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Post by amdev on Jun 24, 2023 7:35:23 GMT -5
I agree that it's just one more thing to have to think about and I am not sure why it's needed. When we were there in February, we got Genie+ for our HS day and it was $22/person. We were there from early morning to mid-afternoon then went back to the hotel for a bit and then decided we'd head to Epcot later. I was able to use the Genie+ to get a Soarin' FP without issue. But in a few days, I'd have to pay $27/person. It's 'only' $5 more but that's per person and then possibly multiple days. It's just another way to nickel and dime for them to make more money.
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Post by bakerworld on Jun 24, 2023 8:18:18 GMT -5
It's just weird that Disney has a park entry ticket and then G+. They should go back to per ride ticketing and walk away.
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Post by brp on Jun 24, 2023 9:42:40 GMT -5
I am just so anti-Genie +. I just keep hoping by 2025 ( my next trip) it will have gone away. We are also anti-Genie+ but in reality I don't think it will ever go away. Disney will figure out every unique way to make more $$$, which they consider is the name of the game. And I'm good with that. I bought into Disney (and any timeshare) expecting that their main job was to part me with my cash. If they made Genie+ as east as FP+ used to be - basically same details with a charge, I'd be less anti. I'm willing to pay to play, if it's on terms I like. so far, Genie+ ain't.
Cheers.
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Post by helenabear on Jun 24, 2023 10:19:34 GMT -5
Not sure I follow the outrage here. If doing MK buy for all 4 parks period. Or go to GS to see what they can do. I honestly wish they had had this a couple weeks ago. I might have purchased it more. Not outrage, just inconvenience. It means another decision to make, especially if you have park hoppers. Do you buy for all 4 parks in case you decide to park hop later in the day, or just buy for your first park? If you pay for the 4-parks G+ and don’t end up hopping you’ve wasted money whereas if you buy for one park and then decide to hop you have to go to GS to get a partial refund. If there was an in-app option to upgrade to the 4-parks option it would make things simpler, you’d just pay the difference. Instead you have to decide that before 7am (if you want to book the popular rides). If you know you will be hopping or won’t be, it’s not a problem. But it takes away some of the spontaneity when they’ve already said they’re removing park reservations to increase that flexibility. Again I'm not pressed by this. It's not like they are charging more for all 4. I even sometimes hit a wall and need to quit much earlier on a short notice in the parks and this doesn't bother me. You already are up at 7 deciding what to do. So yeah more options, but that's all I see. I'm just not seeing a negative. The park reservations and no hopping until 2pm are bigger gripes. This is just nice to know I could pay less for the parks i might use it in. I finally got around to using Genie+ and it worked great on the days we used it. I won't use it every day or all trips, but it's a nice option to have. |
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Post by nickys on Jun 24, 2023 11:23:46 GMT -5
Not outrage, just inconvenience. It means another decision to make, especially if you have park hoppers. Do you buy for all 4 parks in case you decide to park hop later in the day, or just buy for your first park? If you pay for the 4-parks G+ and don’t end up hopping you’ve wasted money whereas if you buy for one park and then decide to hop you have to go to GS to get a partial refund. If there was an in-app option to upgrade to the 4-parks option it would make things simpler, you’d just pay the difference. Instead you have to decide that before 7am (if you want to book the popular rides). If you know you will be hopping or won’t be, it’s not a problem. But it takes away some of the spontaneity when they’ve already said they’re removing park reservations to increase that flexibility. Again I'm not pressed by this. It's not like they are charging more for all 4. I even sometimes hit a wall and need to quit much earlier on a short notice in the parks and this doesn't bother me. You already are up at 7 deciding what to do. So yeah more options, but that's all I see. I'm just not seeing a negative. The park reservations and no hopping until 2pm are bigger gripes. This is just nice to know I could pay less for the parks i might use it in. I finally got around to using Genie+ and it worked great on the days we used it. I won't use it every day or all trips, but it's a nice option to have. Got it! Not a negative for you. But it is for a number of people. If you don’t know whether you’ll park hop that day or not then you have to guess. An upgrade option would solve it. We don’t always plan to hop. But on our last trip DS would sometimes decide to head to DHS for late afternoon / evening. He was happy to pick up rides like Star Tours and then queue for Milenium Falcon as a single rider. It’s just not very customer friendly for guests who like to make spur of the moment decisions about visiting the parks. |
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Post by helenabear on Jun 24, 2023 11:52:43 GMT -5
