Rumor My Genie Conclusions - The Future of WDW’s Ticketing

CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
drizgirl said:
Remember all the promises about FP+? There were going to be all these surprise and delight fast passes show up to balance wait times across the parks. That’s all I could picture when I read this description of Jeannie. I’ll believe it when I see it.
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Were any of those actually promises made to the public though? I know they were message board discussion points, and I know they're part of what Disney used to sell the project internally, but were any of those ideas ever published and marketed?
 
mightynine

mightynine

Well-Known Member
CaptainAmerica said:
I think that's a fair analogy for a system like the Paris FastPasses, but this one feels different. If I'm understanding correctly, there will be a lot of upselling, but most of it will occur in the planning and booking stage as part of your package price rather than on-the-ground "microtransactions" that you make in real time.
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So perhaps we’ll add a dash of the Spirit/Frontier ultra low-cost airline booking experience too.
 
CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
mightynine said:
So perhaps we’ll add a dash of the Spirit/Frontier ultra low-cost airline booking experience too.
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It's price discrimination, and it's philosophically no different than Disney's current pricing strategy. It's just more elaborate and complex.

If you're rich and don't care to shop around, you can book a package for 7 nights at the Grand Floridian at rack rate for Thanksgiving 2022 with park hopper and water park add-ons. If you wait long enough, you might be able to get that same package for 25% off, and you can skip the add-ons to save a bit more. The "same" vacation can cost one family thousands of dollars less than others.

This system is the rack-rate-and-discount model taken to the logical extreme.
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
drizgirl said:
those younger folks don’t have the nostalgia the older ones have and are willing to pay for. I think that makes it a tactical error.
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In my opinion the Disney Parks are intentionally moving away from nostalgia and moving toward creating synergy with the new IPs.

While this could be considered a tactical error, but after seeing the parks make it through a global pandemic and come out even stronger than they entered it, it really doesn’t matter what they do, so they are going for the maximum money grabs where ever they can and they will get it.

This latest Genie money grab will happen and it will happen soon, and folks will pay through the nose to get it.

There are no errors too big for the theme parks. The theme parks are invincible. The folks will continue to flock to the parks. The Disney parks could probably ride this “COVID revenge vacationing” train for years!
 
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EricsBiscuit

EricsBiscuit

Well-Known Member
Believe it or not if they stuck with a free tier of Genie it might be a good thing. I’m fine with them preselling merch and food because that’s just good business. Helping someone who never understood a theme park (you’d be surprised how many people are overwhelmed even now with no FPs) is a good thing. Theme parks are like an economy and time is the currency. It makes sense they’d try to kill two birds with one stone: helping people who need it to plan an optimal day by taking advantage of experiences with shorter wait times (such as going on popular attractions later or earlier to avoid crowds, spreading out demand and lowering the wait times at peak hours). Where they lose me is with the paid premium access. If it is just a super high end experience a la Club 33 with little impact on the average guest, fine. If it is priced cheaply where you are forced to shell out an extra $15+ to get on an E ticket in a reasonable time then it sucks. This whole project is a huge gamble and will depend on wide adoption by guests. If it is voluntary I can easily see many people not being aware of it or not fully understanding it and just not opting into it. Honestly I don’t see why they don’t just include preselling merchandise in their current app. One of my websites takes full advantage of the one time offer upsell funnel and it is a gift from God.
 
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brettf22

Premium Member
Ninja Mom said:
I guess the good news is that social media is going to shed more light on what a disaster a Disney Parks vacation is being made to become.
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If this system turns out to be a mess, let’s hope the real word gets out. You can bet Disney is lining up perfectly curated (and completely paid for) experiences for as many “influencers” and bloggers as possible, so that they can report how wonder Genie is and how it is *so* easy and saves *so much* time.
 
pdude81

pdude81

Well-Known Member
brettf22 said:
If this system turns out to be a mess, let’s hope the real word gets out. You can bet Disney is lining up perfectly curated (and completely paid for) experiences for as many “influencers” and bloggers as possible, so that they can report how wonder Genie is and how it is *so* easy and saves *so much* time.
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Do you have any examples of this happening before? My understanding is that, other than media previews for new rides/lands to get into the news, Disney make everybody pay their way
 
