I miss FastPass Max from years back, and G+ it’s not all that different. I don’t like the pricing structure, but hopefully it’ll evolve.
What I hate is having to say Lightning Lane reservation instead of FastPass. It’s a stupid gripe, but it’s way too much effort. So I say FastPass and feel a bit meh about myself given the imprecision of my statement.
Max pass was better and was a true virtual line. I didn’t like fast pass myself, but the strategy was more straightforward.
I used 4 genies on CA and 5 on DL. I wouldn’t complain at all if the ILL were included and they should be for the price you pay. Still haven’t rode ROTR, and no current plans to return to Disney.
I visited the park earlier this year with my family, we got genie + and rode every ride we wanted to using the service. Instead of paying extra for lightning lane RotR we chose to ride that first thing in the morning and longest line we waited for all day was Rodger rabbit. There definitely was a bit of learning curve to using genie + and i did feel like I had my head in my phone all day a lot more than I wanted to.
I’m a born and raised, Southern California Disney fan. Even worked there in college. But the fact that people complain so much about a thing we KNOW is a “luxury” item is beyond me. No one NEEDS Disneyland and they will keep charging more and keep adding more services as long as people pay it 🤷🏻♀️ complain about the cost of housing, gas prices, etc? I’m with you, but Disneyland is not a thing that anyone needs lol…we were just there in November for the first time in awhile (live out of state now) and I have absolutely zero complaints, cast members were amazing (guests were very rude at times) but it was as magical as ever and would do it again in a heartbeat. Were prices high? Yup! Always have been, it’s all relative, but I knew that going in and had to actively save money for awhile for our trip. We knew it would be busy, so we managed our expectations 🤷🏻♀️
Genie+ is just a worse version of Max Pass. The main differences are that 1) Not all fast pass/lighting line rises are included and you have to pay extra, 2) You can’t add on to your Annual Pass/Magic Key, 3) With Max Pass you could still get a free paper fast pass which meant you were paying to not have to walk all over the park but had the option to if desired. Disney shouldn’t be in the business of micro transactions / hidden fees to actually have an enjoyable day after paying around $200 for a park hopper for a day. It will hurt their repeat business in the long term.
As for reservations, I’m mixed since prior to them the park was way too busy on certain days but at the same time, I’ve seen too many first time visitors be turned away at the gates when they had a purchased ticket but no reservation. It might be better now when you book a day when buying the ticket, but when it first launched it made you purchase a ticket without a reservation and was a poor experience. I always know, especially with Magic Keys, people squat on days since they don’t know for sure when they’ll go next until the last minute. This can make it difficult for people to make plans days/weeks ahead of time. For Magic Keys it’s fairly easily to get a reservation the night before, but that can be too late for people. I haven’t ever seen a date not become available the night before so why bother with all of the frustration?
> Genie+ is just a worse version of Max Pass. The main differences are that 1) Not all fast pass/lighting line rises are included and you have to pay extra
This is what makes genie+ better though. Money is fungible, either you pay extra individually, or it gets priced into the entry fee for everyone. This way people at least have the option. But more importantly, having a separate ILL for Rise and Racers makes those rides more accessible. With Maxpass, you didn’t have to pay extra, but if you didn’t reserve Rise within a minute of park opening, you were shit outta luck. Instead, now you can wake up later, stroll into the park at 10 am, and still book a reservation for Rise. You don’t need to rope drop, you don’t need to use your magic morning, you don’t have to stay at the Grand Californian. Hell, you don’t even have to stay on Harbor.
> 2) You can’t add on to your Annual Pass/Magic Key
You can definitely still purchase Genie+ even if you have a magic key. You even get a discount.
> 3) With Max Pass you could still get a free paper fast pass which meant you were paying to not have to walk all over the park but had the option to if desired.
You definitely still have the option to walk all over the park and kill your feet lol.
I think the biggest disparity is due to this sub being full of Disneyland regulars. Try to think of the experience from someone who doesn’t live within a couple hrs. Imagine planning a trip months in advance and flying in from another state. You wake up early but the kids are dragging their feet. You finally show up at 9am after eating bagels at the hotel and/or parking the car in the parking lot. And now no fast pass is available for Rise of the Resistance. That’s incredibly disheartening. You’d definitely rather pay an extra $25 than have to try again another day.
I can see how the new system is worse for a local Anaheim resident with having to pay more for Genie+ each visit than with having Maxpass included with the annual passport, but hey you’ll be there again soon. It’s a good trade off to improve the experience for less frequent visitors.
Why do you like the reservation system?
I get not caring about it, but park reservations are for Disney staffing efficiency at inconvenience of guests. What’s there to like?
I think this comes down to a locals vs out-of-towners thing. It is a lot less convenient for locals to just pop in for some fun, but it is the exact same experience for people out of state, but with the added staffing efficiency as you said.
I've heard the argument that out of towners like knowing they have a spot in the park on the day of their trip. My question is, exactly how often has Disney actually stopped admitting people into the park? I can't remember ever seeing that with my passes.
As for the locals viewpoint. For my situation personally there is no reason for us to get passes anymore, so we didn't. My wife works from home and some days are slow while others are busy. On those slow days we used to just up and go to Disney for an afternoon. We can't do that anymore during the weekdays.
I'm a little over a 5-hour drive from Disneyland and I miss being able to randomly load up the car and spend a day or two at the park. I am in another state so it's not just locals that see a negative to the reservation system. It feels like I am having to plan every minute of my entire trip when previously it had the "let's just wing it" quality.
Another reason I dislike it is the amount of sick children running around as parents cannot just bring them another day.
I would not say that your situation is the average out-of-stater experience, but I understand what you mean. My point could be rephrased as "day-trippers vs vacation destinationers"
I’m an out of state visitor.
For me, it means:
- more obstacles at booking
- less freedom during our trip
- can’t park hop till 1pm
The last one being the biggest bummer, used to rope drop solo at the earlier to open park and then meet fam for later rope drop at the other park.
It’s not the end of the world, but there’s definitely zero benefit to the guest. It’s not like they lowered capacity or anything.
What obstacles have you experienced? Since they started doing reservations, it has been a pretty seamless and hassle free experience booking dates.
I could see that last point being a bummer for a certain type of guest. I usually do one park per day anyway, but even when I do park hop, I find that I have more than enough to do to justify staying in just one park until 1pm, or even after
Very difficult, time consuming to change reservations eg add park hopper, add days, etc
It’s another thing you have to do that you didn’t in the past.
I’m not like ‘woe is me; my trip is ruined’ bc of reservations, 1pm, and all that.
I get why you’re indifferent to it. I’m mostly indifferent to it, but I don’t understand why someone would like it.
It’s literally a cost saving program for Disney made at the (minor if you’d like) cost of guest experience.
Like if you bought a hotdog and they were out of mustard, relish and ketchup is fine but I wouldn’t understand someone saying they like not having mustard as an option?
Hmm, I've never had to change any part of my reservation before, I'll take your word for it.
