Disney Genie and genie+

RunDMV;2531882 wrote: But Disney told us this is what we wanted, what we asked for, what we NEEDED.

i've just e-mailed Guest relations to explain not what i need. Don't expect it to do a blind bit of difference, but made me feel better

The Gary Daniels video is now at 90% negative.

Cass&KenziesMom;2531875 wrote: From what I'm reading if the rides use a virtual que or boarding groups like Rise of the Resistance those will be available and if there are spots you can get you can get them at no charge.

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These will still use boarding groups, but also will be available as a paid lightning lane pass...

Maybe I am in the minority around here but this change makes me happy. I hated and I can't emphasize hated enough to describe how much I disliked FP+. Having to sit at the computer or on your app 60 days in advance waiting for the moment your window to schedule FP+ because the popular rides would be gone in a few minutes was beyond irritating. Especially when you own businesses, are super busy and you deal with scheduling and logistics all day long every day. A vacation at WDW became basically a job.

I said from day 1 of FP+ that I would gladly pay for a system where we picked some sort of fastpasses on the day of our visit to a park. This is one of those things where they can now control how many people are utilizing the system by adjusting the price. Most other theme parks have been using this sort of pay to play system for a while and it works well. FP+ was about as aggravating and dysfunctional as it could possibly have been. The only people it worked well for was those that would show up and do their FP attractions and maybe one or two others and then leave to go do other things. Those of us who want to do most all of the attractions and enjoy the entire park were left to deal with the long lines on the attractions we didn't have fastpasses.

1DisneyNut;2531906 wrote: Maybe I am in the minority around here but this change makes me happy. I hated and I can't emphasize hated enough to describe how much I disliked FP+. Having to sit at the computer or on your app 60 days in advance waiting for the moment your window to schedule FP+ because the popular rides would be gone in a few minutes was beyond irritating. Especially when you own businesses, are super busy and you deal with scheduling and logistics all day long every day. A vacation at WDW became basically a job.

I said from day 1 of FP+ that I would gladly pay for a system where we picked some sort of fastpasses on the day of our visit to a park. This is one of those things where they can now control how many people are utilizing the system by adjusting the price. Most other theme parks have been using this sort of pay to play system for a while and it works well. FP+ was about as aggravating and dysfunctional as it could possibly have been. The only people it worked well for was those that would show up and do their FP attractions and maybe one or two others and then leave to go do other things. Those of us who want to do most all of the attractions and enjoy the entire park were left to deal with the long lines on the attractions we didn't have fastpasses.

I felt the same way. Still haven't decided if we're going to do Genie+ but like I said earlier it's WAY cheaper than Universal so I'm more inclined to do this than Express Passes at Universal.

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Cass&KenziesMom;2531908 wrote: I felt the same way. Still haven't decided if we're going to do Genie+ but like I said earlier it's WAY cheaper than Universal so I'm more inclined to do this than Express Passes at Universal.

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"Its WAY cheaper than Universal....". It is today.

Out of curiosity, I did a quick search to see how much an express pass at Universal is. It said $30-$40 per day depending on when you go.

So $20 for genie + and then $17 a piece times 2 rides for lightning lane = $54 per day. I can't see how everyone says that is cheaper than Universal's express pass. Doesn't Universal's pass cover ALL the rides?

And isn't it included if you stay at a Universal deluxe resort?

Cinderelley;2531912 wrote: Out of curiosity, I did a quick search to see how much an express pass at Universal is. It said $30-$40 per day depending on when you go.

So $20 for genie + and then $17 a piece times 2 rides for lightning lane = $54 per day. I can't see how everyone says that is cheaper than Universal's express pass. Doesn't Universal's pass cover ALL the rides?

And isn't it included if you stay at a Universal deluxe resort?

For the times we go it would be WAY cheaper than Express Pass. 2 days of Express Passes this last time we went to Universal would have cost fully of 4 over $800 and no not all rides are included in Express Pass. It's "included" in the Deluxe resort stay but trust me you're paying for them. 7 days of Disney Genie without paying for the "non included" rides would only cost us a little over $400....so half the cost.

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Cass&KenziesMom;2531915 wrote: For the times we go it would be WAY cheaper than Express Pass. 2 days of Express Passes this last time we went to Universal would have cost fully of 4 over $800 and no not all rides are included in Express Pass. It's "included" in the Deluxe resort stay but trust me you're paying for them. 7 days of Disney Genie without paying for the "non included" rides would only cost us a little over $400....so half the cost.

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But $400 dollars more than it did cost previously.

goofyskier;2531917 wrote: But $400 dollars more than it did cost previously.

