Best Strategy for a trip in 2022? Lower Your Expectations

[Jrb1979]

While it’s great that other parks do not require reservations for attractions, the cost cuts out the majority of guests in order to offer this feature.

E.g. the cost to add express pass today for one day at US Orlando is $329.99!l/ticket!!

I will happily spend time on my phone as I cannot justify that cost for our family.

I understand its hard for many to justify that cost. It's not just the time being on the phone. The biggest issue is not enough availability for everyone for what you pay for. I'm sorry but if I am paying for a skip the line service I want to get more then 3 rides on busy days.

I know people don't like hearing this but there is a reason it costs more at other parks, it's so less people buy it. The ones that do get more out of it. Remember if everyone has FP no has FP

 

[lowlight]

I understand its hard for many to justify that cost. It's not just the time being on the phone. The biggest issue is not enough availability for everyone for what you pay for. I'm sorry but if I am paying for a skip the line service I want to get more then 3 rides on busy days.

I know people don't like hearing this but there is a reason it costs more at other parks, it's so less people buy it. The ones that do get more out of it. Remember if everyone has FP no has FP

The issue is I don't think they could price it out of a lot of Disney visitors hands. If you're spending 10k for a once in a lifetime, once in 5 years, etc. trip, even if it were 100 a day per person, a lot would pay it. Those of us who visit a few times a year wouldn't, but I don't think we're the majority. That's very painful for everyone except Disney.

 

[Jrb1979]

The issue is I don't think they could price it out of a lot of Disney visitors hands. If you're spending 10k for a once in a lifetime, once in 5 years, etc. trip, even if it were 100 a day per person, a lot would pay it. Those of us who visit a few times a year wouldn't, but I don't think we're the majority. That's very painful for everyone except Disney.

Then they have to limit the sales of Genie+ per day. Outside of MK they don't have enough rides for it to work.

 

[lowlight]

Then they have to limit the sales of Genie+ per day. Outside of MK they don't have enough rides for it to work.

Oof, AP's can't even buy Genie+ until day of, so that would be doubly painful. Spin the wheel to see if I can buy it, then spin the wheel to see if I get a ride with it.

 

[DisneyFive]

Then they have to limit the sales of Genie+ per day. Outside of MK they don't have enough rides for it to work.

Then we'll go right back to hearing people complaining that they weren't able to buy G+ because they waited too long to purchase, or they didn't plan ahead... It's the same subset of group of folks that complained about FP+ due to their lack of research and planning.

Also, trying to compare Express Pass to FP or G+ is not applicable. The parks are completely different beasts. You can easily knock out Universal in a day or two. Guests can more easily afford the exorbitant cost of EP because they aren't staying at Universal very long. At WDW guests regularly stay 7+ days. Charging higher rates for a line skipping service just doesn't work at WDW. It quickly prices it out of reach. Then, the higher you charge for something like G+, the more the parks go back to standby only which is clearly not sustainable. The reason that the original FP system was put in place was because the #1 complaint, prior to FP, were long lines. Once paper FP was introduced attendance increased, and increased, ...

Disney is a victim of it's own success in this regard.

Dan

 

[Jrb1979]

Oof, AP's can't even buy Genie+ until day of, so that would be doubly painful. Spin the wheel to see if I can buy it, then spin the wheel to see if I get a ride with it.

That's the thing, for skip the line systems to work well it has to be limited. Cause many people have Genie+ leaves little availability to ride things with it.
Most seem to miss that point. It's why I said many people here either don't go to other parks much or if they do don't buy skip the line passes.

 

[Jrb1979]

Then we'll go right back to hearing people complaining that they weren't able to buy G+ because they waited too long to purchase, or they didn't plan ahead... It's the same subset of group of folks that complained about FP+ due to their lack of research and planning.

Also, trying to compare Express Pass to FP or G+ is not applicable. The parks are completely different beasts. You can easily knock out Universal in a day or two. Guests can more easily afford the exorbitant cost of EP because they aren't staying at Universal very long. At WDW guests regularly stay 7+ days. Charging higher rates for a line skipping service just doesn't work at WDW. It quickly prices it out of reach. Then, the higher you charge for something like G+, the more the parks go back to standby only which is clearly not sustainable. The reason that the original FP system was put in place was because the #1 complaint, prior to FP, were long lines. Once paper FP was introduced attendance increased, and increased, ...

Disney is a victim of it's own success in this regard.

Dan

I disagree with it being the same complaints from the same subset of people. The ones complaining now are the ones who used a spreadsheet to plan a vacation. They can't get the rides they want when they want. It all boils down the the same issue, outside of MK, there isn't enough ride capacity for Genie+ to work.

To put it into perspective Cedar Point has 71 rides and attractions in 1 PARK. Disney has 52 over 4 parks. No wonder Genie+ doesn't work.