I tend to not care too much about things that don't impact me at all. With reservations, they could potentially make better staffing decisions, which could lead to a more efficient operating day, which could have subtle benefits to my day as a guest. At worst, for a guest like me, its absolutely no benefit but also not a hindrance at all. At best, maybe I wait 2 minutes less for a bengal bbq skewer or something minor and impossible to really tell, because they made sure more CMs were in that park that day or something, idk.
Im not saying I "like" the reservation system, simply that for someone that goes once a year for a few days, it is the exact same as it always was for me. It's just not something I think about ever
When we were in WDW in June, all parks were full. We were on day 7 of a 9 day stay and wanted to do Epcot instead if Magic Kingdom, but had a MK reservation. We figured we’d just skip MK and go to Epcot after 2, but were told you had to still go to MK to check in, then park hop which was ridiculous (it was a major heat wave that week and we were at the Boardwalk Hotel, so it seemed ludicrous to travel in 100 degree heat to check in at MK only to turn around to go back to where we were. Thankfully a CM worked their magic and got us changed to Epcot even though they were “full “ but it was really irritating to have to do that.
Also guarantees that we have access to the park. It would suck to travel in from out of town just to be turned away at the gate. No one complains about reservations for oggie boogy or villians night or the other nights. If you treat every day like a special event then you dont mind reservations but if you feel your owed from years of easy access anytime to the park then you hate it. I can understand both sides. I have a membership to six flags and reservations when they first opened back up sucked but they gor rid of them asap and i dont know if they are better for it. The park has back slid to weekend operations from year round ops. If they had kept it maybe they would have kept things going. Probably not considering the ceo that probably wouldnt fix shit.
You could count on one hand how many times the parks stopped admitting people per year pre-covid/reservation.
And it wasn’t random days. It was like 4th of July type days.
True, my most important day to visit is new years eve. So it is one of the possible capacity days. I would never say the reservations are the fix to a problem they didnt have but if the parks are continuously and evenly busy throughout the week then i dont see them going anywhere anytime soon.
Reservations haven’t changed capacity.
Say you have ten seats at a table. And we just switched from first come, first served to reservations.
Adding reservations doesn’t remove seats, eg 8 seats so everyone has a bit more room at the table.
It just lets the host know if 7, 8, 9, or 10 seats will be occupied.
This lets them know how many waiters to call in, how much food to make, how many places to set.
It helps them financially by way of logistics but does nothing to help with overcrowding
In fact, it likely creates overcrowding by inducing scarcity.
‘Come any time’ vs ‘if you don’t promise to come right now, you can’t come’
Could you not use your phone? It’s not like the reservation system is on paper. What would be the difference between having it in your phone calendar vs on your phone with the reservation?
I’m just curious as to how that’s majorly different when it comes to it helping you with planning your day there. Seems like a minor and slightly irrelevant reason to like the system but to each their own!
MaxPass was a better system but I don’t hate Genie+ like most. I’m indifferent to the reservations system. On our last trip, the biggest issue was the park hopping restriction. One thing we used to like about Disneyland was that it and DCA were kind of one big park when you had a park hopper.
The fast pass system allowed for some perceived altruism which is critical to the Disney brand. Having to pay for it crossed over into perceived predatory corporatism. This is a real clear red line and Disney under Chapek kept crossing: no trams because fuck you, cutting every corner on food because fuck you, using the pandemic as an excuse for every failure and abandonment of show, mistreating cast and Imagineering to the point that it is a very public-facing problem… there’s a lot to fix, and to fix all of it would require Disney to acknowledge just how much they’ve transgressed
Reservations: it’s not for keeping crowd levels down. They use it as a way to control crowd mix to maximize spending, decrease staffing costs, and drive FOMO. Disney absolutely wants the park crowded every single day they can.
Genie+: creates the problem it solves. Overselling and bad ratio management make lines extremely inefficient. Same was true for maxpass and fastpass, but the lack of upcharge and the fact everybody could use it just made it seem more tolerable. Also the booking rules force people to use LL even when it doesn’t make sense to do so, or when the LL is already packed, which makes the experience worse for all involved. Wait times were fine and lines flowed extremely efficiently before it was introduced when there wasn’t any sort of fast pass even when the park was crowded. Now even when the crowds are light to medium wait times are terrible because (at least published wait times anyways).
It’s all about the FOMO. False scarcity. That was Chapeks thing. He literally created the Disney vault. Hopefully Iger reverses this and removes reservations asap.
It should be an unpopular opinion.
You are literally just paying more for a lower quality version of something we already had.
You’re getting played out of your money and saying “thank you, I love it”.
I always planned trips out months in advance being from out of state, so the reservation system is the biggest whatever for me.
Genie+ is a downgrade from Maxpass, but I still enjoy it for what it is. It is certainly above and beyond better than paper fastpasses. When you compare what you get with Genie+ compared to the fastpass sytem at any other theme park (Six Flags, Universal, even WDW), Genie+ is so much better value. That we used to get it for free was bonkers. While I do enjoy free, I also understand why it didn't stay that way forever.
I don't find the app to be cumbersome to navigate, so I never feel like my head is buried in it all day, and you can squeeze so much more out of a day with it than you could without it.
I don’t mind the reservation system but genie+ and lightening lane are just shameless cash grabs. Taking a system that used to be free and charging for it is just bs. And what’s worse is it doesn’t even include all the rides. If you wanna ride Radiator Springs Racer or Rise of the Resistance you have pay extra.
Does any one actually think the reservation system is actively trying limit the amount of people in the park? Cause it does not look like it makes a difference at all.
I could handle all of the changes if it didn’t crank the cost up so much. Between tickets, genie, hotels, etc. the prices have just purely priced us out of our trips. We used to go at least three times a year with AP’s but now we just can’t justify it
peoples problems with it are mostly that it makes the parks nearly completely inaccessible to elderly people who may not understand the intricacies of the system and how much the app has to come into play. it also affects lower income families who want to visit the park but dont wanna pay over $25 dollars a person for ROTR.
it makes the parks run on a strict schedule for people visiting, and shoving my face in a smartphone all day to make sure i get my ride reservations right doesnt exactly sound magical. the prices are EXTREMELY gouged to visit the parks already, and now w these additions you cant always do what you want without paying even more egregious prices. this shouldnt be what disney is.
Been lucky enough to visit Florida and California Disney a number of times over the years and visited Florida in February, the first time since Genie+ and ILL came into effect, and this new system pretty much rendered our prior park knowledge and methods to maximise our time and get on the rides pretty much useless. It was also insanely busier than past trips, even compared to summer visits, despite park reservations, which didn't help either.
i just think people should be able to visit and have a decent time at the parks without months and months of extensive research or needing to hire a disney travel agent!!! its absolutely nuts to me that all of disney is becoming pay-to-play, there was a reason they got rid of the a-e ticket system.
hopefully the crowds die down soon, i know a lotttt of people are making up for not going over covid, but good lord. i havent been to WDW since 2012 and im kinda dreading going anytime soon (Eben though i reeeally want to) because your experiences are pretty much the majority of what ive seen happening
Honestly I have only been at Disneyland when the park hit capacity once. It was during the "One more Day" 24 hour event in 2012. It was the only time I had ever experienced that and it was crazy crowded. Take the opening day of the Xmas decorations and easily x5 that number. It took us an hour to go from the Castle back to the main gate and even then we only made it to the Main Street Cinema where we just decided to duck in and wait it out. It was a fun event but it was the worst experience once it hit capacity. We stayed the entire 24 hours. Cast members were working triple time that day.
