Chi84
Premium Member
For me, there really wasn’t that much planning and it guaranteed being able to get the experiences we wanted.
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Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
So, your solution is simple - Charge More!
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
Truth be told the new system does ruin the park experience worse than the old one.
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Chip Chipperson
Well-Known Member
I can state for a fact that I won't be asking for G+ back in its current form. As a DVC owner with an AP, I was able to book my FP+ selections at 60 days out with the other resort guests. With G+, I have to wait until exactly 7:00 AM to purchase G+ (I tried to do it earlier and the system wouldn't allow it), so I'm already behind any non-AP guests by the time I am able to make my first selection, even if those guests aren't staying on property. They actually made it easier for a person staying at a Universal resort who purchased a single-day ticket to WDW to get G+ selections than it is for someone with a DVC room and AP who makes 2-3 visits of at least 5 days per year (plus more if we extend a stay with some cash room days like we did last week). I was willing to pay them $15/person to test out the system, but by the time I was able to do anything, the available times for rides we wanted were all later in the day when we had plans to hop over to Epcot for dinner. The plan was to test it out in DHS on Tuesday (and hop to Epcot) and then MK on Wednesday to compare how good or bad it was for each park. It was so annoying on Tuesday that I didn't even bother trying to use it on Wednesday, so they lost 2 days of potential G+ money from us (minus the $9/person we paid for a Rat ILL on Tuesday to try to salvage the day). If we had been able to book selections in advance, then this wouldn't have been an issue (even if we had to pay for the privilege of doing so). In fact, we would have spent more time in the parks because we would have still used whatever G+ selections we had made in advance before we left. That probably would have meant eating at least a few lunches in the parks, too, instead of the mix of resort QS meals and buying food at Target to make in our room.
My wife already asked me if we're going to renew our APs when they expire in May and I honestly didn't have an answer for her because we were so turned off by the fact that they built a system that penalizes us when it is in their best financial interest to try to win us over. If we let our passes expire without renewing them, our future trips will have more pool days and fewer park days - and the amount of money we spend on park tickets will be less than we'd pay to renew our APs.
el_super
Well-Known Member
Based on everything Disney has said in the last two years, leading up to Genie, and reservations and reworking AP systems, it seems that isn't true any longer. Disney seems more worried about attracting new guests and providing a great experience to them, rather than throwing all their resources to squeeze out a few more dollars from the repeat visitors. The balance of power has shifted.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
No, I wasn’t.
I know the prevailing opinion in this thread is that the only happy users of FP+ were super-savvy “edge cases”, but there are several of us here who don’t fit this stereotype yet still loved the system. While I don’t deny that many people hated FP+, I really think its detractors grossly exaggerate how difficult the system was to use successfully. Either that or I was just inexplicably lucky time and time and time again.
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
"Attracting new guests" and "Providing a great experience to them" ok Disney gets a big failure on that. Yes, Disney is working hard to squeeze, skim and glean every penny possible from repeat customers.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
el_super
Well-Known Member
Yeah but the question for Disney is more a global one: what do the people NOT on wdwmagic.com think of the overall park experience? Are they utilizing Fastpass? Are they having difficulty obtaining the reservations? Are they still encountering long lines and having a generally poor experience? Disney seemed to think that calculation tipped against the casual guest a couple years ago, when they started planning all this out.
Of course the people here knew how to work the system (myself included).
It's only been a couple weeks. Give it a couple years to see where the attendance trends.
Chi84
Premium Member
We were there October 21-28. The ILLs worked better for us than Genie+ (Remy, Rise and FOP). We were able to get rides, but the system just doesn't work well with the way we like to do WDW. Genie+ had us spending more time in the parks in the afternoons based on ride availability, when we would have preferred to head back to the resort for a break. Also, I don't mind doing the planning months in advance, but when I'm on vacation I kind of like to ease into the day - not get up and get on my phone trying to figure out what we're going to do.
I'm probably not a good one to ask because rides are not the most important aspect of our vacation; we place equal or greater importance on dining, water parks and pools. I know that @dreday3 was there at the same as us and may be willing to weigh in with their experience.
Sure!
Arrival day was just 2 of us (adults) - we didn't buy Genie +, but did purchase Rat. I purchased it from our home airport at 7 am, no issues, able to choose our time. We went to Epcot around 5 and got on everything except Frozen and Test Track (could have but we wanted to leave) with no more than 10 minute waits. Paying for Rat was worth it to us.
Next day was Animal Kingdom. We had Genie + and thought it was totally worth it there. Safari had a huge line when we arrived and we walked right on. Used it for all we could and felt good about it. You could have totally toured without Genie, but it was sooooo hot, so I'm glad we got it!
Didn't purchase any rides that day, waited in line for Everest, maybe 20 minutes. No FoP (that day). That was our favorite day of trip!Next day was MK - we didn't buy because we were going to Boo Bash that night. (totally worth it, walked on EVERYTHING except for 20 minute wait for Mine Train)
DHS - 3 adults by this time. We purchased Railway (LOVED it, totally worth it - but you can ride it with a lower wait at night...or could back then). We also had Genie + and had no issues with anything except Slinky. It ran out! We didn't know we should book first.
