OC Register lists Genie Plus and Lightning Lane rides

[DLgal]

Why do people feel like they're entitled to short wait times?

I don't think anyone feels that way. I certainly don't and I also don't complain about long ATTRACTION wait times. What I do find unacceptable is a 30 minute wait to pick up a quick service food order. It's also unacceptable to stand at the turnstiles for WAY longer than necessary because group after group shows up without a reservation and then the CM at the turnstile has to sit there having a 5 minute conversation with them, trying to explain why they can't come in. Those are MANAGEMENT failures. And they should be addressed and rectified. Add some extra cast members to walk the entry lines telling people to have their reservation QR codes ready. Create separate entries for passholders who don't need a photo taken. Better allocate staff at quick service places, especially during rush meal times.

When rides have long waits, we just do something else. No use complaining about long attraction lines because it isn't something Disney can specifically control. The other stuff that they CAN control, they absolutely should so that people don't spend their ENTIRE day (rides and everything else) waiting unnecessarily.

 

[ttig34]

The once per attraction per day for Genie+ seems to have been confirmed unfortunately.
https://www.kennythepirate.com/2021/10/11/disney-genie-availability-limits-are-now-released/Shows tweets from a travel agents webinar where Disney have confirmed you may use LL once per attraction per day with Genie+ at WDW at least. Really hope they change their minds before or shortly after the Disneyland launch.

I was REALLY hoping that would not be the case. If they have to do a limit, I wish they would just say you are limited to 15 ( or whatever) lightning lane passes ( which ever attraction you choose) per day, not once per attraction. I do not ride the roller coaster type rides, so this would be very limiting for me. Really disappointed.

 

[AndrewC]

I should add that I don't feel entitled to them creating a system for short lines. BUT, I do value that as a better experience than not. If Disney asks me what would make me return, I would say shorter lines. If Disney asks me what I disliked the most, I would say long lines. Disney then gets to decide how to address my concerns. I thought MaxPass was a great system because it limited how much you had to run around for, but at Disneyland I actually think that system was reaching the point that it was useful with some rides like RSR and I'm sure Rise and Spiderman if they had them. Probably the most fare would be the free fastpass system and the pay per line jump and of course the standby. However, as explained before, I think logistics would get tricky with that... probably can be solved, but might take more investment than Disney wanted to spend.

While Disneyland is a "local park" they still rely a lot of out of town/state guests and if they want a reputation for being a great park they need to address concerns. If line time if the largest concern, that's going to be what they address. They don't want people going over to Universal because lines are shorter, or just doing a trip to Knott's and Six Flags because the cost of both is about the same as one Disney and lines are much shorter, etc.

Again, this is a capacity issue. Disney wants to run at this capacity they need to be willing to have upset guests, or do something to improve guest experiences. Or Disney can run at a lower capacity. Less tickets for sale, more expensive, no APs or only APs that have blackout days. All those would help the line problems but would be less capacity...

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

Entitled? No.

FastPass and MaxPass both rewarded strategy; MM/EMH rewarded investment in the process (gotta get up early to get in on it!); park hopping - REAL park hopping, not this 1:00 pm bullcorn - rewarded nimbleness and a willingness to seize the moment. Without any of those, it’s just … a lot of standing around, frustrated and hamstrung, with no control over any part of your own experience.

People who are ok with that kind of slower-paced, drift-along kind of day probably don’t miss the way it was; my family, however, found it to be pure frickin’ torture. It was like sitting in traffic on the interstate, except you couldn’t change the channel to avoid listening to some bro’s Hot Political Takes for 55 crawling, sweaty, airless minutes.

 

[DisneylandFan22]

I thought the FastPass system was also fun.

 

[AndrewC]

Ya, I loved Max Pass because I would park hop like crazy. I would move between the parks like four or five times a day… being able to pull passes in Disney for a return window in DCA just 40 minutes later or something was ideal to me.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

Ya, I loved Max Pass because I would park hop like crazy. I would move between the parks like four or five times a day… being able to pull passes in Disney for a return window in DCA just 40 minutes later or something was ideal to me.

Exaaaaaaaaactly!!! We would do 13-16 miles a day, park-hopping … And this, when our kids were 7 and 11!

 

[sjmac42]

I was REALLY hoping that would not be the case. If they have to do a limit, I wish they would just say you are limited to 15 ( or whatever) lightning lane passes ( which ever attraction you choose) per day, not once per attraction. I do not ride the roller coaster type rides, so this would be very limiting for me. Really disappointed.

Me too, it is disappointing and definitely not an improvement over MaxPass. I am a ride everything person from dark rides to coasters but I can’t count the number of times I have re-ridden favourites with MP/FP like Haunted Mansion, Indy, RSR etc in a day.
I have always thought a tiered MP type system would work better. The more you pay, the more LL attractions including top tier attractions (ROTR, RSR, WS) you can select. Would depend on the price point of course, maybe $19, $29 and $39/$49? I dunno, we’ll have to see it in action.
What I would love to see is that 2 people going to the same park at the same time with the same list of attractions. 1 person uses Genie, the other uses Genie+ to see what the difference actually is. Maybe a job for the DIS team at WDW next week . . . . . .

 

[fly girl]

That makes me wonder if the LL+ access will not be limited. If I wanted to pay three times could I do Rise three times in one day? Very interesting....

No. You can only pay for 2 attractions per day with ILL$, and those cannot be the same ride.