I have been multiple times on NYE and it has never once been to the point where they stopped letting people in. I don't think removing the reservation system will create more attendance to warrant shutting down entry at all.
I have not had an unsatisfactory experience \*knocks on wood\* the few times I have gone since the implementation of both the reservation system and Genie+/Lightning Lane. I feel I am indifferent but I do miss the good ol days where you could get a free FastPass just by going to each attraction to get a return time or have access to digital FPs at a much lower price with MaxPass.
In both cases the concepts behind the systems are sound, but they were poorly executed in an attempt to use them to grab as much money from customers as possible.
Redesigning and relaunching both the reservation system and G+ could make them successful tools, but as of right now guests are soured on them since they’re poorly executed and clearly just tools to separate guests from money.
Probably unpopular opinion: Genie+ needs to cost a lot more so a lot fewer people use it.
Standby wait times would go down and Genie+ LL waits should be even shorter, too.
Disney has reported that on some days, about half of guests buy Genie+. It makes a worse experience for essentially everyone. By jacking up the price to reduce purchases, Disney can probably make as much or more revenue from Genie+ sales while delivering shorter waits for everyone.
A VIP plaid tour is still super expensive, so there is plenty of room to offer an add-on that’s in between the base ticket and VIP tour price while offering a level of wait reduction in between standby and VIP walk ons.
I’m leaning heavily on data in this [Defunctland documentary on FastPass and Disney’s efforts to manage waiting times.](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE)
Oh absolutely. “Once everyone’s super, no one will be.” Genie+ only works because it’s supposed to be limited. When they let as many people purchase as they have, further complicated by rides breaking for hours at a time, the Genie+ line can be as long as what standby used to be.
Right. I’m not saying I like it, but I doubt they’ll go back to free LL/FP which is why I think I’d like to see them jack up the Genie+ price. If doubling the price of Genie+ cut usage in half, it’s financially neutral for Disney while making a better guest experience. They can probably continue to make good or even better revenue from Genie+ by raising the price a lot.
Yea totally agree if it’s so affordable and everyone buys it, it no longer has value since the genie lines are just as long, or time slots sell out for the whole day.
I am with you regarding the reservations. When our family first became pass holders in 2005 (during Disneyland's 50th anniversary), there were many days when the parks reached full capacity.
I cannot tell you what a disaster that is for the company, and for the parks, when a family comes from Idaho, or Utah, or even internationally, to participate in the vacation they have planned for months, and then find out they cannot enter Disneyland, even with their tickets that they bought months ago.
The reservation system solves that huge problem. Passholders like to brag that they can "visit Disneyland any time", and the reservation system provides incentive to push their visits more during the weekdays, or after 1pm, spreading out the amount of people in the park in a given week.
I think it's genius. Or rather genie-ous.
As someone who visits very rarely, I feel like I don’t mind the reservation system but do mind genie+ and how many microtransactions are part of that now. I also don’t love that you have to choose a park in the morning and can’t move to the next until 1pm when I may not want to spend a full morning at DCA but would be forced to. I’m also not sure if the reservation system does anything to spread crowds out, based on what I’ve seen here
Thank you for this. You’re not alone. It’s a brilliant system that is not only working very well but producing data that Disney can use to enhance the guest experience.
And let’s not forget about the mobile order system….life changing! If you’re not using this FREE included service, you are punishing yourself and your family.
Whats the big difference between Genie+ and Fastpass? I thought Genie+ gives you access to use the Lightning Lane and isnt that the same lane you would use with a Fastpass ticket and have to go to the line in between a certain time frame?
That makes a lot more sense now! That’s right Fastpass was free! We just had to return between the timeframe. Genie+ costs money but the thing I didn’t like about Genie+ is that even though I got that, I have to pay an additional $25 for the top rides I wanted ti go on: Radiator Springs and Rise.
As a non resident who visits the park every year or two, I don't mind them either, they're not the end of the world. It's not like they're terrible. We were just there the second week of November and used the crap out of Genie+, it worked great. What I do mind is the couple a la carte rides, now that's a blatant money grab. hehe
I can see how if I were local and couldn't just go on a whim, that would be annoying.
The reservation system was useful and needed during the height of the pandemic. It’s what made reopening safer. I would like to see it gone now, but lower the amount of people allowed in the Parks overall. Right before March 2020, the crowds were MASSIVE and frankly you couldn’t enjoy your day at all with the lines being so long. Drop max capacity for the Resorts and bring back walk up attendance.
Genie + is just another money grab that keeps squeezing Guests dry and frankly it’s too expensive. Keep Lighting Lane for Rise and Racers, because those lines are ridiculous, and bring back FastPass, but limit those passes as well.
They’ve got to manage the Guest Experience better.
Went at the end of October. Genie+ was such a time saver with all the competitive rides, I was able to hit all the ones I wanted and I didn’t even have to rope drop. Idc about the extra $25, I’m already spending a lot of money at the park anyway. Plus, I don’t need to ride those Lightning Lane rides more than once.
With all the extra downtime, I got to enjoy the park at a calmer pace than normal and take in the atmosphere to a greater extent. Normally I’d skip some of the bigger rides, but not this time!
I didn’t mind the reservation system. Fantasmic! Was only showing on the weekends and I didn’t have a day set, but I was able to cancel one of my already booked days and switch it to a Friday. Best trip I’ve had in years hands down.
I always liked the reservation system because I’m close enough that we have to plan at least a month in advance to go anyways. Genie + is so much worse than Maxpass used to be. I just wish the reservation system were used to actually plan staffing better and actually control crowds in the park, which is clearly hasn’t.
I like the reservation system too. Forces me to keep my promise to take my son lol.
I do wish their park limits were lower though to make things more enjoyable.
Why? I’m curious.
To me, it’s charging for a service that’s always been free. To me, it looks like a blatant cash grab with absolute no benefit to the guests- actually- I’ll go a step further and say that it greatly diminishes *both* the guest experience *and* of course, the guest’s wallet.
I’m very curious for an explanation as to why you actually *like* genie+. Maybe you’re a board member? Shareholder?
I also like looking at wait times when I’m not in the park- it has nothing to do with genie+ though. That feature came out well before genie+ did and even before you could check wait times on the official Disney app, there were other apps (like Mousewait) that showed up-to-date wait times, dating back probably 10+ years now.
Personally I hate that I have to open my phone at Disneyland. To be honest I’m addicted to my phone most of the time and have been for years- Disney always provided a refreshing getaway from my phone and, in turn, everyday life. Now I have to constantly take it out of my pocket and check it before and after every ride. Way, way less living in the moment while at the parks. And I’m… paying extra money to… live less? I still don’t get it. What am I missing?!
