Fastpass return or replacement?

[mi*vida*loca]

Sounds like genie would basically be Touring Plans.

 

[cakebaker]

Sounds like genie would basically be Touring Plans.

Yup. That has to be making the TP people just a little bit nervous.

I tried TP years ago, it worked pretty well in theory, but in practice it just ruined the park experience having to check the schedule to see what was up next all the time. I like planning, but that was just over the top for me. We ditched it after the first day.

 

[Marionnette]

Sounds like genie would basically be Touring Plans.

With the exception that Touring Plans is motivated by what is best for the guest. Genie is geared toward what is best for Disney. I fully expect that Disney will continue to over-inflate posted wait times in order to drive interest toward paying more in order to move closer to the front of those lines with LP or LP+.

 

[Lewisc]

What's common knowledge to us isn't necessarily common knowledge to a first time guest booking through WDW Travel. This levels the playing field. at the expense of regulars on Disney fan boards.

Sounds like Genie will "help" guests. Don't want to wait in line or pay extra
Might we suggest Country Bear. 5 minute wait. For only $10 we can get you on Pirate's.$30 Splash Mountain. Disney is letting you Pickford experience.

Many posters don't enjoy Universal. Stay at 1 of 3 hotels get express pass. Buy Express Pass. Going during slow days and get short waits on virtually all attractions.

Disney doesn't have enough stuff to handle the number of guests. Disney could dramatically increase park hours

 

[Mac30188]

With the exception that Touring Plans is motivated by what is best for the guest. Genie is geared toward what is best for Disney. I fully expect that Disney will continue to over-inflate posted wait times in order to drive interest toward paying more in order to move closer to the front of those lines with LP or LP+.

While you are correct in they will no doubt also cater to their best interest. Disney's best interest is to have happy customers. They are in the leisure and entertainment business and ultimately what they are selling is something that brings the consumer joy. Will they try to market to you to spend more money? Sure, no doubt. However they are absolutely not going to try to sabotage your experience as it would be counter to their core product.

 

[SarahC97]

Since there are no dessert parties right now, can you sit at Tomorrowland Terrace to watch the fireworks?

 

[Jrb1979]

While you are correct in they will no doubt also cater to their best interest. Disney's best interest is to have happy customers. They are in the leisure and entertainment business and ultimately what they are selling is something that brings the consumer joy. Will they try to market to you to spend more money, sure. However they are absolutely not going to try to sabotage your experience as it would be counter to their core product.

Hate to break it to you that was the old Disney.

 

[snowwhite84]

While you are correct in they will no doubt also cater to their best interest. Disney's best interest is to have happy customers. They are in the leisure and entertainment business and ultimately what they are selling is something that brings the consumer joy. Will they try to market to you to spend more money, sure. However they are absolutely not going to try to sabotage your experience as it would be counter to their core product.

Yes! Disney’s main focus is making money, yes, but that is best served by offering us something we actually want to pay for.

 

[cakebaker]

However they are absolutely not going to try to sabotage your experience as it would be counter to their core product.

Intentionally? No, but it's hard to believe that having no FP+ on our trip 2 weeks ago- looking at 2-3 hr waits for FOP and hour + waits for any headliner was somehow their attempt to sell me something that brought joy. If it was, they failed miserably.

What they will try to do, and are often very successful at, is convincing people that what they're selling brings joy. MNSSHP and the massive crowds along with the Dining Plan that doesn't save money are 2 that come to mind.

 

[Mac30188]

Yup. That has to be making the TP people just a little bit nervous.

Yeah, that is a great point. Everything they have said about Geenie is probably a negative for Touring plans. Best case it just siphons off some of their customer base. Worst case, it makes the product obsolete.

 

[cakebaker]

This levels the playing field. at the expense of regulars on Disney fan boards.

Seems to me that making the experience equally bad for everyone is just not the way to go. I would think elevating the experience for first timers to match that of repeat guests is a much better idea. Of course the only ones who know it's bad are those of us who knew it was good before.

It's like grading on the curve....a really bad idea.

 

[snowwhite84]

Intentionally? No, but it's hard to believe that having no FP+ on our trip 2 weeks ago- looking at 2-3 hr waits for FOP and hour + waits for any headliner was somehow them attempt to sell me something that brought joy. If it was, they failed miserably.

What they will try to do, and are often very successful at, is convince people that what they're selling brings joy. MNSSHP and the massive crowds along with the Dining Plan that doesn't save money are 2 that come to mind.

But just because something doesn’t bring joy to you personally doesn’t mean that thing isn’t good. I absolutely love MNSSHP. And the dining plan is t for me, but I know a lot of people like paying up front, even at an upcharge, to not work about paying a bill on vacation.

 

[Marionnette]

Yeah, that is a great point. Everything they have said about Geenie is probably a negative for Touring plans. Best case it just siphons off some of their customer base. Worst case, it makes the product obsolete.

