WDW updates Genie+ guidance, average of 2-3 rides per day

[DVCKev]

That would mean charging for something that used to be free. Genie plus is new, better and magical.

Not really, lay off the coolaid....

 

[RamblinWreck]

Not really, lay off the coolaid....

Psssst.... (He may have been using sarcasm there)

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Then you wouldn't like my idea. I always thought they should have went the Universal route.

Universal’s front of the line pass doesn’t work for all rides, and when a lot of people buy it or get it through their hotels it can be slow as well. It took us 45 min in the “fast line” one January to take the hogwarts express back, and we were basically the same speed as the regular one.

I have no love for genie+ but universal isn’t perfect either.

With respect to making it an on-site perk, my guess is that they knew they could fill up the ILLs without selling it to off-site people, whereas genie+ wouldn’t have had enough takers if it were restricted, which is why it is open for all.

I think that there should be an advantage to staying on property personally, but I can understand why Disney thought they could maximize profits this way.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

Universal’s front of the line pass doesn’t work for all rides, and when a lot of people buy it or get it through their hotels it can be slow as well. It took us 45 min in the “fast line” one January to take the hogwarts express back, and we were basically the same speed as the regular one.

I have no love for genie+ but universal isn’t perfect either.

With respect to making it an on-site perk, my guess is that they knew they could fill up the ILLs without selling it to off-site people, whereas genie+ wouldn’t have had enough takers if it were restricted, which is why it is open for all.

I think that there should be an advantage to staying on property personally, but I can understand why Disney thought they could maximize profits this way.

Universals goal/claim is express pass cuts the wait in half of what the current standby time is.

 

[DVC92]

When will you get rid of Genie+ and the park reservation system? As a DVC member since 1992, the FP+ system was superior. It allowed us to plan ahead, ensured 3 FPs per day, and allowed us to make sit-down dining reservations. Genie+ doesn't work as acknowledged by their website.
Now, we have to reserve a park ahead of time and wait in ridiculous lines if we want to ride anything. Because of this, we are starting to eat counter service in lieu of sit-down because we don't know what times will work or if we can even park hop to eat.
They need go back to the old system and just raise the ticket prices if greed is their thing. Our days are Disney are probably numbered if the current situation continues since the MAGIC is gone!

 

[Miffy]

When will you get rid of Genie+ and the park reservation system? As a DVC member since 1992, the FP+ system was superior. It allowed us to plan ahead, ensured 3 FPs per day, and allowed us to make sit-down dining reservations. Genie+ doesn't work as acknowledged by their website.
Now, we have to reserve a park ahead of time and wait in ridiculous lines if we want to ride anything. Because of this, we are starting to eat counter service in lieu of sit-down because we don't know what times will work or if we can even park hop to eat.
They need go back to the old system and just raise the ticket prices if greed is their thing. Our days are Disney are probably numbered if the current situation continues since the MAGIC is gone!

I hear you, especially about the QS places. We've definitely cut down on TS restaurants--a combination of using that money for G+/ILL$ and not being able to deal with the possible clash of ADRs and G+/ILL$.

Fortunately, we have a Landry's card, so we get to go to Y&Y without an ADR.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I will say though that without any kind of system the lines aren’t that much better, and you are guaranteed to have to wait in them. At least now you can choose if you want to pay for the privilege of saving 2-4 (depending on how many headliners you get) hours not standing in line. Slinky and Rise can easily be 2+ hours each. We went to Disney in May when there were no fastpasses and everyone was battling for virtual queues and standing in line for headliners. For me that was even more stressful than what we have now.

The rich will always have a way to avoid lines. This is at least a compromise that is accessible to most. Is it great? No. Would I prefer the old system? Absolutely. But I still prefer this to a free for all.

 

[starlite_]

So $79 per person for a family of 4 comes out to $316 extra per day.

How is that not only for rich people, but hotels that cost less than the $316 more per day are?

I've said many times before, it's like no one can read.

I have no problem with Genie+ charging $79 per person if it's equal access for everyone. The suggestion given before was gatekeeping access so that only expensive hotel guests could actually have the ability to buy it. So it's not only $316 for Genie+ access it's also the $316 extra for the hotel. So as per your example $632 more per day for a family of 4. Plus a limited number of fancy hotels rooms available for guests. So let's say 1/5 (made up percentage before someone comes for me being "well actually the real number is...") of hotel rooms have access to the purchase of Genie+ in this scenario, that's 4/5 of WDW guests that don't have access to it even if they have the money to spare for both a fancy hotel room and Genie+. And that includes local APs who don't pay for hotels at all, offsite hotel guests, value hotel guests and I'm sure I'm missing others.

Some families may be able to pay for the $316 extra to skip lines or for the fancy hotel but not both. Or may prefer a value hotel instead of the fancy one to be able to afford Genie+. There are endless scenarios here that I can't even hope to cover.

