“Sweet Spot” for Genie+ at Disney World
Depending on when you’re visiting Walt Disney World, you might be wondering if Genie+ is “worth it” during your vacation. When crowds are low, it’s possible Lightning Lanes won’t save much time. Conversely, during peak season when attendance is higher, selections might “sell out” or return times might be too late. This post discusses when it’s best to skip or buy Genie+, along with commentary about best leveraging paid FastPass and potential changes.
For starters, those who are knowledgeable about the Genie+ system are always going to come out ahead. If you’re reading this, that’s you. Even if you find all of this incredibly confusing, you have above-average knowledge simply by virtue of knowing that Genie+ exists at 7 am on the days you visit the parks. Genie+ is still new, but we’ve seen more guests than we can count learning about it in line at ~11 am and buying it then. FastPass+ had the exact same problem, so this isn’t a huge surprise.
To that end, there are three “advanced” level strategy posts we’d encourage you to read for fully leveraging the Genie+ system: How the Genie+ 120 Minute Rule Works, Tips for “Stacking” Genie+ Ride Reservations, and Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections. None of those things are explained by Walt Disney World on its official sites or info, and probably for good reason–they can be confusing and overwhelming. However, if you take ~30 minutes to learn the ins and outs, you won’t just be above average–you’ll be a top 5% Genie+ power user.
Now to the titular question: is there a “sweet spot” for buying Genie+ at Walt Disney World?
You might recall in our early days of testing the Genie+ system, Sarah used it and I simply stuck to savvy strategy. (See Sarah’s Day Using Genie+ at Magic Kingdom and Tom’s Day in Magic Kingdom NOT Using Genie+ .) I came pretty close to accomplishing as much as her, albeit with aggressively criss-crossing the park to hit attractions at their optimal times.
Those early tests occurred during a lull in attendance after the start of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, with most days being 4/10 to 6/10 on the Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar. Some days were as low as 3/10 or as high as 7/10 depending upon the park.
Unsurprisingly, the lower the crowd level, the less advantageous Genie+ (and vice-versa). In fact, once standby wait times drop below a certain threshold, using Genie+ is arguably detrimental to the guest experience.
This might seem counterintuitive given that Genie+ allows you to skip standby lines, but the reason for it is pretty straightforward. If you’re using Genie+ to make Lightning Lane selections, you almost certainly aren’t touring the park in the most efficient manner. You’re zig-zagging around based upon availability, return times, etc.
If you’re just using standby lines on a relatively uncrowded day, you’re largely doing attractions in the order you approach them. Even if you’re waiting slightly longer at each attraction because you’re not skipping the line, you aren’t wasting extra time “commuting” between each attraction. Basically, there comes a point where that added walking between attractions outweighs the added wait within each line.
This is to say nothing about the fatigue of an extra 10,000 steps per day using Lightning Lanes. If that causes you to leave the park earlier–before wait times drop at night–you’re missing out even more.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are peak weeks. During Thanksgiving, we shared Genie+ Collapsing in Crowds at Walt Disney World. That detailed the many problems with Lightning Lanes and the paid FastPass service during what was the busiest week of the year (so far) at Walt Disney World, from technical difficulties to limited ride reservation inventory.
With holiday crowds descending upon Walt Disney World, Lightning Lane availability for many popular attractions was gone not long after park opening. Slinky Dog Dash was unavailable well before that, booking up for the entire day within minutes of 7 am. There were virtually no (worthwhile) options by midday, meaning that even savvy users of Genie+ are likely only getting a couple of “good” selections per day. Novices or those visiting parks other than Magic Kingdom would likely be doing worse. Some readers reported only scoring 1-2 Lightning Lane selections via Genie+ for the entire day.
This is to say nothing of the technical difficulties with Genie. High use of My Disney Experience has always strained the system and caused problems, but Genie takes that to the next level. The extra time you spend in line by not using Genie+ might be preferable to the frustrations and time incurred in bypassing some lines. Unless your tolerance for Disney IT induced pain is high, you might come out ahead just doing standby and not messing with it.
