Disney News, Discussion & an Element of Fun - 2022 Edition

[rangerxenos]

'Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind' preview timetable begins to take shape at EPCOT​

The latest information, although not yet officially announced, suggests that media previews will take place during the first week of May 2022, with Club 33 previews shortly after.

Assuming that previews follow the recent opening of Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT, alongside previews for Club 33 members, we should also expect previews for D23, Cast Members, and Annual Passholders. It seems that random soft openings for guests who happen to be in the area are a thing of the past, with Disney preferring to use the soft opening period to plus the membership offerings for those select groups.

Please, please, PLEASE let this happen at the end of April, first couple of days of May for AP...

 

[rosieposie3]

'Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind' preview timetable begins to take shape at EPCOT​

The latest information, although not yet officially announced, suggests that media previews will take place during the first week of May 2022, with Club 33 previews shortly after.

Assuming that previews follow the recent opening of Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT, alongside previews for Club 33 members, we should also expect previews for D23, Cast Members, and Annual Passholders. It seems that random soft openings for guests who happen to be in the area are a thing of the past, with Disney preferring to use the soft opening period to plus the membership offerings for those select groups.

I'm hoping for a soft opening for guests in the area. We'll be there last week do April and first week of May. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[1lilspark]

Doesn’t seem much news from the meeting yesterday

Nope just hoop Dee doo and the rewording on the WDW genie+ site saying for $15 plus tax you got in average 2-3 rides (according to Scott DisneyLAND’s website never changed wording)

 

[mrsap]

Just quickly checking, and website links seem to be working now, no longer need to use the hyperlink feature
https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...anting-memories-await-aboard-the-disney-wish/

I just tried it on several websites, and unfortunately, it doesn’t work on others. It would definitely make posting easier. Some functions do not appear to work yet… maybe it’s still a work in progress??

 

[HokieRaven5]

Disney Wish EMS River Conveyance

The Wish officially began its conveyance from the Meyer Werft Shipyard this morning. She’s currently moving up the EMS River and should be in Eemshaven, Netherlands tomorrow where around 500 crew will board and then further testing in the North Sea.

Disney Wish Tracking

 

[mickey916]

Please, please, PLEASE let this happen at the end of April, first couple of days of May for AP...

How do AP previews work? I have one but the rest of my family does not. I assume that means I could preview but they wouldn't be able to?

 

[M-Pi]

The last park day of our trip is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend so I made my Park Pass for EPCOT and have my fingers crossed we will get lucky!

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

New wording on the genie+ section online spelling out that if you purchase you can expect to skip the line of 2-3 attractions if you book early in the day (out of the 40+ Offered )

For Epcot and Hollywood Studios that is pretty spot on and probably AK. If they want to charge for it they need something better and something that probably brings advantage to staying at Deluxe/DVC hotels.

 

[Tess]

How do AP previews work? I have one but the rest of my family does not. I assume that means I could preview but they wouldn't be able to?

Correct. Only the passholder would be eligible to do the preview.

We are there mid-May and we have been lucky before (FoP), hope it works out that way again!

 

[mrsap]

@1lilspark - New wording on the genie+ section online spelling out that if you purchase you can expect to skip the line of 2-3 attractions if you book early in the day (out of the 40+ Offered )

Disney World Attempts to Lower Guest Expectations of Genie+ Paid Skip-the-Line Service

When you take your day to the next level by purchasing Disney Genie+ service, you may choose the next available arrival window for Lightning Lane entrances at select attractions and entertainment. This unique service lets you use our new Lightning Lane entrance at select attractions and experiences at the Walt Disney World theme parks. On average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using the Lightning Lane entrance if the first selection is made early in the day.

The update to the website and app comes at a time when guests are clearly frustrated with the service and not finding a lot of availability for Lightning Lane return times. The usefulness of the service has clearly deteriorated as more guests use it. To put the “2 or 3 attractions per day” expectation in context, we did 20 Lightning Lane attractions back on October 19, 2021, when the service debuted. To be fair, we are certainly power users of the service, but for Disney to put out official verbiage attempting to lower guest expectations, there is likely some seriously negative feedback being provided by guests.

 

[helloconnie]

Disney World Attempts to Lower Guest Expectations of Genie+ Paid Skip-the-Line Service

When you take your day to the next level by purchasing Disney Genie+ service, you may choose the next available arrival window for Lightning Lane entrances at select attractions and entertainment. This unique service lets you use our new Lightning Lane entrance at select attractions and experiences at the Walt Disney World theme parks. On average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using the Lightning Lane entrance if the first selection is made early in the day.

