Disney Genie announcement

[ThistleMae]

We were last at Disney in 2019 and used FastPass. You could only pre-reserve 3 rides each day, so we never found it any great advantage after that. Typically, you use it on the most popular rides to avoid long lines. We were also able to get a few additional ones after we used up the 3. The main issue was how crowded the parks were even mid-week. No amount of advance planning anyone can do will make the crowds any less. Neither FastPass nor Genie will solve that issue. Some of the details about pricing with Genie haven't yet been announced so will wait until the entire program is rolled out to see how it works.

There are constant threads on here about Disney IT issues. Will be interesting to see if Genie is any better. I can see it being a disaster if you can only start reserving for the current day @ 7am and the system is either overloaded or down.

You're right, if the Genie + isn't working due to IT issues, it will be even more disliked, or even hated! Let's hope IT got it correct this time. We shall see. I also think it will be rolling out before the 1st, while crowds are lower right now. Stay tuned!

 

[Orsino]

While genie+ won’t necessarily reduce the number of people in each park, the broader use of standby could reduce the number of people in the walkways thereby making the park ‘feel’ less crowded.
with FP+ something like 1 standby rose for every 10 FP. If the ratio is better with genie then the standby lines could be longer while having the same or shorter wait time. More people in line means fewer people in the walkways. This was an observable effect of the fastpass era. All those people not in a standby line had to be somewhere.

I’m curious to see if they will launch genie+ before October 1. My bet is against a September launch. Right now lines are crazy low. Anyone planning a ‘fall’ trip has good reason to push into October for the new stuff. September should stay quiet. Launching genie+ with low crowds and low wait times would likely fail on the money side. Those executives want to put up good numbers. I think They will wait.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

I'm not sure when Disney will officially launch Genie + and IA$ access to the Lightning Lanes. But I predict that whenever they do launch, they will charge full price on day one and not give out any "free samples" while they iron out any kinks.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I'm not sure when Disney will official launch Genie + and IA$ access to the Lightning Lanes. But I predict that whenever they do launch, they will charge full price on day one and not give out any "free samples" while they iron out any kinks.

It’s hard to tell. While I don’t see the same thing happening, I remember being at Pop when they were first introducing MagicBands to 4 or 5 resorts. We had one trip where we were able to use both paper FPs and MBs, sometimes holding 5 or 6 each at a single time. I can see them possibly rolling it out for free for a bit to some (possibly APs, DVC, Deluxe??) to help them give it a test drive.

But that’s purely a guess based on my experience testing MBs.

 

[Disney mac]

You're right, if the Genie + isn't working due to IT issues, it will be even more disliked, or even hated! Let's hope IT got it correct this time. We shall see. I also think it will be rolling out before the 1st, while crowds are lower right now. Stay tuned!

Hadn't thought about tech issues. But I am sure there are a lot of things about this that have not been thought out. I was told that FP was created as a way to get people out of line, because in line, people don't spend money. I wonder what the "Freakonomics" side of this will be?

 

[ThistleMae]

Hadn't thought about tech issues. But I am sure there are a lot of things about this that have not been thought out. I was told that FP was created as a way to get people out of line, because in line, people don't spend money. I wonder what the "Freakonomics" side of this will be?

I don't know, but lets hope we hear soon. I think the fact they are putting up LL signs right now is significant.

 

[tony67]

I also think it will be rolling out before the 1st, while crowds are lower right now.

That is the entire reason to roll it out sooner - if you roll it out when the parks are busy you are asking for trouble.
Also cant roll it out when the parks are busy to a small group of people, - like they did with magic bands, that will just annoy people even more - not that Disney cares

 

[Grasshopper2016]

One question I have about Genie+. Let's say that you use a Lightning Lane pass (for lack of a better word), and then you go onto the app to choose your next one. You select the best option you see, but you're not totally thrilled with it. Will you be able to change it, or are you locked in? If changing is possible, then it seems likely that people will be canceling and switching them around. Which in turn means that you will be able to "refresh" to see if a better option --- ride or time --- pops up. In addition, if Disney periodically dumps more LL times into the system --- in order to avoid a situation where the best rides are filling up all day by 9:00 or 10:00 am, which would really anger the paying customers --- then that too would be an incentive to keep "refreshing" in the hopes of catching one.