B

brettf22

Premium Member
pdude81 said:
Do you have any examples of this happening before? My understanding is that, other than media previews for new rides/lands to get into the news, Disney make everybody pay their way
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They have a very well documented program for social media influence, including the Mom’s panel, InsideEARS, etc. that have provided perks. Two examples from a 30 second Google search:

TheCoffeeMom talks about how Disney works with her, providing her with comp tickets

Here’s an article, talking about “micro influencers” and how they “receive perks from the company for their efforts.”
 
pdude81

pdude81

Well-Known Member
brettf22 said:
They have a very well documented program for social media influence, including the Mom’s panel, InsideEARS, etc. that have provided perks. Two examples from a 30 second Google search:

TheCoffeeMom talks about how Disney works with her, providing her with comp tickets

Here’s an article, talking about “micro influencers” and how they “receive perks from the company for their efforts.”
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These are people in a transactional relationship. InsideEars and Moms Panel more or less work for Disney, and the other person said she wanted to write an article about something and wanted tickets in order to do her background work. You were making it seem like they would be calling up all the vloggers and givin them free Genie+ or whatever it will be called just to write favorable reviews. The site that shall not be named, as well as the guy that runs the DIS, and even Len Testa will tell you that they get little to nothin for free from Disney in relation to their coverage. Sometimes they have to fight for press badges because they aren't traditional media outlets.
 
The_Jobu

The_Jobu

Well-Known Member
To be honest, I dont really trust Disney to actually plan out my lowest wait times. I'm sure it's just going to try and spread everyone around to make up for all the massive lack of attractions. I'd much rather go with touringplans.

Either way, if it involves keeping park reservations, I hate it and anything to do with it.
 
DisneyMusician2

DisneyMusician2

Well-Known Member
pdude81 said:
These are people in a transactional relationship. InsideEars and Moms Panel more or less work for Disney, and the other person said she wanted to write an article about something and wanted tickets in order to do her background work. You were making it seem like they would be calling up all the vloggers and givin them free Genie+ or whatever it will be called just to write favorable reviews. The site that shall not be named, as well as the guy that runs the DIS, and even Len Testa will tell you that they get little to nothin for free from Disney in relation to their coverage. Sometimes they have to fight for press badges because they aren't traditional media outlets.
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And if you listen to Len a bit (whom I wish would be around the boards more!) he often gets shut out of media events because of the nature of his coverage
 
B

brettf22

Premium Member
pdude81 said:
These are people in a transactional relationship. InsideEars and Moms Panel more or less work for Disney, and the other person said she wanted to write an article about something and wanted tickets in order to do her background work. You were making it seem like they would be calling up all the vloggers and givin them free Genie+ or whatever it will be called just to write favorable reviews. The site that shall not be named, as well as the guy that runs the DIS, and even Len Testa will tell you that they get little to nothin for free from Disney in relation to their coverage. Sometimes they have to fight for press badges because they aren't traditional media outlets.
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Ok
 
D

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
Disstevefan1 said:
In my opinion the Disney Parks are intentionally moving away from nostalgia and moving toward creating synergy with the new IPs.

While this could be considered a tactical error, but after seeing the parks make it through a global pandemic and come out even stronger than they entered it, it really doesn’t matter what they do, so they are going for the maximum money grabs where ever they can and they will get it.

This latest Genie money grab will happen and it will happen soon, and folks will pay through the nose to get it.

There are no errors too big for the theme parks. The theme parks are invincible. The folks will continue to flock to the parks. The Disney parks could probably ride this “COVID revenge vacationing” train for years!
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I think they're purposely moving away from nostalgia as well. Until the chips are down. Then it's all nostalgia. Just watch the 50th anniversary commercial featuring Cinderella and her carriage.

They could serve up golden dog crap this year and people will line up to buy it. But that's not a long term plan that will work.
 
pdude81

pdude81

Well-Known Member
drizgirl said:
I think they're purposely moving away from nostalgia as well. Until the chips are down. Then it's all nostalgia. Just watch the 50th anniversary commercial featuring Cinderella and her carriage.

They could serve up golden dog crap this year and people will line up to buy it. But that's not a long term plan that will work.
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Nostalgia is the merch you buy to remember things you can't do anymore.
 

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