Disney Genie coming to Walt Disney World planning

[YawningDodo]

For people who like following an itemized touring plan, this just looks like Disney bringing that in-house to give them more ability to disperse guests to different attractions and areas throughout the day. I'll be interested to see how effectively it does that, and whether it has a positive, negative, or negligible impact on overall guest experience. I am completely uninterested in preplanning my itinerary attraction-by-attraction (or letting an app do that for me), but I could actually see benefit in consulting it for ideas on the fly if it does a good job of sending you to things that are at an ebb for crowds at the moment.

Reserving judgment on potential negative impacts until we actually know how this thing is going to work!

 

[Jennasis]

I have no faith in Disney IT so I'll pass.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I’d love it.

I think a great feature is “Hey we see you were planning buzz at 4, but if you wait til 7 here’s an extra fast pass.”

They could do a lot with this to even out lines.

 

[YesterDark]

As long as it doesn't automatically mess with my plans........can already see a carefully planned itinerary being scotched by the Disney Genie to give us something we don't want. Then stuck scrambling to get back what we lost.

All as a 'magical enhancement' to our trip, of course!

The idea of this with Disney IT - scares me!

I can't see them actually allowing an app to schedule/cancel things for you without you hitting buttons confirming it. That would be a terrible design. From what I've seen, it's just a giant app that suggests activities for you and help you see availability on rides/restaurants. Touring plans is not very polished from a user interface point of view at all. This will probably be that and also be more user friendly.

As everyone knows, planning is key to a great WDW vacation, and this is Disney finally putting their brand on a solution.

This does a few things for them: 1) Allow them to measure and collect data. 2) Allow to massage the data for crowd control reasons. 3) Allows them to install even more complicated systems such as varied types of tickets and cost, and mask all of that and just give you a price and a button to press.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

One thing it looks like it will do is allow for all types of reservations to be in one place. I know for our last trip we booked a tour and there was no way to automatically get it into MDE (a CM walked me through how to manually put in an event but not smooth) so this should at least help with that

Hopefully it also will offer up ways to streamline your trip (suggestions for minimizing criss-crossing the park) and let you know of available FP and ADRs

I do wonder if there will be multiple levels to this as I would think they would want to monetize it if they can

 

[YesterDark]

I already criss-cross the park now unfortunately. My typical strategy is to book all my fastpasses in the first three hours if possible. Then I just refresh my way throughout the day. I go where the app lets me.

Most of the time I've FP'd Pirates, JC, Thunder and Splash so I'm mostly refreshing between the other lands for the most part unless something good pops up.

All the Touring Plan itinerary has been waiting in Stand By lines. No thanks. Not with little kids.

 

[Matthew Caito]

is this going to replace MDE?

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

So we don't own a smart phone - which leaves us out!

Based on how well Disney IT works I think this new program will work as well on a rotary dial phone as it does on smartphones.

As mentioned on another thread, it's the perfect way to set us up for paid FP.

This is exactly what I was thinking when I heard the news release.

I have no faith in Disney IT so I'll pass.

THIS ^

 

[Searc]

I have no faith in Disney IT so I'll pass.

Yep, same here.

 

[sponica]

I feel like this might be good for newbies who don't want to think.

Tell us your "disney style" and we'll plot it out for you!

 

[NikkiDP]

is this going to replace MDE?

I am wondering the same thing! I thought maybe I just missed it in the initial announcement. Does anyone know if this will be in the only Disney planning app or if it is something entirely separate from MDE?

I have to agree with everyone here, Disney IT terrifies me and I like to tour on my own plan, not one created by a computer lol.

 

[Ydnameht]

is this going to replace MDE?

The Parks Blog says, basically, they'll tell us more later. So unclear if they don't know yet or they just aren't saying.

"We look forward to sharing more details on Disney Genie closer to its planned launch in late 2020, including how it will interact with the existing My Disney Experience and Play Disney Parks apps." is what they said in response to a question about Genie replacing MDE.

 

[MeridaAnn]

I'd love to be able to just click on the three rides I want to get FPs for and have the Genie offer up a combination of times that don't overlap with each other. MDE used to work more like that anyway, right? Even better if I can also note that I want to watch the parade or flag ceremony or an ADR or something and have the FP times organized around those other items. I find the current version of having to select the FPs one at a time really tedious when I don't really care when in the day I get each one, as long as I get to them all at some point.

 

[butterscotchcollins]

Anything has to be better than MDE, that app is trash and my experience with it to date has been nothing short of frustrating and confusing.

 

[rteetz]

I don't see this replacing MDE, rather complimenting it. Not everyone is going to want to use the genie to plan their day. This will just be another option.

 

[YesterDark]

I don't see this replacing MDE, rather complimenting it. Not everyone is going to want to use the genie to plan their day. This will just be another option.

It won't replace it right away just because they have millions of people already used to MDE and using it. They won't want to throw a monkey wrench into that data stream. So at the start it will be a complimentary app that will link to MDE. Eventually they'll be merged. Whether that's in 2022 or 2030 who knows.

I personally would like Disney to allow me to schedule overlapping FP windows. Few weeks ago, I would rope drop an attraction or two, hit up my first fast pass (9-10am), then the second right after (10-11) and then I would be in a window of 30ish minutes before my next FP window hits assuming I got a FP from 11-12.

I'd like to layer them so I can get to refreshing faster.

 

[rteetz]

It won't replace it right away just because they have millions of people already used to MDE and using it. They won't want to throw a monkey wrench into that data stream. So at the start it will be a complimentary app that will link to MDE. Eventually they'll be merged. Whether that's in 2022 or 2030 who knows.

I personally would like Disney to allow me to schedule overlapping FP windows. Few weeks ago, I would rope drop an attraction or two, hit up my first fast pass (9-10am), then the second right after (10-11) and then I would be in a window of 30ish minutes before my next FP window hits assuming I got a FP from 11-12.

I'd like to layer them so I can get to refreshing faster.

Yeah I think that will happen.

I do not see them overlapping FPs though. The hour window is there as a buffer time. I don't see that ever changing really.

 

[YesterDark]

Yeah I think that will happen.

I do not see them overlapping FPs though. The hour window is there as a buffer time. I don't see that ever changing really.

Never say never. If they want to sell more FPs, then you need more room in the day to sell more.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I don't see this replacing MDE, rather complimenting it. Not everyone is going to want to use the genie to plan their day. This will just be another option.

I hope you're right.

 

[rteetz]

Never say never. If they want to sell more FPs, then you need more room in the day to sell more.

If/when they sell more FPs I think they will take away from the pool already there to make people buy them.