Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[DisneyDreamer08]

Slinky Dog is all over the place with the return times. I feel like if they just let people pick a time, things would run much more smoothly.

 

[Supertech65]

Do you have the ability to add Genie+ to an existing room only resort reservation with an annual pass?

 

[Jeff4272]

Um, yes, it is. I was there today and used the service. They do not sell out of Genie+. You can buy it at any time during the day. Some attractions may sell out both on G+ and for the "individual selections." Today, the ONLY thing which sold out early was the ROTR "individual experience" (took about an hour). Everything else was still available for booking or purchase as of 9AM.

Guests using Genie+ can't book multiple LL bookings at once, so they have to have inventory throughout the day available for people to keep booking and get their money's worth. For example, if you wake up at 7AM and book a LL for Haunted Mansion at 10AM, you won't be able to book another LL reservation until you ride Haunted Mansion. So someone buying Genie+ at 10:15AM from their bed will have the same inventory as the person who gets off Haunted Mansion at 10:15AM and starts to look for their next option.

Yeah that’s a major difference to booking at 7am It’s a major inefficiency to not book at 7am

 

[DisneyCane]

Just looking at the touring plans crowd levels, no park reached above a 3 yesterday. Usually crowd levels have been 7 to 9 times we have visited, so that is definitely not how I'd expect Genie+ to work for us. Even FoP with a FL had us wait 40 minutes in 2019.

I think the crowd level also points out the underlying issue with the parks outside of MK. Looking at the standby times yesterday, other than SDMT (which I'll never understand) and JC (which has always had long waits even before paper FP) nothing I saw had more than a 35 minute wait posted all day. The other parks had several rides that got up over an hour for long periods although Epcot was not bad most of the day. Point being that outside of MK, the parks can't even really handle a low crowd day because they don't have enough attraction capacity. Epcot should be a little better when GotG opens but I assume they will close SSE at some point for the long renovation which will really hurt capacity.

 

[jinx8402]

They should really give you a Multiple Experiences pass valid for any attraction in the park including ROTR, that way if ROTR never re-opens, you can use it on another attraction. For people who want a refund, they could go to GR and ask for one.

Ah yes, the valued spend $15 for ROTR but if it doesn't open you get to ride MMRR (which is not $15) or a single attraction that is part of the $15 bundle of rides available for LL.

Sorry, if you are now paying for ride A, you should get ride A or your money back.

 

[Waters Back Side]

Looks like the booking Slinky first always between 7am and 9 am (more preferable 7 am) should be anyone's first pick at HS unless they have no interest or do not go on roller coasters. Even if its choice #2 of your list of rides, it should still be #1. Book it and then you have it for later in the day. Then you have Genie + choices at 11a,1p,3p,5p,7p.

 

[DisneyCane]

Ah yes, the valued spend $15 for ROTR but if it doesn't open you get to ride MMRR (which is not $15) or a single attraction that is part of the $15 bundle of rides available for LL.

Sorry, if you are now paying for ride A, you should get ride A or your money back.

You mean if I order a porterhouse at a restaurant and they run out, they shouldn't be able to charge me for a porterhouse and give me a cheeseburger instead?

 

[drizgirl]

This is a bigger disaster than KiteTails.

Wait a minute. Is this for real? If you pay for the attraction and it goes down, no refunds? Like, at all, regardless of whether it opens again? Regardless of whether you paid for a dessert party in another park that night? You should just hang out all day seeing if it reopens?

I know the word initially was no refunds. But I figured that was for a change of mind. Not a ride outage.

 

[Higginbotham587]

Maybe because some of us have seen situations that *if* Disney’s vaunted Guest Services and recovery were that great, something should have been offered but wasn’t.

