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Thread: Disneyland Genie and Genie+ experiences and tips

  1. #76

    Well have to say Disney has ruined the magic that is visiting the Parks especially now with Genie+, got in line for Matterhorn with a Standby of 50 minutes, however line was barely moving and by the time we got to the Main covered area it had been 90 minutes, checked the wait time still said 50 and we noticed the CM at the standby line was only letting 5-6 people in while the genie + had a steady stream of 30+ people going in for 5-10 minutes. Then another stream of 30-40 in Genie plus, we stayed in place for almost 20 minutes before we moved forward, by this time it had been over 2 hours and CM seemed to only be focused upon the Genie + line. Later in the day at Splash Mtn it was worse, wait said 45 minutes, it took us almost 3 hours, kept seeing Plaid CM letting 10-15 people with them into the Genie+ line. Disney truly needs to LIMIT Genie + much more, while talking with others in the SB line we got the impression there are now multiple classes of 'customers' according to Disney the low caste scumbags that refuse to buy Genie plus and can 'eat cake' and wait however long CM's decide to make us wait, then there are the 'good customers' who use Genie+, who get great service and are 'allowed' to ride much quicker than the scumbags, finally are the 'tours' who because they spend mucho$ get ahead of everyone else..No wonder there are increased 'fights'. Disney has taken what used to be 'everyone is in this together' long lines, except for a 'few' fast passes and created tiers of customers. As life long Disneylanders had been going since 1956 and my son since 1994. Before Covid we had been annual AP's travelling 9 hours 2-3 times a year to enjoy Disneyland, we have sadly decided to spend our money and time elsewhere for now until and unless Disney seriously limits Genie+ or brings back FP with limits...Doubt it though as $ is Disney's focus, no longer concerned with customer Service unless you make it worth their while.


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  3. #77
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    Correct on all observations. Since Genie+ is paid they get priority. Always. when FP and MaxPass were around - the only difference was the $10 convenience fee of using your phone (so as not to runaround for FP tickets). Essentially MaxPass and FP spots were equal. Not anymore. I know some CMs do better at mixing the lines but my guess is the policy internally is Genie+ always gets priority. The kicker for me is how long the LL line is for Space Mountain. Huge...

    Of course - if everyone buys Genie+ then they'll come up with something else. Though they dont know what. This is whats going on at WDW I understand. So many people buy Genie+ that now the published recommendation by Disney is 2 or 3 rides in a day on Genie+. Really? wow... and folks are buying it. Why? cause they believe the hype about not waiting in line. Though it makes the rest of us deal with crap.

    I wonder when the next lawsuit comes for consumer fraud that says Disney is intentionally understating the wait times. The story for most on twitter is they are overstating in order to get more people to buy Genie+. I think its opposite. They have taught the masses to buy Genie+ but now want standby to stay put by limiting the wait time posted. Since its still governed by people you can't pinpoint exact issues - but I see it in the parks. Then again - a posted wait for Jungle Cruise for me last week was 40 min - and it ended up being 15. Go figure.

    "[Disneyland] has that thing - the imagination, and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid." - Walt Disney

  4. #78
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    Yep it used to be a nice flow between the FP/MP and standby lines. There are some out there telling people how to game the Genie+ system here to get the Experience Pass and then those seem to be where it gives an option to use at rides that don't use Genie+ at times. One person bragged about getting something like 6 of those in one day. SMH This is a loophole that IMO Yet we had the same experience with waits before Christmas. HM was 45 mins so got in line. It was moving for a bit then all of a sudden got slammed with Genie+ folks that had been watching the parade and were late. What happened to if you missed your time you lost out? That is another thing that needs to be dealt with if it hasn't yet. You show up late to bad. Yet because of this kind of stuff that wait jumped to almost 2 hours of a wait for us. When we got closer to the merge point between the lines, we watched as they let one standby group go then waved through lots of Genie+ people. My husband made a snide remark on it too. Yet we had done Small World earlier and the CM at the merge was doing it like one would have with FP/MP so things moved more. The CM at Small World I am betting probably worked there before COVID while the one at HM (along with many others) seemed to be newer and not at all like the CMs of the past. All chatting with each other, no HM personality going with the ride at all. Instead it seemed like none of them wanted to be there. It was crazy.

