Disney Genie service deeply unpopular among fans before it has launched

Those cast members look like they’re dressed to work in the galactic star cruiser’s infirmary.

Jeff said:

The "fan" sites were always ridiculous, but they're going to entirely new levels of entitlement and stupidity. They don't hate the parks enough to stop collecting ad revenue from those ****ty video ads they all run.

In the past year or so, I just started venturing down this rabbit hole of the Disney/Universal enthusiast community (or whatever this group is called). So far, I'm completely blown away. I didn't realize how much more extreme this group is compared to the typical coaster enthusiast group. The cringe level is off the charts watching some of these vloggers complain about things like obtaining reservations, trying to come across like it's a serious problem.

I follow one on Facebook that I thought was more news and less of the extreme opinions, but they’ve started to run off the rails lately. It’s an odd sense of entitlement where they think that their satisfaction or lack of actually has an impact on Disney. The fact that some support the idea that upset fans should have direct access to the CEO is the one that blows me away.

There are a few Florida YouTube vloggers I watch that aren't bad. I can't get over how some of them claim celebrity status and post "fan mail" videos, with followers sending them t-shirts, coffee mugs, gift cards, etc. Sorry, I just don't get it.

Florida Resident Edits is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I don't know who runs the channel, and not endorsing, but recommend watching FRE videos. lol

Half the time I don't even think its "fan mail" but rather junk people are trying to "advertise" from their Etsy shop. If I were a YouTuber, I could post all of the swag companies send me trying to get me to buy their products. I could make it look like fan mail.

It makes me sad that this is what fan stuff has become. It used to be community, now it's attention whoring and people doing selfie stand-ups.

Genie+ reaching record high prices lately. $35 a day. Wow!

https://wdwnt.com/2023/04/d...-high-wdw/

Good! Double it. Triple it. Gonch it.

Make it a much more exclusive and premium service. The same fanboys that will cry corporate greed would also benefit from a much better standby to Genie+/Lightning Lane ratio.

Spring Break. 😎

Yeah, I think there are a number of compounding factors here making crowds extreme. It's spring break and Tron just opened and I think we're still seeing revenge travel from the pandemic. I'm much more amenable to dynamic pricing than just "the Genie+ Wild West" where sometimes you get 8 extra rides and sometimes you get 2.

BrettV:

Good! Double it. Triple it. Gonch it.

Make it a much more exclusive and premium service. The same fanboys that will cry corporate greed would also benefit from a much better standby to Genie+/Lightning Lane ratio.

What price would be too extreme for most?

$50? $100?

Should they make it like Universals express pass which can be well over $100 at peak times?

also, isn’t there a cap of how many Genie+ they sell? That would obviously help the ratio you mentioned.

I'm not sure what the sweet spot is - but paying upwards of $20 for a line still so long that they have to put attraction branding on a little table tennis paddle and build extended queue out in the park means the slider (2020 callback) on price/demand is way too far on the "price is too low" side.

The price should be significantly higher than it currently is. By raising the price the demand should decrease, but this is also Disney so who knows. That would help the stand-by lines move along a bit quicker. Disney without Genie+ is a miserable experience if you are on vacation.

Disney with Genie+ can be just as miserable though if you don't know how (and when) to use it and drop $18-$30 per person per day per person to only have a chance at one or two attractions.

I often wonder ‘what if’……

Disney dropped Genie+ and all express pass stuff altogether. Would the overall customer experience improve? The regular standby lines would obviously be quicker…..

I visited Disneyland for four days in July ‘21 when there was no line cutting option and Web Slingers and RotR were on VQ. I didn’t like it too much. Still 60 minutes for Space, Guardians, and RSR and the like. I will say Incredicoaster and Thunder Mountain’s capacities were…incredible. Full queues on either ride were 15 minutes and you basically never stopped walking. Thunder in particular you could basically just mosey through the queue from start to finish, even though it was full of people.

Granted, most of the shows, parades, and meet&greets were not operational, but I did miss the choice to turn $ into not waiting.

Likewise, we had a few days at Disneyland Paris just before the pandemic where on our 2nd and 3rd days the whole fast pass system went down. The difference was phenomenal; standby waits on Big Thunder went down from around an hour to 25 mins even though the queen reached further, and this was replicated around the park on all the big hitters. The lines never stopped moving. It totally backed up our thoughts that fast pass is brilliant if you’ve got one, a major frustration if you can’t.

tallguy:

Likewise, we had a few days at Disneyland Paris just before the pandemic where on our 2nd and 3rd days the whole fast pass system went down. The difference was phenomenal; standby waits on Big Thunder went down from around an hour to 25 mins even though the queen reached further, and this was replicated around the park on all the big hitters. The lines never stopped moving. It totally backed up our thoughts that fast pass is brilliant if you’ve got one, a major frustration if you can’t.

Interesting. Unfortunately no going back now. Disney not going to pass up an opportunity to make $$$$

The most eye opening time of day to get in line for any major ride at any major park is right before park closing. Without fast pass/genie+/flashlane etc., the lines never stop moving for the most part. What was a hour line most the day sometimes can be as little as 20 minutes.

The virtual line systems, no matter how they are done all make the standard lines longer.....resulting in more people wanting to buy into Genie+, Flashlane, Fastpass etc. The best guest experience would be to go back to doing it the way it was done before with one line for all, but there isn't as much money to be made that way.

I can’t tell if you’re being tongue in cheek or are stuck in 2003 or something. Obviously, lines are longer for standby guests. Obviously, they are shorter for paying guests. If the guest experince is lacking, it’s not because of some vague operational reason. It’s because you’re not paying enough.