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

[gharter]

Actually Universal is free for onsite guests in their Deluxe resorts so we would get it included which I would take. I thought back in 2020 that was the system they were eventually going to roll out unfortunately got G+.

It is free if you stay in one of the 3 deluxe resorts. Otherwise it is $100-$300+ per person per day.
I think this would be difficult to implement at WDW as the crowds are much higher . You would either need to have this be very expensive and replace Genie +, or you add a 3rd waiting line. Standby, LL (priority) and this option ( greater priority).

 

[cb526]

I can see how Genie+ could be miserable for some, but I have to say that using it in combo with a tiny bit of research and the touring plans app, we were able to get on 15 rides and catch the Disney Enchantment show at MK today. We got there at about 12 noon, too. 6 attractions were G+ and we did ILL for Mine Train. We would have done Splash Mountain, too, if it hadn’t broken down.

 

[Jrb1979]

Here is a quote from Disneyglimpses at Wdwmagic on the issues with Genie+ and why it's not working.

"The product was designed for guests to open the app in the morning, reserve a ride, close it, ride that ride and rinse and repeat throughout the day. It was not designed to allow guests to schedule their entire itinerary of rides as you did with FP+. They don't want guests on their phone all day mixing and matching reservations. And that's exactly what has happened. Reducing the number of people using it solves all of that.

And to be honest, almost all of the issues you face are due to too many people using it. For example, you want the ability to reserve rides around dining reservations. If less people used it, you wouldn't have to even think about this. Just open the app during your dinner and book something for when it finishes. That's how it was supposed to work until everyone and their cousin bought it."

 

[Elle23]

I can see how Genie+ could be miserable for some, but I have to say that using it in combo with a tiny bit of research and the touring plans app, we were able to get on 15 rides and catch the Disney Enchantment show at MK today. We got there at about 12 noon, too. 6 attractions were G+ and we did ILL for Mine Train. We would have done Splash Mountain, too, if it hadn’t broken down.

MK is the only park where it sort of works if you really put some effort into it and plan to be at the parks late.

My family paid $630 for genie+ for our trip. Never again. It is insulting that Disney would give us something so inferior and worthless and then have the gall to charge us for it!

If they had left Fastpass+ in place and simply charged for it, the pill would have been much less bitter to swallow.

I always wondered what would be the breaking point for me to say “no more” to all of the Disney changes and money grabs. Well, I just found it.

 

[NavyDad]

MK is the only park where it sort of works if you really put some effort into it and plan to be at the parks late.

My family paid $630 for genie+ for our trip. Never again. It is insulting that Disney would give us something so inferior and worthless and then have the gall to charge us for it!

If they had left Fastpass+ in place and simply charged for it, the pill would have been much less bitter to swallow.

I always wondered what would be the breaking point for me to say “no more” to all of the Disney changes and money grabs. Well, I just found it.

Well, it looks like we are one person closer to JRB's wish of less people using Genie Plus. LOL.

I still don't understand why some people insist that Genie Plus is inferior to FP+ honestly. I liked using FP+ and I was comfortable with it but it had it's own issues for sure. We actually found Genie Plus to work much better for us in April than Fast Pass+ ever did - especially at MK and DHS. We also found it gave us much more flexibility. In the past, in order to maximize our usage of FP+ we had to Rope Drop and schedule our FP+ rides as early as possible, otherwise additional FP availability was extremely low by the time we could start using them.

During our April trip using Genie Plus we had much better availability all through the day than we ever saw with FP+ and we rode more rides than we ever have on previous trips. Also, by booking $LL and Genie+ rides, we were able to stack tons of ride reservations through afternoon and into evenings and then stroll into the park whenever we wanted instead of getting up at 6 AM and being lined up at the park 45+ minutes before it opened.

In comparison to FP+, the only negative with Genie+ is that you have to pay for it but honestly if Disney didn't start charging for whatever system they had in place after COVID, they would have just increased ticket prices that much more. They are a publicly held business and they were going to generate that revenue somewhere.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Well, it looks like we are one person closer to JRB's wish of less people using Genie Plus. LOL.

