Genie+ change!

[CraigInPA]

Anyone else excited about this at the bottom of page 10 of the Fall 2023 issue of Disney Files:
Members and guests have requested the flexibility to make Walt Disney World Theme Park plans with the Disney Genie+ service and Individual Lightning Lane selections before their visit, and as this edition of Disney Files Magazine hits the press, we're told that efforts to grant that wish are underway.

I, for one, would be very excited to hear that FREE FastPass was returning. But, I'm not going to hold my breath and will temper my expectations in the most cynical way.

I'd grudgingly be willing to pay for Genie+ (but not at $30 per day) if it gave me the same functionality as FastPass had (3 rides per day, up to 90 days in advance). I'm thinking their idea of "in advance" is going to be the night before, and you'll get to choose one ride. Disney still doesn't understand that a WDW vacation isn't the same as DL/CA, that some of the WDW parks have very few "rides" and fewer things to do (other than shop or eat) than DL/CA. And, because so many visitors to DL/CA are considered "local", they're not factoring in the "One trip in a lifetime" factor (especially for those outside the USA).

The ability to make ILL's other than at 7am, on the other hand, is a HUGE thing for me! I'm tired of having to get up at 7am in order to try to get on ROTR!

 

[Smugpugmug]

Free Fastpass+ isn't ever coming back. That's just something everyone needs to accept at this point, unfortunately.

These new changes will 100% be something you have to pay for. Wouldn't even surprise me if Disney made pre-booking attractions an extra free on top of regular Genie+/ILL.

 

[Sandisw]

I did see it. It was mentioned months ago when they announced end of park reservations starting January 9th. They said some positive changes were coming. This seems to confirm those changes will give the option to preselect.

But, I have no doubt it will still be a paid service….and, that there will be limits on how many times you can preschedule the ILL for the same ride within a scheduled trip.

 

[SheSingsAlong]

Honestly, I never understood why people liked to book Fastpasses a full 2 months before their trip. I never sleep late at Disney anyway, so being awake in time to do all the things right at 7am isn't an issue. If I wanted a relaxing vacation I would either change my touring plan to not include G+ and/or ILL or I would go somewhere other than Disney XD

 

[Jwaire]

Honestly, I never understood why people liked to book Fastpasses a full 2 months before their trip. I never sleep late at Disney anyway, so being awake in time to do all the things right at 7am isn't an issue. If I wanted a relaxing vacation I would either change my touring plan to not include G+ and/or ILL or I would go somewhere other than Disney XD

It's all about expectations. I like it because I can guarantee we get these two or three favorite attractions in that day versus having to deal with frantic morning booking and disappointed family members.

Especially when we go during the peak season where mass chaos ensues.

 

[BeachClub2014]

It's all about expectations. I like it because I can guarantee we get these two or three favorite attractions in that day versus having to deal with frantic morning booking and disappointed family members.

Especially when we go during the peak season where mass chaos ensues.

I'm old school and actually liked Fastpass 1.0 when you actually had to be in the park to get one. Ah, the good old days.....

 

[Jwaire]

I'm old school and actually liked Fastpass 1.0 when you actually had to be in the park to get one. Ah, the good old days.....

I'd prefer that to both FastPass+ and Genie+. Not every ride was FastPass either. There's no need for a Lightning Lane entrance at the Magic Carpet's of Aladdin or Small World.

 

[BeachClub2014]

I'd prefer that to both FastPass+ and Genie+. Not every ride was FastPass either. There's no need for a Lightening Lane entrance at the Magic Carpet's of Aladdin or Small World.

Me too. We quit riding some attractions with the invention of Fastpass+ and Genie+.

 

[Jwaire]

Pre-arrival Genie+ being reinstated is going to be a win for families trying to control costs. I'm convinced they got rid of it because they didn't want to pay travel agents commission on it.

Nothing like showing up to your vacation and not knowing if Genie+ was going to cost you $75 + tax for your family or $150 + tax for your family for the day.

