Here is how you can best voice your displeasure (or approval) regarding the Genie/Genie+ Service

[snowwhite84]

all fair points. Although one thing you are forgetting is that UO Express Pass is INCLUDED with stays at their deluxe resorts... So far that is not the case at WDW.

Yes but the three resorts that include Express Pass at Universal are wildly more expensive than the resorts that don’t include it. A room at Royal Pacific is fairly equal in quality to a room at Sapphire Falls, but about twice the price. They bake the cost of EP in, you’re still kind of paying for it.

 

[Ricguz]

I'm seeing a lot of people say, "Wait and see before you complain." Listen, it's not the system we're complaining about. I like a system where we can book things from our phone on the same day. Love it, in fact! What I don't love is that it's the ONLY way to get a FP. There's a daily fee, and that doesn't even cover "premium" rides. That will cost even more, which is stupid. THAT is the issue I have wit this. Here's the email I just sent off. I hope enough of these get through and then "get through" to someone who can make adjustments.

Dear Disney,

I wanted to make sure you knew my extreme disappointment in the new Genie Service. Having to pay for FastPass, which in the past has been free and has set you apart among all theme parks, will spell a hastening end to my family coming to Disneyland or Walt Disney World. You already have industry high ticket prices, all while currently limiting the offerings that used to come with park admission (parades, live shows, Magical Express, etc.). Also, your hotel costs have risen far beyond inflation could ever account for. But at least we could all say, "Once we're in the parks, we're all equals. We all have the same chance to get a short line with a FastPass." No more. Now we have to pay $20/day ($100/day for my family) just to try to keep up with the Jones who also spent money to try to beat some lines. Not just that, but if I want to take my son on Radiator Springs Racers and want to avoid a 2 hour long line for him to roast in and have about 3 meltdowns (so magical), I'll have to spend "who knows how much more" to do that. All when just a year ago, I could grab a FP for free and keep the kids busy elsewhere.

We have a DL trip planned in October (only because we're using tickets we bought pre-Covid and never got to use them) and a WDW trip in December (that is a makeup trip from when we had Covid right before our summer trip). I've told my wife that unless Disney abandons this cash-grabbing Genie Service, these will be our last trips ever to Disney theme parks. That would be sad, as Disney has been a part of our lives for nearly 20 years. But I can't justify spending what we do now for a Disney trip, and then add on these ticky-tack charges to gain something that has been non gratis for two decades. It's unacceptable. It's not magical. And I will find other places to prudently spend our family vacation funds - unless you decide to return to reasonable business practices.

Nicely put! Most families want to escape the pressures of the real world. I said in prior posts, the pressure of looking at your phone all day from 7 am until the parks close. Phones will certainly die, and I don’t want to hear about changing stations which will take money and time.
If you have children with you, you need to watch them not your phone figuring when your next ride could be. I remember the days when I would get a printed itinerary from Disney before I left my home. Everything is already planned. Now your planing on the fly. Some people don’t have the skills to schedule all of this, don’t have a phone data, don’t have the money, you are going to need a PHD soon. It is a shame that the Disney we all love, has been slowly over the last few years, gone away. Will I go back, maybe, but I’m older and don’t run around Disney like I use too. If something is available, we will ride it. But I never wait an hour to ride something. Will I use the Genie? I don’t know. But I do know, this is a money grab. Disney can spin this all they want about making our day more effective and efficient This is another way to squeeze your pocket. They do not care about guests who have a family of four and need to dish out hundreds of more dollars so as this poster stated waiting in lines roasting. Quicker or not of rides keep breaking down, it won’t matter how shorter the lines are with the “Genie”.

 

[nkereina]

The counter point is that Universal's ExPass is SOOOOOOO expensive per day, hardly anyone buys it. It's not $20/day. It's $120/day. So hardly anyone actually gets it. About the only people doing Express Pass are the ones from the Deluxe hotels.

And don't forget that $120 is on the low end for Universal. Upwards of $300 even up to $350/day for some days this summer.

