Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
That usually happens because of recovery from attraction downtime.
Yes. Winnie the Pooh apparently had alot of downtime. If I happen to get an anytime pass, I'd probably pick HM over waiting for Pooh to come back up. Think we had Dumbo FP because there wasn't much else to pick from that late. Rain hit and shut it down, we chose to use it on a more interesting attraction to us.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
I feel really bad for the people who are expecting to get whatever LL or genie passes they want, when they want.
I thought it was a joke that only the teacups had an LL, by a PP. The TEACUPS?? That's ridiculous, and since when were they made LL?
This whole thing must be so frustrating for the guests. There weren't many happy faces in that HM LL line.
This week of Thanksgiving with high crowds will be a nightmare for the guests and the poor CM's who have to hear all the complaints. I hope disney straightens this out soon to be fair to everyone.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member
Agreed. But PP seemed to indicate the numbers should go up rather than down. Hence, my comment.
I do think they should go up. Back when FP+ was around, even on the busiest days at MK, you could get some day-of FastPasses throughout the entire day. Now, with capacity capped, and a paid option, you can't get anything. That tells me they need to raise the number allocated.

Problem isn't with the ratio (the ratio is hardly ever hit), but rather with the fact that some attractions (including HM) had downtime, so there was probably an influx of anytime experiences when that picture was taken. I suspect that was a temporary situation.
 

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
I do think they should go up. Back when FP+ was around, even on the busiest days at MK, you could get some day-of FastPasses throughout the entire day. Now, with capacity capped, and a paid option, you can't get anything. That tells me they need to raise the number allocated.

Problem isn't with the ratio (the ratio is hardly ever hit), but rather with the fact that some attractions (including HM) had downtime, so there was probably an influx of anytime experiences when that picture was taken. I suspect that was a temporary situation.
I do think there's a different calculus when it's a paid service. And when you call it a "lightning lane". This is also different because you can only ride each one once. It limits what's available to any given person.
 

HoustonHorn

Premium Member
I feel really bad for the people who are expecting to get whatever LL or genie passes they want, when they want.
I thought it was a joke that only the teacups had an LL, by a PP. The TEACUPS?? That's ridiculous, and since when were they made LL?
This whole thing must be so frustrating for the guests. There weren't many happy faces in that HM LL line.
This week of Thanksgiving with high crowds will be a nightmare for the guests and the poor CM's who have to hear all the complaints. I hope disney straightens this out soon to be fair to everyone.
It is beyond frustrating.

My folks were in a half-hour "lightning lane" for HM. They've been here more than a dozen times (including our trip from Christmas-New Years 1999), and they've never seen it like that.

EPCOT today - get a 2:45 Soarin' at 7:00, when I was able to get another one at noon, the best I could do was a 2:15 Spaceship Earth. When that was tapped in, the selections were abysmal. Glad we had already decided to head home and make it a short day after that 2:45 Soarin.

Yesterday was our travel day, and the inability to schedule your FP was a complete PITA. I was refreshing constantly trying to find a time that would work. Then, when you have one that you want to change, the app interface requires you to go to My Day to do the cancellation then back to the Tip Board to book something else, and heaven only knows if the times you saw that you want to change to are still going to be there when you do that. At least once it wasn't for me.

So, my totals for 1 MK and 1 EPCOT -

25 attractions
4 Paid ILL
4 G+
1 VQ
16 Standby

That sucks.

And the Show is bad. Our second Rat ride (the paid one), we had it stop 5 times, missed the middle special effect, had the last special effect way off-time. Spaceship Earth stopped several times, and some scenes have no audio. Living with the Land - some areas with no audio.

