Genie+ Collapsing in Crowds at Disney World
As previously covered, it’s the busiest week of the year at Walt Disney World (so far). While we expected heavy crowds, the high attendance has come as a slight surprise even to us. Nevertheless, we’ve been in the parks a lot this week, working on strategy and touring tips.
Most of this has focused on Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. The first article resulting from our experiences is Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections, advanced-level advice that would normally be “next level” and optional for getting more bang for your buck with the paid FastPass replacement. This week, it’s pretty much mandatory.
We’ve been enjoying low crowds at Walt Disney World over the last several months, so part of the goal in spending even more time in the parks during a busy week was to “stress test” our strategies. In particular, I wanted to put Genie+ through its paces with the goal of showing just how much time you could save on busy days. That largely has not happened. Instead, it has been one frustration after another.
There are several problems with Genie+ right now, but let’s start at the beginning–what we and other guests are encountering right at 7 am. As noted in the ‘speed strategy’ post, Slinky Dog Dash is booking up for the entire day before 7:01 am.
The same is also happening for the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Individual Lightning Lanes. While we don’t purchase ILLs, we’ve heard from several readers sharing the problems they’ve had. Basically, it has been impossible to book both Slinky Dog Dash and purchase access to the Galaxy’s Edge headliner. Even on busy days, I never thought this would be an issue–clearly, I was wrong.
However, it’s not just Slinky Dog Dash and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance that are going fast. Headliners in every park are going quickly during these sold out days during Thanksgiving week.
Here are some screenshots from this morning showing return times within the first 5 minutes that Lightning Lane reservations were available:
At this rate, many popular attractions will be gone not long after park opening. The last several days, there have been virtually no (worthwhile) options by afternoon, meaning that even savvy users of Genie+ are likely only getting 3-4 “good” selections per day. Novices or those visiting parks other than Magic Kingdom could be doing worse.
Keep in mind that Genie+ is still new, and many guests don’t even learn about it until arriving at the park. In previous weeks, we saw many people purchasing it while in the standby line for an attraction, realizing they could save time. Anyone who did that today wouldn’t have a shot at anything on the above list.
In fairness, some attractions do have drop times throughout the day when their Lightning Lane allotments are refilled. It can be better to wait for an earlier time to appear rather than pouncing on a later one–unfortunately, there’s no “modify” feature, making canceling and rebooking fraught with risk of getting shut out completely, or stuck with an even later time.
To assist with this, I’ve been tracking when these refills occur and for which attractions. I put a decent amount of effort into this, and had a post planned, but this week has thrown a monkey wrench into that. Drop times have become more random, and some attractions don’t seem to be receiving refills at all. It’s understandable that Disney would switch things up and make this less predictable so it’s not as easy to ‘hack.’ Totally get that.
Speaking of hacks, remember our Tips for “Stacking” Genie+ Ride Reservations? That explained how to leverage the 120 minute rule in tandem with “last actions.” The normal 120 minute rule still works, as it’s an intentional feature of Genie+ that is there by design.
However, now stacking can only be done in the intuitive, one-at-a-time sense. It’s no longer possible to leverage the last actions in such a way that you can turn a single selection into multiple branches, and grow those exponentially. Again, the normal 120 minute rule still works and regular stacking is possible, just not the advanced hacks. This makes complete sense and we can’t fault Disney for closing what was possibly an unintentional loophole. Definitely a bummer for those who like to hack, but that’s how it goes.
On a related note, if you read the comments to our speed strategy post, you might’ve seen me tease an upcoming post with even more next-level, advanced hacking technique. There was a way to turn an expired Lightning Lane selection into 3 new ones, but that’s also gone.
I’ve been working on testing and researching that for a few weeks, and know I’m not the only one (I received multiple emails about it). I almost posted my strategy guide on Monday, but decided to compile a list of attractions with two tapstiles first. While I’m disappointed that I researched and wrote so much for nothing, I’m also relieved. I would’ve been “blamed” if I shared that on Monday and the loophole closed on Tuesday. (Travel hackers in general are very protective of ‘secret’ strategies and don’t believe they should be shared widely since that often leads to their demise. That’s an unrealistic expectation, but I digress.)
