My Day Using Genie+ Lightning Lanes in Christmas Crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Genie+ attraction availability goes quickly every single day at Hollywood Studios, especially during the heart of the holidays at Walt Disney World. With that in mind, I headed to DHS to test the paid FastPass service on what I expected would be a moderately-crowded Christmas season day.
However, if wait time data is to be believed, it was actually one of the slowest days at DHS in the last two months, with an average wait time of 38 minutes and a crowd level of 2/10. Conversely, if random reports on our Facebook page are to be believed, it could’ve been the busiest day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in years. Perhaps the worst day ever! So maybe it was a slow day, maybe it was so insanely and crushingly crowded that it’ll make the next edition of Guinness…who’s to say?!
I guess as someone who has spent way too much time at DHS in the last few years, I am. Disney’s Hollywood Studios was not busy by current standards. (Emphasis added as this part is key–no one has a time machine to revisit the good ole days of 2018, so that’s not a relevant comparison.) Don’t make the mistake of assuming Genie+ was not necessary on this day because everything was a walk-on or had wait times of 20 minutes or less. To the contrary, there were rides with wait times exceeding an hour…or two!
On this 2/10 crowd level day at DHS, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance peaked at 145 minutes, Slinky Dog Dash managed triple digits at 100 minutes, Tower of Terror topped out at 90 minutes, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster hit 85 minutes, and three other attractions managed 75 minute maximums.
It seems like Walt Disney World fans have unrealistic expectations for what “low crowds” means at DHS in the current era. It’s all relative, and a crowded day at DHS means 5 attractions averaging triple-digit wait times (with Rise of the Resistance above 3 hours and Slinky Dog Dash between 2 and 3 hours), and many others around 90 minutes.
So this wasn’t exactly a dead day–it just wasn’t nearly as bad as DHS can get during the holiday season.
In any case, this photo report walks you through my step-by-step day using paid FastPass, with my Lightning Lane selections & return times, ride reservation screenshots, what I accomplished using Genie+ during low crowd levels (by 2022 standards), and thoughts at the end about whether Genie+ is still worth the money at DHS.
Despite the low crowd level, Genie+ did help me beat several of those hour-plus long lines, which were fairly common during the middle of the day. Additionally, I was able to test strategy and see how the dynamic with Lightning Lanes has changed since the return of Fantasmic, which has altered attendance patterns at DHS.
Given the 2/10 crowd level, it should be unsurprising that Genie+ cost “only” $16 per person on this particular day. As a reminder, paid FastPass shifted to date-based pricing for the Genie+ service. As always, this is Walt Disney World code for “price increase (most of the time).”
Only a few days before my visit, Genie+ cost ~$31 after tax. Thus far in December, most dates have actually dropped back to pre-increase territory, with only the weekends being above $15. This is despite crowds trending up this week, too. I would hazard a guess that this weekend will be at or above $20 and next week will not drop back to $15, as attendance is only likely to rise in the lead-up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Expect prices back in the $15 range after January 9, 2023.
Before we get going, it’s important to note that this is simply my day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios using Lightning Lanes. It’s not a recommended itinerary, Genie+ touring plan, or universally-applicable day that I would suggest replicating. Simply what I did over the course of testing Genie+ during a day at DHS. For those, see the following:
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Ride Ranks
- 1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes Plan
- 1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary (No Genie+)
- Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Triple-Digit Trio Triumph
If you’re trying to accomplish just as much in a day without Genie+, an aggressive approach and savvy strategy are required at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s the toughest park to tour at Walt Disney World. There’s no magical formula to sleeping in, rolling up to the park a couple hours after rope drop, not buying Genie+, enjoying the park in a leisurely way, and accomplishing everything.
Anyway, let’s move along to my day using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…
Let’s start at 6:50 am, which is when my alarm went off. I bought Genie+ in the My Disney Experience app and customized my Tip Board for strategic advantage. (We highly recommend following our Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections for why all of this is important, and how to score an early return time for Slinky Dog Dash.)
At 7:00:00 am, I refreshed the Tip Board. Unfortunately, I was staying at All Star Sports and my room in “Home Run Hotel” was anything but a homerun when it came to internet speed (both WiFi and cellular). Consequently, the refreshing spun and spun for what felt like an eternity (it was more like 7 seconds). I ended up with 12:35 pm to 1:35 pm as my return time. Not my finest work.
