Disney Genie announcement

[Nick6300]

Because they have to throw some kind of bone to onsite guests so that they feel that the inflated resort costs have value. Can you imagine the advertising?

"Plus as a guest of a Walt Disney World Resort*, you have the ability to purchase AND book your Genie+ ride reservation BEFORE entering the park!"

Doesn't that like something that will make people forget about the loss of DME and EMH?

Sarcasm, I know, but No, I'd much rather have EMH when it was either an hour early or couple hours late to a rotating park each day. 30 min. early is a downgrade to what is already like 45 min earlier than official park hours.

 

[DisneyLover1217]

With Genie+, which costs $15/person per day, you can make as many Lightning Lane reservations for attractions included in Genie+ as you want. There is no limit; however, you can only make them one at a time. No official word yet on whether stacking will be allowed. LL$ attractions (super headliner attractions that aren't included in Genie+, like RotR and Remy) will be available for separate purchase but they haven't announced how much those will cost yet, just that the cost will vary by date and attraction.

Thank you for the info

 

[GoingSince1990]

Not that it matters, do we know why they limited it to 2 per day paid LLs, if they only care about profits?

To avoid cannibalizing the VIP Tour business. I heard somewhere there are 65 tours a day. At an average of 8 hours each and $600 per hour, that amounts to $114 million per year.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

I can't even imagine how much the upcharge will be on Guardians and Tron once they open in the (hopefully) near future.

I've heard something like $25 per person based on Paris.

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

I'm still at YUCK.

Right now, at work, I have to fill in about 4 different forms to instruct my team which day I will be in the office and which day I will be working from home, despite the fact that I respond to any request for information within 5 minutes regardless of where I am.

I fill out a form, and a spreadsheet, and another form in SharePoint, and then my timesheet, and sometimes an outlook calendar. I spend so much time telling everyone where I am that I work less than before, due to all the tracking.

This new thing feels like that. If I don't spend extra money, I'll still get push notifications telling me to go somewhere else and spend the money on something else anyway. I can spend more money to get some rides, sometimes, but maybe not if they sell a lot of G+ and all those rides are used up, like they were in the paper fp days. I can pay extra to ride ROR or FOP, but maybe not because I might be too busy trying to book the first ride of the day to buy the other ride I have to pay extra for....

I get up before 7 on WDW days. I can plan now, or plan later, or plan not at all. But it's the paying, and paying, and paying that I just don't feel good about. I'm saving right now for our big 2022 trip to celebrate a milestone birthday, and I cringe every time I move money to that account and think of what else it could do. I already have on site lodging and tickets and park passes for July and August of 2022. Yes, some people do go in the summer!

Sure. I know. I'll wait and see how it all plays out before I say "I'm never going back! We are going to Universal!" But I tried Kayaking this summer. I really liked it. I don't have to fly to do it. And it's pretty simple. I just have to buy a boat, a paddle, and a rack. The boat doesn't have to love me back. Doesn't have to make me feel good about myself. But it won't charge me extra to paddle in the morning, or the afternoon, or where there are birds, or trees, or clouds.

I will reserve judgement until it launches and I can see how it works. Disney might not care if return visitors don't return, don't buy DVC, don't help other people plan, don't fly their Disney Freak Flags everywhere. That's okay. I'm looking at boats.

 

[Karin1984]

I'm still at YUCK.

Right now, at work, I have to fill in about 4 different forms to instruct my team which day I will be in the office and which day I will be working from home, despite the fact that I respond to any request for information within 5 minutes regardless of where I am.

I fill out a form, and a spreadsheet, and another form in SharePoint, and then my timesheet, and sometimes an outlook calendar. I spend so much time telling everyone where I am that I work less than before, due to all the tracking.

This new thing feels like that. If I don't spend extra money, I'll still get push notifications telling me to go somewhere else and spend the money on something else anyway. I can spend more money to get some rides, sometimes, but maybe not if they sell a lot of G+ and all those rides are used up, like they were in the paper fp days. I can pay extra to ride ROR or FOP, but maybe not because I might be too busy trying to book the first ride of the day to buy the other ride I have to pay extra for....

I get up before 7 on WDW days. I can play now, or plan later, or plan not at all. But it's the paying, and paying, and paying that I just don't feel good about. I'm saving right now for our big 2022 trip to celebrate a milestone birthday, and I cringe every time I move money to that account and think of what else it could do. I already have on site lodging and tickets and park passes for July and August of 2022. Yes, some people do go in the summer!

