Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[Jeff4272]

That is consistent with my experience on 11/23.

So, at least for busy weeks, it's kinda back to the tiers as of August 19: you get 1 of either SDD or MFSR (or maybe RNR), then you get some less popular after. Unless you get lucky and catch an SDD in the first 2 hours, which would let you have a shot at MFSR.

The difference between now and August 19, of course, is that now you're paying for the privilege, and instead of stressing 60/30 days in advance, you're stressing every day.

Perhaps I'm dumb, but I'm going to give this another shot in a less-busy time before I write it off completely. Some tweaks to pricing and LL/Standby ratios would help. But assuming it's sticking around, they HAVE to fix the ability to modify LL selections.

I hear you..........But what i would suggest is test it......Have 1 person in your party buy it and 1 not and see if you even need it. I bet during slower times you would have no need to even pay for it

The annoyance of waking up at 6:50 to do it, having to have your face in your phone all day, having to criss cross the park all day long might not be worth it........


Oh yeah, and you wont have to pay either


This has been my point the entire time........When its busy, its not worth it and when its slow, you dont need it and by not getting it saves you from waking up early, constantly being on your phone and not having a good touring plan

 

[Jrb1979]

I hear you....>But what i would suggest is test it......Have 1 person in your party buy it and 1 not and see if you even need it. I bet during slower times you would have no need to even pay for it

I would buy it regardless of the type of day. I hate waiting, even a 30 minute wait is too long.

Here is what I would do to fix it. First I would truly make it like Maxpass and it's only available when in the park. Second I would change it to a rolling availability. When you log in the morning you only see availability til 1 pm. At 1pm more LL availability is released.

 

[Jeff4272]

I would buy it regardless of the type of day. I hate waiting, even a 30 minute wait is too long.

Here is what I would do to fix it. First I would truly make it like Maxpass and it's only available when in the park. Second I would change it to a rolling availability. When you log in the morning you only see availability til 1 pm. At 1pm more LL availability is released.

I would never buy it again if you have to wake up that early to get it, not able to reserve times instead of next available or reserve far in advance.......

We sleep in and park hop....This system couldn't be any worse for how we do the parks, so we wont be back.......completely defeats the purpose of us going


Unless they give an "any time, any ride" option so we know we will get on what we want, when we want, we will go other places

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I would buy it regardless of the type of day. I hate waiting, even a 30 minute wait is too long.

Here is what I would do to fix it. First I would truly make it like Maxpass and it's only available when in the park. Second I would change it to a rolling availability. When you log in the morning you only see availability til 1 pm. At 1pm more LL availability is released.

It doesn't matter what tweak they make when there isn't enough capacity. They have far more people in the parks than they do seats for butts...that will ALWAYS lead to "ride passes" running out, or dining reservations running out, etc. etc.

 

[Jeff4272]

If FP+ was universally hated because of all of the advanced planning, Genie+ has completely swung the pendulum the other way by making things too much of a crap shoot with everything a lottery and last minute


I think Genie+ will be gone in less than 3-4 years.......and maybe in 1-2 years....people will realize how broken it is


Why cant they come up with something to satisfy both kinds of park goers/resort guests?

 

[ImperfectPixie]

If FP+ was universally hated because of all of the advanced planning, Genie+ has completely swung the pendulum the other way by making things too much of a crap shoot with everything a lottery and last minute


I think Genie+ will be gone in less than 3-4 years.......


Why cant they come up with something to satisfy both kinds of park goers/resort guests?

The only thing that will fix the issue is adding more "seats" to accommodate the butts that enter the parks. "Seats" means more attractions; more entertainment/activities that keeps people out of lines, restaurants, and shops; more restaurants; etc. etc.

If you have 10 items to ship and only 4 boxes (big enough only for 1 item)...no amount of shuffling the items around is going to result in you having enough boxes.

