*Confirmed* G+ Changes to Advanced Lightning Lane

[melissa70]

What is there to learn? I am not trying to be snarky, but Genie+ is really not that complicated in my experience. What is it you are having issues with?

My order of operations....

ILL and then Genie+. If you are rope dropping then I would VQ...ILL... Genie+

Genie+: Wake up.... open the app.... book a Genie+ ride for your family and friends from the list... repeat every two hours to book another ride or immediately again after you ride/scan in. You can modify times as you go, so select whatever time is available and then if you need to modify to a later time you can. You can stack the rides, so if you start at 7.... you can book again at 9... and at 11. I am not a rope dropper so I like to roll into a park around noon with rides stacked.

VQ: I usually do not do the first VQ as I wont be there that early and i like going for the afternoon VQ. This way I can usually get two headliners in (VQ/ILL)... three if it is an EE day/park and there is the third VQ at 6pm.

Everyone has their favorites, so book whatever you want to ride first. which for us are usually the bigger thrilly rides that tend to be harder to get later.

I book the ILL first to get that done and settled. I understand that often the times I book for Genie are merely placeholders so I dont stress that I know I wont be in the park at 10:05... I just modify at 10am to later on.

If you have issues getting your friends and family in your list, see guest services in the park. Those little blue tents are very helpful. I suggest visiting one of those for a quick crash course if you are having issues or something is not working, they gave me tips the first time I tried this system that were so helpful and they are usually not busy so just walk up and ask.

So you get your LL first? I thought I read you should get your genie+ LL first as they go faster because everyone can book at 7 am whereas only property guests can book LL at 7

my upcoming trip in March will be the first time using genie + and I am already stressed!

 

[coolbrook]

I guess......But its not really a new ride unfortunately.........But Im not saying it wont be busy due to the retheming...I just dont understand why people get all hot and bothered over it......

For the same reason that lines for Frozen Ever After are much longer than they were for Maelstrom.

 

[BrianL]

I believe G+ is a simple product. Make LL when you get off a ride and roll them out through the day or every two hours. It becomes difficult when you try to figure out every aspect of it so you can get the most for your money. Which I understand and do myself but for the average guest G+ is not a hard product to figure out.

I think that's the issue. It's not that it's "complicated" to use, but it's hard to know how well you're going to do with it on any given day. Wehn you pay for it - especially what they are charging - there is an expectation that it will be worth it and a natural inclination to try to get the most out of it, and that can be tricky. I don't want to have to do that work, especailly to be disappointed in the results, so I am often hesitant to jump in with it. I'd rather just buy an ILL for a specific time and do standby on the rest.

 

[mamaofsix]

People complained about every skip the line service Disney has ever put out and will 100% complain about the new system, whatever it may be.

Sure. It's a question of when the amount of complaints and dissatisfaction reaches a tipping point that causes Disney to make a change.

There have obviously been a significant amount of complaints about having to be on your phone all day, not being able to plan you day in advance... for Disney to specifically put out a press release that says "We've heard your desire to not be on your phone all day. We've heard your desire to plan your day in advance. Stay tuned for upcoming changes."

Good customer service mean listening to the majority of your guests and adapting to make their experience more enjoyable.

 

[dreamer17555]

Here is the thing I dislike the most about genie+ while I dislike the added cost and getting up at 7 AM, what really stresses me out is that you do not know until you that morning if you’re going to be able to get the rides that you want that day. Some spots go incredibly fast.

This used to happen when FastPass was at 60 days and 30 days but at least I was only disappointed once and could make a plan on what I was going to do to still get on those attractions. Now if I grab up one attraction first thing in the morning, there’s no guarantee that there will still be spots available for the next attraction on my must ride list. I’m just going to have to wait and see if I’m disappointed throughout the day.

Maybe it’s because I am a planner by nature, but I would much rather know what rides I already have, and make a plan to ride the other ones without use of the FP\LL- and not have to discover each day if I’m going to get Genie+ return times for my favorite attractions

 

[Smugpugmug]

Sure. It's a question of when the amount of complaints and dissatisfaction reaches a tipping point that causes Disney to make a change.

There have obviously been a significant amount of complaints about having to be on your phone all day, not being able to plan you day in advance... for Disney to specifically put out a press release that says "We've heard your desire to not be on your phone all day. We've heard your desire to plan your day in advance. Stay tuned for upcoming changes."

Good customer service mean listening to the majority of your guests and adapting to make their experience more enjoyable.

The bolded is also true in reverse. A LOT of people complained that Disney required TOO much planning and that you couldn't be spontaneous anymore. It wasn't just a small minority. This was a common sentiment from many people outside of the super Disney fan (i.e. anyone not on this board).

