Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[Dranth]

We weren't willing to book a vacation based on "a chance". We chose to spend our money elsewhere.

We go for 2 full weeks and rarely spend more than 4 hours a day in the parks. G+ was not a usefull tool for us.

I get that a lot of people felt that way, but it seems based on a misconception of how G+ worked because in reality it wasn't uncommon to get EVERY headliner in a day. With this you will get one as you have no opportunity to grab a second until you use the first, which in your case will be later in the day when all the inventory is gone.

If that suits your touring style and you are happy with one a day because you can spread them out over a longer vacation great, but it is leaps and bounds worse for the overwhelming number of visitors (at least based on the information we currently have).

 

[nicb88]

Well, this website has confirmed no international preselecting. That is a true shame and will remove a lot of value in buying LL for international guests.

It’s been coming for a while though, they’ve slowly been restricting international function as time has gone by, such as in app dining reservations (can still do this on the website for now) and the ability to pre-order a magic band.

 

[billem]

Thank you so much! That alone makes this new system an upgrade. Of course, it wasn’t exactly difficult to come up with something better than what we have been dealing with.

It remains to be seen (as far as I know) what "picking a time" means. My recollection of the time picking for FP+ was "here are 3 random times from various parts of the day" and it wasn't very helpful. If they instead give you options for each hour of the day (9-10, 10-11, 11-12, etc) where you truly get to pick the time of day, then I will find it slightly less objectionable that I have to try to figure out what the lines are going to be like for attraction X 7-14 days in advance. One very nice thing about Genie+ is that you can plainly see what LL's are going quickly vs going slowly and adjust your plans accordingly. When you pick it a week ahead of time, you have no context for what park conditions will be (excepting, of course, we know that certain rides will be slammed and have significant downtime during the day).

 

[JD80]

They thought free dining was going to move the needle too and from what's been said it hasn't.

@PREMiERdrum said it's looking to be one of their worst Independence Day weekends occupancy wise in years.

IMO discounts, bringing back FP+ isn't what's needed. The parks need new attractions if they want to see people come.

If you've got a large family, Free Dining is fine. But when families are considering the offer, the cost of hotels and tickets vs. the last time they booked free dining is so much higher.

I'd bet that Free Dining got people to call TAs or investigate pricing on their own but maybe not pull the trigger.

 

[Saskdw]

I get that a lot of people felt that way, but it seems based on a misconception of how G+ worked because in reality it wasn't uncommon to get EVERY headliner in a day. With this you will get one as you have no opportunity to grab a second until you use the first, which in your case will be later in the day when all the inventory is gone.

If that suits your touring style and you are happy with one a day because you can spread them out over a longer vacation great, but it is leaps and bounds worse for the overwhelming number of visitors (at least based on the information we currently have).

Unless I'm missing something it's only worse for the park commandoes who want to get 15 LL's a day.

For those who get up early couldn't you book your 3 for early morning and still have no problem getting another 3 or 4 as the day goes on?

 

[nickys]

Good news hopefully, fingers crossed.

I doubt it.


Scott Gustin is a 100% reliable source.

It’s a disgrace. It should at least be bookable by phone.

Disney are the only company I’ve come across who just can’t be assed to comply with the GDPR and other requirements for accepting payments from the EU. The Smithsonian, Universal, KSC and hundreds of smalller companies manage it.

The ultimate irony is we’re not in the EU! But the UK have kept those laws.

 

[wdwmagic]

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States​

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Saskdw]

If you've got a large family, Free Dining is fine. But when families are considering the offer, the cost of hotels and tickets vs. the last time they booked free dining is so much higher.

I'd bet that Free Dining got people to call TAs or investigate pricing on their own but maybe not pull the trigger.

I also think trying to pass of QS dining as free dining was an issue. There's no value there. It needs to be full free dining.
Most people going for a week or two aren't going to eat chicken fingers and fries for two weeks. And to pay to upgrade to real dining plan took all the value completely out of it.

 

[Tha Realest]

ww

They thought free dining was going to move the needle too and from what's been said it hasn't.

@PREMiERdrum said it's looking to be one of their worst Independence Day weekends occupancy wise in years.

IMO discounts, bringing back FP+ isn't what's needed. The parks need new attractions if they want to see people come.

they want to “move the needle” but sadly for them, the marks - sorry, customers - increasingly see through that these discounts and offers are just a shell game that shifts spending from one bucket to another.

 

[nickys]

My recollection of the time picking for FP+ was "here are 3 random times from various parts of the day" and it wasn't very helpful.

You obviously didn't realise there was a button that said “show me more times” and it would give you every available time slot in 5 minute intervals for the rest of the day.

