1:4 ratio of standby guests to Lightning Lane guests. That means if a Cast Member lets a family of four through the standby line, they should let up to 16 people through from the Lightning Lane queue.

Phase Two
When there is elevated demand, an attraction moves into phase two of the Lightning Lane merge schedule. This phase is meant to work hard to prevent stage three, but does have a more extreme ratio in some cases than all of phase three. In phase two the ratio varies from 1:14 to 20:90. This means that the standby queue has anywhere from 7% to 22% of the Lightning Lane. If we use the example of a family of four from phase one, the amount of guests allowed to enter from Lightning Lane jumps from 16 to 26 guests.

Phase Three
In a worst-case scenario, an attraction will be met with nearly overwhelming demand from the Lighting Lane and move to phase three. In phase three, ratios range from 1:10 to 1:5. Using the same example of a family of four from the standby queue, Cast Members would let 40 guests in through the Lightning Lane queue in a phase three scenario.

In total, anywhere from 75% to 93% of capacity at an attraction is devoted to Lightning Lane guests if Cast Members are running ratios correctly and if there is a constant flow of Lightning Lane users. Both of those variables are rarely met for a full day of operations at all attractions, but some of the most popular attractions covered by Disney Genie+ such as Slinky Dog Dash or Jungle Cruise could see a significant portion of their daily capacity met by guests using Lightning Lanes.


Article Link Here

[dan223]

Seems to be quite likely the case from what I have seen on vlogs. One vlog I watched they described that the lightning lane was "dumped" in front of him. i.e totally emptying the lightning lane.

I think the higher figure is more likely after a ride has been out of service for a little while and people rush back, making the lightning lane very long.

[lizzie145]

If guests don't pay for genie plus and everyone goes through standby what impact would that have on wait times and revenue

[loldis]

This is unchanged from FP+ days - it's always had priority over the standby line. Exactly how much priority depends on the total demand for the ride, as detailed in the phases.

Originally Posted by lizzie145

If guests don't pay for genie plus and everyone goes through standby what impact would that have on wait times and revenue

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Wait times don't change a huge amount overall with or without LL since the ride has a set hourly capacity and that is factored in with the number of LL passes expected to be used. But your individual wait time might depending how many people enter the LL after you entered standby but are sorted in front of you due to the priority phases.

To give an example, you enter a ride where there's currently 300 in standby and 0 in lightning. The ride has a load of 1200 per hour. Therefore your expected wait is 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes, 100 people join lightning and are all prioritised in front of you. You're now person 400 on the ride, and will wait 20 minutes instead of 15. If the ride was standby only, they would have been in the queue behind you.

The revenue impact is huge though, Genie+ is already set to make them millions per year based on estimated attendance and the uptake figures (30% of guests) quoted by Chapek in this week's earnings call.

[Softy]

Nothing new at all from the old fast pass lanes. The headline figures are there to scare.

As above the only time its a slight issue is when a ride reopens and the lighting lane is busy but that doesn’t last long.

A more interesting/relevant figure would be how many used standby/lightning lane over a whole day.

[Moorlandman]

Same as before, if it’s busy and you are in the standby line expect to wait a very long time as those that have paid move past you very quickly😀

[KRBarnard]

I know this is how Fastpass operated, my question is more about if the ratio's are similar? I have been to Disney 20 times since 1997 and can honestly say that I did not think that quite so many fastpass riders were put through as these ratio rules would suggest. Maybe I just didn't pay that much attention!

[loldis]

Originally Posted by KRBarnard

I know this is how Fastpass operated, my question is more about if the ratio's are similar? I have been to Disney 20 times since 1997 and can honestly say that I did not think that quite so many fastpass riders were put through as these ratio rules would suggest. Maybe I just didn't pay that much attention!

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Yes, it's always been that high. But even in phase one, it's the worst case scenario assuming both lines are full. If the LL has lower demand, they're not going to hold back standby until they reach their LL quota. No one was really paying attention in FP+ days since it was free. Now that it's paid, there's a lot more focus on every aspect of it.

[themeparksandy]

Shawn there now and looking at his 2 Disney Vlogs so far


His just used the single rider queue and the standby queue. He managed to get on most of the attractions at Magic Kingdom and Everything at Epcot. His biggest queue was for ROTR at DHS which was 110 mins 40 mins less than the advertised wait time. Think Disney making the queue times look bigger than they really are to make guests think about buying the genie or the lighting lane.

[loldis]

Originally Posted by themeparksandy

Think Disney making the queue times look bigger than they really are to make guests think about buying the genie or the lighting lane.

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Disney have always over estimated wait times as there are so many factors that go into it so they quote the higher range of the expected wait since it's better for guest satisfaction to wait less time than quoted instead of more. The longer the queue, the larger that range is likely to be. As an example, a 15-20 min wait range using simple extrapolation becomes a 150-200 minute wait range. I'm sure their algoritm is more sophisticated than that, but it's Disney IT so maybe not.

No change since Genie came in. At all.