Genie+

[Jrb1979]

I know not everyone here goes on the main boards a lot. What are your thoughts on the new FP system?

I for one love it, especially no more 60 day advanced booking. Since I am a rope drop person when I go to the parks it works for me. For $15 it's pretty cheap compared to most other parks.

 

[Dawg74]

I don’t like that some of the big rides are not included in the $15 fee and have to be purchased separately or use the stand by line. I also don’t mind $15 so much if just my wife and I go but if we take the kids for two weeks and hit the parks 10 times it adds up. Not that we wouldn’t pay it but I just think the extra fee sucks. I would prefer to have the cost buried somewhere else. Maybe it will be good though, or maybe the stand by lines will be fine even with it. I still love Disney even if I don‘t love every decision they make. I like the idea of going for Rope drop to and trying to hit some big rides before it gets busy. Then maybe we don’t need Genie+

 

[hdrolfe]

I'm not really impressed, you have to pay to use "FP" on the lower tier rides and then extra for the best rides, plus you have to be up at 7 am to choose your ONE ride. We don't do rope drop very often, it's too hectic but we loved FP and also paid events. So it's not really the money so much, I'd pay for an after hours event or an early morning magic with the breakfast, but I don't think it's very "nice" that they are now charging for what was once free.

I will wait and see how it goes for people though. I do wish they had simply gone with something like FastLane or whatever the one at Universal is called, pay $$ for the day and ride all the rides that have the FP lanes. But no matter what they did, as soon as they charged for it, and I guess even if they didn't, there would be people unhappy with it.

 

[Juventus]

I also don't mind it if it's just me and my wife, however we went 6 years straight with our 3 kids with 8-10 day tickets: that will be very expensive. We are also rope droppers everyday but these changes really hurt us: we always stay off site so now there is no way for us to rope drop the headliners and will have to pay for the à la carte Lightening Pass to avoid long lines; for instance we would always rope drop Flight of Passage...can't do that now since on site guests are let in 30 minutes early AND have first dibs on the à la carte Lightening Passes.

Terrible for us.

Also, with Rise of the Resistance offering paid Lighten Pass, that means there will be even less availability for the virtual queue, which currently only has 1-3 seconds of availability at 7:00AM. Not sure how that will play out.

Finally, I hate the idea of entering the parks each morning without really having a concrete plan and knowing, for the most part, what you were going to be able to ride.

For me, this system is a lot worse than fastpass+, and it costs extra.

 

[TammyLynn33]

Yep not happy . With the costs going up and up to simply get in , then paying for what was free then paying ontop for premium rides..
As a single Mom who busted her butt to get DVC to make trips special and affordable , I’m almost done and we haven’t traveled yet with DVC .
I think we will rent a lot of the time do universal stay in a premium room there get their express pass for free and or hit after hour events at Disney for a few years and see how this plays out .

 

[TommyJK]

I'm all for it.

I'm not a "week+ on-site" Disney visitor. The old FP+ system too heavily tilted the tables to those type of visitors who scooped up all of the best FP+'s leaving the rest of us to fight over table scraps and/or "pound the app" all day to try and get anything good.

This is basically a digital version of the old paper FP system, or more accurately its almost identical to MaxPass at DL. Bring it!

 

[Etch]

I'm going to wait for some reports to start coming in once it starts. The biggest thing I want to watch is the booking of one Genie+ attraction at a time aspect. How fast will the more popular rides have no times left? Let's say you first ride is Thunder mountain. When you tap in and go to book your next ride at Splash Mountain and it offers you a time of 1:00pm what do you do? Book the 1:00pm and do some standby or hit some of the less popular rides using Genie+. Apparently they are closing the "Refresh" option so once you book your next ride you are locked in.

Will also be interesting to see what the uptake will be? I think the Genie+ will be very popular but I'm not sure how many people will ante up the individual Lightning Lane cost for the two most popular rides at each park.

 

[wdwmom3]

I’m gonna wait and see how it plays out before I have an opinion on it. Like can I just get it for certain days and not others? Can I buy the pass for the top tier ride if I don’t do the $15 a day? What kind of availability is there once you get later in the day etc?

It sucks having to pay. But if I could for example just pay to go on FOP and then use regular standby (and the cost for one ride wasn’t crazy), then I would do that for AK. Then maybe one day use the $15 a day in MK, while another day I don’t and do lower wait stuff etc.

It all depends how it works and the cost.

 

[ottawamom]

This is definitely going to be a work in process. I never minded the old paper Fastpass system. We were able to tour around the park just fine with that. Last time I was at Disney, in Epcot, I only needed to use 1 of the 3 fastpasses I booked. The other two rides were walk on anyway.

