Genie+

[Sue M]

So essentially if you arrive that early, you are still waiting 1 hour and 1/2 for the ride. I always think it's hilarious that people will get to the park entrance an hour before opening (or more) in order to ONLY wait 30-45 minutes for FOP. You still waited just in a different way.
With the old system, we just booked a FP 60 days in advance and rolled into the parks after a nice breakfast, refreshed, well rested and fed and went on the ride no stress. ugggghhhh. I will miss that.

Yes we got to the park an hour early and they had just opened the park! So that was the 30 min wait! During our visit many times parks were open before posted hours.
MK too. Our last day I wanted to ride Mine Train, so got there an hour before posted opening and it was already open! A few days before we had bad bus service and couldn’t get there as early as we planned, park didn’t open early, they were holding crowds at entrances to the lands and we had to choose, Space or Mine train. Daughter wanted Space.
So it was really difficult to figure out when to arrive early enough for minimal waits. Some days parks opened up to an hour early some days not.

I missed the FP too. But don’t miss having to figure out what park I’ll go to, what I’ll ride and where I’ll eat far ahead of trip.
Universal is so much easier.

 

[Heather07438]

With only 4 days, G+ will cost $120. Totally doable especially since being across the street from shops will reduce other costs exponentially. We would definitely use LL for ROTR and RAT regardless of price. These are the only 2 rides we havent been on yet. If we don't get on even with LL, oh well, not the end of the world. I don't much care about 7DMT or Slinky and can happily skip them. Other popular attractions would be wait and see how long the standby lines are, get in line right before park close or bite the bullet and buy LL if available....and that's the beauty of it. I don't have to worry about scheduling anything 3 or 6 months in advance except the park itself. This is way more relaxing to me. I have to bring my phone to the park anyway, to take pics, summon Uber, stay in touch with my elderly mother, etc, so no prob making reservations day of. Rope drop? Dunno about that yet. We'll see how it all plays out. With resort guests having early access everyday, there may no longer be a benefit in this. I'll still get to the park as it opens to make my first reservation but probably won't be arriving an hour before opening. All in all, I'm loving this new system.

Totally agree. And with RotR and RAT there's a great chance you get a free BG anyway, but it's nice to have the back-up option of paying if you don't. We feel the same about the coasters, if we miss a couple no big deal.

 

[Sue M]

So essentially if you arrive that early, you are still waiting 1 hour and 1/2 for the ride. I always think it's hilarious that people will get to the park entrance an hour before opening (or more) in order to ONLY wait 30-45 minutes for FOP. You still waited just in a different way.
With the old system, we just booked a FP 60 days in advance and rolled into the parks after a nice breakfast, refreshed, well rested and fed and went on the ride no stress. ugggghhhh. I will miss that.

I find I hilarious people can't figure this out about ropedropping:
you are waiting before opening so not wasting park time and once finished said ride, most other rides still have very short rides. At AK, after getting there an hour early and walking on to fop (I have gotten there at 7:45 for 9:00 opening and have been off the ride by 9:00 multiple times), I can walk on / minimal wait on to NRJ, KS, and EE. Again, I've done this many times.
Easily do those 4 attractions within an hour and a half of park opening.

Not bad for waiting in line an hour early, then maybe 20 minutes more for the other rides.

Helps we are morning people.
[/QUOTE]
Exactly And most of the time we were able to ride FOP 2x before lines build plus no waits for the other headliners. Even able to get in 2 safaris as well.

 

[Jrb1979]

@wdwmom3 You can purchase Genie+ at 12 midnight the day you plan on attending a park, but can only book your Lightening Lane ride at 7am if staying onsite. If staying offsite, you have to wait to book it in the park.

You don't need to purchase it everyday of your trip.

That's only for the 2 paid rides. Anyone with Genie+ can book rides starting at 7 am. There is no benefit for on-site

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

@Jrb1979 Oh I see. Good to know.

