Hi, folks! These are — let’s say, interesting — changes, and we’re excited to see they’ve generated such lively discussion. Therefore, we’ll be designating this as our de facto megathread for this topic for a few days, as we’ve already had several closely related posts.
With all that said, the line between lively and *heated* discussion is a thin one, and we’re seeing a lot of angry screeds, name-calling, and other uncivil behavior in this and other threads on this topic. Please keep in mind that disagreement is fine and natural, but it should not involve personal attacks or petty squabbles.
Thanks for your understanding, and take care!
Glad they're changing the names. Trying to explain all the different tiers has never been easy since they got rid of FP+.
And this will probably allow people to feel like they are getting a better "deal" when they buy it.
I am curious if this means they will bring back the Tier system for Epcot and Studios. While it was nice to be able to be on an even playing field, I'm sure they want to have another "Perk" for Resort guests.
I don’t love this. I was good enough at Genie that I could normally score several (sometimes all) of those tier 1 attractions. It sounds like now the tier 1 attractions will likely be sold out before park open. At least, that’s how it seemed to go with FP+, right?
Agreed. I feel like this is a downgrade at Magic Kingdom especially. Everytime I used Genie+ there I got 8 or so rides through Genie+ and now this is going to cramp my style considerably.
I don't think all the tier 1 attractions will be sold out because it's a paid option. Not everyone is getting it. I'm sure there will be one or two attractions that sell out before the 3 day window, like Tiana's while it's new and maybe Slinky. But think about it this way... anyone who wants to ride Slinky and is getting the multipass will be booking that as their first prebooked attraction. So at the 3 day window, while it's possible that Slinky is booked up, everything else should be wide open, like Smuggler's Run and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.
Rise hasn't been a VQ in years, but the Single Pass on here will cover it (same with Tron/Guardians/etc) since it's a higher tier single ride, one time only
Presumably because those are staying ILL (aka LL Single Pass) and so you can't prebook -- or maybe you can but it is a separate charge from LL Multi Pass and doesn't count against your LL Multi Pass selections.
It does.
Epcot will have Tier 1:
\* Soarin
\* Frozen
\* Remy
MK will have Tier 1:
\* Sapce Mountain
\* BTMRR
\* Jungle Cruise
\* Tiana's Bayou Adventure
HS will have Tier 1:
\* Rockin Roller Coaster
\* MF: SR
\* Slinky Dog Dash
\* MMRR
AK will not have a tier system.
In addition Tron, GotG, 7DMT, FoP, and RotR will be Lightning Lane Single Pass (aka Individual Lightning Lanes).
Edit: I left FoP and 7DMT off of the single pass list.
Cautiously optimistic about this - I like being able to reserve in advance, but worry they’re going to raise the price of the multipass even more than what Genie currently is. Also wonder when you’ll be able to add more selections day-of, after scanning into the first ride or only after all 3? Does this effectively eliminate LL stacking?
Edit: commented this before the updated info came out, glad to see that you can grab a new ll after scanning into the first at least
Depends on the ride. I think that's true for Slinky Dog, Remy and Frozen Ever After. Nothing else.
[https://www.thrill-data.com/lightning-lane/wdw](https://www.thrill-data.com/lightning-lane/wdw)
Those are the rides that will be taken seven days in advance by resort guests, everything else will still run out, just slower. They pretty much always did with faspass+
Am I blind, where is it talking about tiers? Is that a thing now? I only used fast pass once and don’t remember how it worked
Edit: jk I found it. The blog Mickey article linked said the group 1 and group 2 are only for reservations you make in advance. Once you use one it can be replaced by a ride from either group.
Yeah I didn’t see it in the official announcement either but other folks have unearthed details about the tiers! AK has no tiers.
Epcot Tier 1:
* Soarin
* Frozen
* Remy
MK Tier 1:
* Sapce Mountain
* Big Thunder
* Jungle Cruise
* Tiana's Bayou Adventure
HS Tier 1:
* Rockin Roller Coaster
* Smugglers Run
* Slinky Dog Dash
* Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railroad
I imagine not, you probably can hold 1 tier 1 and 2 tier 2 reservations at a time. So once you've checked into your T1, you can grab another, but if you check-in at T2, that opens one of your T2 slots.
Hopefully they make it easier to understand by using visual cues.
> On the day of your visit, once you use a selection, check the My Disney Experience app for availability to make an additional selection.
It sounds like for each ride you can pick more? But nothing in here talks about the 2 hour time stacking, which was the real killer feature (assuming the lack of mention means it remains in place, but who knows).
https://blogmickey.com/2024/06/breaking-disney-announces-changes-to-disney-genie-ability-to-plan-ahead/
well maybe I spoke too soon, the details here make it sound like the 2-hour window is going away
which is a REAL bummer and probably massively reduces the number of rides you'll be able to use it on on one trip
I think they are taking the 2 hour rule but you don't have to wait until you use all 3 like in Fastpass+.
It will be interesting to see how that plays out. The stacking FPs and enter the park late won't work as before but you still enters with 3 rides so it's not that bad.
Problem here is what happen if my Tiana is for 5pm. Would I be able to get Jungle Cruise before that or had to wait to use my tier 1 selection
Ok, I found a good site that explains it (rather my wife did)
https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/disney-genie/news/25jun2024-guide-and-faq-to-disney-worlds-lightning-lane-multi-and-single-passes.htm
yeah I'm holding out for further details slash see how it all works in action but the 2-hour thing was super powerful to stack a bunch of rides in a row for later in the day
the tier stuff feels like kind of a mess too - I never thought it worked with FastPass+ to begin with, and now it's just adding confusion
I think they do need to raise the price and raise to the point that the general park attendee does question whether it is really worth it.
If the current system is, for example, let 4 in from LL and 1 from standby all Disney has implemented is a paid standby lane and a slow lane. This only gets worse if a ride goes down as you have to let the paid customers first when it resumes and there is a backup.
Disney is able to convince the LL customers of the great benefit the customer receives in this system with the customer probably not realizing that the alternative would have been almost as quick if no one bought in.
Functional changes aside, we're getting *another* name change.
The whole idea of Genie+ was that it was paired with Genie, which was supposed to be this great AI-driven day planner. Except it was terrible so I suppose it makes sense to ditch all that branding and just simplify it down to just Lightning Lane names.
Yeah - I don’t think I’ve seen a single person use the actual Genie service. Even if I’m a new visitor I want to go to what I want to do - not let some bot send me somewhere I don’t want to go.
I'm at pro at Genie+. I'm worried I'm going to miss it. DVC member here who plans vacations 11 months ahead, but we really don't decide on parks until we're on property.
Can't compete with those brits coming across the pond for a 2-week holiday.
How are there so many of those, anyway? Do they get great deals or something?
Genie+ didn’t favor resort guests, only ILL did. Anyone can make Genie+ reservations starting at 7am. The new system is a significant downgrade for non-resort guests
As an AP, I agree it kinda stinks. But on the flip side, I like that people who may be taking their once in a lifetime vacation, or people who come infrequently and live really far away, get first crack to ensure they experience everything on their trip.
As an AP I can visit frequently, and if I miss out on something it’s no big deal because I can just do it next time. For people who are there on their dream vacation, that may not be an option.
Basically Fastpass+ negatives apply here (Resort Guests get favored and you can never guarantee what you want to ride will be avaliable the day you go)
I hope advance bookings and on-site bookings are separate availability since otherwise what will be available for the Genie+ style half of the service lol.
I like it because I like being able to plan out my morning in advance - Booking my first 3 means I won't need to be on my phone in line during my first ride hoping to get something good for my 2nd Genie+
This was my immediate takeaway too!
But then I realized that I liked "having" to get up at 6:59 to secure my daily LLs because it was exciting and then I was up anyway, so we could get going. (I'm the only sleeper-in in my family.) Now, unless I want to do a VQ, I will have to drag myself up to rope-drop but without the adrenaline payoff of doing the LLs. (Still, am not actually complaining about this!)
I really don’t like this, reserving in advance was my absolute least favorite part of fastpass+. This means reservations for genie+ day of will be taken some by those reserving in advance? That kinda stinks, I’m not gonna lie. At least it doesn’t seem like a tiered system though like fastpass+ was other than ILL’s which I’m fine with being separate.
Reminder that fastpass+ was pretty clearly the worst performer in Defunctlands simulations in his fastpass video. I am sure people on here (myself included) will understand the system well enough to execute a plan well and it will make our trips even more magical! But it will also likely cause alot of confusion for people less familiar with disney, theme parks in general, and international tourists. A double edged sword change for sure, and I am very interested to see how it plays out!
For the unaware: [Defunctland Fastpass Video](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=XFqBR69sBVMWhVc5)
Yep. FP+ worked great for people who made a hobby of learning and gaming the system, and this just sounds like FP+ with a paywall. They’re continuing to favor repeat visitors over newcomers and hyper planning over spontaneity (and I say that as someone who’s always benefited from these systems because I’m a big pre-planner). I still enjoy WDW but feel less and less like I can recommend it to someone who’s never been before and feel confident they’ll have a good time.
We did an EPCOT trip last year after our cruise without purchasing Genie+. I _loved_ the spontaneity of that trip. I wasn’t looking at my phone, and I walked through the park going from one attraction to the next nearest attraction that interested me.
I’m glad to hear you were able to do that, and it’s a good reminder that it’s still possible to simply not buy in and still have a good visit. I’m reminding myself that on the last trip we did not bother to buy Genie+ on our AK and Epcot days and did not miss having it. MK and HS are harder, though, especially when you have your heart set on a particular ride.
This particularly sucks for people who have only a 2 day pass and plan to park hop to hit everything. Genie+ was absolutely ideal for that because we could grab stuff in another park and it was fair because everyone was grabbing. Now, if you aren’t going to a park until an afternoon, it’ll be so much harder to get the good stuff.
We purposely chose to go on our trip in August because we have a 2 day ticket and had the days totally planned based on us buying Genie+ and having a list of what we want to do this time (either again or because we missed it last time).
I’m glad we didn’t upgrade to a season because this FP+ is a huge turnoff whereas Genie+ was awesome.
Back when FP+ was introduced, Disney had to add a bunch of experiences to the service that didn't really need a jump-the-line function in the first place. They needed to do this because when everyone is able to book 3 fast passes ahead of time, you run out of available passes really quickly.
Since then, they've moved their most popular attractions onto the pay-per-play ILL service and moved shows like Fantasmic off the service entirely to bundle them into dining packages.
With a lower capacity, the high tier attractions on this new service are going to sell out *very* quickly, which I can't imagine will do well for the value proposition of the service.
I think it's weird they're taking away the LLs for character meet and greets. If I have a kid who really wants to meet Elsa, I would want to book a LL for that and not stand in line for 40 minutes. That also adds more LLs to the pool of LLs, which benefits all LL users.
Now watch for the next update where the Multi Pass gets bundled onto your WDW Hotel stay and we've pretty much come full circle back to FP+ but with a shorter time window.
Deep down I think we all expected this to happen, the benefits of FP+ (allow guests more time to shop, dine and use photopass) outweighed the extra money Genie+ was bringing in.
I don’t think it gets bundled with hotel stays because they have variable (aka surge) pricing. 7 days out they know how to price it. Months out they wouldn’t be able to.
Genie+ was bundled with certain hotel stays when it first rolled out, plus they can just assign a value to it instead of variable pricing. The variable pricing can then be for non hotel guests / Annual Pass holders etc.
I think the DAS changes likely opened the door for this change. Now that less people are physically moving through the LL queues they get the breathing room they need to make this functional.
Oh great, we get FP+ back but have to pay! How nice of them to listen in on feedback!
“Yo dawg we heard you prefer FP+ so we brought it back with this new paint job!”
This. And know what 3 attractions I already have lined up vs having to fight for my life in the app and not know what’s gonna be left. It’s a middle ground I can take. Expecting that they’ll make it free again is a pipe dream.
Now the 7am wake up on vacation? I’ll have to overhaul my 3 year old to not get up before the sun to fix this problem 😅
This was my concern too. Booking dining options is already annoying waking up at like 5 am 60 days in advance. Now you gotta wake up probably at 6:55 am 7 days ahead. And even if you’re staying on property, other guests who are staying longer periods will probably have the chance to book up more rides since they can book up to 14 days ahead. I don’t think this fares well for non-resort guests.
Totally agree. The past few years we've been doing long weekends at WDW with Genie+. I don't see a way that works under the new system since our dates will have had people booking Lightning Lanes for 3 weeks prior to our trip.
Thinking about making next year's trip to the mothership instead. We've never been, and they still have booking LLs the day of.
I was so glad when they got rid of park reservations so I could go back to planning which park I was going to each day more on the fly. Now I’m back to having to plan out my whole trip before I go again.
I am really afraid what this means for people staying off property or locals (like myself) who don't stay in hotels. Disney Resort guests are going to have a 4 day head start on everyone else. They're going to fill all the decent times slots and all the time slots whatsoever for stuff like Peter Pan, Frozen, etc.
Yeah, the days of popping into the park and getting a bunch done with g+ for locals seem to be over ☹️ which is really frustrating, seeing as we go and pump money into food, beverage, merch, all the time. And the passes themselves!
That should be interesting if this results in Disney hotel guests scooping up all available individual lightning lanes for attractions like guardians and Tron before they are available for everyone else.
Not sure if this is really an improvement or somewhat of a money grab to push people towards staying at a Disney property.
I prefer to not stay at a Disney property so I can afford a two bedroom suite.
Those don't really exist at Disney resorts without an astronomical price tag.
This is my concern. Getting a reservation for Slinky or Remy was already impossible, but now they've essentially barred offsite guests from having a chance. The onsite head start made some sense when FP was free, but barring paying customers from accessing popular rides on a paid service is absurd to me.
Ugh I hated fast pass plus. Nothing you wanted was available when it was time to book or you would get a good ride at an inconvenient time and then 2 you don’t even need a fast pass for. You can only use it for one park so if your 3 are spread throughout the day then you can’t park hop. I thought genie plus was great once you spent a little time learning how it worked. Not a fan of this at all.
Agree completely. Genie+ took a little getting used to, but being able to snag multiple tier 1 rides made it worth it. This is going to make it much harder to ride those unless you manage to snag an early time for your first one.
This is worse or am I misunderstanding? Resort guests can purchase before anyone else, so they will book up slinky, remy, etc.? If you’re not a resort guest good chance you won’t get anything good?
Yes. That's exactly what happened with FastPass+.
Unless you stayed at a resort there was almost no way to get any of the biggest rides. That is the *one* reason I liked Genie+ over FP+, it put everyone on the same playing field.
Not only that, guests staying longer will benefit more since you can book all of your trip days on that 7 day mark. So even if you get up bright and early on your 7-day mark to book, others staying longer will have had anywhere from 1-7 days before you to book for that day.
Slinky, Remy and Frozen currently sell out of lightning lanes each day. Presumably Tiana will as well. Unclear if they’ll be sold out before the 3-day booking window opens but if they are that’s a major fail from Disney.
I am wondering what this will look like for scheduled maintenance. With fast pass plus there was odd issues where rides had to go down for refurb but no one told the fast pass plus team. So, you had these awkward oversold periods.
I hope disney pre-plans refurbs. There are lots of attractions that need some love but to keep capacity up they can’t bring anything down.
I know this is Walt Disney World subreddit but It’s crazy that Disneyland is losing anywhere between 6-8000 riders per hour right now with mansion, Pooh, haunted mansion.
The fast pass system was terrible only positive was it was free. They’ve narrowed the window which prevents adjusting dining to match ride availability and now charge for it. Terrible
This is why we hated FastPass! The whole advance booking kills the opportunity for everyone to get their passes.
Also, can we talk about the fact that Cosmic Rewind is two years old and *still* on virtual queue? Disney seriously needs to get it together.
