Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

pdude81

Well-Known Member
Tieing it to such a small number of guests was silly. Imho they should have cut it down the middle make FP two a day and than offer a premium experience that could cost significantly more than current genie with say 4 or 5 say 60 bucks PP per day and you get two more that’s 30 per but the optics would have been much better. As a bonus could toss out the tier system for people who paid for that. Sure it would make free fastpass crappier but it wouldn’t have been cold turkey like this junk.



Or or they could scale capacity with attendance bahahahaha.
They had to find out if people were willing to pay for additional fastpasses in the first place, and if so, how much they should charge. Club Level guests are already a group who will pay extra for convenience. Since they had to be booked manually per guest and not able to overlap, they would need to start with a small group like that regardless before spending significant time and energy updating the reservation system.
 

RememberWhen

Well-Known Member
This ^^^^

All of the Touring Plans analysis since the introduction of the G+ has shown that it saves you more time than getting one for any other ride. That then becomes self-fulfilling.

Heh. I'm pretty sure that fewer than 5% of park guests know about TP or the Unofficial Guide.

My guess - and it's a guess - is that the ride isn't running at pre-pandemic capacity. I'll see if I can get some counts this week.
Ok. Potential (maybe best saved for April Fools?) social experiment:
Suggest that the most time saved is for some other ride. Maybe Teacups. And see if that starts getting more Genie+ reservations.
Could see how many people really are watching and planning with TP. And how much power you have over us them.
 

nickys

Premium Member
Ok. Potential (maybe best saved for April Fools?) social experiment:
Suggest that the most time saved is for some other ride. Maybe Teacups. And see if that starts getting more Genie+ reservations.
Could see how many people really are watching and planning with TP. And how much power you have over us them.
Thing is though even if they did that and put a spoof blog out about it, the algorithms for the personalised touring plans would still use the real data. And that would very quickly show that the blog was wrong.

It might work for those that only watch the “How to” G+ videos but not for anyone using the touring plans themselves.
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
Ok. Potential (maybe best saved for April Fools?) social experiment:
Suggest that the most time saved is for some other ride. Maybe Teacups. And see if that starts getting more Genie+ reservations.
Could see how many people really are watching and planning with TP. And how much power you have over us them.
I think the problem is less what TP says on their site and more the 1 billion free planning sites who mostly just rip off whatever Touring Plans says provide analysis based on “conventional wisdom”.
 

Purduevian

Well-Known Member
I think the problem is less what TP says on their site and more the 1 billion free planning sites who mostly just rip off whatever Touring Plans says provide analysis based on “conventional wisdom”.
Not to take away from TP (they do so much great analytics). However, anyone that takes 10 minutes to study the app can tell you the top G+ priorities in MK.

Looking at the app right now
Jingle Cruise is sold out along with Meet Cinderella, Meet Mickey, and Meet Tiana. Pretty easy to see the JC is the first ride to sell out and thus the top priority. Just because 2 sites reach the same conclusion does NOT mean they are ripping off each other.
 

nickys

Premium Member
Not to take away from TP (they do so much great analytics). However, anyone that takes 10 minutes to study the app can tell you the top G+ priorities in MK.

Looking at the app right now
Jingle Cruise is sold out along with Meet Cinderella, Meet Mickey, and Meet Tiana. Pretty easy to see the JC is the first ride to sell out and thus the top priority. Just because 2 sites reach the same conclusion does NOT mean they are ripping off each other.
In that particular case it’s true that the app is useful in showing “the top priority”.

But what does that actually mean? It depends on what people are trying to achieve, surely? The first ride to sell out might not always be the ride that you can save most time on by getting G+ For some people, saving the most time might be their top priority. For others it might be that they want to knock out several rides in quick succession using G+ For another group it will be to book their favourite ride so they can do it 2-3 times, using stand-by first and then using G+
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
We sailed through on this last trip with a G+ for JC and while heading to the boat one guy was about to be kicked out of the park if he got much more out of control. He was punching the posts and theme items in the queue screaming that he had been waiting for nearly 45 minutes and he's tired of lazy ***holes like me walking past him to get on the ride.
Imagine the abuse the cast at merge gets on a regular basis. It is becoming has become a serious problem.
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
That’s because merge on JC is atrocious. If standby is lucky, it’s one party per boat annd everyone else is LL/DAS. The ride never gets to optimal levels because of handicap loads backing up boats.
 
Last edited:

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
We sailed through on this last trip with a G+ for JC and while heading to the boat one guy was about to be kicked out of the park if he got much more out of control. He was punching the posts and theme items in the queue screaming that he had been waiting for nearly 45 minutes and he's tired of lazy ***holes like me walking past him to get on the ride.
Altercations between guests resulted in queues being designed to physically separate the lines at the merge point.
 

Purduevian

Well-Known Member
In that particular case it’s true that the app is useful in showing “the top priority”.

But what does that actually mean? It depends on what people are trying to achieve, surely? The first ride to sell out might not always be the ride that you can save most time on by getting G+ For some people, saving the most time might be their top priority. For others it might be that they want to knock out several rides in quick succession using G+ For another group it will be to book their favourite ride so they can do it 2-3 times, using stand-by first and then using G+
I was just responding to the idea that other sites must be ripping off/stealing from TP because they both say JC is a top priority in MK. TP does A LOT more than just tell you to get a JC LL, but to say another site is ripping them off by saying the same thing is kind of ridiculous to me.

