Disney Genie announcement

[Grumpy by Birth]

There are likely to be 4 big groups of people
1 - Rope Droppers who want as much standby as possible because their G+ and ILLs are later in the day.
2- Later arrivers who sleep in a bit and see no need to rush to Splash Mountain standby when they can G+ for the same (or lower) wait
3 - Phone zombies who look like they're from Walking Dead trying to accumulate every single G+ they can regardless of how much time it saves them in the end
4 - Those asking for the best way to get to MGM to ride the new Velocicoaster ride

Everyone knows it's at Animal Kingdom, silly.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Say your 2nd park is Epcot, when you select it at 7am to look for times you should only see what's available then not whats available after 2.

If you're willing to basically sacrifice a morning of a service you paid for so you can maximize it in the afternoon seeing the time windows you want to use it for makes sense.

 

[Jrb1979]

If you're willing to basically sacrifice a morning of a service you paid for so you can maximize it in the afternoon seeing the time windows you want to use it for makes sense.

You might as go back to FP+ and give people a choice of times. That's what picking your 2nd park times first is basically doing.

It should be a rolling availability for everyone. IMO you shouldn't see afternoon times available at 7 am just cause you want to go to that park later.

 

[monkeybug]

Just wanting to make sure I'm understanding correctly. If I have reservations at MK and am staying at a resort I can book 7DMT (for the morning) and ROTR (for the afternoon) at 7:00 am, rope drop MK and ride things like Space, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan using standby while also scheduling LLs for after 2pm at Hollywood Studios? This sounds like a huge improvement over the last system for my family.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

Rope drop has always been successful because most people don't do it....G+ and ILL won't change that. Most people will arrive later in the morning/day.

It's funny I always rope dropped but never for some strategic mission to ride more rides. I just love the parks in the morning. Short lines were just added bonus. LOL

 

[Jrb1979]

Just wanting to make sure I'm understanding correctly. If I have reservations at MK and am staying at a resort I can book 7DMT (for the morning) and ROTR (for the afternoon) at 7:00 am, rope drop MK and ride things like Space, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan using standby while also scheduling LLs for after 2pm at Hollywood Studios? This sounds like a huge improvement over the last system for my family.

That's the way it works right now. IMO it should be you can only see availability that a person already in that park sees. If I'm in Hollywood Studios and the majority of availability is still am slots, a person in another park shouldn't be allowed to see later times then I can.

 

[20KLeagues]

It's funny I always rope dropped but never for some strategic mission to ride more rides. I just love the parks in the morning. Short lines were just added bonus. LOL

Ive gone to the parks more time's than i can count, for almost 50 years and we have never rope dropped once.....weird.....just not morning people, we are night owls

 

[Boardwalk III]

FWIW, there are a lot of rides that G+ would only save you minimal to no time and you can only use once per ride. So setting it up to use at your 2nd park, during the busiest time of the day (afternoon) might be a best bet for some depending on what they want to ride and what wait times are.

And if return times start to fly through the day s more people use the system, I’m not sure how many more than 3 you’re likely to get anyhow. How many could people get in legacy FP? Because that is what this most closely resembles (except you can’t repeat rides).

So I have a question on this. Heading down in two weeks and we’re not keen on being up and out of the room between 7 and 8 AM. Thus I was starting to like this idea of in the morning booking something I really want to ride for late afternoon at my “park hopper park“ first. Maybe for 4 pm timeframe. Say that is Epcot. Then at 9 AM start booking for my first park (ie MK) and shoot for an 11AM attraction perhaps. Arrive at MK by 10 AM, do one or two standby rides and then after tapping in at 11 am start making additional LL’s at either park. Would that be a reasonable plan?

 

[DisneyKidds]

Actually, I think it's in Disney's best interest to leave loopholes like this alone. Too much leveling of the playing field and seasoned guests might stop coming back.

For better or for worse, the changes Disney has been making for some time now, and especially lately, seem to reinforce the idea that Disney doesn’t really care about the long time, loyal, repeat guest. I’m sure they’ve done analyses that show the new, once in a blue moon visitors spend more per person per day at WDW than the frequent repeat visitors. If they can fill reservations with such higher revenue guests it bolsters the revenue numbers and bottom line. Is that a sustainable long term strategy? Who knows….

 

[OhDannyBoy]

Ive gone to the parks more time's than i can count, for almost 50 years and we have never rope dropped once.....weird.....just not morning people, we are night owls

I'm basically a little kid at Christmas time when at Disney. I'm up early when the park opens and until I had small kids, I usually had to be asked to leave at closing. LOL But I don't do resorts or anything else. I'm there for the parks. It's more an adventure to us than a vacation.

 

[wisblue]

Yep...if they want a 2pm Splash as their first they have to wait till they see that window become available.

Let me recap the bidding here to see if I understand this.

I am familiar with the feature of Genie that lets you select your favorite attractions and lets you indicate that you will be going to a second park. That even includes a “slider” where you can select what times you expect to be in that park.

When I go to the Tip Board to look at standby wait times and G+LL times all I see is the next times. Even now at 1:20 ET the time posted for Soarin is 1:25 PM.

Are you saying that if I have a hopper ticket and park reservation for MK, and indicate on Genie that we plan to hop to Epcot at 2 PM, the Tip Board will show me G+LL return times after 2 PM, even when the return time that is available to others is before 2 PM? Have you seen this first hand?