And then rest of trip went pretty much like that. My sister arrived and they purchased Genie + again for her days at MK, AK and DHS. They didn't say they had any issues, but we weren't all at the parks at the same time.
The two of us stopped buying after we did each park once (except Epcot - never purchased Genie + there because it wasn't needed) because lines just weren't that bad while we were there. We did purchase Rat for a second night and we ended up purchasing Rise.
So it was...fine.
We didn't have the issues people are having now. But we are also very easy-going with rides and the times. The only ride that would run out was Slinky. We always purchased rides at 7 am, so we had no problems getting the time we wanted.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
This is gold.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
CRT is open 3 meals a day now without character dining. Cindy will pop in once and wave from a distance, but that's it.
Villains0501
Well-Known Member
That’s good to know. I think I remember reading about the change a few months ago, but didn’t think of it when planning dining for this trip. Maybe next time, then. Thanks!
pdude81
Well-Known Member
Yeah it's a lot of money to be able to use the castle bathrooms. Not much else interesting happening up there
JMcMahonEsq
Well-Known Member
Leaving aside the constant ridiculous argument that you HAVE to wake up your entire family to do Genie+, your entire original post contradicts your conclusions.
"Seems like a lot of work to do every day for a vacation..." I personally disagree with you, but that's just my opinion and doesn't matter much in the broad scheme of things. However, it seems like most of the attending public disagree with you because from what you are saying, the system IS being used by many many people, in fact so many that selections are going quickly.
Which leads into the second fallacy you seem raise by saying the system is broken and its impossible to use. If the system is so broken, how are people using it so efficiently, that you apparently are not able to secure everything you want? It doesn't seem like most people are having problems using the system (or waking up at 7 to do so) as the slots are being secured daily.
Finally as to not being able to secure 2 of the most sought after rides (RotR and SDD) on one of the busiest weeks of the year....that isn't the system being broken, that is somewhat a reflection of your lack of speed with the system (or your back up's lack of speed) but is also evidence that the system is working better for the majority of guests. Rather than only people who were staying on property on longer duration trips being able to secure the best FP+ selections (and to be fair we were always included in this groups so to a degree I am arguing against my own self interest) everyone gets a much more even playing ground now. Yes hotel resort guests still get the 7AM lead time, but that is even amoungst all guests regardless of stay. Also once park opening hits, all guests are on relatively equal footing. So yes, you might not get each day a ride skip for every single high end ride you want, but the majority, if no all guests, are going to have a chance to get at least one or two of their top choices, which is arguably “fairer.”
Chi84
Premium Member
The fact that many people are using the system may speak more to necessity than guest satisfaction. I haven't read through all of the posts in the thread, but have you actually used Genie+ yet? It sounded a lot easier to use than it turned out to be in some cases - rides were listed as available for a certain time but when I clicked on it I got a different time, sometimes by more than an hour or so. Other times I went through the entire process only to get an error message saying to start over. The fact that rides are being scooped up doesn't necessarily mean the system is working efficiently. And Disney needs to institute a system that works in reality, not just theory.
We're going again in April with the family, and I have no idea of how this is going to work with a larger group. As I said earlier, FP+ worked great for us but not for everyone, and I'm willing to give this new system a try even though I hate the idea of getting on my phone first thing in the morning on vacation and trying to figure out the best way to get the rides we want while working around our dining arrangements, resort rest time, etc. I got a fairly detailed survey from Disney after our trip, so I'm sure Disney knows pretty well how Genie+ is affecting guest satisfaction.
"Seems like a lot of work to do do every day for a vacation" summed up our experience perfectly. But I understand others may feel differently - if enough of them are responding positively to this system, we may have to start looking at alternatives based on the fact that it isn't right for us anymore. Things change - that's life.
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Chip Chipperson
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure you can say that "most of the attending public" likes G+ (or thinks it's not too much work, at the very least) when only about 1/3 of the guests are actually using it on an average day. It seems like about 2/3 of the guests don't like it.
The system clearly isn't impossible to use (not literally, anyway), but it is difficult and obviously flawed. Passholders can't even buy it until the moment that ticketholders are already able to book their first ride, so off-site guests with day tickets have an advantage of someone with an AP staying in a Disney hotel. Unless one of the ILL options is a must-do for your trip, there's no reason to even stay at a Disney (or "good neighbor") hotel, since you can save the money spent on G+ by finding a cheaper off-site hotel that offers a free shuttle to the parks or is at least close enough to have a cheap cab/rideshare fare there. At some point, Bob and Josh will want to fill those empty rooms that they haven't made available for booking. The question is, will there be enough people willing to rent them when they finally make them available? I understand the need/desire to increase revenue, but it seems like it's only a matter of time before the revenue lost from empty rooms outweighs the money gained by getting $15/person from off-site guests.
Ayla
Well-Known Member
You purchase it at 7am today. Hope you already got it, seeing as it's way too late now.
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