They let the bean counters run amuck.

Me too. We quit riding some attractions with the invention of Fastpass+ and Genie+.

We either avoid the C-tier attractions with LL now or ride them during the early morning hours or late evening hours when less people are around.

 

[GroguAndStitch]

I would honestly even enjoy 1 pre-booked ride per day. Just knowing we'd get on Frozen, Slinky Dog, 7 Dwarves and Flight of passage without concern would be worth it for me!

 

[SheSingsAlong]

Pre-arrival Genie+ being reinstated is going to be a win for families trying to control costs. I'm convinced they got rid of it because they didn't want to pay travel agents commission on it.

Nothing like showing up to your vacation and not knowing if Genie+ was going to cost you $75 + tax for your family or $150 + tax for your family for the day.

If they go back to allowing you to purchase G+ ahead of time, I doubt it will be a financial improvement over the current system. They'll probably go back to requiring you to buy G+ for every day of you ticket and they will make the price even higher for the "perk" of being able to book some LL in advance.

 

[BeachClub2014]

I would honestly even enjoy 1 pre-booked ride per day. Just knowing we'd get on Frozen, Slinky Dog, 7 Dwarves and Flight of passage without concern would be worth it for me!

Yeah, me too. I'd be all in if you could actually make a ride reservation for a specific time, like a dining reservation.

 

[Jwaire]

If they go back to allowing you to purchase G+ ahead of time, I doubt it will be a financial improvement over the current system. They'll probably go back to requiring you to buy G+ for every day of you ticket and they will make the price even higher for the "perk" of being able to book some LL in advance.

But you will know how much it cost versus now where's it a guess. Also, by being included in the ticket, you can go to discount ticket brokers and save a few bucks.

 

[tjkraz]

I don't miss FastPass 1.0 a single bit. Racing across the park for paper tickets. Waiting in line for 30 minutes at the ticket machines for Toy Story Mania, and getting a return time that was 8 hours away. Zero control over return times. Limiting it to people in the park would certainly change things, but it would also place even greater pressure on Disney transportation at park opening. We'd see more cases of road rage (bus rage, monorail rage) with people manic about getting to the park as quickly as possible.

Personally I think the current early entry system is a pretty good reward for arriving early. 30 minutes doesn't seem like much but it's usually enough time to ride one attraction and get in a short line for another before the masses are allowed in.

FastPass+ was my favorite. But the pre-booking of 3 rides is exactly they needed tiering and expansion to so many secondary and tertiary attractions. There wasn't enough capacity for everyone to ride Soarin, Test Track and Frozen in a single day. And since Disney hotel guests got priority, day guests often found themselves blocked from the most popular attractions anyway.

IMO the change Disney could have made to FP+ to improve the experience for everyone was limiting people to 1 ride per vacation on certain peak demand attractions. It sounds overly restrictive and I'm sure that's part of the reason it never happened. But for every person who was lucky enough to get a FP+ 2 or 3 times in a week for Flight of Passage, others missed out entirely. If Disney could have figured out a way to ensure that every person committing to a 6-7 night stay at one of their hotels could ride every attraction once, I think it would have gone a long way toward improving overall guest satisfaction. (Though some people would invariably find ways to use split stays and other workarounds to abuse it.) Want to ride again, use the standby line.

 

[Jwaire]

IMO the change Disney could have made to FP+ to improve the experience for everyone was limiting people to 1 ride per vacation on certain peak demand attractions. It sounds overly restrictive and I'm sure that's part of the reason it never happened. But for every person who was lucky enough to get a FP+ 2 or 3 times in a week for Flight of Passage, others missed out entirely. If Disney could have figured out a way to ensure that every person committing to a 6-7 night stay at one of their hotels could ride every attraction once, I think it would have gone a long way toward improving overall guest satisfaction. (Though some people would invariably find ways to use split stays and other workarounds to abuse it.) Want to ride again, use the standby line.

