Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[lazyboy97o]

In my opinion you dramatically and vastly overstate the amount of stress/anxiety involved in both planning and changing plans when necessary. Most people have those life skills. Disney does not need to concern itself with the hypothetical people described in your posts because they’d be dead of a heart attack before they ever got to the park.

What happened to not dismissing the experience and feelings of others? You can find posts and threads by these “hypothetical” people on this very site. There was an entire forum dedicated to helping people navigate the system.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Very few people are defending Genie+. What you keep skipping over is that the big problem with Genie+ (availability) would exist if FastPass+ were being offered right now. There’s also a good chance it would be worse if Disney had to resort to cancelling FastPass+ reservations on people.

My initial entry into this discussion was a comparison of why I liked FP+ better than G+ and was met with a list of flaws of FP+ as if they don't exist with G+.

Code isn’t some finite resource. It can be duplicated and forked. You’re whole argument is that they had to use a derivative (MaxPass) because they needed another derivative (park reservations) but this time didn’t save the original.

At one point when the parks re-opened without FP+, the excuse given by some was that the code for FP+ was being used by the Park Reservation system, so they couldn't offer FP+ anymore. I can't recall who said that, so it may have been an insider or it may have been someone making a guess.

 

[GimpYancIent]

What happened to not dismissing the experience and feelings of others? You can find posts and threads by these “hypothetical” people on this very site. There was an entire forum dedicated to helping people navigate the system.

Probably a contributing factor as to why people have difficulty navigating the system. Ya thinks.

 

[LittleBuford]

There have been a ton of reports that Stand-By wait times have been inflated since reopening.

And many reports also of long waits. Some of you don’t mind queuing; I prefer not to when I can avoid it, which FP+ allowed me to do.

 

[LittleBuford]

There have always been long lines and there will always be long lines.

They implemented a line-skipping system back in the 1990s, because one of the top complaints of the overall experience was waiting in line. They know that guest preference is to wait in no line at all. But since they are still waiting in lines, and still complaining about it, maybe the answer is that no line skip system is needed at all? It's a lot of overhead that ultimately doesn't resolve anything.

The tin foil hat part of me though, is assuming that Genie+ is actually a transition into a pay-per-line-skip system where all rides will essentially be ILL. The only thing holding them back is guest satisfaction.

If it’s really the case that there will always be unpopular long lines regardless of whether there is a line-skipping system, I can’t see how getting rid of such a system would achieve anything other than making more people unhappy.

 

[lazyboy97o]

At one point when the parks re-opened without FP+, the excuse given by some was that the code for FP+ was being used by the Park Reservation system, so they couldn't offer FP+ anymore. I can't recall who said that, so it may have been an insider or it may have been someone making a guess.

I’m aware that the park reservation system used the FastPass+ system as it’s foundation to get it in place quickly. That though doesn’t explain why it would be a technological hindrance to deploying FastPass+ now. If they literally just deleted FastPass+ then they truly are incompetent morons. It’s not like there is some sort of server limitation that preventing them from deploying another system because they did deploy additional systems, one of which is also derived from FastPass+. What FastPass+ functionality is somehow deeply tied into the park reservations and can’t be deployed? The current systems can handle people holding three virtual queues at a time before the park opens.

 

[LittleBuford]

Who goes on vacation to WDW thinking, "I shouldn't use the free line-skipping system the parks have because someone else might not understand it or like it as much as I do?"

Not even those here who characterise enjoyment of FP+ as selfish refrained from using it themselves.

 

[dreday3]

What if....they gave back the 3 free fast pass plus to resort guests and they can book 60 days in advance (but not including the ILLs), but still keep Genie + as is for everyone (off-site/on-site) and everyone can start booking at park open? Would the resort guests take up all the reservations in advance? I truly don't know. Then maybe resort guests wouldn't purchase Genie, leaving more room for off-site to use. But then I suppose you'd have to limit resort to only the 3 original passes...I don't know, I'm bad at math.

(don't throw tomatoes at me, i'm just trying to find a way to give resort guests a perk! )

 

[lazyboy97o]

What if....they gave back the 3 free fast pass plus to resort guests and they can book 60 days in advance (but not including the ILLs), but still keep Genie + as is for everyone (off-site/on-site) and everyone can start booking at park open? Would the resort guests take up all the reservations in advance? I truly don't know.

(don't throw tomatoes at me, i'm just trying to find a way to give resort guests a perk! )

Yes, resort guests would take up the reservations because not as many are being offered and not as many can be offered. Worst case would be Disney having to cancel FastPass+ times on resort guests.

