[Rant] Disney announced yesterday that select WDW APs will get access to a SW:GE preview in Hollywood Studios ahead of the official opening.
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Posted Jun 18, 2019, 6:40 PM UTC
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DL has many many more APs than WDW
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They're limiting the WDW preview to Platinum and above passes. They could have done the same for DLR.
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But Signature is extremely popular. They'd have a ton of people at the previews.
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There are way fewer WDW APs, especially ones that qualify for the preview as opposed to the number of Sig and Sig+ passes in DL. Idk I felt like the reservation system worked out really well and everything felt pretty organized, especially if you compare to what the first month of SWGE could have looked like (ie Wizarding World opening at Universal Hollywood).
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Bad bot.
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They've probably been able to make a lot of new determinations now that they've opened up GE in one park that effect the things theyre able to do for the next opening. It's a downside to getting to be first.
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I sure hope they have. But I don't feel like we gained anything by having SW:GE open here first. We were forced into a reservation system that was massively overbooked (I'll find out just how badly on my next visit at the end of the window) for a park that ended up being mostly merch sales and underwhelming food. Only one ride running, and from what I observed, less than half (probably less than a quarter) of the people who tried to go to Oga's or Savi's were able to, and that was just of the people who got in line immediately upon entering. Reservations were filled within the first 30 mins.
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We were forced into a reservation system that was massively overbooked
I haven't heard anything about it being overbooked or crowded during the reservation period. Get your butt to the Cantina if you want to experience that but the lines for the ride have been fine. 45 minutes. Plus...you got a reservation, why are you complaining?
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Get your butt to the Cantina if you want to experience that
I did. It was the first place I went as it was the only thing I really wanted to do. They had to cut off the line just to put your name down because it was going to extend into the Frontier Land walkway. Even then, less than half the people who lined up for it got to put their name in.
Plus...you got a reservation, why are you complaining?
What was it good for? The whole purpose of the reservations was to control attendance and give people a chance to experience what the land had to offer before it was opened to the general public. But I didn't get to, despite getting a reservation.
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Sorry but...boo hoo dude. You didn't get to do ONE thing? You can easily go back once there aren't reservations and do it. You got to experience it all but one thing. ONE. You are ridiculous lol.
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I think that if you got a reservation you got quite alot from being first. WDW is going to look at the lack of crowds compared to the lastest Harry Potter attraction and reduced attendance as all the reason to not repeat DLR's plan. I wouldn't be surprised if they get those crazy 4 hr+ lines that Flight of Passage gets, which would be ridiculous as Smugglers Run is supposed to be the little sibling next to the unopened ride.
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WDW is going to look at the lack of crowds compared to the lastest Harry Potter attraction and reduced attendance as all the reason to not repeat DLR's plan.
Can you go into more detail by what you mean here?
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Universal opens the Motorbike coaster, 10 hr line with land capacity crowds. Disneyland meanwhile drops total park attendance across all of June and has the ride walk on most of the day. One of those scenarios is friendly to the guests while the other is better if your a corporation looking for a return on a 500 million dollar investment.
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I mean, I was actually impressed they didn't do paid previews. I think a big part of it is they wanted a wide audience that would be wowed for the first time in the land(And from the more financial side, they essentially replaced paid previews with paid reservations via the hotel side).
Not to mention early previews here were all no cell phone/pictures, its going to be harder to do that with a group of APs(impossible, even).
Passholders here at DL will have plenty of time in the new land. And I think we actually already ate our significant price increase, we'll likely see a more nominal increase rather than the big hike this year.
I suppose there is still a shot they could give passholders some sort of early access for Rise of the Resistance. I think that would be a nice gesture.
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And I think we actually already ate our significant price increase, we'll likely see a more nominal increase rather than the big hike this year.
We already had our big hike back in January.
I suppose there is still a shot they could give passholders some sort of early access for Rise of the Resistance. I think that would be a nice gesture.
It's our last hope.
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If I had to guess, maybe something to do with the difference in number of APs? I'm on the east coast but it's my understanding a large chunk of DLR's audience is passholders, whereas WDW is mostly tourists. Perhaps DLR didn't want a large chunk of the opening week audience to not show up as they would have already been in SWGE through previews. Or the other way around, this could lessen the load of opening day in WDW by a small amount by not having all the annual passholders flooding in while there are thousands of tourists also trying to flood in.
I'll be in WDW during the opening of SWGE, but I am not going to bother trying to go. I definitely would if the reservation system was in place though, I wish WDW was doing that.
Good point.
I was a Premier AP last year, SigPlus this year. I know when I went to Walt Disney World and showed my fancy Premier Pass, most of the CMs there remarked how cool it was, and said they had never seen that pass before. I assume there's not a lot of Premier APs, and perhaps not even that many APs in general. I don't see a lot of APs at WDW going through the special AP entrance for the parks.
I second that the visitors to WDW are mostly tourists, whereas DLR is mostly APs. A cast member at WDW told me during a tour that is the reason why WDW will never do the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay for HM; they'd have a lot of pissed off tourists complaining they traveled all the way to WDW to see the original Haunted Mansion. From my many trips to WDW, there seems to be a high proportion of international visitors (UK, Brazil, etc). So it's possible to do the GE preview without it being a nightmare if there's a limited number of the WDW APs.
I suspect after the preview is over, WDW will offer some sort of VIP tour to get easy access to the land and ride the rides without waiting. Spouse and I did an Ultimate Nights VIP tour at AK for easy access to Pandora. At $250/pp, there's no shortage of people willing to pay this in order to avoid lines. I booked months in advance, and even my first couple of tour date choices were already booked. I wouldn't be surprised if for DLR, this also becomes a tour offering. Disney is smart, and it's a very easy way to make money knowing that a lot of people want to get into GE and not wait in lines.
Biggest difference I saw is that DLR cast members will ask if you have a discount. Meanwhile I had to ask everywhere at wdw to get them to take the pass.
With the WDW preview, only Platinum, Platinum Plus, and Premier AP holders are being given access. While DLR has higher AP attendance, I don't know how many of those are Signature and above.
Spouse and I are SigPlus, and met additional SigPlus APs last Saturday when we went to GE. I think there's a lot more than you think.
Sig and SigPlus (and I guess Flex, but those didn't go on sale until June 1) are the passes that aren't blacked out on the weekends now.