Again I'm not pressed by this. It's not like they are charging more for all 4. I even sometimes hit a wall and need to quit much earlier on a short notice in the parks and this doesn't bother me. You already are up at 7 deciding what to do. So yeah more options, but that's all I see. I'm just not seeing a negative. The park reservations and no hopping until 2pm are bigger gripes. This is just nice to know I could pay less for the parks i might use it in. I finally got around to using Genie+ and it worked great on the days we used it. I won't use it every day or all trips, but it's a nice option to have. Got it! Not a negative for you. But it is for a number of people. If you don’t know whether you’ll park hop that day or not then you have to guess. An upgrade option would solve it. We don’t always plan to hop. But on our last trip DS would sometimes decide to head to DHS for late afternoon / evening. He was happy to pick up rides like Star Tours and then queue for Milenium Falcon as a single rider. It’s just not very customer friendly for guests who like to make spur of the moment decisions about visiting the parks. My honest thought is that for most guests it's not a huge deal. In fact it's a positive based on hat I have seen from others on various groups (big ones)! The responses have been exceedingly positive. I get for you it's not though. Though reality is you know how you are. So buy based on what you do. Doesn't have to be complicated - just trying to be positive here. |
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Post by nickys on Jun 24, 2023 12:21:54 GMT -5
Got it! Not a negative for you. But it is for a number of people. If you don’t know whether you’ll park hop that day or not then you have to guess. An upgrade option would solve it. We don’t always plan to hop. But on our last trip DS would sometimes decide to head to DHS for late afternoon / evening. He was happy to pick up rides like Star Tours and then queue for Milenium Falcon as a single rider. It’s just not very customer friendly for guests who like to make spur of the moment decisions about visiting the parks. My honest thought is that for most guests it's not a huge deal. In fact it's a positive based on hat I have seen from others on various groups (big ones)! The responses have been exceedingly positive. I get for you it's not though. Though reality is you know how you are. So buy based on what you do. Doesn't have to be complicated - just trying to be positive here. Different views are fine! I think there are far more people who decide on the spur of the moment what they’re doing later in the day than you’d think. That’s the point. We do different things on different days. And we don’t decide before 7am or even by 2pm. Any international guests have that choice, because we have park hoppers by default. And time on our side. So after being at the pool or Disney Springs for a meal we can say “why don’t we go over to Epcot?” this evening. Or as DS did, decide to go over to DHS for the afternoon. That would have been a lot of partial refunds - which they might not do since he wouldn’t have paid for it (my card on file). Same applies to anyone who has hoppers. Not all plan to hop every day, they like to be able to choose to do that or not. Or those who add on the hopper option so that they can just hop that night…maybe they decide they do want to see Fantasmic after all. Or an afternoon at Galaxy’s Edge instead of AK. Or they’ve had dinner at Citricos and decide to head over to MK for a few rides. And a lot of people I know who have APs are not planning every day in advance. Hopping around is an option they can, and do, on the spur of the moment. Opinion on WDWMagic is overwhelmingly negative, much the same on Touring Plans. Mainly because no one believes those prices will remain, at some point the lower price point will be $25 for AK and Epcot and $40 for MK and all parks. What I find really funny is this. I always felt that I “over-plan” compared to most MOs here. I always felt like a lot of you rolled their eyes at how much planning I did! And yet it seems that although I would plan the main part of each day, using Touring Plans and so on, actually maybe I built in way more flexibility than you realised. On any day, at least one of the family would do their own thing at some point, whether that was going back to the villa after 3 hours or going off on their own. Our plans were pretty loose outside of core “family time”. If and when we come back I can 100% guarantee the system will have changed again though. So I’ll see when the time comes what we do. |
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Post by brp on Jun 24, 2023 12:27:58 GMT -5
My honest thought is that for most guests it's not a huge deal. In fact it's a positive based on hat I have seen from others on various groups (big ones)! The responses have been exceedingly positive. I get for you it's not though. Though reality is you know how you are. So buy based on what you do. Doesn't have to be complicated - just trying to be positive here. Different views are fine! I think there are far more people who decide on the spur of the moment what they’re doing later in the day than you’d think. That’s the point. We do different things on different days. And we don’t decide before 7am or even by 2pm. Absolutely. I'm hard-pressed to believe that the pre-planners are anywhere close to the norm. More like a small subset. I still didn't follow all the details of the new plan (because I don't care) but, if it involves planning out the day at 7AM, I can't imagine that this is popular beyond a subset of people who belong to, and chat in, groups about Disney. And, as I'm sure we would agree, this is a minuscule subset of Disney visitors.
But it will work for a small subset. And it will work for Disney. And the latter is what matters 
Cheers.
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Post by SuzanneSLO on Jun 24, 2023 16:39:32 GMT -5
I guess I see the changes as comparable to park hopping: if I think I might park hop on some of my days, I have to get the PH option. So my ticket price is base + PH. I am paying for this flexibility.
