I selfishly don’t want it bc now more people will be booking more rides.
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They will still have to keep track of the time. I bet a lot of people won’t go to the lengths of settling alarms and such while in the parks. It’s one thing to know you can book again at X time. It’s another to actually do it at that time.
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True.
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Quote from Len on another site:
Earlier this year we were contacted by several national class-action law firms, looking for evidence of systemic wait time inflation to sell Genie+ and ILL.
We did the analysis and couldn’t find definitive proof it’s happening. If I recall correctly, 75% of wait times we looked at were inflated, but 25% of them were lower than the actual waits. So there wasn’t a case to be made.
My guess is that uncertainty around wait times - if you just don’t know whether they’re right - probably helps sell Genie+ too.
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I think they’d have to look at historical data as well, and industry-wide data and they’d find that wait times have always been overinflated pretty much everywhere. It’s just not a “they’re doing it to sell LL” thing.
EDIT: and I say that as someone who used to set the wait time signs… it’s just what you do because nobody comes and screams at the entrance person if the sign says 45 minutes and they only waited 28 minutes, but if it says 30 and they waited 41 there will almost certainly be a guest complaint.
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Last summer, ahead of the Genie+ launch, Disney inflated waits like never before.
And then TP picked up on ILL inflation
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I can say that having more certainty around wait times is a LL selling point for me. I feel like LL waits are more constant and predictable than (posted) standby waits, especially for rides with a lot of downtime like RotR.
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More from Len on that other site. Interesting excerpt on free Genie below, emphasis mine.
5. So Disney now needs a way to distribute crowds more evenly. That’s Genie.
I think the above explains it pretty well, but let me give you my experience with it. I visited DHS by myself, starting at 8 a.m. one morning. Over the course of a full day, Genie suggested 3 of the park’s 5 most popular rides. And the only reason I got the third was because Rise broke down, and Genie knew it had to divert non-ILL guests from the standby line, because it had hours of ILL sales to make up.
Genie did, however, suggest all 7 of the lowest-rated rides in the park. That included - to me, a middle-aged guy by himself - Disney Junior Dance and Play, Lighting McQueen Racing Academy, and Alien Swirling Saucers. First - ewww. And second, Genie’s day never included the rides I specifically said I wanted to ride.
So that’s why Genie exists. It’s not for guests. It’s to move around people who aren’t knowledgeable about the park, in ways that they woudn’t by themselves, and to upsell guests on things they wouldn’t otherwise buy. It’s entirely for park management. It’s not in your best interests, it’s in theirs.
My thoughts:
I think Liners largely concluded that the free Genie service wasn’t very useful. But that’s on an individual planning level - on a macro level, it could help by evening out demand around the park. Or, selfishly, it’s in my interest if Disney is using free Genie to shift demand away from RotR and SDD to McQueen and Saucers.
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WTF, I love Genie now!
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Ok in fairness, the best restrooms in DHS are over by Lightweight McQueen Racing Academy. So it’s worth it for that alone… And of course you don’t have to go IN to watch the show, because the bathrooms have their own entrance. AC, available outlets if needed in a hallway…
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Good point! My one word association with those bathrooms is “frigid.” Every time I go in there I’m surprised at how cold and empty they are
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Question I am thinking about.
Oh my travel day I should get to MK at noon. Planning on some rides— all typically short waits— need to ease my kids in. The Plan to go to Epcot for FEA before dinner. I would like a genie + for FEA at like 4 pm.
It looks like with the new rules, I should book something else at 7, and then at 11 book FEA. Is that right? Then at 1 I can try for something else on my list?
I was checking out the thrill data web site and it looked like they aren’t selling out to fast (FEA). Thanks!
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Yes that should be a good plan. Timing may fluctuate, so you’ll have to be have some flexibility in case FEA is not at the time you want at 11. Hopefully it works out!
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Fyi, Epcot currently opens at 830, so if you are stacking, you’d be eligible to book your 2nd LL at 1030 (not 11). At 1030 return times for FEA shift rapidly later since that’s when a lot of people are booking.
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The second LL will be based off the 2-hour clock on the park of the 1st LL. So if the 1st LL is in MK, the 2 hours goes off MK’s opening time. Not sure what that is.
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Even if my first park is MK and my first G+ is in MK can I still go off of Epcot’s hours?
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See my response above yours.
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Is she hopping to EC? If so, can she get a reservation at EC before hopping there? I thought that’s changed now.
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Yes you can get one before hopping, but the return time has to have advanced past 2pm hopping time.
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I see it! Thanks! So complicated.
MK opens at 9– so I can book at 11 then.
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