Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[GoofGoof]

Historically with Disney, the people visiting right at the beginning of a system changeover like this have gotten the short end of the stick. They have never done anything about it or even framed the changeovers as anything but positive for the guests immediately there, FP+ had a whole advertising campaign with be our guest during the ‘test phase’.

It just is what it is, but that really stinks for those who unknowingly found themselves vacationing in that first week or so, being too close to change it for many.

I was there in 2013 during the “test phase” of FP+. The major benefit was they did not apply the tiers to our reservations so we could book multiple tier 1s in each park that had them. i think maybe the tiers were added after we already booked reservations. We also had an issue with changing a reservation where the new reservation was not showing when we went to tap in and they just let us through anyway. I imagine they will be pretty accommodating to anyone with issues at go live.

 

[JAB]

I’m not an expert, I honestly have no idea how this will work and I hope there isn’t an obvious loophole to exploit. I was just thinking the easiest way to apply this for date based tickets would be to open the window 3 days before your ticket date and leave it open for the length of the ticket use window (which would be 14 days for a 10 day ticket). So if I buy a 10 day ticket with a date of August 4th then my booking window would open August 1st and be open for any of the 14 days from August 4th to August 18th (which are the days my park ticket is valid to use) but I would be limited to making reservations on 10 of those days. I don’t think it would be a fixed 14 day window for any length ticket, that was just my example based on a 10 day ticket. If the ticket is valid for less days the window would be less.

It also works to just open a 10 day window with a 10 day ticket and then each day extend it another day until you reach 14 days. That’s just slightly more of a hassle, not that they are likely to care much about that.

From a development standpoint, the daily expanding window is actually the simpler (and cheaper) implementation since they've already implemented it before with FP+, it allows both on and off-property booking window calculations to share code, and keeping track of all the valid date ranges for the varying length of date-based tickets that would be necessary to do it the other way would be messy and a maintenance headache.

I agree that it's more of a hassle for those guests affected, but it's likely it's just not worth it to Disney to accommodate, and even if the expanding window weren't the simpler solution, I think Disney would still rather slightly inconvenience a subset of off-site guests than upset on-property guests.

 

[JAB]

Lol I'm not that kind of person. As I said, I'm merely using this message board to vent, isn't that the point of a message board? Of course in real life I will roll with the punches and make the best of it, nothing wrong with pointing out unfair observations though.

I understand the frustration. I know I'd be fuming at first, even though I understand the reasons why they chose to do a clean switchover.

Then, when I'd cooled off, I'd spend the next month obsessively putting together a LL plan for the whole trip so I'd be ready to go, and pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that the system doesn't completely implode at 7 am on the 24th.

Good luck. Hope it all goes okay.

 

[GoofGoof]

From a development standpoint, the daily expanding window is actually the simpler (and cheaper) implementation since they've already implemented it before with FP+, it allows both on and off-property booking window calculations to share code, and keeping track of all the valid date ranges for the varying length of date-based tickets that would be necessary to do it the other way would be messy and a maintenance headache.

I agree that it's more of a hassle for those guests affected, but it's likely it's just not worth it to Disney to accommodate, and even if the expanding window weren't the simpler solution, I think Disney would still rather slightly inconvenience a subset of off-site guests than upset on-property guests.

I never stayed off site when FP+ was around so I didn’t know how it worked. I’m sure you are right that if they already have it programmed they won’t recreate the wheel.

Selfishly, I’m more concerned with how they will treat a split stay on property. I have a 10 day park ticket starting 8/18 and two resort reservations (6 days then 5 back to back) with check-in dates of 8/18 and 8/24. So will I be able to book reservations on any 10 days during that trip starting 8/11 or will I have to wait until 8/17 for the last 5 days of my trip since that will be 7 days before the second check-in date? If that’s the case would I instead be able to book the second half of my reservations 3 days prior to 8/18 park ticket date (or 8/15). I don’t think the 3 days makes too much difference overall but just thinking about when I need to hop on to book. Hopefully since the 2 reservations and park tickets are all linked in MDE I can just book it all at once on 8/11.

 

[JAB]

I never stayed off site when FP+ was around so I didn’t know how it worked. I’m sure you are right that if they already have it programmed they won’t recreate the wheel.

Selfishly, I’m more concerned with how they will treat a split stay on property. I have a 10 day park ticket starting 8/18 and two resort reservations (6 days then 5 back to back) with check-in dates of 8/18 and 8/24. So will I be able to book reservations on any 10 days during that trip starting 8/11 or will I have to wait until 8/17 for the last 5 days of my trip since that will be 7 days before the second check-in date? If that’s the case would I instead be able to book the second half of my reservations 3 days prior to 8/18 park ticket date (or 8/15). I don’t think the 3 days makes too much difference overall but just thinking about when I need to hop on to book. Hopefully since the 2 reservations and park tickets are all linked in MDE I can just book it all at once on 8/11.

IIRC, FP+ treated completely on-property split stays as a single combined reservation, and treated on/off-property combos as separate on-property and off-property bookings. However, the way I understand it, the dining reservation system currently treats any split stays as separate reservations.

