How would you fix Genie +

[ttintagel]

It's something they'll never go back to, but I also like the idea!! I've proposed to others that one day a week should be a standby only day!! Some folks got a taste of the standby only for a brief period during Covid reopening - It's such a great concept - go to the attraction when you want to ride, wait in line, get on when it's your turn!! I like it!

Oh, yeah, I'm not under any illusion that they'd actually implement my idea (or any other fan suggestion). They're not going to turn off a revenue stream while there are still people willing to pay. I tried to think of something else they could upcharge to offset it, but I came up blank. I like the idea of Standby Day.

 

[Miffy]

I'd like to be able to pin attractions to the top of the Tip Board without having to go through the Genie process, especially since it really screws up the My Day tab, which becomes populated with Genie suggestions that are totally useless and are impossible to get rid of. Well, you can get rid of them but more appear in their place.

Also, when the app says the time you're clicking on is 10:15 am, for example, it'd be nice if the time you end up getting is also 10:15 am, and, if it's not, there should be a huge boldface warning that in fact the time you're getting is 6:30 pm.

Under the new park-based system, it's my understanding that if you buy a one-park G+ and then decide to upgrade to the multi-park G+, you end up basically buying it twice and having to go to Guest Services to get the refund for the difference. This is nuts. You should just pay the price difference between your one-park G+ and the multi-park G+ upfront. This seems quite fixable to me unless it's being done on purpose in the hopes that enough people won't bother getting their money back so that WDW will make even more $.

And as long as we're wishing, I'd like them to go back to a fixed price for G+. Because it's impossible to budget for it, since it could be anything on any given day.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree to going back to the standby lines with no Genie+ or FP+. It was so nice when they first re-opened and that was the only option.

We rarely used FP or FP+ because we are not planners and don't like being tied down to having to be anywhere at a specific time (rarely but ADRs in advance either, usually day of about 2 or 3 hours out). I've been a number of times since Genie+ and have not used it and have always been able to ride everything I've wanted to by having hoppers.

I would say, for us, the only way we would pay for it would be if it was just having it and being able to ride whatever, whenever sort of like they do at Universal. I understand it is much more expensive there but we just don't like all the trouble of having to be planned out. When we used FP it would be while we were standing in line for a ride and only if there was something available no later than 30 min. from when we thought we would get off the ride and something that we wanted to ride anyway.

 

[dani0608]

Well I found Genie+ absolutely useless. Buying it when you booked Park Reservations would make sense then the morning you go pick the ones you want to go on, even choosing the night before would preferable . You should be able to make Lightening Pass reservations for all 3 at once as long as they are 90 min after the time frame for the prior ride Without having to have rode the 1st to make the next reservation. If it is raining,or like me today, gave times the app had to know wouldn’t work as we had an Extra at Disney Springs and it was on the Genie page. They need to refund money or give people the option to use it at another time or even in Disneyland or California Adventure. Over $100 spent and 1 ride twice.

 

[Miffy]

Well I found Genie+ absolutely useless. Buying it when you booked Park Reservations would make sense then the morning you go pick the ones you want to go on, even choosing the night before would preferable . You should be able to make Lightening Pass reservations for all 3 at once as long as they are 90 min after the time frame for the prior ride Without having to have rode the 1st to make the next reservation. If it is raining,or like me today, gave times the app had to know wouldn’t work as we had an Extra at Disney Springs and it was on the Genie page. They need to refund money or give people the option to use it at another time or even in Disneyland or California Adventure. Over $100 spent and 1 ride twice.

If you're still there, it'd be worth a try to go to Guest Services (the blue Guest Experience Team umbrellas, if you're in a park) and explain to them your situation. There's no guarantee they'd refund your money, but it's possible they might. I'd give it a try, anyway.

If you're staying on-site and you're not in a park anymore, try the front desk to see if they can do anything for you. $100+ is way too much to spend for such a small return.

G+ can work, but you have to be strategic about it. I've been using it pretty much since it started and I still often can't decide how to best utilize it for any specific park.

ETA: I'm pretty sure there's a Guest Services location at the Springs, if you're still there.

