- Joined
- Nov 15, 2008
- Messages
- 46,556
I think I read everything on here. Does anyone know the start date of the Genie?
RalphRR
Has not yet been announced
I think I read everything on here. Does anyone know the start date of the Genie?
RalphRR
Wonder when there will be a "cover charge" to enter a WDW resort hotel to shop and dine? Not. Even. Joking.
This is what I was thinking! Why pay an extra $ 15.00 to get on Haunted Mansion or Pirates or Buzz. I can get those at rope drop or at the end of the night. And FOP would be the only ride that is a must do for me. And what about MMRT, this one may be on the higher price ala carte' thingy. It all sounds more confusing than before. However, who knows maybe it will work out okay. The worst part for me is the 7 a.m. scramble. And how will it work with PH? That could put me all over the place because who knows when you'll get assigned a time. Sounds nightmarish. Ugh! I go back and forth with feelings...lol!Can you just buy the lightning lane with out Genie? I will pop in early, ride a few rides, pay for a headliner or two and then go hang at the pool. I am not paying $15 per day to rider star tours or TSMM.
First thought-- has to be Sept 15th ish, give them a few weeks to brake it in before 50th.I think I read everything on here. Does anyone know the start date of the Genie?
RalphRR
Yes, traveling with a big group is so much harder, but at least I worked it all out ahead of time booking the FP+'s. I think having to plan day by day as we go along and then having my $ 15.00 tell me I have to be at Magic Kingdom at 6 p.m. when my plan would have been to go to Epcot at that time, is going to be ridiculous. I always park hop, so I'm thinking they may not have designed this Genie all that well for park hoppers. They say they have but that remains to be seen!I'm of the mindset of a few previous posters - I don't want to feel like I have to wake up at 7am each day on vacation to book my first ride, and then have to be on our phone every time we're done with our ride to book our next time. Our phones are usually buried all the way at the bottom of the backpack because we barely use them in the parks.
I also don't like the idea of paying $15, and then not being able to get as many passes out of it during the day for the rides we want to do. And it's going to be a headache when we're on larger family vacations - my husband and I would be okay prioritizing spending money on this and taking the money out of our Disney budget elsewhere (food & souveneirs), but the rest of the family is going to be a toss up of who is willing to also purchase it or not. We always did the planning - we'd know which parks we were going to because we'd have a meal reservation in there somewhere, plus the fastpasses set up before we arrived. Other members in the family would want to be more spontaneous and and try to get us to change plans and it usually caused tension somewhere along the trip. If some of us are paying for genie+ and some aren't, I can already feel the headache lol.
Our next trip if planned for February, and I have to say I'm really happy this is getting launched months ahead of our trip so we can see how it shakes out.
Right on! I'm 67 and have only recently started using a smart phone. My knees give way periodically but do not consider myself disabled. Using FP+ made my vacation something to look forward to and I was guaranteed to ride my favorites. I'm hoping this new service will work for me and so many others like me that just want to enjoy their vacation without getting frustrated everyday when the Genie grants me wishes I didn't hope for. Happy travels!Old lady here(on the outside not the inside), I just retired and December was to be my retirement trip. More days than usual, plans to spend more on shopping for Disney housewares. Yes ticket prices went up, yada yada that happens at least once a year. There has been speculation in the air for months about fp coming back as a paid option. I think most of us got our brains around that.
Now, I'm 64 not 84, but I didn't grow up with a game controller or cell phone glued to my hand, and I don't walk around never taking my eyes off my phone, I call rather than text because texting takes me forever. To my point: Disney isn't only charging me for my fast passes (I know its called lighting lane), they are now putting me into a competition every morning of my vacation with every under 30 who did grow up in a digital world with game consoles and cell phones as second nature to them, in order to get my first (maybe only) fast pass. Who do you think will win?I'm thinking I could master mobile order without too much trouble, but I'm not fast on the button thing.
(Getting up early isn't the problem, 40 years of getting up at 6 or earlier to get to work has made that my norm.)
