Am I the only one who thinks Genie+ is not worth it?

[Carrie in AZ]

We bought Genie+ and thought it was a really good deal. The only issue we had was that we had a return time for Haunted Mansion but got held up on Rise of the Resistance. We ended up being 10 minutes late to our return window. The CM was kind of rude about it and said, "Folks, we are 10 minutes late...what is the deal with that?" I apologized and said we rushed over (which we did) but had gotten held up at RotR. He said next time we need to be on time. So, I guess they're pretty strict about returning exactly within the window. I was caught off by that, especially since we were only 10 minutes past but I guess I should have realized.

I think your experience could have been completely different depending on which CM was there at the time.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Now after watching how the parks are operating for a few months I really think Genie+ is for the infrequent visitor who doesn’t mind paying the up-charge. It’s a downgrade from the old MaxPass, which was amazing (RIP MaxPass) and it has completely screwed up the standby lines. I actually truly hate the lightening lanes with all my being.

Today, we hopped in line at Toy Story for a posted 35 minute wait. The line was moving along at a great clip and then here comes a flood (and I mean a flood) of lightning lane folks (the ride had broken down earlier and they were all coming back to ride). I am not exaggerating when I say the standby line was stopped and did not move for 10 minutes (I timed it). Then we panstakingly inches forward. It was becoming clear that our posted 35 minute wait was not going to happen and yes, they changed it to 75 minutes on the app. They even made an announcement that due to “unforeseen circumstances” the wait was going to be much longer than previously stated (I have literally never heard an announcement like that before. Is this a new thing?). We ended up bailing on the line after now waiting 25 minutes but not having moved for about 15 of those minutes. It was sad. I hate what has happened to the standby lines, truly.

 

[Porsche4]

Be very careful with that assumption. I would recommend using G+ from the minute you scan in. Go for whatever ride has the soonest return time and go from there to maximize your LL use. Otherwise as the long lines build, and as the G+ times get later and later, you will run out of opportunities to use it.

Yesterday soon after park opening at DCA, the soonest G+ return time was nearly 3 hours away. Numerous rides were down at park opening and into the morning.

I had been planning to buy G+ for the first time, but one look at how far out all the return times were so early in the day made me nope right out of that experiment.

Thanks for the heads up. I guess maybe we should just ride our favourite rides once through Standby and then see if we can get a G+ for sooner rather than later and re-ride with a minimum wait. I guess then once we come back into the park late afternoon we could just do some shows like Tiki Room and Great Moments and maybe some shopping. I suppose the biggest factor will be crowd levels, I guess you visited in Spring break crowds. I know that the last week of April is still looking busy because of the return of all the night time shows but I am hoping that maybe the days won't be too bad and it will just be the locals coming in in the afternoon/evening for the entertainment. I guess we shall just have to have loose plans and play it by ear.

 

[jvncnt]

We are just back from our first visit at DL ever, but are long time WDW veterans. I had every expectation that we would HATE Genie+ and ILL and we actually thought both worked out perfect for us. In saying that, I am cognizant that we would have much preferred to have both the Genie+ and ILL to be free. However, if you take the additional costs out of the equation then we loved being able to quickly and easily book return times that worked with our schedule, and to pay to get on RotR, WS, RSR when we wanted to ride them and not wait in lines at all on those rides. The use was to us as easy as the old FP+ system, but without having to choose rides months in advance.

I think the poster who said Genie+ and ILL are probably best for the occasional visitor is right. We might go to a Disney park once a year and cost isn't that much of a consideration. If we had an annual passes and went frequently, we would probably hate paying more for what used to be free.

 

[GatorChris]

Let's just get this out of the way: I hate Genie+ with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.

We used it at WDW. While it did allow us to get on more rides on the days we used it vs the days we didn't, the fact we had to fork over an extra $75/day (family of 5) to do it really put a cloud on my trip to WDW. We went to Universal during that same trip, didn't use their Express Pass, and walked away feeling far more excitement and value in USO. FAR MORE!

