Disney Genie announcement

[scrappinginontario]

Perhaps try Genie + for 1-day of the trip and see if it matches with your family's touring style. If it does, wonderful and buy it again. If it does not, you are out $30 or more dollars and you have the experience to know it does not suit you and no more thinking about it in the future (plus you can complain about it - LOL).

That being said, it did NOT work great for us and we much prefer FP+ because we could choose our timeframes for the rides we wanted. The biggest CON we saw was the return times on Genie + were much later in the day for the more popular rides and we do not want to spend all day in the park waiting for a return time.

As for people and smartphones, no idea if Genie + is causing more people to be on them. What I do believe is a significant part of our population have lost the ability to be present and engaged with the people around them because of these "smart" devices. Add to that the apps on them are designed to be addictive and grab the user's attention which means more time for them staring at the phone.

Best of luck with your decision on Genie +!

This is a great suggestion! Our first day in the park is MK on a Sunday in late January so I was planning on doing what you suggest and buying it that day and trying it out. It will be our first time in a park in 2 1/2 years so we'll be looking forward to doing as much as we can and excited to get going so 7AM won't be a problem.

I'll try it for a day or 2 at the MK and possibly DHS and see how it goes. Will also depend on what people are experiencing the week before we arrive.

Looking at our plans I think I'm going to cancel our Park Hoppers for this trip and budget that money for G+ and ILL$ for RotR. Think we'll come out ahead financially if it's a one and done for us with G+. I think we may hit that sweet spot of G+ being that the parks aren't supposed to be too busy or quiet.

 

[Jrb1979]

Perhaps try Genie + for 1-day of the trip and see if it matches with your family's touring style. If it does, wonderful and buy it again. If it does not, you are out $30 or more dollars and you have the experience to know it does not suit you and no more thinking about it in the future (plus you can complain about it - LOL).

That being said, it did NOT work great for us and we much prefer FP+ because we could choose our timeframes for the rides we wanted. The biggest CON we saw was the return times on Genie + were much later in the day for the more popular rides and we do not want to spend all day in the park waiting for a return time.

As for people and smartphones, no idea if Genie + is causing more people to be on them. What I do believe is a significant part of our population have lost the ability to be present and engaged with the people around them because of these "smart" devices. Add to that the apps on them are designed to be addictive and grab the user's attention which means more time for them staring at the phone.

Best of luck with your decision on Genie +!

You CON is what Disney wants. They want you to be in the parks from open to close. Gone are the days of mid day breaks and planning.

 

[jlundeen]

I think a poster above hit the nail on the head as to why some folks are spending more time looking at their phones... you only can see the "next available" time for attractions, rather than a time that may work better for you. If you are trying to schedule around ADRs or only plan to spend a certain amount of time in one park (park hopping for example) you may spend more time searching for times that fit your needs.

Personally I think G+ and ILLs are very limited from a convenience stand point, and truly think being able to plan and schedule attractions ahead of time, as well as day-of, for specific times if a far better method. Why not just charge for a system that worked rather than try to reinvent the whole thing (with questionable success).

 

[scrappinginontario]

I think a poster above hit the nail on the head as to why some folks are spending more time looking at their phones... you only can see the "next available" time for attractions, rather than a time that may work better for you. If you are trying to schedule around ADRs or only plan to spend a certain amount of time in one park (park hopping for example) you may spend more time searching for times that fit your needs.

Personally I think G+ and ILLs are very limited from a convenience stand point, and truly think being able to plan and schedule attractions ahead of time, as well as day-of, for specific times if a far better method. Why not just charge for a system that worked rather than try to reinvent the whole thing (with questionable success).

You're quite right! I think one small change that Disney could make that I believe would greatly improve guest's outlook on Genie+ would be to allow guests to select their return time, similar to how they did with FP+. To me (and I believe others) this would be a game changer and hopefully help people feel better about it. (Well, as good as we can feel about now paying for something we used to get for free!)

 

[Miffy]

You're quite right! I think one small change that Disney could make that I believe would greatly improve guest's outlook on Genie+ would be to allow guests to select their return time, similar to how they did with FP+. To me (and I believe others) this would be a game changer and hopefully help people feel better about it. (Well, as good as we can feel about now paying for something we used to get for free!)

I agree. But I also think that if you could make at least a couple of selections ahead of time--not the day of--it would make G+ much more attractive, at least to me!

 

[leeniewdw]

What I’m trying to figure out is why people are spending all day in their phones? That was my question, not why people liked FP better. I liked FP too but am trying to understand how other than having 2 more FPs booked when I arrive (assuming I have 1 can’t book a LL at 7AM), what drives the need to be on a phone all day?

