Chi84
Premium Member
And when park capacity was limited and people were afraid to travel/go to crowded theme parks.
Genie+ planning was well underway prior to the pandemic.
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Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Genie+ planning was well underway prior to the pandemic.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
I just don't see how pushing this to advanced reservations is going to solve the true problems with Genie+. Take out the price point from the discussion and the primary issues are a level playing field and the unnecessary complexity for the guest.
Fastpass+ was not a level playing field. Resort guests had a distinct advantage and that didn't have a price point attached it. It also had a layer of complexity with the different tier groups that further benefited guests that knew the complex system. On many occasions we would book FP+ reservations for attractions like Muppets and Voyage of the Little Mermaid to clear through the 3 FP+ advanced reservations and free up our passes for everything else. That's a very flawed system. The switch to Genie+ eliminated a lot of that BS, but also kept FP+ in many places where it wasn't needed to enhance the "value".
If Genie+ introduces some sort of advanced booking option, that advanced booking will have to have a window of time where guests can make their Genie+ selections. Is it midnight the night before? Is it 30 days before? Is it 30 days+ the length of the trip if you're staying on property or 30 day + the length of date based ticket? All of those will result in the exact same problem they currently face during the 7 AM rush.
Paper Fastpass did not have this problem in anything remotely close to the same way. You absolutely had lines for the Fastpass kiosks at park opening at Toy Story Mania (DHS) and Radiator Springs Racers but those lines and your placement in those lines were predicated on you being in the park early. It was no different than someone rope dropping their favorite attraction. This was just future planning the day.
If Disney is insistent on using an alternate queue, be it Lightning Lane or Fastpass, the best approach has been proven to be that the alternate queue should only be available for reservation day of, when you're in the park.
If Disney is insistent on using advanced bookings it absolutely has to be limited to one per day and however far in advance you can make that advanced booking has to be the same for resort guests, non-resort guests and AP holders OR they have to remove the price point on Genie+.
My assumption is that they haven't figured this out yet. I have yet to see a level of competence amongst the park operations decision makers in quite some time. We have had over a decade of decisions that are anti-guest.
Fastpass+ was not a level playing field. Resort guests had a distinct advantage and that didn't have a price point attached it. It also had a layer of complexity with the different tier groups that further benefited guests that knew the complex system. On many occasions we would book FP+ reservations for attractions like Muppets and Voyage of the Little Mermaid to clear through the 3 FP+ advanced reservations and free up our passes for everything else. That's a very flawed system. The switch to Genie+ eliminated a lot of that BS, but also kept FP+ in many places where it wasn't needed to enhance the "value".
If Genie+ introduces some sort of advanced booking option, that advanced booking will have to have a window of time where guests can make their Genie+ selections. Is it midnight the night before? Is it 30 days before? Is it 30 days+ the length of the trip if you're staying on property or 30 day + the length of date based ticket? All of those will result in the exact same problem they currently face during the 7 AM rush.
Paper Fastpass did not have this problem in anything remotely close to the same way. You absolutely had lines for the Fastpass kiosks at park opening at Toy Story Mania (DHS) and Radiator Springs Racers but those lines and your placement in those lines were predicated on you being in the park early. It was no different than someone rope dropping their favorite attraction. This was just future planning the day.
If Disney is insistent on using an alternate queue, be it Lightning Lane or Fastpass, the best approach has been proven to be that the alternate queue should only be available for reservation day of, when you're in the park.
If Disney is insistent on using advanced bookings it absolutely has to be limited to one per day and however far in advance you can make that advanced booking has to be the same for resort guests, non-resort guests and AP holders OR they have to remove the price point on Genie+.
My assumption is that they haven't figured this out yet. I have yet to see a level of competence amongst the park operations decision makers in quite some time. We have had over a decade of decisions that are anti-guest.
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Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
A small thing, but we loved to give our paper fast passes to random guests. We would go to the end of the standby line and make a magical moment for folks.
Ahh, those were the days of paper Fastpasses and magical moments.
The world is different now. Too bad.
Chi84
Premium Member
There are pros and cons to each system depending on how you vacation. We often go to a water park or resort pool/lunch at DS before heading out to the parks mid to late afternoon. FP+ worked great for us because we could get the most popular rides in advance and schedule them for the evening.
Genie+ works better for people who go to the parks all day and pound the rides. I suspect that people like me stopped being satisfied with only 3 rides when they had to pay for them. Genie+ likely hurt capacity in that respect.