In order to “run the table” on headliner Lightning Lanes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it’s usually imperative to score Slinky Dog Dash with a return time at or before 10:30 am. Doing so enables you to book a second Lightning Lane attraction at DHS before 10:30 am, which is the first possible time anyone subject to the 120 minute rule–which is most guests–will be able to make another Genie+ ride reservation.
Even though it’s a far longer window, not many people are booking between ~7:10 am and 10:29 am. Return times tend to move slower during that time frame. Unfortunately, I could not make another ride reservation until 10:30.
It was at this point that I made my first critical mistake of the day: following my own advice.
According to my own Lightning Lane rankings (at the time), Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway had climbed to the #2 priority at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This has been accurate for the last several months, but isn’t when Tower of Terror is only operating at half-capacity, which is the case right now, yet again.
I really should’ve known better, as this has been an issue and I saw Tower of Terror with an abnormally high wait time while walking around, but I didn’t connect the dots. Don’t make this same mistake.
Tower of Terror is normally the #4 or #5 priority when it’s operating at full capacity, but jumps to the clear #2 when at half-capacity. An easy way to tell it’s at half-capacity without watching the elevators endlessly is checking out wait times. Currently, Tower of Terror has the third highest wait time (98 minutes) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in December 2022 after Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (109 minutes) and Slinky Dog Dash (103 minutes). If it’s in the top 3 (or 4) for wait times during your visit, it’s the #2 priority. If not, it’s not.
As you can see from the screenshot above, Tower of Terror was already gone by the time I made my next selection.
Normally, Toy Story Mania would be the #6 priority at DHS, but I became (perhaps a tad overly) conservative after the Tower of Terror debacle. I noticed Toy Story Mania had higher wait times throughout the morning than the remaining alternatives, so I picked it, fearing downtime was plaguing TSM, too.
I tapped into Toy Story Mania at 2:20 pm.
As a reminder, it’s possible to enter the Lightning Lane up to 5 minutes early or 15 minutes late. There is no need to ask for a Cast Member’s permission to do this–it doesn’t require a computer override. If anything, asking a CM might result in confusion, as it’s possible they might not know about this Lightning Lane “rule.” (No knock at them–there’s way too much to keep track of with Genie!)
As soon as I tapped into the first Lightning Lane touchpoint at Toy Story Mania (the second was disabled), I began searching for Lightning Lane availability. Still no Tower of Terror, but something arguably better: Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run with a return time ~30 minutes into the future.
This had to have been a cancellation or refill, and I jumped on it immediately. Everything before this had been subject to the 120 minute rule–a common occurrence at DHS and why it’s so easy to end up with a backloaded day of Lightning Lanes–so I was really pleased to score this.
Almost as soon as I was done with Toy Story Mania, my window for Millennium Falcon opened. Disney’s Hollywood Studios has a really small footprint as compared the other parks, so I don’t mind some backtracking, but it was nevertheless nice to knock out two nearby attractions in quick succession.
Wait times were “finally” starting to drop by around 2-3 pm (wait times peaked before noon prior to Fantasmic returning–not anymore), which is also good for Genie+ users. Based on what I’ve observed over the last year, Lightning Lane availability and return times are dynamic to some degree. Meaning that if wait times drop or spike, Lightning Lane inventory adjusts accordingly, also going up or down, and pushing return times later or moving them forward. At least, this is my theory–corroborated by dozens of days of use (and many more of observation).
Nevertheless, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror remained unavailable. It also still had a 90 minute wait time, even as other headliner attractions fell below an hour.
My next pick was Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster as a result. With this selection, I had all of the ‘best’ or useful DHS Lightning Lanes, save for Tower of Terror and Alien Swirling Saucers. I did not want priority access, or any access for that matter, to A.S.S.
Throughout the afternoon and early evening, I periodically checked Genie+ for Tower of Terror refills, but no such luck. I won’t pretend that I was diligent about this–I met up with a friend and we had an early dinner, so I didn’t check at all between around 4 pm and 6 pm.
One thing to note is that everything else–minus Slinky Dog Dash on the Genie+ side and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance on the ILL side–continued to have Lightning Lane availability past 6 pm. The significance of this is that even if you were subject to the 120 minute rule the entire day, you could have scored every attraction in the top 7 just by following our Lightning Lane ride rankings.
