Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[MickeyLuv'r]

The challenge still stands... and I'll modify it based on weather. Find a day using thrill data where all G+ rides were sold out in any park 4 hours after park opening or said ride that was available was unavailable the rest of the day.
I'll add 2 more conditions that should make it even easier:

• A Ride can be considered "sold out" if the return time is after 8pm
• I won't count the follow as valid options:
  • Any show (philharmagic, Muppets, ect)
  • Any attraction that has less than a 20 min wait at the time

And that is fine if that is your criteria, but that might not be what someone else meant if they said they only got 1 ride, they might not be counting shows.

With or without a pass, I'll see Muppets at the same time, so that can also explain why many people don't 'count' it.

I wasn't posting to argue, just to explain a scenario where booking options get very limited: storm+ ride down + entering after rope drop + busy week.

 

[Disstevefan1]

1. Not everyone buys G+ at 7am. I'm sure there are a ton of folks who arrive to a park at 10 or 11, see the massive lines and say "well, I'll just buy this line skipping thing" and think they'll be able to ride a lot the rest of the day with that
2. not everyone books additional rides as soon as they can. Some people forget or don't realize they can do it sooner, etc.

And I'm sure there are other reasons. So, sure, someone using the pass in a reasonably aggressive way will always be able to get a number of solid choices. But that doesn't mean there weren't users who used it suboptimally and only got 1 or 2 in a day.

There will be a learning curve with this like any change and yes, folks are going to get burned.
I also agree, the less aggressive user will suffer.

For many years, WDW vacations involve a lot of work to get right.

The casual vacationer will lose in my opinion.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

You could modify your original 3 before using them all up though...
However, I don't think you could modify a tier 2 to a tier 1 day of. Which is what people are wondering if there will be some "unlock" time on the prebooks or not.

If you cancelled your tier 2 passes or just didn't book them (at all), you could book another tier1 after using your tier1 pass.. If you kept your tier 2 passes, you could modify, but you still had to use 2 tier2 passes before you could book another tier1. It was a bit of a gamble.

And this was all in the later years of FP+. Initially, you could only book 3 FP+ (period), and modifying them mostly had to be done via in-park kiosk, with very limited availability. And the kiosk often had a solid 15-20minute wait. (So people waited 20minutes to book a pass that was often for something like an 8pm Muppets or 11pm teacups.

 

[Disstevefan1]

And that is fine if that is your criteria, but that might not be what someone else meant if they said they only got 1 ride, they might not be counting shows.

With or without a pass, I'll see Muppets at the same time, so that can also explain why many people don't 'count' it.

I wasn't posting to argue, just to explain a scenario where booking options get very limited: storm+ ride down + entering after rope drop + busy week.

We count the tram to/from the parking lot a ride

I have not been keeping track.

Are all parks running trams these days?

Its ironic that if you asked that question in 2019 or earlier, folks would look at you like you had lobsters growing out of your ears, LOL.

The world has changed and not for the better..

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

We count the tram to/from the parking lot a ride

I have not been keeping track.

Are all parks running trams these days?

Its ironic that if you asked that question in 2019 or earlier, folks would look at you like you had lobsters growing out of your ears, LOL.

The world has changed and not for the better..

The trams are fun, though we usually park close enough to just walk (when we park), unless it is really hot or something.

It still amazes me that they didn't have side doors for decades. Without the side doors, they were even more exciting.
I'm not sure if they are all back yet.

 

[Vacationeer]

Goodbye Genie+ Era. Don’t let the door hit you in the LL pass. Days until impact:

 

[DisneyRoy]

And that is fine if that is your criteria, but that might not be what someone else meant if they said they only got 1 ride, they might not be counting shows.

With or without a pass, I'll see Muppets at the same time, so that can also explain why many people don't 'count' it.

I wasn't posting to argue, just to explain a scenario where booking options get very limited: storm+ ride down + entering after rope drop + busy week.

Check out Hollywood Studios on March 30 this year. There were quite a few people complaining Easter weekend about crowds in Hollywood studios and lack of genie+ availability.

 

[C33Mom]

There are basically 3 options:

1. 3 prebooked LLs retain all of their restrictions
2. All 3 prebooked LLs lose all of their restrictions at a set time (midnight, park open, and 7am seem the most likely)
3. Once your first LL is used restrictions are eliminated on your remaining 2 as well as your new 4th LL

1 seems straightforward (but also contrary to what is being reported by responsible outlets).
I don’t think Disney goes with midnight or 7AM (will upset guests like Genie+ did), park open seems reasonable.
Option 3 seems like it’s punishing any guests who want to show up later in the day (same for forcing people to enter park before modifying, and plus how does that work with early entry?)

