Any travel agents (or guests) have a hint as to when Genie is starting?

[ellbell]

I just can't see Disney not providing a notice of at least a couple of weeks for official Genie+ launch. I'm on board for the change, but I would be very frustrated if I had a client who was ON THEIR TRIP armed with the plans I created for them and the information I provided for how to navigate their trip, only to have that turned upside down with no notice in the middle of their vacation. Considering that they even provided adequate notice for RoTR returning to standby to give people time to adjust their plans, I find it unlikely that they would change the ENTIRE way that their parks operate overnight. That would just be a terrible customer service and optics decision. Of course, you never know. I guess we'll see!

I don't put anything past Disney anymore. They will do what they want, when they want and the masses will comply.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I don't put anything past Disney anymore. They will do what they want, when they want and the masses will comply.

37 out of the last 39 days WDW has been crowd level 1 per touringplans. The other 2 days (Labor Day weekend) were crowd level 2's. That is completely ahistorical, and a similar phenomenon is not being seen at Universal. The masses do not appear to be complying right now and I think Disney is in trouble.

 

[ellbell]

37 out of the last 39 days WDW has been crowd level 1 per touringplans. The other 2 days (Labor Day weekend) were crowd level 2's. That is completely ahistorical, and a similar phenomenon is not being seen at Universal. The masses do not appear to be complying right now and I think Disney is in trouble.

Yet people are having trouble booking disney resort rooms for November, December and further. TBH I don't think the low waits are because of Disney. The 4th wave is more likely the issue. Not to mention that travelling internationally isn't happening and all the overseas visitors who generally come this time of year aren't there. I was there labour day weekend and it was plenty crowded.

 

[Cynner]

37 out of the last 39 days WDW has been crowd level 1 per touringplans. The other 2 days (Labor Day weekend) were crowd level 2's. That is completely ahistorical, and a similar phenomenon is not being seen at Universal. The masses do not appear to be complying right now and I think Disney is in trouble.

Universal also has super low crowds, not sure why you think they aren’t.

 

[notatallmagic]

I just dont understand the people who say they are struggling. Some folks act like they can't go on vacation without being able to plan every single second of their trip. Disney is likely NOT going to announce it in advance so their first few days (when major kinks will need to be worked out) won't have a stampede of people outside the gates at 4am. Plan your trip with the info you have now and if something changes, address it then. All this worrying and stressing and wondering is wasted energy and you're just making yourself miserable.

I accept that many people DON'T have to plan, but some of us do. When you are traveling in a large group; or have several folks in your travel party with a disability or food allergies, or mobility issues or multiple ages... or all of the above...you DO have to plan, and plan quite a bit.

Please appreciate that you are blessed with the ability to be spontaneous, and don't be dismissive and insulting of those of us who no longer have that ablility.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Yet people are having trouble booking disney resort rooms for November, December and further. TBH I don't think the low waits are because of Disney. The 4th wave is more likely the issue. Not to mention that travelling internationally isn't happening and all the overseas visitors who generally come this time of year aren't there. I was there labour day weekend and it was plenty crowded.

In the same time period that Disney was all crowd level 1’s UOR on touringplans ranged as high as crowd level 8’s.

 

[ellbell]

In the same time period that Disney was all crowd level 1’s UOR on touringplans ranged as high as crowd level 8’s.

I was there too and it wasn't crowded at all. I had ridden everything in each park by noon. People aren't travelling right now.

 

[circus4u]

37 out of the last 39 days WDW has been crowd level 1 per touringplans. The other 2 days (Labor Day weekend) were crowd level 2's. That is completely ahistorical, and a similar phenomenon is not being seen at Universal. The masses do not appear to be complying right now and I think Disney is in trouble.

Maybe they are waiting until the 50th kick off. Be interesting to see what happens from October forward.

 

[CBMom01]

I didn't see anything being a good enough reason to line up 3-4 hours before the park opens, but literally hundreds of thousands of people did over months and months, so clearly I don't understand park-goers these days! I didn't say it made sense for them to line up early, I just made an assumption about why the OP referenced it.

I did it twice for Jedi Training. It was almost fun but wouldn’t want to make it a regular thing

 

[Venelope21]

I’ve been thinking the same thing, that Disney HAD to give some sort of advance notice so people can plan. While it’s on the historic slow side I think they’ll roll it out sooner rather than later and ideally before the 1st to work out the kinks, giving the bloggers etc a chance to use it before madness descends. I know it’s a big change, but maybe they’re of the mindset that guests have already been living without fastpass for a year and a half and will still have the option to wait in a standby line post genie. They’ve cutdown how many fast passes you can have at once, and it doesn’t seem (?) like there is overlap between the Advanced Lightening vs Genie + in terms of the attractions. Hopefully this cuts down on the ratio of LL guests to Standby guests since theoretically there’s less passes out there. They’ll be able to spread guests out in the park by recommending attractions you’ve selected when the wait times are lower. And although I was personally a victim to the site crash this morning to make ADR, they seemed to have figured something out with the RoR virtual queue that’s gone within seconds. All of this is really wishful thinking, but I’m hoping this is a good thing and it rolls out soon.