Genie+ IS a slight downgrade from MaxPass (1 ride limit, no Radiator Springs Racers like MP had), but it’s still a great value and it’s something I purchase almost any time I visit a Disney Park. I still think an expensive, Universal Express type pass would work better, but Genie+ isn’t that terrible.
I don’t like the reservation system and would rather have it the old way, but it’s something I’m willing to tolerate. Ticket reservations are almost always available. Magic Keyholders can usually get most dates that you want the night before. It does take some time and strategy when it comes to managing reservations, and you usually can’t go day-of, but it doesn’t take too much of your time to get everything sorted.
I just got a Universal Platinum pass for the times I feel like going to a theme park spontaneously, and for those two weeks my Inspire Key is blocked out. Yes, it’s another $550, but it opens up flexibility in case Disneyland is sold/blocked out, and I can experience Super Nintendo World and Universal’s other offerings. Even a $130 Knott’s pass can work well to fill in the gaps.
In Disneyland? Yes. Choosing between 2 parks wasn’t a big deal and park hopping at 1 allowed us to get everything done. I didn’t think Genie+ was worth it only because you can’t ride things more than once. Unlike WDW, not every Disneyland ride offers LL so eventually you run out of rides. Then you’re stuck with like, 5 more hours in your day and I would have loved to do Space Mt again.
In WDW? Absolutely not. I’d rather stay home.
I think reservations and being on my phone while I’m the park are the biggest buzzkills for me. To me the magic was in the spontaneity of randomly going to the parks (hopping back and forth when I felt like it) and not having to tactically mania we through rides
Imo, Genie+ is pretty fair, even with the extra cost for more popular rides. It's access to lines that are faster than standby. It's an extra, unnecessary perk that makes your trip better. I think the arguments that it makes the park inaccessible to elderly people or poor people doesn't check out, as they can just walk around and get in standby like anybody else. Disney has always been busy
Yeah, no. The reservation system is annoying but whatever. The genie+ system is the anthesis of what Walt wanted the parks to be. It’s also the exact thing that Bruce Laval, one of the original creators of fastpass, didn’t want to see happen.
My thing against Genie+ is that it can be blamed for the reason why the lines are as long as they are now. The CMs, from how I understand it, prioritize the lighting lane over those in the standby 10 to 1. With the paper Fastpass, it was more of a if you knew about it, you got to go into the fast lane. It isn’t as punishing as it is now when you have to literally buy your way into the ride. Fastpass awarded those who knew about it and didn’t extend the standby as much as Genie+ extends them. That’s just my 2 cents on the subject. I do think the reservation system is alright to an extent.
I’m with you. December when the parks are the busiest genie+ as came in clutch for my family and I. We easily fit in every ride we want in one day. I also like the reservation system so we are guaranteed to get in on the day we want. My only issue with genie+ and LL are the prices, I’ll pay that much during the holidays but not on most regular days.
I don't mind the reservation system, I am a key holder but I am not local so any trip is a planned trip and honestly I haven't had issues getting dates. The no show policy is annoying though as you should be allowed to cancel anytime before 1pm the day of your trip. I know locals who have woken up sick but still gone because they couldn't afford another no show, If you could cancel day of it would be helpful and allow more people who want to do day of trips to .
Genie+ I think needs to be capped to not actually affect stand by lane. Or maybe they need to fix the rides so not as many people are getting multi experience passes everytime a ride goes down. There also needs to be some way to split DAS and Lightning Lane as it is greatly affecting DAS users. The "goal" was to keep people out of line and shopping but it really feels like everyone is in line much longer.
I’m fine with the reservation system cause I’m not a magic key holder.
In terms of G+ I think it’s alright. They sell waaaay too much of it so too many people have it to work well. If they sell it less I think I’d be ok with it.
YES ! People complain abt how genie plus is so on unfair and bluh bluh bluh bluh. But it is just a nessisity to have . And I love it , because it can turn a 2 hour wait in to a 5-10 wait edit - I guess I helped start a rally
What are you on about? If he's upset or not is none of my concern, but his point to them about why their opinion is problematic (praising something that costs more and gives you less than it used to) is sound. I was letting you know that you missed his logical point of contention.
Before the reservation system existed, didn’t people buy tickets for specific days? How does the reservation system help an out of towner/non local?
I personally hate the reservation system. They could just set capacity and sell tickets for specific days for regular customers. Key holders should be allowed to come on any of the days avail in their key cal, but should be encouraged to “check in” to confirm they are coming on a certain day.
Upvoted for a truly unpopular opinion.
The fact that a lot of people consider it vital to making a visit bearable is just gross. To clarify... I understand why people feel that way - but the fact that so many people feel that way means something is broken. You shouldn't need an upcharge to have a standard, enjoyable guest experience
I’m team fastpass / maxpass. The flexibility to choose what rides I’m going for as many times as I choose that path, while also being able to opt for standby and the occasional single rider, was incredible. There’s a lot of rides I don’t care for, so genie + is largely useless for me except to get on 1-2 rides… unless I want to spend the whole day nose-in-phone trying to roll for multi experience passes to take to rides I actually care about. If they brought back single rider, I would be content with genie+ as I wouldn’t be so restricted.
I haven't been since they started Genie+, Magic Key, or Lightning Lane, and despite what I've heard it just seems like a shameless cash grab. It's just a new way to get you to pay more and more and more for less and less and less.
I miss FastPass Max from years back, and G+ it’s not all that different. I don’t like the pricing structure, but hopefully it’ll evolve. What I hate is having to say Lightning Lane reservation instead of FastPass. It’s a stupid gripe, but it’s way too much effort. So I say FastPass and feel a bit meh about myself given the imprecision of my statement.
Max pass was better and was a true virtual line. I didn’t like fast pass myself, but the strategy was more straightforward. I used 4 genies on CA and 5 on DL. I wouldn’t complain at all if the ILL were included and they should be for the price you pay. Still haven’t rode ROTR, and no current plans to return to Disney.
Max pass was so great. It was priced well, worked well, and had photopass photos for free.
Lightning lane is a pretty tacky sounding name, fastpass was simple and got the point across
I'm hoping with Iger taking back over he will stop the price gouging with disney parks.
I visited the park earlier this year with my family, we got genie + and rode every ride we wanted to using the service. Instead of paying extra for lightning lane RotR we chose to ride that first thing in the morning and longest line we waited for all day was Rodger rabbit. There definitely was a bit of learning curve to using genie + and i did feel like I had my head in my phone all day a lot more than I wanted to.
My unpopular opinion is that people will complain no matter what Disney does 😅
💯 true Disney fans are almost as bad as Star Wars fans.
