New UK tickets: 14 and 7 day Magic Tickets with extended usage windows and discounted genie+

[Plague]

The extra £40 cost of the Magic more of less cancels the discounted cost of the 14 day Genie+, doesn’t it?

Sorry, I'm not with you there.
The 14 day G+ is about £100 add-on to an Ultimate or Magic as I understand it. So the £40 extra for Magic is only giving you the extra 4 days window of use. So even if you don't have linked dining credits, etc, to lose there seems little point in upgrading an Ultimate unless that flexibility is useful for you.
If the Magic includes/d G+ it's a different ballgame.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Sorry, I'm not with you there.
The 14 day G+ is about £100 add-on to an Ultimate or Magic as I understand it. So the £40 extra for Magic is only giving you the extra 4 days window of use. So even if you don't have linked dining credits, etc, to lose there seems little point in upgrading an Ultimate unless that flexibility is useful for you.
If the Magic includes/d G+ it's a different ballgame.

I am on hold to WDW to ask whether G+ can be added to 2021 ultimate but my logic which may be flawed, is that Magic cost £40 more for 14 days and the G+ saving is about £4 a day, if you add on for 14 days, rather than buying it for $15.98 per day whilst at WDW. So ultimate plus $15.98x14 is about the same as Magic plus discounted 14 day G+ add on.

 

[Plague]

I am on hold to WDW to ask

I went to call them this morning about getting my reservation into MDE which is refusing to find it. When it said estimated wait 108 mins I reckoned it wasn't really that urgent

 

[Plague]

So ultimate plus $15.98x14 is about the same as Magic plus discounted 14 day G+ add on.

I thought someone on a previous page had confirmed you can add G+ to an Ultimate for the discount price.
But it'll be good to get a second opinion as CMs do get it wrong occasionally.

 

[itf]

Being a bit dense, I tried Disney to see if they could add it to my tickets (already linked in my MDE account) but apparently Virgin have to do it and their phone line says only call if it's very urgent. Has anyone successfully added to a Virgin ticket?

 

[disneyholic family]

Being a bit dense, I tried Disney to see if they could add it to my tickets (already linked in my MDE account) but apparently Virgin have to do it and their phone line says only call if it's very urgent. Has anyone successfully added to a Virgin ticket?

even though the virgin line says it has to be urgent, i would try them anyway if they're the ones who have to do it

 

[Plague]

I am on hold to WDW to ask whether G+ can be added to 2021 ultimate but my logic which may be flawed, is that Magic cost £40 more for 14 days and the G+ saving is about £4 a day, if you add on for 14 days, rather than buying it for $15.98 per day whilst at WDW. So ultimate plus $15.98x14 is about the same as Magic plus discounted 14 day G+ add on.

Did you get a sensible answer?

 

[Plague]

even though the virgin line says it has to be urgent, i would try them anyway if they're the ones who have to do it

The Disney line says they are really busy due to the reopening of borders and I'd think VA is the same. If it isn't urgent it might be better to leave it a week or two so that the queues are perhaps a little shorter once the rush dies down a bit.

 

[MichelinMan]

I was in 2 minds whether to get Genie+ added to my July 2022 Ultimate tickets. At the discounted prices, I will probably be just about breaking even compared to the days where I think I will buy Genie+. But I have just been thinking that I can't see Genie+ staying at $15 a day - it is only going one way IMO, and that is more expensive. So I am tempted to pre-purchase Genie+ just to safeguard against prices going up. I can easily see it being $25 a day by next summer.

 

[disneyholic family]

I was in 2 minds whether to get Genie+ added to my July 2022 Ultimate tickets. At the discounted prices, I will probably be just about breaking even compared to the days where I think I will buy Genie+. But I have just been thinking that I can't see Genie+ staying at $15 a day - it is only going one way IMO, and that is more expensive. So I am tempted to pre-purchase Genie+ just to safeguard against prices going up. I can easily see it being $25 a day by next summer.

you're probably right!

 

[Plague]

I tried calling Disney on the UK 0800 number about 1120 this morning. Got the usual "Due to ... high demand ... " message, but decided to wait till I was given a hold time anyway. Pressed 2 for existing bookings, never know what to push for the next so let it time out and just continue. Stood up to get a pen and paper just in case and within a step a CM was saying good morning, etc.
Zero queue.

Like others I asked about adding G+ to my Ultimate and she said it's on sale at present, 14 days for price of 9 @ £97.86, so I've booked that even though I'm still not sure it's worth it. As it's just added to the balance to pay next August it doesn't feel like a hit for now.

 

[disneyholic family]

I tried calling Disney on the UK 0800 number about 1120 this morning. Got the usual "Due to ... high demand ... " message, but decided to wait till I was given a hold time anyway. Pressed 2 for existing bookings, never know what to push for the next so let it time out and just continue. Stood up to get a pen and paper just in case and within a step a CM was saying good morning, etc.
Zero queue.

