Genie+ is NOT as wonderful as everyone is saying

[New Mouse]

That’s the entire market and not specific to Disney, we are also heading into a recession

genie+ from a p&l perspective has been a smashing hit

You are correct it has made them money and cost them little.

If it was that amazing it would be keeping the stock afloat.

 

[DeeBee3]

Have no experience with Genie+ but just got back from a long weekend without it. We were able to do quite a bit. Honestly, I don't know how I would have done more because I was physically exhausted. I did 1 ILL for Remy. My kids only requested that ride so I got up and bought it - yes, the time changed after purchasing but it did not conflict with anything.

This was for MK and Epcot. Those were our only parks this trip. We got there early, took mid-day breaks, and went back at night. This was the first time my kids were old enough that they could handle later hours at night. Honestly, I might have been the worst - I am in bed before 10 most nights.

We did wait on a few lines, but we decided not to wait any longer than 30 mins. I believe that was Haunted Mansion. Oddly enough we ended up waiting a long time for Nemo, but that was not on purpose. The wait time advertised was off by a LOT. Would never have chosen to wait as long as we did.

Bottom line, we did it in heavy crowds, BUT we avoided mid-day and made use of early mornings and late nights.

 

[Nappy1380]

A lot of people agree it's absolutely orrible. And you are in the park where it is the most effective, imagine the others.
It's so bad that Disney now has changed the wording saying that most people just get 2 or 3 attractions. Instead of trying to make the product better they now say it's rubbish themselves, to adjust expectations.
My guess is that guests satisfaction surveys are plummeting.

I've thought about this wording and while others have already pointed out that it is to stop the onslaught of refunds they've been issuing for it, but I also wonder if it is Disney cutting back the LL availability as a whole to try and combat the insane standby lines. BY now they might have enough data, and heard enough complaining, to realize they are too heavy on the LL allotment.

 

[The Jackal]

Last November when we used genie +, it was terrible. Waking up everyday at 06:55. Then constantly on phone in the parks looking for next pass. It really was made for early risers and rope droppers. Since you can choose another selection after you enter queue. For late park goers, you can select one when park opens, then another 2 hours later. Guess what, they are all gone by noon. So there is the 2 they say you should expect.

 

[bakerworld]

I refuse to use Genie+. There's no ride that I 'must do' and nothing that can't wait. I equate Genie+ with waiting in line for longer than 20 minutes (something else I won't participate). It took me a year to try the virtual queue LOL.

 

[Brian Noble]

We used G+ extensively during FL/TX spring break week. There was a bit of a learning curve, but we thought it worked reasonably well. There are things I liked better vs. FP or FP+, and things about each of those other two systems I liked better. But overall it was six of one, half dozen of the other. ILL on the other hand did not fit our style at all and I gave up on it halfway through the trip.

Here's a quick summary of experiences from that trip that I posted on another board:

• Wow, is it busy. This is spring break for wide swaths of FL, TX, Ontario, and a few other places. Lots of marching bands. All parks not named Epcot were sold out to day guests well in advance. Many days were fully sold out in advance.
• Studios is rough at this attendance level. By 10 or so on an 8:30 open, pretty much every line in the park is 1hr+.
• G+ (the pay-in-bulk VQ) works fairly well, and if you remember the paper FP system, it is very similar. There are a few attractions that you have to be very quick on the draw to get, but it was very helpful in every park at one point or another. It is probably less important at quieter times in some parks.
• If you remember the old "tiered" model that studios and Epcot used in the FP+ era, that's more or less replicated here. You won't get more than one (or maybe two) of the top-tier attractions via G+ unless you get very lucky.
• Slinky is maybe the hardest to get for G+. We were reminded that we think the coaster is boring, and not worth the effort.
• The "at most once" rule for G+ only bit us once, and really isn't an issue IMO.
• The individual-paid system is not ready for prime time. Yes, it allows you to pick a return window. But, that might or might not be the one you get. The one you are assigned might be then, or might be an hour or two later. In one case, it was 90 minutes earlier. You don't know what time you are going to get until you have committed to paying for it, and you cannot cancel it nor will the "standard" guest services people change it (at least, probably not). If you are willing to plan your day around whatever you end up with, that's fine. But if you are not planning a full day in the park, it can throw your plans in the air. I am one of those people who just buys stuff on vacation without thinking too much about it, and I gave up on this halfway through the week.
• We spent stupid money at Space 220 for dinner, and it was great. Very good (but not quite excellent) food, and a cool experience. Will do again, but maybe not in the next few trips.
• We also booked the Savor the Savanna tour. This was outstanding. Would do again, for sure, and sooner than Space 220. Everyone loved this.
• Finally, we also did one of the dessert parties at MK. I probably would not do that again for my family, but we were with people who won't usually see the fireworks and we wanted to do it with them, so this was a nice compromise. I suspect the value in this is based on how many times you make your way back to the bar, and I don't drink, so...

