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

[Liquidice]

Just to clarify- it's being reported that it's 2 hours after opening of the park where you booked your first LL. So if you booked an Epcot LL for after 2pm (park hopping) and Epcot has an 11am opening, you can't book the next until 1 pm, even if you go to MK before that.

Interesting - just to add to the confusion, a video I watched from Touring Plans said the opposite. That a good "combo" might be Hollywood Studios (park hop) with Animal Kingdom since it is your first park - you can then get LL's for Hollywood Studios, and stack them up for after 2pm - and your "clock" to get a new one would begin at 10am instead of 11am if your Park Pass was for Animal Kingdom. You can go to AK and ride most of the rides before 2pm w/o a LL since there are so few rides and then you'll have stacked 4 LL's (7am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm) for HS and be able to go over there and ride a bunch of things w/o a long wait. It could be things have changed since TP ran their tests though or they are mistaken.

Wonder if anyone can confirm if they've done this.

Can I stack rides for late afternoon/evening with out been in the park to book them all

You can stack rides without needing to be in the park - but if the LL is before 2pm it must be for the park you have a Park Pass for, if it is after 2pm you can pick any park - but you need to tap into your Park Pass park before you can park hop.

 

[Garyjames220]

Interesting - just to add to the confusion, a video I watched from Touring Plans said the opposite. That a good "combo" might be Hollywood Studios (park hop) with Animal Kingdom since it is your first park - you can then get LL's for Hollywood Studios, and stack them up for after 2pm - and your "clock" to get a new one would begin at 10am instead of 11am if your Park Pass was for Animal Kingdom. You can go to AK and ride most of the rides before 2pm w/o a LL since there are so few rides and then you'll have stacked 4 LL's (7am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm) for HS and be able to go over there and ride a bunch of things w/o a long wait. It could be things have changed since TP ran their tests though or they are mistaken.

Wonder if anyone can confirm if they've done this.



You can stack rides without needing to be in the park - but if the LL is before 2pm it must be for the park you have a Park Pass for, if it is after 2pm you can pick any park - but you need to tap into your Park Pass park before you can park hop.

Could you please tell me what u mean by park pass park

 

[BrianL]

Could you please tell me what u mean by park pass park

The "Park Pass" is the reservation you make for the first park of the day. Park Hopping is only allowed after 2 PM and you do not need a reservation for the parks you hop to.

 

[Liquidice]

Could you please tell me what u mean by park pass park

Park Passes are the park reservations required to get into a park - they are free, but you need to make them in advance. Genie+ knows what Park Pass you hold, so it will not allow you to make Lightning Lane reservations before 2pm for a park you do not hold a Park Pass for. You can only hold 1 Park Pass per day. This is the reservation system that Disney implemented when they first re-opened in July 2020 following the closure for the pandemic.

More details here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/experience-updates/park-reservations/

 

[Turksmom]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/the-genie-usage-and-strategy-only-thread.3857056/post-63490275

This was one post that mentioned it, I'm sure I've seen others in this thread and the Genie announcement thread. I haven't tried it, so can't vouch for accuracy either way.

 

[disney1474]

We were there 10/25-10/31. Did not use Genie+. Take advantage, if staying on property, the 30 minutes the parks open early and hit 1 or 2 headline attractions practically walk on.
We only purchased 1 LL (for Rise) because we rope dropped Slinky which was a walk on. Also if DVC/staying Deluxe wait times go down significantly.. For example SDMT was only 20 minutes.
Hope this helps

 

[ChipnDale79]

my wife just had a call with a coworker that is going to disney, the lady hasnt been in years and has questions.

she said they were buying LL, and couldnt wait to ride RoTR. When my wife told her it wasnt included and you had to pay additional for it. she was not happy.

"you mean, im going to be paying all of that money to get in, plus LL, and it still doesnt get me a pass for the Star Wars ride?...unbelievable".

 

[Lsyves]

my wife just had a call with a coworker that is going to disney, the lady hasnt been in years and has questions.

she said they were buying LL, and couldnt wait to ride RoTR. When my wife told her it wasnt included and you had to pay additional for it. she was not happy.

"you mean, im going to be paying all of that money to get in, plus LL, and it still doesnt get me a pass for the Star Wars ride?...unbelievable".