I still don't understand why some people insist that Genie Plus is inferior to FP+ honestly. I liked using FP+ and I was comfortable with it but it had it's own issues for sure. We actually found Genie Plus to work much better for us in April than Fast Pass+ ever did - especially at MK and DHS. We also found it gave us much more flexibility. In the past, in order to maximize our usage of FP+ we had to Rope Drop and schedule our FP+ rides as early as possible, otherwise additional FP availability was extremely low by the time we could start using them.

During our April trip using Genie Plus we had much better availability all through the day than we ever saw with FP+ and we rode more rides than we ever have on previous trips. Also, by booking $LL and Genie+ rides, we were able to stack tons of ride reservations through afternoon and into evenings and then stroll into the park whenever we wanted instead of getting up at 6 AM and being lined up at the park 45+ minutes before it opened.

In comparison to FP+, the only negative with Genie+ is that you have to pay for it but honestly if Disney didn't start charging for whatever system they had in place after COVID, they would have just increased ticket prices that much more. They are a publicly held business and they were going to generate that revenue somewhere.

I think for a lot of people, they liked being able to plan ahead their Fastpass reservations rather than do it day of. Obviously this had a downside of guests coming into the park day of knowing absolutely nothing about Fastpass+ but it's too late to grab anything besides rides that already have a 5 minute wait due to everything else being grabbed 2 months before. There was little wiggle room to be spontaneous unless you already knew how to work Fastpass+. You can also make that argument for Genie+ as I have been in the parks and overheard CMs explaining Genie+ to people that had no idea what it even was. Both of these systems work great when you have people not using them or do not understand how to maximize the system. Genie+ in a way is better than Fastpass+ in that it puts everyone on the same playing field right at 7 am but for those that knew how to use Fastpass+, the leveling of the playing field is the part that is inferior to Fastpass+.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We also found it gave us much more flexibility. In the past, in order to maximize our usage of FP+ we had to Rope Drop and schedule our FP+ rides as early as possible, otherwise additional FP availability was extremely low by the time we could start using them.

by booking $LL and Genie+ rides, we were able to stack tons of ride reservations through afternoon and into evenings and then stroll into the park whenever we wanted instead of getting up at 6 AM and being lined up at the park 45+ minutes before it opened.

Can I just say though that what you found to be better with Genie+ was actually an option with FP+?

There were 2 main strategies with FP+:
1) Schedule your FPs for the morning/mid-morning
2) Schedule your FPs for the evening

Generally option 1 gave you a better odds of more subsequent rolling 4ths but you also used up your FPs when generally the wait times were lower. Generally option 2 gave you less odds of more subsequent rolling 4th (although it wasn't that your additional availability was extremely low, it depended on the day just like availability of Genie+/ILL does now) but you used up your FPs when generally the wait times were higher AND you could plan it for the 2nd park if you were park hopping.

We did option 2 for our 2017 trip because we park hopped. We planned our afternoon and evenings with FPs, we strolled into the park whenever we wanted (well you needed to be there before your 1st FP hour time slot was up although you had the grace period but you get the picture) and had our rides ready to go. Now with FP at WDW you couldn't have overlapping FPs whereas with MP you could hence the stacking aspect to Genie+ that was taken from MP but you get the picture.

You didn't really get anything different with Genie+ that you couldn't have done with FP+ except for the overlapping return times. The difference was for people with FP+ they could plan ahead of time that afternoon. Right now what you have issues with is playing the "return time" game where you, depending on the day, have to keep checking to align your return times to be what you want so there can be understandably so a tad bit of anxiety attached to not knowing if your afternoon/evening plans would work out. Plus the fact that some rides are ILL.

Since you've explained the above I think I understand why you may be confused on why people are saying it's inferior. You think it's a better product because you could do what I did with option 2. And while I'm stopping short of saying it's an inferior product, I see it as not an improvement over the process itself because the way I park toured in the past would have required so much more angst than it needed to be with Genie+/ILL. I'm fine with leveling the playing field but they seemed to have overcomplicated that part as well.

 

[NavyDad]

Can I just say though that what you found to be better with Genie+ was actually an option with FP+?