Edited to add: I am one of those people who doesn't particularly care that they are charging for something that "used to be free," so that might color my perception. I think of the vacation as a total experience that costs $X. As long as $X is in the budget, fine.

 

[pineapplepalms]

I had assumed it would be somewhat similar to MaxPass at Disneyland. We are heading for our first trip since the introduction of Genie+ next month. Is it really that different (and worse) than MaxPass?

Are you going to DLR or WDW? Genie+ at WDW seems very different from DLR. I’m a bit apprehensive about Genie+ at WDW based on what I’ve heard… we will be using it for the first time there in a couple of months. We’ve used it a bunch of times at DLR and it is pretty easy and straightforward to use at DLR. It is similar to MaxPass with a few differences.. some key ones are:
- Can’t book repeat rides. We used to love going on TSMM multiple times.
- Time before you can book something else is 120 minutes.. I think it was 90 minutes with MP.
- MP included more rides… Genie+ does not include rides that are now ILL like RSR or ROTR and you have to pay extra for them.
- With MP you still had the option of free paper FP but now it’s Genie+ or standby.

Some main differences in Genie+ at DLR vs WDW:
- At DLR you can start booking after you scan into the park… at WDW it seems like a mad dash for certain rides at 7am since that’s when booking opens and you don’t have to be in a park.
- Since DLR is mostly locals, not as many people buy Genie+ so the ride availability throughout the day was generally very good in our experience. Only ROTR tended to sell out as an ILL but a lot of the popular rides on Genie+ had good availability throughout much of the day. Although we were there on the 100+ degree days, and Splash and Grizzly were pretty booked up.
- WDW has a lot more things on Genie+ including shows… DLR still has a lot of standby only rides like the Fantasyland rides, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, etc.
- DLR Genie+ costs a bit more ($20 vs $15 + tax at WDW), but it includes Photopass, which personally I think I prefer to the AR lenses.

I probably missed something but hope that helps!

 

[FinnFogg]

Are you going to DLR or WDW? Genie+ at WDW seems very different from DLR. I’m a bit apprehensive about Genie+ at WDW based on what I’ve heard… we will be using it for the first time there in a couple of months. We’ve used it a bunch of times at DLR and it is pretty easy and straightforward to use at DLR. It is similar to MaxPass with a few differences.. some key ones are:
- Can’t book repeat rides. We used to love going on TSMM multiple times.
- Time before you can book something else is 120 minutes.. I think it was 90 minutes with MP.
- MP included more rides… Genie+ does not include rides that are now ILL like RSR or ROTR and you have to pay extra for them.
- With MP you still had the option of free paper FP but now it’s Genie+ or standby.

Some main differences in Genie+ at DLR vs WDW:
- At DLR you can start booking after you scan into the park… at WDW it seems like a mad dash for certain rides at 7am since that’s when booking opens and you don’t have to be in a park.
- Since DLR is mostly locals, not as many people buy Genie+ so the ride availability throughout the day was generally very good in our experience. Only ROTR tended to sell out as an ILL but a lot of the popular rides on Genie+ had good availability throughout much of the day. Although we were there on the 100+ degree days, and Splash and Grizzly were pretty booked up.
- WDW has a lot more things on Genie+ including shows… DLR still has a lot of standby only rides like the Fantasyland rides, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, etc.
- DLR Genie+ costs a bit more ($20 vs $15 + tax at WDW), but it includes Photopass, which personally I think I prefer to the AR lenses.

I probably missed something but hope that helps!

Thank you! We are going to WDW.

 

[gharter]

My bias would have been to take FP+ as it was, and then charge $15 per person to use it. I would have been very happy with that.
FP+ had so many benefits above Genie +.
After paying, why can I only ride an attraction once?
why can't I cancel a LL and replace it with a different one as I could with FP+. AND if I"m staying onsite (paying the big bucks) I liked the ability to make 3 FP+ reservations before ever setting foot in the park. At least then I knew what I had.
Now, I click on a time, go through the motions and its a crap shoot what time I end up with - EVEN with the ILL$ rides.

 

[CraigInPA]

Genie+ was the nadir of our recent trip. Between having to get up before 7am to subscribe to Genie+, then trying to get headliners through Genie+ starting at 7am, the need to constantly get onto your phone to hunt out the next LL, the inability to book the same ride multiple times, the greatest issue is the inability to tailor your day around you preferred schedule.

I'd happily pay $15 a day for FP+ the way it was. Genie+ is too stressful, inconvenient, and limited.

 

[Frankie Nova]

Someone said it is wonderful?

