New Disney Genie+ makes disney worse

[Tinkerbell]

If I'm not onsite I'm not doing Disney, and unlike when I've stayed before I see absolutely no benefits from staying onsite whatsoever. I loved staying in the so called bubble but I can get far superior accomodation for less money and at least with US top range I get free equivalent fast passes, at DC I get free food etc and access to SW/BG/Aquatics.

If I stay a Grand Floridian or Pop century..I get 30 minutes in the morning. I get nothing more nothing less than if I stayed on Idrive

I've always said I have an emotional attachment to WDW but I also have an emotional attachment to my money.

As parks I still think they're value for money on a daily rate...but the added value has gone to stay onsite.

When the Covid bubble has burst, and the payback financially that will inevitably hit the publics purse...I'm sure WDW will once again revert back to the happiest place on earth.

[SamH88]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

In terms of the last paragraph, I’m not so sure.
They have lost us and many like us for the foreseeable future. Feedback online is overwhelmingly negative at the moment from what I see.
People have to experience it, and also negative feedback also has to percolate through potential customers.
There’s also pandemic pent up demand.
I think give it another year and if they don’t change things, they could really start to suffer.
Disney has a cultish customer base now, evidenced yesterday by grown adults queuing 6.5 hours for a cheap Chinese tat pink dinosaur. But they also need Joe Public, and many won’t have been too impressed at Xmas when I went and won’t be going back.

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I don't know. You and others like you who they have "lost" will be replaced with thousands of people every year for whom Disney is a once in a lifetime thing and they won't know how it used to be so it won't bother them, they will just be happy to be there.

The majority of people who have an issue with it are those who have been privileged enough to go a huge amount of times over the years.

[Talland 2016]

Disney has a cultish customer base now, evidenced yesterday by grown adults queuing 6.5 hours for a cheap Chinese tat pink dinosaur.

We were at EPCOT & saw the queues for the Figment pink popcorn holder
One person in the queue said they’d been queuing for 8 hrs
They were already on eBay for $200+ the day of release

[moosha]

Originally Posted by SamH88

I don't know. You and others like you who they have "lost" will be replaced with thousands of people every year for whom Disney is a once in a lifetime thing and they won't know how it used to be so it won't bother them, they will just be happy to be there.

The majority of people who have an issue with it are those who have been privileged enough to go a huge amount of times over the years.

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Yes but surely eventually they’re going to run out of first timers who can afford to go with Disney’s increasing prices (it’s not cheap and I keep hearing people say they’re priced out, especially for staying on-site) and who also haven’t been put off by hearing negative things online or whatever from people who have visited. There are lots of people even just on The Dibb saying there’s no value in staying on-site / they’re cutting Disney from their Florida trips etc. This is also happening on US Disney fan sites, on Instagram, on Twitter etc.

I would love to see Disney make some changes which benefit the guest and reverse some of the cost-cutting (parking charges at resorts, no magical express, reintroduce free dining) and I want to believe there is going to come a point where they do have to do some of this in order to continue to be a well-loved company by their guests and fans and more importantly for them I guess, in order to keep seeing an increase in park attendance revenues.

[moosha]

Originally Posted by Talland 2016

Disney has a cultish customer base now, evidenced yesterday by grown adults queuing 6.5 hours for a cheap Chinese tat pink dinosaur.

We were at EPCOT & saw the queues for the Figment pink popcorn holder
One person in the queue said they’d been queuing for 8 hrs
They were already on eBay for $200+ the day of release

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Those ‘cultish customers’ who are entering the parks to make a quick buck on eBay from popcorn buckets are not the majority of guests in the park though. And these releases happen infrequently so there are plenty of days when that’s not happening at all.

There are thousands more people in the parks every day, either first timers or repeat visitors who maybe haven’t been since before the pandemic. The interesting thing is whether those guests who are there now wish to return after seeing things as they are with increased pricing / less on-site value / things still closed / perks reduced eg Magical Express / no free Magic Bands. How much goodwill to the brand or pent-up demand from the pandemic is there still? Only time will tell what happens over the next few years to customer satisfaction and attendance levels.