Like others I asked about adding G+ to my Ultimate and she said it's on sale at present, 14 days for price of 9 @ £97.86, so I've booked that even though I'm still not sure it's worth it. As it's just added to the balance to pay next August it doesn't feel like a hit for now.

i think it makes sense. It's helpful for MK and the studios, even if it's not absolutely necessary.
The bloggers who did a head to head, someone using genie+ vs someone not, those using genie+ definitely got a lot more done at those two parks.
So while it's not a must have, it's certainly a nice to have. And with the discount, it makes more sense.

 

[Kbrb]

Im due to be there next September./october.

Other than MK and HS i really dont see the need for it. It works out as having to need it for 10 days for it to be worth while pre loading. Seeing im spending 2 days at water parks and 2 days at uni it does not work out for us.

 

[Aussie RJ]

Question if I may. If I purchased 2 x14 day Magic Tickets for two seperate trips (June & December), does the park reservation system recognise 28 reservations with a valid resort stay?

 

[MichelinMan]

i think it makes sense. It's helpful for MK and the studios, even if it's not absolutely necessary.
The bloggers who did a head to head, someone using genie+ vs someone not, those using genie+ definitely got a lot more done at those two parks.
So while it's not a must have, it's certainly a nice to have. And with the discount, it makes more sense.

Thing is, all the comparisons are being done during a relatively lighter attendance part of the year. We will be going in July, when crowds will be higher (and especially next year as I reckon the parks are going to be packed after the pent up demand). It will be interesting to see them do a comparison over thanksgiving for example.

I would definitely use it for MK and DHS, and almost certainly for AK as well. To make it worthwhile for me, I would want to save at least an hour in queues, and I reckon I would at those 3 parks in peak season. I'm not sure I would save an hour at EPCOT currently, but once Guardians opens, one of the 2 ILL attractions will become a Genie+ ride which might make it more attractive. We don't like getting up early for rope drop (I'm on holiday for god's sake!), so most of the strategies for avoiding queues go out of the window. I've done the number crunching based on buying it for 3 out of the 4 parks, and at current prices and my current intended schedule, I break even by advance purchasing. But I reckon by the time we go in July next year, the price will have risen - so I am in the process of getting it added to my booking just to hedge against prices going up. As I see it, I can only win by advance purchasing, and not lose. Plus I don't have to faff about early every day to purchase it.

It also helps a bit that I reduced the length of my stay on WDW property. I originally had 14 nights booked, but a number of those days were going to be spent off-site. Now I am only going for 12 nights (I'm doing extra nights at Universal instead now, 9 nights in total), so that reduces the cost of pre-purchasing Genie+ for me. It also shows that doing a split stay is even more attractive, as it reduces the cost of pre-purchasing Genie+. I think if I was booking now, I would do even less days at Disney, and more at Universal. Two of our 12 days at Disney are being spent at Discovery Cove and a day keeping the wife happy for our anniversary shopping. If I knew about Genie+ in advance, I would have arranged the dates differently - probably 10 nights at Disney and 11 nights at Universal.

 

[MichelinMan]

Im due to be there next September./october.

Other than MK and HS i really dont see the need for it. It works out as having to need it for 10 days for it to be worth while pre loading. Seeing im spending 2 days at water parks and 2 days at uni it does not work out for us.

When we have done water parks, we have usually gone into the parks later in the day as well. So Genie+ maybe wouldn't be wasted for those days. But I agree if you spend a lot of days at US, it might not work out well. We are doing a split stay, so it works out for us.

 

[MichelinMan]

So just had Attraction Tickets confirm they can add it to my July 2022 package. But it is added to the 14 days ticket, not my 12 nights hotel package. So it still works out at £100 extra per person to add it.

Bit more expensive than I thought it was going to be, but still think I am going to add it, as I will be using it at least 10 days.

 

[Plague]

But it is added to the 14 days ticket, not my 12 nights hotel package.

I don't think people really understand that park tickets are in fact separate from resort bookings. They can be added to a resort booking but are usually 7 or 14 day tickets that you get a 'package' discount on when booked together - this is how they are treated on your invoice (Combine & Save Discount).

The validity dates will then be linked to your resort stay, but for any add-ons, etc, like G+ they are just a 14 or 7 day ticket (because even if you have a shorter resort stay you could use the ticket for the full number of days).

 

[MichelinMan]

I don't think people really understand that park tickets are in fact separate from resort bookings. They can be added to a resort booking but are usually 7 or 14 day tickets that you get a 'package' discount on when booked together - this is how they are treated on your invoice (Combine & Save Discount).

The validity dates will then be linked to your resort stay, but for any add-ons, etc, like G+ they are just a 14 or 7 day ticket (because even if you have a shorter resort stay you could use the ticket for the full number of days).

What confused me were the words "add Genie+ to your reservation" which made me think it was just the days for your hotel reservation you paid for.

 

[Centopar]

Has anybody been able to add Genie+ to a 2021 Ultimate Ticket? We're going next month; it'd be very convenient if we can, but I'm not holding my breath! Calling Trailfinders on Monday.