We had gone to DL in Oct of last year before Genie+ started up. I'll say that I hated not having FP: getting in line while waiting for a FP window to open up was always cool. But without it, the lines moved quickly and we learned how to navigate long lines. I'd prefer the old Legacy FP system, but we adapted. Now that DL has DiaperGenie+, I'm not sure how I'll feel when we return in October. I'd thought about getting there and converting up to APs. Now I'll wait and see if it's even worth it to keep going back. If flights hadn't got so expensive, we'd be going back to Florida and Universal without question.

 

[DLgal]

Now after watching how the parks are operating for a few months I really think Genie+ is for the infrequent visitor who doesn’t mind paying the up-charge. It’s a downgrade from the old MaxPass, which was amazing (RIP MaxPass) and it has completely screwed up the standby lines. I actually truly hate the lightening lanes with all my being.

Today, we hopped in line at Toy Story for a posted 35 minute wait. The line was moving along at a great clip and then here comes a flood (and I mean a flood) of lightning lane folks (the ride had broken down earlier and they were all coming back to ride). I am not exaggerating when I say the standby line was stopped and did not move for 10 minutes (I timed it). Then we panstakingly inches forward. It was becoming clear that our posted 35 minute wait was not going to happen and yes, they changed it to 75 minutes on the app. They even made an announcement that due to “unforeseen circumstances” the wait was going to be much longer than previously stated (I have literally never heard an announcement like that before. Is this a new thing?). We ended up bailing on the line after now waiting 25 minutes but not having moved for about 15 of those minutes. It was sad. I hate what has happened to the standby lines, truly.

Those announcements aren't new, but they are much more frequent than they used to be. I've heard them mostly at RSR. When someone with a red card turns it in and they have to adjust the wait time up significantly, they make that announcement. I've also heard it at Toy Story and Goofy's.

 

[DLgal]

Thanks for the heads up. I guess maybe we should just ride our favourite rides once through Standby and then see if we can get a G+ for sooner rather than later and re-ride with a minimum wait. I guess then once we come back into the park late afternoon we could just do some shows like Tiki Room and Great Moments and maybe some shopping. I suppose the biggest factor will be crowd levels, I guess you visited in Spring break crowds. I know that the last week of April is still looking busy because of the return of all the night time shows but I am hoping that maybe the days won't be too bad and it will just be the locals coming in in the afternoon/evening for the entertainment. I guess we shall just have to have loose plans and play it by ear.

It's also the last couple days of the food and wine festival. Expect Monday and Tuesday to be especially busy with locals who were blocked out over the weekend (passholders as well as those using the So Cal resident discount tickets) and want to see MSEP and WOC.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Those announcements aren't new, but they are much more frequent than they used to be. I've heard them mostly at RSR. When someone with a red card turns it in and they have to adjust the wait time up significantly, they make that announcement. I've also heard it at Toy Story and Goofy's.

That is so interesting (and annoying!). I guess jumping from 35 to 75 minutes in a 10-minute span would be significant. I don't understand why the ratio of LL to standby is so much crazier than with MaxPass. People paid for MaxPass too. But the standby lines didn't suffer nearly this bad.

It's worse in queues were you can see the LL people streaming in while you don't move at all. It's the most frustrating and defeating feeling!

 

[starlite_]

That is so interesting (and annoying!). I guess jumping from 35 to 75 minutes in a 10-minute span would be significant. I don't understand why the ratio of LL to standby is so much crazier than with MaxPass. People paid for MaxPass too. But the standby lines didn't suffer nearly this bad.

It's worse in queues were you can see the LL people streaming in while you don't move at all. It's the most frustrating and defeating feeling!

