Disney Genie announcement

[ThistleMae]

In the old days (pre-2013 when FP was all you had, and not all of the "extra" attractions that had to add a FP+ line), you would usually run out of FP on the headliner attractions by early afternoon. In busy times at parks with few rides (think Epcot before Frozen, and the third theater at Soarin'), you could exhaust all of the Test Track fastpasses by noon, easily. Or look at DHS, before Star Wars opened, before there was Toy Story land or a third track at TSMM, you'd probably be out of FP for TSMM on a busy day by 11am.

The good news is that there are a lot more headliner attractions and capacity now, compared with 2013, so we're returning to the old FP model but with more capacity. The bad news (or maybe just an unknown factor) is that if guests can make a Lightning Lane reservation starting at 7:00am, will all of the LLs get eaten up instantly for the headliners? That has the potential to be more like FP+ where the non-MK parks would have everyone flood the top 2 or 3 attractions. The only advantage is that Genie+ and IA$ are paid options that not everyone is going to buy, whereas every guest got FP+ reservations to make. That's probably why Genie+ won't cover the top two attractions at each park, and you'll have to buy those slots as IA$ or wait in a (probably long) standby line. It will also depend on when you can make your next LL selection (two hours? three? depending on on-site vs. off-site?). If you log on at 8:30am and see LL for Haunted Mansion at 3:00pm, you'd have to think about it if it meant you couldn't make another LL selection until much later. I think that's really the big piece of info that Disney is still sitting on - what's the "timeout" until you can get a new LL reservation? And, of course, what's the final list of which attractions have Genie+, and which have IA$.

We'll all have to see how it plays out, but I could expect that most people will fire up the app when they wake up (probably right at 7am for a lot of folks, though you might sleep in if you're not aiming at the headliner attractions before evening time), pick their top LL choice for the park, maybe add an IA$, and head out. I could see us planning a MK day like this: wake up, buy an IA$ for 7DMT, reserve an LL for Peter Pan, enter MK and go right to Fantasyland, and ride other attractions (maybe give the standby line at 7DMT a go if we get there at rope drop), and then start touring "normally" after that initial burst in Fantasyland. Back in the pre-2013 days, you'd use the touring plans app with crowdsourced data to see what the FP return times were for various attractions, now you'll just log onto Genie+ and see that Haunted Mansion has a 1:30pm return time, so you grab that, and then head that direction. Or you see Little Mermaid with a 12:00pm return time and head that way instead.

Thank you for this. I can definitely see this being a great plan! Let's see how it plays out. Fingers crossed that it benefits us and makes things better overall. I don't like the fact that we would have to purchase IA$, but I may need to if I don't get a boarding pass for those rides. I don't really care about ROR but I do care about FOP, so depending on prices being reasonable versus crazy we shall see.

 

[Atilley]

My husband and I used maxpass out at Disneyland and thought it was great but it was just the two of us. We have a trip coming up to Disney World this fall and the kids will be with us. That’s 7 people total. I honestly don’t know that it will be worth it in a big party. I had trouble getting fast passes for everyone before and trouble finding dining. I don’t mind paying for a perk but something tells me it will not be worth it in large parties. I don’t want to pay for something and not get to use it.

 

[mom2rtk]

My husband and I used maxpass out at Disneyland and thought it was great but it was just the two of us. We have a trip coming up to Disney World this fall and the kids will be with us. That’s 7 people total. I honestly don’t know that it will be worth it in a big party. I had trouble getting fast passes for everyone before and trouble finding dining. I don’t mind paying for a perk but something tells me it will not be worth it in large parties. I don’t want to pay for something and not get to use it.

I do have the feeling the biggest supporters of the new system will be those who travel in smaller parties for shorter periods of time.

 

[Meglen]

I do have the feeling the biggest supporters of the new system will be those who travel in smaller parties for shorter periods of time.

Its folks with shorter trips who will see more value in it as well since if you have more days your less likely to feel the need to pay to rush.

 

[ZeeWP]

I was involved in the discussions about "rumored" paid FPs long before the G+ announcement, so it wasn't really a surprise at all to me for the most part. But, as I kind of alluded to in my previous post, the gut punch for me was the fact that the "best" rides are ala carte additional charges and not included in G+.