In the last ~10 days, we’ve seen the “sweet spot” in attendance for optimal use of Genie+ at Walt Disney World (see screenshots).
With holiday travelers heading home, most parks fell into the 6/10 to 8/10 range for crowd levels (with only a couple of exceptions to that). This was pretty much the perfect scenario for using Genie+ to book Lightning Lanes.
Following the busy Thanksgiving week, wait times are still high–but they’re comparatively lower. The parks posting averages in the 30-40 minute range most days.
Keep in mind that’s all attractions, including less popular ones that don’t offer (or need) Genie+ in the first place. If you’re only analyzing wait times for Genie+ eligible rides, that average is probably closer to an hour–at least for Disney’s Hollywood Studios and maybe Magic Kingdom.
On top of that, availability was far better. Slinky Dog Dash still didn’t last long, but every other attraction was available until after park opening.
Jungle Cruise, Test Track, and Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run were the next to book up, but those lasted hours–not minutes.
Over the course of the last week, we’ve seen everything except for Slinky Dog Dash still available at 11 am.
That’s significant, as that’s 120 minutes after park opening at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, meaning it’s the latest that most guests would be eligible for their second selection.
By mid-afternoon, most parks still have ample Lightning Lane availability on 6/10 to 8/10 days. As such, you should be able to book at least 4 “good” Lightning Lane selections at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and 6+ at Magic Kingdom.
Epcot and Animal Kingdom don’t have that many good options, so you need to Park Hop to make those two “worth it” with Genie+ (or visit on a 9/10 or 10/10 day, when those two parks have longer waits but still less problems with the system).
It should go without saying, but what happened with Genie+ during Thanksgiving week should be addressed by Walt Disney World. It’s one thing for us to advise against purchasing it when crowds overwhelm the system–it’s another for Disney to let that happen, resulting in one of the longest lines in the parks being at Guest Relations.
Our expectation is that Disney will do something about those issues, probably before Christmas. There are a few possible options that should be relatively easy to implement.
The first is dynamic pricing, which has been suggested by several readers. Just like with park tickets and hotel rooms, Walt Disney World could make Genie+ more expensive on peak dates. They’ve actually already done this with Individual Lightning Lanes, which have variable pricing based on projected attendance levels. As we’ve noted elsewhere, the high range is still way too low for popular attractions like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
This option worries me for a couple of reasons. There’s the obvious issue of Walt Disney World already having increased prices a lot in the last two years while cutting an array of once free perks. Ride reservations are among those, and it would be pretty brazen for Walt Disney World to go from free to paid FastPass–and then increase the price of the latter almost immediately. That might be a bridge too far even by the company’s current standards.
Second, there’s the question of what price point for Genie+ would produce the intended result of a more manageable adoption rate. Usually, when people suggest something like that, what they really mean is “price other people out, but not me.”
There’s some degree of inelasticity when it comes to Walt Disney World’s demand during peak seasons. These are popular times to visit because they’re the only times that some people can travel. Despite Disney’s claim that date-based pricing would help redistribute crowds, that hasn’t really happened. People are simply paying more for peak dates and less for off-season ones, with attendance patterns almost unchanged.
If a family has already dropped $1,122 per night for a standard room at Grand Floridian during Christmas week, what’s their balking point for adding Genie+? Is an extra $30 per person really going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back? (In other words, be careful with what you wish for when it comes to advocating for higher prices to reduce demand.)
Another option to address the problems plaguing Genie+ during the busiest weeks of the year would be to cap sales–make it possible for the Genie+ service to sell out. Effectively, this could mean that even on 10/10 days, there are still the same number of guests using Genie+ as on 8/10 days, which makes for a more pleasant experience and higher guest satisfaction.
This is the best solution, and the one we hope Walt Disney World implements. However, even this comes with a potentially significant pitfall: induced demand and the scarcity heuristic. Basically, it’s FOMO–the human tendency of ascribing higher values to things that are limited, and not wanting to lose out on them to others. Walt Disney World vacation planners are about the most risk averse people on the planet, which is why things like dessert parties book up with ease despite nonsensical price points. The scale is very different with Genie, but so too is the cost.
