re: Disney Fastpass+ is officially dead

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Genie+ will be used for most rides and attractions. It will cost $15/person/day. All reservations will be day of. You can make one reservation at a time, starting at 7 am park time. When you have completed that ride/attraction, you can then pick the next one, throughout the day.

However, the most popular rides (list to be determined) will not be on Genie+, and will instead use a service called "Individual Lightning Lane". With this service, you can access the quick line for up to two high-demand rides/attractions per day. You will pay for each ride seperately. For example, It may cost $10/ticket to ride Mine Train once, and $8/ticket to ride Space Mountain once. You can make these reservations starting at 7 am park time if you are staying in a Disney hotel. If not, you can't start making them until the particular park opens.

Both of these services are compatible with park hopping.

For a family of four on a four-day ticket... you are looking at $240 more for a service that used to be included... PLUS the individual ride costs for the most popular rides.

At Disneyland... the genie+ will cost $20/person/day but will include photopass.

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I'd rather kill myself

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Most people there swear by the place; their devotion is nearly cult-like. I just don't get it.

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I don't love it, I don't really enjoy a lot of it. But I enjoy the amount of fun my kids have. They absolutely love it, and that's all that matters whenever we go. My wife also loves it and I don't know why, part of which is because she never tallies the tab if we are being honest.

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I'd rather kill myself

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I get it

I don't go for me. I go because my kids have a lot of fun. As they get older, we are going less and going other places as well.

But a 5 year old girl will enjoy seeing her favorite princess in person much more than going to New England or a foreign country.

I enjoy Epcot at the end of the day more than anything else there. We usually hit a park up at opening until around 2:00. Head back to swim and rest, then dinner, then drinks at Epcot. With that said, I can tell as my kids got/get older, they prefer Universal more, so I have a feeling our stays at Disney are dwindling.

The customer service/hospitality at Disney can't be matched and that is evident when you compare them to other theme parks. I think a large part is due to many of the people who work there actually want to work there.

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truly miss the days of the E-ticket nights at MK. This was what real extra magic hours and fast passes were. It was cheap. It was fun. Very few people knew about it. I was 13 and riding space mountain 10 times in a row without ever having to get off the ride.

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I remember when I was a kid and they first started extra magic hours (or whatever it was called then) that they handed out paper bracelets but only to like 5,000 people and you had to stay on site (maybe).

I have the same memory as you, but getting soaked on Splash Mountain back to back to back.

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they handed out paper bracelets but only to like 5,000 people and you had to stay on site (maybe).

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Yep. Only ten or so rides stayed open. The most popular ones. They called it E Ticket night. When Disney first opened, you bought tickets for specific rides. There were A tickets, B tickets and so on. E tickets were for the big thrill rides. Each ticket was worth one ride kind of like a carnival. I’m not sure when they changed that. But “E Ticket” night was basically just allowing people to stick around for an extra 3 hours and ride the best rides till you couldn’t take it anymore. The park felt so empty. It was awesome.

We go thru a vacation planner that handles most of this crap. We tell her what we want and she takes care of it. One of my wife’s sorority sisters. She does a great job.

We took my daughter for her first trip 6 years ago. I don’t know that we could afford it then based on what it costs today. Honestly I don’t know how most families afford Disney. It used to be fairly simple and the allure was you show up and everything is taken care of. All I have to do is get on the plane. Now it’s getting further and further away from that.

We’re “supposed” to be going first week of December. We’ve been before that week and it’s post Thanksgiving but before most kids get off school so honestly the crowds have been pretty manageable. I have up to 30 days before we leave to cancel and I’m really on the fence. It will be my sons first trip and I want him to go but all this stuff is really turning people off.

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Honestly I don’t know how most families afford Disney

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Credit

From wiki:

When Disneyland opened in 1955, visitors purchased an admission ticket to the park at the main gate booths and then purchased separate admission inside for each attraction. Less than three months after opening, Disney began selling "Value Books", each of which contained several of each coupon labeled "A" through "C", to supplement the pay-per-ride system. Attractions were then designated as "A", "B", or "C" attractions, and visitors needed to either purchase a specified coupon from a nearby booth or present the discount coupon book with the correct coupon attached. As determined by Disney, "A" attractions were the smallest or least popular, "B" attractions were more popular and/or more advanced, and "C" attractions were the most popular and/or most advanced.[1] In 1956, Disney introduced the "D" designation for the most popular attractions and upgraded several former "C" attractions including Jungle Cruise to "D".

In June 1959, amid the completion of Disneyland's first major expansion, Disney introduced the "E" designation for the park's most popular attractions and made the new Submarine Voyage, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and Disneyland–Alweg Monorail "E" coupon attractions. Additionally, the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, Rocket to the Moon, Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules, Rainbow Mountain Stage Coaches, Mark Twain Riverboat, Sailing Ship Columbia, Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island, and Jungle Cruise – all previously "D" rides – were upgraded to "E".[1] "E" remained the highest attraction/coupon designation for over 20 years. Several "E" attractions were added throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1971 the coupon system was duplicated at the Magic Kingdom when it opened.

The coupons had a face value for use on rides, with an "A" ticket worth $0.10, "B" $0.15, "C" $0.25, "D" $0.50, and "E", $0.85. This meant one could ride any ride if the ticket or a combination of tickets met or exceeded the value of that ride, so one could overpay an "A" ticket ride with a "B" ticket or higher, or present an "A", "C", and "D" ticket together instead of an "E" ticket.

The coupon system was gradually phased out with the introduction of unlimited use tickets beginning in the late 1970s. This was largely due to competition from Six Flags Magic Mountain, which, when it opened in 1971, allowed its visitors unlimited use of its attractions after paying the admission fee.[2] By June 1982 coupons vanished entirely and were replaced by the present-day system where main gate admission entitles visitors to all rides and attractions, excluding coin-operated arcades.

Question for the Disney Lovers. We have a trip planned for the end of the year and we're staying at a Disney Resort which allows for early park entry but it's not one of the Select Disney Resorts that allows early (7am) purchase of individual Lightning Lane passes. Two questions I haven't been able to figure out and would greatly appreciated help with:
1. We've purchased the Genie+ addon (15$/ticket/day); will we be able to reserve those lightning lane passes at 7am each day (for the rides that aren't "pay to ride")?
2. Are all parks opening 30 minutes early everyday?

Thanks for insight anyone may have on this and if there're any other tips, I'd love hear them. Thanks TB