Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[Sirwalterraleigh]

All this does is replace booking rides during the day starting at 7am one at a time every 2 hours with pre-booking 3 rides 7 days in advance and then booking more as you use them. It doesn’t solve any capacity problem. It does allow an old man to sleep in an extra hour while on vacation.

The real math is how many more genie+ units are sold a day because pre-booking is popular. If the number sold is dramatically larger then you start to run into the capacity problem. As @flynnibus said, it’s unlikely Disney puts in a system where they make less money so there is very likely going to be an increase in sales which could (should) impact standby waits. I have no idea how effective changes to the disability system will be in preventing abuse so maybe that will offset some of the increase in useage in the lightning lanes. Hard to say what the final impact will be.

You actually agreed with me (and a lot of others around here for years)

This doesn’t solve their numbers problem at all.

It’s why it’s getting ridiculous that they keep trying to put new shades of lipstick on it.

It’s just not enough capacity to Maintain any flexibility. Battle lost years ago.

It’s actually getting embarrassing. Everyone knows what the problem is but they can’t do anything. They are bleeding these parks dry. And you don’t want to do that with the lines share.

It’s Bob. This always goes back to it.

 

[GoofGoof]

Unless im reading this wrong you can only book 3 rides and cant book a 4th until riding one. If im someone who is entering park at say 5pm i can have 5 rides booked before entering.

This is absolutely true. It’s likely going to be possible to book more lightning lanes with genie+ today then with the new system for most guests if you know what you are doing.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

No. Nothing good at least not on busy days. You are basically getting 3 somewhat valuable FPs a day booked in advance. I am actually OK with that vs genie+ today.

I’ve mentioned it before but the one time we used Genie+ was at HS and we only got 1 ride with it, horrible experience. At least with this if I go in and what we want isn’t available at times we want we’ll know before buying it.

On paper this is an upgrade to me, whether it’ll work in reality is still a big question mark.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

No. Nothing good at least not on busy days. You are basically getting 3 somewhat valuable FPs a day booked in advance. I am actually OK with that vs genie+ today.

That’s the 3 and out and that is terrible for Disney. They don’t want that at all.

And now we have the tiers to highlight the suck again to boot

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yes

Ummmmmm…might not want to wander in this dark alley alone

 

[Splash4eva]

This is absolutely true. It’s likely going to be possible to book more lightning lanes with genie+ today then with the new system for most guests if you know what you are doing.

So basically after multiple successful Genie trips where i can honestly say if i pretty much was able to ride everything via Genie they are changing it up where my guess is it will be more money and less rides

 

[GoofGoof]

That’s the 3 and out and that is terrible for Disney. They don’t want that at all.

And now we have the tiers to highlight the suck again to boot

I don’t give a mouse’s behind what is terrible for Disney. It works better for me personally to book in advance. I don’t need to or intend to tour parks commando style where ride count is my top goal. I go for more days but spend less time in the parks each day any way.

 

[easyrowrdw]

Under fp+ everyone could book 3, this will be less than that.

True. There are fewer attractions with this change though. That’s a wrinkle.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

So basically after multiple successful Genie trips where i can honestly say if i pretty much was able to ride everything via Genie they are changing it up where my guess is it will be more money and less rides

The devil is always in the details

This also closes the loop on the raging DAS debate…they simply view it as freeloading/robbing their free queue revenue and they had to Tiananmen square it

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I don’t give a mouse’s behind what is terrible for Disney. It works better for me personally to book in advance. I don’t need to or intend to tour parks commando style where ride count is my top goal. I go for more days but spend less time in the parks each day any way.

Yes but they care and that’s a big reason why they killed.

Remember where the money is made in parks? It’s not in ticketing or $25 queue skips…
They need you IN the parks

And by the way…I’m just like you…we had many a “to hell with this…let’s leave” after 2 hours in the roaring teens.

But they hated me.

 

[GoofGoof]

True. There are fewer attractions with this change though. That’s a wrinkle.

Yeah. Not sure the logic in removing the meet and greets from this system. Maybe since they are so low capacity already but in a lot of cases the line for characters can be longer than most rides depending on time of year.

 

[bwr827]

This is awful. Now I’m dreading my trip instead of looking forward to it.

If there were an eyeroll emoji on this forum I’d have to buy a Single Pass Lightning Lane to access it.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yeah. Not sure the logic in removing the meet and greets from this system. Maybe since they are so low capacity already but in a lot of cases the line for characters can be longer than most rides depending on time of year.

I think that’s it. Those lines suck and people express that daily and loudly…so they don’t want it attached to their “efficient” paid line system

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

If there were an eyeroll emoji on this forum I’d have to buy a Single Pass Lightning Lane to access it.

Not a student of history, are you?

But Mr. Vickers dust chemistry class is right down the hall

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Yes but they care and that’s a big reason why they killed.

Remember where the money is made in parks? It’s not in ticketing or $25 queue skips…
They need you IN the parks

And by the way…I’m just like you…we had many a “to hell with this…let’s leave” after 2 hours in the roaring teens.

But they hated me.

We’re the same, a decade ago we were rope drop to close commandos, a few years after that we started taking afternoon breaks at the hotel, now it’s usually 8am (or 9) to noon, back to the hotel until sundown, and back to the parks til fireworks… WDW probably still likes us though since we stay onsite and spend most our afternoon hotel time eating and drinking by the pool.

This is why I’m excited about the changes, if we can get a guaranteed ride at 11, 12, and 1 it’ll give us a couple more hours in the parks a day, if we can snag a good ride after sundown it’ll be a bonus.

 

[phillip9698]

I’ve mentioned it before but the one time we used Genie+ was at HS and we only got 1 ride with it, horrible experience. At least with this if I go in and what we want isn’t available at times we want we’ll know before buying it.

On paper this is an upgrade to me, whether it’ll work in reality is still a big question mark.

How would you know before buying it? I'd disney going to allow a preview to the system before you pay?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

How would you know before buying it? I'd disney going to allow a preview to the system before you pay?

It allows you to pick your 3 rides before you check out.

 

[GoofGoof]

Unless you have a date-based ticket:

• Guests with date-based theme park tickets (which require the Guest to choose a start date at the time of purchase) can purchase 3 days before the first day of their ticket, for the total number of valid admission days on their ticket.

What if I have a split stay at 2 different resorts and I have linked both hotel reservations and my 10 day, dated park ticket in my account? Will I be able to buy and book lightning lanes for all 10 days of the park ticket 7 days before my first hotel check in date? Even if my 2 hotel reservations are 5 days each? For dining they made me wait until the start of the second reservation to book those days dining.

 

[Mem11]

For someone who desperately wants to return to 2013 Fastpass, this doesn’t sound like an improvement. Am I wrong?

For someone who would rather see a return to Standby only, while building actual attractions that increase capacity, instead of coming up with line skipping scams. This sounds atrocious.

 

[FerretAfros]

No one has mentioned the most important group of all and how it will affect them.

How are the influencers going to film their 'perfect day' etc videos if all the good pre selects are gone before 3 days out?

Take a minute to keep these people in your thoughts, they must be hurting right now.

Of course this is a joke, but it hints at the real problem here: if someone who is essentially a professional theme park visitor is unable to have a perfect day, how on earth can we expect the average family of tourists to do it?

Those infrequent visitors are the backbone of WDW’s business model. They’re the ones shelling out thousands of dollars to fill hotel rooms, parks, and restaurants. If the system doesn’t work for them, then it doesn’t work for the resort’s long-term health.