MAJOR changes to Genie+!

[Pascal3]

Fence sitter here who bought genie plus for an 8 day ticket for a family of 3 this morning.

If everything stays the same, no price increase, no cap, no issues, I will be mad that I bought it today, but less mad than if I can't buy it on site. Less upset than I would be waking in a panic in the middle of the night or staring at a spinning wheel over a cup of coffee unable to get value out of my theme park admission.

I have now paid over $2700 for park hopper genie plus 8 day tickets for 3 people. FOR THEME PARK TICKETS. Where I might not get anything I want.

I have a lot of thinking to do.

We have the same exact tickets in July, 8 day park hopper (haven't added Genie+). The pricing is atrocious, and I never have felt like I didn't get my moneys worth at Disney, but I am starting to question it. $2700 is a staggering price with no guarantees. We are going to skip out on Genie and hope that early entry and extra magic hours are helpful - we don't want to have to give up our favorite dining or other aspects of the trip to be stressed. Standby here I come! I just keep telling myself its less stressful this way, more like Disneyland where you just go about your day. I've about had it with all these changes and added stress.

 

[jimim]

I am already mad. However, with all the cost already sunk into this vacation, I decided to pull the trigger now and get it over with, just like Disney hoped I and others would.

We have already decided this is our last Disney trip until grandchildren. Our daughter is 13, so I'm hoping for more than a decade! Next Florida trip is to finally see the Keys, and visit Harry. We are on Book 6.

This trip has turned into the most expensive vacation we have ever had as a family, and I have had enough. I am not finding value any more and I'm ready to move on. I know other people feel differently, and that's fine.

I just sit back and laugh at all the changes and increases and more and more reasons to cont to rent out my points and make money. no season passes is what did it for me. 15 plus years with season passes. I drop it for covid and then they drop them. i guess i screwed myself but oh well.

 

[Mle8308]

I agree with the problem that Disney does not efficiently manage the ratio of LL to SB guests. With FP, there was the expectation that it would shorten your wait to maybe 15-20 minutes, now if it was effectively communicated to guests is another story. The merge CM controls everything in terms of wait times. The ratio was 80/20 (FP/SB), and it was okay to hold the FP line for a minute or two to let SB go in. Problem was/is, the merge CM gets "flack" from the guests in the FP/LL queue because they are waiting while the SB line enters, they think they don't have to wait at all and are rather vocal about it. The CM at the merge point doesn't want to have to deal with constantly being yelled at, so they just continue to let the FP/LL guests through with minimal pausing of the line, so really no line management at all. Occasionally you will find a CM who is good at managing the merge point, but that is the exception rather than the rule. I'm still one of the few who would prefer no FP/LL, just the good old standby lines.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm still one of the few who would prefer no FP/LL, just the good old standby lines.

My husband and I have been saying that for the last several years. This most recent trip just made that solidified in concrete lol

 

[Pascal3]

I am already mad. However, with all the cost already sunk into this vacation, I decided to pull the trigger now and get it over with, just like Disney hoped I and others would.

We have already decided this is our last Disney trip until grandchildren. Our daughter is 13, so I'm hoping for more than a decade! Next Florida trip is to finally see the Keys, and visit Harry. We are on Book 6.

This trip has turned into the most expensive vacation we have ever had as a family, and I have had enough. I am not finding value any more and I'm ready to move on. I know other people feel differently, and that's fine.

I feel this, coming from the West Coast makes it even worse. (Not sure where you are coming from). But between flights, food, the hassle and the lack of new things, (Yes I understand that GOTG just opened, as well as Remy, but overall nothing new), the lack of a real celebration for the 50th and the stress that has gone into this trip we won't be going back next year. Universal has really stepped up their game and that third park will be a game changer, and part of me thinks (sarcastically of course) that will open before Tron does!

