Are park reservations going away?

[Grumpy4196]

Never going to happen.

I could see resort guests being able to book reservations at an earlier point than non-resort guests though.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

I could see resort guests being able to book reservations at an earlier point than non-resort guests though.

Those types of things are definitely possible. But in terms of charging people for tickets and then charging them again to visit on a certain day, that's not going to happen.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

I do get the reservation system in place due to lack of staff. It makes sense to do it. What I don't believe is they care about guest experience and satisfaction as much as you say they do. If they did Genie+ wouldn't be the disaster it is, Magic Express would still be here and all resort guests get Evening Magic Hours, not just those who pay the most.

Genie+ is fairly new and FWIW the number of guests purchasing it exceeded even their wildest expectations. Change takes time and they care far more than you think.

 

[Anteater]

Genie+ is fairly new and FWIW the number of guests purchasing it exceeded even their wildest expectations. Change takes time and they care far more than you think.

If they truly cared more than we think, the CM to guest ratio would be drastically improved. This would likely decrease the number of reservations. Correspondingly, it should drastically improve customer satisfaction.

 

[mikejs78]

If they truly cared more than we think, the CM to guest ratio would be drastically improved. This would likely decrease the number of reservations. Correspondingly, it should drastically improve customer satisfaction.

Haven't you been following? They can't hire. The country is at historically low unemployment. It's hard to find people.

I would reevaluate at the end of the year. The CP and cultural representation program will be in full swing by then. Should make a huge difference.

 

[Anteater]

Haven't you been following? They can't hire. The country is at historically low unemployment. It's hard to find people.

I would reevaluate at the end of the year. The CP and cultural representation program will be in full swing by then. Should make a huge difference.

Dude.... I have been following. Apparently, I'm not making myself clear. DECREASE THE NUMBER OF RESERVATIONS available. That will increase the number of CMs to guests and cut down on the wait times and the crowds.

If you have only 10 guests and 10 CMs, it's pretty obvious the crowds will be less and everyone will get to ride. Of course, that # is ridiculous. But, the number of guests they're allowing currently doesn't match how many the CMs can handle. I don't know what the number is. But, it's currently too high.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

They can't hire

I’m sorry, but this is bunk. If they paid more, they’d attract more people. There is no job that people won’t do if the pay is high enough. Given the record profits they’re making off the parks right now they could certainly afford to pay more to improve the guest experience. They clearly don’t care enough to do so.

 

[mikejs78]

I’m sorry, but this is bunk. If they paid more, they’d attract more people. There is no job that people won’t do if the pay is high enough. Given the record profits they’re making off the parks right now they could certainly afford to pay more to improve the guest experience. They clearly don’t care enough to do so.

It's not that simple. They'd have to raise it quite a bit in this environment to attract people. We are beyond full employment, they need to entice people away from other jobs.

They've already very recently raised salaries across the board. Due to union agreements, they can't just raise them on new hires, they would have to raise them for everyone. And, if they raise them too much too fast, their stock price will take a nosedive (it's already very low). That could have serious consequences on the company's health.

 

[crazy4disney]

Genie+ is, indeed, a mess. And it will continue to see changes. They’ve already been changing it.

Deluxe Extended Evening Hours serve a purpose and are very popular. In fact, guest reviews on the extended early and late hours score very well with guests.

DME is fair but it actually wasn’t as beloved as some here suggest. Lots of complaints about wait times and service. These things were largely out of Disney’s control, so they took the opportunity to offload it now. Guests will forget it ever existed in a year or two.

The point is, while they don’t care about pleasing YOU, they do actually care about overall GSATs. That’s why they are pivoting on DE and planning Harm changes. Neither were the original plan.

Based upon Guest preferences, the next move will be removal of park hopping hours. That is constrained by staffing and should improve this summer. And, of course, guests complain about dining availability and the lack of DDP. No movement there until restaurant staffing improves. That is a nationwide issue.

Guests also complain about room cleaning. Staffing issue. Working on it.

any hint as to what other Genie+ changes we will see & how soon can these be implemented?

 

[ToTBellHop]

any hint as to what other Genie+ changes we will see & how soon can these be implemented?

Couldn’t say. I know some sort of pre-booking option (especially if at a resort on-site) is on the table. Could be tiered as was once rumored for FP+.

Obviously, more things to book are needed.

 

[crazy4disney]

Couldn’t say. I know some sort of pre-booking option (especially if at a resort on-site) is on the table. Could be tiered as was once rumored for FP+.

Obviously, more things to book are needed.

Thank you as always for your insider knowledge and sharing what you could for us!

 

[Jrb1979]

Couldn’t say. I know some sort of pre-booking option (especially if at a resort on-site) is on the table. Could be tiered as was once rumored for FP+.

Obviously, more things to book are needed.

That to me would make worse than it is now. There isn't enough attractions to make more things to book. What they really need to do is limit the amount of people buying it.

