Disney Parks head Josh D'Amaro says Disney will continue to simplify the park experience following criticism of being overly complex

May 22, 2023 in "Disney Genie"

Posted: Monday May 22, 2023 10:09am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Josh D'Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, speaking earlier today in a question-and-answer session at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media & Communications Conference said that Disney will continue to try to simplify the theme park experience for guests after receiving feedback that it can be overwhelming.

Responding to a question about the complexity of visiting the Disney parks, D'Amaro said that Disney is listening to guests and fans and will continue to make adjustments to the guest experience. He referred to recent changes to theme park reservation requirements and eliminating the need for reservations with date-based tickets at Walt Disney World as examples of improvements based on guest feedback.

Talking about the cost to visit the parks, he said that variable and flexible pricing helps to make Disney's parks more accessible by offering entry-level ticket pricing during certain seasons, whereas on peak days, more aggressive pricing is in place to handle demand.

Disney has faced criticism in recent years that the parks need to be simpler to plan for many visitors, especially first-time guests. Genie+, Lightning Lane purchases, virtual queues, park reservations, and ticket buying are all areas that can be daunting for those guests who do not spend time researching and carefully planning.

Earlier this month, Disney said it is working on ways to let guests plan with Disney Genie+ service and individual Lightning Lane selections before the day of their park visit. A post on the official Disney Parks Blog said, "Our goal is to give you the opportunity to spend less time planning in the park and more time enjoying your visit with friends and family. While we are not yet able to share specific details, we look forward to sharing more information at a later date."

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Splash4eva1 day ago

Unless money was a make or break decision. Why would anyone want to wait in line willingly when there is another option?

DisneyDreamer083 days ago

Yep been there 😂 I won’t say getting both LLs is impossible but you would likely have to try multiple times throughout the day. When my kids were younger, we would rope drop one and LL the other.

arich353 days ago

We could but with a 5 and 4 year old, we try to avoid 45+ minute waits lol. We do have extra magic hours on Monday when we go next month so we will probably try to hit those two rides for sure.

Purduevian3 days ago

Remy sometimes has a 1:48pm drop time. It's not every day but it's your best shot if Remy is sold out for the day

DisneyDreamer083 days ago

Are you able to wait standby for one? Both have queues that are mostly indoors (Frozen more so) so maybe book Remy first and if you can’t get Frozen maybe try to wait standby. I know that can be tough if you are traveling with kids. I was there in August with my 13 year old and we opted not to do LL for our Epcot day. We did Remy at rope drop and figured we would just wait standby for Frozen. The posted wait was 45 minutes but I timed it and we only waited 25. So you never know, you might get lucky.

Purduevian3 days ago

If anyone is curious what a non-resort guest can get my booking window opened today. I got HM 8:30am, pooh bear 11:20, Tiana 4:20 Nemo 9:40, SSE 1050 and Frozen 12:05. I hope to push everything up but not bad for not getting the on-site perk. EDIT: In case anyone cares. The same night I booked things I was able to move Pooh Bear to 9:30am, Tiana to 3:15pm, and Nemo up 10 mins to 9:30am. Honestly if I had my full choice of LLs at 21 days out, this is pretty much what I would have picked outside of pushing Nemo and SEE to park opening.

nickys3 days ago

Both these LLs can sell out before park opening. Unless you get lucky with picking one up when new ones drop through the day, it’s going to be hard. Not necessarily impossible but unlikely, unless you are going at a quiet time. Remy sells quicker than FEA. If you tapped into your first DHS LL at the park opening time you might get FEA. It all depends on when (time of year) you go. I would book whichever is more important to you. If you skip Luminous you could jump in line then. Otherwise at least you only have one queue to wait in.

arich353 days ago

We are not rope drop people at all. What are the best chances to get both Remy and Frozen on the same day? What are the chances to get one of them for the evening if we do Hollywood Studios first?

JD805 days ago

I just got back from a 3 park day with hoppers trip. Essentially use it like G+ but you have 3 tracks instead of 1. If you see a S tier attraction open always snag it. I always had 1 or 2 stacked for later in the day and when I had a few seconds refreshed for earlier times. LLMP is useless for EPCOT or AK. In EPCOT it mostly acts as a LLSP for either Frozen or Remy. Whatever one you don't get just rope drop.

