It’s been interesting following this thread today. Unfortunately it is just deepening my disappointment in what Disney has become.
No doubt (in my mind at least) Disney has been going in a negative direction for some time now, but this new pay for play, stop trying to beat them and join them (OR is Disney ACTUALLY going to BEAT the other guys at separating you from your money?), nickel and dime commoditization of the parks has taken Disney over the edge.
Is there really any arguing that G+ is less flexible than any previous iteration of FP, and that G+ and ILL$ together cost quite a bit more $ to get what used to be included in the price of your already pricey admission ticket?
I didn’t think so.
However, it’s not the $$$ that disappoints me the most. I mean, people will be clamoring for the whole Genie/LL thing. With so much invested in an expensive trip already what’s a few more five hundy or a thousand bucks across the fam? We are all pot committed, and Disney knows it. Like many we could afford it….and I’ll probably disappoint myself and use it all sparingly despite despising the direction….even though my gut says to not pay out of protest.
No, more so than the $$ it’s the lack of flexibility, the lack of any real sense of community and family that Disney has been showing, and seems to be reinforcing with Genie’s help, that disappoints me most. It wasn’t all that long ago that Disney touted Grand Gatherings and the coming together of generations of families in a Magical place. Now the only magic going on is **POOF** Genie disappearing money from your wallet.
Seriously, one can only make LL reservations for 12 people? We’ve got a trip of 19 people coming up next year. Same 19 people we went with three or four years ago. Then, with FP+, while we had multiple people making FP reservations, at least we could coordinate and have everyone get FP+ reservations around the same time. We succeeded in getting FP rides together, the whole group of 19. There’s not a snowballs chance in hades that happens with G+ next year, as who know what return times might be offered when we have multiple people, at different times, try to make LL reservations, assuming that every family in our group of 19 will even go for adding upwards of $40 a day pp to the cost of the vacation.
People have been opining for a while that Disney no longer cares about loyal, long term guests. They obviously don’t care about large groups, either. This whole thing just reinforces, for me at least, that all Disney really cares about any more is separating as much money from a family as quickly as possible, then moving on to the next, and the next. Disney has always been expensive, but it never felt like they were fleecing you. It’s a shame that has changed as much as it has.