Disney Genie announcement

[scrappinginontario]

If this had been asked or I missed it, sorry. Will you be able to do your whole travel party at once or will everyone have to have their own Disney experience account to get this. If everyone has to have Their own account how will you be sure that times will Be together

It has not been announced that I have seen but I would say, Yes, you will be able to choose part/all of your party at once. This is how everything else works so I don’t see this being any different.

 

[tony67]

Let’s be very clear about something here:

It does NOT cost $15 to go on Rise or Everest or Flight. You still have the option of waiting in line for the price you paid for your ticket.

We all get that - its really the cost of what used to be a free FP in many peoples opinion

Then it comes down to if it is worth $15 per person to save X minutes or just skip the ride.
That will be a personal decision each person will have to make.
And again - Disney needs to stop with the overly inflated wait times

 

[Miffy]

Agree for the most part - but it remains to be seen what the waits will be like in standby - the FP lines did add a lot of time to the standby lines
I dont think that will be the case anymore - between the cost and the once per ride - standby for many rides may not be too bad - other than the inflated wait times

I dont think we will really know until January how this plays out - you need the busy holiday season and time to work out the kinks

The only comparison I have here is our trip in May, when there was no FP+ or G+ and the standby lines were often extremely long--for example, an hour+ for MMRR and 3 hours for FoP.

ETA: I stood in the standby line for MMRR, so it's not based on the posted wait time. The FoP line was so long I didn't even see where it ended, but since I didn't stand in it, I can't attest to the accuracy of the posted wait time, but for sure it wasn't a 30-minute wait.

 

[lorileahb]

I am going twice for two-night trips in mid-October (mom and me trips with two of my kids) - one right before the launch and one two days after the launch - I hate being a genie-pig, but it looks like I will have a really good comparison. Since it will just be two of us, I will be able to afford/have the option to purchase if it looks valuable (hopefully a few reports will come in on the 19th and 20th). Looking forward to first-dayers sharing experiences. I'll be sure to post mine.

My husband and I went in April (think Spring Break) - with rope drop and our typical planning we never really had to wait more than 15-20 minutes for anything. It seemed crowded at times (with many things still closed) but still a very happy and enjoyable trip since we knew how to get around some of the crowds. My favorite is still a late ADR so you feel like you are alone in the park at night when you are leaving.

We are early morning people - even with Genie launching, we will still use rope drop so probably save a little money that way. My sleep-in daughter is the one coming with me for the trip after the launch, so maybe that is an opportunity to let her sleep in and buy-in for a day. Though Boo Bash is our Magic Kingdom Day, and the other parks she chose were Epcot and Animal Kingdom, so not sure of the value there.

 

[Jonfw2]

We all get that - its really the cost of what used to be a free FP in many peoples opinion

Then it comes down to if it is worth $15 per person to save X minutes or just skip the ride.
That will be a personal decision each person will have to make.
And again - Disney needs to stop with the overly inflated wait times

Agreed.

 

[tony67]

I’m absolutely going to try it but here’s my concern:

You pay at 7am then select Jungle Cruise and the first available time is 8pm. Or, you get a ride at 8:30am when there’s no line anyway and then when you get off of it, the next available ride isn’t til 8pm.

Yup - but I dont expect it will work out like this - there will be far less folks willing to pay the 15 in the first place IMO

I suspect this will work out well for those willing to pay - but again its all speculation

 

[scrappinginontario]

All of this makes my annual purchase of Touring Plans seem like a bargain at half the price!!

I think now more than ever, with Disney’s current inflation of posted wait times, purchasing a TP subscription will be beneficial in helping determine the choice to purchase G+ for a day here and there.

 

[shawthorne44]

Someone had asked up thread if existing ticket holder were forced to wait until the day of to buy G+. I didn't see an answer. This is from Disney

 

[tony67]

The only comparison I have here is our trip in May, when there was no FP+ or G+ and the standby lines were often extremely long--for example, an hour+ for MMRR and 3 hours for FoP.

ETA: I stood in the standby line for MMRR, so it's not based on the posted wait time. The FoP line was so long I didn't even see where it ended, but since I didn't stand in it, I can't attest to the accuracy of the posted wait time, but for sure it wasn't a 30-minute wait.

