The big G+ rides at HS gone by 1:07!

[greeneyedchick]

Express Pass excludes (off the top of my head) Velocicoaster and Hagrids. But there's no way to 'buy on' these apart from VIP tours.

That's true, but since there is no express lane for them, the stand-by lane moves faster and it's fair for everyone who is staying on and off property. Those who stay on property so get an early open time and can rope drop it.

 

[greeneyedchick]

Universal charges over $100 for just the "Express Pass" during April Break. However, that is for every ride and no limits and pre-selections. They also provide that free when you stay at a Premium Resort. Those resorts are over $700 during peak season. I have never done Universal because I still feel magic with Disney, but I have looked at it several times. I would pay that amount to include my express passes. I stay Deluxe with Disney, so the price is comparable for rooms during this time, and not too many perks. If they up the price for Genie+ then they need to add more. For example, if you charge upwards to $50-100 like previous poster mentioned you best get more than just Genie+ one selection at a time. Unfortunately, we live in a world where companies don't want to admit mistakes. I think Disney knows that this is not the best roll out but will never go back and admit they made errors. The only time I saw them do this was when they brought the Ohana noodles back!

I just got back from a trip to Universal. My first time in over 20 years. We stayed at Portofino Bay. Full housekeeping services and the service at the hotel and in the parks was top-notch. I was not expecting that and felt that it was a more magical experience than my Disney experiences in the past few years (we were annual passholders). Parks were super clean condition, too. We ended up buying Universal passes instead. The free express passes with the hotel were the best perk!

 

[jbish]

Yes! With entertainment of some sort would be great! They’d make a fortune on that!!!

It was part of the original plan. But alas, scrapped.
https://wdwnt.com/2019/06/cancelled...ome-to-life-in-disney-worlds-star-wars-hotel/

 

[greeneyedchick]

The real issue I have is how are Stand By Lines just as Long as when Fastpass days are, when

A) Only 50% of guests use G+
B) No one can get the same ride twice in one day
C) Those with G+ can barely get more than 2-3 passes in a day

Fastpass, there's still times available for plenty of rides, and rides continually refresh with more availability on the app too. Also, with being able to get the same ride again, people were easily able to get 7+ passes in a day.

So why does G+, with seemingly less 'availability' for times / deplete for every ride midday, which 'should' mean shorter return lines for the 'skippers' somehow slow down the Stand-by line far worse than Fastpass ever did?

Few Reasonings could be

A) Riders Per Hour maybe below the usual for every ride. If they bring that back up to what it should be for every ride, then the system would actually work / more allotments for times become available.

B) Far less than 50% of park goers ever took advantage of Fastpass. So essentially make it 'paid to use' brought more people to 'skip' lines than push people away, thus did opposite of speeding up Stand-by lines

C) The meet n greets / train / etc are Major crowd suckers that are desperately needed to alleviate lines. I see this affecting Standby lines, but as for G+ selections, only a gain of 1 possible extra selection / still lower than could get Fastpasses

My guess is A/C are the main reasonings. I don't see B being true, but if somehow Guests are using a paid system more than a free system, then we're more doomed.


maybe more thoughts / reasonings I didn't think of, so can respond with your thoughts.

I live near Disney and I heard that Disney was not running all the rides at full capacity. I'm not sure if they can't hire enough people to operate at top efficiency or they are choosing not to increase staff to save money

 

[Disturbia]

Yes! With entertainment of some sort would be great! They’d make a fortune on that!!!

They need to add things in place of the American Idol show (maybe Gaya can perform a song for us) and the Lights Motor Action stunt show (incl. Fantasmic) - bring a show like Aladdin to WDW (loved it at Disneyland). It was nice to sit and enjoy the stunt show vs standing in lines all day for a 2 min ride. Have some galaxy character meet greets (Like the Blue meet and greet at universal). And maybe a star wars character carousel for the younger kids (just an idea) Or a toy story playground (like the Epcot one) where kids can rodeo/run around in a big playhouse.

