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

[Venelope21]

Just called to make a payment on our trip and they said there system will be down a few hours for a major update. Wonder if this is related to Genie?

 

[HuskieJohn]

I buy that the majority of people that go to disney are first timers, i dont buy they arent upset by this either. I know i have heard from 2 families that had never been before, and canceled trips for next year because of Genie+.

There's too much word of mouth advertising both good and bad for disney, that they've heard about this as well.

i guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing this unless you are the one telling them they shouldn't go.

I am helping a family plan a first trip to WDW for next year and when I told them about the G+ upcharge replacing the FP+ system (which they knew about some type of free Fast Pass from one trip to DL) they said "Oh, ok, that doesn't seem worth it for us." and continued planning their trip.

As a second time WDW trip planner myself, G+ (purchased or not) makes things so much easier/less stressful than the FP+ system leading up to the trip. Now I don't have to preplan every min of every day 6+ months in advanced to then play the 60+ 6am FP+ lotto to see where I have to change my plan and have that plan LOCKED in otherwise only useless FP+ are the only other options to change out 90% of the time. Sure you can refresh and keep looking but this is all the stuff that is now gone because of the G+ pay system.

Not only is a paid skip the line pass the expectation for all other theme parks, the fact that it is ONLY $15pp pd will make people love the idea as it is much more affordable than other theme parks. My home Six Flags park lowest Flash Pass level is $60pp pd, Universal Express Pass at $69.99 and Cedar Point for $109 pp pd and these are for all the base level passes which do not give access to the top tier rides. Yes yes, I know the response, "but its not Disney"...to my response of that is EXAXCTLY why $15pp pd is too cheap as no one outside of this bubble thinks of this negatively on there own and most will gladly pay and many will be willing to pay more than double. Even if a family is tight on funds maybe they wont pay for it ever day of their vacation but they sure will at MK and will think its a great deal too when compared to other theme parks...which is a big reason why I think we will see the G+ charge be quickly increased to $25pp pd by spring 2022 for all 4 parks and an additional MK only increase to $35pp pd by Halloween 2022...and it will still be cheaper than the other theme parks.

 

[luv2cheer92]

The early entry isn't limited to Disney-owned hotels. The following hotels are also included, which means those 30-minutes will be more crowded than some have predicted and being onsite is a lesser benefit than advertised.

• Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
• Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
• Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
• Shades of Green® on Walt Disney World® Resort
• Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
• Waldorf Astoria Orlando
• B Resort & Spa Lake Buena Vista
• DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando
• Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
• Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
• Holiday Inn Orlando
• Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista
• Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
• Four Seasons Resort Orlando

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/guest-services/early-entry/

Those hotels all had access to EMH, so not sure how it would be more crowded than predicted based on that.

 

[CWTC]

Not only is a paid skip the line pass the expectation for all other theme parks, the fact that it is ONLY $15pp pd will make people love the idea as it is much more affordable than other theme parks. My home Six Flags park lowest Flash Pass level is $60pp pd, Universal Express Pass at $69.99 and Cedar Point for $109 pp pd and these are for all the base level passes which do not give access to the top tier rides.

I am not sure comparing G+ though to the universal pass is an equal one. My understanding is G+ requires you to reserve a LL spot at some point in the future and as far as we know you can only hold one at a time plus availability is not guaranteed. The universal pass (at least last time we used it) was on demand access whenever we wanted it. No limits no reservations. The universal pass has far more value than a G+ pass even though the latter is cheaper.

Depending on day/time/ride, G+ may only give you LL access for one ride at 8 hours in the future. Is 15$ per person worth it for one tier 2 ride?

If most park goers assume G+ at 15$ per day is equivalent to the universal pass, I suspect there will be a lot of disappointed park goers.

 

[ChipnDale79]

I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing this unless you are the one telling them they shouldn't go.

Not sure what to tell you, one of them has been saving for a few years and has been following it closely.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Depending on day/time/ride, G+ may only give you LL access for one ride at 8 hours in the future. Is 15$ per person worth it for one tier 2 ride?