    I read the other day another one of those saying the Space Mtn line for LL was like 40 mins. I can't imagine being to happy to have paid for Genie+ to end up waiting like that either. The wait times are so all over the place in the parks. I think for most of us its easy to eyeball it and know if its shorter or longer than posted but Disney used to be better at this. I am honestly surprised that there wasn't a lawsuit yet on Genie+ (more so from a WDW person). Its crazy that they had to add that little tidbit in WDW on how you may get 2-3 rides from it. While here you have more chances to do as many of those rides as you can get times for since most won't sell out early. Yet I am seeing more and more people at this point unhappy on both coasts for different reasons with this. It is a good way to wind up with many not returning anytime soon. My friend was asking about us doing a weekend later this year or sometime in Spring next year. She hasn't been in many years now. So it will NOT be fun trying to explain all this stuff to her and having the need for reservations when she buys tickets.

    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  5. #79

    I would imagine Disney cast members in the "position of authority" at the merge of the Standby and LL lines have been instructed to make decisions in favor of the LL folks if such an event happens. If a guest wants to complain about Standby wait times then the Disney answer would be "buy Genie+" while a complaint about an unreasonable time for LL could be answered by "well, the Standby line is 1hr or more" so any wait of up to 20 mins in LL could probably be seen as getting one's moneys worth.


  6. #80
    Fun is wherever you find it... olegc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CDF View Post
    I would imagine Disney cast members in the "position of authority" at the merge of the Standby and LL lines have been instructed to make decisions in favor of the LL folks if such an event happens. If a guest wants to complain about Standby wait times then the Disney answer would be "buy Genie+" while a complaint about an unreasonable time for LL could be answered by "well, the Standby line is 1hr or more" so any wait of up to 20 mins in LL could probably be seen as getting one's moneys worth.
    true.. but now you've entered the same territory as the Magic Key Lawsuit. Advertising something as a way to not wait in line - even if by implication - for a fee. The joke is since allegedly no limits exist on selling Genie+ then if everyone buys it there is no benefit. So the parks will dream up a super-duper level where its a third line. There is no end when you focus on the dollar instead of general guest satisfaction (like Walt did).
    "[Disneyland] has that thing - the imagination, and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid." - Walt Disney

  7. #81
    Quote Originally Posted by olegc View Post
    true.. but now you've entered the same territory as the Magic Key Lawsuit. Advertising something as a way to not wait in line - even if by implication - for a fee. The joke is since allegedly no limits exist on selling Genie+ then if everyone buys it there is no benefit. So the parks will dream up a super-duper level where its a third line. There is no end when you focus on the dollar instead of general guest satisfaction (like Walt did).
    We were in the Lightning Lane for Space Mountain and it was so long that they had switchbacks up on the roof - it moved fairly quickly and I'm sure was 1000% better than the stand-by lane, but the person in line behind us asked us if she had accidentally gone the wrong way. Especially for Space Mountain, when if you don't pay attention to the regular line you don't know how much better your waiting area is. Our friends spent the money on Genie+ so I got to play with it for a bit. Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed (at least not when compared to Fastpass/Fastpass+). I do miss Fastpass+ being included/available for an annual price with my AP. Maybe the next generation of "not an AP" will include Genie+ as an upsell (although probably not if they are having line issues without Keyholders being included for "free."