There were 2 main strategies with FP+:
1) Schedule your FPs for the morning/mid-morning
2) Schedule your FPs for the evening

Generally option 1 gave you a better odds of more subsequent rolling 4ths but you also used up your FPs when generally the wait times were lower. Generally option 2 gave you less odds of more subsequent rolling 4th (although it wasn't that your additional availability was extremely low, it depended on the day just like availability of Genie+/ILL does now) but you used up your FPs when generally the wait times were higher AND you could plan it for the 2nd park if you were park hopping.

We did option 2 for our 2017 trip because we park hopped. We planned our afternoon and evenings with FPs, we strolled into the park whenever we wanted (well you needed to be there before your 1st FP hour time slot was up although you had the grace period but you get the picture) and had our rides ready to go. Now with FP at WDW you couldn't have overlapping FPs whereas with MP you could hence the stacking aspect to Genie+ that was taken from MP but you get the picture.

You didn't really get anything different with Genie+ that you couldn't have done with FP+ except for the overlapping return times. The difference was for people with FP+ they could plan ahead of time that afternoon. Right now what you have issues with is playing the "return time" game where you, depending on the day, have to keep checking to align your return times to be what you want so there can be understandably so a tad bit of anxiety attached to not knowing if your afternoon/evening plans would work out. Plus the fact that some rides are ILL.

Since you've explained the above I think I understand why you may be confused on why people are saying it's inferior. You think it's a better product because you could do what I did with option 2. And while I'm stopping short of saying it's an inferior product, I see it as not an improvement over the process itself because the way I park toured in the past would have required so much more angst than it needed to be with Genie+/ILL. I'm fine with leveling the playing field but they seemed to have overcomplicated that part as well.

We tried option 2 a few times during our many trips with FP Plus. It worked OK but unless you were going to MK, you had no chance of getting any worthwhile additional FP's.

I mentioned I thought Genie Plus gave us MORE flexibility in that regard because between $ILL and Genie+ we were able to stack quite a few rides into an evening.

Now, I'm not firmly in the camp that Genie+ is superior OR inferior. We have used it only once, but in our experience that one time it worked better than any of our trips using FP+. Next summer when we return, Disney may change things and people will have another year to figure out how to exploit it so maybe our experience will not be as good.

My overall point, through this thread and a couple of other ones, is that the different iterations of this virtual queue system are mostly the same: It's essentially a virtual queue that tries to manage limited ride capacity. Disney keeps tinkering, rebranding, renaming it but overall it's mostly the same thing. Until and unless Disney creates more capacity than there is demand, or they limit daily attendance more sharply, all of these systems are going to have the same basic flaws. At the same time, they will still be vulnerable to be exploited (or maximized) by those of us who are prepared to do so...

 

[EmilyL24]

I just went for the 2nd time this year a couple weeks ago. The heat was brutal but still had a great time! I do think the higher prices and the new Genie+ system has taken away a little bit but it is still just as "magical" for me. I do wish they would switch back over to FastPass and just charge for it rather than making it free.

Note - this was my first time going in the summer heat. I don't think I would do that to myself again. I will stick to the Fall, Winter, and early spring.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It worked OK but unless you were going to MK, you had no chance of getting any worthwhile additional FP's.

That's not accurate across the board as in how it was designed. It very much depended on when you went and what rides you were going for. There was so much talk over the years and it varied quite a lot with some people having no issues whatsoever getting 6,7,8 rolling 4ths and others finding issues and just like now some people were going on the exact same day.

One thing that did seem to adjust people's experiences was just how many people were using it just like Mobile Ordering. So my trip in 2017 even going during September with MNSSHP to contend with and with F&W to contend could have been different than someone who went in 2019 but someone's experience in 2013/14/15 when it was still newer may have been different than someone's experience in 2017 or 2019, etc.

Disney keeps tinkering, rebranding, renaming it but overall it's mostly the same thing.