My guess is that before ppl were able to get fastpasses without MaxPass. It was a paid add-on, but not the only option so there might have been more guests using the fastpass lane than the standby one so while standby still kinda sucked if you didn't have a fastpass everyone could get in the fastpass lane with a bit of planning. Now there is only Genie+ and standby. So the amount of folks using the Lighting Lane might be fewer but they do get priority over standby.

 

[DLgal]

That is so interesting (and annoying!). I guess jumping from 35 to 75 minutes in a 10-minute span would be significant. I don't understand why the ratio of LL to standby is so much crazier than with MaxPass. People paid for MaxPass too. But the standby lines didn't suffer nearly this bad.

It's worse in queues were you can see the LL people streaming in while you don't move at all. It's the most frustrating and defeating feeling!

It is bad. We don't even wait in standby lines on LL attractions anymore. Enter DAS...

 

[JohnR5101]

The way they prioritize LL seems very unbalanced in some cases. They may be trying to drive more people to buy G+. The end result of that could be that the LL lines just become so long that they are the equivalent of standby lines today. If that happens its going to be terrible PR.
OTOH, if they would decide on a fair ratio of LL to standby, then it can balance out. Might need to limit how many G+ they sell in a day so that those who purchase it will still feel like they got good value. And those who didn't purchase feel like it was still OK to wait in standby.
One thing I have always remembered about Disney is that waiting in lines was much better than other parks because the lines kept moving and they provided some very interesting distractions in the way they are constructed. Not like a simple boring switchback on a hot concrete plain area. The theming of even the standby lines is part of the experience itself.

 

[frechley]

Here is an even lamer part of all this. They literally could have made the same amount of cash by just raising prices enough to bring in the same amount of income that Genie+ currently is. Then the fastpass/maxpass system could still be in place and people wouldn't have the ****ty feeling they now have of watching the "privileged" ones pass them by in line. It seems like it is literally creating the exact scenario that Disneyland has always sought to avoid.

 

[starlite_]

Here is an even lamer part of all this. They literally could have made the same amount of cash by just raising prices enough to bring in the same amount of income that Genie+ currently is. Then the fastpass/maxpass system could still be in place and people wouldn't have the ****ty feeling they now have of watching the "privileged" ones pass them by in line. It seems like it is literally creating the exact scenario that Disneyland has always sought to avoid.

They did raise prices tho, they are just also charging for Genie+

 

[Disney Dudette]

All of this has me so concerned for our April trip We are going for 5 days beginning on April 22nd and I just cannot stomach paying $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids for genie + and absolutely not feeling paying an additional $80 for the four of us to take a couple minute ride on RSR. This is just ridiculous to me! I'm concerned we will be riding very few rides this next go around I think it's even more ridiculous you only get to ride the handful of LL rides ONCE. I feel disney has overstepped a huge line here with greed. This is outright greed! And it's working just like they want it to... make the standby lines miserable enough people cave and go ahead and buy their money sucking genie+.

 

[lvdis]

All of this has me so concerned for our April trip We are going for 5 days beginning on April 22nd and I just cannot stomach paying $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids for genie + and absolutely not feeling paying an additional $80 for the four of us to take a couple minute ride on RSR. This is just ridiculous to me! I'm concerned we will be riding very few rides this next go around I think it's even more ridiculous you only get to ride the handful of LL rides ONCE. I feel disney has overstepped a huge line here with greed. This is outright greed! And it's working just like they want it to... make the standby lines miserable enough people cave and go ahead and buy their money sucking genie+.

I wish everyone would just not buy it so it would fail and go away. My adult daughter is adamant that we don't buy it when we are there. Our first day is April 22 too! I figure with 4 day parkhoppers we'll be able to see and do what we want anyway. We plan to have a great time regardless! I hope you and your family do too!

 

[Disney Dudette]

I wish everyone would just not buy it so it would fail and go away. My adult daughter is adamant that we don't buy it when we are there. Our first day is April 22 too! I figure with 4 day parkhoppers we'll be able to see and do what we want anyway. We plan to have a great time regardless! I hope you and your family do too!

