No the Magic isn’t gone but it’s at 25%

[NavyDad]

For our family, the Magic is still there but it has definitely become less Magical. Our last trip in no way comes close to most of our previous 40+ trips, between Genie, LL, park reservations etc. The cost definitely has to do with it, I agree that the cost of everything has increased BUT not at the rate of WDW prices. In the past family and friends would say "man it must be nice to afford to go to WDW so much" but after telling them that we spend the same amount as we would renting a beach house or even just driving to Michigan to visit our families, they were surprised. Now, a WDW trip is nearly double the cost compared to those other two types of trips.

Where do you rent a beach house and what time of year?

The house(s) we rent in the OBX have gone up 400% since 2008 and almost doubled from 2018 to 2022.

 

[NavyDad]

There's a bunch of changes I'm unhappy with but luckily a lot of the changes don't really affect me anymore because my way of visiting Disney has drastically changed. My wife and I had our first kid and we are planning our first trip back since 2019 which will also be our first trip with our son.

We were major fastpass users, hopping from ride to ride with fastpasses all day so the new Genie+ is disappointing. However our park days will be a lot different and a lot slower with our child. We loved going to evening extra magic hours but no longer would be able to do them anyway. The other big disappointment that does still affect us is the ending of disney's magic express. We loved that service and would still be using it.

Luckily a lot of the magic now will be from seeing our son experience things.

It looks like from your post that you have not actually used the new Genie+ and $ILL service? When you try it, you may not find it to be disappointing at all.

We started going when WDW still had the paper Legacy FP system. It was great once we figured it out and we ran around collecting paper FP's like little golden tickets. The FP+ system took a little while to figure out with the App and/or kiosks but once we got the hang of that we became pretty prolific with our RD strategy, use our first 3 FP early and see how many we could pull throughout the day.

We have only done one trip with Genie Plus (April 2022) but we found it to be super convenient and we actually got more rides done with zero waiting than we ever did with FP+ and less trekking around the park than the old paper FP system.

 

[Frozen2014]

It looks like from your post that you have not actually used the new Genie+ and $ILL service? When you try it, you may not find it to be disappointing at all.

We started going when WDW still had the paper Legacy FP system. It was great once we figured it out and we ran around collecting paper FP's like little golden tickets. The FP+ system took a little while to figure out with the App and/or kiosks but once we got the hang of that we became pretty prolific with our RD strategy, use our first 3 FP early and see how many we could pull throughout the day.

We have only done one trip with Genie Plus (April 2022) but we found it to be super convenient and we actually got more rides done with zero waiting than we ever did with FP+ and less trekking around the park than the old paper FP system.

Agree with this. With the old FP+, we would have specific headliners as a priority (e.g. Meet Anna and Elsa, SDMT), that we would select these are our 3 FPs..but since so popular, our time was say 6pm...which meant we wouldn't be getting any more FP+ that day.

With LLs, we got so many...almost one per headliner.
The only thing I would say differed from us from your post is that we did end up doing a lot of zig zagging, as I would pick either by next priority headliner.

 

[NavyDad]

Agree with this. With the old FP+, we would have specific headliners as a priority (e.g. Meet Anna and Elsa, SDMT), that we would select these are our 3 FPs..but since so popular, our time was say 6pm...which meant we wouldn't be getting any more FP+ that day.

With LLs, we got so many...almost one per headliner.
The only thing I would say differed from us from your post is that we did end up doing a lot of zig zagging, as I would pick either by next priority headliner.

I tried to be strategic with G+ as much as possible to avoid zig-zagging. This worked really well for us at MK mostly because they just have so many rides with so much capacity. At DHS we had to go back and forth between Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land a few times but those lands are obviously connected.

Our biggest failure of the trip was Epcot - specifically Frozen and Remy. This was not really a G+ issue though really. Both rides kept breaking, coming back up again and then breaking again. We must have made the round trip between Norway and France 3-4 times in the hot sun. Our biggest issue was we had to hop to MK to see our daughter march in the parade that afternoon but the CM's at the little tent took care of us.

 

[OppR2nist]

I tried to be strategic with G+ as much as possible to avoid zig-zagging. This worked really well for us at MK mostly because they just have so many rides with so much capacity. At DHS we had to go back and forth between Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land a few times but those lands are obviously connected.

Our biggest failure of the trip was Epcot - specifically Frozen and Remy. This was not really a G+ issue though really. Both rides kept breaking, coming back up again and then breaking again. We must have made the round trip between Norway and France 3-4 times in the hot sun. Our biggest issue was we had to hop to MK to see our daughter march in the parade that afternoon but the CM's at the little tent took care of us.

EPCOT doesn't really work for G+, partially for the reason you pointed out, with the big name attractions being so far apart. Frozen is starting to dwindle in popularity, thanks to Remy and Guardians, but that now means that G+ should not even be a consideration for EPCOT. You can plan Remy and Guardians times, and then just go about your day.

 

[Frozen2014]

I tried to be strategic with G+ as much as possible to avoid zig-zagging. This worked really well for us at MK mostly because they just have so many rides with so much capacity. At DHS we had to go back and forth between Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land a few times but those lands are obviously connected.

Our biggest failure of the trip was Epcot - specifically Frozen and Remy. This was not really a G+ issue though really. Both rides kept breaking, coming back up again and then breaking again. We must have made the round trip between Norway and France 3-4 times in the hot sun. Our biggest issue was we had to hop to MK to see our daughter march in the parade that afternoon but the CM's at the little tent took care of us.

Totally agree with Frozen and Remy. Plus, it doesn't help that Remy is so isolated and a long walk from anything else at Epcot, unless happen to be in World Showcase nearby location.

Good that you could plan it better at MK and Hollywood Studios.