The end result is that when confronted with the possibility of Genie+ selling out, guests will be more inclined to purchase the service even when it’s not necessary. Instead of waiting to assess crowd levels or only buying for Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios on the day of their visit, more people will be inclined to buy the length of stay Genie+ ticket add-on.
The more guests who buy Genie+ when it’s not otherwise needed, the more necessary it becomes. Instead of it only being advised for 6/10 to 8/10 days, that recommendation potentially shifts downward to 4/10 days, as well. The “success” of Genie+ lies in a sufficient number of guests opting against buying it–if the adoption rate gets too high, it really does become nothing more than paid FastPass.
Finally, there’s the solution of adding attraction capacity to the Genie+ service so it more closely resembles MaxPass at Disneyland. That system never had these problems–despite there also being an Annual Passholder add-on option–because both parks there had higher ride counts. There are two ways of doing this at Walt Disney World, with the first being to build more attractions. Given that it’s taking them ~6 years to clone a launched motorbike roller coaster in a warehouse from Shanghai Disneyland, this doesn’t seem like a realistic suggestion.
The other would be to remove Individual Lightning Lanes and roll those into the Genie+ service. This also may seem like an unrealistic suggestion, because money. However, for attractions like Expedition Everest–that are performing poorly as ILLs–the case could be made that including them with Genie+ would increase purchases of that system, and ultimately be a net positive for Disney’s bottom line. (Without knowing what the utilization rate of Genie+ is at Epcot, I think a similar argument could be made there with Frozen Ever After–even though its ILL is performing decently.)
Ultimately, the best scenarios for purchasing Genie+ are those you’ll encounter when visiting Walt Disney World right now. Crowd levels in the 6/10 to 8/10 range. For Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it’s probably even lower than that, as the ride roster is so top-heavy. Genie+ is arguably useful at Magic Kingdom even in the 9/10 or 10/10 range, assuming you overlook the tech issues (or they get fixed) and not useful at Epcot or Animal Kingdom unless attendance hits those levels.
As with anything else, this advice on the “sweet spot” for Genie+ is subject to change. It’s entirely possible Disney will tweak how the service works prior to Christmas and New Year’s, or that the adoption rate will continue to increase. The former could make buying Genie+ advisable even on days with peak crowds, whereas the latter might undermine the value of Genie+ even more. There’s also the scenario of both occurring, in which case…who knows! We’ll continue to keep you posted with on-the-ground updates and developments with Genie+ at Walt Disney World.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you used Genie+ in the last week or so? If so, what has been your experience with Lightning Lanes or standby lines? Any success or failures making Genie+ selections? How many “good” selections were you able to book each day? Other problems or thoughts to share? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We leave tonight from Seattle for our 6 night trip. We are an older couple and we simply don’t stress on rides, we are they for the pool and weather. With that said, I understand Disney had shareholders to answer to; however, they must be more responsive and nimble to agreed the ongoing issues.
More and more people will opt for Universal or Disneyland perhaps, where park management seems to more guest centered.
Hi, we are traveling Dec 14-19. Do you recommend Genie+. Also, if I do purchase Genie+, select my first ride at 7am, can I still select indiviudal LL as well or do I have to wait for 2 hours after the park opens?
My family of 5 went to Disney World during Thanksgiving break 2021. We spent an extra $500 on Genie+ for all 5 family members every day for 7 days. Plus, we spent an additional $500 on paid ILL. The trip was already more expensive than my other 3 trips to Disney, and now there was an added $1000 added to our bill because of the new “fast pass” system. The old 60 day fast pass system worked GREAT!!! I am a planner (super planner-very OCD-Left Brain) and don’t feel that I should be punished by having to pay an extra 1K because some people fail to plan ahead.
Just to let you know how much you will be on your phone with Genie+, my screen time while at Disney was up 109% from the previous week. I spent an average of 4 hours and 35 minutes a day on my phone using Genie+. That is an average, which means some days were more!!!!! I don’t have social media, so that was not the culprit. It was 100% Genie+!!!
