Disney overhauls virtual queue and planning system for domestic parks with Disney Genie and upsells

ApolloAndy said:

We've all seen people waving around Flash Passes at Six Flags on a dead day...how much more for the family that's taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip and just wants to splurge on something to lift their nose at the unwashed masses.

After reading the PR today, thus appears to be an app version of the old paper system. Which is great.

However norms Disney is going to gouge customers another $15/20 a day to use it on top if they sky high ticket prices.

I see what the master plan was all along. Ruin a great system (old ticket fast oass) with a poor replacement (fast pass plus ) so they can make more money going back to the old system.

Thene parks have become the ultimate gouge to avoid long lines caused by line cutting systems.

Yes. I’m sure they invested billions of dollars and ten years of guest experiences into a crappy system, just so they could make a slightly different paid system. If you believe that, I have a park in Aurora, OH to sell you.

He says "gouge", but I'm not sure he really understands what that means.

Disney held out years longer than I would have ever thought before going to a paid skip the line system.

Supply and demand is not price gouging just because you don't agree with it.

What they appear to be doing to me is edging into a tiered experience, without explicitly excluding lower-paying customers from any attractions. Depending on how much capacity they set aside for, say, Space Mountain and 7D’s, they are effectively saying if you want to ride, it’s going to cost you another $30 a person. (Unless you’re willing to spend an unreasonable amount of time in line.)

Maybe at some point the option of waiting goes away, and it’s just $X to get in the park and see the mundane stuff and parades, $X +20 to get the Peter Pan level stuff, and $X+50 for the marquee attractions.

The "next gen experience" project (of which Fastpass+ was a part of) was one of the most expensive IT projects in history. It was horribly managed, over-budget and late. I can think of cheaper ways to piss away money on something that is allegedly substandard.

hambone said:

Maybe at some point the option of waiting goes away, and it’s just $X to get in the park and see the mundane stuff and parades, $X +20 to get the Peter Pan level stuff, and $X+50 for the marquee attractions.

Which is basically the original ticket book concept. The ciiircle of lliiiiiifffee.......

I was kinda thinking the same thing - we're heading back to a modern version of the A-E tickets (as briefly mentioned in a different thread).

BrettV said:

Also, this tweet on Mickey's Christmas Party prices is making the rounds on the Disney sites, noting the event is shorter and has considerably fewer features now than it did when it was half the price.

As high priced as these scaled back versions of the after hours holiday events seem to be, I read this morning that all but one day of the Halloween event is sold out.

Not surprised at all by that.

Is anyone, other than the internet blowhards spouting off about how Disney is nothing but a money grabbing Satan, surprised it is selling out?

Well, they're sold out and I'm sure they sold all the tickets they released, but you can still get tickets at the park (I think at city hall or something). Maybe the realized they have more capacity than they thought or maybe they didn't actually sell out, sell out but wanted to increase scarcity by saying they did? That's a little too "conspiracy theory" for me.

The people who hate Disney the loudest seem to be the people able to stay away from it the least.

I don't know if it's a meme, but we've seen countless people "quit" Coasterbuzz in a big dramatic huff, only to respond to a post 10 minutes later.

Is there any indication if you can purchase Genie+ per day or is it a length of ticket? Maybe I missed it. I always wished I could add hopper for a day or two at the end of a trip. I could see myself feeling out the first few days and then forking over the dough later on for things I didn't want to wait for or rope drop.

Anecdotally, we just returned from a week in the world. Didn't know what to expect with no line skipping service, but we never waited more than 45 minutes for anything. The lines were physically long, often into the midways, but they absolutely flew. Posted waits were heavily exaggerated. We easily rode everything we wanted with enough time left to let our daughter pick our park for the last day. I was fine with the FP+ era, but now I think I'm glad it's a thing of the past.

I can't decide whether to go with "they created Fast Pass + to eliminate it" or "Rip Ride Rocket > Fast Pass +"

I'm sticking with "sucks."

BariMan said:

Is there any indication if you can purchase Genie+ per day or is it a length of ticket?

I believe it is a per day add on instead of per ticket add on. My understanding is that you add it on in the app for day of use and can make your reservations starting at 7 am if you are staying at a WDW resort.

Jeff said:

One thing you can be sure of, is that the app will suck your phone battery dry. The existing app is terrible, and it always has been. Part of the problem is that unless you deny it permission, it has location on all of the time. There's no universe where you need to constantly ping location.

When I was there for a few days in April, I was worried about this and I brought a small portable battery charger. But I used the app for the entire trip and never needed the portable charger. I suspect there are lot of factors in play.

BariMan said:

The lines were physically long, often into the midways, but they absolutely flew.

This is the main reason I disliked FP+. I'd rather wait 10-30 (or 45) minutes for everything anytime I want rather than make my plans and then feel like anything else requires such a glacial standby line.