Disney Genie announcement

[DavidNYC]

Even if they allow you to pull another after a set time (I've seen credible rumors of 120 minutes), you will only be offered the next available on a ride. Seeing 6pm slots for rides, while checking at 9am probably isn't going to happen, based on what I've read.

Well - that happened all the time with the paper fastpass system which was based on distributing the next available time and also allowed one at a time. Not sure why you seem to think that won't happen here when they're also be removing the 2-3 most popular rides from the system in each park putting that much more traffic on the rest of them as far a reservations go.

 

[cakebaker]

Well - that happened all the time with the paper fastpass system which was based on distributing the next available time and also allowed one at a time. Not sure why you seem to think that won't happen here when they're also be removing the 2-3 most popular rides from the system in each park putting that much more traffic on the rest of them as far a reservations go.

My recollection with paper FP, being a hopper who often entered our 2nd park after noon or later, is that the most popular rides were almost always out by late afternoon. A lot of that however, was due to people hoarding rides in the morning, going from machine to machine snapping up passes as quickly as they were allowed to. That should not be an issue with Genie+. I do not recall popular rides having return times of late afternoon or evening by what is essentially, near park opening. They did run out, but not that quickly.

They are only removing 2, not 3. That will affect other parks much more than the MK.

 

[jknc]

I get I’m not important and that staffing levels are challenged but it’s been 6 days and I’ve yet to hear back from Disney.
Just curious if folks are seeing the same.

Starting to feel hopeless and can’t find anyone who wants Poly room over Presidents Day weekend.

 

[meremac]

To add to what others are saying, I think it's possible that some of the more popular Genie+ (not LL$) attractions may quickly have return times well into the afternoon. This is why my gut says that, like MaxPass, guests will be able to book another Genie+ reservation EITHER after scanning into a Genie+ reservation OR 90-120 minutes after making a Genie+ reservation, whichever comes first. Time will tell, but I'm already working up a ton of different potential plans based on multiple scenarios so I'm ready for anything. I can't help but be kind of excited by this! I love a challenge. And I'm also a big Disney dork .

 

[DavidNYC]

9:30am: Make second Genie+ reservation if new window has opened and stacking is allowed.
10:30am: Ride second Genie+ attraction if stacking was allowed, then make another. If stacking isn't allowed, make second Genie+.

That is an exceptionally optimistic view of a return time for a 2nd reservation made 2.5 hours after the reservations open. I remember the days of the old paper FP where they gave them out for the next available time and for any moderately popular ride - there was no way you were getting a return time in 1 hour except during the lowest of crowd times. Popular rides it was not uncommon for return times to be many hours later (for rides like Toy Story the entire day of reservations was gone within one hour of park opening). And back then - you had to physically go to the attraction to make the reservation as opposed to now when everyone can make one at 7am from whereever they are so you'd expect a massive increase in the number of people making reservations. As far as WDW goes -that is the best comparison to what a 1 at a time / next available time reservation system would look like. I see a lot more flexibility for the first reservation since you're not competing with pre-booked ones - but after that, I foresee a lot more inconvenience and a lot more waiting around and having to schedule your day around times you are assigned that day.

 

[meremac]

That is an exceptionally optimistic view of a return time for a 2nd reservation made 2.5 hours after the reservations open. I remember the days of the old paper FP where they gave them out for the next available time and for any moderately popular ride - there was no way you were getting a return time in 1 hour except during the lowest of crowd times. Popular rides it was not uncommon for return times to be many hours later (for rides like Toy Story the entire day of reservations was gone within one hour of park opening). And back then - you had to physically go to the attraction to make the reservation as opposed to now when everyone can make one at 7am from whereever they are so you'd expect a massive increase in the number of people making reservations. As far as WDW goes -that is the best comparison to what a 1 at a time / next available time reservation system would look like. I see a lot more flexibility for the first reservation since you're not competing with pre-booked ones - but after that, I foresee a lot more inconvenience and a lot more waiting around and having to schedule your day around times you are assigned that day.

