Genie App Will “Revolutionize” & “Dramatically Improve” Waits & Experience at Disney World
During this afternoon’s quarterly earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek teased the Genie app, which is the planning app coming soon for Walt Disney World. The app/feature is rumored to include paid FastPass and other tools, such as dynamic itineraries. In this post, we’ll share what was said about Disney Genie, plus our commentary about what this means as well as potential timing of an announcement and roll-out.
In case you missed it (or forgot), the Disney Genie app was announced two years ago at the D23 Expo. It was originally set to debut last year, but that didn’t happen for obvious reasons. Walt Disney World leadership has mentioned the Disney Genie app on a couple of occasions in the last year, but basically just to say it’s still coming. Otherwise, the specifics of Disney Genie are almost entirely unknown. Everything that’s been showcased to date has been vague, with the belief among some Walt Disney World fans (including us) that the Disney Genie app was announced before the company had even figured out what it would do and entail.
Previously, the Walt Disney Company has indicated that the Disney Genie app would be a revolutionary new digital offering that would enhance the way you plan for and experience a trip, with optimized itineraries, real-time tips and updates, recommendations for experiences it thinks you’ll love, and help navigating the theme parks with added convenience and comfort.
It didn’t take long on the earnings call for Disney Genie to come up. During his opening remarks, Chapek proactively brought up the new app, teasing that more would be announced soon. Here’s what he said:
“We’ve made significant investments in sophisticated technology and tools, created a revolutionary new multi-tiered service we’re calling Disney Genie. We’re very, very excited about the new service. We’ll be providing additional details soon.
“The goal of the user-friendly [Disney Genie] app is to create a better, more personalized, and customized experience for guests. Putting them in control and providing even greater flexibility and choice. They will be able to spend less time waiting in line and figuring out what attractions and dining options are available and more time having fun.”
During the question and answer portion of the earnings call, the Disney Genie app came up again, with one analyst asking how technology would be used to transform the guest experience at Walt Disney World and the other parks.
Here was Chapek’s response: “Ben, you used the correct word: transformational. MyMagic+ was sticking our toe in the pond of this type of transformational work. Disney Genie is the program on steroids. This is going to revolutionize the experience. Guests are going to spend less time waiting and more time having fun in the parks.
Chapek continued by describing how the Disney Genie app would work: “The dramatically-improved guest experience is going to make their navigation of their day and planning of their day much easier.”
“Essentially it is going to take the preferences that we note from our consumers…and blend that with basically industrial engineering data in terms of how the park is operating that day and meld them together to make suggestions on the fly that not only will lead to the improved guest experience and lead to substantial commercial opportunities for us as the guest navigates their day. It is certainly qualifies in my mind for materiality and transformational impact on our business from the yield stand point.”
In terms of commentary, there is a lot to unpack here.
First, Disney’s desire to better leverage technology should not come as a surprise. Both Chapek and Josh D’Amaro have been saying so for the last year in virtually every interview they’ve done. As for the multi-billion dollar MyMagic+ initiative that was referenced by the questioner, that included My Disney Experience, FastPass+, MagicBands, and interactive queues. It was envisioned years ago as a way for Walt Disney World to operate more efficiently and do the exact things Chapek referenced. There were grandiose plans for how the project would offer Disney the data necessary to streamline operations, deploy on-demand entertainment, manage staffing, and effectively utilize other resources.
Aside from the guest-facing components like FastPass+ and MagicBands, almost none of the big goals that led to the colossal investment were realized. Others, like FastPass+ and MagicBands, are in the process of being phased out in favor of other technology. In large part, this is why My Disney Experience wasn’t ported to other parks around the globe; instead those parks cherry-picked various aspects of the system to build their own, stripped-down incarnations.
So calling Disney Genie that program on steroids may not be the praise that was intended–but may end up being accurate in terms of vision v. reality. (See “The Messy Business of Reinventing Happiness” and “Behind the Scenes at Disney As it Purged a Favorite Son” if you’re interested in more on the trials and tribulations of MyMagic+ and the whole NextGen boondoggle.)
With that said, Disney Genie almost certainly is not as ambitious as MyMagic+ or the NextGen initiative. Disney has learned a lot in the intervening years, and has leveraged technology in leaner and more measured ways. In fact, we’ve praised many utilizations of technology in the parks since reopening. They’ve been smart and restrained, enhancing the guest experience in a multitude of ways with zero drawbacks.
Based on Chapek’s statements about Disney Genie, this app might either sound like a continuation of what we’ve seen in the last year or too good to be true, depending upon your perspective. When assessing his remarks, I’d encourage you to consider the audience. Chapek made these statements on a quarterly earnings call to investors and analysts–so essentially, the audience is Wall Street. It probably goes without saying, but their priorities for Walt Disney World might differ slightly from yours.
