Your Predictions re Changes to DVC now that Iger is back as CEO

[tjkraz]

The genie + never made much sense to me. They should give the free 3 fast passes back and add an express lane like Universal for $100/day or whatever. No tech support for a special line, the poeple that can't afford the express pass would still have what they had, and Disney can cash in on those willing to pay the extra.

Problem is ride capacity. Each attraction can only accommodate so many guests per day. With FP+, they were reportedly allocating 80-85% of many attractions' daily capacity to reservations. This lead to long, slow-moving standby lines and a particularly frustrating experience for anyone who was on the wrong side of Disney planning.

EPCOT could host 40,000 guests on a typical day. But Test Track can only handle about 15,000 riders per day and Frozen 10-12k. Under FP+, the bulk of that capacity is reserved 2 months before guests even arrive. Another 1500 - 2000 can choose to ride same day, but they're forced to wait in 60-90 minute standby lines as priority is given to those with FP+ reservations.

In the end, there's really nothing left to sell as a $100 / day add-on as you propose.

I'm not saying Genie+ is a better system. But attraction capacity the one immutable factor Disney is forced to work around. No ride reservation system will get more than 15K people per day on Test Track; it's just a question of how they're doling-out that capacity. One of the thoughts behind Genie+ was that you'd have fewer people using it than the free FP+. Then standby lines become more manageable. But G+ prices probably need to be a lot higher to have a positive effect on most WDW wait times.

 

[Sandisw]

The genie + never made much sense to me. They should give the free 3 fast passes back and add an express lane like Universal for $100/day or whatever. No tech support for a special line, the poeple that can't afford the express pass would still have what they had, and Disney can cash in on those willing to pay the extra.

The problem with the concept of express pass for Disney is that the number of guests is just much higher that it may not work as well.

You pay that kind of money you want to be able to walk on the rides with very little wait.

A ride has a finite number of guests it can fit each day.

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

Disney has now limited the number of Genie+ purchases each day. They can sell out.

Also, except for those who already purchased for a future visit, new purchases can only be made for that day on the day of the park visit. If someone waits to purchase late in the day, they may have a very limited selection of Genie+ rides available.

 

[Judique]

I seem to remember buying my first AP when it was offered to DVC members for a discounted rate of like $399 - not tied to the pricing of Florida resident passes at all - just a DVC offering. It was pre 2016 because @ that point all of our points were resale & we were eligible. Found this 2015 article referencing those $399 passes https://dvcnews.com/index.php/other...resent-and-future-of-dvc-annual-pass-discount
IMO in today’s economy if we see discounting such as this offered, best to consider selling your Disney stock because they are seeing a need to fill the parks w/ us cheapskates .

In 2005 Disney's annual passes were first discounted for DVC members. Premium was discounted $125 and regular was discounted $100. Prior to 2000, DVC got some 'free' tickets for their villas.

I also took advantage of the $399 premium annual pass. It was a great deal! We were able to buy and stash for maybe a year before activating. I'm not certain what year but somewhere around 2013 to 2015? 2015 brought the end of non expiry passes, so prior to that.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

But G+ prices probably need to be a lot higher to have a positive effect on most WDW wait times.

I got what they were trying to do when they announced Genie+. What I could never figure out is the cost seemed ridiculously low to get the kind of cuts they wanted to the wait times. It would have to be exponentially higher. I can't tell you how high, but high enough that the amount of QQ about it on here would be at unbearable levels.