Yes. But this is also the job of Touring Plans. I doubt the folks at Touring Plans are merely creating this website with their planning tools out of the goodness of their own hearts. They need to generate a profit.
The concern I have is that this new feature of Disney’s will take away business from Touring Plans. It doesn’t matter if Touring Plans is better or even if they do different things…but if ENOUGH people see the Genie as good enough for them, Touring Plans loses potential customers. Regardless, whatever Genie does in terms of crowd control will now have to become something Touring Plans accounts for in the recommendations IT makes. This means that the historical information it has had prior to Genie used to make predictions on will become tainted.
So, I think it is wise for Touring Plans to take this announcement quite seriously and then start to plan accordingly, getting ahead of the eight ball, as it were.
In the grander scheme of things, Disney seems to be making changes that negatively impact companies that have benefited from (and benefited) Disney in the past. For example, Travel Agencies. I think Disney would prefer that everyone book through Disney directly, and they seem to be giving less to the travel agencies as offers. Rather than seeing other companies as symbiotic in nature with Disney, Disney seems them as stealing away potential revenue for themselves!
I’ve been a TP user since 2005 (and a UG user since the 90s…granted, I was a kid, but my parents had enough sense to use it…anyway!)
I’ve seen enough of Disney’s innovations to say that there will always be a role for outside help like TP. Disney’s MO is money (see: outpacing real world inflation of food & beverage prices, squeezing guests in order to push up charge events, reducing perks while increasing hotel prices, and so on). Heck, even their new partnership with Target pushes this narrative. So I don’t think that this Genie thing is going to help guests in a way that we may think…I suspect it’s pushing towards more purchases to have a “more magical experience.” After all - you can’t have fun at Disney unless you do all the dessert parties, all the special admission events, buy all the things, right?
Competition is good. And we TP folks have to remember that we are such a small percentage of guests at Disney on any given day that we’ve always been able to outpace, outsmart, outperform the average guest. If TP continues to innovate, that will continue.
Could TP use the data Disney is providing through there service to modify its own? TP’s unfortunately wont be as accurate until much closer to the trip but is Disney is leading the crowds to say, Tomorrowland in the morning, TP could recommend a different part if the park that morning. I do think the app will have to change, your right. I would like to see more options, like “group close attractions together” and option to ride morning, midday, evening or anytime built into the optimization option. If you’ve set a time to do something, TP automatically puts it there. I wont trust Disney IT or motives. Ill use TP, thank u very much.
The problem, ultimately, is how one defines “correctly”. For Disney, “correctly” would mean it is implemented in a way that drives up their revenue. That may or MAY NOT mean what is most efficient for users.
I imagine Genie will be dumbed-down compared to TP. In my mind TP is for those that want to take touring to the next (a more advanced) level and Genie will simply guide folks through the park in a way that’s a little less overwhelming. Personally, I am hoping Genie can supplement what I have already set up in TP and be more of a guide while in the park. I actually think this was a good move on Disney’s part. I know a number of friends that avoid planning trips to WDW because the planning process is too daunting.
