And this is why Diaper Genie is a big problem.,,

[MaryKatesMom]

Could just do it the old-timey way and (gasp) stand in line.

Spoken like someone without (gasp) severe arthritis.

Standing for more than 15 minutes is unbearable. Many others are in the same boat. Had no problem waiting years ago but I try not to be judgmental.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Spoken like someone without (gasp) severe arthritis.

Standing for more than 15 minutes is unbearable. Many others are in the same boat. Had no problem waiting years ago but I try not to be judgmental.

You may wish to consider renting a scooter if 15 minutes is the limit you're able to wait due to health challenges. It is often rare at Disney to be in a line that is less than 15 minutes.

A quick glance at MDE currently shows 26 attractions with a wait of 15 mins or less and 38 attractions with wait times greater than 15 mins. This is across all parks but this is also not an extremely busy week.

My mom also deals with arthritis and the only way she can enjoy Disney is to rent a scooter and she has done this for a number of years even though she doesn't use one anywhere else.

 

[raidermatt]

I guess you didn't use Fastpass + to your advantage because I was still on my phone refreshing just as much to get additional fast passes after I used my first 3.

I do agree that the 7am start is something that I don't really care for even though my family is up before that time anyway even on vacation. I would like the ability to pick my Genie + return time however it didn't seem to interfere with any of our dining or lunch reservations the last time we used it.

Not really following your first comment. Once I was eligible to make a 4th FP+, I went in and chose the ride and the time slot. Did not have to refresh at all. Now, if an attraction was completely sold out, yes, you would have to keep refreshing just in case something appeared. But you didn't have to refresh just to try to get a different time slot.

That's great that your return times never interfered with your dining reservations, causing you to have to refresh and try for different times. Hopefully you understand it can happen though, and often does.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Could just do it the old-timey way and (gasp) stand in line.

Sure, except that the paid line skipping systems make the normal standby lines artificially long. So you can't really do it the old-timey way where everyone had equal chance to wait in line.

So if I don’t play along I’m at a huge disadvantage even though I paid just as much for my ticket. So if I’m going to choose to keep paying to go into the parks, I’ll choose to use the systems to my advantage. If someone wants to keep it simple and do all standby they’re welcome to.

 

[Pommau]

Sure, except that the paid line skipping systems make the normal standby lines artificially long. So you can't really do it the old-timey way where everyone had equal chance to wait in line.

So if I don’t play along I’m at a huge disadvantage even though I paid just as much for my ticket. So if I’m going to choose to keep paying to go into the parks, I’ll choose to use the systems to my advantage. If someone wants to keep it simple and do all standby they’re welcome to.

At this point in time I feel like getting rid of any skip the line system would be better than Genie+ currently is. Add more single rider lanes! Have alerts for lower/decreasing wait times (no idea if Genie can do this its been forever since my stay)!

You're not the only one in that dilemma, I think Disney released an update saying 2/3rds of their guest opt to use Genie+/ILL during their stays. Wish that didn't have to be the case!

 

[BamaGuy44]

At this point in time I feel like getting rid of any skip the line system would be better than Genie+ currently is. Add more single rider lanes! Have alerts for lower/decreasing wait times (no idea if Genie can do this its been forever since my stay)!

You're not the only one in that dilemma, I think Disney released an update saying 2/3rds of their guest opt to use Genie+/ILL during their stays. Wish that didn't have to be the case!

I'm actually fine with Genie+ as a system. I don't mind paying extra to wait in line less, and I like it much better than FP+. If my only option was normal standby with the current crowd levels, the parks wouldn't have much appeal to me.

With Universal's system, you basically pay double the cost if you want their Express Pass system, and I'm happy to do it. We just stay at one of the hotels that includes it, but same concept. You pay more, you get more. I wish Disney offered something similar. Pay double but basically not have to wait in any lines? With no booking times at 7 am in a glitchy app or sell outs or any of that nonsense? Sign me up.

 

[Pommau]

I'm actually fine with Genie+ as a system. I don't mind paying extra to wait in line less, and I like it much better than FP+. If my only option was normal standby with the current crowd levels, the parks wouldn't have much appeal to me.

With Universal's system, you basically pay double the cost if you want their Express Pass system, and I'm happy to do it. We just stay at one of the hotels that includes it, but same concept. You pay more, you get more. I wish Disney offered something similar. Pay double but basically not have to wait in any lines? With no booking times at 7 am in a glitchy app or sell outs or any of that nonsense? Sign me up.

I liked the FP+ system only cause it made scheduling everything less of a nightmare. I also think Universal's system would have been a better paid replacement for FP+, especially since that would give guests in deluxe resorts access to those perks.