I wouldn't say hardly anyone purchases it when they have demand pricing like this. Its expensive in the summer because its busier in the summer, thus more people are purchasing it. But to this point - there are roughly 2,400 hotel rooms across the three deluxe resorts that offer EP. If there's an average of 3 people per room in peak season (some will have more, some less), then that equates to roughly 7,200 people with EPs in the park on a given day during peak season. Plus however many people purchase it, which can be anyone from an AP holder to an off-site guest to an on-site guest at a non-premier resort. So likely well over 10,000 people in a park with EPs during peak season on a given day. It remains to be seen how many will actually purchase Genie+ (according to the polls here, apparently no one will lol), but I am certain Disney had models estimating how many they could sell, pass through lines per hour, what wait times would be, etc etc. Also, they haven't said this yet, but it could possibly sell out like EPs do at Universal. Something they could implement if the wait times don't pan out as modeled.

All that to say that I don't think standby times will get worse than they were with FP+. If anything, it will be the same or better.

But at Disney, the price point is just right that many people will get it, especially knowing that probably 80% of everyone coming will get it. So then it becomes a "must-get" because the Genie+ app will stretch those lines out for miles like old FP used to. If you don't have it, your Disney trip will be sub-standard. That's not the case at USO. I actually just cut my WDW trip in half yesterday and added Universal to our trip because of this. I know what I'll get at Universal. This Genie mess is exactly that...a mess.

I think you're being generous. Do you know how many people go to WDW each day when FP+ existed and knew nothing about it? Or they booked their FPs not understanding they could get more or not knowing how they worked. Those of us here who understand all the ins and outs prior to going are the minority. There will be a lot more people than you're giving credit for that will refuse the additional expense saying they've already paid enough. Or they get overwhelmed at the added cost and complication of understanding it. Or they want to go with the flow. Or they simply don't educate themselves. Just look at the number of people here - Disney's top fan base - who have already said they won't get it.

Its actually no different at USO - people who have had EPs want it again, people who haven't continue to balk at the cost of buying it or the cost of staying at a premier resort. They are none the wiser because they've never had EP. If people have a successful trip without the added cost of Genie+ (just like people have been doing for the last year with no FP), then they won't know what they are missing. So I'd respectfully disagree that that large of a majority will be purchasing it.

 

[bloomcruisers]

I have APs not yet activated that I planned on holding off until things in the park became more normalized... parades and character meets back, FastPass restarting, no park reservations needed, etc. I had high hopes they would try to make most of that happen for the anniversary and I have waited patiently. Now I am very glad the APs are good until 2099. Because I have no intention of being a guinea pig in this genie+ rollout.
It may turn out okay. But as others have said, this paying for each ride reminds me of the original ticket books (which I still have some incidentally). Rather than this e-confusion system, just lower the admission cost and charge by the ride. This way, if guests don’t get the opportunity to ride a tier 1 attraction due to availability, at least they didn’t have to pay for it.

 

[CBMom01]

If I had any idea what the cost was going to be I'd feel differently, but right now I have Disney vacation booked and now can't plan, because I don't know what the demand is going to be for this or how it's going to change my already paid for vacation. No idea how much per-ride pricing is going to be, how much of an advantage Genie+ will be, and no idea what LLs will be available when for my group.

So while yes, I agree that it's a money grab that's not going to change. Now I wish that they would do something to help us figure out how to plan with this. As it is, I have absolutely no idea.

 

[DavidNYC]

Disney is full of upgrades. What is Disney said “have front of line access to all rides and shows for an entire day for $3000”
oh wait.. they already do that. It’s a VIP tour.
or front row seats ti shows for $100
Person. That would be dessert parties..

I hate this being looked at as an "upgrade". The problem with that term is you don't think of your upgrade being taken away from someone else who paid. Yes - VIP tours absolutely did take some spots away from other people but those were done in such small numbers as to have a nearly imperceptible effect on other park goers. The desserts for the dessert party aren't taken away from other people who wanted dessert. The good seats for fireworks don't stop others from seeing it elsewhere (and are likewise a very small number compared to how many view fireworks a night.

Daily ride capacity for rides? It's a fixed number. Every paying person takes a spot away from a non-paying person. In small numbers we've always had that at Disney. But this is just the start of them shifting more and more of those resources to those who pay. It's crystal clear that Disney didn't think the problem was people standing in line too long - their problem was they weren't in line long enough. They need to make the unpaid option unpalatable to create what revenue opportunities. And they will continue to make it more and more unpalatable until they hit the point where the add'l revenue doesn't make up for loss of patrons. But they've discovered there are enough rich people out there who will pay to make it worth it.

There are many businesses that could make more money but their corporate philosophy causes them to not take the route with the greatest profit because of other factors like image, social responsibility, equal access, etc. Disney was ONCE one of those companies. It's sad that they are no longer that. Everyone who just blindly yells "it's a business" completely misses that point and doesn't realize that it's a choice Disney has made which other companies do not.