 

[dreday3]

Yes, resort guests would take up the reservations because not as many are being offered and not as many can be offered. Worst case would be Disney having to cancel FastPass+ times on resort guests.

Okay, well, back to the drawing board!

 

[lazyboy97o]

Not even those here who characterise enjoyment of FP+ as selfish refrained from using it themselves.

What is reasonable and middle ground about constantly accusing others of personal attacks?

 

[flynnibus]

Who goes on vacation to WDW thinking, "I shouldn't use the free line-skipping system the parks have because someone else might not understand it or like it as much as I do?"

We are not talking about our vacation experience during our trip - we are here on a discussion forum talking about what models the company has used and their pros/cons. Fact remains many will judge and value only their individual experience over the whole.

 

[LittleBuford]

What is reasonable and middle ground about constantly accusing others of personal attacks?

I didn’t accuse anyone of personal attacks. I described a characterisation that has been made multiple times in this thread, including earlier today:

Well when posters have outright said it worked for them and that’s all they cared about… what would you call it?

 

[flynnibus]

In my opinion you dramatically and vastly overstate the amount of stress/anxiety involved in both planning and changing plans when necessary. Most people have those life skills. Disney does not need to concern itself with the hypothetical people described in your posts because they’d be dead of a heart attack before they ever got to the park.

literally there has been an entire industry spun up around this task. Consider why...

Note - you don't deny the conflicts and consequences - you just try to dismiss them as 'no biggie'.

Meanwhile you could spend years reading all the content and guidance people have put together for people to guide and coach them on this. Obviously it's not so trivial to many..

 

[mikejs78]

That keeps getting brought up and makes zero sense from a software development perspective.

genie wasn’t in place before either. So any second system brought up could have been their old code base updated too

I mean, it's been stated by insiders that this was the case, so...

And you're partially right - it doesn't make sense from a Software development perspective if said software system is developed well. But let me present an example:

Warning: tech talk ahead

First, let's say they repurposed the APIs. Now MDE is using the APIs for FP+ for park reservations - and they repurposed classes within MDE that were used for FP for FP.

Now - let's suppose that the backend code had hardcoded references to databases, other systems, etc littered throughout the code. Bad practice, yes, but I've seen it done. So now all the internal systems, databases, APIs, etc from FP are now used for Park reservations.

So now they are bringing back some form of line skip, - at minimum they need new APIs, new classes in MDE, and new database objects to hold all of the data. If their system is poorly architected and contains a lot of leaky abstractions, it could be a huge undertaking to reimplement the system.


It's also worth remembering that up until recently, Genie had more elements of FP+ in it (for example, the ability to schedule times). Apparently that was removed somewhat late, my guess is because they were behind, had a business goal to get Genie+ out by EOY on both coasts, and it made sense to share code already developed for DLR.

 

[Jrb1979]

Who goes on vacation to WDW thinking, "I shouldn't use the free line-skipping system the parks have because someone else might not understand it or like it as much as I do?" I'm sure there were people who got even more out of FP+ than I did, but I got enough out of it to make it enjoyable. It reduces stress to know that I've got a return time for a popular ride rather than wondering, "When I pay this $15/person will I even get to spot for that?" or (in the absence of any line-skipping system), "Will the line for that be so long that I won't want to waste the time waiting for it?"

Then you have people like me who hate the whole having to schedule my ride times.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

I’m aware that the park reservation system used the FastPass+ system as it’s foundation to get it in place quickly. That though doesn’t explain why it would be a technological hindrance to deploying FastPass+ now. If they literally just deleted FastPass+ then they truly are incompetent morons. It’s not like there is some sort of server limitation that preventing them from deploying another system because they did deploy additional systems, one of which is also derived from FastPass+. What FastPass+ functionality is somehow deeply tied into the park reservations and can’t be deployed? The current systems can handle people holding three virtual queues at a time before the park opens.

I'm not saying that's what happened, but have you experienced Disney's IT before? It wouldn't be shocking if that's what they did.

 

[mikejs78]

Then you have people like me who hate the whole having to schedule my ride times.

Everyone's different. That's fine. I'd much rather pick my return time then have it be given to me at an inconvenient time.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

What is reasonable and middle ground about constantly accusing others of personal attacks?

It's not a personal attack to say that someone called FP+ defenders selfish when there's a post in this thread - that I replied directly to, and you replied to my response - that says exactly that. You can go back and see it for yourself if you missed it.

 

[Jrb1979]

Everyone's different. That's fine. I'd much rather pick my return time then have it be given to me at an inconvenient time.

I don't like that either. I want it like every other park and just get in line when I WANT.

As far as fixing Genie+, the only option is to up the ratio of LL to standby. Make standby crawl if need be.