Genie+ Collapsing in Crowds at Disney World
As previously covered, it’s the busiest week of the year at Walt Disney World (so far). While we expected heavy crowds, the high attendance has come as a slight surprise even to us. Nevertheless, we’ve been in the parks a lot this week, working on strategy and touring tips.
Most of this has focused on Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. The first article resulting from our experiences is Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections, advanced-level advice that would normally be “next level” and optional for getting more bang for your buck with the paid FastPass replacement. This week, it’s pretty much mandatory.
We’ve been enjoying low crowds at Walt Disney World over the last several months, so part of the goal in spending even more time in the parks during a busy week was to “stress test” our strategies. In particular, I wanted to put Genie+ through its paces with the goal of showing just how much time you could save on busy days. That largely has not happened. Instead, it has been one frustration after another.
There are several problems with Genie+ right now, but let’s start at the beginning–what we and other guests are encountering right at 7 am. As noted in the ‘speed strategy’ post, Slinky Dog Dash is booking up for the entire day before 7:01 am.
The same is also happening for the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Individual Lightning Lanes. While we don’t purchase ILLs, we’ve heard from several readers sharing the problems they’ve had. Basically, it has been impossible to book both Slinky Dog Dash and purchase access to the Galaxy’s Edge headliner. Even on busy days, I never thought this would be an issue–clearly, I was wrong.
However, it’s not just Slinky Dog Dash and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance that are going fast. Headliners in every park are going quickly during these sold out days during Thanksgiving week.
Here are some screenshots from this morning showing return times within the first 5 minutes that Lightning Lane reservations were available:
At this rate, many popular attractions will be gone not long after park opening. The last several days, there have been virtually no (worthwhile) options by afternoon, meaning that even savvy users of Genie+ are likely only getting 3-4 “good” selections per day. Novices or those visiting parks other than Magic Kingdom could be doing worse.
Keep in mind that Genie+ is still new, and many guests don’t even learn about it until arriving at the park. In previous weeks, we saw many people purchasing it while in the standby line for an attraction, realizing they could save time. Anyone who did that today wouldn’t have a shot at anything on the above list.
In fairness, some attractions do have drop times throughout the day when their Lightning Lane allotments are refilled. It can be better to wait for an earlier time to appear rather than pouncing on a later one–unfortunately, there’s no “modify” feature, making canceling and rebooking fraught with risk of getting shut out completely, or stuck with an even later time.
To assist with this, I’ve been tracking when these refills occur and for which attractions. I put a decent amount of effort into this, and had a post planned, but this week has thrown a monkey wrench into that. Drop times have become more random, and some attractions don’t seem to be receiving refills at all. It’s understandable that Disney would switch things up and make this less predictable so it’s not as easy to ‘hack.’ Totally get that.
Speaking of hacks, remember our Tips for “Stacking” Genie+ Ride Reservations? That explained how to leverage the 120 minute rule in tandem with “last actions.” The normal 120 minute rule still works, as it’s an intentional feature of Genie+ that is there by design.
However, now stacking can only be done in the intuitive, one-at-a-time sense. It’s no longer possible to leverage the last actions in such a way that you can turn a single selection into multiple branches, and grow those exponentially. Again, the normal 120 minute rule still works and regular stacking is possible, just not the advanced hacks. This makes complete sense and we can’t fault Disney for closing what was possibly an unintentional loophole. Definitely a bummer for those who like to hack, but that’s how it goes.
On a related note, if you read the comments to our speed strategy post, you might’ve seen me tease an upcoming post with even more next-level, advanced hacking technique. There was a way to turn an expired Lightning Lane selection into 3 new ones, but that’s also gone.
I’ve been working on testing and researching that for a few weeks, and know I’m not the only one (I received multiple emails about it). I almost posted my strategy guide on Monday, but decided to compile a list of attractions with two tapstiles first. While I’m disappointed that I researched and wrote so much for nothing, I’m also relieved. I would’ve been “blamed” if I shared that on Monday and the loophole closed on Tuesday. (Travel hackers in general are very protective of ‘secret’ strategies and don’t believe they should be shared widely since that often leads to their demise. That’s an unrealistic expectation, but I digress.)