I am generally on my phone for less than 1 hour per day. I felt like I never put my phone down the entire trip. Several times, while my family was enjoying the park, I was too busy focused on booking the next LL or trying to figure out what time it was so we didn’t miss our LL time slot.
This is my fourth trip to Disney, so I know the park layout. I could see where a person not familiar with the park attraction locations would easily be running around the park like crazy. I would only book LL that were close together if the time slots were close together. For example, we always tackle MK in a clockwise manner, starting with adventure land and ending with tomorrow land. I was very methodical in booking the LL so that we were not running around crazy and we still walked 7 miles per day. I can’t imagine a first trip to Disney in this day and time. My suggestion, if this is your first trip: STUDY THE PARK MAPS!!!!!
I set my alarm every day for 6:50am so that I could wake up and book LL. We visited HS for 3 days and finally on the third day, I got slinky dog. Everyday, it sold out completely by 7:01am. I was totally amazed! I would stack my LL. I set an alarm on my phone every 2 hours to go off 5 minutes before the hour just to book LL. We would get to the parks around noon and already have 5 LL passes booked for the day (for the parks that opened earlier). Plus, I would book more LL, every 2 hours, as the day went on. We enjoy taking it easy in the morning, getting to the parks around noon, and staying until closing time.
Good luck with Disney!!! This was my fourth, and, most likely, final trip to Disney World! My first trip in 2011 cost $3,000. This past trip, ten years later in November 2021, had whopping cost $12,600. We had a great time, but it was just TOO much money to spend on a Disney trip (and we stayed at a moderate resort).
Genie+ should have debuted to resort guests and annual pass holders only. This debacle is all on Disney for thinking they could launch this to the masses. At the holidays. While still not fully staffed. While attractions and shows are still closed. What were they thinking??!!
We were there in the Genie+ “sweet spot” right after Thanksgiving… and frankly we loved it.
I actually wanted to hate the new system, as someone who is unimpressed with Disney’s overall responses to high demand. I was totally stressed about it before the trip. But we were able to avoid a bunch of lines for a reasonable-to-us price. Our stress-free strategy was to take ourselves “out of the running” for the most competitive Genie+ slots. We didn’t even try for LL’s for Jungle Cruise, Navi River, Test Track or Slinky Dog (we rope dropped that one). The times that I happened to see Test Track Lightning Lanes available later in the day were serendipitous.
Every other ride that we wanted to ride with a daunting line – aside from these headliners – we got with Genie+. I wasn’t looking at my phone all day. Clearly, my experience has not been the norm and I don’t have a solution to the failures and frustrations (I’m one of the people advocating surge pricing, but I haven’t thought through all the implications.). I just wanted to offer a perspective I was not expecting to experience.
We came away from this trip with a feeling that we will be spending more of our money elsewhere in the future. Our vacation was silly short, off-property, and fueled by energy bars to save money and it still cost too much. But for us, lines were not an impediment on days that were predicted to be 8/10 crowds, and that was a little bit of magic.
Hi Tom (and others) –
Don’t know if you’ve heard of or seen the “movie” that dropped on YouTube called “Defunctland Fastpass” recently. It gives a history of lines at Disney and how they evolved from E tickets to Fastpass and beyond. A little long, but very interesting (and little comical).
Just thought I’d share in case you were interested in checking it out.
I did see that, and thought it was excellent–especially the history and insight gleaned from Bruce Laval.
The simulation and its “twist” were also interesting, but I do have some potential quibbles with (or at least unanswered questions about) that, given the timing of when two huge attractions debuted relative to FastPass/FastPass+. Regardless, it was a great documentary.
