Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
I’m not sure if this has already been posted, but it seems Genie is calculating the ADR booking window incorrectly.

Lots of reports of people being told they can book now when they are still over 60 days from check-in. Only to be taken to the ADR booking page to find they can’t.

Instead of calculating 60 days out and for length of stay, it’s calculating it as (60 days + length of stay) before check-in. Classic misconception but now “official”.

🤦🏽‍♀️
Seems like Disney Genie is the opposite of those TV ads.
Instead of "making things easier". They just add an idiocy amount of complexity.
 

JakeAZ

Active Member
I find it incredible that they try to resist the refund and didn't consider this before going live. It is obvious that many people, such as the example you describe, are genuinely due to a refund for a something that was not delivered. Disney can't have it all ways. If they are going to sell access to a specific attraction, they need to deliver it. I think there should even be the consideration as to what happens if the specific attraction isn't operating at 100% show quality. What happens if you miss the pre-show for Rise? Not worth $15 that's for sure.

Sorry you had a rough time. Things should be better than that.
It's almost as if they should have thought things through before selling access to a ride with chronic downtime.

If it's down when your IA$ is called, it should be an automatic refund. If the IA$ line is ridiculous because of downtime prior to your ride, you should be able to request a refund in the app. A true refund! Not a Disney GC.

We shouldn't be forced to hang around in HS all day with the hopes one ride comes back online.

With G+ and an IA$ for ROTR, you should be able to knock out HS by early afternoon and hop to another park. Especially since HS has no true nighttime show right now.
 

Lirael

Well-Known Member
Ironically, if they had just added Rise to G+ for now they could get away with the downtimes since G+ is not a promise you'll get the specific lines you want, despite paying up.
 
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lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
The issue of Individual Lightning Lanes refunds not only shows Disney’s lack of concern for the guest experience but also for the employee experience. There’s absolutely no reason the system could not have been designed to wait to process payment until the pass was redeemed or timed out with automatic refunds if the attraction went down and the pass was never redeemed. Getting refunds is now a hassle for guests but also a variety of Cast Members who have to deal with the anger and frustration of guests. Even if Disney has a clearly communicated and easy to provide refund policy, it would still be an unnecessary additional burden placed on Guest Services.
 

Jeff4272

Well-Known Member
I don't know how many people would buy it, but that's irrelevant. Disney already offers such a program with the VIP Guided Tour. Why would they offer or even consider a cheaper more accessible option? The difference in function between what you are suggesting (the Uni Express Pass system) and what the VIP Tour offers is pretty small but Disney would make a ton less money by offering that - so why cannibalize their own product?

You want unlimited, on demand Fastpass? Buy a VIP Tour (at least that would be Disney's prospective).
Ummmm. It’s called scale? Let’s say they sell 100 VIPs for $4k a pop, that’s $400k. Let’s say they sold 10,000 (20% of daily admission to MK) for $200 a pop that’s $2mm.

what would you prefer as a Disney executive?
 
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Jeff4272

Well-Known Member
Well, that wouldn't be what Universal does then, would it?

Because if it was, they'd be extending this benefit to everyone staying in a moderate or deluxe resort as well as charging separately for people who don't and yeah, that kind of volume would definitely gum up the works of some attractions.
Really? Please read what your wrote. That’s exactly what universal does
 

wutisgood

Well-Known Member
The amount of corporate bootlicking in the reddit thread on price increases is so sad and why Disney feels confident on raising the price. People have just given up on corporations actually investing or caring about guests as a means to increase profits long term. At least universal is at least trying or realize the hole Disney has given them for easy money.

The whole reason for the "labor shortage" is people finally knew they could and should have better options for work. People need to be willing to change habits on vacations and not reward bad behavior. If the economy tanks Disney is going to get real screwed.
 

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
So tried the Genie (no plus) today just to see what would happen. Not one of my selected choices came up... it kept trying to send me to M&Gs, food and low tier rides. Even worse, when I rode Rise today it was shocking - literally 30 LL people to 1 or 2 persons from standby each time. Thats like 90% ration of LL to Standby. Disney is REALLY making sure you don't buy, you suffer.
 

DisneyDodo

Well-Known Member
So tried the Genie (no plus) today just to see what would happen. Not one of my selected choices came up... it kept trying to send me to M&Gs, food and low tier rides. Even worse, when I rode Rise today it was shocking - literally 30 LL people to 1 or 2 persons from standby each time. Thats like 90% ration of LL to Standby. Disney is REALLY making sure you don't buy, you suffer.
It’s quite clear to me from all I’ve watched and read that Genie is utterly useless, at least right now. Some of this is likely due to it being new and Disney needing to iron out some kinks, but I think most of it is by design. Genie isn’t trying to minimize your waits for the attractions you want to ride. Rather, it tries to push you towards the least popular experiences so the popular ones have lower waits for everybody else. It also arbitrarily bakes in a bunch of downtime, presumably for you to spend shopping. I doubt a scenario exists in which following Genie would result in a more successful day than traversing the parks blind, let alone using personal knowledge and experience.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
It’s quite clear to me from all I’ve watched and read that Genie is utterly useless, at least right now. Some of this is likely due to it being new and Disney needing to iron out some kinks, but I think most of it is by design. Genie isn’t trying to minimize your waits for the attractions you want to ride. Rather, it tries to push you towards the least popular experiences so the popular ones have lower waits for everybody else. It also arbitrarily bakes in a bunch of downtime, presumably for you to spend shopping. I doubt a scenario exists in which following Genie would result in a more successful day than traversing the parks blind, let alone using personal knowledge and experience.

Which is what FP+ tried (and failed) to do, but this company never learns from past mistakes.

And at least FP+ didn't cost extra.
 

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
Really? Please read what your wrote. That’s exactly what universal does
I know what I wrote is what Universal does but Disney can't do that - if they did it the way Universal does, it would essentially be "free" to moderates and up and that would be too many people.

And then what of the pricing for the pay option? What would they set that at, exactly?

It would need to be a large enough offering in number of tickets that it was reliably available on a daily basis but not so large that it becomes a huge bottleneck and effectively prevents anyone but resort guests and add-on buyers from ever doing any of the most popular attractions.

What would that number of tickets, on top of all the resort guests, look like?

I don't think Disney could do it unless they were to totally change their pricing structure even more.
 
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MrPromey

Well-Known Member
What do you mean they don't get "unlimited"? Are you saying they cannot re-ride rides? I thought that they could, if the guests want to and they'll just get back into that line and ride again but honestly I'm not that familiar with them.

Obviously, there is a time limit on the tours though.
No, your time is your time and if you want to spend it all doing ROTR, as far as I know, they'll let you but they charge by the hour. There's a minimum of 7 hours but what I meant by unlimited was that it's not a flat price for the whole day.

.... it allows you to go between parks so I guess you could book a full day starting when the earliest park opens until the latest one closes and you could kind of set that as a flat rate if you wanted to calculate that out so I guess you're right, if you've got about $10k to spare for the day on top of hopper tickets, you could technically make it unlimited.

With that in mind, though, what do you think their all access pass would be priced at?

Not $200-$300.
 
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GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
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