 

[Miffy]

For those of you who keep saying that the problem with G+ and ILL$ is that they don't charge enough for them:

If they start charging significantly larger amounts for either or both of these services--say $200/person/day in addition to park admission--a family of 4 planning 6 park days would have to add $4,800 (plus tax!) to an already pricey vacation. Sure, there are people who can afford this, but do they constitute a large enough population of parkgoers that Disney would still have enough people at their resorts, paying park admission, and buying food and souvenirs, etc.?

There's a tipping point somewhere. I come to WDW because I love the entire experience--it's not just about the rides. It's about the resort, the ambience, and the fun of being at WDW. But at $200/day I would be priced out of this skip-the-line service unless I then ditched half of the fun of Disney (the resort) and stayed off-site in much less expensive accommodations. At that point, assuming I'd go at all, Disney would be losing money on me.

As it is, my sister (my usual WDW traveling companion) and I have cut back on many WDW expenditures to make up for the $ we're spending on G+ and ILL$--staying at a lower-priced resort and not have many (or any) TS meals, for example.

Disney must understand this on some level or they would've priced G+ and ILL$ at double or triple their current cost initially.

 

[roctavia]

For those of you who keep saying that the problem with G+ and ILL$ is that they don't charge enough for them:

If they start charging significantly larger amounts for either or both of these services--say $200/person/day in addition to park admission--a family of 4 planning 6 park days would have to add $4,800 (plus tax!) to an already pricey vacation. Sure, there are people who can afford this, but do they constitute a large enough population of parkgoers that Disney would still have enough people at their resorts, paying park admission, and buying food and souvenirs, etc.?

There's a tipping point somewhere. I come to WDW because I love the entire experience--it's not just about the rides. It's about the resort, the ambience, and the fun of being at WDW. But at $200/day I would be priced out of this skip-the-line service unless I then ditched half of the fun of Disney (the resort) and stayed off-site in much less expensive accommodations. At that point, assuming I'd go at all, Disney would be losing money on me.

As it is, my sister (my usual WDW traveling companion) and I have cut back on many WDW expenditures to make up for the $ we're spending on G+ and ILL$--staying at a lower-priced resort and not have many (or any) TS meals, for example.

Disney must understand this on some level or they would've priced G+ and ILL$ at double or triple their current cost initially.

Disney has too many guests for anything like express pass to work... They already have the uber expensive VIP tours, which are close to that extra $5000 and enough people buy those... So they should know that pricing G+ at that high of a price point will cut into the VIP option. Even with it limited by price/only so many sold per day, it will still leave the main complaint that started fast passes in the first place- lines are too long for everyone else who can't buy it.

Disney also has too many guests who would want to pay extra to skip lines, so even as it gets very expensive, people will still pay it and be upset if it's limited they can't get the $200 per day line skip... The price isn't the issue in my opinion... the problem is too many guests and not enough rides/shows etc to keep people occupied. FP+ being free was nice because you could skip some lines, but also if it was a crazy busy time of year and not much was available, it wasn't so frustrating to not get many/any passes because it was free.... G+ seems to cause more frustration and make people even more upset because it's a paid service. Disney didn't do themselves any favors in making this a paid system and implementing it so poorly.

 

[zillayen]

I have to agree. If you pay for the fast line in other parks, does it require having your head in your phone all day to ride? This is the one major thing I'm just not sure I can get past. I'm really open to switching to a park where a cell phone isn't a necessity.

No, and it’s a game-changer. We went to Universal M-W this past week and were at WDW W-F. At Universal we had Express Unlimited and just started at one end of the park and rode whatever we came across that looked interesting, working our way around the park. If we liked a ride a lot we’d re-ride it again immediately. My son and I rode Hulk 4x haha. We did almost every ride in the park and had plenty of time for breaks, the pool, etc.

At WDW we were constantly cris-crossing the park to make a LL time and feeling like we couldn’t do anything spontaneous because we had to be somewhere at a given time or be on the phone right at 1 pm to try to grab another LL.

We did DHS on Friday morning, which was fine, did what we wanted, but then in the evening we opted to drive back over to Universal to ride the couple of non-Express rides we had missed, even though we had park hoppers and could have gone back to any WDW park that night. We converted our UO tickets to passes and are already planning our next trip. My kids don’t want to go back to WDW. When we go, we want to ride rides, we personally don’t get our value out of soaking up ambience or watching shows.

 

[SLThomas318]

So was fastpass+ really “broken” or did Disney just want to monetize line skipping? It feels like this new system didn’t improve anything and has just introduced a whole other set of problems…

 

[Volne]

So was fastpass+ really “broken” or did Disney just want to monetize line skipping? It feels like this new system didn’t improve anything and has just introduced a whole other set of problems…

If you have the time I highly recommend this video on fastpass and why it did/didn't work

 

[Westerner]

If you follow the stacking strategy outlined in the main G+ threads you only have to be on your phone perhaps 4 times total, at defined intervals, not all day.