Well you won't have to worry about FOP. One thing is for sure, they're going to keep charging $20 for ILLs for FOP, ROR, Tron and Cosmic no matter what.

I wish they'd spend a few of those dollars on maintenance for ROR.

 

[BeachClub2014]

I don't miss FastPass 1.0 a single bit. Racing across the park for paper tickets. Waiting in line for 30 minutes at the ticket machines for Toy Story Mania, and getting a return time that was 8 hours away. Zero control over return times. Limiting it to people in the park would certainly change things, but it would also place even greater pressure on Disney transportation at park opening. We'd see more cases of road rage (bus rage, monorail rage) with people manic about getting to the park as quickly as possible.

Personally I think the current early entry system is a pretty good reward for arriving early. 30 minutes doesn't seem like much but it's usually enough time to ride one attraction and get in a short line for another before the masses are allowed in.

FastPass+ was my favorite. But the pre-booking of 3 rides is exactly they needed tiering and expansion to so many secondary and tertiary attractions. There wasn't enough capacity for everyone to ride Soarin, Test Track and Frozen in a single day. And since Disney hotel guests got priority, day guests often found themselves blocked from the most popular attractions anyway.

IMO the change Disney could have made to FP+ to improve the experience for everyone was limiting people to 1 ride per vacation on certain peak demand attractions. It sounds overly restrictive and I'm sure that's part of the reason it never happened. But for every person who was lucky enough to get a FP+ 2 or 3 times in a week for Flight of Passage, others missed out entirely. If Disney could have figured out a way to ensure that every person committing to a 6-7 night stay at one of their hotels could ride every attraction once, I think it would have gone a long way toward improving overall guest satisfaction. (Though some people would invariably find ways to use split stays and other workarounds to abuse it.) Want to ride again, use the standby line.

That wouldn't be fun, but our experience with the original Fastpass was entirely different. We never really had to wait in long lines to get to the ticket machine, definitely not 30 minutes, and our return times were never more than a few hours later. Definitely not 8-hours later, but hey, your experience sounds different.

 

[rangerxenos]

If they want to make changes that actually matter, they need to get rid of the 1 ride per attraction per day. There are way too many attractions/shows that don't even need passes ahead of time, and some that I don't want to ride. If there are open time slots available for me to ride Tower of Terror 3 times in one day, I should be able to book 3 LL's, same as I used to with Fast Pass+ .

 

[Sandisw]

I'm old school and actually liked Fastpass 1.0 when you actually had to be in the park to get one. Ah, the good old days.....

I wish it was a combo cause running to the machines wasn’t always fun.

But, we also didn’t really book many advanced FP+ either.

I think giving people some way to book a couple ahead will be awesome for those who like it but we might be more apt to book if they limit how many times one can preselect a ILL during the trip even for the fee.

 

[BeachClub2014]

I wish it was a combo cause running to the machines wasn’t always fun.

But, we also didn’t really book many advanced FP+ either.

I think giving people some way to book a couple ahead will be awesome for those who like it but also hope that the limit on not getting all big headliners booked multiple times like I mentioned above.

Agreed. The whole FastPass discussion is similar to the commercial renter discussion; folks are all over the place!

It would be nice if you could book rides for specific times in advance. Imagine the threads here on DIS THAT would generate when peeps can't get their favorite ride on a specific day and time, just like ADR's can be scarce.

 

[Sandisw]

Agreed. The whole FastPass discussion is similar to the commercial renter discussion; folks are all over the place!

It would be nice if you could book rides for specific times in advance. Imagine the threads here on DIS THAT would generate when peeps can't get their favorite ride on a specific day and time, just like ADR's can be scarce.

I wouldn’t mind the times so much as limiting people to one purchase per 7 day trip for those hard to get. Other than that, it’s standby and VQ.

So, you want to pay for Tron, you can for one day of your trip as the time of your choice but that’s it.

GP+attractions could be different. But I am sure what we will see is a paid FP+ with three advance