I didn’t expect this to work that way. If it does that opens up some different potential strategies for using Genie+.

 

[DisneyKidds]

With the reservation system in place I doubt the 2pm thing goes away. Between 2 and 5 the parks are the busiest so they already schedule the amount of labor needed for that time. Using the reservations Disney has an idea where to add more CMs that day and where to cut them.

Agreed. FP+ was a system that had duel benefit for guests (who decided to use it) and Disney. It gave guests a good deal of flexibility (once they did their planning months in advance) and enhanced the guest experience (more than I think G+ will), while also getting guests out of lines and spending $$ elsewhere in the park to Disney’s benefit. This new system is focused much more on Disney and their ability to move crowds, schedule staff, etc…..while providing a replacement of sorts for FP+ that brings in a whole new revenue stream. It’s much more about Disney operations and profit than guest experience, compared to what they had before. Time will tell if it’s a brilliant or foolish strategy….

 

[Jrb1979]

Let me recap the bidding here to see if I understand this.

I am familiar with the feature of Genie that lets you select your favorite attractions and lets you indicate that you will be going to a second park. That even includes a “slider” where you can select what times you expect to be in that park.

When I go to the Tip Board to look at standby wait times and G+LL times all I see is the next times. Even now at 1:20 ET the time posted for Soarin is 1:25 PM.

Are you saying that if I have a hopper ticket and park reservation for MK, and indicate on Genie that we plan to hop to Epcot at 2 PM, the Tip Board will show me G+LL return times after 2 PM, even when the return time that is available to others is before 2 PM? Have you seen this first hand?

I didn’t expect this to work that way. If it does that opens up some different potential strategies for using Genie+.

What you are describing is the way it should work. If the return time for Soarin is 1:25 that's the time that a person with a park hopper should see too. If you have a Park Hopper you will have to play the waiting game too. If that means waiting til 12 to find something that fits you schedule so be it.

 

[Disturbia]

Hi. I don't watch videos and reports from bloggers but I really would like to start especially with the G+ and IA$$.
Can you/anyone here recommend who I watch and how do I watch them? Youtube?

Thanks!

 

[Disturbia]

This is a good comparison JoJo using Genie + vs Kyle Pallo (no Genie+)

I also like Molly from allears (she’s funny and detailed)and goes through steps live. Dfbblog is also good for summaries.

 

[HopperFan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1451238956478173187

 

[DisneyKidds]

Just wanting to make sure I'm understanding correctly. If I have reservations at MK and am staying at a resort I can book 7DMT (for the morning) and ROTR (for the afternoon) at 7:00 am, rope drop MK and ride things like Space, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan using standby while also scheduling LLs for after 2pm at Hollywood Studios? This sounds like a huge improvement over the last system for my family.

Could be, assuming that during busier times you can finagle the system and secure LL returns that are useful for the rides you want.

 

[snikki]

Let me recap the bidding here to see if I understand this.

I am familiar with the feature of Genie that lets you select your favorite attractions and lets you indicate that you will be going to a second park. That even includes a “slider” where you can select what times you expect to be in that park.

When I go to the Tip Board to look at standby wait times and G+LL times all I see is the next times. Even now at 1:20 ET the time posted for Soarin is 1:25 PM.

Are you saying that if I have a hopper ticket and park reservation for MK, and indicate on Genie that we plan to hop to Epcot at 2 PM, the Tip Board will show me G+LL return times after 2 PM, even when the return time that is available to others is before 2 PM? Have you seen this first hand?

I didn’t expect this to work that way. If it does that opens up some different potential strategies for using Genie+.

I was the one who asked the original question and yup that’s how it works. I followed up and read some blogs and it was confirmed.

 

[PaladinButters]

It's funny I always rope dropped but never for some strategic mission to ride more rides. I just love the parks in the morning. Short lines were just added bonus. LOL

A big yes to that!! I always rope drop because I've been up for hours anyway and why waste time when I could be Disney-ing! But, I also always refused to do MK on arrival day because the magic of the park opening show. That first walk up to the castle when it's already crowded mid-day is not for me, I'll go to Epcot.

 

[jenstall]

Yes, you can then keep stacking. Pull one at 7:00am, then 11:00am, then 1:00pm. You could also buy 2 ILLs. You could be entering the park with 5 LL's. At 3:00pm you can grab a 6th. Put the park you wish to hop to into your day on the app.

As a night owl I'd like to use this strategy for Hollywood Studios. I wonder how well it would work without a hopper showing only 2 p.m. or later return times. I could get myself awake at 7 a.m. to get my first LL and two ILL$. And then go back to sleep until 11 a.m. For the rest of my trip I am relying on the Extra Evening Hours for Deluxe guests to get me on all the rides at MK and Epcot with short standby times. But I might do the ILL$ or boarding group for Remy since I don't think it is open during the Extra Evening hours. I enjoy the parks most after dark for the ambiance so I think this will be perfect for me.

Haven't decided yet what I'll do for AK since it closes so early compared to the other parks. I really only want to get on the new Avatar attractions as I haven't done them yet so probably will just do a ILL$ for Flight of Passage and do standby for Na'vi River Journey. I could do a rope drop there one morning if I can drag myself out of bed... I'll be staying at AKV so not too far to travel! I have never, in all my years of going to Disney World and Disneyland, gone at rope drop!