Disney Genie announcement

[Marionnette]

Sigh. It sounds like Disney is doing the forgetting. In the past 20 years I've taken my family to WDW at least a dozen times, 10 of which we stayed on-site. Add to that two Disney Cruises, a trip to DL, a Disney credit card, countless movies, toys, and clothes. But Walt forbid I should decide that an on-site booking is simply too expensive for a 10-day trip for 8 people, I'm now a second class citizen because they aren't getting enough of my money. I'm starting to think that Congress and Disney use the same financial advisors.

Perhaps instead of basing perks like Genie+ bookings on the "what have you done for me lately" model, Disney should have a loyalty club that rewards long-term customers who funnel their paychecks to Disney in many ways over many years. You get a point for every dollar you spend at Disney, whether it's on a cruise, in a Disney store, a DVD, a vacation, etc... and then those points could be used to purchase the perks that are most important.

I agree. There's nothing worse than being told "You're not the one I value. I want someone new." And that seems to be Disney's attitude. It's insulting and yes, it hurts.

 

[meremac]

Yes, but NuJoy is questioning the assumption that (like FP+) Genie+ will allow guests to choose a return time throughout the day.

Disney's published descriptions suggest that return times for G+ will just be "next available". So at 10AM, if the next available LL window for PotC is 11:15AM, you can take it or leave it, but you can't skip over it and book 12:30 PM instead like you could have for FP+.

Oh gotcha. Yes, "next available". I was confused by the "right now" part. Yes, if this works anything like DL's MaxPass did, you will either have to accept the return window displayed for the attraction you want or keep refreshing until you get one you like (or grab it and try to modify it to seomthing later), which is a gamble. Based on what's been released so far, that is my understanding about how it will work.

 

[CBMom01]

If LL and Genie+ are truly separated, then in theory I could have a LL for 7DMT at 10:00 and a Gen

I agree. There's nothing worse than being told "You're not the one I value. I want someone new." And that seems to be Disney's attitude. It's insulting and yes, it hurts.

Theres already a rewards program through the Chase cards

 

[Marionnette]

If LL and Genie+ are truly separated, then in theory I could have a LL for 7DMT at 10:00 and a Gen

Theres already a rewards program through the Chase cards

You mean the Disney Visa? That's a really crappy rewards credit card. There are much better ones out there.

 

[DisneyDar]

I get I’m not important and that staffing levels are challenged but it’s been 6 days and I’ve yet to hear back from Disney.
Just curious if folks are seeing the same.

Starting to feel hopeless and can’t find anyone who wants Poly room over Presidents Day weekend.

I think you're on the wrong thread.

 

[CBMom01]

You mean the Disney Visa? That's a really crappy rewards credit card. There are much better ones out there.

Other Disney-redeemable rewards? Ive heard good things about Capital one venture

 

[DisneyLover1217]

Does the $15 include unlimited rides in the LL for the day or is there a limit? Also, have they said what the top tier rides will cost, like ROTR, REMY, etc.?

 

[Marionnette]

Other Disney-redeemable rewards? Ive heard good things about Capital one venture

Thank you but I'm not looking to spend more at Disney if they're not reciprocating the love. If I use my CC rewards for travel, it won't be at Disney.

 

[DisneyDar]

I haven't finished reading all 85 pages of this thread, but a few comments, questions and concerns:

I have read a lot of comments that people had to plan FP+ 60 days in advance. We are local and we never planned more than a day or two in advance, mostly same day, and I loved FP+ compared to paper FP- or any other option. What I liked about it was the ability to plan three attractions, all timed fairly close to each other, and do so for late afternoon/evening, prior to arrival. So we could go over at 3:00 or 4:00 pm or later, do three attractions in a few hours, and leave. With FP- (paper), we arrived at the parks and had to walk to all the attractions, only to invariably find the fast passes gone for the day. With FP+, I loved that we could plan to come later in the day, not first thing in the morning, and only spend a few hours. Even before we were local but came to Orlando on vacation, we were never rope-droppers nor would we spend 6+ hours at WDW in a day. (For fun one time, we spent an entire day hopping between Epcot, MK and Studios but that wasn't a normal visit for us.)

So question/concern - if we buy Genie+, will there still be LL (not LL$, just LL via Genie+) availability if we don't arrive at the park before late afternoon? And/Or if we are at a park with Genie+, after we check in for our first Genie+ attraction and have the option to reserve our next one, will it be hours away, or will there be available attractions within the next, say, hour? I think Disney assumes that all guest plan to stay all day at the parks, or that late arrivals plan to stay until closing. For those guests who don't want to spend all day, Disney wants to find a way to encourage them to stretch out their visit. So I'm concerned that they won't make it easy to get a few quick rides in a short amount of time via Genie+.

