Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[Disstevefan1]

It all comes back to that there is too many people buying it each day. None of these things would be an issue if less people were buying it. If less people bought it each day, you wouldn't have to get up at 7am to book something. There would be availability all day for the majority attractions.

Then Bobby needs to raise the price... Unprecedented demand.

 

[TQQQ]

It all comes back to that there is too many people buying it each day. None of these things would be an issue if less people were buying it. If less people bought it each day, you wouldn't have to get up at 7am to book something. There would be availability all day for the majority attractions.

Agree....That was my original point

 

[TQQQ]

Prebooked rides where a bad idea, they don’t work for Disney…therefore they are gone. It there’s an “answer”…that’s not it.

Think if it like the kraken…when Disney dumps it…you KNOW it’s bad

Agree.....but so is 7am and having to take next available .......has to be some compromise?

 

[allgiggles]

On an average day you can’t do what you did. It def wasn’t even just average. It was slow.

I probably should have mentioned that the LLs we got for that EP day weren't available all day. In fact, when we booked our second LL at 10:30, Frozen and TT were sold out. So I booked Soarin and figured we'd book Frozen as our 7:00 choice on a different day and we could do TT single rider. We got really lucky and both TT and Frozen ended up having availability later in the day and we were able to grab them... right place, right time. That happened at DHS as well. There was not full availability of everything every day. I should have mentioned that before, it probably would have been helpful.

Well I am out, I got iPhone and ATT
I have never actually used Genie+ and I am looking at the app now.
There is NO standby for Haunted Mansion and the ONLY WAY TO RIDE IT IS TO PURCHASE GENIE+ ?

My husband has an iPhone and AT&T and he had no issues.

All rides except GoTG have a standby line. There is no need to purchase Genie+ if you don't want to.

 

[allgiggles]

I loved FP+, but that's because I am a planner. WDW wanted to get rid of that. SO, I guess I could adapt to Genie+, but it would have to fix what I think are the MAJOR flaws first:

- If Genie+ allowed you to book your first ride the night before so I would not have to get up at 7am
- limit sales so on busy days it's actually worth it
- allow you to choose available return times. People go to the parks at all different times, why limit it to 'next available' vs whenever it works best for guests?
- have a replace button

I pretty much agree with all of your suggestions.

It is currently possible to get the times you want (or close to it), it just takes patience. Though it would be nice if the app showed all available times and you could just pick what you want right away rather than refreshing or waiting.

 

[TQQQ]

I pretty much agree with all of your suggestions.

It is currently possible to get the times you want (or close to it), it just takes patience. Though it would be nice if the app showed all available times and you could just pick what you want right away rather than refreshing or waiting.

How about just allow selection of return time for your first pick the night before and then every subsequent pick was next available?

That would be an excellent compromise

 

[Jrb1979]

How about just allow selection of return time for your first pick the night before and then every subsequent pick was next available?

That would be an excellent compromise

Not happening. Pre-booking isn't coming back. The easiest solution is raise the price enough to price some people out.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Agree.....but so is 7am and having to take next available .......has to be some compromise?

They just don’t have the raw seat capacity needed to manage their current attendance. That’s why it’s such a visual struggle.

Any system will fail in “tradeoffs” until that isn’t the case.

 

[TQQQ]

Not happening. Pre-booking isn't coming back. The easiest solution is raise the price enough to price some people out.

its not pre booking....its just moving the 7am window back 11 hours

 

[mikejs78]

Then split the inventory like they used to do with BG's? Make half available at 8pm the night before and if you miss that, the other half is available at 7am


There has to be something else they can do to improve it because it really stinks in its current state

The only thing worse than a 7 AM booking time would be an 8 PM booking time. That's prime park time!

 

[TQQQ]

The only thing worse than a 7 AM booking time would be an 8 PM booking time. That's prime park time!

vs prime sleep time? how about 9pm? 10pm? 11pm? pick one, any one

 

[crazy4disney]

vs prime sleep time? how about 9pm? 10pm? 11pm? pick one, any one

how bout the day before your trip starts so you can do it from the comfort of your own home.....

 

[Patcheslee]

how bout the day before your trip starts so you can do it from the comfort of your own home.....

The day before my trip starts I'm already out of town every time lol

 

[mikejs78]

how bout the day before your trip starts so you can do it from the comfort of your own home.....

Personally I think a week before would be ideal.

 

[crazy4disney]

Personally I think a week before would be ideal.

Listen. I have no issues w 60 days out lol. Trust me. Im a huge fan if FP+. Never had any issues at all and im booking my dining that far out anyways but the 7am fiasco stinks and the other improvement that has to be made is once you book a Genie. It doesnt show you current available time slot forthatatrraction to try andrebook etc

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I don’t think there’s any one time of day that would please everyone in regards to booking time. If they let you choose a return time however, I think that would satisfy most people. I used Genie solo back in January and that was one of my biggest peeve. My other biggest annoyance was just randomly being booted out or the screen freezing during those first few precious minutes at 7am.

