Lightning Lane SCAM?! Disney Historian Claims Disney World Wait Times Are MEGA Inflated!

Would someone PLEASE lay most of the blame for the mess Disney Parks has become at the feet of Josh D’Amaro? How that man has skated by with all of this is truly mind boggling. He is in charge of the Parks Experience, yet you never hear his name mentioned. Pretty slick.

I went to Epcot recently, they had souring and ratatouille at over an hour. we waited around 20-30 minutes

I purchased Geenie pass and it didn’t work and had issues. I was denied a refund. Anything fast pass or whatever lies they tell you is a complete RIP OFF!!!!

Just spent 2 weeks in Universal and Disney and didn't bother looking at wait times because YT videos we watch all say don't look at wait times! We waited max 60 minutes for SDMT & HMCMA and the rest of the rides were way less than wait time stated!

This all makes sense. I have been saying for years that the Disney parks of my youth were always crowded even in the 1970s and '80s yet we were always able to get on all the attractions we wanted to. Some of them we even rode during the day and again at night. An hour wait was reserved only for the newest attraction. Now it seems like wait times are an hour for everything and it just didn't make any sense. I also feel that Universal and Disney are eager to push their audiences out to their shopping districts which contributes to reduced park hours compared to the past.

I timed every ride we rode at Disneyland Saturday and they were inflated by 25 to 40%.

regulating the magic... they don't want you to have too much fun!? lol even when fastpass was free, I would get them and find out later it really wasn't needed...

not to mention those few who still qualify fir DAS have inflated return times because there return time is based on what the app says.

If this is happening, which it is as I have observed back in March when I went, then why is Disney’s stock keep going up? It’s at $96 last I checked.

If course they do. Like everyone else. Port Aventura in Spain does it even more obviously. Efteling , ECT. They all do because they want to earn money

I actually prefer the paid for Lightning Lane over the free Fast Pass. I was able to secure Fast Pass ONE time out of the 17 visits over a period of years.

My family and I [AP Holders] were at Epcot, yesterday. EMPTY…. I’ve never seen Epcot this empty during F&W Festival. Disney needs to stop lying to the public.

We just got back and only spent on LL in one park (Hollywood Studio) but rode Rise 3 times. We rode everything in AK in just 4 hours including Everest three times... we couldn't get a virtual for Tiana but it was down half the day anyhow...

Disneyland was strange when we were there 2 weeks ago. The park looked busy, but there were a couple of factors: DCA closed early for Oogie Boogie Bash, Haunted Mansion Holiday is on virtual queue, Tiana is under construction, and Jungle Cruise and Small World are down for refurbishment. We got into the queue for Big Thunder at 45 minutes for the wait time. All the queue was used and the line stretched out into the walkway in the direction of the churro cart. The wait didn’t feel long because the line kept moving even with Lightning Lane people coming in. I didn’t time it but the guy in the group behind us said the wait felt more like 35 minutes, but with how little time we spent standing in any one spot, that could be an overestimate of how long we waited. When we came out the line wasn’t as long and didn’t even fill the entire rope queue, so I’m not sure if the 45 minute wait on the app is scaring people away? Even the wait for Peter Pan didn’t feel too bad, and it usually has an automatic 40 minute wait time listed at opening

So Lightning Lane is based 100% on lying. Color me surprised.

I went on 7 dwarves last month, it said 70 minutes, but it took 40? That’s a mighty big difference there.

I am a annual pass holder (i have small kids). What i am seeing is the opposite. They are overselling the lightning lane causing the lightning lane to have a small line itself. It also makes the standby line last much longer. I would imagine the standby lines are longer but i dont think it’s because Disney is inflating it….i think it’s because they mismanaged the sales of their fast passes to begin with.

TLDI: it’s incompetence

Disney wants to touch your children!

Why are people going to Walt Disney World?They are grooming children.Stop spending your money for child groomers

I don’t believe the government should regulate wait times. Unlike Disney, I believe the consumers are intelligent and will make purchasing decisions based on value. If Disney wants empty parks, keep ripping off your customers.

Back in 1999 I was put on the Fastpass project. So ashamed of what it has become. Al Weiss (President of Disney World at the time) against the advice of the industrial engineer team was pushing for adding Fastpass to every attraction. An untenable idea ... at best. And Iger should be sanctioned. I was just a tech, built the background databases, communications, and implemented the Fastpass ticket dispensing algorithm at the attraction locations. We had 17 weeks with no documented specifications, constantly changing requirements, and endless disagreements ... you know, the usual. It was the usual cluster from the Jerry Gaudette team which I was part of. Happily retired now.

