Does the new Genie+ pay-per-attraction system alter your views on DVC's value?

[thptrek]

Why/how would this help our DVC ownership?

A whole new area would allow for many more attractions that would bring down overall crowd levels. Please the excitement of a whole new land.

 

[DebbieB]

I’m happy for any form of fastpass. Hate long lines.

 

[Carol_]

Recently signed up for a year of Touring Plans, which I like. If Genie is as accurate (doubtful but possible), I’ll be glad to save $ on that.
Fast Pass is dead. Long live Genie+.
This system may not please those who like to plan their every move over 30 days out but most people don’t live like that and I think this gives flexibility to those of us who prefer to not have to think about rides until day of.
Also, rides are always breaking down. If I planned over a month ago to ride something that’s out of order today. I end up more sad than if I just planned it today and it broke down.
Also also, if you’re not telling kids that you’ll ride a particular ride for days to weeks in advance, when/if you can’t get on, the day isn’t ruined by unmet expectations.
Genie+ might just bring less exasperation to the parks.
There are a lot of whiners around here lately. Am I alone in thinking this thing might just be great? Everyone knows Disney is ridiculously expensive. But Genie+ for one day is the cost of literally one spiked drink.*
*which I’ll still pay for because y’all exhaust me.

 

[Castillo Mom]

And probably Guardians of the Galaxy?

DLR AP holder here for many years. I doubt Guardians will be premium, but anything is possible right now.

As for whether DVC still has value. For me, yes but that's because I understood the terms of my purchase prior to signing on the dotted line The other factor is that as an AP holder out her in California, I was used to MaxPass so Genie isn't that much of stretch. When we travel to WDW, time is money so we're willing to pay the additional $15 if need be. Depending on timing, with careful planning, the plus option may not even be necessary all the time, but it really depends on the individual travel party and willingness to strategize.

 

[Bearval]

Not happy at all and Im one that doesn’t really go to Disney mainly for the rides. But to know that I can’t even sprinkle in a few of my favorite rides throughout the trip with little to no wait without paying additional fees is very upsetting. Especially when I think about magical express also being cut all of which my family always took advantage of. It’s also made me re-evaluate my magic key purchase for Disneyland as I am only thirty minutes from that park. This decision is going to have negative consequences for Disney and it’s attendance on a lot of different levels.

My question is will you have to pay for the genie + for every day of your trip or can you pick and chose what days you want to add it. Also will it be similar to the old paper tickets where all the return times can be gone by early afternoon?

 

[DisneyOutsider]

DLR AP holder here for many years. I doubt Guardians will be premium, but anything is possible right now.

The Guardians ride in EPCOT is a completely different ride than what DCA has, much bigger in scope and likely to be far more popular when it opens. I'd bet money it will be excluded from Genie+. It will be the most popular ride in the park for a long while.

 

[DisneyOutsider]

My question is will you have to pay for the genie + for every day of your trip or can you pick and chose what days you want to add it. Also will it be similar to the old paper tickets where all the return times can be gone by early afternoon?

Yes, that's how it reads. You can choose on any given day to purchase it or just use the standby queues.

No idea about return times running out, but one would assume that since there is no free option, that availability for the rides should be pretty solid.. much better than the old paper fp hopefully

 

[Castillo Mom]

The Guardians ride in EPCOT is a completely different ride than what DCA has, much bigger in scope and likely to be far more popular when it opens. I'd bet money it will be excluded from Genie+. It will be the most popular ride in the park for a long while.

Ah! When I saw "Guardians," my California brain immediately focused on DCA! Sorry for the confusion, yes absolutely, Guardians at Epcot would definitely be premium and likely have a virtual queue.

 

[OKW Lover]

A whole new area would allow for many more attractions that would bring down overall crowd levels. Please the excitement of a whole new land.

Again I'm lost. A new area might benefit your Disney parks experience but I thought we were talking about where we stay - DVC.

 

[DisneyOutsider]

Again I'm lost. A new area might benefit your Disney parks experience but I thought we were talking about where we stay - DVC.

I don't think you'll find anyone to disagree with what you're saying in principle, but the reality is that if you take away the parks then very few if any of us would have even considered DVC. The demand for DVC is very much tied to the WDW experience as a whole.. and any changes to the parks, good or bad, will have an impact on that.

You simply can't separate the parks from DVC when discussing the draw of DVC. If we woke up tomorrow and WDW was suddenly Six Flags and DVC was sold to a Condo Management firm.. then we'd all suddenly be stuck with a near-worthless timeshare in an awful climate without even so much as a beach nearby. The parks matter.

 

[Jeb2318]

To me it doesn't change my perception of the value of DVC because I think it is offset by the extra evening hours that Deluxe guests will be getting - Deluxe guests can use those hours to ride headliners with low crowds in certain parks. Adding an extra $15/person per day is still MUCH less than the discount I am getting on the room, so it doesn't bother me at all to do it. I realize that our position as a young family is probably very different from others, but it is still our position. Our kids are too little to ride many of the big thrill rides, and having the option to pay for Genie+ (which I am assuming will include almost all of the rides they would be going on anyways) is a HUGE benefit since it will free up a lot of our time to be able to go back to the resort or go at a more relaxed pace. I'm hoping the evening hours stick around, because as they grow up I could see us really taking advantage of those.
My first impressions of this new system have been completely positive, but then again, I don't mind spending more for a better experience (and I think that Genie will make that possible).

