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.
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
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’re staying off property, went to Epcot the other day. I paid for Genie+, paid for Individual Lightning Lane for Cosmic Rewind. Had some frustration with getting a late LL for Ratatouille and then not being able to book another one, or even knowing why I couldn’t, and still don’t. But then I was able to book a LL with quick (and perfectly timed) turnaround for Frozen. It all ended up working out well, other than me having to book it with a stroller from Rewind to France and back while my husband recovered on a bench from Rewind and the heat. It was a good day, but I went in with relatively low expectations (compared to other visits) and a pre-defeated attitude, so I was pleasantly surprised at what we were able to do. Genie+ is still a mystery to me…The LL and ILL terms are confusing…I blew a lot of money…Spaceship Earth desperately needs that refresh asap…Thank goodness for ice-cold blue PowerAde and popcorn. And, thankfully we’ll be at Not So Scary instead of going to MK during a regular day!
here’s the thing- we are going to disneyland next month, and long ago i had actually planned to at least look into maxpass, if not just plan to get it, because i read of the benefits, but also because free fastpass still existed. disney would have made additional money from our family in that case.
however, now with elimination of free fastpass completely, i am not the least bit inclined to even research using genie plus. with not still having a free option with the choice to pay or not, disney is not making additional money from my family. i refuse to participate on principle and we will do what we can do.
these constant changes are ridiculous and not at all guest-friendly. if people en masse would stop purchasing, then they would maybe finally take the hint.
We are going in February and I can’t even bring myself to read this article in its entirety. I will be the main planner for our group and this is just giving me a headache.
Was there Easter week and used all of your strategies and we were able to do everything we wanted and even had time for pool time and relaxing time at the Boardwalk. Now with these changes all of the strategies I used are kind of out the window. I consider myself a savvy Disney planner . I love the challenge !! This just might make me think twice about going back again this year. It feels now no matter how irritated so am I might not be able to pull off a seamless vacation like I always did! Just not sure what Disney is thinking !
I hope this comment doesn’t get too much hate, but I believe so many of these tweaks/changes to the system are coming about because of sites like this and others that produce UTube posts of how to get around the system. By no means am I knocking these sites. I love all the info these amazing people give us and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. However, it seems every time some blogger or really really helpful tips and tricks are posted to assist people to get better usage out of this ridiculous system, Disney revamps it to shut the door on those things that actually make this system worth the money. I know I am being very cynical here but I genuinely feel like Disney does not want or like people who find ways to trick their system or work around the problems their system creates. I guess their answer is that all these changes make it a more level playing field for everyone in that those die hard fans, Disney planners or those of us savvy enough to do our homework before we visit, should not be allowed to have a better experience than the person who just turns up and knows nothing. I see this change as Disney thumbing their noses at uber planners and saying, keep em coming folks, you work out a way to have a better more enjoyable holiday with our system and we’ll plug that hole so that you don’t. We keep saying that whoever is planning all these changes is really stupid but I think that perhaps the opposite is true and that Disney have finally got themselves some really sneaky and savvy IT people who are out there to foil all those who try to challenge their system. Just sayin.
Karen,
I am positive your sentiment is shared by tens of thousands of us who have done exactly the same thing for years. Planned it all, organized it all. Tried as hard as we could to insure that the trip we planned for our families (in my case, 12 people) went off without a hitch. We wanted it to be magical. We accepted all the changes because life is what it is. But Disney has really blown it this time. Now, instead of anticipating going with glee, I now dread all the nightmares I will encounter, known and unknown. I wish I felt that someone at Disney cares and it is just that we have not yet found out who that person is. You are not alone in your feelings.LDM
Like many on this site we have visited DW and stayed on property for many years. We have navigated every change and ‘Disney Magic” thrown in our path. As the planner for the entire group of 8-10 ‘guest’ I am finally defeated. I have planned meals, rides, experiences, FPs months in advance, studied bus schedules, rope drops, LL and 07:00 Genie strategies. We have reached the point of lunacy, this is supposed to be ‘magical’, a vacation, not a test of endurance. It was difficult, we love Disney, the pre-COVID Disney, however, for the first time in 22 years we will not visit DW this December. I am sure the loss of our 7 day on site multi park pass visit will not be a drop in the bucket for Disney, however, it is a tidy sum to spend elsewhere.