 

[tsumgirl]

I don't think anyone feels that way. I certainly don't and I also don't complain about long ATTRACTION wait times. What I do find unacceptable is a 30 minute wait to pick up a quick service food order. It's also unacceptable to stand at the turnstiles for WAY longer than necessary because group after group shows up without a reservation and then the CM at the turnstile has to sit there having a 5 minute conversation with them, trying to explain why they can't come in. Those are MANAGEMENT failures. And they should be addressed and rectified. Add some extra cast members to walk the entry lines telling people to have their reservation QR codes ready. Create separate entries for passholders who don't need a photo taken. Better allocate staff at quick service places, especially during rush meal times.

When rides have long waits, we just do something else. No use complaining about long attraction lines because it isn't something Disney can specifically control. The other stuff that they CAN control, they absolutely should so that people don't spend their ENTIRE day (rides and everything else) waiting unnecessarily.

This.

I feel like Management is so out of touch with what's happening on the ground, and they're making decisions that affect CMs and guests negatively. I took a trip in May where I saw poorly managed crowd control, lines snaking everywhere due to social distancing and MO that was poorly managed. On Day 3 of my trip, one walk through of the park by Josh D'Amaro had the place crawling with management an hour later and you could visibly see the improvements everywhere. The CM's were happier, too. Fast forward to my next trip, and the same issues were still happening due to an increase in capacity, and I don't recall really seeing suits anywhere.

I really hope that when Genie+ launches at DL, management is required to be out in the parks helping guests and fixing issues with staffing in poorly run areas as they occur. That's the only way this launch isn't going to result in a cluster for CMs and guests.

 

[twodogs]

So you're saying the people who CAN afford it are entitled to skip lines?

I liken it to paying more for overnight shipping if you need it there tomorrow (it will cost you more) versus paying less for it to get there in a week. No one expects to walk into Fed Ex and pay the normal stamp rate for their letter but for Fed Ex to get it there overnight for that price. The entire economy is built on pay more for a higher level of service (in this case, shorter LL lines at the parks) or pay less for a lower level of service (in this case, longer standby lines in the parks). I don't see how this strategy being implemented at Disney is shocking to folks, as this is basically the way everything works? People may not like it, but it is just business in my mind.

 

[disneylover102]

I kind of wonder if maybe the once per ride thing won’t apply at DL since it’s more expensive than WDW even though there are a lot less rides that will offer LL? Maybe that’s wishful thinking. But I do think there will be some big differences. One we already know about is that there will only be 3 individual LL rides at DL while there will be 8 at WDW.

 

[sjmac42]

I kind of wonder if maybe the once per ride thing won’t apply at DL since it’s more expensive than WDW even though there are a lot less rides that will offer LL? Maybe that’s wishful thinking. But I do think there will be some big differences. One we already know about is that there will only be 3 individual LL rides at DL while there will be 8 at WDW.

Here’s hoping you are right but I fear not, at least at launch. Genie+ at DL will include PhotoPass while the WDW equivalent (MemoryMaker) won’t be included with Genie+ there.
Here’s hoping they change their minds though . . .

 

[Dug720]

I kind of wonder if maybe the once per ride thing won’t apply at DL since it’s more expensive than WDW even though there are a lot less rides that will offer LL? Maybe that’s wishful thinking. But I do think there will be some big differences. One we already know about is that there will only be 3 individual LL rides at DL while there will be 8 at WDW.

I think most of the price difference is it includes PhotoPass at DL. At WDW it does not and you still have to buy Memory Maker at $169 in advance/$199 on the spot for the same unlimited PhotoPass downloads.

 

[DLgal]

I think most of the price difference is it includes PhotoPass at DL. At WDW it does not and you still have to buy Memory Maker at $169 in advance/$199 on the spot for the same unlimited PhotoPass downloads.

You can currently buy an all day Photopass at Disneyland for $20. Is this not an option at WDW?

 

[disneylover102]

You can currently buy an all day Photopass at Disneyland for $20. Is this not an option at WDW?

Nope

 

[cruisehopeful]

It's too bad that they didn't offer something like Universal Studios Hollywood. People don't seem all worked up about that and the website says that can go to front of the line (which was still long to me a few years ago) once per show/attraction. I think it would have been reasonable for Disney to charge a double one day ticket price for that. People would be up in arms about it, too, but it would have been simple.

 

[Whistlebee]

If you can only use Genie+ to ride each ride one time, that significantly lowers the value of it in my mind. I hope that aspect of it will change. We loved MaxPass, and used it for every trip. We loved the strategy part of using Maxpass too. Being in the parks felt like one big game to me. I loved trying to maximize our time all day long. You know how Disney has the Play App and they want you to engage with it to have a more interactive immersive experience? I feel like I had that interactive gaming experience just by trying to maximize my strategy with MaxPass! I have definitely missed that with my recent trips to the parks. It’s been a big part of lowering the overall experience for me.

 

[thenicefamily]

Be better.

Oh, Hairy, I am better. I am.

 

[lcp9]

I'm team "jack up ticket prices to make lines reasonable" OR "increase genie+ prices substantially so that's it's pretty much a guarantee to access." The best part about max pass was that you could pretty much make your day whatever you wanted it to be. I have 3 little boys. Ride RSR 3 times? Sure. Go to HMH a couple times every day? yes, because it's a FP return time that's quick. This seems like smoke and mirrors - on paper it sounds like fastpass-esque but in practice you're still really limited if you can only use it on one ride a day, and your choices for things like RSR are a 75 minute wait or paying $90 a ride for a family. I would rather pay an extra $100+ per ticket, per day, for the old maxpass with no limit to which rides you're on, and none of this Idaho state fair paying per ride business.