MickeyLuv'r5 days ago

Sure, but you only get a limited opportunity to modify times, assuming you plan to book your options as soon as you are eligible. You choose your 3 attractions, and then MDE spits back 3 passes. If you are booking your passes the same time as the hordes are booking their passes, then the earliest time options will change on you the more you try to look at different attractions and times. So, to some extent, within the above framework, you should choose rides you want to ride. I agree with your prebook #1. After that, it gets a bit murkier. If I look now for MK for 11/8 the times I get: iasw -2pm (on 11/10 same) buzz 2:40 (same) Dumbo 2pm (same) HM 4:25pm (on 11/10 6pm) teacups 2pm (same) Philarmagic 2:40pm (on 11/10, 3:40pm) PotC 2:10pm (on 11/10, 3:55pm) Monsters 2:40p (same) Aladdin 2pm (same) Barnstormer 2:45pm (on 11/10 2pm) Pooh 3:35pm (on 11/10, 4pm) Speedway 2pm (same)' LM 2:40pm (on 11/10, 2:50pm) If MDE gave me ANY pass that is within 2hours of park opening, I didn't bother trying to toggle around too much. If you choose a lamer ride as 1 of your initial 3, you can, but you'll be making a bit of a trade-off when you are in the park. You might get a small advantage picking your 4th pass, but you will be sacrificing the ability to do a major ride while standbys are short. Hitting short standbys= potential re-ride using a LL pass. Day of, my system was not that elaborate. I toggled a little between the best available and the next available worthwhile pass. As with G+, Dumbo, teacups, Philarmagic, and Monsters are always available, but the LL pass also doesn't impact your wait for those rides. Kali does sell out on hot days, but it doesn't rank higher than the safari, IMO. I mean, for me, missing Kali is not much of a loss. I had no trouble getting it when I ranked it #4 after the safari on a hot day. Na'vi is a good #1, then I chose Safari and EE. If you do DIno as a standby before 11am, it will probably be walk-on. Wow, today looks really slow at AK. At 1:30pm" FoP=35min, Na'vi =40, Safari =25, Dino/bug= 10, EE/Meet Pals =15, and TriceraTop Spin 5. As a small aside, it bugs me that the name of the ride is TriceraTop Spin. The animal is spelled triceratops.

Dranth5 days ago

I know you said you wanted honest feedback about your plan so apologizes up front, but this is exactly why I was so down on the switch to LLMP from G+. Our window just opened up yesterday and I looked at everything, planned one day, thought about having to slog through 9 more and just said nope. Being able to make choices based on how we felt in real time was so much more relaxing. We've gone from purchasing G+ most days to one day of a 10-day trip. Not having to plan really does make the LLPP very appealing. I won't buy it because one, it is overpriced and two, we don't NEED to go on every ride but I can certainly see the appeal. Anyway, hopefully someone else who has used it will chime in with some useful feedback.

Purduevian5 days ago

Honestly looking for some feedback on my LLMP strategy for those that have been in the parks and used it. First I grouped the rides into tiers based on how early they sell out via thrill data: Tier Magic Kingdom EPCOT DHS Animal Kingdom S Tiana Remy SDD, TSMM Navi A JC, HM, Pan, Pooh Frozen TOT Kali (hot weather) B BTMRR, SM, Mission Space MMRR, RNRC Safari C Buzz, Pirates SSE, Soarin Alien, MFSR Dinosaur, Everest D Barnstormer, Dumbo, Small World, Speedway, Mermaid Everything else Star Tours Prebook 1: If S tier is available, book it regardless of time. If no S tier available, the best ride within 5 hours of park opening Prebook 2: The best ride you can get within 3 hours of park opening Prebook 3: The best ride you can get within 1 hour of park opening Day of booking the next LLMP priority list An S tier attraction if available Do you have anything booked for the next 90 mins? If yes, move to 3. If no, select the best ride available in the next 90 mins Is there a A tier attraction that is available to you in the next 6 hours? If yes, book it. Are any B tier available in the next 4 hours? If so book it. If no, move to 5. Are any tier 4 available in the next 2 hours? If so book it. If no, move to 6. Book the best ride available regardless of time. [/LIST] Obviously, there is more to take into account especially in EPCOT with the size, but does this seem like a good general guideline?

Lilofan16 days ago

Can't remember how my mom did it when back in the day in the 1970s we has a stainless steel lid container outside our front door to our house. The milkman delivered 6 to 8 glass bottles of milk then at the end of the week we left the empty bottles in the container for pick up.

JD8016 days ago

Disney constantly has discounts going. I know people who went just because of the ticket deal they had over the summer.