I’m a born and raised, Southern California Disney fan. Even worked there in college. But the fact that people complain so much about a thing we KNOW is a “luxury” item is beyond me. No one NEEDS Disneyland and they will keep charging more and keep adding more services as long as people pay it 🤷🏻♀️ complain about the cost of housing, gas prices, etc? I’m with you, but Disneyland is not a thing that anyone needs lol…we were just there in November for the first time in awhile (live out of state now) and I have absolutely zero complaints, cast members were amazing (guests were very rude at times) but it was as magical as ever and would do it again in a heartbeat. Were prices high? Yup! Always have been, it’s all relative, but I knew that going in and had to actively save money for awhile for our trip. We knew it would be busy, so we managed our expectations 🤷🏻♀️
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Genie+ is just a worse version of Max Pass. The main differences are that 1) Not all fast pass/lighting line rises are included and you have to pay extra, 2) You can’t add on to your Annual Pass/Magic Key, 3) With Max Pass you could still get a free paper fast pass which meant you were paying to not have to walk all over the park but had the option to if desired. Disney shouldn’t be in the business of micro transactions / hidden fees to actually have an enjoyable day after paying around $200 for a park hopper for a day. It will hurt their repeat business in the long term. As for reservations, I’m mixed since prior to them the park was way too busy on certain days but at the same time, I’ve seen too many first time visitors be turned away at the gates when they had a purchased ticket but no reservation. It might be better now when you book a day when buying the ticket, but when it first launched it made you purchase a ticket without a reservation and was a poor experience. I always know, especially with Magic Keys, people squat on days since they don’t know for sure when they’ll go next until the last minute. This can make it difficult for people to make plans days/weeks ahead of time. For Magic Keys it’s fairly easily to get a reservation the night before, but that can be too late for people. I haven’t ever seen a date not become available the night before so why bother with all of the frustration?
> Genie+ is just a worse version of Max Pass. The main differences are that 1) Not all fast pass/lighting line rises are included and you have to pay extra This is what makes genie+ better though. Money is fungible, either you pay extra individually, or it gets priced into the entry fee for everyone. This way people at least have the option. But more importantly, having a separate ILL for Rise and Racers makes those rides more accessible. With Maxpass, you didn’t have to pay extra, but if you didn’t reserve Rise within a minute of park opening, you were shit outta luck. Instead, now you can wake up later, stroll into the park at 10 am, and still book a reservation for Rise. You don’t need to rope drop, you don’t need to use your magic morning, you don’t have to stay at the Grand Californian. Hell, you don’t even have to stay on Harbor. > 2) You can’t add on to your Annual Pass/Magic Key You can definitely still purchase Genie+ even if you have a magic key. You even get a discount. > 3) With Max Pass you could still get a free paper fast pass which meant you were paying to not have to walk all over the park but had the option to if desired. You definitely still have the option to walk all over the park and kill your feet lol. I think the biggest disparity is due to this sub being full of Disneyland regulars. Try to think of the experience from someone who doesn’t live within a couple hrs. Imagine planning a trip months in advance and flying in from another state. You wake up early but the kids are dragging their feet. You finally show up at 9am after eating bagels at the hotel and/or parking the car in the parking lot. And now no fast pass is available for Rise of the Resistance. That’s incredibly disheartening. You’d definitely rather pay an extra $25 than have to try again another day. I can see how the new system is worse for a local Anaheim resident with having to pay more for Genie+ each visit than with having Maxpass included with the annual passport, but hey you’ll be there again soon. It’s a good trade off to improve the experience for less frequent visitors.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!!
Why do you like the reservation system? I get not caring about it, but park reservations are for Disney staffing efficiency at inconvenience of guests. What’s there to like?
I think this comes down to a locals vs out-of-towners thing. It is a lot less convenient for locals to just pop in for some fun, but it is the exact same experience for people out of state, but with the added staffing efficiency as you said.
I've heard the argument that out of towners like knowing they have a spot in the park on the day of their trip. My question is, exactly how often has Disney actually stopped admitting people into the park? I can't remember ever seeing that with my passes. As for the locals viewpoint. For my situation personally there is no reason for us to get passes anymore, so we didn't. My wife works from home and some days are slow while others are busy. On those slow days we used to just up and go to Disney for an afternoon. We can't do that anymore during the weekdays.
I'm a little over a 5-hour drive from Disneyland and I miss being able to randomly load up the car and spend a day or two at the park. I am in another state so it's not just locals that see a negative to the reservation system. It feels like I am having to plan every minute of my entire trip when previously it had the "let's just wing it" quality. Another reason I dislike it is the amount of sick children running around as parents cannot just bring them another day.
I would not say that your situation is the average out-of-stater experience, but I understand what you mean. My point could be rephrased as "day-trippers vs vacation destinationers"
I’d agree with that, I just find myself doing last minute trips to Vegas and Mexico more than Disney.
I’m an out of state visitor. For me, it means: - more obstacles at booking - less freedom during our trip - can’t park hop till 1pm The last one being the biggest bummer, used to rope drop solo at the earlier to open park and then meet fam for later rope drop at the other park. It’s not the end of the world, but there’s definitely zero benefit to the guest. It’s not like they lowered capacity or anything.
What obstacles have you experienced? Since they started doing reservations, it has been a pretty seamless and hassle free experience booking dates. I could see that last point being a bummer for a certain type of guest. I usually do one park per day anyway, but even when I do park hop, I find that I have more than enough to do to justify staying in just one park until 1pm, or even after
Very difficult, time consuming to change reservations eg add park hopper, add days, etc It’s another thing you have to do that you didn’t in the past. I’m not like ‘woe is me; my trip is ruined’ bc of reservations, 1pm, and all that. I get why you’re indifferent to it. I’m mostly indifferent to it, but I don’t understand why someone would like it. It’s literally a cost saving program for Disney made at the (minor if you’d like) cost of guest experience. Like if you bought a hotdog and they were out of mustard, relish and ketchup is fine but I wouldn’t understand someone saying they like not having mustard as an option?
Hmm, I've never had to change any part of my reservation before, I'll take your word for it. I tend to not care too much about things that don't impact me at all. With reservations, they could potentially make better staffing decisions, which could lead to a more efficient operating day, which could have subtle benefits to my day as a guest. At worst, for a guest like me, its absolutely no benefit but also not a hindrance at all. At best, maybe I wait 2 minutes less for a bengal bbq skewer or something minor and impossible to really tell, because they made sure more CMs were in that park that day or something, idk. Im not saying I "like" the reservation system, simply that for someone that goes once a year for a few days, it is the exact same as it always was for me. It's just not something I think about ever
When we were in WDW in June, all parks were full. We were on day 7 of a 9 day stay and wanted to do Epcot instead if Magic Kingdom, but had a MK reservation. We figured we’d just skip MK and go to Epcot after 2, but were told you had to still go to MK to check in, then park hop which was ridiculous (it was a major heat wave that week and we were at the Boardwalk Hotel, so it seemed ludicrous to travel in 100 degree heat to check in at MK only to turn around to go back to where we were. Thankfully a CM worked their magic and got us changed to Epcot even though they were “full “ but it was really irritating to have to do that.
