Disney Genie service deeply unpopular among fans before it has launched

Coasterfantom2 said:

There were days that I slept in (7:38 am.)

You animal.

Jeff said:

I love fan communities that use inside baseball terms but couldn't be more outside.

This here site must be a source of endless amusement for you, then!

ApolloAndy said:

hambone said:

Sure, but now you've pointed them right to the loophole. Thanks.

This information has been published ...

Just to be clear, I was teasing you.

More butt hurt. The TL;DR: "Sorry we the nutty fans are dicks to you cast members, it's not your fault we're dicks, it's the management."

Ugh. Try as I may, I couldn't get through a paragraph of that without feeling crushing disdain for the author.

Disney bloggers take assholery to a level that's difficult to match. As one of the commenters vaguely suggested, the rank and file in the park are there to do a job and earn a paycheck. Very few of them could give two sh*ts about decisions being made by executives.

hambone said:

ApolloAndy said:

hambone said:

Sure, but now you've pointed them right to the loophole. Thanks.

This information has been published ...

Just to be clear, I was teasing you.

Whoops. That went right over my head. There are quite a few loopholes that got popular on Tik Tok and then were quickly closed (like mobile ordering a coffee to get in to Contemp. parking lot and then walking to MK), so it’s always in the back of my mind.

After staying at the Contemporary, I try to avoid the roads up there like the plague. I'd rather just use the TTC if I'm headed to MK, and only go to the CR lot if I am eating at CA Grill or the dearly-departed Wave. (The new menu in that space looks really underwhelming.) Though I think I haven't been up there since the new outbound flyover was finished. Maybe that makes things better?

Interestingly, it seems like most of the initial loopholes were closed over the weekend, so...sorry for spilling the beans. </sarcasm>

I was a little surprised they did it so quickly.

Me too.

So a quick report on my Epcot trip a couple of weekends ago. We did not purchase the Genie+ service ($15/person) but we did take advantage of the $$ Lightning Line. We paid $11 each to get a guaranteed time on the new Remy ride.

We've been to Epcot countless times but with that attraction being new my daughter really wanted to ride it. The Lightning Lane was the sure thing and for $11 it seemed like an easy decision. In other words, I guess the price point was right...at least for us. (Hard for me to say know when my daughter could quickly calculate what we were spending on food and alcohol during the day).

Now, the effects of Genie+ on the rest of my day were notable. We waited in an excruciating line for Frozen. It was a good 80+ minutes and the line just crept. Same thing happened to us on Test Track. If we had not caught Soarin' early in the day I suspect it would have been the same thing. Genie+ really does make the standby option for popular rides just ridiculous.

I don't think the free Genie services provided any benefit. It didn't suggest anything I did not know intuitively from my countless visits...but I suspect it could be helpful to first time or infrequent visitors.

As an aside, the lighting effect on Spaceship Earth is almost an E Ticket attraction unto itself. I would seriously consider riding the Epcot monorail at night just to see it and I'm determined to stay at a hotel with the best view of it the next time I get a chance. I can't imagine the lighting effects at the other parks being any better than what they have done with SE.

I haven't been to Disney in quite a long time, but am trying to work out a way to get there this year. I've done my best to follow along with this thread on all of the changes and options, but quite frankly, I'm lost.

Has anyone put together/seen a good chart with all the options and explanations for them?

cmwein said:

Has anyone put together/seen a good chart with all the options and explanations for them?

In one sentence, you've managed to sum up the entire issue.

No one should have to say that, let alone people in a discussion on an enthusiast forum.

wahoo skipper said:

If we had not caught Soarin' early in the day I suspect it would have been the same thing.

Actually, if you wait to ride it late, you'll have little to no wait. They also lie about wait times in the evening, exaggerating almost on everything.

Lord Gonchar said:

In one sentence, you've managed to sum up the entire issue.

Just what I was afraid of.

Disney has seemed to me like the opposite of a vacation for a few years now. With the kids being older, I talked to my wife just this morning about possibly taking them to Universal instead. Only two parks and we can do other Florida stuff the rest of the week.

cmwein said:
Has anyone put together/seen a good chart with all the options and explanations for them?

Have you tried the website?https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/genie/

More specifically…

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/genie/lightning-lane/

You called? (This document was much more complex before I removed all the loophole stuff)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kOcttAOp2UOpQfMtXzYk_Q1FRpRO9IK...t8gBw/edit

The more I think about it, the more I believe they abandoned a totally obvious crowd management mechanism that worked for everyone without a lot of thought. FP+ was easy enough, pick three things in advance, wing it in between. A few key attractions would still involve a serious wait, but they could manage FP/standby yield and I think you generally had a good time without being in line all day.

The new system is flawed for two reasons: One, if most people buy in, then no one is special and no one is getting a premium experience. Two, I don't want to look at graphs explaining when a ride is busy. You used to guide me to the right time without me knowing it by way of FP+.

A side problem is that they're trying to treat all the parks the same, and they're not. California isn't Florida, and neither is Paris or Asia. They're not even the same at WDW. Even FP+ was mostly pointless at Epcot.