BREAKING: Walt Disney World Introduces Date-Based Variable Pricing for Genie+ Service

[DavidNYC]

Agree with this. Wait times yesterday were nuts. BUT….honestly more and more of the days are getting like this. Any weekend. Any holiday. Any marathon. Any school break.

It will be few and far between to get a $15 day. And that would likely be 1-3 days during the week (not weekend) of your trip if you’re lucky.

That’s the point. We’re not anywhere near peak times and if you think $20 now will only rise to $22 Christmas week I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

 

[DCLMP]

I agree. I think where the issue is that Disney is the only parks they visit and know. They don't have that other park to fill the void.

I think WDW has benefited from lack of travel options the last two years, and that may continue with everything going in the world. I can’t wrap my brain what some people are willing to pay for resort at WDW. It’s perplexing.

 

[nikem3]

I think WDW has benefited from lack of travel options the last two years, and that may continue with everything going in the world. I can’t wrap my brain what some people are willing to pay for resort at WDW. It’s perplexing.

I think they mostly benefitted from people not really traveling for 2 years. Everyone decided to save up and plain their Disney trip. I thought for sure by now crowds would die down, but it seems like its getting worse. Pent up demand is crazy.

 

[set88]

I know people reference fastpass+ and how it didn't work or wasn't fair. I watched the defuntland video on fastpass+ and did find it interesting. I just can't believe they couldn't make some tweaks to improve it.

I would also argue that the guest who is planning their vacation and staying on-site should have some sort of advantage... hence why you stay on-site, plan a little (I don't think 2 months is crazy, but hey change the booking windows to 30 days), or stay longer. I would have thought those were all positives to Disney? Just like now the guest who wants to get up at 7am and pay extra should be at an advantage with genie+. I just don't feel like there is much advantage with genie+. Who wants to get up at 7am every day of vacation and participate in some sort of gambling like rat-race to hopefully get some rides at times that work with whatever else you had planned that day.

By far the biggest issue is that there isn't enough ride capacity to give out useful skip the line passes to every single person that comes to the park. As long as the system is free, it has to accommodate everyone. And Genie+ proves the system can't effectively accommodate even 50% of people on the most crowded days... let alone everyone.

Giving a benefit to those who are staying on site for longer trips is still pay to play. It favors those spending more money on their hotel. It still puts those needing to save money by staying offsite at a significant disadvantage.

I definitely don't think that's more fair since I will never do a long on-site stay. A pay per day system seems much more fair to me, but of course people are going to prefer the system that favors them.

The bottom line is - as long as Disney is trying to have a system where a large number of people get to skip the lines, there are going to be winners and losers and no system will please everyone.

 

[bluedolphin32]

I've been saying this since they announced Genie+ and watch prices go up all around the resort. Maybe I'm the odd bird but each trip - my budget is my budget - and monetizing something or raising a price doesn't mean I will give them more money, I will just take it from somewhere else. Tickets are tickets. I prefer offsite now where I get more for my money. I have an AP so I don't pay to park. I like special upsells so each trip have at least one of those but I don't like the nickel and diming and creeping prices.

If I have to spend hundreds on Genie+ then I will pay for that with dining or souvenir money. My trip next week I actually cancelled all ADRs except my Harmonious Dining Package. Last trip we started to split some quick serve meals, they are big enough and it worked well. I have gotten more picky about what has value and am happy to drop stuff to pay for something else. They are getting the same amount from me, some trips less, because I'm not going to accept mediocre for outrageous prices anymore.

Like others mentioned, we won't add more to our budget to include this. We may shift money around but the amount dedicated to vacation stays the same.

For people like us, it has resulted in Disney getting less of our dollars. We were consistently on-site people but all the increases in cost, with a decrease in value, have made our last two trips and our upcoming trip, at offsite hotels or rentals.

We didn't use genie+ at all on our trip last March. For this upcoming trip, we had considered using it for a day or two but with a large family an increase of a few dollars per ticket adds up quickly. If we do add it, we'll ditch an on-site meal and eat off-site...

I think this will happen for a lot of people. They will cancel ADRs to pay for G+, or not buy as many souvenirs. They will just shift their spending around instead of increasing their spending. Especially for a surprise cost increase and especially for larger families. G+ increase won't affect solo or couple travelers as much as it will hurt families or large traveling groups.

