Disney Genie announcement

[DisneyKidds]

I've never understood this comment. You had to pick three rides that you wanted to ride. You literally had to plan about 30 minutes of your day between 30-60 days in advance. Not your entire day by any stretch of the imagination. Are you really telling me that when you go to Magic Kingdom you couldn't thing of three rides you wanted to do? And not only that - you could modify them.

Now however, you have to plan what park you want to go to months in advance. And you have to be up at 7am if you want to book your choice of ride. Before, when I planned - I was done. Now you have to continually look for your next ride and plan your day around what time it give you. And don't bother to say "well - you don't have to do that". Because you didn't have to do it before anyway. And don't try the "well - the best rides were taken". Well - now you have to pay extra for them and the ones you can get you could get easily under FP+.

The only thing it does that I think has value to many is that they can purchase two of the top rides and not have to worry about them selling out. But your primary argument about having to plan your entire day under FP+ is really just nonsense.

I think we are of a similar mind regarding G+ but I gotta say…..this post baffles me.

For starters, to plan your “30 minutes a day in the MK” 60 days in advance you had to, you know, plan that you were going to be in the MK. While it wasn’t a park reservation, per se, it was darn near the equivalent. Ok, so 60 days out you had to decide which parks you’d be in which days to make your FP+ reservations. Oh, but it wasn’t that simple, no. Will you be park hopping any of those days? Better figure that in. Oh, and then you needed to worry about ADRs before you book those FP+. Honestly, a lot more went into planning under FP+….pretty much your entire day….than your hyperbole here let’s on.

Don’t get me wrong, I long for FP+ over G+, I think. Not that it matters a whit. While G+ will allow you to avoid pre-planning ride times months in advance, you still need to plan your days months in advance to make park reservations and ADRs. In that regard….the more things change the more they stay the same, as they say. With FP+ you chose 3 guaranteed rides, in advance, for which you picked your times, then in park FPs, and you had it for free. Under Genie you can pick your times to guarantee 2 rides, but you do it day of, and you can make other ride reservations starting at 7am day of. However, it comes with a $40 ($15 G+ plus up to $25 ILL$) per day per person price tag. That’s a big change.

Oh, and because Disney is ingraining in cast members that monetizing every aspect of the Disney experience is of paramount importance those cast members now tell little kids to go scratch in circumstances where they would otherwise have created a truly Magical moment for the kid in the past. Disney Magic vs. Disney “Magic”. That’s a big change, too…..

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

@WebmasterDoc, any mods, Do you think that you might allow three Genie threads?
1. Personal experiences of using G., G+., and ILL$.
2. Questions and answers about using the new system.
3. For those who wish to debate its merits?
Or something similar? This thread is too long and jumbled. People are asking valid questions and those questions are being buried in the ether.

Maybe I need a genie to summon the mods? Too soon?

 

[PaladinButters]

@WebmasterDoc, any mods, Do you think that you might allow three Genie threads?
1. Personal experiences of using G., G+., and ILL$.
2. Questions and answers about using the new system.
3. For those who wish to debate its merits?
Or something similar? This thread is too long and jumbled. People are asking valid questions and those questions are being buried in the ether.

Maybe I need a genie to summon the mods? Too soon?

Honestly we could use two. One to talk about the new program and one to complain that it ever happened. It’s really just a few people in this thread popping up repeatedly that need the second one (although I’m not sure they would be happy if the general public wasn’t hearing about how they don’t like mornings over and over again once being directed elsewhere). Tag me when the mods wake up, maybe we can have a vote.

 

[fumanchu2488]

Exactly the person they are Targeting. You spent $175 (if you got genie+ and 2 IAS) of flexibility to save about an hour. Disney has won the marketing war with you.

and you probably had to wake up at least an hour earlier than you used to to book that first genie+ attraction so net net, you lost time and money

But hey, Disney has you thinking you won! They are laughing all the way to the bank.

hahahahahahahaha

I am up before 6 am every single day so 7 am is nothing for me. And you could not be any more wrong about the time saved. If you only look at Peter Pan, I will save almost an hour of time for just that attraction.

Also, for those who think that this is going to be a dud, I think the complete opposite. This is just going to roll into the cost of a WDW vacation for the yearly visitor. To be honest,after using it I am a bit more concerned it becomes too popular and they need to raise the price to even things out or everyone with LL will not be able to get rides because there are too many people.

 

[fumanchu2488]

As a person who visited WDW and DLR pretty equally, I am interested to hear feedback on G+ from those who were experienced Max Pass users. I realize that if you had never used MP, then G+ seems very different from FP+. But to me, it seems quite similar to MP, which we loved. Can someone with this experience of MP, who has now used G+, share some comments?