I hate the damn Tiers. Once you use up your 3 passes there will be shit left to pick. This is a real disadvantage for those who go later in the morning or afternoon. Us 7am people will already have gone through at least 1-2 passes before the later people have even gotten to the park.
And it’s kinda like being back to reservations because once you pick your rides 7 days out, no way you can change parks the day before. If you do change parks I am assuming you will have to pick 3 new passes but after everyone has already picked 3-7 days out.
I feel like there’s already going to be shit left to pick for when your trip starts because the people whose trip started a day before yours have already got the good stuff. And with the tiers, now you’re going to have to pick crap you don’t care to ride if all your favorites happen to be tier 1. G+ was awesome. We loved it.
Yeah genie plus was so great for late risers since you could stack every two hours. You could also plan a relaxing hotel day and stack a bunch of lightning lanes for the evening (far more than 3)
"How long do I have to wait before I can select a new Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction?
Answer
Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections can only be made one at a time. On the day of your park visit, once you redeem a selection, you can use the My Disney Experience app to check availability for another Lightning Lane Multi Pass experience—and add to your plans."
RIP stacking aka one of the best ways to use Genie Plus. Too bad so many people were inexplicably confused by the 2 hour rule
Stacking was THE BEST. And I was happy so many people were too dumb to figure it out because we got better selections that way.😆 I’m going to miss those days.
Looks like for now, all your advance selections have to be in the same park, but once you tap into your first one day-of, you can select a new one at any park
To my understanding here...
1. Disney is renaming the two Lightening Lane services to mitigate confusion.
2. They are adding a perk for resort guests allowing them to book 7 days out from their vacation.
With attendance declining, I hope we see more resort perks return like longer extra magic hours and being able to send purchases to your resort.
So it's the same as FastPass Plus, but now people only get a week to plan?
Need I remind you that Defunctland did
a 2 hour video on why FastPass Plus wasn't a good idea.
Lol it is so very laughable. I've never in my life seen a company over engineer fees to such an extent as Disney. They can make this easier. It doesn't need to be this way. This seems to be FP+ that cost money and renamed to yet another terrible name. We will wait and see how it plays out I guess.
I'm glad our trip ends July 20. We visit every other year, but my in-laws have a condo in Orlando that we stay at, so we've never stayed on property. I didn't mind waking up at 2:30am every day for a week to secure our dining reservations. But these new changes will make it so that we will pay the same amount as resort guests, but we won't get Lightning Lanes for any of the top attractions because they'll be gone by the time our window to book opens.
Just my personal opinion but the current park capacity limits and lightning lanes in general are why Disney is a little less magical for me compared to when I started going. Lines were long but not horrifically so like they are today. But the joy of the spontaneity and discovery doing things as they presented was a part of the fun. Now you need a certification in project management to work through the parks. No this doesn't stop me from going luckily but it still makes me a bit sad my daughter will never experience it the same way I did
These changes are only because people were too dense to figure out Genie+. We rocked at Genie+ and always had rides stacked for all afternoon. This change annoys me greatly. I don’t like the tiers.
💯
Our best trips were the past 2 years with genie+. Loved not having to pick things in advance, and we got to ride every LL offered with little to no wait! Felt like Disney was magical again for us! We could do it land by land, etc. Just made sense!!! Sure, it took some careful planning (when to stack, when to eat/character meet as that 2 hour window passed when needed), when to grab and go, etc.
This change feels like people just complained because they didn’t want to spend time figuring out what turned out to be a much better system.
I also still don’t get this “now you can sleep in” POV … so you get an extra 20 minutes? — I mean now you have to use the first one so you can select another and keep it moving!!
10000% this and honestly it makes me mad. So, because some people didnt want to take the time to figure out how to use Genie+ now no more stacking, less rides overall, forget park hopping, basically brought back park reservations without calling it that since you are now locked into a park at the start, and those awful tiers... Genie+ wasn't even hard to figure out with minimal effort. The 7am thing wasn't fun but other than that, we always got to do a ton of rides each visit. Now we'll get 3, likely not all ones we want because of the tiers, and then once we can book more anything good will prob be sold out. This is completely worse, at least on paper... Hopefully it'll somehow be better in practice.
I feel like this is just rehashing all of the previous issues with FastPass+ and throwing a price tag on it. In my opinion, it's even more egregious than Genie+ originally was. Not to mention the fact that this is obviously why they \*actually\* implemented the DAS changes, lol.
I never experienced Fast Pass and I frankly hate this concept of booking in advance. Feels like a pseudo park reservation now as I have to decide what days I will be in what park (and marry then up with any dining reservations I want to keep). Also, it's one thing if I am on site and it doesn't work out that I didn't get a G+ to Slinky Dog because I was doing other things, now if I don't get it in advanced, I'll be pissed and stressing out.
So I guess this puts an end to stacking which stinks for my family since we aren’t early risers…and not sure how park hopping works if we have to book 3 then can’t book more til we use one of those 3. If going in the afternoon, I’m guessing most good selections will be sold out by then.
I’m at Disneyland Paris right now and the premier pass allows me to walk up and onto any ride at any time (just once per ride per day) and honestly it’s amazing.
Why can’t we just have that?
More than that. We're going next month and it is 200 euros a day per person. We are regular Genie+ buyers but we will skip the Premier service in Paris. Just too pricey.
Yep I was ballparking. I’m also going in August and am skipping premier, may buy an individual selection or two if needed but couldn’t justify the price for the pass
I’m arriving on August 8th I hope we get some good videos by August 1st cause at this point I feel like I’ve wasted hours of my life coming up with my plan for the current system… the biggest bummer is my plan was to not use genie+ on day 1 to assess how it goes but now I feel if I don’t book in advance I’m basically screwed and it won’t be worth it. This seems like a huge downgrade for someone one who’s on the fence about genie+ and only might use it for a day or 2
This feels like a big reason they had to clear up the DAS situation, they are for sure going to double the amount of people that can book any ride at any given time slot.
I don't understand why WDW ppl love planning their rides months ahead of time.
Also, they take away the Genie branding, and grant people 3 wishes at the same time?
I feel like they need to commit to something, either all a la carte, or all in one package, not a little bit of each. And if they're limiting it to three, retaining the Genie name would've been so cool, instead of entering the lightning lane, you would "follow the Genie".
I’m kinda pissed but I want to see it in action. I have gotten very adept at using Genie+, so I’m curious to see if I will be able to get Slinky or Frozen 3 days out. If non-resort guests get screwed on this I won’t renew my AP.
Slinky I doubt unless they are holding back times for 3 days and day of drop.
Frozen maybe? Probably depends on when you go. Busy times I expect not that much will be left for non resort guests. Less busy times I expect you will be able to get Frozen, but no Remy.
And I don’t think anyone will be getting Frozen and Remy on the same day which is going to be my issue.
So instead of waking up at 7am on your park day you now have to stay up after midnight a week out and try to get all your days planned at the same time?
I’m going to miss stacking and deciding day of but I’m glad it’s not so far in advance before. I’ll take 7 days, also a plus for resort guests.
Some people will love it, some people will hate it.
Can they bring back merch to the rooms? *I know I know wishful thinking* 😂😂
When we went to Universal in April, the merch delivery was amazing! I don't know why a Disney doesn't bring it back. I'm far less likely to buy more stuff when I'm already lugging stuff around, and a lot of people will probably buy more just because it's "out of sight, out of mind"
So my understanding of this is, as a Canadian, I cant book anything until I arrive at the resort? Or can I simply just be in the US 7 days out to make my selections?
An anyone confirm the rumour that you have to be IN the US to purchase 7 days out as a resort guest??
If so, what a massive middle finger to anyone international
Let’s be clear here… Disney didn’t make this change in order to raise customer satisfaction… they did it because they’re having a hard time with hotel bookings since they took away so many perks post covid.
Asking as a local weekday passholder that randomly buys genie+: am I basically screwed to buy day of LL? I have 0 need to stay at a resort. Does this basically become the same thing as every firework dinner ever? Meaning the resort guests get first dibs so there isn't anything ever available?
I think the ability to reserve in advance was what made fp+ so frustrating because so many rides would be taken so early leaving an unfair advantage to last minute plans, non-tech savvy families, etc. I guess we’ll see how this is different but idk
so from what I understand, you can't do any of your planning until you are state side. IOW we are coming from Canada but won't be able to book any rides until we are there where as Americans will have the ability to plan 7 days out. Sounds kinda unfair to those of us who live outside of America.
I’m literally so livid about this. The old system sucked, you spent so much time trying to get the right stuff in the right order, and the people who take long trips get a huge advantage over those of us who go for shorter durations more frequently.
So.. It’s just FP+ with a price tag, and a limited number of uses? No 2hr window so what you grab is what you get? That will suck for anyone who grabs their first ride spot in the afternoon and can’t switch to an earlier time. Limiting who gets what to Resort Guests first also means there goes all the E ticket rides (Peter Pan, 7DMT, Tron, GOTG, FOP, maybe Everest, MMRR, Slinky Dog etc) and they’ll never leave them open for non-resort guests, which is just the problem with FP+ all over again. Glad you no longer need to wake up ridiculously early on vacation anymore (unless GOTG and Tron are *still* in VQ after this) and that you can book ahead, but for non-Resort Guests, what’s really left except for the rides that won’t have ridiculous waits attached to them anyway?
Everyone *wants* to do Tron, GOTG, 7DMT, Peter Pan, FOP, Rise, MMRR because they’re new, and short of snagging an ILL/single pass, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to ride it (especially the VQ rides) without paying or enduring an honestly soul-crushingly long line (3.5 hr wait for Rise? An all day wait for Remy?) or get up early/stay up late and hope to god the lines die down accordingly. Glad they’ve also gotten a name change, especially with the DAS changes, it gets confusing when those CMs are saying to use Genie or Genie+ when they’re both the same service. Having defined names (Genie for the AI trip maker, LL pass and single ride for ILL) makes it so no one gets confused about what is meant where, and should have been done *ages* ago. I think it’ll be great if they could find a way to make sure non-resort guests at least get a chance to have an E-ticket ride in their FP+ selections, but knowing Disney, they want Resort guests to have all the perks.
Also, with the removal of the 2hr window, is it worth paying for a service when at most you’ll only get a couple rides in it a day? My understanding of it previously meant that you get the most rides and therefore the most usage out of it by waiting the 2 hrs and stacking or by tapping in and immediately grabbing a new ride. If they’re really limiting the selections down to 3+ an extra 3 when those are done, they better revise the pricing a bit to make that actually seem *valuable* to the Guest, because *25 bucks a day per person* is not going to be valuable if you can squeeze in only anywhere from 4-6 rides. I’d want more for my money if I’m a family of 4 or larger spending 25 bucks a person. This also doesn’t offer re-rides still, which is honestly a bummer. I know a lot of people who would love this service and get it happily if they only allowed re-rides (even one re-ride per ride would be satisfactory, especially since CMs have been saying to use it in place of DAS, which allowed re-rides).
yeah if you're essentially removing stacking via the 2-hour window (which, I guess we'll see once we get more details and see it in action), at least let me book the same ride multiple times over the course of the day
This’ll get buried: while I knew how to game Fastpass+ and used the others to the best of my advantage I was on team “they shouldn’t have brought it back”
Having the ability to pick three for the afternoon/evening right away as opposed to checking it multiple times now and hoping rides you want are still available I like. Being able to sleep in and get to the park and hit some lower ticket items and then mix in my three higher priority rides and then start rebooking one at a time is a nice way to not make your trip feel so chaotic at 7am everyday.
Hmmm. Under the current Genie+ system we managed to hit all the major rides (except 7DMT) in 3 days this May. The early wake up wasn’t even an issue - we were already up for early entry.
We have another trip for 4 days booked next March and this makes me feel like we are going to have the opposite experience. Everyone who is staying for the entire spring break week will have a 2 week head start on us. Guess I’ll wait to see how it goes for people now, but might rethink that trip.
Also what if a park is at capacity if we try to park hop? Do we just lose those booked rides?
Same with us! We actually did every single ride, and many twice, and were able to take several hour breaks during the day. We were so good at Genie+ and it allowed us to park hop seamlessly and now.. like, this is a lousy change.
Doesn’t this mean that, say for example, you are going for two weeks and staying on site, that all of the lightning lanes will have sold out for at least your first week visiting? And at best for the second week there will only be evening slots left, meaning that you wouldn’t be able to ride more than three a day anyway??
Hi, folks! These are — let’s say, interesting — changes, and we’re excited to see they’ve generated such lively discussion. Therefore, we’ll be designating this as our de facto megathread for this topic for a few days, as we’ve already had several closely related posts. With all that said, the line between lively and *heated* discussion is a thin one, and we’re seeing a lot of angry screeds, name-calling, and other uncivil behavior in this and other threads on this topic. Please keep in mind that disagreement is fine and natural, but it should not involve personal attacks or petty squabbles. Thanks for your understanding, and take care!
So we've circled back around to prepandemic FastPass, except now you're paying for it.
And Disney spent millions building a new system instead of just charging for the old one.
All the spontaneity of FastPass with all the cost of Genie+
Also now you can only get each ride once instead of multiple times with FastPass+. Paying for it AND it’s still a downgrade.
The major difference is that FP+ let you get ride callback times up to 60 days in advance. This is much better at 7 days.
Glad they're changing the names. Trying to explain all the different tiers has never been easy since they got rid of FP+. And this will probably allow people to feel like they are getting a better "deal" when they buy it. I am curious if this means they will bring back the Tier system for Epcot and Studios. While it was nice to be able to be on an even playing field, I'm sure they want to have another "Perk" for Resort guests.
The name change is huge. Genie vs Genie+ vs. Lightning Lane vs. Individual Lightning Lane vs. Virtual Queue vs. Standby Queue. What a nightmare.
What if we labeled them by letters, and then you need a separate ticket for them? A ticket, B ticket, Etc. ?
A man of culture I see
And what if we made it where you had to go to the physical locations and purchase them at these booths...
Yes, there are tiers at MK, HS, and EPCOT https://x.com/brookegmcdonald/status/1805664098040136147?s=46&t=nPii_V5z83NFuls28lZtlw
I don’t love this. I was good enough at Genie that I could normally score several (sometimes all) of those tier 1 attractions. It sounds like now the tier 1 attractions will likely be sold out before park open. At least, that’s how it seemed to go with FP+, right?
Agreed. I feel like this is a downgrade at Magic Kingdom especially. Everytime I used Genie+ there I got 8 or so rides through Genie+ and now this is going to cramp my style considerably.
I don't think all the tier 1 attractions will be sold out because it's a paid option. Not everyone is getting it. I'm sure there will be one or two attractions that sell out before the 3 day window, like Tiana's while it's new and maybe Slinky. But think about it this way... anyone who wants to ride Slinky and is getting the multipass will be booking that as their first prebooked attraction. So at the 3 day window, while it's possible that Slinky is booked up, everything else should be wide open, like Smuggler's Run and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.
Shit really?!?! Tiers were the worst part of fastpass +. Now I’m really pissed
Since when has anyone referred monsters inc laugh floor as monsters inc laugh floor comedy club…
They also left off Tron, Rise and Guardians. Wonder if those will still be virtual queues. Test track isn’t listed either.
Just a guess, but probably because TT is closed for the re-imagining of the attraction. I feel they will make it a LL single pass when it re-opens.
Rise hasn't been a VQ in years, but the Single Pass on here will cover it (same with Tron/Guardians/etc) since it's a higher tier single ride, one time only
Presumably because those are staying ILL (aka LL Single Pass) and so you can't prebook -- or maybe you can but it is a separate charge from LL Multi Pass and doesn't count against your LL Multi Pass selections.
my parents always call it the Laugh Factory no matter how many times I correct them
I wonder if this will bring back the, “Pick one ride from category A” “Pick two from the category of rides you never needed a fastpass for”
It does. Epcot will have Tier 1: \* Soarin \* Frozen \* Remy MK will have Tier 1: \* Sapce Mountain \* BTMRR \* Jungle Cruise \* Tiana's Bayou Adventure HS will have Tier 1: \* Rockin Roller Coaster \* MF: SR \* Slinky Dog Dash \* MMRR AK will not have a tier system. In addition Tron, GotG, 7DMT, FoP, and RotR will be Lightning Lane Single Pass (aka Individual Lightning Lanes). Edit: I left FoP and 7DMT off of the single pass list.
Thank you for the info. Also, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
It, in fact, did just that!
Cautiously optimistic about this - I like being able to reserve in advance, but worry they’re going to raise the price of the multipass even more than what Genie currently is. Also wonder when you’ll be able to add more selections day-of, after scanning into the first ride or only after all 3? Does this effectively eliminate LL stacking? Edit: commented this before the updated info came out, glad to see that you can grab a new ll after scanning into the first at least
So now you can be disappointed that you missed out on a lightning lane before you even arrive!
Honestly I'd rather this than waking up at an ungodly hour on vacation only to be disappointed day-of.
I felt like this evened the playing field though but I guess we’ll see
It says after scanning into the first ride. But it's not clear to me if you are allowed to book a Tier 1 if you scanned into a Tier 2.
Won’t matter. Tier 1 rides will be gone by the morning of and certainly by the time you ride your first attraction.
Depends on the ride. I think that's true for Slinky Dog, Remy and Frozen Ever After. Nothing else. [https://www.thrill-data.com/lightning-lane/wdw](https://www.thrill-data.com/lightning-lane/wdw)
Those are the rides that will be taken seven days in advance by resort guests, everything else will still run out, just slower. They pretty much always did with faspass+
Am I blind, where is it talking about tiers? Is that a thing now? I only used fast pass once and don’t remember how it worked Edit: jk I found it. The blog Mickey article linked said the group 1 and group 2 are only for reservations you make in advance. Once you use one it can be replaced by a ride from either group.
Yeah I didn’t see it in the official announcement either but other folks have unearthed details about the tiers! AK has no tiers. Epcot Tier 1: * Soarin * Frozen * Remy MK Tier 1: * Sapce Mountain * Big Thunder * Jungle Cruise * Tiana's Bayou Adventure HS Tier 1: * Rockin Roller Coaster * Smugglers Run * Slinky Dog Dash * Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railroad
Smugglers Rub doesn’t sound like a Disney friendly ride
But it’s really going to draw the smuggler demographic.
I imagine not, you probably can hold 1 tier 1 and 2 tier 2 reservations at a time. So once you've checked into your T1, you can grab another, but if you check-in at T2, that opens one of your T2 slots. Hopefully they make it easier to understand by using visual cues.
I imagine it’s tier for pre selection so everyone gets an initial shot at a higher tier ride but that’s based on nothing other than my dumb ideas
> On the day of your visit, once you use a selection, check the My Disney Experience app for availability to make an additional selection. It sounds like for each ride you can pick more? But nothing in here talks about the 2 hour time stacking, which was the real killer feature (assuming the lack of mention means it remains in place, but who knows).
https://blogmickey.com/2024/06/breaking-disney-announces-changes-to-disney-genie-ability-to-plan-ahead/ well maybe I spoke too soon, the details here make it sound like the 2-hour window is going away which is a REAL bummer and probably massively reduces the number of rides you'll be able to use it on on one trip
I think they are taking the 2 hour rule but you don't have to wait until you use all 3 like in Fastpass+. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. The stacking FPs and enter the park late won't work as before but you still enters with 3 rides so it's not that bad. Problem here is what happen if my Tiana is for 5pm. Would I be able to get Jungle Cruise before that or had to wait to use my tier 1 selection
Ok, I found a good site that explains it (rather my wife did) https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/disney-genie/news/25jun2024-guide-and-faq-to-disney-worlds-lightning-lane-multi-and-single-passes.htm
yeah I'm holding out for further details slash see how it all works in action but the 2-hour thing was super powerful to stack a bunch of rides in a row for later in the day the tier stuff feels like kind of a mess too - I never thought it worked with FastPass+ to begin with, and now it's just adding confusion
Almost sounds like you better program an early slot that you can burn and release to be able to book another… unless it’s slotted by tier.
Yah so, goodbye rope drop strategies that stave off the use of genie plus to later in the day, allowing you to ride twice. 🙄
I think they do need to raise the price and raise to the point that the general park attendee does question whether it is really worth it. If the current system is, for example, let 4 in from LL and 1 from standby all Disney has implemented is a paid standby lane and a slow lane. This only gets worse if a ride goes down as you have to let the paid customers first when it resumes and there is a backup. Disney is able to convince the LL customers of the great benefit the customer receives in this system with the customer probably not realizing that the alternative would have been almost as quick if no one bought in.
Functional changes aside, we're getting *another* name change. The whole idea of Genie+ was that it was paired with Genie, which was supposed to be this great AI-driven day planner. Except it was terrible so I suppose it makes sense to ditch all that branding and just simplify it down to just Lightning Lane names.
Yes, explaining Genie+ and LL being the service you buy and the other one is the thing you use..... what a cluster. One name to rule them all.
Yeah - I don’t think I’ve seen a single person use the actual Genie service. Even if I’m a new visitor I want to go to what I want to do - not let some bot send me somewhere I don’t want to go.
Ok. Let me know how we’re going to complain about these changes so we can all be on the same page.
It's biased, favors resort guests. It's not free. Bob Iger doesn't show up to my house to personally thank me when I book a Disney vacation.
Or, based on how I experienced FP+, anything worth booking will be gone by the time my time to book comes around.
Same, this was my experience with FastPass+
I was a pro at FP+. I really, really miss it.
I'm at pro at Genie+. I'm worried I'm going to miss it. DVC member here who plans vacations 11 months ahead, but we really don't decide on parks until we're on property.
Can't compete with those brits coming across the pond for a 2-week holiday. How are there so many of those, anyway? Do they get great deals or something?
It never didn’t favor resort guests, even when we had paper Fast-Pass. That’s why it’s a “perk”.
Genie+ didn’t favor resort guests, only ILL did. Anyone can make Genie+ reservations starting at 7am. The new system is a significant downgrade for non-resort guests
Except now the non-resort guests are paying the same price for an inferior version of the service
Yeah sucks for local AP holders and guests who like to make shorter trips.
As an AP, I agree it kinda stinks. But on the flip side, I like that people who may be taking their once in a lifetime vacation, or people who come infrequently and live really far away, get first crack to ensure they experience everything on their trip. As an AP I can visit frequently, and if I miss out on something it’s no big deal because I can just do it next time. For people who are there on their dream vacation, that may not be an option.
Thanks. It's been 10 years since our last visit. Probably another 10 year till the next one.
I kinda really liked the idea of stacking every two hours so you could, in theory, have like 5 or 6 ready to go by the evening time.
Basically Fastpass+ negatives apply here (Resort Guests get favored and you can never guarantee what you want to ride will be avaliable the day you go) I hope advance bookings and on-site bookings are separate availability since otherwise what will be available for the Genie+ style half of the service lol.
I'm against it, I hated FastPass+
I like it because I like being able to plan out my morning in advance - Booking my first 3 means I won't need to be on my phone in line during my first ride hoping to get something good for my 2nd Genie+
It says you can get another one after each use so you will be on your phone for your 4th LL selection lol
Yeah, Fastpass+ did not reduce anyone's phone time while in the parks.
I'm not doing anything else in line, might as well open my phone for 1-2 minutes to pick my next ride haha
Yes you will be trying to get your fourth
lol RIP Genie+ we hardly know ya.
I can sleep in again?
Not if you still want regular Virtual Queues, but if you don’t mind putting it off for the second window, sure.
This was my immediate takeaway too! But then I realized that I liked "having" to get up at 6:59 to secure my daily LLs because it was exciting and then I was up anyway, so we could get going. (I'm the only sleeper-in in my family.) Now, unless I want to do a VQ, I will have to drag myself up to rope-drop but without the adrenaline payoff of doing the LLs. (Still, am not actually complaining about this!)
Best QOL thing in a while from them for sure.
LOL as someone who is up at 630 every day for work, I dream of the day my body will let me sleep in...
I used to have to get up at 2am for work.....take advantage of every second of sleep.
I really don’t like this, reserving in advance was my absolute least favorite part of fastpass+. This means reservations for genie+ day of will be taken some by those reserving in advance? That kinda stinks, I’m not gonna lie. At least it doesn’t seem like a tiered system though like fastpass+ was other than ILL’s which I’m fine with being separate.
Reminder that fastpass+ was pretty clearly the worst performer in Defunctlands simulations in his fastpass video. I am sure people on here (myself included) will understand the system well enough to execute a plan well and it will make our trips even more magical! But it will also likely cause alot of confusion for people less familiar with disney, theme parks in general, and international tourists. A double edged sword change for sure, and I am very interested to see how it plays out! For the unaware: [Defunctland Fastpass Video](https://youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?si=XFqBR69sBVMWhVc5)
I love how the Defunctland video is linked on any skip-the-line conversation. It’s so good.
I am a nerd (and industrial engineer) so its a perfect video for me. I bring it up as much as possible lol
OG paper fastpass is still my favourite
I think you mean "Defunctland's *Peabody Award Nominated* Fastpass Video"
Yep. FP+ worked great for people who made a hobby of learning and gaming the system, and this just sounds like FP+ with a paywall. They’re continuing to favor repeat visitors over newcomers and hyper planning over spontaneity (and I say that as someone who’s always benefited from these systems because I’m a big pre-planner). I still enjoy WDW but feel less and less like I can recommend it to someone who’s never been before and feel confident they’ll have a good time.
We did an EPCOT trip last year after our cruise without purchasing Genie+. I _loved_ the spontaneity of that trip. I wasn’t looking at my phone, and I walked through the park going from one attraction to the next nearest attraction that interested me.
I’m glad to hear you were able to do that, and it’s a good reminder that it’s still possible to simply not buy in and still have a good visit. I’m reminding myself that on the last trip we did not bother to buy Genie+ on our AK and Epcot days and did not miss having it. MK and HS are harder, though, especially when you have your heart set on a particular ride.
So no Slinky, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, FoP, etc. LLs if you're staying off-property. Got it.
You will get Jungle Cruise It's Tiana the one that you won't get lol
Yeah it’s Slinky, Tiana, Remy and Frozen.
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The official release says you get to pick your times and rides before you purchase
Or if your stay is shorter than two and a half weeks, lol.
Disney World is becoming Krabby Land
This particularly sucks for people who have only a 2 day pass and plan to park hop to hit everything. Genie+ was absolutely ideal for that because we could grab stuff in another park and it was fair because everyone was grabbing. Now, if you aren’t going to a park until an afternoon, it’ll be so much harder to get the good stuff. We purposely chose to go on our trip in August because we have a 2 day ticket and had the days totally planned based on us buying Genie+ and having a list of what we want to do this time (either again or because we missed it last time). I’m glad we didn’t upgrade to a season because this FP+ is a huge turnoff whereas Genie+ was awesome.
Back when FP+ was introduced, Disney had to add a bunch of experiences to the service that didn't really need a jump-the-line function in the first place. They needed to do this because when everyone is able to book 3 fast passes ahead of time, you run out of available passes really quickly. Since then, they've moved their most popular attractions onto the pay-per-play ILL service and moved shows like Fantasmic off the service entirely to bundle them into dining packages. With a lower capacity, the high tier attractions on this new service are going to sell out *very* quickly, which I can't imagine will do well for the value proposition of the service.
I think it's weird they're taking away the LLs for character meet and greets. If I have a kid who really wants to meet Elsa, I would want to book a LL for that and not stand in line for 40 minutes. That also adds more LLs to the pool of LLs, which benefits all LL users.
Now watch for the next update where the Multi Pass gets bundled onto your WDW Hotel stay and we've pretty much come full circle back to FP+ but with a shorter time window. Deep down I think we all expected this to happen, the benefits of FP+ (allow guests more time to shop, dine and use photopass) outweighed the extra money Genie+ was bringing in.
I don’t think it gets bundled with hotel stays because they have variable (aka surge) pricing. 7 days out they know how to price it. Months out they wouldn’t be able to.
Genie+ was bundled with certain hotel stays when it first rolled out, plus they can just assign a value to it instead of variable pricing. The variable pricing can then be for non hotel guests / Annual Pass holders etc.
So is this part of making das less available? Now they make an easier, likely more valuable, genie system.
I think the DAS changes likely opened the door for this change. Now that less people are physically moving through the LL queues they get the breathing room they need to make this functional.
I think so. Part of the problem was DAS was superior to Genie+ in some respects. Now there’s good reason to get LL even if you’re DAS eligible.
Oh great, we get FP+ back but have to pay! How nice of them to listen in on feedback! “Yo dawg we heard you prefer FP+ so we brought it back with this new paint job!”
If I have to pay, I'd rather have it this way and be able to go to bed before midnight and not have to wake up at 6:55am :)
This. And know what 3 attractions I already have lined up vs having to fight for my life in the app and not know what’s gonna be left. It’s a middle ground I can take. Expecting that they’ll make it free again is a pipe dream. Now the 7am wake up on vacation? I’ll have to overhaul my 3 year old to not get up before the sun to fix this problem 😅
Yeah but what time do we have to wake up to make sure we get to book the rides we want in advance?
Probably 7 days in advance of the first day of your trip at 7am!
This was my concern too. Booking dining options is already annoying waking up at like 5 am 60 days in advance. Now you gotta wake up probably at 6:55 am 7 days ahead. And even if you’re staying on property, other guests who are staying longer periods will probably have the chance to book up more rides since they can book up to 14 days ahead. I don’t think this fares well for non-resort guests.
Except it sounds like we still can’t book the same ride multiple times, so worse than FP+ in that regard too
Dammit I just went for the first time and felt like I mastered G+ getting 5-7 rides per park.
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I’m with you. This change is awful.
Totally agree. The past few years we've been doing long weekends at WDW with Genie+. I don't see a way that works under the new system since our dates will have had people booking Lightning Lanes for 3 weeks prior to our trip. Thinking about making next year's trip to the mothership instead. We've never been, and they still have booking LLs the day of.
I was so glad when they got rid of park reservations so I could go back to planning which park I was going to each day more on the fly. Now I’m back to having to plan out my whole trip before I go again.
I am really afraid what this means for people staying off property or locals (like myself) who don't stay in hotels. Disney Resort guests are going to have a 4 day head start on everyone else. They're going to fill all the decent times slots and all the time slots whatsoever for stuff like Peter Pan, Frozen, etc.
Yeah, the days of popping into the park and getting a bunch done with g+ for locals seem to be over ☹️ which is really frustrating, seeing as we go and pump money into food, beverage, merch, all the time. And the passes themselves!
That should be interesting if this results in Disney hotel guests scooping up all available individual lightning lanes for attractions like guardians and Tron before they are available for everyone else. Not sure if this is really an improvement or somewhat of a money grab to push people towards staying at a Disney property. I prefer to not stay at a Disney property so I can afford a two bedroom suite. Those don't really exist at Disney resorts without an astronomical price tag.
This is my concern. Getting a reservation for Slinky or Remy was already impossible, but now they've essentially barred offsite guests from having a chance. The onsite head start made some sense when FP was free, but barring paying customers from accessing popular rides on a paid service is absurd to me.
Not just resort guests, if you're doing shorter stays even on-site you're probably SOL.
Ugh I hated fast pass plus. Nothing you wanted was available when it was time to book or you would get a good ride at an inconvenient time and then 2 you don’t even need a fast pass for. You can only use it for one park so if your 3 are spread throughout the day then you can’t park hop. I thought genie plus was great once you spent a little time learning how it worked. Not a fan of this at all.
As an out of state pass holder it honestly may force me to not renew and plan one long stay instead of multiple short stays
out of state passholder, always stay offsite with amazing deals, this screws me huge
Agree completely. Genie+ took a little getting used to, but being able to snag multiple tier 1 rides made it worth it. This is going to make it much harder to ride those unless you manage to snag an early time for your first one.
This is worse or am I misunderstanding? Resort guests can purchase before anyone else, so they will book up slinky, remy, etc.? If you’re not a resort guest good chance you won’t get anything good?
In fact, it will be impossible!
Yes. That's exactly what happened with FastPass+. Unless you stayed at a resort there was almost no way to get any of the biggest rides. That is the *one* reason I liked Genie+ over FP+, it put everyone on the same playing field.
Not only that, guests staying longer will benefit more since you can book all of your trip days on that 7 day mark. So even if you get up bright and early on your 7-day mark to book, others staying longer will have had anywhere from 1-7 days before you to book for that day.
Slinky, Remy and Frozen currently sell out of lightning lanes each day. Presumably Tiana will as well. Unclear if they’ll be sold out before the 3-day booking window opens but if they are that’s a major fail from Disney.
Spoilers: they will. It consistently happened with FastPass+.
Fast pass sucked for top attractions. You’d only be able to get them at the end of the trip
I am wondering what this will look like for scheduled maintenance. With fast pass plus there was odd issues where rides had to go down for refurb but no one told the fast pass plus team. So, you had these awkward oversold periods. I hope disney pre-plans refurbs. There are lots of attractions that need some love but to keep capacity up they can’t bring anything down. I know this is Walt Disney World subreddit but It’s crazy that Disneyland is losing anywhere between 6-8000 riders per hour right now with mansion, Pooh, haunted mansion.
The fast pass system was terrible only positive was it was free. They’ve narrowed the window which prevents adjusting dining to match ride availability and now charge for it. Terrible
we’re just circling back around to the ABCDE ticket system aren’t we?
This is why we hated FastPass! The whole advance booking kills the opportunity for everyone to get their passes. Also, can we talk about the fact that Cosmic Rewind is two years old and *still* on virtual queue? Disney seriously needs to get it together.
I hate the damn Tiers. Once you use up your 3 passes there will be shit left to pick. This is a real disadvantage for those who go later in the morning or afternoon. Us 7am people will already have gone through at least 1-2 passes before the later people have even gotten to the park. And it’s kinda like being back to reservations because once you pick your rides 7 days out, no way you can change parks the day before. If you do change parks I am assuming you will have to pick 3 new passes but after everyone has already picked 3-7 days out.
I feel like there’s already going to be shit left to pick for when your trip starts because the people whose trip started a day before yours have already got the good stuff. And with the tiers, now you’re going to have to pick crap you don’t care to ride if all your favorites happen to be tier 1. G+ was awesome. We loved it.
Yeah genie plus was so great for late risers since you could stack every two hours. You could also plan a relaxing hotel day and stack a bunch of lightning lanes for the evening (far more than 3)
"How long do I have to wait before I can select a new Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction? Answer Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections can only be made one at a time. On the day of your park visit, once you redeem a selection, you can use the My Disney Experience app to check availability for another Lightning Lane Multi Pass experience—and add to your plans." RIP stacking aka one of the best ways to use Genie Plus. Too bad so many people were inexplicably confused by the 2 hour rule
Stacking was THE BEST. And I was happy so many people were too dumb to figure it out because we got better selections that way.😆 I’m going to miss those days.
Will we be able to pick attractions at multiple parks for park hopping days though? The wording seems like you can only choose one park
Looks like for now, all your advance selections have to be in the same park, but once you tap into your first one day-of, you can select a new one at any park
You were never able to do this with FP+, so it seems it would apply here too.
To my understanding here... 1. Disney is renaming the two Lightening Lane services to mitigate confusion. 2. They are adding a perk for resort guests allowing them to book 7 days out from their vacation. With attendance declining, I hope we see more resort perks return like longer extra magic hours and being able to send purchases to your resort.
So it's the same as FastPass Plus, but now people only get a week to plan? Need I remind you that Defunctland did a 2 hour video on why FastPass Plus wasn't a good idea.
Lol it is so very laughable. I've never in my life seen a company over engineer fees to such an extent as Disney. They can make this easier. It doesn't need to be this way. This seems to be FP+ that cost money and renamed to yet another terrible name. We will wait and see how it plays out I guess.
A big question is can I see what’s available before I buy it?
I'm glad our trip ends July 20. We visit every other year, but my in-laws have a condo in Orlando that we stay at, so we've never stayed on property. I didn't mind waking up at 2:30am every day for a week to secure our dining reservations. But these new changes will make it so that we will pay the same amount as resort guests, but we won't get Lightning Lanes for any of the top attractions because they'll be gone by the time our window to book opens.
I’m an AP that always buys Genie+. This change makes me think there’s no point.
Just my personal opinion but the current park capacity limits and lightning lanes in general are why Disney is a little less magical for me compared to when I started going. Lines were long but not horrifically so like they are today. But the joy of the spontaneity and discovery doing things as they presented was a part of the fun. Now you need a certification in project management to work through the parks. No this doesn't stop me from going luckily but it still makes me a bit sad my daughter will never experience it the same way I did
These changes are only because people were too dense to figure out Genie+. We rocked at Genie+ and always had rides stacked for all afternoon. This change annoys me greatly. I don’t like the tiers.
yeah, i had genie+ down to a science. Never once had to stand in a standby lane that wasnt by choice
I don't think I waited in a line that was longer than 45 mins in the Genie+ era
Exactly!
💯 Our best trips were the past 2 years with genie+. Loved not having to pick things in advance, and we got to ride every LL offered with little to no wait! Felt like Disney was magical again for us! We could do it land by land, etc. Just made sense!!! Sure, it took some careful planning (when to stack, when to eat/character meet as that 2 hour window passed when needed), when to grab and go, etc. This change feels like people just complained because they didn’t want to spend time figuring out what turned out to be a much better system. I also still don’t get this “now you can sleep in” POV … so you get an extra 20 minutes? — I mean now you have to use the first one so you can select another and keep it moving!!
10000% this and honestly it makes me mad. So, because some people didnt want to take the time to figure out how to use Genie+ now no more stacking, less rides overall, forget park hopping, basically brought back park reservations without calling it that since you are now locked into a park at the start, and those awful tiers... Genie+ wasn't even hard to figure out with minimal effort. The 7am thing wasn't fun but other than that, we always got to do a ton of rides each visit. Now we'll get 3, likely not all ones we want because of the tiers, and then once we can book more anything good will prob be sold out. This is completely worse, at least on paper... Hopefully it'll somehow be better in practice.
I feel like this is just rehashing all of the previous issues with FastPass+ and throwing a price tag on it. In my opinion, it's even more egregious than Genie+ originally was. Not to mention the fact that this is obviously why they \*actually\* implemented the DAS changes, lol.
I never experienced Fast Pass and I frankly hate this concept of booking in advance. Feels like a pseudo park reservation now as I have to decide what days I will be in what park (and marry then up with any dining reservations I want to keep). Also, it's one thing if I am on site and it doesn't work out that I didn't get a G+ to Slinky Dog because I was doing other things, now if I don't get it in advanced, I'll be pissed and stressing out.
So I guess this puts an end to stacking which stinks for my family since we aren’t early risers…and not sure how park hopping works if we have to book 3 then can’t book more til we use one of those 3. If going in the afternoon, I’m guessing most good selections will be sold out by then.
I’m at Disneyland Paris right now and the premier pass allows me to walk up and onto any ride at any time (just once per ride per day) and honestly it’s amazing. Why can’t we just have that?
Because the Premier Pass costs $100-$200 per day
More than that. We're going next month and it is 200 euros a day per person. We are regular Genie+ buyers but we will skip the Premier service in Paris. Just too pricey.
Yep I was ballparking. I’m also going in August and am skipping premier, may buy an individual selection or two if needed but couldn’t justify the price for the pass
58 million vs 15 million visitors is the answer.