Disneyland fans might be surprised by all of these issues. I don’t recall there ever being any such problems with MaxPass, which is the basis for Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. One of the reasons those loopholes are closing and Genie+ is unraveling under the weight of crowds even without them is because of the eligible attraction roster and capacity.
That’s the biggest difference between MaxPass and Genie+. It bears reiterating that Disneyland has many more attractions than even Magic Kingdom, and despite its reputation, DCA is a solid second gate. The two are also about a football field apart, meaning that Park Hopping is commonplace.
Combined, Disneyland’s two parks have close to the ride roster of 4 parks at Walt Disney World. On top of that, Disney has removed two popular attractions per park for Individual Lightning Lanes and there are no nighttime spectacular or parade viewing areas as possible selections, meaning Walt Disney World’s already thin roster for Genie+ was made even thinner.
Another thing we question is what the Lightning Lane-to-standby ratio is right now. There has been a lot of speculation about this, and the ‘phases’ for determining capacity allocation. Up until now, much of that has been theoretical–and it might still be, depending upon actual distribution levels.
As a reminder, the ballpark FastPass-to-standby ratio was 80:20. This meant that for every 10 parties boarding an attraction, 8 were pulled from the FastPass queue and 2 were pulled from standby. That’s why standby lines moved at a snail’s pace with FastPass, and constantly without it. That 80:20 ratio also meant that a lot of guests were taking advantage of FastPass, which should be no surprise given that it was free.
Anecdotally, I’ve yet to experience anything even remotely like this 80:20 ratio with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. Everything seems to skew much more strongly in favor of standby. I’ve noted that the attraction with the highest capacity allocation appears to be–to me, at least–Toy Story Mania, which tracks with it having more Lightning Lane availability than most other attractions.
At Slinky Dog Dash, the attraction that has consistently booked up the fastest, I’d be shocked if even 50% of capacity is being allocated to the Lightning Lane. This appears to be a matter of distribution and not policy; Cast Members can only pull Genie+ guests to the extent that they are there. Based upon my firsthand experiences and observations, there’s seldom more than a slow trickle of guests into the Lightning Lane. That frees up more capacity to be allocated to the standby line.
One notable exception to this is when an attraction returns from a breakdown. Then, the priority is to process the backlog of guests with Lightning Lane ride reservations, which often amounts to a far greater allocation of guests coming from the Lightning Lane. This is nothing new to the Genie+ system; FastPass did the same thing.
The part that’s new is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance being less reliable and more popular than a normal attraction, meaning that it’s possible to get really unlucky with the posted v. actual standby wait if your timing is off. (Conversely, you can get really lucky–it’s far and away the least accurate posted wait time, in both directions, at Walt Disney World.)
The thing about anecdotal observations is that they’re inherently limited and may not reflect broader trends or experiences. When it comes to Walt Disney World, I tend to not take them too seriously–even when they’re my own–because someone an hour later or earlier might encounter something dramatically different. That’s true here, too. The problem is that there’s no good data about Lightning Lane v. standby allocations as the system is still new and this week has been its first true stress test.
One thing I will note is that most of my Genie+ testing this week has been at Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Today was going to be Magic Kingdom day before I abandoned that plans out of futility and frustration. I’ve heard stories of things being different there, with slower standby queues for Peter Pan’s Flight and other rides. Since our experiences are limited and there’s no good data, we’d love to hear from other people who have been in the parks this week–you should have ample time to comment while standing in those long lines! 😉
Whether the current allocation is a problem or not is in the eye of the beholder. If you’re purchasing Genie+, you want as much capacity reserved for Lightning Lanes as possible. Otherwise, the service you paid for is less useful and you’re inclined to have buyer’s remorse, not purchase again, or even request a refund.