IMO yes and no. You can look at it as managing ride capacity but that doesn't make each new thing mostly the same thing. They have different goals in mind, different clientele they are after, different limitations, etc all of which directly influence things. Genie+ isn't a rebrand or rename of FP+, MP or a rebrand or rename of FP, MP wasn't a rebrand or rename of FP+, FP+ wasn't a rename or rebrand of FP. They all functioned differently and had different rules and parameters and fundamentally changed how someone used them. MP had its own pool of FPs and when someone cancelled it went back into that pool, that is way different to how just going up to the kiosk in each attraction at DL worked for someone. I remember having to go to the kiosk for WOC FP and that was the only time we ever used a machine when we had purchased MP because WOC at that time was not included in it.

Now, I'm not firmly in the camp that Genie+ is superior OR inferior.

I'll give you that however saying you don't understand why people insist Genie+ is inferior to FP+ and then explain the reasons why Genie+/ILL worked well for you when FP+ didn't work as well it does sorta sound like you find Genie+/ILL above FP+, you've sorta spent a lot of time on this thread and others in that capacity conversing with people giving counterpoints to their dislike of Genie+/ILL so I get the impression that you're more than pleased with Genie+/ILL overall and happy that FP+ no longer exists. Maybe you haven't said it's superior but that's sorta my impression. Note I'm not saying that in a rude way just my observation, we've all spent a lot of time on this thread and other threads discussing our viewpoints.

 

[NavyDad]

That's not accurate across the board as in how it was designed. It very much depended on when you went and what rides you were going for. There was so much talk over the years and it varied quite a lot with some people having no issues whatsoever getting 6,7,8 rolling 4ths and others finding issues and just like now some people were going on the exact same day.

One thing that did seem to adjust people's experiences was just how many people were using it just like Mobile Ordering. So my trip in 2017 even going during September with MNSSHP to contend with and with F&W to contend could have been different than someone who went in 2019 but someone's experience in 2013/14/15 when it was still newer may have been different than someone's experience in 2017 or 2019, etc.



IMO yes and no. You can look at it as managing ride capacity but that doesn't make each new thing mostly the same thing. They have different goals in mind, different clientele they are after, different limitations, etc all of which directly influence things. Genie+ isn't a rebrand or rename of FP+, MP or a rebrand or rename of FP, MP wasn't a rebrand or rename of FP+, FP+ wasn't a rename or rebrand of FP. They all functioned differently and had different rules and parameters and fundamentally changed how someone used them. MP had its own pool of FPs and when someone cancelled it went back into that pool, that is way different to how just going up to the kiosk in each attraction at DL worked for someone. I remember having to go to the kiosk for WOC FP and that was the only time we ever used a machine when we had purchased MP because WOC at that time was not included in it.


I'll give you that however saying you don't understand why people insist Genie+ is inferior to FP+ and then explain the reasons why Genie+/ILL worked well for you when FP+ didn't work as well it does sorta sound like you find Genie+/ILL above FP+, you've sorta spent a lot of time on this thread and others in that capacity conversing with people giving counterpoints to their dislike of Genie+/ILL so I get the impression that you're more than pleased with Genie+/ILL overall and happy that FP+ no longer exists. Maybe you haven't said it's superior but that's sorta my impression. Note I'm not saying that in a rude way just my observation, we've all spent a lot of time on this thread and other threads discussing our viewpoints.

My post was about scenario 2 which you described as scheduling your three FP's for the evening. We usually were able to get 6-8 FP's per day without much trouble using scenario 1. If there were people out there scheduling their 3 FP for evening hours and then still being able to get 6,7 or 8 FP's (especially at a park not named MK) I would be very impressed.

I'm not sure if you are just trying to be a contrarian for the sake of debate or maybe we are just talking about two different things. It's not that I choose to look at the various iterations of Fast Pass and Genie Plus used at WDW as "managing ride capacity", they literally ARE engineered systems to manage ride capacity. I am talking about the system as a whole, and you are talking about the various user interface features, some of which can change the inputs to the system but mostly are cosmetic changes.

Obviously, changes in those user interface features can cause emotional reactions those of us who got used to them, but there are very few ways you can change them in order to fundamentally change the limitations of the system. All of the systems have been some form of a virtual queue system that manages ride capacity and demand for rides (or attractions). This is why, whenever Disney changes some of those user interface features, almost immediately a group of people figures out how to manipulate the user interface in order to maximize the value they get for themselves. It's because the system has NOT fundamentally changed, someone just moved the buttons around a bit and put different labels on them.