[SamH88]

Originally Posted by moosha

Yes but surely eventually they’re going to run out of first timers who can afford to go with Disney’s increasing prices.

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But it's always been the case that's it's been too expensive for the vast majority of people. That's why for a lot of people its a once in a lifetime thing, because it costs a lot of money and they can't afford to go all the time. Also people fully expect it to be expensive and they won't know what it used to cost or what perks people used to get, so they won't have anything to compare it to, unless they talk to friends who have gone lots.

It's not like it's just Disney increasing prices, it's everywhere. And they lost ALOT of money due to being closed for a few months so they're going to have to try make some of that back.

[Tinkerbell]

I'm not bothered about WDW raising the prices, either I can afford it or I can't , same as every holiday. My objection is raising prices whilst reducing benefits for those staying onsite. I get no benefit from an onsite stay..only WDW benefits from my hard earned money, I'd rather give it elsewhere and visit as an off site guest.

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by Cutiepie

I would be interested to hear how you get on with gene+ as we are planning a trip in the summer.

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We got to use it yesterday, we went to California Adventure Park, as mentioned earlier, a first visit for us. It is a public holiday weekend in the US, the park wasn’t especially crowded but by 9:30 the queues for rides with lightening lane were up to about 30-60 minutes and most stayed around this level.

We had no issues booking lightening lanes for any ride other than Soarin, which was always 4 or 5 hours out and we didn’t want to hang about. Time in the lightening lane queues was about ten minutes each time so we saved a few hours overall.

I wouldn’t have wanted to be without Genie+ yesterday. Equally we didn’t like that we could only do each thing once, I don’t know if this was the case with Maxpass as I have never used it, so I am comparing to Orlando where we liked to get repeat fastpasses during the day. The lightening lane once per ride rule was a deal breaker when we decided to cancel Orlando.

[Cutiepie]

Originally Posted by Claudette

We got to use it yesterday, we went to California Adventure Park, as mentioned earlier, a first visit for us. It is a public holiday weekend in the US, the park wasn’t especially crowded but by 9:30 the queues for rides with lightening lane were up to about 30-60 minutes and most stayed around this level.

We had no issues booking lightening lanes for any ride other than Soarin, which was always 4 or 5 hours out and we didn’t want to hang about. Time in the lightening lane queues was about ten minutes each time so we saved a few hours overall.

I wouldn’t have wanted to be without Genie+ yesterday. Equally we didn’t like that we could only do each thing once, I don’t know if this was the case with Maxpass as I have never used it, so I am comparing to Orlando where we liked to get repeat fastpasses during the day. The lightening lane once per ride rule was a deal breaker when we decided to cancel Orlando.

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Thanks for the update. Since we are there in the summer, I’m leaning towards getting it as we are probably only going to do 3 park days. I don’t like that you can only do each thing once either but it is what it is and hopefully we can cover all the main rides.

[dav220588]

Originally Posted by Claudette

We got to use it yesterday, we went to California Adventure Park, as mentioned earlier, a first visit for us. It is a public holiday weekend in the US, the park wasn’t especially crowded but by 9:30 the queues for rides with lightening lane were up to about 30-60 minutes and most stayed around this level.

We had no issues booking lightening lanes for any ride other than Soarin, which was always 4 or 5 hours out and we didn’t want to hang about. Time in the lightening lane queues was about ten minutes each time so we saved a few hours overall.

I wouldn’t have wanted to be without Genie+ yesterday. Equally we didn’t like that we could only do each thing once, I don’t know if this was the case with Maxpass as I have never used it, so I am comparing to Orlando where we liked to get repeat fastpasses during the day. The lightening lane once per ride rule was a deal breaker when we decided to cancel Orlando.

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With Maxpass you could do the rides as many times in a day as you want (if available). Maxpass was just a digital version of the old paper fastpass system with photopass included. A much better system to be honest!

I do think Genie+ would be worth it more in California - the two parks there have more attractions than the non-MK WDW parks so more Lightning Lane choice, and more of the guests will be AP holders who'll be less likely to purchase Genie+ so less competition for spaces.