 

[Jross34]

37 out of the last 39 days WDW has been crowd level 1 per touringplans. The other 2 days (Labor Day weekend) were crowd level 2's. That is completely ahistorical, and a similar phenomenon is not being seen at Universal. The masses do not appear to be complying right now and I think Disney is in trouble.

well I don’t really trust these crowd levels, I was there Labor Day weekend and it was packed, like I could barely move in some places, and splash mountain got up to almost a 2 hour wait. I don’t know what a crowd level higher than 2 is then but I sure wouldn’t want to be there then.

 

[LSUmiss]

well I don’t really trust these crowd levels, I was there Labor Day weekend and it was packed, like I could barely move in some places, and splash mountain got up to almost a 2 hour wait. I don’t know what a crowd level higher than 2 is then but I sure wouldn’t want to be there then.

I was there then too but also in July & May & it was way less crowded than May & July. In July, almost everything had an hour wait in most parks most of the day.

 

[Q-man]

well I don’t really trust these crowd levels, I was there Labor Day weekend and it was packed, like I could barely move in some places, and splash mountain got up to almost a 2 hour wait. I don’t know what a crowd level higher than 2 is then but I sure wouldn’t want to be there then.

Splash is crazy because it is being closed 'soon' and transformed to Princess and the Frog.

Disney has so slashed operating hours and staffing that the waits aren't too different during low crowds these days. Are they still spacing people out on rides?

 

[SkyGuy]

Splash is crazy because it is being closed 'soon' and transformed to Princess and the Frog.

Disney has so slashed operating hours and staffing that the waits aren't too different during low crowds these days. Are they still spacing people out on rides?

No, no spacing out on rides, and they’ll fill in that empty spot next to you if you’re part of an odd numbered group. Fill in all available space in the stretching room of HM and in the recording room of RocknRoller Coaster. The only time I didn’t have someone extra with our party was during an off time on the skyliner and when I was a single rider on People Mover. (This was last week.)

 

[Joe in VA]

I was there too and it wasn't crowded at all. I had ridden everything in each park by noon. People aren't travelling right now.

Not true. 2M+ through TSA checkpoints Sunday, very close to the peak around July 4th and over 80% of 2019 levels which is pretty huge considering how little international travel there is right now.


https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput

 

[ellbell]

Not true. 2M+ through TSA checkpoints Sunday, very close to the peak around July 4th and over 80% of 2019 levels which is pretty huge considering how little international travel there is right now.


https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput

Well they aren't travelling to the theme parks I was at. At least not then.

 

[Roxas_XIII]

Here now and the crowds definitely don't seem like a 1-2. My perception (knowing that perception isn't always accurate) is that the crowds now are similar to past years (2017-2019) when I've gone in November and June, in which days were typically rated on TP as 4-5.

Except those trips were significantly easier to navigate because we had Fastpass.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Disney has so slashed operating hours and staffing that the waits aren't too different during low crowds these days. Are they still spacing people out on rides?

I'm afraid that is a function of Magic Bands and Park Reservations. They now have a great deal of data of crowd levels and attraction ridership.

 

[Disneyliscious]

I accept that many people DON'T have to plan, but some of us do. When you are traveling in a large group; or have several folks in your travel party with a disability or food allergies, or mobility issues or multiple ages... or all of the above...you DO have to plan, and plan quite a bit.

Please appreciate that you are blessed with the ability to be spontaneous, and don't be dismissive and insulting of those of us who no longer have that ablility.

I've planned and took trips of of 10+ that spanned 3 generations in age for nearly 2 decades. We've ate at most of the character meals and gotten hard to get ADR's (or we didn't) and never once have I struggled. I have still never ridden Navi, FoP, 7DmT, etc (despite numerous trips [re-covid) due to not getting FP's and not once did I struggle. Initially I couldnt get a BoG reservation and not once did I struggle.

Let Down? Sure
Disappointed? Slightly
Struggle? No

If any part of a vacation ever causes me to struggle, I need to take a step back and reassess my situation. There are just too many other places to eat and things to do to have to struggle.

 

[PepperjackDragon]

Did you quote the wrong person? The quote you responded to was talking about how, due to having people with various medical conditions and disabilities, planning is an important element to a successful trip. I went back and searched the previous pages and didn’t find a single use of the word struggle until your post, so your emphasis on not struggling when traveling with large groups was a bit confusing to me….I think ultimatly you are both agreeing that with large groups of people or with those that have disabilities, planning ahead is an essential ingredient to having a successful trip without any major letdowns?