Genie Plus, a must for busy days.

[AnnaKristoff2013]

This thread title should be changed to: “Genie+, useless on very busy days.”

 

[g-dad66]

We have been here as off site guests during this very busy week. Genie plus was essentially worthless. I overslept by 10 min on our Epcot day and all the LL were already gone or at evening return times before 7:30 am. Frozen was gone before I was eligible. The Remy queue was unavailable to me immediately at 1 pm too. MK I was able to get 2 LL rides (booked Jungle cruise at 7 am and Peter Pan at 11 am) but everything was gone after that. Definitely not worth the $90 for our party of 6.

Thanks for the first-hand reports.

But sorry aboiut the long waits!

 

[igrsod]

Can vouch for Navi on Sunday—wait was actually longer than posted. We entered first thing in the am when it was posted at 60 and waited 90. Waited 60 for Safari. 45 for Everest. 60 for Dinosaur and over 80 for FOP at park closing. We rode them all but it took 12 hours to do it and no shows or shopping at all.

How is this better for Disney? Unhappy guests, in line ups and not spending money in shops and restaurants. I hope they rethink this strategy. I don't think it's working.

 

[Kmedders]

Here now and very frustrated with genie plus. I’ve paid for it every day and been ready to go right at seven am . On our Hollywood studios day, the first lightning lane I was able to get was at four pm. I paid for rise of the resistance, and wasn’t able to get on that until six. So I paid nearly $200 for the day for my family to secure two rides? I think genie plus could work. But on a busy week, it’s not worth the money. The most lightning lanes I’ve gotten this week was four in one day - I’m struggling to see the value. The best value would be to steer clear of busy weeks and maybe then buy genie plus. But then again… you don’t need it on a “down” day.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

How is this better for Disney? Unhappy guests, in line ups and not spending money in shops and restaurants. I hope they rethink this strategy. I don't think it's working.

It’s better for Disney because a lot of people are paying $16 per person per day and in the end that is all they are about. $16 per person per day with no overhead far exceeds whatever they’re losing in theoretical shopping.

 

[igrsod]

It’s better for Disney because a lot of people are paying $16 per person per day and in the end that is all they are about. $16 per person per day with no overhead far exceeds whatever they’re losing in theoretical shopping.

Possibly, but I'm not convinced. If I'm grumpy in line for my whole trip, I would be spending more that $16 per day on fun things in the stores. I also won't be wanting to run back to Disney for another vacation any time soon.
I think this is all very short sighted.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Any change will have its plusses and minuses, winners and losers. Genie+ is 'worse' for the FP+ powerusers *by design* (I agree with you there). But Genie+ is way better for the casual visitor.
Also, I don't think you can compare Genie+ directly to FP+ without considering Tiering. So while FP+ allowed you to book 3 in advance, a lot of those were throwaway garbage anyway. In the FP+ era, I don't think people were rolling in FP+ during busy holiday weeks either (aside from cheating the system). Also, if I recall correctly, the heyday of FP and FP+ was when park hours were significantly longer. Cutting hours cuts capacity and cuts number of passes available.

Here's the thing I don't get. The "casual" user can't get into a park this week since the park reservations are not available.
The "casual" user must get up at 7am everyday to get G+ for the headliner rides or they will be gone and deal with hours for standby. The "casual" user must optimize their phones to get a VQ that runs out in 1 or 2 seconds. The "casual" user has to purchase additional ILL at 7am or they are sold out in minutes.

If the "casual" user didn't know how to work FP+ they won't know this either IMO. So now the experience is worse and more expensive for the "informed" user as just as bad for the"casual" user.

It's about the $.

I'm hoping Disney works out the kinks to improve what we have now as options. I'm used to coming during the busiest times.
We were here for the 50th on October and felt it was a better experience then with only standby over this IMO.

 

[papertraveller]

This thread title should be changed to: “Genie+, useless on very busy days.”

Couldn't agree more. We bought it twice last week, first for Magic Kingdom and second for Hollywood Studios. We struggled at MK to get four Genie+ LL for preferred attractions within the timeframe that we wanted to spend in the park. We did not feel that we got our money's worth. At a minimum I want the same experience I'm used to with FP+.

At HS, we got up early to take advantage of resort guest early access to ride ROTR. We then did three others as standby before hitting the first Genie+ we had booked at first opportunity. At that point, it was a struggle again to find the next Genie+ LL availability within our timeframe -- by noon, many available offerings were well into the dinner hour.

We also had a challenge because one of our party is not an early riser, and this now presents a big issue for us. Before, we could book FP+ and he could join us a bit later in the day. Now he arrives at the park, and we can't get anything until after 4.

We also used LL$ for a few attractions, but will not be likely to do that again. We wanted to give it all a try, but it really doesn't work for us.

 

[Delirium]

Is it just me, or does the real life experience of many in this thread totally contradict the utopia that Disney tried to sell us when this was rolled out.

Though I'm not experiencing this week myself, we did do Thanksgiving Week in 2018 (family of 4) with FP+ and it was perfect because of the advance planning we were able to do, Genie+ does not offer that option.

