Feel so much better now re Genie+

[EmmaBolan]

Originally Posted by AnnieB

It's a good idea for everyone to write and let them know how unpopular it is.

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I agree with this! I watch one of the big Disney podcasts every week and they always say the Disney community is a big one and if people don't like these things they need to email/tell them, otherwise they'll keep thinking people are ok with all these changes!

You only had to look at all the replies to the tweet that DisneyParks put out regarding Genie+ to see all these changes haven't gone down well

Whilst no-one is forcing anyone to buy the extra passes and it is similar to Universal... Universal also include a few good perks for staying onsite - Disney have taken them all away and increased the prices! Universal haven't made too many changes in pricing from what I can see - certainly not with the hotels. Royal Pacific is the same price for this year that it was 4 years ago when we stayed there.

There is literally no reason to stay onsite anymore. We were due to stay at Coronado in September, that was cancelled so instead we've rebooked for All Stars for 2022, only due to the fact we'd like the dining plan when it returns, but the amount they wanted for Coronado was just extortionate, if the benefits were still there I might have had a different view. If it wasn't for that I'd be taking my money elsewhere

To the OP, you may find you get a response fairly quickly. I emailed him last year after months of trying to get my annual pass sorted, within days Disney rang me and couldn't do enough to help. These emails get picked up and seems to me are taken seriously when people email the very top people

[Shifu]

Originally Posted by SamH88

Genuine question, do you have the same issue with Universal Express passes that are far more expensive than the new Genie passes?

As I said in another thread, nobody is being forced to spend extra money if they don't want to. You don't have to pay $15 a day "just to get on a ride" at all because you have the option to just queue for free like many people have always done.

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I don’t- When we stay at a deluxe Universal resort we get nice free express passes. That doesn’t happen when we’re at YachtClub sadly.

[Memories4You]

Originally Posted by SamH88

Genuine question, do you have the same issue with Universal Express passes that are far more expensive than the new Genie passes?

As I said in another thread, nobody is being forced to spend extra money if they don't want to. You don't have to pay $15 a day "just to get on a ride" at all because you have the option to just queue for free like many people have always done.

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If you stay at three of the Universal hotels Express Pass is included, it’s unlimited to any ride and you can ride any ride any amount of times. You don’t have to be up at 7am to book a ride, you don’t have to pay extra on top of Genie + for SDMT or Soarin for example.
Pre pandemic we had Magical Express, DDP, Fastpass, Memory Maker, full Daily House Keeping. All of which are not complementary any more or just don’t exist.That’s a heck of a lot you would have to pay to replace compared to express pass at universal. People who can’t afford to pay for what used to be complementary now are going to have a lot less if a magical experience and that makes me sad.

[teachx]

Originally Posted by Memories4You

If you stay at three of the Universal hotels Express Pass is included, it’s unlimited to any ride and you can ride any ride any amount of times. You don’t have to be up at 7am to book a ride, you don’t have to pay extra on top of Genie + for SDMT or Soarin for example.
Pre pandemic we had Magical Express, DDP, Fastpass, Memory Maker, full Daily House Keeping. All of which are not complementary any more or just don’t exist.That’s a heck of a lot you would have to pay to replace compared to express pass at universal. People who can’t afford to pay for what used to be complementary now are going to have a lot less if a magical experience and that makes me sad.

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Just to correct you a little... Memory Maker is still included in my Ultimate ticket, certainly in my ticket for next year!

[SamH88]

Originally Posted by Memories4You

You don’t have to be up at 7am to book a ride, you don’t have to pay extra on top of Genie + for SDMT or Soarin for example.
Pre pandemic we had Magical Express, DDP, Fastpass, Memory Maker, full Daily House Keeping. All of which are not complementary any more or just don’t exist.That’s a heck of a lot you would have to pay to replace compared to express pass at universal. People who can’t afford to pay for what used to be complementary now are going to have a lot less if a magical experience and that makes me sad

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Not everyone can afford to stay at theme park hotels though so for the average person genie+ is more affordable than the Universal express pass.

And you don't have to do those things either. You are free to go and just queue for rides like many people have always done.

Maybe it will actually make holidays more magical for people because eventhing isn't planned months in advance and they can just go with the flow.