  8. #82
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    Quote Originally Posted by currence View Post
    We were in the Lightning Lane for Space Mountain and it was so long that they had switchbacks up on the roof - it moved fairly quickly and I'm sure was 1000% better than the stand-by lane, but the person in line behind us asked us if she had accidentally gone the wrong way. Especially for Space Mountain, when if you don't pay attention to the regular line you don't know how much better your waiting area is. Our friends spent the money on Genie+ so I got to play with it for a bit. Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed (at least not when compared to Fastpass/Fastpass+). I do miss Fastpass+ being included/available for an annual price with my AP. Maybe the next generation of "not an AP" will include Genie+ as an upsell (although probably not if they are having line issues without Keyholders being included for "free."
    I really do not get why Disney bothered messing with what we had before. It worked. Even on a packed day it worked. The only time it was bad was when rides went down and things got backed up from those rushing to it when they reopened. Looking at Indy and Star Tours on that one. Some reason things are so messed up and I don't get it. Its not just this but a few other areas at times too. They could have just changed it all to Maxpass and left well enough alone with how it worked. I don't know why its so messed up compared to when we had free FP and paid MP together but someone with some smarts needs to go back to the drawing board and see what is not working then fix it. I don't care if they add it to the Keys even but just that it gets fixed so things flow smoothly for all like it once did.
    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  9. #83
    Fun is wherever you find it... olegc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Berry Princess View Post
    I really do not get why Disney bothered messing with what we had before. It worked. Even on a packed day it worked. The only time it was bad was when rides went down and things got backed up from those rushing to it when they reopened. Looking at Indy and Star Tours on that one. Some reason things are so messed up and I don't get it. Its not just this but a few other areas at times too. They could have just changed it all to Maxpass and left well enough alone with how it worked. I don't know why its so messed up compared to when we had free FP and paid MP together but someone with some smarts needs to go back to the drawing board and see what is not working then fix it. I don't care if they add it to the Keys even but just that it gets fixed so things flow smoothly for all like it once did.
    well - fastpass was free. Maxpass was an extra fee. Disney most probably wanted to monetize ALL users of the service. This could have been a WDW leadership decision as well. Either way - they didn't want to offer a free service any longer to anyone. Upsell on every little thing. I also think one of the issues addressed in the discussion above is the mix of standby and LL. Right now most often LL wins and standby waits forever. That's bad show and I cant think Disneyland leadership doesn't know it (ooh double negative). This has been one of the most confounding things - that it seems so obvious from an operational perspective - and the line at City Hall is no joke - that many of the new practices in the parks are not overall guest friendly. Yet - they're still implemented with a smile and a wave (front line CMs are not the issue here - they're just following orders).

    Seriously - the only way things change is if their target audience - regular paying guests - stop coming. That may not be noticeable for a couple of years. Folks are still travelling a lot. I'm curious how this summer will be given the reports by travel advisors that pent up demand will explode this summer. I'm still on the fence for buying this for my family on 7/24 when we all go. TouringPlans says its only a 5 as far as crowds but I don't know whether their model considers the new way LL is operated. We are for sure getting ROTR LL but how much do I want to spend?
    "[Disneyland] has that thing - the imagination, and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid." - Walt Disney

  10. #84
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    See this is the thing, they could have dropped the free and just left things as is with MaxPass. There was no need to change anything else. It worked and things flowed. Now they are winding up where standby is screwed and in some cases those that paid for Genie+ aren't exactly getting there as quick as they thought they would. Its not like there is more people in the parks then before COVID so why doesn't it flow better? And in some cases this goes for both standby and LL. You are right that City Hall seems to have a line out the door and it seems to be more often than it used to be.

    BTW, you should know by now to NEVER go by what any of those sites like Touring Plans give for crowds. They are always so far off. With the date in summer I'd just go in expecting it to look like it has been with people...packed with the odd breaks in not many on the walkways because they are all stuck in lines some place. LOL As for buying Genie+ for family, well it might be best to get it but you can always see how it is that morning with getting stuff done as well. Then go from there in deciding. Book ROTR first though before anything else when you get in the park and don't be surprised if the time you get after booking it is different from what you saw. That changing on times IMO is still a cruddy thing. Olegc, you will figure it out though in which way is best.

