Are you buying Genie+

Will you buy Genie+

  • Total voters
    475
Richie248

Richie248

Well-Known Member
I'll likely use it when traveling solo...will be in the parks October 1st and 2nd, if it's up and running by then....will probably give it a try....
 
Javier Antonio Nisa Avila

Javier Antonio Nisa Avila

Active Member
Gartdog said:
I am a long-time devotee of Disney Parks (just came back from WDW a few weeks ago). I love the parks not just as a vacation destination, but view them as living, always changing and evolving works of art. I am the kind of person who dreams of retiring near WDW and spending days just enjoying being there. But this is the first time in my life that I have felt this sort of anger and disappointment in Disney.

The sad truth is that all of us saying we won’t go back to Disney because of these new changes is exactly what Disney wants. They have watched for decades as attendance increased by huge amounts every year, and park expansion lagged behind it, to the point that the parks are overwhelmed with guests. They have done a marvelous job with making amazing new E-ticket rides (Rise of the Resistance and Flight of Passage are extraordinary), but they have not been built to handle the capacity they demand, and for every great E-ticket, we are placated with an unimaginative spinning carnival ride that is not indicative of what Disney is capable of (think Cars Land – Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, and Toy Story Land – Alien Swirling Saucers). This is a cheap way to create a place to stick people, while offering very little in terms of guest experience.

They now have a few options to handle the increased attendance:

  • Greatly limit the number of guests allowed each day (which decreases revenue if they keep costs the same)
  • Aggressively expand the parks to accommodate more guests (not feasible due to cost and time – they should have been doing this all along and now that they are behind the curve, it will be nearly impossible to catch up)
  • Increase costs to price out lower income guests (Disney makes the same amount with less guests, guests who can afford the increased costs have a better experience due to lower crowds, and Disney saves by not needing to pay as many Cast Members to staff the parks)
So us average guests are completely disrespected by Disney because they have spent decades mis-managing crowd control and now have almost no choice but to weed out less-profitable guests or take less money for themselves. And you Annual Passholders are getting it even worse. I really feel bad for APs – Disney clearly understands that APs take up space in the parks and don’t overspend on food and souvenirs, and Disney hates it.

The disrespect continues:

  • Canceling Magic Express
  • No more free Magic bands
  • Evening Magic Hours for Deluxe Resort Guests only
  • Decreased hours on a day when you continue to pay full price so Disney can charge more than a day’s admission to the guests for an after-hours party.
  • Drastic cuts in live entertainment, including parades and night-time shows (remember the days when MK fireworks were twice a night with a light parade in-between? Hard to believe this was a thing)
  • Pay-to-ride Fast Passes, paid access to a Fast Pass system that doesn’t include the rides you need Fast Passes for, and an algorithm to “minimize your time in line” which is really just a Disney tool for crowd control, all packaged as though this is all being done for the guest’s benefit.
  • Building rides that have mid to low capacity but will demand big crowds, charging admission to see them, then just being ok with well below half the day’s guests not getting to experience them.
  • Using COVID as an excuse to cut services, and especially as an excuse to cut Cast Member jobs.
I believe in Capitalism – if you have a product or idea that people will pay for then it is your absolute right to charge what you can get for it. And I wholly believe that Disney does not owe us a thing, no matter how loyal we have all been as customers over the years. In the end, though, the word I keep coming back to is disrespect. I’ve always understood and been totally settled with Disney being a company that could market their products like no other and really squeeze every cent out of a revenue source, but I feel like they always did so by being innovative, prioritizing the customer in ways that the competition did not, and constantly offering the highest quality product. They are still innovative when they need to be, but then they pad their numbers with less-than quality attractions (carnival-style rides and recycled rides like the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind). But sadly now the customer service and product quality are just so far down the list of priorities that is has become insulting. We are asked to pay more for less hours, less entertainment, and then are hustled to pay additional fees on top of the admission price, all while Disney pitches it as a benefit which we have the “opportunity” to take advantage of.

It’s disrespectful. And for the first time in my life, I don’t know that I will be back. It makes me sad, but that’s just how Disney wants it.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with everything you say. I think disney wants out the fans and those families who go to the park every year. Disney wants people to go and spend a lot of money but they don't Repeat every year. Disney wants people not to know the mechanics of the park so that guests spend money on everything by not knowing attractions, times and planning.The elimination of fastpass, Magic bands free, magical express, attractions without stand by and only with virtual queue, etc. is a clear statement of intention. They only want people who go little so that Think "for once I travel to wdw I buy the Genie + plus the premium attractions ..."
 
