Rumored Changes to G+

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

FOP is an ILL, not a Genie+ LL. It has been since the ILL/G+ system began. With ILLs, you choose from available times when you buy it. It isn't next available time. So, why was she checking her phone for times?

Yes I'm aware it is an ILL. She was checking because of refreshing to get later times. All of the available times were too early in the day for her plans. So she would periodically check her phone to see what times would pop up. Eventually after a time she was able to get a time to pop up that worked for her time. Remember refreshing or whatever the new term is for Genie+ era is the key or so everyone says for maximizing the program. You probably do more refreshing with Genie+ LL as opposed to ILL just because the ride availability more frequently runs out with ILL.

 

[jade1]

Sorry I'm way behind on this thread.

Question I have is on ILL.

Does WDW ever change the price throughout the day, similar to US with FotL?

Last week around 630 at EPCOT, GotG was was available in 4 minutes, but still $15.

We skipped it but got to wondering if it had been $9 or certainly $5 would we have purchased?

Doesn't matter, just seemed like easy money on slow nights for them if it would lower.

 

[SkyGuy]

Sorry I'm way behind on this thread.

Question I have is on ILL.

Does WDW ever change the price throughout the day, similar to US with FotL?

Last week around 630 at EPCOT, GotG was was available in 4 minutes, but still $15.

We skipped it but got to wondering if it had been $9 or certainly $5 would we have purchased?

Doesn't matter, just seemed like easy money on slow nights for them if it would lower.

Always the same price throughout the day.

 

[Chili327]

The Defunctland video proves how broken the FP+ system was, OG FP was the best system for every guest on site, easy to use and learn, did not completely destroy wait times for standby, and increased guest satisfaction with EVERYONE. While you could technically get more line skips with FP+, it was so wildly skewed compared to FP. Genie+ attempting to bring back the reservation system to FP+ will be a detriment to park guests.

But did it make more profit? (the goal isn't always guest satisfaction, it can often be profit increase)

 

[Smugpugmug]

But did it make more profit? (the goal isn't always guest satisfaction, it can often be profit increase)

Fastpass+ (and the whole MDE infrastructure) lost Disney a lot of money due to how much it cost to develop. It's one of the reasons why it eventually went away.

 

[Pommau]

But did it make more profit? (the goal isn't always guest satisfaction, it can often be profit increase)

They invested over a billion dollars to develop FP+, MDE, MagicBands, and Disney NextGen.

OG FP made them money in the fact that people had more time to go shopping and dining instead of standing in line.

FP+ Did fix crowd control issues that arose with OG FP.

 

[jade1]

Always the same price throughout the day.

Ah, well they certainly weren't selling many that night if there was no wait.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

OG FP was the most god awful system. You couldn't pick your time, for a very long time you didn't have to return at the posted time on your ticket and plenty of people who had AM times hoarded them for the evening (which also had it's pros), you could go to a ride and the FP could be gone which was a waste of time, running around the park to grab them was such a waste of time, etc. I'm surprised no one ever died from the running of the bulls for TSM (and Soarin) FP. That was complete insanity.

We rarely ever utilized OG FP since our kids were small then and we didn't want to separate to grab them or lug the stroller all around the park.

I was one of those people who was so excited when FP+ was introduced. We would use it by booking FP+ in our PM park and doing RD and standby in the AM so we rarely ever pulled for extras. It worked out great for us.

I did enjoy G+ the one time we used it. I got so many more LL's than I ever did with FP+. I didn't feel like I was on my phone much at all. I would tell Siri to set an alarm for me in 1 hour 58 minutes to remember to book the next one if we were stacking. I barely ever refreshed since we would just roll through them.

If a system similar to FP+ returned I would be happy with that. I basically just go with the flow with Disney since change is inevitable.

I think G+ is difficult to those who try to maximize it and get the most for their money (which I get and I do also) but that’s mostly people on the dis or similar sites. Which is probably 2% of Disney vacationers. For the rest they use it how it’s promoted. Book a LL, get on a ride, book another LL, and so on. Sometimes they get trapped in the 2 hour wait but they’ll just wait and book when times up. But the basics of G+ are not difficult at all.