 

[Delirium]

This is interesting.

Checked Rock n Roller Coaster right at 11:00

Unavailable
REFRESH: 7:55
REFRESH: Unavailable
REFRESH: 5:20
REFRESH: Unavailable
REFRESH: 4:05

Moral of story: don't give up on Refresh right away

I interpret this to mean

"If you want to spend a 'refresh'ing vacation looking at your phone all day long, Disney has just the thing for you.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Possibly, but I'm not convinced. If I'm grumpy in line for my whole trip, I would be spending more that $16 per day on fun things in the stores. I also won't be wanting to run back to Disney for another vacation any time soon.
I think this is all very short sighted.

Everything Chapek's Disney does these days is short-sighted, but he's basically stated that he doesn't care about repeat guests or building long-term relationships with guests who will visit year after year. Therefore, the most important thing is to get as much money as quickly as possible out of first time visitors.

 

[g-dad66]

10:00 at Animal Kingdom. Time for a second LL.

Choices:
Animation Experience
Celebration of Festival of the Lion King
Dinosaur
Feathered Friends in Flight
It's Tough Be a Bug

Mighty slim pickings.

 

[SkyGuy]

This is interesting.

Checked Rock n Roller Coaster right at 11:00

Unavailable
REFRESH: 7:55
REFRESH: Unavailable
REFRESH: 5:20
REFRESH: Unavailable
REFRESH: 4:05

Moral of story: don't give up on Refresh right away

That doesn’t always mean it will be available. I was there earlier in Nov, when it was slower, and tried to get a TSM LL to use before a late Oga’s. I sat in our room and refreshed, literally, constantly for an hour. Times would randomly pop up, but not one time when I clicked would it be available to actually book.

 

[Miffy]

If someone at WDW is reading this thread, here's an idea:

Allow onsite guests to purchase G+ and ILL$ 30 or 60 days in advance and at that same 30 or 60 days in advance let the onsite guests who purchased G+ book 3 G+ attractions and 2/day ILL$ attractions for the length of their trip. This would make G+ and ILL$ worthwhile to me. Sort of like a paid-for FP+ experience. With the price of onsite resorts now skyrocketing, at least this would present a huge advantage.

As it is right now, G+ isn't particularly appealing to me, although I'll be using at least ILL$ on my upcoming December trip. G+? Not so sure, unless I don't mind thinking of it as yet another ILL$, as I gather 1 or 2 desirable rides is about all you can get out of G+ on busy days, and on not-busy days, G+ is unnecessary.

 

[Jrb1979]

Everything Chapek's Disney does these days is short-sighted, but he's basically stated that he doesn't care about repeat guests or building long-term relationships with guests who will visit year after year. Therefore, the most important thing is to get as much money as quickly as possible out of first time visitors.

To add to that, Disney+ is the focus now. What gets me is how so many are upset with how Disney is now but still go. There is so many other parks out there. Time to give them a try.

 

[ZeeWP]

OMG, this sounds like a nightmare. I really hope they are working more smoothly when we go in less than a year now.

 

[Jrb1979]

If someone at WDW is reading this thread, here's an idea:

Allow onsite guests to purchase G+ and ILL$ 30 or 60 days in advance and at that same 30 or 60 days in advance let the onsite guests who purchased G+ book 3 G+ attractions and 2/day ILL$ attractions for the length of their trip. This would make G+ and ILL$ worthwhile to me. Sort of like a paid-for FP+ experience. With the price of onsite resorts now skyrocketing, at least this would present a huge advantage.

As it is right now, G+ isn't particularly appealing to me, although I'll be using at least ILL$ on my upcoming December trip. G+? Not so sure, unless I don't mind thinking of it as yet another ILL$, as I gather 1 or 2 desirable rides is about all you can get out of G+ on busy days, and on not-busy days, G+ is unnecessary.

That won't work as then you back to the FP+ days and then availability will be next to none come day of. They don't have enough rides for any of these systems to work. It's I still say the only system that works is one like Universal's. Less people using it the better this works. Skip the line systems aren't intended to control crowds.

 

[Miffy]

That won't work as then you back to the FP+ days and then availability will be next to none come day of. They don't have enough rides for any of these systems to work. It's I still say the only system that works is one like Universal's. Less people using it the better this works. Skip the line systems aren't intended to control crowds.

But . . . didn't FP+ work? Or am I just imagining that.

 

[g-dad66]

But . . . didn't FP+ work? Or am I just imagining that.

It worked for DisBoarders. Not so well for folks who had no idea they needed to do anything in advance.

 

[Jrb1979]

But . . . didn't FP+ work? Or am I just imagining that.

It didn't work for most people. The only ones that seem to love it were the spreadsheet planners. I hated FP+ due to the amount of pre planning. It's why I love Universal. Going to a theme park shouldn't require a PHD to navigate it. Not saying Genie+ is any better with availability going so quick. The problem is there isn't enough rides to make it work. Since that isn't getting fixed any time soon, the only way to make Genie+ work is to either cap sales or price it high enough that most don't buy it.