I know I can choose not to pay, but now that I'm 64 I also have joint issues. Standing in the same (or almost the same) position for a long period is incredibly painful. In no way do I consider myself disabled, nor would I ever compare myself with those unfortunate enough to have a truly difficult life. I'm just feeling really intimidated about this right now. As a person travelling to Disney solo most of the time, I can honestly say I've never felt intimidated before a trip.
Thanks for listening. None of my non Disney friends would get it, they'd just say go somewhere else, like they've been saying for years.
While I do find Chapek being likened to Jafar amusing, this genie service is not his doing. Fastpass+ being reinvented/replaced with a paid service predates his tenure as CEO. Iger would have done the same and obviously approves of it in his current board role. I know many don’t like Iger either(although I don’t know why - imagine the parks sans pixar, which was successfully integrated and acquired in large part to Iger’s close friendship with Steve Jobs, never mind lucasfilm or marvel) but this was inevitable.I like the idea of calling this service Jafar like someone suggested. Cheapek probably found Jafar found Jafar's lamp and his wish was: I want higher per person guest spending.
From what I can see - as per Disney you will be able to make your next Genie+ reservation as soon as you tap into your scheduled ride. No mention of being able to book after 120 minutes or any other perk or restriction. So I would imagine it’s unlimited, someone correct me if I’m wrong.Will you be able to get more than 3 Genie+ rides per day as you go along? I wasn't sure about this.
From what I can see - as per Disney you will be able to make your next Genie+ reservation as soon as you tap into your scheduled ride. No mention of being able to book after 120 minutes or any other perk or restriction. So I would imagine it’s unlimited, someone correct me if I’m wrong.
Unfortunately you can only book 2 a la carte individual ride selections per day.
While I do find Chapek being likened to Jafar amusing, this genie service is not his doing. Fastpass+ being reinvented/replaced with a paid service predates his tenure as CEO. Iger would have done the same and obviously approves of it in his current board role. I know many don’t like Iger either(although I don’t know why - imagine the parks sans pixar, which was successfully integrated and acquired in large part to Iger’s close friendship with Steve Jobs, never mind lucasfilm or marvel) but this was inevitable
Fair to assume that this is something Chapek wants and has wanted for years, I don’t challenge you there. My point was simply that this decision is not that of one single person and that this would have happened regardless of who was at the helm. As parks CEO he reported to Iger, and still does report to Iger and the rest of the board.The Genie service was in development under Chapek. Disney has been working on the Genie recommendation engine for years. Chapek was the President of Parks and Resorts before becoming CEO.
FastPass was still around with Iger. Originally, the rumors had Disney keeping FastPass+ but offering additional FastPass selections for additional fees. That system would have made more sense. The Genie service has little to do with Lightening Pass anyway. They've decided, for marketing reasons, to mingle them together by calling the paid FastPass system Genie+.
This is Chapek's decision all the way. He is using COVID as an opportunity to readjust pricing and value in every aspect of the company. He has made no qualms about reducing spending on the parks in shareholder calls since becoming CEO.
Still confused. Can you reserve a park let's MK and use your 2 Genie passes, then park hop elsewhere and use Genie (maybe plus to book rides there?) Or are you stuck using Genie only at the first park of the day and it becomes useless if you move to another park?
Or 8… for my family, it would cost $120 more per day (*not inc the top tier rides, obvs)!! We are taking our first-ever 2-wk vacation to WDW next year. We’re all so excited!! Flights and (DVC) rooms have been booked for months… half of us already own AP’s and the others will be getting theirs as soon as sales restart… Genie+ would add $1,680 extra to our trip. That’s a lot of money. & That is not going to happen. (I would much rather splurge on fine dining than to pay for that… but I won’t be trading costs- I will be keeping that money).Right now, $15 per head for our party of three is $45 a day, times four = $180.00 for our next trip. Just think when that $15 a day is up to $30 or $35 a day. Whewwww, this will really cost much more in the future. What if a family has 4-6 people in the party. Cha-chinnnnngggggg!!!!
I like the idea of calling this service Jafar like someone suggested. Cheapek probably found Jafar found Jafar's lamp and his wish was: I want higher per person guest spending.