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olegc
12-06-2021, 12:54 PM
Hi Gang - Genie launches on Dec 8th (this week!) at Disneyland. Reminder that Genie is free and Genie+ is $20 per day. Individual attractions vary - ROTR, RSR, and webslingers are the only attractions right now as ILL.

Frankly Im surprised like others they wanted to put this in place during the busy Holiday period - but this would mean they can claim they "successfully" launched Genie and Genie+ in the first quarter to their shareholders and how great it is for profitabi... er, um, I mean guest satisfaction.

Mouseplanet among other sites have stories on this. I know some are surprised they have announced this so suddenly but Im not. I think Disney is afraid of social media bad vibes spreading quickly and has been launching many Disneyland events and offers without a lot of lead time.

GrumpyGoofyGuy
12-06-2021, 01:06 PM
Well crap. I was hoping it wouldn't go live until after our trip on the 12th-14th.:mad:

olegc
12-06-2021, 01:31 PM
Well crap. I was hoping it wouldn't go live until after our trip on the 12th-14th.:mad:

i just left a live stream from FreshBaked and so many people had questions on whether to get it or not. Frankly it sounds like people with throw up their hands and grab it not knowing if they really need it. My advice? If you REALLY want to get on certain rides then maybe buy it one day and use it as a ride day. Since you can only use each reservation once (i.e. if you ride Space Mountain with Genie+ you cant use Genie+ again) then at least you get in the rides you want for your trip. its not clear yet what the ILL prices will be - but lets assume the worst and that ROTR and RSR will be $20, and that Webslingers will be $15. You can also try single rider but then you're not together as a family. I know FreshBaked and a few others will be there on Wed the 8th and thursday the 9th to see how standby is affected - but I dont think those are good tests. The weekend is the actual test. so maybe Monday and TUesday the 13th and 14th wont be so bad.

GrumpyGoofyGuy
12-06-2021, 01:49 PM
Fresh Baked is the video I watched where he said you could upgrade from a multi day ticket to a Key pass after you entered the park on your last day and it would work out fine. That's the opposite of what others are saying, so I'm not sure how accurate his information even is.

olegc
12-06-2021, 01:55 PM
Fresh Baked is the video I watched where he said you could upgrade from a multi day ticket to a Key pass after you entered the park on your last day and it would work out fine. That's the opposite of what others are saying, so I'm not sure how accurate his information even is.

it also sounded like from Berry's post that even CMs dont have the right information on MK and Multi day tickets - so it could be he was just going off of info a CM told him. My experience for this topic simply was watching the live feed. He didnt offer any real tips or hacks. he referenced the public info for Genie. Folks are trying to find a way around it - and the only thing some others commenting in the chat were to use (abuse) the single rider or child swap lines. Frankly we dont have enough data yet on how Disneyland will work with this - but I would guess that the same thing will happen here as in WDW - that all reservations (genie+ and ILL) will be gone by 9am on busy days.

Dave1313
12-06-2021, 02:08 PM
Not specific to DL, but if it's anything like FL, you probably need to decide very early in the morning if you want to spend the money for the RotR ILL. (like if you wait until you can tell how long they claim Standby is near park open, it may be too late to purchase an ILL, since they may all be gone for the day.)

A lot of guests are apparently clamoring for that "enhancement" to their experience(at least in FL).

(of course that may vary in DL, since you have Webslingers out there... maybe that is more of the "new kid on the block" that people may be more wiling to pay for)

Enjoy your trip! (or local visit for Oleg ;) )

{edit: typing while Oleg was... re:his 9 AM prediction, we seem to be on the same page ;) }

olegc
12-06-2021, 02:18 PM
Not specific to DL, but if it's anything like FL, you probably need to decide very early in the morning if you want to spend the money for the RotR ILL. (like if you wait until you can tell how long they claim Standby is near park open, it may be too late to purchase an ILL, since they may all be gone for the day.)

A lot of guests are apparently clamoring for that "enhancement" to their experience(at least in FL).

(of course that may vary in DL, since you have Webslingers out there... maybe that is more of the "new kid on the block" that people may be more wiling to pay for)

Enjoy your trip! (or local visit for Oleg ;) )

{edit: typing while Oleg was... re:his 9 AM prediction, we seem to be on the same page ;) }

In my experience so far Webslingers does not carry the same weight in terms of demand as ROTR.