What do you recommend for last week of March 2022? A
Thanks for the updates and insights, Tom. I’ve got a two park-day trip scheduled for January and my long, 11-day family trip planned for August. I’ve been trying to figure out what to budget for Genie+ and ILL and this is very helpful info in that regard. To pile on with everyone else’s complaints, I listened to an extremely wealthy client, to whom the cost of these “perks” was irrelevant, complain about his family’s “first and last” WDW trip over the week of Thanksgiving. He claimed his 7-day trip cost $25,000, and his family felt thwarted and frustrated at every turn. He bypassed ILL’s their first day and found himself in a 3-hour actual wait for FoP, despite an 80-minute posted time. The next day he paid for Genie+ and ILLs and was deeply frustrated that his family was only able to experience Alien Swirling Saucers in Toy Story Land. I’ve been operating under the assumption that the best way to enjoy a modern WDW trip is to be in the 1% and buy your conveniences. The truth is, the WDW “conveniences” don’t hold up to the expectation of extremely wealthy guests. The deluxe hotels fall extremely short of the experiences provided at just about any other $600-$1200 hotel in the world, many of the $90 dinners are awesome for theme parks, but cannot touch similarly priced restaurants in major metropolitan areas. This business strategy of shrugging at long-term, middle-class repeat guests in favor of deep pocketed first timers seems like an extremely short sighted play if Disney isn’t going to figure out how to provide some tangible value for all these upcharges.
“The truth is, the WDW ‘conveniences’ don’t hold up to the expectation of extremely wealthy guests.”
I’ve been saying this for years.
Walt Disney World is an inherently middle class vacation destination. Even on the high end, it doesn’t offer the caliber of service, amenities, or general quality the affluent expect of real world destinations. Walt Disney World realized this a while ago, which is why they “outsourced” that to Four Seasons.
While there are some niche experiences at Walt Disney World aimed at the wealthy, the core product is not. Even things like the Grand Floridian aren’t targeting the wealthy–they’re focused on the upper middle class who are splurging and have no real world baseline to compare (and be letdown).
I keep going back and forth on whether or not to purchase Genie when my sister joins me for two days (Dec 15+16). We’re park hopping to all the parks so it seems like a good purchase, but it also seems like it might be annoying to criss-cross the parks and have to hope for the right things to pop up at the right time and NOT get an email code. It’s a weirdly stressful thing, just trying to decide if I want it or not. I really kind of liked just having a touring plan and a good strategy and relatively fast lines since no one (except DAS) got to skip them. And I was in the boat of someone looking FORWARD to Genie+! I guess I’ll have to try it to have an opinion but…not so excited about it, now.
Given your dates and circumstances–and the reality that you’re probably pretty savvy with planning–I’d at least give it a shot for one day. It could/should work out to being pretty helpful.
@Tom……..We love Disney and we want to continue to go but we will not if they don’t change it and that’s very disappointing to us as a family since we’ve gone more times than i can remember……….The whole family was in agreement after getting back from Thanksgiving trip that it was exhausting and stressful
How do you think about a “any time, any ride” pass?
Can they offer guests different levels? Certain price points for:
– all ILL and Genie+ unlimited
– all ILL and Genie+ one time ride
– all Genie+ only unlimited
– all Genie+ only one time ride
Price them accordingly
Sell a certain amount to resort guests at 30 day mark, leave other availability for day of
I just don’t understand how they cannot figure out a way to satisfy all guests without alienating a certain segment
“The other would be to remove Individual Lightning Lanes and roll those into the Genie+ service.” This is objectively the correct thing to do for the guest experience. I’d have to assume it would be the easiest to implement from a technical perspective. In my opinion, it’s super lame (inexcusable?) they are not taking this step.
On a side, we just returned from our first Universal trip, and stay at Portofino Bay last night. Our kids (ages 9 & 10) had an absolute blast, and the whole trip was so easy. There were certainly weak spots when compared to Disney (e.g. dining, the parks skew to older kids, and some areas are Dinoland bad). That being said, my wife and I both agreed Disney raising their prices was a blessing in disguise as I was so thankful to not be dealing with Genie+ all day and we felt very lucky to give Universal a shot.
Glad you enjoyed Portofino Bay. Like I wrote in our review, it’s one of my favorite theme park hotels anywhere. Walt Disney World fans–or any fans of themed design–owe it to themselves to do a stay there!