In theory, the idea that Disney Genie will improve the guest experience, make navigating and planning easier, and allow guests to spend less time waiting in line is great.
However, the quote that should probably be emphasized here is that the Disney Genie app will “lead to substantial commercial opportunities.” I probably don’t need to over-explain it, but that means increase per guest spending, which is one of Disney’s most important metrics. It’s possible that Disney thinks this will occur indirectly by freeing up guests’ time, improving the experience, and satisfaction scores. In our view, it’s unlikely he meant that.
More likely is that Disney Genie is the conduit for in-app upcharges–effectively paid FastPass.
This is something we’ve been discussing with regularity here in the last couple of months, which has been fueled in part by the roll-out of Premier Access and Standby Pass at Disneyland Paris. The Walt Disney World rumor mill has truly gone into overdrive over the last couple of weeks, with a deluge of possibilities for what the FastPass replacement and the Disney Genie app/feature will entail.
Prior to today’s earnings call, we updated our When Will FastPass+ Return to Walt Disney World? article.
If you’re curious about the leading theories at present, you’ll want to check that out (scroll down to the “Will FastPass+ be replaced by a different system at Walt Disney World?” section above the Runaway Railway photo.)
Ultimately, I don’t know what will happen with Disney Genie and/or the FastPass replacement. I’ve heard a lot in recent weeks with varying degrees of credibility–some rumors contradicting others. This suggests to me that there are still competing proposals, and the plans haven’t quite congealed yet.
I will say that the latest rumors suggest more of a hybrid system that is definitely not the worst case scenario and only borrows partially from Disneyland Paris. Most Walt Disney World fans are going to hate this on principle since it’s not a return of the free system. However, if some credible rumors prove accurate, I’m willing to wager that a lot of people will actually end up liking or even loving one big component of the Disney Genie app/feature.
In terms of timing, given the proliferation of rumors on the topic in the last couple of months (where there’s smoke…) *plus* a mention of Disney Genie in the earning call *plus* Walt Disney World scaling up park capacity *plus* the World’s Most Magical Celebration starting October 1, it’s likely Walt Disney World will make an official announcement before the end of this month.
Expect to hear something within the next couple of weeks, and have the Disney Genie app/feature ready to roll by sometime in late September or early October 2021. It’s going to be a very busy couple of months as things are revealed, prior announcements “evolve,” and more changes throughout Walt Disney World. We’ll keep you posted on everything!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you optimistic about the impact the Disney Genie app/feature will have on the guest experience at Walt Disney World? Think it’ll live up to its promise of make navigating and planning easier, and allow guests to spend less time waiting in line, or just “lead to substantial commercial opportunities” for Disney? Thoughts on the possibility of Premier Access, MaxPass, or a mashup of the two coming to Walt Disney World? Do you prefer fast-moving standby lines only, or the FastPass and standby combo? Interested in how Walt Disney World will implement the new system? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Chapek sounds like another politician promising a lot of nothing. Disney WiFi is absolutely ridiculously slow. Thank goodness for unlimited access through carriers. We purchased new phones specifically for our last trip in June because we knew batteries would be dead by mid morning
I’ve been going every year since I was a child starting in 1978 and up until recently I’ve loved it. With all the greed coming from Disney and the lack of concern for guests satisfaction I think that this past visit in June will be my last. I know it was covid time but I really was underwhelmed and felt nickel and dimed. Time to experience some other vacation destinations. Maybe I’ll go back for a day or two if I get grandchildren
Honestly, I’d like to look at my phone LESS on vacation, not MORE.
It sure does seem like Disney is heading towards a reality check when it comes to pricing. We went to Disney World just before the shutdown last year, and are heading to Universal this fall (since we haven’t been there in 5+ years). It is *shocking* how much more affordable Universal is; the total is coming in at less than half what we paid last year, and our party will be one person bigger at Universal! But then again, I’ve thought Disney had to be getting close to the price ceiling a few times in the past several years and according to their earnings reports, that is not the case.
Tom, my biggest complaint/concern is that there is little to no incentive to pay the premium on site any longer. I have always stayed on site in deluxe resorts because i knew i was able to book the rides i wanted to get on with no wait at the 60 day window. If i am booking a $12k trip and there’s a chance I cannot get on the popular rides due to the standby line or new standby queue being booked (because we don’t go to the parks until early afternoon) and thus the only way i can get on a ride is to pay for FP then there’s zero chance I would stay onsite and possibly not even go to the parks at all.
