Possible update to Genie+

[PolymerSkywalker]

ADR availability has been really good day of lately. You can get a lot of the harder to book places albeit maybe not at the time you want. Just yesterday I grabbed Kona Cafe a few hours beforehand but saw a ton of options outside of the bad restaurants like Planet Hollywood and Tony's.

Thats good to hear, I haven't been in 10 months.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Thats good to hear, I haven't been in 10 months.

Next trip the kids really want to just do Universal with all their new stuff, so it may be a little while. Youngest is pumped about all the plans for Nintendo stuff being added to Universal, and I love the Harry Potter stuff there.

Maybe the fall or spring I can squeeze in another trip to Disney though. I avoid summers all together as I don't like my sweat very much, so I certainly don't love other people sweating on me! Last summer trip must have hit on the week everyone started trying natural deodorant as well, and I vowed......never again in the summer.

Haven't been to the Cali park in several years, so it is about time to get back out west to that one.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

With FP+ after your pre-booked ones, you could book another as soon as you tapped into the one you had. You didn't have to wait until the end of the window.

Yes, but no overlapping time windows. And if I remember correctly (and I might not!), you couldn't book a 4th FP+ attraction until all 3 reservations were completed (or you tapped into the final reservation). So that was usually later in the day and selections were slimmer. Like I said, pros and cons to both.

 

[Moliphino]

Yes, but no overlapping time windows. And if I remember correctly (and I might not!), you couldn't book a 4th FP+ attraction until all 3 reservations were completed (or you tapped into the final reservation). So that was usually later in the day and selections were slimmer. Like I said, pros and cons to both.

Yeah, that's right. We usually booked 3 in a row in the morning/early afternoon so we could make use of more later in the day. Depending on the park (Epcot was good for this), sometimes we made dummy ones that we didn't care if we missed right at park opening to get the pre-booked out of the way, as we always park hopped in the afternoon.

 

[jade1]

Unless I'm misunderstanding the example, you are not restricted to only one "Tier A" attraction per day with Genie+. You just can only book any specific 'Tier A' once per day through G+ - but you can certainly book and ride multiple 'Tier A' attractions.

3. You get one Tier A attraction per day (pre-booked) and two Tier B attractions (pre-booked) per day. The day of, you can also get additional Tier B attractions after you've used your pre-booked attractions if available (like the old FastPass days, limit based on availability not arbertrary one ride per day). No Tier A attractions day of (if you pre-booked).

For Tier A (other than the really good rides) these seem completely opposite to me.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

The old FP+ system used to restrict people to booking only 1 of the top attractions at a park among their 3 pre-selections. Realizing the ILL takes away the top attraction at each park today, Genie+ has no other restrictions regarding what attractions you can book. It's a subtle difference, mostly. I think I'm describing G+ while Jwaire seems to be describing the FP+ system - since they're talking about pre-booking.

 

[Jwaire]

Magic Kingdom:

ILL: Tron, Mine Train
Tier A - Big Thunder Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan’s Flight, Space Mountain
Tier B - Everything Else (notice Mansion and Pirates are B)

Personal Opinion: Jungle Cruise should be B tier. Mine Train as an ILL is a joke.

EPCOT:

ILL: Cosmic Rewind
Tier A - Frozen Ever After, Ratatouille, Soarin’, Test Track
Tier B - Everything Else

Personal Opinion: Soarin’ should be B tier.

Hollywood Studios:

ILL: Rise of the Resistance
Tier A - Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Falcon, Rockin’ Roller Coaster, Slinky Dog
Tier B- Everything Else

Personal Opinion: Runaway Railway should be B tier.

Animal Kingdom:

ILL: Flight of Passage
Tier A - N’avi River Journey, Everest
Tier B - Everything Else

Personal Opinion: N’avi as A tier is a joke. How does Disney even charge $130+ per day for Animal Kingdom? It's been 23 years, it needs serious capital investment.

If anything, it shows the importance of building higher capacity (1600+ people per hour) rides.

Slinky, N’avi River Journey and Flight of Passage should have never been allowed to be built with such low capacities and Rise of the Resistance should have a dedicated maintenance team that works overnight to make sure the ride maintains its top end capacity and doesn’t spend 1/3 of the day down.

 

[Jwaire]

The old FP+ system used to restrict people to booking only 1 of the top attractions at a park among their 3 pre-selections. Realizing the ILL takes away the top attraction at each park today, Genie+ has no other restrictions regarding what attractions you can book. It's a subtle difference, mostly. I think I'm describing G+ while Jwaire seems to be describing the FP+ system - since they're talking about pre-booking.

