Nothing is known beyond that language that you quoted. Len, on the Disney Dish, suggested that Disney feels they cannot raise the price because the product is not valuable enough. The current problem is that guests are complaining about value for their money. If they raise the price they will need to add significant value and without a serious reduction in people using the service there is no way to add value.
The solution seems to be (yes, definitely still rumor) to dramatically reduce the usage of Genie+ to raise the value of it. And the only real way to reduce the usage is to cap it. The complaints of people who could not purchase Genie+ are seemingly easier to deal with than people who complain about paying AND having a terrible experience.
All of what you say is exactly why I think Disney is stopping the ticket addon pre trip. It was so easy to just add it all at once and budget for it in advance, but waking up and seeing that $64 each day for your average family of 4 will likely reduce people buying it. Especially on longer trips where they realize itâs not super useful in parks like AK and EP.
My aunt and my sister are coming with us in November and we had a cookout yesterday and I basically had to convince them to buy their tickets now (insanely early). Iâm very fortunate that most of my family has trust in my trip planning skills and they all just smiled and nodded. I just couldnât even get into the actual details of âwhyâ they needed to buy.
The funny thing is that the whole purpose of changing the Fastpass+ system was due to complaints about having to plan 60+ days in advance to have a chance at rides like FoP or 7DMT. And then they go and establish the park reservation system anyways which is far worse in making people have to make plans months in advance but at the same time try to take away your ability to book your Fastpasses months in advanceâŚitâs silly. If they wanted to make the parks more spontaneous, they need to get rid of the park reservation system before trying to make their fastpass/LL system on the fly last minute.
I also see G+ as a symptom not the illness itslef and am compelled by the narative about lack of investment in parts of the parks forcing Disney into a situation where they have to limit capacity and provide people ways to skip crazy long lines. And that seems to be a mish mesh of a lot of things:
Decreased ride capacity because of maintenance issues (Lenâs favorite topic)
Decreased staffing and park hours due to hiring shortages
Lack of investment in new rides, shows and experiences on a continuous basis
Choice to build fully immersive worlds with fewer rides.
I am particularly fascinated by the last one. The immersive worlds are what Disney sees as its hallmark. But with so few rides per acre and without interactive elements that draw people in, it doesnât do much to help capacity. Merch opportunities donât cut it. SWGE is a small investment away from being somewhere some people would want to stay all day. Toy Story Land is awesome but is more like a midway than a land
I totally agree with you. TSL is like the Dinoland of HS. Except it has even less things to do, places to sit, shop, or eat.
I was thinking earlier, the worst thing to happen to WDW was the reservation system. It ruined the availability to turn back on fpp as we knew it (even if they added a paywall to access it) and bc they know the numbers they can manipulate staffing so that we will never see the shorter standby waits we saw ealier in the pandemic. Theyâve basically set a wait time they deem reasonable for guests and manipulate everything else to keep it that way. I donât believe staffing is an issue in parks anymore. I saw waaaaay too many cms with little to do on my last trip so I donât believe thatâs an issue any longer. Dining, housekeeping, transportation, yes, but not park staff.
I was thinking that by pulling the ability to book G+ in advance, Disney is opening up the option to scrap it all together on a moments notice. They canât do that if people still have them attached to their tickets. Weâll, they could, but theyâd catch shit for it.
When they eliminated FPP, Park reservations, for Disney, became a necessity. Without SOMETHING, they would have no way of knowing how to staff their parks. With FPP, they could see where most people were booking their initial three, and judge park attendance accordingly. They could then staff up appropriately.
With FPP gone, how does Disney know how many people will show up at any given park on any given day? They donât. They MIGHT be able to tell general attendance across all the parks due to dated tickets, but when you factor in APs, even that becomes a guessing game.
So, the APR system provides Disney what it needs to ensure there is enough staff. I just donât see Disney getting rid of the APR system. In the end, it benefits THEM as well as guests too much. (Yes, it benefits guestsâŚbut not any in way that the guest can visibly see the benefit directlyâŚrather, they only experience the benefit if offers without knowing what it would look like without.)
I CAN see them changing the APR system to be a more user-friendly, though. For example, park hoppers having to wait until 2:00 should be shifted sooner. Maybe make it noon or even 11:00 am before the first hop. That kind of thing.
The June 8 deadline was definitely a cloud looming over me. I had made a trip for myself and DS9 for September back in April before that announcement. I was considering switching to a late August date that would not require him to miss any school, but I figured I better make the decision soon or risk losing the Genie+ for the duration of the trip. My TA suggested that if we were modifying dates, it probably wouldnât get lost, but even she said that she has seen Disney do some crazy things, so I pulled the trigger today. Of course, then I had to worry about making new park ressies. Availability wasnât an issue, but deciding which parks on which days was a chore.
I was just at UOR two weeks ago and just love that system. I know that would be almost impossible to implement at WDW due to the number of deluxe rooms. But would I consider staying in a Value room and paying an extra $100 per person per day for an Express Pass like UOR? Maybe.
My biggest beef with the reservation system is the park hopping time. Can we please move that to noon instead of 2 pm?
They could, but it would cost moreâŚand, with staffing shortages a problem across the country already, they have to utilize their staff as efficiently as possible. (I just read today that there are two jobs available for every American currently looking for work!) So, thatâs simply not a viable solution.
I agree. Although I donât think Disney was being disingenuous about the pandemic necessitating itâŚit just wasnât the ONLY reason. I think Disney made it clear, though, that the APR system was not going awayâŚtrouble is, people DID associate it with being just pandemic related, and so seem frustrated it is still around.
This is one I am not sure if. Good question. I know there are certain countries where it is an issueâŚbut not sure if is to the same degree as the U.S. or not!