Disney Genie announcement

[wisblue]

Did it surprise anyone that there was tax added to Genie+ and the ILL purchases?

I'm amazed they didn't absorb it into the price and just passed it on to the guests. It's already a completely new source of income...

Many times there are state laws that require the sales tax to be added to the advertised price of something. I don’t know if Florida is one of those states, but that might be the reason.

 

[snikki]

This is one I’d really like someone to confirm.

If we’re starting the day at MK, but are leaving the park at 1 PM and planning to go to Epcot around 5, after using a LL at MK I might want to make the next one at Epcot. I would expect the availability to be a lot better early in the afternoon than when we arrive at 5.

Yes you can do that.

 

[coolbrook]

I feel so bad for the CMs working today.

Actually, according to my CM daughter who is working in HS today, they are kind of enjoying being part of something exciting and challenging. Of course the people she is talking to are not in Guest experience roles.

 

[MJJME]

So, if my first LL is more than 2 hours after the park open, I have to wait 120 min from park open to book another one (ie if at 7:30am I make a LL for a ride at 11:30am, I can't book another one until 11:00am, if park opens at 9am)?

But, if my first LL is within 2 hours of the park opening, I can book another one 120 min later (ie 7am first one, 9am second one)?

No. Cannot book axons one until 2 hours after park open OR if you redeemed your first selection (first selection could be 9-10 and as soon as you check in to that, you can book your next)

 

[coolbrook]

Once you’ve tapped in.

I wonder which rides, if any, still have two tap in spots in the line. You tap in once when you enter LL then again halfway through or at the merge point or something. At the beginning of FP+ there were more (all?) like that, then later very few where you had that second tap.

 

[MJJME]

This is one I’d really like someone to confirm.

If we’re starting the day at MK, but are leaving the park at 1 PM and planning to go to Epcot around 5, after using a LL at MK I might want to make the next one at Epcot. I would expect the availability to be a lot better early in the afternoon than when we arrive at 5.

The only problem is, you cannot select your return time so at 1pm, soarin, tt, mission space, etc return times are likely to be in the 1-2pm range so you will have to constantly check your phone to see when the return times reach your arrival time

This is the biggest drawback of Genie+ in my opinion ( other than the cost of course)

 

[Sjm9911]

Anyone see if you could arrive early to their selection. Like in fp there was like a 10 to 15 minute grace period before and after the selected time?

 

[jimim]

We are park hopping people. We like to do an AM park, pool break and PM park. One park strategy I’ve been thinking about is skipping G+ most days and just doing ILL for my PM park. I have a year until our trip so I will be reading a lot over the next year. I don’t want to be stuck in one park.

Good plan, but this payment thing is really a pain. We have a large group going in a few weeks, many of whom are not tech savvy. Not sure how often we’ll be using G+ or ILL$ but I’ll be managing those for most everyone. The thought of having to load/select multiple credit cards sounds awful to me (with an already cumbersome G+ process for those of us who are trying to manage a large family group)

In the end, depending on what we learn over the next few weeks, I may just pay for everything myself and keep track using Notes on my phone and then charge everyone at the end.

that’s when u use one credit card and then at dinner figure it out. I’m very thankful between family and the people a travel with we don’t think about charging.Whoever has a card handy pays. It always evens out. We are good like that.

 

[PaladinButters]

I think it's working just as they intended - but I've seen noting to change my opinion that this hurts a lot of people and helps very few compared to the old system.

Ah - but you see we can’t compare this to the old system of FP+ as that hasn’t been an option for some time now - my last trip was all standby as the only option. Adding the ability to skip a line (even if I have to pay) improves my guest experience significantly over what it was my last trip.
To put it colorfully - we might not particularly like what’s for dinner, but it’s better than going hungry by a mile.

 

[katyringo]

A

Anyone see if you could arrive early to their selection. Like in fp there was like a 10 to 15 minute grace period before and after the selected time?

5 minutes is confirmed.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Anyone see if you could arrive early to their selection. Like in fp there was like a 10 to 15 minute grace period before and after the selected time?

FP+ used to allow 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late.

 

[bethbuchall]

Wait times aren’t loading for me in the map. I think a few of us are experiencing this glitch.