With the Genie+ new pricing, if you want the option to have your Genie + park hop with you, you will pay more for this flexibility.
I went to DL/CA in March for 2 days and bought neither the park hopping option nor Genie +. I had to plan a lot more because I took that flexibility off the table. I can’t recall the last time I didn’t have a park hopper at DL/CA but almost everyone I spoke with (other than those with an AP) had not purchased park hopping.
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Post by helenabear on Jun 24, 2023 17:37:39 GMT -5
Different views are fine! I think there are far more people who decide on the spur of the moment what they’re doing later in the day than you’d think. That’s the point. We do different things on different days. And we don’t decide before 7am or even by 2pm. Absolutely. I'm hard-pressed to believe that the pre-planners are anywhere close to the norm. More like a small subset. I still didn't follow all the details of the new plan (because I don't care) but, if it involves planning out the day at 7AM, I can't imagine that this is popular beyond a subset of people who belong to, and chat in, groups about Disney. And, as I'm sure we would agree, this is a minuscule subset of Disney visitors. But it will work for a small subset. And it will work for Disney. And the latter is what matters Cheers. I'm basing my comments on what I read in huge groups. Even the AP group there are far more pre-planners than I ever thought. So many want the 180 days back for dining! Hard to understand for me, but the non-planners are in the minority. I'm actually one of them and enjoyed changing dining plans on the fly this last trip. Even for me it's a half second choice. Pay more and maybe use it later or don't. For most others they have it far more planned than I do and can easily decide. My honest thought is that for most guests it's not a huge deal. In fact it's a positive based on hat I have seen from others on various groups (big ones)! The responses have been exceedingly positive. I get for you it's not though. Though reality is you know how you are. So buy based on what you do. Doesn't have to be complicated - just trying to be positive here. Different views are fine! I think there are far more people who decide on the spur of the moment what they’re doing later in the day than you’d think. That’s the point. We do different things on different days. And we don’t decide before 7am or even by 2pm. Any international guests have that choice, because we have park hoppers by default. And time on our side. So after being at the pool or Disney Springs for a meal we can say “why don’t we go over to Epcot?” this evening. Or as DS did, decide to go over to DHS for the afternoon. That would have been a lot of partial refunds - which they might not do since he wouldn’t have paid for it (my card on file). Same applies to anyone who has hoppers. Not all plan to hop every day, they like to be able to choose to do that or not. Or those who add on the hopper option so that they can just hop that night…maybe they decide they do want to see Fantasmic after all. Or an afternoon at Galaxy’s Edge instead of AK. Or they’ve had dinner at Citricos and decide to head over to MK for a few rides. And a lot of people I know who have APs are not planning every day in advance. Hopping around is an option they can, and do, on the spur of the moment. Opinion on WDWMagic is overwhelmingly negative, much the same on Touring Plans. Mainly because no one believes those prices will remain, at some point the lower price point will be $25 for AK and Epcot and $40 for MK and all parks. What I find really funny is this. I always felt that I “over-plan” compared to most MOs here. I always felt like a lot of you rolled their eyes at how much planning I did! And yet it seems that although I would plan the main part of each day, using Touring Plans and so on, actually maybe I built in way more flexibility than you realised. On any day, at least one of the family would do their own thing at some point, whether that was going back to the villa after 3 hours or going off on their own. Our plans were pretty loose outside of core “family time”. If and when we come back I can 100% guarantee the system will have changed again though. So I’ll see when the time comes what we do. Again my comments are not really only my feelings but what others are saying on AP and DVC groups. I am a non planner though so yes, even your planning feels like a ton to me. It's not who I am nor who I can be at this point. My body directs me more than before sadly. My last trips really pushed that home for me. But one person was upset thinking they'd pay more. Then they realized not so they moved on. Interestingly from active groups this was a good thing, not bad. But YMMV and people may change minds. I think those who started upset saw more money grab. Once dust settled they didn't care. I'm sure WDWmagic is negative though where I know you read more. But tbh I'm kind of over the always negativity there that's been going on so I have no clue how that crew reacted. Just passing on from more active wide spread audience groups. That's all. |
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Post by mcd on Jun 24, 2023 18:44:23 GMT -5