That’s really one of the big differences between a low crowds and busy day at DHS. While both are going to have hour-plus wait times for the headliners, the crowded day is going to have even worse wait times. No surprise there. However, that becomes less pronounced by mid-afternoon, when many attractions will fall under an hour on the slow day. That won’t happen on a day that’s truly busy.
More important from the Genie+ perspective is that most attractions won’t run out of Lightning Lane ride reservations until very late on a slow day. There’s a ‘tipping point’ of sorts on less-busy days where active users of Genie+ falls below the overall allocated capacity for Lightning Lanes, and makes it really easy for most attractions. This was one of those days. (In my experience, the tipping point for DHS is a 6/10 crowd level day. That level or below is pretty easy so long as you don’t screw up the order. Anything above that and it’s a bit more challenging.)
To that point, I was not on my phone much at all throughout the day. (Check out the progression of my battery life in the screenshots above–at no point did I use my external charger, and I arrived back at All Star Sports with over 50% remaining.) When subject to the 120 minute rule, I set alarms when it was time to make my next selection.
When subject to the tap-in rule, I made new reservations upon entering the Lightning Lane. I did not play the refresh game at all. In fact, I spent less time on my phone than I would have if I weren’t using Genie Plus, as I would’ve otherwise been checking wait times a lot more often and modifying my itinerary on the fly. That wasn’t necessary since I had Lightning Lanes–and also because lower wait times by mid-afternoon made the whole day easier, even what I did via standby.
I could have done Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance after the first showing of Fantasmic, as its posted 40 wait time probably was inflated. On slow days when downtime isn’t bad, a posted wait time under an hour often means near walk-on status.
The end of the night is such a crapshoot with this attraction. Sometimes, the posted wait time is dramatically inflated and the actual wait ends up being 20 minutes or less. Other times, breakdowns make it an underestimate. (See our Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Ride Guide for strategy, best & worst times to do the attraction.)
It was the exact same story with Slinky Dog Dash. This had a posted wait time, but one look at the queues led me to believe the wait time was about half of that.
The standby line here later in the evening benefits from Genie+ users leaving, doing dinner, or opting for Fantasmic instead of their Lightning Lane reservations–ones made at 7:00:10 am are less likely to go as planned than ones made only a couple of hours in advance.
Regardless, we wanted to take advantage of the low nighttime crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios by catching the second showing of Fantasmic. This was incredibly easy–despite only showing up ~10 minutes before the nighttime spectacular started, we were still seated in the Sorcerer Mickey section. It was a perfect view.
At some point, Walt Disney World is going to figure out attendance and crowd dynamics and not schedule two showings of Fantasmic on days when crowds are this low. It seems like the addition of second showtimes was very reactionary, as they–for some odd reason–didn’t realize Veterans’ Day weekend would be so busy and demand would still be high.
As a result, they added second showings for a bunch of weekdays during the holiday season, even ones that have been historically slower. Point being, don’t expect two showtimes on slow days if you’re going sometime in 2023. They’ll figure this out sooner or later.
Ultimately, I ended up using Genie+ to secure 5 Lightning Lane selections during this 2/10 crowd day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I could have run the table and gotten all 7 had I simply booked Tower of Terror with my second selection and had I cared about A.S.S. In fact, I probably could’ve scored 10 Lightning Lanes had I also booked the pointless ones for stage shows and Olaf.
Going by posted wait times during my return windows, I saved roughly 6 hours waiting in line, and probably could’ve saved another 1-2 had I booked more Lightning Lanes. That’s enough to make Genie+ worth the money to me on this particular day. Of course, that assumes posted wait times are accurate (they are not) and that I would’ve waited in standby lines at their peak during the middle of the day (I would not).
In actuality, I could’ve done everything via standby had I arrived for Early Entry or Park Hopped to DHS after ~3 pm and started doing attractions then (while also skipping the second showing of Fantasmic) and saved about the same amount of time versus midday posted waits. For the Genie+ haters out there (who nevertheless have read this 2,000+ word post), this might sound like sweet success, vindication of your pre-existing viewpoint. Hold your horses.
What you won’t like to hear is that utilizing Early Entry or Park Hopping to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and doing everything via standby would have required more planning, better strategy, and even increased backtracking. Aside from the 7 am wake-up (not that big of a deal to me, and I say this as someone who dealt with a 17-hour time change one week earlier and 3-hour time change two days earlier), using Genie+ during this day at DHS was the laid-back option this particular day!
