Genie + Why all the hate?

[jkevlin1232]

Here now for a few days already and my 12 year old asked me to stop using the phone during the day, not set alarms every 2 hours as reminders, stop trying to find the next ride that won’t make crisscross the park, and just enjoy the park and family time —he is 100% correct.

 

[teachmedis]

I haven't used it yet, and I'll say my next trip is long enough, I really wouldn't *have* to use it to get everything done. But I have watched Molly's videos, it seems you can get value out of it, if you're a work horse. I plan to use it some days, and some days not, so in July I'll know better. But based on what I've seen and read, Disney has some work to do on this one to improve costumer satisfaction. They've already added one ride from each park back into the pot (at least for a little while--I suspect that'll become long term). I think the next adjustment you'll see them make will pertain to the time jumping situation. That one really burns people's biscuits. It's far from perfect, needs some fine tuning.

 

[abbyandangel]

I haven't used it yet, and I'll say my next trip is long enough, I really wouldn't *have* to use it to get everything done. But I have watched Molly's videos, it seems you can get value out of it, if you're a work horse. I plan to use it some days, and some days not, so in July I'll know better. But based on what I've seen and read, Disney has some work to do on this one to improve costumer satisfaction. They've already added one ride from each park back into the pot (at least for a little while--I suspect that'll become long term). I think the next adjustment you'll see them make will pertain to the time jumping situation. That one really burns people's biscuits. It's far from perfect, needs some fine tuning.

Who is Molly? I would like to watch those videos.

 

[Marionnette]

Who is Molly? I would like to watch those videos.

Molly is from AllEars.net Her videos are refreshingly frank and very entertaining.

 

[piccolopat]

I really liked the old FP+ system because I could plan my top 3 rides ahead of time and arrange them to minimize crisscrossing the the parks. As we get older, eliminating unnecessary backtracking was key to enjoying a full day at the parks. The old system also meant I could make ride plans that worked with my ADRs. For example, I would plan a FP+ for Nemo, Soarin' and/or Spaceship Earth when we had an ADR for Coral Reef. That's even more important now because cancelling an ADR day of means a $10pp penalty. I can make that desired ADR in advance of my trip but when that coveted Genie+ or ILL comes up for the exact same time, I have a tough choice to make. We have no option for selecting a Genie+ time and can't change it (only cancel and try again) and ILL at any time is hard enough and can be impossible for the time of your choice.

 

[SeanWM48]

It's been said but when you start charging for something that people thought of as 'free' in the past, you're opening yourself up to criticism. Throw in the bugs and overall unreliability and you have what you have. If Genie was sharp at least you'd get the "yeah it costs more but it pays off" reviews. I don't see many of those yet.

I never saw FP as free either. It's included in what you're paying. It'd be like calling the Magic Express "free." But - and this is typical Disney lately - you're paying even more to go to the parks now, and those "included" services are gone. It's not like they cut you a break because they got rid of the Express or FP.

disclaimer - I haven't been to the WDW since Jan '21, just reading the room. I'm hoping by the time I make it back a lot of this stuff is working better.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Here now for a few days already and my 12 year old asked me to stop using the phone during the day, not set alarms every 2 hours as reminders, stop trying to find the next ride that won’t make crisscross the park, and just enjoy the park and family time —he is 100% correct.

Exactly this! We’ve been going annually for more than 20 years. Without a doubt this is the worst park system ever. For me it’s not about the money, it’s about the huge negative energy drain this puts on one’s vacation day. From having to be up at 6:45 AM daily to hope to win the G+ “lottery game”, to not being able to schedule attractions around ADRs given the erratic time assignments, and most of all, the impact it has on the ability to relax and enjoy the park environment and time spent with friends & family.

I am a huge WDW fan, and a long time DVC member. I studied up and had some success with G+ when we were there in November during a non-busy week. But we did cancel a trip we had planned for early April as I have no interest in being back in the parks until some improvements are made.

 

[Anna131517]

Lack of ability to plan is the downside. It’ll be fine if you open to close, no height restrictions in your party, and no mobility issues, although at HS you may not get more than 1 or 2 rides before they’re all gone for the day. If you have a party that can’t do the park all day or stay up late or needs to leave when it gets hot it’s harder to use. Also, if you’re trying to do split your party to do two nearby attractions at the same time due to height restrictions or just some people not liking thrill rides you probably won’t be able to use genie+ for that. It’s also harder to just do one land or area of a park then move to another due to the lack of planning issue, which can be a problem if there are mobility issues.