Oh .. the electric parade at MK

 

[greeneyedchick]

Just chiming in to say the horrible reviews on trip advisor continue. Eek. I wonder if they’ve ever had a string of reviews so bad. Does anyone remember when they switched to FP+ ? I’d love to scroll back and see if the feedback was as terrible.

We had a vacation scheduled the first week fast pass+ rolled out for non-resort people. I have never stayed at a Disney resort and was staying off-property. We had family who were staying on property and knew what they were doing. They tried to explain the magic bands to me and everything. I'm not dumb. I used to be a cast member. I was using touring plans. But since we were off-site, we couldn't book our FP until we were in the park and we had to use the kiosks. The lines to make a fast pass were as long as the lines for some rides. It was a horrible experience. It ruined our vacation because we had two young kids and couldn't ride much. It soured us to Disney. We came back 4 years later when we moved back to Orlando. We bought annual passes. We could never get fast passes for the headliners. It wasn't until shortly before our annual passes expired that someone clued me in to refreshing constantly and re-checking that we started to sometimes get a half-decent fast pass. Now we don't even have annual passes. We just couldn't take the crowds any more.

Genie+ sounds terrible, but for those of you complaining about stand-by lines and not being able to plan your days like you're used to...Now you know what it was like for off-site guests. That's always been our experience. Even if they "fix" Genie+, those who can't afford to stay on property or pay-to-play will still have a miserable experience despite spending hundreds a person to get into the park. If there isn't enough ride capacity for people to ride at least 7 or 8 good rides for their high admission price, than Disney should be restricting the number of guests and increasing park hours. People think they are buying a ticket to an amusement park. Then they arrive and find out that all of the amusements are 2 hour waits. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't have the kind of money to pay that high ticket price just to walk around and look at the nice landscaping.

 

[Westerner]

My concern with the old FP+ system was that a large % of capacity for popular rides - perhaps the majority - was allocated to onsite guests booking 60+X days in advance, leaving offsite to fight over scraps. I’ve read old threads here discussing how it was hard to score headliner FP+ unless you booked 60+4 or higher. Unfortunately Disney replaced it was a complex, poorly understood, glitchy system that ends up frustrating a large % of guests.

I feel like G+/$ILL is best suited for those who:

• Have a flexible schedule
• Smaller, homogeneous parties
• Technology savvy
• Place a premium on <15 minute waits

 

[Disturbia]

But now people who’ve paid $500+ a night for value or $1000 for a deluxe are fighting for spots and it’s throughout the day for the length of trip , not just one day.

 

[Westerner]

I hear you, Disturbia. The value prop of onsite has decreased under the new system. EMH for deluxe and RotR $ILL seem like the main advantages remaining.

There is no perfect system - there is only so much capacity to go around and it becomes a zero sum game. Nevertheless if Disney had listened better to the right voices I feel they could have come up with a better compromise than G+/$ILL.

Somebody posted the other day about a convo they had with a Disney executive about G+. The poster gave the well-reasoned critiques that have been raised on DIS. Exec countered by saying most guest feedback was positive. This suggests execs may be out of sync with guest reality. I suspect they were expecting some of the critiques eg cost, having to book day-of, which are by design, and execs are thus dismissive of complaints overall, blaming the usual startup glitches and guest resistance to change.

The addition of 3 $ILL’s feels like a blunt attempt at “fixing“ G+ and suggests a myopic view. Large orgs can become vulnerable to groupthink, Disney invested a lot of money in this and it is probably politically risky to challenge the status quo, and it is a lot safer to try to sweep G+ flaws under the carpet. Hope execs realize soon just how frustrating it is for most guests.

 

[gkeable]

Maybe they should give onsite guests only 0700 access to G+ and then access for offsite guests at park opening like they do for ILL. Have a G+ drop at Park opening so everyone gets a chance for Slinky. There definitely is a perception that on site perks aren't great at the moment.

 

[Dis Dragon]

The current leadership at Disney is not really interested in fixing the guest crowding problem, when these new rides are released they increase park capacity with them so it fixes nothing. They've gone way too long growing hotels without adding a new park - over the years they added a park on an average of every 10 years pre-Iger. They haven't even floated a new gate idea for over 20 years now, wanting the guest growth but not willing to take the risk to provide a new space to eat those crowds instead focusing on how to increase guest spending.