If you’re not using the pay-to-play line skipping service, you’re probably pleased to see Walt Disney World not reserve 80% of capacity for paid FastPass. Well, that might be a stretch–I doubt anyone is “pleased” with lines right now. Due to it being the busiest week of the year, standby wait times are also really high. The point is that a normal FastPass 80:20 allocation would make those posted waits so much worse.
It should go without saying, but allocation is subject to change–that all of the complaints thus far can be “fixed” pretty easily. Walt Disney World will almost certainly adjust that upwards to favor Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, because why wouldn’t they? More Lightning Lane capacity means higher satisfaction from guests paying more–and more sales of the paid FastPass service. There’s every reason to believe the allocation scales will tilt towards Genie+ more over time, and every reason not to believe the reverse will be true.
However, it’s not just return times, availability, and capacity that are causing complaints. The Genie system itself has been rife with glitches, errors, and problems…
Some of this is nothing new, and should come as no surprise to anyone who has experience with Disney IT. My Disney Experience is not exactly the gold standard; it’s been buggy for years. Upon launch, we used the free Genie itinerary builder and found it comically bad and totally worthless.
This week, the problems have gotten even worse and more frequent. We’re talking about the My Disney Experience app crashing, Genie system being slow or unresponsive, and sending a seemingly endless number of access codes via email. This last one is especially frustrating, as it always seems to happen at the most inopportune time, right as you’re trying to make a new Genie+ selection.
We’ve had this problem with codes since the beginning, and it’s further exacerbated by the propensity for Disney emails to be flagged as spam (in a way it makes sense–they’re spamming us with these codes). In some cases, we’ve received over a dozen of these codes in a day. One reader reported receiving 56 in one day. That’s the kind of claim you might assume is hyperbole unless you’ve actually used the system yourself. In which case, you believe it without any hesitation.
I’m likely missing some of the tech problems, but only because I’ve probably blocked them out for the sake of my own sanity or haven’t experienced them (yet). All of this is to say nothing about Genie’s absolutely abysmal UI and organization. This is nothing new, but almost nothing makes sense about the way it’s laid out or functions. It very much feels like Genie launched months–or perhaps years–before it was ready. That was more forgivable when it was working reasonably well to help save time. Now Genie+ is just a headache.
Ultimately, it’s very difficult for me to recommend Genie+ right now for any of the parks, even Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. We expected that to go in the other direction, with recommendations for Epcot and Animal Kingdom only ‘kicking in’ once at a certain crowd level.
That threshold has been reached, but Genie+ has become so frustrating that the case could be made that you’re better off without it. While you will certainly wait longer in standby lines, most of them have been at least reasonably efficient, and don’t mean starting your day out with headaches at 7 am and spending the day glued to your phone dealing with bugs and other problems.
Personally, if visiting for “holistic enjoyment” and not just wait time minimization, I’d opt for a normal rope drop, midday break, late night strategy–pretending Genie+ doesn’t even exist. Again, this comes with the caveat that it’s the busiest week of the year at Walt Disney World. During times like these, there’s no ‘magic bullet’ approach that’ll totally beat the crowds (even some of the Genie+ woes are forgivable in light of attendance and strain on the system), but that should minimize headaches to the greatest extent possible during one of the worst weeks to visit.
From the beginning, we’ve sought to bring you the good, bad, and ugly with Genie, rather than sticking with preconceived notions or the popular sentiment. We were cautiously optimistic when it was mostly outrage, and now we’re in the other camp. We reserve the right to continue changing our minds as circumstances evolve–you know, how opinions should work. My guess is that Genie+ will continue to be tweaked throughout the holiday season, perhaps even this week. Walt Disney World has got to realize that this is unsatisfactory. For those who have used Genie+ this week, consider yourself an honorary Detroit Lions fan, because now you know how it feels! We’ll be in the parks this weekend and next week doing more Genie+ testing, if you want to be notified when we post more updates on Genie, crowds, news, and more–subscribe to our FREE email newsletter for instant alerts!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
If you’re at Walt Disney World for Thanksgiving week, what has been your experience with Genie+ or standby lines? Any success or failures making morning Lightning Lane selections? Have you had success in getting Slinky Dog Dash and/or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? What about headliners in other parks? Notice the closure of the stacking strategy or other hacks? 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 purchased Genie+ for Magic Kingdom and Epcot Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. We were able to use it for one attraction in each park. I thought it was a waste of money. We won’t buy it again.
