I had tickets for a June 2020 trip that obviously didn’t happen. I let them expire because I had no idea when I was going to be able to get back. Decided in January that we will go in June this year so had to call to apply credit. I didn’t add Genie+ since it was still fairly new, and I wanted to hear more about experiences before I committed to every day of our 5 day tickets for the 4 of us. I specifically asked if I could add it later, and the CM who was helping me said I could add it anytime. I went to add it today and discovered that she failed to explain the policy that to add Genie+ to your whole trip ahead of time, you will have to pay the $15 per person per day as well as any ticket price increases because the system actually cancels the original tickets and rebooks tickets with Genie+. I talked to one CM who tried to help, but couldn’t. She nicely got me set up with a call back so I didn’t have to wait on hold for the person who could help.
Here is where my actual concern comes in - the person who called me back was immediately rude to me and told me that 99% of them (I assume she meant ticket CMs) would never tell a customer about the ticket price increase being part of the additional cost to add Genie+ later. (Her excuse was because they don’t know when or if that will happen and how much the increase would be.) While she treated me incredibly disrespectfully, I am less motivated to report that and more interested in letting Disney know that I think that this is something phone CMs should definitely be telling guests. Any suggestions on the best way to communicate that information?
The one advantage to buying in advance is you don’t have to add it every day between midnight and 7AM prior to the free for all to book LL at 7AM. Definite convenience there, but given the cost increase of the tix, it is likely a great solution to just add daily and deal with the annoyance…
Yes, I was trying to avoid the possibility of something not working and having to deal with buying it each morning. I will most likely just go ahead and do that.
At this point, I’m more interested in letting Disney know that their CMs are really misleading guests like me who ask about adding Genie+ later by not warning guests that a ticket price increase could impact the actual cost increase. The CM I talked to today who literally told me 99% of them don’t do that made it seem like it wasn’t just a mistake that the original CM I talked to in January left out that information. She implied that they are intentionally not telling people. (I don’t think she meant that with a malicious intent - just that it is not something they do, and I’m ridiculous for expecting them to.) She had zero empathy and didn’t agree that it impacted people’s decision about when to add Genie+. That seems wrong to me. I would like to help this become more transparent so that someone like me is better informed in the future. Disney’s own FAQ page about adding Genie+ doesn’t even mention this. I discovered it when I read the fine print carefully when trying to add Genie+ to my existing ticket. With all the nickel-and-diming Disney is doing now, they should at least be open and honest about it.
@Mooria3 , just to say that I’m pretty sure this was a policy change made around February. Prior to that you could add it on at any time for $15 a day as long as you did it for the length of the tickets.
That doesn’t mean the CM should have been so rude to you, but if you rebooked the tickets in January then I don’t think the policy was in place at that time.
I would email Disney. I’d try to keep my info as concise as possible.
Very likely many CMs aren’t aware that adding Genie+ to an existing ticket, caused cancellation of that ticket if prices had increased. It’s been my experience that most CMs genuinely try to do a good job.
And most businesses would appreciate knowing where they can improve.
That’s fair, and had the CM who was rude to me today pointed that out, I would have agreed with her as well. My problem is that the policy is in place now and according to the CM and Disney’s FAQ page, they’re still not telling people. I understand and accept that there is nothing to be done for me - I simply want to encourage Disney to make their policies transparent so that someone who books tickets before the next price increase but is traveling after that (fairly consistent February increase) knows that they may end up having to spend more to add it later. To me that is a super simple policy to be transparent about. Genie+ isn’t really an “add on” as it is labeled by Disney, it’s a ticket change that can incur a cost above the actual Genie+ cost if the ticket prices themselves change. No need to hide/leave that information out at this point.
Thanks! I agree and the other CMs I talked to today were very kind and genuinely seemed like they wanted to help me but the system didn’t allow it. Disney can’t know there is a problem with communication if no one tells them so that is my goal - to help them help guests.
@Jeff_AZ - Based on their experience, maybe you could add something to the cost portion of your Genie thread? Maybe explain a bit of the process of how to add Genie+ to an existing ticket in advance, and how you are essentially cancelling one ticket version for another (changing from “without” to “with”). It especially needs a note that the cost of adding it in advance is $15+tax per day PLUS any increase in the ticket price (such as the yearly increase) since the original ticket was bought.
I have intentionally avoided adding any detail on the mechanics of the app because that begins to be quite unwieldy. I have left that to other folks. I have similar thoughts about pricing information and other unusual situations.
(It’s kind of insane that you have to do so much research to use what should be a simple program.)