This is the REAL reason behind them having their own app to post times. TouringPlans used to do this and corporate disney killed them by doing it. But what I wish touringplans could've done is have people doing the rides and posting real times. But that would've been too expensive to do.Until the pixie dusters and all those who keep going over and over, stop doing so, this will go on as is. Iger and this management team HATE Walt & Roy and all they stood for, in ethics, morals and guest relations. In fact they only tolerate the regular guests. If they could run it, they'd only have the whales in the parks. That's why almost all their best things are for the whales. New places to stay? All deluxe or DVC. New plans, all with extra expense. Older shows all the best spots for viewing and hearing are all expensive paid for locations that used to be for everybody. Of course they pad the numbers for wait times. Iger needs to show quarterly results, while he kills long term business. He'll be gone and will have left a hollowed out carcass of a company in his wake, just like he did when he was at ABC.

Bob Igor was only ever a temporary caretaker of what WD created. But someone gave him the purse so the shopaholic weatherman went round buying everything and destroying it because he didnt have the creative talent like Walt did. His ego and narcissism has led to the absolute downfall of Disney

We've just been for two weeks and didn't need to buy Multipass at all. Don't think any of the wait times were correct.

Last time we went, cast members would ocassionally let in 1-2 people from the standby lane whilst letting everyone in from the lightning lane immediately. They made you feel like peasants. It sucked. We're not going again. The suits in charge are destroying it and getting rid of Magical Express was one of the biggest mistakes. For the price you pay for a Disney vacation you could see the real world - We're going to Scotland instead next year. Disney used to be worth the money but now you definitely don't get what you pay for - you get squeezed for every possible penny and there's a class system now which we don't want to be part of

Unfortunately cedar point is price gouging too..i paid 350 for a prestige pass,it only offers 1 single fast pass a day...
A regular fast pass cost 109 a day for 21 attractions
Fast pass plus adds 5 more attractions to the list at $120 A Day 😐.

We went to animal kingdom a couple weeks ago. We went on one attraction. We went on Kali River rapids. Wait time was inflated. The wait time for the safari was posted at nearly 2 hours. I didn't believe it but it was hot and afternoon, so we knew animals would be hiding so we didn't go on. We ended up leaving.

Lightning lane scam? The whole park is a scam.

I was at the parks the last couple of days and I can say about 65% of the posted hour long waits actually turned out to be about 35 min. This included slinky dog, Rise of the R and Tron. However we rode several sides where the posed 35 to 45 min waits were accurate like Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and 7 dwarves, and Sorin.

Labor Day through September is typically slower than other months. Picks up in October through Christmas.
Starting in Eisner era Disney always inflated wait times 5-10 minutes. However, they drastically inflate Standby wait times for the LL SinglePass attractions.

The downward spiral continues…

BOB IGNORant! ANYTHING TO HURT THE Disney Guest! I cannot afford to go anymore. Ive been going since 2nd year at DW.
Pitiful!

Wait times at Disney World are all over the place. I understand that rides break down, but I don’t know why the posted times are now so inaccurate. Some are shorter, some are longer. It’s like Disney is new to estimating lines.

Can confirm, Smuggler's run said 30 minute waits, I never had a wait once.

Disney inflated wait times in the mid-80s. The official reason was because people would be happier at the start of the ride because of the shorter wait time.

At least at Universal if you stay at one of the 3 premier hotels you get express pass, if you purchase it you purchase it you can ride as many times as you like all rides that has express lane. Disney you need to buy per ride per person but if you buy genie+ there are other ways to buy the lightening lane, it’s so confusing and involved it made my head hurt reading all the rules and how you do this & that and by the end I was totally confused. Another perk of Disney, genie+ & lightening lane is you get to live on your phone throughout your entire vacation & throughout the parks, yeah!! I know I would definitely find that “benefit” attractive.
We stopped going to Disney several years ago when they started promoting their woke agenda and snubbing their nose at their fans that had loved and backed them for years.
We stay at Portofino Bay in Universal & it’s a lovely hotel modeled after the real Portofino Bay minus the mountains behind it. It has several pools one with a beach, it is on a lovely bay, several restaurants close and a ferry to take you back & forth to Citywalk & the parks. The hotel is beautiful inside and the staff has always been very nice & helpful. Express Pass is included with our stay and that is a nice perk. We are anxiously awaiting Epic like thousands of other people. I think Epic will definitely either push Disney over the edge or possibly put a fire under their bum to improve, my guess would be….Disney will be pushed over the edge and continue its downward spiral with more bad ideas and actions.
Disney will continue to be the great Disney they used to be (Walt’s Dream) inside my head and we will continue to visit Universal and have great vacations & spend our money there.