 

[DisneyFive]

I tried posting this in the "Everything Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane" thread but was suggested to post it here. I'll go back and look at all the previous posts in this thread, but for now....

My thoughts are just speculation (and I could be completely wrong) but here goes...

I think the big question is whether these prebooked attractions will stand within, or outside of purchased G+? This really determines how this will play out.

1) I don't think Disney is going back to allowing you to prepurchase G+ for your entire stay before you arrive. I think they like the dynamic pricing of G+ and I don't think that would work with prepurchase (but who knows). I also think guests like the ability NOT to purchase G+ on certain days (Animal Kingdom I'm looking at you)
On the other hand, it's kind of hard to see how this will playout if Disney doesn't know you are going to purchase G+ for each day of your stay.
2) Having said that, if you are staying onsite I think they will allow at least one G+ to be booked, per day, prior to your stay. How this will work get's complicated though...
Will these prebooked G+ selections exist whether you purchase G+ for that day or not? i.e. will you get that prebooked G+ selection as a perk of booking onsite, or will it be available to all guests?
What if you prebook G+ selections but then don't purchase G+ for that day?
3) How many days prior will they let you select your G+ selections. Personally I would be fine with something like 2 weeks (rather than the 'ol 60 or 30 day windows). This will help non planners have a more level playing field and maybe stop some of the complaining in the past with the old FP+ system.
Either way, the ability to prebook your first G+ attraction may take away probably my most loathed aspect of G+, which is waking up at 7am each day to book your first attraction! For instance, at HS (assuming a 9am park opening) if I was able to prebook TOT for 9-10 for instance I can finally sleep in and not have to get to the ride until the end of that ToT G+ window, say 9:55am.
The big question then, if you purchase G+ for that day, when can you book your next attraction. Will it allow it as soon as you tap into ToT, or 2 hours after park open?

Anyway, just some random thoughts. I'm VERY excited to see how this plays out as we are big planners and were HUGE fans of the previous FP+ and the ability to prebook 3 per day 60 days before arrival.

 

[Upatnoon]

I tried posting this in the "Everything Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane" thread but was suggested to post it here. I'll go back and look at all the previous posts in this thread, but for now....

My thoughts are just speculation (and I could be completely wrong) but here goes...

I think the big question is whether these prebooked attractions will stand within, or outside of purchased G+? This really determines how this will play out.

1) I don't think Disney is going back to allowing you to prepurchase G+ for your entire stay before you arrive. I think they like the dynamic pricing of G+ and I don't think that would work with prepurchase (but who knows). I also think guests like the ability NOT to purchase G+ on certain days (Animal Kingdom I'm looking at you)
On the other hand, it's kind of hard to see how this will playout if Disney doesn't know you are going to purchase G+ for each day of your stay.
2) Having said that, if you are staying onsite I think they will allow at least one G+ to be booked, per day, prior to your stay. How this will work get's complicated though...
Will these prebooked G+ selections exist whether you purchase G+ for that day or not? i.e. will you get that prebooked G+ selection as a perk of booking onsite, or will it be available to all guests?
What if you prebook G+ selections but then don't purchase G+ for that day?
3) How many days prior will they let you select your G+ selections. Personally I would be fine with something like 2 weeks (rather than the 'ol 60 or 30 day windows). This will help non planners have a more level playing field and maybe stop some of the complaining in the past with the old FP+ system.
Either way, the ability to prebook your first G+ attraction may take away probably my most loathed aspect of G+, which is waking up at 7am each day to book your first attraction! For instance, at HS (assuming a 9am park opening) if I was able to prebook TOT for 9-10 for instance I can finally sleep in and not have to get to the ride until the end of that ToT G+ window, say 9:55am.
The big question then, if you purchase G+ for that day, when can you book your next attraction. Will it allow it as soon as you tap into ToT, or 2 hours after park open?

Anyway, just some random thoughts. I'm VERY excited to see how this plays out as we are big planners and were HUGE fans of the previous FP+ and the ability to prebook 3 per day 60 days before arrival.

They could just start G+ when the park opens and require you to be in the park to start using it. That will end the "sleeping in" argument.

It would be great if they could test some of these things and see what happens. It is hard to know what will work the best until thousands of people are doing it.