It allowed me not to worry about posted wait times, stress over accomplishing everything in an efficient order, and it allowed me to see the second Fantasmic when I otherwise would’ve likely needed that time to knock out Slinky Dog Dash. It may not seem like it since you’ve just read a lengthy post–some of which is probably confusing if you don’t have firsthand experience with Genie Plus–but this was the easiest approach to this particular day at DHS.
It won’t always be the case that Genie+ is easier than the alternatives. On busier days, my preference is Early Entry or staying late and doing standby once the crowds start to subside. But the point is that there are multiple “solutions” to beating crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (or any park, for that matter) and no one-size-fits-all answer.
Genie+ doesn’t necessarily need to involve excessive screen time, frantic refreshing, or criss-crossing the park multiple times. Hopefully this day illustrates that Genie+ can be a good tool to have in your ‘park touring kit’ for use when necessary or appropriate.
For more info and answers to common questions, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ. We’ve already updated that several times, and it’s a great jumping off point if you’re confused, overwhelmed…or fully understand the system, but want some next-level strategy to better leverage Genie+.
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
Thoughts on my day in Disney’s Hollywood Studios using the Genie+ service during the Christmas 2022 season? Are you planning on buying Genie+ or sticking to free standby lines at DHS? Prefer Early Entry, Genie+, or end of day at DHS? 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!
Thanks for the advice. Probabl a dumb question with an obvious answer, but what is A.S.S.?
We went 11/4 thru 11/11 which allowed for multiple visits which seems the only way to accomplish anything. Single day visits seem almost not worth bothering. We did early entry to DHS on Tues, got on Rise without much wait. Scooted over to Smuggler’s Run, did single user instead of the hour wait for standby. Figuring we would be separated, that didn’t happen as we lucked out and the three of us all got on together. We got on a few more with low wait times since still early with Slinky being the only long wait of an hour. We went back on Friday for early entry and zagged while others zigged as I mentioned in a previous post. We went to Tower and were within the first 25 and got done quickly enough to head over to Rock N Roller Coaster. We walked right on, didn’t even have to wait for the boring intro of them in their studio, they opened the doors right as we got in that room. After that we went back to the other side of the park to do Toy Story Mania with about 10 minutes of waiting, if that. Did a few other things after that but those were the main things we wanted to do while there. Didn’t do the Runaway Railway, it didn’t have much of an allure. Seemed like it was more for kiddies since the line seemed full of them. Glad we got this trip done, I wasn’t sure ahead of time if we would be getting in anything at all. I prefer the old fastpass system, we enjoyed that and it allowed a more leisurely visit. I remember when getting paper tickets for them. Some cast members had extras and as you walked by a ride, some would ask if you wanted one for later and we usually would take them since they seemed to work out time wise. Don’t know when we’ll be back, thinking Universal in a couple years is the way unless they make major stupid changes.
We did DHS on Sat. 11/26. It was obviously crowded.
I regret to report that Genie+ worked pretty well – now I’ll have to keep buying it:( – and very much enhanced our ability to manage the crowds and lines. Even though we rope-dropped, we did not get to Tower of Terror or Slinky Dog Dash….but we certainly could have if we really wanted to as we took about 4 hours “off” for a quick rest and then dinner at Sebastien’s over at CB before coming back to DHS for the later showing of Fantasmic. BTW, I was incredibly impressed by Fantasmic….it very much exceeded my expectations.
For those looking to do DHS in the future, please consider dinner at Sebastien’s. It’s an easy ride over there on the Skyliner. The food is just incredible and, for WDW, very affordable.
We are Freaking out here in my household. We have long standing plans for 21st to 26 at Boardwalk Villas. NO FLEXIBILITY left to park hop or change park reservations. Unless we want to spend each day hopping to Animal Kingdom. I called and did several CHAT’s. No help. Everything is full to capacity and they can’t over ride the system. So we are are stuck with dining reservations in the MK on days we have other parks to start out in . Currently we are seeing full capacity in every single park (except AK).
If we didn’t have non refundable TIX for the Christmas party on the 22nd, I would cancel this entire vacation, for the money we spent thus far, we could go anywhere in the world. We are absolutely over Disney and these park reservations.
Hi Mary, even though you can’t change your park reservations due to lack of availability, you CAN park hop to a “full” park after 2:00 pm. I am a DVC member and was there last week. Multiple parks had no availability to book NEW reservations, but there was absolutely no issue hopping into any of the parks. I’m surprised a cast member didn’t explain this in your chat and spare you the stress. Have a magical trip!