 

[TimeToPack]

My husband comes from a family of 10, 8 of his siblings have kids, only 3 have taken their families to Disney World and only for five days, 1 stayed at the Wilderness Lodge and the other 2 stayed at the All-Stars. They never returned, so a lot of first time visitors are not money makers. One of his siblings left the kids at home and went themselves for 6 days, their kids never experienced Disney. They themselves never returned. The whole family thinks we have been crazy taking our kids to Disney so often, that we have lied about going. We are not every year people because we wanted our kids to see more of the United States and the world in general, which we have done. I can't see first time visitors keeping them afloat, you always need a base for that. Rich people are not interested in making Disney their yearly vacation, its not much to brag about. I know, I have many rich friends and listen to them trying to out do each other. Its all about Europe and Asia with them.

 

[hsc3boys]

DVC members from the U.K.,its put me right off ever going again. It’s a money grab nothing more and all those that go along with it are part of the problem not the solution. The fast pass system was perfect for people coming from Europe, we are usually staying for 14 nights or more due to the cost and length of flight. No way could we pay for a family of up to six of us for 14 days.
We would have our three fast passes, am or pm depending on what else we were doing, arrange meals around them, park hop, return to the hotel, water parks, mini golf, having a lie in, often returning to the parks for extra magical hours. Fit in a few rides with short lines around our fast passes, all very civilised.
We rely on the free WiFi as it’s too expensive to use our data. The WiFi is not always great and I hate using mobile phones anyway not to mention all the bad stuff they give off, certainly not my idea of a holiday being chained to a mobile phone or standing in line for hours.
Fast pass was fair for everyone and was what made Disney stand out above all other theme parks it was part of the magic.
No magic left I feel we are being treated like a cash cow.
Disney just destroyed the magic for me along with several other changes they have made, magical express, extra magical hours, magic bands.
Certainly can not recommend it to other people from the UK now and certainly can not recommend staying on site like I used to.
People asked me why we kept going back i now have no idea how to answer that anymore as everything is now a paid extra.
Leaving a very bitter taste in my mouth.
I can see how if you are only there for a day or two you might think the new system is advantageous, but for those of us spending a couple of weeks or more this is a nightmare. We have never paid extra in any theme park to skip a line out of principal and always said how disney had the model right unlike the rest of them.

 

[kc51570]

For me, the monetary aspect of it is down the list. I would rank my dissatisfaction points like this.

1. It's yet another meaningful perk taken away from onsite. We have always enjoyed the experience of staying onsite, and liked the little rewards we used to receive for paying the inflated resort prices.
2. It forces you to do same day planning that you previously were able to do 60+ days in advance. And, the planning is continuous throughout the day. I liked going into a vacation knowing that I would not have to worry about getting on FOP, Slinky, or Mine Train. I liked knowing whether I had a 2 hour window between FPs or whether they backed right up to each other. It was wonderful to time your FPs so that you could walk off Thunder Mountain and go right to Splash with no wait. Or, walk off RNR and get directly on TOT.
3. Having to get up at 7 A.M. to start This is the most mind-boggling piece of the whole thing. Who at Disney thought that would be something someone would want to do on vacation. Even if you do get up that early, now your worried about scheduling something instead of getting the kids up, getting dressed, or eating breakfast. It's absolutely insane someone thought this was a good idea.
4. The cost. This ties a little but back to #1. I don't mind paying extra for something if I get something in return. Resort Guests should have a significantly more meaningful head start on it than what they've done. If you want to charge me for priority in line, then I'll make it work. But, give me the 60 day window for resort guests versus 30 that was in place before.

Yes, it is the 7am day of planning that I find the most infuriating. Even if I am already up for rope drop, I am getting ready and trying to get the family out the door. Now I have to get up even earlier to budget time for this and then be prepared to be disappointed

Yes but the three resorts that include Express Pass at Universal are wildly more expensive than the resorts that don’t include it. A room at Royal Pacific is fairly equal in quality to a room at Sapphire Falls, but about twice the price. They bake the cost of EP in, you’re still kind of paying for it.

