Breaking down Genie+ PPM cost (Price Per Minute) is it worth it?

[The Maher Family]

Breaking down Genie Plus by your minutes spent in the park comes to a startling conclusion; not only is it worth it but it’s an unbelievable value!
Here’s the break down:
Assuming an average family of 4 with an average price trip:
7 day trip:
Airfare: $1500
Hotel: $300 per night (2100)
Tickets: $1600
—-figured with and without Genie plus $420 that’s 4 family members at $15.

With a figured average of 10 hours in the park per day.

The price per minute without Genie Plus is $1.24
The PPM with Genie + is $1.34
10 cents more per minute per 10 hour park day.

So if you were to get on a ride line and wait 90 minutes with your family it cost you: $111.60 to be on that line.

If you were able to shorten your wait to 15 minutes with Genie + it would cost you $20.10.

Considering you can do this multiple times a day your PPM value is hundreds of dollars potentially each day. The value of getting on the rides quicker exceeded the value of adding days even considering that your airfare does not change and your ticket price goes up slightly. The added value of moving up to a deluxe resort and adding the additional Magic Hours may be a better value. However, calculating that difference is very difficult. Overall the Disney Genie + strategy is incredibly advantageous unless too many people figure this out causing the lines to lengthen.

[CH-GenX]

Check out this blog from touring plans as it goes along with the topic:

https://touringplans.com/blog/how-much- ... e-save-me/

The problem is with Genie+ is you have to really know how to use and maximize the system to get the value out of it. And I don't think the general guest at Disney really understands that.

For guests staying off site during busy times-I don't think I'd buy it.

[The Maher Family]

Check out this blog from touring plans as it goes along with the topic:

https://touringplans.com/blog/how-much- ... e-save-me/

The problem is with Genie+ is you have to really know how to use and maximize the system to get the value out of it. And I don't think the general guest at Disney really understands that.

For guests staying off site during busy times-I don't think I'd buy it.

Thank you. The article was really interesting. I believe that the cost of Genie + is going to rise and probably fairly quickly. If you assume that the more people that pay for the service will increases the wait times lowering the value, Disney needs to raise the price to lower the lines and increase the value.

[CH-GenX]

I think people are going to ask for the money back on genie+. If I were planning a trip there is no way I would pay for genie+ for the whole trip up front (for a family of 5).

They need to trim the genie+ app down. It tries to do too much.

[The Maher Family]

I think people are going to ask for the money back on genie+. If I were planning a trip there is no way I would pay for genie+ for the whole trip up front (for a family of 5).

They need to trim the genie+ app down. It tries to do too much.

I understand completely. That’s why I made the point that you can’t look at the price of Genie +, you have to add it to the total cost of the trip. Every one of my trips, I paid for the Cinderella Castle breakfast at 8AM. We got frozen French toast sticks, scrambled eggs and sausage links and for my family of four it was $350!!! BUT, we were in the park before opening, saw all of the princesses and were at the back of the park a few feet from rides when the park opened at 9. We hit 4 rides before the crowd got down main-street.
Does the guy sitting in the upper deck in 95 degree heat have the same experience as the person sitting over home plate in the air conditioned luxury box with butler service? We pay to have a better experience and if you are willing to put in the time Disney plus gives you that option.

[CH-GenX]

I think people are going to ask for the money back on genie+. If I were planning a trip there is no way I would pay for genie+ for the whole trip up front (for a family of 5).

They need to trim the genie+ app down. It tries to do too much.

I understand completely. That’s why I made the point that you can’t look at the price of Genie +, you have to add it to the total cost of the trip. Every one of my trips, I paid for the Cinderella Castle breakfast at 8AM. We got frozen French toast sticks, scrambled eggs and sausage links and for my family of four it was $350!!! BUT, we were in the park before opening, saw all of the princesses and were at the back of the park a few feet from rides when the park opened at 9. We hit 4 rides before the crowd got down main-street.
Does the guy sitting in the upper deck in 95 degree heat have the same experience as the person sitting over home plate in the air conditioned luxury box with butler service? We pay to have a better experience and if you are willing to put in the time Disney plus gives you that option.