My DD worked at Soarin' (the good one - not the one now) when it was one of the hardest to get FP. She ended up FP entry or the merge most the time because guests were so nasty or bullied and she could handle it. So many of her CM mates ended up in tears because of guests. She said there the ratio was constantly changing based on the length of both lines. But she had some good stories - the power that CM has.

Oh man, I would love to hear those stories!!

 

[Jrb1979]

I think they mostly benefitted from people not really traveling for 2 years. Everyone decided to save up and plain their Disney trip. I thought for sure by now crowds would die down, but it seems like its getting worse. Pent up demand is crazy.

Agreed. I still think a lot of comes down to for some reason or another Disney is the only parks they know or visit.

 

[Smugpugmug]

But Disney has removed so much - even housekeeping! - and they still have an industry high occupancy rate. If the guests don't care and keep booking - why would Disney need to do anything at all to give them extra? The guests did this to themselves.

When security checks impacted my stay and things started disappearing - I moved offsite where I get way more for my money. Somebody filled my room before I left the parking lot so it mattered not to Disney that after about 140 stays on property I have gone elsewhere.

Disney is laughing that they have removed so much, jacked up prices and it didn't hurt them. The only thing I think MIGHT come back hotel exclusive is Dining Plan. But they need all dining locations open and operating. Disney made bank on that and it keeps folks from leaving property.


My DD worked at Soarin' (the good one - not the one now) when it was one of the hardest to get FP. She ended up FP entry or the merge most the time because guests were so nasty or bullied and she could handle it. So many of her CM mates ended up in tears because of guests. She said there the ratio was constantly changing based on the length of both lines. But she had some good stories - the power that CM has.

Yup, my sister worked the merge because no one else wanted to. The ratio changed too but it mostly stayed around 10 LL to 1 standby. On super busy days or after the ride came back up from being closed (which happened A LOT due to Florida weather and the ride breaking down), it would double that. Guests were straight up terrible to her - I feel so bad for CMs that have to deal with that every day.

Also I agree with your points on on-site benefits. Why would they bring back the good perks when the hotels are fully booked regardless?

 

[vinotinto]

I contend that this is NOT what Disney wants. They simply want to squeeze as much juice as possible out of the consumers as they can. They want the same or more people buying G+ AND they want them paying more for it.

If they wanted a better experience for those purchasing, they would simply double the price and cut the available volume in half. That's not the goal though. The goal is to maximize the ROI of G+.

Maybe it’s me, but I see this as just increasing revenue and not reducing Genie crowds.

for a family of 4 that visits each park once, you only need Genie+ in 2 parks. That’s a difference of $56 over your vacation. $60x100,000 is a lot for Disney. But I’m having a hard time imagining the conversation “I know we spent $6,000 on this vacation Margerie, but $60 blows our budget”.

if they really want to reduce Genie+ numbers, they need to cap it which I get they don’t want to do because of the QQ that it sells out by 7:00:02, or more like triple the cost.

Yes, this is what I believe too. They are NOT trying to improve the guest experience or limit the number of people that purchase G+. They want as many people to buy G+ at a higher price, not fewer people. If they really wanted to limit the demand for the product they would not increase it $5 or $10 or $25 / day. They would increase it $100-$200 per person per day to really impact demand. No one who is spending thousands on their vacation is going to balk at the extra hundred or so to get G+.

Universal does that, and their express pass prices are nuts. I spent $219 per person on the Halloween Horror express pass for October 8th, on top of the HHN price, which was already over $100. But, it was a Saturday during Columbus Day weekend, and I’ve been to Orlando every year at that time, and I know how nuts it is. It was priced accordingly.

Anyone who thinks Disney is making modest increases to G+ to drive demand down is going to be sorely disappointed. It’s going to be the same number of people buying it at a higher price. It is simply going to cost us more.

 

[Jrb1979]

Yes, this is what I believe too. They are NOT trying to improve the guest experience or limit the number of people that purchase G+. They want as many people to buy G+ at a higher price, not fewer people. If they really wanted to limit the demand for the product they would not increase it $5 or $10 or $25 / day. They would increase it $100-$200 per person per day to really impact demand. No one who is spending thousands on their vacation is going to balk at the extra hundred or so to get G+.

Universal does that, and their express pass prices are nuts. I spent $219 per person on the Halloween Horror express pass for October 8th, on top of the HHN price, which was already over $100. But, it was a Saturday during Columbus Day weekend, and I’ve been to Orlando every year at that time, and I know how nuts it is. It was priced accordingly.

Anyone who thinks Disney is making modest increases to G+ to drive demand down is going to be sorely disappointed. It’s going to be the same number of people buying it at a higher price. It is simply going to cost us more.