They need to stop the mindset that Genie+/FP is away to control crowds. IMO they need to go the Universal route.

 

[ToTBellHop]

That to me would make worse than it is now. There isn't enough attractions to make more things to book. What they really need to do is limit the amount of people buying it.

They need to stop the mindset that Genie+/FP is away to control crowds. IMO they need to go the Universal route.

Letting resort guests prebook 3 rides per day would limit complaints from the most-valuable guest grouping. I imagine APs would be the next priority group. Then everyone else gets the leftovers day-of. I’m not suggesting this is the plan—just what I would do if planning some sort of prebooking.

 

[mattpeto]

Letting resort guests prebook 3 rides per day would limit complaints from the most-valuable guest grouping. I imagine APs would be the next priority group. Then everyone else gets the leftovers day-of. I’m not suggesting this is the plan—just what I would do if planning some sort of prebooking.

My pitch I've mentioned before is to let resort guests pre-select their first LL and any paid ILLs one week prior to their stay. It would have to be a rolling thing (think offsite ADR reservations at 60 days).

Let's use today (5/11) as a walkthrough:

• 7 am TODAY opens the 5/18 window. The window runs indefinitely up until 5/18. (This allows you to make changes for this day and select something else)
• Select your first LL attraction
• Purchase any additional ILLs

It fixes a few things:

• Lets guests sleep-in during their vacation
• Conduct some pre-planning that is popular at WDW
• Benefit Resort guests

Non resort guests that purchased Genie+ window for 5/18 opens tomorrow (5/12) at 7 am (or 6 days).

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Letting resort guests prebook 3 rides per day would limit complaints from the most-valuable guest grouping. I imagine APs would be the next priority group. Then everyone else gets the leftovers day-of. I’m not suggesting this is the plan—just what I would do if planning some sort of prebooking.

The problem with that is your basically taking the program back to FP+. I loved the FP+ system but I recognize that it totally didn’t work for day of guests, non property guests, and single day trippers. I can’t see them completely ditching the ride skip model and going back to pre-selecting/reserving FP model.

Maybe as an add on? On site guests can pay to pre-reserve a genie plus like an old FP? Even then you would have to make the price pretty high. The whole point of the Genie is to spread out crowds and give more people access to line skipping. If the good rides are being bought out in advance by a subset of guests who have early access, the system breaks down.

 

[ToTBellHop]

The problem with that is your basically taking the program back to FP+. I loved the FP+ system but I recognize that it totally didn’t work for day of guests, non property guests, and single day trippers. I can’t see them completely ditching the ride skip model and going back to pre-selecting/reserving FP model.

Maybe as an add on? On site guests can pay to pre-reserve a genie plus like an old FP? Even then you would have to make the price pretty high. The whole point of the Genie is to spread out crowds and give more people access to line skipping. If the good rides are being bought out in advance by a subset of guests who have early access, the system breaks down.

Everyone used FP+. Not everyone uses Genie+. So you immediately reduce the number of reservations required. This issue right now is many of the entertainment options still aren’t available.

And they definitely want to incentivize resort guests over others. They don’t care very much about day-trippers, most of whom already aren’t getting Slinky Dog or Rise.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Honestly, they should've just kept the old system and started charging for it. We would've complained for a day but then at least enjoyed using it.

 

[Jrb1979]

Letting resort guests prebook 3 rides per day would limit complaints from the most-valuable guest grouping. I imagine APs would be the next priority group. Then everyone else gets the leftovers day-of. I’m not suggesting this is the plan—just what I would do if planning some sort of prebooking.

Might as well bring back FP+ then. Letting people pre-book 3 a day and then APs after there wouldn't be very few for everyone else.

IMO there has to be a better system then FP+ or Genie+. I understand that Disney is a much more attended park then other parks. There will has to be a less complicated way for a skip the line system to work for them.

 

[mikejs78]

Everyone used FP+. Not everyone uses Genie+. So you immediately reduce the number of reservations required. This issue right now is many of the entertainment options still aren’t available.

And they definitely want to incentivize resort guests over others. They don’t care very much about day-trippers, most of whom already aren’t getting Slinky Dog or Rise.

This. There should be a benefit for those of us staying on site and for those who are buying annual passes.

 

[correcaminos]

Everyone used FP+. Not everyone uses Genie+. So you immediately reduce the number of reservations required. This issue right now is many of the entertainment options still aren’t available.

And they definitely want to incentivize resort guests over others. They don’t care very much about day-trippers, most of whom already aren’t getting Slinky Dog or Rise.

Not *everyone* but yeah the majority did. We had more than one trip where we didn't do a heck of a lot of pre-planning required. I'd often do FP+ the day of still.

I do agree giving incentives to resort guests would've been smart. Though a lot of guests are off site, they could manage to cash in still on giving perks to onsite and making off site struggle a little more.