MickeyLuv'r

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
Maybe.

I might buy Genie+/the LL extras if the time savings is very significant. I suspect I'll buy each at least once just to see it for myself how it works, but I won't buy it if the time savings isn't significant.

Odds are high we'll just skip some rides. 7DMT isn't worth an upcharge. I also see us likely just skipping HS altogether. If the choices (for 7DMT/Rise) come down to: 2-hour standby, pay $15+, or skip? Eh.

I don't know we'll stop going to WDW entirely, but I think we'll continue our trend of cutting back, and we won't be alone.

I'm inclined to say this is a dumb move. I think, to a large extent Eisner had the right ideas. During much of his tenure, he added fun hotels, attractions, dining experiences, merchandise, and super-service. There were increasing reasons to stay entirely in the WDW bubble.

Eating and hotels stays have now become stale. I'm now less inclined to waste 90 minutes of my park day waiting for Pooh to grace my table for a 10second photo. Eating is now, "How fast can I suck down a granola bar?" There was time when people went to WDW and relied on WDW to provide everything: water, food, strollers, and people were happy to spend time milling about. Now more and more WDW visitors are desperate to have food delivered and to avoid buying anything on property if they can avoid paying WDW prices.

We now go to WDW just for the rides, instead of the whole experience. This new addition is going to drive people further from the WDW bubble. FP was never truly free, because you had to pay for admission, but once you paid admission, you didn't think about paying to ride. This forces us to think about paying to ride individual attractions. Eww!
 
Last edited:
Giss Neric

Giss Neric

Well-Known Member
I'm a pretty patient person. As long as the crowds don't go back to pre-pandemic/2019 crowd level then I don't mind waiting in line for standby. Getting rid of the fast pass worked wonders in wait times. The reservation system helps as well. I'm worried how the crowds would be starting October. Will they increase the capacity greatly that wait times will increase drastically and we have no choice but to utilize the lightning lane.
 
erasure fan1

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
UltimateRollercoaster said:
Those Magic Bands were never free. People need to stop saying they were free because you absolutely paid for them.
Click to expand...
That's the rub as a whole. Disney always was more expensive. And Disney always billed it as, but look at all the advantages to staying on property. You were paying for parking, magical Express, magic bands... In the rates you were paying. It's really them double dipping because they know people will still line up for Disney.
 
SpoiledBlueMilk

SpoiledBlueMilk

Well-Known Member
Gartdog said:
I am a long-time devotee of Disney Parks (just came back from WDW a few weeks ago). I love the parks not just as a vacation destination, but view them as living, always changing and evolving works of art. I am the kind of person who dreams of retiring near WDW and spending days just enjoying being there. But this is the first time in my life that I have felt this sort of anger and disappointment in Disney.

The sad truth is that all of us saying we won’t go back to Disney because of these new changes is exactly what Disney wants. They have watched for decades as attendance increased by huge amounts every year, and park expansion lagged behind it, to the point that the parks are overwhelmed with guests. They have done a marvelous job with making amazing new E-ticket rides (Rise of the Resistance and Flight of Passage are extraordinary), but they have not been built to handle the capacity they demand, and for every great E-ticket, we are placated with an unimaginative spinning carnival ride that is not indicative of what Disney is capable of (think Cars Land – Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, and Toy Story Land – Alien Swirling Saucers). This is a cheap way to create a place to stick people, while offering very little in terms of guest experience.

They now have a few options to handle the increased attendance:

  • Greatly limit the number of guests allowed each day (which decreases revenue if they keep costs the same)
  • Aggressively expand the parks to accommodate more guests (not feasible due to cost and time – they should have been doing this all along and now that they are behind the curve, it will be nearly impossible to catch up)
  • Increase costs to price out lower income guests (Disney makes the same amount with less guests, guests who can afford the increased costs have a better experience due to lower crowds, and Disney saves by not needing to pay as many Cast Members to staff the parks)
So us average guests are completely disrespected by Disney because they have spent decades mis-managing crowd control and now have almost no choice but to weed out less-profitable guests or take less money for themselves. And you Annual Passholders are getting it even worse. I really feel bad for APs – Disney clearly understands that APs take up space in the parks and don’t overspend on food and souvenirs, and Disney hates it.