There are only 2 ways to fundamentally change the virtual queue system: increase the number of attractions and total attraction capacity to a number that substantially outpaces demand, OR, decrease the amount of people who can access the parks each day.

The other way to fundamentally change the system would be to get rid of a virtual queue completely and just have a head of line product which is a completely different animal than a virtual queue.

Disney is starting to dip their toes in that water a bit with the $ILL. It is fair to say that the $ILL is in fact one area that is a fundamental departure from previous versions of the FP systems.

 

[Love Tink]

My post was about scenario 2 which you described as scheduling your three FP's for the evening. We usually were able to get 6-8 FP's per day without much trouble using scenario 1. If there were people out there scheduling their 3 FP for evening hours and then still being able to get 6,7 or 8 FP's (especially at a park not named MK) I would be very impressed.

It was fairly easy to get 6,7, 8 ... or 20 FPs if you were willing to put some effort in, since the FP system was widely used and in constant flux.

From what I read (no first-hand experience), a big issue with Genie is that the flux isn't there.

 

[Jrb1979]

My post was about scenario 2 which you described as scheduling your three FP's for the evening. We usually were able to get 6-8 FP's per day without much trouble using scenario 1. If there were people out there scheduling their 3 FP for evening hours and then still being able to get 6,7 or 8 FP's (especially at a park not named MK) I would be very impressed.

I'm not sure if you are just trying to be a contrarian for the sake of debate or maybe we are just talking about two different things. It's not that I choose to look at the various iterations of Fast Pass and Genie Plus used at WDW as "managing ride capacity", they literally ARE engineered systems to manage ride capacity. I am talking about the system as a whole, and you are talking about the various user interface features, some of which can change the inputs to the system but mostly are cosmetic changes.

Obviously, changes in those user interface features can cause emotional reactions those of us who got used to them, but there are very few ways you can change them in order to fundamentally change the limitations of the system. All of the systems have been some form of a virtual queue system that manages ride capacity and demand for rides (or attractions). This is why, whenever Disney changes some of those user interface features, almost immediately a group of people figures out how to manipulate the user interface in order to maximize the value they get for themselves. It's because the system has NOT fundamentally changed, someone just moved the buttons around a bit and put different labels on them.

There are only 2 ways to fundamentally change the virtual queue system: increase the number of attractions and total attraction capacity to a number that substantially outpaces demand, OR, decrease the amount of people who can access the parks each day.

The other way to fundamentally change the system would be to get rid of a virtual queue completely and just have a head of line product which is a completely different animal than a virtual queue.

Disney is starting to dip their toes in that water a bit with the $ILL. It is fair to say that the $ILL is in fact one area that is a fundamental departure from previous versions of the FP systems.

It's all well and good they use this virtual queue system. It doesn't matter how many more attractions they add or how much they lower attendance the system is not made for everyone to have. It's a big reason Genie+ is a failure and a big reason EVERY OTHER PARK LIMITS IT. Disney just doesn't get it.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

It's all well and good they use this virtual queue system. It doesn't matter how many more attractions they add or how much they lower attendance the system is not made for everyone to have. It's a big reason Genie+ is a failure and a big reason EVERY OTHER PARK LIMITS IT. Disney just doesn't get it.

I don't think it's been a failure, I would agree that Disney has to do something more to either outright limit the amount of guests who can have it daily, or put it at a price level that would act as its own limiting factor. I think initially Disney tried this with $15 a day, they just didn't realize that so many people would brush the price off, and double down on purchasing it.

It hasn't even been out for a year yet, give them a little time to fine tune the system, at least another year or two before completely demolishing the program

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm not sure if you are just trying to be a contrarian for the sake of debate or maybe we are just talking about two different things. It's not that I choose to look at the various iterations of Fast Pass and Genie Plus used at WDW as "managing ride capacity", they literally ARE engineered systems to manage ride capacity.

