Disney Genie announcement

[Violetspider]

Is it confirmed that it will be one ride at a time, as in you can’t have 2 LLs for the same ride booked at a time, or one ride at a time, as in you can’t have more than one LL booked period, until the one is used (like how FP+ was at WDW after you used the first 3 pre-booked FPs)? I thought it was just speculation right now as to which of these booking conventions would apply to G+. I agree with you that the difference between those two booking conventions really affects the value of the service for me (as a person who adored MP at DLR!).

This is quoted from Disney's announcement:
"You can make one selection at a time, throughout the day – from classics like Haunted Mansion to thrill rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and newer favorites like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (attractions subject to limited availability). This convenient option is the next evolution of the fan-favorite Disney MaxPass service from Disneyland Resort."

Beyond them stating "one selection at a time" they say this is the "next evolution" to MaxPass, meaning something will be different. It sure seems like the difference will be no stacking which would likely really lessen the value of the G+ on busier days.

 

[jjb1974]

they say this is the "next evolution" to MaxPass, meaning something will be different.

While I hope this is more of a mutation that nature snuffs out as it is horrible for the species, like making a nocturnal predator glow in the dark.

Sorry Genie, you rub me the wrong way.

 

[MMSM]

This is quoted from Disney's announcement:
"You can make one selection at a time, throughout the day – from classics like Haunted Mansion to thrill rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and newer favorites like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (attractions subject to limited availability). This convenient option is the next evolution of the fan-favorite Disney MaxPass service from Disneyland Resort."

Beyond them stating "one selection at a time" they say this is the "next evolution" to MaxPass, meaning something will be different. It sure seems like the difference will be no stacking which would likely really lessen the value of the G+ on busier days.

I read the genie plus would be one ride at me. But what about LL?

 

[Violetspider]

I read the genie plus would be one ride at me. But what about LL?

The only thing Disney has about this is, "Individual attraction selections (available for purchase): Schedule a time to arrive at up to two highly demanded attractions each day using the Lightning Lane entrance – like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom Park and Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure park (subject to limited availability; attractions not included with Disney Genie+)."

So it's unclear whether you can book both at the same time. I would assume you can or many wouldn't pay for and book the second one as the ride they most wanted might no longer be available by the time they could book it. Disney wants that money after all.

 

[Orsino]

I agree that there are a lot of potential downsides to genie and fastpass replacement. But I also think there is potential for upsides. A lot of what I read in this thread is worst case thinking that I don’t think will happen.

one potential upside I see is breaking the cycle of “must have” fastpasses. I always book SDMT even though I don’t really really love it. It is a cute ride and I have fun on it, but if I’m being honest with myself, I book the FP+ for it becauseit is hard to get and I had to make that decision 60 days before even being at Disneyworld. With the new set up, I would totally skip SDMT. It would not be a terrible burden to me to skip it, and in skipping it that opens availability to people who do want to ride it. I guess what I’m saying is that a lot of the popularity of some rides is the fact that they are popular and hard to get. For me, the same is true for flight of passage. I enjoy it, but not nearly as much as others do.
FP+ encouraged people like me to ride the hard to get rides and made it easy to do so in a way that was not in line with level of desire. If forced to wait standby, I won’t do it, which will make waits shorter for those who do really like these rides.

 

[g-dad66]

I agree that there are a lot of potential downsides to genie and fastpass replacement. But I also think there is potential for upsides. A lot of what I read in this thread is worst case thinking that I don’t think will happen.

one potential upside I see is breaking the cycle of “must have” fastpasses. I always book SDMT even though I don’t really really love it. It is a cute ride and I have fun on it, but if I’m being honest with myself, I book the FP+ for it becauseit is hard to get and I had to make that decision 60 days before even being at Disneyworld. With the new set up, I would totally skip SDMT. It would not be a terrible burden to me to skip it, and in skipping it that opens availability to people who do want to ride it. I guess what I’m saying is that a lot of the popularity of some rides is the fact that they are popular and hard to get. For me, the same is true for flight of passage. I enjoy it, but not nearly as much as others do.
FP+ encouraged people like me to ride the hard to get rides and made it easy to do so in a way that was not in line with level of desire. If forced to wait standby, I won’t do it, which will make waits shorter for those who do really like these rides.

Same for us regarding SDMT. We always got a FP, because it was the only way to avoid long wait or rope drop crush. If the only way to avoid wait/rope drop is to pay extra for it, we will skip it.

Flight of Passage is in a different category for us. We are not likely to skip it, and it may be the 1 ride we are willing to pay extra in order to avoid an hour's wait. (Hoping we can get free Boarding Passes for Rise and Rat.)

