No the Magic isn’t gone but it’s at 25%

[john7994]

@scrappinginontario I completely 100% agree with you. That change bothers me more then many of the other issues. While I can afford to go, it bothers me when I see something like Disney catering to the wealthy and not everyone. The problem is that Disney pushes it's IP to kids and families and many those kids don't know they can't afford a Disney vacation. I love the Swan & Dolphin, but the fact that S/D guests get the privilege to go to the Extended Evening hours but a guest from a moderate and "value" don't is just wrong on so many levels.

I am having a hard time understanding this. So because Disney offers tiers of products/services with different perks/privileges associated to some of those tiers, its wrong?

 

[georgina]

'Magic' has always been a weird, manufactured idea to me. WDW is a fun place to visit, we take it for what it is, and adjust to changes as needed. I'm sure it will be many years before we take our grandchildren (our kids were 8, 6, and 3.5 yrs when we first went and our first grandchild is only a few months old) but it will be a good experience when we do.

I never went to Disney World as a child, for my family it was not affordable. Disney has ALWAYS been a place for the well-off, it will continue as that. No one needs a Disney trip, it is a luxury.

 

[xipotec]

That's fine. Less people that have it the better it works. There is a reason Disney is capping Genie+ sales. It's not working due to the amount of people that have it.

I don't think they said anything about capping it. While you may think thats whats happening, its not.

They are controlling it only to use it as a labor budgeting tool. They have no desire to stop selling as much as their labor allows.

 

[Jrb1979]

I don't think they said anything about capping it. While you may think thats whats happening, its not.

They are controlling it only to use it as a labor budgeting tool. They have no desire to stop selling as much as their labor allows.

It now says on the bottom of the Genie+ page subject to limited availability.

 

[nw6675]

We went two weeks ago thinking it was going to be our final trip based on all the negative changes. However, we ended up having a better than expected visit. We rode 95% of the things we wanted due to Genie + and those we didn't ride were based on weather or not feeling great. It was not a perfect trip (worst meal ever at Yachtsman, catching Covid), but the good outweighed the bad and we plan on going back next year.

 

[DisneyFive]

We were there in April and October. The lines physically were longer, but without FP or Genie+, the wait was definitely shorter.
Standby vs FP line, no comparison, FP always wins.

I see where you are coming from a little more now.

Yes the lines last year moved faster but they were also so much longer. The thing is, we hardly ever stood in standby lines prior to last year so we have no good standby comparison. The only time we jumped in the standby lines was if the marquee said 20 minutes or less. From 2010 through 2020 I would say our average wait was 10 minutes because we used fast pass so well, and that includes doing ALL of the headliners.

Having to use standby only was a wake up call last year. Frankly, it sucked. If that is what we would have experienced our first ever trip, I’m not sure if we would have ever returned. Last year we said we would not come back until some sort of service came back. We were hoping for FP+ but we will see how G+ works for us. I’ve already beaten a dead horse regarding the inferiority of G+ to FP+ but it is still better than standby only.

I’m not sure if anyone is interested, but here is the rundown of our 10 nights last July/August 2021. https://www.disboards.com/threads/h...-including-park-hopping.3807247/post-63232483
It gives a wait for every single ride that we did. I also loathed having to get up so dang early just to get one good headliner in before the crowds swelled. That’s another thing I am not looking forward to. Booking our first rides at 7 AM. I know it is a common complaint

Dan

 

[SteveH]

I am having a hard time understanding this. So because Disney offers tiers of products/services with different perks/privileges associated to some of those tiers, its wrong?

Fair enough let me try to explain my issue. Keep in mind I LOVE Swan/Dolphin as it's a great way to save $ and stay on property. My issue is why is Disney discriminating against their moderate and value resort guets, these are people already paying the Disney tax to stay on property and yet giving a Non-Disney run hotel (Swan/Dolphin) the same benefit as the Deluxe resort guests? I don't see how any Disney corporate hack can justify that. They ignore the actual guests staying at their own properties. It just makes no sense to me.

 

[DisneyFive]

Fair enough let me try to explain my issue. Keep in mind I LOVE Swan/Dolphin as it's a great way to save $ and stay on property. My issue is why is Disney discriminating against their moderate and value resort guets, these are people already paying the Disney tax to stay on property and yet giving a Non-Disney run hotel (Swan/Dolphin) the same benefit as the Deluxe resort guests? I don't see how any Disney corporate hack can justify that. They ignore the actual guests staying at their own properties. It just makes no sense to me.