Mike,
I agree. It is awful.
All they had to do is take the same system they had, rename it Genie+, and sell it for $15 per person. The system they had worked and the fact that it would have been their new paid system, everyone would have heard about it and whether someone stayed onsite or not, they would have been able to use it the same. The Genie+ system is far and away worse than what they had before.
The only humanely decent compassionate answer is more entertainment and rides. Paying extra for single rides? Who even thinks like that?
If FP+ was awful because of all of the advanced planning it required, then Genie+ is awful for the exact opposite reason………..
Why can’t Disney find something that will satisfy the planners as well as the day of guests?
Our trip was so bad…..We go to WDW to relax and escape and getting up early, stress of missing out on rides, having to be on my phone constantly, having to constantly rearrange plans defeated the purpose of us going
Genie+ does the same thing to the resort guest that FP+ did to the day guest
I don’t necessarily disagree with you. All I’d say is that the “happy medium” existed with paper FastPass, and that still involved getting to the park at rope drop for the biggest and most popular new rides–and waiting in line for those kiosks. Anyone who did the Toy Story Mania dash back in the day knows what I’m talking about! Given the inefficiency of Disney’s transportation, that would probably mean getting up before 6:50 am anyway.
There’s no perfect solution that is easy, free or inexpensive, and works for everyone. If there were, everyone would be skipping the line…meaning no one would be skipping the line. The barriers/friction are part of why any of these systems have worked, to the extent that they have.
Wasn’t sure how to reply so I copied and pasted yours below.
I appreciate your reply. I do absolutely agree that I was a power user of the previous system and I’m sure there were people who didn’t like it. No matter what they do, not everyone is going to be happy. However, if they are going to charge for it and anyone can purchase it, whether someone stays onsite or not would no longer matter. The system actually worked. This system doesn’t. I’ve heard more people than ever complaining about Disney who say they will never return and I personally know a number of families who want to go for the first time that say they are going to wait to see if things improve. If not they may never go. Obviously there is much more that goes into all of that other than just the genie+ system they rolled out but this system is just awful. They would have been better off leaving as is and charging for fastpass+.
If they wanted to change something, they didn’t really need to look any further than Universal to see a paid fastpass option that worked. I preferred Disney’s unpaid fastpass+ to Universal but if I did have to pay, I was ok with what they were doing.
FastPass+ was awful for guests who stayed off-site or did minimal research, and that was reflected in guest satisfaction scores.
You inadvertently sum it up here: “From reading your blog, other websites, the DIS Boards, and some DVC forums I frequent…”
The people who liked FastPass+ were its power users who read and comment on sites like this one. Those who hated it don’t post online about Disney, and probably were far less likely to return. Basically, the praise of FastPass+ came from a fan echo chamber. This isn’t to say FastPass+ was bad or Genie+ is good, just offering some perspective—reactions you read online are not representative of all guests who visit Walt Disney World.
A couple things. The “how to stack” article is outdated now that Disney closed all those loopholes, isn’t it? Also, regarding raising the prices of the IAS. I doubt most people even know what the price is before they finish. I was trying to go through so fast, I didn’t know what I paid until I got the confirmation email. I have since seen reports of the time you select being “held” for a specific amount of time, so you can review things, but I was there Thanksgiving week and the app was a nightmare, so it was speed or nothing!
Hi Tom. While I do agree with all your points made in this column and I love reading your articles, to me there still remains a few fatal flaws with Genie+
1) waking up at 6:50 every day on vacation is not a vacation
2) having my phone in my face all day was awful
3) not picking return times really messed up my entire trip park hopping plans as well as my dining reservations.
4) paying over $1k a night for a room with no assurances that I will get on the rides I want without a 2+ hour is a non starter for us
I have yet to experience WDW with Genie+ but I can already tell how awful it is going to be. From reading your blog, other websites, the DIS Boards, and some DVC forums I frequent, the consensus that I have gathered is that pretty much everyone hates it.