It's possible the new system just reverts to the way FP+ did it, but it might also work the way current dining reservations do. Since they've implemented split stays both ways, it's honestly anybody's guess as to what the new LL system will do.

 

[arich35]

Or even worse. Imagine the window opens on 7/24 during people's travel time for the start of their vacations. Many people get morning flights around 9:00 a.m. or so and probably have to arrive at the airport around 6:00 or 7:00 a.m.. That's not the time when you want to have to make reservations for a family of four for 7 or 10-day stay. And you probably won't even have good Wi-Fi potentially if you're up in the air in a plane, So many vacationers will get screwed if the window opens up at that time and they're traveling.

Get a TA, we will do it for you lol

 

[DCBaker]

@lentesta @DCBaker Any idea how they will handle split stays at resorts? Will you be able to book rides for all all days starting 7 days before checking into the first resort or will it be 7 days prior to each check in? For dining they consider it 2 separate reservations and make you wait until 60 days prior to the second checkin to book ADRs for the second half of the trip but I seem to remember FP+ let you book all your days at both resorts all at once as long as your park ticket and both room reservations were linked on MDE.

Good question - I'm not sure!

 

[lentesta]

@lentesta @DCBaker Any idea how they will handle split stays at resorts? Will you be able to book rides for all all days starting 7 days before checking into the first resort or will it be 7 days prior to each check in? For dining they consider it 2 separate reservations and make you wait until 60 days prior to the second checkin to book ADRs for the second half of the trip but I seem to remember FP+ let you book all your days at both resorts all at once as long as your park ticket and both room reservations were linked on MDE.

My guess is the system will not know about split stays.

 

[Andy_0410]

This just pushes international guests to other resorts. Have recently been doing a 3/4 day at universal and 10/11 day at Disney. Already reducing my Disney time. Gutted I’m doing Disney first in October now
Next time I will spend 7 days somewhere else first (more than likely universal) with 7 days at Disney afterward to get my fastpasses sorry lightning lanes booked

 

[nickys]

My guess is the system will not know about split stays.

I assume you mean it will see one stay ending so reset the clock? Booo.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I assume you mean it will see one stay ending so reset the clock? Booo.

That’s how everything else works now. No reason to expect otherwise.

Should get the free water park on transfer day, though!

 

[nickys]

This just pushes international guests to other resorts. Have recently been doing a 3/4 day at universal and 10/11 day at Disney. Already reducing my Disney time. Gutted I’m doing Disney first in October now
Next time I will spend 7 days somewhere else first (more than likely universal) with 7 days at Disney afterward to get my fastpasses sorry lightning lanes booked

I’m still hoping they will eventually fix this.

However my plan will be to do a short break somewhere first - NY, Boston, DC, followed by a few days at Universal and do KSC and anywhere else offsite then. And then move to Disney

 

[nickys]

That’s how everything else works now. No reason to expect otherwise.

Should get the free water park on transfer day, though!

Depends if they dust off the FP+ code or start again I guess.

 

[GoofGoof]

IIRC, FP+ treated completely on-property split stays as a single combined reservation, and treated on/off-property combos as separate on-property and off-property bookings. However, the way I understand it, the dining reservation system currently treats any split stays as separate reservations.

It's possible the new system just reverts to the way FP+ did it, but it might also work the way current dining reservations do. Since they've implemented split stays both ways, it's honestly anybody's guess as to what the new LL system will do.

Good question - I'm not sure!

My guess is the system will not know about split stays.

Thanks guys. I was thinking the same that it would be treated like ADRs with 2 separate bookings. Not a big deal either way and I have time to see it in action before I have to book.

 

[C33Mom]

My guess is the system will not know about split stays.

This is my guess also. We are going to give the new system a shot next month (too late to abort!) but seriously considering just scrapping our Thanksgiving trip where we are splitting 10 days between Beach Club and Grand Floridian. It appears the new LL system already benefits longer offsite tickets over a week on site, so we would have booked all 10 nights at one resort if we knew the system would launch this way…waiting to see how the new system actually works and if it’s going to require someone to wake at 7 or everybody to rope drop to be able to secure more than one or two T1 attractions per day.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

So does that essentially mean that only people staying starting on 7/31 Will be using the new system? Because 7/31 is 7 days out. Or does genie plus stop working for those guests staying on property on 7/24?

Right now it seems like people staying on 7/24 can start booking on 7/24 for LL’s starting on 7/24.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

No one is required to purchase/use Genie+.

Occupancy rates this summer are reportedly ridiculously low. I don’ think anyone’s going to have real problems pulling lightning lanes under any system on July 24th. People who have trips that week can probably breathe easy.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Wow ok. That seems odd because anyone on their vacation during that time now has a worse situation to plan for. Not just a 7am day of 1 booking, but a 7am day of purchase of all remaining days along with multiple days of multiple bookings.

I think the crowds are going to be low enough that week that it won’t matter. People could probably get away without prebooking anything and just pulling things the day of.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I think the crowds are going to be low enough that week that it won’t matter. People could probably get away without prebooking anything and just pulling things the day of.

That’s probably true

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

That’s probably true

The price for that week will be interesting because I bet it’s never any cheaper than whatever they roll out at.