I'm not discrediting you or disagreeing but not everyone is going to tour the parks like you do. You have knowledge that others don't. I'm saying that for those visitors that don't have a deeper understanding of WDW in general it's going to be hard to maximize and get the value out of Genie+ at all four parks.

For example are they going to know the evening genie+ strategy of stacking, or knowing that on high crowd days at Epcot your first genie+ reservation probably should be test track and not Finding Nemo. I've been a part of the touring plans community for several years now and they are generally right there in the ball park. I thought the article added to what you were posting.


I'm like you I would use early breakfast reservations to get a step ahead in the park. Just as a side note-Be Our Guest Breakfast quick service was a great way and affordable way to do this because we didn't need the princesses. Especially before it was a prix fix meal!

[The Maher Family]

I think people are going to ask for the money back on genie+. If I were planning a trip there is no way I would pay for genie+ for the whole trip up front (for a family of 5).

They need to trim the genie+ app down. It tries to do too much.

I understand completely. That’s why I made the point that you can’t look at the price of Genie +, you have to add it to the total cost of the trip. Every one of my trips, I paid for the Cinderella Castle breakfast at 8AM. We got frozen French toast sticks, scrambled eggs and sausage links and for my family of four it was $350!!! BUT, we were in the park before opening, saw all of the princesses and were at the back of the park a few feet from rides when the park opened at 9. We hit 4 rides before the crowd got down main-street.
Does the guy sitting in the upper deck in 95 degree heat have the same experience as the person sitting over home plate in the air conditioned luxury box with butler service? We pay to have a better experience and if you are willing to put in the time Disney plus gives you that option.

I'm not discrediting you or disagreeing but not everyone is going to tour the parks like you do. You have knowledge that others don't. I'm saying that for those visitors that don't have a deeper understanding of WDW in general it's going to be hard to maximize and get the value out of Genie+ at all four parks.

For example are they going to know the evening genie+ strategy of stacking, or knowing that on high crowd days at Epcot your first genie+ reservation probably should be test track and not Finding Nemo. I've been a part of the touring plans community for several years now and they are generally right there in the ball park. I thought the article added to what you were posting.


I'm like you I would use early breakfast reservations to get a step ahead in the park. Just as a side note-Be Our Guest Breakfast quick service was a great way and affordable way to do this because we didn't need the princesses. Especially before it was a prix fix meal!

Everything that you have said it absolutely spot on! My point is just that based on the time/cost benefit it can save you time in the parks. Not just a little time but potentially hours a day. It would be up to people to put in the effort to learn the system to save that money. We always looked for that new way to save time or maximize the time we had in the parks. We found desert parties, Chase reward character greetings, watched the parade from Tony Town Square and pretty much anything that would allow us to multitask or skip lines. Unfortunately without fastpass this is the best we have.

[jm1670]

Here's the problem with Genie+ and LL. It wasn't designed to assist the guest. It was designed to triple your costs for nothing in return. Can some of the high end disney users figure the system out? Sure but I can do that without paying $15 per person per day. If you do your homework you can ride all of the rides except Rise of the Resistance without buying the extras. I just hit all major rides except Rise and the ones that were down in just 3 days. How do you do it?

1) Don't schedule an Animal Kingdom day
2) Don't schedule an Epcot day. Both Animal Kingdom and Epcot become walkons for most rides after 6pm.
3) The toughy is Hollywood Studios. The major rides for HS have low tides twice per day. Lines are really short between 12pm and 2pm. Then again after 6pm. Ride the longest rides during those times.
4) Magic Kingdom can be done in 1 day if you arrive early and hit both Space Mountain and 7Dwarfs. The lines for both will be about 30 minutes each. Prioritize 7 Dwarfs. Everything else is manageable and can be done one day.
5) If you need to pay for assists then the single pay single rides are worth it. I would only do Rise, Frozen and Remi though. Unless you run out of time the others will hit low wait times. I did Flight of passage and the only reason it was a 10 minute wait time was because that was how long it took to walk to the front.