It remains to be seen. Once January comes and all the pre-paid Genie+ is done there will probably be some changes. Due to many having pre-bought Genie+ there is only so much they can do.

 

[Genie+]

The graph portion that used the ticket book doesn't really matter as it kept up with standard inflation. That first bump there is 1982 when the ticket books died. From that point it shows just how much it was inflated.

You can't really graph something on a persons individual experience (I may be going for 5 days, you for 3) so a baseline has to be adopted.

I wouldn't call that bad data.

Between 1982 and now there have been major expansions within the WDW resort. What I’d be willing to pay in 1982, 1996, 2012, and 2022 grew not just with inflation but what was on offer. More parks, more rides, more resorts, more restaurants, more entertainment, more activities, on and on. There is value in a bigger list for your family to choose and enjoy together, which creates more interest and demand. That affects what they can reasonably charge.

 

[SLThomas318]

It remains to be seen. Once January comes and all the pre-paid Genie+ is done there will probably be some changes. Due to many having pre-bought Genie+ there is only so much they can do.

I feel like they had to know genie+ wasn't going to work at $15 per person? It will be interesting to see how quickly they raise the price...

 

[DCLMP]

I think they mostly benefitted from people not really traveling for 2 years. Everyone decided to save up and plain their Disney trip. I thought for sure by now crowds would die down, but it seems like its getting worse. Pent up demand is crazy.

Yeah but why Disney? I think a lot of people didn’t want the hassle associated with cruising or international travel. It’s only been a couple of months since most countries dropped all restrictions. Japan just reopened, but most of Asia is still closed. Now there’s an energy crisis and war in Europe.

 

[SL6827]

Wonder when they will require guest to buy it for all the days they have park tickets? Not needing it much in two parks isn't going to make Disney happy.

 

[Jrb1979]

I feel like they had to know genie+ wasn't going to work at $15 per person? It will be interesting to see how quickly they raise the price...

They based it off MaxPass at Disneyland. It worked well at that price.

 

[PaladinButters]

I would also argue that the guest who is planning their vacation and staying on-site should have some sort of advantage... hence why you stay on-site, plan a little (I don't think 2 months is crazy, but hey change the booking windows to 30 days), or stay longer. I would have thought those were all positives to Disney? Just like now the guest who wants to get up at 7am and pay extra should be at an advantage with genie+. I just don't feel like there is much advantage with genie+. Who wants to get up at 7am every day of vacation and participate in some sort of gambling like rat-race to hopefully get some rides at times that work with whatever else you had planned that day.

A lot of people - (a viewpoint I will never understand, but a lot of people apparently). When this first came about people were begging for it to work like Maxpass. And it's close (without re-rides).
A little different in Florida though when you can join the panicked gamble of a rat-race from your home/hotel instead of at the gates while walk-running to your rope drop ride with your phone in front of your face hoping not to trample on any children.

 

[Princess Merida]

I'm not a WDW apologist (far from, truth be told) but I just don't understand how G+ doesn't work or how people are only getting 1 or 2 rides out of it. I was at WDW last week and G+ worked great. Day 1 - booked ROTR LL, GOTG LL, GOTR VQ x 2 (at 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.) and TT at 7 am. Throughout the day we used G+ to ride everything else we wanted even rides with lower waits because we didn't want stand in any lines. We saved RnRC and TOT for next day. We rode everything in Epcot except Mexico boat ride and Frozen (not interested in Frozen but we could have rope dropped it ...rope dropped MS instead). Day 2 - booked ROTR LL, GOTR LL and TOT at 7 am. We slept in a bit and rope dropped RNRC with about 10 minutes left in early entry. Used G+ for everything else except SDD which we weren't interested in. Hopped to Epcot in the evening and rode a bunch of rides including TT, Soarin, Mexico using G+. Day 3 - AK early entry. Rode EE 3 times (once with g+) and KS twice (once with g+). Bought FOP. Did everything else using G+ except for Navi because...meh. Hopped to MK at 7 and used G+ to ride JC, HM, POTC before watching fireworks. Used extended evening hours to ride SM and BTM (our favourites) over and over again. We skippwd 7DMT but ILL was def available to buy if we were interested. We didn't wait longer than 20 minutes for anything. It was awesome. If we had one more day we could have ridden every single ride in all the parks by hopping and using G+ and ILL. Was it expensive? YES!!! But worth it if you hate lines, have limited time in the parks and can budget for it. So many people say it's worthless in Epcot or Animal Kingdom but we got to do favourite rides more than once without waiting AND we took time out on Day 2 for a pool break at our hotel (Swan) and a resort break at AKL and Boma for 3 hours on Day 3 between AK and MK. Day 1 was pretty much go go go Ep-HS-EP. I did watch a lot of videos on how to use G+ ahead of time. I wasn't glued to my phone either. I'd check after we rode something to see if I was eligible to book something else and if yes, would find something we all wanted to do. I didn't bring fuel rods for my phone and still had 30 to 40% battery life by the end of the day. I think my kids were on their phones more than I was. Yes, I had to get up early to book, but we had to get up anyway to make early entry. I was up even earlier than that at USO in order to get to IOA at 7 am to ride Hagrid and VC during early entry at 8. My family brought me coffee and joined me at the front of the line at 7:45. So there is also no sleeping in at USO if you want to ride Hagrid. Having said that, I love the unlimited EP you get staying at their deluxe hotels and would never ever stay anywhere else.