I agree that Disney needs to strive for good customer service. They've been lacking in that department IMO. I do predict that when this updated system is announced, people will still complain about it anyway. I even predict some people will beg for Disney to revert back to how Genie+ is now.

 

[Suger Mag]

So you get your LL first? I thought I read you should get your genie+ LL first as they go faster because everyone can book at 7 am whereas only property guests can book LL at 7

my upcoming trip in March will be the first time using genie + and I am already stressed!

To be fair, my strategy differs depending on the park. And if I was a rope dropper it would be different for sure. I go to the parks usually afternoon to evenings, and we do not park hop. We are adults and tend to ride the thrill rides and therefore my strategy would likely be different if I had little kids.

Epcot I dont usually do Genie+ as for us that is more eating, drinking and shopping and the only rides I tend to do there are Soarin, Spaceship Earth, and Guardians. I don't like 3D glasses so I don't do Remy. But in general I go with whatever my first priority is for that park. At Epcot it is Guardians (my absolutely new favorite WDW ride) so I would do a ILL for that first and then do the afternoon VQ, and then another VQ for the Extended Evenon hours if it is a Monday. I then do standby for Spaceship and Soarin if it is not too bad.

At Magic Kingdom, the Genie+ is more important. Some rides are different day vs night... TRON for example. So I generally do an ILL for TRON to get my pick of an evening time, and then pick my Genie+ selections... since I am modifying them to later times it is really a placeholder and I do not worry about the time as in my experience/trips later times get released throughout the day. I always select the rides that are most important to me and hardest to get first.

Since I do not usually do the first VQ, that eliminates the stress of that. In my experience the first VQ of the day is the hardest to get.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I think that's the issue. It's not that it's "complicated" to use, but it's hard to know how well you're going to do with it on any given day. Wehn you pay for it - especially what they are charging - there is an expectation that it will be worth it and a natural inclination to try to get the most out of it, and that can be tricky. I don't want to have to do that work, especailly to be disappointed in the results, so I am often hesitant to jump in with it. I'd rather just buy an ILL for a specific time and do standby on the rest.

I used G+ for a 10 day trip and liked it much more than FP+ (minus the paying for it part). I was scared of the unknown with what we would get in terms of rides but it worked great. We got way more rides than we ever got with FP+. But I was also one of those people who was happy about FP+ since we could never utilize OG FP (small kids, strollers, having to separate, running of the bulls for headliners).

When I did it last month for my kids they rode every single ride at DHS via G+ except for the MF. I was about to get them a G+ for it but since it only had a 20 minute wait and they told me to get another ride instead. Around 8 pm they told me to stop getting G+ since they were going to ride F!.

I see G+ as a virtual OG FP that you pay for.

 

[HokieRaven5]

The bolded is also true in reverse. A LOT of people complained that Disney required TOO much planning and that you couldn't be spontaneous anymore. It wasn't just a small minority. This was a common sentiment from many people outside of the super Disney fan (i.e. anyone not on this board).

I agree that Disney needs to strive for good customer service. They've been lacking in that department IMO. I do predict that when this updated system is announced, people will still complain about it anyway. I even predict some people will beg for Disney to revert back to how Genie+ is now.

Yeah I’ve had much less stressful trips because of G+ than I have had with FP+.

FP+ not only was it rigid scheduling, but because I had 3 hours already planned out it was more planning out what attractions to try and fit in between all of that.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

So you get your LL first? I thought I read you should get your genie+ LL first as they go faster because everyone can book at 7 am whereas only property guests can book LL at 7

my upcoming trip in March will be the first time using genie + and I am already stressed!

My kids stayed offsite during a busy weekend in December and they were able to get ILL for Rise and Guardians with no issues at park opening. Even Tron was available but they only had MVMCP tickets so unable to buy them an ILL. They were able to get the 6pm VQ drop.

 

[Minnie1222]

So you get your LL first? I thought I read you should get your genie+ LL first as they go faster because everyone can book at 7 am whereas only property guests can book LL at 7

my upcoming trip in March will be the first time using genie + and I am already stressed!

It depends on your touring style. Suger mentioned they don't go to the park until noon, so it makes sense that they would pick iLL first to get a specific returned time. They pick G+ later since they're not worried about the morning slots being taken.

I'm a morning person, so I pick G+ first to ensure a morning ride. I never had a problem getting a morning iLL after spending time selecting G+. Never been able to get an A.M. Virtual Queue though.

 

[Suger Mag]

My kids stayed offsite during a busy weekend in December and they were able to get ILL for Rise and Guardians with no issues at park opening. Even Tron was available but they only had MVMCP tickets so unable to buy them an ILL. They were able to get the 6pm VQ drop.

i wonder if they changed it (booking ILL with an event only ticket). When I was there in October, we did MNSSHP and were able to enter the park at 4pm (party started 7pm) with our MNSSHP tickets and I was able to make an ILL for TRON at 5pm (did it in the morning at 7am). No Genie+, but I could make ILL purchases for the hours between 4 and 6pm

 

[Suger Mag]

It depends on your touring style. Suger mentioned they don't go to the park until noon, so it makes sense that they would pick iLL first to get a specific returned time. They pick G+ later since they're not worried about the morning slots being taken.