Sure. I know. I'll wait and see how it all plays out before I say "I'm never going back! We are going to Universal!" But I tried Kayaking this summer. I really liked it. I don't have to fly to do it. And it's pretty simple. I just have to buy a boat, a paddle, and a rack. The boat doesn't have to love me back. Doesn't have to make me feel good about myself. But it won't charge me extra to paddle in the morning, or the afternoon, or where there are birds, or trees, or clouds.

I will reserve judgement until it launches and I can see how it works. Disney might not care if return visitors don't return, don't buy DVC, don't help other people plan, don't fly their Disney Freak Flags everywhere. That's okay. I'm looking at boats.

Ehm... if you cringe at the idea of spending the extra money at WDW and you love kayaking... wouldn't it be a better way to spend your milestone birthday elsewhere? If you are already thinking what else you could do with the money, I would look into creating an awesome nature trip.

The trip is so far away, you cannot cancel free of charge anymore?

 

[soniam]

I really suggest that everyone watch the following video. A lot of the confusion about who can book Genie+ or individual attraction selections and at what time is answered. They don't specifically mention if you have to enter the park though to book at park opening. Since this comes from Disney, it's the horse's mouth.

Look for Donyell's question at ~11:35 and Ashley's at ~12:35.

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

Ehm... if you cringe at the idea of spending the extra money at WDW and you love kayaking... wouldn't it be a better way to spend your milestone birthday elsewhere? If you are already thinking what else you could do with the money, I would look into creating an awesome nature trip.

The trip is so far away, you cannot cancel free of charge anymore?

Of course I can cancel. That's why I booked cash rooms and didn't tie up someone else's DVC points with the trip. It's not my milestone birthday, it's a traveling companion's 50th. We've been to WDW every year since 2012, except this year. This year we just did the awesome nature trips to stay clear of Covid travel complications.

I am reacting, in general, to the Genie + announcement. And how this feels different than the other downgrades over the last near decade, and how I might be done with Disney and ready for something else.

 

[JayMass]

So I am not thrilled about this, however I did read a comment on the Disney Parks announcement that said something to the effect of:

"During the old FP+ days EVERY guest was guaranteed 3 FPs. With the new system, not everyone will pay to use the LL (either the $15/day option or the individual attraction selection) so that the stand-by queues won't be as greatly impacted as they were during FP+."

I am not sure I agree with this but I thought it was an interesting perspective.

 

[ThistleMae]

So it's possible - and very likely probable that RotR would sell out of LL just from on site guests at 0701 every morning.

They'll be a lot of angry people and Disney are making a rod for their own backs with this one.

I dont' think ROR will sell out of the ala carte slots from onsite guests, depending on how expensive it will be. Folks will still be trying for the boarding groups first. I guess we'll see.

 

[GoingSince1990]

I've heard something like $25 per person based on Paris.

Forking out $100 for four people to go on a three minute ride may well be quite painful even for fairly well-off people. Disney needs people to think of it not as paying for a three minute ride, but as paying to avoid a 90 minute wait. And if they are successful in getting people to adopt this mindset, how will people react if they have paid the $100 then show up to ride and standby is only 30 minutes? Nobody likes feeling like a chump. And so now Disney has every incentive to keep the standby line artificially long so the paid IAS riders don’t feel like chumps. I don’t think anyone can predict exactly how all of this will play out. It might be very successful, and profitable, or it could collapse in a mess of seething resentment and confusion.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

The only potential positive has been the deluxe EMH but we were booked for a long weekend there, so it didn’t help at all.

This! They seem to be scheduled precisely to make you stay for a whole week if you want to be able to take advantage of them. No accident, obviously.

 

[JakeAZ]

This! They seem to be scheduled precisely to make you stay for a whole week if you want to be able to take advantage of them. No accident, obviously.

Yup. Thursday check in, with a 6 day, or less stay, gets you no access to MK Deluxe hours.

This leads me to my major gripe about Deluxe hours. It's only 2 of the 4 parks...

 

[Nick6300]

When people begin to interpret every move Disney makes as a business decision, it may lessen their personal feelings of disappointment in the company. If you don't feel any change they make is creating a valuable experience for you, there are so many options out there for your vacation dollars, that aren't Disney at all. And I hope that people who are dissatisfied with G+, Boo Bash or whatever else, will go and find something that makes them happier than Disney does in the current incarnation. And spend the heck out of your hard-earned vacation dollars where you feel you are valued! I also hope Disney is listening, to its most dedicated fans, and reacts accordingly, whatever that is.

