The great Genie + rip off

[Blueslegend]

I was thinking where else in the World am I asked to buy something without knowing what will be delivered? A lottery ticket, perhaps. Amazon, definitely not. So why Genie + ? I pay in advance but have no idea what I am getting for my money. I should be able to look before I buy. Madness.

 

[lockets]

Amen!

I wrote on a few posts that my experience is
1. It’s a gamble
2. Using G+ actually feels like online gambling

Both of which - not my thing.

 

[reddog21]

Genie + is basically insurance, you pay for it without possibly ever being able to use it. With Genie + at least you'll get on a couple of rides or just don't pay for it and wait in line.

 

[godfather927]

This is why I preferred when they offered two $ILLs per park. At least you know what you're getting for your money, and can select a preferred return time to plan accordingly. Pushing that extra $ILL to G+ makes everything less predictable and basically guarantees you won't ever be able to book Test Track and Frozen Ever After on the same day. Completely nonsensical.

 

[jaredjohn4]

The old dinning reservation 180 days out and 3 fast passes 60 days out was almost a planner’s dream. Even Disneylands paid day of fast pass system was good. This new system is just a crap shout that high paying guests should not have to endure.

 

[Ermise]

Disney keeps mentioning their desire to enter the sports betting industry. Maybe G+ is the first step and we don't even know it.

It could transition to guests betting/guessing on wait times for their days at the park - get it right for an attraction and win the ability to enter that attraction via the Lightning Lane! It can make guests' days at the park that much more interactive as well!

What's the over/under on # of breakdowns for ROTR? Guests can win $$ for wagering correctly. So many opportunities......

 

[Blueslegend]

This is why I preferred when they offered two $ILLs per park. At least you know what you're getting for your money, and can select a preferred return time to plan accordingly. Pushing that extra $ILL to G+ makes everything less predictable and basically guarantees you won't ever be able to book Test Track and Frozen Ever After on the same day. Completely nonsensical.

100% agree. At least I could plan my day even if it was at 7.00 am (vacation?) in the morning.

 

[dclDream2018]

I was thinking where else in the World am I asked to buy something without knowing what will be delivered? A lottery ticket, perhaps. Amazon, definitely not. So why Genie + ? I pay in advance but have no idea what I am getting for my money. I should be able to look before I buy. Madness.

Yes, I don't know what Disney is thinking. It's such a flawed product.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

How is it more of a gamble than buying a park ticket in the first place? Imagine a world with no Genie+ or FastPass. You don't know, when you buy a park ticket, if Space Mountain is going to have a 15 minute wait or an 80 minute wait.

There are a lot of good arguments against Genie+, but I don't think this is one of them.

 

[jaredjohn4]

The whole “Pirate Code, or they’re just Guidelines” fits the Lightning Lanes to a “T”. For 2 days at 7:00am I tried for RotR. It started showing about 10:00, each next step it moved forward 3 hours until the payment screen was at 6:00pm when we had dinner reservations. I would try it again at 7:02 and it would say all sold out. Then I tried at 7:09 and got a 10:30 Lightning Lane +. The next day same thing, all sold out by 7:02, got an 11:45 entry at 7:12. You can’t plan easily, only spend money at Disney. At HS early entry for onsite guests would have to be on the bus to the parks to get in front of the crowds before you could use the Gene system.

 

[nw6675]

Amen!

I wrote on a few posts that my experience is
1. It’s a gamble
2. Using G+ actually feels like online gambling

Both of which - not my thing.

Coincidentally, I just won $500 playing an online Virginia Lottery game. Maybe I will have the same luck with Genie + in September!

(I don't normally play online, but they sent me a coupon and I can't resist a deal HA HA HA)

 

[lockets]

Coincidentally, I just won $500 playing an online Virginia Lottery game. Maybe I will have the same luck with Genie + in September!

(I don't normally play online, but they sent me a coupon and I can't resist a deal HA HA HA)

wow! Congratulations!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

The whole “Pirate Code, or they’re just Guidelines” fits the Lightning Lanes to a “T”. For 2 days at 7:00am I tried for RotR. It started showing about 10:00, each next step it moved forward 3 hours until the payment screen was at 6:00pm when we had dinner reservations. I would try it again at 7:02 and it would say all sold out. Then I tried at 7:09 and got a 10:30 Lightning Lane +. The next day same thing, all sold out by 7:02, got an 11:45 entry at 7:12. You can’t plan easily, only spend money at Disney. At HS early entry for onsite guests would have to be on the bus to the parks to get in front of the crowds before you could use the Gene system.

This is such a great description of the frustration. I was trying to explain to a friend why it was so horrible. We both have used Maxpass and loved it, but Genie+ is no Maxpass (using my best Senator Bentsen voice). We were extremely frustrated by both ILL and Genie+ on our trip a couple weeks ago. It would be one thing if they'd monetized something that used to be free and made it better or at least of equal value. But what they've effectively done is monetized something and made it a far worse user experience. I don't consider having to refresh a zillion times at 7 am in the morning to hopefully get a time that works is a good customer experience. The previous system might have favored planners, but this system favors morning risers who have made no plans except for staying at the parks all day. Our dining reservations caused a massive hassle with the ability to use Genie+ and ILL.

We also tried for ROTR and Ratatouille at 7 in the morning. Fortunately, I'd read about the constant refresh trick. Each time it took over 20 minutes but we *finally* got each ride. With ROTR, when I finally got to the time page after 3 times of getting the sorry page, I had to click through each time multiple times before finally getting something. It was ridiculous, and I kept thinking about the numbers of people who don't read DISboards and who just give up. If I'd moved off that time selection page, I wouldn't have gotten anything. I also wouldn't have gotten anything if I hadn't kept at it for so long.

With Genie+ we got M&M railroad at a decent time (noonish), but then by time 11 am came around and we could book our second ride there was nothing good that was within a few hours. We chose rockin' rollercoaster for about 4 or 5 and then by time 1 came around ... nothing. So we paid $15 for two rides hours apart. Super frustrating.

 

[DLgal]

I still maintain that an on demand pay per ride system would have been both more lucrative for Disney and more widely accepted by guests. If each LL ride cost somewhere around $1-5, they'd get a lot more takers and much happier guests overall. No pre booking. You walk up to the ride, if the standby time is too long, opt into getting IMMEDIATE access to the LL for a few bucks. Seems like a win win.

Standby lines would remain reasonable, and people who really wanted to maximize their time could use this to access however many rides they are willing to pay for.