Just wondering what everyone is doing who has trips scheduled for spring 2022, buy genie + or wait until the trip gets closer? Any thoughts on whether it’s likely Disney will raise the price of genie+ or maybe offer a promotion and include it for resort guests or something like that in the future?
History indicates, Disney will raise the price.
Offering Genie + in some type of special, unlikely, but possible.
2 Likes
I don’t have a trip scheduled, but I would wait until the trip gets a lot closer. The only way to buy in advance is to buy it for the entire number of days you have a ticket for. You cannot pick and choose. If you shorten or lengthen the number of days your ticket is for, you’d likely have to call to change your Genie+ to match - and calling is rarely fun. Buying it four months in advance or two days in advance is no difference in how it functions, you can’t book anything with it until the day of use, a day at a time.
2 Likes
For price protection, if you’ve got a larger group, it probably does make sense to buy sooner (understanding that it’s length of ticket for pre-purchase).
But I would probably still wait for things to shake out over the next couple of weeks and assess if you’ll use it to that extent. Otherwise it will make sense to wait, since even if there is a rise in price you’re still likely to come out ahead if you’re purchasing day-by-day for only a few days vs length of ticket.
2 Likes
If you’re sure you’ll want it every day of your trip, buy now. If you think you will thrift your way to needing it a day or two less than every day, I’d wait till you’re on site.
2 Likes
Thanks, I like your advice, I think that’s what I will do, pretty sure I will want it length of trip but maybe waiting a few more weeks to see how it actually works will be a good idea.
2 Likes
I am guessing after the 50th crowds slow genie+ will replace free dining eventually
1 Like
Going Feb 2022, and I already added them.
My reasoning:
-
We already had park-hoppers and plan was to rope drop, mid-day break and close another park. So, deciding certain parks weren’t worth G+ isn’t a thing for us, since we’ll be getting 2-3 parks worth of G+ everyday. Also, this is our one-and-done trip so $45/day so G+ for the entire trip isn’t a big deal.
-
The word “Introductory” in the G+ announcement. I don’t think they’ll increase the price this year. But, after the holidays are over, I see the bean-counters calculating what they can get away with. That will take them a little bit of time, so my Feb trip is probably safe. But, at min. I don’t see them lowering the G+ price. An increase to $20 would mean the price went from $450 - $600. So, if they do that price increase, 7 days with the increased is about the same as 10-days bought now. AND I don’t have to deal with buying G+ in the morning.
-
G+ as room discount. One, I don’t see them offering that very soon so not for our trip (Feb). Two, G+ is so cheap in comparison to free dining, it would be almost an insult. We actually have three reservations while I watch how things play out: Offsite Condo at Windsor, Moderate at Disney, Camping at Disney. I don’t see them offering it for camping, and the odds of them offering it for Moderate for our trip are almost zero. Even then, any room discount would have to be better.
Sidebar, since I’ve been thinking about this a lot. With the way Disney is now, for people that drive there (like us), off-site seems the way to go. You can replace early-entry with one ILL$$$ for everyone and still have money for G+ for everyday. Then rope-drop the areas that aren’t open at early entry, so you won’t be behind too many of the early-entry people. Instead of being in the elbowing hordes to get to a ILL$$$ for standby, you schedule it for later in the day using the room savings. If you drive you’ll be paying for parking either at the resort or the parks. But, I’m still keeping all the reservations until I have more data.
1 Like
Thank you, I can see you have thought this through and you helped me solidify my decision! We are also will be park hopping and this will probably be the last trip we take for several years at least so I want to maximize our time, my husband also is really not a fan of theme parks. When we went to Disney in spring of 2019 he refused to wait on any line longer than 20 minutes! I actually just ordered my Disney visa chase redemption card so I’m just going to use that and buy genie + once I get it in the mail, at least I won’t feel like I’m spending any more money right now.
1 Like