Disney was listening, for months, people anticipating a paid version of FP, writing about it, talking about it, theorizing specific possibilities. While they figured that G+ (vs the previously "free" system) was going to be ill received, they did it anyway, because, as you mentioned, it provides more revenues, but they also knew that many of us expected it to happen. If we vote, as you put it, by the majority of us utilizing G+, it'll send the message that they can raise the price. Hopefully once Guardians/Tron rollout they rotate the 2 paid attractions rather than expanding it to 3.

It would be nice if you can link a gift card for paying for select attractions, rather than paying a balance at check in counter if you want to use a GC instead of a CC. And if you could readily track how much you're spending instead of manually looking and calculating it, but that would be against their incentives.

 

[Einstein509]

I think you're on the wrong thread.

Me too. Emailed them about this Genie+ debacle four days ago and have yet to hear back.

 

[btuftee]

I dont' think ROR will sell out of the ala carte slots from onsite guests, depending on how expensive it will be. Folks will still be trying for the boarding groups first. I guess we'll see.

The VQ/BG will be cut to make room for IA$ purchases. Right now, 100% of ROTR's capacity is assigned through the VQ/BG process, so Disney will have to cut away at that somehow. Perhaps they mess with the timing: Assume there are 12,000 spots available for ROTR on any given day. When the IA$ purchase window opens at 7:00am, 6,000 of those slots can be purchased. At 8:00am, if there are any slots left (out of the 6,000), those could be assigned for free in a BG/VQ. Then, for the rest of the day, the remaining 6,000 slots are available for sale as IA$. If any of those last 6,000 slots are unsold at 2:00pm, Disney does another free round of VQ/BG. That eats up the entire 12,000 allotment for the day, and is one way Disney might do this. You can bet that if capacity re-opens for ROTR (as it has occasionally in the last few days this month), those will be offered for sale as IA$, and there won't ever be a traditional standby queue. At least not for a long time!

I think Rat in Epcot will quickly fade from being a paid IA$ option, unless it's pretty cheap. But you can bet that ROTR, 7DMT, FOP, and Tron (when it opens) will turn a healthy profit on IA$ for a long time. I could see GOTG replacing Rat as one of the IA$ selections for Epcot, with Test Track staying consistently as the other one.

 

[Nick6300]

To avoid cannibalizing the VIP Tour business. I heard somewhere there are 65 tours a day. At an average of 8 hours each and $600 per hour, that amounts to $114 million per year.

I always end up looking at the VIP guests, even taking in their clothes, and wondering how much money they have to burn to utilize that service. But I've seen a fair share of 3rd party tours that were trying to capture some of that market.

 

[moesy4]

This! They seem to be scheduled precisely to make you stay for a whole week if you want to be able to take advantage of them. No accident, obviously.

I know...I was super excited for this perk when I found out the Dolphin was included but we are booked the exact days that we won't get to do either. That and I really have no interest in EMH at Epcot and would've much preferred AK or HS.

 

[SusanDK]

No official word as to which attractions will be tier 1 but it's been rumored that MFRR and SDD at HS, 7DMTR and SpcMtn in MK, FoP and Safari in AK and TT in Epcot. If there's a second in Epcot, it could be Frozen or Soarin'.

Safari? I would think maybe Everest over Safari, but that's wishful thinking because we don't do Everest.
Please, not Soarin'! Keep that a Genie+.

RotR was mentioned as one that may be available for LL$, as well as Remy at Epcot.

If it's Remy and TT in Epcot, then Soarin' is safe? And presumably one of those will be replaced by GotG.

I think Rat in Epcot will quickly fade from being a paid IA$ option, unless it's pretty cheap. But you can bet that ROTR, 7DMT, FOP, and Tron (when it opens) will turn a healthy profit on IA$ for a long time. I could see GOTG replacing Rat as one of the IA$ selections for Epcot, with Test Track staying consistently as the other one.

Is Test Track really that popular that you think it will stay LL$ over one of the newer attractions? It's so old. I also wonder if the refurbished Splash Mountain could become LL$, maybe replacing 7DMT which is so short.

Do we know for sure that only 2 attractions per park will be LL$? We know that guests may only purchase 2 per day, but is it possible that more than 2 will be Individual Purchase?

 

[JoeyMayo]

Assuming I'm in the minority but I'm 100 percent fine with paying for fast pass access per day. I hated the whole book three a day three months in advance. For an extra 300 bucks for five days, sign me up to not having to worry about lines with my kids.