On 11/28 we started our day at Epcot for Guardians with Xmas soundtrack and Festival of the holidays. Purchased Genie + primarily for hop to HS since we knew our time would be limited. The first LL we grabbed was Test Track and 11:30 was first availability. We got a lot in at Epcot prior to that just using rope drop and logic and this included a swing by the DVC lounge. I was disappointed when genie + would not led me make a new selection after the 11;30 tap into Test Track ( but not disappointed enough to wait at a blue umbrella to address this). Added slinky dog at the 11 am window for 7;30. We did a midday hotel break during which I added MRR and RNR and returned to Epcot for 4:30 via Napoli , caught the 5:30 Candlelight Processional and grabbed the boat to HS after that. We just made it to our 5:40-6:40 RNR, grabbed a midway mania and after that Smugglers run. We hit 5 rides before 8:20 and it would have been 6 if MRR had not gone down. Rise was showing 40 minute wait at that point but my son chose shopping and getting a seat and some popcorn for Fantasmic instead. We use the all access pass from MRR the next day when we did MVMCP. After Fantasmic we headed back to Epcot for a second run on Guardians thanks to the 6 pm queue and closed out the day there. Most waits were down to 10 minutes after 10:30. All in all I was pleased with the Genie + results and my kid was happy and exhausted and that’s all that really mattered.
I spent 9 days at WDW last week, and spent Thursday at the DHS. Genie + is a joke, a ripoff, a terrible system. Populates your phone based on suggestions and does not deliver any good times to visit attractions. I ended up going to Guest Relations and demanded my money back for Gemnie+ – which they refunded. Don’t waste your time. The traditional methods of visiting (go early, be where others aren’t ) and guided tours are the way.
We were at MK on a non party day 12/30. Is that the day represented in your post? It looks like some of your pictures are from that date as that’s the only day I remember that many clouds in the sky.
MK started off pretty moderate that day but got pretty crazy after 11am.
11/30? Yes, that’s the date I did this.
For reference, Magic Kingdom would’ve been a 5/10 crowd level on that date per thrill-data. That honestly seems a bit low for a non-party day during the holiday season, especially one surrounded by so many party days.
I’m sure thrill data is accurate it’s just this was only our second visit with the first being Sep 2019 so it just felt crazy busy.
We were still able to get everything we wanted to accomplish thanks in part to your blog Tom so I’m very grateful!
Great Post. Touring plans had Hollywood Studios rated as 7/10. That us significantly different than 2/10 which you stated.
The 2/10 is via thrill-data.com. I assume the two use different scales, but holy cow, that’s still quite the difference!
Our family of 10 people (ages 5-75) were at HS on 12/7/22. Having been there before, the crowds were manageable. Used Genie+ For MMRR, We were VERY happy we used our Genie+ for the Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage. There was a separate line for Genie+ and were able to get aisle seats for the youngest children and great photos of the show. Genie+ Alien Saucers . Genie+ Line for great front row seats for the Indiana Jones Show. ADR at Sci-Fi. Saw Frozen sing-along, Then, we used Genie+ for Millennium Falcon and able to ride again in 15 minutes Standby lane. Then a few less competitive rides (Muppets and movie). We had great seats for Fantasmic First Show and rode Slinky Dog Dash standby approximately 10-15 minutes after the light show at 8:30, prior to closing. This was possible only through Genie+ and reading your blog. Thank-you! For others who want to see the shows as well as rides, using the Genie + will save time waiting to get in and give you a better seat selection.
Thanks for sharing your experience! If you want better seats (particularly on busier days) or simply don’t want to wait in standby, Genie+ definitely can be a good option for stage shows. It’s not an “objectively” good use of a Lightning Lane, but sometimes subjective value is higher–and overlooked! So thanks for the reminder on that. 🙂
Thanks, Tom, especially for the ToT tip. Reminds me that it may have behaved similarly earlier this year when they were fixing the other elevator.
Yeah, same thing happened from (roughly) March to July. I still can’t tell whether this is the other ‘half’ of that refurbishment, or unplanned downtime.
If it’s planned…seems like it would’ve smarter to do this in the off-season.
I don’t have that much problem with the current system probably because I had never been the WDW before last year and was introduced to FastPass and MaxPass at Disneyland. Both were easy to use given the smaller footprint.