[catki11]

There are parts of the Genie planning app I quite like. I’ve used touring plans before so it’ll be interesting to see how it compares.

Genie+ I’m not so sure about. The paying part I’d probably swallow to avoid the worst of the queues, but I’m not happy about only being able to reserve one ride ahead of time & then one at a time after that…oh and at times that Disney chooses not ones that we can choose ourselves. If we go back (& that’s a big if at the moment) we won’t be doing rope drop, so even with Genie+ we’re only guaranteed 1 ride. What if the next ride availability is 2 hrs away…what do we do then? I get that some people are happy to wait in line, great for them, but a lot of people have gotten used to having their 3 rides planned in advance so they at least know they can ride those! I don’t want to spend all that extra money to then have to wait around between rides or be constantly refreshing the app to see if I can find something sooner. Or the other option to wait in line for everything, which isn’t what I’d choose to do as it reduces your time actually doing stuff, especially considering it costs so much to get there & then to get into the park!

Disney gave us free FP+ then took it away to replace it with what is very similar to an electronic/via app old style FP, which now costs extra! If they’d gone straight from paper FP to this then people may have been more accepting, but for a lot of people they’re now having to pay for something that gives them less than what they were previously getting for free!

Disney seem to be banging on about it giving guests chance to be more spontaneous, but they’ve already had a to book a park in advance & even after paying extra for Genie+ may only be able to choose a ride that Disney selects (which ever has the next available time) - doesn’t seem very spontaneous to me!

[Shifu]

Originally Posted by SamH88

Not everyone can afford to stay at theme park hotels though so for the average person genie+ is more affordable than the Universal express pass.

And you don't have to do those things either. You are free to go and just queue for rides like many people have always done.

Maybe it will actually make holidays more magical for people because eventhing isn't planned months in advance and they can just go with the flow.

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It will, I agree, be perfect for those not staying on property. Also for those holidaying on their own, as couples or on honeymoon living in the moment. We had our honeymoon at WDW years ago. I don’t think a single day was planned. It was great. In contrast it was a very different experience to other holidays Ive had there with my eldest son who has severe disabilities or nowadays for myself because I’m no longer able to ‘go with the flow’ and be spontaneous due to various reasons. Equally as great to experience but a whole different game. It’s not as simple as just choosing to wait in line. It’s easy to say they are free to wait in line ‘as they’ve always done’- but that’s just it- it’s not what many HAVE always done. To get those same results now involves more money and much more effort on the day which equates for me as being less magic sadly.

It’s very much horses for courses. Some people’s situations will allow them to happily welcome Disney’s new plans with open arms. Plenty though, with kids or extended family of various generations, or certain individual needs just won’t be able to agree with grinning Gary (?was it?) on the Disney Parks footage.
Maybe time will tell.

New era, new demographic perhaps. Maybe I don’t fit.

Looking forward to hearing if you get a reply OP. 🙂

[Memories4You]

Originally Posted by SamH88

Not everyone can afford to stay at theme park hotels though so for the average person genie+ is more affordable than the Universal express pass.

And you don't have to do those things either. You are free to go and just queue for rides like many people have always done.

Maybe it will actually make holidays more magical for people because eventhing isn't planned months in advance and they can just go with the flow.

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For anyone who's booked their holiday already, for everything I outlined above it would cost an extra $1000 for an average family of four to keep their holiday the same as what the originally booked,and that’s not including the things like housekeeping that you just can’t pay for. Many people just don’t have a spare $1000. Add on another $4000+ if you want to include free full DDP which was included in your resort stay, this never came back after Covid. The equivalent of DDP is worth a fraction, but resort prices stay the same. How can this be more magical?

[Slinky Dog]

Originally Posted by SamH88

And you don't have to do those things either. You are free to go and just queue for rides like many people have always done.

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Maybe most people aren’t happy with spending most of their park days in lines, wasting precious time when they spent £1000’s to be there?

[aydeepee]

The sad thing is there are two main options really;
1. Spend hours in stand by queues - and feverishly checking the app for any direction to rides with lower queues (which everybody else is getting info on also)
2. Pay for the privelege - which means getting on the app at 7am to secure your first ride - then checking your phone after each ride in the hope that the others you WANT to do are still available (to avoid option 1). Oh - and buying tickets to the best rides
I can imagine both options being stressful and frustrating