 

[Jeff4272]

The only thing that will fix the issue is adding more "seats" to accommodate the butts that enter the parks. "Seats" means more attractions; more entertainment/activities that keeps people out of lines, restaurants, and shops; more restaurants; etc. etc.

If you have 10 items to ship and only 4 boxes (big enough only for 1 item)...no amount of shuffling the items around is going to result in you having enough boxes.

I understand and agree, but lets be real here, THAT AINT HAPPENIN

So in the meantime, they need to figure out something better b this system blows

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I understand and agree, but lets be real here, THAT AINT HAPPENIN

So in the meantime, they need to figure out something better b this system blows

Yes, they need to realize that their ideas aren't fixing the problems. Seriously...anything they try is literally pi$$ing money into the wind and I'm stunned the BoD is okay with that.

 

[Disstevefan1]

None of this matters. Disney knows folks book their WDW vacation, are all super excited, get there and deal with it; walk around, have some snacks, maybe a sit down dining or two, maybe a ride or two, may even realize it sucks, then go home, then time passes, and folks forget and book again.

To me, it’s like hanging and muddying drywall. I hate it and I am very bad at it and every time I do it I say never again, but then I forget how much I hate it and how bad at it, and I do it again.

 

[Jeff4272]

None of this matters. Disney knows folks book their WDW vacation, are all super excited, get there and deal with it; walk around, have some snacks, maybe a sit down dining or two, maybe a ride or two, may even realize it sucks, then go home, then time passes, and folks forget and book again.

To me, it’s like hanging and muddying drywall. I hate it and I am very bad at it and every time I do it I say never again, but then I forget how much I hate it and how bad at it, and I do it again.

HA....i know what you mean

But not me, not any longer

We have gone plenty though and my kids are older so they will jsut replace me with the other family of 5 with kids 4,3,1 like i was when i started going

 

[lazyboy97o]

I understand and agree, but lets be real here, THAT AINT HAPPENIN

So in the meantime, they need to figure out something better b this system blows

Then they need to reduce capacity and limit entry. They’re not looking for stop gaps to deal with the meantime, they’re repeatedly trying to come up with a long term means of avoiding adding capacity.

 

[el_super]

Then they need to reduce capacity and limit entry. They’re not looking for stop gaps to deal with the meantime, they’re repeatedly trying to come up with a long term means of avoiding adding capacity.

Because adding capacity doesn't eliminate the crowds/complaints. Most of the complaints here are from people seeking availability for the new attractions.

Raising prices is the easy answer.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Because adding capacity doesn't eliminate the crowds/complaints. Most of the complaints here are from people seeking availability for the new attractions.

Raising prices is the easy answer.

You keep twisting things into nonsense silos.

 

[el_super]

You keep twisting things into nonsense silos.

Yeah yeah I know I know, it can't be believed.

You know what is kind of funny though, in a way I realized they DID try to add additional capacity when they built two of the same land in two different resorts in the same country. I wonder if they think that's working out or not.

Doesn't seem to make it any easier to get on Rise though.

 

[UNCgolf]

Because adding capacity doesn't eliminate the crowds/complaints. Most of the complaints here are from people seeking availability for the new attractions.

Raising prices is the easy answer.

It's amazing how you keep arguing something completely different than the actual point at hand. It has to be intentional at this point because you can't possibly be that obtuse.

It has nothing to do with the ability to get on a single ride. If you truly believe adding additional capacity would do absolutely nothing to improve the park experience, I can only assume you never learned simple math. That's the only way that belief makes sense; it's completely irrational otherwise.

It's one of the most illogical things I've ever read on these boards and that's saying something.

 

[Jeff4272]

It's amazing how you keep arguing something completely different than the actual point at hand. It has to be intentional at this point because you can't possibly be that obtuse.

It has nothing to do with the ability to get on a single ride. If you truly believe adding additional capacity would do absolutely nothing to improve the park experience, I can only assume you never learned simple math. That's the only way that belief makes sense; it's completely irrational otherwise.

It's one of the most illogical things I've ever read on these boards and that's saying something.