 

[DisneyFive]

They could just start G+ when the park opens and require you to be in the park to start using it. That will end the "sleeping in" argument.

It would be great if they could test some of these things and see what happens. It is hard to know what will work the best until thousands of people are doing it.

It would help a little with sleeping in, but I can't imagine everyone tripping over each other when they have just entered the park only to look down staring at their phones trying to get their first G+ selection. I want to enjoy my walk down main street, or the other entrances to the park.

Oh I miss the days of being able to prebook my first attraction and not having to get to that first attraction until 10-10:30am. This was especially important in the 2nd half of our 8-10 night stays after a number of long park days.

 

[Lumpy1106]

The problem we found wasn't with G+, but it was the standby lines if you chose not to get it. Take EPCOT for example; it's got all of 4 rides you would use it on (TT2, Frozen, Soarin', RAT) and if you RD or have EMH, you can cut that down to to 2 - That's not worth it at any cost. You easily have enough time to wait in those lines and see everything you want to see.

EXCEPT...
The standby lines are AWFUL! Take Frozen - before G+ you were lucky to hear 2 of the gags in Oaken's cabin. Now you move so slow that you can hear his entire loop of gags while you are STANDING in the cabin, and there's all of maybe a dozen people in the cabin at any time. You are literally not moving for long periods. That is just SOOO draining! A total day-killer. So I guess that leaves you buying G+ in defense? That's insane. Without G+ everyone could ride everything they want during the day and the waits would all be tolerable. Not anymore.

How to fix it? Scrap it - completely. Any ride that is an LL right now should be a VQ. Keep the LLs for those who are just too lazy to get up to get the VQ. If you want to sleep in, go ahead. The price of doing so is the LL, or you don't ride the LL rides. I'd expand the LL rides a little;
DHS - Rise, Slinky
DAK - FoP
Epcot - Guardians
MK - Tron, maybe PP or 7DMT - I wouldn't do all 3.

All of those rides are VQ/LL only, everything else is standby only. Obviously you'd have to have more than one VQ drop a day. All the same, that would reduce all standby lines to an hour or less, and those waits would be far more tolerable.

 

[DisneyFive]

The problem we found wasn't with G+, but it was the standby lines if you chose not to get it. Take EPCOT for example; it's got all of 4 rides you would use it on (TT2, Frozen, Soarin', RAT) and if you RD or have EMH, you can cut that down to to 2 - That's not worth it at any cost. You easily have enough time to wait in those lines and see everything you want to see.

EXCEPT...
The standby lines are AWFUL! Take Frozen - before G+ you were lucky to hear 2 of the gags in Oaken's cabin. Now you move so slow that you can hear his entire loop of gags while you are STANDING in the cabin, and there's all of maybe a dozen people in the cabin at any time. You are literally not moving for long periods. That is just SOOO draining! A total day-killer. So I guess that leaves you buying G+ in defense? That's insane. Without G+ everyone could ride everything they want during the day and the waits would all be tolerable. Not anymore.

How to fix it? Scrap it - completely. Any ride that is an LL right now should be a VQ. Keep the LLs for those who are just too lazy to get up to get the VQ. If you want to sleep in, go ahead. The price of doing so is the LL, or you don't ride the LL rides. I'd expand the LL rides a little;
DHS - Rise, Slinky
DAK - FoP
Epcot - Guardians
MK - Tron, maybe PP or 7DMT - I wouldn't do all 3.

All of those rides are VQ/LL only, everything else is standby only. Obviously you'd have to have more than one VQ drop a day. All the same, that would reduce all standby lines to an hour or less, and those waits would be far more tolerable.

Do you mean the VQ would be free, and if you missed it you would pay for the LL? I like the idea of free LL's again, like the 'ol FP+ days.

Otherwise having a VQ for all the LL's is the same as how G+ works today. It also doesn't solve one of the big problems with G+, getting up at 7am every day of your vacation. Grabbing a G+ selection is just like VQ except you get a time window instead of a boarding group. When G+ runs out, it runs out, just like with VQ. Most rides don't need a VQ because the demand just isn't there, even for the really popular rides like Space Mountain. Taking SM as an example the VQ wouldn't close for many hours, just like it is with G+.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Do you mean the VQ would be free, and if you missed it you would pay for the LL? I like the idea of free LL's again, like the 'ol FP+ days.