Just like MDE and the Lines app, there is nothing to prevent a guest from using both TP and the free version of Genie.

 

[cakebaker]

But just because something doesn’t bring joy to you personally doesn’t mean that thing isn’t good. I absolutely love MNSSHP. And the dining plan is t for me, but I know a lot of people like paying up front, even at an upcharge, to not work about paying a bill on vacation.

And that's my point...they are really good at what they do. Did you ever experience MNSSHP in the beginning years? It was amazing, nothing like it was when they stopped them. I'm one who will happily pay for the new Halloween event and hope they never return to those jam packed events again.

Of course the difference between these 2 things and Genie is that I don't have to buy into those and they aren't taking anything away from me by not buying in. To replace FP+ with this hand holding app does.

 

[snowwhite84]

And that's my point...they are really good at what they do. Did you ever experience MNSSHP in the beginning years? It was amazing, nothing like it was when they stopped them. I'm one who will happily pay for the new Halloween event and hope they never return to those jam packed events again.

Yes, it was much better 15 years ago with low crowds. But c’est la vie. I still go and still love it!

ETA: I interpreted you point to be Disney is good at taking something bad and convincing people that it’s actually good so that they will pay top dollar for it. My counter argument was that the product in question could be of low value to you and high value to me and we can both be correct.

 

[cakebaker]

Yes, it was much better 15 years ago with low crowds. But c’est la vie. I still go and still love it!

Not anymore, because they don't have it and as successful as it seems the replacement is, they may never have it again. I wouldn't be at all surprised or disappointed to see them stick with these mini versions- cheaper to do + higher price = no need to pack them shoulder to shoulder or have them on as many days as they did before.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Hate to break it to you that was the old Disney.

I often wonder if there was easy-access social media to exchange complaints 20-40 years ago, would the tone of the posts still be similar to today? I think the 'old Disney' had issues, too. "Why are they doing away with these easy ticket books??? Everyone who enters the park can ride whatever attraction they want as many times as they want? That's crazy and will never work.......?"

 

[snowwhite84]

Not anymore, because they don't have it and as successful as it seems the replacement is, they may never have it again. I wouldn't be at all surprised or disappointed to see them stick with these mini versions- cheaper to do + higher price = no need to pack them shoulder to shoulder or have them on as many days as they did before.

Fair enough. Boo Bash doesn’t appeal to me. We are going in October and will not be buying tickets for it. One of my favorite parties they ever did was Pirates and Princesses, and that was short lived. Things come and go.

 

[Mac30188]

Intentionally? No, but it's hard to believe that having no FP+ on our trip 2 weeks ago- looking at 2-3 hr waits for FOP and hour + waits for any headliner was somehow them attempt to sell me something that brought joy. If it was, they failed miserably.

What they will try to do, and are often very successful at, is convince people that what they're selling brings joy. MNSSHP and the massive crowds along with the Dining Plan that doesn't save money are 2 that come to mind.

I tend to believe Remy's rumors that Disney got caught a little off guard, and they got caught in no-man's land this summer.

I don't think that they were/are intentionally withholding Genie. I think they are/were just finishing testing a very complex piece of software. They likely were too far enough away from Genie to implement, but too close to justify putting in Fastpass. If they implement Fastpass system, I very much doubt they are going to cancel a guest's confirmed FP+. They would have to set a Genie go live date way in the future and allow the Fastpass queue to clear. If they just put in the same code today that could allow up to 70 days of Fastpasses, that would mean the earliest they could go live is November. Not to mention it added an entire new level of perception issues.

Assumption number 2 I am making is they want something as close to October 1st as reasonably possible. I am assuming they didn't put in Fastpass because they thought they were close enough that it did not justify putting in Fastpass for such a short period of time or worse yet, it could actually lead to a delay in implementing Genie.

Unfortunately, software development is notoriously unpredictable when building something new. Were they hoping to already be in production? Maybe. We will never know because they played it so close to the vest and didn't give us any information. Did they fail miserably in trying to make your vacation magical? I truly hope not. I have not gone this summer yet myself. I just believe for the new system to be successful, it has to offer something that customer's will value.

 

[Cabius]

Yes! Disney’s main focus is making money, yes, but that is best served by offering us something we actually want to pay for.

Yes, but Disney leadership increasingly thinks of the product in terms of capital investment, not operations. The Product is the lands and attractions: they build them once, and then market them for decades.

The magical touches -- live entertainment, exceptional customer service -- are expensive. They want to spend as little as possible on recurring operational expenses, and every little cut makes the guest experience worse. But they don't care, because we will keep coming for the environment and attractions.

They may say "it takes people to make the dream a reality" but if they could fully automate the entire park and do away with CMs, they absolutely would. People would keep going, but it would no longer be Disney.