 

[DisneyFive]

I tried to be strategic with G+ as much as possible to avoid zig-zagging. This worked really well for us at MK mostly because they just have so many rides with so much capacity. At DHS we had to go back and forth between Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land a few times but those lands are obviously connected.

Our biggest failure of the trip was Epcot - specifically Frozen and Remy. This was not really a G+ issue though really. Both rides kept breaking, coming back up again and then breaking again. We must have made the round trip between Norway and France 3-4 times in the hot sun. Our biggest issue was we had to hop to MK to see our daughter march in the parade that afternoon but the CM's at the little tent took care of us.

EPCOT doesn't really work for G+, partially for the reason you pointed out, with the big name attractions being so far apart. Frozen is starting to dwindle in popularity, thanks to Remy and Guardians, but that now means that G+ should not even be a consideration for EPCOT. You can plan Remy and Guardians times, and then just go about your day.

Totally agree with Frozen and Remy. Plus, it doesn't help that Remy is so isolated and a long walk from anything else at Epcot, unless happen to be in World Showcase nearby location.

Good that you could plan it better at MK and Hollywood Studios.

I think it all depends on how much you value your time not standing in lines. ALL EARS had a great YouTube video a couple of weeks ago about whether or not G+ is worth it in Epcot. They did the top 8 attractions that utilize G+. The general consensus is that it is not needed, however there were over 170 minutes LESS standing in line when G+ was utilized.

So I guess it's up to each individual whether or not $16 per person for G+ is worth almost 3 hours less standing in lines. Personally we will still pay for it. I loved how G+ gave us our time back this summer to browse the shops, grab a snack, take it slow...

I totally understand those that don't think it's worth it at Epcot though. For me, the park where it's least effective is AK actually. I would consider not buying it there for sure.

Dan

 

[OppR2nist]

I totally understand those that don't think it's worth it at Epcot though. For me, the park where it's least effective is AK actually. I would consider not buying it there for sure.

100% agree.

 

[NavyDad]

I think it all depends on how much you value your time not standing in lines. ALL EARS had a great YouTube video a couple of weeks ago about whether or not G+ is worth it in Epcot. They did the top 8 attractions that utilize G+. The general consensus is that it is no needed, however there was over 170 minutes LESS standing in line when G+ was utilized.

So I guess it's up to each individual whether or not $16 per person for G+ is worth almost 3 hours less standing in lines. Personally we will still pay for it. I loved how G+ gave us our time back this summer to browse the shops, grab a snack, take it slow...

I totally understand those that don't think it's worth it at Epcot though. For me, the park where it's least effective is AK actually. I would consider not buying it there for sure.

Dan

Yeah - I think going forward we may skip it for both Epcot and AK.

At Epcot we don't really care to ride Mission Space or Test Track. We don't like the new Soarin nearly as much as the old movie so it's one of those things that if we do it that's cool, if not no big deal. My wife really likes Frozen and Remy. I'm sure we will all love the new Guardians. We can probably experience all three of those things just using RD, VQ and $ILL.

I agree on Animal Kingdom. That wasn't so much an epic fail as much as I just got the feeling that it wasn't worth it.

When we went in April, we had prepaid for G+ to be on our tickets for every day. I am glad to have the option going forward to have if for certain days or not.

 

[gharter]

We have only done one trip with Genie Plus (April 2022) but we found it to be super convenient and we actually got more rides done with zero waiting than we ever did with FP+ and less trekking around the park than the old paper FP system.

I'm surprised as most have reported doing much less with Genie + than with FP+. That has been our experience. We still get plenty of rides mixing Standby and Genie +. But I miss being to schedule the same ride several times if I desire. I really miss being able to have a pass and then be able to modify it to another ride or a better time if it becomes available. However, I'm not spending as much time on my phone while in line.

 

[OppR2nist]

Yeah - I think going forward we may skip it for both Epcot and AK.

At Epcot we don't really care to ride Mission Space or Test Track. We don't like the new Soarin nearly as much as the old movie so it's one of those things that if we do it that's cool, if not no big deal. My wife really likes Frozen and Remy. I'm sure we will all love the new Guardians. We can probably experience all three of those things just using RD, VQ and $ILL.

I agree on Animal Kingdom. That wasn't so much an epic fail as much as I just got the feeling that it wasn't worth it.

When we went in April, we had prepaid for G+ to be on our tickets for every day. I am glad to have the option going forward to have if for certain days or not.

Frozen, Remy, and Guardians are really the only three where you should worry about possible line skips. The others you can just watch MDXP until the standby line feels worth the wait.

 

[DisneyFive]

Frozen, Remy, and Guardians are really the only three where you should worry about possible line skips. The others you can just watch MDXP until the standby line feels worth the wait.

For those that like Test Track, this is the other one that has long lines all day long where G+ can really save time. (unless you are o.k. with single rider) Agree, Soarin gets low waits especially later in the day now that they added the third theater.

Dan

 

[gharter]

Yeah - I think going forward we may skip it for both Epcot and AK.

At Epcot we don't really care to ride Mission Space or Test Track. We don't like the new Soarin nearly as much as the old movie so it's one of those things that if we do it that's cool, if not no big deal. My wife really likes Frozen and Remy. I'm sure we will all love the new Guardians. We can probably experience all three of those things just using RD, VQ and $ILL.

I agree on Animal Kingdom. That wasn't so much an epic fail as much as I just got the feeling that it wasn't worth it.

When we went in April, we had prepaid for G+ to be on our tickets for every day. I am glad to have the option going forward to have if for certain days or not.

Agree that Genie + is not much help at AK or EPCOT. The rides in those parks that have the longest lines are ILL$, and you don't need Genie + to get an ILL$.