 

[Smugpugmug]

I agree with the problem that Disney does not efficiently manage the ratio of LL to SB guests. With FP, there was the expectation that it would shorten your wait to maybe 15-20 minutes, now if it was effectively communicated to guests is another story. The merge CM controls everything in terms of wait times. The ratio was 80/20 (FP/SB), and it was okay to hold the FP line for a minute or two to let SB go in. Problem was/is, the merge CM gets "flack" from the guests in the FP/LL queue because they are waiting while the SB line enters, they think they don't have to wait at all and are rather vocal about it. The CM at the merge point doesn't want to have to deal with constantly being yelled at, so they just continue to let the FP/LL guests through with minimal pausing of the line, so really no line management at all. Occasionally you will find a CM who is good at managing the merge point, but that is the exception rather than the rule. I'm still one of the few who would prefer no FP/LL, just the good old standby lines.

My sister used to work at the merge point for SB/FP at Big Thunder in MK. She was screamed at/berated by guests in both standby and FP every single shift. One time when she was working at the front of the ride, someone offered her $100 for his family to skip the line. This was before Genie+ and I joked to her that maybe that angry guest predicted paid Fastpass before it was even a thing. But yeah I do think Disney manages their standby/FP ratio worse than any other theme park I've been to.

 

[WRLeGrand]

I guess my major question is: are you now going to have to stay up until 12:00 midnight to book this? Then have to be awake at 7:00 to get the LL? This just seems overly ridiculous....

 

[Kingoglow]

1. There is also a lot more capacity at Disney between the four parks than at Universal.

2. They can still offer it as an advance purchase to those guests.My guess is that they will allow deluxe and DVC guests the option to purchase genie+ in advance at a discounted price (probably $15) and they will market this as a perk. While everyone else will now be stuck with day of purchases at an increased surge price.

They should just change availability to be for resort guests only.

 

[Kingoglow]

I have now paid over $2700 for park hopper genie plus 8 day tickets for 3 people. FOR THEME PARK TICKETS

You paid $112 per person per day for park hoppers for you length of stay. $112 is not a bad price for park admission. You will just be there a LONG time.

 

[MomOTwins]

Well, I bought our tickets with G+ today for our trip this fall. Chalk me up to another person who thinks this is a sign of BAD things to come (price increase; frustrations with system crashes buying daily G+; sell-outs). My solution was to cut a day from our ticket (from 6 to 5) to offset the price increase from G+. We'll enjoy a resort day instead. As much as I dislike the concept and execution of G+, I think we are better off having a few short waits each day with G+ than an extra park day with nothing but long lines all day.

I started off the year in the camp of "I'm fed up with Disney and going to take a year off and do other things." Well, we booked our summer vacation as a cruise to Alaska and I'm already regretting my decision. We are locked into the cruise because of extremely steep cancellation penalties that kick in 3 months ahead. Couldn't get a room that sleeps 5 either on the cruise or the hotel that wasn't a suite, so paying for two connecting rooms when we only ever have to book one at Disney. It costs hundreds of dollars for each activity you do in the ports the cruise stops in. Flights were the absolute worst--we are just a 2 hour flight from MCO and there are lots of Southwest flights, so I am used to airfare between $300-$500 pp round trip, whereas flying to Seattle for the cruise was around $1200 pp! The worst part is none of the kids are even looking forward to Alaska--they worry it will be too cold and boring. And for 10-year olds and 6-year old, I'm kind of worried maybe they are right and they really won't have much fun. Total price is coming out to about four times what we typically pay for Disney.

I recently decided to go back to Disney for Thanksgiving. It's our "home" (we have DVC, which is how we can afford to add an extra vaycay), and life is too short to be unhappy. I still hate the idea of booking G+ at 7am each day and every 2 hours after, when I used to be able to plan a perfect schedule with FPs outside of meal times and midday breaks, and with no criss-crossing the parks. But we'll be at Disney, we'll see the castle, we'll ride at least some of our favorites, see the fireworks from our hotel, and all will be well.