    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  11. #85

    I’ll be in the parks tomorrow. My mother in law insisted on taking the kids (two teenagers and an 11yo). She requires a ECV and a lot of help in general, so here we are … I’m accompanying them into the park tomorrow, starting in Disneyland. My first visit since Dec. 2019.

    I’m keeping a positive outlook for the sake of the kids but I must confess to you all I’m not looking forward to this. All the changes that have occurred since our AP days are ones I’ve been avoiding by intentionally NOT going to the parks. Tomorrow I’ll have to confront them and my best case scenario is they’re not quite as bad as portrayed in the media and on fan forums. My expectations are low - the key to managing outcomes.

    We’ll be getting genie plus upon entrance but not the a La carte ROTR thing and my daughter has this notion we’re going to head straight back to ROTR and wait standby at 8am. I have my doubts about that plan. Me personally I’m not spending more than an hour in that standby since I rode ROTR already in Florida January 2020 and I could take it or leave it.

    Anyhow. Wish me luck with the day in general.

    Your attention, please. The Disneyland Limited now leaving for a grand circle tour of the Magic Kingdom. Aboaaard!

  12. #86
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    MidwayManiac, good luck. I will say that I have noticed a more of an improvement in the CM area at this point compared to the end of last year and beginning of this year. Using Genie+ will help you all out where you need it for sure. I hope that by the end of the day you will be glad you ended up going with. So put a pair of ears on and have a good time! LOL Let us know how it goes.

    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  13. #87
    Fun is wherever you find it... olegc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MidwayManiac View Post
    I’ll be in the parks tomorrow. My mother in law insisted on taking the kids (two teenagers and an 11yo). She requires a ECV and a lot of help in general, so here we are … I’m accompanying them into the park tomorrow, starting in Disneyland. My first visit since Dec. 2019.

    I’m keeping a positive outlook for the sake of the kids but I must confess to you all I’m not looking forward to this. All the changes that have occurred since our AP days are ones I’ve been avoiding by intentionally NOT going to the parks. Tomorrow I’ll have to confront them and my best case scenario is they’re not quite as bad as portrayed in the media and on fan forums. My expectations are low - the key to managing outcomes.

    We’ll be getting genie plus upon entrance but not the a La carte ROTR thing and my daughter has this notion we’re going to head straight back to ROTR and wait standby at 8am. I have my doubts about that plan. Me personally I’m not spending more than an hour in that standby since I rode ROTR already in Florida January 2020 and I could take it or leave it.

    Anyhow. Wish me luck with the day in general.
    Good luck tomorrow. It does seem to be lighter in crowds for some reason this weekend. Still busy but not full. And waits tend to be around 60 min peak time. If you did not know - ROTR has shorter times later in the day unless there is a breakdown midday. Then its a toss up.
    "[Disneyland] has that thing - the imagination, and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid." - Walt Disney

  14. #88
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    I just was in the park this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Park was crowded, but not nightmarish. I used Genie + all days for the first time (I was a huge user of Fast Pass). I was a little scared about it after reading stories on the internet (Disney oversells the Genie + and causes huge lines for the lighting lanes; makes the standby lines huge). However, I found that it worked just like Fast Pass did. Never waited too long in the lighting lane, and it did not seem to affect the standby lines any worse than Fast Pass. It was also so nice to get a pass without having to go to the ride. I love the fact I could get a pass at my hotel around 5:00 pm when we went back to relax for a few hours for Space at 9:30 return (never could do that with the old Fast Pass, since by the time we got back to the park all of the Fast Passes were gone for the day). Maybe there were problems with it in the beginning, but it seems that Disney has worked out the problems.

    On a side note: Friday was a Grad Night so I was very worried about this (again a lot of bad things on the internet). All three days had the same crowd levels, so it did not impact that. In terms of groups of teenagers, only noticed a handful of groups between 3 and 5 kids, and all were very well behaved and very polite.