The listed wait times for the stand-by lines were shorter than the times posted.
We did purchase individual Lightening Lane for several rides. Although paying even more money for a day in the parks grated on me, we did get to ride what we wanted without waiting and found a ride we would have been upset about waiting for in a 90 minute stand-by line. We will not pay to ride that one again, nor will we wait for it in stand-by. I believe the ones we pay for Lightening Lane access will be one and dones unless they are truly exceptional. When they are not the newest attractions anymore, we’ll wait in the stand-by.
We were there two weeks ago and thought Genie+ was a rip off then. I purchased it, tried to book what I wanted and realized it was a complete waste of time.As soon as I got to the park, me and the rest of my extended family cancelled Genie+ and received refunds. I did purchase one LL pass (only because I was unable to get into the virtual queue for a ride my youngest daughter has been waiting for many months). Our trip was more frustrating and exhausting than magical and that made me sad. We’ve been passholders for years but, sadly, probably not for much longer.
I get a headache reading about Lightning Lanes and Genie now. There is no spontaneity left, or rather little, and it involves Standby Lanes. I am delaying our usual January WDW trip until late spring hoping that by then things will be more organized, more smooth, and, one hopes, a lot less frustrating. Either that or we will spend a lot of time visiting resorts and the horses at Ft. Wilderness.
We were there this past weekend Genie + kept failing. The worst part was that those staying in Disney Resorts got to book at 7am, while yhose of us who could not stay on property (there was no availability) had yo wait until the park opened. It was impossible to get time slots for many rides. Also, it seemed like multiple rides were “temporarily unavailable” throughout the day. It was not an issue of no more lightning lane left, but rather rides breaking down. It was an overall very expensive but not very magical experience.
Our experience at Disney this week has been absolutely awful. I couldn’t be more unhappy about the experience. It was a huge waste of money and vacation time. I literally feel like I spent $1000 for nothing. The parks aren’t capable of handling the number of people they are allowing in. The Genie+ And Lightning lane system is TERRIBLE. It barely worked for us at all. Lines were about 2 hours for every attraction at Hollywood Studios. It made zero sense that shows like Indiana Jones would be closed down on a week Disney knew the parks would be at max capacity. Anyways it’s apparent that Disney’s focus is on making money and not the visitor experience. I’m pretty sure Walt would be horrified if he’d had the park experience we’ve had this week. If you’re headed to Disney, set your expectations low. It’s not magical at all anymore.
I’m here now, and the biggest thing I’ve noticed is there are SO MANY people who just don’t know where to go and have strollers or ECVs. We opted NOT to purchase genie plus as 2/3 of my kids don’t like thrill rides (Skyliner on day 1 was fun….not). But we did rope drop early entry at both MK and HS. The worst waits have been getting stuck in line at Jungle Cruise because of a medical emergency and then experiencing the processing of all the lightning lane people. That ended up being a full 80-90 wait. We did Rise and Smugglers yesterday, both done prior to 9:45. We skipped SDD which was 105 at 10:15 in favor of the 80 minute Toy Story. Then our luck ran out after lunch and we waited a full 100 minutes for runaway railway- in B mode. Part of THAT holdup was the sheer amount of ECVs in line with us. One poor woman had so much trouble navigating the queue, there ha to be a better way (for that ride specifically) to handle wheelchairs and ECVs. Tomorrow the plan is to early entry rope drop studios and hit all 4 parks, ending vacation with fireworks at MK. I will say that this week (we opted for three day park hoppers because studios was most important to us), you have to be there early and either be in the parks all day or you won’t get to do everything. And pack your patience if you want popcorn refills. For some reason those lines are also 15 minutes.