Karen,
I am positive your sentiment is shared by tens of thousands of us who have done exactly the same thing for years. Planned it all, organized it all. Tried as hard as we could to insure that the trip we planned for our families (in my case, 12 people) went off without a hitch. We wanted it to be magical. We accepted all the changes because life is what it is. But Disney has really blown it this time. Now, instead of anticipating going with glee, I now dread all the nightmares I will encounter, known and unknown. I wish I felt that someone at Disney cares and it is just that we have not yet found out who that person is. You are not alone in your feelings.
I feel like this actually takes significant value away from park hopping. Our upcoming trip will likely be the last time we pay extra for park hoppers if this change remains permanent.
Where there is determination, there is a way. We had an impromptu trip for 2 1/2 days at WDW to see that our granddaughter had a good time. We experienced 36 rides in 2 1/2 days using the Genie+ system, beginning at rope drop and back to the room by 8:00pm. We gave up fireworks in lieu of early starts. We enjoyed every major ride in all 4 parks. It can be done!
Love to hear this! I go in 10 days and riding ALL the rides is my main goal along with eating as much food as possible!
Is Genie+ still dumb? In other words, can you have overlapping plans at this point? Thanks for all of the help.
I think everyone else covered all the angles of how this affects newcomers vs. savvy users, so I’ll just ask about this: “8:20 am, there are only a handful of Lightning Lanes I could book in all of Walt Disney World: Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Test Track.”
Is Genie+ sold out of all but four reservations by 8:20 am on a weekday, or this not counting LL that savvy users know are next to useless? (The former probably deserves its own post, if this isn’t a 9-10 day.)
I think Tom was saying only those 4 had advanced beyond 2 pm. Those were the only ones available to hoppers at 8:20 am and everything else had return times earlier than 2 pm.
Tom, any thoughts about when/if the 2:00 park hopping restrictions might change? Or is that here to stay? Thanks!
Ugh how does Disney just keep making this system worse? Shouldn’t it be getting better? And for the love of all things Disney, where on Earth is my modify button?!
Your blog has gotten me through years of all the crazy changes, new additions, work arounds, schedulings, and where to zig when the crowd(read: silly people that don’t read your blog) zags. In fact, my friends and family always think it’s magic that we rarely wait for rides or food and that we always seem to find the least crowded park days(thanks trusty tourist blog calendar). This makes me a popular person when it’s time for someone to plan a trip to Disney. They’ve seen the joy, when I talk about planning it. I’ve talked to strangers for hours over the phone that have been past to me from my mom or a friend about planning their first trip. . . So I find it sad that I now feel like I’m lost at sea. Genie+ has finally broken me. . . I can hardly explain all of the nuances of this terrible system to anyone new without a two week training course. Just trying the endeavor gets an immediate look of defeat. Right now, someone could possibly be using a How-to-guide for Genie+, as a form of torture to break someone into spilling state secrets. My family of 4 has gone to Disney every year for 7 years now, at least once. We’re done now. I can’t take it. Time to go see Europe! Sorry Tom and thanks for all the years of help!!!! You’ve been a guiding light for thousands through the Disney darkness. . . Well that got deep. . Enjoyed the ride!
Just wanted to say I totally sympathize with this even though I laughed when reading it.
Don’t forget to check out Tom’s other blog Travel Caffeine for thoughts on travel in Europe and other non-Disney places.
Again to potentially play devil’s advocate, with regard to not locking shown return times during processing… I don’t see how they could possibly do that with the 7am rush. Significantly more people would be looking at a 9am time than it would be possible to grant LLs for that time. If it locked that time for all of them, the 9-10am LL window might become more crowded than the standby lane for the most popular 7am picks. That’s certainly not a good solution. Not showing any return time and arbitrarily spacing them out amongst those picking at 7am might be the only thing they can do.
