Genie Plus, a must for busy days.

[Jrb1979]

They can't release more Genie+ LL reservations. The attractions have a limited capacity per day. There needs to be room for stand-by. The LL must move quickly. There's an algorithm.

They could cap the number of Genie+ users. I'm pretty sure there's no limit on the number of buyers.

They can by taking it from standby. I'm of the opinion it should be 9-1 in favor of LL.

 

[Jrb1979]

100%

I’m still floored that many of the”hardcore” disney fans have been purchasing this.

I'm not. I love Genie+. They just need to fine tune it some. IMO they should up the ratio more in favor of LL. More in line with 80% to 90% LL. By doing that they can up availability and rides wouldn't sellout that quickly.

 

[Kmilos1024]

They can by taking it from standby. I'm of the opinion it should be 9-1 in favor of LL.

Then why even have a standby line? Might as well just up ticket prices

 

[Kmilos1024]

Dp

 

[dmunsil]

They can by taking it from standby. I'm of the opinion it should be 9-1 in favor of LL.

Disney tested doing 90% FP, and ultimately decided against it. They need enough slack to handle unexpected downtime, DAS, guest recovery, VIP tours, etc. And they never want to be in a position where the effective number of FP (LL) slots they have outstanding is greater than 100% of ride capacity. Things go south in a hurry.

Keep in mind, Disney wants to maximize usage of Lightning Lane; it's all upside from Disney's POV. If they could go to 90%, they would have done it long ago. 80% is as far as they're willing to go, and that's where most of the rides are currently set.

The core problem is that there is simply not enough ride capacity for everyone to ride everything they want to ride. They can allocate more or less to Genie+, but it doesn't produce more ride capacity. Someone will inevitably be disappointed on very busy days.

 

[570traveler]

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’m here this week. I can tell you that just because a time appears does not mean it’s bookable. Many times today while refreshing, times would appear and when I would click on them, a message would appear that there were none available. (And I was eligible to book a new one). I’d say 9/10 attempts the times that would appear for “sold out” attractions could not be booked. Could someone else have grabbed it in that instant, absolutely but don’t count on getting them.

 

[focusondisney]

Well, this is all good to know. We‘re APs & will probably go on 3 WDW vacations next year. We like to go to parks close to opening & leave by 1 or 2. We rest or swim & have a nice table service dinner. Don’t usually go back to the parks in the evening. So it’s good to know G+ return times quickly become late in the day or evening. It won’t work for us if it means spending the whole day in the park to get full use of it.

 

[acarsme123]

It’s a great system, ain’t it? Make people feel pressured to buy this service, but then make it to where you can barely use it! Brilliant move! What a blatant rip off. This will be my last trip to DW for a very long time.

They don't cut off sales of Genie+ — they'll always take your $15 — but the number of reservations for each ride is limited throughout the day. So reservations for popular rides (Slinky Dog has become infamous for this) may get snatched up much earlier in the day than less in-demand rides.

 

[ZeeWP]

I am not sure I understand what the percentage means. Is it 80% of total passengers who will ride or just how much is the capacity? It sounds the same, but it's different.

 

[hsmamato2]

I am not sure I understand what the percentage means. Is it 80% of total passengers who will ride or just how much is the capacity? It sounds the same, but it's different.

I think the rides are loaded 80% with the paid line options,20% with standby-which is the same as FP+ i believe.

 

[dmunsil]

I am not sure I understand what the percentage means. Is it 80% of total passengers who will ride or just how much is the capacity? It sounds the same, but it's different.

Disney measures the total ride capacity per hour for each ride. They multiply that by 80% and give out that many Lightning Lane reservations per hour (for most rides) The actual number of Lightning Lane guests they service fluctuates around that number as there will be some number of no-shows, and VIP tours, DAS guests, and people with recovery passes also use the Lightning Lane entrance. And people don’t arrive at the Lightning Lane in a smooth flow, so any specific vehicle could have any proportion of Lightning Lane guests, from 0% to 100%.

 

[DavidNYC]

Based on the reports coming out - might need to change the title to "A must for busy days . . . but not if they're too busy . . .". It seems this week LL is gone for a significant number of rides before anyone would even have a chance to make their 2nd reservation. Don't know about you - but if I went and ended up only being able to get only one of ToT, RnR, Smugglers Run or Slinky and they'd all be gone or end of evening by the time 11am rolls around - I'd be pretty annoyed that I spent $15 per person to basically get 1-2 attractions. I don't know how anyone thinks this is remotely better than FP+ - it seems designed specifically not to be.

 

[Orsino]

I don't know how anyone thinks this is remotely better than FP+ - it seems designed specifically not to be.

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.

 

[DavidNYC]

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.

You didn't need to be a "poweruser" to lose out here. You just need to be someone who wanted to have some semblance of control over your day. The tiering now is actually worse - the top tier rides are extra charges (and in parks like MK where you didn't have tiers you now have them). For the most part - the effects of tiering were minor and still a lot of major rides in each tier. No matter what way you look at it - most people are going to spending a lot more time in lines now than they were before other than perhaps those who never used FP+ but now use Genie. When FP was free - it was one thing for people to not get to do as many during the holidays. But I expect a lot of complaints from people who pay $15 and find by the time 11am rolls around the only thing left are the lowest tier of rides.

 

[Orsino]

FP+ wrecked vacations for those who didn't book FP+ at 60 or 30 days in advance. Around here, booking at 60 or 30 may not seem 'power user' like, but it is. People who showed up to their week long vacation asking, "FastPass what? Oh, that sounds nice, explain to me how to use it." Only to get the harsh truth that they needed to book a month ago or more.
At least now, the people who show up not knowing about Genie+ can adapt. These are the people who can benefit from the change to Genie+. I get that means pretty much no one on this board is in that group, but positive beneficiaries exist.

 

[PaladinButters]

But Genie+ is way better for the casual visitor.

I thought so initially, but won't that be the exact guest who tries to use it and finds out everything is gone by 11 and feel the most ripped off?

 

[Orsino]

I thought so initially, but won't that be the exact guest who tries to use it and finds out everything is gone by 11 and feel the most ripped off?

Surely some will, but all? I doubt it. The learning curve for Genie+ will be steep, especially on crowded days. But at least the previously uninformed guest has the opportunity to fight it out for G+LL if he or she so chooses. That wasn't the case with FP+. And my recollection was that FP+ were difficult to get on busy holidays as well.

Also, I'm trying compare the systems themselves and not focus on the pay to play aspect. I mean, you do that and the answer is clear.

Holidays have always been a crowded time. In terms of Genie+ I don't think the comparison should be "on a busy day you can only manage to get 3 G+LL while on low crowd days you can get 6." What about the wait time saved? If someone saves 60 minutes each on 3 G+LL and someone else saves 30 minutes on each of 6 G+LL, are they equivalent value?

 

[annacali]

Agh, look at the wait times now.

2 hours for Frozen Ever After. 1.5 hours for Navi River Journey.

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.

 

[annacali]

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.

 

[LSUmiss]

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

But, when you go to book something you see after a refresh, it often books up right as you’re trying to do it so either it was never really available or that many ppl are trying for the same thing.