Disney Genie+ and ILL$ Details & FAQ - Launches 10/19 at WDW, Paid "FastPass" at WDW and Disneyland (date TBD)

[BrianL]

Goodness. So let me get this straight, for a family of 5 who could utilize fastpasses before, we are now looking at an additional cost of $75 a day for the genie passes, but really only every 2 hours so maybe 5 rides, and then an additional $75-$100 to pay for 2 popular rides (the rides that bring us to Disney!). So now a very expensive trip to begin with just increased by almost $200 a day.

It's not necessarily every two hours. If you book a time for one attraction that is relatively soon, then you can book another as soon as you use it. Depending on how you manage it and what's available for what times, you could get a lot more than 5 per day.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

It's not necessarily ever two hours. If you book a time for one attraction that is relatively soon, then you can book another as soon as you use it. Depending on how you manage it and what's available for what times, you could get a lot more than 5 per day.

That I would tend to agree with, I would say 1 an hour would probably be possible

 

[cakebaker]

i completely agree with this, there has been a lot of speculation on these boards that you will be able to book a ride with LL hours in advance, and i just don't see Disney laying it out in that way. I feel like Genie+ is Disneys way of controlling crowds throughout the park, and it would be counterintuitive to give out all the LL before the park even opens. I also have a funny feeling that guests will not receive the same lineup of LL when opening their app, ie( some would get BTM, PP, and Pirates, and another guest may get SW, Pooh, and Splash).

While we're all just speculating, I can't imagine they'd pull a stunt like only making some rides available to some guests or holding back on the more popular rides in the morning. If we want to talk about making people furious, let's advertise you can start booking 41 attractions starting at 7am, but then only let people have secondary choices. I give this no chance of happening.

Everyone knows that the later you arrive at a park, the fewer choices you're going to have. It was that way with FP and FP+ and it's that way with how long you have to stand in line. The only difference was with FP+, some guests had a huge advantage over others for their first 3 choices of the day. There's no reason it won't be that way now.

I think the hand wringing about rides being sold out within hours of opening are overblown. Time will tell, but they never sold out that fast with paper FP and genie+ works much the same way.

 

[Jrb1979]

While we're all just speculating, I can't imagine they'd pull a stunt like only making some rides available to some guests or holding back on the more popular rides in the morning. If we want to talk about making people furious, let's advertise you can start booking 41 attractions starting at 7am, but then only let people have secondary choices. I give this no chance of happening.

Everyone knows that the later you arrive at a park, the fewer choices you're going to have. It was that way with FP and FP+ and it's that way with how long you have to stand in line. The only difference was with FP+, some guests had a huge advantage over others for their first 3 choices of the day. There's no reason it won't be that way now.

I think the hand wringing about rides being sold out within hours of opening are overblown. Time will tell, but they never sold out that fast with paper FP and genie+ works much the same way.

Reading what you posted makes me think you will only be able to hold 1 at a time. By doing that most rides will never sell out.

 

[CWTC]

Time will tell, but they never sold out that fast with paper FP and genie+ works much the same way.

The newer ones did - we hated the TSMM race at ropedrop and those FPs went like hot cakes. Same thing with FP+: the only way to get some FP+ (ie FOP) was to use the 60+10 advantage and we frequently could only get that FP+ at the tail end of the trip. I agree though: the bulk of the rides don’t have that issue.

 

[cakebaker]

Reading what you posted makes me think you will only be able to hold 1 at a time. By doing that most rides will never sell out.

I think some people over estimate how concerned WDW is with general availability. They've never been concerned before. If they can sell Genie+ and get similar results like they got with paper or FP+, I think that's plenty good enough for them. Guests are much more interested in being able to book headliners all day and into the evening than
Disney is.

Personally, I think they'll have much the same system as MaxPass and availability will get thinner as the day goes on. That shouldn't be shocking to anyone. If people expect paying gives them availability on everything all day and night, I think they're going to be disappointed. Disney is not promising that.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

That I would tend to agree with, I would say 1 an hour would probably be possible

In September to ride Dumbo & IASW, sure. Beyond that I don't think anyone really knows what availability is going to be like but it could be very poor.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

While we're all just speculating, I can't imagine they'd pull a stunt like only making some rides available to some guests or holding back on the more popular rides in the morning. If we want to talk about making people furious, let's advertise you can start booking 41 attractions starting at 7am, but then only let people have secondary choices. I give this no chance of happening.

Everyone knows that the later you arrive at a park, the fewer choices you're going to have. It was that way with FP and FP+ and it's that way with how long you have to stand in line. The only difference was with FP+, some guests had a huge advantage over others for their first 3 choices of the day. There's no reason it won't be that way now.

I think the hand wringing about rides being sold out within hours of opening are overblown. Time will tell, but they never sold out that fast with paper FP and genie+ works much the same way.

A couple things, Disney has said there will be over 40 attractions that qualify for Genie+, I haven't seen anywhere that they will all be able to be picked from immediately, (my guess is that it will offer you some based on the list of things you'd like to do during the day). I think many people on these boards understand how FP, and FP+ worked backwards and forwards, i think to assume the public in general did/ does, is a gross overstatement. I would argue that paper fast passes didn't sell out as quick because you would physically have to walk from one end of the park to the other to acquire rides, which would delay how fast they went.

