Ep395: Did You Try Rubbing The Lamp?

Hey everyone!

I’m just catching up on episodes. I didn’t watch NWH until recently, so I didn’t want spoilers. I appreciate the spoiler warning. I managed to avoid spoilers until I was able to watch it!
Anyway, I started this episode today. I thought I’d share my experience with Genie+ at WDW. My bff and I went Jan 17-25. We had planned this out a little over 2 years ago, to make it for our 35th birthdays. So we had that time to save up and make it an amazing trip where we could spend extra money on making it a smooth trip. That included Genie+ and Lightening Lane passes. We used them for the top rides: Star Wars, Snow White Train Ride, Ratatouille, etc. The cost varied by a few dollars based on ride popularity. Rise of the Resistance was about $11. I remember thinking it was cost prohibitive for more than just one person, as it adds up. Then the family behind us said there was 11 in their party. 11! That is definitely a lot for the experience I think. It felt like a lot paying for myself. I had mentioned to my friend that I know Disney is about making money, but at least I could justify it by way of the experiences we got in return. This time, however, it felt very much nickel and diming. Everything came at an extra cost. We wanted to maximize our trip and not exhaust ourselves, so we paid for it. But I couldn’t shake that feeling of everything having a cost.
We did use the “Plan your Day” feature. It was okay. I agree with Larry. It seemed like too much was going on. I can grasp app concepts pretty quickly, so it took longer than I would like to get the hang of it. Like the last 2 days we finally got it down. Just in time to leave. 🙄 I did like that it gave suggestions based on what I selected I was interested in. I did not like that it would suggest activities from all the parks. I felt that if I had selected Animal Kingdom for the start of my day (before we could park hop at 2pm), I should get just Animal Kingdom suggestions until that time. Otherwise, it was cluttering the feed and confusing to navigate. I was not a fan of paying extra for the + and then paying more for the “E ticket” rides. I like the fastpass/maxpass better. It wasn’t an obvious money grab.
As a rule, if I can’t get to Fantasyland first thing, it’s my last stop of the day. The least amount of crowds that way. For 2 days, the wait for Peter Pan was >2 hours. By the looks of the line, it didn’t seem that way. But the posted wait and app wait was >2 hours. It was just about closing time, so we jumped in line, figuring why not. We even got a drink and funnel cake for the wait. 20 minutes. 20 minutes was the wait. We both postulated that they intentionally made it a long wait to deter people. Which seems on brand for their methods of supposed crowd control.
Overall, we had a fabulous time. Had we not had all the money stashed away to splurge with, I don’t think it would have been as fabulous. We would have been more conscious of LL+ lines and consigned ourselves to having to wait in all the lines and missing out on other experiences. It helped us maximize everything we wanted to do (especially since it was my first time and I wanted to see EVERYTHING), but I don’t think my family of 4 could have afforded the same trip. 🤷🏽‍♀️ It makes me sad to have to reconcile my love of Disney with their love of money. I’m still holding out hope they will come to some sense and make it affordable again.
Still love listening to you guys! Keep up the great work.

FGP Squad member,
Adriana