Disney World Listened: Genie+ Paid FastPass is Changing!

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CHAPTERS
00:00 Opening
01:38 Genie+ Rebranded, Lightning Lane Advance Purchase Coming to Walt Disney World
04:13 Lightning Lane Multi Pass Option to Utilize Attraction Tiers at Walt Disney World
06:52 Tom's Thoughts on Lightning Lane Changes
12:17 New Mickey Waffles Replace Beloved Waffle Sandwiches at Magic Kingdom
13:57 Tom's Reaction to New Sleepy Hollow Menu
14:59 Brush Fire Scene Restored on Living With the Land in EPCOT
16:20 Zootopia Land Display Under Construction at EPCOT
18:44 New Gray Grinning Loth-Cat Mug Available at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
19:48 New Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue 50th Anniversary Merchandise
20:43 Disney Fined For Deceptive Business Practices Regarding Annual Passholder Park Reservations
22:18 Disney Adventure Cruise Ship Details Revealed Including Marvel & Big Hero 6 Areas
27:16 Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters Closing Celebration Begins July 2nd with Ride Overlay
29:49 Hong Kong Disneyland Reports Record-Breaking Q1 2024, Attendance Rebound in FY23
32:22 World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland to Feature Holiday Celebrations
33:22 Sign-off

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[tedfrommarketing]

The problem with a low cost line-skip is that because of the price point, it makes it pretty much mandatory to buy one. Having a higher price line-skip is actually a good thing because it means less people buy it, which means standby line moves a little quicker and it doesn't feel like it's required.

[Everclearboy]

Thank god, being able to do these in advance was so helpful back in the day.

[HerHollyness]

I understand this doesn’t affect you guys but there are a LOT of guests each year from international destinations and with this, unlike with FastPass+, you are not able to pre-book your Lightning Lanes until you actually step foot in the US. So you don’t get the 7 day advantage if you’re staying on property. You don’t even get the 3 day advantage. You’re left with the dregs that are available on the day you arrive. More needs to be made of this and Disney needs to sort it out. The old system allowed ticket holders from anywhere to pre-book so why doesn’t Lightning Lane?

[shabbysnubtide]

When everyone has Lighting Lane…
No one does.

[teddanson]

If you think they did this because "they listened to the fans, " you're delusional. There is no way they are doing this for any other reason than to justify increasing the cost of the service significantly. Glad they're making this change, but I would be shocked if by this time next year prices aren't insanely higher than what they were with Genie+.

[theknittingchick]

My understanding is, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but International guests staying on property DO NOT have access to this system until we are on US soil which means we can't book anything until the day before or day of. How is this fair, there is no perk for us? At least with Genie+ we were all on equal footing. Because they changed the DAS system I no longer qualify for DAS so I was really counting on Genie+ but if International guests can't book until we arrive on US soil and everything good is booked there is no point for me to go to Disney. If this is true this really sucks.

[robertlemaster]

Disney originally built Fast Pass into the price of the ticket. This is just another method to push the cost of the guest experience. I consider it similar to Disney charging for parking at their hotels.

[billybatson]

Tom delivering this news (and analysis) making my day.

[Mike__B]

Tom I really don't feel like Genie+ being cheaper than the competition is really a benefit though, I find it as a net negative unless you are dead set that you're going to pay for the service. I have never seen "skip the line" affect standby queue as much at any other park than I have at Disney resorts, yeah it's more expensive at Universal, or Cedar Fair parks, etc, but no where do I see 6+ LL people go for every 1 guest in standby on such a consistent basis, sure you may get a rush of people on a particular ride at other parks, but once that rush is over it's over, at Disney parks that LL queue just gobbles people up who get reminders from their phone that it's time to go and they get in line walking straight past everyone who's had concrete poured over their feet aka standby line.