My understanding of what I read on a blog is that you will be able to choose which days you want to take advantage of the Genie+. No need to have it, say for Epcot, but need it for Magic Kingdom day. Still not crazy about having to pay for it and more for hotel rooms etc but maybe it will one day be a perk for staying onsite. Just putting that out into the universe for consideration.

 

[Etch]

one day be a perk for staying onsite

I could totally see Genie+ being included with deluxe level stays at some point. This would somewhat line up with Universal premier hotels although Genie+ is not as good as "Express Pass" obviously. They seem to want to start from scratch with onsite stay benefits. After getting rid of basically every onsite perk, they seem to be slowly adding new and different ones.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I'm not sure. I guess it will depend on how much the premium rides cost. Thing is if you're paying $$$$ for a trip, Disney knows you'll probably shell out the cash for that one opportunity to ride Rise of Resistance for example once you're there.

But it sure is making it harder and harder to get there that's for sure.

 

[Juventus]

I'm all for it.

I'm not a "week+ on-site" Disney visitor. The old FP+ system too heavily tilted the tables to those type of visitors who scooped up all of the best FP+'s leaving the rest of us to fight over table scraps and/or "pound the app" all day to try and get anything good.

This is basically a digital version of the old paper FP system, or more accurately its almost identical to MaxPass at DL. Bring it!

It's like the old paper system except now to get a ticket for the best 2 rides at each park you will be paying $14-24 per ride per person.

Terrible.

So $100US for my family of 5 to get a fastpass for flight of passage. Which will be at a crappy time if I stay offsite because onsite guests get access to these at 7:00am, off site guests at scheduled park opening.

 

[TommyJK]

It's like the old paper system except now to get a ticket for the best 2 rides at each park you will be paying $14-24 per ride per person.

Terrible.

So $100US for my family of 5 to get a fastpass for flight of passage. Which will be at a crappy time if I stay offsite because onsite guests get access to these at 7:00am, off site guests at scheduled park opening.

Or you could just rope drop FOP for free.

 

[wdwmom3]

Or you could just rope drop FOP for free.

Exactly. You don’t need fast passes etc. Yes it makes things easier but there are ways to tour the parks without them.

I remember with the old paper fast passes, we only used them occasionally. We were able to plan our days to get most of what we wanted done without them. I think people forget what things were like before fpp.

 

[hdrolfe]

Exactly. You don’t need fast passes etc. Yes it makes things easier but there are ways to tour the parks without them.

I remember with the old paper fast passes, we only used them occasionally. We were able to plan our days to get most of what we wanted done without them. I think people forget what things were like before fpp.

I never went before FPP so have nothing to compare to but what we've had. I think maybe when I was 13 (when it was only MK & Epcot) we went as a family and were able to do a lot of rides but it's vague memories at this point. I just remember no one would go on space mountain with me so when I went with kiddo i talked him into doing it as a "bucket list" thing for me, and now it's his favourite ride.

While we may not need FP etc, it makes it possible to do more rides and wait in shorter lines. We'll happily do an After Hours event or something similar to get short lines for rides, but we also aren't interested in characters, or parades, and even fireworks for the most part. We aren't big on rope drop, too crowded, too many people pushing and shoving, not a fun experience for us. We have gotten in line close to closing, we did that to ride SDD the first time, but that doesn't always work.

 

[Jrb1979]

I could totally see Genie+ being included with deluxe level stays at some point. This would somewhat line up with Universal premier hotels although Genie+ is not as good as "Express Pass" obviously. They seem to want to start from scratch with onsite stay benefits. After getting rid of basically every onsite perk, they seem to be slowly adding new and different ones.

I highly doubt resort guests will get that perk again. If resorts aren't filling free dining will return.

 

[Juventus]

Or you could just rope drop FOP for free.

No. Not if I'm off site. That's my point; onsite guests get 30 minute head start...by then it will be over an hour.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

What is everyone’s guess on start date?? I’m thinking October 1st.

 

[Aladora]

I'm of two minds about this.

On one hand, we are used to paying for Maxpass at DL and if this were just a reskinning of that system, we would not hesitate to buy it even with the price increase.

On the other hand, I HATE the idea of paying for G+ and then ALSO paying more for the top tier rides. To me, that just stinks of cheap funfair pricing. The one thing we loved about Disneyland was that once you were in the gate, you never had to worry about paying for rides.

 

[TommyJK]

No. Not if I'm off site. That's my point; onsite guests get 30 minute head start...by then it will be over an hour.

Then I suppose the free option will be regular stand-by, that should be significnatly shorter than it was during the FP+ era because 75-80% of the line will not be taken up by FP+ reservations anymore that were all scopped up 2 months prior.