In May, a friend purchased a 4 day ticket to avoid using her old 2 non-expiring days on MDE. She knew she had to have the ticket priority set in advance, so she called IT prior to her trip, and was in a 2 hr queue and the phone call lasted an hour. Got to AK on Day 1, and before we left the park noticed it pulled the 1st non-expiring day, not the 4-day. So she spent over an hour at AK GS to get the ticket restored and was assured that tomorrow it would pull the right one. Next day, at DHS she enters the park, and it pulled the 2nd non-expiring day. Another hour at DHS guest services to get the 2nd day restored. This time the CM was clever enough to put the replacement tickets on a separate MDE profile. But the only thing Disney said was, “There is an old and new ticketing computer and they aren’t talking well.” Not an apology for the mistake or for how much time she spent on this…5 hrs at this point. And certainly no recovery offered such as a free anytime FP. To follow up on this, a couple days ago, I saw on the DIS a thread of people who were in a similar situation who noticed that in one of these updates leading up to Genie+ that their replacement complimentary tickets were no longer showing in MDE at all. I was meaning to ask my friend to double check hers to make sure they were still there, but haven't yet. I just wonder how many people DIDN’T know about the priority process and attempted to get it set right in advance so they don't notice that their non-expiring tickets got zapped until they go to use them. Which I'm sure at that point people will just give up, because how do your prove what you have months or even a year or two after they were zapped?

The actual cost is irrelevant. It’s the principle that when the business screws up, guests shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get remediation. That is never trivial. Worse now, that phone attempts at contacting GS results in hours on hold. A month or so ago we ordered Jersey Mike’s on mobile order and apparently they were out of brownies. The employee didn’t say a word, but DH noticed. He said, "So you were going to let us pay for brownies that we didn’t receive?" He shrugged and gave him cookies, which cost less. DH filled out a complaint online asking to be credited for the brownies or at least the difference in cookies vs brownies. Yes, it's only like a dollar, but people should never be charged for something they don't receive. The next day the owner called refunded our money for the whole order and gave us a gift card for future use. That’s how you really do recovery.

I’m sure if you cry or make a scene, or they think someone will post on Social Media like a Skyliner incident (which friend had for the 50th and GS was proactively with iPads, giving everyone who exited a FP)... then you get offered recovery. But if you are just there with a big problem and try to be nice and patient, otherwise known as a reasonable customer... I have to wonder how often it really is initiated by Disney based on my friend's situation, which extended to GS in *two* different parks... so no, guest recovery does NOT fall from trees, and they do not fall over backwards even to fix problems their systems created.

For some reason this resonated with me. Basically the only people who get treated to Disney service of the 1980s are Club33 and Golden Oak residents. If they have a problem it gets fixed asap.

 

[awilliams4]

Does anyone know that if you have a party of say 8 in MDE and some have their accounts linked to one credit card and others are linked to another credit card, is the Genie+, ILL, etc charges charged to the one main original credit card that was used on the resort reservation or if the charges go to each different credit card linked to each account within the same MDE account?

 

[Disstevefan1]

Wait a minute. Is this for real? If you pay for the attraction and it goes down, no refunds? Like, at all, regardless of whether it opens again? Regardless of whether you paid for a dessert party in another park that night? You should just hang out all day seeing if it reopens?

I know the word initially was no refunds. But I figured that was for a change of mind. Not a ride outage.

Other post said if your ILL attraction goes down, there is something called a "Experience Redemption" I have no idea what it is, but I am guessing (and hoping) it does not expire and is like a credit?

I expect no refunds (Disney only wants money to flow in one direction) , but they must in effect "credit" that money somehow.

 

[pdude81]

Does anyone know that if you have a party of say 8 in MDE and some have their accounts linked to one credit card and others are linked to another credit card, is the Genie+, ILL, etc charges charged to the one main original credit card that was used on the resort reservation or if the charges go to each different credit card linked to each account within the same MDE account?

This is interesting to me. I can't imagine they would let you charge others' credit cards just because you were authorized to add them to your dinner reservation. My thinking here would be the payment should be done by whoever pushes the button. I don't know how it works in practice though.

 

[DCBaker]

Other post said if your ILL attraction goes down, there is something called a "Experience Redemption" I have no idea what it is, but I am guessing (and hoping) it does not expire and is like a credit?

I expect no refunds (Disney only wants money to flow in one direction) , but they must in effect "credit" that money somehow.

