Washington Post article on Disney vacations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big disney fan, but don't a lot of vacations involve planning? I spent more time researching my trip to Alaska than I did researching disney (and I spent plenty of time reading up on Genie+ strategies). Unless you are just going to chill on the beach for a week, vacations take planning and often some things have to be arranged in advance.

I don’t mind planning. In fact, I find it satisfying. But once I get there, I just want to follow my plan (with some flexibility of course) and enjoy the fruits of my labor. When I went to WDW in 2016, I could do this. It sounds like with the new system, you still have to wake up at 7am to get good spots and then you continuing fretting for the rest of the day to get your line spots. It sounds like it’s a PITA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an alternative that's within driving distance, my kids loved Dollywood. We went two years ago as part of a bigger trip to the Smoky Mountains. Beautiful, pristine grounds and attractions, and a simple fast pass system. We would go back for sure vs. attempt Disney.

Agree - we had a fantastic time at Dollywood!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big disney fan, but don't a lot of vacations involve planning? I spent more time researching my trip to Alaska than I did researching disney (and I spent plenty of time reading up on Genie+ strategies). Unless you are just going to chill on the beach for a week, vacations take planning and often some things have to be arranged in advance.

I don’t mind planning. In fact, I find it satisfying. But once I get there, I just want to follow my plan (with some flexibility of course) and enjoy the fruits of my labor. When I went to WDW in 2016, I could do this. It sounds like with the new system, you still have to wake up at 7am to get good spots and then you continuing fretting for the rest of the day to get your line spots. It sounds like it’s a PITA.

Yes, exactly. DP but I’m fine w planning vacations and am a planner/organized person by nature so we always plan our trips in advance. The problem w Disney genie+ system is you can’t do it til the day of your park visit (so you need to be up before 7 to book things for that day) and then another issue w it is there are some rides (like Tron, for example) you can’t get through genie+ so for that we had to join a virtual queue which only opened at 1pm while we were in the park. Our boarding group for Tron was then called at 8pm which messed up my plan to view fireworks at 8pm. Basically, the whole day we were checking our phones over and over to see status of virtual queue or update reservations as things changed.

Almost everyone I saw there was glued to their phone—while in line, while walking around, while ON THE RIDE. Not experiencing “the magic”, just looking at phones trying to book things, join queues, mobile order food, etc. It’s not something you can simply plan in advance unless you don’t care about riding the newest, most popular rides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big disney fan, but don't a lot of vacations involve planning? I spent more time researching my trip to Alaska than I did researching disney (and I spent plenty of time reading up on Genie+ strategies). Unless you are just going to chill on the beach for a week, vacations take planning and often some things have to be arranged in advance.

I don’t mind planning. In fact, I find it satisfying. But once I get there, I just want to follow my plan (with some flexibility of course) and enjoy the fruits of my labor. When I went to WDW in 2016, I could do this. It sounds like with the new system, you still have to wake up at 7am to get good spots and then you continuing fretting for the rest of the day to get your line spots. It sounds like it’s a PITA.

Yes, exactly. DP but I’m fine w planning vacations and am a planner/organized person by nature so we always plan our trips in advance. The problem w Disney genie+ system is you can’t do it til the day of your park visit (so you need to be up before 7 to book things for that day) and then another issue w it is there are some rides (like Tron, for example) you can’t get through genie+ so for that we had to join a virtual queue which only opened at 1pm while we were in the park. Our boarding group for Tron was then called at 8pm which messed up my plan to view fireworks at 8pm. Basically, the whole day we were checking our phones over and over to see status of virtual queue or update reservations as things changed.

Almost everyone I saw there was glued to their phone—while in line, while walking around, while ON THE RIDE. Not experiencing “the magic”, just looking at phones trying to book things, join queues, mobile order food, etc. It’s not something you can simply plan in advance unless you don’t care about riding the newest, most popular rides.