I only did MaxPass on my one day visit just before the pandemic. The biggest difference that I noticed is that DL and DCA make park hopping so much easier that you really have access to all the rides. Here, even if you were going from HS to EPCOT you would have to budget an hour or more of time so unless you are moving parks for the day there is no back and forth. When I was at DL we could do a MaxPass for Big thunder then book a Guardians the immediate next window and walk over no problem. Essentially I don’t think that Genie+ would be worth it at AK or at EPCOT because there are so few attractions. I would probably just get the ILL for the one or two rides I really wanted to do.

I do not know the ins and outs of the system for either so I couldn’t talk details.

 

[Jonfw2]

So I just got here and instead of reading the entire thread, can someone just kind of summarize it for me?

 

[Juventus]

When you apply the 120 min rule from park opening, you can’t get a Genie+ selection until 11 am if park opened at 9 am. So if you were planning to standby 9-11 am, then I guess it’s not that bad.

At 7:00 if I was starting at MK with a 9:00 openening and choose my first LL for the afternoon at EP that opens at 10:00, when can I choose my 2nd LL: at 11:00 or noon?

Is the 2 hour cool down based on your first parks' opening that you have a park pass for, or on the park opening time of which park you choose your first LL?

 

[bsmcneil]

So I just got here and instead of reading the entire thread, can someone just kind of summarize it for me?

= lots of , some folks feeling, lots of , and is causing many people to

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

So I just got here and instead of reading the entire thread, can someone just kind of summarize it for me?

https://touringplans.com/blog/genie-testing-what-we-learned-in-one-day/https://touringplans.com/blog/genie-testing-what-we-learned-in-one-day/https://touringplans.com/blog/genie-testing-what-we-learned-in-one-day/

 

[bsmcneil]

Did it surprise anyone that there was tax added to Genie+ and the ILL purchases?

I'm amazed they didn't absorb it into the price and just passed it on to the guests. It's already a completely new source of income...

Especially after weeks of talking about the prices (and admittedly, maybe the various places mentioned plus tax but I didn't remember seeing it). I feel like $15 (for G+) is seared into my brain - how hard would it have been to make that inclusive of tax. But I may also just be grumpy, lol

 

[riogirl84]

I already have an existing reservation package but cannot find any link to add genie plus? Help please

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I already have an existing reservation package but cannot find any link to add genie plus? Help please

Have you updated MDE?

 

[elgerber]

99.99% sure it is A. Soon as you scan into SDD at 12:30 (someone on here said after second scan) you can book your next G+ attraction.



I saw a vlogger try it at MK yesterday for Peter Pan. It showed up on his screen but when he clicked it it said rider has maxed out on LL for this attraction.

Yes to both. If there are two taps you have to tap both first.
I can confirm it will not let you book the same attraction twice.

 

[Bibbobboo2u]

Trying G+ again at MK today despite bad results Tuesday at HWS. Used 2 phones - one for timing countdown to 7am and other ready to book LL Jungle Cruise. Tried for 30 seconds before it processed, and we got return time of 10:15. Blogger on Tuesday started with JC 9:15. ( I believe) LL on JC for comparison.

 

[LSUfan4444]

At 7:00 if I was starting at MK with a 9:00 openening and choose my first LL for the afternoon at EP that opens at 10:00, when can I choose my 2nd LL: at 11:00 or noon?

Depends on what park you are trying to book. It would be Noon for Epcot and 11 for MK

Is the 2 hour cool down based on your first parks' opening that you have a park pass for, or on the park opening time of which park you choose your first LL?

Its for the park you are trying to book in. 2 hours after it opens

 

[Cedric Rose]

Reading these threads is doing my head in. i’d almost prefer them to take the Universal approach and slug an extra $70-$80 and have an express/fast pass/lightning lane add on that’s unlimited with no restrictions.

 

[CynBeth]

Reading these threads is doing my head in. i’d almost prefer them to take the Universal approach and slug and extra $70-$80 and have an express/fast pass/lightning lane add on that’s unlimited with no restrictions.

I feel the same way.

 

[CynBeth]

We called and had it added. It did not show up correctly on the website or app for us for a few days. We thought there was a problem so called and the rep said it could take 24-48 hours and luckily when I checked this morning it shows up the way it should so do not have to call again.

 

[erionm]

I already have an existing reservation package but cannot find any link to add genie plus? Help please

If you have a package, you have to call to have the tickets modified on that package to include Genie+. You will have to purchase Genie+ for all days on the ticket if you go that route.

 

[Marionnette]

Reading these threads is doing my head in. i’d almost prefer them to take the Universal approach and slug and extra $70-$80 and have an express/fast pass/lightning lane add on that’s unlimited with no restrictions.

The whole thing is unnecessarily complicated, isn't it? I'm not looking forward to trying to explain it to the newbies we will be traveling with. Their eyes were glazing over when I attempted to explain park reservations, park hopping and ADRs. It's another reason why I think I'm just going to bail on doing anything Genie-related on our trip in December.