Do I want Genie+ to be that expensive? No, of course not, WDW is expensive enough, even at its current $15 price that's $60 per day for that family of 4. But I like the idea of gatekeeping it for rich folks who can in fact spend those extra $632 even less.

It doesn't even really matter, it's all what ifs and speculation.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Look, I understand that almost every other theme park in the country charges some sort of "skip the line" pass, but can anyone point me to another theme park that has 4 parks, 2 water parks, and a downtown area that many people take their entire week vacation too, and fork over money to them for just about everything that entire week (food, park tickets, lodging, gifts)?

You cant, because there isnt one. Disney is squeezing blood from a turnip on this. Enough is enough.

Why are we even having an argument about which paid for fast pass system disney should use? Its really simple, with all the money that a disney guests spends on their property, there shouldnt be a paid for system. You're already paying enough as it is.

Its down right obnoxious that we even try to compare Disney to any other Theme Park, including Universal.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Look, I understand that almost every other theme park in the country charges some sort of "skip the line" pass, but can anyone point me to another theme park that has 4 parks, 2 water parks, and a downtown area that many people take their entire week vacation too, and fork over money to them for just about everything that entire week (food, park tickets, lodging, gifts)?

You cant, because there isnt one. Disney is squeezing blood from a turnip on this. Enough is enough.

Why are we even having an argument about which paid for fast pass system disney should use? Its really simple, with all the money that a disney guests spends on their property, there shouldnt be a paid for system. You're already paying enough as it is.

Its down right obnoxious that we even try to compare Disney to any other Theme Park, including Universal.

Free fast passes aren’t coming back, unfortunately. Disney is making too much off genie+. Personally I would prefer the ability to choose to pay for some improved access on the rides I care most about. If someone else chooses not to, that’s up to them. Based on what May was like the alternative of no reservations made the day even more uncertain, and for us that was worse.

The amazing thing to me is that for all the talk of $15 for genie+ being too expensive, Disney has been selling out VIP every day for months, so like it or not people are still willing to spend way more money at Disney world.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Free fast passes aren’t coming back, unfortunately. Disney is making too much off genie+. Personally I would prefer the ability to choose to pay for some improved access on the rides I care most about. If someone else chooses not to, that’s up to them. Based on what May was like the alternative of no reservations made the day even more uncertain, and for us that was worse.

The amazing thing to me is that for all the talk of $15 for genie+ being too expensive, Disney has been selling out VIP every day for months, so like it or not people are still willing to spend way more money at Disney world.

Then I guess my Disney days and dollars are numbered

 

[zumfelde]

Free fast passes aren’t coming back, unfortunately. Disney is making too much off genie+. Personally I would prefer the ability to choose to pay for some improved access on the rides I care most about. If someone else chooses not to, that’s up to them. Based on what May was like the alternative of no reservations made the day even more uncertain, and for us that was worse.

The amazing thing to me is that for all the talk of $15 for genie+ being too expensive, Disney has been selling out VIP every day for months, so like it or not people are still willing to spend way more money at Disney world.

VIP is probably selling out because parks are so crowded and Genie+ only gets you 2 or 3 rides per day. Go VIP do all main attractions in 2 or 3 parks in one day. Big savings in tickets and hotel and food cost.

 

[jujubiee4]

From the new wording on genie+ it almost sounds like their
lawyers said put in clarification/disclaimer on what you could
REALISTICALLY expect to ride. I'm sure there has been many
complaints judging from the lines at guest services.

 

[New Mouse]

The funny this is that everyone is arguing about a system that was advertised as making a touring plan at the parks more enjoyable and efficient.

Did they fire the entire marketing, development and it team for genie? They should have as they all don't have a clue about it.

 

[Liquidice]

The funny this is that everyone is arguing about a system that was advertised as making a touring plan at the parks more enjoyable and efficient.

Did they fire the entire marketing, development and it team for genie? They should have as they all don't have a clue about it.

Their marketing and PR people have been awful for awhile. Maybe all of the good ones left during the pandemic or something.

I mean think about all the gaff's they've had since the pandemic started - I probably can't even remember them all.

- CFO calling Disney fans fat
- Announcement after announcement touting how "We've listened and this is what customers have asked for" while it was really a thinly veiled message that they're charging more and giving us less (e.g. Genie+, Park Hopping returning but with the 2pm caveat, Park Passes, etc)
- How quiet Disney was during the shutdown not telling guests (especially DVC owners) what the heck was going on.
- How they have slow rolled out and made it like they're announcing something new and wonderful when in reality we're just getting back to what we had (or a shell of it) in 2019 pre-pandemic. (Fireworks are back! We opened a restaurant! We opened an entertainment venue that nobody cared about before the pandemic! You can hug Mickey again!) -- Ok this might actually be marketing genius with how they've hyped things up by slow rolling re-opening. Were you here in March? Well you need to come back again so you can hug Mickey!

Honestly, if their PR and marketing people had done a better job - there might be less complaints.