I suspect our behavior is what WDW is banking on for a lot of repeat visitors.

 

[GoingSince1990]

.

I'm so disappointed. I liked the planning. It meant we could sleep in on vacation and still ride the headliners. I split up the FPs for our family of 4 - my son doesn't ride roller coasters. So DH & DS rode Peter pan while DD and I rode thunder mountain. I'm not convinced scheduling those two different things at the same time will be so easy now. I also go on vacation in order to NOT have to wake up at 7 every day.

And the pay for tier 1 rides thing? Yuck. I feel like I'm hitting up a scalper outside a playoff game. "Psst - lady - you want to go on the ride? For $100, I'll get you and your family on the ride fast." I can even picture the Genie in a trench coat showing me his pockets full of tickets.

As a non-morning person I didn’t enjoy getting up early to book our FPs 60 days prior. But having done so, it was so nice to be able to sleep late on the vacation and arrive at the park late in the day ready to enjoy our prebooked selections.

 

[JakeAZ]

So, in addition to my posts here, I also emailed Disney when this came out in regards to no (true) on-site benefit. That's my biggest complaint about this whole rollout. While it's nice to be able to vent on these boards, we should also go straight to the source sometimes too.

Here is my email:

While paid FP (or Genie) was inevitable, making it the same price and have the same features (aside from being able to purchase a ride 2 hours earlier for on-site) is a total slap in the face to those of us staying on-site.

I have no problems with paying for convenience. It's one of the reasons we are staying fewer days at WDW this trip and more at Universal.

While we will still do this shorter upcoming trip, I don't see us overly excited to get back to WDW. At least not on-site. You can sell your $1000 per night - 300sq foot room to some other suckers.

The on-site "benefits" are a total joke. The Deluxe extra hours leave out to the two parks with most desirable rides. I thought for sure something with Genie would steer towards on-site, but nope.

I know, I know, people usually just accept whatever "enhancements" you guys put out there, but I think this might be it for a lot of people.

I'm sure you've weighed the short term profits vs the long term effects, but why would anyone stay on-site anymore? The remainder of 2021 should be fantastic from an occupancy stand point, but you can only push your guests so far.

No need to reply. Whoever reads this, I'm sorry, I know you didn't put out the policy.


Here is their response:

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort!

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and are sorry for the disappointments you mentioned in your e-mail regarding Disney Genie+ and Disney Genie+ Lightning Lanes as well as the benefits to our Guests staying on property.

It is our goal to create magical memories and exceed the expectations of our Guests during each and every interaction that you have with us. Please be assured that we have shared your comments with our leadership team, along with the appropriate management, as feedback such as yours is taken very seriously.

 

[quandrea]

Agreed. I’ve always been the planner for our group of family, extended family and friends. Have loved doing it. We have a large trip scheduled for November (DVC @ BWV). I literally have older friends in our party who don’t go onto MDE at all, as I do everything for them on my app. Our grown sons and other millennials in our group obviously can do their own thing. Given all that it looks unlikely that we’ll be doing many (if any) attractions together as a group. It just becomes too complicated in trying to coordinate everyone with Genie+.

In addition to that, how is the $15 paid for? If I were to go into MDE at midnight and purchase everyone’s Genie+ for the next day, am I paying all of those $15 charges, or are they somehow charged to folks individually? It seems like a nightmare to manage.

For this reason I plan to make use of resort early entry and late night hours at MK and Epcot and will probably skip Genie+ altogether. Heck, maybe we’ll even splurge for a once in a lifetime VIP tour to avoid all of these roll-out headaches

I had the vip tour thought. Every few years, buy a one day ticket and do all we want to do with a guide. Cheaper over time, no headaches, better experience.

 

[quandrea]

So, in addition to my posts here, I also emailed Disney when this came out in regards to no (true) on-site benefit. That's my biggest complaint about this whole rollout. While it's nice to be able to vent on these boards, we should also go straight to the source sometimes too.

Here is my email:

While paid FP (or Genie) was inevitable, making it the same price and have the same features (aside from being able to purchase a ride 2 hours earlier for on-site) is a total slap in the face to those of us staying on-site.

I have no problems with paying for convenience. It's one of the reasons we are staying fewer days at WDW this trip and more at Universal.

While we will still do this shorter upcoming trip, I don't see us overly excited to get back to WDW. At least not on-site. You can sell your $1000 per night - 300sq foot room to some other suckers.

The on-site "benefits" are a total joke. The Deluxe extra hours leave out to the two parks with most desirable rides. I thought for sure something with Genie would steer towards on-site, but nope.