 

[billem]

7am was part of it.

But a big red flag for us was booking a $15k vacation and have no guarantees we would get to ride the headliners. With FP+ we knew we had all the headliners booked 60 days before we left home.

Unless you are staying for a very long time, there was no way that you could book every top attraction because of the tiers. You could only guarantee one of the top tier attractions at any given park.

I can't remember exactly how many things were in the tiers with old FP+, but if you look at the tiers now, you would have to stay 12 days to guarantee you got all of the tier 1 attractions at the tiered parks (5 for MK, 3 for EP, 4 for HS). We usually go for 5 days, so we are not going to be guaranteed to ride 7 of those attractions.

 

[nickys]

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States​

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States

www.wdwmagic.com

Did you get a chance to ask them why?

They fixed the issue of dining. If it’s truly just a matter of the app being geo fenced they could take that off.

 

[UK Disney]

I doubt it.


Scott Gustin is a 100% reliable source.

It’s a disgrace. It should at least be bookable by phone.

Disney are the only company I’ve come across who just can’t be assed to comply with the GDPR and other requirements for accepting payments from the EU. The Smithsonian, Universal, KSC and hundreds of smalller companies manage it.

The ultimate irony is we’re not in the EU! But the UK have kept those laws.

This is a deal breaker for us if we can't get round it by using the VPN. I actually think it's farcical.

 

[ThatMouse]

No park hopping? We never do just one park per day.

 

[Saskdw]

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States​

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States

Disney World Lightning Lane Passes Will Only Be Available for Purchase in the United States

www.wdwmagic.com

This absolutely baffles me if it includes Canada.

I guess we won't be considering a return to WDW after all.

All the other functions of the app work fine from Canada. This makes no sense.

Last time we went to Disney was 2016 and we didn't use the app. FP+ selections were made through the website with no issues.

 

[Dranth]

Unless I'm missing something it's only worse for the park commandoes who want to get 15 LL's a day.

No, this makes it easier for them unless I am missing something.

For those who get up early couldn't you book your 3 for early morning and still have no problem getting another 3 or 4 as the day goes on?

The new system should work great for anyone who goes to the parks early because you prebook your three and as soon as you use the first one, you can get a 4th, once you use your next, get a 5th and so on.

Those of us who come later in the day will now ONLY be able to add another ride once we use our first selection. Say that is at 4:00pm, you are now dealing with a whole park full of people with 3 active constantly updating selections plus any remaining prebooks for later in the day. That means a WHOLE lot more inventory has been eaten up before you even get a second chance at a T1 ride.

Under G+ I was reserving my second headliner 2 hours after park opening and, if needed, moving times to later in the day on my selections while eating a late breakfast. There was no stress on missing anything. Frankly it was hard to miss the headliners outside of a few specific one offs (like SDD).

 

[billem]

You obviously didn't realise there was a button that said “show me more times” and it would give you every available time slot in 5 minute intervals for the rest of the day.

I said "my recollection". If I can micromanage down to the minute, then I will just re-state that I will find it less objectionable. I still strongly prefer not having to plan out the minutia of a day at Disney weeks in advance, without have any context of what the crowds are actually like, and what attractions are popular that week. Other people can disagree, I just strongly disliked this system when it was free and doubt I am going to like it more now that I have to pay for it.

 

[Saskdw]

Unless you are staying for a very long time, there was no way that you could book every top attraction because of the tiers. You could only guarantee one of the top tier attractions at any given park.

I can't remember exactly how many things were in the tiers with old FP+, but if you look at the tiers now, you would have to stay 12 days to guarantee you got all of the tier 1 attractions at the tiered parks (5 for MK, 3 for EP, 4 for HS). We usually go for 5 days, so we are not going to be guaranteed to ride 7 of those attractions.

We stay for 14 days every trip.

 

[lentesta]

No park hopping? We never do just one park per day.

Park hopping is available after your first 3 selections, I'm told.

 

[JD80]

I get that a lot of people felt that way, but it seems based on a misconception of how G+ worked because in reality it wasn't uncommon to get EVERY headliner in a day. With this you will get one as you have no opportunity to grab a second until you use the first, which in your case will be later in the day when all the inventory is gone.

If that suits your touring style and you are happy with one a day because you can spread them out over a longer vacation great, but it is leaps and bounds worse for the overwhelming number of visitors (at least based on the information we currently have).

You can get a second headliner as soon as you use any of your LL. So if you are gunning for a second T1 attraction, then book a LL for when you plan to enter the park. Assuming availability you could get your second one at 9AM which is at least 2 hours earlier than G+.