 

[JenLT]

I would think Disney always anticipated about 3 rides a day. Same as Fastpass + started out as. But people complained constantly that they didn’t want to pick their ride 3 months ahead of time. I saw people say all the time how do I know what I’m going to want to ride at 1:00 on Tuesday is 90 days? Plus then you had so many people who didn’t know it existed before arriving.
I liked Fastpass +. But I wonder if Genie + was partially in response to demand for less planning months ahead.

 

[JenLT]

Look, I understand that almost every other theme park in the country charges some sort of "skip the line" pass, but can anyone point me to another theme park that has 4 parks, 2 water parks, and a downtown area that many people take their entire week vacation too, and fork over money to them for just about everything that entire week (food, park tickets, lodging, gifts)?

You cant, because there isnt one. Disney is squeezing blood from a turnip on this. Enough is enough.

Why are we even having an argument about which paid for fast pass system disney should use? Its really simple, with all the money that a disney guests spends on their property, there shouldnt be a paid for system. You're already paying enough as it is.

Its down right obnoxious that we even try to compare Disney to any other Theme Park, including Universal.

That’s the actual problem though. Magic Kingdom historically had an average of 50,000 guests a day. People paying for Genie + reduces the numbers of people who use it. That way they can have a quicker lightning lane as well. I hate the idea of paid fast passes and preferred the fastpass + system. But I can see thing that Disney was trying to do with Genie + especially with all the complaints about scheduling ahead of time.
I wouldn’t mind paying for Genie + if it was something you could use throughout the day easier.

 

[Liquidice]

That’s the actual problem though. Magic Kingdom historically had an average of 50,000 guests a day. People paying for Genie + reduces the numbers of people who use it. That way they can have a quicker lightning lane as well. I hate the idea of paid fast passes and preferred the fastpass + system. But I can see thing that Disney was trying to do with Genie + especially with all the complaints about scheduling ahead of time.
I wouldn’t mind paying for Genie + if it was something you could use throughout the day easier.

But right now, Genie+ does not appear to be working better than FP+. I get the idea conceptually and agree with you - but standby lines are just as long if not longer for rides, people are saying they can't get the LL's they want and some at best can only get 2 attractions they want per day (I caveat that by saying the ones they want - because often you could get more but for things like entertainment, meet the princesses or indiana jones).

There are those who say G+ works well for them - but I suspect those are the same people where FP+ worked well for them because they were "experts" at using the system. But the average guest does not appear to be having a great experience with G+ and Disney imho is admitting G+ is working on average worse than FP+ in offering 2 to 3 Lightning Lanes per guest. FP+ was 3 per guest - with G+ giving you 2-3, it is a little bit worse (average of 2.5).

I do think a longer term solution might be to keep paying but going back to a pre-selection method.

 

[ChipnDale79]

That’s the actual problem though. Magic Kingdom historically had an average of 50,000 guests a day. People paying for Genie + reduces the numbers of people who use it. That way they can have a quicker lightning lane as well. I hate the idea of paid fast passes and preferred the fastpass + system. But I can see thing that Disney was trying to do with Genie + especially with all the complaints about scheduling ahead of time.
I wouldn’t mind paying for Genie + if it was something you could use throughout the day easier.

here's what i dont get. Why would anyone pay for a system that is worse than the previous product that was offered as part of your admission.

I guess the problem is, too many people are willing to just give in and pay for things, and therefore, we all pay more. People just refuse to push back and say enough is enough.

It's our fault these trips are so much more expensive.

Over the past few years, just these items alone were once part of your hotel or park ticket, and now disney is charging us for them.
Hotel Parking
Magical Express
Magic Bands
Fast Passes
Magic Hours (many replaced with paid for after hours events or parties)

it blows my mind that we just accept it, and pay them more and more money.

 

[Brocktoon]

Their marketing and PR people have been awful for awhile. Maybe all of the good ones left during the pandemic or something.

I mean think about all the gaff's they've had since the pandemic started - I probably can't even remember them all.

- CFO calling Disney fans fat
- Announcement after announcement touting how "We've listened and this is what customers have asked for" while it was really a thinly veiled message that they're charging more and giving us less (e.g. Genie+, Park Hopping returning but with the 2pm caveat, Park Passes, etc)
- How quiet Disney was during the shutdown not telling guests (especially DVC owners) what the heck was going on.
- How they have slow rolled out and made it like they're announcing something new and wonderful when in reality we're just getting back to what we had (or a shell of it) in 2019 pre-pandemic. (Fireworks are back! We opened a restaurant! We opened an entertainment venue that nobody cared about before the pandemic! You can hug Mickey again!) -- Ok this might actually be marketing genius with how they've hyped things up by slow rolling re-opening. Were you here in March? Well you need to come back again so you can hug Mickey!

Honestly, if their PR and marketing people had done a better job - there might be less complaints.

Even add in the current political mess Chapek vs FL ... I'm not defending Chapek, but where the heck is/was his PR team?

I completely agree that Disney's master PR/spin team appears to have been AWOL for some time now to where it's pretty embarrassing