They want to increase IP presence to synergize products and movies, they have plenty of it to not only enhance parks like AK (that needs some love) and adding a new park with wholly new lands and ideas.

 

[Jrb1979]

I hear you, Disturbia. The value prop of onsite has decreased under the new system. EMH for deluxe and RotR $ILL seem like the main advantages remaining.

There is no perfect system - there is only so much capacity to go around and it becomes a zero sum game. Nevertheless if Disney had listened better to the right voices I feel they could have come up with a better compromise than G+/$ILL.

Somebody posted the other day about a convo they had with a Disney executive about G+. The poster gave the well-reasoned critiques that have been raised on DIS. Exec countered by saying most guest feedback was positive. This suggests execs may be out of sync with guest reality. I suspect they were expecting some of the critiques eg cost, having to book day-of, which are by design, and execs are thus dismissive of complaints overall, blaming the usual startup glitches and guest resistance to change.

The addition of 3 $ILL’s feels like a blunt attempt at “fixing“ G+ and suggests a myopic view. Large orgs can become vulnerable to groupthink, Disney invested a lot of money in this and it is probably politically risky to challenge the status quo, and it is a lot safer to try to sweep G+ flaws under the carpet. Hope execs realize soon just how frustrating it is for most guests.

There was a better way and it's make their skip the line system like all other parks. Get rid of scheduled return times and charge more for it. Capacity is not the only issue, the other is that too many people have Genie+. Disney doesn't have enough capacity for everyone to get good use of Genie+. It needs to be more limited. Either limit availability by only selling so many a day or charge a lot more for it so less people will buy it.

Personally I wish they went the Universal route and it made it like express pass but without it being free to onsite guests.

I will say with all the complaints I see here and other places towards Disney right now, it amazes me that many still continue to go. There is so many amazing parks in Florida as well as the US. Why many don't give them a chance is beyond me.

 

[godfather927]

There was a better way and it's make their skip the line system like all other parks. Get rid of scheduled return times and charge more for it. Capacity is not the only issue, the other is that too many people have Genie+. Disney doesn't have enough capacity for everyone to get good use of Genie+. It needs to be more limited. Either limit availability by only selling so many a day or charge a lot more for it so less people will buy it.

Personally I wish they went the Universal route and it made it like express pass but without it being free to onsite guests.

I will say with all the complaints I see here and other places towards Disney right now, it amazes me that many still continue to go. There is so many amazing parks in Florida as well as the US. Why many don't give them a chance is beyond me.

I'd much prefer they go to an a la carte model where everything is $ILL before hey go with the Universal Express pass model. For families with younger kids that are affected by height restrictions, the express pass model isn't a great fit.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

They need to add things in place of the American Idol show (maybe Gaya can perform a song for us) and the Lights Motor Action stunt show (incl. Fantasmic) - bring a show like Aladdin to WDW (loved it at Disneyland). It was nice to sit and enjoy the stunt show vs standing in lines all day for a 2 min ride. Have some galaxy character meet greets (Like the Blue meet and greet at universal). And maybe a star wars character carousel for the younger kids (just an idea) Or a toy story playground (like the Epcot one) where kids can rodeo/run around in a big playhouse.

Oh .. the electric parade at MK

All this! I nominate you too, @Disturbia, to join a board meeting and tell them these common sense ideas that would make a big difference for a lot of guests!!

 

[DisneyFive]

I'd much prefer they go to an a la carte model where everything is $ILL before hey go with the Universal Express pass model. For families with younger kids that are affected by height restrictions, the express pass model isn't a great fit.