It’s such a matter of perspective. Without any sort of Fast pass system we had a super enjoyable day when the park seemed packed with queues that were never more then 45 minutes. I think anything under 60 minutes is quite reasonable so it amuses me when people have a fit because they have to wait 30. It’s that instant gratification mentality unfortunately.. And the queues moved all the time and in most cases were 10 or 15 minutes less than posted. You would never see wait times under 60 minutes in FP days. And we had no schedule to keep so could just do what we wanted when we wanted. I really hope they keep the standby to Genie ratio skewed toward standby so lines move.
Tom, I’m here right now. I’m not sure if this is just a glitch I’m having or not. I know a few days ago, I was able to cancel a LL and book again (for a different time). Today I do not have that option. The blue “Cancel” option is no longer there. I’m stuck with a time I have, unable to switch to a different time or attraction.
As much as I’d like to act as if Genie+ doesn’t exist, with these crowds I’m worried that if I did that, all of the extra hours in line would completely ruin what has already been a very stressful trip.
Still trying to just enjoy and be thankful that I am here at all, but Genie+ has turned this vacation into a working vacation hell that I had not anticipated.
Thank you for all that you do.
I was in Disney for a NYE years ago, like 2005, we walked into MK and walked right out. Crazy wait times and even the kids said no way. We are lucky to live in Fl and we’ve been many times. I’ve been going for 40 years, it’s lost all its charm. The basic issue is that there are too many people attending the parks, look at the historical attendance. I suppose more paid options, more and more expensive, will come down the pike but at least Disney has a flexible payment plan.
I suspected throwing Genie functionality into MyDisneyExperience instead of making it a separate app (as it appeared to be when first announced) would create problems, but I didn’t realize to the extent it would magnify and feed into other problems. I guess the good news is for those several people showing up next week is that the traditional Thanksgiving Week crowds will be gone, leaving you with the “merely” elevated crowds of last week and thus only a lousy Genie+ system rather than a broken one.
(While paper FastPasses would disappear quickly as well during busy seasons, I guess the fact that they were physically distibuted in different areas of the Magic Kingdom guaranteed that you got at least one or two “good” ones if you rope dropped the park.)
Sounds like Disney no longer knows how to make MAGIC for its guests, but has clearly become really good at making MONEY. Don’t get me wrong I’m a LIFELONG Disney fan, but I’ve found myself and my family are not dreaming about our next stay. We’ve experienced similar frustrations including: crazy hike in nightly pricing for resorts, no resort hopping without a dining reservation, bad food (from one of the resorts we decided to dine at in order to resort hop, which took one of our family members offline for a day resulting in a few of us losing the ability to visit one of the parks – that we had to make a reservation for – making our 3-day Park hopper a 2-day experience that expired), Transportation issues including the closure of the Monorail (Uber & Lyft made a pretty penny off of us), inability to ride rides due to ridiculous wait times, oddly rude cast members, numerous closed attractions across the 3 parks we visited, and loss of spontaneity (having to stare at our phone screens to determine every next step (rides, parades/shows, & food). One thing we enjoyed was the ability to mobile order food (Dole Whip) via the app.
I just asked my adult daughter, “what did you like about the last Disney experience?” Her answers: 1. Her Slinky Dog Mickey ears, 2. Anticipation for Ratatouille experience, 3. In general she continues to enjoy the feel of the parks.
My husband’s answer to the same question – the frozen Coke & Canadian Club in Epcot (he struggled to come up with that answer.)
Before Covid, we were looking forward to booking Disney After Hours, while we understood that the program was halted due to the pandemic, it seems like now is the time to bring it back. Unless Disney is trying to force people into VIP tours at $425-$850 per hour with a 7 hour minimum ($3k-$6k for a max of 10 ppl – on top of ticket prices). This sounds like a true Disney experience is really only available to the wealthy.
I’m hoping that these comments might get seen by Disney, we’ve been annual pass holders and have visited the parks and stayed in the resorts several times a year for the last 40 years (since I was born) . I’m thinking Disney needs to make some serious changes, for the amount of money we’re all spending, there has to be someone on the team that can figure out how to make things more MAGICAL. We surely think letting fewer people in the parks, making things more affordable, and returning to a more classic experience might help. Maybe a path forward is lowering the price of the VIP tours so that it is more accessible for more people, resulting in more jobs at Disney, & more predictable visitor volumes.