For us, I wouldn't describe it as "being on my phone all day", but I did have to set phone alarms to remind me to book the next LL and since we went to 2 diff parks with diff opening hours, I had to set up a different set of alarms each day (not a big deal but still). We used afternoon/evening only LLs for day 1 so only had to "work" for our final LL because it (RnRC) was bouncing around as sold out/late times when it came time to book at 3pm.

The next day, we did AK/EP and due to EP's ride availability, we couldn't even use the times they were offering when we started booking there at 10am. So I had to wait, my alarms were no longer valid (because I was booking at, say, 10:30am which made my next time 12:30pm, not 12pm). HOWEVER, it was a minor inconvenience because I already knew I could get the rides I wanted, I just needed the return times to move into my desired window. That would be a vastly different experience than refreshing for ANY time/availability.

 

[Jrb1979]

I think a poster above hit the nail on the head as to why some folks are spending more time looking at their phones... you only can see the "next available" time for attractions, rather than a time that may work better for you. If you are trying to schedule around ADRs or only plan to spend a certain amount of time in one park (park hopping for example) you may spend more time searching for times that fit your needs.

Personally I think G+ and ILLs are very limited from a convenience stand point, and truly think being able to plan and schedule attractions ahead of time, as well as day-of, for specific times if a far better method. Why not just charge for a system that worked rather than try to reinvent the whole thing (with questionable success).

FP+ was broken just as Genie+ is broken. Disney is the only park that uses a skip the line system to control crowds.
The problem with FP+ and Genie+ is there isn't enough attractions for it to work. The only way to fix it is to limit how many people can buy Genie+, either by raising the price or only sell so many a day.

I agree. But I also think that if you could make at least a couple of selections ahead of time--not the day of--it would make G+ much more attractive, at least to me!

That wouldn't work cause it would severely limit the amount of LL available day off. If they did that there probably would be next no LL available for people day of.

 

[leeniewdw]

For us, I wouldn't describe it as "being on my phone all day", but I did have to set phone alarms to remind me to book the next LL and since we went to 2 diff parks with diff opening hours, I had to set up a different set of alarms each day (not a big deal but still). We used afternoon/evening only LLs for day 1 so only had to "work" for our final LL because it (RnRC) was bouncing around as sold out/late times when it came time to book at 3pm.

The next day, we did AK/EP and due to EP's ride availability, we couldn't even use the times they were offering when we started booking there at 10am. So I had to wait, my alarms were no longer valid (because I was booking at, say, 10:30am which made my next time 12:30pm, not 12pm). HOWEVER, it was a minor inconvenience because I already knew I could get the rides I wanted, I just needed the return times to move into my desired window. That would be a vastly different experience than refreshing for ANY time/availability.

Quoting myself because I saw something in a diff thread that reminded me. Even though we had 3 LLs and 2 ILL$ set up on our arrival at DHS, I also couldn't really commit the times to memory and kept having to refer to my phone to check on timeframes. Since you don't have control over what's offered for LLs, you grab what "works" so I kept having to double check. Now I KNOW this is a great 'problem' to have since we had so much already booked. I just found I had to look at my phone and say "we have to to rides X and Y by time Z" so we knew if we had to hustle or if we had time to take a break to eat/drink/restroom. Then I'd do that again a little later.

 

[jlundeen]

and also, one downside of "looking at your phone all day" or even just a bit more than normal, I found that the new 50th app really eats your phone battery much faster than the old one. Maybe just because I have an older Android phone, but I was having to recharge a lot more often.

 

[Miffy]

FP+ was broken just as Genie+ is broken. Disney is the only park that uses a skip the line system to control crowds.
The problem with FP+ and Genie+ is there isn't enough attractions for it to work. The only way to fix it is to limit how many people can buy Genie+, either by raising the price or only sell so many a day.


That wouldn't work cause it would severely limit the amount of LL available day off. If they did that there probably would be next no LL available for people day of.

And yet severely limiting availability is one of your suggestions.

But, besides that, FP+ could be booked 60 days in advance and that limited the ability to get them day of, yet it didn't eliminate the possibility of getting them. I don't really see how G+, if one could book it in advance for, say 3 attractions (a la FP+), would be any different.

 

[jlundeen]

another thing that could improve the overall process is the ability to MODIFY, or change who the G+/ILL is assigned to. That would be a game changer.

 

[20KLeagues]

You're quite right! I think one small change that Disney could make that I believe would greatly improve guest's outlook on Genie+ would be to allow guests to select their return time, similar to how they did with FP+. To me (and I believe others) this would be a game changer and hopefully help people feel better about it. (Well, as good as we can feel about now paying for something we used to get for free!)

I do think that selecting returns times would help a ton........That is one of the "Fatal Flaws" as I call them with Genie+/ILL

You have to have your phone in your face all day for several reasons. Prior with FP+, you only had to do it once for your entire trip........Now you need to do it for every ride, every day.

