Disney guests who are the “designated scroller” tasked with managing Lightning Lane reservations aren’t having as much fun as their families, according to a new piece in the Wall Street Journal.
The article, titled Disney Is the Happiest Place on Earth, Unless You’re the Designated Scroller, is premised on how “one person in every party has to manically book and revise ride reservations on their phone” in order “to avoid endless lines.” The author spoke with a handful of guests who aired their grievances about Lightning Lane Multi-Pass.
Frankly, most of it is uninteresting. If you’ve been in the Walt Disney World or Disneyland fan community for the last few years, you’ve already encountered everything discussed there…and a whole lot more! With one notable exception, no new ground is covered. It’s just a series of anecdotes, and reads to me as if the author (who was previously on the WSJ AI beat) visited Disneyland for the 70th, “discovered” Lightning Lanes, and is reporting on this new-to-him thing as if it’s new to everyone.
In fairness, Lightning Lanes probably are new to the more mainstream audience of the WSJ. They’re not immersed in this stuff like we are, and any chance to repackage the tried-and-true “Disney is too complicated” or “Disney is too expensive” narratives are opportunities on which generalist publications will pounce.
These articles resonate with that readership, who can then look down their noses at people who visit Walt Disney World or Disneyland, as opposed to real places, as chumps or cult members. Those infamous Childless Disney Adults are at it again!
Mainstream media perfected this winning formula long ago, and knows that it can spoon-feed its oh-so-sophisticated audience exactly what it wants to hear to make them feel better about their superior tastes and vacation spending. Confirmation bias is a helluva drug! But I digress.
Buried in the anecdotes about a guest who was the Lightning Lane manager for a group of 19 family members having a lot to juggle (gee, ya think?!) was one worthwhile tidbit. Disney Experiences Chair Thomas Mazloum said about the complexity of Lightning Lane: “This is something we are looking at as we consider ways to simplify the guest experience.”
This is new and potentially notable, and worthy of dissection.
Our Commentary
For starters, I want to acknowledge that my, ahem, slightly cynical commentary about mainstream media reporting on Walt Disney World and Disneyland isn’t because they’re wrong. It’s more the condescension that’s annoying, which admittedly isn’t present in the body text of this article. (It’s my own fault for reading the comments.) It’s also tiring that so many “what’s wrong with America” articles are presented through the prism of Disney. But again, I digress.
Point being, Walt Disney World and Disneyland absolutely have problems with complexity. We’ve covered this in countless posts, most notably the Top 10 Guest Complaints About Walt Disney World. Until last year, we had been receiving negative reader feedback at a historically high rate for the previous 5 years. Complaints remain common, but are below all-time highs. It would seem that things are turning a corner.
Nevertheless, the #4 entry on last year’s version of the biggest complaints list was “too much screen time.” Refreshing for better Lightning Lanes. Mobile Order for counter service restaurants and Walk-up Waitlist for new table service availability. Looking at wait times and showtimes. And so on and so forth.
On top of that, the #8 entry was “death of spontaneity” and the #1 entry was “it didn’t feel like a vacation.” Those are both essentially variations on Walt Disney World being too complicated, feeling more like MCU-style homework than a relaxing vacation, due to all of the screen time, technology, and everything you need to know or do over the course of the trip.
Given that list and its entries, it should be abundantly clear where we stand on all of this. Don’t misconstrue any of the above or below as a defense of Disney. The complaints are absolutely valid, which is why we could see new Disney Parks Chair Thomas Mazloum doing more to address these concerns. It seems like simplicity actually is important to him.
Against that backdrop, my perception is that complaints have cooled because things have improved in the last couple of years. From my personal perspective, elements of the guest experience have gotten better and, critically, easier.
Lightning Lane Multi-Pass replaced Genie+ two years ago. Once the details were digested by fans, and the initial confusion and concerns that accompany any major change were addressed, it has largely been smooth sailing. LLMP is not simple, but it’s simpler than its predecessor.
Genie went from being a top “issue” to barely registering on the laundry list of fan complaints. As we’ve half-joked, the Genie brand was irredeemably tainted from the bungled launch, a toxic name on par with Monsanto or Bob Chapek. To the extent that Lightning Lanes still come up, it’s usually a matter of (understandable!) fan frustration that free FastPass now costs money. And often, a lot of money.
