Disney Parks head Josh D'Amaro comments on Genie+ satisfaction ratings

Sep 07, 2022 in "Disney Genie"

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Posted: Wednesday September 7, 2022 2:01pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Speaking at the 2022 Bank of America Securities Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, Disney parks boss Josh D'Amaro talked about Genie+ and its popularity with guests.

Disney Genie overview

According to Josh, 70% of those guests who purchase Genie+ will repurchase Genie+ on a return visit.

The 70% satisfaction ratings run contrary to anecdotal reports from guests online, but Disney clearly has data that suggests Genie+ is being well received.

Lightning Lane at EPCOT's newest ride - Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic rewind

Disney Genie+ is an option within the Disney Genie service that makes the former FastPass line available at select attractions, now called Lightning Lane. At Walt Disney World, the introductory pricing is $15 per ticket per day. Certain headline attractions are not part of Genie+, and Lightning Lane access at those attractions requires an Individual Attraction purchase which varies in prices.

Learn more about Disney Genie from our recent articles, including a Disney Genie FAQ, and Genie discussion on the WDWMAGIC Forums.

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EPCOT-O.G.4 days ago

Or, “we’re not hitting our revenue projects because fewer people are here during a normally busy time, so pull that lever over there”

DCBaker4 days ago

The price for 3 Individual Lightning Lanes also increased today. Cosmic Rewind $17 (+$2) Flight of Passage $16 (+$2) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train $12 (+$1)

jpeden4 days ago

Based on anecdotal crowd levels from this weekend so far it should not be $25 today. I am starting to agree that while it first started out as variable pricing based on crowd density, it is now just “let’s throw a price up and see if people will pay it.”

DCBaker4 days ago

The price for Genie+ has increased to $25 today ($3 more than yesterday). The last time Genie+ was $25 was April 15.

Jrb19795 days ago

I think the simplest solution would be to just to have individual Lightning Lanes. Only on the top 3 rides in each park and just standby for everything else.

drizgirl5 days ago

They needed to muddy the water so it didn’t seem like they were just charging for what was previously free. Even though that’s exactly what they were doing.

GhostHost10006 days ago

The names Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane with 2 different ways to get them was not a smart idea in terms of less confusion for some. Not sure why they didn’t just stick with fastpass

allgiggles8 days ago

I agree. While I didn't find the system in general difficult to use, I do think the terminology/names they use for the system can be very confusing. They could have done a much better job of naming thing and that would eliminate a lot of the initial confusion.

SamusAranX9 days ago

I mean Disney could change it til they’re blue in the face (like a certain genie). It might be less confusing but it’s still not addressing what we know to be the root cause of the problem Genie+ wants to solve but can’t

FoodRockz10 days ago

Shhhh. We have enough people at Uni nowadays, we don't need anymore.

surfsupdon10 days ago

Returned today from Hard Rock at Universal with an AP rate of 261 for 2 adults with Express Pass. Two nights. No lines, no phones, no planning, simply amazing. Highly recommend.

TeriofTerror10 days ago

I just returned from a trip to WDW, and here is my anecdotal and biased review: 1. Staying at the Polynesian with both morning and evening EMH, G+ was completely worthless. We bought it two days (MK park-hopping to Epcot and DHS park-hopping to MK), and we were able to do everything we wanted without it. We often ended up doing our G+ selections twice, the second time just to use the selections we had made. For context, our longest wait of the trip was our third ride on Space Mountain - 35:54, on a posted wait of 25 minutes. We did skip several things that are must-dos for others because we've done them so many times before - most notably Peter Pan, Navi (I'll never understand this one), and MF:SR. 2. ILL was totally worth it. We were able to rope-drop much of AK because we paid for FoP. Paying for Guardians and Tron also worked out great; the virtual queue for Tron in particular looked awful. 3. For context, it was a six night stay with one afternoon at DS and destination dinners most evenings. (Side note: though not signature dining, we were not disappointed in Steakhouse 71, even though it was sandwiched between stellar meals at Citricos and Jiko.)

allgiggles10 days ago

I didn't find it complicated or confusing either. I think the issue comes in -- like you said -- when people are trying to fit their LL/ILLs between ADRs, children's naps, etc. We only had 2 ADRs during our 8-day trip last year. They were both dinners so it was very easy to work around those. If we had ADRs for 1 or 2 meals *every* day, I can see where it would get frustrating and complicated. That's why choose not to do numerous ADRs on a visit. It just got too difficult to plan everything else around those times...and we have far better restaurants at home so we prefer to focus on rides/attractions at Disney. We didn't have the option of modifying LLs during our trip last year -- that feature came online a few weeks after we were there (we would have to cancel and rebook) so we also didn't have to deal with that "need" to always try and get a better time. We just scheduled our LL/ILLs and filled in with standby lines in between. I had no issues stacking LL/ILLs on the days we slept in and went to the parks later in the morning or early afternoon. I found the Genie+ system to be very simple and easy to use.

TheMaxRebo10 days ago

It isn't bad when you get used to it and are there doing it - I actually find it more efficient than FP+ BUT trying to explain it? I had friends who were taking their first trip to WDW and I was messaging them trying to explain it and all the nuances make it overly confusing Like you need one took for most rides but for a few you do a different thing and for some everyone can get their first at 7am but for the only only on site people can but at 7am there are also virtual queues to try for so have to prioritize which to try for first, etc Maybe "confusing" is a better word than "complicated"