  15. #89
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    Quote Originally Posted by jmorgan View Post
    I just was in the park this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Park was crowded, but not nightmarish. I used Genie + all days for the first time (I was a huge user of Fast Pass). I was a little scared about it after reading stories on the internet (Disney oversells the Genie + and causes huge lines for the lighting lanes; makes the standby lines huge). However, I found that it worked just like Fast Pass did. Never waited too long in the lighting lane, and it did not seem to affect the standby lines any worse than Fast Pass. It was also so nice to get a pass without having to go to the ride. I love the fact I could get a pass at my hotel around 5:00 pm when we went back to relax for a few hours for Space at 9:30 return (never could do that with the old Fast Pass, since by the time we got back to the park all of the Fast Passes were gone for the day). Maybe there were problems with it in the beginning, but it seems that Disney has worked out the problems.
    Actually you could do this with MaxPass since it was basically what Genie+ is but with FP/MP you were able to do repeats of rides. I think depending on who is working the merge points and which rides it is that it does still effect standby with Genie+. I know Space Mtn has had issues at times. I had just read recently that supposedly the standby line for RSR that was 2 hours was shutdown for the ILL line because it was getting to backed up. If that was the case then YIKES!

    I think most of what you are saying you have read on the overselling and huge waits for LL comes out more from WDW than it really does here. I think for here it helps that you have to enter the park to buy it at all. While there you can at midnight and then grab your first ride at 7am. Same for ILLs, here you have to be scanned in the parks to purchase and there on property gets first dips so off can wind up not able to at all.

    BTW, with Grad Nights, I think a lot of that and effects on crowds and such always has to do with what schools decide to do all day or just Grad Nights now. This was the first year in a very long time that all but 1 high school decided on doing them again at Disneyland. Let me say the one that did NOT do it, that was for the best after hearing what happened during their prom and some behaviors of the students at the school after it. I know at least one was doing their's last Friday and was all day and another was just the Grad Night part. I will say in the past a couple times we went with some of them mixed in that the few groups of high school kids weren't the problems. It was the middle schoolers on their end of year trips that behaved badly. I didn't notice many of those groups this year though in the parks so maybe we got lucky or just less schools doing them.

    Anyway, glad it all worked well for you during your trip and that you had fun!
    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  16. #90
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    Toy Story is our best example of the bad mix of standby vs the Genie line. Most of us are familiar with what should look like a 45 minute line for it. Back in the day that meant most of the inside chains full, with no one outside the planters. Now a posted standby time of 45 minutes is only the inside room before you grab glasses. It does not include anyone in the chain area. This was the same when they decided to add fast pass to this line as well though. They let one standby party in after letting like 40 people in from the genie line. Which also has switch backs in the chains because it is one of the ones that backs up at times.

    Indy is one of the better ones about merging.


  17. #91
    Quote Originally Posted by candles71 View Post
    Toy Story is our best example of the bad mix of standby vs the Genie line. Most of us are familiar with what should look like a 45 minute line for it. Back in the day that meant most of the inside chains full, with no one outside the planters. Now a posted standby time of 45 minutes is only the inside room before you grab glasses. It does not include anyone in the chain area. This was the same when they decided to add fast pass to this line as well though. They let one standby party in after letting like 40 people in from the genie line. Which also has switch backs in the chains because it is one of the ones that backs up at times.

    Indy is one of the better ones about merging.
    I think what a lot of people don't take into account, is that the ride capacity doesn't change just because Fastpass/Maxpass/Genie+ is being used. A ride that can process 1000 guest per hour, will still be able to get through that many guests whether it's 100% standby or 100% virtual. So, like Candles' example with Toy Story, we all know how long a standby only line should be just by looking at it, but when they change the ratios to 80% Genie+/20% standby, then the length of time is going to dramatically increase, even though there are fewer people in front of you.

    I guess I just don't understand WHY they changed the ratios for Genie+ so dramatically? In CA at least, people were paying for MaxPass, and people with MaxPass didn't riot when all the good rides were taken by 5/6pm. I kinda get why they put the limit of one ride per person, presumably to reduce the # of people in virtual queue for any given ride. But it seems like they could have done that without so dramatically increasing the ratios - it just would mean that people with Genie+ would not get to go on as many rides/would need to stay until park closing to go on rides.