During a media briefing we attended at the start of summer, leadership from the Walt Disney World Product Management, Guest Experience, and Commercial Strategy departments discussed many of these topics. They also offered us a sneak peek of the upcoming app changes and website changes to further simplify the guest experience.
Walt Disney World shared with us that they’ve seen measurable improvements in guest satisfaction as a result of the changes that they’ve already made. For example, combining “Today’s Plans” and “Future Plans” into the cohesive “My Plans” flow on MDX improved ease of use by 8%. Streamlining the ADR booking flow and search improved guest satisfaction by 5%.
More to the point, switching from Genie+ to Lightning Lanes coupled with the shift from day-of booking to pre-arrival reservations led to double-digit gains in both ease of use and overall experience. I’m not surprised by this in the least. We knew that GSAT scores were a big driver behind the switch from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass, even if a vocal minority of power users (us included!) preferred the same-day system.
There was nothing we were shown during this presentation that suggested any meaningful overhaul of Lightning Lanes was on the horizon. To the contrary, the implicit framing was that the switch to pre-arrival Lightning Lanes was the first piece of a puzzle that paved the way for other upcoming updates.
Similar sentiment is also reflected in our post: Is Lightning Lane Multi Pass Worth It at Disney World?
As shared there, I personally would not purchase Lightning Lane Multi-Pass right now, and in fact, I have not in any of my park days in the last two months. This isn’t because the system has become more difficult to use. To the contrary, I feel it’s gotten easier across the board.
Instead, it’s because fewer guests are skipping the line, and are instead in the regular line. Standby lines are moving more fluidly and wait times are lower, both because attendance is down and due to fewer guests in the Lightning Lanes, being prioritized and pulled in front of standby lines. Even as Lightning Lanes are “non-negotiable” for many fans, they don’t need to be. You can have the best guest experience in ~5 years by simply opting out of Lightning Lanes completely.
The big problem among fans is that the FOMO/FUD factor makes it difficult to opt-out of line-skipping. And then once you’ve purchased Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, there’s that compulsion to check the My Disney Experience app regularly, playing the refresh game (or “Disney slots” as the WSJ oddly calls it).
Of course, all of that is about Walt Disney World. The WSJ piece seems to revolve around Disneyland. And the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass system there is just Genie+ but with a new name. It’s also mostly the same as MaxPass before that.
Earlier this year, we attended a different event with (then) Disneyland President Thomas Mazloum. Resort leadership shared plans for the future, and changes they’ve made over the last year to improve the guest experience. We’ve covered that in multiple posts:
One of the throughlines of that roundtable was simplicity. Mazloum hit on a desire to simplify the guest experience, removing as much friction as possible. This would seem to support his Lightning Lane quote. However, he also drilled on demographics, distinguishing Disneyland from Walt Disney World on multiple occasions (also addressed in The Writing Is On The Wall for MagicBands).
Suffice to say, my read from that was not to expect any Lightning Lane changes at Disneyland. Given that they’re still using essentially the same system that predates COVID, it’s difficult to envision any changes. Pre-arrival Lightning Lane selections at Disneyland strikes me as an absolute non-starter, and it certainly wouldn’t reduce complexity.
So what, if anything, has changed since these media briefings?
The most straightforward explanation is that the WSJ reached out to Disney for comment and, not wanting a negative article to go unanswered, Disney opted to offer a vaguely reassuring “we’re listening” line. In other words, it is meaningless.
That’s always a possibility in situations like this, but I’m skeptical. As we’ve pointed out elsewhere, CEO Josh D’Amaro and Parks Chair Thomas Mazloum have now been in their new jobs for over 100 days. It wouldn’t be controversial to say that it’s been an uneventful few months from the perspective of the guest experience.
Admittedly, we were hoping for more. Walt Disney World and Disneyland made measurable improvements shortly after Bob Iger returned as CEO, replacing Bob Chapek. Iger was reportedly “alarmed” by price increases at Walt Disney World and concerned that Chapek was “killing the soul” of Disney.