In other words, is the "refresh" method dead, or has it just changed platforms?

 

[shawthorne44]

The speculation is that G+ will be like MaxPass. So, they give you the next available time, however long that time is in the future. It might be for 3pm when you get it at 11am. At some point in the day the popular rides would run out of passes. That the next ride reservation was 4 hours in the future wasn't that big of a problem because you could reserve another with 90 minutes or 2 hours (I forget) after you'd gotten your last one, or you used it, whichever came first.

Whether you could modify one you got, I don't know. I think the basic idea is that you do something that doesn't require a LL while you are waiting.

 

[Violetspider]

One question I have about Genie+. Let's say that you use a Lightning Lane pass (for lack of a better word), and then you go onto the app to choose your next one. You select the best option you see, but you're not totally thrilled with it. Will you be able to change it, or are you locked in? If changing is possible, then it seems likely that people will be canceling and switching them around. Which in turn means that you will be able to "refresh" to see if a better option --- ride or time --- pops up. In addition, if Disney periodically dumps more LL times into the system --- in order to avoid a situation where the best rides are filling up all day by 9:00 or 10:00 am, which would really anger the paying customers --- then that too would be an incentive to keep "refreshing" in the hopes of catching one.

In other words, is the "refresh" method dead, or has it just changed platforms?

I would image that modifying and/or canceling will be a probability. Which would also mean "refreshing" will be alive and well. Stacking, like MaxPass, is a complete unknown. Nothing that Disney has put in print would indicate that will be possible, which really makes or brakes G+ for me.

 

[Coconut8473]

Apologies if this was answered earlier in this (or another) thread. Does anyone know if G+ pricing be similar to Park Hopper where you have to apply it to all days of your ticket, or will you be able to pick and choose which day(s) to buy/apply it to? For example, if I have a 7 day ticket, but only want G+ for 3 of those days, is that an option? All of their verbiage talks about the flexibility of G+, and adding options a la carte, but I haven't seen this situation called out specifically, unless I missed it.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Apologies if this was answered earlier in this (or another) thread. Does anyone know if G+ pricing be similar to Park Hopper where you have to apply it to all days of your ticket, or will you be able to pick and choose which day(s) to buy/apply it to? For example, if I have a 7 day ticket, but only want G+ for 3 of those days, is that an option? All of their verbiage talks about the flexibility of G+, and adding options a la carte, but I haven't seen this situation called out specifically, unless I missed it.

It appears you will be able to add it to specific dates but many details have not been announced yet so this is not confirmed.

 

[JustinS30]

Been trying to scan this thread for an answer so my apologies if this has been answered. What I’m curious about, is when purchasing Genie+ (the $15/day option) do I need to purchase for every day of my trip, or and I pick and choose certain days to purchase, while skipping some?

 

[shawthorne44]

They've said that you can add it to your tickets or anytime the day of.
I assume that means if you add it to your tickets, it will be for every day. Anytime the day of, starts at midnight. So, you could be up at say 6:30am, add G+, then be ready to add your first G+ ride reservation.
I think people are going to not want to bother with adding G+ before they use it, so will add it to the ticket. I know I will.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Been trying to scan this thread for an answer so my apologies if this has been answered. What I’m curious about, is when purchasing Genie+ (the $15/day option) do I need to purchase for every day of my trip, or and I pick and choose certain days to purchase, while skipping some?

Please see message directly above your question.

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

For those who do not like the idea of G+ or will not pay for G+, would you rather that the FP+ system was left as-was, and ticket prices were raised across the board by $15/day/person (ie a 5 day ticket would have a price increase of $75 per person)? I am asking this question honestly, as I would rather have the option to buy or not buy this add-on, rather than have ticket prices raised for all tickets.