People are on their phones the whole time anyway. I once had a mother and son sitting next to me in a ride and she pointed her phone at him (and me) the entire time recording the entire experience. I wanted to smack the phone out of her hands it was such an invasion of my privacy to have this phone recording me also the entire time. People like that need to just be in the moment. It's not the Genie+ causing the phone addiction. You can quickly look at it then put it away for the duration of the ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to let fewer people in. Cap the admittance/attendance numbers but keep prices the same. It’s ridiculous to pay almost $200 per ticket (once you include genie+) and still have to wait in such long lines and be on your phone all day strategizing.

This!!

They could totally cut down on line length through this mechanism , but why when they can convince people to buy fast passes on top of the already exorbitant price of the Disney experience.

What about a family that can barely afford it, so they have to bypass the fast passes? They just get left in the dust all day by rich kids who can step in front of their kids for all of the good rides??

The business model really turns me off. Why feed the greedy monster?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to let fewer people in. Cap the admittance/attendance numbers but keep prices the same. It’s ridiculous to pay almost $200 per ticket (once you include genie+) and still have to wait in such long lines and be on your phone all day strategizing.

This!!

They could totally cut down on line length through this mechanism , but why when they can convince people to buy fast passes on top of the already exorbitant price of the Disney experience.

What about a family that can barely afford it, so they have to bypass the fast passes? They just get left in the dust all day by rich kids who can step in front of their kids for all of the good rides??

The business model really turns me off. Why feed the greedy monster?

Nobody needs Disney. If it's too much people can vacation somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m super organized. I had our recent Disney trip planned to a T. I was up getting our genie reservations at 7am, I’d booked all the best character dining. I was on my phone booking new passes every 2 hours.

Even still, dh was so over it. The crowds were out of control (we went M-Th during the lowest week of the year) and we often waited in line 45-90 per ride. My 2 year old lost her mind at having to wait in lines like this. My biggest beef is with child swap. Dh would go with one kid while I waited with the other two and then I would go with the other kid while he waited with the toddler. Doing this took foreeeeeever. You used to be able to walk on (rightly so, we already waited once!) but now the wait was 20 min each time.

I don’t think I can ever convince my easy going husband to go back to Disney. We’ve been 2x a year for years. It’s just straight up miserable now. Dh thinks they’ve allowed too many people in for the rides that they have.

Oh yeah and not one character was walking around. You either pay $$$ for character dining, wait in long lines to meet them or wave while a parade goes by.

When exactly did you go? We just went last week (January 23-26) and I agree w everything you said except we didn’t do child swap so I can’t speak about that. I wasn’t expecting that even w genie+ and even going at a supposedly “light crowds” time of year we still frequently waited almost an hour even for rides that aren’t super popular or new and over an hour for the newer ones. And I was very disappointed how there were no characters walking around like they used to be and that the cast members, while pleasant and helpful, were not really in character like they used to seem to be. It seems the ride attendants and concession vendors, etc used to really add extra magic to every ride or concession experience and now they’re just like regular employees anywhere just wearing silly outfits.

We just went at the same time and had s blast! I found Genie + pretty straightforward. We ran into characters at Epcot and Hollywood studios. All the cast members were very patient with my kid who needs to ask a million questions before every ride. I don’t think we waited more than 20 minutes for any ride.

It probably helped that we didn’t have plans to do all of the super-popular rides - just Slinky Dog and the Mine Train. It was easy enough to get up at 7 to prioritize getting them. It also helped that we were really into seeing all of the less popular attractions like the old animatronic shows and the stage/film shows.

If all you want to do at Disney is the most popular rides and the most popular characters, then yeah, not gonna be fun.

Of course I was on Genie+ at the park to book the next rides but I truly didn’t mind that. I’m on my phone a ton at home too! You jusy pull out your phone, make a choice, done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Side question: what do kids do while waiting in line? Look at phones?

We never waited more than 20-30 minutes. It was actually kind of fun to wait and chat about the ride and there are lots of things to look at. Also people watch, chat with folks in line, talk about what to do next …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been pre and post Covid. It’s definitely not easy but it’s also learn-able without paying an influencer for a class I think. Definitely think Disney needs to rethink genie plus re: being on the phone that much.

What like paper fast pass? Of course future line skipping options will be tech based. I don’t want to go back to collecting paper fastpasses in person!