Otherwise having a VQ for all the LL's is the same as how G+ works today. It also doesn't solve one of the big problems with G+, getting up at 7am every day of your vacation. Grabbing a G+ selection is just like VQ except you get a time window instead of a boarding group. When G+ runs out, it runs out, just like with VQ. Most rides don't need a VQ because the demand just isn't there, even for the really popular rides like Space Mountain. Taking SM as an example the VQ wouldn't close for many hours, just like it is with G+.

I mean like TRON and Guardians is right now. Yes, the first drop is at 7a, but there is also an 11a drop. These are just details though - subject to change. Still, you don't just walk on the ride when you show up at your VQ time - you still have to wait, but that wait is tolerable - 30 minutes, an hour max. It's the +2 hour lines and the standby lines that just crawl that I find are comple day killers. VQ solves that, and you don't need it for every ride - just one or two in each park. THE OTHER RIDES WOULD NOT HAVE +HOUR LONG LINES WITHOUT G+!!

I really feel like this video should be mandatory for anyone posting on this thread. Spoiler alert - FP+ and really G+ doesn't work because too many people are trying to use it. I actually saw a couple in the Guardians line wearing Shapeland shirts. ISWYDT!

 

[DisneyFive]

I mean like TRON and Guardians is right now. Yes, the first drop is at 7a, but there is also an 11a drop. These are just details though - subject to change. Still, you don't just walk on the ride when you show up at your VQ time - you still have to wait, but that wait is tolerable - 30 minutes, an hour max. It's the +2 hour lines and the standby lines that just crawl that I find are comple day killers. VQ solves that, and you don't need it for every ride - just one or two in each park. THE OTHER RIDES WOULD NOT HAVE +HOUR LONG LINES WITHOUT G+!!

I really feel like this video should be mandatory for anyone posting on this thread. Spoiler alert - FP+ and really G+ doesn't work because too many people are trying to use it. I actually saw a couple in the Guardians line wearing Shapeland shirts. ISWYDT!

Yeah, I've watched that video a while ago and I remember noting at the time that some of the analysis had some flaws. Overall I really appreciate the effort that went into making it. I do agree with the general premise that in order to make it work even better they need more capacity for FP+ (more rides utilizing it, higher ride throughput, etc...)

Folks can say all they want that FP and G+ don't work, but I can tell you from 13 years of Disney World vacations that it does indeed work. You just need to use it, and use it properly.

We visited for 10 nights in the summer of 2021 when everything was standby only. That was the only time we visited when legacy FP, FP+ or G+ wasn't available. It was pretty terrible. We vowed never to return until some sort of FP system came back. Despite our best efforts we rode far less attractions during our stay than usual, and stood in lines far longer. We had very little time to do other things like shop or just enjoy the parks. We were standing in lines so much. I walked away from that particular vacation saying the value of our trip was at least 25% less due to no FP. That's saying a lot when the vacation is ~$10,000.

Last summer we did 8 nights with G+, and despite it's flaws it was a game changer versus standby only. We felt like we had our Disney World back.

Just remember, Disney implemented FP in 1999 due to the #1 complaint at the time. LONG LINES. Once FP was introduced, guests loved it and park attendance immediately started to increase. Eventually Disney became a victim of it's own FP success, but I would argue that it never got to the point that FP or FP+ was broken. We absolutely loved it all the way up until the pandemic.

Dan

 

[DisneyFive]

Re. the official blog post... "We have heard from guests that they would like ways to plan with Disney Genie+ service and individual Lightning Lane selections before the day of their park visit, and we want you to know we are working on ways guests may do this for visits in 2024. Our goal is to give you the opportunity to spend less time planning in the park and more time enjoying your visit with friends and family. While we are not yet able to share specific details, we look forward to sharing more information at a later date."

Getting back to my question though...

Now that they've stated it, any idea how you think they will implement the pre-booking G+ next year? I know it's all speculation, but sometimes it's fun to speculate.

