New Genie+ Change Disadvantages Park Hopping at Disney World
A couple of weeks ago, we shared news that Genie+ found a frustrating new way to start the day. Well, we have the “sequel” to that post…as Walt Disney World has made more new changes that impact the value of Genie+ when Park Hopping.
In the last several months, Walt Disney World has been making a ton of tweaks to Genie+, both good and bad. This has been in an effort to balance supply & demand, and has included Eliminating the Genie+ Ticket Add- at Walt Disney World and “warning” guests that Genie+ essentially amounts to paid FastPass.
Other changes have been more well-received among fans, such as adding more entertainment and character meet & greets to Genie+ in an attempt to provide more capacity to the highly in-demand service. We’re not going to rehash all of that here, as even a short history of the changes to Genie+ and Lightning Lanes would be quite lengthy at this point.
In a nutshell, there have been two types of changes being made to Genie+ at Walt Disney World over the last several months: ones that lower expectations and ones that enhance and expand the service to improve its utility.
In the last two weeks, we’ve seen a third category emerge: tweaks to the user interface and feature set that address common complaints…by concealing them rather than fixing them. Here’s the latest on that front…
Previously, Walt Disney World visitors who wanted to make Lightning Lane selections for their second park of the day could easily do so from the Tip Board at any time of the day–starting right at 7 am. Even though the return times displayed were before 2 pm (when Park Hopping begins), that didn’t matter.
If you had a Disney Park Pass reservation in one park and tried to book a Lightning Lane selection via Genie+ for a second park that’s before 2 pm, the system would automatically adjust the time to start at 2 pm. In the above screenshot, you can see with a “time changed due to park hopping” message. This was a feature of the system–and one that worked nicely. Until now.
Genie+ has now been updated and no longer automatically changes times due to Park Hopping.
Instead, the system prevents you from booking a Lightning Lane if the current return time is before Park Hopping opens up. Meaning that if the ride you want to reserve has a current return time of 1 pm, Genie+ will not let you make that selection. You’ll be greeted with an error message that says, “select a new time that is included in your Park Hopper option.”
As this might not be entirely clear, above and below are screenshots illustrating how this works in practice. Above is my attempt at making ride reservations right at 7:00:00 am for Slinky Dog Dash using our Genie+ Speed Strategy.
Maybe I’m just dense, but the cause of the issue wasn’t obvious to me based on the error message. Fortunately (I guess?), I have no shortage of experience with getting error messages in Genie+. Whenever I hit a wall, I just try again to see if there’s a different outcome and/or tweak my approach until it works.
Bouncing over to EPCOT, my results are exactly the same for Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
My park reservation is for Magic Kingdom today, so this would be the result for literally every attraction in Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, or EPCOT.
At 7:01 am, the clock had advanced far enough that I was able to make a reservation for Slinky Dog Dash. I’m particularly “amused” by the message: “Please note your time has changed.”
That might be relevant if I knew what the return time was in the first place!
To that point, the frustrations of this new change are further compounded by the challenge of trying to do this right at 7 am. Here’s where we run into the change from two weeks ago–this really makes for a frustrating start to the day using the Genie+ service.
In case you missed it, during the high-demand window from the time Genie+ goes live in the morning at 7 am up until 7:30 am, guests will not be able to see the Lightning Lane return window. Instead, My Disney Experience displays a “Check Availability” message that requires an extra tap to see the return window.
So now, you cannot book a Lightning Lane for your second park unless the return time is after 2 pm…and you also can’t see current return times until after 7:30 am.
This might seem like “no big deal” and that’s probably true for at least some of you. However, many savvy strategists booked their Genie+ selections for their Park Hopping destination from the very beginning. This is a smart approach because afternoon waits are worse than morning waits. This means you’re better off doing as many attractions via standby lines at your first park, and building up a stockpile of Lightning Lane selections at park two or three.
We’ve been strong advocates of this approach, as accumulating Lightning Lane reservations via Genie+ later in the day (between around noon and 4 pm) is what we view as the optimal strategy. Our Tips for “Stacking” Genie+ Ride Reservations are one of the pillars of leveraging Lightning Lanes, with stacking and Park Hopping often going hand in hand.
Another advanced-level strategy we liked was strategically making Park Pass reservations to “force” the return time clock forward on days we weren’t rope dropping. That worked well for half-days with Genie+ and the morning spent sleeping in, at the pool, going to Disney Springs, or wherever else.
This is all especially relevant right now, as Walt Disney World kicks off 5 months of ‘party season’ at Magic Kingdom, during which time the park will regularly close to day guests at 6 pm to host Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. (Not simultaneously–although that could be cool.)