New poster here
I like the system they had between the paper fast passes and the Genie; where you can pre-book 3 fast passes and use them by scanning your magic band or plastic card ticket. It was so nice to be able to book them 2 months in advance, rather than having to wake up at 7 am every morning of vacation

Yes - that’s the system I was alluding to. The getting up before 7 to get lightening lanes & genie plus seems sh!tty to ask of guests on vacay. I definitely preferred having 3 fast passes booked before getting to Disney. I was still on my phone and brought a power bank but it wasn’t near as all consuming genie + can feel like at times.

Funnily enough, I actually avoided Disney because of the FastPass three months out - I didn’t want to have to plan that far in advance - who knew how’d we feel that day, or what the weather would be like, or if we’d enjoy that ride?

I went in the summer of 2022 with my then 8 year old and we had a BLAST - yes, I had to be keeping tract of timing, but I set up an alert on my watch and boom, done. If we missed it, we missed it. I had watched a lot of YouTube videos about stacking etc, but frankly, it seemed like a game to me and kind of fun.

It was ungodly expensive- but the Genie+ was a small fraction of where I indulged.

Now, my husband would have hated it - I told him that and he didn’t go. It was also amazingly easier because I had one kid, and when we got tired, we went back to the hotel and the pool.

I didn’t mind getting up early, I was usually up anyway and enjoying some downtime before all the walking.

Not going to disagree that it’s crazy expensive and crowded - that’s unfortunate, but unless they introduce some lottery system making it less expensive will only make it more crowded.

very similar experience!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing new in that article. We love Disney. In fact, once you figure out the Lightning Lane and Genie+ system on the first day, you can whiz around, avoid waits, and pretty much ride every ride. Disney World was actually cheaper than Universal Studios per day. The Disney resort was cheaper and the daily tickets. I was shocked at the per day burn rate at Universal to get the max experience with ‘the park to park ticket’ and the $60 Hp wand! It was all fun, but Universal has climbed in price.

The difference is the Universal Express pass, which is 5x the price of Genie+ but allows you to walk on to any ride pretty much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to let fewer people in. Cap the admittance/attendance numbers but keep prices the same. It’s ridiculous to pay almost $200 per ticket (once you include genie+) and still have to wait in such long lines and be on your phone all day strategizing.

This!!

They could totally cut down on line length through this mechanism , but why when they can convince people to buy fast passes on top of the already exorbitant price of the Disney experience.

What about a family that can barely afford it, so they have to bypass the fast passes? They just get left in the dust all day by rich kids who can step in front of their kids for all of the good rides??

The business model really turns me off. Why feed the greedy monster?

You can’t be serious. This is the way of the world. Pay to play. If you don’t like it, start your own equity park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big disney fan, but don't a lot of vacations involve planning? I spent more time researching my trip to Alaska than I did researching disney (and I spent plenty of time reading up on Genie+ strategies). Unless you are just going to chill on the beach for a week, vacations take planning and often some things have to be arranged in advance.

Sure, but the planning is mostly before the trip. You can plan it out, and then you're set. At Disney, it seems like the planning stress is not only before the trip, but it's every day of the trip. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do Disney cruises instead - amazing and so relaxing

Other than the fact that it's a cruise, then sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s really not that hard. Yeah you need the nuts and bolts of each iterative line skipping system, but the overarching parts are the same. We go every couple years and have a great time. Fly on miles, stay offsite. It’s really no more expensive than any other trip. We’re going to AZ for spring break and it will cost just as much.

Uh I disagree. I haven never needed to make restaurant reservations months in advance for a family trip. We eat when we’re hungry. We might have a loose itinerary, but checking in every 2 hours to book something else? Hell no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s really not that hard. Yeah you need the nuts and bolts of each iterative line skipping system, but the overarching parts are the same. We go every couple years and have a great time. Fly on miles, stay offsite. It’s really no more expensive than any other trip. We’re going to AZ for spring break and it will cost just as much.

Uh I disagree. I haven never needed to make restaurant reservations months in advance for a family trip. We eat when we’re hungry. We might have a loose itinerary, but checking in every 2 hours to book something else? Hell no.

You can do that at Disney too. The reservations are for if you want a specific restaurant or “character” experience.