Why would you want to plan every minute of the day? When I last visited WDW sure, I planned which park I intended to visit, picked a couple of FastPasses for each day and booked a restaurant, everything in between the Pass bookings and restaurants we were able to do what we wanted without needing an app to tell us where we should be. There’s more fun in being spontaneous than having every single detail mapped out.
That is–verbatim–EXACTLY what my casual-fan sister said when she took her grown kids on the once-every-ten-years-or-so visit to WDW a year or two ago.
And found out, to her surprise, that one does not simply walk into Pandora: Flights of Passage.
It would be nice to wing it on a trip, but the WDW reality is, you can’t: Be ye as innocent as doves but as cunning as Internet geeks.
I always took my iPad (didn’t have a smartphone yet) on my first Magic-Band-era WDW trip, since it was handy to use My Disney Experience during the day or before bed, and scramble a few last-minute ride and dinner reservations.
Genie obviously is trying to sell this as a more normal practice for smartphone guests, work in an online Estimated Wait system, and try to transfer guests to the whole Band-free smartphone-scan reservation system.
I think this is aimed more are TouringPlans and the like that give you the ability to have a flexible game plan that accounts for the likely crowds. The one thing that TouringPlans offers that I haven’t seen mentioned with Disney Genie is if you put in your must dos, you can have it minimize walking or wait times or go somewhere in between. That is something that invaluable.
Disney Genie is an unsecured app that can be hacked and will expose the data on your phone. Disney controls the app and will use it to better control park guests. Disney’s only objective is to find ways to generate revenue. It is all about the money …
Well, I do not plan to purchase Genie plus. It would cost us $45/day (there are 3 of us). In total, $270. We need that for transportation to and from the airport, because Disney took away complimentary transportation. On our last trip, it took a while to get our luggage and actually get on a Disney Magic bus (hour and a half). My friend’s service is going to pick us up from the curb and take us to the resort next time. Miss all those Disney perks. It’s hard to say what they will charge us for next.
What spontaneous! You have to have tickets and a park reservation. You know what park you are going to, on what day – long in advance. Now be nervous that you have to get up at 7 am and hope to pay for what we see as an inferior fast pass system. What if Genie is limited and you cannot get one. And you can only have one reservation at a time. And then you have dining reservations that were possibly made 60 days in advance. At least if you stay on property you have first chance at 7am. So much of the perks of staying on property are gone. Extra magic hours (does anyone else remember being in the park at 1am!). magic express (soon at an extra cost and handling your own bags. Profits will continue to go up due to prices going up and more services being at a cost – but attendance is likely to start going down as people are priced out of the experience and it becomes more and more complicated to enjoy Disney. Our family thinks this is another sad day!
I cannot use my phone in the parks because I can’t SEE the screen! And then the stupid phones battery runs out. I was not able to eat the last time we were there because you have to know how to scan a stupid barcode in order to place an order. Horrifying. And now you are charging a fee for an app in order to ride a ride? Years ago I was able to call Disney, then set up a fast pass for each member of my family ahead of time and then enjoy ourselves. No, we didn’t get every ride, but we got to ride the ones we wanted. I suppose you are attempting to weed out the older generation. Well folks, it’s working.
Disney will regret this paid Paid Lightning Lanes & Genie+. They are going to lose business & upset people. I had a great Fast Pass+ system worked out to do everything that I wanted to do over several days. Disney getting rid of free Fast Pass+, Disney’s Magical Express, & Extra Magic Hours will push more people to the parks of their far distant competitor Universal. This is not about guest experiences anymore, now it is only about making extra $ & that is wrong. I don’t like Universal, but they will definitely benefit from Disney’s mistakes.
While I do like the idea of going back to one FP at a time and picking that day (not 2-3 months ahead), I have a question.
If I get there at 9 am (offsite) and the only Haunted Mansion available is at 2:15, does that mean I cannot get any other FP/LL in the meantime? ( Unless it is one of the pay per ride options). That was an issue with paper FP previously.
Mark my words, they will allow Deluxe hotel guests a free pay to ride (I usually stay offsite.). Honestly, they are paying ridiculous amounts, they should get at least one a day or free Genie+ at the minimum.
Used to be the happiest place on earth. Now it’s the greediest place on earth and no one is happy. I used to every year when i was single and dreamed of taking my kids later. Now i am married with two kids and can only afford to go every 4 to 5 years. They are not experiencing the magic i used to experience and love. The freedom is gone. Park hopper is dead. Prices have skyrocketed. This trip this year will probably be our last.