Not at all, I'm just saying you keep repeating that they are managing ride capacity and yet that's only a sliver of it. Each thing Disney has done has accomplished something different, they aren't stupid..well okay they don't necessarily know when to stop, but they are doing each of these different methods because they are trying to capture something different each time.

Consider that with all the other theme parks out there that have go to the front of the line systems they don't mess with them every few years, they aren't coming up with something new and changing it all up. They just have a system out there that truly is simplistic in both monetizing and wait time to spread out lines. Even with different levels you can buy that advise it will reduce your wait time by X percentage or like with Silver Dollar City it's up to 8 uses (with a restriction of once through on their newest ride previously Time Traveler but has been replaced with Mystic River Falls) or Universal where it's once through or Unlimited.

When you quote posters to dispute their experiences or their negative opinions on Genie+ your replies ignore the different nuisances in the different products but those nuisances are exactly what people are speaking to, that's why I was replying with what I said. If you truly feel that all Disney is doing is just managing ride capacity then I would say other parks are way more honest in their presentation of their products, I think Disney is trying to be a lot more like other parks but they can't quite pin down what they want especially as they didn't cap the sales of Genie+/ILL to begin with, I think they were just trying to monetize a system on a mass level without caring about ride capacity management. At least with MP you still had FP included in your ticket which is probably one of the reasons less people used MP compared to this free for all that was Genie+/ILL. They weren't really managing the rides very well when you have complaints of long long standbys or long long LLs or long LLs but no standby line, etc

Which brings up another thing, getting into the fact that for years they used as a marketing tool "included in your park admission" for FP and that it was "free for everyone" I remember even saying that Disney would have to tread carefully on monetizing since they spent so much time marketing their product as free, included and for everyone.

Like these little gems from my 2017 customized vacation booklet with my onsite stay

My post was about scenario 2 which you described as scheduling your three FP's for the evening. We usually were able to get 6-8 FP's per day without much trouble using scenario 1. If there were people out there scheduling their 3 FP for evening hours and then still being able to get 6,7 or 8 FP's (especially at a park not named MK) I would be very impressed.

You can go perusing the past threads there were a lot of them. It did seem to be a pattern that later years had more difficulty (although still quite possible) depending on when you went because more people used them but people did get more rolling 4ths in the evening. I think when we went we started ours at about the 2-3pm range when crowds typically (back then at least) picked up.


____________
In fairness we probably are looking at it in different ways, although I wanted to speak to why posters say what they say.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think initially Disney tried this with $15 a day, they just didn't realize that so many people would brush the price off, and double down on purchasing it.

Honest thought? I think they knew people would purchase it in droves, I think they knew more people than optimum would purchase it. I don't think they truly cared though on the optimum experience..that is until so many negative articles came out, so many complaints. That's me looking at it from a business standpoint. They already knew people would purchase at a $10 amount, then a $15 amount for MP at DLR, they already had the data on it even if not everyone at DLR purchased MP they knew the price point was easy to handle for many guests. They seem to have issues with pricing either it's too low or it's way too high. For instance they priced the bus that took you to a special entrance thereby bypassing the security lines to get into the parks and saving walking too low and many bought it, then they raised it and they raised it quickly thereafter and then raised it again and then terminated the service all together. Then there was the MK cabanas priced at $650 that didn't sell so they halved the price or even gave some lucky groups it for the day for free and then really shortly after terminated it. Then there was the DVC event that they priced too high and they severely reduced the price and gave some lucky DVC members access for free and then I don't know if they brought that special event back or not.

What they may not have accounted for was how their numbers in the background for each day's park reservation amounts would impact that optimum experience because we know on certain days they have more reservations for a specific park than other days. Without the cap on Genie+/ILL those two converged creating some large uproars.