Now if they would just let you use Genie+ more than once per attraction we would almost be back to MaxPass utility.
We visited DHS on 12/5 with out of town visitors. no G+ … Here’s how it went the wait times I post is what we waited and the order. This isn’t an agenda is personally do but we accomplished a lot. Inside park at 930am. Rocking Roller coaster 42 mins, Star Tours 26 mins, Muppets no wait. ROTR 68 mins. ADR SCI Fi, Falcon single rider walk on, Alien Saucer 18 mins, Slinky Dog 46 mins, MNMRR 27 mins, Starbucks and shopping break, Rocking Roller coaster 21 mins, and finally at 855pm got in line for ToT 42 min wait due to only one shaft opened. Again this wouldn’t be how I attacked the park, but our friends 8/12 years old kids planned the day with a little help from me on hints
Thanks for sharing that! (I also appreciate the multiple caveats that it’s not how you’d do things, haha.)
I’m actually surprised that ToT was still 42 minutes at the end of the night. Even with one shaft down and a much higher posted wait, I would’ve expected 20-30 minutes. You probably would’ve had a shorter wait at RoTR (assuming no breakdowns).
Tom. Is almost sounds like you prefer Genie+ over FP+? I am half kidding. I am a Genie+ hater because I loved to plan in advance. I was there during Thanksgiving 2021 when it completely melted down and that’s my last experience with it. With all that being said, I can see how Genie+ can be used effectively. I would still like to see them tweak it. I think allowing resort guests to purchase it in advance and make just their first selections for each day of their visit would be a MASSIVE improvement. It would eliminate having to wake up early every day of my vacation and also let me choose my return time for later in the day since we do not go to the parks until early afternoon After that you would fall into the same rules as everyone else (120 mins or after you scan in) for your next selection
“…almost sounds like you prefer Genie+ over FP+?”
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I hated FastPass+ and will readily admit that. I will also take any chance to remind its diehard fans that not everyone is them. FastPass+ created a ton of “losers” and didn’t work for most guests; it was best for knowledgeable, repeat visitors. It’s just that hardcore planners–the biggest winners under that system–are overrepresented on blogs like this one.
I don’t like having to pay for Genie+, but paid FastPass was an inevitability. My “perfect” system was MaxPass, and with recent changes, Genie+ is getting closer and closer to that. So I’m starting to like it more. I’m also happy that there are plenty of ways to beat the crowds while NOT using Lightning Lanes. In fact, I think this is actually easier now than it was in 2019.
I understand your perspective as a resort guest, and think that might be a savvy move in the future if occupancy dips and Disney needs to offer more incentives to stay on-site. For now, that isn’t necessary. (My ‘wish list’ is actually for the opposite of that, sorta: no Genie+ reservations until tapping into the park. That would still provide an on-site advantage, but only to early risers. It would also likely make the parks more pleasant in the evenings, while increasing crowds during Early Entry and rope drop.)
I think the main feature missing from G+ now is the ability to select return times.
The on-site advantage is basically gone. I know paid FP is here to stay and I get it. There are still improvements that can be made that don’t disadvantage bigger groups that would solve a lot of problems. There has to be some way to amend it so you don’t have to wake up that early every day
Hi Tom great post , but my question isn’t related to it ( sorry) I had an email today from Disney saying a new offer is coming out for holidays in 2023, which will be coming out 15th of December. I’m based in the UK so I’m assuming it’s a UK deal. I know free dine is probably not going to return, but I am the eternal optimist. Have you any idea what this new deal could be, it will be the first UK deal after the bob swap.
Disney moves incredibly slowly, so whatever deal is coming out was probably decided upon back in the early fall–months before Bob Iger returned. I’d be shocked if it’s Free Dining at this point; a repeat of this year’s UK offer is much more likely.
Tom –
Was this day a non-party day at Magic Kingdom? My theory is that the crowd goes disproportionately to Magic Kingdom on non-party days during this season, resulting in less than normal crowds at each of the other three parks on those days. That could explain why DHS was less busy than you expected.
Correct on point one: it was the only non-MVMCP day out of the 3 consecutive days in Magic Kingdom.
Your theory is also correct that MK on non-party days sucks crowds away from other parks. However, it’s not normally *this* extreme. I was still expecting 5/10 level crowds, even taking that into account. I was pleasantly surprised…but disappointed at the same time, as it gave this ‘experiment’ a bit less value.