The update to the website and app comes at a time when guests are clearly frustrated with the service and not finding a lot of availability for Lightning Lane return times. The usefulness of the service has clearly deteriorated as more guests use it. To put the “2 or 3 attractions per day” expectation in context, we did 20 Lightning Lane attractions back on October 19, 2021, when the service debuted. To be fair, we are certainly power users of the service, but for Disney to put out official verbiage attempting to lower guest expectations, there is likely some seriously negative feedback being provided by guests.

I think 2-3 is low. We were just there during Spring Break. We did 7-8 for MK, 5 for EPCOT, 4 for DHS. We probably could have done more for DHS except that my kids won't ride ToT and one won't ride Rock N Roller Coaster. Slinky Dog was down half the day and Rise kept going down so that drove everyone to the other rides. Rock N Roller Coaster also went down for a bit. Honestly, the rides breaking down are becoming a huge problem making the other rides longer.

 

[rangerxenos]

I'm hoping for a soft opening for guests in the area. We'll be there last week do April and first week of May. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm there that same time! (though only part of the second week.)

 

[Madteaparty001]

I think 2-3 is low. We were just there during Spring Break. We did 7-8 for MK, 4 for EPCOT, 4 for DHS. We probably could have done more for DHS except that my kids won't ride ToT and one won't ride Rock N Roller Coaster. Slinky Dog was down half the day and Rise kept going down so that drove everyone to the other rides. Rock N Roller Coaster also went down for a bit. Honestly, the rides breaking down are becoming a huge problem making the other rides longer.

Pirates was down most of yesterday morning which definitely had a ripple effect, the day before dinosaur broke down early morning while we were in pre-show. The parks are definitely feeling strained and worn.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

So we used to get 3 up to 60 days in advance and then after they were used we could get unlimited one at a time.

We now pay, on average $5 + tax for those 3 or $7.50 + tax if you only get 2, with the new Genie + service.

I feel like the wording is to appease the non super fans because the super fans have been learning how to max this puppy out as much as possible. This is for those who don't really know what they're doing.

Also, this seems pretty...restrictive? (not sure if that is the correct word here)...so why are the stand by lines still so insane if the average G+ user is only getting 2-3 rides?

 

[jpeterson]

So we used to get 3 up to 60 days in advance and then after they were used we could get unlimited one at a time.

We now pay, on average $5 + tax for those 3 or $7.50 + tax if you only get 2, with the new Genie + service.

I feel like the wording is to appease the non super fans because the super fans have been learning how to max this puppy out as much as possible. This is for those who don't really know what they're doing.

Also, this seems pretty...restrictive? (not sure if that is the correct word here)...so why are the stand by lines still so insane if the average G+ user is only getting 2-3 rides?

I think you have to compare this to the old FP+ system, where I think the average user was also getting around 3 uses. Most people didn't realize that you could get more after your first 3, in my experience.

So if non-power users are getting 3-ish with G+ and power users getting more (just like with FP+), the standby lines would be similar to what they were in the past with FP+.

But this is just me playing armchair analyst.

 

[mrsap]

A clip of Disney’s Next G+ commercial…

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I think you have to compare this to the old FP+ system, where I think the average user was also getting around 3 uses. Most people didn't realize that you could get more after your first 3, in my experience.

So if non-power users are getting 3-ish with G+ and power users getting more (just like with FP+), the standby lines would be similar to what they were in the past with FP+.

But this is just me playing armchair analyst.

So we used to get 3 up to 60 days in advance and then after they were used we could get unlimited one at a time.

We now pay, on average $5 + tax for those 3 or $7.50 + tax if you only get 2, with the new Genie + service.

I feel like the wording is to appease the non super fans because the super fans have been learning how to max this puppy out as much as possible. This is for those who don't really know what they're doing.

Also, this seems pretty...restrictive? (not sure if that is the correct word here)...so why are the stand by lines still so insane if the average G+ user is only getting 2-3 rides?

Also have to remember with FP+ was the tiers at AK, HS and Epcot. Epcot was a joke since 1-2 of the FP selections you made you never needed anyway. HS was similarly as bad since most of tier 2 was shows , star tours (which rarely gets long anymore). MK was the only decent park for FP+ since you could get all the big rides on it if you wanted and with a resort stay pretty easy.

