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

[ImperfectPixie]

I think a lot of the complication is designed to make it harder for guests to compare prices and stay on a budget. If they raise the price of the hotel rooms, people may stay somewhere cheaper, but if they keep the price the same and add a parking fee, many people won't take that into account. The same applies for park tickets and fastpasses. People can compare the price of the Disney ticket to Universal's, but they can't account for dynamically generated FP prices that they don't even anticipate buying, but ultimately will when all the standby lines are too long and the Genie is pushing it down their throats.

Yep. This reeks of a really sleazebag decision.

 

[ukcatz12]

Just kill me now.

And for your other two wishes?

 

[LaughingGravy]

I think a lot of the complication is designed to make it harder for guests to compare prices and stay on a budget. If they raise the price of the hotel rooms, people may stay somewhere cheaper, but if they keep the price the same and add a parking fee, many people won't take that into account. The same applies for park tickets and fastpasses. People can compare the price of the Disney ticket to Universal's, but they can't account for dynamically generated FP prices that they don't even anticipate buying, but ultimately will when all the standby lines are too long and the Genie is pushing it down their throats.

Marketing to the short term thinkers. The same folks who follow a half a car length behind the person in front of them, not seeing the brake lights of the other 3 + cars ahead.

 

[Magic Feather]

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, but it’s time I let the Genie out of the bag. Genie was announced at the D23 Expo quite a while ago now. We never knew what exactly Genie meant other than it would really change the way you plan your vacation. Until now. Some of this is based on whispers from my peeps, some of this is based on my best logical guesses, and some of this just is so obvious I’m surprised no one has picked up on it yet. Let’s dive in.

First, the good news, annual passes won’t be going away, and neither will the monthly payment plans. The bad news is that WDW’s ticketing practices will get much more obscure overall. Genie will let you choose options that are important to you and spit out a price depending on what you select and when you want to do it. The price is determined by a variety of factors that probably won’t be explained to you directly, especially if you’re including the package deals. For example, you’ll be able to buy an AP, but it may not be good every day of the year, and Waterparks access or Premier Access could end up being an add-on. Oh, that reminds me. It’s clear to me that the company likes Disney+ and it’s naming conventions, so it’s likely that the Premier Access name from Disneyland Paris will carry over, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually launch Disney Genie as Genie+ or if Genie+ is some kind of upcharge version of regular Genie. I can’t confirm these names because these are just based on my gut, but the products seem real enough, so if I get some of this nomenclature wrong, don’t shoot the messenger.

As I understand it, Genie the app will be a free planning product. It will help you plan and achieve an itinerary that will be right for you and your family. But to guarantee an itinerary, you’ll need to opt in for Genie+ or Premier Access or whatever they end up calling it. I’m sure what you can guarantee will depend on the resort you’re staying at and the ticket types you include in your itinerary. The name of the game will be up-selling, and boy oh boy will you be up-sold to. Premier Access? Check. Photopass? Check. Parking? Check. VIP experiences? Check. Pre-order food and Merch? Check. It’s actually quite amazing how much will be implemented with Genie. This engine will also re-arrange your itinerary on the fly if attractions or experiences aren’t available as planned. For example, if Space Mountain ends up being unexpectedly closed for the rest of the day, it will re-arrange a later day of your vacation to hop back to Magic Kingdom to ride Space Mountain, and it will re-arrange dining reservations so you don’t miss your dinner at Ohana. It’s THAT good. But you’ll be paying for it.

You don’t want to use Genie? No worries, but no guarantees that you’ll be able to do what you want. There will be a definite bias towards pleasing the visitors that use Genie, especially the premium version of Genie. And that Premier Access product Disneyland Paris is using? Yeah, that can be an option for you day guests that just want to ride something now without waiting. It could be worth $25 bucks to you to just ride Flight of Passage now instead of that 180 min wait. Or maybe not. But at least you’ll have the option.

Fastpass+ as you knew it isn’t coming back. The name might, but since the new product is a paid service for most (it could be included as part of your hotel rooms or pass types in some cases) using the same name would be unwise in my opinion. Plus, now that it’s paid, it has to be guaranteed. That wait time has to be guaranteed to be 10 minutes or less (or whatever they come up with) and the CMs at all attractions will need to be re-trained to make sure they understand that guests are now paying to ride an attraction with little to no wait, and they have never done that before. This should encourage attraction CMs to upsell the faster access to their attractions as well.