I think where genie+ fails is in the fact that you have to buy it midnight day of, then be up and ready at 7 to get your one fastpass that's probably at 3 in the afternoon. Disney should really be taking notes from Universal on paid skip the line services.

Heck, just bring back the old walk up fast pass system and charge me the 15 dollars per day, that system worked decently enough!

 

[raidermatt]

...Chapek, no matter how much y'all hate him, is right. Until demand for their parks dies, there is no reason for them to stop the price increases and perks removal. They are making more money off less people, however even that crowd is starting to be more and more disgruntled with the changes.

Wait for the market to crash, then I think Disney will start dropping the prices like flies.

The problem with Chapek's strategy is it assumes any customers you lose in the short term will automatically return when you try to get them back. It also assumes any customers attending now won't be turned off by what they find. Doesn't work that way. There are a lot of adages claiming a lot of different numbers, but bottom line, it is a lot easier to keep an existing customer than it is to get one back once you have lost them.

So we won't know if Chapek is really right until if/when the circumstances change enough for Disney to react. Only then will we know if Chapek is doing more long term financial damage than good.

 

[Genie+]

…a lot easier to keep an existing customer than it is to get one back once you have lost them…

So true. And it’s never good business to repeatedly tick off clients. Especially when rough times lurk ahead with recessions and sparkly new Epic Uni.

They don’t seem overly concerned. Prices higher than ever and yet solid demand. If demand eases it won’t hurt them much to offer deals. I think they’re banking on this. There’s been hardly any special promotions. Disney is holding it like a card up their sleeve. When necessary they can attract a lot of people back with free dining, ticket promos, serious room offers, etc.

Time will tell how much damage the loss of goodwill and consumer confidence does to the brand.

 

[reddog21]

Not really following your first comment. Once I was eligible to make a 4th FP+, I went in and chose the ride and the time slot. Did not have to refresh at all. Now, if an attraction was completely sold out, yes, you would have to keep refreshing just in case something appeared. But you didn't have to refresh just to try to get a different time slot.

That's great that your return times never interfered with your dining reservations, causing you to have to refresh and try for different times. Hopefully you understand it can happen though, and often does.

You definitely had to refresh to get a different time slot with fastpass +. If I used my 3 fastpasses for the day and I wanted to go on say Haunted Mansion but the app return time was 8pm and it's only 1pm I would keep refreshing the app until a time I wanted popped up which is no different than Genie +. If you don't like the time Genie + gives you back out refresh and new time will pop up. If you check the app and by some miracle you find the ride and time you want then of course you never had to refresh however I generally never found myself among those people. I find that I actually check my app less with Genie+ because of the 2 hour rule which I'm pretty sure didn't exist with fastpass+.

It absolutely can happen which is why the blue umbrella has a giant line most of the time. That's a problem that really needs to be addressed t's hard enough to get dining reservations to restaurants you want now you have to worry about having to wait in line to fix genie + reservation.....bad design.

 

[Pommau]

You definitely had to refresh to get a different time slot with fastpass +. If I used my 3 fastpasses for the day and I wanted to go on say Haunted Mansion but the app return time was 8pm and it's only 1pm I would keep refreshing the app until a time I wanted popped up which is no different than Genie +. If you don't like the time Genie + gives you back out refresh and new time will pop up. If you check the app and by some miracle you find the ride and time you want then of course you never had to refresh however I generally never found myself among those people. I find that I actually check my app less with Genie+ because of the 2 hour rule which I'm pretty sure didn't exist with fastpass+.

It absolutely can happen which is why the blue umbrella has a giant line most of the time. That's a problem that really needs to be addressed t's hard enough to get dining reservations to restaurants you want now you have to worry about having to wait in line to fix genie + reservation.....bad design.

Do they not have those little kiosks that they had for FP+ where you could scan into with your magic band and make adjustments there? I always remember using those with no issues when I wanted to add, delete, or change a FP+ reservation.

 

[musicguy856]

Do they not have those little kiosks that they had for FP+ where you could scan into with your magic band and make adjustments there? I always remember using those with no issues when I wanted to add, delete, or change a FP+ reservation.

They removed the kiosks when they launched Genie+.

 

[foolish-mortal]

I never thought I'd feel this way but I have no desire to do another WDW family vacation right now. We went to DL this summer and used Genie + since we only had a few days. I consider myself to be somewhat savvy with Disney planning, the apps, maximizing efficiency...all the things. I'm on the Dis boards, listen to podcasts, etc. Unless you spend 100% of your time doing nothing but trying to maximize the system, it was awful. It took me a good day to figure all of the nuances out. But, we never felt like it really "worked" for us. We just didn't like it much. But, at least at DL things are simpler and on a much smaller scale. I'm going to have a good time no matter what. It certainly didn't ruin our trip - we just weren't fans.