I completely agree with this! I am going in October and curious to hear reports (hopefully before we go!) on how many lightning lane opportunities people seem to be getting when they buy the $15/day. If they are getting 4-6 rides each day I would say worth it for sure

 

[Jeb2318]

Yes!

I love the Genie+ concept.

I’m all about the rides so I’m happy to pay a little more for less competition. Disney’s still not getting more of my money though. The budget is set and it looks like I’ll just spend less on food or whatever else. Oh well!

Very true. I am going in October and could be a coincidence but I saw a lot more dining reservations available after this announcement!

 

[Jeb2318]

I was unhappy with the Genie+ announcement, not just because of the additional costs, but especially I feel like this adds uncertainty and anxiety. You don't know you can get the FPs you wanted until 7 am (so have to get up early), and then it might conflict with other plans like ADRs. But you're already a captive audience and paid a lot of money for your DVC points to be at WDW/DL.


DVC is kind of like a commitment to Disney, but with so many perks going away and rapidly increasing costs, I'm questioning the commitment. Does this affect how anyone else feels about DVC? Honestly, my first thought was that maybe it's time to sell our contracts... It feels very sad to write that. Maybe I'll feel differently later on, maybe I just have too much sticker shock or something.

Honestly not really. To me DVC is a prepay for our vacation accommodations. We will do less signature dining or less sit down dining in general to offset these costs. Also, I think the vagueness with the details is purposeful. Maybe want to see Public reactions before finalizing those smaller details. Maybe it’s included in top AP? DVC discount? You never know.

 

[suebeelin]

The issue for me isn't that it's the money, although the money hurts. The issue is that I feel completely nickel and dimed, and the experience is changing for me-- for the worse. We have about 4 years worth of tickets left for our family (yes, we bought before this ridiculous buy for certain dates so we have 8 more 5 days ANYTIME tickets, 2 annual gold passes on file, as well as the 10 day no expires tickets). I say that's realistically another 5-6 years more of disney.

I'm going to go during peak days so my tickets are worth more. I have 400 DVC points. I guess I'll use em up every year.

Thankfully my DVC has gone up quite a bit-- almost doubled. I'll be selling--- in five or six years. My kids will likely have outgrown Disney by that point, as they are in grade school now....

Genie plus, no more Magical express, paying for the magic bands.... what else????

 

[WilsonFlyer]

This whole conversation is silly. Everybody knows all you bought was a deeded room and nothing about that has changed at all. Silly people.

(Somebody had to say it.)

 

[SL6827]

Glad I have no commitment to Disney. After January, we are done.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Honestly not really. To me DVC is a prepay for our vacation accommodations. We will do less signature dining or less sit down dining in general to offset these costs. Also, I think the vagueness with the details is purposeful. Maybe want to see Public reactions before finalizing those smaller details. Maybe it’s included in top AP? DVC discount? You never know.

We can hope!

This whole conversation is silly. Everybody knows all you bought was a deeded room and nothing about that has changed at all. Silly people.
(Somebody had to say it.)

Of course, nobody is arguing that there's some kind of breach of contract. We're talking about personal value--we buy DVC to get discounted deluxe accomodations near the parks, but if your relationship with the parks changes, you might think about what value you're getting out of your deeded room (if you're going to the parks less, etc). You might value the accommodations less, which for some may mean it's time to sell.

 

[Nabas]

Like others have said we're going to likely go fewer days to WDW and replace them with Universal days. Hopefully Disney will adjust the program and add some DVC benefits in the future.

We have done the same. We've shortened our September, December, and February stays, and added nights at HRH, RPR, and PB, where Express Unlimited is included in the price of the room.

We've renting some of our DVC points to pay for the Universal rooms, something we have never done before.

Years ago, we were Universal APH but stopped once the kids went off to college. We've started up our Universal annual passes once again. For our September and December trips and with APH discounts, we've already booked HRH and RPR for $150/night less than what a Disney Moderate Resort would cost. And Express Unlimited is included!



With Extended Evening Hours only on Monday and Wednesday, and so many other onsite benefits cancelled, it just doesn't feel like Disney cares about their onsite Guests anymore.

 

[DougEMG]

I go to WDW for the rides. I own DVC so I can save on my room costs while going to WDW. If I don't do rides I have no need to go to WDW and hence no need to own DVC. Going to Orlando is just to big a pain to make resort only trips worth the effort.

I've got annual passes for the family that I need to activate, so I'll be doing 1-2 more trips regardless of how Genie works out, but I will certainly be determining if I still am getting my moneys worth out of going to the parks. If that comes up as a no, then I'll look to sell or just rent out all my points and vacation elsewhere.

On big pain for our family is going to be that 2 of us that spend most of the day in the park would probably get Genie+ to make FP, but my wife just pops in for a couple of hours so paying for Genie+ for her makes no sense, which of course means that if not everyone in your party has Genie+ you are stuck doing standby if you want to ride together.

 

[SL6827]

I will admit over the past year or so I wondered if I should have sold my DVC contract. And with the annoucement of the evening EMHs for Deluxe guest, I though I had made a mistake. I know now that I didn't. With our upcoming "planned" trip for January I have us staying at a different resort every day, lol! But I might just try to swing a stay at our former home resort that we never stayed at, OKW. And then, we are done.

Good luck to everyone in the future. I just can't see how this could raise the value of DVC, but Disney may have a trick up their sleeve for DVC.