Berry Princess
12-06-2021, 02:37 PM
There are differences though between it in WDW and DL. Photopass is included for it here.

Disney Genie+ service may be purchased in the Disneyland app after you’ve entered the park and have linked your park ticket. After Dec. 8, you may also choose to purchase Disney Genie+ prior to your visit when you purchase a park ticket. You can begin making your Lightning Lane arrival window selections as soon as you enter a theme park!

This right here is different from WDW since you can select your first before the park opens there at 7am and then the clock starts ticking on the time when the park opens before you can get your next LL. Now ILL could be different with how fast or not they go. Like olegc said it could depend on how busy the parks are. Yet will this end up a mess in the way it has in WDW during Thanksgiving where some folks were saying paying for Genie+ didn't do them any good when things were gone fast...all the while Disney was still allowing sales of it.

I honestly can not the majority of passholders paying for it each time they go. Especially if you are not there all day long. I know we have no plans at this point to use it anytime soon. I'll watch how it works for others there all day though and see how the rides go with it or stay for the day. Most rides here we never had issues with getting FP/MP so will see if this ends up different or not. Especially since you can't use the LL to ride anything a second or third time.

olegc, since you have a trip with others coming up will this end up part of the day for you all? If so will look forward to your take on it. As well as anyone else here that uses it.

newhdplayer
12-06-2021, 02:47 PM
There are differences though between it in WDW and DL. Photopass is included for it here.

Disney Genie+ service may be purchased in the Disneyland app after you’ve entered the park and have linked your park ticket. After Dec. 8, you may also choose to purchase Disney Genie+ prior to your visit when you purchase a park ticket. You can begin making your Lightning Lane arrival window selections as soon as you enter a theme park!

This right here is different from WDW since you can select your first before the park opens there at 7am and then the clock starts ticking on the time when the park opens before you can get your next LL. Now ILL could be different with how fast or not they go. Like olegc said it could depend on how busy the parks are. Yet will this end up a mess in the way it has in WDW during Thanksgiving where some folks were saying paying for Genie+ didn't do them any good when things were gone fast...all the while Disney was still allowing sales of it.

I honestly can not the majority of passholders paying for it each time they go. Especially if you are not there all day long. I know we have no plans at this point to use it anytime soon. I'll watch how it works for others there all day though and see how the rides go with it or stay for the day. Most rides here we never had issues with getting FP/MP so will see if this ends up different or not. Especially since you can't use the LL to ride anything a second or third time.

olegc, since you have a trip with others coming up will this end up part of the day for you all? If so will look forward to your take on it. As well as anyone else here that uses it.

So, if you want Genie + and Lightning Lane for the two rides, you can spend another$55 per person for a magical experience? (does Magical = Money grab in Disney corporate vernacular?)

olegc
12-06-2021, 02:50 PM
There are differences though between it in WDW and DL. Photopass is included for it here.

Disney Genie+ service may be purchased in the Disneyland app after you’ve entered the park and have linked your park ticket. After Dec. 8, you may also choose to purchase Disney Genie+ prior to your visit when you purchase a park ticket. You can begin making your Lightning Lane arrival window selections as soon as you enter a theme park!

This right here is different from WDW since you can select your first before the park opens there at 7am and then the clock starts ticking on the time when the park opens before you can get your next LL. Now ILL could be different with how fast or not they go. Like olegc said it could depend on how busy the parks are. Yet will this end up a mess in the way it has in WDW during Thanksgiving where some folks were saying paying for Genie+ didn't do them any good when things were gone fast...all the while Disney was still allowing sales of it.

I honestly can not the majority of passholders paying for it each time they go. Especially if you are not there all day long. I know we have no plans at this point to use it anytime soon. I'll watch how it works for others there all day though and see how the rides go with it or stay for the day. Most rides here we never had issues with getting FP/MP so will see if this ends up different or not. Especially since you can't use the LL to ride anything a second or third time.

olegc, since you have a trip with others coming up will this end up part of the day for you all? If so will look forward to your take on it. As well as anyone else here that uses it.

we have not decided. My friends are all key holders like me and we enjoy hanging out and snacking - so we might not do it. now, if I go with my family who would be ticket holders and dont visit very often - I'd say yes get Genie+ to try and avoid lines. I think there is tremendous potential for the same issues here in Dland - where all the reservations are gone by early afternoon. I think its a by product of Disney trying to limit overuse and trying to manage capacity with all things (genie, food, gate, etc) and they have not learned or discovered the sweet spot yet in any of these. it could take quite a while to figure it out (if at all) - and we know how organized they've been with communications and online event sales over the years. Now we want them to figure out a predictive model? hmmm.