I think that would cause an uproar among guests, and cannot imagine that it will work that way. we shall see, but i can't see Disney implementing something that would almost have no use for a fee

 

[CWTC]

I think that would cause an uproar among guests, and cannot imagine that it will work that way. we shall see, but i can't see Disney implementing something that would almost have no use for a fee

I agree and hope it’s more user friendly and stackable. My larger point was that G+ - as far as I can tell - seems to be inferior to the universal pass in terms of function and on demand usage. I am not sure comparing them is comparing apples to apples. And I hope guests realize that G+ doesn’t mean you are walking by a ride and can immediately jump in the LL.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I agree and hope it’s more user friendly and stackable. My larger point was that G+ - as far as I can tell - seems to be inferior to the universal pass in terms of function and on demand usage. I am not sure comparing them is comparing apples to apples. And I hope guests realize that G+ doesn’t mean you are walking by a ride and can immediately jump in the LL.

i agree, i think universal has more latitude because they do not have the crowds that Disney has, thus letting them hand out immediate access to rides. I think if Disney offered a $80 per day "walk on" pass, a lot of people would take advantage of it, and it would completely bog down every line. I think Disney has put a lot of thought into this, and are implementing something that will ultimately help everyone, as opposed to only people who are willing to pay out their nose for something

 

[DL1WDW2]

I’d love a version of a mini self guided tour (no VIPTour Guide)
Maybe a 3 hour LL Access for one theme park.

 

[Marionnette]

Because if you can stack, and you’re at an onsite hotel, that means starting at 7 am you can start stacking fastpasses for later in the morning or day, whereas if you are offsite you can’t do that and have to be in the parks. The ability to make 1 advance lightning lane reservation at 7 am onsite is nearly worthless versus staying off site. The ability to make several might be worth something.

From the reports that I have read, booking your first LL with Genie+ starts at 7 AM for both onsite and offsite guests. It's only IA$ attractions that can be booked by onsite guests at 7 AM while offsite guests must wait until they tap in at their first park.

Genie+ also appears to be designed to offer guests "next available " time slots simular to how paper FP only offered the very next available return times and nothing further into the future like you could do with FP+. That would pretty much prevent any stacking in the manner that MP worked.

Of course much of this is speculation based on interpretations by various bloggers, many of whom (like Len Testa and Jim Hill) have a rather impressive record on being correct about these things. None of us really knows exactly how Genie+ will work in practice.

ETA: An explanation of Genie+ begins around 1:25 on this official video. At 1:40, she makes the statement "You'll save time in line as you make one available selection at a time throughout the day."

 

[Tyler's Dad]

Doing a little research and noticed some trends.

In 2011, Disney ran at 81% hotel occupancy and their stock was devalued based on the reports. Hotels were not booking in the Moderate and Deluxe categories, so cost per room was having to raise in the Value category, in order for them to operate at a profit and Art of Animation was opening soon, to add even more value rooms. So, Disney developed FP+ the next 2 years and when it went into effect, hotel guests received the benefit of pre-booking and hotel occupancy started going up. By 2015, this was at 89% and Disney stated that was almost too much and any further increase would require expansion, so Disney doubled down on DVC resorts and tried to add rooms to existing resorts, but tap into a fan base that wanted to own. This eased the pressure for a little while, but then by 2018, the occupancy was right back up there. At that time, Disney started allowing good neighbor resorts to use EMH and book FP+ at 60 days in 2019. They also announced the building of Reflections and Star Wars resorts to add more rooms to their inventory.

Now, at every step in this process, as Disney occupancy went through the roof, Disney tried to develop technology and or inventory that would help stay ahead. When occupancy took too big of a hit, they added technology to entice people to stay on-site. When that was maxed out, they tried to add inventory where they could or hurt their own occupancy in the case of giving the same benefits to good neighbor resorts.

