That issue didn’t take long to arise…
Yesterday, Walt Disney World was met with its first major problem regarding the roll out of the Genie+ app. Guests had paid sometimes more than $100 for their party to ride the popular new attraction, Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios, without having to wait in line. But then Rise of the Resistance went down with operation issues… and the Genie+ rules say that there is no refund in that situation. Some guests were livid.
So what did Disney do to alleviate the problem? They started handing out Gift Cards rather than cash.
Rise of the Resistance is down for the third time today (and ALL three times our reporter has been inside trying to use her Lightning Lane pass😅). pic.twitter.com/MtQO5rZpOw
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) October 19, 2021
Rise of the Resistance Lightning Lane Sells Out Fast as Guests Pay $15.00 to Ride #DisneyGenie #DisneyWorld https://t.co/aQd19SBnoT pic.twitter.com/ZKQuRI558M
— Inside the Magic (@InsideTheMagic) October 19, 2021
Considering this is something that could be fairly common on some rides, the question is going to be whether or not Disney’s gift card idea will be enough to satisfy guests. From Disney’s standpoint, refunds on a regular basis are not ideal. From the guest’s perspective, not only did they spend money, but they also lost their ability to use a Lightning Lane window. It seems to me that a guest should receive not only the refund in money via the gift card, but also a FastPass to any other attraction of their choice. Would that obliterate other attraction queues with a flood of guests? Yes, but lines are already going to be screwed up if a flagship attraction goes down (Flight of Passage, Rise of the Resistance).
For the most part, I’m hearing that Genie+ has been a smooth launch. The reason for that is partly attributed to such low usage of the app and the paid services. That said, it’s early yet… so we’ll see if people adopt the WDW DLC program. For me, I sort of hope not, because it doesn’t end there. This is just the beginning of many more paid “perks” to be rolled out if people adopt paid FastPasses.