    If Indie is still reasonable about merging, it's probably only because they don't have space for that line to develop massive queues, so they dialed back their standby/Genie+ ratio. My guess is that if Jungle Cruise was still down and they could use the area for overflow waiting like they did shortly after the park reopened, then its ratios would be just as bad as most the other big rides.

    This is 100% in Disney's control since they direct the available return times for the virtual queues.

  18. #92
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    I just had a call not long ago today from Disneyland Resort guest services because of my emails. Basically the CM I spoke to even knew that the way Genie+ is working with standby is not great. The CM said that the best thing to do is for the guests to keep saying stuff and give the feedback because they do forward it on. Which the CM even knows that its up to those in that area to decide to tweak it or not but obviously there is a known problem. This CM mentioned RSR as being known for this issues and I had let her know for us the worse so far was HM. We haven't even attempted RSR in standby I am thinking there is no way I would either knowing this one is a mess. Like currence pointed out we had MaxPass here before this so we already had a pay option if it wasn't part of our passes. No one had an issue with it. Things flowed smoothly between the lines though and pay or not there is not a single reason the lines shouldn't be flowing still like before. Everyone has paid to get in the parks and just because some decide to pay extra for Genie+ shouldn't put them over standby in the way it does for so many rides. Something needs to change though with this because its just such a cluster for many rides.

    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  19. #93
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    When it is just Whistler and I we use the single rider line for racers. Which leaves you standing at the merge area for a bit and able to watch. It was just as bad, one party from standby every 20 or 30 people. WebSlingers in.....January I think, may have been December. Whistler and I were the next group at the door. They had taken the 3 in front of us into the group to enter the pre-show room. They then filled that room again with no one from the standby. Then the second fill, Whistler and I and the 2 people behind us were put into that group. We single ridered this one earluer this month and smugglers run as well.


  20. #94
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    Quote Originally Posted by candles71 View Post
    When it is just Whistler and I we use the single rider line for racers. Which leaves you standing at the merge area for a bit and able to watch. It was just as bad, one party from standby every 20 or 30 people. WebSlingers in.....January I think, may have been December. Whistler and I were the next group at the door. They had taken the 3 in front of us into the group to enter the pre-show room. They then filled that room again with no one from the standby. Then the second fill, Whistler and I and the 2 people behind us were put into that group. We single ridered this one earluer this month and smugglers run as well.
    What a major cluster for those in standby. There really is no excuse for this either.
    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  21. #95

    Oleg and Berry Princess thanks for the well wishes. It was a fantastic day in the parks for us Monday. That said, the success of the day hinged mostly on having Genie+ and LL access and it’s unfortunate that that’s the make or break factor not just for my but probably a lot of other families, both who do and do not purchase Genie+.
    It was striking to me the masses of people using LL … when it was a more affordable option - 15 per visit or 50 to 100 for an AP - it was was popular but not as much so as now. It has me thinking Disney has done an effective job of marketing genie+ and manufacturing FOMO in its guests. Two thoughts - both about sustainability - kept occurring to me.

    1) how does Disney sustain the novelty of Genie+? That is, when a critical mass of people purchase it and Disney struggles to deliver on LL’s effectiveness and in so trying, alienate the standby crowd even more … how does it continue to be a viable option that enhances the guest experience? If everyone is getting it, it’s no longer special. All the while standby guests become more and more vocal about their ever increasing unpleasant experience.
    2) how do I sustain this at $20 per person per visit for a family of 5? On average, we’d make 30-40 trips a year on an annual pass. What used to cost an added $100 per person for the year for Maxpass would now cost $4,000 annually if each person in my family got Genie+ each of 40 trips to the park. (Unless there is an annual MK genie+ option for the year I’m unaware of).
    The answer is it’s unsustainable. Since we’re going to get in only 3 or 4 trips each this year, it’s a price I am willing to pay to upgrade to Genie+ these trips. But if/when we purchase Magic Keys sacrifices will have to be made and Genie+ will be first among them. Disney has to know this. Further proof - to me - Disney is bound and determined to make DL a destination vacation spot a la Orlando and less of a locals based park.

