Disney Genie Is Now Live Post Your Hints and Tips

[dieumeye]

Are they not issuing refunds? If you have to stand in line to make an LL selection why wouldn’t you just get a refund?

 

[JC1984]

My coffee came out of my mouth just a little bit

But my thoughts and prayers to our disboard friends that are stuck in this mess. Thank you for your service.

On behalf of a grateful nation…

 

[jknc]

Are they not issuing refunds? If you have to stand in line to make an LL selection why wouldn’t you just get a refund?

Disney doesn’t do refunds.

Everyone is getting free churros.

 

[JC1984]

I heard the ILL for guest relations was $50 and the return time was after park closing

 

[twitch]

Disney doesn’t do refunds.

Everyone is getting free churros.

Imagine the lines at the churro carts as guests attempt to redeem their coupons while supplies last.

 

[BrianL]

Man, I'm glad this started AFTER my trip. Good luck to those in it now or soon - looks like some challenges ahead.

 

[Mel887]

I waited in line at guest services. They can’t give refunds right now as the system is down. Have to come back later tonight. They said the couple reservations I managed to make earlier should work even though I can’t see them. They also handed out 3 passes good for 6 people to any ride besides those in galaxy’s edge.

 

[DLgal]

Well, so much for Disneyland avoiding more bad press.

What a nightmare.

 

[DLgal]

I waited in line at guest services. They can’t give refunds right now as the system is down. Have to come back later tonight. They said the couple reservations I managed to make earlier should work even though I can’t see them. They also handed out 3 passes good for 6 people to any ride besides those in galaxy’s edge.

That's BS. They can't hand out Disney giftcards as refunds? I'd demand that, to be honest. This is an unacceptable failure of a paid service.

 

[starlite_]

Hate to say I told you so....but I told you so. This launch was a disaster waiting to happen, so sorry for everyone who's day has been disrupted because of this

 

[DLgal]

Hate to say I told you so....but I told you so. This launch was a disaster waiting to happen, so sorry for everyone who's day has been disrupted because of this

I mean, we were all expecting this.

 

[jknc]

That's BS. They can't hand out Disney giftcards as refunds? I'd demand that, to be honest. This is an unacceptable failure of a paid service.

Sorry, maybe I missed your post. Were you adversely affected by the system issues today? What did relations for to resolve?

 

[DLgal]

Sorry, maybe I missed your post. We’re you adversely affected by the system issues today? What did relations for to resolve?

No, I was responding to the poster who DID experience issues and was told they could not get a refund. I said that I would have not been satisfied with that response if I had paid $80 for my family to use Genie+. Their system failed massively. That's their fault. Not giving refunds is ridiculous. It's not that they can't, it's that they don't want to.

 

[evilmommie]

We just must be lucky people. After seeing that Genie+ went down we started getting into line every ride we have our list and nothing as been over 20 mins. <rise is not on our list today. > Really pretty day in the park. Heading over to Craftsman’s Bar for our ressie soon. Looking forward for to a refreshing Kentucky mule!

 

[nicole88s]

Man, I'm glad this started AFTER my trip. Good luck to those in it now or soon - looks like some challenges ahead.

Right? I was slightly sad it didn't launch when I was there because I was used to MaxPass and loved it, but I feel like I majorly dodged a bullet.

 

[poptart90]

Wow. Not that I expected a better launch, but to be told sorry you have to return tonight to get your money back and here's 3 measly passes??What...???? So now you can't even wait in a line to get a refund for the "skip the line" fail. Ummm. No.

Here's my idea for fair compensation. Pull out the Disneyland letterhead, type up a list of ALL the Genie+LL options that should've been available to choose from, hand one out to every guest that forked over the $20 in good faith, and give every CM at each attraction Lighting Lane a flippin' hole puncher! You know, cutting edge technology!!

 

[DLgal]

Wow. Not that I expected a better launch, but to be told sorry you have to return tonight to get your money back and here's 3 measly passes??What...???? So now you can't even wait in a line to get a refund for the "skip the line" fail. Ummm. No.