All Disney resort guests get 30 minutes early entry. That is the perk of staying on site. When you pay the exorbitant fee to stay in a DISNEY deluxe resort, I don’t necessarily see the problem with EEH for them.

Don’t get me wrong though. I would rather go back to the, more often, one to two hours of extra hours in the morning or evening for all resort guests.

Dan

 

[scrappinginontario]

So we are supposed to pay for park hoopers and Genie plus? I make a decent income but even a Disney cruise is looking better than this.

I have to say, this is us. We normally visit Disney each year and I booked a trip for this Aug. Then, I listened to a podcast where Pete talked about DCL and the current comparable cost to WDW. I crunched our numbers and cancelled our Aug trip. For less than $500 more we have switched from 9 nights at Pop to a 7 night Disney Caribbean cruise next Feb and that $500 includes our food!! Eating at Disney (even for 7 days, not 9) would have been far more than $500!

Yes, there are other costs on a cruise but we're not big excursion people so it will be comparable if not less $ and we won't have to deal with the current crowds. Looking forward to doing something we haven't done in a long time!

 

[john7994]

Ahhh ... now I get what you are saying. Why do non-Disney property guests at Swan/Dolphin get a perk that on-property Disney guests don't get. Ok - makes a little more sense now. Thanks for clarifying.

I am going to assume that Swan/Dolphin is likely paying Disney for that privilege on behalf of it's guests - just as the other "Partner Hotels" are doing to increase the value for staying at their hotel versus another. Of course, I have no insight to their balance of trade agreements that they have with each other.

 

[Mamiamjo]

We did this twice with Epcot-DHS and Epcot-MK.

The Epcot-DHS day I booked booked ILL's at 7 AM for Remy and RotR. I waited until 7:15 and booked a Genie Plus LL for Slinky for 12:30 to 1:30. We rope dropped Epcot and I kept setting a timer for every 2 hours and kept stacking rides at DHS. We knew we were coming back to Epcot another day so we focused on half the park. We walked on Soarin, Land and Nemo then headed to France. We ate some pastries and then hit Remy. We then spent a couple of hours visiting the festival carts around world showcase. We hopped over to DHS at 2 PM and by that time we had ride after ride after ride queued up. The only thing that had me sweating was Smugglers run as I had picked ToT over that one and then it was listed as "not available" for most of the day. Some time late afternoon or early evening availability popped up for Smugglers run and we grabbed it. IIRC we ended up doing single rider line for RnRC.

Epcot-MK day I booked SDMT and Remy (again) at 7 AM. At 7:15 I booked a G+ LL for Jungle Cruise around 2:30. I was able to stack PP and all three mountains before we got to the park. We hopped over right at 2 PM, used our Jungle Cruise LL, watched HoP and then the parade. At some point after we got to MK I was able to book HM and PotC. Basically from about 3 PM on we had rides stacked back to back to back. I think we may have even cancelled 1 or 2 and re-booked for later because we had too many rides.

We definitely found that the best strategy for stacking and hopping to MK or DHS was to book an ILL and whatever the most coveted Genie Plus ride first thing in the morning for the evening park and then just keep going. We mostly used Molly's youtube videos for tips on which rides to prioritize. Worked great for those two parks.

(absolutely a waste for AK and Epcot in our experience this trip)

Am I misunderstanding something, if we can't Park Hop until 2:00, how could you book a Genie+ at your second Park (for SDD) for 12:30-1:30? Are you able to pick a time before 2:00 and then extend your ride window past the stated time to ride after 2:00 in this case?

 

[DisneyGuy]

Ahhh ... now I get what you are saying. Why do non-Disney property guests at Swan/Dolphin get a perk that on-property Disney guests don't get. Ok - makes a little more sense now. Thanks for clarifying.

I am going to assume that Swan/Dolphin is likely paying Disney for that privilege on behalf of it's guests - just as the other "Partner Hotels" are doing to increase the value for staying at their hotel versus another. Of course, I have no insight to their balance of trade agreements that they have with each other.

I would imagine it’s a similar agreement that the select off site hotels downtown have in which they are eligible for the extra 30 minutes early entry.