You might be right! Time will tell!! I've got a lot of different potential base plans going right now ~ that was just one iteration. We'll see how it all works out!

Edit to Add: I do think it's going to depend a lot on which attraction you're going for. There will inevitably be some available with not-far-into-the-future return times. If you did Space and PP before park opening, then HM and Splash standby (plus maybe PotC depending on how much time you had), then BTMR Genie+ return time, plus 7DMT LL$, you could likely get something like IASW or Under the Sea with a very quick return time.

 

[krybandt]

If you are on onsite guest, you can do the following at 7am: join Virtual Queues, make your first Genie+ reservation, make an LL$ reservation. Offsite guests can join Virtual Queues at 7am, but they cannot make Genie+ or LL$ reservations until they physically enter a theme park.

Can someone confirm if the above is correct? I thought I read both onsite and offsite guests can make their first Genie+ reservation at 7am, regardless of where they are. I thought it was only LL reservations that could be made by on-site guests at 7am and offsite guests must wait until they're in the park.

 

[meremac]

Can someone confirm if the above is correct? I thought I read both onsite and offsite guests can make their first Genie+ reservation at 7am, regardless of where they are. I thought it was only LL reservations that could be made by on-site guests at 7am and offsite guests must wait until they're in the park.

Unless I'm losing my mind, I SWEAR I saw it on the slide deck of the training session yesterday. I have been trying all morning to find a recording of the session. I'll keep looking.

 

[boxer]

Without reading 86 pages--when does this service start? Have small trip in early-Oct, and wondering if it would be rolled out by then?

 

[meremac]

Without reading 86 pages--when does this service start? Have small trip in early-Oct, and wondering if it would be rolled out by then?

That is still up in the air.

 

[cakebaker]

Without reading 86 pages--when does this service start? Have small trip in early-Oct, and wondering if it would be rolled out by then?

They haven't said yet.

 

[krybandt]

Unless I'm losing my mind, I SWEAR I saw it on the slide deck of the training session yesterday. I have been trying all morning to find a recording of the session. I'll keep looking.

Maybe it's up in the air...I found where I read that both kinds of guests can book G+ at 7am.

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/lightning-lanes-genie-plus-disney-world-faq-guide/

 

[meremac]

Maybe it's up in the air...I found where I read that both kinds of guests can book G+ at 7am.

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/lightning-lanes-genie-plus-disney-world-faq-guide/

Yeah I saw that too on a couple of blogs. But I wrote it down word for word. Genie+ and LL$ were listed as 7am for onsite guests only. As I've mentioned, though, I asked several direct questions and the response was that they're still ironing things out and they look forward to sharing details later. We'll see! I just wish I had taken a screenshot. There is supposed to be a recording on our Travel Professionals page, but it's not there (at least not where I can find it) yet.

 

[krybandt]

Yeah I saw that too on a couple of blogs. But I wrote it down word for word. Genie+ and LL$ were listed as 7am for onsite guests only. As I've mentioned, though, I asked several direct questions and the response was that they're still ironing things out and they look forward to sharing details later. We'll see! I just wish I had taken a screenshot. There is supposed to be a recording on our Travel Professionals page, but it's not there (at least not where I can find it) yet.

Thanks for taking and sharing notes!

 

[dvc lover 1970]

Can someone confirm if the above is correct? I thought I read both onsite and offsite guests can make their first Genie+ reservation at 7am, regardless of where they are. I thought it was only LL reservations that could be made by on-site guests at 7am and offsite guests must wait until they're in the park.

My understanding was all guests could join virtual que at 7, but onsite guests could make + and LL reservations at 7, offsite guests had to be in the park.