He acted accordingly, making several changes one month later to improve the guest experience at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, like bringing back free overnight self-parking at on-site resort hotels, adding on-ride photos to the Lightning Lane service, relaxing reservations rules, and more. An additional round of guest-friendly changes were announced several months later that undid more of the damage.
Although there isn’t really the same degree of “damage” to undo, our hope was to see something similar at the start of the D’Amaro/Mazloum regime change. We’ve been expecting a similar package of guest friendly changes as D’Amaro seeks to win over fans and set the tone for his tenure as CEO. (See 11 Great Changes Josh D’Amaro Could Make for Big Wins as New CEO, which covers Walt Disney World.)
My gut is that some of this is still to come. That Disney has some surprises that are being saved for the 2026 D23 Expo and beyond. The types of things that will be wins with theme park fans, keeping the honeymoon with the new leadership going strong.
In the case of simplifying Lightning Lanes, it’s the “and beyond” portion that’s probably pertinent. Short of bringing back free FastPass (yeah right!), that’s simply not a D23 Expo-caliber announcement.
However, positive Lightning Lane changes are often announced around the time of the annual price increase in mid-October as an offset, of sorts. Whatever happens then, if anything, will probably be better characterized as a tweak or streamlining. That makes more sense to me for cutting complexity in the Lightning Lane systems than does another top-to-bottom overhaul. Everything I’ve heard suggests Disney is now pleased with the overarching systems, making an outright replacement unlikely.
So what is more realistic? One of the big possibilities we’ve already discussed in Magic Kingdom Needs to Lighten Lightning Lane Lineup is rebalancing the Group A selections or eliminating tiers at Magic Kingdom entirely. In that, we speculated that the reason Walt Disney World might not do that is if lengthy refurbishments to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and/or Space Mountain were on the horizon.
Even if they are, tiers are still unnecessary at Magic Kingdom. Honestly, I might be convinced that tiers have outlived their usefulness, period. EPCOT’s Lightning Lane lineup has gotten better. Ditto Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s now the case that all three parks have Tier 2 selections that are more popular than Tier 1! (DAK doesn’t have tiers.)
Most importantly, power-users have fully figured out how to hack Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. They are increasingly adept at booking Tier 2 “burners” to unlock superior same-day selections and playing the refresh game or slots or whatever it’s called.
The argument could be made that the guests who are now disadvantaged by tiers are the inexperienced ones, who tiers were ostensibly designed to ‘protect’ in the first place. Few things would simplify Lightning Lane Multi-Pass within the bounds of the current system as much as eliminating tiers.
I’m not completely convinced there would be no unintended consequences to this when it comes to EPCOT and DHS, but I am for Magic Kingdom. And if Walt Disney World wanted to make a bigger swing for the sake of positive guest experience changes, eliminating tiers across the board strikes me as the most attention-grabbing one.
It would be received favorably by fans, garnering positive headlines and (critically) more Lightning Lane Multi-Pass sales. Not only that, but it would create yet another incentive to stay on-site. The clear consensus on it would be positive even if there are some potential nagging negatives.
Ultimately, my gut is that this quote from Disney Parks Chair Thomas Mazloum about considering ways to simplify Lightning Lanes will result in a partial or complete elimination of Multi-Pass tiers around mid-October 2026. It seems like a no-brainer at Magic Kingdom regardless of whether the Space Mountain rumors are true, and a change worth considering at EPCOT and DHS.
Perhaps the statement was pure fluff in response to the negative mainstream article, but hopefully not. Lightning Lane Multi-Pass tiers have outlived their usefulness, and if there’s one little but impactful way to make things less complicated, it’s that. Of course, there are plenty of other ways. If Mazloum or D’Amaro are seriously concerned with reducing friction and improving the guest experience, we have full lists (plural) of recommendations for them–free of charge, like a figurative FastPass to cutting complexity!
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on Walt Disney World or Disneyland simplifying Lightning Lane Multi-Pass? Would you like to see pre-arrival ride reservations at DLR, or do you prefer the same-day approach? What about eliminating LLMP tiers at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT or DHS? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!