I'm also hoping there will be an option for Annual Passholders to purchase an annual Genie+ like I've heard MaxPass had at DL. I would definitely pay the $125 extra that MaxPass was to have Genie+ on my AP. Something tells me, however, that Disney is unlikely to hold that price for WDW based on the number of attractions available at WDW on Genie+ vs. DL. But I would rather pay it up front with my AP purchase than think about our paying $30 extra (for the two of us) each time we want to pop over to the parks for a couple of hours. We have the Universal premium tickets that allow express lane entry after 4 pm that we enjoy and wish Disney would offer something like it for AP holders.

As for the Individual Purchase rides, we would most likely skip those unless we can miraculously catch a standby line that is reasonable on a slow day.

Thank you - the lack of a start date as well as definite rules and details is really messing up our planning for 10/2021.

I doubt that everything will be ironed out by 10/1.

 

[DisneyDar]

If I read it the same way, $15 per person per day? I am good with that!

Family of four, $60 per day, 5 day vacation is $300 additional. You may be ok with that but most families will not be. On top of paying for something that was free to begin with, coupled with all of the other amenity reductions and price increases.....

 

[meremac]

Does the $15 include unlimited rides in the LL for the day or is there a limit? Also, have they said what the top tier rides will cost, like ROTR, REMY, etc.?

With Genie+, which costs $15/person per day, you can make as many Lightning Lane reservations for attractions included in Genie+ as you want. There is no limit; however, you can only make them one at a time. No official word yet on whether stacking will be allowed. LL$ attractions (super headliner attractions that aren't included in Genie+, like RotR and Remy) will be available for separate purchase but they haven't announced how much those will cost yet, just that the cost will vary by date and attraction.

 

[Marionnette]

Does the $15 include unlimited rides in the LL for the day or is there a limit? Also, have they said what the top tier rides will cost, like ROTR, REMY, etc.?

They are unlimited only in the sense that you can get as many as they make available to you throughout the day. You cannot schedule multiple LL at one time. There isn't even any word as to whether you can hold 2 LL at the same time if the first one you scheduled is 2+ hours into the future, which is how FP- worked.

No official word as to which attractions will be tier 1 but it's been rumored that MFRR and SDD at HS, 7DMTR and SpcMtn in MK, FoP and Safari in AK and TT in Epcot. If there's a second in Epcot, it could be Frozen or Soarin'.

 

[meremac]

No official word as to which attractions will be tier 1 but it's been rumored that MFRR and SDD at HS, 7DMTR and SpcMtn in MK, FoP and Safari in AK and TT in Epcot. If there's a second in Epcot, it could be Frozen or Soarin'.

RotR was mentioned as one that may be available for LL$, as well as Remy at Epcot.

 

[RoseGold]

I really don't think the details are over. As written, this sounds like the 7AM, maybe on site gets a leg up on the first ride. This is like saying no point in staying on site anymore, you'll give us $15 either way. Like FP, messing with line priority costs Disney nothing, and goes a long way to making people want to stay on site.

Disney has rooms to fill. Huge, expensive hotels and huge incredibly expensive deluxe hotels. There has to be an on site advantage we haven't seen yet.

 

[jknc]

I think you're on the wrong thread.

I’m not. My pointed email was to Disney regarding absurdity of Genie+/LL. Just curious if others are getting responses. I’ve typically received a courtesy call in the past.

 

[disneyseniors]

Do we know for sure that each park will have 2 paid LL attractions, or are we assuming that because you may purchase 2 each day?

No they don't. You get 2 paid passes for tier 1 a day, period. You can use both in one park, or split them up for 2 parks. But there are no 2 in each park, is what I've been told on here.

 

[Nick6300]

The rides that extra are not included in Genie+

Yes - I totally forgot about that. Not that it matters, do we know why they limited it to 2 per day paid LLs, if they only care about profits? I can't be that they don't want to alienate the people who feel they can't afford a bunch of them and rarely splurge for them. Maybe that's what research has concluded as the right number to keep the LLs moving quick enough throughout the day.

 

[cygnusx1jg]

I can't even imagine how much the upcharge will be on Guardians and Tron once they open in the (hopefully) near future.

 

[moesy4]

We have decided to cancel our trip in the fall based almost solely on this announcement. Pretty much everything that has been announced since we booked this summer has been negative. The only potential positive has been the deluxe EMH but we were booked for a long weekend there, so it didn’t help at all. Paying an extra 700 for our family to stress and spend extra time on our phones was not a good announcement and we have decided we probably will not be back at all.

 

[Beer Me]

I don’t like the idea of paying genie+ or lightning lanes. I don’t like most of the changes made over the last year.

Before covid hit this year was supposed to be a big Disney trip for my family but now I’ve actually wrapped my head around the fact that I might not ever come back.

There a bunch of reasons - not just genie - but Disney just doesn’t seem like it would be as fun anymore. And the on-site resort prices seem incredibly out of whack to me. So much of what’s been happening is just a turn-off.

This could change. I’m willing to give it another year when - hopefully - covid concerns aren’t having as much impact and things are at some steady level of normalcy. It will be easier to assess everything then.