My recent trip in September - its a slow time - it seemed like every wait time was doubled by mid day
We had a 40 minute wait on Space mountain - and it was 40 minutes because it broke down just before we were going to get on it and it took 20 minutes to exit and get a FP

 

[Jrb1979]

All of this makes my annual purchase of Touring Plans seem like a bargain at half the price!!

I think now more than ever, with Disney’s current inflation of posted wait times, purchasing a TP subscription will be beneficial in helping determine the choice to purchase G+ for a day here and there.

If you're like me I will buy it every day. I hate waiting in standby queues.

 

[Miffy]

If you're like me I will buy it every day. I hate waiting in standby queues.

I hear you, and I'll be getting it too, because my traveling partner is a non-waiting-in-line person and we're in this together. But we aren't traveling with kids, so it makes the entire thing seem less financially daunting than it does to people traveling with their children.

 

[Jrb1979]

I hear you, and I'll be getting it too, because my traveling partner is a non-waiting-in-line person and we're in this together. But we aren't traveling with kids, so it makes the entire thing seem less financially daunting than it does to people traveling with their children.

I travel with kids and have no issue paying $15 a day. It's cheap compared to what my family pays for other parks skip the line system.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Someone had asked up thread if existing ticket holder were forced to wait until the day of to buy G+. I didn't see an answer. This is from Disney

View attachment 611517

This indicates that it will be added to entire package or full days on ticket which many (ourselves included) don’t want. I purchased an 8 day ticket and can see adding G+ to probably 3 of those days max so will be purchasing day of.

 

[emilymad]

So much of this will depend on how busy the parks are. The trip we took this past February I would have gladly paid $15 a day as after the first hour in the parks the wait times were insane. That is completely different than the reports of wait times in the last month.

We arrive Thanksgiving weekend and I can see paying for this some days. I am sort of happy about the IA$ rides since they are ones I like to do but DH hates. It will be worth it to pay just for me to ride quickly while DH waits for me.

How to strategize this with hopping is what is really confusing me.

 

[itf]

I agree with others that we won't know until Christmas how this is really going to play out, and what impact it will have on the usefulness of touringplans etc

 

[CBMom01]

Theoretically, it all sounds exactly like MP except the 1x per day. But I'm good with that since we don't normally ride many rides more than once anyway and if we did it's because there was a MP available at that moment. Except for GOTG, that's a must do multiple times a day.

We need threads where the DL max pass experts give lessons

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

Is Everest keeping the single rider line? If so, there's no real reason to pay extra to ride faster. Single rider moves pretty quickly.

 

[Jonfw2]

Is Everest keeping the single rider line? If so, there's no real reason to pay extra to ride faster. Single rider moves pretty quickly.

I’d bet they do. They had single rider when fastpass was around and it’s just incredibly effective regardless.

 

[Airb330]

We are AP and DVC, mid-30s & typically went 2-3 times a year. We loved going into a park for half days, doing FP+ and going back to the resort, maybe hopping for a nighttime show at Epcot or TotWL.

We can afford G+ and IAS. I don’t see the value because we don’t need to ride everything. In fact, I’m seeing less value from wdw with each new nugget of information we learn. Sure, $15 to save 90 minutes in line is logical. However, I’ll just not ride ROTR in that case. I don’t need to hit every ride in the park anymore.

We’re going to miss our old touring style with FP+. I think we’ll stay in larger DVC rooms and go less often. Buying a ticket here and there and no more APs. If we didn’t have DVC, a Disney world trip would be as much money as a trip to Hawaii…no thanks, I don’t see the value. Eventually we may even sell our DVC, something I never would have imagined 2 years ago.

 

[mom2rtk]

The only comparison I have here is our trip in May, when there was no FP+ or G+ and the standby lines were often extremely long--for example, an hour+ for MMRR and 3 hours for FoP.

ETA: I stood in the standby line for MMRR, so it's not based on the posted wait time. The FoP line was so long I didn't even see where it ended, but since I didn't stand in it, I can't attest to the accuracy of the posted wait time, but for sure it wasn't a 30-minute wait.

Same with our June experience. And every person you add to Lightning Lane (TM) is one person slower the standby wait will be. What we saw this summer was without full capacity yet, and it's (IMO) the best we can expect with standby in the new system.