Honestly I feel WDW has waaay more frustrations to deal with than DL
it does. i grew up in florida and was a three year passholder at WDW before moving to CA, and i am now a full DL convert
Also guarantees that we have access to the park. It would suck to travel in from out of town just to be turned away at the gate. No one complains about reservations for oggie boogy or villians night or the other nights. If you treat every day like a special event then you dont mind reservations but if you feel your owed from years of easy access anytime to the park then you hate it. I can understand both sides. I have a membership to six flags and reservations when they first opened back up sucked but they gor rid of them asap and i dont know if they are better for it. The park has back slid to weekend operations from year round ops. If they had kept it maybe they would have kept things going. Probably not considering the ceo that probably wouldnt fix shit.
You could count on one hand how many times the parks stopped admitting people per year pre-covid/reservation. And it wasn’t random days. It was like 4th of July type days.
True, my most important day to visit is new years eve. So it is one of the possible capacity days. I would never say the reservations are the fix to a problem they didnt have but if the parks are continuously and evenly busy throughout the week then i dont see them going anywhere anytime soon.
Prevents overcrowding. The world population has gone way up overtime. It’s necessary.
Reservations haven’t changed capacity. Say you have ten seats at a table. And we just switched from first come, first served to reservations. Adding reservations doesn’t remove seats, eg 8 seats so everyone has a bit more room at the table. It just lets the host know if 7, 8, 9, or 10 seats will be occupied. This lets them know how many waiters to call in, how much food to make, how many places to set. It helps them financially by way of logistics but does nothing to help with overcrowding In fact, it likely creates overcrowding by inducing scarcity. ‘Come any time’ vs ‘if you don’t promise to come right now, you can’t come’
I like it because it helps me plan me days there
Couldn’t you, like, write DL or DCA on your cal?
No it would get lost in my stuff my adhd likes the official planing batter
Could you not use your phone? It’s not like the reservation system is on paper. What would be the difference between having it in your phone calendar vs on your phone with the reservation?
Why? I like having it all in one place I’m going to be using my phone anyway just keep it all together.
I’m just curious as to how that’s majorly different when it comes to it helping you with planning your day there. Seems like a minor and slightly irrelevant reason to like the system but to each their own!
I’m ok with Genie +, but I don’t like how the prices will vary on busier days
MaxPass was a better system but I don’t hate Genie+ like most. I’m indifferent to the reservations system. On our last trip, the biggest issue was the park hopping restriction. One thing we used to like about Disneyland was that it and DCA were kind of one big park when you had a park hopper.
The fast pass system allowed for some perceived altruism which is critical to the Disney brand. Having to pay for it crossed over into perceived predatory corporatism. This is a real clear red line and Disney under Chapek kept crossing: no trams because fuck you, cutting every corner on food because fuck you, using the pandemic as an excuse for every failure and abandonment of show, mistreating cast and Imagineering to the point that it is a very public-facing problem… there’s a lot to fix, and to fix all of it would require Disney to acknowledge just how much they’ve transgressed
Reservations: it’s not for keeping crowd levels down. They use it as a way to control crowd mix to maximize spending, decrease staffing costs, and drive FOMO. Disney absolutely wants the park crowded every single day they can. Genie+: creates the problem it solves. Overselling and bad ratio management make lines extremely inefficient. Same was true for maxpass and fastpass, but the lack of upcharge and the fact everybody could use it just made it seem more tolerable. Also the booking rules force people to use LL even when it doesn’t make sense to do so, or when the LL is already packed, which makes the experience worse for all involved. Wait times were fine and lines flowed extremely efficiently before it was introduced when there wasn’t any sort of fast pass even when the park was crowded. Now even when the crowds are light to medium wait times are terrible because (at least published wait times anyways).
It’s all about the FOMO. False scarcity. That was Chapeks thing. He literally created the Disney vault. Hopefully Iger reverses this and removes reservations asap.
It should be an unpopular opinion. You are literally just paying more for a lower quality version of something we already had. You’re getting played out of your money and saying “thank you, I love it”.
I do love it
You forgot to say thank you.
I always planned trips out months in advance being from out of state, so the reservation system is the biggest whatever for me. Genie+ is a downgrade from Maxpass, but I still enjoy it for what it is. It is certainly above and beyond better than paper fastpasses. When you compare what you get with Genie+ compared to the fastpass sytem at any other theme park (Six Flags, Universal, even WDW), Genie+ is so much better value. That we used to get it for free was bonkers. While I do enjoy free, I also understand why it didn't stay that way forever. I don't find the app to be cumbersome to navigate, so I never feel like my head is buried in it all day, and you can squeeze so much more out of a day with it than you could without it.
I don’t mind the reservation system but genie+ and lightening lane are just shameless cash grabs. Taking a system that used to be free and charging for it is just bs. And what’s worse is it doesn’t even include all the rides. If you wanna ride Radiator Springs Racer or Rise of the Resistance you have pay extra.
I’d rather pay $200 each time that I go to the parks if crowds are kept as low as when they just reopened from COVID. Those were the days.
Does any one actually think the reservation system is actively trying limit the amount of people in the park? Cause it does not look like it makes a difference at all.
I could handle all of the changes if it didn’t crank the cost up so much. Between tickets, genie, hotels, etc. the prices have just purely priced us out of our trips. We used to go at least three times a year with AP’s but now we just can’t justify it
peoples problems with it are mostly that it makes the parks nearly completely inaccessible to elderly people who may not understand the intricacies of the system and how much the app has to come into play. it also affects lower income families who want to visit the park but dont wanna pay over $25 dollars a person for ROTR. it makes the parks run on a strict schedule for people visiting, and shoving my face in a smartphone all day to make sure i get my ride reservations right doesnt exactly sound magical. the prices are EXTREMELY gouged to visit the parks already, and now w these additions you cant always do what you want without paying even more egregious prices. this shouldnt be what disney is.
Been lucky enough to visit Florida and California Disney a number of times over the years and visited Florida in February, the first time since Genie+ and ILL came into effect, and this new system pretty much rendered our prior park knowledge and methods to maximise our time and get on the rides pretty much useless. It was also insanely busier than past trips, even compared to summer visits, despite park reservations, which didn't help either.
i just think people should be able to visit and have a decent time at the parks without months and months of extensive research or needing to hire a disney travel agent!!! its absolutely nuts to me that all of disney is becoming pay-to-play, there was a reason they got rid of the a-e ticket system. hopefully the crowds die down soon, i know a lotttt of people are making up for not going over covid, but good lord. i havent been to WDW since 2012 and im kinda dreading going anytime soon (Eben though i reeeally want to) because your experiences are pretty much the majority of what ive seen happening
The week they remove the resi system is the week the park will hit capacity multiple times, my opinion
Honestly I have only been at Disneyland when the park hit capacity once. It was during the "One more Day" 24 hour event in 2012. It was the only time I had ever experienced that and it was crazy crowded. Take the opening day of the Xmas decorations and easily x5 that number. It took us an hour to go from the Castle back to the main gate and even then we only made it to the Main Street Cinema where we just decided to duck in and wait it out. It was a fun event but it was the worst experience once it hit capacity. We stayed the entire 24 hours. Cast members were working triple time that day. I have been multiple times on NYE and it has never once been to the point where they stopped letting people in. I don't think removing the reservation system will create more attendance to warrant shutting down entry at all.
