Fastpass / Genie - are you going to need a doctorate to understand it?

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by mostlybobbins

But if people aren't queuing as much they're buying food or buying merch and staying in the bubble longer and loving Disney life. Genie/Genie+ enables that. It's not a tool just to drive up earnings in itself.

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My thinking is that, say 10000 people ride an attraction in a day. The rate at which those people can embark on that ride will be the same whether there are no passes, fast passes, fast passes plus or genie. The ride comes in, the seats are filled and it then pulls away. The only way that it can be speeded up is by more or longer carriages.

What will change is the order in which those people will get on the ride and with some waiting a longer time and some, a shorter time.. or if you are someone important like a Kardayshun, an immediate embarcation.

What Disney May reckon on is that those holding a Genie pass are rather wealthy to afford it and as such, are more likely to buy more merchandise than Billy Bloggs who has stretched his finances in order to simply get into the park… Billy can thus wait all day if he ain’t gonna spend anything on Merchandise in any case. They want the ‘big spenders’ to queue for as shorter time as is possible and get out there with their credit cards touts sweet.

Those who believe that privilege passes will speed things up as a whole, are wrong. It will simply and only sped things up for the privileged who are holding them, whilst lengthening the waits for the ‘Billy Bloggs’ as a consequence. This is fine, unless you are one of the ‘Billy Bloggs’..

Basic maths.

What May go wrong is that thousands of ‘Billy Bloggs’, may not now enter the park at all, preferring better value elsewhere in Universal, Seaworld, Busch and co… or even 6 Flags, Knotts, Warner, Dollywood, Hershey and co, thus not going to Orlando at all! That will inevitably impact on the other, non Disney Parks and more importantly, the sudden excess of accommodation that may then have to either lower their rates.. or close.

The Disney cash flow is not only built around those who are Disney obsessed. There are also casual visitors and 96%? of them not from the U.K. either. They may go elsewhere… like me! They may just want entertainment and value, not giving a Rats a++e yet alone a Mouses a++e whether Disney PLC is involved at all.

[mostlybobbins]

Originally Posted by Leia77

None of us know how this will impact queues - we really don’t. That’s speculation. What I do know is that my advanced planning option has gone and I now need to pay to avoid stand by lines. That’s a fact.

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Disney do. It's how MaxPass works in DL. That's the model. It's not speculation. They have all the data in the world to base it on.

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by mostlybobbins

Disney do. It's how MaxPass works in DL. That's the model. It's not speculation. They have all the data in the world to base it on.

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The European culture and market may or may not be totally different to the Florida, Tokyo or Anaheim market.

I have been to Paris, Annaheim and Orlando Disney’s and the clientele are totally different in my opinion. Marketing at one such park and it’s success or failure may be very different to another.. For starters, the culture and expectations of the average punter may be totally different across these thousands of miles.

I feel sure however, that Disney PLC will have taken all of this into account in their strategy.

[Leia77]

Originally Posted by mostlybobbins

Disney do. It's how MaxPass works in DL. That's the model. It's not speculation. They have all the data in the world to base it on.

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Well, they can project what the impact will be. We don’t actually know what those projections are, unless their stats have been shared. So, I will take it with a pinch of salt for now when they say this will reduce queue sizes - for me, that’s part of their selling point for their paid genie+ pass. We’ll soon see, though. I’m hoping you are correct, but I say again, none of us on here know what impact this will have on queues.

[Buzz n' Piglet]

Haven't read the thread. Any mention of there being a discount for UK Ultimate tickets?

Potentially an extra $800 for a family of 4.

I imagine a very high percentage of US visitors will pay an extra $15 per day head for a short trip, which may make standby lines ridiculously long all the time, making for a very unenjoyable trip for those without it.

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by Buzz n' Piglet

Haven't read the thread. Any mention of there being a discount for UK Ultimate tickets?

Potentially an extra $800 for a family of 4.

I imagine a very high percentage of US visitors will pay an extra $15 per day head for a short trip, which may make standby lines ridiculously long all the time, making for a very unenjoyable trip for those without it.

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You have got the gist of it, whether you have read it or not. It could work out at considerably more than $800 unless you are talking about just a single day.

[Buzz n' Piglet]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

You have got the gist of it, whether you have read it or not. It could work out at considerably more than $800 unless you are talking about just a single day.

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I was just going off $60 times 14 for Genie plus, that's obviously before considering the additional rides not included.

[Pumba75]

Originally Posted by mostlybobbins

But if people aren't queuing as much they're buying food or buying merch and staying in the bubble longer and loving Disney life. Genie/Genie+ enables that. It's not a tool just to drive up earnings in itself.

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It is purely a tool to drive up earnings, any perceived ancillary improvement in “experience” will be a happy coincidence.

The park reservation system gives WDW all the tools it needs to manage capacity and, therefore, experience, but it doesn’t allow them to monetise it further, hence where we are.

If it was really about experience then there wouldn’t be additional unspecified charges for the headliners.

Originally Posted by Leia77

None of us know how this will impact queues - we really don’t

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Exactly - I mentioned in another thread, Touring Plans did analysis on queue lengths pre and post Fastpass+ and the results showed that the impact on most attractions was minimal, and some actually went down.

The theory that it’s a good thing because “it worked better before fastpass” is based purely on perception and overlooks the fact that in the pre-fastpass days the parks were attracting in excess of 20m visitors per year.

[Pumba75]

Originally Posted by mostlybobbins

Disney do. It's how MaxPass works in DL. That's the model. It's not speculation. They have all the data in the world to base it on.

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Having all the data in the world is of little use if you’re not looking beyond the financials though.

[MJ6987]

Remember the $15 a day for Genie+ is “introductory” pricing - that bargain price won’t last long