A fix for Genie+

[cm1988]

17-year cast member here… I’ve been fiercely disloyal to my former employer. I tell people not to go to Disney World because it isn’t fun anymore.
You spend too much time staring at your cell phone, competing to get in a line.
Then I got this idea. Of course Disney doesn’t accept ideas, so I’ll just quickly post it here.
Genie+ could be fixed so that it becomes a concierge service. In other words, you just tell it in advance which attractions you want to ride. It could have the necessary intelligence to serve up an attraction from your list… not too far from you… and available for a reservation.
That’s it: Make recommendations based on 1) what the guest wants to do, 2) where they are now, and 3) what’s available. It’s all data.
If a guest doesn’t want to be geolocated they can occasionally tell their cell phone “Here I am… I’m ready for another attraction.” Genie++ then serves up the most likely option from the list.

 

[drizgirl]

Isn’t that what the Genie part of this mess is supposed to be?

 

[mysto]

Isn’t that what the Genie part of this mess is supposed to be?

Exactly what I was going to say. When Genie was announced they said the AI would help you get the rides you want. The problem with all AI whether it's google amazon facebook or genie, it that they can't resist programming it to serve them instead of you. It shows you what they want you to see rather than what you asked for.

More and more every day, tech serves the owners not the users.

To the OP, you are right, if genie+ served the user it would be much better. I still think *any* change to it would probably improve it.

 

[cm1988]

Isn’t that what the Genie part of this mess is supposed to be?

Genie is not a "concierge" service. It lists available times for all attractions but does not make recommendations based on where you are.

It COULD act much more like a Guest Relations Host/Hostess, guiding you around the park based on your specified interests.

 

[AndyS2992]

Here right now and I love Genie+. 90% of the return times are instant and just banging through the rides one after the other. Arrived at Magic Kingdom on arrival day at 6pm and managed to ride almost everything other than Seven Dwarfs and the animatronic shows. Almost whole park in five hours. Wait times are also a lie. Jungle Cruise is always posted at 60 mins plus is almost always a walk on. Not sure what’s up with that. Rise of Resistance is also always over an hour but we’ve gotten through every time in about 20 minutes.

 

[marni1971]

The fix would be to ditch it. You know, to get what you’ve already paid for.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I’d fix it by just making everybody wait in queue. Or at the very least going back to the old system.

 

[Chef Mickey]

For me, trashing it would be the better fix. For everyone.

From a guest experience perspective, this idea wouldn't work well or solve the problems of Genie+ today. First time guests won't "know" what they want to do. If they try to anticipate it, they may skip out on things that would have otherwise loved because it didn't sound interesting.

People in general are bad at explaining what they would want when they haven't seen it before. For example, the iPhone. Did you know you wanted it before it was created? No. But now you can't live without one. Apple didn't ask you.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

For me, trashing it would be the better fix. For everyone.

From a guest experience perspective, this idea wouldn't work well or solve the problems of Genie+ today. First time guests won't "know" what they want to do. If they try to anticipate it, they may skip out on things that would have otherwise loved because it didn't sound interesting.

People in general are bad at explaining what they would want when they haven't seen it before. For example, the iPhone. Did you know you wanted it before it was created? No. But now you can't live without one. Apple didn't ask you.

I didn’t know I wanted a “beeper”. Or cable.

I did want “Pong” though.

 

[ceecee101]

We haven’t been in over 10 years and I know when we go in a couple of months I will miss giving someone an unused paper FP on the way out of the park and making their day.

 

[Jrb1979]

The fix would be to ditch it. You know, to get what you’ve already paid for.

The fix would be to change it to Universals system and drop the return times.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

The fix would be to change it to Universals system and drop the return times.

More people at Disney than Uni. And if you really look at it - Uni’s model is driving the EP’s toward a Deluxe Hotel stay, where EP is included.

I’ve said long ago that I think Disney’s endgame is going toward that direction.

Stay in a Deluxe and get FP included for whatever increased room rate they charge. Stay in a moderate and have the option to upgrade and purchase FP for x amount per day. Value has the option to purchase for a little bit more. But if you’re off property - you wait in queue.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

I’d fix it by just making everybody wait in queue. Or at the very least going back to the old system.