The individual pay per ride can be worth it depending on your circumstance and how much time you have. The LL charge for all the remain rides per day however is a scam. The only reason to do that is if you haven't prepared. And if you haven't prepared then there is no way you have gotten any value out of it. It does not function like the old fastpass but for a charge at all.

With that said Rise is a real problem. Even if you have it figured out, there is very little chance of getting to ride it, save a 3 hour wait in line. I have tried 6 times now and have never successfully bought a LL+ pass to it. This morning it was literally sold out in less than 20 seconds.

[CH-GenX]

Here's the problem with Genie+ and LL. It wasn't designed to assist the guest. It was designed to triple your costs for nothing in return. Can some of the high end disney users figure the system out? Sure but I can do that without paying $15 per person per day. If you do your homework you can ride all of the rides except Rise of the Resistance without buying the extras. I just hit all major rides except Rise and the ones that were down in just 3 days. How do you do it?

1) Don't schedule an Animal Kingdom day
2) Don't schedule an Epcot day. Both Animal Kingdom and Epcot become walkons for most rides after 6pm.
3) The toughy is Hollywood Studios. The major rides for HS have low tides twice per day. Lines are really short between 12pm and 2pm. Then again after 6pm. Ride the longest rides during those times.
4) Magic Kingdom can be done in 1 day if you arrive early and hit both Space Mountain and 7Dwarfs. The lines for both will be about 30 minutes each. Prioritize 7 Dwarfs. Everything else is manageable and can be done one day.
5) If you need to pay for assists then the single pay single rides are worth it. I would only do Rise, Frozen and Remi though. Unless you run out of time the others will hit low wait times. I did Flight of passage and the only reason it was a 10 minute wait time was because that was how long it took to walk to the front.

The individual pay per ride can be worth it depending on your circumstance and how much time you have. The LL charge for all the remain rides per day however is a scam. The only reason to do that is if you haven't prepared. And if you haven't prepared then there is no way you have gotten any value out of it. It does not function like the old fastpass but for a charge at all.

With that said Rise is a real problem. Even if you have it figured out, there is very little chance of getting to ride it, save a 3 hour wait in line. I have tried 6 times now and have never successfully bought a LL+ pass to it. This morning it was literally sold out in less than 20 seconds.

100% agree

[The Maher Family]

Here's the problem with Genie+ and LL. It wasn't designed to assist the guest. It was designed to triple your costs for nothing in return. Can some of the high end disney users figure the system out? Sure but I can do that without paying $15 per person per day. If you do your homework you can ride all of the rides except Rise of the Resistance without buying the extras. I just hit all major rides except Rise and the ones that were down in just 3 days. How do you do it?

1) Don't schedule an Animal Kingdom day
2) Don't schedule an Epcot day. Both Animal Kingdom and Epcot become walkons for most rides after 6pm.
3) The toughy is Hollywood Studios. The major rides for HS have low tides twice per day. Lines are really short between 12pm and 2pm. Then again after 6pm. Ride the longest rides during those times.
4) Magic Kingdom can be done in 1 day if you arrive early and hit both Space Mountain and 7Dwarfs. The lines for both will be about 30 minutes each. Prioritize 7 Dwarfs. Everything else is manageable and can be done one day.
5) If you need to pay for assists then the single pay single rides are worth it. I would only do Rise, Frozen and Remi though. Unless you run out of time the others will hit low wait times. I did Flight of passage and the only reason it was a 10 minute wait time was because that was how long it took to walk to the front.

The individual pay per ride can be worth it depending on your circumstance and how much time you have. The LL charge for all the remain rides per day however is a scam. The only reason to do that is if you haven't prepared. And if you haven't prepared then there is no way you have gotten any value out of it. It does not function like the old fastpass but for a charge at all.

With that said Rise is a real problem. Even if you have it figured out, there is very little chance of getting to ride it, save a 3 hour wait in line. I have tried 6 times now and have never successfully bought a LL+ pass to it. This morning it was literally sold out in less than 20 seconds.

100% agree

Extremely well said! Great information!

[The Maher Family]

Decided it was a better value to book a deluxe resort to get the extra hours than book the Genie plus lightning lane access. But we may change our mind and add it when we get to the parks… I feel like such a Disney amateur!