I just got back today from Disney. I paid $23 or 24 daily for Genie+. We hit 2 parks on the same day 3 times. I would say this change is probably a wash or a little more expensive based on our habits. Pretty typical of the direction Disney has been heading. To all the anti-Genie+ folks out there, I get it. They did away with FP and rebranded it so they could charge for it. It does make me angry. However, I just paid for it for 6 days. And each day I paid for a premium ride LL, sometimes two. This is for a family of six, so I shelled out over $1,000 total for it. Many would call that ridiculous, but I loosely tracked wait times and how long we waited with our LLs. (The only standbys we did the entire trip were during extra hours after 11PM on Barnstormer and Dumbo). I estimate that we saved 4 hours each day, and that is probably a light estimate. That is 24 hours saved on this trip. That is like 2-3 park days worth of time. I spent ~$2,500 on airfare. I paid $6,800 on annual passes. I spend $3,000 on annual DVC dues (not to mention the tens of thousands on the contracts themselves). And food/snacks/souvenirs! I may be a spoiled jerk and have, in turn, spoiled the DW and DKs. But we couldn't Disney like we do without it. And I feel like it enhances the trip so much that I can't not do it. And the cost is honestly a drop in the Disney $ bin. Again, I would be happy to go back to the old system. But we did average 7 LLs daily versus the 3 we used to get. Call me crazy, dumb, or wasteful, but the math works for me. (And to be crystal clear, the new system still makes me mad) Edit - I read through the comments on this topic. There probably is nobody on here who plans out rides any more than I do. Our family loves riding rides. I set the alarm for 6:55AM every day on the trip, then set an alarm for the next time I can schedule a LL. My family (besides me) like to sleep in and hit the parks starting around Noon. I usually have 4 LLs stacked up by the time we enter the park and add 2-3 more while we are there. It takes good scheduling and knowing which rides run out first to get them stacked up properly. I am sure I am not offering any new ideas. I realize some would definitely balk at the time and effort spent doing this when we are supposed to be "relaxing" on our vacation. It used to feel like that, but after doing it enough it has become routine. And the early alarm makes it easier for me to get up and run in the mornings. It has also become a challenge to schedule the perfect day (catching all the different rides everyone wants in an order conducive to the geography of the park and spacing well enough to grab snacks, rest, or catch a parade in-between). After reading that, I am starting to re-evaluate my mental health.  |
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Post by helenabear on Jun 24, 2023 19:01:08 GMT -5
I just got back today from Disney. I paid $23 or 24 daily for Genie+. We hit 2 parks on the same day 3 times . I would say this change is probably a wash or a little more expensive based on our habits. Pretty typical of the direction Disney has been heading. To all the anti-Genie+ folks out there, I get it. They did away with FP and rebranded it so they could charge for it. It does make me angry. However, I just paid for it for 6 days. And each day I paid for a premium ride LL, sometimes two. This is for a family of six, so I shelled out over $1,000 total for it. Many would call that ridiculous, but I loosely tracked wait times and how long we waited with our LLs. (The only standbys we did the entire trip were during extra hours after 11PM on Barnstormer and Dumbo). I estimate that we saved 4 hours each day, and that is probably a light estimate. That is 24 hours saved on this trip. That is like 2-3 park days worth of time. I spent ~$2,500 on airfare. I paid $6,800 on annual passes. I spend $3,000 on annual DVC dues (not to mention the tens of thousands on the contracts themselves). And food/snacks/souvenirs! I may be a spoiled jerk and have, in turn, spoiled the DW and DKs. But we couldn't Disney like we do without it. And I feel like it enhances the trip so much that I can't not do it. And the cost is honestly a drop in the Disney $ bin. Again, I would be happy to go back to the old system. But we did average 7 LLs daily versus the 3 we used to get. Call me crazy, dumb, or wasteful, but the math works for me. (And to be crystal clear, the new system still makes me mad) Edit - I read through the comments on this topic. There probably is nobody on here who plans out rides any more than I do. Our family loves riding rides. I set the alarm for 6:55AM every day on the trip, then set an alarm for the next time I can schedule a LL. My family (besides me) like to sleep in and hit the parks starting around Noon. I usually have 4 LLs stacked up by the time we enter the park and add 2-3 more while we are there. It takes good scheduling and knowing which rides run out first to get them stacked up properly. I am sure I am not offering any new ideas. I realize some would definitely balk at the time and effort spent doing this when we are supposed to be "relaxing" on our vacation. It used to feel like that, but after doing it enough it has become routine. And the early alarm makes it easier for me to get up and run in the mornings. It has also become a challenge to schedule the perfect day (catching all the different rides everyone wants in an order conducive to the geography of the park and spacing well enough to grab snacks, rest, or catch a parade in-between). After reading that, I am starting to re-evaluate my mental health. My understanding is it isn't going to be more for all 4 parks. Just that it is less for ones like Epcot or AK We did Genie+ for DHS and AK and enjoyed it. I've paid for ILL 3 times total this year. Granted we're 3 so it was not that bad. We had fun at least! |