These threads always seem to pivot to Universal. It isn't for everyone. I switched to Universal last year for spring break, ticket prices were MORE than Disney, and did not have a good time outside of Harry Potter world. We did have express pass from our "premier" hotel (where they stick a family of 5 in a tiny room for 4 and add a rollaway for $50 a night on top of the $700 a night room price). But what's the point of skip the line pass if you don't want to ride 90% of the rides after trying them once? After our first day of trying everything, we ended up just riding Gringotts over and over and playing the interactive wands because everything else was a disappointment (except Hagrid's and you can't use express pass for that). I can see how it would work for some families, but it SO different it baffles me why anyone would bother comparing it to disney.

 

[HopperFan]

My sister used to work at the merge point for SB/FP at Big Thunder in MK. She was screamed at/berated by guests in both standby and FP every single shift. One time when she was working at the front of the ride, someone offered her $100 for his family to skip the line. This was before Genie+ and I joked to her that maybe that angry guest predicted paid Fastpass before it was even a thing. But yeah I do think Disney manages their standby/FP ratio worse than any other theme park I've been to.

DD worked Soarin' ... she worked merge often because half the other CMs were too traumatized by the behavior of the guests. They didn't bother DD, and yelling absolutely did not speed up your line. She had a few good stories. And the lies guests told to try to get in to the FP line without a FP. Shameful.

They are going to give genie+ priority to resort guest eventually. Off site is going to get the short end.

Exactly my thoughts. I reckon that Genie+ is going to be used as the incentive to book on-site hotels, in the absence of free-dining packages. If I hadn't already booked an onsite hotel 2 years ago (been postponed twice due to Covid), I think I would have gone offsite this year. But throw in Genie+ for free, then that changes things somewhat.

Also, speaking as somebody who has already pre-booked their Genie+ for our July trip, I hope they massively increase the prices to limit the amount of Genie+ that are sold!

They should just change availability to be for resort guests only.

Genie+ will never be rolled back to free for anyone. They will not take that part back. Even if they looked at Universal deluxe getting it free - Disney has over 4x the number of deluxe rooms.

They will never exclude offsite from something like this. Honestly they might be more likely to buy Genie+ since they don't get extra hours included.

Most seem to not realize that Disney could not survive on their hotel guests alone. They likely couldn't even fill 1/3 of the park capacity - and many who pay to stay onsite do so to enjoy the hotel as well or attention conventions - then parks aren't making money. The offsite guests are critical to Disney's bottom line in the parks. Once in the park gates, spending is spending.

 

[MichelinMan]

DD worked Soarin' ... she worked merge often because half the other CMs were too traumatized by the behavior of the guests. They didn't bother DD, and yelling absolutely did not speed up your line. She had a few good stories. And the lies guests told to try to get in to the FP line without a FP. Shameful.





Genie+ will never be rolled back to free for anyone. They will not take that part back. Even if they looked at Universal deluxe getting it free - Disney has over 4x the number of deluxe rooms.

They will never exclude offsite from something like this. Honestly they might be more likely to buy Genie+ since they don't get extra hours included.

Most seem to not realize that Disney could not survive on their hotel guests alone. They likely couldn't even fill 1/3 of the park capacity - and many who pay to stay onsite do so to enjoy the hotel as well or attention conventions - then parks aren't making money. The offsite guests are critical to Disney's bottom line in the parks. Once in the park gates, spending is spending.

Free DDP has been available every year for UK visitors. I could easily see Genie+ being thrown in as an incentice for overseas visitors.

 

[Miffy]

Genie+ will never be rolled back to free for anyone. They will not take that part back. Even if they looked at Universal deluxe getting it free - Disney has over 4x the number of deluxe rooms.

They will never exclude offsite from something like this. Honestly they might be more likely to buy Genie+ since they don't get extra hours included.

@HopperFan: I read a lot of your posts and 99.999% of the time I completely agree with you. Here, though, I'm not so sure. If inflation continues, fewer and fewer people are going to be able to afford a WDW vacation and Disney is going to start offering incentives, like the 7-nights-for-the-price-of-4 promotion many years ago.