Here's my idea for fair compensation. Pull out the Disneyland letterhead, type up a list of ALL the Genie+LL options that should've been available to choose from, hand one out to every guest that forked over the $20 in good faith, and give every CM at each attraction Lighting Lane a flippin' hole puncher! You know, cutting edge technology!!

Or just dispute the charge with your credit card for services not rendered. That's the easy solution. I can do that in my credit card app with 2 clicks.

 

[AndrewC]

Lines are starting to creep up to standby times in the fastpass era. Obviously not enough sample size to draw a conclusion, and who can trust the quoted times anymore, but it looks like LL will have a pronounced effect on wait times.

Expected and annoying, the last few months had ideal stand by lines. They are creating a problem and finding a solution.*

*Again, based off today. I’ll hold off final judgement but it seems like this program’s endgame is a net loss to everyone other than Disney. The mere existence of the program creates the artificial need for the program, which in turn makes people sign up for it, which in turn dilutes the effectiveness of the program for everyone, which brings the overall park productivity back to where it was pre genie plus. The only benefit is to Disney who have managed to increase park revenue by 20-50 per guest for most guests.

75+ minutes for Holiday Haunted Mansion to me is not ideal (Mid October)... I was there for 7 days and only did it ONCE because I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much time in line. I don't mind "booking it" at 10:30 AM with a return for 7pm or something when lines get that long but it's a big one I like to do a few times and previously had always done it three or four times during a week long trip.

 

[ironband74]

On the one hand...this shouldn't have been this hard. The only code differences between maxpass and this is the paid attractions, 2 hour cool-down instead of 90 minutes, and once per attraction per ticket. And the only difference between the WDW version and this is the attractions and the "entered the park to use" limitation.

On the other, they invoked the name of the Ever impressive, long contained, often imitated (but never duplicated) GENIE OF THE LAMP! I like to imagine that *someone* is having some fun with their project from the great beyond, even if only for a short while.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I was at the parks for four hours today, 9:30am to 1:30pm. I did not plan to purchase Genie+ but I thought I might check out the free Genie service that makes suggestions for you. I tried many times throughout the day but never could get it to work. Sometimes it wouldn’t launch, sometimes it told me I didn’t have a park reservation, sometimes it said it the genie “can’t escape technical difficulties.” Later just a pop-up message that none of the new services were available. Disney IT is operating as expected.

People were using both services though. We saw them using the lightning lanes. It didn’t seem to affect standby times much.

We felt pretty bad for those people we saw using the pay-per-ride LL for RotR, which the app said was $20/person today (!). We weren’t planning on riding it, but we were in Galaxy’s Edge eating Ronto Wraps and I saw that the standby wait time was only 55 minutes so we decided to hop in line. The end of the line was inside the standby entrance. We reached the Rey preshow in 17 minutes. There was really no value for that today at least.

Some other rides we experienced today with posted standby times versus actual wait times:

Indy: 25 minutes posted/16 minutes actual
Big Thunder: 30 posted / 11 actual
IASW: 10 posted / 12 actual
Space Mountain: 50 posted / 11 single rider
Incredicoater: 15 posted / 8 actual

It was a great day! Wish we didn’t have to leave to pick up our kids from school, ha ha. (Shhhhh … they don’t know we went without them.) They were setting up to film ACF on Main Street as we were leaving to hit Incredicoaster.

Which reminds me, it was so weird, the lines to hop at 1pm were INSANE! The worst I’ve ever seen. Half the turnstiles at DCA were closed and one very short line for “non park hoppers” the the other lines to the middle of the esplanade. I’ve never seen that before. It was really strange. DL lines to hop also extraordinarily long.

Finally, we saw R2D2 roaming Galaxy’s Edge (so awesome!) and picked up the cute new Chip and Dale Nuimos on Main Street. They are so cute and will be poking out of my kids stockings on Christmas morning.