Yes, you still have standby, and you will have an absolutely horrible experience as a resort, you paid to get into the park just like everyone else, but drawing a line in the sand to not pay an extra $30 should not be punished this harshly. Disney simply overbooks LL reservations too damn much, that 6:1 ratio I mentioned earlier that translates to 86% of the ride capacity goes to LL, that is beyond wrong. Disney does it because they feel that they have a financial responsibility to those who pay for the service as you can see by people who lined up to complain about not getting reservations, where as if you pay for the entry and complain that every ride was well over an hour wait, they give you a blank stare and tell you that you can buy Genie+ to save time, yeah that actually happened to me my last trip over 2 years ago, which is why it was my last trip.

[AshleyTravis]

I am so happy for this change. This will make planning our morning or afternoon around what is available so much easier and better than manically refreshing on our phones every 5 seconds! we will also be able to figure out what side of the park we can start with in places like MK where bouncing back and forth was a huge issue. Thanks for the update!

[ttintagel]

As a person with low vision, the more I can do on a big screen and full-size keyboard at my own speed at home, instead of a phone screen with a bug-ridden app and bad wifi, in the blinding glare of the Florida sun, at the last minute, in a rush, while dodging other pedestrians with my nonexistent peripheral vision, is a win.

[rb]

Here is my perspective as someone who has never been to Florida: with Universal you buy one extremely expensive ticket but then you basically walk on to every attraction and never have to look at your phone.

Disney World seems to require an advanced degree in order to understand how everything works. I’ve been researching Genie+ for about six weeks in preparation for my first trip and now they are changing the whole thing a week before my vacation and I am STRESSED. There won’t be enough time for me to research everything before I have to start booking. It also means I have to wake up at 4am (on the west coast) to book lightning lanes for my entire week stay. I don’t want to book LL in advance. I want to go with the flow and see where the day takes me. I have a park hopper ticket and was just planning to decide which parks I would rope drop on which days as I was going along. Now I feel like I have to pre plan everything. I hated booking dining reservations 60 days out because who knows where I’ll be or what I’ll want to eat two months from now? I ended up canceling all those dining reservations because of that.

Why not just give resort guests three LL per day that they can use on any attraction? And then just book one LL at a time throughout your day after that? No advanced planning or strategy required.

[englanddg]

It's a good start. They'll need to do a lot more before I'll spend my money visiting them again.

[LindseyFarrow]

It's really frustrating that it's only for US citizens only - makes it harder for people from abroad. I'm hoping it's like a testing phase before rollout - definitely better system though!

[ZakZak-mzux]

It is unfortunate that Disney went to only one time a day per ride and booking in advance used to be 60 days if staying on property and 30 days if not staying on property.

[ral]

If they were really "listening, " they would've brought back the entire Fast Pass system (or never stopped it in the first place.) They just made enough changes to "quiet the noise" while still ripping guests off their money, time, and legitimate need for DAS. Making it free again would significantly lessen all three.

[sirbossk]

This new system perfectly combines the worst aspects of both FastPass+ (rides running out of passes well before the day of unless you book an onsite hotel and do your homework in advance) and Genie+ (being a paid version of something we used to have for free). This may actually be the very worst line skip system ever devised. If one class divide in the Disney parks wasn't enough, now you have two (onsite and offsite + Multi Pass or none).

[dreadnort]

Great unless your an international guest and then you can't purchase it

[frankp]

Today's Disney ONLY listens and hears ONLY what they wish to hear - what Guests REALLY want is the return of FREE Fast Pass. Somehow they don't hear that. To say Disney "listened" is to encourage and embolden the current managements continued and non stop poor decisions. When Guests ACCEPT this kind of up-charge (or Park changes) as acceptable you are just encouraging them to continue this kind of management behavior. Stop settling - hold Disney to the HIGH standard it's founder set!! The days of Disney being Guest oriented ended 2 decades ago. I've been attending WDW since the 70's and SADLY stopped attending 5 years ago. Anyone remember night Parades etc .... need I go on? :(

[Btn]

It’s just crazy to me how stuff like this will add 500-700 bucks to family’s vacation.