Disneyland fans might be surprised by all of these issues. I don’t recall there ever being any such problems with MaxPass, which is the basis for Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. One of the reasons those loopholes are closing and Genie+ is unraveling under the weight of crowds even without them is because of the eligible attraction roster and capacity.
That’s the biggest difference between MaxPass and Genie+. It bears reiterating that Disneyland has many more attractions than even Magic Kingdom, and despite its reputation, DCA is a solid second gate. The two are also about a football field apart, meaning that Park Hopping is commonplace.
Combined, Disneyland’s two parks have close to the ride roster of 4 parks at Walt Disney World. On top of that, Disney has removed two popular attractions per park for Individual Lightning Lanes and there are no nighttime spectacular or parade viewing areas as possible selections, meaning Walt Disney World’s already thin roster for Genie+ was made even thinner.
Another thing we question is what the Lightning Lane-to-standby ratio is right now. There has been a lot of speculation about this, and the ‘phases’ for determining capacity allocation. Up until now, much of that has been theoretical–and it might still be, depending upon actual distribution levels.
As a reminder, the ballpark FastPass-to-standby ratio was 80:20. This meant that for every 10 parties boarding an attraction, 8 were pulled from the FastPass queue and 2 were pulled from standby. That’s why standby lines moved at a snail’s pace with FastPass, and constantly without it. That 80:20 ratio also meant that a lot of guests were taking advantage of FastPass, which should be no surprise given that it was free.
Anecdotally, I’ve yet to experience anything even remotely like this 80:20 ratio with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. Everything seems to skew much more strongly in favor of standby. I’ve noted that the attraction with the highest capacity allocation appears to be–to me, at least–Toy Story Mania, which tracks with it having more Lightning Lane availability than most other attractions.
At Slinky Dog Dash, the attraction that has consistently booked up the fastest, I’d be shocked if even 50% of capacity is being allocated to the Lightning Lane. This appears to be a matter of distribution and not policy; Cast Members can only pull Genie+ guests to the extent that they are there. Based upon my firsthand experiences and observations, there’s seldom more than a slow trickle of guests into the Lightning Lane. That frees up more capacity to be allocated to the standby line.
One notable exception to this is when an attraction returns from a breakdown. Then, the priority is to process the backlog of guests with Lightning Lane ride reservations, which often amounts to a far greater allocation of guests coming from the Lightning Lane. This is nothing new to the Genie+ system; FastPass did the same thing.
The part that’s new is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance being less reliable and more popular than a normal attraction, meaning that it’s possible to get really unlucky with the posted v. actual standby wait if your timing is off. (Conversely, you can get really lucky–it’s far and away the least accurate posted wait time, in both directions, at Walt Disney World.)
The thing about anecdotal observations is that they’re inherently limited and may not reflect broader trends or experiences. When it comes to Walt Disney World, I tend to not take them too seriously–even when they’re my own–because someone an hour later or earlier might encounter something dramatically different. That’s true here, too. The problem is that there’s no good data about Lightning Lane v. standby allocations as the system is still new and this week has been its first true stress test.
One thing I will note is that most of my Genie+ testing this week has been at Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Today was going to be Magic Kingdom day before I abandoned that plans out of futility and frustration. I’ve heard stories of things being different there, with slower standby queues for Peter Pan’s Flight and other rides. Since our experiences are limited and there’s no good data, we’d love to hear from other people who have been in the parks this week–you should have ample time to comment while standing in those long lines! 😉
Whether the current allocation is a problem or not is in the eye of the beholder. If you’re purchasing Genie+, you want as much capacity reserved for Lightning Lanes as possible. Otherwise, the service you paid for is less useful and you’re inclined to have buyer’s remorse, not purchase again, or even request a refund.
If you’re not using the pay-to-play line skipping service, you’re probably pleased to see Walt Disney World not reserve 80% of capacity for paid FastPass. Well, that might be a stretch–I doubt anyone is “pleased” with lines right now. Due to it being the busiest week of the year, standby wait times are also really high. The point is that a normal FastPass 80:20 allocation would make those posted waits so much worse.
It should go without saying, but allocation is subject to change–that all of the complaints thus far can be “fixed” pretty easily. Walt Disney World will almost certainly adjust that upwards to favor Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, because why wouldn’t they? More Lightning Lane capacity means higher satisfaction from guests paying more–and more sales of the paid FastPass service. There’s every reason to believe the allocation scales will tilt towards Genie+ more over time, and every reason not to believe the reverse will be true.