It’s inconvenient because you have to jump on at 7 a.m. to get hot rides. Some days that interrupts sleep. Other days you’re standing on a crowded bus to AK while trying to log on.

Because Disney still hasn’t brought back all the non-ride entertainment there’s less to do between rides. For example, Ariel is still closed at HS. There are still fewer character meet and greets. Once that happens there should be less pressure on the ride system.

Finally, it’s just stressful. Almost everyone we talk to at the parks says the same thing. No one likes being on their phone that much during vacation and having to think that much while trying to relax. It makes a Disney vacation work.

 

[Tikicristi]

We used it and hated it. I was gifted a day of it for free by guest services and I STILL hated it...maybe even more on the free day.

Every single selection we made, the time changed on us after we booked it.

There was precious little left to choose by 5pm each day. When you're grabbing a LL for Barnstormer because it's all that's left...well let's just say a little piece of me died inside that night.

Getting up at 6:55am on vacation every day? No thank you.

Refresh is worthless.

Criss crossing the park.

It's an abomination.

Same. We just left WDW. We had pre-purchased Genie+ with our tickets, thought we'd give it a shot. I felt it was almost useless and having to get up at 7am every day on vacation to not be able to get any LLs for any major attractions was really frustrating. Not to mention, on day 1, Genie+ charged us again for usage otherwise we couldn't book anything even though we'd already paid for it with our tickets, hotel package. So that added another trip to guest services to get the charges removed. The whole app was glitchy, we weren't able to cancel a LL once booked if we changed our minds or got in earlier to a ride. It also caused us to have to cross the parks more, back and forth, to ride the rides we wanted instead of being able to plan rides for one area at a time. We were there during peak spring break time so I expected big crowds but not being able to get any LLs at all one morning after paying for it was really frustrating. We had better luck using for late afternoons and night time at MK. Also if a ride goes down that you have a LL for, it will give you an all-experience pass but then there are limits to which rides it can be used on, usually the one you had originally booked it for. Makes zero sense. So many people were at guest services stations complaining about the same issues when we were there last week. If they don't fix all these issues, I think many former regular Disney vacationers like us are going to be rethinking future trips.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We didn’t hate it but didn’t love it either.

It has caused us to make changes though. After normally visiting WDW 2-3 times a year We returned for our first visit after 2 1/2 years in Jan.

Our next 2 trips are booked…for Disneyland and a Disney cruise.

Showing our disappointment by booking elsewhere. Yes, still Disney but not WDW.

 

[cobright]

What I don’t like, and what I suspect was the primary goal in implementing the new system, is that to get anywhere near the same utility from G+/ILL one must get into the parks early and stay there. For Disney this puts more people into the ‘buy it there’ bubble. That’s all fine, but some of us run into hard schedule obstacles or just need to sleep in.

I get that the need to squeeze money out of us rocks is real after the pandemic. I wouldn’t have minded the ILL scheduling system introduced as an overlay to FP+. Heck, I would have forgiven a drop in FP+ Advanced reservations to 2 per person and an up charge to get that third res. All of that would have saved them the cost of developing a whole new scheduling back end.

 

[katmigordon]

It sounds like as a party of 2 who doesn't do thrill rides, and always hits rope drop and stays until they kick us out G+ might actually work for us.

 

[Pixiedustaway07]

I don’t like waking up early to book.
I don’t like criss crossing the park all day.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s more than fair to pay extra to minimize wait times. But for the love just make it easy like Universal Express pass.

 

[PolyRob]

This is DL, but I think this is a huge part of why it's so bad:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1515511825768538114

A company that used to pride itself in "world class guest service" needs to issue a statement warning people not to purchase Genie+ because LLs are so limited during a holiday weekend. Disney isn't shutting it down for capacity and it isn't refunding you if you can't use it. I imagine a lot of guests are dissatisfied for a hardcoded preemptive apology. Not to mention that Genie+ seems to work better in DL than WDW.

 

[mom2rtk]

This is DL, but I think this is a huge part of why it's so bad:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1515511825768538114

A company that used to pride itself in "world class guest service" needs to issue a statement warning people not to purchase Genie+ because LLs are so limited during a holiday weekend. Disney isn't shutting it down for capacity and it isn't refunding you if you can't use it. I imagine a lot of guests are dissatisfied for a hardcoded preemptive apology. Not to mention that Genie+ seems to work better in DL than WDW.