To come from the Uk costs anywhere from £7000-£20000. Now we are expected to pay more to simply get on a ride. No DDP, no Magical Express, No fastpass, no EMH. What is the point. I will stay at Universal -where there are benefits for paying out for the best hotels etc- from now on and visit Disney for a day or two. Greed pure and simple
Universal was going to charge us over $150 PER person, per day for express passes. After we already paid over $1500 for 2 day park to park tickets it would’ve been another $1500 just to skip the line ONE TIME per ride. They’re no better. Actually they’re far worse. I don’t agree with Genie+ but universal is not any better, unfortunately.
My wife and I were Disney fanatics, we went every year, multiple times a year. We now have an 18 month old and we were excited to share Disney world with her, but with all of the recent changes, rise in prices I can’t justify it. Instead of gimmicks like Disney Genie, and charging your loyal customers for literally everything from parking at the resorts, travel to the resort from the airport to even reserving a spot in line, take care of your employees pay them well and they will bring the largest impact to customer experience. We will not be back until things change, and that breaks my heart.
I am not sure what all the fuss is about, Disney is just going for historical accuracy. Disney World has always had royalty (Princes and Princesses) but it is not sustainable for everyone to be Royalty! Disney needed to create a serf class in order to sustain the royalty, and now we finally have it! Gone are the days where my kids are Princesses and Princes, we are now member of the historically accurate Serf Class. Thank you Disney for striving for accuracy and making sure that there is class separation even on vacation! I am a DVC Member and Annual Passholder, and thank God I can feel just as average on vacation now as I do when I am home! If you want to be just another theme park, then keep going down this road of money grabs and destroying the magic that was my childhood, that I shared with my kids. I am doubting there will be a 4th Generation, headed your way, we will just stay home and be average.
Sounds like an expensive version of TouringPlans. This was invaluable on my trips to WDW. The day we didn’t follow their plans we queued and queued. Went straight back to using them the next day. As for the guy saying a trip to a Disney park should be spontaneous…errrmmm… Not sure you’d get to do much other than walk and queue 🙂
We have booked for Disney from the UK next year at a cost of £10,000 for 2 weeks in all Star movie resort as it was the cheapest option, cheap maybe not being the ideal word. This will be our 10th trip to Disney, it’s mine and my wife’s 50th and will also be for our sons 21st and daughters 18. This will definitely be our last trip, it’s taken 3 years to save for this holiday and if I had of know what Disney were planning to do and remove all the perks of booking with them, I would of either stayed in a lot cheaper off site option or not have booked. It’s already expensive enough and with the fast pass you maybe got on 4 rides a day and then some queuing, I will pay for the genie of course otherwise the parks become just a waiting ground but I’m disgusted with it and I hope that greed and trying regain what they have lost by getting people to pay extra will bite them in the bum. They already overcharge you by 400 percent as it is so as much as I love Disney, my love as been lost. It will become a park for the rich and famous and I am neither, working class will see the world once more and Disney will become a memory.
What happened to making 3 wishes per park 60 days in advance if staying on property. This getting up at 7 am and planning my day each day really bites. I will get up and the ONE ride allowed and go back to sleep. Wont use this phone app for anything else. Cancelled dining plans to pay for genie. so we get a ice cream or a food truck hotdog. this really sucks. I want to have my plans done 60 days out. You suck greedy man chapek and A’maro.
I’m pretty sure I’ve run out of nickels and dimes here. Can’t blame a man for wanting to make a buck, but all they have really created is a ride tax. Which means the rich are the only ones getting ahead… again.
I love disney, I love the parks however I feel like the magic is slipping away, is this what Walt would have wanted!? I feel it is slightly money grabbing. disappointed. Families save up to enjoy the holiday of a lifetime, this new fast pass is aimed at the rich not the ‘normal’ families and they’re marketing as an exciting new app but in fact its another way to make money!
Comments for Why “Disney Genie”? Disney Parks Chairman Explains!
Thomas
Why would you want to plan every minute of the day? When I last visited WDW sure, I planned which park I intended to visit, picked a couple of FastPasses for each day and booked a restaurant, everything in between the Pass bookings and restaurants we were able to do what we wanted without needing an app to tell us where we should be. There’s more fun in being spontaneous than having every single detail mapped out.
EricJ
That is–verbatim–EXACTLY what my casual-fan sister said when she took her grown kids on the once-every-ten-years-or-so visit to WDW a year or two ago.