This. Just got back and we had a great time, however the cost of all the add-ons really annoyed us. ROTR is an AMAZING ride/experience, but we paid for park tickets, genie, and then the lightening lane access. Too too much and I'm crafting my email to Disney today. We did it for the kids and for a chance to not wait in a 140 min line, but the price tag is ridiculous.

 

[closetmickey]

This. Just got back and we had a great time, however the cost of all the add-ons really annoyed us. ROTR is an AMAZING ride/experience, but we paid for park tickets, genie, and then the lightening lane access. Too too much and I'm crafting my email to Disney today. We did it for the kids and for a chance to not wait in a 140 min line, but the price tag is ridiculous.

The problem is…once they read that you purchased it (which I don’t blame you for doing so) will they really care about the rest?

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

my wife just had a call with a coworker that is going to disney, the lady hasnt been in years and has questions.

she said they were buying LL, and couldnt wait to ride RoTR. When my wife told her it wasnt included and you had to pay additional for it. she was not happy.

"you mean, im going to be paying all of that money to get in, plus LL, and it still doesnt get me a pass for the Star Wars ride?...unbelievable".

the question is, are they going to pay for it anyways? if the answer is yes, they are playing right into Disney's hands, and since they don't seem like heavy repeat guests, then mission accomplished for Disney

 

[Liquidice]

the question is, are they going to pay for it anyways? if the answer is yes, they are playing right into Disney's hands, and since they don't seem like heavy repeat guests, then mission accomplished for Disney

I wonder if guest satisfaction will play into it at all though? I know Disney is a for profit company and all - but guest satisfaction has to play some part right? If Disney didn't care about it, why send out guest satisfaction surveys at all?

If their guest satisfaction scores over the long term (short term they will write it off as guest confusion learning the new system) drop, I'm sure changes will occur.

Not to say it is a complete reversal of what we see today - rather an adjustment, which I think many have predicted will be coming anyway.

For example, limiting you to 1 LL ride per day with Genie+, could that change to something like a cool down timer of 4 hours? If a ride isn't as popular (meaning there are LL's available to grab) and you want to ride it a 2nd time - that seems like a reasonable thing.

An Annual Pass option for Genie+, or a discount on Genie+ and ILL$?

I'm just throwing out ideas here - some could be a non-starter for Disney but some changes will likely occur over time.

Personally, I think an adjustment on the naming would really be helpful to help new guests understand how everything works as it does seem rather confusing even to someone who understands the system relatively well.

 

[ChipnDale79]

the question is, are they going to pay for it anyways? if the answer is yes, they are playing right into Disney's hands, and since they don't seem like heavy repeat guests, then mission accomplished for Disney

i dont know, but i also dont think its that simple. i think people are going to buy these, but there are going to be people that take that money from somewhere else that disney was going to get it from. And then there are people like us that just arent going to schedule a trip for next year.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I wonder if guest satisfaction will play into it at all though? I know Disney is a for profit company and all - but guest satisfaction has to play some part right? If Disney didn't care about it, why send out guest satisfaction surveys at all?

If their guest satisfaction scores over the long term (short term they will write it off as guest confusion learning the new system) drop, I'm sure changes will occur.

Not to say it is a complete reversal of what we see today - rather an adjustment, which I think many have predicted will be coming anyway.

For example, limiting you to 1 LL ride per day with Genie+, could that change to something like a cool down timer of 4 hours? If a ride isn't as popular (meaning there are LL's available to grab) and you want to ride it a 2nd time - that seems like a reasonable thing.

An Annual Pass option for Genie+, or a discount on Genie+ and ILL$?

I'm just throwing out ideas here - some could be a non-starter for Disney but some changes will likely occur over time.

Personally, I think an adjustment on the naming would really be helpful to help new guests understand how everything works as it does seem rather confusing even to someone who understands the system relatively well.

I agree about guest satisfaction, I am also is the school of thought that Disney will adjust Genie as time goes on, and you are correct Disney does put out a lot of customer satisfaction surveys, but that falls back on retooling certain things, they generally do not decrease the cost of anything just because their guests are upset that there is a charge. In this case where people are upset about the cost of it, I don't foresee Disney making Genie or IA$ cost less, which is what made people upset with Genie in the first place, obviously not only that, but a lot of the complaints specifically targeted the cost

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

i dont know, but i also dont think its that simple. i think people are going to buy these, but there are going to be people that take that money from somewhere else that disney was going to get it from. And then there are people like us that just arent going to schedule a trip for next year.