All that said, being here with my daughter and my parents is still special, especially as it's likely their last trip. But it can and should be and do better. Because if it was like this when I was 8, I guaran-damn-tee you that we would not have come back 2 years later, then 3 years later, then 5 years later, and I would not be on my 11th trip right now.
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
My guess is that they're using a round-robin system for the return times (e.g., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., ... 7 p.m., then start over), as a crowd distribution strategy.
  • It spreads visits to the attraction throughout the day, not just in the morning/early afternoon.
  • It encourages guests to spend more time in the parks

I know that for the Advanced DAS, they have three different start times to choose from, morning (park opening), midday and evening. Guests are given the option of next available in one of those spots. Perhaps something similar is being employed here?
 

roj2323

Well-Known Member
Really, no one wants to go back to where you have to cross the park to get a FP. My ideal.FP system would be day of only, similar to Genie+, but with the ability to schedule when you wanted to ride (based on availability), no ILL attractions (everything part of the same LL system) and no restrictions on multiple rides.
No one wants to go back to Standby only either. Forcing people to go to the attraction to get a Fastpass encourages people to move about the park and it prevents people from sniping up all the FastPasses before the park even opens. At the very least Fast Passes should be GEO locked to the park
 

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
Really, no one wants to go back to where you have to cross the park to get a FP. My ideal.FP system would be day of only, similar to Genie+, but with the ability to schedule when you wanted to ride (based on availability), no ILL attractions (everything part of the same LL system) and no restrictions on multiple rides.
Fully agree here. Reading that post, I was very confused to read that apparently ‘everyone’ wants to go back to ‘Point of Ride’ FP. Ahhh… Nope.

I loathed having to criss cross the parks back in the day. I was the ‘runner’ for my family and man, running did get tiring after awhile.

It was doable at MK but AK and Epcot can be hikes, depending on where you are going. The walk back to Frozen and Remy from the front of the park is longggg when trying to get there at rope drop, much less after already walking for a long period. Even the walk back to Smuggler’s Run is a good distance on a rainy day.

I do miss being able to get more than one FP for a ride in a day, though I understand they are trying to make things a bit more equitable. And the ‘next available’ time slots could definitely use some tinkering.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Plenty do and with adequate capacity it would serve the most variety of visitation preferences.

This is what people miss. They're thinking people want to do standby only and wait in lines that are at least an hour long all day.

Nobody wants to do that. They want high capacity attractions (and more attractions) that keep the waits from getting that long for the vast majority of attractions.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Having recently done MK with standby only, I want that to be permanent.

If something was busy, I just did it later in the day. I never had to pre-plan or worry about a ride "selling out" months in advance.

Yeah, MK is the one park where it would probably work as is, at least on days that aren't super crowded. I don't think any of the others have enough capacity -- EPCOT may have enough in simple math, but it's not that helpful when a lot of it is tied up in attractions people don't care about riding.
 

HoustonHorn

Premium Member
Plenty do and with adequate capacity it would serve the most variety of visitation preferences.
This is my second straight Thanksgiving trip. I would take last year over this year every day of the week. All standby - long lines, but they actually moved.

I spent SO MUCH LESS time on my phone last year compared to the last 2 days. I want to enjoy my time and enjoy my family, but wanting them to have a good time has me glued to my phone all day. Honestly, it's miserable and stressful.
 

bcalltimandanna

Active Member
Does anyone know if I would be able to add Genie + to a Main Entrance Pass guest pass? My mother is a retired cast member and is taking me and my partner in January. I can see the park reservation but because it is a guest pass I cannot link that ticket to my account
 

hopemax

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know if I would be able to add Genie + to a Main Entrance Pass guest pass? My mother is a retired cast member and is taking me and my partner in January. I can see the park reservation but because it is a guest pass I cannot link that ticket to my account
I haven’t tested it yet, but am in a similar situation. I believe “Yes” but everything can only be done on her MDE account. Same as how FP+ had to be made on the primary Main Entrance Passholder’s account.
 

bcalltimandanna

Active Member
I haven’t tested it yet, but am in a similar situation. I believe “Yes” but everything can only be done on her MDE account. Same as how FP+ had to be made on the primary Main Entrance Passholder’s account.
that seems to be how it will go. It probably won’t matter because due to blackouts we will be at AK on fri 1/28 and Epcot sat 1/29. With the 30 minute early entry I should be able to do a lot without Genie +
 

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