I am here right now. The park attendants are doing a half-assed job with the indoor mask rule. Super spreader spaces is an understatement. Additionally, the mobile pass, virtual queue and photo pass is working only 50% of the time. Had we not spent so much money awhile ago, and had we known that the masking wouldn’t be enforced, we would not be here so unsafely.
Dang. We’re heading there next week as well and I can honestly say this is the first time I’m not necessarily looking forward to going. I appreciate everyone for sharing their wins and losses, and I think some of you have some fantastic ideas for improving/replacing Genie+. I know Tom has mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating – if every one of us commenting here (and all the other Disney blogs) would also email Disney with the exact same experiences, thoughts, ideas, etc., we might – MIGHT – just make a difference. I’m just as surprised and disappointed as many of you that Disney got this so wrong with all of the resources and data they have available. Regardless, here’s wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!
Seems like one solution is to jack up resort hotel prices and give G+ Purchase access only to those staying onsite (as well as annual pass holders).
I will be in WDW Dec. 4-9 with my adult daughter and frankly I am terrified that it’s going to be a disaster. Genie+ sounds like a nightmare and I don’t have faith that it’ll be magically restored in a week. (I just retired from a software company – I know the pitfalls of patching bad code vs. starting over.) We are spending one day at Universal and I ponied up for Express Pass – cost is 50% of the ticket price. The advantage is that far fewer people will pay that much ON TOP of their already exorbitant ticket price. We are only doing it because we visit Orlando very infrequently and want to make it count. Sad to say, I predict that Genie+ will reach that level in a year.
Ughhh… this is depressing, but I’m thankful for the post and all the comments. I’m coming next week, but strongly considering canceling my plans. I’ve always liked the system at Disneyland and was hoping that would be replicated at WDW. I was never a fan of fast passes. I found I could do a lot more by rope dropping, taking an afternoon break, and then coming back in the evening. Thats what I plan to do next week if I come. What’s frustrating is that Disney has all of the historic ride data and guest flow patterns, etc. to predict and plan a better outcome. It seems like a tech failure on multiple fronts from the bad user interface to bad data modeling. Disney should just know better. Shameful.
We are at Disney this week from 11/20-11/27. Genie+ is a nightmare! My family is diehard Disney fans and have been enjoying the property for generations, but this system is terrible. One of the worst parts, imo, is getting up everyday before 7am on an already busy and tiring trip, just to attempt to get a LL. As many have said, the codes being sent via email got in the way many times of early morning booking. I did find that if you turned off your Disney wi-fi and just utilized your phone signal, the app worked better.
Looking at your phone all day to try and grab what’s next is also a huge downside. With FastPasses, you had the ability to pre-plan and just show up and enjoy. SO much better and less stressful! We are also here as an extended family gathering. Trying to book attractions together is next to impossible with geniE+ as you can’t choose your times-they are just given.
Overall, this feature needs tons of work if not a total dump. It has caused nothing more than frustration. Had I known how useless it would be, I would have saved our money for ILL or other Disney experiences.
Thank you for reporting this! Clearly what’s happening here during busy times is a viscous circle:
1) more people are there so lines are longer
2) therefore more people buy genie+
3) with more people using genie+ the standby lines get even longer
4) so more people buy genie+
Eventually genie+ becomes useless because they don’t have enough capacity for the demand at the current price. And people don’t learn genie+ is useless until they’ve already paid for it.
For a company that has historically been remarkably good at crowd management this is as big a failure as can be imagined. What they *should* do is eliminate the system and rethink everything to create a system with perceived line-skipping value that doesn’t break. They won’t do that because admission of failure will cost jobs of senior executives.
So the next best plan I suspect they’ll follow is this: make the prices of genie+ variable based on crowd levels and demand. They will have to do some testing and research to figure out the point.