I get where you're coming from, some people may reshuffle their budget to be able to pay for Genie, but on the other hand, some may just swallow it as an additional cost, (my line of thinking is that this group will be the majority). I think there are people like yourself who will cancel future trips, but i think you're probably in the minority, Disney hasn't been "hurting" for guest since 09', and even then they were still pretty busy, will Genie cause a mass exodus, even coupled with the other price increases, i highly doubt it, would i like to see that happen is an entirely different question haha

 

[Liquidice]

I agree about guest satisfaction, I am also is the school of thought that Disney will adjust Genie as time goes on, and you are correct Disney does put out a lot of customer satisfaction surveys, but that falls back on retooling certain things, they generally do not decrease the cost of anything just because their guests are upset that there is a charge. In this case where people are upset about the cost of it, I don't foresee Disney making Genie or IA$ cost less, which is what made people upset with Genie in the first place, obviously not only that, but a lot of the complaints specifically targeted the cost

Yeah I guess I just wonder if they might change things around a bit so others will see more value in the cost by modifying the service. I could hope and dream that for the first time they will reverse a charge or lower costs, but I agree I don't think it will happen.

For me personally, based on the experiences I've seen so far, I don't think Genie+ or ILL$ is necessary, and would be able to ride most rides using the standby lines. I know there are other people who would rather spend the money and use the service, which is OK!

My opinion may change as crowd levels increase, but with an AP option for example at $100 per person (that was the cost for the MaxPass AP option) - I might re-consider buying it since I could use it everyday I'm in the parks for 1 flat fee.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Yeah I guess I just wonder if they might change things around a bit so others will see more value in the cost by modifying the service. I could hope and dream that for the first time they will reverse a charge or lower costs, but I agree I don't think it will happen.

For me personally, based on the experiences I've seen so far, I don't think Genie+ or ILL$ is necessary, and would be able to ride most rides using the standby lines. I know there are other people who would rather spend the money and use the service, which is OK!

My opinion may change as crowd levels increase, but with an AP option for example at $100 per person (that was the cost for the MaxPass AP option) - I might re-consider buying it since I could use it everyday I'm in the parks for 1 flat fee.

Yeah I expect we will know the true value it next summer (hopefully Corona will be in the rearview by then), if lines jump in wait time, Genie becomes a value, if they don't, it just illustrates how fractured FP+ was, and I will have a good laugh at everyone's expense who went to die on the hill for FP+

 

[shawthorne44]

I get where you're coming from, some people may reshuffle their budget to be able to pay for Genie, but on the other hand, some may just swallow it as an additional cost, (my line of thinking is that this group will be the majority).

Then there is the third camp that will *plan* to reshuffle from somewhere else, and then fail at that and end up swallowing the cost.

For example, I looked at the G+ cost and realized that was one Q.S. meal a day that could be cut. I truly think that we'll be able to cut that since we'll have a car and a park hoppers. But, for those using Disney transport while on-site? It might not be as easy.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Then there is the third camp that will *plan* to reshuffle from somewhere else, and then fail at that and end up swallowing the cost.

For example, I looked at the G+ cost and realized that was one Q.S. meal a day that could be cut. I truly think that we'll be able to cut that since we'll have a car and a park hoppers. But, for those using Disney transport while on-site? It might not be as easy.

I agree, for myself whos been a lot, and plan everything to the last detail, i still find myself overspending to budget. It must be all the "magic"

 

[Garyjames220]

There offering genie + to uk guests for 14 days for the price of 9. Better than nothing

 

[Liquidice]

Then there is the third camp that will *plan* to reshuffle from somewhere else, and then fail at that and end up swallowing the cost.

For example, I looked at the G+ cost and realized that was one Q.S. meal a day that could be cut. I truly think that we'll be able to cut that since we'll have a car and a park hoppers. But, for those using Disney transport while on-site? It might not be as easy.

Will be interesting to see in 2022 with DME being cut if that will cause more people to rent a car and be able to go offsite to eat though.

I know that my current plan is to reshuffle budgets to make things work if I decide to buy G+ (but if I do, I'm likely to only buy it for 1 or 2 days each trip). But I wouldn't be surprised if we end up going over budget too. Gotta buy that 50th Anniversary Merch!