BREAKING: Walt Disney World Introduces Date-Based Variable Pricing for Genie+ Service

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I just hope this lightens some of the LL lines. My son has DAS and we aren’t getting Genie + (mainly because it gives me a headache thinking about yet another thing) and the LL lines have been so long.

This 100% We couldn't believe how long some of the waits were in the LL lines a few weeks ago! A lot of them ended up being over 30-40 minutes. There were some also that went quickly, like 5-10 minutes, but we saw so many long waits it was shocking for a paid product. We never saw that many long FP+ lines back in the day, there were some (notably FEA always seemed to be a long FP wait for us) but not to the extent we saw this past trip for the LL.

 

[Boski]

And some people are willing to pay more for lesser service so long as it provides a benefit over the lower offered service. It's all relative.
Too many people are comparing it to what "used to be" instead of what "is".

Isn't that normal? You compare established things to what they used to be. That restaurant used to serve good food and had incredible service, now it doesn't. On one hand I understand what you're saying, things change and what they did 5-10 years ago isn't how they run things now, but you also can't be flippant and just dismiss it.

 

[Jangles]

It’s US$20 today, for a TP level 6 crowd day.

 

[xdan0920]

It’s US$20 today, for a TP level 6 crowd day.

So that's gonna be the baseline I guess. Sweet. Family of 4 in for an extra 160 a day now.

 

[scrappinginontario]

So that's gonna be the baseline I guess. Sweet. Family of 4 in for an extra 160 a day now.

Not sure I follow the math. Why would a family of 4 pay $160 for a day? At $20 would it not be an additional $80?

 

[xdan0920]

Not sure I follow the math. Why would a family of 4 pay $160 for a day? At $20 would it not be an additional $80?

I was adding in an ILL purchase as well. Sorry, should have been more clear.

 

[nicksinger8]

I came to this discussion totally fresh this year - I hadn't been to Disney since 2004 and saw a lot of hate to Genie +. My first reaction was that they would obviously need to make it more expensive and scarcer otherwise it'll never work. This comes as no surprise and I suspect it will get more and more expensive. Genie + only works as an elite product. The further away they move from it as a mass product, satisfaction will go up. Those who can afford get a great product. Those who don't can be like 'well, fair enough to those who can afford' and their wait times will be more reasonable overall. That's how I felt at Universal.

 

[Cheburashka]

I haven't been to the parks since March 2021 (used to go as much as I could) and I'm not sorry about that. I can still enjoy a night or two at at a Disney resort before or after a cruise, but I'm pretty much done with the parks and news like this just confirms my decision.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I also don't understand this Genie+ needs to be more expensive to work when FP+ was FREE and worked fine.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

We just got back from Columbus Day weekend in Disneyland and used Genie+ there. Even with the elevated long weekend crowds, Genie+ worked exponentially better than our last 4 experiences with it in WDW. The headliners last much much longer while some of the mid tiers were consistently available within 30-60 minutes. I attribute this to a much smaller percentage of DL guests using genie+ vs WDW.

That's my long winded way of saying if price increases at some point do cause a decrease in WDW genie+ purchases I think the people left using the product will (hopefully) be more satisfied.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I haven't been to the parks since March 2021 (used to go as much as I could) and I'm not sorry about that. I can still enjoy a night or two at at a Disney resort before or after a cruise, but I'm pretty much done with the parks and news like this just confirms my decision.

And you see, I am the opposite.

I'll buy park tickets, I'll buy Ills and G+ but I am done with that AND staying on-site. I'll use my savings from staying off-site (eating off-site, doing other stuff off-site, etc) to pay for those "micro-charges". The days of me booking a full WDW package are as gone as the pay phone.

 

[xdan0920]

I came to this discussion totally fresh this year - I hadn't been to Disney since 2004 and saw a lot of hate to Genie +. My first reaction was that they would obviously need to make it more expensive and scarcer otherwise it'll never work. This comes as no surprise and I suspect it will get more and more expensive. Genie + only works as an elite product. The further away they move from it as a mass product, satisfaction will go up. Those who can afford get a great product. Those who don't can be like 'well, fair enough to those who can afford' and their wait times will be more reasonable overall. That's how I felt at Universal.

I contend that this is NOT what Disney wants. They simply want to squeeze as much juice as possible out of the consumers as they can. They want the same or more people buying G+ AND they want them paying more for it.

If they wanted a better experience for those purchasing, they would simply double the price and cut the available volume in half. That's not the goal though. The goal is to maximize the ROI of G+.

 

[set88]

It’s US$20 today, for a TP level 6 crowd day.

Unless it's significantly less crowded today than the last few days, it's not going to be a 6. EPCOT and AK have been 10/10 the last few days according to thrill-data.com. HS at 8/10.

I've been watching and would confirm the waits have been much higher than a 6/10 day. They're the worst I've observed since I started watching wait times in July, which checks with what thrill-data says. I believe a couple days ago it had EPCOT and AK both as the 3rd or 4th most crowded days in the last 500.