Berry Princess
12-06-2021, 03:04 PM
So, if you want Genie + and Lightning Lane for the two rides, you can spend another$55 per person for a magical experience? (does Magical = Money grab in Disney corporate vernacular?)

So basically here is 20 bucks a person for your LL/Genie+ then hey if you want to ride ROTR, RSR or Webslingers and not do standby you can pay for those extras at whatever the cost is for that day. I noticed in the announcement on the blog it says to check the app for the cost that day for those 3 rides. Yet of course you can only do 2 of those per day. Yep money grab for sure. If it ends up a mess like WDW during extra busy times has so far, then you will be lucky if your $20 spent for Genie+ gets you on more than a ride or 2 that day. This is the part I figured is a wait and see how it goes since things are different here but I can see those ILL$ for ROTR and RSR go fast in the mornings on the busy days.


we have not decided. My friends are all key holders like me and we enjoy hanging out and snacking - so we might not do it. now, if I go with my family who would be ticket holders and dont visit very often - I'd say yes get Genie+ to try and avoid lines. I think there is tremendous potential for the same issues here in Dland - where all the reservations are gone by early afternoon. I think its a by product of Disney trying to limit overuse and trying to manage capacity with all things (genie, food, gate, etc) and they have not learned or discovered the sweet spot yet in any of these. it could take quite a while to figure it out (if at all) - and we know how organized they've been with communications and online event sales over the years. Now we want them to figure out a predictive model? hmmm.

Gotcha. Makes sense for sure. I know I can't see doing it if we aren't there all day long. It makes no sense cost wise.

BTW, if anyone noticed a bunch of days opened up for passes this month. Which now looks like adding capacity to those days in hopes of pushing Genie+ and the ILL those days by making it more crowded than it has been.

Dave1313
12-06-2021, 03:47 PM
I don't know if there are enough different YouTube vloggers out on the West coast (I suspect a whole lot, but I'm not sure I know them specifically vs ones I know that are doing things in FL constantly), but hopefully there are some who will document how Genie works for a "typical" park day.

One WDW vlogging group did that for I think all 4 parks in FL. Unfortunately some of the results were more comical/ridiculous than actually indicating Genie was useful. (this particular experiment I am referring to was for just regular Genie, no Genie + or ILL paid add-ons).

So hopefully there will be enough documentation that people can get a feel for what it may or may not help with without everyone having to trial and error test it on their own trips.

olegc
12-06-2021, 05:10 PM
So, if you want Genie + and Lightning Lane for the two rides, you can spend another$55 per person for a magical experience? (does Magical = Money grab in Disney corporate vernacular?)




.

BTW, if anyone noticed a bunch of days opened up for passes this month. Which now looks like adding capacity to those days in hopes of pushing Genie+ and the ILL those days by making it more crowded than it has been.

Ding ding ding. Winner. Force capacity to be over the top so people are compelled to buy it, then claim to shareholders it's popular. Wow - lying on both ends. Walt would fire everybody...

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

Berry Princess
12-06-2021, 05:43 PM
Ding ding ding. Winner. Force capacity to be over the top so people are compelled to buy it, then claim to shareholders it's popular. Wow - lying on both ends. Walt would fire everybody...

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

Well Chapek made it sound like it was so great that 1/3 of guests in WDW had purchased it when he talked about it not long ago. So I'm sure we will see some spin about how great it is here as well at the next shareholders meeting.

I have to say a few comments I've seen on this news, there are some that thing we are all fine with this new set up because of MP. I guess some maybe don't realize many of us had it included with our passes or paid to add it on to the pass for the year. This we would have to pay for each time we go if we wanted to use it. Which in turn I don't think most are happy about. Mix in the fact that 3 rides are extra on top of Genie+. SMH

currence
12-06-2021, 08:56 PM
Well Chapek made it sound like it was so great that 1/3 of guests in WDW had purchased it when he talked about it not long ago. So I'm sure we will see some spin about how great it is here as well at the next shareholders meeting.