I would have predicted a higher price tag for G+ but with the expectation that it would be all-inclusive. In fact, a lot of the discussion about price and whether or not it provides value, depends on how many people are using it. Everyone wants it to be priced high enough that the "masses" won't spend the extra for it, but low enough that you are willing to (thus maximizing the value to those who do purchase it). It will be interesting to see if the $15 pp per day price point is high enough to deter the "masses." Based on many posts here and around other social media sites, the outrage would indicate that it will. But how many of those outraged folks will begrudgingly fork over the $15 to avoid what they predict will be even longer SB lines because others have paid to skip them?

This is where the IAS model for those high demand rides may, in fact, balance supply/demand. The rumored prices are making me think long and hard about whether I'm willing to pay that much for one ride (strongly leaning towards NOT). How many people will fork over another $50 or $100 or more for their family to skip the line for ONE RIDE???? I want that number to be low, but in order to keep it low enough the price has to be high enough, meaning I may be included in the population of those not willing to pay it.

In terms of the comment above about not knowing what the price will be... we may never know that until "in the moment" because of the rumored "surge pricing" model. If they implement that, we might eventually know at least a range of possible prices, but there wouldn't be a set price since it would fluctuate based on the SB wait/desperation level of the guests.

How would you feel if you spend $25 pp to skip the line for FOP and then later in the day, the price drops to $10 pp because SB is now shorter????

The gambling analogy is an apt one... do I spend that much to skip the line now? Wait until later to see if the price drops or if the SB wait time gets low enough that I don't mind waiting? What if I spend this much and then the line is short later? UGH!

Sorry, I know you posted this a week ago, but I wanted to say this is where my thoughts have been exactly, I am begrudgingly ok with G+ and if G+ Was even double the price with all the rides included FP+ style (kinda like maxpass) then I would have been fine.

It's the IA$that really throws it all for a loop.

And like gambling, I will probably have a set fee. When I gamble, I say, I will only put in 50 bucks. If I am out, I am done playing. Same with these: If I can't rope drop 7DMT (or the other Tier 1 attractions), then I would see if the pass ever gets 12pp or below, and then we will pay for it. Otherwise will probably just skip it if we don't have time.

 

[grossmansr]

Ugh. The whole thing is heartbreaking to me. We can't really afford a Disney trip in the first place and now this? We're already staying offsite, eating most (all?) meals in the room, forgoing souvenirs, and settling on 2 day tickets, rather than 3 or 4. We splurged on Boo Bash because we've never been and I've always wanted to go, plus I'm justifying it with the shorter lines. But there's no way we can eat another price increase. For a party of 5 it will be $150 extra just for G+, and that's not including LL$.

I get it. This is how the market works. We were priced out a long time ago and I've been trying to make it happen despite everything. No doubt there will be plenty of people to take my place. Let's hope Legoland is nice because that's where we're heading.

 

[ThistleMae]

Disney is an expensive vacation for sure, but there is so much to do and see there. Different kinds of vacations have costs added depending on what activities you want to do and those things can really add up. I think many Disney lovers will just cut down on number of days, number of park tickets, the numbers of high cost restaurants, park hoppers and staying off site to reel in costs. You don't have to buy the Genie + or the LL$. And I do believe those of us in here will figure out the best way to tour once this thing gets rolling. Do I like it, not so far. I'm a FP+ planning guru, but it is what it is and I'll just have to figure it out.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I thought I read Disney resort guests could reserve at 7:00 a.m. and all other guests had to wait until they are in the park.

Of course .. they have to find some sort of on site perk to add back. pay for LL and we will let you use it first haha

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Ugh. The whole thing is heartbreaking to me. We can't really afford a Disney trip in the first place and now this? We're already staying offsite, eating most (all?) meals in the room, forgoing souvenirs, and settling on 2 day tickets, rather than 3 or 4. We splurged on Boo Bash because we've never been and I've always wanted to go, plus I'm justifying it with the shorter lines. But there's no way we can eat another price increase. For a party of 5 it will be $150 extra just for G+, and that's not including LL$.

I get it. This is how the market works. We were priced out a long time ago and I've been trying to make it happen despite everything. No doubt there will be plenty of people to take my place. Let's hope Legoland is nice because that's where we're heading.