MK will almost certainly be a 10/10 as that has been the case lately for non party days.

 

[xdan0920]

If you are turning away many customers because you can’t meet demand why wouldn’t you raise prices?

You believe Disney is turning away customers?

 

[set88]

I also don't understand this Genie+ needs to be more expensive to work when FP+ was FREE and worked fine.

It didn't, though.

It only worked well for those savvy enough to know they had to book rides 60 days in advance, and those staying on site with long enough stays to get good selections early on.

If you planned a trip with short notice or didn't do a ton of research, you showed up to the park with no good fast passes booked and had a miserable time in standby lines that were much higher than they would have been without fast pass existing.

The system heavily favored those in the know and those booking long on site stays over everyone else. It wasn't fair to the majority and it was not free of all elements of "pay to play".

If you don't believe this, I highly recommend watching Defunctland's fast pass video on YouTube. He ran several computer simulations proving exactly how broken the system truly was. The history he goes through is also fascinating.

Genie+ is far from perfect but it not being free isn't its problem. Keep in mind - the ride capacity isn't there for it to work well when 50% of people use it. If it was free, 100% of people would use it. It would be much worse.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Maybe it’s me, but I see this as just increasing revenue and not reducing Genie crowds.

for a family of 4 that visits each park once, you only need Genie+ in 2 parks. That’s a difference of $56 over your vacation. $60x100,000 is a lot for Disney. But I’m having a hard time imagining the conversation “I know we spent $6,000 on this vacation Margerie, but $60 blows our budget”.

if they really want to reduce Genie+ numbers, they need to cap it which I get they don’t want to do because of the QQ that it sells out by 7:00:02, or more like triple the cost.

 

[Jangles]

Unless it's significantly less crowded today than the last few days, it's not going to be a 6. EPCOT and AK have been 10/10 the last few days according to thrill-data.com. HS at 8/10.

I've been watching and would confirm the waits have been much higher than a 6/10 day. They're the worst I've observed since I started watching wait times in July, which checks with what thrill-data says. I believe a couple days ago it had EPCOT and AK both as the 3rd or 4th most crowded days in the last 500.

MK will almost certainly be a 10/10 as that has been the case lately for non party days.

 

[set88]

Maybe it’s me, but I see this as just increasing revenue and not reducing Genie crowds.

for a family of 4 that visits each park once, you only need Genie+ in 2 parks. That’s a difference of $56 over your vacation. $60x100,000 is a lot for Disney. But I’m having a hard time imagining the conversation “I know we spent $6,000 on this vacation Margerie, but $60 blows our budget”.

if they really want to reduce Genie+ numbers, they need to cap it which I get they don’t want to do because of the QQ that it sells out by 7:00:02, or more like triple the cost.

You're correct - these price increases are not going to deter anyone that was already planning to buy Genie+ for the holiday season. Disney knows this, so it's hard to see these particular increases as anything other than greed.

I do think this is a precursor to raising the prices much higher eventually though. Disney also knows that the current system isn't going to work if it keeps selling to 50% of people on crowded days.

I strongly prefer price increases to severely capping capacity. That makes getting Genie+ a stressful lottery on a day to day basis.

Raising the prices significantly and having significantly less people skipping the lines is better for everyone, because those who don't buy it will have standby lines that are significantly less impacted by LLs. This is the solution Disney needs to go with.

 

[cakebaker]

I also don't understand this Genie+ needs to be more expensive to work when FP+ was FREE and worked fine.

While FP+ worked fine for me, I'm betting there are an awful lot of people who didn't think it worked fine at all. The "discussions" were never ending over how awful some people thought it was. But, if you liked to plan ahead, you stayed on site and for a stay that was 5 days or more long, it did work really well. If you were off site, short stay or local- you probably didn't care for it much. FP+ gave a huge advantage to those who stayed on site with longer stays. Genie+ somewhat leveled the playing field and in doing so, increased the competition to get the top tier rides. Just like FP+, the key to Genie+ working well is that the demand has to be limited.


But no, FP+ didn't work fine for everyone.

 

[xdan0920]

You're correct - these price increases are not going to deter anyone that was already planning to buy Genie+ for the holiday season. Disney knows this, so it's hard to see these particular increases as anything other than greed.

I do think this is a precursor to raising the prices much higher eventually though. Disney also knows that the current system isn't going to work if it keeps selling to 50% of people on crowded days.

I strongly prefer price increases to severely capping capacity. That makes getting Genie+ a stressful lottery on a day to day basis.

Raising the prices significantly and having significantly less people skipping the lines is better for everyone, because those who don't buy it will have standby lines that are significantly less impacted by LLs. This is the solution Disney needs to go with.

I have a question for you.

Why do you keep saying the system "doesn't work"? Who doesn't it work for?