I don’t know where it’s come from but I’ve seen people saying you will be able to modify at 7am without tier restrictions. I assumed the source was Scott Gustin but I could be wrong.

I would normally be certain that it won’t be 7AM because everyone says this change is due, in part, to a large segment of guests (including me) complaining about having to wake at 6:55AM to get full value out of G+— but I don’t have total confident on parks management and it doesn’t sound like they are planning to scrap the 7AM VQs either.

If everything "unlocks" at 7am this system doesn't eliminate one of the biggest complaints about G+. Because everyone "in the know" will get up at 7am anyway and try to modify their tier 2s into tier 1s.

I really wish they had just left the whole system alone, but allowed you to pre-book 1 attraction as your first G+ attractions. Additional LLs would follow the same rules as today.

Exactly, re: 7AM, and only allowing modifications after first ride or park open similarly punishes families with late risers in their group.

I like your idea with first pre-book in advance and then next booking after use or 2h after park open, allowing for people who want to show up at open for maximum LL benefit and the rest of us could sleep in and start stacking 2h after park open… I’m hoping the modification rules start at park open without tapping in— seems like a reasonable compromise between early birds and later risers.

 

[Jrb1979]

Goodbye Genie+ Era. Don’t let the door hit you in the LL pass. Days until impact:

View attachment 796266

I wish it stayed. Hate that they went backwards to the planning stage.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

1. Not everyone buys G+ at 7am. I'm sure there are a ton of folks who arrive to a park at 10 or 11, see the massive lines and say "well, I'll just buy this line skipping thing" and think they'll be able to ride a lot the rest of the day with that
2. not everyone books additional rides as soon as they can. Some people forget or don't realize they can do it sooner, etc.

And I'm sure there are other reasons. So, sure, someone using the pass in a reasonably aggressive way will always be able to get a number of solid choices. But that doesn't mean there weren't users who used it suboptimally and only got 1 or 2 in a day.

This was our experience, we went to HS in Jan 2023 after doing a RunDisney race, we got to the park about 10am and all the big rides had an hour + wait, we hadn’t done MMRR yet so that was our top priority, G+ had availability for nearly everything so we bought it and got a return time for MMRR for like 5:30pm, we were ok with that because we had a 4pm ADR at Prime time, we did a couple shorter line attractions (alien saucers, Star Tours, Indy show) and by a little after noon our window was open for our next G+ selection… Slinky Dog gone, RoR gone, TOT gone, RnRC gone, Smugglers gone… I think the only thing still available was the shorter line attractions we’d already done, a couple meet and greets, and TSM at something like 8:30pm, not an option with a 2am alarm set for another run the next morning.

Is our situation unusual? yep, but that didn’t change the fact we felt completely ripped off and we talked to other runners who had very similar experiences and felt equally ripped off also.

Genie may have worked if you had availability from open to close but if you had time limitations, whether for something like a sporting event, a convention, or simply children who can’t be out late, it didn’t work. We were in the park from about 10am til about 7pm on our day, we managed Alien saucers, Star Tours, Indy, BatB, and Muppets in standby and MMRR with Genie, the rest of the day was spent walking around eating, drinking, hanging out with friends and shopping… had we not bought Genie it would have been a good day, as a result of Genie we left feeling ripped off.

I’m thrilled they changed it, the fact I’ll get 3 guaranteed rides before I have to decide whether to spend my money or not is a huge upgrade in my book.

 

[Yodascousin]

Disney just posted on Facebook about the change every comment so far is from angry uk guests!

 

[osian]

Disney just posted on Facebook about the change every comment so far is from angry uk guests!

What account is that?

 

[Yodascousin]

What account is that?

Walt Disney world

 

[osian]

Walt Disney world

LOL, not the response they hoped for!

 

[nickys]

LOL, not the response they hoped for!

Excellent!

I have no idea what the issue is here, but there are things that have come into more force in recent years (eg GDPR and privacy law etc)

GDPR came into effect in 2018. We could pre-book G+ , we can book dining, even pre-paid dining.

Other visitor attractions allow us to prebook timed tickets.