But the deluxe resorts at Universal are a lot less expensive than the Disney deluxes. I’ve also compared the rates of different Universal resorts by adding in the least expensive express pass and it is usually cheaper for dates I would be considering just booking the deluxe room with the included passes. Not to mention their more affordable APs and AP hotel rates. I love Disney and am not generally a Universal fan, but between the crowds on my last trip with no FP to help avoid some lines and this new genie that doesn’t let you pre-book anything, I will definitely be considering alternatives in the future.

 

[TomorrowlandKD]

I can't wait to use the Genie+ service. It's going to be so helpful when we're there.

 

[CBMom01]

My husband comes from a family of 10, 8 of his siblings have kids, only 3 have taken their families to Disney World and only for five days, 1 stayed at the Wilderness Lodge and the other 2 stayed at the All-Stars. They never returned, so a lot of first time visitors are not money makers. One of his siblings left the kids at home and went themselves for 6 days, their kids never experienced Disney. They themselves never returned. The whole family thinks we have been crazy taking our kids to Disney so often, that we have lied about going. We are not every year people because we wanted our kids to see more of the United States and the world in general, which we have done. I can't see first time visitors keeping them afloat, you always need a base for that. Rich people are not interested in making Disney their yearly vacation, its not much to brag about. I know, I have many rich friends and listen to them trying to out do each other. Its all about Europe and Asia with them.

Something like 20 million people a year go to WDW. Theres no way the every year (or more) people are where the money’s at.

 

[bsmcneil]

Yes but the three resorts that include Express Pass at Universal are wildly more expensive than the resorts that don’t include it. A room at Royal Pacific is fairly equal in quality to a room at Sapphire Falls, but about twice the price. They bake the cost of EP in, you’re still kind of paying for it.

Generally, rates at Royal Pacific seem to be 50% higher, not 100% higher (and while that may mean the cost of EP is baked in - it extends to each guest in the room, diluting its "cost" if there is more than one guest).

 

[MrWonderful]

Disney Genie video 1: 9800 thumbs down, 873 thumbs up : a 92% disapproval rate
Disney Genie video 2: 16000 thumbs down, 1400 thumbs up : a 92% disapproval rate
Disney Genie video 3: 6700 thumbs down, 770 thumbs up : a 90% disapproval rate

as of 8/24/21 1:15pm EST

That's 32500 thumbs down, 3040 thumbs up : a 91.5% overall disapproval rate

Lies, da** lies, and statistics be dammed, it's hard to ignore. At least it I know I'm not the only one who is not happy with the announcement.

 

[nkereina]

Disney Genie video 1: 9800 thumbs down, 873 thumbs up : a 92% disapproval rate
Disney Genie video 2: 16000 thumbs down, 1400 thumbs up : a 92% disapproval rate
Disney Genie video 3: 6700 thumbs down, 770 thumbs up : a 90% disapproval rate

as of 8/24/21 1:15pm EST

That's 32500 thumbs down, 3040 thumbs up : a 91.5% overall disapproval rate

Lies, da** lies, and statistics be dammed, it's hard to ignore. At least it I know I'm not the only one who is not happy with the announcement.

I'm not sure I'd qualify YouTube thumbs as a legitimate statistic. What's the margin for the % of people who can't be bothered to log in or click a thumb in either direction? I'd fall into that category. Or the % of people who do thumbs down because they literally don't like the video - maybe it didn't have enough info or the production was bad.

Regardless, there are of course people who are unhappy with it - same as anything else. But they are going to push forward with it. Way too much time and money has been invested at this point to scrap it now. They may tweak it prior to roll out and even after roll out, but that's the best anyone can hope for at this point. Might as well learn to make the best of it - with or without it.

 

[Pyxie]

I'm going to hold out judgement until I actually use the system and can form a real opinion on it. I don't think the price is unreasonable. For now, the only thing I am annoyed by is the fact that it doesn't appear you can pre-purchase it (sounds like you have to buy it each day beginning at midnight. I'd rather book it with my package and just roll it into my payments like with the dining plan). I'm also not crazy about the idea of purchasing tier 1 attractions separately, but my family doesn't even like all of the top attractions and we can just rope drop the ones we do like. I do plan on purchasing 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, though, depending on price. My luck with getting on that ride has been terrible every trip. I'm finally going to ride it, dang it!

 

[meremac]

I'm not sure I'd qualify YouTube thumbs as a legitimate statistic. What's the margin for the % of people who can't be bothered to log in or click a thumb in either direction? I'd fall into that category. Or the % of people who do thumbs down because they literally don't like the video - maybe it didn't have enough info or the production was bad.