However, it’s not just return times, availability, and capacity that are causing complaints. The Genie system itself has been rife with glitches, errors, and problems…
Some of this is nothing new, and should come as no surprise to anyone who has experience with Disney IT. My Disney Experience is not exactly the gold standard; it’s been buggy for years. Upon launch, we used the free Genie itinerary builder and found it comically bad and totally worthless.
This week, the problems have gotten even worse and more frequent. We’re talking about the My Disney Experience app crashing, Genie system being slow or unresponsive, and sending a seemingly endless number of access codes via email. This last one is especially frustrating, as it always seems to happen at the most inopportune time, right as you’re trying to make a new Genie+ selection.
We’ve had this problem with codes since the beginning, and it’s further exacerbated by the propensity for Disney emails to be flagged as spam (in a way it makes sense–they’re spamming us with these codes). In some cases, we’ve received over a dozen of these codes in a day. One reader reported receiving 56 in one day. That’s the kind of claim you might assume is hyperbole unless you’ve actually used the system yourself. In which case, you believe it without any hesitation.
I’m likely missing some of the tech problems, but only because I’ve probably blocked them out for the sake of my own sanity or haven’t experienced them (yet). All of this is to say nothing about Genie’s absolutely abysmal UI and organization. This is nothing new, but almost nothing makes sense about the way it’s laid out or functions. It very much feels like Genie launched months–or perhaps years–before it was ready. That was more forgivable when it was working reasonably well to help save time. Now Genie+ is just a headache.
Ultimately, it’s very difficult for me to recommend Genie+ right now for any of the parks, even Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. We expected that to go in the other direction, with recommendations for Epcot and Animal Kingdom only ‘kicking in’ once at a certain crowd level.
That threshold has been reached, but Genie+ has become so frustrating that the case could be made that you’re better off without it. While you will certainly wait longer in standby lines, most of them have been at least reasonably efficient, and don’t mean starting your day out with headaches at 7 am and spending the day glued to your phone dealing with bugs and other problems.
Personally, if visiting for “holistic enjoyment” and not just wait time minimization, I’d opt for a normal rope drop, midday break, late night strategy–pretending Genie+ doesn’t even exist. Again, this comes with the caveat that it’s the busiest week of the year at Walt Disney World. During times like these, there’s no ‘magic bullet’ approach that’ll totally beat the crowds (even some of the Genie+ woes are forgivable in light of attendance and strain on the system), but that should minimize headaches to the greatest extent possible during one of the worst weeks to visit.
From the beginning, we’ve sought to bring you the good, bad, and ugly with Genie, rather than sticking with preconceived notions or the popular sentiment. We were cautiously optimistic when it was mostly outrage, and now we’re in the other camp. We reserve the right to continue changing our minds as circumstances evolve–you know, how opinions should work. My guess is that Genie+ will continue to be tweaked throughout the holiday season, perhaps even this week. Walt Disney World has got to realize that this is unsatisfactory. For those who have used Genie+ this week, consider yourself an honorary Detroit Lions fan, because now you know how it feels! We’ll be in the parks this weekend and next week doing more Genie+ testing, if you want to be notified when we post more updates on Genie, crowds, news, and more–subscribe to our FREE email newsletter for instant alerts!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
If you’re at Walt Disney World for Thanksgiving week, what has been your experience with Genie+ or standby lines? Any success or failures making morning Lightning Lane selections? Have you had success in getting Slinky Dog Dash and/or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? What about headliners in other parks? Notice the closure of the stacking strategy or other hacks? Other problems or thoughts to share? 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!
So glad I voted with my wallet and went to Dollywood. Better rollercoasters. Timesaver pass cuts the wait to around 20 minutes for all the headliners. No constant planning needed. 3 day park ticket less than a single non park hopper ticket at WDW. Yes they have an issue with long food lines too. And it was cold.
I was at Disney this week and only purchased Genie+ on Sunday for Hollywood Studios. I was surprised that the 120 minute rule only begins after park opening. I got a Slinky Dog pass for 4:05 at 7 am. I thought I would be able to be to get my 2nd pass at 9 am but no! The next pass was not until 2 hours after the paark opening so that was 240 minutes after my first selection. I did get Rockin Roller Coaster for late in the day and later got Star Tours as well. Mind you Star Tours had a 20 minute wait so that one was a waste. That was all I was able to get for the day. That was $45 extra for my family. I don’t think I will ever purchase Genie+ again!! Disney can do better!!
What is the subject and/or the from email address for the codes you sometimes get when trying too book G+ LL? I want to make sure to set a filter so they don’t go into spam.
Genie+ is a bummer. We are here now 11/19-11/27. I paid for the Genie+ at AK, MK, HS park so that I could experience it as much as possible. First off I found it useless at AK, there’s juts not enough rides to make it worth it, you’re better off juts buying Everest and Flight and going standby at the others. I found it a bit more useful at HS & MK. The issue here is if you’re planning a day trip you can grab an early slot then by the time you go back only think that’s left is late afternoon/evening. Now, if you’re planning an afternoon/evening trip I can see a lot of value in the pay service if you start booking in the morning and use the 2hr rule and stack reservations then you could really fill an evening throughout the day before you go. So to sum it up: on busy times don’t use at AK, and utilize for afternoon/evening for MK and HS. Now, when it’s slow I could see more being available but then the stand by would
Be empty so what’s the point? Chapek really failed again with this Genie+ thing. *haven’t used at Epcot but heard it’s useless there too.
My family was at Hollywood Studios on Sunday and Epcot on Tuesday. We did not use Genie +. The thing that saved us, especially at HS, was early entry. They open parking lots an hour before early entry, and HS was already open by the time we parked and made it to the gate, which means we were able to get through Rise of the Resistance and in line for Slinky Dog Dash before the normal opening. I can say that even with the heavy crowds we were able to do everything we wanted to do each day. I will also say that I really hate that paying thousands of dollars is only good enough to be a second class citizen at DW. Genie+ and Lightning Lanes have pretty much ruined the “magic” for our family.
I can’t read all the comments but here’s my little story… I finally updated my app to the new version with genie on it and that part doesn’t even work. I can’t see any wait time at all, anywhere in the app now. I can’t buy any LL if I wanted to which I don’t. But I spent Monday morning at MK and had no idea what wait times were. I don’t want to be on my phone much in the park and this thing, as far as I can tell, will make you be on it even more than before…. I have been emailing with the app people, and my issues are going up the chain but so far after 2 weeks of this I still don’t have a resolution.
Hi, coming from the UK in May 2022 with adult son (with LDs and on AS) and have been reading this blog to try and understand how to make the holiday work. Really appreciate the insights from Tom but now worried I’ve made an awful mistake and am just going to end up with one v.unhappy and disappointed lad. Hoping things get better quickly.
@Jake — Not that Tom needs me or anyone else to stand up for him, but your tone was unnecessarily condescending and got my hackles up. Per https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hack the modern definition of “hack” includes: “a clever tip or technique for doing or improving something
We asked entrepreneurs across industries to share their favorite productivity hacks, from useful organization apps to clever tricks for cutting down meeting times.
– Richard Feloni”
@Tom — Thank you for all the hours of hard work you, Sarah, and many others put in to make this site all that it is. I appreciate you both.
I fully expect to see the price of Genie+ raised in the coming months (not just ILL$) in an effort to find the sweet spot where the app reaches an acceptable price point to the consumer while ensuring guest perceived value and satisfaction with their purchase/experience while maintaining/maximizing TWDC’s profits . As it stands, I think they’ve priced Genie+ too low, resulting in overutilization for the availability of attractions in each park (especially HS). I hate that we are now paying for what was once free (under an admittedly less-than-ideal system), but until they find that sweet spot, you’re going to have guests ticked off that they paid for something they effectively get little to no perceived value from due to lack of LL availability.
You really need to stop using the work “hack”. Not only do you sound ridiculous, but you are using it incorrectly. Nothing you are doing is “hacking”. You’re merely utilizing a poorly designed system.
If guest behavior has devolved to yelling and swearing at cast members over a lousy IT fail that they had no part in implementing, there is something more seriously wrong going on. Open your eyes Disney. And sorry to anyone who is experiencing this horrid behavior.
Genie+ and My Disney Experience apps. are unreliable during slow times. It’s no surprise this week caused a meltdown. As the dad of a CM I have a recommendation and a request.