The disrespect continues:

  • Canceling Magic Express
  • No more free Magic bands
  • Evening Magic Hours for Deluxe Resort Guests only
  • Decreased hours on a day when you continue to pay full price so Disney can charge more than a day’s admission to the guests for an after-hours party.
  • Drastic cuts in live entertainment, including parades and night-time shows (remember the days when MK fireworks were twice a night with a light parade in-between? Hard to believe this was a thing)
  • Pay-to-ride Fast Passes, paid access to a Fast Pass system that doesn’t include the rides you need Fast Passes for, and an algorithm to “minimize your time in line” which is really just a Disney tool for crowd control, all packaged as though this is all being done for the guest’s benefit.
  • Building rides that have mid to low capacity but will demand big crowds, charging admission to see them, then just being ok with well below half the day’s guests not getting to experience them.
  • Using COVID as an excuse to cut services, and especially as an excuse to cut Cast Member jobs.
I believe in Capitalism – if you have a product or idea that people will pay for then it is your absolute right to charge what you can get for it. And I wholly believe that Disney does not owe us a thing, no matter how loyal we have all been as customers over the years. In the end, though, the word I keep coming back to is disrespect. I’ve always understood and been totally settled with Disney being a company that could market their products like no other and really squeeze every cent out of a revenue source, but I feel like they always did so by being innovative, prioritizing the customer in ways that the competition did not, and constantly offering the highest quality product. They are still innovative when they need to be, but then they pad their numbers with less-than quality attractions (carnival-style rides and recycled rides like the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind). But sadly now the customer service and product quality are just so far down the list of priorities that is has become insulting. We are asked to pay more for less hours, less entertainment, and then are hustled to pay additional fees on top of the admission price, all while Disney pitches it as a benefit which we have the “opportunity” to take advantage of.

It’s disrespectful. And for the first time in my life, I don’t know that I will be back. It makes me sad, but that’s just how Disney wants it.
Click to expand...

Good work on this post. You really encapsulated what I've been trying to convey in a few posts. There was a time when Disney was the leader in innovation. The price they charged was offset by the product they offered. You knew walking into WDW that you were going to see some of the best themed entertainment anywhere in the world. Not only that, you knew that the parks would be clean and that the Disney ethos meant top-tier customer service. When you were in the parks it didn't matter that Disney was a massive company with interests spread across a number of industries. The parks were the focus. No longer. It's sad.
 
S

StarshipDisney

Well-Known Member
Already made plans for December 2022 but now this whole situation with Disney has changed my outlook. I will reduce my Disney trip to 5 nights at a moderate but only buy a 4-day ticket with Genie+. Without reserved FastPass, I see no reason to waste my time or $$$ for a few park hours on the day we arrive or the day we leave. I doubt Genie+ will do any good whatsoever if you arrive at the park after 5:00 PM and we will visit Disney Springs on the day we leave the resort.

I say leave...I might add that I reduced my time at Disney to go check-in for 3 nights at Universal Portofino Bay. Made that reservation as well.

I see no reason to spend any full vacation trips to Florida at Disney anymore. Way to go Disney!
 
R

RollerCoaster

Well-Known Member
Chi84 said:
They were included in the price of the room and now are priced separately.
Click to expand...
Exactly they were not free. You received them for the price of the room. People make the mistake all the time of calling something free that is not free. The Magic Bands were an annoyance for most guests, so this isn't a big loss. Those who love them can pay for them.

I will agree that it's another way to raise prices, without actually raising the price.
 
NickMaio

NickMaio

Well-Known Member
erasure fan1 said:
That's the rub as a whole. Disney always was more expensive. And Disney always billed it as, but look at all the advantages to staying on property. You were paying for parking, magical Express, magic bands... In the rates you were paying. It's really them double dipping because they know people will still line up for Disney.
Click to expand...
That's exactly what all this extra pay stuff is.......double dipping.
It's really nasty and has really re-made us think about our love of WDW.
Such a bitter experience now........textbook nickel and diming people.
 
Last edited:

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom