Disney Genie announcement

[Disturbia]

So my flight down in December is scheduled to depart at 7:10 am. Maybe I’ll get lucky and have a short flight delay so I can pick up an ILL$ before takeoff. It could happen!

I’ve gotten ROTR while spinning on TSMM; so I’d say it’s possible; Good luck!

 

[snikki]

I can’t wait for the G+/LL/ILL faq thread. Bless the person who will run that.

 

[JenSop]

Exactly - such an obvious flaw of the system compared to the prior one and a perfect example of how Disney doesn't care about guest convenience any more, it's all about the money even when it majorly disadvantages huge numbers of guests. If this were a first system a park was introducing you'd look at it and say "it's not perfect but it offers some advantages". But when it replaces a system that provided far more flexibility to guests who may have different schedules - it shows a complete contempt for them. You will ride what Disney wants you to ride or you will pay extra either in terms of time or money. My guess has been this will be fine for early risers and rope droppers planning to spend an entire day at the parks who don't care when they ride things and be horrible for anyone who wants some semblance of control. (And even for the first group - it will likely involve far more time in lines than previously).

Exactly! I do think this will work well for rope droppers and people who are in the parks all day.
With FP+, most days we really would just ride our 3 afternoon fastpass rides. Do some shopping, have some snacks, MAYBE do one standby. But we're DVC, we don't feel the need to tour commando style. We never waited in long lines.
Okay, I've been going my whole life. I knew what it was like with no fastpasses of any kind. I also did the paper fastpasses for many years. Fastpass+ was a total step up from ALL of those previous systems. I feel like they're taking a HUGE step back and down with Genie+.

 

[Disturbia]

What worries me with this is flight delays or any other issues. It’s the same reason we don’t book prepaid shows for arrival day. Although I did book a dessert party once on arrival day but I was nervous about it.

You have given me a new idea now. It would make sense for us to do DHS and buy ROTR and MMRR. We haven’t been since these opened. Then maybe hop to MK for the nighttime show. Hmmmm.

Our flight arrives after 3:30 pm and we hope to be in the parks at 6 pm. We always do a relaxed evening/morning on travel days. Keep an eye on hours; they just added an extra hour to MK on select days in Oct and AK had 1 extra hour added.

 

[Disturbia]

As a previous poster said, you can't add the GC number to MDE, you have to input it every time. However, you can save the GC number as a note on your phone (or text it to yourself) so that you can simply copy and paste it each time as opposed to entering each digit every time you use it. Works for mobile ordering at QS as well.

That’s a really good idea as scanning my credit card each purchase is so hard (MDE doesn’t save; sometimes app pulls it) and MDE logs me out and then sends a code to my email and it’s a nightmare.

 

[Disturbia]

I’m getting a message in the app saying that payment method is temporarily unavailable and to go to the website. Sign of things to come I suppose.

I’m going to try to add a rewards card to my profile.

 

[snikki]

Our flight arrives after 3:30 pm and we hope to be in the parks at 6 pm. We always do a relaxed evening/morning on travel days. Keep an eye on hours; they just added an extra hour to MK on select days in Oct and AK had 1 extra hour added.

The last few trips we’ve done the 6 am flight, landing around 8ish and been in the MK by 10-11 am and then stayed until closing. It’s fun but exhausting and makes us sluggish the next few days. Next trip we want a later flight, hopefully arriving around noon-1 pm and a more relaxing morning and evening. This has been our plan even before G+ was announced. Would’ve been nice to have 3 free FP+ but what can ya do. I think getting ILL at a park on arrival day and taking It easy will be much better for us.

 

[CWTC]

“Genie+ will not sell out on any given day”

so even on the busiest day of the year it will not sell out? What will availability be on those days in terms of LL? Does everyone who pays 15$ get one LL? It feels like if it never sells out then Disney may be collecting money for a ride pass program that is not beneficial due to the volume of people buying it.

 

[MainMom]

Exactly! I do think this will work well for rope droppers and people who are in the parks all day.
With FP+, most days we really would just ride our 3 afternoon fastpass rides. Do some shopping, have some snacks, MAYBE do one standby. But we're DVC, we don't feel the need to tour commando style. We never waited in long lines.
Okay, I've been going my whole life. I knew what it was like with no fastpasses of any kind. I also did the paper fastpasses for many years. Fastpass+ was a total step up from ALL of those previous systems. I feel like they're taking a HUGE step back and down with Genie+.

I’m a rope dropper. I’ll make it work, but it’s seeming like it’s going to be a pain in the butt. I’ll be relying heavily on others experiences before our trip next June so I can form some kind of strategy.

 

[Jrb1979]

“Genie+ will not sell out on any given day”

so even on the busiest day of the year it will not sell out? What will availability be on those days in terms of LL? Does everyone who pays 15$ get one LL? It feels like if it never sells out then Disney may be collecting money for a ride pass program that is not beneficial due to the volume of people buying it.

With only being able to book 1 at a time most people will average 3 a day most likely. That's the amount most people got with FP+.

 

[Jrb1979]

I’m a rope dropper. I’ll make it work, but it’s seeming like it’s going to be a pain in the butt. I’ll be relying heavily on others experiences before our trip next June so I can form some kind of strategy.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the best way to get the most out of Genie+ is being ok with criss crossing the park a lot.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

Genie+ will not sell out on any given day

“Genie+ will not sell out on any given day”

so even on the busiest day of the year it will not sell out? What will availability be on those days in terms of LL? Does everyone who pays 15$ get one LL? It feels like if it never sells out then Disney may be collecting money for a ride pass program that is not beneficial due to the volume of people buying it.

I noticed that bullet right away too. Disney will sell to as many people who want to pay, so Genie+ will never be sold out. But by not limiting the number of people who purchase on any given day, that dilutes the value because the ride capacity and number of attractions you'll be able to use the LL for will be far fewer than if they capped the number of G+ sold for the day.

 

[MainMom]

I wouldn't be surprised to see the best way to get the most out of Genie+ is being ok with criss crossing the park a lot.

Yeah, that thought has crossed my mind and I really don’t want to do it with 3 little kids and my 60+ year old parents in June.

 

[katyringo]

I know FP+ changed several times, especially with regards to the tiers and how/whether you could pull a 4th pass later in the day.

I don't recall many - if any - changes to MaxPass when it came out. Really they were just trying to replicate and digitize the FP- experience at the time, so there were no tiers and the same rules were in place re: stacking as had already existed. The main FP change I remember at DL was when they finally linked the systems at both parks so you couldn't have an active FP at each park at the same time, but I don't remember if that predated MaxPass or not. It may have been that MaxPass was linked and it took them a bit to connect it to paper FP and both paper FP systems to each other? Anyway. It wasn't so much an active change as finally fixing an unintended flaw in the system.

there were small tweeks to maxpass. The biggest one was the multi expirence pass. When a ride went down you got a pass that could be used on any fastpass ride. This caused issues on really busy days because like if guardians went down then everyone would try to use their FP on cars and the FP line would become huge. So they did add some tiers later on that if guardians went down that pass was good everywhere Except cars...

 

[gypsy_at_heart]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1447654960724905992

Hope this answers some questions.

I was happy to pay until the one lightning lane use per day per ride thing. Sorry, not paying that much if I can’t use it more than once per ride- that’s ridiculous

 

[katyringo]

I wouldn't worry too much about genie plus not being able to sell out.. everyone was given 3 free ones before regardless of how busy.

 

[katyringo]

Yeah, that thought has crossed my mind and I really don’t want to do it with 3 little kids and my 60+ year old parents in June.

This was deff the beat way to maximize maxpass. You had had to be willing to move about the park.