On one of our trips prior to all these changes the ticket price alone was going to keep us from going,
We are a family of 4 so tickets alone were $2000.
So we did a SeaWorld vacation we did the eat free promo ( it was the same price as kids free) we got a week hotel seaworld, aquatica and Busch gardens all you can dine package for all 4 of us and it was $1100 we then bought disney Christmas party tickets for our Disney fix and we were at the same price as just the disney tickets.
Our next trip want to buy Orlando go passes gives you unlimited attractions for one price including legoland. I'm not sure why they priced so many people out or making people do a one and done vacation, but there seems to be plenty of takers.

 

[Belle1962]

For everyone looking to budget, don’t forget the Budge Board here on the DIs.

 

[Einstein509]

I received the same email—word for word. It seemed like a canned response.

Well, I guess I read too much into it. Hope is not a method......

 

[Aunt Dani]

Just for sake of conversation, when does everyone think this thing is gonna actually roll out?

This is really all I want to know. We're going in 2 weeks, which is after Labor Day and the unofficial end of summer, but before Sept 22 and the official start of Fall. I'd hate for it to launch in the middle of our trip. We probably won't go again till 2024 so fingers crossed I can wait to see how it shakes out by then.

 

[cygnusx1jg]

It's not just when will it roll out, but also how much notice prior to the roll out will Disney give.
Also, will there be a chart showing the prices for the upcharged attractions or will we not know until day of how much each is?

 

[MeridaMerida]

I hate the idea of this and likely won't do Disney trips. I'm not paying $60 to upgrade my family of 4 for a 3 minute ride and I don't want to wait 2 hours either. I'm so happy we took a family trip to Disney because we likely won't be back. Europe and Hawaii are much better options at these insane prices.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Ugh. The whole thing is heartbreaking to me. We can't really afford a Disney trip in the first place and now this? We're already staying offsite, eating most (all?) meals in the room, forgoing souvenirs, and settling on 2 day tickets, rather than 3 or 4. We splurged on Boo Bash because we've never been and I've always wanted to go, plus I'm justifying it with the shorter lines. But there's no way we can eat another price increase. For a party of 5 it will be $150 extra just for G+, and that's not including LL$.

I get it. This is how the market works. We were priced out a long time ago and I've been trying to make it happen despite everything. No doubt there will be plenty of people to take my place. Let's hope Legoland is nice because that's where we're heading.

Try pricing Universal - tickets are much less expensive than Disney. If you stay in a deluxe hotel you get express passes to almost every ride.
If you're not staying deluxe their value resorts are much nicer than Disney's value resorts!

 

[ThistleMae]

For everyone looking to budget, don’t forget the Budge Board here on the DIs.

 

[jabrabu]

What I really miss is the advance FP+ reservations. I used to get my 3 advance FP+ reservations, then after I used those I'd get the single FP+ reservations, so I could get 6+ FP per day and rarely waited in any lines.

 

[JakeAZ]

It's not just when will it roll out, but also how much notice prior to the roll out will Disney give.
Also, will there be a chart showing the prices for the upcharged attractions or will we not know until day of how much each is?

You might not even truly know on the day of as the pricing could (and likely will) change throughout the day, based on demand.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

So, let me get this straight? The initial park ticket is just to get in the gates. Then if I want to ride anything I have to pay for each of us to ride one time. What the flippin #$%@!@#$@#$%@#% kind of business is this now anyway? Anyone who continues to go to this greedy, bloodsucking place now is insane. My last trip cost more than our 10 day trip to Europe a couple years ago. And we stayed offsite! I was born a Disney kid, my kids have been raised Disney kids but this is the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

[twincruisers]

So, let me get this straight? The initial park ticket is just to get in the gates. Then if I want to ride anything I have to pay for each of us to ride one time. What the flippin #$%@!@#$@#$%@#% kind of business is this now anyway? Anyone who continues to go to this greedy, bloodsucking place now is insane. My last trip cost more than our 10 day trip to Europe a couple years ago. And we stayed offsite! I was born a Disney kid, my kids have been raised Disney kids but this is the straw that broke the camel's back.

No, that's an incorrect way of thinking about it.

The tickets and park reservation will let you get "in the gates". You will be able to ride every ride for free via Virtual Queue or old Stand-by lines. If you wish to upgrade to G+ to be in the shorter line for most (but excluding tier 1) rides, you can pay that fee. If you want to get guaranteed tickets to the tier 1 rides (aka IAS), you can pay a per ride per person fee.