I had a client that used it an loved it. She figured out how to "work" it.

 

[CalOilerGurl]

Someone said it is wonderful?

Exactly what I was thinking!

 

[Simba's Mom]

I refuse to use Genie+. There's no ride that I 'must do' and nothing that can't wait. I equate Genie+ with waiting in line for longer than 20 minutes (something else I won't participate). It took me a year to try the virtual queue LOL.

Glad to know I'm not alone. Since the advent of Genie +, I've also limited myself to Epcot and Animal Kingdom, so not having Genie + isn't a problem so much. Also, we don't have young children. We'll see what happens, though, when we take our DGDs next year.

 

[Spivey378]

I like the original Fastpass best.

I’ve used Genie+ at both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland/California Adventure with success. On our recent trip to Disneyland I think we did every available attraction. My strategy has been to just pick the earliest time for an attraction that we like. We can check off attractions pretty well that way. Usually we can’t hit a popular ride like Mine Train but we will just get in line at the end of the day. This requires a lot of crisscrossing the park, however.

Also, I paid $80 for ROTR at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago, which I liked much better than getting myself and family up at 4:30am like we did at Hollywood Studios January 2020.

I probably won’t get Genie+ for my upcoming trip in June because I don’t want to pay for it again.

 

[Princess Merida]

Genie+ is awful. Way too much work for way too little reward. I’d be happy to pay $15 for a great system. Not this. Genie+ is a never again for us. Fastpass+ was far superior.

 

[Stargazer65]

Today I'm at DHS, I got Slinky Dog Dash in the afternoon via Genie+, and we rope dropped ROTR. We are in that line now, we probably are doing about as best as we can hope.
At least I got SDD, which I understand is the hardest to get.

 

[aokeefe]

Here now using Genie+ for the past 5 days. For the most part, Genie+ has worked for us but it's come with a hefty price tag of an additional $100 a day for a family of 4 (Genie + 1 ILL a day) We decided we would just pay for it this trip and then assess next trip when and where we need to buy it. The only pro obviously is not waiting in long lines. My cons like most others are having to wake up at 7 each day (I'm a planner so definitely prefer the 3 Fast Pass). The time change and/or not being able to pick your times and not being able to edit for LL is a huge flaw.

 

[buzzrelly]

I reluctantly purchased it for our trip a couple weeks ago, as well as purchasing ILLs. First, I was annoyed every morning when I had to shell out money for what used to be free. But second, aside from that, instead of having one day of stress two months prior to our trips as with the FP+ system, every day was stressful and the stress continued throughout the day with the two hour alarms I had to set and then refreshing to see what we could get.

We did okay with it and got everything we wanted but only because I've studied how to do this and I put in the work to be successful with it. But attending a theme park shouldn't be such hard work, especially when we're paying EXTRA for it. I just do not see how this system is good for everybody.

One last thought, and I hate to compare to Universal, but their Express Pass is a way better value for the price you pay. It literally takes away your stress, not adds to it like Genie+.

 

[Marionnette]

I reluctantly purchased it for our trip a couple weeks ago, as well as purchasing ILLs. First, I was annoyed every morning when I had to shell out money for what used to be free. But second, aside from that, instead of having one day of stress two months prior to our trips as with the FP+ system, every day was stressful and the stress continued throughout the day with the two hour alarms I had to set and then refreshing to see what we could get.

We did okay with it and got everything we wanted but only because I've studied how to do this and I put in the work to be successful with it. But attending a theme park shouldn't be such hard work, especially when we're paying EXTRA for it. I just do not see how this system is good for everybody.

One last thought, and I hate to compare to Universal, but their Express Pass is a way better value for the price you pay. It literally takes away your stress, not adds to it like Genie+.

We are planning to visit UO during our next trip to Orlando. For us, it's well worth the price of 1 night in their upper-end hotels to get 2 days of Unlimited Express Pass. That's 2 fewer days spent at Disney. 5 fewer meals. Fewer snacks. Fewer adult beverages.

We will still visit Disney and use our DVC points but they will be mostly resort days with breakfasts, snacks and lunches at the villa. And we plan to do cocktail hour in the villa before any dinners and coffee/desserts afterwards. The savings will offset any G+/ILL$ purchases that we decide to make on the few park days. But, TBH aside from Remi and GotG we have already done everything else and have no intentions of jumping through the hoops that you need to do in order to secure LL/ILL$.

 

[Jonfw2]

First day using it. It's not the fantastic panacea that everybody has been saying it is. I got Thunder Mountain at noon. Can't get anything else booked until 11. 7 dwarves mine train would have cost me another 12 dollars per person to book. I'll give an update later what I think. I'm just putting this out there as a contrary opinion about Genie+

YMMV

I don't think you and I have the same definition of "everybody".