Regardless, there are of course people who are unhappy with it - same as anything else. But they are going to push forward with it. Way too much time and money has been invested at this point to scrap it now. They may tweak it prior to roll out and even after roll out, but that's the best anyone can hope for at this point. Might as well learn to make the best of it - with or without it.

100%! I'll admit I was feeling a little hum-drum about this at first. But over the past couple of days, I've become increasingly energized and excited by this. If it works the way it sounds like it's intended to, I think this could end up being really great! But even if it isn't as awesome as it sounds, I'm 99.99% confident that it isn't going away due to YouTube thumbs-downs. If it's such a disaster and so wildly unpopular that people stop going to a statistically significant degree, then yeah Disney will likely have to deal with that and make some changes. But the bottom line is that it's coming soon. I'm personally choosing to get excited about it!

 

[meremac]

I'm going to hold out judgement until I actually use the system and can form a real opinion on it. I don't think the price is unreasonable. For now, the only thing I am annoyed by is the fact that it doesn't appear you can pre-purchase it (sounds like you have to buy it each day beginning at midnight. I'd rather book it with my package and just roll it into my payments like with the dining plan). I'm also not crazy about the idea of purchasing tier 1 attractions separately, but my family doesn't even like all of the top attractions and we can just rope drop the ones we do like. I do plan on purchasing 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, though, depending on price. My luck with getting on that ride has been terrible every trip. I'm finally going to ride it, dang it!

You'll be able to add Genie+ to your package for your length of stay!! If you've already booked a package, you'll even be able to modify it to include Genie+! We should be getting word soon on how to do that. Now, if you only want to add it for SOME days and not all of them, you will have to do that on a day-by-day basis.

 

[mikeyg1479]

I honestly wish they would just dispense with all of it and go back to the old school in-parkfast pass kiosks they used prior to the fastpast plus app. Simple, free, real people physically IN THE PARKS getting timed tickets for the rides they wanted, first come first service, whether they were staying on-site, off site, or just a local day visitor (honestly all paying customers should be treated the same in a park).

A very simple, fair, and elegant system that completely worked and I think gave people little to complain about, and they have been essentially (badly) fixing what hasn't been broken for these recent years. Once they made it into a thing where your scrum for ride passes started months before you even left for your trip, with different rules applying to different guests, and then tied everyone to their phones during the trip throughout, THAT is where it went off the rails. And now with this Genie nonsense, they are making a bad system worse and infinitely more confusing, while further gouging their customer base up-charges for a worse standard of service for everything. Utter disaster.

 

[snowwhite84]

But the deluxe resorts at Universal are a lot less expensive than the Disney deluxes. I’ve also compared the rates of different Universal resorts by adding in the least expensive express pass and it is usually cheaper for dates I would be considering just booking the deluxe room with the included passes. Not to mention their more affordable APs and AP hotel rates. I love Disney and am not generally a Universal fan, but between the crowds on my last trip with no FP to help avoid some lines and this new genie that doesn’t let you pre-book anything, I will definitely be considering alternatives in the future.

I consider the Universal deluxe resorts to be very similarly priced to Disney deluxe resorts.

You'll be able to add Genie+ to your package for your length of stay!! If you've already booked a package, you'll even be able to modify it to include Genie+! We should be getting word soon on how to do that. Now, if you only want to add it for SOME days and not all of them, you will have to do that on a day-by-day basis.

wow! Do you know if you will be able to add it to a room stay if you have APs? I never book packages but would love to buy it in advance.

 

[snowwhite84]

I honestly wish they would just dispense with all of it and go back to the old school in-parkfast pass kiosks they used prior to the fastpast plus app. Simple, free, real people physically IN THE PARKS getting timed tickets for the rides they wanted, first come first service, whether they were staying on-site, off site, or just a local day visitor (honestly all paying customers should be treated the same in a park).

A very simple, fair, and elegant system that completely worked and I think gave people little to complain about, and they have been essentially (badly) fixing what hasn't been broken for these recent years. Once they made it into a thing where your scrum for ride passes started months before you even left for your trip, with different rules applying to different guests, and then tied everyone to their phones during the trip throughout, THAT is where it went off the rails. And now with this Genie nonsense, they are making a bad system worse and infinitely more confusing, while further gouging their customer base up-charges for a worse standard of service for everything. Utter disaster.

I think the paper Fastpass system left much to be desired.