"We can't make money off that" - Chapek, probably

 

[cm1988]

For me, trashing it would be the better fix. For everyone.

From a guest experience perspective, this idea wouldn't work well or solve the problems of Genie+ today. First time guests won't "know" what they want to do. If they try to anticipate it, they may skip out on things that would have otherwise loved because it didn't sound interesting.

People in general are bad at explaining what they would want when they haven't seen it before. For example, the iPhone. Did you know you wanted it before it was created? No. But now you can't live without one. Apple didn't ask you.

More people at Disney than Uni. And if you really look at it - Uni’s model is driving the EP’s toward a Deluxe Hotel stay, where EP is included.

I’ve said long ago that I think Disney’s endgame is going toward that direction.

Stay in a Deluxe and get FP included for whatever increased room rate they charge. Stay in a moderate and have the option to upgrade and purchase FP for x amount per day. Value has the option to purchase for a little bit more. But if you’re off property - you wait in queue.

I see the logic in that. And theme parks are businesses, so logic prevails… until it fails. If enough people get enough discomfort about paying to walk past people who won’t or can’t pay, then park management will stop the “pay for priority”.

Seems like “pay for priority” is deeply ingrained in our culture. I believe that makes us a less happy society. Even people who have more than others are less happy.

Would you cut in line ahead of your friend? Why is that stranger who doesn’t shell out money for Genie+ not your friend?

 

[Jrb1979]

I see the logic in that. And theme parks are businesses, so logic prevails… until it fails. If enough people get enough discomfort about paying to walk past people who won’t or can’t pay, then park management will stop the “pay for priority”.

Seems like “pay for priority” is deeply ingrained in our culture. I believe that makes us a less happy society. Even people who have more than others are less happy.

Would you cut in line ahead of your friend? Why is that stranger who doesn’t shell out money for Genie+ not your friend?

I don't see that ever happening. Personally I don't think people care one way or another about walking past those who won't pay. I buy skip the line passes almost every time I go to parks. Mainly cause time is money and when I'm visiting a park that I may go to once or twice I want to get on as many rides as possible in as short of time as possible.

 

[Walt Disney1955]

Yes, the idea is to scrap it and not have fastpass anymore. Or at the very least the old fastpass system for free.

Why won't this happen? Well, if you are reading this, chances are you are the cause of it. When a company realizes that people are addicted - and I mean cocaine-style addicted - to their phones, they are going to try to figure out a way to profit over this. The easiest solution is to put your phone away and stop paying for this mess. If you are giving Disney money for this stuff why does anyone think they would alter it? The crowd levels are there.

It reminds me of a sports franchise. And one that never goes the full mile to build a championship for their city. If the building is being sold out and merchandise is flying off the shelves why would they need to do more?

It is almost like people forget that for most of our lives we went to theme parks and just stood in line and waited, and the lines actually had a better flow to them then, even the long ones.

 

[larryz]

The only way "we" can have an input is to stop paying for it. If EVERYBODY is in stand-by, and NOBODY is G+, then EVERYBODY gets in the same. The line moves.

If nobody was buying ILLs, they'd have to start letting people in for free.

 

[larryz]

We haven’t been in over 10 years and I know when we go in a couple of months I will miss giving someone an unused paper FP on the way out of the park and making their day.

Give them your MagicBand™ linked to your credit card. That's guaranteed to make their day!

 

[ceecee101]

I don’t have and won’t get a MB

 

[Club Cooloholic]

17-year cast member here… I’ve been fiercely disloyal to my former employer. I tell people not to go to Disney World because it isn’t fun anymore.
You spend too much time staring at your cell phone, competing to get in a line.
Then I got this idea. Of course Disney doesn’t accept ideas, so I’ll just quickly post it here.
Genie+ could be fixed so that it becomes a concierge service. In other words, you just tell it in advance which attractions you want to ride. It could have the necessary intelligence to serve up an attraction from your list… not too far from you… and available for a reservation.
That’s it: Make recommendations based on 1) what the guest wants to do, 2) where they are now, and 3) what’s available. It’s all data.
If a guest doesn’t want to be geolocated they can occasionally tell their cell phone “Here I am… I’m ready for another attraction.” Genie++ then serves up the most likely option from the list.

So still staring at your phone all the time.