 

[john7994]

I would imagine it’s a similar agreement that the select off site hotels downtown have in which they are eligible for the extra 30 minutes early entry.

Presumably - ain't no one getting something for free

 

[SkyGuy]

Am I misunderstanding something, if we can't Park Hop until 2:00, how could you book a Genie+ at your second Park (for SDD) for 12:30-1:30? Are you able to pick a time before 2:00 and then extend your ride window past the stated time to ride after 2:00 in this case?

No. Genie will automatically show you times 2:00 pm or after for your second park of the day. If PP was able to book Slinky for 12:30 for the second park, it was a glitch and would have unfortunately been expired by the time park hopping was allowed with the 5 minutes before/15 minutes after grace period.

 

[DisneyMama811]

We are ending our trip today as well, but totally loved the Genie plus system, but you have to park hop to get the most out of it. We averaged 13 rides a day, and rode everything we wanted multiple times with a combination of rope dropping, mid day resort breaks, and stacking early evening LL’s for after our break at parks with lots of rides. Worked great for us.

IMHO Disney needs more Gondola routes, and less buses. Disney Springs and Animal Kingdom additions to the Gondola system would be awesome , but I don’t know if it would be possible.

I may be completely wrong but I *think* I read somewhere at one point that they weren't doing Skyliner at AK because it would be frightening/stressful for the animals

 

[TheDailyMoo]

I don't think they said anything about capping it. While you may think thats whats happening, its not.

They are controlling it only to use it as a labor budgeting tool. They have no desire to stop selling as much as their labor allows.

It now says on the bottom of the Genie+ page subject to limited availability.

While it makes a lot of sense to limit the availability, I spoke to an IT rep this past weekend and when I mentioned something about it being sold in limited quantities she gave me a resounding "absolutely not". I asked again and she reiterated. Could that be a standard response they've been told to give? Sure. But the way it came up in conversation and the way she denied it made me believe she was telling the truth. We'll find out soon enough.

 

[2goofykiddos]

I think Genie Plus seems to work great for those who take the time to figure out how to game it. Most vacationers don't want to game it. They want to walk up and get onto their preferred rides without waiting forever, and they don't want to spend the day thinking about how they are going to do that. That's the preference for fast pass, which you had to decide what to book 2 months out and then all you had to do was show up.

Paper fastpass was just like the Genie, except it gave you something tangible that told you what time to come back; the only game you had to play was how early you needed to get to the park to get that popular ride.

Did you read my post? I did know how to “game” it but it glitched and did not work for me. I was able to SDD at 7am for 7pm. A storm rolled through and I almost lost even that as it closed right after we rode. Also Rise went down for the day right as our ILL came up. Don’t blame the customers.

 

[Jrb1979]

While it makes a lot of sense to limit the availability, I spoke to an IT rep this past weekend and when I mentioned something about it being sold in limited quantities she gave me a resounding "absolutely not". I asked again and she reiterated. Could that be a standard response they've been told to give? Sure. But the way it came up in conversation and the way she denied it made me believe she was telling the truth. We'll find out soon enough.

We will see for sure. If they aren't going to cap sales then it makes no sense to stop advanced sales.

 

[igrsod]

I was given Genie+ for free one day because we got locked out on our balcony... long story.
We used it just fine at HS, but I didn't enjoy trying to figure out a plan that coordinated with dining and that didn't have us criss crossing the park all day. Too much time on my phone.
We did HS a few days later without Genie+, and we did just as many rides in a more enjoyable laid back way by rope dropping, after noon break and coming back after an early dinner.
Since then, we will never purchase Genie+. I'm on vacation, I don't want to be stressed and constantly planning and panicking.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

you mean "it's glitched and cancelled things" refers to a ride being down, and a weather issue, which are not things they can control? That stuff happens.

I wish they would go to the Express pass. Much simpler.

No matter what they do, someone will complain. An express pass would have to be at limited quantities and very expensive, like it is at Universal. as it is, if they are actually not limiting sales of Genie Plus they should probably be doing so, or raise the price, because the more people you get using it, the less effective it will be from a customer standpoint.

There's always resentment when there are different classes of service but almost everything is going that way due to the way it increases revenue. When you book a flight they upcharge you if you want to bring a suitcase, board the plane earlier, sit in certain seats, get food, put stuff in the overhead bin or even change the flight to another day.