When the pandemic hit, Reflections was abandoned, so there was no new inventory coming. They had already maxed out DVC space and brought on the good neighbor hotels. So, what is the next thing they could do to stop capacity from going up again? I think by removing some perks of staying on-site and introducing Genie+, they are going to get people that see that staying off-site might make more sense and will begin doing that. That will be good for Disney for a short while. Then, when everything in the resort opens to max capacity again, they will see occupancy rates going back down and bring back some incentives to stay on-site again. Once those work and capacity goes back up to the limit, then you bring back Reflections or fins some way to encourage off-site again. The wheel just keeps going around and around.

One last thing that interested me was the good neighbor hotel incentives and FP+. I would imagine Disney had to enter into a contract with them, for some amount of time, that would give the same FP+ availability to those hotels as on-site guests. Otherwise, Disney could have offered 60 days to them and then turned around and changed to 90 days for on-site guests and nothing would have changed. I almost wonder if Disney has to wait until next year or the year after before they can offer Genie+ benefits to on-site guests, in order to fulfill those contracts?

 

[BrianL]

From the reports that I have read, booking your first LL with Genie+ starts at 7 AM for both onsite and offsite guests. It's only IA$ attractions that can be booked by onsite guests at 7 AM while offsite guests must wait until they tap in at their first park.

Genie+ also appears to be designed to offer guests "next available " time slots simular to how paper FP only offered the very next available return times and nothing further into the future like you could do with FP+. That would pretty much prevent any stacking in the manner that MP worked.

Of course much of this is speculation based on interpretations by various bloggers, many of whom (like Len Testa and Jim Hill) have a rather impressive record on being correct about these things. None of us really knows exactly how Genie+ will work in practice.

But MP also only offered the next available time. Stacking coudl occurr when you chose an attraction with a much later time. I actually don't think that will happen as often as the rides that would have very far out times will probably be the paid selections - not that I love that, but I think that is how it will work.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Doing a little research and noticed some trends.

In 2011, Disney ran at 81% hotel occupancy and their stock was devalued based on the reports. Hotels were not booking in the Moderate and Deluxe categories, so cost per room was having to raise in the Value category, in order for them to operate at a profit and Art of Animation was opening soon, to add even more value rooms. So, Disney developed FP+ the next 2 years and when it went into effect, hotel guests received the benefit of pre-booking and hotel occupancy started going up. By 2015, this was at 89% and Disney stated that was almost too much and any further increase would require expansion, so Disney doubled down on DVC resorts and tried to add rooms to existing resorts, but tap into a fan base that wanted to own. This eased the pressure for a little while, but then by 2018, the occupancy was right back up there. At that time, Disney started allowing good neighbor resorts to use EMH and book FP+ at 60 days in 2019. They also announced the building of Reflections and Star Wars resorts to add more rooms to their inventory.

Now, at every step in this process, as Disney occupancy went through the roof, Disney tried to develop technology and or inventory that would help stay ahead. When occupancy took too big of a hit, they added technology to entice people to stay on-site. When that was maxed out, they tried to add inventory where they could or hurt their own occupancy in the case of giving the same benefits to good neighbor resorts.

When the pandemic hit, Reflections was abandoned, so there was no new inventory coming. They had already maxed out DVC space and brought on the good neighbor hotels. So, what is the next thing they could do to stop capacity from going up again? I think by removing some perks of staying on-site and introducing Genie+, they are going to get people that see that staying off-site might make more sense and will begin doing that. That will be good for Disney for a short while. Then, when everything in the resort opens to max capacity again, they will see occupancy rates going back down and bring back some incentives to stay on-site again. Once those work and capacity goes back up to the limit, then you bring back Reflections or fins some way to encourage off-site again. The wheel just keeps going around and around.

One last thing that interested me was the good neighbor hotel incentives and FP+. I would imagine Disney had to enter into a contract with them, for some amount of time, that would give the same FP+ availability to those hotels as on-site guests. Otherwise, Disney could have offered 60 days to them and then turned around and changed to 90 days for on-site guests and nothing would have changed. I almost wonder if Disney has to wait until next year or the year after before they can offer Genie+ benefits to on-site guests, in order to fulfill those contracts?

this makes sense to me, it's a constant ebb and flow

 

[Marionnette]

Isn't that basically the same list as pre-lockdown? Then you have that crowds are divided among all the parks. But then you add in that it is only a half-hour. So, one very popular ride during early entry seems like the best estimate. What might change things is if a lot of on-site people who didn't take advantage of the early entry, do now. Maybe they'd been interested before, but the higher crowds throughout the day at that park dissuaded them.