I'm a morning person, so I pick G+ first to ensure a morning ride. I never had a problem getting a morning iLL after spending time selecting G+. Never been able to get an A.M. Virtual Queue though.

exactly. if I was a rope dropper it would be different for sure. I go to the parks usually afternoon to evenings, and we do not park hop. We are adults and tend to ride the thrill rides and my strategy would likely be different if I had little kids.

I build around ILL and stack modify Genie+

If I was rope dropping then that first VQ and first Genie+ ride selection would be much more important to do first

 

[tseitel]

So you get your LL first? I thought I read you should get your genie+ LL first as they go faster because everyone can book at 7 am whereas only property guests can book LL at 7

my upcoming trip in March will be the first time using genie + and I am already stressed!

You should definitely get your genie+ first, because as you stated EVERYONE can go for those (offsite & onsite). More people competing for the same thing. Get your ILL second, there will be fewer people to compete with, as only onsite can book those at 7.
Now, if you were not planning to be in the park till later in the day you could possibly reverse it, as you would have to wait for the return times to get into the afternoon time slots But some rides, Slinky, Peter Pan, 7 Dwarfs, Jungle Cruise, etc can reach that afternoon time real quick.
I’d peek at them first. Hope that makes sense.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

i wonder if they changed it (booking ILL with an event only ticket). When I was there in October, we did MNSSHP and were able to enter the park at 4pm (party started 7pm) with our MNSSHP tickets and I was able to make an ILL for TRON at 5pm (did it in the morning at 7am). No Genie+, but I could make ILL purchases for the hours between 4 and 6pm

I believe they changed it right around the time we tried. I asked on the G+/ILL thread and was told people were reporting it not working any longer. The morning of it definitely did not work for us. Luckily they got a VQ and rode with about a 20 minute wait!

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

I use genie plus and it works how I need it to work when I go on vacation. The point is, I want it for free, just like I did before. I want to book them before I arrive also. It's not really genie plus that is the issue. It is paying for something that use to be free. Same with ILL.

But since they are probably making millions of it, that will never change now

 

[starlite_]

It takes a minute to read her comment. If pp can't bother to spend 1 min on research then it's on them. Thankfully for the average guest, they can spend that minute during vacation and not be completely out of luck like they would be with F+.

I think "what is there to learn?" was answered by the number of paragraphs it took to explain your process. Some might find it easy to navigate, while others find it really frustrating / complicated. Paying to get up early every day while on vacation isn't that fun for some. Others might really like it.

Everyone is different in their preferences. I guess it just depends on which type of system gets the most complaints from guests. More complaints leads to Disney change things. If no one was complaining, they wouldn't have a need to change it.

 

[New Mouse]

I would have been shocked if it was less than 50%. All I know is that it was much easier to get fast passes during the FP+ era (and that was with rerides and no access to park hop til after 2(although that’s Now changed) And there was more people in the parks!) and the “fastpass line” was about the same wait as it is now. And that was when 100% of people had access to it. So there would just be no way that only 25% of people are buying it now.

Part of this relates to not everyone who had access to it using it when it was free. I'd bet the paid numbers match fp plus uptake.

 

[Suger Mag]

I think "what is there to learn?" was answered by the number of paragraphs it took to explain your process. Some might find it easy to navigate, while others find it really frustrating / complicated. Paying to get up early every day while on vacation isn't that fun for some. Others might really like it.

Everyone is different in their preferences. I guess it just depends on which type of system gets the most complaints from guests. More complaints leads to Disney change things. If no one was complaining, they wouldn't have a need to change it.

Meh... people simply like to complain. people will complain about anything and everything. Negativity is very popular, and not just about WDW.

Go in expecting a crappy time and no big surprise... you will have a crappy time.

Getting up early LOL. Oh please, I roll over in bed at 7am... well first I pee... then get back in and make my selections and go back to bed, stressful is a big stretch. Sometimes I wake up and drink coffee on my balcony at AKV while my family sleeps and watch the giraffes and make my selections. Stressful, complicated (solved by research) and even frustration is all mindset.

 

[New Mouse]

I use genie plus and it works how I need it to work when I go on vacation. The point is, I want it for free, just like I did before. I want to book them before I arrive also. It's not really genie plus that is the issue. It is paying for something that use to be free. Same with ILL.

But since they are probably making millions of it, that will never change now

I'd complain/argue it's about paying for an inferior product which bothers me. And then the implementation with the standby lines has just become a disaster.