 

[Jrb1979]

Totally agree. And with RotR and RAT there's a great chance you get a free BG anyway, but it's nice to have the back-up option of paying if you don't. We feel the same about the coasters, if we miss a couple no big deal.

Im not so sure about being a great chance anymore. I can see them cutting the amount of free boarding groups for paid ones.

 

[Heather07438]

Im not so sure about being a great chance anymore. I can see them cutting the amount of free boarding groups for paid ones.

The paid BG will take away from the free amount of BG available but I doubt it's going to commonly be purchased. When Genie starts the DIS community here can take a look at how many are succeeding at free BG or not, then further see how many in the 'not' group opted to pay. I'd be surprised if it wasn't a very small percent.

BG's have been more likely than not for people who prepared. And with 2 HS days extremely more likely than not to get at least 1 BG. It's not like it's only a 10% or 33% chance of getting a BG, it's been much higher.

I can say with 99% certainty we will not be paying if it was offered. We have 2 HS days and can even switch our last to a 3rd HS day if need be (very doubtful). In the bizarre chance we don't get a free BG this trip, we've already ridden a few times and pretty sure we'd be OK skipping rather than paying something like $50 each.

 

[friedela]

I know not everyone here goes on the main boards a lot. What are your thoughts on the new FP system?

I for one love it, especially no more 60 day advanced booking. Since I am a rope drop person when I go to the parks it works for me. For $15 it's pretty cheap compared to most other parks.

The new Genie + system will add over $300 USD to our trip so I'm not happy about it.
I don't mind paying for individual rides because I am assuming it will guarantee us a spot on some of the ones that are way harder to get a fastpass for. I would pay to ride Rise of the Resistance once. To me, that would be worth it. But the rest of it sucks.

 

[Jrb1979]

The paid BG will take away from the free amount of BG available but I doubt it's going to commonly be purchased. When Genie starts the DIS community here can take a look at how many are succeeding at free BG or not, then further see how many in the 'not' group opted to pay. I'd be surprised if it wasn't a very small percent.

BG's have been more likely than not for people who prepared. And with 2 HS days extremely more likely than not to get at least 1 BG. It's not like it's only a 10% or 33% chance of getting a BG, it's been much higher.

I can say with 99% certainty we will not be paying if it was offered. We have 2 HS days and can even switch our last to a 3rd HS day if need be (very doubtful). In the bizarre chance we don't get a free BG this trip, we've already ridden a few times and pretty sure we'd be OK skipping rather than paying something like $50 each.

We will have to see how it plays out. I am wondering if the 1pm boarding groups is a thing of the past.

 

[friedela]

Not that we wouldn’t pay it but I just think the extra fee sucks.

And Disney already knows that people will pay it which is exactly why they are able to nickel and dime and gouge their guests. No judgement here though. As much as I want to throw in the towel in loud protest we'll fork it over too. But I'm not happy about it. lol

 

[friedela]

Like can I just get it for certain days and not others? Can I buy the pass for the top tier ride if I don’t do the $15 a day?

Yes and yes.
This video answers those questions:

Disney World Introduces PAY-PER-RIDE System That Will CHANGE Everything - YouTube

 

[Chip#1]

I'll be in the minority group as well. Since it's just the 2 of us and we have used MaxPass in the past, I'm quite happy with this change -- that being said I can definitely see larger families having issues spending that much $$ potentially daily. My issue, as an AP holder, is that they aren't addressing that out of the gates. With Magic Key going live next week, why couldn't they have incorporated it into that? I certainly don't plan on purchasing it everyday -- Epcot: Remy would be the only ride I'm interested in and at least there's an option should we fail at a BG. AK: we don't ride FOP (again minority group -- we don't care for that ride) so maybe Safaris we'll pay for on it's own but probably not Genie+ on top of that. MK -- definitely see us paying for both. DHS -- and again paying for both here as well. We are early morning ppl so that's not an issue. And I certainly wasn't a fan of the Tiered system of FP+; a lot of our FP selections went unused (or we scanned and never went on) just so we could get back to potentially making second bookings. I like the option of being able to make choices for other parks we will hit later in the day. But again...definitely nothing is a plus for AP holders...at least not yet (not holding my breath). As far as Universal goes (AP holder there as well) -- we stay at Hard Rock for all our trips and use the Express Pass. They definitely have their fair share of issues managing that system {nothing finer than waiting in the Express line for 45min for King Kong} and their 2 top rides aren't even apart of it {if you haven ridden VelociCoaster yet...it's simply the best!}. Do we still go...of course we do.