What would be bad is if they have ROTR and FOP closed during early entry.

I'm not sure whether it's the same or not. There was some speculation on the number of guests who would be using early admissions based only on the number of rooms at Disney-owned hotels. Those calculations would be flawed because all of those additional hotels were not taken into consideration. But including so many additional resorts in the morning can tip the scales to a certain degree.

 

[shawthorne44]

i agree, i think universal has more latitude because they do not have the crowds that Disney has, thus letting them hand out immediate access to rides.

More people go to Disney, but Disney has four parks. At USF, offhand I'd say that there are 20 fastpass worthy rides that you have easy access to in a one-day visit. There are the two parks, but they are a short, very entertaining train-ride away. And, the train is included in the express pass. Except for MK, there are only a handful of fast-pass worthy rides at each park. If you had park-hoppers, you could do multiple parks. But, then you'd have to waste time getting to the second park. You wouldn't want to waste time on that if you have the equivalent of Express Passes.

 

[meremac]

I think it's just a matter of how you approach things. We have a great time every time we go to WDW. We had a great time when there were paper FastPasses, we had a great time when it was FastPass+, we had a great time last summer when there were no FastPasses at all, and I am confident we'll have a great time once Genie+ arrives. We like theme parks. We like Disney. We recognize things change, and we just roll with it. Because we have fun on vacation. I will also confidently say that the only complaint I've received from ANY of my clients who have visited WDW in the last year (including this past summer) was one complaint about Mousekeeping. That was really it. I prepared everyone for what to expect, and everyone had a great time and was just happy to be there. I think it's about the lens you choose to look at things through. And listen, I'm not trying to throw toxic positivity out there blindly. I get that sometimes changes are deal-breakers. This is true at Disney, at other vacation destinations, and in life in general. We each get to decide what our deal-breakers are, and then we get to decide what to do with that. But for lots of people, Genie+ isn't going to be a deal-breaker. For lots of people, frankly, it won't even matter.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

More people go to Disney, but Disney has four parks. At USF, offhand I'd say that there are 20 fastpass worthy rides that you have easy access to in a one-day visit. There are the two parks, but they are a short, very entertaining train-ride away. And, the train is included in the express pass. Except for MK, there are only a handful of fast-pass worthy rides at each park. If you had park-hoppers, you could do multiple parks. But, then you'd have to waste time getting to the second park. You wouldn't want to waste time on that if you have the equivalent of Express Passes.

That's a good point, no question that there are probably plenty of driving factors, that make disney charge what they are planning to charge

 

[Jross34]

i agree, i think universal has more latitude because they do not have the crowds that Disney has, thus letting them hand out immediate access to rides. I think if Disney offered a $80 per day "walk on" pass, a lot of people would take advantage of it, and it would completely bog down every line. I think Disney has put a lot of thought into this, and are implementing something that will ultimately help everyone, as opposed to only people who are willing to pay out their nose for something

Universal has a limit to how many passes they sell, and they do frequently sell out. Disney could do the same thing

 

[Marionnette]

Was this in the MDE app yesterday? I don't remember seeing it. Looks like Remy will definitely be VQ when it open on Oct. 1.

 

[KaTinkerbell]

Was this in the MDE app yesterday? I don't remember seeing it. Looks like Remy will definitely be VQ when it open on Oct. 1.

View attachment 606785

I didn’t see it in MDE yesterday but did this a.m. I’m just wondering if IT is having hiccups with the launch of Genie because I would have thought it would be live now that it’s autumn & Oct. 1 is around the corner. LOL, but I’m just one of these people who like to play with apps to familiarize myself with it before I have to actually use it.