Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

DCBaker

Premium Member
The price for Genie+ has dropped back down to $17 today.

IMG_C3234A2221C9-1.jpeg
 

nickys

Premium Member
They wanted to monetize the system. FP+ was perfect for us too (for the reasons you stated) and I would have preferred if they just charged for it.

That said, I've used Genie+/ILLs on four trips now and it's still possible to have a pretty great time at WDW without the navy seals on a mission thing. Two things are non-negotiable under the new system though; you need to start early and you need your phone. The second of these two is society-wide and will never change. I have some hope that the 7 am start may get modified somehow along the way.

On our last trip (just two of us) we were able to do everything we wanted - I calculated that it cost us around $200 more in total to do what we used to do free with FP+.

How well Genie+ works for you depends very much on how you like to vacation - the same was true for FP+. It's hard for people to think outside their own experience, which is why people end up accusing others of being lazy (on vacation lol), wasting money, wasting time, etc. None of these systems is the end of the world; it's just up to the guest to decide if and to what extent they want to use them and whether or not they make a WDW vacation no longer worth it. The answers will be different for everyone.
Having now experienced it I’m even more in agreement with you on this. I personally loved FP+, and used it to get far more than the 3 initial rides on some (not all) days.

That said I made G+ work. We agreed the night before what our priorities were and I worked out what order we should book them in. Some days I relied on waking up which meant it was 7:30 or so before booking the first one. That was fine though because we are later park-goers. Other days I did have an alarm set to get certain rides (ILL or G+).

We often booked a G+ and pushed it later until it suited us. Just occasionally we missed that chance and the time would jump from say noon to 6pm. I set an alarm for the next booking time if we were stacking, otherwise we booked in the queue after tapping in or on the way out of a ride.

And whilst I preferred FP+ personally, I also recognise that for guests staying offsite or who booked last minute, FP+ was a less beneficial experience than it was for onsite, early booking guests.
 

tanc

Well-Known Member
I don't know if there's much to back up the claim, but I heard Disney apparently was replacing IT workers with contractors. Apparently they are contracted for 18 months and sort of explain some unmagical things about Genie.
 

MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
I don't know if there's much to back up the claim, but I heard Disney apparently was replacing IT workers with contractors. Apparently they are contracted for 18 months and sort of explain some unmagical things about Genie.
I don’t know about replacing, but I know there are currently new IT people that are contracted
 

cranbiz

Well-Known Member
I don't know if there's much to back up the claim, but I heard Disney apparently was replacing IT workers with contractors. Apparently they are contracted for 18 months and sort of explain some unmagical things about Genie.
Wouldn't surprise me. Disney has a history of this. There are very few inhouse IT CM's.
 

matt9112

Well-Known Member
The phone part I understand. The days of leaving my phone in the safe at the resort are done. I can live with that.
They just need to find away to modify this system to make the 7am start unnecessary. Maybe they hold back availability to later times or something.

I'm surprised there isn't a way to "pay extra" to pre reserve a LL for rides like RotR.

The biggest problem is booking an expensive vacation and having no guarantee that you will get ride all the headliners without a 3 hour wait. With FP+ that was all handled long before we arrived.

We all agree the pricing is getting ridiculous, but you can't judge the value if you don't know for sure what you will get to do.

Expecting all resort guests to get out of bed at 7am doesn't seem like a good business model for a vacation resort.

If they allowed prepaying for it it would all be booked whenever that window opened. It would be the same but I guess not while your on vacation? Also would favor Uber camando planners at the expense of people who are more flexible. The current system I feel like is the best middle ground. Those super planners can plan around extended evening hours for example to not even need to worry.
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Still haven’t bought this and haven’t needed it. If you:
1. Are a resort guest and rope drop early entry
2. Willing to wait 30-60 min for a ride 1-2 times a day.
3. Willing to close parks
4. Not afraid to walk

You don’t need Genie, went last week, did everything I wanted, many things multiple times. Walked a lot, but had a blast. Longest wait was 50 min for RnRC SRL due to it being broken down for 3 hours. Waited 45 min for TSMM, Rise and Rat other days. Walked 11.3 miles a day.
 

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