“When everyone is super, no one will be.” ...Welcome to Genie+

[Scubadaddy32]

i'm not sure I understand why people think they HAVE to that 7AM thing.

I think some of the naysayers may be pleasantly surprised or I could be supremely disappointed. Based on that introduction video, if GENIE does half the stuff it claims, it's going to be awesome but I am skeptical it will deliver on some of that. As in if you tell everyone the wait is later at 8:30 or something, isn't EVERYONE going to wait to do that and therefore increase the predicted time? We'll see. As far as what they charge for the big attractions for lightening lane, I'm not going to pay anything to skip the line at Mine Train since we've been on it so many times. Plus if you have an AH ticket for that day, not sure why would pay for the primary Genie+.

Maybe this is true... but it's still going to cause a glut at rope drop and if you are staying on property in order to select a Tier 1 pay to play ride you likely still get up at 7am to get a decent time. Everyone not staying on property will be gobbling the things up at park opening. We already know people will be up early as they will still be doing Virtual Ques for RotR at HS, likely Tron at MK, The Rat Ride and Guardian's of the Galaxy at EPCOT.... I already played this game at HS in April and I know it causes everyone to hit rope drop at HS at a far heavier clip than the other 3 parks. Now add in Flight of Passage 7am pay per play and everyone will be up for that on their AK day as well. Either that or you anxiously roll the dice and hope you land one later in the day if available. Ha
This is the information I gathered over the years from many many conversations with guest:
1) Many guest staying off property did very little research during their stays outside of purchasing tickets for entry and many didn't even know about the FP system at all. I know a few people who didn't know about the app on the phone. Ha
2) Many of the guest thought they only got 3 FP's per day and that was it. They had no idea they could go on the app and select one at a time.
3) Many of the guest thought they had to wait the full time limits between FP's. So if they had a FP for Slinky Dog at 3pm and a FP at 9am for say Tower of Terror and 10am for Star Tours, they would simply wait in standby lines for hours waiting on their 3pm Slinky Dog.
4) Many of the guest would book Tier 1 rides for late in the evening because that was all they could get or they would book Rivers of Light or Fantasmic and they would never make it through their 3 FP's. for FOMO on their Tier 1 FP ride. Ha

All of these misuses of FP by the vast majority of the guest in the parks allowed those who did know how to use the FP system far more selections throughout the day. With this new Genie system, which I call Fast Pass for Dummies, will do, is simply create a system where everyone in the park will know how to battle for FP's throughout the day as Disney will now actively be promoting the paid package with every ticket purchase as an additional up charge.

Now that FP's are a thing of the past, I'll explain the hack I figured out very quickly on the second day of our 1st trip to WDW.
1) I needed to select my Tier 1 as my second ride of my FP's, just in case we decided to get a little extra sleep in as I could always modify Tier two rides to later in the day or change them all together, that gave us a 2 hour window in the mornings to make it to the parks and relax if need be or if we were running late.
2) We could arrive at our first FP at the end of the hour, ride that ride, walk on to our 2nd FP typically our Tier 1 ride. As soon as I scanned my magic band at that ride entrance, as I was walking through the FP line, I would modify the time of my 3rd FP to a time close the current time. So then when we got off our Tier 1 ride we would walk on to our 3rd FP of the day all within an hour and then begin to select FP's one at a time for the rest of the day.

The perfect example... One night towards the end of one of our 10 day trips, we went to an After Hours event at MK and we had MK FP's scheduled for the next day. At 2am we decided we would switch horses to HS. We ended up riding Slinky Dog 3 times with FP's that day. It just proves how if you know what you are doing, the FP's were very doable even day of.

We will see how this goes, but I just see this being a money maker for WDW and less beneficial for people like myself who knew how to use the system for a much more relaxing vacation style. Any way you slice it, WDW is forcing me to pay for something I consistently got for free over the past 5 years of 20+ park days per year from my family and I'm not sure we will be doing this any longer.

 

[wfjny]

...
An additional strategy included the family 'runner' who spent the morning gathering fast passes. This family had no intention of honoring the return times, because Disney only enforced return times for a short period before paper was eliminated. In other words, many families were able to accumulate (hoard) a pile of fast passes they used at what ever times they wanted later in the same day.

Often, the runner was able to maximize their accomplishment because instead of taking the time to go through rides, they spent their time gathering more and more fast passes throughout the morning. If you are willing to pay for Lightening Lanes today, you were likely wiling to pay your teenager to gather the paper back then.

However, with the paper passes, you could only have one in hand until you reach the return time (or waited 2 hours). Then you could get another. It was not like someone could go one ride after another and get fastpasses.

But yes, you could collect them through the day, and then choose to use them one after another towards the end of the day (since they never enforced the end time). To that point, you are correct, everyone will find a way...

...
And we can look at a similar strategy in the electronic fast pass era - swapping magic bands. Let's say everyone on the family has a 'free' fast pass, but grandma & grandpa have no intention of riding - then family members swap magic bands to ride again.

Switching everything to electronic fast passes (Genie & Lightening) should minimize the ability to 'outsmart' the system. And there are likely to be fewer families who will pay extra for grandma & grandpa to swap magic bands at E-ticket rides.

But that "trick" worked for both paper and magic bands. I can have my party of six, get six fastpasses, and if grandma and grandpa don't want to ride, I can hand their FP (paper or on a band) to the teenagers to go a second time.

However, I was the one to be the runner, go get four FP for Space mountain, and two for Winnie the Poohfor grandma and grandpa while we were on Space mountain.

...if you ever find yourself with the problem of having a restaurant reservation that you should have cancelled, but are facing the $10 penalty for not cancelling......reschedule it for at least 24-hours away, then cancel it. Poof, you beat the system. FWIW, plenty of people hoard restaurant reservations this way, and also by using Open Table in conjunction with Disney. Remember that the next time you can't get the dining reservation you want.

Again, a very valid point. there are ways around the system. I have also on a few occasions called to cancel, saying that someone in our party was not feeling well. Very understandable that someone is not feeling well after walking in the hot sun all day. They always said they would cancel it and not charge us, but just this one time.

I just felt that the original system, for all its flaws was the great equalizer. Everyone could participate. No matter what your economic "status". I actually thought the pay for systems at other parks were unfair. That pay for access. Sure, it exists elsewhere, but not at Disney...

Then came the people who jumped to the front of the line if they rented a wheelchair. Disney ended that fairly quickly.

Then came the people who effectively sold their disability access.

Then Disney came up with their own program, the VIP tours.

No matter what the plan, people will find a way to exploit it to get the most out of it. It is just learning what the new exploits are...

 

[mommycrawford]

so vacation to you was wake up at day break to make sure you got in the park to make use of the system? Fast pass plus was the best select three and I could wake up when I wanted to go.

I had a small child, so no daybreak arrival...got there when we could get all our gear together, get through security, enjoy main street. It was vacation. We felt lucky to get a fastpass for Philharmagic and contently waited on lines until we could use it. Fastpass+ was great too! Again, just saying what felt most spontaneous; you couldn't plan on getting any....you hoped!