How is your Genie+ Experience?

[dwg]

We have been a DVC member since 1999. Overall we have been very happy with our membership as we have used it for a mix of WDW and Disney Cruise. Please do not flame me on using DVC points for the cruise. While the cruise is expensive it is mostly all inclusive and going to the parks does cost quite a bit of additional money (park tickets, food, etc). This is just how we choose to use our points and do not want to get involved in renting points.

We have not been back to the parks since COVID and all of the changes that have been made in the parks and I have two say that looking at the changes I feel like Disney is finding every way that they can to nickel and dime us and unless I want to pay extra for Gene + and Lighting Lane and get onto the apps at 7:00 am every day I can forget about getting on to the newer attractions so right now do not have a desire to visit the parks and will probably use our points to do additional cruises.

DVC friends who purchased when DVC first started with OKW just came back from the parks and could not get dining reservations except in the afternoon and did not have a good experience using Gene+ and overall was disappointed in their trip. With all of these changes they were not happy and are considering selling their DVC membership if their grown children do not want it.

For now we plan on staying away from the parks and hope some of the changes will be reversed or modified in the future to make the vacation less work.

 

[corpcomp]

We have been a DVC member since 1999. Overall we have been very happy with our membership as we have used it for a mix of WDW and Disney Cruise. Please do not flame me on using DVC points for the cruise. While the cruise is expensive it is mostly all inclusive and going to the parks does cost quite a bit of additional money (park tickets, food, etc). This is just how we choose to use our points and do not want to get involved in renting points.

We have not been back to the parks since COVID and all of the changes that have been made in the parks and I have two say that looking at the changes I feel like Disney is finding every way that they can to nickel and dime us and unless I want to pay extra for Gene + and Lighting Lane and get onto the apps at 7:00 am every day I can forget about getting on to the newer attractions so right now do not have a desire to visit the parks and will probably use our points to do additional cruises.

DVC friends who purchased when DVC first started with OKW just came back from the parks and could not get dining reservations except in the afternoon and did not have a good experience using Gene+ and overall was disappointed in their trip. With all of these changes they were not happy and are considering selling their DVC membership if their grown children do not want it.

For now we plan on staying away from the parks and hope some of the changes will be reversed or modified in the future to make the vacation less work.

I don't have enough points (300) to use them on a cruise and DW hates boats ever since I bought a 30 foot sailboat and she had to help raise ands lower the sails in a storm off Block Island.

Cannot seem to understand there is no hard work on a cruise ship.

 

[Boardwalk III]

This was our first trip since the pandemic. I read a lot of Disney info, but I missed that. I don’t feel it was very clear. There are so many new things it’s difficult for me to figure everything out. It didn’t work well for our family This time. We had 8 adult which is a small group compared to our normal trips. We had 2 -19 year old boys who wanted to do their own thing. We are used to having annual passes or hoppers and coming and going as we please. We always travel with groups. We book multiple rooms at the boardwalk. I make a basic plan and everyone does their own thing. Then we meet up for dinner etc. That’s what used for make it a good vacation destination for us. In fact we had decided to upgrade to annual passes and changed our minds. This was just too much for us. It’s fine. Obviously Disney has no lack of customers. We just won’t be going back for a couple years.

20-year DVC family here and was down there with a good sized group for 12 days mid-November. I’m generally the planner, and am super organized, but I found it very difficult to manage Genie+ with an extended group of family and friends. Most days it did have me getting up before 7 AM and playing with the app to try to get at least one thing we could all do together at a good time. But then having to stress out all morning about what other things we might be able to do together as a group and constantly refreshing to see what times were loading for each attraction, and having to work all this around our dining reservations, and then repeat this whole process every day was a total drag on our vacation in my book!

For families of 2- 4 people I can imagine it might work OK if they I want to do the same attractions together all day. But after lots of practice I’m not a fan of Genie+. Yes you can make it work and yes you can take advantage of stacking etc. but someone has to spend a lot of time on the phone all day to do this.

We won’t give up our DVC Membership, but am really disappointed that our WDW vacations will likely never be the same. Ugh.

 

[corpcomp]

As a side comment not directly related to Genie+:

On top of paying extra to get on the rides last week and going through the pain of trying to schedule each new ride as we got on another, I went with DW today to get our Christmas tree from a local tree farm in CT where you cut your own. Last year we paid $87.
This year we were stunned at the new pricing - 21% increase!. They must have talked to Chapek!!: We were told by others that most of the tree farms now were scheduling reservations (like Disney) because of the demand and lack of trees being shipped in from Canada.

This farm did not require reservations. There were about 800 cars in the lot, the most we have ever seen in 20 years.
Guess there will be one less gift this year.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

Haven't used Genie+ yet but one of my biggest issues with it is that you have to get up for 7 am to book the top available rides. I'm interested to hear from people using it this weekend with the large crowds though.

 

[Doug7856]

20-year DVC family here and was down there with a good sized group for 12 days mid-November. I’m generally the planner, and am super organized, but I found it very difficult to manage Genie+ with an extended group of family and friends. Most days it did have me getting up before 7 AM and playing with the app to try to get at least one thing we could all do together at a good time. But then having to stress out all morning about what other things we might be able to do together as a group and constantly refreshing to see what times were loading for each attraction, and having to work all this around our dining reservations, and then repeat this whole process every day was a total drag on our vacation in my book!

For families of 2- 4 people I can imagine it might work OK if they I want to do the same attractions together all day. But after lots of practice I’m not a fan of Genie+. Yes you can make it work and yes you can take advantage of stacking etc. but someone has to spend a lot of time on the phone all day to do this.

We won’t give up our DVC Membership, but am really disappointed that our WDW vacations will likely never be the same. Ugh.

Have you considered sending these comments directly to Walt Disney World so that management knows how you feel? The email address is wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com.

 

[Simba's Mom]

As a side comment not directly related to Genie+:

On top of paying extra to get on the rides last week and going through the pain of trying to schedule each new ride as we got on another, I went with DW today to get our Christmas tree from a local tree farm in CT where you cut your own. Last year we paid $87.
This year we were stunned at the new pricing - 21% increase!. They must have talked to Chapek!!: We were told by others that most of the tree farms now were scheduling reservations (like Disney) because of the demand and lack of trees being shipped in from Canada.

This farm did not require reservations. There were about 800 cars in the lot, the most we have ever seen in 20 years.
Guess there will be one less gift this year.

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Wow! I used to get a Cut-Your-Own" tree at a Central MA tree farm (Rutland) for about $30-$35. So the price has tripled in about 44 years. Comparing that to Disney, I happen to have a 6 day park hopper from that same "era"-$97 for all 6 days, included park hopping, and the one and only water park. I don't think Chapek has merely tripled that price.
As far as Genie+, I can't get past the similarity to FP+, which was FREE-call it "the straw that broke the camel's back" for me.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Have you considered sending these comments directly to Walt Disney World so that management knows how you feel? The email address is wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com.

Guess I could. Not sure that it will make a difference but worth the effort I suppose. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[The Jackal]

Guess I could. Not sure that it will make a difference but worth the effort I suppose. Thanks for the suggestion.

New WDW policy, they will not read your emails unless you pay $15 before sending it. CHEAPek is loving Genie+, oh and don’t forget the tax.

 

[Boardwalk III]

New WDW policy, they will not read your emails unless you pay $15 before sending it. CHEAPek is living Genie+, oh and don’t forget the tax.

Ha. I actually expanded (and refined) my post above and sent a detailed email to WDW and copied DVC Member Services. First time in 25 years that I’ve sent negative feedback, but felt this was warranted.

Thanks @Doug7856 for the nudge!