I know, I know, people usually just accept whatever "enhancements" you guys put out there, but I think this might be it for a lot of people.

I'm sure you've weighed the short term profits vs the long term effects, but why would anyone stay on-site anymore? The remainder of 2021 should be fantastic from an occupancy stand point, but you can only push your guests so far.

No need to reply. Whoever reads this, I'm sorry, I know you didn't put out the policy.


Here is their response:

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort!

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and are sorry for the disappointments you mentioned in your e-mail regarding Disney Genie+ and Disney Genie+ Lightning Lanes as well as the benefits to our Guests staying on property.

It is our goal to create magical memories and exceed the expectations of our Guests during each and every interaction that you have with us. Please be assured that we have shared your comments with our leadership team, along with the appropriate management, as feedback such as yours is taken very seriously.

So basically, no meaningful feedback whatsoever.

 

[Boardwalk III]

I had the vip tour thought. Every few years, but a one day ticket and do all we want to do with a guide. Cheaper over time, no headaches, better experience.

Not to mention avoiding crowded lines with the continued annoyance of Covid

 

[_19disnA]

I'm sure the Disney 'complaint' department has a number of standard replies they provide whenever someone writes in with an issue. If they do anything, my guess would be they probably run a total of how many good/bad complaints they get on any newly revised item.

Curious to see how well it works the first day it is offered at 7am and the site crashes due to the overload from people trying to access it. Then they will act 'surprised' there was an issue.

 

[Absolute Coaster]

I’ll be happy to try this service while visiting the park. I really liked Disneyland’s Max Pass when I used it twice in 2018 and 2019.

But sounds like it will be slightly different now, you can’t get passes to the most popular attractions without paying for them al a carte. We will have to wait and see what those are.

I’m surprised to see a ride like Big Thunder on the Genie+ list. Which makes me believe there will only be a few of the major E-Tickets on the upcharge.

After doing Disney for a while, I always rope drop. The majority of the people going to WDW don’t show up until after the park opens. Then I leave for the busiest/hottest part of the day and come back for the evening when less people are there again.

Riding rides during the fireworks and parades helps to avoid lots of the lines. Once, I went on the Astro Orbiters during the fireworks and it was very magical. More magical than being in a sea of people on Main Street.

There’s so many factors and Genie+ will be another one. A certain percentage of people will not use Genie+ because they don’t know about it, another percentage will not use it because it’s confusing, another percentage will not use it because it costs money.

I never ran into queue issues, while using the Max Pass at Disneyland. While there’s always a few exceptions, I think Disney has enough data and experience to limit the amount of fast passes given and create a positive experience for their guests.

 

[jknc]

Sadly it’s been 5 days and I haven’t heard back from Disney.

We can’t get a refund on our Poly DVC rental so we have it posted in a couple places to hopefully transfer to someone else.

 

[MMSM]

The only thing Disney has about this is, "Individual attraction selections (available for purchase): Schedule a time to arrive at up to two highly demanded attractions each day using the Lightning Lane entrance – like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom Park and Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure park (subject to limited availability; attractions not included with Disney Genie+)."

So it's unclear whether you can book both at the same time. I would assume you can or many wouldn't pay for and book the second one as the ride they most wanted might no longer be available by the time they could book it. Disney wants that money after all.

That is what I think too. thanks!

 

[jimim]

You pay for each.

also any confirmation that you can buy both at once? Or can you only hold one at a time?

Are these also booked day of or before hand. I didn’t catch that. Sorry if it was said a million times.

 

[Violetspider]

Are these also booked day of or before hand. I didn’t catch that. Sorry if it was said a million times.

Day of at 7AM if you are an on-site guest or once you are through the gates if an off-site guest or local.

 

[Duck143]

I am starting to compile a list of ideas so I can write a thorough email. I am going to keep adding to the list once they release more info and once officially in use. It will definitely be interesting to see how it all plays out once it's active.
I will definitely voice my dislike about having to deal with this Genie+/LL at 7am every day and also, would love the option to add as many or as few park days as we need. If we have a 10 day hopper, maybe we would pay for half. I don't know, it just seems like you should be able to pick and choose and not be stuck paying for everyone all days or have to wait until you show up at the park.

 

[DisneyAuntie12]

Riding rides during the fireworks and parades helps to avoid lots of the lines. Once, I went on the Astro Orbiters during the fireworks and it was very magical. More magical than being in a sea of people on Main Street.

Off topic, but what a great idea! I feel like we need a thread for "Things You Never Would Have Thought To Try At Disney World, But Totally Should."

 

[JakeAZ]

So basically, no meaningful feedback whatsoever.

Yes, that is correct. But I just wanted to add my email to the mix.