Like JC is NOT a top priority for me because I like other rides in MK more and I'm able to have a better day by leaving it out of my plans unless I get lucky.
 

arich35

Well-Known Member
Many have been asking me, here are the drop times. Make sure you are quite quick (and have a reservation available).

Magic Kingdom
Attractions: Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Times: 10:47 AM, 1:17 PM, 3:47 PM

EPCOT
Attractions:
Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, Test Track, Frozen Ever After
Times:
12:47 PM, 2:47 PM, 4:47 PM, 6:47 PM

Hollywood Studios
Attractions:
Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog Dash, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Times: 10:47 AM, 1:17 PM, 3:47 PM

Animal Kingdom
Attractions:
Kali River Rapids, Expedition Everest
Times: 10:17 AM, 12:47 PM, 3:17 PM
Is this still accurate?
We are park hopping to Epcot next Friday and wanting to book either Remy or Frozen in the morning and hopefully get the other by refreshing later in the afternoon after using some LL at MK
 

DCLcruiser

Well-Known Member
I just got back from 3 days in the parks (11/29 DHS, 11/30 EPCOT and 12/1 MK). We bought Genie+ for all days, at $15/pp.

Overall, Genie+ was fine. It worked as intended. We were able to LL nearly every ride, unless the line was super short or we were in between pick windows. We didn't need an ILL, chose not to ride Seven Dwarfs for the umpteenth time, but it was readily available. I did not care about drop times in the end, bc we were able to get a LL when we wanted it.

Crowds were fine. MK worse than others, but we never felt uncomfortable and the waits were low.

DHS - Rope drop Rise, 7AM LL MMRR, etc, etc. (SDD LL was available early, but chose not to ride)
EPCOT - 7AM VQ for Guardians, 7AM LL Frozen, LL Rat, etc, etc.
MK - 7AM LL Jingle Cruise, LL Peter Pan, etc etc etc.

Dislikes
- Buying G+ each day is annoying.
- Wasn't 100% clear that once a ride broke and we got an Alternate Experience LL, we didn't need to select the ride, just tap in. After doing it once it was obvious going forward. Also, Test Track broke late, so we were able to use the Alt in MK the next day.
- Old FP style next available made G+ useless at times, bc nearly every LL was available NOW, but we wanted it for hours from now (example, Living with the Land, we wanted when it was dark for the Christmas lights).
- Not being able to select a new ride w/o cancelling is annoying, but we rarely adjusted our schedule.

I would buy it again.
 

Mousebucks6

New Member
I just got back from 3 days in the parks (11/29 DHS, 11/30 EPCOT and 12/1 MK). We bought Genie+ for all days, at $15/pp.

Overall, Genie+ was fine. It worked as intended. We were able to LL nearly every ride, unless the line was super short or we were in between pick windows. We didn't need an ILL, chose not to ride Seven Dwarfs for the umpteenth time, but it was readily available. I did not care about drop times in the end, bc we were able to get a LL when we wanted it.

Crowds were fine. MK worse than others, but we never felt uncomfortable and the waits were low.

DHS - Rope drop Rise, 7AM LL MMRR, etc, etc. (SDD LL was available early, but chose not to ride)
EPCOT - 7AM VQ for Guardians, 7AM LL Frozen, LL Rat, etc, etc.
MK - 7AM LL Jingle Cruise, LL Peter Pan, etc etc etc.

Dislikes
- Buying G+ each day is annoying.
- Wasn't 100% clear that once a ride broke and we got an Alternate Experience LL, we didn't need to select the ride, just tap in. After doing it once it was obvious going forward. Also, Test Track broke late, so we were able to use the Alt in MK the next day.
- Old FP style next available made G+ useless at times, bc nearly every LL was available NOW, but we wanted it for hours from now (example, Living with the Land, we wanted when it was dark for the Christmas lights).
- Not being able to select a new ride w/o cancelling is annoying, but we rarely adjusted our schedule.

I would buy it again.
If you don't mind my asking, what was the party size? Every time we have been since Genie, it's been party of 6 or 7 and that's where it has gotten complicated. It's a pain breaking into 3 and 4 to try and get the times a little earlier.
 

arich35

Well-Known Member
If you don't mind my asking, what was the party size? Every time we have been since Genie, it's been party of 6 or 7 and that's where it has gotten complicated. It's a pain breaking into 3 and 4 to try and get the times a little earlier.
I thought the group doesn't matter on the times? When I have been practicing it lets me select the time and then makes me select the party (if they had a ticket)
 

Mousebucks6

New Member
I thought the group doesn't matter on the times? When I have been practicing it lets me select the time and then makes me select the party (if they had a ticket)
The size only matters in that earlier times seem to be available for smaller parties. Maybe it's just been hard luck of the draw for us, but nearby times have been hard to find with the larger party. Really looking forward to being a party of 2 someday...
 

arich35

Well-Known Member
The size only matters in that earlier times seem to be available for smaller parties. Maybe it's just been hard luck of the draw for us, but nearby times have been hard to find with the larger party. Really looking forward to being a party of 2 someday...
Interesting. Going to have 11 of us this Friday so I am a little worried how it is going to work
 

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

Back
Top Bottom