And found out, to her surprise, that one does not simply walk into Pandora: Flights of Passage.
It would be nice to wing it on a trip, but the WDW reality is, you can’t: Be ye as innocent as doves but as cunning as Internet geeks.
I always took my iPad (didn’t have a smartphone yet) on my first Magic-Band-era WDW trip, since it was handy to use My Disney Experience during the day or before bed, and scramble a few last-minute ride and dinner reservations.
Genie obviously is trying to sell this as a more normal practice for smartphone guests, work in an online Estimated Wait system, and try to transfer guests to the whole Band-free smartphone-scan reservation system.
Chris
I think this is aimed more are TouringPlans and the like that give you the ability to have a flexible game plan that accounts for the likely crowds. The one thing that TouringPlans offers that I haven’t seen mentioned with Disney Genie is if you put in your must dos, you can have it minimize walking or wait times or go somewhere in between. That is something that invaluable.
Bob
Disney Genie is an unsecured app that can be hacked and will expose the data on your phone. Disney controls the app and will use it to better control park guests. Disney’s only objective is to find ways to generate revenue. It is all about the money …
beautiful gorgeous
Well, I do not plan to purchase Genie plus. It would cost us $45/day (there are 3 of us). In total, $270. We need that for transportation to and from the airport, because Disney took away complimentary transportation. On our last trip, it took a while to get our luggage and actually get on a Disney Magic bus (hour and a half). My friend’s service is going to pick us up from the curb and take us to the resort next time. Miss all those Disney perks. It’s hard to say what they will charge us for next.
Love the World
What spontaneous! You have to have tickets and a park reservation. You know what park you are going to, on what day – long in advance. Now be nervous that you have to get up at 7 am and hope to pay for what we see as an inferior fast pass system. What if Genie is limited and you cannot get one. And you can only have one reservation at a time. And then you have dining reservations that were possibly made 60 days in advance. At least if you stay on property you have first chance at 7am. So much of the perks of staying on property are gone. Extra magic hours (does anyone else remember being in the park at 1am!). magic express (soon at an extra cost and handling your own bags. Profits will continue to go up due to prices going up and more services being at a cost – but attendance is likely to start going down as people are priced out of the experience and it becomes more and more complicated to enjoy Disney. Our family thinks this is another sad day!
Paula from Maryland
I cannot use my phone in the parks because I can’t SEE the screen! And then the stupid phones battery runs out. I was not able to eat the last time we were there because you have to know how to scan a stupid barcode in order to place an order. Horrifying. And now you are charging a fee for an app in order to ride a ride? Years ago I was able to call Disney, then set up a fast pass for each member of my family ahead of time and then enjoy ourselves. No, we didn’t get every ride, but we got to ride the ones we wanted. I suppose you are attempting to weed out the older generation. Well folks, it’s working.
Ed Marks
Disney will regret this paid Paid Lightning Lanes & Genie+. They are going to lose business & upset people. I had a great Fast Pass+ system worked out to do everything that I wanted to do over several days. Disney getting rid of free Fast Pass+, Disney’s Magical Express, & Extra Magic Hours will push more people to the parks of their far distant competitor Universal. This is not about guest experiences anymore, now it is only about making extra $ & that is wrong. I don’t like Universal, but they will definitely benefit from Disney’s mistakes.
JW
I’m beginning to think these people making these decisions for Disney actually work for Universal….
Paul Hine
I hope they lose business in the thousands, it will definitely be my last visit.
Ren
While I do like the idea of going back to one FP at a time and picking that day (not 2-3 months ahead), I have a question.
If I get there at 9 am (offsite) and the only Haunted Mansion available is at 2:15, does that mean I cannot get any other FP/LL in the meantime? ( Unless it is one of the pay per ride options). That was an issue with paper FP previously.
Mark my words, they will allow Deluxe hotel guests a free pay to ride (I usually stay offsite.). Honestly, they are paying ridiculous amounts, they should get at least one a day or free Genie+ at the minimum.
Jason
Used to be the happiest place on earth. Now it’s the greediest place on earth and no one is happy. I used to every year when i was single and dreamed of taking my kids later. Now i am married with two kids and can only afford to go every 4 to 5 years. They are not experiencing the magic i used to experience and love. The freedom is gone. Park hopper is dead. Prices have skyrocketed. This trip this year will probably be our last.
JK
Disney named it Genie because they can’t just come out and call it Greed and Greed+.