    I may have some other thoughts about all this later. In summary Genie+ worked out and is effective in a pinch but at too high a price both monetarily and experientially (for the folks who go without it).

    Your attention, please. The Disneyland Limited now leaving for a grand circle tour of the Magic Kingdom. Aboaaard!

  22. #96
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    Quote Originally Posted by Berry Princess View Post
    I had just read recently that supposedly the standby line for RSR that was 2 hours was shutdown for the ILL line because it was getting to backed up. If that was the case then YIKES!
    What I read was that the standby wait was already 2 hours. Then the ride broke down. When it came back up the ILL line was so long they discontinued Standby. So regular paying guests could not get on to the ride. Wow... thats bad show.
    "[Disneyland] has that thing - the imagination, and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid." - Walt Disney

  23. #97
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    MidwayManiac, glad you had a good time. I will say that even the CM I spoke to sort of made mention as well about how some can't really afford to spend the extra on Genie+. Its true. There is no way we could do it each time we go. That would end up cutting into the cost of what we spend on other things like a meal or treats we bring home or merch even. I have seen so many people that say they will just cut how long their trips are so they can afford to pay for it each day there instead. Or they will cut out spending extra in the parks in other ways. Really if Disney wants to look at things in dollars and cents, all those people in long standbys are not out some place else in the park where they might have spent some money instead during that time. As well as the ones that get upset about the long wait probably don't feel like giving Disney more money than they had.

    I think that no matter what Disney tries to do with changing Disneyland to be like WDW that it will always backfire on them. Its not the first time its happened or even the 2nd time. I'm sure someone in the future as well might try it also but it just does not work in that manner. Disney needs to learn to embrace the differences instead.

    A crowded day at Disneyland beats a busy day of housework!!

    According to my princess, its not Star Wars land its "You stole my goats away from me!!......in progress land"

  24. #98
    Fun is wherever you find it... olegc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MidwayManiac View Post
    Oleg and Berry Princess thanks for the well wishes. It was a fantastic day in the parks for us Monday. That said, the success of the day hinged mostly on having Genie+ and LL access and it’s unfortunate that that’s the make or break factor not just for my but probably a lot of other families, both who do and do not purchase Genie+.
    It was striking to me the masses of people using LL … when it was a more affordable option - 15 per visit or 50 to 100 for an AP - it was was popular but not as much so as now. It has me thinking Disney has done an effective job of marketing genie+ and manufacturing FOMO in its guests. Two thoughts - both about sustainability - kept occurring to me.

    1) how does Disney sustain the novelty of Genie+? That is, when a critical mass of people purchase it and Disney struggles to deliver on LL’s effectiveness and in so trying, alienate the standby crowd even more … how does it continue to be a viable option that enhances the guest experience? If everyone is getting it, it’s no longer special. All the while standby guests become more and more vocal about their ever increasing unpleasant experience.
    2) how do I sustain this at $20 per person per visit for a family of 5? On average, we’d make 30-40 trips a year on an annual pass. What used to cost an added $100 per person for the year for Maxpass would now cost $4,000 annually if each person in my family got Genie+ each of 40 trips to the park. (Unless there is an annual MK genie+ option for the year I’m unaware of).
    The answer is it’s unsustainable. Since we’re going to get in only 3 or 4 trips each this year, it’s a price I am willing to pay to upgrade to Genie+ these trips. But if/when we purchase Magic Keys sacrifices will have to be made and Genie+ will be first among them. Disney has to know this. Further proof - to me - Disney is bound and determined to make DL a destination vacation spot a la Orlando and less of a locals based park.