 

[cakebaker]

I would argue that paper fast passes didn't sell out as quick because you would physically have to walk from one end of the park to the other to acquire rides, which would delay how fast they went.

That was completely dependent on which rides you chose and how you chose to get those passes. We had a designated runner and if it was a hike to the next FP machine, the group would head to a ride in the direction of the machine, the runner went ahead and got passes for all of us and met back up with us. It didn't take long at all and I don't think it slowed us down from getting as many FP as we wanted.



I don't think we'll ever get specifics regarding how they're making rides available and I'm just guessing like everyone else. But they haven't said they will ration either- just the blurb gives a list of rides that you "could" get so it won't go over well when early in the day, you can't get them but those strolling in at 3pm could.

 

[NuJoy]

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[cakebaker]

They never specifically charged for it before.

That makes a difference to us.
I wish that made a difference to them, I don't think it does. I don't believe they think they need to provide near unlimited availability all day long and that's probably a good thing because they can't. Get there early and you'll most likely ride what you want....just like always.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I don't think we'll ever get specifics regarding how they're making rides available and I'm just guessing like everyone else. But they haven't said they will ration either- just the blurb gives a list of rides that you "could" get so it won't go over well when early in the day, you can't get them but those strolling in at 3pm could.

I just don't see why strolling in at 3 makes a difference, everyone who has the hopper option paid (even more) for their daily pass like everyone else, so why should they not get the same benefits because they showed up at 3. what if someone wanted to hang at the pool during the day and hit the park later on, they shouldn't get the benefit because they weren't at the park when it opened? Genie feels to me like they are trying to spread the benefit out throughout the day, that way everyone who goes to the park can take advantage

 

[NuJoy]

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[cakebaker]

Most people would consider charging for a service without providing a service as theft.

They aren't advertising unlimited availability. They clearly say "subject to availability".

 

[cakebaker]

I just don't see why strolling in at 3 makes a difference, everyone who has the hopper option paid (even more) for their daily pass like everyone else, so why should they not get the same benefits because they showed up at 3. what if someone wanted to hang at the pool during the day and hit the park later on, they shouldn't get the benefit because they weren't at the park when it opened?

It has never, ever been that way and I don't think it will be now. I'm not claiming they shouldn't have the same experience, I just don't think they will. The downside to rationing is it leaves people with having to be constantly refreshing to see if anything pops up. Personally, it would benefit me for them to ration because we park hop, but I can work with it either way. But, we won't know until they actually put it into action so we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I just keep hearing people saying/ hoping this will be just like Max pass, or FP+, and I just can’t imagine Disney spending just about a decade on a program that they are going to use as a mirror image to what they have, if that’s the case they could have, and should have implemented this years ago

 

[NuJoy]

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[cakebaker]

They are, in fact, making it appear G+ will have continuous attraction availability. However, the desirability of what is offered and when is subject to availability.

I don't agree, but we can just leave it at that. We'll find out soon enough. As I said, I have no real preference, I can work with it either way.

 

[Bbrown0804]

Potentially, and people will pay for it if that’s the case. I know based on what Disney has posted, you can only have 1 LL at a time, the rest on this board seems to just be speculation, but it’s a fun conversation haha

I’ll pay if it keeps the crowds low. But as I look at hotels for early November, I don’t think that will be the case.

 

[Liquidice]

I just keep hearing people saying/ hoping this will be just like Max pass, or FP+, and I just can’t imagine Disney spending just about a decade on a program that they are going to use as a mirror image to what they have, if that’s the case they could have, and should have implemented this years ago

They didn't spend a decade working on it, they had an idea back in 2014 that they were thinking about in the finance department, nobody was writing any code for Genie or Genie+ back in 2014.

Disney Genie and Genie+ is something that probably started development somewhere in 2018 or 2019. The screenshots you saw in 2019 were just concept art to demonstrate how it would work.

It doesn't take 10 years to develop a new fastpass replacement or even a system which recommends rides. It probably would have launched in 2020 if it were not for the pandemic. I'm sure Disney didn't want to launch it right around when the 50th started, it would be better to launch it before that and allow the software to become stable and the customers to simmer down a bit.

They didn't implement it years ago - because like the thread said back in 2014, Disney felt they didn't have enough 5 star attractions to charge money for it .. and like that person said, they had to wait until Toy Story Land, Galaxy's Edge, etc were completed first.

If Disney IT's track record is anything to go by - they don't want to develop anything from the ground up either - they re-used what they already had that worked which would be the MaxPass system - they've already had enough issues trying to integrate it into My Disney Experience & the new Park Pass system.

I think the Disney marketing has you thinking this is some revolutionary new system that will use advanced Machine Learning to figure out what Lightning Lane passes to offer you.

We're all making assumptions here - but mine is that based on their past history it isn't something revolutionary or fancy - it is just going to be a simple system that now costs $15 to use. Even Disney Genie itself will probably utilize simple systems to look at park crowds and wait times to make recommendations - hopefully not to everyone and only a certain percentage of people.

We'll see soon just how advanced Genie is I guess.