I was at Universal beginning of March and used Express Pass, and while I loved its flexibility compared to G+, it’s also MUCH more expensive. Also, we often waited 15-30 mins in Express Pass lanes vs 5-10 mins in lightning lane at WDW. It’s a different product.

 

[zillayen]

If you follow the stacking strategy outlined in the main G+ threads you only have to be on your phone perhaps 4 times total, at defined intervals, not all day.

I was at Universal beginning of March and used Express Pass, and while I loved its flexibility compared to G+, it’s also MUCH more expensive. Also, we often waited 15-30 mins in Express Pass lanes vs 5-10 mins in lightning lane at WDW. It’s a different product.

If you stay at a premier resort the express unlimited is included with your room for your full stay. I paid a similar amount per night to stay on property at a Deluxe resort at WDW and my “perks” were 2 EE hours late at night at 2 parks and the privilege of waking up early to pay more for an ILL. It’s definitely a different product.

 

[limegreenpeanut]

If you follow the stacking strategy outlined in the main G+ threads you only have to be on your phone perhaps 4 times total, at defined intervals, not all day.

I was at Universal beginning of March and used Express Pass, and while I loved its flexibility compared to G+, it’s also MUCH more expensive. Also, we often waited 15-30 mins in Express Pass lanes vs 5-10 mins in lightning lane at WDW. It’s a different product.

I would say that yes, to book an LL with Genie + you are only looking at your phone 4 times per day, but add on to that mobile food ordering and checking wait times for rides you couldn’t book with Genie+, and you’re looking at your phone a lot more. There’s also the “fiddle faddle”, or constantly refreshing the app to hopefully find LLs for rides you couldn’t book earlier.

 

[Westerner]

I would say that yes, to book an LL with Genie + you are only looking at your phone 4 times per day, but add on to that mobile food ordering and checking wait times for rides you couldn’t book with Genie+, and you’re looking at your phone a lot more. There’s also the “fiddle faddle”, or constantly refreshing the app to hopefully find LLs for rides you couldn’t book earlier.

I am speaking specifically to the perception that G+ requires you to be on your phone all day.

If you follow the stacking strategy there’s no need to fiddle faddle. Let go of FOMO

Set an alarm every 2 hours, and when it’s time to book, look at the phone to see what’s available and choose the best one. Pinning your top selections in Tip Board helps a lot here.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

I would say that yes, to book an LL with Genie + you are only looking at your phone 4 times per day, but add on to that mobile food ordering and checking wait times for rides you couldn’t book with Genie+, and you’re looking at your phone a lot more. There’s also the “fiddle faddle”, or constantly refreshing the app to hopefully find LLs for rides you couldn’t book earlier.

We stayed at HRH for two nights and went to the park one long day for 13 hours. Absolutely loved everything about it including the early entry and the express passes. The rides were AMAZING. Used my phone to mobile order there and saved ourselves a ton of time - guests were lined up in a long queue, I tapped a few buttons and our lunch was availBle in less than 5 mins. I walked up and got it while all of those people were still standing there! I honestly do not understand why people do not utilize it. LOVE mobile ordering at Disney also. For us, it was a real timesaver.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

I am speaking specifically to the perception that G+ requires you to be on your phone all day.

If you follow the stacking strategy there’s no need to fiddle faddle. Let go of FOMO

Set an alarm every 2 hours, and when it’s time to book, look at the phone to see what’s available and choose the best one. Pinning your top selections in Tip Board helps a lot here.

Absolutely agree with this! Set the timer on my phone, would pick what we wanted and then I’d set another alarm and so on.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

I have been thinking about this thread a lot, reading posts and replying since we were just there.

I am not sure Disney wants to know what people think. Who else remembers from previous trips tons of CMs around the turnstiles with ipads asking if they could ask you a few questions? I remember CMs taking many surveys in person and post-trip surveys after I got home via email. I didn’t receive anything after this trip.

The addition of the blue umbrella Guest Services in the parks speaks volumes to me as well.

 

[ppony]

I have been thinking about this thread a lot, reading posts and replying since we were just there.

I am not sure Disney wants to know what people think. Who else remembers from previous trips tons of CMs around the turnstiles with ipads asking if they could ask you a few questions? I remember CMs taking many surveys in person and post-trip surveys after I got home via email. I didn’t receive anything after this trip.

The addition of the blue umbrella Guest Services in the parks speaks volumes to me as well.

The ONLY place I was asked the first few weeks of this month was Disney Springs. I remember them everywhere as well. Honestly, I don’t think the top brass care at a level we’ve never experienced before.