At this point it’s a safe bet that two things are true regarding Genie+ at Walt Disney World. Nobody likes Genie+ and most people are spending money on Genie+. This is despite the fact that the service, which allows guests to skip most of the line on key attractions, just saw a decent price bump this past October, and now it’s a price that everybody has to pay.
In October Disney Parks saw price increases almost completely across the board. Genie+ at Walt Disney World saw a price jump from $15 to a minimum of $20, but the kicker is that pricing is now influenced by demand, meaning it can be, and often is, more expensive, and for all tickets on sale for dates from January 1 forward, guests at Disney World can no longer add Genie+ to their ticket at purchase, meaning that even if they buy tickets for months in advance, they won’t be able to buy Genie+ until the day they’re in the park, and there’s no way to know what it will cost when they get there.
This makes Genie+ just that little bit more frustrating to use at Walt Disney World, even when compared to Disneyland. Guests who buy tickets for the California park have the option of adding Genie+ to their ticket at point of purchase, and Genie+ will cost the minimum possible amount, now $25. They can still purchase on the day they’re in the park as well, but at that point they are subject to whatever the variable price happens to be.
Guests at Disney Parks are finding themselves in a tough spot as it’s clear nobody really likes Genie+, but for many, if they want to enjoy the attractions in any reasonable way, it’s not so much the optional add-on it claims to be.
Instead, it’s very much necessary if you want to be sure to go on a fair number of rides in one day. The fact that Genie+ can be complicated to use, and that the pricing isn’t even set in stone, just becomes something people have to deal with because they need to use it.
Under the old system of FastPass+, guests had to make the selections of which rides they wanted to skip weeks in advance, which had its own set of problems, but one of the nice things about it that once you hit dirt for your Disney World vacation, you had a plan. You knew when you were doing key rides and when you had food reservations, which made things a bit less flexible, but at least then you weren’t scrambling to try and put the day together.
Now Disney World guests have a lot more flexibility, but there is a downside to that as you won’t know what rides you’ll be able to get on until after you pay for Genie+ and see what’s available. Which means that you won’t be able to tell if Genie+ is worth the money until after you’ve already spent it and spent a day trying to navigate a park.