First, my wonderful daughter says ALWAYS take a screenshot of your reservation. They are not allowed to send you through without proof. It’s not their decision. But a screenshot will go a long way to get you through. They know the apps. are a mess and will do what they can to help but they need proof.
Second, PLEASE repress the urge to take out your frustration on the attraction CMs. Seriously, do you think the 20-year-old girl at the ride entrance coded the apps.? It’s not her fault and yelling, and apparently in some cases swearing, at her is nothing but mean. Be better than that. Have a happy holiday season.
We are headed to WDW xmas/new years week, staying offsite with genie passes. Reading the report and comments i think we may have made a huge mistake booking this trip. We have four days, 2HS, 1ep and 1 MK. Any advice?
The fix is simple. Make Genie+ $100. If that does not work raise it even more.
We have all the same poor experiences.. we get on RIGhT at 7 and can’t get anything until after 5 pm… and then the next available showed up at 9 pm… honestly what kind of day is that when wait times are so long and then some rides you can’t even wait! Plus a ton of kiosks are closed for food so all the lines are long again…. And there aren’t many folks cleaning nor wiping down anything …
Are they really trying at all regarding COVID? It is like fake trying… and lastly the hotel on property are like we’ve modified your cleaning which means no changing sheets all week – only get new towels every other day and not even a new bar of soap. Geez, we still paid full price, No discount for that either…. This is our last time… spending the whole day with our noses in the phone just to find a ride and then knowing we paid more for nothing … what a joke. I am so over the nickel and diming.
I just came back today and was at the parks Sunday through Wednesday. This is a detailed report but I hope it helps lol
With Epcot, we just purchased LL for Remy and Frozen and it went smoothly. Everything else my sister, brother-in-law, and niece rode on they had minimal waits.
Magic Kingdom the next day was absolutely slammed. Seven dwarfs was gone very early. We booked Peter Pan but it was for 3pm. By the time I was able to book another ride at 11, all I could feasibly get was Philharmagic. Then we kind of just played around with it but the sad part is those $15 ended up being mostly a waste. I booked Pooh and Buzz for later in the afternoon/after fireworks respectively but any other ride my sister and her family did was through standby. But the worst day was HS yesterday.
At 7am I tried to book Rise for myself and my sister but aside from the constant “check your email for the code” debacle, turns out there was a glitch in the app that cost us. My sister’s AP happened to expire yesterday, but I was still able book a park pass reservation AND purchase Genie+ the night before at midnight. But come time to book Rise, all of a sudden she’s got invalid admission. So I lost out because I didn’t want to just book for myself and they just went in less than 5 minutes. I was able to keep refreshing and booked Mickey and Minnie for 7:45 at 9:06am, just not for my sister.
My sister wanted to renew her AP anyway so we went to guest relations. Funny enough, she could scan into the park no problem. Before getting there I did get Slinky at 9am for my party at like 7:05pm, minus my sister. And at 11 as we headed into the park, I booked Toy Story, again close to 7pm. (Interesting note that I forget if you’ve mentioned: at 11, what were easy LL to book sooner in the day like Toy Story or Tower of Terror were now booked very quickly, I assume because of the 120 minute rule). Anyway, we talked to a CM and she found the situation bizarre. She did say she could refund my sister’s Genie Plus unless we wanted to keep trying, but she did comp us a Mickey and Minnie for my sister as well as gave her another redemption LL for Slinky and Toy Story. So it worked out, but of course Rise was understandably a no go. I think the only other booking we made was fir Frozen, which had technical difficulties when we went but we all got redemptions and were able to use it for the next show.
I like Genie Plus (the lenses are a good way to entertain my toddler niece lol) but at busy times, the glitches and everything going on made them almost not worth it. It’s way too buggy and somewhat stressful, and absolutely worthless if you’re offsite in my opinion. But I hope things get smoothed out down the line, who knows. Hope my rambling anecdote provided some insight 🙂
Thank you for this! I have personally been thrilled about Genie+ since they announced it. I was always a big fan of MaxPass and hoped we would get something like it at WDW. I felt pretty confident going into this week as a new Genie+ user (yesterday was our first park day) but have it say it has been frustrating. Even with your wonderful tips, I couldn’t figure out when the two hour rule kicked in versus tapping in for your LL. I struggled all day with that and felt like sometimes I could book after tapping in but other times I had to wait the full 2 hours from the last booking. For example at 4:35 I made a LL, but by 5:20 I had tapped into 2 different LL attractions and still it was saying I couldn’t book another one until 6:35. We did have one more floating out there but it seems like tapping into 2 LL attractions since last booking one would reseat the system somehow. We had a lot of success with Genie+ overall at MK today but also had a lot of dead time midday when lines were long (and we didn’t want to wait in them, which of course is personal choice) and when we had our next LL scheduled or when our eligibility opened again. The system has so much potential but it literally just needs to work like MaxPass and it will be fine.