 

[Moliphino]

OG FP was the most god awful system. You couldn't pick your time, for a very long time you didn't have to return at the posted time on your ticket and plenty of people who had AM times hoarded them for the evening (which also had it's pros), you could go to a ride and the FP could be gone which was a waste of time, running around the park to grab them was such a waste of time, etc. I'm surprised no one ever died from the running of the bulls for TSM (and Soarin) FP. That was complete insanity.

In the first few years they didn't even look at the date on the fastpass. You could save it for another day or another trip. It was a sad day when they started cracking down on that.

 

[HokieRaven5]

OG FP was the most god awful system. You couldn't pick your time, for a very long time you didn't have to return at the posted time on your ticket and plenty of people who had AM times hoarded them for the evening (which also had it's pros), you could go to a ride and the FP could be gone which was a waste of time, running around the park to grab them was such a waste of time, etc. I'm surprised no one ever died from the running of the bulls for TSM (and Soarin) FP. That was complete insanity.

We rarely ever utilized OG FP since our kids were small then and we didn't want to separate to grab them or lug the stroller all around the park.

I was one of those people who was so excited when FP+ was introduced. We would use it by booking FP+ in our PM park and doing RD and standby in the AM so we rarely ever pulled for extras. It worked out great for us.

I did enjoy G+ the one time we used it. I got so many more LL's than I ever did with FP+. I didn't feel like I was on my phone much at all. I would tell Siri to set an alarm for me in 1 hour 58 minutes to remember to book the next one if we were stacking. I barely ever refreshed since we would just roll through them.

If a system similar to FP+ returned I would be happy with that. I basically just go with the flow with Disney since change is inevitable.

I think G+ is difficult to those who try to maximize it and get the most for their money (which I get and I do also) but that’s mostly people on the dis or similar sites. Which is probably 2% of Disney vacationers. For the rest they use it how it’s promoted. Book a LL, get on a ride, book another LL, and so on. Sometimes they get trapped in the 2 hour wait but they’ll just wait and book when times up. But the basics of G+ are not difficult at all.

It’s honestly gotten simpler for me to explain to first timers now that the app will tell you when you can book the next one.

 

[SkyGuy]

OG FP was the most god awful system. You couldn't pick your time, for a very long time you didn't have to return at the posted time on your ticket and plenty of people who had AM times hoarded them for the evening (which also had it's pros), you could go to a ride and the FP could be gone which was a waste of time, running around the park to grab them was such a waste of time, etc. I'm surprised no one ever died from the running of the bulls for TSM (and Soarin) FP. That was complete insanity.

We rarely ever utilized OG FP since our kids were small then and we didn't want to separate to grab them or lug the stroller all around the park.

I was one of those people who was so excited when FP+ was introduced. We would use it by booking FP+ in our PM park and doing RD and standby in the AM so we rarely ever pulled for extras. It worked out great for us.

I did enjoy G+ the one time we used it. I got so many more LL's than I ever did with FP+. I didn't feel like I was on my phone much at all. I would tell Siri to set an alarm for me in 1 hour 58 minutes to remember to book the next one if we were stacking. I barely ever refreshed since we would just roll through them.

If a system similar to FP+ returned I would be happy with that. I basically just go with the flow with Disney since change is inevitable.

I think G+ is difficult to those who try to maximize it and get the most for their money (which I get and I do also) but that’s mostly people on the dis or similar sites. Which is probably 2% of Disney vacationers. For the rest they use it how it’s promoted. Book a LL, get on a ride, book another LL, and so on. Sometimes they get trapped in the 2 hour wait but they’ll just wait and book when times up. But the basics of G+ are not difficult at all.

That TSM stampede was no joke!

 

[Tom_E_D]

Yes I'm aware it is an ILL. She was checking because of refreshing to get later times. All of the available times were too early in the day for her plans. So she would periodically check her phone to see what times would pop up. Eventually after a time she was able to get a time to pop up that worked for her time. Remember refreshing or whatever the new term is for Genie+ era is the key or so everyone says for maximizing the program. You probably do more refreshing with Genie+ LL as opposed to ILL just because the ride availability more frequently runs out with ILL.