The second they started charging extra to skip the wait in line, this was inevitable.

The Disney company Is digging there own grave.! The Disney company should be held accountable for ripping people off .!

Keep looking for the truth

The thing about this, Disney doesn't really need to be regulated, the system needs to be removed. Sure Disney is making money now, but the entire system is snake oil. Even at the absolute maximum these passes are not worth the value.

Something people don't understand is you don't go directly to the front. You simply don't wait in the line up until the merge point where you become part of the same line as everyone else. What this means is when a wait time says something like 30 minutes, you aren't buying to bypass 30 minutes, closer to 15-20. Basically expect all wait times to be 10-15 minutes, you save at most the excess. Also, Disney will always overestimate wait times (and this is a good thing) by at least 5-10. If for no other reason this is just so people aren't constantly upset about having to wait in lines longer than what is posted. (Now, if they are consistently overestimating by 20+ minutes or so there may be a problem.) So, 10-15 minute minimum wait (between just walking through the queue and the post merge wait) and 5-10 minutes of overestimation. Any line listed as under 25 minutes should be ignored for Lightning Lane under all circumstances.

Sure, you can say 40 minutes is 300% longer than 10 minutes. (alternatively a 30 minute overestimation.) But, at the end of the day most people who walk by the attraction will see nobody in line and know not to buy Lightning Lane. The more people recognize the entire thing is a waste of money the less Disney will want to use it.

My advice, don't buy Lightning Lane at all or at the very least wait until you are looking at the line before making a choice. Buying Lightning Lane in advance of a trip or visit is literal gambling. (Or at then very minimum insurance that highly favors the insurer.) There is no way to know what the traffic to the park will be that day or where they will gather at what times. Parades and Shows tend to lower park wide wait times, so do meal periods. You buy the pass and simply hope that you get a decent benefit from it. Perhaps if they were $1-2 it could be justified, but with some over $15 per person you are being scammed no matter how you slice it. (The line could be 3 hours and it would still be a scam.) Never pay for Lightning Lane in advance (free perk is different) and don't buy Lightning Lane unless you have looked at the line and determined it is too long. Finally, be aware you are only saving the time above the minimum 15-25 minutes of wait time for all guests. (The walk & post merge line)

This is well documented that Disney inflates their wait times…it’s been shown by vloggers and that for YEARS!!! I’m actually shocked this isn’t a legal/financial issue

Went regular line the time was 50 minutes wait time. The real wait time was 26minutes.

The new Disney magic: Take all complementary perks away, rebranding them, then selling the exact same thing back with a new shiny brand name for an enormous amount of money.

It is far cheaper to even book a four night Royal Caribbean cruise to Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Wait times are always halt to a third of what’s posted…more thievery.

There is a deep rooted arrogance, avarice and dishonesty at Disney. The damage it has done to the image and legacy is irreparable. The scrutiny the internet allows requires you work harder and smarter... not lie and decieve to disguise your failings. The moment you take your customers for granted or insult them it's over.

Disney’s fate is already sealed

Of course it’s a scam, recently with DEI it just a scam. If it wasn’t a scam they would actually focus more on what the fans want than idiotic rich people that will never support the franchise even if it is made for them. That’s why I say woke is pretty much a gambling where there is basically once in a while there’s a success but mostly they loss more than they gain. I was a victim of a scam not by Disney but by a mechanic, I lost 20 dollars but they did fix my old car just not properly. So with my expert opinion Disney nowadays are definitely a scam with any aspects if it’s for agenda nonsense or an electronically problems that loose aspects of what it’s like to truly be in a Disney park. Where usually a Disney park is meant for an escape of reality and enjoying all the feels of being a kid as a kid, teen, or adult. Now Disney parks are as relevant as malls where there are changes to areas that we just don’t really care anymore because we rather be on our phones rather than look around.

I could see an off brand app which tracks queue wait times the same way Apple and Google maps track traffic times.

There's a sucker born every minute, and they all need a Lightning Lane Premium Pass.

That is plain old fashioned fraud. How long until the class action suit?