If they made all rides $ILL that immediately would stop all of our vacations to WDW. It's expensive enough already. Can you imagine the added cost if everything was $ILL? Keep in mind a lot of families are there. We are a family of 5. No way. That cost would add up FAST

Dan

 

[DisneyFive]

We had a vacation scheduled the first week fast pass+ rolled out for non-resort people. I have never stayed at a Disney resort and was staying off-property. We had family who were staying on property and knew what they were doing. They tried to explain the magic bands to me and everything. I'm not dumb. I used to be a cast member. I was using touring plans. But since we were off-site, we couldn't book our FP until we were in the park and we had to use the kiosks. The lines to make a fast pass were as long as the lines for some rides. It was a horrible experience. It ruined our vacation because we had two young kids and couldn't ride much. It soured us to Disney. We came back 4 years later when we moved back to Orlando. We bought annual passes. We could never get fast passes for the headliners. It wasn't until shortly before our annual passes expired that someone clued me in to refreshing constantly and re-checking that we started to sometimes get a half-decent fast pass. Now we don't even have annual passes. We just couldn't take the crowds any more.

Genie+ sounds terrible, but for those of you complaining about stand-by lines and not being able to plan your days like you're used to...Now you know what it was like for off-site guests. That's always been our experience. Even if they "fix" Genie+, those who can't afford to stay on property or pay-to-play will still have a miserable experience despite spending hundreds a person to get into the park. If there isn't enough ride capacity for people to ride at least 7 or 8 good rides for their high admission price, than Disney should be restricting the number of guests and increasing park hours. People think they are buying a ticket to an amusement park. Then they arrive and find out that all of the amusements are 2 hour waits. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't have the kind of money to pay that high ticket price just to walk around and look at the nice landscaping.

We could always find headliners day of. The only ones that were sometimes impossible are the same that are now $ILL. FOP, 7DMT, etc.. but everything else was doable with a little persistence. Bummer that it was tough for some folks.

I get the drawback of staying offsite or being local, but it makes sense that onsite guests had perks since they were ponying up big $$$ directly to Disney for staying onsite.

The old system may have been too skewed towards onsite guests. I would have been fine with allowing EVERYONE access to FP's on the same day, like 2 weeks prior to their first arrival day. There was no need for 60 days out for onsite, and 30 days offsite or local. Just make it 2 weeks, or 30 days or whatever, but make it the same for all guests. Doing that would level the playing field and still keep all the awesome things that FP+ allowed.

• Prebooking rides
• Booking at the times you choose
• Ability to sleep in
• Ability to modify you FP without cancelling
• Having peace of mind and a lower stress level going into your vacation

etc...

Dan

 

[T'Lynn]

I think seeing all the differing opinions on what the best line-skipping option should be outlines Disney's dilemma. Someone is always going to be upset. It's trying to balance WHO you make upset.

I maintain that G+ is probably kinda ok if they could just fix the booking times problem.

 

[Disturbia]

There was a better way and it's make their skip the line system like all other parks. Get rid of scheduled return times and charge more for it. Capacity is not the only issue, the other is that too many people have Genie+. Disney doesn't have enough capacity for everyone to get good use of Genie+. It needs to be more limited. Either limit availability by only selling so many a day or charge a lot more for it so less people will buy it.

Personally I wish they went the Universal route and it made it like express pass but without it being free to onsite guests.

I will say with all the complaints I see here and other places towards Disney right now, it amazes me that many still continue to go. There is so many amazing parks in Florida as well as the US. Why many don't give them a chance is beyond me.

Even brining back the after hours would be good vs them selling those hours for events.

 

[Captain Morgan Sparrow]

It is 7. I'm guessing someone didn't reset their clock for DST.

sorry. I’m still rocking the central time. It was a couch practice for our soon trip

 

[revdon64]

Yesterday was packed. We got to the park about 730 and went to sdd. Off that pretty quickly and decided on rnrc next. Toss up between that and tot but figured we’d do it since it was posted 5 minutes (took 10). Then waited about an hour for tot at 835.

By that time all rides were over and hour with the bigger ones an hour and a half or more. Even as2 and st were 60 minutes. Went to muppets and the line was almost backed out of the queue. We just hung out and waited for our 11 rotr. That was down so we sat around more until noon.

There were people everywhere and it was packed. The walkways were so crowded no matter where we were.

I was there Monday as well and everything you said is spot on. We did manage to do RotR on standby after it had gone down for the fourth time that day - 60ish minute wait. But truly, I've never seen HS so jam packed as it was that day.