You may think there aren’t many people who do things the way we do, but you might be surprised. Disney’s probably trying to find some kind of balance that gives something to everyone. Not saying they will succeed.
Genie+ works better for people who go to the parks all day and pound the rides. I suspect that people like me stopped being satisfied with only 3 rides when they had to pay for them. Genie+ likely hurt capacity in that respect.
You may think there aren’t many people who do things the way we do, but you might be surprised. Disney’s probably trying to find some kind of balance that gives something to everyone. Not saying they will succeed.
Eh, why can't resort guests have priority in advance bookings? Disagree it needs to be "fair". Sometimes we can take advantage of perks deluxe guests get, sometimes we can't stay deluxe so we don't get them.
On-site guest should always get a little bump, in my opinion. Even if you have an AP, if you stay on-site, you should get something.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
There are different “problems” with Genie+ that cause different guests to dislike it in different ways. that’s why quite frankly there is no solution that will satisfy everyone - and any issues get magnified when people are paying extra for something. i don’t really think your suggestions would have any more universal acceptance than whatever Disney is planning.
And quite frankly, why shouldn’t resort guests have some sort of advantage? It seems pretty crazy to me that they don’t have some sort of benefit when it comes to Genie+.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
What’s the point then? From the press release it sounds like they are trying to allow guests the opportunity to book some sort of G+ prior to their vacations to relieve some of the stress while actually at WDW. Having the reservation be the day before doesn’t achieve that.
We can argue whether it is good or bad, but from the wording I’d expect this to allow pre booking at least a week ahead if not a month or more in advance.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
Then the price point has to be cheaper for Genie+ for non-resort guests. You can't have it both ways. They are the ones that made every aspect of the trip a la carte. If they're saying Genie+ is $20-40 per day in value they can't make that value be better for resort guests without seeing complaints. When it was "free" it was a different discussion.
That's correct if you want to ride as many rides as possible, not caring that they may not include most of the E-Tickets.
Touring Plans broke this down showing that people who 'stack' the more popular rides as soon as you can (barring the 2 hour cooldown) for later in the day, and then just ride the lower-tier rides earlier in the day; they wind up with less time in queues, because most of their LLs are for the longer-queued rides.
No, it would be a bump, perk, an extra for paying to stay on-site.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
So Genie+ would be included for resort guests and an add on for non-resort guests? I don't hate that, tbh.
I think I was saying that resort guests should be allowed earlier booking than non-resort guests as a perk, but all of us paying the same price for Genie +.
But now I like your idea too.
Chi84
Premium Member
We’re on our way back from WDW now. My son loved Genie+ so we left it to him. Between Genie+ and ILLs we rode everything we wanted even with limited park time on some days. We had 6 park days and the total for Genie+/ILLs came to $829.61.
Our son liked Genie+ better but his parents preferred FP+. I’ll leave you to guess why.
DisneyDreamer08
Well-Known Member
I would love if there were some sort of perk for on-site guests. Even if it just means booking earlier. So many perks were taken away post Covid, it would be nice to see people be rewarded again for staying onsite.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Is the price of the same park tickets different between resort and non resort guests despite the fact that resort guests have longer opening hours in the parks? And Deluxe resort guests even longer?
Ayla
Well-Known Member
Over $800 added to your trip to pay for rides you had already paid for with your day ticket...
What a freaking racket.
JD80
Well-Known Member
Someone may have replied to this already, but in this scenario Genie+ works even better than FP+ functionally but at the cost of $$ and time (which is a pain in the butt).
Assuming you won't be going to DHS until 3 or 4pm and you start at 7AM you can stack LL either by grabbing good times or modifying bad ones and essentially have 5-6 rides all ready for you after 4pm. I've done it and I know a lot of others have as well.
edited to add: It's up to you whether the time spent and the cost is worth it. That answer is different for everyone.
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JD80
Well-Known Member
Time is money. Could have spent more time in line. G+ isn't really worth it in Epcot or AK for the most part, but can save you a lot of time in DHS and MK.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
One could use FP+ just as people today use Genie+. I never left it at my three preselections, but continued securing FastPasses throughout the day.
JD80
Well-Known Member
Only difference is that with G+ you can stack and save a while bunch of LLs for late in the day. With FP+ you had to roll from ride to ride to maximize its use.