They may never include G+ for free, but that doesn't mean they won't ditch G+ and introduce something else that does the same thing but is called by another name and offer it as part of a package.

PS: I'd love to hear your daughter's Soarin' stories!

 

[snikki]

If they offer G+ for free it’ll be during slow times where G+ won’t even be needed much, if at all.

 

[MomOTwins]

And the lies guests told to try to get in to the FP line without a FP. Shameful.

Hmm, perhaps, but we all know Disney IT is pretty glitchy too. I once had a Toy Story Mania FP for our family. I KNEW I had it. I booked it two months ahead. I had it in my color-coded calendar. I saw it in the app in the morning as I was reviewing plans for the day. I tap into the ride and, erp. the dreaded blue flicker instead of a green circle. It had completely disappeared from MDE. I begged and pleaded and felt embarrassed that I must seem like the worst liar in the world but I must have looked credible because the CM let us in the FP line. Then as we were leaving the ride I opened MDE and THERE IT WAS again. I wanted to go back to the ride entrance to show the CM so she would know I didn't cheat, but DH said that was silly and we just cancelled it and moved on.

But I totally believe you that some people are cheats. I saw some teenagers hop over the railing from standby into the FP line once on one of the rides where the two queues run parallel for a bit before merging, but they must not have known about the second tap in point further down the FP line. They tried to argue but I was right behind them and said, no I saw them hop the rail, and they were sent to the back of the standby line.

 

[nancipants]

But I totally believe you that some people are cheats. I saw some teenagers hop over the railing from standby into the FP line once on one of the rides where the two queues run parallel for a bit before merging, but they must not have known about the second tap in point further down the FP line. They tried to argue but I was right behind them and said, no I saw them hop the rail, and they were sent to the back of the standby line.

Ooooh, they must have been SO mad. I wish I could have seen it.

 

[gorkt]

I know most table service restaurants are not operating at full capacity because of ongoing staffing issues, but Genie+ makes me want to never book a TS restaurant on a park day again. I was thinking of trying to get Space 220 reservations for our upcoming trip, but it's a lot less stressful to eat at QS if you don't know when you'll get LL reservations through Genie+. When we went to AK that's exactly what we did, lunch at Satuli and dinner at the lounge outside of Tiffins. With FP+, you could choose your times from the ones available even if you were booking for the same day. They took this away for absolutely no reason.

This definitely true....ugh. I usually love having a TS meal in the parks as a late lunch, but now I am thinking I will concentrate on TS breakfasts and dinners with QS lunches. TS breakfasts will have to be on days with late arrivals where I am planning on stacking rides for the evening.

 

[nicksinger8]

They WANT the 1% guests. For every 1%er they outspend the rest of us plebs 10x over….

So , less labor to deal with lower guest count whom spends 10x as much?

Thats a win across the board for WDW. They know they still have to deal with the “trash” folks whom bring their own food, water and spend nothing on the expensive merch WHILE staying off site….but they are gonna take away all the things they can from them in favor of big spenders….and all the while still charging them a fortune just to get tickets. Its obvious this is the plan…

Those loyal “trash” guests will be replaced by the elite.

And its not just WDW doing it……

No the 99% are obviously more important. In fact, making Genie + more exclusive is bound to increase the happiness overall. The 1% (possibly less) will be VERY happy. But given they amount to such a small amount they won't unduly affect lines. So the 99% get happier. Now we seem to have everyone unhappy with Genie + as it feels very expensive and you don't get what you want. Of course, I am sure we would all be happier if they just went back to Fastpass One, but c'est la vie.

 

[nicksinger8]

That is a problem. As we are seeing with Genie+ it doesn't work if everyone has it.

Exactly it. I am not convinced it works as a perk for on site guests either. There are just too many people on site these days.

 

[SeasonneRose]

Exactly it. I am not convinced it works as a perk for on site guests either. There are just too many people on site these days.

They may still reduce how many they sell but deluxe guests will get priority then on-site the offsite if anything is available.