They can easily fix this. If there is some issue with the app then add the functionality to the website.

 

[DisneyCane]

We count the tram to/from the parking lot a ride

I have not been keeping track.

Are all parks running trams these days?

Its ironic that if you asked that question in 2019 or earlier, folks would look at you like you had lobsters growing out of your ears, LOL.

The world has changed and not for the better..

We never take the tram unless it seems like its about to rain to get some cover. We make an "attraction" out of seeing if we arrive at the gate faster by walking (at a normal pace) than we would have if we waited for and took the tram.

As for the topic at hand, when they originally implemented FP the parks didn't NEED a line skip option. There was reasonable capacity for the attendance at the time. There were a handful of attractions with consistently long waits (Splash, SM, etc.) but, for the most part, the waits weren't too bad. The original concept was to take people out of the handful of long lines and get them to spend money while they were waiting "in line." It never really worked out and "power users" figured out how to maximize the system.

As time has passed, capacity has not kept up with attendance growth. Without a line skip system of some kind I don't know if it would be possible to experience every attraction (at least at MK) in a day. The real solution is more attractions or building new attractions with significantly higher hourly capacity or a combination of the two.

Unfortunately the concept of raising admission prices to lower attendance but increase revenue won't work at WDW. Too many people are willing to go into debt for a trip to WDW so it doesn't really matter what the admission price is (unless they went to a crazy level like $1k per day at MK).

The only option they have is a paid "nickel and dime" line skip system so that some percentage of guests can have reasonable wait times on a few attractions per day.

As a passholder in within driving distance, I refuse to pay more for lower waits. I don't have need to experience everything every time I go. If it ever got to the point where I can't experience one headliner and 2 or 3 minor attractions in a 3 hour period on a "normal" day then I will just stop renewing my pass.

 

[ppet]

I hated Fast Pass, then I mastered the system and loved it.
I hated Fast Pass+, then I mastered the system and loved it.
I hated Genie+, then I mastered the system and loved it.
I hate the new system, but I can see where this will end. Once I master it for the most benefit Disney will change it.

 

[DisneyCane]

I hated Fast Pass, then I mastered the system and loved it.
I hated Fast Pass+, then I mastered the system and loved it.
I hated Genie+, then I mastered the system and loved it.
I hate the new system, but I can see where this will end. Once I master it for the most benefit Disney will change it.

So the changes are all your fault!?!

 

[Purduevian]

Check out Hollywood Studios on March 30 this year. There were quite a few people complaining Easter weekend about crowds in Hollywood studios and lack of genie+ availability.

March 30th 2024 DHS

Park open at 9am

At 11am (everyone should be getting LL2): Only Slinky Dog was sold out. MFSR was out to 5:45pm.

At 1pm (everyone should be getting LL3): Slinky is Sold out, MFSR sells out ~1:10pm so I'll count that as sold out. MMRR is pushing around 8pm, officially sells out around 2pm so I'll call that one gone as well. Finally, both ToT and TSMM are around the 7:20pm return time.

At 3pm (everyone should be getting LL4): Slinky, MFSR, TSMM, TOT, and MMRR are all sold out. Alien pushes past 8pm at 3:05pm, and sells out completely at 3:25pm so I'll call that one sold out as well. Star Tours basically keeps a return time within 20 mins of booked and at 3pm has a 25 min wait at 3pm

Of course there are people that buy it after park open, don't book a new one when they can, or simply don't understand how it works. That is a problem with Disney teaching the system, not a problem with G+ itself. Everyone should have got 3-4 rides by simply be a competent G+ user (no need to refresh or book a new ride the millisecond you can, just within 15 mins or so). I'm not going to blame this new Multipass system when someone prebooks It's tough to be a bug, Feathered friends in flight, and Nemo musical then doesn't know they can book a forth one.

 

[Disstevefan1]

We never take the tram unless it seems like its about to rain to get some cover. We make an "attraction" out of seeing if we arrive at the gate faster by walking (at a normal pace) than we would have if we waited for and took the tram.

God bless you. I have a finite number of steps remaining in my lifetime. I need to ration them.

Unfortunately the concept of raising admission prices to lower attendance but increase revenue won't work at WDW. Too many people are willing to go into debt for a trip to WDW so it doesn't really matter what the admission price is.

To test this theory Disney should go to an expensive express pass system system like Universal. While it’s super expensive, it works very well and folks have freedom!