Yes to all of that. And DLR is exponentially better than the 3 non-MK parks in WDW.

 

[RamblinWreck]

The hate is strictly because there charging you for something that used to be free. Personally I don't really care they are charging for it, every park everywhere charges for there version
of fast pass. My real beef is that you can't make your fast pass selection ahead of time and your limited to 2 at a time.

In my opinion this is the best feature of it.

 

[PalmettoPath]

Your OP was my original thought...that is, until it actually launched with the LL and ILL layers. Genie by itself was talked about literally for years as a planning aid for your Disney vacation. I, too, thought it sounded like it would be a great tool, particularly for new Disney travelers. However, unfortunately, our experience in actual practice -- particularly with the LL and ILL layers and how they were implemented -- has turned a promising concept into something that has definitely had a negative impact on our overall Disney vacation experience.

 

[DisneySyd]

It sounds like as a party of 2 who doesn't do thrill rides, and always hits rope drop and stays until they kick us out G+ might actually work for us.

This. For some people it works quite well. I was really nervous for our March break trip because I had mastered FP+, it was our first trip back in 2yrs (Cdn - border/COVID testing issues), and all the negative feedback. While it definitely needs improvement, I actually found it worked pretty well for us (don’t hate me!)
To add context:
1. We don’t rope drop (we’d done EMM when my girls were young but now I’d rather not hustle my kids out the door on vacation…I do that enough in real life)
2. We are not park “warriors”. We’ve been multiple times so my girls would rather skip a ride then wait a long time (we just enjoy being at Disney…and somewhere warm )
3. Since we need to fly, pay for COVID tests, pay for lodging, etc, my rationale was the extra money is a drop in the bucket (As much as I don’t like it, I’m sure Disney is banking on this). We are fortunate enough to be able to afford it.
4. Since travel costs for us are significant, we go on longer trips so have multiple days in each park (whatever we miss one day we can catch up on the 2nd time)

Here are the pros/cons from my perspective:

Pros:
1. You can overlap times. This is huge!
2. You can adjust plans day of based on weather, mood, illness, etc (park reservations negatively affect this benefit)
3. Based on our style (arrive early afternoon), we had 4/5 rides lined up vs 3 with FP+
4. I actually spent less time on my phone. Because I stacked, I just set an alarm for 5 minutes before and then booked our next ride (I did spend time refreshing but not as much as with FP+)

Cons:
1. The time change after you pay is ludicrous! Full-stop. I felt sorry for the CMs. They gladly fixed it but honestly?
2. Waking up and doing the “fast finger race” at 7am on vacation is stressful (but I haven’t figured out a better way for day of flexibility). Thankfully I had been paying attention here and knew there was another “drop” of times when Disney IT “glitched”
3. Not being able to choose your time
4. Not being able to modify if a better time became available (SO frustrating!)
5. Not being able to book the same ride twice.
6. Didn’t impact us, but since everyone was already up at 7am the rope drop crowds were definitely larger
7. A lot more people were walking around with their nose in their phone
8. Lines at blue umbrellas could get LONG
7. The obvious…making you pay for something that was included!

The same:
1. Disney IT glitches: I had lots with FP+ and I had lots with Genie+/$ILL
2. It works better for people who research (disboard people )
3. The popular rides are gone early
4. If you refresh you often are rewarded. I did it during downtime (transportation, in line, while kids were eating a snack)

Sorry for the novel. I just wanted to give some perspective to people (like me) who are apprehensive about their first trip back after the change. While my negative list is longer, the few pros I listed actually made it work well for us.

 

[PittPantherfan]

I've done some research into this now and at least on paper it looks like a great plan... so why all the hate?

In your research - did you find anything on the % of people using Genie+ vs. those going straight standby. I've been curious about this but haven't come across any stats on this.

 

[PittPantherfan]

I didn’t like it this morning how I booked a time for Flight of Passage but then after my credit card was charged I got a much later time. Then the time that I wanted was available in a later drop and I couldn’t change my time. It’s annoying when I paid over $42 for 3 people to ride a ride to not have the time I originally paid for. It was like I scheduled it for 910 and then it set me at 420. It’s not even close

Every other basic ticketing site "holds" the ressie/purchase for X amount of minutes to allow for you to process the payment etc. Those sites have been able to do that for years - why they didn't program this site this way is absurd. It's like they are using old technology- bring on the IT innovators please!!!