Currently, the Experience Redemption is valid only through the day you receive it.

 

[LovePop]

Oh so you’re the one. That’s ok. But if I had to guess, 90+% of people wouldn’t spend $15 per person for their family of 5 in my case so $75 to save less than an hour

The fewer people need to use Genie+, the more ride options will be available for Genie+ purchasers and the less burden it will be on the standby line, while Disney can still generate some funds from it. That's the ultimate system for everyone because that means Genie+ is available to those who want and can afford it, but at the same keeping people who don't care about it to use it just because it's free. It does, however, become a disadvantage of people who want it but don't want to pay that much for it, such as large families. One way to solve this problem is perhaps provide a family rate that's tied to resort stays. Say for a family staying in a single Disney resort room or suite, kids get Genie+ for free with paying adult. Will make a good incentive for staying onsite.

 

[zann285]

Do you have the ability to add Genie+ to an existing room only resort reservation with an annual pass?

I think I have seen some people in this thread who have been able to add Genie+ to this type of reservation through the app by viewing their upcoming trip and then following the prompts. In our case it’s a little different, so I‘m not sure on the process. We have APs and a hotel reservation coming up, but the app tells us that we would need to contact our travel agent or call Disney directly to add Genie+ to our trip. My family is usually good at finding quirky edge-cases though.

 

[DCBaker]

Wait a minute. Is this for real? If you pay for the attraction and it goes down, no refunds? Like, at all, regardless of whether it opens again? Regardless of whether you paid for a dessert party in another park that night? You should just hang out all day seeing if it reopens?

I know the word initially was no refunds. But I figured that was for a change of mind. Not a ride outage.

See here -

 

[pdude81]

The fewer people need to use Genie+, the more ride options will be available for Genie+ purchasers and the less burden it will be on the standby line, while Disney can still generate some funds from it. That's the ultimate system for everyone because that means Genie+ is available to those who want and can afford it, but at the same keeping people who don't care about it to use it just because it's free. It does, however, become a disadvantage of people who want it but don't want to pay that much for it, such as large families. One way to solve this problem is perhaps provide a family rate that's tied to resort stays. Say for a family staying in a single Disney resort room or suite, kids get Genie+ for free with paying adult. Will make a good incentive for staying onsite.

That makes a good incentive to pretend 10 people are staying at a camp site but really are in hotels elsewhere. I can see a discount for length of stay if they wanted to give 10% off for 5+ nights, but if you make it cheaper for people to lie about their kids age or where they are staying then I wouldn't want that. I get that people with more kids pay more money to go to Disney, but these are choices we all make. They also get more hugs than people with less children and those are free.

 

[pdude81]

I think I have seen some people in this thread who have been able to add Genie+ to this type of reservation through the app by viewing their upcoming trip and then following the prompts. In our case it’s a little different, so I‘m not sure on the process. We have APs and a hotel reservation coming up, but the app tells us that we would need to contact our travel agent or call Disney directly to add Genie+ to our trip. My family is usually good at finding quirky edge-cases though.

AP would have to be added day by day, after you've activated. I wouldn't worry about the messages at this point.

 

[Waters Back Side]

Can you just link one card to the MDE app to use for all ILL's and Genie + daily purchase if needed? Is there an option once you purchase it the first time to add a card and use the same one each time?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Wait a minute. Is this for real? If you pay for the attraction and it goes down, no refunds? Like, at all, regardless of whether it opens again? Regardless of whether you paid for a dessert party in another park that night? You should just hang out all day seeing if it reopens?

I know the word initially was no refunds. But I figured that was for a change of mind. Not a ride outage.

You must have missed this...

It seems they kept the reservation open until the end of park hours in case the ride came back up.

If the ride doesn't come back up, you get an alternate goodie (e.g., a LL for MMRR).

If you go to CS, they'll refund you in the form of a Disney Gift Card, which, I agree, is absolutely worthless if one plans on never spending anything at Disney ever again, whether for food, merchandise, or future tickets, for the rest of one's life.