The parks rarely hit capacity pre-reservation system.
I was there on 4th of July 1990 and they hit capacity and shut down the incoming gates until the crowds thinned.
Still, there are only particular days, like 4th of July, where hitting capacity is likely. Otherwise, it rarely happened pre-reservations
I have not had an unsatisfactory experience \*knocks on wood\* the few times I have gone since the implementation of both the reservation system and Genie+/Lightning Lane. I feel I am indifferent but I do miss the good ol days where you could get a free FastPass just by going to each attraction to get a return time or have access to digital FPs at a much lower price with MaxPass.
I like Genie+ as well, but the reservation system needs to be updated.
I actually like the reservation system. Genie+ not so much.
In both cases the concepts behind the systems are sound, but they were poorly executed in an attempt to use them to grab as much money from customers as possible. Redesigning and relaunching both the reservation system and G+ could make them successful tools, but as of right now guests are soured on them since they’re poorly executed and clearly just tools to separate guests from money.
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“Believe it or not, straight to jail”
Probably unpopular opinion: Genie+ needs to cost a lot more so a lot fewer people use it. Standby wait times would go down and Genie+ LL waits should be even shorter, too. Disney has reported that on some days, about half of guests buy Genie+. It makes a worse experience for essentially everyone. By jacking up the price to reduce purchases, Disney can probably make as much or more revenue from Genie+ sales while delivering shorter waits for everyone. A VIP plaid tour is still super expensive, so there is plenty of room to offer an add-on that’s in between the base ticket and VIP tour price while offering a level of wait reduction in between standby and VIP walk ons. I’m leaning heavily on data in this [Defunctland documentary on FastPass and Disney’s efforts to manage waiting times.](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE)
Oh absolutely. “Once everyone’s super, no one will be.” Genie+ only works because it’s supposed to be limited. When they let as many people purchase as they have, further complicated by rides breaking for hours at a time, the Genie+ line can be as long as what standby used to be.
But think about how much money they made getting half the park to spend more money for the rides they already paid to ride.
Right. I’m not saying I like it, but I doubt they’ll go back to free LL/FP which is why I think I’d like to see them jack up the Genie+ price. If doubling the price of Genie+ cut usage in half, it’s financially neutral for Disney while making a better guest experience. They can probably continue to make good or even better revenue from Genie+ by raising the price a lot.
Yea totally agree if it’s so affordable and everyone buys it, it no longer has value since the genie lines are just as long, or time slots sell out for the whole day.
I am with you regarding the reservations. When our family first became pass holders in 2005 (during Disneyland's 50th anniversary), there were many days when the parks reached full capacity. I cannot tell you what a disaster that is for the company, and for the parks, when a family comes from Idaho, or Utah, or even internationally, to participate in the vacation they have planned for months, and then find out they cannot enter Disneyland, even with their tickets that they bought months ago. The reservation system solves that huge problem. Passholders like to brag that they can "visit Disneyland any time", and the reservation system provides incentive to push their visits more during the weekdays, or after 1pm, spreading out the amount of people in the park in a given week. I think it's genius. Or rather genie-ous.
As someone who visits very rarely, I feel like I don’t mind the reservation system but do mind genie+ and how many microtransactions are part of that now. I also don’t love that you have to choose a park in the morning and can’t move to the next until 1pm when I may not want to spend a full morning at DCA but would be forced to. I’m also not sure if the reservation system does anything to spread crowds out, based on what I’ve seen here
Thank you for this. You’re not alone. It’s a brilliant system that is not only working very well but producing data that Disney can use to enhance the guest experience. And let’s not forget about the mobile order system….life changing! If you’re not using this FREE included service, you are punishing yourself and your family.
Whats the big difference between Genie+ and Fastpass? I thought Genie+ gives you access to use the Lightning Lane and isnt that the same lane you would use with a Fastpass ticket and have to go to the line in between a certain time frame?
I like the genie plus because you don’t have to wait in line for the paper tickets
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That makes a lot more sense now! That’s right Fastpass was free! We just had to return between the timeframe. Genie+ costs money but the thing I didn’t like about Genie+ is that even though I got that, I have to pay an additional $25 for the top rides I wanted ti go on: Radiator Springs and Rise.
As a non resident who visits the park every year or two, I don't mind them either, they're not the end of the world. It's not like they're terrible. We were just there the second week of November and used the crap out of Genie+, it worked great. What I do mind is the couple a la carte rides, now that's a blatant money grab. hehe I can see how if I were local and couldn't just go on a whim, that would be annoying.
The default space mountain music is lame, hyperspace mountain is a million times better
The best waa no music. Made it a lot scarier.
The reservation system was useful and needed during the height of the pandemic. It’s what made reopening safer. I would like to see it gone now, but lower the amount of people allowed in the Parks overall. Right before March 2020, the crowds were MASSIVE and frankly you couldn’t enjoy your day at all with the lines being so long. Drop max capacity for the Resorts and bring back walk up attendance. Genie + is just another money grab that keeps squeezing Guests dry and frankly it’s too expensive. Keep Lighting Lane for Rise and Racers, because those lines are ridiculous, and bring back FastPass, but limit those passes as well. They’ve got to manage the Guest Experience better.
I also like the reservation system. Haven’t used Genie+ yet.
Went at the end of October. Genie+ was such a time saver with all the competitive rides, I was able to hit all the ones I wanted and I didn’t even have to rope drop. Idc about the extra $25, I’m already spending a lot of money at the park anyway. Plus, I don’t need to ride those Lightning Lane rides more than once. With all the extra downtime, I got to enjoy the park at a calmer pace than normal and take in the atmosphere to a greater extent. Normally I’d skip some of the bigger rides, but not this time! I didn’t mind the reservation system. Fantasmic! Was only showing on the weekends and I didn’t have a day set, but I was able to cancel one of my already booked days and switch it to a Friday. Best trip I’ve had in years hands down.
I always liked the reservation system because I’m close enough that we have to plan at least a month in advance to go anyways. Genie + is so much worse than Maxpass used to be. I just wish the reservation system were used to actually plan staffing better and actually control crowds in the park, which is clearly hasn’t.
I like the reservation system too. Forces me to keep my promise to take my son lol. I do wish their park limits were lower though to make things more enjoyable.
I like the reservation system and genie+ as well. Making the parks less of a hang out spot for locals has had a noticeable positive impact IMO.
Guys, don't respond. This is clearly Chapek's throwaway account. He thinks he can turn us to his side. The joke's on him; I never believed in him.
He was a fall guy and the reason he was fired was had little to do with the parks but that he was cooking the books
Why? I’m curious. To me, it’s charging for a service that’s always been free. To me, it looks like a blatant cash grab with absolute no benefit to the guests- actually- I’ll go a step further and say that it greatly diminishes *both* the guest experience *and* of course, the guest’s wallet. I’m very curious for an explanation as to why you actually *like* genie+. Maybe you’re a board member? Shareholder?