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Post by mcd on Jun 24, 2023 19:09:13 GMT -5
I just got back today from Disney. I paid $23 or 24 daily for Genie+. We hit 2 parks on the same day 3 times . I would say this change is probably a wash or a little more expensive based on our habits. Pretty typical of the direction Disney has been heading. To all the anti-Genie+ folks out there, I get it. They did away with FP and rebranded it so they could charge for it. It does make me angry. However, I just paid for it for 6 days. And each day I paid for a premium ride LL, sometimes two. This is for a family of six, so I shelled out over $1,000 total for it. Many would call that ridiculous, but I loosely tracked wait times and how long we waited with our LLs. (The only standbys we did the entire trip were during extra hours after 11PM on Barnstormer and Dumbo). I estimate that we saved 4 hours each day, and that is probably a light estimate. That is 24 hours saved on this trip. That is like 2-3 park days worth of time. I spent ~$2,500 on airfare. I paid $6,800 on annual passes. I spend $3,000 on annual DVC dues (not to mention the tens of thousands on the contracts themselves). And food/snacks/souvenirs! I may be a spoiled jerk and have, in turn, spoiled the DW and DKs. But we couldn't Disney like we do without it. And I feel like it enhances the trip so much that I can't not do it. And the cost is honestly a drop in the Disney $ bin. Again, I would be happy to go back to the old system. But we did average 7 LLs daily versus the 3 we used to get. Call me crazy, dumb, or wasteful, but the math works for me. (And to be crystal clear, the new system still makes me mad) Edit - I read through the comments on this topic. There probably is nobody on here who plans out rides any more than I do. Our family loves riding rides. I set the alarm for 6:55AM every day on the trip, then set an alarm for the next time I can schedule a LL. My family (besides me) like to sleep in and hit the parks starting around Noon. I usually have 4 LLs stacked up by the time we enter the park and add 2-3 more while we are there. It takes good scheduling and knowing which rides run out first to get them stacked up properly. I am sure I am not offering any new ideas. I realize some would definitely balk at the time and effort spent doing this when we are supposed to be "relaxing" on our vacation. It used to feel like that, but after doing it enough it has become routine. And the early alarm makes it easier for me to get up and run in the mornings. It has also become a challenge to schedule the perfect day (catching all the different rides everyone wants in an order conducive to the geography of the park and spacing well enough to grab snacks, rest, or catch a parade in-between). After reading that, I am starting to re-evaluate my mental health. My understanding is it isn't going to be more for all 4 parks. Just that it is less for ones like Epcot or AK We did Genie+ for DHS and AK and enjoyed it. I've paid for ILL 3 times total this year. Granted we're 3 so it was not that bad. We had fun at least! Sorry, I should have clarified. I am in the camp that expects this change to lead to higher prices. And the $27 price is higher than what we paid all this week (maybe it was an example or the price was set to be higher next week regardless). |
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Post by cpnkirk on Jun 24, 2023 20:03:55 GMT -5
I'm just about done with the parks. This just makes it more so. DW wants to work G+ for the next trip (we've tried it twice, and both times we started after 7 am and only got 2 rides) just to see how that goes. I'm not excited about being tied to a 2 hour alarm to check for the next LL, but we'll probably try it.
However, if they charged us some fee - $15 or $20 - for making 3 LL reservations at 60 days, I'd probably be happy to pay every time. I just don't like having to work it all day while I'm on vacation. I understand that many people don't like advance planning, but do you prefer working your phone all day while on vacation??
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Post by mcd on Jun 24, 2023 20:25:09 GMT -5
I'm just about done with the parks. This just makes it more so. DW wants to work G+ for the next trip (we've tried it twice, and both times we started after 7 am and only got 2 rides) just to see how that goes. I'm not excited about being tied to a 2 hour alarm to check for the next LL, but we'll probably try it. However, if they charged us some fee - $15 or $20 - for making 3 LL reservations at 60 days, I'd probably be happy to pay every time. I just don't like having to work it all day while I'm on vacation. I understand that many people don't like advance planning, but do you prefer working your phone all day while on vacation?? If it weren't for the 7AM start and the fact that you have no control over the times of the Genie+ LLs, it would be fine. It literally takes 30 seconds to book a LL. However, I book the ride when my booking window opens and then keep checking back to push the time back to when we want as the LL times move back throughout the day. THAT is what causes me to be on my phone all day. We all do the park our own way. I won't go without Genie+ based our how we do things and the current setup because we wouldn't get to ride half the stuff we do without it, but I totally get your viewpoint as well. |
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