Disney Genie announcement

[MJJME]

Obviously, you are entitled to your opinion, but to say those blanket statements to another poster without knowing how they tour doesn't seem right.

Personally, for my family, ILL does not have value for over half of the rides. SM, FEA, RAT, MMRR, and EE. We enjoy those rides, but I don't like SM at WDW enough to pay $21 for my family of 3. Same with FEA and MMRR. RAT we rode in DLP, it is a early version of MMRR and we weren't impressed enough to pay extra for it here. EE we will utilize single rider. With all that said, I know one thing is 100% certain -- that is just my personal take and all ILL's could hold tremendous value to a different person or family.

Same goes with G+. If I can wait in 5 minute LL lines versus 15-20 minute standby lines over the course of a day at one or two parks I feel it is absolutely worth it. YMMV, and that is totally fine. G+ clearly sounds like it is not for you, but it could be for other people. So just like I won't get ILL's for all those rides mentioned, you won't get G+. What works for both of us is different. And that's ok.

Everyone has their own way of touring the parks. Some see value in none, one, or both G+ and ILL. I think everyone has to figure it out for themselves.

Sure you save an hour in line about you lose 2 hours of sleep. Not a great trade off.

 

[fly girl]

Sure you save an hour in line about you lose 2 hours of sleep. Not a great trade off.

That is your opinion! I feel it is. I am an early riser.

I don't get why you fail to see others may find value in G+?

 

[MJJME]

That is your opinion! I feel it is. I am an early riser.

I don't get why you fail to see others may find value in G+?

Because there is none?

and if you’re up that early, you don’t need to be spending the extra money to skip the lines when they are at the lowest of the day

 

[fly girl]

Because there is none?

Again, your opinion. I am beating a dead horse here. We're done.

And btw, how I chose to spend MY money is up to me. And yes, I would like it so I can enjoy re-rides when lines are low.

Have a good night.

 

[lorileahb]

Thanks to the summary post on previous page, we are all set with our plan - MK is Boo Bash so no stress, skipping Hollywood Studios, Epcot try for virtual queues both times (monitoring ILL - purchase if need to) - Frozen is no big deal for us, Test Track individual and regular standby for all else (waits looked pretty low) and Animal Kingdom purchase ILL for FOP, ride Navi first and waits looked pretty low if you hit at the right times for all else.

So appreciative of everyone who is providing feedback today and tomorrow on the very first days - you all are awesome!!!

 

[PepperjackDragon]

Well just a heads up for anyone looking at FOP ILL$...this morning the app said 145 minutes. Might have been true. Then mid day it dropped to 45 minutes. We hopped on and walked all the way up into the room with the avatar floating in the tank. I timed it from the time we finally got to a line (just walking straight through and then finally had to stop) until we got to the fast pass merge point....8 minutes. So the poor folks that were meeting us at the LL merge had paid 15pp and saved 8 minutes (plus a bit of walking time since they didn't have to walk through all the winding sections, though many of those were direct cut across with large sections of the walk way closed) I suppose some folks might make enough that $15/8min is worth it, but man, that 45 minutes estimate was some real bad estimating.

 

[Gretch128]

Good plan, but this payment thing is really a pain. We have a large group going in a few weeks, many of whom are not tech savvy. Not sure how often we’ll be using G+ or ILL$ but I’ll be managing those for most everyone. The thought of having to load/select multiple credit cards sounds awful to me (with an already cumbersome G+ process for those of us who are trying to manage a large family group)

In the end, depending on what we learn over the next few weeks, I may just pay for everything myself and keep track using Notes on my phone and then charge everyone at the end.

I feel you…the whole process is so complicated and annoying. When you go into MDE > Three Lines at Bottom > My Profile > Payment Methods … Then you can load your credit cards (up to 6) from there. When checking out for genie+, you can use a drop down basically to select from these cards then….so check out for each adult group separately before 7am so at 7am, you can all book Genie+ rides together. Annoying, yes but it’ll work. Can’t save gift cards to MDE beforehand, but in ILL$ and genie+ checkout, you can pay for gift card. Since ILL$ risks not getting the same time for everyone if checked out separately, going to use gift card that we all chipped in on. my group is going in less than 2 weeks so trying to panic figure something out.

sooo yeah, you’re right that the easiet way is to pay for it all and charge a bill at the end to each group

 

[mab2012]

I sincerely think the worst part about Genie+ for some people is that so far it appears to be working fine.

People are doing their best to make it work. I haven't seen a lot of people raving about it.

There was another comment earlier today, predicting that this would be "wildly popular". I had the same thought then: I think it will be heavily used. It would be mistake to assume that means it is "popular". For my family, I don't think it will be a total disaster. We'll probably make use of it. But based on what I know so far, it seems like it will be worse than FP+ for us in basically every way.

Of course some will legitimately like it better. Even enough to justify the cost. But many are just trying to turn lemons into lemonade.

 

[DavidNYC]

But this is how MP at DLR operated successfully. FPs for rides were not running out at super early times due to allowing re-rides. Very popular rides like RSR ran out mid afternoon, but were almost always available later in the day with refresh, since you could cancel your FPs if you weren’t going to use them.

You can't compare the parks - the crowd dynamic is completely different.

 

[DavidNYC]

Ah - but you see we can’t compare this to the old system of FP+ as that hasn’t been an option for some time now - my last trip was all standby as the only option. Adding the ability to skip a line (even if I have to pay) improves my guest experience significantly over what it was my last trip.
To put it colorfully - we might not particularly like what’s for dinner, but it’s better than going hungry by a mile.