Granted, I had fastpass+ down and my family of 4 walked on every ride we wanted pretty much all day. It wasn’t hard to refresh and get what you want other than a few of the headliners. So whatever they went to I knew I would still prefer fastpass+. But, I didn’t expect it to be this bad.
I would really love to hear your opinion…why didn’t they just keep the exact same fastpass+ system they had before and just start charging for that? It makes absolutely no sense why they changed it. It worked!!! If they want to charge, that is fine, but why would they change it to something that is this awful? Do you have any opinion on this?
FastPass+ was awful for guests who stayed off-site or did minimal research, and that was reflected in guest satisfaction scores.
You inadvertently sum it up here: “From reading your blog, other websites, the DIS Boards, and some DVC forums I frequent…”
The people who liked FastPass+ were its power users who read and comment on sites like this one. Those who hated it don’t post online about Disney, and probably were far less likely to return. Basically, the praise of FastPass+ came from a fan echo chamber. This isn’t to say FastPass+ was bad or Genie+ is good, just offering some perspective–reactions you read online are not representative of all guests who visit Walt Disney World.
Really good analyses of the required fixes for Genie.
I came to the same thoughts and conclusion on pricing — The dynamic pricing doesn’t have enough of a range. On 10/10 days, ROTR, etc, needs to be significantly higher than $15 — Maybe as high as $30-$40.
And Genie+ needs to be limited on 10/10 days, either by reducing demand by pricing, or limiting sales of it. (maybe forbid same-day add-on of Genie+ for off-site guests, etc).
If increasing pricing of G+ to $25 per day would noticeably reduce demand, that would be a pretty good solution.
But as you said, the issue may be inelasticity. People who don’t want to pay extra, are already balking at $15. And the people willing to pay $15 may mostly be just as willing to pay $25. At some point, price sensitivity will kick in… But if WDW has to raise the price to $100 per person per day to keep demand in check, that type of price increase really isn’t going to look good.
My long term suggestions:
1 — The easiest and least controversial — If possible, increase Genie+ capacity during peak crowds. (if they aren’t already at the 70-80% of FP)
2 — Move a couple attractions away from ILL to Genie+… This will happen at MK when Tron opens, I’m sure Space Mountain will move to Genie+. Frozen will move to Genie+ when Guardians opens. But should move Everest to Genie+ right now.
3– Readjust G+/ILL: Move Slinky to individual purchase, move Runaway Railway to G+.
4 — Add character meets and preferred fireworks seatings to G+.
5 – Greater variance in dynamic pricing AND limits on supply, potentially using off-site and on-site as partial parameters. It would be controversial to increase the $15 price dramatically all at once, so soon after introduction. But, during high crowds.. you could price it as $15 for on-site, $30 for off-site.. You can cut off same-day sales.
Agree with all of this.
I’ve been advocating for Harmonious viewing in Genie+ since before it even launched, but on both of the nights we did Epcot last week, there were several private events taking all of the best locations. So it would seem Disney has already found a way to monetize those without Genie+.
Tom,
This seems to be spot on. We were in MK on 11/29 (it was a crowded day IMO – Jungle Cruise hit 125 minutes at one point – something I never imagined was possible). I waited for a few minutes after 7 to get JC for the late afternoon, but was able to book Peter Pan, Pirates, Pooh and Big Thunder as well – all for 3:40PM or later. Being a brisk day FLA wise, nobody was riding Splash after dark so not point in getting a reservation there – we rode 3 times running without leaving the boat and could have ridden 3 more times if we wanted. We still were able to get on 7D at the end of the night and roped dropped Peter Pan and Small World. So I’m not sure if stacking everything for the evening was the most efficient strategy but it worked pretty well for us. We love the Tiki/Bears/CoP and were did all of those and even Presidents for a lark. One question – is the area around Jungle Cruise the new choke point in the park? It was absolute mayhem there around 4PM when we returned for our ride.
I wouldn’t say that’s a new chokepoint, but Jungle Cruise’s newfound popularity has exacerbated it.
If this keeps up, I wouldn’t be surprised if they get rid of or at least relocate the Magic Carpets. (But perhaps that’s wishful thinking on my part.)