Paul Hine
Brilliant and so true👍
Paul Hine
I commented down below, will definitely be our last trip, I wouldn’t of booked if I’d of known.
Emma
To come from the Uk costs anywhere from £7000-£20000. Now we are expected to pay more to simply get on a ride. No DDP, no Magical Express, No fastpass, no EMH. What is the point. I will stay at Universal -where there are benefits for paying out for the best hotels etc- from now on and visit Disney for a day or two. Greed pure and simple
Paul Hine
I absolutely agree, we have sadly booked for next year at a cost of £10,000 from the UK, if I’d of known, universal would of gotten my money too.
Elle
Universal was going to charge us over $150 PER person, per day for express passes. After we already paid over $1500 for 2 day park to park tickets it would’ve been another $1500 just to skip the line ONE TIME per ride. They’re no better. Actually they’re far worse. I don’t agree with Genie+ but universal is not any better, unfortunately.
Evan
My wife and I were Disney fanatics, we went every year, multiple times a year. We now have an 18 month old and we were excited to share Disney world with her, but with all of the recent changes, rise in prices I can’t justify it. Instead of gimmicks like Disney Genie, and charging your loyal customers for literally everything from parking at the resorts, travel to the resort from the airport to even reserving a spot in line, take care of your employees pay them well and they will bring the largest impact to customer experience. We will not be back until things change, and that breaks my heart.
Paul Hine
I absolutely agree, they are making so much on food and merchandising they didn’t need to do this. Disgusting
DisneyWorldSerf
I am not sure what all the fuss is about, Disney is just going for historical accuracy. Disney World has always had royalty (Princes and Princesses) but it is not sustainable for everyone to be Royalty! Disney needed to create a serf class in order to sustain the royalty, and now we finally have it! Gone are the days where my kids are Princesses and Princes, we are now member of the historically accurate Serf Class. Thank you Disney for striving for accuracy and making sure that there is class separation even on vacation! I am a DVC Member and Annual Passholder, and thank God I can feel just as average on vacation now as I do when I am home! If you want to be just another theme park, then keep going down this road of money grabs and destroying the magic that was my childhood, that I shared with my kids. I am doubting there will be a 4th Generation, headed your way, we will just stay home and be average.
Darren
Sounds like an expensive version of TouringPlans. This was invaluable on my trips to WDW. The day we didn’t follow their plans we queued and queued. Went straight back to using them the next day. As for the guy saying a trip to a Disney park should be spontaneous…errrmmm… Not sure you’d get to do much other than walk and queue 🙂
Paul Hine
We have booked for Disney from the UK next year at a cost of £10,000 for 2 weeks in all Star movie resort as it was the cheapest option, cheap maybe not being the ideal word. This will be our 10th trip to Disney, it’s mine and my wife’s 50th and will also be for our sons 21st and daughters 18. This will definitely be our last trip, it’s taken 3 years to save for this holiday and if I had of know what Disney were planning to do and remove all the perks of booking with them, I would of either stayed in a lot cheaper off site option or not have booked. It’s already expensive enough and with the fast pass you maybe got on 4 rides a day and then some queuing, I will pay for the genie of course otherwise the parks become just a waiting ground but I’m disgusted with it and I hope that greed and trying regain what they have lost by getting people to pay extra will bite them in the bum. They already overcharge you by 400 percent as it is so as much as I love Disney, my love as been lost. It will become a park for the rich and famous and I am neither, working class will see the world once more and Disney will become a memory.
yoyo
What happened to making 3 wishes per park 60 days in advance if staying on property. This getting up at 7 am and planning my day each day really bites. I will get up and the ONE ride allowed and go back to sleep. Wont use this phone app for anything else. Cancelled dining plans to pay for genie. so we get a ice cream or a food truck hotdog. this really sucks. I want to have my plans done 60 days out. You suck greedy man chapek and A’maro.
Marty
I’m pretty sure I’ve run out of nickels and dimes here. Can’t blame a man for wanting to make a buck, but all they have really created is a ride tax. Which means the rich are the only ones getting ahead… again.
sunshineamy
I love disney, I love the parks however I feel like the magic is slipping away, is this what Walt would have wanted!? I feel it is slightly money grabbing. disappointed. Families save up to enjoy the holiday of a lifetime, this new fast pass is aimed at the rich not the ‘normal’ families and they’re marketing as an exciting new app but in fact its another way to make money!
Comments are closed.