Now, in terms of tech, we know Genie is dependent on multiple hardware and software upgrades at WDW that are occurring right now. Assuming they go well, you should see Genie roll-out before Oct 1st. If you have a keen eye, walking around property you may have noticed that Disney World has moved to SnApp for ticketing and to Appetize for merchandise and Food & Beverage point of sales systems. I suspect these upgrades must be complete before Genie can be rolled out. That’s just a hunch.

So, my advice: If you have the option to buy or renew an AP right now, I would recommend you do so before the new products replace the current AP offerings. It is likely there will be some grandfathering for the remainder of an active pass (not beyond a year though), and if you really prefer the new offerings over the old, I’m sure they’ll allow you to convert or upgrade. Obviously we just saw DL’s new Magic Key product, so we sort of have an idea on how things could work. Either way, it is a completely different team that is working on WDW’s ticket options, so we don’t know for sure, but one would think it can’t be TOO different.

If you have more information on Genie or want to chime in, of course I’m sure all of us here would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. For me, I think this is a good step for the parks overall: it monetizes what we knew as FastPass, it keeps reservations, it normalizes the operations a bit, and it allows Disney to sell a product that guarantees you’ll be able to ride Space Mountain almost a year out ahead of time. But what do you think?

A lot of great info here, a good amount of which is new to me. That said, I’m under the impression that the overall up charged version of Genie (Genie+ in The Visionary Soul’s words) was more of a “pitch meeting idea” and wasn’t able to completely come to fruition. Instead I *believe* Genie is going to act as a planning tool for all that doubles as a Trojan Horse for ala carte up charges like paid Fastpass. Potentially making guests seem like they don’t have a choice (ex. If you want to ride Mine Train, it either has to be during the parade or you have to use a paid Fastpass for it). Lastly, a lot of the data Genie intends on using seems like it would be dependent on a really high user adoption rate, which I’m not confident in Disney being able to achieve unless MDX is being completely replaced (which I doubt).

 

[WDWTrojan]

A lot of great info here, a good amount of which is new to me. That said, I’m under the impression that the overall up charged version of Genie (Genie+ in The Visionary Soul’s words) was more of a “pitch meeting idea” and wasn’t able to completely come to fruition. Instead I *believe* Genie is going to act as a planning tool for all that doubles as a Trojan Horse for ala carte up charges like paid Fastpass. Potentially making guests seem like they don’t have a choice (ex. If you want to ride Mine Train, it either has to be during the parade or you have to use a paid Fastpass for it). Lastly, a lot of the data Genie intends on using seems like it would be dependent on a really high user adoption rate, which I’m not confident in Disney being able to achieve unless MDX is being completely replaced (which I doubt).

Yes, everything I've heard about this is that it was pitched before anything was fleshed out and most of it died early on. People keep speculating but 90% of it will never happen.

 

[kong1802]

A lot of great info here, a good amount of which is new to me. That said, I’m under the impression that the overall up charged version of Genie (Genie+ in The Visionary Soul’s words) was more of a “pitch meeting idea” and wasn’t able to completely come to fruition. Instead I *believe* Genie is going to act as a planning tool for all that doubles as a Trojan Horse for ala carte up charges like paid Fastpass. Potentially making guests seem like they don’t have a choice (ex. If you want to ride Mine Train, it either has to be during the parade or you have to use a paid Fastpass for it). Lastly, a lot of the data Genie intends on using seems like it would be dependent on a really high user adoption rate, which I’m not confident in Disney being able to achieve unless MDX is being completely replaced (which I doubt).

I didn't even think about there being two different apps/log in sessions.

If that's the case, I agree with you that they will have trouble getting the adoption rate needed.

 

[DisneyGentlemanV2.0]

Template for a meeting pitch:

A: How many more bucks can we take in without adding value?

B: Let's squeeze the suckers as hard as we can.

C: The interwebs will figure out the scam.

D: Dang - people aren't as dumb as we hoped.