I have to say a few comments I've seen on this news, there are some that thing we are all fine with this new set up because of MP. I guess some maybe don't realize many of us had it included with our passes or paid to add it on to the pass for the year. This we would have to pay for each time we go if we wanted to use it. Which in turn I don't think most are happy about. Mix in the fact that 3 rides are extra on top of Genie+. SMH


I would pay a reasonable amount to add it to my key (I'm not sure what I think "reasonable" is, but that's beside the point). But I'm unlikely to pay per day unless I'm with friends who don't go very often.

I was already thinking that they would increase "capacity" when Genie+ went live, in order to increase the standby wait times, which in turn will push more people to pay for Genie+. It has been pretty nice when the wait times were capping at about 30 minutes or less for the 2nd tier rides.

olegc
12-06-2021, 09:41 PM
I would pay a reasonable amount to add it to my key (I'm not sure what I think "reasonable" is, but that's beside the point). But I'm unlikely to pay per day unless I'm with friends who don't go very often.

I was already thinking that they would increase "capacity" when Genie+ went live, in order to increase the standby wait times, which in turn will push more people to pay for Genie+. It has been pretty nice when the wait times were capping at about 30 minutes or less for the 2nd tier rides.

would you still pay the reasonable price with the new rule that you can only use Genie+ one time on each ride? So if you use it once on Space Mountain you have to do standby the rest of the night. Is it still worth it to add to a pass for $100? $150?

GrumpyGoofyGuy
12-07-2021, 07:34 AM
Isn't there a limit on Genie + reservations for each of the designated rides? I was reading that after a certain number of people who bought the service and used a reservation for lets say Indiana Jones, at some point they say all reservations for Indiana Jones are gone for the day. Is that correct? If so, paying the extra $ might only get you a few reservation for the rides you really want to ride before the reservations are maxed out. Instead of the Genie poking his head out and saying "Made ya look!", he's now saying "Made ya pay!".

currence
12-07-2021, 08:15 AM
would you still pay the reasonable price with the new rule that you can only use Genie+ one time on each ride? So if you use it once on Space Mountain you have to do standby the rest of the night. Is it still worth it to add to a pass for $100? $150?

This doesn't really affect us - we rarely go on the e-ticket rides more than once per trip.


Isn't there a limit on Genie + reservations for each of the designated rides? I was reading that after a certain number of people who bought the service and used a reservation for lets say Indiana Jones, at some point they say all reservations for Indiana Jones are gone for the day. Is that correct? If so, paying the extra $ might only get you a few reservation for the rides you really want to ride before the reservations are maxed out. Instead of the Genie poking his head out and saying "Made ya look!", he's now saying "Made ya pay!".

That's basically the way that Fastpass/Maxpass has always worked. They start offering return times after park opening, and push back the time available until the ride is out of return times for the day. It was pretty common that if we came to the park after work, Space Mountain would be gone. So if someone thinks that they can buy Genie+ at 5pm and still get to go on all of the rides, they will be disappointed. You can get a new return time once you go on the ride, or 2 hours has passed. So if the park is open from 8am to 9pm, on a day that has ever return time 2+ hours away, then they could only go on 6-7 Genie+ rides that day. But if the same person was picking rides with a return time 1/2 hour into the future, and immediately getting the next ride, then the total quantity of rides would dramatically increase, even if the quality of those rides didn't. But that's not really any different from anyone else who paid $200 to get into the park and then has to decide if they want to go on Rise of the Resistance or 4-6 other rides with shorter waits.

GrumpyGoofyGuy
12-07-2021, 08:40 AM
Except "FastPass" was included for everyone who purchased any form of ticket or AP at no additional cost.

jrsharp21
12-07-2021, 09:12 AM
Isn't there a limit on Genie + reservations for each of the designated rides? I was reading that after a certain number of people who bought the service and used a reservation for lets say Indiana Jones, at some point they say all reservations for Indiana Jones are gone for the day. Is that correct? If so, paying the extra $ might only get you a few reservation for the rides you really want to ride before the reservations are maxed out. Instead of the Genie poking his head out and saying "Made ya look!", he's now saying "Made ya pay!".