I am often up early too and have grabbed ILLs and Genie+. I have also come across the glitches where I then spend my morning quiet balcony and coffee time on my phone trying to chat with guest services. Sure there can be glitches anytime technology is involved, but I’m getting on to spend $120 for an ILL and Genie+ for a day only to still need to get on my phone every two hours for a toss up on what I can get. My children are 10 and 15 and want to ride all the big rides and sometimes we don’t do each park more than once and we almost never buy park hoppers so our experience may just be different based on what we want to accomplish and our different types of park tickets. I have been able to do ToT, RNR, MFSR, star tours, SDD, TSM, and MMRR in a day without Genie+ and with the flexibility of doing it at my own times. Of course I have to do rope drop and be there for park closing but we typically do this anyway and take a short pool break to avoid the awful midday crowds. I am happy that Genie+ works for you and many others, it’s just not for me. If I’m going to pay $60 or now up to $100 for Genie+ for the day I want the old fastpass system back. 3 rides booked 30-60 days in advance. Well I want 4 now since it costs money lol. I know what I’m getting that way. Disney is never going to make everyone happy because we all want to vacation differently. Unfortunately I do see this as a money grab though, because they are giving the same product for a higher price. I don’t think this small of an increase in price is going to eliminate very many Genie+ users. If they wanted a better system for their guests they would significantly increase the price and limit the people able to purchase. I guess that would be my ultimate wish if I could choose. I want express pass at Disney. Lol it will never happen!

My DD worked at Soarin' (the good one - not the one now) when it was one of the hardest to get FP. She ended up FP entry or the merge most the time because guests were so nasty or bullied and she could handle it. So many of her CM mates ended up in tears because of guests. She said there the ratio was constantly changing based on the length of both lines. But she had some good stories - the power that CM has.

I love that you pointed out that the old Soarin’ was the good one!!! I miss that one. We don’t really ride it anymore.

 

[rmclain73]

That’s the point. We’re not anywhere near peak times and if you think $20 now will only rise to $22 Christmas week I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

This week is most absolutely a peak time. It is fall break in the south. Its the same as the February winter break we have in the north. IF you look at the data online you will see that this week, this year in particular, has been one of the busiest weeks this year rivaling the Christmas weeks.

 

[set88]

The system worked. If it didn't work that was 100% the guest's fault.

Have you watched the Defunctland video on fast pass? He offers concrete evidence that FP+ significantly increased standby wait times across the board. That's not better for literally anyone.

People that defend FP+ do so because it worked well for them. And they tend to blame the people it didn't work for rather than acknowledge that the system was inherently unfair and increased wait times overall. That's something also talked about in the video.

 

[RamblingMad]

Your average guest didn't like the amount of planning. They created Genie+ to lessen the planning. Like I posted earlier, the way it was supposed to work is no matter when you opened Genie+ there should be lots of availability. That would still be the case if less people had Genie+ each day. From things I have heard the optimal number of guests using Genie+ daily should be around 10%.

I get it, nobody likes waiting in long lines for rides. My question is what do most of you do when you visit other parks? Do you spend the hundreds of dollars each time to buy the skip the line pass or you do you wait in line?
The reason I ask is why is it acceptable to wait in lines at other parks but it's not at Disney?

They created G+ to maximize spend per guest. That's it. It's a way to get people to spend more without having to shop.

 

[Genie+]

hoping not to trample on any children

Hey! Any children in front of you at RD are fair game