During the days of these hard ticket nighttime events, we’ve strongly recommended doing Magic Kingdom for shorter standby waits and lower crowds before bouncing to one of the other three parks around 4 pm. It makes a tremendous amount of sense to buy Genie+ primarily for the park to which you’re Park Hopping, and stacking Lightning Lane reservations throughout the morning and early afternoon. To that, Walt Disney World now says good luck!
To be fair and clear, this change does not eliminate stacking Lightning Lanes while Park Hopping. That’s still entirely achievable, albeit only pursuant to the 120 minute rule (the other loopholes were closed long ago and never returned).
It’s just more difficult, with the ability to book Lightning Lanes when Park Hopping throttled for the vast majority of attractions. Rather than being an automatic feature as was the case at launch, it’s now an impediment. This likely means even more screen time as you monitor return times, and only booking Lightning Lanes once the clock moves past 2 pm. (As I write this at 8:20 am, there are only a handful of Lightning Lanes I could book in all of Walt Disney World when Park Hopping from Magic Kingdom: Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Test Track.)
Also in fairness, this is a potential positive for guests who do not purchase the Park Hopper option. Visitors spending all day in the same park will no longer be competing with Park Hoppers or Annual Passholders for Lightning Lane availability to quite the same degree.
On certain days this fall, that might be significant—the difference between scoring Lightning Lane selections at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, AND Test Track rather than just 2 of that 3.
We’re skeptical that this is Disney’s motivation, and think it’s more likely being done to balance capacity during the busier months of October through December—to prevent Genie+ from selling out. But in the meantime, it is an upside for some guests.
Alone, this change might seem like no big deal or even a positive for some guests at some times. And if this were the only quirk to Genie+ or change made in the last few months, we’d be inclined to agree. However, neither one of those things are even remotely the case.
When it came to the last tweak (the aforementioned “Check Availability” change), we were critical that Walt Disney World wasn’t offering even a “duct tape solution” to a known problem. Instead, they were just trying to hide the underlying issue (return times not locking) in a way that is actively counterproductive.
Perhaps it’s our bias as people who always Park Hop, but we’re even more disappointed by this change.
Here, Walt Disney World is taking one of the few features they truly got right with Genie+ at launch and removing it. This is something we praised before, noting how the otherwise “dumb” Genie+ system (meaning that it would let you book Lightning Lanes that conflicted with one another or ADRs) had this one “smart” feature.
Some Walt Disney World fans might hope that this foreshadows what would be a very welcome change to Genie+ for many: the ability to select return times. To be sure, I think that would be a fantastic feature that would improve overall satisfaction of the paid FastPass service.
However, I do not think that’s what is going to happen here. Not to be unnecessarily pessimistic, but I think that’s overly optimistic. If that were the intended change, it could’ve happened already (or all at once without the incremental step backwards). FastPass+ had this functionality–it’s a deliberate omission from the Genie+ service.
More likely, this is another obstacle created to decrease utilization–not by a ton, but enough to move the needle a little bit. People planning to Park Hop won’t be able to book their first Lightning Lane (at least, not easily) right at 7 am, and will have more headaches throughout the day. On average, that’ll decrease the overall average of per guest ride reservations throughout the day.
It won’t be by some huge amount. Hypothetically, let’s say that the average daily Lightning Lanes per guest currently stands at 3.47. The way the app has been throttled here might drop that average down to 3.36. These are totally made up numbers, but they’re to illustrate the point that it won’t be a huge difference. Nevertheless, it’s one that adds up in aggregate. So that’s a technical “win” for Walt Disney World as it seeks to balance supply and demand.
However, it comes at the cost of guest frustration, which is already high with all things Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. We won’t want to beat a dead horse, but the UI already had a surplus of quirks and counterintuitive processes. Removing one of the few things that felt like a thoughtful feature is unfortunate.
If you have questions about the basics of using–or not using–the paid FastPass service, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info. This whole system is confusing and convoluted, so you might have a question or two-dozen. That answers all of the most common ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the recent UI changes to Genie+ at Walt Disney World? Think this is being done to throttle the feature, and as a result, the average number of Lightning Lanes some users can book? Do these policy changes make sense to you or is it too overwhelming or frustrating? Will you purchase Genie+ or does this all sound like too much of a headache? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? 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!