I think we’ve all been around long enough to know that whatever Disney intends, it most certainly won’t roll out that way. For whatever reason, their IT infrastructure is abominable and in-park wi-fi is a joke. I personally am not looking for “spontaneity” in the parks; I like a structured day, so I see zero advantage to Genie. It all remains to be seen, of course, but Disney’s going to need all the luck it can get so that this isn’t a complete disaster.
I’m older. Put the phone away on vacation, and many of my senior friends don’t even have phone capability or service to do these things, let alone the knowledge without a grandchild under 15 helping! This is another disappointment at Disney.
@Tom, “We just booked a room at Universal’s nicest hotel—which includes unlimited Express Pass—for $214 per night.”
It’d be great if your stay was before December :-). We booked Portofino for early December on a pandemic deal (less for 5 nights than CBR for our family last year). I’ve yet to find anyone that covers the Universal stuff as well as you do Disney. I’d be very interested to read your take.
Re: the FastPass stuff. I’m withholding judgement until it’s revealed. TouringPlans posted a really interesting article that broke down how they think it will change (including a link to one of the actual patent applications that was actually really cool). It feels like its going to be headache inducing/quite complicated.
It is and we will.
I assume you’re talking about this TP article? https://touringplans.com/blog/7-ways-your-wait-in-line-at-disney-world-are-about-to-change/
This is a great synopsis of pretty much all the credible rumors from the last few months. I think it also (fairly, given what we’ve seen) makes assumptions based on what Disneyland Paris is doing.
If what I’ve heard most recently is accurate (and it might not be!), my expectation would be a consolidated and scaled back (both in ambition and base pricing) version of what’s laid out there–with some components absent entirely.
With that said, Len is a smart dude and I’d never bet against what he’s saying.
Disney knows that guests will be more willing to pay extra for Fast Pass once they realize they won’t be able to accomplish much without it. It’s easier to say no when you are 6 months out. But once you’re in the park and the stand-by lines are overwhelming, you may feel differently. It also wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually introduce a feature that will allow guests to pay for premium same-day dinner reservations, so they can eat where and when they want.
2 points on this – Disney are not still wrangling over how this will work. They know and have known for ages. Its just that people have signed NDAs so the rumours are all over the place.
This is exacyly why Universal have not only decided that another gate is worthwhile post pandemic (because as of March 2020 it was most defiitely mothballed) but they have “Expressed Passed” (see what i did there?) its constriction. Universal have taken one look at WDW and simply cannot believe the number of own goals they are currently scoring. They must be laughing at every single decision Disney make just now.
I’ll be VERY happy to be proved wrong but Disney are clearly going to continue to rob people blind. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!
“Disney are not still wrangling over how this will work. They know and have known for ages. Its just that people have signed NDAs so the rumours are all over the place.”
Given Disney’s methodical nature and general glacial pace on projects, I can understand why this would be the perception about Genie. Especially considering that it was announced two years ago and is now coming to market.
With that said, there are a number of projects moving at an accelerated pace right now and coming together in an atypical (for Disney) way. For instance, Disney leadership consistently described the AP replacement as a “membership program” for months–but that’s not what it is at all, and that verbiage is totally absent from the announcement. Don’t be surprised to see similar announcements/changes in the coming month of a similar nature.
When it comes to Genie, I guess we’ll see what it is and does at launch as compared to how it has been described.
The idea of this app “streamlining” our experience and making more time to enjoy the parks are actually a concern to me. We know WDW have cameras looking at us and the test of the “facial recognition” software earlier give me the “Big Brother” chills up my spine. They will know who we are, where we are and what we are doing. Is this making a better experience for us, or overreach into what the guests are doing? I mean if a telemarketer calls you and asks what you are doing?, what are your plans? and then says “I can help you do that” Would you give that info to them? What will WDW do with all this info they are gathering? Will we get more email spam as our info is sold to others companies? I will wait for this, thank-you.
Just like with the facial recognition test, this is data they have anyway. As with that, the only actual difference is that they’ll be bringing it to guests’ attention that they have this data/capability.
I’m skeptical that the dynamic planning tools will actually be useful (or as ambitious as pitched), but if you’re concerned about big data/brother, your worries are about a decade too late.
Do you think that this will also become the way that guests make dining reservations? What about things like dessert parties? And if the movement is towards booking things less far in advance, do you think the 180 day DRs will ever come back?
I’d expect the ADR process to remain the same for now. Whether it occurs in My Disney Experience, a new or a renamed app remains to be seen.