 

[crazy4disney]

I don’t think there’s any one time of day that would please everyone in regards to booking time. If they let you choose a return time however, I think that would satisfy most people. I used Genie solo back in January and that was one of my biggest peeve. My other biggest annoyance was just randomly being booted out or the screen freezing during those first few precious minutes at 7am.

i truly dk why it doesnt allow you to choose time slots it can only benefit the system by spreading out what people choose and with the 2 hour booking windows even if some gets the park late how many rides can they really have "stacked" especially during busy times

 

[GhostHost1000]

Personally I think a week before would be ideal.

YES

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Rise is an ILL, Slinky is G+

Have one person book the ILL and another book the G+ and the odds improve dramatically.

I assumed we all know both of the above, and not really relevant. I was abbreviating.

Booking an acceptable Genie+, ILL or a Boarding Group Pass triggers chemical reactions in our body. The the sake of brevity, I'm going to shorten "acceptable Genie+, ILL or a Boarding Group Pass" to the much shorter "G+." All 3 are examples of something called reward uncertainty.

The odd thing is, a big part of what we enjoy is the uncertainty. If we want a mammal to learn a skill, the most effective approach is a periodic reward.

WDW has added a new layer to park visits that is very akin to gambling or playing a game.

From the NIH study cited below:

Studies have shown that reward uncertainty rather than reward per se, will magnify mesolimbic dopamine, both in monkeys and healthy human participants.
People often describe gambling as a pleasant activity rather than as an opportunity to gain money.

Chemical release is highest in [compulsive] gamblers when the odds of winning/losing are about 50%/50%.

According to Greg Costikyan, an award-winning game designer, games cannot hold our interest in the absence of uncertainty—which can take many forms, occurring in the outcome, the game's path, analytical complexity, perception, and so on.

Discussing the game of Tic-Tac-Toe, Costikyan (p. 10) notes that this game is dull for anyone beyond a certain age because its solution is trivial. The reason why children play this game with enjoyment is that they do not understand that the game has an optimal strategy; for children, the game of Tic-Tac-Toe produces an uncertain outcome. A predictable game is dull, just like a detective novel for which the identity of the murderer is known in advance. Based on this assumption, Zack and Poulos (2009) note that several payoff schedules (slot machines, roulette, and dice game of craps) have a probability of winning close to 50%, so that they are expected to elicit maximal DA release and, therefore, reinforce the act of gambling.

Individuals are playing to play rather than to win, and monetary wins are conceived as the opportunity to extend the duration of play, rather than the game's main objective.

What motivates gambling behavior? Insight into dopamine's role

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

So this is what meant in line 2 of my previous post when I said G+ was like gambling. I hope that clarifies.

 

[nickys]

I assumed we all know both of the above, and not really relevant. I was abbreviating.

Booking an acceptable Genie+, ILL or a Boarding Group Pass triggers chemical reactions in our body. The the sake of brevity, I'm going to shorten "acceptable Genie+, ILL or a Boarding Group Pass" to the much shorter "G+." All 3 are examples of something called reward uncertainty.

The odd thing is, a big part of what we enjoy is the uncertainty. If we want a mammal to learn a skill, the most effective approach is a periodic reward.

WDW has added a new layer to park visits that is very akin to gambling or playing a game.

From the NIH study cited below:

Studies have shown that reward uncertainty rather than reward per se, will magnify mesolimbic dopamine, both in monkeys and healthy human participants.
People often describe gambling as a pleasant activity rather than as an opportunity to gain money.

Chemical release is highest in [compulsive] gamblers when the odds of winning/losing are about 50%/50%.

According to Greg Costikyan, an award-winning game designer, games cannot hold our interest in the absence of uncertainty—which can take many forms, occurring in the outcome, the game's path, analytical complexity, perception, and so on.

Discussing the game of Tic-Tac-Toe, Costikyan (p. 10) notes that this game is dull for anyone beyond a certain age because its solution is trivial. The reason why children play this game with enjoyment is that they do not understand that the game has an optimal strategy; for children, the game of Tic-Tac-Toe produces an uncertain outcome. A predictable game is dull, just like a detective novel for which the identity of the murderer is known in advance. Based on this assumption, Zack and Poulos (2009) note that several payoff schedules (slot machines, roulette, and dice game of craps) have a probability of winning close to 50%, so that they are expected to elicit maximal DA release and, therefore, reinforce the act of gambling.

Individuals are playing to play rather than to win, and monetary wins are conceived as the opportunity to extend the duration of play, rather than the game's main objective.

What motivates gambling behavior? Insight into dopamine's role

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

So this is what meant in line 2 of my previous post when I said G+ was like gambling. I hope that clarifies.

My post was in response to this line:

Getting both Slinky+Rise = winning the G+ lottery.

It’s clear that not everyone does know that. I had no way of knowing if you did or not. It read to me that you thought getting both was the lottery.