I think it's worth noting that to get the same revenue bump any price increase could have been substantially lower as it would have been spread across all new tickets, even assuming most guests to the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios (I think many such as myself will pass on it at least for Epcot and the Animal Kingdom) purchase the new Genie+ the cost will be borne by a much smaller group of people meaning the increase per person had to be substantially more to get to the same point. Sure, tickets that had already been sold and AP holders might have escaped the price increase but I suspect the number of Genie+ sales will still be a substantially smaller number than new ticket sales by a large margin going forward. Now, is it more fair to make the people that are using the new system pay the price? Probably but if the new system isn't what people wanted making them pay for it is going to anger them because it really isn't about benefitting the customer but about increasing their revenue, pretending it's somehow a response to customer demands or an improvement they were clamoring for is disingenuous.

As to your actual question, from a purely selfish perspective I would have preferred the price increase as it wouldn't have retroactively increased my costs since I already have my tickets. However I would have been irritated either way because I think Disney is doing quite fine in terms of their bottom line and with some park amenities on hold or completely done away with they seem to be taking advantage of the current circumstances to both reduce services and increase prices simultaneously. The cost increase is neither significant enough to cause me to cancel my trip nor to never return however the seeming nickle-and-dime approach will certainly mean I will reduce the frequency of my trips in the future while a price increase of a couple bucks probably would have made less impact on my thinking moving forward.

 

[scrappinginontario]

They've said that you can add it to your tickets or anytime the day of.
I assume that means if you add it to your tickets, it will be for every day. Anytime the day of, starts at midnight. So, you could be up at say 6:30am, add G+, then be ready to add your first G+ ride reservation.
I think people are going to not want to bother with adding G+ before they use it, so will add it to the ticket. I know I will.

For me, it will depend on which park I'm going to and what the standby lines are like before our trip. We normally go lower crowd times so I may only add it for certain parks. (On our last trip in 2019 Soarin' was a walk-on at 4:00 on a Friday. Genie+ would have been a waste of money on a day like that.)

 

[JustinS30]

They've said that you can add it to your tickets or anytime the day of.
I assume that means if you add it to your tickets, it will be for every day. Anytime the day of, starts at midnight. So, you could be up at say 6:30am, add G+, then be ready to add your first G+ ride reservation.
I think people are going to not want to bother with adding G+ before they use it, so will add it to the ticket. I know I will.

I’m interested to see how the plays out. I’m an AP holder, have an upcoming trip thats technically 5 days (arrive Monday, leave Friday) and only have park reservations for 3 days (Tuesday through Thursday). I’d like to assume I’d only be charged for 3 days if adding ahead of time in that case.

 

[RedmonFamily]

Been trying to scan this thread for an answer so my apologies if this has been answered. What I’m curious about, is when purchasing Genie+ (the $15/day option) do I need to purchase for every day of my trip, or and I pick and choose certain days to purchase, while skipping some?

I watched the dfb video and AJ mentioned that she learned it was your whole ticket ( so all days) if you purchased ahead of your trip. Or you could purchase day of when you are here but made it sounds like availability could be limited.

 

[Coconut8473]

I watched the dfb video and AJ mentioned that she learned it was your whole ticket ( so all days) if you purchased ahead of your trip. Or you could purchase day of when you are here but made it sounds like availability could be limited.

This is what I was worried about. We usually go for 7-8 days, and typically will do "commando" for the first 3-4 days (whether it's rope dropping, fast passing, whatever it takes to ride all the "must rides" first), then just go with the flow the second half of our trip (park hopping, taking afternoon pool breaks, hitting the quieter attractions like Carousel of Progress, etc.) For a family of 4, $15 a day for 8 days = $480, compared to only $180 to add G+ for 3 days. I'm a planner, so don't love the idea of one more thing we'd have to do "day of" especially if availability isn't guaranteed.