I’m sure the Genie app will be great for Americans. My concern as a visitor from England is that we have found the Disney WiFi to be great in our resort hotel but very hit and miss in the parks, and on the rare occasions we have had to use our uk data package in the parks the cost has been eye watering. I hope that Disney improves its park WiFi in preparation for the app launch, and also please Mr Biden let us come back we are sooooo missing our happy place.
I don’t know how long it’s been since you last visited, but the WiFi has improved a lot since mid-2019. Still issues at some of the resorts, but overall it’s pretty reliable.
The idea of less wait times with the quote “how the park is operating that day and meld them together to make suggestions on the fly” sounds like crowd manipulation — similar to posting inflated wait times on MDE to disperse crowds. Not sure how much I would actually trust it. Would love to see something happen with Dining Reservations and day-of availability because honestly it is ridiculous to book so far in advance.
“sounds like crowd manipulation”
That’s my take as well. People have asked whether Genie will make our itineraries obsolete, and we doubt it–because ours are for the exclusive benefit of guests.
Hi Tom! I have nothing insightful to bring to this discussion: I’m taking the wait-and-see approach since, as you said, things are so fluid right now. I just wanted to say that I immensely appreciated the variety of Genie pics in this post! Tigger-Genie from Tokyo Dreamlights parade is perfect, LOL! And also, did Sarah take that pic of you and Genie at what looks like DisneySea? His costume is nothing short of glorious. What a great pic!
Good catch! The photo of Genie and me is from Tokyo DisneySea–that’s his Christmas costume there.
After seeing what the charges are for a fast pass per ride in Disneyland Paris, i think our party will only use it very selectively if at all. Having to pay $18 for a fast pass on a single ride is over the top. I also don’t want to be chained to my smartphone all day – but that’s because i am old (66)… At any rate, we really appreciate the effort you put into providing updates to coming changes and will continue to read your posts!
“I also don’t want to be chained to my smartphone all day — but that’s because i am old (66)”
I think Disney overestimates the degree to which people actually want to use their phones. I’m not that old, and I don’t want to be glued to my phone all day, either. A lot of other people are addicted to social media or whatever apps on their phones, but that doesn’t mean they want to be on them all day–it’s a compulsion.
I totally agree that the thought of being chained to my phone whilst at Disney is nothing short of a nightmare! It’s great to leave it behind and not have to worry about carrying it.
So if we have to pay for rides in the park, surely that means we don’t need to purchase £500 entry tickets in advance? (said with a very big tongue in in a very big cheek).
I can see this being extremely divisive. Of course ‘new’ visitors will pay extra money to go on rides, but then there’s a pretty good chance it will be a ‘once in a lifetime trip’ never to be repeated. There are plenty of people who just go to WDW just the once from all over the world. I can see this meaning that regular returning guests will have a very different experience as they’ll no doubt struggle to get on the rides of their choice – people like me, you – us!
I’ve been going to Disney from the UK for the last thirty years, I love Disney, we got married at Disney World, have stayed on property in deluxe resorts, it really is my laughing place, and the thought of giving up Disney for ever makes me queezy, BUT – I can say without any doubt that if this is the way Disney is choosing to go, my thirty years loyalty will grind to a halt. It started with giving guests ‘free’ magic bands, training us up to use them, then taking them away so that we ‘willingly’ (!!!) pay for them, daily parking fees, now magical express, no free dining plan (which has been the norm for U.K. guests), and I don’t know how anyone else feels, but over the years the Disney experience has lost a lot of the “Have a nice day” attitude and approach…..
I should think Universal Studios are watching Disney with glee, as a LOT of Florida junkies will be directing their vacation dollars towards them rather than Disney.
I know I will.
“I should think Universal Studios are watching Disney with glee, as a LOT of Florida junkies will be directing their vacation dollars towards them rather than Disney.”
We just booked a room at Universal’s nicest hotel–which includes unlimited Express Pass–for $214 per night.
Thanks Tom as always for your insightful and useful overview. It sounds to me as if paid fastpass is coming. A shame, as others have said seeing as Disney holidays are already so expensive. If fastpass going the same way as Paris, then it is likely we will not return to Disney world. If offered as a perk to on-site guests, then would consider returning. Currently, apart from extra park time, no real incentives to stay on site – not sure if that is worth the 1000s of dollars it would cost compares to staying off site. Disney are at risk of pricing loyal customers out. Such s shame.
Hoping they still offer 3 free fast passes for customers staying at Disney hotels.
If not my family won’t ever pay to stay on site again.
Hopefully others will stay elsewhere too.
Maybe Disney might reconsider scraping around for the coins in the bottom of our couches and decide to give the loyal customers something back.