If you had say 20% max (random number) limit of guests that can purchase Genie+/ILL and have it where that percentage is relative to each day's park reservation system in place (so 10K guests one day take 20% of that, if the next day it's only 9,500 take 20% of that) you would get a better idea of the more sweet spot of ratio of capacity management. And they could have tweaked here and there a few percentage points. As is I think they knew lot of people would purchase Genie+/ILL. As much as I think Disney does some dumb stuff over time, I also don't think they are completely clueless on things lol.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

Honest thought? I think they knew people would purchase it in droves, I think they knew more people than optimum would purchase it. I don't think they truly cared though on the optimum experience..that is until so many negative articles came out, so many complaints. That's me looking at it from a business standpoint. They already knew people would purchase at a $10 amount, then a $15 amount for MP at DLR, they already had the data on it even if not everyone at DLR purchased MP they knew the price point was easy to handle for many guests. They seem to have issues with pricing either it's too low or it's way too high. For instance they priced the bus that took you to a special entrance thereby bypassing the security lines to get into the parks and saving walking too low and many bought it, then they raised it and they raised it quickly thereafter and then raised it again and then terminated the service all together. Then there was the MK cabanas priced at $650 that didn't sell so they halved the price or even gave some lucky groups it for the day for free and then really shortly after terminated it. Then there was the DVC event that they priced too high and they severely reduced the price and gave some lucky DVC members access for free and then I don't know if they brought that special event back or not.

What they may not have accounted for was how their numbers in the background for each day's park reservation amounts would impact that optimum experience because we know on certain days they have more reservations for a specific park than other days. Without the cap on Genie+/ILL those two converged creating some large uproars.

If you had say 20% max (random number) limit of guests that can purchase Genie+/ILL and have it where that percentage is relative to each day's park reservation system in place (so 10K guests one day take 20% of that, if the next day it's only 9,500 take 20% of that) you would get a better idea of the more sweet spot of ratio of capacity management. And they could have tweaked here and there a few percentage points. As is I think they knew lot of people would purchase Genie+/ILL. As much as I think Disney does some dumb stuff over time, I also don't think they are completely clueless on things lol.

So your take is that Disney was completely oblivious to the capacity of Genie? Just clarifying not prodding. I just can’t imagine they weren’t aware of some limitations on it, with that being said I also can’t imagine putting genie out there as a money grab, knowing it would fall on its face

 

[Jrb1979]

So your take is that Disney was completely oblivious to the capacity of Genie? Just clarifying not prodding. I just can’t imagine they weren’t aware of some limitations on it, with that being said I also can’t imagine putting genie out there as a money grab, knowing it would fall on its face

They honestly didn't think this many people would buy it. MaxPass works cause not everyone buys it at DL.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Honestly I think Disney knew people would buy it no matter what price they would've set Genie+ at. $15, $25, $50 or even $100. People would've bought it regardless of the complaints. Just look at the Top of the World Lounge for example. The lounge perk was removed for resale DVC members and yet the new event for the lounge sold out in 45-ish minutes despite major pushback and complaints. This is clearly an incentive to get people to buy direct, plain and simple. Disney can do whatever they want and charge whatever they want and people will buy it anyway.

Now the amount of people buying it at $15 is another story. I think the price at the moment is a testing ground. It will absolutely be getting a price increase in the future. That's why you can't buy it in advance anymore. They don't care how many people complain about the price. They know people will suck it up and buy it.

 

[xipotec]

But... it's not just technology. It's technology, stand on your head to learn the crazy rules (which change regularly), and "pay the ransom."

ADRs are already a bloodbath. It's just an online bloodbath. I'd rather it be an in-person "bloodbath."

Booking the hotel is also an online bloodbath. Especially if you're renting DVC points.

It's not that I want it to be a "socialist" system--quite the opposite, actually. I'd rather them increase the price to $200 per day per park if it meant you don't have to stand on your head to figure crap out 3 months in advance and then mash your phone at 7 AM and hope you get your Genie+ and/or boarding group. It's become too complex--there's a certain angle of "let's just go to Disney" that's totally lost with their current system. I miss the spontaneity. Memories were better when they weren't scripted and planned out weeks / months / years in advance.

All of these little "features" that they're adding is simply taking away actual features and marketing them as "improvements."

It would be exactly the dame deal at that price.

I think you are missing the point of why this happens. Its not crowd control its labor control. They do all this to control labor dollars and other controllable expenses.

But when your goal is to nickle and dime labor in a service industry, you are going to have a bad time..zz