    I may have some other thoughts about all this later. In summary Genie+ worked out and is effective in a pinch but at too high a price both monetarily and experientially (for the folks who go without it).
    /RANTMODE ON

    great points all. I noted in a video from FreshBaked today that Buzz and Monsters Inc were both 60 min waits - but the walkways in the parks were very open. Thats the problem with Genie+. Let me give you commentary for one by one of your questions.
    1) yeah that will be an issue when lets say every guest buys LL - then what? THe park just made it a price increase... How do you do the novelty? add ANOTHER category. Super LL, or Faster LL - where you pay EVEN MORE to get in front of people that already paid to get in line in front of Standby. Because its not a free service for most Genie+ breaks the model by having CMs push all LL guests through no matter what - instead of mixing them in similar to the old FP. The only way THAT changes is if folks stop buying LL. However, Americans love to get "a deal" or "one over" on someone else and not be a sucker. So they buy it.
    2) To me LL is defintiley not targeted for passholders. Its strictly for the once a year - or once every few years paying guest. The passholders of today are the base of revenue for the parks that sustain some sort of budget. Its not expected for us to buy LL each time. I know that Disney mgmt has tried so often to make Disneyland a vacation spot - but without a third gate and more affordable hotel options (and distance to the nearest highway) it will never happen.

    Even WDW is struggling with Genie+ and LL - telling guests they may get 2 or 3 max LL per day. Thats crazy. So the only way that changes in these modern times is people stop going - or at least they stop paying for LL and complain to high heaven and mgmt about it . And right now I wouldnt send anything through City Hall. Not that the CMs dont forward the messages - its that somewhere in the chain the volume will most likely get cut. Dont want to look bad to the shareholders. The up-charge and high-end focus that the parks have really has permeated into all they do (have you experienced surveys for the private tours or special suites yet? how about the 100K 12 parks trip?) - and all of corporate is to blame - Chapek, D'Amaro, the board, you name it. Pressure to show that Chapek can make the company successful (financially) in the short term will really hurt them in the long run. Can't wait for Universal's third gate to hit Florida and see how Disney may respond without huge investments. .

    I will fully admit right now that next month I have my kids flying in to town to celebrate my 60th. We're all going to the parks and yes I will be paying for LL and ILL for ROTR. I want to make sure we maximize our time since they all dont go very often. So I'll be adding to the problem. Sorry everyone.

    /RANTMODE off
    "[Disneyland] has that thing - the imagination, and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid." - Walt Disney

  25. #99
    At home in the hills candles71's Avatar
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    While we were standing in the Racers single rider line and watching the merge, Whistler looked up amd found an article that said estimates are 93% of visitors are buying genie. Which shows they are not limiting return times at all. I had someone ask how this is different from everyone using free fastpass. They couldn't seem to grasp that FP had a finite number given out per hour, per day and now there doesn't seem to be.
    We went to WDW in November, Genie and ILL were new. Whistler and M&G started counting how many were coming through the LL. In the hour or so they were counting 150 came through at $10 each. So we can see why this is a good revenue stream, but I agree with MM, this is not sustainable long term.


  26. #100
    Fun is wherever you find it... olegc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by candles71 View Post
    While we were standing in the Racers single rider line and watching the merge, Whistler looked up amd found an article that said estimates are 93% of visitors are buying genie. Which shows they are not limiting return times at all. I had someone ask how this is different from everyone using free fastpass. They couldn't seem to grasp that FP had a finite number given out per hour, per day and now there doesn't seem to be.
    We went to WDW in November, Genie and ILL were new. Whistler and M&G started counting how many were coming through the LL. In the hour or so they were counting 150 came through at $10 each. So we can see why this is a good revenue stream, but I agree with MM, this is not sustainable long term.
    I agree - but to me again the only way this changes is if there is a significant slowdown in purchases (less likely to happen) or some bad press about how this system skews the guest experience mix (more likely to happen). Sustainability is a factor of pressure, not necessarily in-park guest satisfaction. The bean counters even at TDA dont go out and look how long the line may be at City Hall.
    "[Disneyland] has that thing - the imagination, and the feeling of happy excitement - I knew when I was a kid." - Walt Disney

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