Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

Fido Chuckwagon

Well-Known Member
as a regular AP holder, a DVC member, and a frequent visitor for over 20 years, if I was unable to get Genie+ for whatever reason and have to use standby lines all day, the Disney park experience is now much less value to me based on my previous experiences.
As a DVC member and ap holder you are a worthless guest to Bob Chapek. He’d much rather you stop going to make room for his mythical day-guest who spends more money.
 

luckyduck

New Member
It really depends if money is a problem....or should I say, paying for Genie for a week for your family won't impact the holiday in any other way, ie have to cut back elsewhere.

It's a no brainer getting G+ if money is no issue. Even if you only get 3 G+ in one day, that could easily save you 3 hours standing in a queue each day.

The first Orlando holiday I had during Genie+ times I really resented paying the $15 per person per visit...but this last time (2 weeks ago) I just became numb to it and bought it every day we went to Disney and took the hit....it is what it is...the most important thing is having a good time..and if the odd $15 here and there mean it's better, what the heck...its only money.
Money is a consideration but not a problem. I don't necessarily want to waste money but also feel that the 15 dollars a day is what we'd spend on a cocktail at WDW. I think we will probably just buy it because time is more of a concern than that amount of money now that the situation has changed. I care more about not needing to wake up at midnight AND 7am to sign up and then get the first rides than I do about the 15 dollars a day (per person 1 realize). Definitely not enamored with this situation (which it sounds like is the consensus)
 

Jeff4272

Well-Known Member
My family (8 people in our party total) is planning a trip to disney in July. We were pretty experienced at fp/ fp+ but haven't been in a few years and this is our first trip with genie- we typically go every few years, however it's our first trip with my 4 year old so I do want to attempt to minimize lines. My plan was to buy genie+ for each day as needed, since there might be a few days that it's not really needed (one day at typhoon, another at epcot). However, I don't really want to be up at midnight each night to buy the darn thing and now I'm getting concerned that availability may be an issue. Since it's still able to be purchased in advance, should we just bite the bullet and purchase for our length of stay? What is everyone's thoughts?
go to Universal
 

Vacationeer

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Money is a consideration but not a problem. I don't necessarily want to waste money but also feel that the 15 dollars a day is what we'd spend on a cocktail at WDW. I think we will probably just buy it because time is more of a concern than that amount of money now that the situation has changed. I care more about not needing to wake up at midnight AND 7am to sign up and then get the first rides than I do about the 15 dollars a day (per person 1 realize). Definitely not enamored with this situation (which it sounds like is the consensus)
Yeah timing is a concern. If the window opens to purchase at midnight with a 7am first ride pick, won’t go down well. Could they maybe pull the time back to 9pm the day before and also get first pick then? Or allow purchase to start at 7am and first pick upon entering park? Who knows? I’m impatiently waiting for more info. Haha
 

Allyp

Active Member
In the Parks
Yes
Money is a consideration but not a problem. I don't necessarily want to waste money but also feel that the 15 dollars a day is what we'd spend on a cocktail at WDW.
I think pricing it so low to begin with was the initial problem IMO. It easy enough to mentally spend that money thinking you’d be able to skip lines, only to find out everyone else thought the same thing and now there are no options. Now you’ve got angry people thinking they had an advantage that wasn’t there to begin with.

Limiting access is one way to solve it for now, but I feel they need to raise the cost significantly to be a percentage of the ticket price that day. Hell, make an super skip the line pass that is even further limited in quantity and now you don’t have to wait for a return time! And charge it the same as a one day ticket per person.

Either way, there needs to be a limit on G+ either by cost or quantity per day (or both) because attraction inventory isn’t there for everyone. Those who get into the system will have a fantastic day and those who don’t will have as good of a time as they want it to be.
 

CaptinEO

Well-Known Member
It's a bad product and everyone has been saying this since it was announced.

The fact is it is not only underpriced but also overly complicated.

I went to Universal Hollywood last month and bought an express ticket for 80 dollars more than admission. It let me skip each line once. No phone or planning.

Disney's reliance on the guest doing scheduling all day on their phone works against the customer who wants to pay a premium to save time.

Genie + or whatever they want to call it should have a one time use per ride tier and an unlimited tier, both should cost an absurd amount of money and involve no planning.

My realistic guess would be this:
Fastpass (each ride once per day) - 189 add on per ticket
Fastpass Plus - 259 add on per ticket
 

Fido Chuckwagon

Well-Known Member
It's a bad product and everyone has been saying this since it was announced.

The fact is it is not only underpriced but also overly complicated.

I went to Universal Hollywood last month and bought an express ticket for 80 dollars more than admission. It let me skip each line once. No phone or planning.

Disney's reliance on the guest doing scheduling all day on their phone works against the customer who wants to pay a premium to save time.

Genie + or whatever they want to call it should have a one time use per ride tier and an unlimited tier, both should cost an absurd amount of money and involve no planning.

My realistic guess would be this:
Fastpass (each ride once per day) - 189 add on per ticket
Fastpass Plus - 259 add on per ticket
They simply do not have the ride capacity to offer something like this. There is a reason that the VIP tours cost 20 times as much as your pricing.
 

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
It's really hard to say. We have no idea when the pain point really begins.
The pain began many years ago when they took several years off expanding the parks when attendance was beginning to skyrocket. Since they have built more resorts and replaced existing attractions. They haven’t kept up with growth with more people eater attractions and places to spread more people out to improve the guest experience and lines.
 

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
I much preferred FP+ too but it still caused enough planning to be bothersome for many.
But there was an alternative i.e. TA that could take care of all the pre-planning for people. Are TAs suddenly going to offer purchasing Genie+ for you so you can sleep, schedule the first ILL and/or LL?
Money is a consideration but not a problem. I don't necessarily want to waste money but also feel that the 15 dollars a day is what we'd spend on a cocktail at WDW. I think we will probably just buy it because time is more of a concern than that amount of money now that the situation has changed. I care more about not needing to wake up at midnight AND 7am to sign up and then get the first rides than I do about the 15 dollars a day (per person 1 realize). Definitely not enamored with this situation (which it sounds like is the consensus)
Doing a budget estimate for 2023 Genie+ with ILL purchases would be around $850 for 3 of us over 10 days it we booked the max ILLs/day. I'd rather my card be charged prior to vacation as much as possible.
 

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