But here’s the problem: during busy times I suspect that “not used too much” price will be outrageously high. Remember people at Disney for a holiday trip have already dropped $5000-$10,000 for their vacation. Adding $5 to the cost of genie+ or an ILL will be nearly irrelevant – I have to imagine the demand will be inelastic.
So I suspect during the crowded times of year to find the balance, the prices will have to be outrageous. $75-$100/day for Genie+. $50-$75 for ROTR and other top tier attractions.
While this would “solve” the problem and provide some short-term revenue for Disney, it has other major problems. Imagine the anger when you’re standing in line for hours and see all the people in the “rich people line” skip by you. There’s no “oh it’s only $15, maybe I should do that” when Disney actually needs you *NOT* to do that.
Secondly, it looks like nothing but a money grab. The “good vibes” at Disney disappear. One of the things about Disney historically is sure, you spend an arm and a leg to get in the door but then you don’t really think about money once you arrive (and they were brilliant with things like the dining plan and magic bands to make it even more “seamless” and feel less about money once you’re inside). This flies in the face of that feeling. If they go with a lightning lane price that most people will *not* get so the system doesn’t break, then during busy times every single attraction you’ll see people fly by you who you know spent an extra $400/day/family (or whatever) to skip the lines.
This is a great way to ruin their long term business model. It may not affect first trips but good luck selling timeshares or getting new repeat visitors if you take away the Disney warm fuzzies.
Good luck Disney cast members. You didn’t design this broken system but you’re on the front lines of the mess it made.
Went to Magic Kingdom in 11/20 for my batcheolette party. As a previous CM (2011-2017) I remembered the changeover from legacy FP to MDE. I wanted to give the new system a try, so each bridesmaid bought into the system. It was a catastrophic failure. In the 5 hours we had Genie+, we were able to use it for one ride which a CM had to book for us. We ultimately asked for a refund.
I’m a Disney girl with all my heart. We were there the end of October for a week, the day after the genie+ started. Not only was it the most frustrating system (and I see it’s still the same) it is the greediest thing I have seen in a long time. It’s a waste of money but sometimes they force you into it with the thoughts “well I paid xxx for my vacation and I won’t get to ride Rise, so I better buy the LL pass….there goes $70. We found ourselves dropping dinner reservations that we really wanted just to try and stay in the budget that we wanted. We didn’t want to leave with additional stuff on a credit card because the trip was expensive enough. We didn’t budget thin either for the record. Here is one more greedy thing they are doing (off the subject, but still worth mentioning.) We stayed at the Grand Floridian for six nights. It was amazing and we loved it. We wanted to add an extra night. Que three hours dealing with customer service because I was told there wasn’t any availability. Turns out you are required to book a 2 night stay….take some more money Disney. So I ended up arguing with them
“So I just stayed 6 nights and I want to stay one more and you won’t take my money to do that” “No ma’am, you have to book a 2 night stay” I followed with “do you realize how ridiculous that is in regards to this conversation?” Long long pause, and when he didn’t answer, I asked for a supervisor. On hold another hour, only to be told they couldn’t do anything. Now I am really upset because this doesn’t even make sense. For the first time EVER, I had two cast members who were not only not helpful, they were rude. They took my phone number and said the manager at the front desk would call me. When they did, they were so nice. I ended up having to pay for 2 nights, but they let me have an early check out after 1 night and refunded the second. We have been close to 15 times to WDW in my married life and more before when I was growing up. Disney has always been my happy. Between the genie+ greed, the 2 night minimum stay greed (that shouldn’t have applied in my situation) and the nasty comment a head person said about cutting food portions because frankly some people could use them has left such a bad taste in my mouth. I miss missing Disney if that makes sense? I don’t know when we will go back. I hope they get rid of Bob Paycheck, he is killing the magic. I don’t believe I am entitled to anything special or extra ever. I just want to go on vacation and not have to battle stupid whether it is spending an additional $368 that week on genie passes or having to book a 2 night stay to extend, because after 6 nights at the GF, I guess adding one more was too difficult to do. It’s greed and I’ve never seen it like this. I really hope they change their ways.