 

[DavidNYC]

“Genie+ will not sell out on any given day”
so even on the busiest day of the year it will not sell out? What will availability be on those days in terms of LL? Does everyone who pays 15$ get one LL? It feels like if it never sells out then Disney may be collecting money for a ride pass program that is not beneficial due to the volume of people buying it.

Well - we've seen them sell annual passes in California and then close off admission to those AP holders while selling day tickets to others so clearly this is not a concern of theirs . . . I forsee

Yeah, that thought has crossed my mind and I really don’t want to do it with 3 little kids and my 60+ year old parents in June.

Yup - and that's how it was with the old FP system prior to the phones. I see a lot more walking in people's days accross the park since you no longer have any ability to control your return times. At least you don't have to go to the ride to get them but it's still far worse than before.

With only being able to book 1 at a time most people will average 3 a day most likely. That's the amount most people got with FP+.

No way - you pre-booked 3. You could easily get more during the day after you used your initial 3 (assuming you didn't start off booking them for the end of the day).

Okay, I've been going my whole life. I knew what it was like with no fastpasses of any kind. I also did the paper fastpasses for many years. Fastpass+ was a total step up from ALL of those previous systems. I feel like they're taking a HUGE step back and down with Genie+.

Same here - using your phone and being able to select your return time was a game changer both initially and for hopping. It's a huge backwards step for the guests overall all in the name of Disney taking control of the park experience back from the individual to push them to spend more money. And the marketing they do for this stuff now really just annoys me and reeks of disingenuity. They know perfectly well what they're doing and why and just . . . lets say it . . lie to the guests about how much they're giving them while taking it away. You just have to listen to Disney corporate and shareholder calls where they talk about all of the new revenue making opportunities they're putting in for each guest. They add restrictions and talk about your new found ability to be spontaneous. You don't see this with Universal. They don't spit on your and tell you it's raining. Their marketing is pretty straightforward and doesn't treat their customers like idiots who will believe anything they say. It's more George Orwell than Disney.

 

[Figment1990]

I wouldn't worry too much about genie plus not being able to sell out.. everyone was given 3 free ones before regardless of how busy.

I don't understand this statement. There were plenty of times that I could not get FP for several attractions even at my 60 day mark. They definitely had a cap.

I'm also confused by Disney saying Genie+ will not sell out. I guess in THEORY, maybe their mathematical algorithms prove that they can raise the capacity of possible LL returns so that it is 99.9% unlikely that there will ever be ZERO LLs left for the day. For example, you can get a LL for the Carousel, or Nemo, or Indiana Jones Stunt show. But if they legit mean that G+ will be available throughout the day with reasonable offerings, that either means they assume: fewer people will use LL than used their FPs, or they plan to just leave it totally uncapped. If the former, that's a bit of a gamble on predicting human behavior and I would LOVE to see those models and if the latter - that's ridiculous. Then again, let's work backwards:

Goal: sell as many G+ as possible
Method: leave G+ uncapped which raises standby waits (as FP did), which increases G+ demand.

Wow. I just can't wrap my head around this. Oct 19 can't get here fast enough.

 

[JakeAZ]

I just wonder if the morons that came up with this whole system have thought about how this will be received in the real world and the world of social media.

Screenshot of IA$ pass "Just paid $100 for my family of 4 to ride ROTR"
Screenshots of CC statements showing all the Genie+ and IA$ purchases "Here's what's not included with your park tickets"
Tweets of "Just paid $100 for a 3 minute ride, on top of my $400 family of 4 admission tickets and now the Genie is offering me a chance to do that again"

When you package everything together, the valuation is based on the entire experience. Basically, "did you have fun?"

When you make everything an extra cost, each requiring a separate thought process on whether or not to purchase and again to determine if that purchase, in a vacuum, was worth it, you're going to end up with lots of micro valuations.

I could see "ya, we had fun, but it required a lot of work and a lot of extra charges" or "the fun we had wasn't worth the effort and extra money required"