Thank you, Ivdis! And, I agree! I think we should be able to do and see what we want. I hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[Disney Dory]

All of this has me so concerned for our April trip We are going for 5 days beginning on April 22nd and I just cannot stomach paying $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids for genie + and absolutely not feeling paying an additional $80 for the four of us to take a couple minute ride on RSR. This is just ridiculous to me! I'm concerned we will be riding very few rides this next go around I think it's even more ridiculous you only get to ride the handful of LL rides ONCE. I feel disney has overstepped a huge line here with greed. This is outright greed! And it's working just like they want it to... make the standby lines miserable enough people cave and go ahead and buy their money sucking genie+.g

Yes! This!! Vacation should be stress free, fun and relaxing. People work hard and scrimp and save to be able to enjoy a nice vacation, and at the rate Disney is going, I feel more and more people might just decide that their money can get more value at other destinations. It's so sad that Disney has gotten so greedy, that, after raising ticket prices to get in the park, they create another money -grubbing highway robbery Genie+ system on top of that! I'm sure this is not what Walt had in mind when he opened Disneyland. Not to make it so outrageously expensive that people can't enjoy the land he meant to be fun and enjoyed by ALL! Shame on you Disney for being so selfish and greedy!

 

[JohnR5101]

I think they need to tweak the whole profit/crowd-level/guest-satisfaction model, because the way it is right now is generating so much negativity. There will be backlash eventually.

1. Bring back the original Fastpass paper tickets for those who prefer NOT using a phone at all.
2. Bring back MaxPass but make it free for those who like the convenience and don't mind using the phone.
3. Set the rules the same for both (90 min or 2 hr wait time for both), unlimited re-rides.
4. Set ticket prices to the necessary level to have sufficient staff for the park (cast members, maintenance, etc). Don't charge extra to create a large "privileged class".
   1. I'm OK with charging for special things like a tour, or even private tours for the ultra rich.
5. Reserve the whole resort (not just one park). Enter either and park hop (if you have a hopper) at anytime.

I would hope that our expectations for standby wait times vs Fastpass would return to what we experienced not too long ago. Yes, when it gets crowded, then wait times go up. Fastpass/Maxpass is available to everyone and they can reserve a time for later. Of course those will run out during the day, but that's the way it is. You have a choice. You can get passes to help with the waits and you can do standby for the rest.

If keeping the parks sufficiently profitable that they can be sustained is the goal, then they have to take into account the long term effects of guest satisfaction. I'm not poor and could afford to pay these high prices. But my wife pushes back saying that "its so crazy expensive" "We could go to Maui for less and relax more". Come on, where has this put the average family who would like to enjoy the parks?

 

[tdhickey]

Just got back from a trip (last week, 5 day park hopper). Did 2 genie+ days (4 tickets) and 3 non, admittedly Genie+ days were much better, flowed better, got more done with less frustration. Didn't pay for any additional $ rides, just worked the lines for Cars, Webslingers, Rise during the less busy times. Next time just going to buy it for all days, added cost sucks, but found our days with it more enjoyable. The stand-by lanes are so deprioritized that they were super frustrating at times.

 

[smartlabelprint]

That is so interesting (and annoying!). I guess jumping from 35 to 75 minutes in a 10-minute span would be significant. I don't understand why the ratio of LL to standby is so much crazier than with MaxPass. People paid for MaxPass too. But the standby lines didn't suffer nearly this bad.

It's worse in queues were you can see the LL people streaming in while you don't move at all. It's the most frustrating and defeating feeling!

My theory is that Disney based their ratio on one per person. People are getting lots of extra passes due to frequent breakdowns, not to mention those that are fishing for passes.

Question: would you go Monday 5/9 or Tuesday 5/10? It’s Disneyland only, no hoppers. We will have been at the park 4 other days the week before and we fly home 5/11.