 

[rmclain73]

That is an exceptionally optimistic view of a return time for a 2nd reservation made 2.5 hours after the reservations open. I remember the days of the old paper FP where they gave them out for the next available time and for any moderately popular ride - there was no way you were getting a return time in 1 hour except during the lowest of crowd times. Popular rides it was not uncommon for return times to be many hours later (for rides like Toy Story the entire day of reservations was gone within one hour of park opening). And back then - you had to physically go to the attraction to make the reservation as opposed to now when everyone can make one at 7am from whereever they are so you'd expect a massive increase in the number of people making reservations. As far as WDW goes -that is the best comparison to what a 1 at a time / next available time reservation system would look like. I see a lot more flexibility for the first reservation since you're not competing with pre-booked ones - but after that, I foresee a lot more inconvenience and a lot more waiting around and having to schedule your day around times you are assigned that day.

Only time will tell how this all comes together, but there are a couple of differences in Genie+ from the old paper FastPass to consider. 1. Not everyone will pay for Genie+ whereas everyone was able to get paper tickets. 2. Once you had the paper ticket there was very little you could do with it other than go on the ride, give it away, or just leave the park without using it. With Genie+, same as was the case with MaxPass and FP+, you will have the ability to cancel, modify, and refresh within the app. Once Disney switched over to FP+ they were also able to drop more availability throughout the day. Lets hope they are able to do the same with Genie+.

Once the program has been out for a couple of weeks I am sure most people on this board will be educated on the best strategy.

 

[SusanDK]

I haven't finished reading all 85 pages of this thread, but a few comments, questions and concerns:

I have read a lot of comments that people had to plan FP+ 60 days in advance. We are local and we never planned more than a day or two in advance, mostly same day, and I loved FP+ compared to paper FP- or any other option. What I liked about it was the ability to plan three attractions, all timed fairly close to each other, and do so for late afternoon/evening, prior to arrival. So we could go over at 3:00 or 4:00 pm or later, do three attractions in a few hours, and leave. With FP- (paper), we arrived at the parks and had to walk to all the attractions, only to invariably find the fast passes gone for the day. With FP+, I loved that we could plan to come later in the day, not first thing in the morning, and only spend a few hours. Even before we were local but came to Orlando on vacation, we were never rope-droppers nor would we spend 6+ hours at WDW in a day. (For fun one time, we spent an entire day hopping between Epcot, MK and Studios but that wasn't a normal visit for us.)

So question/concern - if we buy Genie+, will there still be LL (not LL$, just LL via Genie+) availability if we don't arrive at the park before late afternoon? And/Or if we are at a park with Genie+, after we check in for our first Genie+ attraction and have the option to reserve our next one, will it be hours away, or will there be available attractions within the next, say, hour? I think Disney assumes that all guest plan to stay all day at the parks, or that late arrivals plan to stay until closing. For those guests who don't want to spend all day, Disney wants to find a way to encourage them to stretch out their visit. So I'm concerned that they won't make it easy to get a few quick rides in a short amount of time via Genie+.

I'm also hoping there will be an option for Annual Passholders to purchase an annual Genie+ like I've heard MaxPass had at DL. I would definitely pay the $125 extra that MaxPass was to have Genie+ on my AP. Something tells me, however, that Disney is unlikely to hold that price for WDW based on the number of attractions available at WDW on Genie+ vs. DL. But I would rather pay it up front with my AP purchase than think about our paying $30 extra (for the two of us) each time we want to pop over to the parks for a couple of hours. We have the Universal premium tickets that allow express lane entry after 4 pm that we enjoy and wish Disney would offer something like it for AP holders.

As for the Individual Purchase rides, we would most likely skip those unless we can miraculously catch a standby line that is reasonable on a slow day.

 

[meremac]

My understanding was all guests could join virtual que at 7, but onsite guests could make + and LL reservations at 7, offsite guests had to be in the park.

Yes, that was 100% my understanding as well.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

When we say virtual que we are referring to the boarding groups for Remy and ROTR right? We assume it’ll be the same as how ROTR runs?

 

[meremac]

Thanks for taking and sharing notes!

You're welcome! It's not much more than what's already been announced, I know. But since it was definitely information that we're allowed to pass on to our clients, I figured I could share it here too!