I suspect people do more refreshing with Genie+ because LL reservations will become available whenever someone cancels or modifies the one they have. But ILLs, in contrast, are not meant to be canceled or modified. You select your time when you buy it and then keep it and use it. I guess there are some exceptions, where people are able to make changes or get their money back by going to the Guest Experience people, but not many. I realize that more ILL times will become available during the day if there are any "drops" of additional times. But you can spend a lot of time looking and hoping for a drop that may not ever come.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I suspect people do more refreshing with Genie+ because LL reservations will become available whenever someone cancels or modifies the one they have. But ILLs, in contrast, are not meant to be canceled or modified. You select your time when you buy it and then keep it and use it. I guess there are some exceptions, where people are able to make changes or get their money back by going to the Guest Experience people, but not many. I realize that more ILL times will become available during the day if there are any "drops" of additional times. But you can spend a lot of time looking and hoping for a drop that may not ever come.

I don't disagree but that's given my perspective based on how often we go to the parks.

If it were me because we are infrequent visitors we would buy (if we did in the first place) the time that we see so long as we didn't have conflicting plans for park hopping or if we had an ADR booked (which we don't book too many of those) but they are an AP holder and with multiple trips per year so if they don't end up getting FOP (because they don't often choose to wait long for attractions) it's not the end of the world but even with that it was more advantageous to them to learn more of the in-depth ins and outs of Genie+ and ILL.

That said the fact that you can learn all that is part of the overall complaint regarding the entire product. Disney has opted to integrate a lot in their app and product but with that comes the complaints. I could also see someone confusing Disney Genie (free) for Genie+ (paid) then there's Tip Board, My Day, Virtual Queue area, and so much more. It's a lot more than someone just wanting to look at ride times quickly and moving on when discussing "I'm on my phone too much" talk.

 

[Brian Noble]

OG FP made them money in the fact that people had more time to go shopping and dining instead of standing in line.

Except that that's not what happened. If you look at the quarterly reports from before and after FP was deployed, there was no significant jump in the per-capita revenue. And, that makes sense. Unless you're a Hobbit, you probably aren't getting a fourth meal, and there are only so many ball caps that one person needs.

Mostly what people did was get in some other line.

 

[Cfabar1]

My complaint has always been that Genie+ didn't include access to the more in demand rides, but I think Disney is now planning on that revenue with the individual lightning lanes, and so it will continue. That to me is the real shame. It just feels like nickel and diming...

 

[mamaofsix]

2 minutes 15 times is 30 minutes. Let's say you are at the part for 12 hrs, 30 minutes out of 720.

How does 2 minutes 15 times a day stop you from engaging with your family? Whenever we are checking LLs or refreshing or looking at wait times or show times or anything in the app my family doesn't stop talking to me or whoever is doing the app stuff at that moment, on the contrary, we chat about it, we ask each other what we want to do. As @kmill99 said, we check the lines to see what our next stop is or choose a place to eat. We put the phone where everyone can see.

My phone use at Disney Parks is so low it doesn't even get to 20% at the end of day. This includes using the app, taking pictures, checking in with family who isn't there to let them know how it's going, recording video, etc. And we use all the tricks refreshing, fishing, modifying, etc so it's not like we are only using the app for LLs every 2 hrs.

Last time we went to DLR for 2 days we did almost 50 attractions (no LL+ bought), including all available nighttime shows, Roger's the Musical and the parade twice. Not included in those 50 are all the pictures with characters we took, when we rode the Mains Street cars, or the Railroad, or random music performances. We sat down to eat at QS places, we sat down to wait for the night shows and the parades, I've honestly never sat down so much before (we did not do any show packages). We even left 2 hrs before close on the 2nd day.