Why do you respond to him? Ive had him blocked forever

 

[el_super]

It has nothing to do with the ability to get on a single ride.

It IS about individual attractions. Maybe that's the whole disconnect here? This thread is littered with people complaining that Genie doesn't work because they have to wake up at 7AM to get MFSR or SDD return times, or pay extra to get Rise and MMRR.

They're not talking about getting a return time for the Haunted Mansion (which is still available even though it's almost 1pm). It's specifically about the availability of new attractions (the ones with the highest demand).

Adding new attractions won't fix that, it will just change the name of the highest demand attraction.

If you truly believe adding additional capacity would do absolutely nothing to improve the park experience, I can only assume you never learned simple math. That's the only way that belief makes sense; it's completely irrational otherwise.

Not at all. You just have to go beyond simple math to understand what's happening in the park.

It's one of the most illogical things I've ever read on these boards and that's saying something.

That's fine. Keep being perplexed at why Disney doesn't follow the obvious answer of building more and more attractions, and instead focuses all their energy on crowd management solutions instead. They're so bad at managing their parks, and yet somehow they keep making more and more money. It's so illogical.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Then they need to reduce capacity and limit entry. They’re not looking for stop gaps to deal with the meantime, they’re repeatedly trying to come up with a long term means of avoiding adding capacity.

What they're trying to accomplish is impossible.

Raise prices to price out enough of your guests that demand decreases. Fine, there's your capacity problem fixed.
But now you need to worry about guaranteeing increased income next quarter. Raise prices again? Sure. Raise them again and reduce demand further.
But what about the next quarter? And the quarter after that?

 

[BrianLo]

I’ll have some comments on G+ in a day or so. Largely positive, but I had a pretty egregious event.

Jungle cruise had a 135 minute posted wait this afternoon when I got in the overflowing lightening lane. Took about 20ish minutes… but on arrival to the load I asked the cast member, “uhm are there really just ten people in stand by right now?”

Yes indeed. Standby was more or less instantly loading. The wait time ‘decreased’ to 90 minutes and was listed as 60 minutes when I finally got off.

In this one specific instance, G+ actually wasted my time. And wasted in a what’s technically deemed the highest priority LL.

This largely was a funny isolated event. The few times I did standby for actual moderate or significant waits (MMRR and Rise) they actually were essentially fully accurate. Which I was a bit disappointed with as I bought into the convention that posted times can be halved.

 

[Thepuma]

Well..thought I'd try Disney one more time.....

Never never NEVER again!

I've just about had it with Disney...

Bought Genie+ as well as two paid LL - SDMT at MK and Avatar for later at AK.

Well, from 8am to 7pm we managed to get just 2 Genie+ reservations 1) Jungle Cruise at 1pm and 2) Soarin at 4pm

We booked Seven Dwarfs at 1pm for $30 for 2 of us. Got to the entrance 5 minutes early to find a massive line in the LL? I asked a team member if this was the Lightning Lane and she confirmed it was - Honestly it was ridiculous and it took us 35 minutes to get on....terrible considering we paid for the privelege.

We then used our first Genie+ for Jungle Cruise...again, we were great by a big queue, but managed to get on in 25 minutes.

We then head to Epcot where we had a 4pm Soarin Genie+ ...that queue was good, just 10 mins. We tried to do Test Track but it went down for an hour and by the time we got back When it came back the queue was FULL of thos who had cancelled Genie + reservation...so the 40 minute stated time ended up being 90 minutes.

Had a AFOP paid $28 LL for 2 of us and got to the queue on time...only to be met with a terribly slow LL queue and took us 45 minutes to get on.

So for $32 Genies and $58 LL+ ($90) we managed 4 rides. Bare in mind 2 entrance is $260

What I found most annoying was the LONG waits even though we had paid Lightning Lanes.

We have a week left on our holiday to Orlando and I can safely say, we won't be visiting another Disney Park while we are here. Its just not worth the hassle and the cost.