But FP+ had a true resort advantage that Genie + does not .

 

[1lilspark]

Also have to remember with FP+ was the tiers at AK, HS and Epcot. Epcot was a joke since 1-2 of the FP selections you made you never needed anyway. HS was similarly as bad since most of tier 2 was shows , star tours (which rarely gets long anymore). MK was the only decent park for FP+ since you could get all the big rides on it if you wanted and with a resort stay pretty easy.

But FP+ had a true resort advantage that Genie + does not .

ILL still has resort advantage as if off site you will rarely get RoTR and slim options on the rest…. Unless a resort has a 7/730am opening like DAK has been having than no FoP advantage

 

[KDee]

Disney World Attempts to Lower Guest Expectations of Genie+ Paid Skip-the-Line Service

When you take your day to the next level by purchasing Disney Genie+ service, you may choose the next available arrival window for Lightning Lane entrances at select attractions and entertainment. This unique service lets you use our new Lightning Lane entrance at select attractions and experiences at the Walt Disney World theme parks. On average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using the Lightning Lane entrance if the first selection is made early in the day.

The update to the website and app comes at a time when guests are clearly frustrated with the service and not finding a lot of availability for Lightning Lane return times. The usefulness of the service has clearly deteriorated as more guests use it. To put the “2 or 3 attractions per day” expectation in context, we did 20 Lightning Lane attractions back on October 19, 2021, when the service debuted. To be fair, we are certainly power users of the service, but for Disney to put out official verbiage attempting to lower guest expectations, there is likely some seriously negative feedback being provided by guests.

I think if you research on how to use the service then you can certainly get more LLs. We were able to get 4 at HS and more at MK. However, I did walk past a mom who made the comment that she had no idea how to use Genie+. And she was not the only one. Many people were overwhelmed, confused etc.

 

[helloconnie]

So we used to get 3 up to 60 days in advance and then after they were used we could get unlimited one at a time.

We now pay, on average $5 + tax for those 3 or $7.50 + tax if you only get 2, with the new Genie + service.

I feel like the wording is to appease the non super fans because the super fans have been learning how to max this puppy out as much as possible. This is for those who don't really know what they're doing.

Also, this seems pretty...restrictive? (not sure if that is the correct word here)...so why are the stand by lines still so insane if the average G+ user is only getting 2-3 rides?

I spent some time thinking about this while we were there. Here are my thoughts:
(1) Rides keep breaking down pushing the people who would be in line for that ride into other queues. This is especially bad at DHS. When we were there Slinky, Rise and ToT were all down at the same time. What's up with the newest rides breaking all the time?
(2) Disney keeps adding hotel rooms, specifically DVC resorts (and I am a DVC member) but not increasing park capacity. Riveria just opened - more rooms, more people, same amount of lines to wait in. Now, they are adding another tower at the POLY. Yet more people. They seem to be making a lot of money with the DVC resorts at the expense of the customer experience in the parks.
(3) The posted wait times by Disney are almost always wrong. I experienced this time after time while we were there two weeks ago. Most "E" ticket attractions have longer posted wait times and most lower attractions have shorter posted wait times. I think they are doing this to drive people into the lesser attractions but honestly, I think it is back firing. When I see a 60 minute posted wait for Haunted Mansion, I get frustrated. When I see a 15 minute posted wait for Tea Cups and walk over to the attraction to see the line outside the queue and wrapped all the way around the attraction, I get mad because I know that line is not 15 minutes and I am NOT going to wait 45 minutes for Tea Cups. But people who do not go to Disney often would not know this is a bad deal. BTW, I got in Haunted Mansion with a 60 minute posted wait and boarded the ride 25 minutes later. I got in Pirates with a posted 40 minute wait and boarded 20 minutes later. If that happened once or twice I would be excited that I had a shorter wait than expected. But when it happens for several rides, I don't go "Yay, my wait time was so much shorter!" Instead, I think "Disney is inflating the wait times, basically manipulating its customers." Just think about that for a minute. I don't get in line for Haunted or Pirates because the posted wait time is long but I get in the line of Tea Cups that is posted as 15 minutes and end up waiting 45 minutes when I could have ridden Haunted with a true wait of 25 minutes or Pirates with a true wait of 20 minutes. No wonder guests are not happy.