In all that time, I charged my phone once, so it's not like we were glued to it all day.
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Indeed! What we do is scan the LL, book another one and then we don't use the app again until we've exited the ride and are looking at what to do again. We look at what to do, maybe modify the LL or order food and phone goes in the bag again. Genie+ itself doesn't add an insane amount of time to app use.

I am wondering if some folks are obsessively refreshing or something and that's why they feel like they do.

That's great if you feel like you're not on your phone too much with the current system.

I think the whole point of the coming changes is that Disney has been hearing a lot of guest feedback to the contrary. There are many who feel they don't want to check phones 15 times a day, even if it's only 2 minutes. If they're able to plan ahead and simply have a few rides with a locked in time (no need to refresh and keep checking an app), it feels like they're more relaxed.

For those who don't mind checking their phone frequently throughout the day, a hybrid system of advanced or same day selections (what the rumor of this thread is based on) seems like a good compromise.

 

[starlite_]

That's great if you feel like you're not on your phone too much with the current system.

I think the whole point of the coming changes is that Disney has been hearing a lot of guest feedback to the contrary. There are many who feel they don't want to check phones 15 times a day, even if it's only 2 minutes. If they're able to plan ahead and simply have a few rides with a locked in time (no need to refresh and keep checking an app), it feels like they're more relaxed.

For those who don't mind checking their phone frequently throughout the day, a hybrid system of advanced or same day selections (what the rumor of this thread is based on) seems like a good compromise.

I understand that. I just don't agree that a system like that would be fair.

 

[Disneychick13]

I understand that. I just don't agree that a system like that would be fair.

Why should the system be fair? Isn’t the inherent nature of a paid system is for it to not be fair? What’s the difference between being unfair because it’s paid for (and not everyone can afford it) vs unfair because some people can stack because they go in the evening vs unfair because some people are better at “gaming” or “refreshing “ selections? Adding in different selections that might be tiered for people with resort stays/or AP’s or whatever, it just adds another layer of unfairness to an unfair system. I would far prefer an express pass like system (that will be cost prohibitive to most people) that will be equally fair for those that use it as it will be for those who don’t. (ie everyone who can use it is on a level playing field as are those who don’t). I don’t see any way that Disney can alter the current system to make it
‘fair”. There will always be ways for some users to benefit over others.

 

[mamaofsix]

Why should the system be fair? Isn’t the inherent nature of a paid system is for it to not be fair? What’s the difference between being unfair because it’s paid for (and not everyone can afford it) vs unfair because some people can stack because they go in the evening vs unfair because some people are better at “gaming” or “refreshing “ selections? Adding in different selections that might be tiered for people with resort stays/or AP’s or whatever, it just adds another layer of unfairness to an unfair system. I would far prefer an express pass like system (that will be cost prohibitive to most people) that will be equally fair for those that use it as it will be for those who don’t. (ie everyone who can use it is on a level playing field as are those who don’t). I don’t see any way that Disney can alter the current system to make it
‘fair”. There will always be ways for some users to benefit over others.

You make some good points. I imagine Disney is most concerned that they give an enjoyable experience to the most amount of guests possible. However they accomplish that - it might not be fair to all.

Bringing guest satisfaction back to the top of the list is a whole other topic, though. It seems like they've been making gains in the past few months. Let's hope it continues.

 

[starlite_]

Why should the system be fair? Isn’t the inherent nature of a paid system is for it to not be fair? What’s the difference between being unfair because it’s paid for (and not everyone can afford it) vs unfair because some people can stack because they go in the evening vs unfair because some people are better at “gaming” or “refreshing “ selections? Adding in different selections that might be tiered for people with resort stays/or AP’s or whatever, it just adds another layer of unfairness to an unfair system. I would far prefer an express pass like system (that will be cost prohibitive to most people) that will be equally fair for those that use it as it will be for those who don’t. (ie everyone who can use it is on a level playing field as are those who don’t). I don’t see any way that Disney can alter the current system to make it
‘fair”. There will always be ways for some users to benefit over others.

I meant fair for those that pay it. Obviously if you aren't buying Genie+ then you are at a disadvantage. But imo everyone that pays for something should have the same shot of getting its benefits.

You are free to disagree.