-- The End

 

[wedenterprises]

I hope they use this to replace MDE, having two apps would not be fun.

Not sure if anyone else commented on this... but it was mentioned if you're plans change due to an unforeseen circumstance and you can't get on a specific ride... genie will change your plans and book the park later in your itinerary so you can get on the ride that you missed... ok sounds good... but it was also mentioned that if you had that reservation at O'hana that had to be cancelled that Genie would rebook it for you at a later time during your trip... uhhh... try doing that yourself now. Most of the popular restaurants are booked solid months in advance. How will Genie get around that... will these popular restaurants hold a certain number of tables in reserve to accomodate these last minute changes made by Geenie? Will that make the chances of you scoring a table even harder? I really do miss the days of waking up and deciding that day what park, rides and restaurants you want to visit.

Those were the good ol' days my friend.

Will Genie will be exclusive to on-site guests only and premier level APs? Because this is a good point using O'hana as the example. If Genie were to act as a $FP for restaurants then it could be easier to get a table and move around reservations.

Either way the first thing I'm going to do *as genie comes out of his lamp* is scream "O'HANA! I WISH ALL THE WISHES TO O'HANA!"

 

[lazyboy97o]

People are having problems signing up for the Passholder previews for the Remy Ratatouille Ride because the website doesn’t properly recognize their pass. What happens when Genie suddenly think you don’t have valid admission in the middle of your vacation? Do you get the Magic of waiting on hold for hours?

 

[Tha Realest]

People are having problems signing up for the Passholder previews for the Remy Ratatouille Ride because the website doesn’t properly recognize their pass. What happens when Genie suddenly think you don’t have valid admission in the middle of your vacation? Do you get the Magic of waiting on hold for hours?

Genie you think you're getting:

Genie we're actually getting:

 

[CastAStone]

Genie you think you're getting:

View attachment 577848

Genie we're actually getting:

View attachment 577849

This is a good post.

 

[aaronml]

I hope they use this to replace MDE, having two apps would not be fun.

My understanding is that Genie will be a feature in the MDX app rather than a separate app.

 

[Tha Realest]

My understanding is that Genie will be a feature in the MDX app rather than a separate app.

Sooo...phenomenal cosmic powers....itty bitty living space?

 

[lightguy]

I know a DVC family who just spent a week doing just that. They were not happy, but Disney knows they'll be back next year and the year after, etc.

We're DVC. I wasn't thrilled with out most recent trip. Disney should not assume DVC means you will ALWAYS be back. Not only are there other options to use points (use more points to stay at a bigger/nicer place instead of going a 2nd time or exchange points to use through RCI at non Disney resorts), but they can also be rented at a profit or just sold completely- we could currently sell our points for a pretty nice profit if we wanted.

 

[skypilot2922]

Marketing to the short term thinkers. The same folks who follow a half a car length behind the person in front of them, not seeing the brake lights of the other 3 + cars ahead.

You mean the average Boston area driver.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

You mean the average Boston area driver.

HEY!

(Kidding...there's a lot of super crappy drivers here. Fortunately, I'm not one of them.)

 

[skypilot2922]

HEY!

(Kidding...there's a lot of super crappy drivers here. Fortunately, I'm not one of them.)

Yes, I drive every day on the demolition derby arena known as Interstate 93 and think it will take a century to pay the bill for the big dig

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Yes, I drive every day on the demolition derby arena known as Interstate 93 and think it will take a century to pay the bill for the big dig

Remember when Route 1 was like slot-car racing? Good times, lol.

 

[skypilot2922]

Remember when Route 1 was like slot-car racing? Good times, lol.

I do!

 

[flutas]

I’m under the impression that the overall up charged version of Genie (Genie+ in The Visionary Soul’s words) was more of a “pitch meeting idea” and wasn’t able to completely come to fruition.

Yes, everything I've heard about this is that it was pitched before anything was fleshed out and most of it died early on. People keep speculating but 90% of it will never happen.

If it's a pitch meeting, that's one heck of a pitch meeting to make it through a Product Manager, an Engineer, Code Review, and be published to the app store.

My understanding is that Genie will be a feature in the MDX app rather than a separate app.

Yup