We have visited WDW more than 30 times over the last 25 years. It was always our “happy place.” I thought we were reasonably savvy when it came to how to navigate a trip to the parks. I was often consulted by friends about how to make the most of their trip to WDW. An illness prevented us from going in 2019. And the pandemic hit in 2020 and due to health realities we opted to wait to plan our return until January of 2023. I read your blog daily. And I must confess I wonder why we are even thinking about going. We used to like going to one park early, often leaving by noon or one o’clock to eat at the next park and then enjoy that park and the nighttime entertainment, etc… We would rope drop the first park and make Fastpass reservations at the park we were going to in the afternoon. Logical and it harmed no one – including Disney. We were able to enjoy any park we wanted to, on any given day and use our knowledge of the parks to our benefit. That seemed a logical benefit to someone who is paying upwards of $100 a day for the pleasure not to mention the money we paid to stay in Disney Hotels. We always loved it at Disney Resorts. The “experience” was worth it. Now, despite my experience and continuous reading of your blog, I feel intimidated by the pending experience in late January and February. If I pay for Genie+ will I benefit to the tune of only 3.47 rides per day? And with how must hassle and aggravation? Now, why even try to have the new version of Fastpass? Pay more for so little benefit. Why am I even paying for a Park Hopper when I am restricted to using it only after 2:00PM. That is insulting to be totally honest. And now the parks are closed to me on many nights 5 months of the year so Disney can extract huge revenues for after hours special happenings. What about me and my Park Hopper? Do my interests matter to anyone at Disney? And Disney is focused on cutting usage down from a hypothetical 3.47 to 3.36 (or whatever the reality is) and THAT is what matters to them now. This is without a doubt one of the most sickening examples of corporate greed I have seen in awhile. The people in charge of Disney have ruined it all – for me and my family. And changed my happy place forever apparently. I believe we are like most people. We understand change is a part of life. I am happy to accommodate reasonable change. I can adjust and adapt. We would just like change to be fair. I do not like being to feel cheated. And stupid all at the same time. Will the insanity of it all ever end?
Maybe I’m just wishful thinking… but could the change be related to the possibility of opening park hopping at any time?
People saying they’re leveling the playing field are kind of missing an important point. WDW vacations are already marred by all the planning and stress involved in having a successful trip. When things were done in advance it made the trip more fun; this system was a step backwards on that front. Making it even harder to score park hopper LLs is just adding to the stress and pain of this whole process. I’m a planner, and so I’m impacted less than average by planning stress. But this system kind of ruined the last trip if I’m honest. It was fine for the other members of my party, but painful for me. Adding yet another issue that makes it harder is just insult to injury. One of the bright spots before was that I could lock something in for later, and then have a relatively peaceful evening just using my LLs. Now that’s even harder to do. It’s just more weight piling on top of the trip organizer that makes me feel like I’ve had enough. Going to be waiting a while before my next trip at this point. :/
I am super impressed by how fast you find these changes!! We just used this automatic 2 pm feature on Sunday, August 7 allowing us to get a Splash LL for 2 pm even though we were in HS. Doing this allowed us one more Splash ride before it’s gone forever so we could continue on to Epcot for the rest of the night. If we ever return to Disney, I am not sure we will buy Park Hoppers unless they reinstate their value. It was truly a pain to have to wait until 2 pm to go to a new park – couple this with being unable to shift plans thanks to reserving parks months in advance, it really cut back on the flexibility that we had been used to in the past. Fingers crossed for eliminating the 2 pm rule or better yet – anyone staying on property should be allowed to visit any park they want at any time they want and hop whenever they want if they bought the hopper. This would be a clear advantage to staying on site and would not feel like a secret perk to those who think the uber planners or those who paid money to have park hoppers have too much of an advantage.
Some of you have made fair points about the upside for those without Park Hopper tickets who will stay in the same park all day. Agree with most of those, in theory and for now.
I’ve updated the post accordingly and added more commentary. Thanks for the thoughtful feedback, as always! 🙂
I can’t disagree with those who feel leveling the playing field is a good thing.
But for those who normally buy hoppers and feel the 2pm restriction already affected their value, this is another hit. If the goal is making every one have an equally challenging trip maybe they are succeeding.
For the first time we’ve decided to join a Memory Maker share group instead of forking over $180. I think now next trip will also be the first time we do not get hoppers.
That $360 for the two of us will now get spent on a few choice LLs, 2 days of G+, $25 MM share and we’ll still have $200 left over. 2 can play this game Bob.
I hope this isn’t happening at DLR too. Although I am exorbitantly wealthy, I don’t feel like wasting $20 to find out on the last three or four days I’m even able to go before my Magic Key dies. Got too much drinkin’ to do to fiddle around with that. It would make sense, though, to keep the park hop time-push for DLR over WDW since selections don’t run out nearly as quickly. I also don’t think many people on the DLR side strategize by making their first selections for the non-starting park, since I’ve gotten LLs for stuff like Space Mountain, Guardians, etc. at around 10 or 11 AM, and the time-push still goes to exactly 1PM.