Correct. And that is the problem happening at WDW right now while it is crowded and after they closed the loophole that existed in the system for the first couple of weeks. People are booking their first reservation at 7am. Then say the park opens at 9am, they are booking their second reservation at that time. If you are not able to make another reservation until 11am, there is pretty much nothing available. There are not enough rides to support the solution with the volume of people buying it. So some people are getting only 2 rides out of Genie+. It's almost a damned if you do, damned if you don't. If it's not crowded, you may not need it. But if it is crowded and you pay for it, you are only getting a couple of rides out of it.

In my opinion, when this was first announced out at WDW, people were complaining about how they were not going to buy it. But then they started seeing others buy it and it was putting them on a different playing field for getting on rides. So of course, human nature kicks in and more people start buying it so they are not left out and able to be on the same level as those who do have it. But now there are so many people buying it, there are not enough rides and slots available to keep up with the demand.

olegc
12-07-2021, 09:56 AM
Correct. And that is the problem happening at WDW right now while it is crowded and after they closed the loophole that existed in the system for the first couple of weeks. People are booking their first reservation at 7am. Then say the park opens at 9am, they are booking their second reservation at that time. If you are not able to make another reservation until 11am, there is pretty much nothing available. There are not enough rides to support the solution with the volume of people buying it. So some people are getting only 2 rides out of Genie+. It's almost a damned if you do, damned if you don't. If it's not crowded, you may not need it. But if it is crowded and you pay for it, you are only getting a couple of rides out of it.

In my opinion, when this was first announced out at WDW, people were complaining about how they were not going to buy it. But then they started seeing others buy it and it was putting them on a different playing field for getting on rides. So of course, human nature kicks in and more people start buying it so they are not left out and able to be on the same level as those who do have it. But now there are so many people buying it, there are not enough rides and slots available to keep up with the demand.

this is interesting - because when MaxPass was around you paid for it - but the only benefit was to be able to use your phone (and get pic downloads). A lesser known benefit were if you could pick up a cancellation of a maxpass slot that paper fastpass folks would not know about. However, paper fastpass still existed. When I bought MaxPass I was able to book rides through at least 5pm on busy days. Mind you the most popular rides were all gone sure but others existed still in inventory.

As you said I wouldnt come to disneyland at 5pm and buy Genie+ expecting availability - but I think whats goin on at WDW is that Disney is playing with the buckets of riders to determine best possible mix - but it also seems like they did with Genie+ what they are doing with MKeys - hyping, then folks buy, then discover its not all that. One can hope they at some point will find the sweet spot for decent availability in Genie+ for some rides. As it stands now though, with the company's focus the way it is, its revenue at all costs (even guest experience). cause, you know, Shareholders are happy = board of directors are happy = CEO keeps his job.

Pammer
12-07-2021, 10:05 AM
I was a big fan of MaxPass, because I could book & manage FastPass return times within the app, rather than having to go back & forth to individual attractions to grab & later redeem a ticket (much less stress on my body!)...the price was reasonable and we could add it our AP for one price, rather than on an individual day's basis.

The price per day is comparable, and I like the PhotoPass benefit; however, the biggest negative for me is that I can only use it for ONE attraction per day!!! Hubby LOVES Buzz, and I could usually send him multiple times on it later in the day with usually less than a 30min wait for the next time because the app still had return times for it, whereas the more popular rides were either gone or hours in the future.

I guess I need to think more about it...

GrumpyGoofyGuy
12-07-2021, 10:15 AM
We had the MaxPass add-on for our AP's the last few years as well. Like Pammer said, it was a great convenience not to have all the footwork back and forth getting paper Fastpasses. Plus, we usually had 4 trips a year @ 3 or so days per trip, so at $80-100 for the add-on the cost per day was less than $10.

newhdplayer
12-07-2021, 10:45 AM
We had the MaxPass add-on for our AP's the last few years as well. Like Pammer said, it was a great convenience not to have all the footwork back and forth getting paper Fastpasses. Plus, we usually had 4 trips a year @ 3 or so days per trip, so at $80-100 for the add-on the cost per day was less than $10.

Same here - a tool that worked for us with our AP's (since 1990) certainly worth the $75 spread out over multiple/multiple visits. However, now to duplicate this type of access will be an added cost for every visit, not to mention having to get lucky with your reservation(s), otherwise no DLR for you at the last minute....just another reason to sit this out for a few years....

Boy, I sound like a cranky old man.....

GrumpyGoofyGuy
12-07-2021, 11:00 AM
Boy, I sound like a cranky old man.....

Join the club! LOL!!