But, WDW is already off the charts with being overly complicated to plan. I feel like there's an above average chance that we could book a trip and 100 things go wrong, we wait in endless lines, miss windows, can't get LL for rides, etc. It just doesn't even appeal to me. It shouldn't be this complicated. Some planning is fun. Needing a textbook and Masters in Statistics to get value out of your vacation is not fun. I'm not taking that kind of a chance with the thousands of dollars that it costs.

We are planning a long weekend this winter and have decided to go to Universal instead of WDW. We can stay at a Premier hotel and go to the front of the line without stressing over all of this.

 

[ciaoaloha31]

Buying a LL and getting a boarding group is a two person job for Guardians. Solo travelers are out of luck booking both.

I was able to book both a boarding group and ILL for Guardians as a solo traveler for both Epcot days of my trip in August. Key is to do boarding group first then the ILL.

 

[Pyxie]

I liked the FP+ system only cause it made scheduling everything less of a nightmare. I also think Universal's system would have been a better paid replacement for FP+, especially since that would give guests in deluxe resorts access to those perks.

There are 8 deluxe resorts at Disney compared to only 3 at Universal, so it wouldn't necessarily work to give a FP system for free to everyone staying in those resorts. It would overload the lines and would also be less of a money maker for Disney with fewer guests having to pay for the system.

I'm personally fine with Genie+ as it is. There are things I'd improve about it, and we'd also prefer it be free (who wouldn't?). But it has worked well for me so I don't really have any huge complaints.

 

[SLThomas318]

I never thought I'd feel this way but I have no desire to do another WDW family vacation right now. We went to DL this summer and used Genie + since we only had a few days. I consider myself to be somewhat savvy with Disney planning, the apps, maximizing efficiency...all the things. I'm on the Dis boards, listen to podcasts, etc. Unless you spend 100% of your time doing nothing but trying to maximize the system, it was awful. It took me a good day to figure all of the nuances out. But, we never felt like it really "worked" for us. We just didn't like it much. But, at least at DL things are simpler and on a much smaller scale. I'm going to have a good time no matter what. It certainly didn't ruin our trip - we just weren't fans.

But, WDW is already off the charts with being overly complicated to plan. I feel like there's an above average chance that we could book a trip and 100 things go wrong, we wait in endless lines, miss windows, can't get LL for rides, etc. It just doesn't even appeal to me. It shouldn't be this complicated. Some planning is fun. Needing a textbook and Masters in Statistics to get value out of your vacation is not fun. I'm not taking that kind of a chance with the thousands of dollars that it costs.

We are planning a long weekend this winter and have decided to go to Universal instead of WDW. We can stay at a Premier hotel and go to the front of the line without stressing over all of this.

Well said... I don't see how Disney doesn't see this?! Who at Disney came up genie+ and thought it was a good idea. It's like they said "how complicated can we make a line-skipping program"

 

[disneyseniors]

Could just do it the old-timey way and (gasp) stand in line.

I hope you didn't say this as a joke because I was at disney when everyone waited in line. The lines moved all the time; no standing for long times. We actually visited with others while in line. No one cut the lines and there was no anger. If you felt the line was too long a wait, then you just went to another attraction. Now it's so complicated.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I hope you didn't say this as a joke because I was at disney when everyone waited in line. The lines moved all the time; no standing for long times. We actually visited with others while in line. No one cut the lines and there was no anger. If you felt the line was too long a wait, then you just went to another attraction. Now it's so complicated.

Oh, I know. I was surprised how much G+ affected omni-movers in particular. Both HM and Buzz NOTICIBLY stopped when they would get a surge of G+ - and for uncomfortable amounts of time.

My comment was really to the OPs dilemma of not being able to schedule the LL for a time that worked with their reservation in another park. You have full flexibility about when you stand in line - that kinda solves that problem (though yes, now it is an investment in time and the LL was already paid for - I get that).

Wow emotions run deep on this. I touched a nerve on this one and it was just one snarky (though, I swear, innocent) comment...

 

[Pommau]

They removed the kiosks when they launched Genie+.

That's unfortunate, the kiosks worked great when our phones weren't!

 

[godfather927]

It’s because the 5000 people who booked at 7am (going in blind mind you because you can’t see the return times for the first 30 minutes) are all at once booking their 10:30s. The same issue that happened at 7am now happens at 10:30. Now you know why Disney made return times blind in the morning. My suggestion is that if you truly cannot make this time, cancel and refresh. Something is bound to come up. You can complain, bit it’s not changing and everyone plays by the same rules.

Wait what does this mean? I haven't followed the changes to G+ since our trip in April, what's this about blind return times in at 7am, and a new window at 10:30am?