This might be less of a problem if you could choose your return time. Then people doing the 7am rush would be able to space themselves out instead of Disney doing it for them. Of course, you’d inevitably still have the situation where some times were more popular and chosen more than the available inventory… and the system would either have to bounce those some of people to a different time or error them out, both of which would be very frustrating. Again, I’m inclined to think the current way is less problematic overall.
The other potential solutions would seem to be 1) raising the price until significantly less people are buying Genie+ or 2) severely limiting the number of sales of Genie+ each day. Not a fan of those solutions either. I don’t really envy Disney as they try to decide what to do with this. I will say – as an outsider looking in, that has been to many theme parks other than Disney in the last decade or so, requiring people to schedule their rides 60 days in advance is definitely not the better solution either. I’m genuinely shocked that system lasted as long as it did, free or not.
I agree – not showing the return times between 7 and 7:30 is basically acknowledging that it’s a lottery. I think it’s a much better user experience than showing a time and having it change by several hours during booking.
Jennie……the problem is, nothing changed. It’s the exact same system and you get the exact same times. Now it just adds an extra step and frustration. It was a lottery before and it’s still a lottery. I don’t understand it at all
I will also add, I think this is very much a “be careful what you wish for” situation. I’m not at all convinced that whatever Disney winds up doing with Genie+ is going to be better than what we have now.
My guess is they are going to significantly raise the price. I know some would prefer a ~$200pp per day add on that would allow much more freedom in skipping lines, but I do not believe that wish applies to the vast majority. I’d much rather have a cheaper system that allows me to skip only some lines in a given day than a significantly more expensive all-or-nothing. But if Genie+ doesn’t stop receiving so many complaints, my guess is that huge price increase is what will happen.
We have let our annual passes lapse, however, we do have one more trip planned this December. I’ve been coming to Walt Disney World since 1973 and by far this is about as confusing and aggravating as it gets. After our December trip (which I would have canceled if DVC and flights weren’t already paid for) we won’t be back until we owe our next grandchild, for the 10th birthday, a trip which is in several years. WDW use to be fun even with running around to pick up fast passes. THIS system is INSANE!!!
Wow. I guess Disney is no longer interested in selling park hopper passes any more. I have a trip booked and paid for for the 1st week of Oct and every time I read posts from this blog I end up wishing I did not book for this year at all. I am not even looking forward to my Disney vacation. I’m almost dreading it and if it did not end up making my daughter so unhappy and her hopes all let down I swear I would just cancel the whole thing and demand my money back.
Tom, we will be at WDW in November and had prioritized MK and DHS for two days each because my kid loves “the mountains” and everything Star Wars. His two wishes for Epcot are Test Track and GotG, and he doesn’t really care about anything else (so sad-I could spend days at Epcot!!) so we didn’t plan a park reservation there, only to Park Hop to Epcot each day as we see fit. I will gladly pay extra for GotG, and it would be nice to be able to do Remy’s as well. So do you think it makes sense now to change our park pass to ensure a park reservation at least one day at Epcot? So we can maximize our Genie+ advantage there?
Dear Disney IT,
Would you please, please, please consider running your changes by Tom first rather than “testing them in production”? I am sure you are very good at programming, but you need to up your UX game by enlisting a super-user to help you. Tom is your man. Whatever new idea the summer intern comes up with to pad her resume before she goes back to school in the fall, Tom can tell you if it’s actually viable.
Best comment ever!
Ugh, this change hits us right in our Genie+ sweet spot. We have moved our “mid-day break” to more of a “mid-morning break,” where we rope drop, hang around Park #1 until about 10:30 and then head to the pool… all the while stacking rides for 2pm onwards at Park #2. This earlier park break meant that we missed what is now the most frustrating time at the parks, the pre-lunch crowds where Genie+ is not immediately useful and standby is atrocious.
(This strategy also has the benefit of enjoying a relatively quiet pool and eating lunch from our groceries – which pays for the day’s Genie+!)
I think we will still be do the mid-morning vs mid-day break, but it means a bit more fine-tuned Genie+ strategy between 7-9am.
Once again, I don’t understand why Disney doesn’t just raise the prices of Genie+. Instead of these papercut tweaks, they can just throttle demand and keep revenues stable (or increasing!).