 

[Heather07438]

I am wondering if the 1pm boarding groups is a thing of the past.

I don't think so. It helps HS/RotR. If there are issues in the morning they can adjust the amount of 1pm drops, and if things are going well they can do the full drop. This slashes the potential number of people who get a BG and end up not being able to ride (a big headache for Guest Services).

 

[Jrb1979]

I don't think so. It helps HS/RotR. If there are issues in the morning they can adjust the amount of 1pm drops, and if things are going well they can do the full drop. This slashes the potential number of people who get a BG and end up not being able to ride (a big headache for Guest Services).

I think they will only offer it in the morning to incentivise people to pay for it as the day goes on. Which they would prefer people do.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I can see RotR LL$ being at least $20/pp.

 

[mshanson3121]

Why don’t you send me one and I’ll reply. Still not working for me.

Haha, it won't let me message you either!

 

[gypsy_at_heart]

I’m not sure how I feel, and I honestly I probably won’t be until I see how it actually works.

I did like using maxpass in Disneyland on my last trip - it felt more flexible than the WDW system. However, I think it depends on how many Genie+ passes they intend to sell per day and what the availability will be for the lightning lane time slots. I can see a lot of ticked off people if they pay $15 per day and can’t get any times for lightning lanes. I also don’t particularly like the per ride premium add on on top of an add on sort of thing - it would make more sense to me to just have 2 tiers. Also I don’t know why AP holders currently can’t book it ahead and have to do it in the day of? What if they run out of passes?As an AP holder who isn’t a Florida local, that makes me uneasy. I don’t want to pay for the rest of my group and be the only one stuck without the genie+ services, so I’m hoping they’ll figure that out somehow.

All of That said, I hate long standby lines and I’m not a rope drop kind of person, so if this makes it easier for me to quickly book lightning lane time slots throughout the day…$15 per day is totally worth it for me. At this point I know I’m not going until next year some time so I’m happy to wait and see how it goes.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

If a whole bunch of other changes hadn't been the pack of nails in the coffin, this Genie + Pay to Play was definitely the concrete vaulting. DH almost dropped his dinner fork when he heard how much they want to charge for the Star Wars hotel.... We agreed that maybe, like 10 years from now, we miiiiiiiiiight wine and dine around the World in EPCOT again, but... more likely we will not want to deal with the crowd management that WDW is.

 

[Frank4202]

This was our last straw and we threw in the towel. Sucks because we have a little one on the way and I want them to see WDW but the price gouging it's tough for me to handle.

Couple reasons why I refuse to give Disney my money anymore...
1. Raised minimum amount of DVC points for perks.
2. No more Magical Express unless I want to pay for it.
3. Hotel parking charges
4. "Paid Fastpass"
5. Food and drink prices gone through the roof lately
6. Higher than normal inflation for ticket prices.

Plus, add exchange to all these! Im saddened but the only way this changes is if attendance drops and I will do my part.

 

[pixie_mtl]

I don't like this new Genie+. I thought things would be different at Disney World given that it is managed differently than the Disneyland ones (...). If americans guests are the highest source of income at WDW, I guess it makes sense for Disney to make "innovative" changes to accommodate their own But then again I feel like we are all paying a steep price for Disney's change management and initiative failures.