For us, being able to book even one G+ attraction (and time) each day prior to our arrival would be a massive improvement. That could help eliminate the G+ need to be up at 7am, although it still leaves the 7am VQ for Tron and Guardians.

I just wonder how they will know you are going to purchase G+? Or maybe if you're onsite you will get one free G+ selection daily regardless of whether or not to purchase G+? I have a hard time seeing that happen with their money hungriness right now.

I suppose they could charge you upfront to prebook attractions each day. So, say 30 days out you choose to pay $5 per prebooked attraction (limited to TBD number of prebooks per day) per day or something like that.

However, with park attendance down it does seem to be catching up to them. Maybe they will do this as an incentive to return.

Who knows.

 

[rdevans_2000]

I know this has been discussed in various topics but I didn't see one topic just for how you would fix genie+

It is apparent genie+ is here to stay and disney has no problem changing how it works. Is there anything they could do that would make it "worth it" for you?

I will start with my opinions. First off I am now an annual passholder(once they came back again) and I have been lucky enough to go to disney 3 times since the parks reopened. So my usage of Genie+ might be different than yours. My wife and I primarily use it just so we don't have to wait in lines, and so we can do the things we want to do in a shorter period of time. When we travel we go for 4-5 days, so shorter trips, but we try and pack as much in as possible. Our focus is not to do every ride, or attraction since we know we will be coming back, but we want to get into the parks, have fun, then go and do some other things outside of the parks, or at a different park. Said another way, we use genie+ to try and get done in 4-6 hours what might take us all day to do if we didn't have genie+

For us what would work really well is the ability to buy genie+ before our trip, one less thing to worry about. I would not want to be forced to get it for every day of our trip, but it would be nice to have the option to buy it day by day, just ahead of time, think like dining reservations 60 days in advance.

I would also want to have the ability to prebook 1 attraction. Just basically to get a head start, so you don't have to be up at 7 AM booking things. The whole being up at 7 AM on vacation is not fun to me and the worst part of genie+

I think the ability to modify as it is works well. I think the rest of the system works reasonably well, just if we could get away from having to be up at 7 am to book your first lighting lane would make this so much better I think.

What do you think? What changes would you like to see for Genie+?

Good thread! It's fun to dream, knowing that it's unlikely Disney will ever change something to make it easier and more guest friendly if it costs them money to do so. But here goes: 1. pre booking at least one attraction per day of your trip (maybe 60 days out) 2. an overhaul of the entire system that makes it far less complicated. 3. Make it more expensive. I know that last one will make some people go "WHAT!?!?", but hear me out. Universal is usually $100 to $150 per day per guest. If Disney could find the right balance of price and demand, meaning they still make the same revenue each year as they do now, only those who really wanted to splurge, like a family coming once every five or ten years, could do so but everyone else goes to the standby line. This would greatly lower the slow down to the stand by line currently caused by the Lightening Lane.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Simple raise the price for anyone not staying on property!

Allow anyone staying on property to book 48 hours prior.

Included it for all deluxe resorts as a value added service

Prorated discounts for the value and moderate resorts

 

[Nick6300]

We sort of experimented/tried to not use G+, after only using it about 50% of the time previously.

We're typically 7 nights/8 days, so having the length on our side plus this past trip being lower census (early Sept.), we only bought it once for our 8 days (about $50 for 2?) for a MK/EP day and also never paid for an ILL. We used 10 LL that day, but a few of the last ones were just to try to pile on more/not really needed. We just tried to use shows, lower demand attractions on busier wknds, and multiple tries with PH and RD to avoid paying for G+. So far, I'm really trying to avoid paying for it, especially as it's moved on from the $15.90 per. Not looking forward to being faced with higher crowds when we go at a different time of year, with less patient family members.

Granted I went by myself... but it was interesting how much hampered I am with a group, given solo at MK or even HS, I got through every attraction I aimed for pretty quickly with RD.

Increasing the price for offsite is intriguing, and would provide an onsite incentive to replace other ones that have gone away like airport shuttles. The 30 min early entry is an advantage over offsite, but really, everyone was allowed in even earlier previously, so it's only good relative to not having it. They could make it an hour to make that incentive bigger, but at the price of more labor hours.