Genie+: Disney “real” Strategy?

[Game Eddo]

At the onset of Genie + my thoughts were this.
Disney has a strategy to extract more money from their guests. To do this they could start charging for Fastpass +. But hold on, if they did that then everyone would be up in arms and the complaints would be monumental…..”how dare disney?”, “charging us guests for something that was free?!!”, etc etc.

So Disney Management come up with the idea that is infinitely more terrible - Genie +. Give it a few months, let all the complaints etc come in then…..

Make an announcement that Genie + is being dropped and being replaced with a paid fastpass system.

Everyone then says “what a fantastic idea, we’ll go for that, it’s far far better than Genie +”

Result says Disney. We got what we wanted, the paid fastpass system and everyone telling us how great we are.

Mark my words, it will come.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Maybe. Maybe not. But the thought is interesting. But your assumptions might be a little slanted (but I understand what you're saying!). I think not everyone loved FP+, having to plan so far in advance. I think not everyone hates G+! At least it allows for 'day-of' planning when families know better what they want to do. No system is perfect. I was hoping the ILL might be a flop and they'd do away with that, putting those attractions back into the G+ 'bucket', making G+ better. But based on the success of paying even more for the high-end attractions, that doesn't seem likely.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I think not everyone loved FP+, having to plan so far in advance. I think not everyone hates G+! At least it allows for 'day-of' planning when families know better what they want to do.

I don't see how day of planning can work for attractions when dining still requires advanced planning. What happens when Genie schedules my favorite ride during an existing dining reservation? It just sounds stressful. With FP+ I could plan around dining reservations.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I don't see how day of planning can work for attractions when dining still requires advanced planning. What happens when Genie schedules my favorite ride during an existing dining reservation? It just sounds stressful. With FP+ I could plan around dining reservations.

I can see that being stressful. It actually happened to us, and we asked at one of the customer service kiosks - we went to our ADR, went late to the LL attraction, showed our ADR as the reason we were late, and they let us right on - no stress in that case. It might not always be that easy, but it doesn't always have to be extremely hard. Of course, in our example, we were eating in the park with the LL in it. If you have an ADR across property at a resort, it's not going to work as well. But if you get into a situation like that, I would recommend stopping by the customer service kiosk at the park you're in (the blue umbrellas), and see what they can do for you. They were very helpful for us twice, including changing a park reservation for us later in our trip.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I can see that being stressful. It actually happened to us, and we asked at one of the customer service kiosks - we went to our ADR, went late to the LL attraction, showed our ADR as the reason we were late, and they let us right on - no stress in that case. It might not always be that easy, but it doesn't always have to be extremely hard. Of course, in our example, we were eating in the park with the LL in it. If you have an ADR across property at a resort, it's not going to work as well. But if you get into a situation like that, I would recommend stopping by the customer service kiosk at the park you're in (the blue umbrellas), and see what they can do for you. They were very helpful for us twice, including changing a park reservation for us later in our trip.

I'm glad to hear it worked out so well for you. We haven't actually been since Genie + was introduced. It just seems unnecessary to burden both guests and customer service with additional problems over a poorly executed system. We usually dine in either the park we are in or a nearby resort. For instance, MK doesn't have much to offer that we love, but the resorts in that area offer a ton of really great options. It takes a little time to get back in the park, but it's not as bad as it could be.

 

[RoseGold]

I mean it was in the earnings call. The goal was to make more money, and G+ definitely achieved that. Hooray!

 

[Jen81NYC]

It would’ve been much cheaper and straightforward to leave FP system exactly as it works and simply charge for it, so this theory doesn’t make sense tbh. Designing a completely new system, that also has to be paid for, just to somehow justify bringing back the old system but now paid, is much more expensive and tedious. I think they genuinely thought Genie+ was a better process.

 

[MrsPete]

At the onset of Genie + my thoughts were this.
Disney has a strategy to extract more money from their guests. To do this they could start charging for Fastpass +. But hold on, if they did that then everyone would be up in arms and the complaints would be monumental…..”how dare disney?”, “charging us guests for something that was free?!!”, etc etc.

So Disney Management come up with the idea that is infinitely more terrible - Genie +. Give it a few months, let all the complaints etc come in then…..

Make an announcement that Genie + is being dropped and being replaced with a paid fastpass system.

Everyone then says “what a fantastic idea, we’ll go for that, it’s far far better than Genie +”

Result says Disney. We got what we wanted, the paid fastpass system and everyone telling us how great we are.

Mark my words, it will come.

I can kinda believe that. Remember New Coke?

 

[redboat45]

Genie + IS paid fastpass. Their IT just sucks.

 

[Game Eddo]

I can kinda believe that. Remember New Coke?

Yup! Typical negotiation strategy….offer something really bad, then offer what you really want, which is probably bad, and everyone then thinks that it is ok.

 

[vwlfan]

At the onset of Genie + my thoughts were this.
Disney has a strategy to extract more money from their guests. To do this they could start charging for Fastpass +. But hold on, if they did that then everyone would be up in arms and the complaints would be monumental…..”how dare disney?”, “charging us guests for something that was free?!!”, etc etc.

So Disney Management come up with the idea that is infinitely more terrible - Genie +. Give it a few months, let all the complaints etc come in then…..

Make an announcement that Genie + is being dropped and being replaced with a paid fastpass system.

Everyone then says “what a fantastic idea, we’ll go for that, it’s far far better than Genie +”

Result says Disney. We got what we wanted, the paid fastpass system and everyone telling us how great we are.

Mark my words, it will come.

hope they 86 Genie everything sooner rather than later.

 

[Ddean52]

I assume the genie+ program started with the prior chairman? And by comparison, he was considered a " good guy"? The present system strikes me as so flawed that I can't believe it's been alowed to continue. We travel a lot. I have a special fondness for WDW. But that fondness has limits. Dean

 

[Pinnochio]

Bring back FP....i'd pay for 3 rides (on top of my ticket price) so that i can book 60 days out like we used to....i just want to know i have three before i enter a park....