We went Thanksgiving week.........We had several problems being on our phone all day:

1) booked SDD as my first Genie+ selection and it gave me 6:30pm.....we had Topolinos reservation for that time so I was constantly refreshing trying to get another time

2) at 11am the only thing left at HS was TSMM (no Tot, RnR, MSFR) and my kids wanted to rides those so we were constantly refreshing to see if people dropped them so we could book them

3) we were park hopping, doing AK in the am and Epcot at night......We tried to buy FOP but got the dreaded email code error and got shut out since it sold out in less than 30 seconds.......We booked our first Genie+ for Epcot in the afternoon (because we were going to buy ILL in AK and do the rest standby)........We were not going to Epcot until 6pm (it was deluxe guests extra hours night so we were going to go 6pm-midnight)....Only problem is, at 7am Tesat Track return times were 2pm so i had to constantly refresh for over an hour until a time came up for after 6pm.......same problem happened when I went to book my second Genie+ with Soarin.......Only time available were when we had Via Napoli reservation so I had to constantly refresh to find a later time

4) When in MK, we were constantly checking what returns times were and if rides were close to sold out because we were debating buying ILL for 7D and Space b the lines were so long and wanted to have some rides as walk ons

There are more situations and I will update my post but those are the first 3 days of my trip

 

[20KLeagues]

Other than being too expensive and Disney taking advantage of their loyal customers, I think the things with Genie+ that need to change are:

1) eliminate having to get up pre 7am EVERY day
2) Stop having to have to be on your phone all day
3) Pick return times to avoid park hopping/dining overlaps
4) ability to pre book in some way/shape/form
5) change a Genie+ selection without having to cancel first
6) limit availability to avoid 30+ minute ILL lines
7) Add different "drops" throughout the day so there is inventory available in the afternoon

 

[denman007]

Other than being too expensive and Disney taking advantage of their loyal customers, I think the things with Genie+ that need to change are:

1) eliminate having to get up pre 7am EVERY day
2) Stop having to have to be on your phone all day
3) Pick return times to avoid park hopping/dining overlaps
4) ability to pre book in some way/shape/form
5) change a Genie+ selection without having to cancel first
6) limit availability to avoid 30+ minute ILL lines
7) Add different "drops" throughout the day so there is inventory available in the afternoon

How about hold the stated time until you completed the transaction. (2 mins?) Maybe that's more for ILL.

Actually #3 takes care of that issue. duh

 

[aviva5675]

Used it at HS. By the time our 530 ROR came around it had broken down. We were leaving park right after. A fail. Was with someone who want to do all the Star Wars. It was fairly ok otherwise, but the stress of it was horrible, for days leading up to the visit.

 

[20KLeagues]

How about hold the stated time until you completed the transaction. (2 mins?) Maybe that's more for ILL.

Actually #3 takes care of that issue. duh

No i agree.....you are right......when it gives you 9:40am return time and by the time you process it and its 5:50pm then thats a problem....total joke

 

[roctavia]

Other than being too expensive and Disney taking advantage of their loyal customers, I think the things with Genie+ that need to change are:

1) eliminate having to get up pre 7am EVERY day
2) Stop having to have to be on your phone all day
3) Pick return times to avoid park hopping/dining overlaps
4) ability to pre book in some way/shape/form
5) change a Genie+ selection without having to cancel first
6) limit availability to avoid 30+ minute ILL lines
7) Add different "drops" throughout the day so there is inventory available in the afternoon

Maybe they can makes those changes when they upgrade to Genie ++, only for $30 per person per day!!!

It would still be annoying to pay for, but way better then how Genie + currently seems to work.

 

[Miffy]

Maybe they can makes those changes when they upgrade to Genie ++, only for $30 per person per day!!!

It would still be annoying to pay for, but way better then how Genie + currently seems to work.

It's almost as though they're frustrating us so that we'll be willing to pay more for a product that would be better.

 

[DeeCee735]

Today we paid for G+ and only got on 2 rides with it. We paid for RotR and had to ride standby on Slinky, star tours, MMRR.

We will never buy Genie+ again. We will continue to give our $$ to Touring Plans. Their wait times are much more accurate and we were able to avoid most crowds and have standby waits that were tolerable.

We’ll be using a touring company when the grandkids come….all of a sudden my adult kids want to come in 2023! When it’s just me and my husband (like now) very little parks and not using Genie at all

 

[iloveftwilderness]

Other than being too expensive and Disney taking advantage of their loyal customers, I think the things with Genie+ that need to change are:

1) eliminate having to get up pre 7am EVERY day
2) Stop having to have to be on your phone all day
3) Pick return times to avoid park hopping/dining overlaps
4) ability to pre book in some way/shape/form
5) change a Genie+ selection without having to cancel first
6) limit availability to avoid 30+ minute ILL lines
7) Add different "drops" throughout the day so there is inventory available in the afternoon

Great ideas!!!!! Someone from Disney take note!