Thank you for documenting this. We’ve been at Disney since the 21st and we’re leaving the day after Thanksgiving. WDW has been our for home during Thanksgiving for 10 years. This year, we’ve given up on enjoying the parks and we’re doing other activities like fishing, horseback riding, miniature golf, etc. Our experience at HS on Monday was a disaster. Half way through the day, we stopped at one of the guest relations locations to seek help in using Genie+ (assuming our issues were just user error). We were relieved and frustrated to know we were using the app properly, but the first come, first served approach to the app with heavy crowds had made it impossible to reserve a ride after 7 am. While the guest relations cast member was explaining the app to us, she realized we were only going to be able to reserve the one ride for the day, so she refunded our $15 (x 4 guests) without us even complaining about it. She then went on to tell us how bad things were for so many people throughout the week and to only pay for Genie+ at HS and MK. The following day, we went to EPCOT where we were able to get a virtual line pass for Remi and that’s it. We secured the virtual line pass within 10 seconds after 7 am, and our boarding group ended up occurring at 3 pm – the passes for the day were gone in seconds. Beyond Remi, all the passes for the major rides were gone by park opening. We heard many pissed off families who were only able to get on standard rides like LWTL and Nemo. Genie+ was a rip off. It doesn’t just need a revamp, it needs to be completely dumped.
@Fred(Rick)
The Genie + says the price is $15 per ticket per day. So since each person in your party has their own ticket they would each have to buy Genie+ for you to book something for your party.
Sorry.
We just came home from WDW today. We were there from 11/!6-11/24 and Genie+ is a nightmare!! Every single time I went to book a new pass or LL a new code had to be sent to my email. Which is terrible, especially when you’re trying to book a ride or even a last minute dining reservation.
Also, I hated looking at my phone 100 times a day!! Everyone is just walking around looking at their phones. It’s really horrible. Our mind is shifting from “relaxing and fun vacation with the people we love” to “I need t try to get Genie+
And LL’s booked, and especially my Genie+ So I can get on the next ride ASAP!” I wish we didn’t have to use our phones so much! I’m so tired of my phone.
My last complaint was people trying to get into the parks with the app on their phone. IT DOESN’T WORK!!!! It has caused more problems than necessary! Plus it makes me sick to think of all of the plastic card “keys” people used and will toss and not recycle. The entry lines were so held up by these issues!! If they would just issue magic bands. Plus, people would hold onto the bands as a souvenir. Disney’s like – everyone has to use a paper straw but let’s hand out thousands upon thousands of plastic cards to people.
It was a fun week, but it was filled with frustrations and I’m glad I am laying I my own bed.
I was at HS today 11/25. This morningat 7:00am sharp I booked a ILL for RotR at 9:30. I got logged out and sent a code. By the time I got through checkout, the time had changed to 11:40. Okay, fine. I also got ILLs for Runaway Railway and a LL for Smugglers Run, but that was it. RotR was closed this morning until probably 11:30ish, so by the time our ILL time came around, the LL line was insanely long. It seemed to move relatively fast, and we got to ride. The ride closed back down not long afterwards. I felt awful for all the people in standby – that was the longest line I’ve ever seen at Disney.
Genie+ is absolutely awful imo. It is not intuitive, the UI is an unholy mess, and it is nowhere near as flexible as advertised. I hate that you only get a certain number of LLs each day – with Fastpasses I could keep booking more (after the initial three) as long as they were available, so Genie+ is not an improvement.
The app itself is another issue – the crashes and lag and email code spam is ridiculous. It took me 20 minutes to order a Dole Whip yesterday because of constant crashes and code spam. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the concept of Mobile Order, but the app desperately needs work.
It definitely feels like Disney is going backwards when it comes to a magical guest experience.