Right.

Genie+ - Allows you to book any attraction that's available, regardless of tier

FastPass+ - Allowed one Tier A pre-booked attraction per day, with two Tier B attractions but you could always go to the kiosk after your 3 pre-booked attractions and get any attraction that was available (although availability was always spotty for Tier A attractions like Space, etc.)

 

[Moliphino]

Right.

Genie+ - Allows you to book any attraction that's available, regardless of tier

FastPass+ - Allowed one Tier A pre-booked attraction per day, with two Tier B attractions but you could always go to the kiosk after your 3 pre-booked attractions and get any attraction that was available (although availability was always spotty for Tier A attractions like Space, etc.)

You could do that from your phone/MDE app, too.

 

[Jwaire]

You could do that from your phone/MDE app, too.

I forgot they eventually added it later on. We never got to use that feature.

 

[Princess2R]

According to survey screenshots sent to Disney Dish, Disney is surveying guests for upcoming Genie+ changes at Walt Disney World:

1. Can be purchased ahead of time, maxes out at $35 per day per guest, can be as low as $15.

2. Attractions will be in two tiers. Tier A attractions (Space Mountain, Peter Pan, Big Thunder, etc.) and Tier B (Mansion, Dumbo, etc.)

3. You get one Tier A attraction per day (pre-booked) and two Tier B attractions (pre-booked) per day. The day of, you can also get additional Tier B attractions after you've used your pre-booked attractions if available (like the old FastPass days, limit based on availability not arbertrary one ride per day). No Tier A attractions day of (if you pre-booked).

4. Can book up to 3 Lightning Lane attractions 7 days ahead of time for resort guests and 3 days ahead time for regular guests.

5. You would get a choice of available return times for each attraction.

6. Current "individual" lightening lane attractions will remain (Tron, Mine Train, FOP, etc.)

Welcome back, FastPass+. Now, you're just a paid service. I'm not surprised.

I bet Disneyland keeps the current version of Genie+.

Oh wow, no second tier A if you prebooked would be terrible

 

[Jwaire]

Oh wow, no second tier A if you prebooked would be terrible

Who knows. They survey everything. They surveyed me in December 2021 about Happily Ever After returning and what I thought about Enchantment, yet it took 15 months to get it back. No hurry.

 

[juxtapose]

Well, if those are the changes they are considering please don't let them implement them before April. That sounds like a waste of money for all parks except maybe MK. Most those B level rides don't even need Genie+ most the year on them.

 

[Fussy]

Good thing this is on the rumor board so no one takes it too seriously.

 

[New Mouse]

I do. Who wants to wake up at 7am every day on vacation?

To be fair their system couldn't handle the stress of a release at a reasonable time or date.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifesty...ineer-theme-parks-stressful-less-fun-families

This sums it up pretty well, if you are not a super planner it can often feel like you are paying thousands of dollars to not get to do very much. This will put some people off of Disney, if they don't find a way to improve this perception.

 

[bryaalre]

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifesty...ineer-theme-parks-stressful-less-fun-families

This sums it up pretty well, if you are not a super planner it can often feel like you are paying thousands of dollars to not get to do very much. This will put some people off of Disney, if they don't find a way to improve this perception.

I feel like Disney has always been more geared towards planners though. I remember being a kid and spending numerous weekends planning what park we would do what day and where we would eat, what rides to hit first, etc.

I find that planning nowadays has lessened thanks to not booking fast passes in advance and my wife has told me multiple times, it is a lot less stressful to plan as well as being in Disney. IMO, fast passes were more stressful before and families who didn't plan, were a lot worse off than they are now.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I think some people really love the planning side of it, and figuring it out and basically competing with other guest to get the most out of their park admission ticket. As I have aged a little, that is less fun by the year. I am just gonna go to Germany in Epcot and drink beer.

For what a Disney vacation cost now, me and my wife can go to tropical all-inclusive resort. That becomes the preferred option, often for us lately.

 

[middlechild]

Bring back the Birnbaum books!
https://books.disney.com/book/birnbaums-2023-walt-disney-world/

 

[Smugpugmug]

Bring back the Birnbaum books!
https://books.disney.com/book/birnbaums-2023-walt-disney-world/

I saw this book for sale at one of the Polynesian gift shops and it did bring back memories of reading these as a kid. They must become out of date quickly due to the park hopping rules and Genie+ stuff changing all the time.