Well - then they got you and they were hoping some people would have short memories. But I think the vast majority of here are perfectly capable of comparing this to the old system. If a fine steakhouse switched to serving you dog food and the charged you extra to get a hamburger instead - I doubt many people would be focusing on how the hamburger made the steakhouse experience better . . . . If a baseball player hit for a .300 average for years and then dropped to .150 and then jumped up to .200 - you're not talking about the improvement. You're still talking about how much worse he is than at his peak. Do we need any more analogies??? People have memories of what the park was able to be. Just because they made it really bad for a while doesn't mean we should celebrate when it's made slightly less bad . . .

 

[DavidNYC]

I don't get why you fail to see others may find value in G+?

It's not that we cannot see that others may find value in G+. It's that the vast majority of what people are posting about the value of Genie+ was easily obtained under the old FP+ system (other than the ability to pay for certain rides). On the flip side however, there was a great amount of value under FP+ that is now no longer obtainable under Genie+ at all. That's the difference. Not that Genie+ has no value - it's that is has far less value to a huge group of people while offering very minimal new benefit to a smaller number of people. After today - the main argument about the stress of having to pick rides 30 days out has gone out the window as we saw that people had to do the same if not more planning today without the ability to choose their own times and the rides they couldn't get in advance then are basically the ones you have to pay for now anyway so that is out the window as well.

So in sum . . . it offers value over a standby only system. It offers far less value than FP+.

 

[Jrb1979]

IMO from reading the comments, I think the issue people have with Genie+ is not necessarily the cost but that they took away the spreadsheet planning that most loved. I would bet even if Genie+ was free most would hate it.


Personally I love the it. I hated all the planning and booking involved. My family is a go with the flow type.

 

[fly girl]

It's not that we cannot see that others may find value in G+. It's that the vast majority of what people are posting about the value of Genie+ was easily obtained under the old FP+ system (other than the ability to pay for certain rides). On the flip side however, there was a great amount of value under FP+ that is now no longer obtainable under Genie+ at all. That's the difference. Not that Genie+ has no value - it's that is has far less value to a huge group of people while offering very minimal new benefit to a smaller number of people. After today - the main argument about the stress of having to pick rides 30 days out has gone out the window as we saw that people had to do the same if not more planning today without the ability to choose their own times and the rides they couldn't get in advance then are basically the ones you have to pay for now anyway so that is out the window as well.

So in sum . . . it offers value over a standby only system. It offers far less value than FP+.

If you have read any of my posts on here you will see I am not pleased with G+, especially when it comes to no re-rides.

Totally agree that FP+ at WDW and MP and DLR were far superior. (MaxPass being my favorite)

But I will do anything to avoid standby, so I can see value. May not be everything I wanted, but I will take it over what I dealt with during spring break standby lines and having no options.

 

[mab2012]

So I'm trying to figure out the rules around stacking. Let's suppose that sometime before 9 am I book my first G+ selection for noon. I wait my 2h from park opening, and at 11 am, I book a second for sometime in the afternoon, say 3 pm.

My understanding, from previous posts in this thread, is that when I tap in for my first selection, I can immediately book another. That is, even though I'm still holding a G+ pass, I am not required to wait 120 minutes from the last selection to book another.

Assuming this is true (I'm not sure if it's really been confirmed, or if people are just guessing), are there any limitations on it? So, continuing the above example, after my 12 pm ride, I book and use a couple more early afternoon selections, and then eventually jump over the 3 pm timeslot that I booked several hours earlier, and make a selection for 4 pm (or later). What happens when I tap into that 3 pm ride? Can I just keep leapfrogging those two stacked selections for the rest of the day? I feel like this is unlikely, but at what point does the system recognize that actually, the selection you just tapped into was the "extra" one you were allowed to carry because of the earlier 120 minute wait, but now that you've used it, you have to wait another 2h, from your last selection, to stack again?

And even assuming that the software algorithm is written correctly (it's non-trivial and likely error prone), how do they do it in a way that is not massively confusing to the average guest, who can't figure out why they were allowed to carry two selections all day, but now they are suddenly restricted back to one?

Does anyone know how this worked with MaxPass?

 

[g-dad66]

I raise this not to single anyone out because I see it so often.

But why do so many people add an “e” to the word “lightning”, making it “lightening”, both for the electric bolts that come from the sky and things that move very quickly?

Is this a regional variation that isn’t covered in the dictionary?

I use "lightening" as a reminder to myself of how much this new system will be lightening my wallet.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

Just bought our tickets for my family of 8's upcoming December trip and it now prompts you to add Genie+ to your tickets and already have it included every day of your trip.

I opted in for it but I'm an AP so it looks like I'll only have to buy it for myself that morning.

 

[itf]

Things seem to have changed overnight. Genie now believes I have tickets, so that’s progress I guess!

 

[Gretch128]

Fixed my Top Tips issue with the ‘something went wrong’ error. So, I live in Ireland. I used a VPN on my phone to say I was in the USA right now, and reopened the Top Tips tabs…it worked! This may help other EU/UK/Canadian disney lovers with getting the app to work for them if they are struggling

Update: I used the live chat feature in MDE yesterday to explain my problem with Top Tips. Checked on that this morning and they didn't respond except to say it's resolved. Checked Top Tips without VPN this morning and now it's working.

 

[itf]

No reply here from the MDE chat, and still broken. Huh, now it doesn't believe I have a valid park reservation again, although it did this morning and let me plan a couple of my days.

 

[Gretch128]

No reply here from the MDE chat, and still broken. Huh, now it doesn't believe I have a valid park reservation again, although it did this morning and let me plan a couple of my days.

Maybe they are working on your case right now...hopefully. After they said it was resolved for me, they closed the case in live chat. Did they close your live chat case yet?