I have that happen all the time (even before this update). If you close it the app and re-open it, sometimes that helps. Though there are times that I’ve had to do it more than once. Also, sometimes there is a bit of a lag and if you wait, the times eventually populate.

 

[rmclain73]

It sounds like the best way to stack lightning lanes for later in the day is to do it to a park you would want to hop to. From what I understand they will only give you ride times for a ride after 2 o’clock if it is not the park you have a reservation for that day. Touring plans was talking about this very thing on their podcast today. They made it sound that as early as 7 AM you could book your first lightning Lane for a park that you would hop to after 2 o’clock. You can then just keep stacking them. One at 11 and one at 1. Genie will not give you options for attractions before 2pm.

you can enter the park you have a reservation for early and then just do standby only. After lunch hop over to the park that you have lightning lanes stacked.

 

[DisneyKidds]

FP+ used to allow 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late.

Reality was they used to let you (or us at least, without exception) use FP+ any time after the return window opened….not just 15 minutes late. Somehow I doubt that’s still the case.

 

[DisneyFive]

It sounds like the best way to stack lightning lanes for later in the day is to do it to a park you would want to hop to. From what I understand they will only give you ride times for a ride after 2 o’clock if it is not the park you have a reservation for that day. Touring plans was talking about this very thing on their podcast today. They made it sound that as early as 7 AM you could book your first lightning Lane for a park that you would hop to after 2 o’clock. You can then just keep stacking them. One at 11 and one at 1. Genie will not give you options for attractions before 2pm.

you can enter the park you have a reservation for early and then just do standby only. After lunch hop over to the park that you have lightning lanes stacked.

That’s really good info! Takes G+ strategy to another level. You know when I can see this also working very well? Your arrival day. Even with some of the earliest flights getting into Florida, we still have not been able to get into the parks until 1 to 2 PM after checking into our resort. This is perfect for hopping.

You could stack G+ all the way until you arrive. You would then need to tap into your reserved park, but then immediately hop over to the park that you have all the G+ booked for. You would actually reserve a park that you do not intend to go to that day, and immediately hop to the park with the G+ attractions.

Reality was they used to let you (or us at least, without exception) use FP+ any time after the return window opened….not just 15 minutes late. Somehow I doubt that’s still the case.

.

Not in our experience. Anything after 15 minutes required you to whine and complain which we weren’t willing to do.

Dan

 

[Disturbia]

Is anyone else having problems with park reservations disappearing from the app?

I was playing around with the free Genie part of the app to select favorite attractions for the 3 days of our trip in November for which everyone in our party of 4 has park reservations. All of the reservations show when I look at My Plans on the website.

On the app when I tried to select members of my party I got a message that nobody had a valid park reservation on those days.

Hopefully this is one of those things that will sort itself out as they do refreshes of the app and coordinate it with the reservation system.

Did you change the date on the top? The park that shows at the top is your park pass I believe

 

[CarolynFH]

Not in our experience. Anything after 15 minutes required you to whine and complain which we weren’t willing to do.

For a number of years they did allow FP return even hours after the end of the window. They clamped down on that quite a while back - I can’t remember when, but I think it might have been around the time MDE, MBs and FP+ came along. Hopefully some other old timer here on the DISboards will remember the timeframe.

 

[TDSAXX]

This is a pet peeve of mine too. It’s not a regional variation, it’s a misspelling!


Lightening = make or become lighter in weight

Well Chapek will be Lightening all of our wallets.

 

[wisblue]

Did you change the date on the top? The park that shows at the top is your park pass I believe

Yes, I did. In some places it shows that I have a park reservation for a party of 1, which I think is because I have an AP and the others have regular multi day tickets. But, without changing the date if I try to choose people I’m touring with it asks me to remove everyone because of not having valid admission.

Because the trip is still 3 weeks away I’m just chalking it up to opening day jitters for the new app since the website has all of the plans correct.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Not in our experience. Anything after 15 minutes required you to whine and complain which we weren’t willing to do.

Dan

As was always said…your results may vary….but especially if you were doing it wrong!

jk

We never had to whine and complain, we never slowed down long enough for that to happen. We just tapped through late, it always worked, and kept walking. Not that we showed up late all that regularly.