Interesting that the error message is different, because that says this wasn’t just some glitch caused by a line of code dropping out during a routine update or something. It was like their IT said, “Look, if we leave in the only smart function of Genie, it would give people the impression this app is useful.”
It seems to make Park Hopping ticket or AP ticket less valuable. But maybe I am not understanding this correctly. It also seems to diminish ADR’s if one is scheduled at their second park on hopper and ride times conflict with ADR’s. One has already purchased Genie so they have your money there and if you choose a ride over the ADR too late to cancel ADR so they have your money there too. If someone already purchased a hopper ticket or AP those folks have paid more ultimately, but their availability to utilize ticket and genie + is compromised. I hate to be sinister but this seems like they may be getting ready to make hopper ticket and AP reserve a park pass for second park. I doubt they would change hopper time or hopper altogether as they have your money, but does seem clearly odd.
Eliminating “cheats” that enable super savvy users to get more from the service than others is something I can get on board with. This is from the standpoint of someone not using Genie+ and hoping that those who do will be headed to fewer attractions via the LL as a result of changes made to the service. Not that I’d expect this to help standby lines much, but I’ll take whatever improvement I can.
I agree, I think they are trying to level the playing field for the average guest that did no research. While this is frustrating for people like us, it should allow “most” guests using it the way Disney intends it to be used (your first park of the day), to get probably 1 more LL booking on average, which I think is an improvement. Saavy afternoon stackers will have to start with a popular ride at their first; but most are doing that anyhow (as you did with don’slinky). Honestly the whole thing is so convoluted and just remember that most guests are still in the “first time we’ve been to Disney since Genie +” phase so I would say we are still well within Beta testing. It hasn’t even been a year. Probably an unpopular view. I tell my clients how to use Genie+ but most can’t handle me telling them 10 “tricks” and all that outlying stuff that differs based on this or that. The more straightforward the better from my view bc it works like expected which is, “the time I get is the time it gives me and I can’t choose that”. I get that it suck’s for the power users though trust me I’m the Queen of stacking!
I was thinking the same thing as Sara below.
While I totally understand this is frustrating, I would think that this change was made to get everyone the same chances, and give more LL availabilities to guests that are buying genie + but not park hopping.
These people were probably losing a few windows of genie + because park hoppers were taking them right at 7am.
I would say this is definitely a bad news for us readers of this blog, that want to be able to use the system in the best possible way. But, sorry to be the devil’s advocate here, it’s probably viewed as a “ smart “ move by Disney to increase guest satisfaction for every other guest not reading this blog or any other blogs (and while I love reading you, I would assume the category that doesn’t read blogs far outnumbered the one that read them lol)
Would assume that the vast majority of guests that are not reading blogs, also don’t even try to book LL so far in advance for park #2 if park hopping. They try to score as many for park 1, and then naturally start looking at park 2, by then it’s most likely already past 2pm return times anyways. So even these park hoppers guests won’t notice a big difference.
Tom, appreciate everything you do on the site. Took your advice and we went West this summer and, with the assistance of your excellent guides, had an absolute blast. Should be mentioned we used Genie+ and, as expected, had no real issues with it (couple of “oddities”, but no more than that).
Like you, I try to always keep in mind that Disney is first and foremost a corporation with a duty to their shareholders. Yes, it’s tempting to romanticize and state that “Walt is turning in his grave” with any seemingly customer-adverse decision that it makes, but ultimately they’re out to make a profit and shouldn’t be viewed any differently than, say, Comcast. However, with the well-documented issues that Genie+ is having, it’s now to the point that consumers such as myself are making any future trips contingent on Disney fixing this mess. I can just about accept that Genie+ is indeed paid Fastpass; the issue is that, in actuality, it’s far worse because of how disruptive it is to those who plan ahead (could argue the only winners with Genie+, outside of Disney, are those who would not make Fastpass reservations in advance, or would make them within a few weeks of arrival).
Clearly with the recent adjustments, as counter-productive as some have been, Disney recognizes there is a customer experience problem. Yet when demand is high enough to the point where price increases are being discussed openly, is the company REALLY motivated to do what needs to be done with Genie+? Time will tell I suppose.
I wonder if the original setup was smart enough to know when 2:00-3:00 was full and push park hoppers later. Maybe they found that the 2:00-3:00 time period for the lightening lane return times were clogging up because all park hoppers got pushed to that time regardless of how many made reservations. This could be their lazy way of trying to force people to spread their time out more…just a guess.