[emoji2368] and we have the choice to pay it or not. Everyone hated FastPass+ when it came out. Most everyone will hate this but you bet your butt they'll still pay for it because people want instant gratification and the thought of waiting their turn in line is unheard of. Truth be told this is why we space out our trips so that we can spend at least 7 days in the parks. We're good with waiting.

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Cass&KenziesMom;2531919 wrote: [emoji2368] and we have the choice to pay it or not. Everyone hated FastPass+ when it came out. Most everyone will hate this but you bet your butt they'll still pay for it because people want instant gratification and the thought of waiting their turn in line is unheard of. Truth be told this is why we space out our trips so that we can spend at least 7 days in the parks. We're good with waiting.

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Don't get me wrong...I am in the group that hated fastpass +. I did like the old system. I do not like that they are now charging for something that was once included in the price of admission and that they are charging resort guests for it to boot. Sure we can choose to pay it....but it was included in the price of admission and now it is not. It is not a deal when compared to anything because it was free and now it is not. And....to add to the money grab they want to charge again to skip the line and ride the more popular attractions. So you have the opportunity to chose to pay three times for something that was at one time included in the price of admission. The whole thing stinks.

Cass&KenziesMom;2531915 wrote: For the times we go it would be WAY cheaper than Express Pass. 2 days of Express Passes this last time we went to Universal would have cost fully of 4 over $800 and no not all rides are included in Express Pass. It's "included" in the Deluxe resort stay but trust me you're paying for them. 7 days of Disney Genie without paying for the "non included" rides would only cost us a little over $400....so half the cost.

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But how much did you pay to enter the park?

RunDMV;2531921 wrote: But how much did you pay to enter the park?

At Universal? 4 day 2 park, park-to-park tickets $1400. We didn't buy Express passes and rode EVERYTHING in 2 days. That was Mardi Gras week.

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From what I understand Genie+ is a lot like Maxpass at Disneyland (which it is also replacing)

Maxpass was new when I visited DL in 2017, but let me break it down how it worked.

It worked the same way (and alongside) the “old” paper fast pass system (remember FP+ never made it to DL)

You could use the old Fastpass system for free or you could pay $15/day to use the app to book your fastpasses—the exact same fastpasses that you could have gotten by walking to the attraction. Tickets were always being distributed for the “next available” time at each attraction. Regardless of whether you went and got a paper ticket or booked on the app your return time would be for the same time, and when that reservation came around or 2 hours passed (whichever came first) you could book another one. Maxpass did not allow you to get a digital Fastpass and paper Fastpass at the same time… trust me I tried.

I think Genie+/lightning lane is basically the old fastpass system on your phone (that you had to pay for) I say this because I want to point out that it seemed like EVERYONE (including myself) was purchasing Maxpass despite the free option being available. It was so great being able to be in line for Splash Mountain and being able to get a fastpass for Space Mountain without walking clear across the park.

Overall I’m happy about this. I never went to WDW in the Fastpass+ days, but it was kind of a deterrent. Yes I know FP+ had its fans but i didn’t like the planning aspect. I don’t even like making commitments for the weekend, why would I want to make them for a vacation (which is supposed to be a vacation) 60 days in advance. Then of course the reservations for the good rides all disappear within a few minutes, so they put Fastpass+ on rides where it wasn’t needed so they could make sure there were enough to go around.

I will say I do NOT like the individual attraction aspect of this. Maxpass didn’t exclude anything, it sounds like it’s going to exclude the most popular rides at each park. But that just means those attractions will be your rope drops and 11th hours.

I have to say it, but I'm with you in this one. We'll be going there soon so we'll see how it works, but on previous trips you're right, it was basically a job getting everything we needed using FP+ and issues with the way they were allocated made it difficult to actually use it to get on the rides we wanted.

As I said we're visiting again soon and it's still pretty much a job getting reservations at 60 days (the Disney site stinks for doing this smoothly), plus there's STILL no guarantee on Rise of the Resistance once we have our scheduled day in DHS. DW and I were up at the exact start of our window and still didn't get a few ressies at reasonable times, but at least we got 'em. It'll just be a little iffy on a couple of things when we get there because of the park-hopper restrictions.

Hopefully things will be smoother in the standbys with FP+ gone, and also hopefully the Genie app will help maneuver through the parks more smoothly (still on the fence for Genie+) but I'm still somewhat skeptical. I guess we'll find out.

With all of the other things that really reduce the fun-quotient of going, it's getting harder and harder to justify the time and expense of a formerly-magic Disney vacation, which makes this former CM quite sad.