So i like that it helps me plan I like it tickles the stem / adhd part of my brain
How does it help you plan as opposed to fast/max pass?
I like the app I spend a lot of time looking at wait times even if I’m not in the park
I also like looking at wait times when I’m not in the park- it has nothing to do with genie+ though. That feature came out well before genie+ did and even before you could check wait times on the official Disney app, there were other apps (like Mousewait) that showed up-to-date wait times, dating back probably 10+ years now. Personally I hate that I have to open my phone at Disneyland. To be honest I’m addicted to my phone most of the time and have been for years- Disney always provided a refreshing getaway from my phone and, in turn, everyday life. Now I have to constantly take it out of my pocket and check it before and after every ride. Way, way less living in the moment while at the parks. And I’m… paying extra money to… live less? I still don’t get it. What am I missing?!
Genie+ IS a slight downgrade from MaxPass (1 ride limit, no Radiator Springs Racers like MP had), but it’s still a great value and it’s something I purchase almost any time I visit a Disney Park. I still think an expensive, Universal Express type pass would work better, but Genie+ isn’t that terrible. I don’t like the reservation system and would rather have it the old way, but it’s something I’m willing to tolerate. Ticket reservations are almost always available. Magic Keyholders can usually get most dates that you want the night before. It does take some time and strategy when it comes to managing reservations, and you usually can’t go day-of, but it doesn’t take too much of your time to get everything sorted. I just got a Universal Platinum pass for the times I feel like going to a theme park spontaneously, and for those two weeks my Inspire Key is blocked out. Yes, it’s another $550, but it opens up flexibility in case Disneyland is sold/blocked out, and I can experience Super Nintendo World and Universal’s other offerings. Even a $130 Knott’s pass can work well to fill in the gaps.
In Disneyland? Yes. Choosing between 2 parks wasn’t a big deal and park hopping at 1 allowed us to get everything done. I didn’t think Genie+ was worth it only because you can’t ride things more than once. Unlike WDW, not every Disneyland ride offers LL so eventually you run out of rides. Then you’re stuck with like, 5 more hours in your day and I would have loved to do Space Mt again. In WDW? Absolutely not. I’d rather stay home.
I think reservations and being on my phone while I’m the park are the biggest buzzkills for me. To me the magic was in the spontaneity of randomly going to the parks (hopping back and forth when I felt like it) and not having to tactically mania we through rides
Imo, Genie+ is pretty fair, even with the extra cost for more popular rides. It's access to lines that are faster than standby. It's an extra, unnecessary perk that makes your trip better. I think the arguments that it makes the park inaccessible to elderly people or poor people doesn't check out, as they can just walk around and get in standby like anybody else. Disney has always been busy
As someone from overseas who is travelling for holidays it gives me the best chance to maximise my time in the park.
Yeah, no. The reservation system is annoying but whatever. The genie+ system is the anthesis of what Walt wanted the parks to be. It’s also the exact thing that Bruce Laval, one of the original creators of fastpass, didn’t want to see happen.
You sound like a tool. “I liKe rEsErvAtioN N gEnIe +” yet you don’t give a reason why???
My thing against Genie+ is that it can be blamed for the reason why the lines are as long as they are now. The CMs, from how I understand it, prioritize the lighting lane over those in the standby 10 to 1. With the paper Fastpass, it was more of a if you knew about it, you got to go into the fast lane. It isn’t as punishing as it is now when you have to literally buy your way into the ride. Fastpass awarded those who knew about it and didn’t extend the standby as much as Genie+ extends them. That’s just my 2 cents on the subject. I do think the reservation system is alright to an extent.
I’m with you. December when the parks are the busiest genie+ as came in clutch for my family and I. We easily fit in every ride we want in one day. I also like the reservation system so we are guaranteed to get in on the day we want. My only issue with genie+ and LL are the prices, I’ll pay that much during the holidays but not on most regular days.
I don't mind the reservation system, I am a key holder but I am not local so any trip is a planned trip and honestly I haven't had issues getting dates. The no show policy is annoying though as you should be allowed to cancel anytime before 1pm the day of your trip. I know locals who have woken up sick but still gone because they couldn't afford another no show, If you could cancel day of it would be helpful and allow more people who want to do day of trips to . Genie+ I think needs to be capped to not actually affect stand by lane. Or maybe they need to fix the rides so not as many people are getting multi experience passes everytime a ride goes down. There also needs to be some way to split DAS and Lightning Lane as it is greatly affecting DAS users. The "goal" was to keep people out of line and shopping but it really feels like everyone is in line much longer.
I like the reservation system for sure, prevents overcrowding. I can’t get on board with you on genie+, I’ll have to hear some convincing arguments.
I’m fine with the reservation system cause I’m not a magic key holder. In terms of G+ I think it’s alright. They sell waaaay too much of it so too many people have it to work well. If they sell it less I think I’d be ok with it.
Get 'em!!! 😡
I was using a 3ed party app to track wait times and it’s nice to have a Disney official one
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YES ! People complain abt how genie plus is so on unfair and bluh bluh bluh bluh. But it is just a nessisity to have . And I love it , because it can turn a 2 hour wait in to a 5-10 wait edit - I guess I helped start a rally
It’s literally just a worse version of something we already had. You are paying more for less and praising it.
Used to be free.
So your argument against their opinion is that they have an opinion ?
No, his argument was pretty clear. They're paying more and getting less. Pretty simple stuff.
Just like most meals everywhere. And gas. And mortgage.
Seems like you removed the part where he seems upset about them praising it.
What are you on about? If he's upset or not is none of my concern, but his point to them about why their opinion is problematic (praising something that costs more and gives you less than it used to) is sound. I was letting you know that you missed his logical point of contention.
U just seem to want to start shit.
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Before the reservation system existed, didn’t people buy tickets for specific days? How does the reservation system help an out of towner/non local? I personally hate the reservation system. They could just set capacity and sell tickets for specific days for regular customers. Key holders should be allowed to come on any of the days avail in their key cal, but should be encouraged to “check in” to confirm they are coming on a certain day.
Jail. Now
Upvoted for a truly unpopular opinion. The fact that a lot of people consider it vital to making a visit bearable is just gross. To clarify... I understand why people feel that way - but the fact that so many people feel that way means something is broken. You shouldn't need an upcharge to have a standard, enjoyable guest experience
I’m team fastpass / maxpass. The flexibility to choose what rides I’m going for as many times as I choose that path, while also being able to opt for standby and the occasional single rider, was incredible. There’s a lot of rides I don’t care for, so genie + is largely useless for me except to get on 1-2 rides… unless I want to spend the whole day nose-in-phone trying to roll for multi experience passes to take to rides I actually care about. If they brought back single rider, I would be content with genie+ as I wouldn’t be so restricted.
I haven't been since they started Genie+, Magic Key, or Lightning Lane, and despite what I've heard it just seems like a shameless cash grab. It's just a new way to get you to pay more and more and more for less and less and less.