I suspect the drop in attendance has more to do with inflation than anything Disney is doing directly. I think vacations in general are down/more low key. I have a friend who has rentals off of 30A, and he says their numbers are way down this year. When it comes to feeding the family, or spending thousands on a vacation, it seems like most people are choosing feeding the family.

Turns out nickel-and-diming customers to death and providing a ****ty experience with a ****ty phone app isn't great for business.

I'd be willing to bet that I've dropped around $40K on park vacations in the last 12 years with my family of 4 and after the last 2 vacations with the Genie+ we're done until they blow up the whole system.

I'll go into my own personal issues with it as well as what I've heard from others and read online as they're different...

Personally, I didn't mind it all that much either...once I got the hang of it after a few days. The first few days I wasn't using it as efficiently as I could have been. But the biggest issue I had with it was I was on vacation...and I was having to wake up at 6-something in the morning to make sure I was ready to go right at 7 am to reserve certain rides and pay for my genie + stuff for the day and...yeah...it got annoying. But that was the majority of the issues I had.

The bigger problems I'm hearing from others is that you are constantly having to be on your phone and checking for rides and reserving things off and on throughout the day and a lot of people don't like that. Also, there are simply people that from a technology stand point aren't going to grasp things as well as others.....and while that isn't Disney's fault at all, when I first made it to a resort and I'm asking the staff about how to use it they are literally telling me, "Yeah it's confusing but after a few days it'll make sense." If people are paying buckoos of money for a vacation and not getting the full potential of it because the user interface takes a few days to get used to according to the staff that's supposed to be trained on it.....then it's not a good system.

But unfortunately I think a bigger issue is coming with what I've heard about how they are changing their lightening lane selections....basically if you're spending the most money to stay in a disney resort hotel you'll probably be fine....but if you're not spending the extra $$$$ and staying in an off resort hotel you're automatically last in line with what might be available to schedule ahead of time.....

really wish they would just nuke the whole thing i have no idea why it needs to be this complicated.....

thriller03 said:

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I didn't have experience prior to the Genie+ rollout with the old ways of fast passes, etc,

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This might be the key.

Keep in mind that WDW has guests who visit regularly and have for years.

The transition away from the Fast Pass system -- which was relatively easy to understand and manage -- to an app that costs money and takes a few days to learn is huge. Disney simply made it both more expensive and more complex to enjoy the parks.

WDW has always required a friggin continuing education course to plan & figure out. Seems the new system simply destroyed the built up knowledge of many.

double aught said:

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I put in the effort before the trip to educate myself and learn how to best use the app. So we were at an advantage over people who didn't do that or didn't want to pay. We had fun filled days with hardly any long waits for rides, but it was only because I put in the effort.

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The flipside of this is that you don't know what you don't know. Disney has historically had a sterling reputation for customer experience, and I would bet that, up until the last year or so, the vast majority of people didn't even know that they needed to put in this kind of effort upfront or that the experience has gone so far downhill. I went to DW as a kid with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and none of this stuff existed. You just showed up and waited in line for things. If not for this thread, I still wouldn't know what a cluster it can be. Most people planning a vacation to Disney are probably expecting an experience in the parks like most other places, not a mad scramble with an app at 7am and upcharges everywhere.

And I can see how paying for a spot in line for rides can really detract from the experience for a lot of people. Tickets are already very expensive. Staying at a resort on property is even more expensive. Food and merch are astronomical. To have to pay even more for the attractions that should be included in the ticket just adds insult to injury, and I imagine a lot of parents being upset by the constant diming and quartering on a trip that is supposed to be magical.