I wonder if this means they will soon drop the 2 p.m. park-hopping restriction. It would make sense to drop the 2 p.m. push if they’re about to start easing that time forward (or drop it altogether).
I would be interested in buying park hoppers if we could hop before 2 p.m. While I agree the average person hops to just one park, probably in mid or late afternoon, I’d love the ability to simply hit a few rides at one park and then go to the next park for one ride or show or restaurant, then end the day at a third park.
That would be nice. I’m all about noon so I can get lunch in another park
Reading this makes me even happier that I don’t use it.
I can sort of maybe see this benefiting folks who actually booked the park for the day since that cuts out however many potential park hoppers from eating up later availability as easily. And users who aren’t aware the functionality ever existed won’t know better. I am not really into park hopping so this won’t impact me much but it’s puzzling. I don’t really see the motivation for this move. They are transitioning from incompetent fumbling to actively sabotaging user experience. It’s like Dr. Evil is behind the wheel or something.
Lightning Lane sucks. Nothing above sounds like a vacation. Lifetime pass holder who is in total denial and will not buy it. Period. No LL means nobody waits for most rides, and we all wait for the big ones. Big deal. Let’s put the vaca back in vacation. Vacate LL.
This 100%. I miss the days where the longer lines were for the really popular rides and everything else kind of leveled out at 15-30 min waits. Disney has sucked all the joy and spontaneity out of vacationing there. The planning is atrocious, not to mention the extra costs they’re constantly adding in.
We’re going full rope drop for our next trip, there’s zero chance I’ll ever pay for a LL.
We will be in WDW mid October with our grandson and his parents. We want to enjoy their company, not be tied to a frustrating phone app. Of course we worry it will also be frustrating not to be able to get him on any attractions! He will be celebrating his fifth birthday. Part of me wonders if we should just stay at Universal, where we have a lovely hotel with unlimited front of the line access….but no Mickey!
Do it. My grandson knew nothing but Disney….as we were AP since before he was born. All our long weekends, holidays, family reunions etc were done at WDW. We have stayed at pretty much every resort…and we hit the parks as soon as they reopened. Until this year. We let our AP’s run out and my son and dil purchased UOAP’s and went for their first long weekend there. At first my grandson was disappointed..no Mickey!!!! However….he quickly changed his mind. Now….he doesn’t want to go back! Same with the adults! Lovely hotels, better prices, better service. My UOAP was way cheaper then a comparable WDW AP. I love and miss Disney…..but I don’t want to spend my time on my phone, or planning at 7am. I want to enjoy the sights, and my family……bye WDW….
Is this also going to effect buying paid rides. For example buying Rise at 7a for an after 2p return time due to us parking hoping from Epcot?
Perhaps this is playing devil’s advocate, but this change doesn’t seem to directly benefit Disney, so I would assume it’s being made because they think it will increase overall satisfaction. Is it possible they did this so that those who are planning to be in one park all day don’t get blocked out of afternoon return times because park hoppers took a lot of them in the morning? If that’s the case, it does seem more fair to those folks.
Maybe this will particularly help EPCOT. Right now it’s basically impossible to get all 3 headliners without luck and a lot of refreshing. If this change allows people who start at EPCOT to actually get all 3, Genie+ would be much more worthwhile there.
I could be totally wrong, but I can’t see what Disney is otherwise hoping to accomplish. Surely they don’t want more bad press or less guest satisfaction. It’s got to be about leveling the playing field.
No I can see that. I “might: be a help for those that are staying all day in the park. And I believe that is what they have been hoping for. The hopping is one thing they never had to think about with Disneyland. But I believe that with WDW, it is beneficial for those that want to maxims their trip is a short amount of time, hopping. I still believe that this isn’t the way to go. This has been hurting all over the parks. Why they didn’t take what was working with fastpass+ and make the adjustments to the Genie+ I have no clue. Sad that we will always be fighting over these changes. I am a planner of all our vacations and this has made it a major pain.
We have been Annual Passholders for decades as we and children, grandchildren all live in the Orlando area. Up for renewal in Dec just like our Disney+ subscription.
I suspect we will not be renewing.
Disney is doing everything they can to increase their $. Higher prices, lower services, fewer benefits.
And doing zip for long time customers/ APs.
I agree.
Non-park hopper.
Thanks Tom. Another terrible attempt to fix a terrible product. Oh yeah, you also have to pay more for the experience (coming soon to a park near you!).
This is a complete joke
This company has lost it’s way.
Genie+ is terrible, expensive and going nowhere because people keep paying for it.
What a disgrace
Jojo, where are you?