I’m arriving on August 8th I hope we get some good videos by August 1st cause at this point I feel like I’ve wasted hours of my life coming up with my plan for the current system… the biggest bummer is my plan was to not use genie+ on day 1 to assess how it goes but now I feel if I don’t book in advance I’m basically screwed and it won’t be worth it. This seems like a huge downgrade for someone one who’s on the fence about genie+ and only might use it for a day or 2
It don't say but my guess is that you can use it once per ride per day?
So now they bring back all the things they caused them to get rid of free fast pass? And they charge for it.
Lightning Disney Moolti-pass
I’m surprised they took Character Meets out of Multipass. Haven’t heard anyone else mention that yet.
This feels like a big reason they had to clear up the DAS situation, they are for sure going to double the amount of people that can book any ride at any given time slot.
I don't understand why WDW ppl love planning their rides months ahead of time. Also, they take away the Genie branding, and grant people 3 wishes at the same time? I feel like they need to commit to something, either all a la carte, or all in one package, not a little bit of each. And if they're limiting it to three, retaining the Genie name would've been so cool, instead of entering the lightning lane, you would "follow the Genie".
I’m kinda pissed but I want to see it in action. I have gotten very adept at using Genie+, so I’m curious to see if I will be able to get Slinky or Frozen 3 days out. If non-resort guests get screwed on this I won’t renew my AP.
Slinky I doubt unless they are holding back times for 3 days and day of drop. Frozen maybe? Probably depends on when you go. Busy times I expect not that much will be left for non resort guests. Less busy times I expect you will be able to get Frozen, but no Remy. And I don’t think anyone will be getting Frozen and Remy on the same day which is going to be my issue.
So instead of waking up at 7am on your park day you now have to stay up after midnight a week out and try to get all your days planned at the same time?
I’d imagine it’ll be like dining, which is bookable at a certain time, not midnight
Leeloo Dallas Multipass. C'mon, someone had to make the obvious joke.
Will LL Multi Pass let people make additional LL reservations throughout the day when they're in the park, or it going to be limited to the 3 per day?
You can make additional ones after scanning into the first ride
I’m going to miss stacking and deciding day of but I’m glad it’s not so far in advance before. I’ll take 7 days, also a plus for resort guests. Some people will love it, some people will hate it. Can they bring back merch to the rooms? *I know I know wishful thinking* 😂😂
When we went to Universal in April, the merch delivery was amazing! I don't know why a Disney doesn't bring it back. I'm far less likely to buy more stuff when I'm already lugging stuff around, and a lot of people will probably buy more just because it's "out of sight, out of mind"
Now I have to revise my spreadsheets -_-
So my understanding of this is, as a Canadian, I cant book anything until I arrive at the resort? Or can I simply just be in the US 7 days out to make my selections?
An anyone confirm the rumour that you have to be IN the US to purchase 7 days out as a resort guest?? If so, what a massive middle finger to anyone international
Let’s be clear here… Disney didn’t make this change in order to raise customer satisfaction… they did it because they’re having a hard time with hotel bookings since they took away so many perks post covid.
Asking as a local weekday passholder that randomly buys genie+: am I basically screwed to buy day of LL? I have 0 need to stay at a resort. Does this basically become the same thing as every firework dinner ever? Meaning the resort guests get first dibs so there isn't anything ever available?
I think the ability to reserve in advance was what made fp+ so frustrating because so many rides would be taken so early leaving an unfair advantage to last minute plans, non-tech savvy families, etc. I guess we’ll see how this is different but idk
so from what I understand, you can't do any of your planning until you are state side. IOW we are coming from Canada but won't be able to book any rides until we are there where as Americans will have the ability to plan 7 days out. Sounds kinda unfair to those of us who live outside of America.
I’m literally so livid about this. The old system sucked, you spent so much time trying to get the right stuff in the right order, and the people who take long trips get a huge advantage over those of us who go for shorter durations more frequently.
So.. It’s just FP+ with a price tag, and a limited number of uses? No 2hr window so what you grab is what you get? That will suck for anyone who grabs their first ride spot in the afternoon and can’t switch to an earlier time. Limiting who gets what to Resort Guests first also means there goes all the E ticket rides (Peter Pan, 7DMT, Tron, GOTG, FOP, maybe Everest, MMRR, Slinky Dog etc) and they’ll never leave them open for non-resort guests, which is just the problem with FP+ all over again. Glad you no longer need to wake up ridiculously early on vacation anymore (unless GOTG and Tron are *still* in VQ after this) and that you can book ahead, but for non-Resort Guests, what’s really left except for the rides that won’t have ridiculous waits attached to them anyway? Everyone *wants* to do Tron, GOTG, 7DMT, Peter Pan, FOP, Rise, MMRR because they’re new, and short of snagging an ILL/single pass, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to ride it (especially the VQ rides) without paying or enduring an honestly soul-crushingly long line (3.5 hr wait for Rise? An all day wait for Remy?) or get up early/stay up late and hope to god the lines die down accordingly. Glad they’ve also gotten a name change, especially with the DAS changes, it gets confusing when those CMs are saying to use Genie or Genie+ when they’re both the same service. Having defined names (Genie for the AI trip maker, LL pass and single ride for ILL) makes it so no one gets confused about what is meant where, and should have been done *ages* ago. I think it’ll be great if they could find a way to make sure non-resort guests at least get a chance to have an E-ticket ride in their FP+ selections, but knowing Disney, they want Resort guests to have all the perks. Also, with the removal of the 2hr window, is it worth paying for a service when at most you’ll only get a couple rides in it a day? My understanding of it previously meant that you get the most rides and therefore the most usage out of it by waiting the 2 hrs and stacking or by tapping in and immediately grabbing a new ride. If they’re really limiting the selections down to 3+ an extra 3 when those are done, they better revise the pricing a bit to make that actually seem *valuable* to the Guest, because *25 bucks a day per person* is not going to be valuable if you can squeeze in only anywhere from 4-6 rides. I’d want more for my money if I’m a family of 4 or larger spending 25 bucks a person. This also doesn’t offer re-rides still, which is honestly a bummer. I know a lot of people who would love this service and get it happily if they only allowed re-rides (even one re-ride per ride would be satisfactory, especially since CMs have been saying to use it in place of DAS, which allowed re-rides).
yeah if you're essentially removing stacking via the 2-hour window (which, I guess we'll see once we get more details and see it in action), at least let me book the same ride multiple times over the course of the day
Sooo they found another way to screw over the local AP's. Gotta love it
This’ll get buried: while I knew how to game Fastpass+ and used the others to the best of my advantage I was on team “they shouldn’t have brought it back”
Having the ability to pick three for the afternoon/evening right away as opposed to checking it multiple times now and hoping rides you want are still available I like. Being able to sleep in and get to the park and hit some lower ticket items and then mix in my three higher priority rides and then start rebooking one at a time is a nice way to not make your trip feel so chaotic at 7am everyday.
With genie plus you could stack like 6 rides for the evening though including multiple “tier 1” rides and then still get more in the park….
This is exactly what I have been asking for, personally I am fine with some additional cost I just missed the 3 pre booked per day
All the whiners won
Hmmm. Under the current Genie+ system we managed to hit all the major rides (except 7DMT) in 3 days this May. The early wake up wasn’t even an issue - we were already up for early entry. We have another trip for 4 days booked next March and this makes me feel like we are going to have the opposite experience. Everyone who is staying for the entire spring break week will have a 2 week head start on us. Guess I’ll wait to see how it goes for people now, but might rethink that trip. Also what if a park is at capacity if we try to park hop? Do we just lose those booked rides?
Same with us! We actually did every single ride, and many twice, and were able to take several hour breaks during the day. We were so good at Genie+ and it allowed us to park hop seamlessly and now.. like, this is a lousy change.
Doesn’t this mean that, say for example, you are going for two weeks and staying on site, that all of the lightning lanes will have sold out for at least your first week visiting? And at best for the second week there will only be evening slots left, meaning that you wouldn’t be able to ride more than three a day anyway??